Social media beats traditional media to report Michael Jackson death

According to SearchEngine.com reports of the iconic star's demise first broke out on Twitter and Facebook ahead of US news stations CNN, FOX and MSNBC.

The first official news network to break the news was AOL's TMZ Blog, which first reported the news of his heart attack and then finally confirming his death.

Celebrity Twitter tribute posts quickly followed and were shown across news stations.
Wyclef Jean: "he lives forever in my heart i will never forget the day he came to see me in the studio and i played him music... R i p to Michael Jackson my music god ... Some lost Elvis Presley and we lost Michael Jackson... I cried today because Michael Jackson was a Father that we all lost!"

Coldplay: "MJ was the best of the best. His music and performances made the world a brighter place. His light will shine on forever."

Mariah Carey: "I am heartbroken. My prayers go out to the Jackson family and my heart goes out to his children.Let us remember him for his unparalleled contribution to the world of music, his generosity of spirit in his quest to heal the world & the joy he brought to his millions of devoted fans throughout the world. I feel blessed to have performed with him several times & to call him my friend. No artist will ever take his place. His star will shine forever."

On the 25th of July social media website Mashable.com stated that 30% of all Twitter posts included the words 'Michael Jackson'.

Tributes have appeared all over the world, from rockstars to everyday people to innmates in a Filipino prison.

Editor of Search Engine Journal, Loren Baker, said, “Only in a social media controlled world would we see a Twitterised ‘revolution’ in Iran, and the breaking news of Michael Jackson’s death.”

Social media has most certainly made clear the enormous impact of Michael Jackson's death and life has had on the entire world.

R.I.P

Habitat Twitt-urgh

UK furniture store Habitat has had to apologise after an "overenthusiastic intern" used the recent interests in Iran to promote their spring sales on Twitter.

A number of users were angered when tags such as "Iran" and "Mousavi" were linked to Habitat store messages. The posts - that also included "iPhone" have now been removed.

Habitat have said in a statement that it "would like to make a very sincere apology to any users who were offended by last week's activity on Twitter".

Habitat also stressed that the posts were carried out without the company's consent and the individual responsible is "no longer associated with Habitat".

This activity has shown how social media can spread negative word-of-mouth and damage businesses reputation and this example has fast become one of the most prominent examples of a brand's social media strategy receiving a backlash.

It also shows how not to use Twitter, how businesses should steer clear of politics and stay attached to relevant tags.

Iranians use social media to tell the world their story

The unfortunate recent protests in Iran that have led to deaths and many injured people are thankfully gradually calming. Peaceful protests and a day of mourning are expected after the presidential challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi called for a day of rememberance for the eight people killed in the Iranian capital Tehran.

There has been shock and outrage following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being re-elected with almost two-thirds of the votes on 12 June, but the opposition have claimed that there was widespread fraud. Many protesters have gone to the streets with signs saying 'Where is my vote?', a reference to about a million votes going missing.

Due to foreign media being given restrictions on attending and reporting on demonstrations and many traditional media being banned in Iran, the people have started telling their own stories. Although Facebook has been blocked because of its popularity with reform supporters, Twitter has seen mass followers on tags like 'IranElection' and Youtube has seen an increase in video uploads from Iran of protests and demonstrations being filmed on mobile phones. These videos have been able to reach a global audience and gives the Iranian people the chance to show what they haven't been given the opportunity to say.
Hopefully the violence and anger from the last few days are over and a solution can be found with more peace present in the country.

Image from BBC News website

An ROI Twitter breakthrough?

Twitter's popularity has grown hugely over the past year and this has drawn business attentions for it's advertising potential. So far it has been baffling to think about how Twitter can be used as an effective advertising and marketing tool that offers a real return on investment. Until now?

Advertising Age recently posted the news about Nestle's Juicy Juice brand becoming one of the few brands who have tried to integrate Twitter into an advertising campaign. The development is that on the advertisement itself, users will be able to post live answers to set questions by the brand anywhere and at anytime, rather than just acquiring tweets already posted on Twitter. This unique method encourages brand and consumer dialogue powered by the Twitter platform.

Michael Learmonth of Advertising Age goes on to explain,

"Juicy Juice is testing the unit, from SocialMedia, for one month on mom-targeted sites BabyCenter (http://www.babycenter.com) and CafeMom (http://www.cafemom.com). The units ask questions such as "How do you stimulate your child's mind?" or "How important are vitamin-enhanced foods to you?" and users can answer the queries as short messages, or tweets, directly in the ad".

This is certainly a brave move to make for Nestle as users are given the power to post potentially negative feedback. This could really damage the brands image as today the majority of customers today value consumer-led brand advocacy over brand advertisements.

The benefits however could be huge if people respond positively. Sales would definetly go up as mother's would be looking for a proven quality product for their children. Juicy Juice's reputation would grow massively and it would also give Nestle a huge database of feedback from consumers within Juicy Juice's target market that they could use to develop and improve the product further. Nestle would also gain kudos and respect for being brave enough for the breakthrough.

Nestle must have extreme confidence behind its Juicy Juice and it will be interesting to see what is said about it. The success of this campaign could have a huge influence on how Nestle approach future campaigns with its more established brands that have more to lose like Kit Kat, Aero, Fruit Pastilles and Shredded Wheat to name a few.

Whatever the outcome Nestle and SocialMedia should be given credit for being experimental and offering a genuine attempt to engage in conversation with their consumers, which is a big step in the right direction.

Operation Goo

Cadbury has opted once again to use Social Media within their Marketing Strategy following the success of the Gorilla and Eyebrow dance viral videos for their new Twisted bars.

The intriguing 2-part viral campaign titled 'Operation Goo' takes on the secret agent premise encouraging participants to enter Youtube videos and Tweets of their search for the Twisted bars that are 'on the loose'. Clues are posted on Twitter (http://twitter.com/cremeeggtwisted) by the C.I.A (Cadbury Intelligence Agency) for participants to solve and then identify its location on a their map. It's certainly different!

Unlike part one, which is open to everybody, the second part of the campaign involves 10 Super Agents who are supposed to take photos, record YouTube videos, tweet, and travel across the UK to solve their own set of clues. The aim for these super agents is to rack up as many views and tweets as possible with the winner pocketing a nice £20,000. Cadbury has issued them Flip camcorders and packets to help them with this.

This is a very creative and positive campaign that should generate a lot of brand and product exposure, which is extremely important when releasing a new product into a competitive market. The campaign also gives the Twisted bar a cheeky, dangerous but fun personality that might intrigue consumers to certainly try it out. It reminds me of the 'It's a bit of an Animal' persona created for Peperami.

(Click Image to Enlarge)

The potentially negative aspects of the campaign is whether or not participants will maintain regular interest across the next 8 weeks. The idea is also quite complex when viewing the mission, intelligence and terms and conditions, which could put off people into become participants. It took me a few reads! Without enough participants Cadbury won't be able to engage with consumers so the whole purpose for using social media as a Marketing tool would be unjust.

I believe that this campaign will prove to generate a lot of 'buzz' and will get people talking about Cadbury and Twisted, which is the whole point of using social media, whether its positive or negative feedback only time will tell.

Goo!