Major brands signing up to CoTweet

Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Microsoft are amongst a host of major brands signing up to 'CoTweet', a new company offering services to manage brands on Twitter.

(image via revolutionmagazine.com)

CoTweet has announced mega brands like Ford, Whole Foods and others has signed up to its CoTweet Enterprise Innovators Programme.

Customers pay $1,500 a month for the programme's service which includes providing analytics of how far Twitter messages are reaching, click-through rates on links and can report on different message types, such as direct messages, replies and mentions, as well as the most active users.

Companies get access to a number of tools as well as an account manager to provide feedback and analysis, product support and training. CoTweet has a partnership with bit.ly, the URL shortening site, to provide analytics to the brands.

Jesse Engle, chief executive of CoTweet, said:

"Companies must monitor their brands, provide customer service and measure the impact of outbound marketing".

CoTweet earlier in the year managed to raise $1.1 million in funding from a number of key investors.

Fight to find Madeleine goes viral

The Madeleine McCann story is one that has affected many people in Britain and around the world. Madeleine went missing on May 3, 2007 from her family hotel room in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz. She is believed to have been abducted. Her parents launched a global appeal for information, but so far no one has been found guilty of abduction and she, Madeleine is still missing.

The McCann family are now backing a video message released on the internet by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre in London.
It was viewed and downloaded by more than 15,000 internet users in one hour, and there has been a huge response on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Celebrities such as Jonathan Ross, Chris Evans, day time presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield have all posted a link to the video on their Twitter pages.

The message is the first time detectives have used the viral message technique to try to solve an investigation.

The CEOP message has been accompanied by two digitally enhanced pictures showing Madeleine as forensic imaging experts believe she would look at 6 years old (top of story).

Lets hope she is found soon alive and well.

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