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Twitter: ‘a news amplifier, not a news originator’ News of Osama Bin Laden’s demise has sparked another, smaller, news angle. Did Keith Urbahn, former Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld’s Chief of Staff, first break the story? For a while, and with people tweeting at a rate of 4,000 tweets a second during the President’s announcement, it seemed as if Twitter had scored another apparent victory for citizen journalism. But Urbahn later wrote: “My source was a connected network TV news producer. Stories about ‘the death of MSM’ (mainstream media) because of my ‘first’ tweet are greatly exaggerated.” As this article (easylink) by Eric Schonfeld concludes: Twitter “…can be such an efficient way to get information that people mistake it for the source of the news itself.” |
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Stirred Fry ‘prepared to go to prison’ Twitter celebrity Stephen Fry made a stand for Social Media when he said he was ‘prepared to go to prison’ in the name of free speech (or at least to recognise the difference between genuine threats and idle humour). While nobody seems to be supporting the misguided tweet itself from Paul Chambers – a throwaway and entirely non-serious threat to blow up Robin Hood airport in frustration at its continued closure – the case is now seen as a fundamental threat to the essence of freedom on Twitter and indeed in wider Social Media communication. Read more via this easylink |
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Borkowski leaves Borkowski One of the highest profile names in UK PR has severed ties with the agency carrying his name. Mark Borkowski is understood to have become disillusioned with the traditional consultancy model and plans to set up a separate venture in his own name. Borkowski (the agency, not the man) will now be rebranded as Beige. PR Week’s ‘most read’ story via this easylink |
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Can your internet past ever be erased? There’s a belief that once something’s on the internet, it’s there forever. There may be some truth in that, as many high profile individuals have found to their cost as they attempt to remove negative articles on themselves from the web – with very little success. This interesting feature (easylink) from The New York Times examines the problem, and looks at the growth of companies such as Reputation.com in trying to wipe out undesirable chapters from clients’ histories. |
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Electric company in Monopoly Toyota has scored an unusual but impressive piece of product placement by having the Prius appear in the enormously popular Facebook version of Monopoly, whose users now total over 6.2 million. Mashable investigates the story via this easylink. |
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Social Media for beginners This interesting site (easylink) is called Supply Chain Today. While ostensibly of no direct relevance to the PR world, it has loads of interesting links and posts on Social Media including, more recently, one about Scott Monty and Ford’s SM strategy. Worth a look! |
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Twitter: who’s the biggest of them all? Today we look at some of the most followed automotive media sites on Twitter: @Jalopnik (over 21,400 Followers) – ‘Obsessed with the cult of cars’ @CARandDRIVER (over 21,000 Followers) – ‘Worldwide leader in providing objective test results and expert vehicle reviews’ @LeftlaneNews (over 20,200 Followers) – American site, covering world car news @Edmunds (over 14,500 Followers) Huge USA site whose relatively low level of Twitter followers doesn’t reflect the 13 million unique users of the main site @AutoTrader_UK (over 4,300 Followers) – biggest UK motoring site is set to grow its Twitter following sharply |
The Hub – Issue #4
– 5 May, 2011
