Razor sharp Twitter Wars

I’m not shaving at the moment. Don’t ask? I’ve never liked shaving but when I grow a beard I end up looking like a member of Al Qaeda but some time it’s nice to give the face a rest.
However, you would think something as innocuous as shaving would never enter into a Twit War but I have just witnessed one. And it underscores the dangers of abusing the openness of Twitter.
Now I use Gillette and I user Azor by King of Shaves so I was somewhat surprised that following the Hand of Theirry Controversy, consumers focused on Gillette (a sponsor of Theirry) and threatened a boycott to punish the French captain’s handball. And this is where it gets interesting because Will King, founder of King of Shaves somehow found his company in the thick of it.
He takes up the story here on his blog Brand Royalty underlining the dangers of masquerading as a loyal Gillette customer when in fact you are the company’s public relations strategist. Will recounts how he received the following Tweets:

“Time for everyone to boycott gillette and go @kingofshaves #henrylecheat”

“Cannot bloody believe Gillette is standing by Henry. There goes my Mach3 in the bin”

“Wonder if #Gillette will drop #ThierryHenry now? Reputation management issue for brand, they are getting targeted for their association”

Now Will tells it in his own words…

Having (naturally!) re-tweeted tweet #1, I was then intrigued to read the following tweet from @charliedm: “A lot more people would switch to Azor if it wasn’t a cheap plastic piece of rubbish that leaves you looking all Sweeney Todd”.

Now, as I - a) I’ve shaved with our Azor for over two years now (and get the close, comfortable and cost efficient King of Shaves each morning), b) know that a lot of people are switching to our Azor - it was the #1 selling system razor handle last month, and c) know it isn’t a bit of ‘cheap plastic rubbish’ - rather, it embodies all that is great in consumer products, not all that is unnecessary - I was interested to see who @charliedm was…

Turns out he’s Creative Strategist for Porter Novelli London…Gillette’s PR agency. Ooh er. Someone’s rattled out there.

The following tweet exchange then ensues:

@kingofshaves Gillette stick with Henry. Many others not sticking with Gillette, but going to King of Shaves, Azor. Good!

@charliedm Well done for turning the misfortune and misery of as entire nation into a publicity drive. That’s not at all cheap”.

@kingofshaves “Don’t Porter Novelli look after Gillette’s PR…?”

@charliedm “It’s great for the kind of razor you might get in a Christmas cracker…

@kingofshaves “Um, you would say that given you handle Gillette’s PR. The King of Shaves Azor is a GREAT razor

@kingofshaves “Surprised that as chief strategist you make such a negative, public comment. wait until you see our october sales - bit worried?.

@charliedm “Does a lion find a dormouse worrying? Anyway, this isn’t work - this is jousting”

@kingofshaves “BA used to think that way. And learned the hard way. Joust away, my friend”.

@charliedm “Interesting. That’s just the kind of thing XL Airways used to say…”

Then, another enters the fray:
@shedmenshealth Playground bitching on twitter? :o/ Charlie, consumers can read! You should know better in PR. Will, stay strong fella!

Then another..
@peterdean1 “*enjoying* @kingofshaves tweet jousting with Gillette PR’s > @charliedm.

Then another…
@atterolognis “Interesting joust - Funny that he refers to the Azor as a bit of plastic when his is exactly that. Oh wait, it vibrates.

Then another..
Adam: Is @KingofShaves tweet jousting with Gillette PR’s > @charliedm going to turn into another great Tweet war? Hmm….

As in the real - stones and glass houses. A PR lesson for us all.

We did a BarCamp

We did a BarCamp. Yesterday more than 100 people from a wide range of professions and industries attended and BarCampBradford which took place at the WOW Academy and the National Media Museum.

A big thank you to everyone who attended and who presented and many thanks for our sponsors Sponsors which included Screen Yorkshire, Yorkshire Forward, National Media Museum, Panoetic, Frogtrade, Shipley College , BMedia, GREEN Communications, University of Bradford and Challenge CLC.

People travelled to Bradford from across the north with delegates arriving from Lancaster, Chester, Scarborough, Leeds, Huddersfield, Sheffield and Halifax. There were more than 40 separate presentation throughout the day ranging from doing business in Second Life and launching and iPhone App (a good representation of the day’s talks can be seen in the picture above and in the tag cloud below).

However, a flavour of the talks is listed here.

• Google's hidden gems by John McLear - Primary Technology and Welcome3's MD exposes some of googles hidden gems including Android, CSE, Analytics, SSO, Adwords & Adsense.
• Twitter for Business - the dos and donts of Twitter and how it can make or damage a brand's reputation – Thomas Atcheson
• How a small local team of individuals are trying to find new ways of bringing social history to life - and aiming to change attitudes to open data along the way. (Jon Eland
• Rethinking the Presentation - how to not kill people with Powerpoint. - Ian Smith
• iPhone Application Development - Things I've learned from making my Zombies game - Matt West
• Setting up an ecommerce business & use of social media, blogs, Twitter, Facebook... - Chris Wildman
• A Decade of WebDesign - Tracking trends in design - Monica Tailor
• Retro Gaming - A session, round-table, discussion, demos of retro games and retro tech - Mohsin Ali & Pawel Dubiel
• The 'Civic App Store' - Round-table around OpenCities, OpenData, Cities as Operating Systems, Streets as Platforms, Unique AR useage & Mobile apps for cities - Mohsin Ali
• Version Control - An introduction to how we use it to develop large CMS projects - Panoetic
• Legal Challenges of Web 2.0 - Will cover such issues as ownership of copyright and other intellectual property in user generated content, liability for user generated content, privacy, dispute resolution and much more - Jane Lambert
• Internet marketing workshop - want more website visitors? Conversion/sales/downloads? Reputation? Round table IM problem solving with John Allsopp
• Drupal For Good - presentation on how Gentlehost are using Drupal for Social Change, then it's over to you for discussing ways in which Drupal can be used for good - Alice Kærast
• How to sell yourself better at interview - we've interviewed somewhere in the region of 50-60 developers this year, and only hired two. What we've learned in this process - Adam Hepton
• User experience in .net magazine December 2009 - a response on a couple of articles in the latest issue: interview with Brian Kalma from Zappos, and article by Craig Grannell on 'Master user experience design' - Keith Doyle (Usability Analyst)
• Making a Game! - A presentation on the process of game making and the various markets. (Simon Barratt - hoping he'll be able to get by just working from his bullet points!)
• Get rich with Free Software - Free Software, what it is, how it works and how you can get fat rich with it. John Leach

Some other facts about the day:

• More than 300 cakes were consumed at breakfast - baked by my daughter Mercedes
  
• 240 cups of tea and coffee were served
• 50 pizzas and countless chips were consumed at lunch
• 1,000 tweets were posted to Twitter at the last time of counting
• 200 bottles of water were drunk
  
• 59 bloggers wrote about the event before it happened and more are emerging as I write.
• 40 Twitpics were published and a Flickr account has also been set up
• Beers where drunk at the end of the day but no-one kept count
  

Will we do it again? You bet yah!

Learning about social media from an old fart

Now this story might appear a bit crude, but it really happened, and inadvertently provided a wonderful metaphor for understanding new developments in communications, particularly social media.
Picture the scene: my colleague Andy Green is in a busy Edinburgh pub, crowded with delegates from the CIPR Local Public Services Annual Conference, where he was a speaker.
At the end of the evening, Andy and some acquaintances were still talking shop at the bar, with one delegate airing his view that he ‘really didn’t see the significance of this social media thing.’
One senior delegate patiently sought to explain how social media was not just another channel for communication, but required a different mindset. And then, without announcement, surreptitiously, slipped away from the bar.
His new found friend at the conference, an Irish guy then declared in his Dublin brogue: "Someone has farted - and it’s not me!"
Andy reassured him that it genuinely wasn’t him either. The absent friend seemed prime suspect.
The episode instantly provided Andy with a metaphor: "This is how social media is different. You see, normal communications is telling the world what you want to say. Social media, is picking up conversations which may be about you, and may, in many instances not be instigated about you. So, you would not issue a press release for the equivalent of ‘You have just farted’. The fart, however, is a reality for those out there. And is more likely to be picked up as a conversation piece, regardless of your embarrassment.”
He added: "If you’re not out there listening, and appropriately responding you are in danger of living in an artificial, You-Centric world, and not being part of the real conversation. That’s the real difference with this social media thing.”
The metaphor seemed to work in making his new friend understand the different mindset of social media. It’s funny, how an ill-wind can bring new insight.

The craic that is social media

Usually we have to drag clients and potential clients kicking and screaming to the table of social media.

We believe that social media offers a veritable smorgasbord of opportunities for business and how they communicate with their customers and world at large – particularly in these straightened times when social media provides such a low cost entry to market.

However, in companies where the boards are dominated by middle-aged men convincing them of the merits of social media – whether it be a Twitter account or a blog or even a Flickr account – is seen as tantamount to inviting them to take up skateboarding.

So we are delighted to be working with Fitzgerald Group, one of Ireland’s leading leisure companies, which has completely embraced what social media can do for them.

They have just launched a new website which takes in Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook. It’s also rich in user generated content written by happy customers who have stayed at its hotels in - The Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, Arlington Hotel and Arlington Temple Bar Hotel.

Stephen Williams, Group E-Commerce Manager at Fitzgerald Group has been an early adopter of social media and uses Web2.0 tools to engage with its hotel guests and customers of its pubs which include The Quays, Temple Bar, The Stag’s Head and Ireland’s Bar of the Year Grand Central on O’Connell Street.

It is now working with LouderVoice where guests can now review their experiences directly on the site and provide valuable feedback and opinion. Those looking for reviews of the hotels no longer have to trawl the web trying to find random information, but can read genuine reviews by real guests on the hotel sites themselves.

Recent research has shown that more than a third of internet users rate peer opinions and User Generated Content (UGC) as the most trusted and credible.

Reviews don't just appear on the hotel sites, they are also aggregated to the LouderVoice reviews website, its mobile phone applications and the use of Facebook and Twitter logins means that guests can recommend the hotels to their friends on their favourite social networks.
Conor O'Neill, Chief Executive of LouderVoice says: "The businesses that will survive and thrive in the current economic climate are those that listen and react to their customers' needs. The Fitzgerald Group embraces this and understands that customer reviews are a key part of that strategy."

So well done Stephen. Well done Fitzgerald Group. Others should look and learn because since we started working with them their UK internet traffic has risen by more than 25 per cent as a result of good old deadwood PR and online PR activities.

New recruit at GREEN

Here at GREEN Communications we are delighted to welcome Emma Franklin on board as account executive following a spate of new account wins.
Emma joins GREEN with the agency celebrating a clutch of recent account wins including Ireland hotel chain The Fitzgerald Group, Graduates Yorkshire and international communication network euNetworks.
Having worked for Chronicle Publications for three years as a reporter and news editor, writing for four publications across Yorkshire, Emma will work across a broad range of GREEN clientds including Warburtons, The Chartered Institute of Marketing and Yorkshire Housing.
Emma said: “I am extremely pleased to say I work for GREEN, a company that has proved it self to be one of the North’s most respected PR agencies. In the current economic climate it is important for PR agencies to be at the top of their game, delivering high quality communications services to ensure that businesses convey the right message to their customers.”
Client Services Director Dan Phillips said: “Emma’s background in press journalism brings further depth to the GREEN team and further strengthens our reputation for good solid media relations alongside our growing social media service.”

Come to the BarCamp Bradford

This year, we plan to host a BarCamp in Bradford on Saturday, November 14 and we’re expecting 130 attendees from Yorkshire and across the country with live linkups with BarCamps in the US, Canada and India. We are also seeking to link in with the Bradford Animation Festival 2009 which finishes on November 14. With this in mind we will be encouraging those presenting to look at new developments in film, animation and digital media and offer a Superstar Speaker supported by an appropriate sponsor such as Google.

With that in mind we would also love to hear from anyone who is currently working on an Android app.

We'd love for you to come - if you're a creative, an artist, a writer, blogger, technologist, or a developer, geek, entrepreneur, academic researcher, gamer or investor please join us. If you were just curious and interested in digital culture - we'd love to meet you too. Come and demo, talk, share or just hang out! Follow us on TWITTER for further updates. 

If you want to come make sure you register here. To find out more visit BarCampBradford.

Green Communications: News Articles: Graduates Yorkshire appoints GREEN

Green Communications: News Articles: Graduates Yorkshire appoints GREEN

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