September 27, 2013
It has been a social media kind of week – from to-the-minute talk about the Emmys to breaking news coverage from the tragedy in Nairobi. Here are some of the stories that stuck out to me:
- Forbes predicts top social trends. Social media changes every day – from new channels to new ways to measure those channels. Forbes predicts that Google+ will become a major player in the months to come, the popularity of image-based platforms will continue to rise and – most surprisingly to me – MySpace will continue to grow.
- Twitter changes how we get breaking news…As the attack and subsequent standoff unfolded at the shopping mall in Nairobi, the world was given a front row seat – with a number of those affected providing real-time narration on Twitter.
- …and sports. Twitter is adding major sponsorships, like CBS and the NFL – which will now show instant replays via Twitter.
- Tweets as a press release. Amazon chose Twitter to send out the press release for the latest version of its Kindle Fire, and they did so over 14 tweets – demonstrating just how much social media has shaken up the public relations industry.
- PR Fails: A few companies are dealing with offended customers this week: pasta company Barilla receives backlash after his CEO says he’ll never feature a homosexual family in ads, and Coca-Cola distributes an offensive bottle cap.
