Twi$$er, Branding, and Other PR Blog Jots
Micro Persuasion
Finally, someone points out how much a service like Twitter must be costing in SMS fees! Steve Rubel wonders who is paying for all those Twitter text messages flying all over the world, especially on networks outside of the U.S., where the sender of the message rather than the recipient typically picks up the tab for the message. Considering that Twitter is a free service with no obvious means of turning a profit, they could end up in financial hot water. “Further, from the looks of it no part of the site is monetized right now. So add this all up and it could mean big trouble in Twitterville.”
Crisisblogger
While listening to a popular talk radio program on the way home from work this week, the host mentioned that what he found most egregious about the recent pet food recall was the revelation that one company was responsible for so many different brands of pet food—particularly that some were far more expensive than others. Gerald Baron notes that this could be a major PR crisis for the company, as the idea of brand differential is essential to many marketing strategies. “Here’s where crisis managers and heads of marketing or communication better get together. The crisis just undermined all kinds of brand strategy and brand building promotion. How will they deal with it?”
Shel of my Former Self
A viral word-of-mouth effort has been launched as an attempt to promote an independent, unsigned band by urging ITunes users to purchase the band’s single, thus pushing it to the top of the ITunes charts. This effort has made the rounds on PR and marketing blogs today, touted as a social media experiment. “The idea is for podcasters to spread the word that leads to a song by an indie band (without an RIAA contract) to soar to the top of the charts. It raises the profile of both podcasting as a movement—not just a delivery channel—of indie music, and of the growing irrelevance of the jack-botted, goose-stepping record labels.”
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