middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins

Ages ago an article in Marmalade magazine (RIP) really struck a chord with me - it predicted that people would get sick of nice brands like Innocent and start wanting to be treated a bit rougher. The ‘nasty brand’ would begin to emerge, one that gave it back once in a while, took the piss out of its customers a bit, engaged in a bit of friendly banter and wasn’t quite so nice etc.

Well Faceparty today took that to the extreme and told its users that it’s ’shut the whole site down and fucked off to the zoo” because of their recent behaviour. In could of course be a big stunt to reinforce its anti-corporation stance whilst generating lots of online buzz at the same time . . .

Listen this is our HOBBY, not our business. there was a time when you understood that - back when the net was run buy [sic] the people like us, and not by massive corporations - just because MySpace and Facebook sold out to the corporate world, doesn’t mean we did - we said no. Stop expecting “customer service” from us, cos WE DON’T HAVE CUSTOMERS - IT’S A FREE FUCKING SITE - too many of you treat us like we owe you something. And quit the “you need us attitude” cos we really fucking don’t. We don’t make money from you - it’s free. The things you pay for only cover the costs for the things you use.

On a serious note too - it does make you think about the variety of FREE internet things you use everyday and what you expect from them. Um, Twitter!!!?

[Via the Register and Whatleydude]

UPDATE - I’ve created PR Fail as a way to help people face the reality of the perception of PR on the web, be better and stop doing bad things. A ’see what happens’ thing.

UPDATE 2/6 - it’s still going on and this time there’s accusations flying around about the integrity of the PR industry - to which the PRSA responds

UPDATE 31/5 - the debate is still on - spreading to Phreadz

Coming from a background in PR and still very much involved in it on the digital side of things, I keep a close eye on the general feeling from the web community towards PR - and file any examples of really good (and really bad PR) or particularly fruity opinions about it. More often than not though, it’s negative and that’s obviously not a great thing.

Over the last couple of days, I’d be hitting del.icio.us every few minutes, as it’s all kicking off right now with a debate raging about whether or not companies need to do PR and general thoughts and feelings about PR are being thrown out left right and centre.

It started with Brian Solis revelaing his ‘PR Secrets’, then Loic Le Meur replying with his “Not a Secrets’ that pretty much dismissed Brian’s guest post on TechCrunch. Then, as is the case with social media and the web of today, it’s spilled out into Seesmic, Twitter, FriendFeed and a whole lot of other places.

So, rather than wade in fully and add to the noise, I thought I’d just share a few recent quotes from people on Twitter that I’ve been collecting and offer up my thinking that the definition and role of PR has changed to some degree, but people’s perception of it (and in a lot of cases, use and execution of it) hasn’t.

It’s this difference (and the fact there’s still a long way to go for the PR industry) that causes this debate and that the overall perception of PR on the web is a MAJOR FAIL. And that’s why (and I hate to say it), I more often than not cringe when I think about being in PR - as the industry has so much to do to change perception online and this needs to be led by actions and not more (insert expletive) words. This, is where the industry should be focused its efforts as I don’t think it’s ever going to shake off feelings like this, if it doesn’t change for the better and do so fast. As to how, not sure. More thinking needed, I don’t have all the answers. But in the meantime - consumers are just getting on with their lives and filling them with stuff they like. They don’t really care.

(Hope people don’t mind me ‘re-tweeting’ here. I just want to help spread the word. And, on Twitter, you really do have to face the true reality of what people think)

Charles Arthur - a particularly negative tweet, includes the word ‘DIE’

Jemima Kiss - a funny (but negative) tweet, made me really cringe

Mike Butcher - a negative tweet , I can almost hear him shouting this, my personal favourite one that also makes me cringe big time

Neville Hobson - a positive tweet (yay!), that is in fact negative when you think about it.

David Ciccone - a negative tweet

Yes, I know . . . another post about Twitter, just like the one before and like so many others right now. But, just wanted to acknowledge this great example of a massive company using Twitter really well as a way of keeping an eye out for customers with problems and doing everything it can to solve them. Enter Frank Eliason from Comcast, who seems to be doing everything he can to help people out. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed either - this post is currently riding high on Techmeme and look what happens if you Google Frank. Also, check out this profile of Frank here. Comcast need a bit of love, given the fact that comcastmustdie.com (blog here) made the front cover of Business Week at the beginning of the year.

Customer service and so-called social media relations/online PR are pretty much inseparable these days don’t you think?

Here’s some of Frank’s latest Tweets, closely followed by a Tweet Cloud giving you an idea of what Frank is tweeting about. Plus a user generated anti-Comcast ‘ad’ just to give you an idea of what Frank is up against.

Just a thought, but if everyone who used Twitter regularly paid £1 per month for the privilege, then Twitter would get get £2.4 million ($4.7 million) a year. And that’s based on the stats from Techcrunch that claim 200,000 active users and 1 million registered users, so if anything that figure is low.
The current growth rate is massive too so six months down the line, who knows what that figure might look like.

Or another way of looking at it is to charge 1p per message sent on Twitter (3 million are sent every day apparently) and rake in £10.95 million ($21.6 million) a year. This would work out to be £4.65 ($9.17) per month though to a user sending 15 tweets a day, which again is apparently the average amongst the 200,000 active users. That feels too much, but really probably isn’t given what you actually get compared to other stuff on the web - think of the costs of the texts alone. £1 mind . . .

So, rather than chuck ads at me or think of another way to monetize the service just ask me up front and I’ll pay. I’m sure others would too.

Anyway, just a quick not very well researched thought initiated by this I think . . . but if I do hand over the money, please Twitter can you make sure it works and pretty please look after my data. Thanks.

Would you pay £12 a year to use Twitter? Vote below or here

[Photo Credit - starring Skipper]

UPDATE: Wired has ran something on this and it looks like it’s the SECOND Twitter marriage proposal!

I’m offline for a few hours and look what I miss - what must surely be the first ever marriage proposal done via Twitter. Congratulations Emily and Max! Quite literally everything is happening on Twitter these days.

Drew just pointed me in the direction of the Twitter Fan Wiki. It’s a nice resource for everything Twitter, as you’d expect. Amongst everything on there I came across this - a Matrix-like Japanese mash-up of Tweets (done by this guy). Pretty nice me thinks.

Which reminds me, have you seen this blog - Stuff White People Like. Japan is in there, which I pointed out to Ged over at RC! But then I’m just as “guilty” of loving Japanese stuff so there we go. Anyway, enjoy. There’s so much more to come from Twitter. We’re only just at the beginning when it’s all a bit noisy and people are starting to itch for the next level.