Update: Paperchase dip their toes in the social media hot water


Better late than never is the order of the day for Paperchase following this morning’s debacle - with a twitterjacking (sorry) already having taken place with @paperchaseuk, the company set up their own account this afternoon, although they may have wished their social media activity would start on a rather more positive note.

Without a peep from Paperchase, the Twitter activity grew more and more irate, and was left unchecked. When Paperchase finally did get round to writing a statement, it was hidden away on the Contact section of their website and distinctly defensive in nature. The Twitter backlash was immediate: thumbs down was the consensus. Meanwhile, a lack of social media engagement from Paperchase meant that the bloodflow has, at time of writing, barely been stemmed. When Tweeters get a sense that they are being shortchanged or that a company is misleading them, they’ll make their opinions felt very strongly, and it will take something pretty drastic to change their opinion at the moment. There’s a definite sense that Paperchase’s response to this has been wholly inadequate - with both a lack of engagement and absence of empathy for the artist herself. I won’t speculate as to the origin of this mess, but a mess it is and it remains an object lesson in how not to use social media – or rather how NOT using it decisively can damage a brand reputation.

Meanwhile, as usual, social media is the source for mainstream news – it’s currently being rumoured that Channel 4 News will report on the matter in an hour from now. Any companies like Paperchase who may have undervalued the power of social media should wake up – or learn the hard way.


Eoghan O'Neill, Social Media Case Study, Social Media News


Corporate Reputation: Lessons Still Aren’t Being Learned As Paperchase Falls Victim To Social Media Mudslinging


Brands are becoming more and more savvy to the dire consequences of a negative social media backlash against them, but Paperchase could clearly do with some advice on social media damage limitation, as an obscure artist’s frustrated blog, accusing them of plagiarism, has exploded all over the social media world this morning and may do severe damage to their reputation if the word of mouth continues at its current rate.

You decide: is HiddenEloises image...

You decide: is HiddenEloise's image...

...a victim of plagiarism?

...a victim of plagiarism?

Graphic artist “Hidden Eloise”, whose creations are available via various online outlets, also keeps a sporadically updated blog, and came out last night with a strongly worded post accusing the British stationery manufacturers of plagiarising one of her designs. From a personal point of view, I found the original design of a girl in the forest extremely dull, but that’s beside the point – a Flash animation hammered the point home convincingly and without further evidence it is hard to argue with her allegation. The post found its way onto mainstream Twitter channels and vigorous commenting and Tweeting ensued. I personally heard of it via a political Tweeter who I follow; while Twitter activity worldwide, soon congregating at the #paperchase hashtag, provided focus. The hashtag, as I write, has dozens of new tweets appearing every minute.

What of the corporate response? It would have been a start if Paperchase had any visible social media presence whatsoever. There is no Twitter presence – although as I write, in the last half hour a @paperchaseuk account has appeared, directing traffic to Eloise’s blog post and #paperchase; there are two Facebook pages, one of which seems to be an amateur fansite which has not been updated since 2008 and another, which could possibly be official, which has 100 fans and has not been updated since March 2009. So as it stands, the rumours, allegations and comments are free to spread unchecked throughout the social media space, with users happy to provide some forthright opinions (the leading tweet seems to be one describing them as “thieving fuckbags”). Meanwhile negative reviews are appearing on Amazon – an important affiliate to Paperchase – of their products. Ruinous? Time will tell.

There are important lessons to be learned here. The blogosphere, in general, reflects the moral majority and will always stick up for the “little person” taking on the corporate giants; the Rage Against The Machine Christmas No 1 phenomenon being a prime example. From the flashmob to the anticorporate campaign, the novelty of “strength in numbers” via social media has not yet worn off. Without judging Paperchase’s initial action on the artwork, companies should be aware that any unethical practices are liable to being “found out” and exposed to a global audience through social media. PR activity needs to be instant as well; any apology, rebuttal or explanation must be released within hours, even minutes, of the company finding out. Only 15 hours have gone by since the original blog post and yet the silence from Paperchase has gone on far too long. Meanwhile, having a complete lack of social media presence whatsoever in the consumer world is unforgivable. Paperchase are unlikely to make the same mistake twice.

About The Author

Eoghan ONeill

Eoghan O'Neill

Eoghan O’Neill is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library. Responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library, Eoghan spends his day darting between reading blogs and Twitter posts from around the world, and with his nose deep in spreadsheets! Prior to joining Social Media Library he worked within Arts Marketing for a leading arts trust and is a Physics graduate from Imperial College, London.

Eoghan blogs frequently at Eoghan London and is an active user of Twitter too @EoghanLondon.


Eoghan O'Neill, Social Media Case Study, Social Media News


Is The Rest Just Noise? Sorting The Wheat From The Social Media Chaff.


 

There aren’t many things as enjoyable and educational as an Internet blog debate. A recent one saw David Carr, George Packer and Steve Rubel engage in agreat back and forthover the value of Twitter.

Social Media - Just Noise?

Social Media - Just Noise?

 

Today, I’d like to respond to a blog post from high profile PR Tom Murphy, in which he declares having“social media sweats“, a post subsequently applauded byStephan Davies, another expert in the field.

“Think I am having Social Media sweats. There are just so many articles, posts, rants and links. Now don’t get me wrong it’s great that people are sharing their views, and opinions and, in a very small number of cases even their experiences”

Tom’s first attack on the state of the social media industry is that we produce a lot of noise. My disagreement with this argument lies in the belief that noise is a subjective reality perceived only from the receiver’s side. What I mean is that noise exists only if the quantity or quality of the information received overwhelms the possibilities of the receiver to make sense out of it. In my eyes it is the responsibility of the receiver to filter efficiently and process the information to the best of his knowledge and use. That is what RSS, readers and Twitter lists are for.

Admittedly though, we do churn out a lot of articles, and yes, we don’t necessarily do it due to an unstoppable need to share or help others develop professionally. In actual fact, we do it for a myriad of purposes, from the most commercially-oriented (SEO, brand awareness and earn permission to market) to the most personal (self promotion, giving back to the community, a vague sense of self-realisation etc.) In any case, this is an improvement from the days when PR educators hid all of their content behind a paywall and expensive courses, isn’t it?

Borrowing a metaphor from David Merman Scott, the Internet is very much like a city. In a city, millions of people dwell and talk. And they talk a lot. As you wouldn’t lend your ears to any random passer-by on a issue you care about, you don’t need to read every blog or every tweet about social media. In real life, people have reputations in subject areas and we develop shortcuts and preferences for our sources of information. With a limited, cognitive capacity, restricting ourselves to a chosen selection of influencers is mandatory. Organise yourselves as you will.

He then continues to say that:

“The reality however is that most of us aren’t paid a princely sum just for thinking about social media or antagonizing about the global impact of a new widget or phone (..)In summary we are focusing on how we can be more effective in communicating with people who matter to our clients or employers. People not tools, widgets or hardware”

While I agree that in Social Media we get a lot of “experts” from the tech side that only worry about, yes, widgets and phones, we have to admit that the people driving things further are the communicators. Social Media is about people and communications and that is the main idea that most social media experts are passing on.

Social media as a communication and business tool is a big deal. There is no denying that it is creating a lot of value for companies realising how tired traditional advertising and PR is growing. And it is shifting a lot of power to the consumers. So, what’s not to like?

About The Author

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavier Izaguirre joined Social Media Library in November 2009 working as part of the Research Team. Prior to joining Social Media Library, Xavier completed a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communications at Westminster University, London. An active user of Social Media platforms, Xavier is very passionate about new trends in communication and Social Media Marketing contributing towards a number of online campaigns within the Educational Sector.

Follow Xavier on Twitter at @Xavi_izaguirre


Social Media News, Xavi Izaguirre


The Internet’s Weirdest Communities


If you wanted proof that social media provides for all, no matter how niche your interest, check out our list of strangest communities we’ve found on the Internet.

David Icke’s Official Forum

Former sports presenter and Green Party spokesman turned, um, ‘moral and political spokesperson’ with the belief that a secret race of reptilian humanoids created and now controls humanity. His forum is an extremely busy one(2500 online when I checked), attracting eye-popping right-wing views on news stories, mind-bending (and often laughable) conspiracy theories and discussion on whether the reptilians really are in control.

David Icke

David Icke

Reptile Forums UK

If the reptilians are in control, here’s where they’re hanging out.

Hot For Tea

Who doesn’t love a nice cuppa? Maybe not this much though. At Hot For Tea you can share information on teas, how to make it and meet other cuppa-lovers.

Nice Cup Of Tea

Nice Cup Of Tea

The Watch Forum

Is that the time? I really must be going. And you will be from here unless you’re obsessed by time-pieces.

UK Hippy

Hey man, I’m like totally at one with humankind in this forum. Group hug! Worryingly, one of the zones is called The Lizard Lounge. Coincidence?

MyDogspace

If humans can have a social network, then why can’t dogs? Well, they can. Your dog can make friends, erm, chat and even find a Valentine here at MyDogspace.

A Dog

A Dog

AME Voice

Fancy checking out the manuals to various aircraft or chatting about the specs of planes? No. You’d best avoid AME Voice then.

British Blades

Sometimes you don’t even realise that an interest area could possibly an area of interest. It seems that some people really are  into knives of all kinds. Well, well.

Gone Too Soon

And finally. Gone Too Soon is THE website for your dead friend or relative. An online heaven, if you will. Chat function is permanently disabled here.

About the Author

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library, responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library. Paul lives in a world of blogs, blogs and more blogs, scouring the web and plucking out the juiciest information he finds. Previous to this, he worked as a Music Press Officer. He is also a freelance writer, writing for TV and editing a music title, SWN Magazine.

Paul blogs extremely infrequently about stuff that he does and once blogged about cheese, maybe he will do again some day. Follow him on Twitter @paulbarnett1.


Paul Barnett, Uncategorized


The Future Of Location Based Services And Why It Makes Business Sense


It has often been highlighted in the last few months how, as we walk into 2010, both the Internet and social connectivity are becoming more of a 24/7 experience. Inevitably, Location Based Services are likely to become ubiquitous as part of this trend. These services are available as mobile applications that allow users to state their whereabouts and learn about their contacts’ movements. The main idea is as simple as that, but different services add different layers of information to serve different purposes.

Services To Date:

Foursquare

Foursquare is, without a shadow of doubt, the application everyone is looking at. Foursquare allows you to ‘check in’ to places you happen to be at. By doing so, anyone from your contact list can see where you are and decide to drop by. Likewise, if you wander into a given area you can log in and see if someone you fancy meeting is close by.

Furthermore, this application introduces a reward system where businesses may provide special offers or giveaways to the so-called “Mayors” (the most loyal customers of commercial sites). Hummus Bros and Debenhams are already offering freebies in London. This is, however, a long way off the hundreds of places that have jumped on the bandwagon in the US.

Foursquare

Foursquare

Mytown

Mytown is a competitor with more of a game angle to it. It works similarly to Foursquare as a check-in service but goes a step further in its attempts at playfulness and monetisation. Mytown becomes a sort of Monopoly where you “buy” properties and earn cash with them. Also, it offers many tools to play the game with more resources ranging in price from 1 to 10 dollars.

In a nutshell, Mytown cashes in on the social game craze that we already live in with Facebook games like Mafia Wars and Farmville. Therefore, it seems to be fated to success financially by charging consumers to play the game. While Foursquare have 200,000 users, Mytown have already surpassed half a million downloads.

Other services include Gowalla, Google Latitude, or Tweetie for Twitter on the Iphone, among others.

Why Could It Be The Next Big Thing?

For the consumer, Location Based Services make you more socially active. Let’s face it, while Twitter and Facebook give you more time sat in a chair in front of a computer, LBS benefits your social life and the economy as a whole, encouraging people to visit more places and consume. It increases your quality of life by maximizing the opportunities of social encounters.

From the business standpoint, it creates a great platform for businesses like restaurants, pubs and bars (and eventually museums or other public areas) to offer loyalty programmes that are fun and beneficial to join. It’s also good at communicating to and luring highly networked and influential ABC1 audiences, which is why the battle for better offers to Mayors may have no limits. In the States, some businesses have gone so far as to offer free drinks to the Mayor, greatly reaping in positive PR, online brand exposure, WOM and increased sales due to customer competition towards the reward.

Finally, and most importantly, the data and knowledge that can be gleamed from this kind of service is a sought after asset for any business. After a few months of check-ins, Foursquare will start trading with the data stemming from visits. How long do they spend on site, at what time, where did they go after, etc. This can be cross-referenced with site offers, music, day of the week, prices and, actually, everything and anything. The possibilities are endless.

About The Author

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavier Izaguirre joined Social Media Library in November 2009 working as part of the Research Team. Prior to joining Social Media Library, Xavier completed a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communications at Westminster University, London. An active user of Social Media platforms, Xavier is very passionate about new trends in communication and Social Media Marketing contributing towards a number of online campaigns within the Educational Sector.

Follow Xavier on Twitter at @Xavi_izaguirre


Uncategorized, Xavi Izaguirre


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