Social Media and the Law... again!

Tween pop sensation Justin Bieber caused a riot at Roosevelt Field Mall in Long Island, NY this past week when he was scheduled to appear for an autograph signing.

While you probably don't care, the story does get interesting since the use (or lack thereof) of his Twitter account lead to the arrest of James Roppo, a representative from Bieber's record Label.

According to the Associated Press, a huge crowd had formed to catch a glimpse of the mini-star and crowding/shoving was becoming a safety issue.

Police asked Roppo to help disburse the crowd by sending out a Twitter message notifying fans that Bieber would not be allowed into the mall until things calmed down. When Roppo refused, he was arrested on several misdemeanor charges, including "failure to cooperate with police".

Despite this strange request, two Tweets were seen on Bieber's Twitter account at 4:30pm and 4:33pm first asking the crowd to calm down and leave, then stating that one of his people had been arrested.

I really don't care for Bieber or this article, but the fact that refusing to send a Tweet contributed to a man's arrest is something worth discussing. Just recently, I posted a blog about how a man's Facebook status saved him from jail. Now we're seeing the other side of the spectrum.

There is no doubt that Social Media is becoming more and more important in our lives but I really struggle with this particular incident. Even if Roppo had agreed to send out the Tweet, the police were going on the assumption that a large majority of the existing crowd would see it instantly and just pack up and go.

Twitter is a great way for an artist to keep in touch with his or her fans by letting them have some insight into their life or by notifying them of upcoming events. It is not a method of crowd control.

It will be interesting to see how this - and future cases - progress when Social Media comes into play.

Facebook Status Used as Alibi

On Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 11:49am, 19 year old Rodney Bradford updated his Facebook status from his father's apartment in Harlem to say: "Where's my pancakes?"

In a recent court case, those three words were accepted by the judge as an alibi and got Rodney off of alleged armed robbery charges that took place moments later.

This is a unique first and, from my perspective, a very dangerous precendent.

After being arrested for alleged participation in a mugging at gun-point that took place around the sane time, Bradford's lawyer, Robert Reuland used the Facebook status (along with testimony from Bradford's father) as an alibi proving that Bradford was, in fact, in the apartment at the time of the robbery.

Facebook provided evidence (using IP tracking) that the posting did, in fact come from the apartment at that time.

With Social Media playing an increasing role in our lives, I expect we will be seeing more of this in future legal cases. On one hand, I'm glad to see Bradford's name cleared. On the other, this creates a scary precedence.

Anyone can update your status if they have a username and password. What is stopping someone from now planning to commit a crime and having a friend login to their account from their home right before the crime is committed and type in a status update?

Social media sites have been used in court cases before. They have been used to demonstrate infidelity in divorce cases or to check in on sick employees.

Social media brings a lot of good into our lives, but the Bradford case just proved that technology can also add a whole other layer of complexity to our lives. I look forward to reading about future cases where Facebook and other social media sites play an active part in court cases.

You can read the full article on the Bradford case by clicking here.

Bullshit baffles brains?

I recently did some work with a gentleman who was looking to promote a branded social marketing solution to Tier-1 companies and agencies.

Working in close quarters, I often listened in on his cold calling. Conveniently, he claimed to have worked extensively in the category of everyone he called hoping to gain some credibility. I'm confident that he has not worked extensively, if at all, in most of the categories he claimed to.

He believed that this "strategy" would lead prospects to believe that he was knowledgeable in their category and would therefore been seen as a strategic partner rather than just another sales pitch. When I asked him about this, his response was "bullshit baffles brains".

I found this to be pretty ironic given that one of the fundamental principles for companies playing in the social space is to engage in OPEN and HONEST dialog with consumers.

Why, I asked myself, would someone lie in an attempt to sell an honest form of communication?

I truly believe that honesty is the best policy when it comes to sales and business in general. Bullshit may baffle brains at some point, but people are seldom fooled more than once and the marketing world is pretty small and it doesn't take much to tarnish your name. Lying to get a sale may work once, but it seldom works as a long-term strategy.

I've since parted ways with this person due to conflicting personalities but I am interested to see if he gets anywhere with his program...

Honesty is the ONLY policy

One of the key elements in social marketing is encouraging open and honest conversation with consumers. Any attempts to secretly fool them or control a message will cause a great deal of harm. Marketers need to understand that consumers who get involved in social media are talkers. Try to pull a fast one on them and they'll be spreading the word like wild-fire, which can ultimately leave you in a worse situation than where you started.

Let's talk about Nissan and their Hypercube contest, developed by Cap C.

The idea behind this campaign was to leverage social media to create buzz around the new Nissan Cube by hosting an online contest that asked participants to use various social media outlets to show their creativity for a chance to win one of 50 Cubes.

You have to hand it to both Nissan and Cap C - they took a huge leap of faith creating this type of campaign when the auto industry was at an all time low and social media still remains a relatively new and misunderstood marketing space.

On the other hand, some scandal in the judging practices landed them in hot water with several contestants who believed the contest was rigged, which ultimately lead to some negative buzz.

Without wanting to go into all the detail, I will say that in my opinion, neither Nissan nor Cap C intended any foul play and have taken reasonable steps to reach out to disenchanted participants.

That said, this is a good lesson in the potential dangers of social media. ALWAYS be honest with consumers. If they're saying something you don't like, the best thing to do is engage them and find out why they're upset and try to fix it. If you brush it off or ignore it, your efforts will backfire on you.

You can read more about the aftermath of this campaign by checking out this article in Marketing mag.

Coleman's Spin on Social Networking

If you've ever gone camping, chances are you own or have used a piece of Coleman's camping gear. Well the folks at Coleman's are putting their own spin on social networking by trying to get people offline!

They've come up with a brilliant ad campaign claiming that they're the 'original social networking site' by making reference to camp sites surrounded by friends having a good time.

Kudos to whoever developed this concept for them - it captured my attention from the get go and made a fantastic point. As much as social networking is here to stay, we should also remember to cherish the time spent with friends and family and hanging around the camp site is a perfect way to reconnect.

You can view their website by CLICKING HERE.

What do you think?

What the f**k is Social Media?!

Over the past few months, I've been working heavily with Social Media and Social Marketing. After speaking to countless marketers across every industry imaginable, I've learned one thing: most marketers really don't get Social Media.

Simply put, Social Media is all about people sharing conversations, images and videos online. This can be a simple "tweet", a full-on rant via personal blog or a photo slide show.

While websites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, MySpace and YouTube will inevitably continue to pop up, one thing is certain - this is not a fad. It is a fundamental shift in the way people communicate.

I could spend hours typing an essay to better explain Social Media but instead, I'll redirect you to two slide shows that will do a much better job.

1 - What the f**k is Social Media
2 - What the f**k is Social Media: One year later

A great deal of thanks to Marta Z. Kagan of Espresso for enlightening me.