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#IranElection and #CNNFail: lacking #context

Twitter's utility as a means to share breaking news is not new. Its track record includes the bombings in Mubai and the landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River.

Over the weekend, Twitter became a hotbed for reporting and discussion of the contentious presidential election in Iran.

by Patricio Robles 15 June 2009 10:07am 9 comments

Dell eclipses $3 million in Twitter-driven sales

While multiple e-tailers are still looking for ways to cash in on Twitter followers, some are already reaping the rewards. Dell made an astonishing announcement yesterday.

The company's has landed over $2 million in sales since June 2007, half of which were generated over the period of the last 6 months. The second million was driven in by "posting offers and responding to questions on Twitter.com/DellOutlet."

by Geno Prussakov 12 June 2009 17:01pm 7 comments

Q&A: Steve Snyder of Frontier Airlines on the challenges of social media

In November, blogger Andrew Hyde tried to fly standby on Frontier Airilnes. Instead, he got delayed for six hours and began a customer service Twitter feed for the brand and wrote an angry blog post about the company's customer service. Steve Snyder from Frontier's communications department responded, and I wrote a post about what Frontier was missing out on by not getting into the space from a customer service angle.

Our tech reporter Patricio Robles then wrote a follow up post about risk management in soclal media, and this week I spoke with Steve Snyder to get his side of the story, to see what Frontier is doing in the social media space, and the problems with assuming that companies need to use Twitter for customer service purposes.

by Meghan Keane 12 June 2009 14:54pm 5 comments

Q&A: Pete Cashmore of Mashable on social media and blogging

Pete Cashmore of Mashable Pete Cashmore is CEO and founder of Mashable.com, which has firmly established itself as one of the world's biggest tech blogs.

We caught up with Pete to find out more about the progress of his publishing and events business, as well as his thoughts on social media in general.

by Graham Charlton 12 June 2009 13:10pm 6 comments

Facebook vanity URLs coming this weekend

Cancel your weekend plans. At 12:01 am EDT on Saturday, June 13, Facebook will open the floodgates on a long-awaited landrush.

At that time, all Facebook users will be able to select a vanity URL (eg. www.facebook.com/username/).

by Patricio Robles 10 June 2009 09:10am 3 comments

Social media and risk management

Last week, our US Editor, Meghan Keane, wrote about Andrew Hyde. Hyde is a blogger and self-described "startup enthusiast".

A bad experience with Frontier Airlines has apparently turned him into the internet's most vocal critic of the company. He set up @frontierair on Twitter and has even created a dedicated website to aggregate complaints about the airline. According to Hyde, Frontier Airlines is ignoring social media, and that's a bad thing.

by Patricio Robles 09 June 2009 12:09pm 8 comments

Top ten online PR fails

A number of brands have fallen foul of social media over the last few years, either due to lack of understanding of how information spreads online, or by attempting to manipulate the system and getting caught out.

I've listed ten examples of companies who have suffered PR nightmares online, in most cases the bad publicity has come via social media sites...

by Graham Charlton 08 June 2009 14:23pm 15 comments

Verified accounts are (finally) coming to Twitter

It took a lawsuit by Tony La Russa, the manager of an American professional baseball team, to convince Twitter that something had to be done about celebrity impersonators.

The obvious solution: verified accounts.

by Patricio Robles 08 June 2009 10:01am 3 comments

The A-Z of social media for brands

Here’s an A-Z braindump that I compiled in about an hour. It is aimed at providing a snapshot of what social media is all about, and what brands need to focus on before wading in.

The A-to-Z of social media You might be familiar with social media, but hopefully you'll give me a pass as some of this stuff bears repeating. However I think this A-Z is going to be more useful if you’re somebody who is trying to convince your boss that adopting a social media strategy is a good idea (it is). Good luck with that!