Zanesville, Ohio Wild Animal Outbreak; Real-Time Conversation Monitoring

Wouldn’t it be great if you could monitor a conversation online: in real time?

With Webbed Marketing’s Spiderfly, real-time social media monitoring is a reality. Keep track of social media posts, press releases and more and sort them by tone of voice, author gender and other important factors!

Below is a dashboard depicting the online conversations around the Zanesville exotic animal escape. This information is updated in real time (hit “refresh” on your browser to update the information).

Zanesville, Ohio Wild Animal Escape – Real-Time Social Media Statistics

**UPDATE** Social response to this event has subsided, so below is now a static screenshot summary of the activity.

Tags: social media

A Simple Social Media Lesson

There have been several recent gaffes by brands on social media. Many of them have been accidents, but they still reflect poorly on the organizations.

The most recent is Entenmanns. The brand sent an interesting tweet shortly after the Casey Anthony verdict was announced. Using the trending topic #notguilty, Entenmanns’ social media agency said they didn’t realize the trending topic was referring to the trial. The Twittersphere was abuzz about the tweet, and many thought it was an insensitive reaction to a surprising verdict.

Another blunder occurred when an employee of Chrysler’s (former) social media agency thought he was posting on his personal account, but his negative tweet about the Motor City was posted to Chrysler’s Twitter page.

Entenmanns and its social media agency have apologized. Chrysler also apologized and ended its relationship with its social media agency. These mishaps aren’t likely to affect the companies in the long-term, but incidents like this are a source of embarrassment and bad PR for brands. And something we’ll talk about in the social media world for a while.
Obviously negative incidents like this spread quickly. It is social media after all. There is a simple lesson to be learned from Entenmanns, Chrysler and the social media mishaps that came before them. Double check your updates, and use good judgment.

Tags: best practices, social media, trending topics, twitter

Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid…About Brendan Fraser

I was sitting in my favorite chair the other night (7 days after seeing The Dark Night) and an ad for one of the local news stations came on the air.  The 10pm anchor was doing a promo for the upcoming news cast, and, as you know, they like to tease your interest in order to keep you tuned in.  The promo said, “A new summer blockbuster set to release may slow down Batman or at least give him a serious run for his money”.   Having seen and loved the new Batman, I was intrigued by the tease.  I finished up some WM work and settled in to watch the news to find out what movie I would have to see next. Ladies and Gents, I was severely disappointed when, after watching 36 minutes of news, they finally revealed the aforementioned slayer of the Bat. 

It was Brendan Fraser.

Give me a break! The third (and hopefully final) installment of The Mummy movie series, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, was launched on August 1st. According to Yahoo Movies, the first two movies in the series grossed $155 million and $202 million, respectively, for a combined $357 million. That is $37 million less than The Dark Knight grossed in its first 3 weeks.  Yolanda and Gabe from Fox 28 were successful in teasing me with their viral hook, which had me on the internet the next morning to research their claim. 

So let me demonstrate the “viral effect” that took place here.  After hearing the tease from the newscast, I decided to research the claim, utilizing the endless resources of the internet.  I first hit Yahoo Movies homepage to see if any of the critics had posted their reviews of the movie.  I regrettably watched a trailer or two on Y! Movies, and then moved on to the websites of some reputable movie critics.  At this point, I hadn’t seen or read anything spectacular about this movie, so I went to YouTube and found the ReelzChannel video channel.  Reelz does exit interviews with movie goers who attend the opening night of a movie premier.  The people on the street had some not-so-nice things to say about The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

“The last time I saw a movie of that quality was Revenge of the Nerds 5.”

“It was horrible, just horrible.”

“I was expecting it to be a lot worse, but was pleasantly surprised.”

“The welfare version of Indiana Jones”

“Brendan Fraser, stop with the movies.”

With all of these “glowing” reviews, the “viral effect” has resulted in negative press for this movie; it has definitely registered with the box office.  The movie has only grossed $40 million during the opening weekend, and the critics, both professional and amateur, have not been kind to this movie with their reviews. 

So what does this say about how the “viral effect” can move your business?  Using this case study, it can absolutely kill your momentum.  Your future customers will research your product, talk to friends and family, read about your company, search for product reviews, etc.  The “viral effect” can either work in your favor or decidedly against you.  You have to make sure that you’re ahead of the viral curve to keep your business on track and keep people talking about you in a positive light.

-Rob Ament

Tags: buzz, movies, the mummy, viral

Serenity Now!

Have you ever heard of the TV series “Firefly”?  I would venture to say that if you are a sci-fi fan, you are familiar with the show.  The show was created by writer Joss Whedon who is also known for his shows “Angel” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.  Firefly was picked up by Fox in 2002, but Fox cancelled the show before the full season could be aired.  Firefly then went to DVD, where the series picked up a huge following.

I was introduced to the series by my friend Doug.  He told me watch all 14 episodes and then pick up the movie from the video store.  A movie?  From a cancelled Sci-FI, TV show?
  As you can see, I was slightly skeptical; it’s not every day you see a TV series that was pulled from the air in mid season make it to the big screen.  Respecting Doug’s opinion, I watched the series and movie. I have to say I was hooked. 

After Fox’s arguably premature cancellation of the show, the “fandwagon” exploded.  People wrote letters, emails, blog posts, and form posts to rail against the trigger happy response by the Fox executives.  Fans calling themselves Browncoats (it’s from the show) pooled together and purchased a full page ad in Variety magazine, protesting the early exit from the Fox lineup.  When Fox ignored their pleas, fans wrote to rival network UPN asking them to pick up the series for a second season.   To appease the fan base, the series was then released to DVD, but this only fueled the viral fire.  People launched fan sites, Firefly communities, and even a documentary detailing their love for the series.   After seeing the craze over the Firefly series, movie executives realized there was a market for a movie, which was written and produced by creator Joss Whedon.  Serenity was released in 2005, and the cult following responded.

 Ok, so I know what you’re thinking.  Sci-Fi fans are not your average breed.  From the early days of the Trekky conventions to the mega fans showing up in full Star Wars gear, this genre of movie fans are a cut above the rest.  However, the “viral effect” cannot be ignored.  Three years after the DVD set was released, Firefly was still among the top 10 grossing series on Amazon.com.  Today, the series is still the top ranking Sci-Fi TV series sold on Amazon.  And the movie, that technically should not have been made, grossed over $25 million, with fans hosting special screenings to raise $65,000 for Whedon’s charity.

Firefly is a great example of people taking a passion to the next level and moving the viral bar in their favor.  Providing a product or service that people can get excited about is the first step to creating a viral effect.  It doesn’t matter if you are selling pencils or backpack rockets, if people dig your product they will generate the buzz for you.  And in the midst of the information age, they can spread the virus faster than ever!

- Robt Ament

Tags: firefly, movie, sci-fi, viral, whedon