Social Media Update – March 10, 2011

Good morning. Facebook is taking a stand against bullying with some new tools aimed at reporting and blocking offensive content on their site. These measures are nice to see with all the reports of bullying leading to much more severe issues for teens. Political campaigns harnessing the power of social media is nothing new, but it’s becoming more mainstream in today’s world according to Karl Rove. According to the Pew Research Center, in the last presidential race 26% of voters received their information via the web while 28% still relied on print media. The percentages are looking to flip as early as 2012 with the growing trend of digital media consumption. Charlie Sheen may not be able to keep his day job, but he’s been very busy on the social media front. His latest gig came in the form of an intern stunt he pulled for the website interns.com. While the intern thing is funny it represents a much more interesting shift in advertising. The use of popular celebs to promote a startup via a social channel in hopes of garnering interest seemed to work for interns.com. Within hours of the announcement that he’s looking for an intern the term #TigerBloodIntern was a trending topic globally, and 74k applications were submitted from 181 countries for the job. Enjoy.

I. Facebook’s New Anti-Bullying Tools Create a “Culture of Respect”, mashable.com, March 10, 2011
II. Political Campaigns Go Viral, wsj.com, March 10, 2011
III. Results: Charlie Sheen Pulls in 400,000 Clicks for Ad.ly Tweet Sponsorship, fastcompany.com, March 9, 2011

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I. Facebook’s New Anti-Bullying Tools Create a “Culture of Respect”, mashable.com, March 10, 2011
http://mashable.com/2011/03/10/facebook-anti-bullying/
At today’s White House Conference for Bullying Prevention in Washington, D.C., Facebook is announcing a new suite of tools to protect users from bullying, foster a stronger sense of community in the social network, and “create a culture of respect” among Facebook users.
Facebook’s changes boil down to two main aspects: an improved safety center with more multimedia resources, and better, more social tools for reporting offensive or bullying content.

II. Political Campaigns Go Viral, wsj.com, March 10, 2011
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576190472697049288.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLTopStories
Since 1952—when New York ad man Rosser Reeves convinced GOP presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower to run television ads with a snappy jingle, “You like Ike, I like Ike, Everybody likes Ike”—campaigns have spent most of their budgets on TV and radio. But in the year ahead, smart campaigns will devote a good deal less money to running 30- second TV ads and a good deal more to using the Internet to organize, persuade, motivate and raise funds.

III. Results: Charlie Sheen Pulls in 400,000 Clicks for Ad.ly Tweet Sponsorship, fastcompany.com, March 9, 2011
http://adage.com/article/news/kraft-treats-tweets-mac-cheese/149298/
Vatican assassin Charlie Sheen may not be pulling in millions for long as an employed sitcom star, but online, this highly evolved warlock may just have some #tigerblood left yet. Earlier this week, Sheen signed on with Los Angeles-based startup Ad.ly, which helps pair social media celebs with major brand endorsements. Sheen’s first sponsorship? Internship website Internships.com.
Can Sheen’s social media prowess break this startup into the major leagues? Or is his buzz just a fad that will wither like the wrinkly backsides of so many trolls?