Saturday, October 24, 2009

Social Media or Spy Tool

It is no secret that the rich and famous or infamous of the world have adopted Twitter as their "we're real people too" mini-megaphone. We sit is anticipation waiting with baited breath for each new nugget of information that makes us feel closer to the pedestal dwellers. I am privileged to have the opportunity to hear what each of my followees are planning, doing or have done. Oh, the excitement.

However...this is their decision- on their terms.

If you have never heard of the mega-priced NY hot spot Michael's (home of the $35 cheeseburger), it is nothing if not a hub for people watching. The media-heavy clientele is now everyone's business as Michael's has begun tweeting who is in the restaurant.
Is this what the creators of Twitter had in mind?
Somehow it seems just a little more dirty when it is not personal choice.
What do you think?

Lunch exposure at Michael's. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/lunch_exposure_GVBPJAltQIwWhviv29ZGpJ


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1 comment:

  1. jbbOctober 28, 2009 at 10:10 AM

    I think what it comes down to is that "business" knows that something is happening with social media. They don't get it, but they know that something is happening. This would be a prime example of that. The value (and risk) of social media is that it's user generated, community-centric and authentic. One of the auto companies thought that they'd jump on the user-created band-wagon and staged a contest to see who could make the best commercial for their vehicles and set up a live website where contestants could post their videos. What they didn't anticipate was that were a fair number of tech-savvy people who hated their product and flooded the website with anti-product commercials. Just like Michael's forcing employees to post, this is already looking more like bad PR. Ack.

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