Hoaxes: When Social Media Gets It Wrong
Jan
There are times when social media gets it right. From serious news like the earthquakes in Haiti (a story which Twitter broke) to the more fun viral ideas that help spread, say, cancer awareness by updating Facebook statuses with bra colors, one thing’s for certain in social media: if its hot, it spreads like wild fire.
But then there’s the flip side: when (seemingly hot) news spreads without verification.
Two cases in point:
Hoax 1:Facebook To Start Charging Users From July 2010
While glancing at your Facebook feed, did you discover a few friends joining groups that protest these “monthly charges”? I did, here’s a screenshot.
I found two groups (I’m guessing there are many) that seem to have gained a significant following: 300,000 Members Needed To Stop Facebook From Charging £/$14.99 a month has close to 900,000 members and No, I Will Not Pay£3.99 a Month To Use Facebook From July 9th 2010! has 457, 345 members. When I poked around, I couldn’t find any substantial meat to support this allegation. What I did find were veterans like Nick O’Neill claiming on the unofficial Facebook blog again and again that the rumours were baseless. I also found a post in the Telegraph wherein a spokesperson for the company has said:
We have no plans to charge users for Facebook’s basic services. Facebook is a free service for its 350 million users
I’m also left wondering why Facebook has not addressed this on their official blog. Its also an alarming indicator of how gullible consumers of social media can be.
Hoax 2: Twitter Trending Topic: RIP Johnny Depp
Did you know that Johnny Depp died in a car accident yesterday? Well on Twitter he did. Last night, a hoax began doing the rounds on the Internet, wherein a cleverly crafted fake CNN page announced the unfortunate news. Pretty soon the news spread to Twitter and RIP Johnny Depp became a trending topic.
In a little while though it became clear that the news was a hoax and that the sexiest man alive is indeed, alive and well. I looked up CNN to see if they there were any clarifications offered about the hoax. Nope.
Ok so we get it, rumours spread. Before the Internet existed, they would fly around from cafe to home to community center. Now they spread a million times faster unbridled by location or source. What can brands learn from such fiascoes? Should they be more pro-active and take more control of these conversations? Should Facebook/CNN have officially announced these rumours to be untrue? I would think so. Sure, things get out of hand, but its never too late to jump into the conversation and be the reliable, one-stop source of all information regarding an alleged rumour.
What would you do? I’m all ears…
Image courtesy: .S U B. Flickr
Related posts:
Well these days people create hoaxes to direct direct to their sites…and they merciless about any individual’s life.
Though, social media by it’s definition does include some bit of Gossip ain’t it?
Sachin´s last blog ..Skill Games and Real Time Social Entertainment!
Hey Sachin, thanks for dropping by! I agree totally that gossip is an inherent part of the “social” conversation. About the traffic: well, from what I understand, in neither case was the goal to direct traffic to a particular destination. While the rumour originated somewhere it snowballed away from the source on a social media site like Twitter/Facebook. It’d be interesting to have PR professionals’ take on how brands carry out damage control in such cases. What do you think?
I think these groups crop up as yet another way for people to harvest everyone’s information. I have a few friends who are stupid enough to join every group that comes along and cannot resist joining one that they think will have an effect, e.g., get free whatever in farmville, or see who has been visiting your profile, or stop FB from charging money.
Great point Michael and one I hadn’t thought of myself. Yes I’d think that the more gullible ones would divulge information or add apps that harvest it. I’ve come across several not-so-savvy people whose privacy settings are way too open and I bet they aren’t aware of this. Just another day in social media eh?