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

2009 was a brilliant year for Sulmoz and me. Different clients had entirely different requirements out of their social media marketing efforts. I enjoyed waking up to a new day of creating and learning. That’s 365 great days. As we roll into 2010, I want to quickly write about what I intend to do in this space:

I plan to empower more and more brands.

Why?

In its true essence social media is meant to bring brands and consumers closer to each other. Through real listening and real engagement. I’ve learnt that the fewer middle-men (women!) in the process, the better.  I’ve met a lot of “agencies”, “experts”  and the rest in the last year to understand that social media is being spun into this big, elusive, magical thing to brands who would rather have someone else deal with it. I don’t want to be that someone else. Unlike advertising campaigns which can actually be outsourced to agencies, a large chunk of social media marketing is being real and genuine. And who is better prepared for that role that the brand representatives themselves?

So this year, I’m going to put in a lot of time, energy and effort into taking this knowledge about social media to brands. My intention is to equip them with the understanding and tools to take this on themselves with my role a merely supporting one – providing guidance, input and insight as and when required. So as the Chinese proverb goes:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

In two words, I am: deeply excited.

Image Courtesy: cproppe, Flickr