@BPGlobalPR
- May 28th, 2010
- Posted by Andy W.
- Posted in Uncategorized
ately @BPGlobalPR has been one of the hottest things in the Twitterverse. Even as I write this the social media drones of Spring Creek Group are talking away about the handle’s latest tweet. About a month ago, when the spill was in its infancy, I told Rondo Schott, the editor of this blog, that I wanted to write a post on BP’s social media response to the spill. I tried, I gave up. Their response was to post PR materials on their channels and not respond to questions. Then about a week ago @BPGlobalPR hit the scene and these “pickledicks” have stole all of the social media thunder. The graph below shows the amount of followers for the official BP Twitter handle and @BPGlobalPR since a couple days after the spill:
o me, this graph illustrates the poor quality of content coming from @BP_America. What really grinds my gears about this whole situation is that they are using social media solely as a press release. One of SMM’s best characteristics is that it allows brands to be human. @BP_America has been getting hundreds of direct @replies. Many are snarky, but there’s also a large portion of tweets from people who have been affected by this disaster and need help. BP rarely responds. In my opinion, a mistake is a mistake and that’s what happened with this oil rig explosion, but all in all the response across all media outlets has been poor. Because of this, I will head to the Exxon station instead (who now have only the second worst oil spill of all time).
One last thing to note on @BPGlobalPR whether charity was their intention or not, they’ve been doing an amazing job building visibility for the Gulf Restoration Network. Something inside me hopes that the GRN is behind @BPGlobalPR. If true, it would certainly be one of the most compelling, albeit deceptive, social media campaigns ever.
Update: The identity of the individual behind @BPGlobalPR has been revealed. You can read CNET’s story about it here.
One comment
[...] earned media team at Smirnoff easily the best in the game. I’ve talked about hoax SMM campaigns before and continue to be fascinated by the possibilities. We’ll leave aside the fact that they are [...]