Southwest Fails Kevin Smith and Themselves (Now with Update!)

Category: Case Study, Social Media, Travel, Twitter

Southwest_Airlines_logo-1

Kevin Smith was asked to get off a Southwest flight because of his size, and the controversy over Southwest’s Customer of Size policy was re-ignited. I’ve got a lot of feelings on the issue, and I’ve broken them into 3 parts — the policy, the social media/pr response, and my personal feelings on the issue. It’s an epic but meaty tome that I hope everyone can learn something from.

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Get a Discount for NewComm Forum

Category: Speaking, Twitter

NewComm 2010

Meet me at NewComm 2010 and get a $100 discount on your registration! Details inside.

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Behind SEGA’s Free Stuff Friday

Category: Case Study, Gaming, Social Media, Twitter

Free Stuff Friday 7/24/09

What do all these items have in common? They are just some of the things we’ve given away to fans during Free Stuff Friday. Our Twitter giveaways have been very successful, and I wanted to share a behind-the-scenes look into how we do them. At the least, I hope companies can stop using Twitter as just another avenue to push a marketing message.

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New Year, New Conferences, New Discounts

Category: Social Media, Speaking

Planning to attend the Social Media and Community 2.0 Strategies conference in Boston? Would you attend if you had a 20% discount? I can hook you up! Hit the jump for all the details on what I’m up to in 2010.

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Social Media “Experts” are Killing Us

Category: Facebook, Online Community, Social Media, Twitter

With all the self-proclaimed “social media experts” on the internet, it’s no wonder that companies have a hard time knowing who to trust with their social media. But are these people doing any real harm? I probably gave my opinion away in the title, but I do have some ideas for how to solve the issue, or at least make it better.

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Unjust and Ineffective Sex Laws Move Online

Category: Facebook, Online Community, Rant, Social Media

America’s sex offender laws are unjust, unfair, ineffective, and out of control. The same fear-mongering and panic is now moving online, causing social media companies like Facebook to remove the accounts of registered sex offenders. This sounds good on the surface, but it’s based in the same shaky logic and judgmental language as the original laws.

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Moderation: When Good Tools are Used for Bad Reasons

Category: Case Study, Moderation, Online Community

Disemvoweling is a great tool, but like any great tool, it can be used for the wrong reasons. Hearst told one blogger to stop using it, but it seems to me the problem is with the blogger/moderator, not the tool.

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Two New Speaking Engagements Added

Category: Online Community, Speaking, Travel

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be speaking at two upcoming conferences. Click in to find out more!

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Acts of Lust, or Acts of Exploitation?

Category: Case Study, Culture, Gaming, Rant, User Generated Content

EA had an interactive photo contest at Comic Con. But it’s not that simple. They encouraged patrons to “commit acts of lust” with their “booth babes”. Because apparently sexual harassment is awesome.

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The Dangers of Unmoderated UGC

Category: Case Study, Online Community

Sometimes in user generated content, the users bite back. Food Network found this out the hard way over the weekend.

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