ReedPOP’s PR Snafu - Using Attendee Twitter Accounts to Post Tweets Praising New York Comic-Con (NYCC)

Recently, the New York Comic-Con (NYCC) took place in the Javits Center. It’s a convention dedicated to comic books, movies, TV shows and video games.

Event organizer ReedPOP wanted prevent entrance using counterfeit badges and monitor the visitor flow. That’s why NYCC opted for visitor badges with radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips inside. Since RFID chips use radio frequencies to transfer information between the chip and a receiver, NYCC could learn where visitors spent their time at the event, as well as how long they stayed at NYCC. Needless to say, this kind of information is essential for evaluating the event’s success.

Attendees were invited to link their badges to their social media accounts. ReedPOP came up with the following clever enticement:

“Your registration number can easily be found on the reverse side of your NYCC 2013 badge. Enter the code printed on the back of your badge into the space above and press Register Me. […] Your NYCC experience is about 100x cooler! For realz (sic). Plus, when you’re done registering our friends at comiXology want to give you 50 free digital comics. You heard us right, 5-0! Kick-ass!”

Any attendee who would not sign up, would not be eligible to receive a replacement badge in case of loss. So far, so good….But what happened then, not so much! The social media accounts of fans, celebrities and press attending New York Comic Con were used to send tweets and Facebook posts telling the world how great NYCC was. The problem was that the tweets and posts were not sent out without their permission or knowledge of the account owners! The published tweets and posts looked authentic, being written in conversational language. Kudos to the copywriter at ReedPOP!

Popular Mashable published the story which quickly went viral. As damage control the powers at ReedPOP / NYCC announced:

“As you may have seen yesterday, there were some posts to Twitter and Facebook issued by New York Comic Con on behalf of attendees after RFID badges were registered. This was an opt-in function after signing in, but we were probably too enthusiastic in our messaging and eagerness to spread the good word about NYCC. We have since shut down this service completely and apologize for any perceived overstep. Please accept our apologies and have an absolutely excellent time this weekend. -Your friends at NYCC”

This case illustrates how careful companies and entities must be when leveraging social media.

My advice:

• Be transparent
• Be honest
• Be accountable

Is Pinterest Good for Companies, Firms and Freelancers?

Pinterest has been hailed as the latest must-have social network for companies, firms and freelancers. Mashable, the Huffington Post and TechCrunch all predicted a bright future for Pinterest. According to comScore, Pinterest hit 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors, crossing the 10 million mark faster than any other social media site before.

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard, not unlike pinning stuff (photos, recipes, business cards and the like) in your cubicle at work or on your fridge at home. Pinterest allow for digitally organizing and sharing images and links on themed pinboards. Users can also share their pins on Facebook and Twitter.

As with LinkedIn and Facebook, users can create a branded Pinterest page to promote their business, expertise, brands, events or any other info. This could support their corporate brand or service offering.

Pinterest could therefore be relevant for marketing strategy, since it serves as a clever addition to the existing social media mix. As with other social media, it also allows for monitoring competitors’ activities, brands and IP.

Will Pinterest become the next Facebook or Twitter? I don’t know, but it worth monitoring! Since Pinterest is free to use, there is no harm in trying it out. In the mean time: happy pinning!

(Image courtesy of TechCrunch)