1. I
T was 25 years ago in a county far, far away when
I first began my career in journalism, the worst
feedback you could have got in response to an
article would have been a shirty letter from a local
pensioner.
A friend of mine, working on a rival local paper at the
time, was desperate for some ‘fillers’ one day – the small
paragraphs dispersed through the paper between the
main articles. After exhausting the press release pile (and
without such things as Google in that era) he resorted
to fiction and created, from his own imagination, a local
knitting circle. He then wrote a few lines saying how
successful the last meeting of this fictitious knitting group
had been. By the end of the week after the paper was
published he had received ten letters from keen knitters
all asking for more information on how they might go
about joining the knitting club. He subsequently had to do
a follow up article announcing the unexpected closure of
the group. Ten letters had quite an impact. These days a
misplaced Tweet can have far greater impact.
Before agreeing to write this column I gave a
considerable amount of time to thinking about the effect
social media might have on my life if I stepped into the
spotlight with my views.
Jon Ronson’s latest book ‘So You’ve Been Publicly
Shamed’ is testament to the fact that we are all vulnerable
to the dark side of social media these days if we choose to
embrace the medium and air our views in public. He tells
of many cases where people’s lives have been ruined and
even their mental health affected by one simple, misjudged
tweet.
Celebrities are constantly been harassed by ‘trolls’
bombarding them with all types of random views. Alex
Brooker, star of The Last Leg comedy show, tells of how
his despair at harassment from a ‘Breaking Bad’ obsessed
follower pushed him to the last resort. Brief scrutiny of
Wikipedia gave him all the ammunition he needed for
retaliation. In 140 characters he tweeted at the UK-based
troll the ending to his favourite American serial which
had not yet aired in the UK. Needless to say, that Twitter
relationship didn’t end happily.
I have already had a slight taste of the power of the
Twittersphere. Teasing a certain actor one evening at a
charity event, I pretended to take a photo of him and his
partner but, instead, turned the camera on myself. In a
jovial retort he Tweeted the less-than-flattering photo of
me to his 588,000 followers. Every now and then it gets
retweeted by a Japanese Harry Potter fan. It’s the gift that
keeps on giving.
Be kind on Twitter to new columnists this week. The
Social Media spotlight could turn on you...
final word
THE
Feeling like a Tweet?
Follow Jane Dyer on Twitter @marketingjd
marketingjd.co.uk
JANE’S ADDICTION
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