How it came to pass that a young Baltimore man lay down at a tattoo parlor Wednesday night as an artist etched Twitter's whale icon onto his leg is a tale that illustrates not only the power of social media, but the idiosyncrasies that drive it.
What started with an impromptu race to bring traffic to the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association's feed on Twitter, the micro-blogging social media site, resulted in an Internet sensation, complete with live streaming video of a tattooing that twice last week topped Twitter's most-talked-about list.
It's no fluke that a quirky, impulsive, seemingly random act found such traction in the fast-moving, youthful world of social media. Chancy artlessness rules that universe, and traditional companies used to traditional advertising and traditional results are still trying to figure out how to engineer such happy accidents.
"With Twitter and Facebook, the power of it is just amazing. I'm constantly blown away by this world," says Andy Malis, president of Baltimore's MGH Advertising. "How quickly you can get people to respond, to react, to become aware of something. ... It underscores how no business can ignore this."
The social media space is increasingly crowded with businesses and organizations trying to gain a foothold. It's not only a fast way to grab attention, it's essentially free - and in this economy, saving money is no small virtue.
Companies such as Comcast, Starbucks, Dell and online retailer Zappos have been widely praised for cleverly working Twitter to their advantage. Comcast, for instance, uses the handle "ComcastCares" to immediately reach out to customers who complain on the site, nipping what could have become bad news for the company in the bud. The rock band U2 used MySpace last month to unveil its new CD, due out in stores in the U.S. today. Last weekend, the maker of the candy Skittles got some buzz for redirecting its Web site to a Twitter search for the term "skittles."
But Web-savvy social media users can usually smell a corporate ploy a mile away. What seems to work are easy, organic, if not outright oddball un-campaigns. Which might be why business people on Twitter spend so much time talking about Top Chef, sharing links to interesting tidbits - and daring one another to get tattoos.
"The word is authenticity," says Todd Scott, director of media for Baltimore's Himmelrich PR, a company that's been urging its clients to experiment with social media. "It's stepping out of the rehearsed, strict messaging."
