2/11/14

2/11/14

Good morning, All,

No sooner had reporters arrived in Sochi that the problems began – and the twitterverse went nuclear. #SochiProblems (a personal favorite and great comic relief or is this that mysterious ‘half bath’ NYC residents often see listed) and #SochiFail quickly went viral. In fact, @SochiProblems has more followers – and climbing – than does the official @sochi2014 account.

This, on the heels of Twitter’s stock losing 25% of its value – that same day – due to a lack of mainstream adaptation (twitter has 1.2 billion users, and a very high abandonment rate). Not that the mainstream press has ever been a big fan of twitter. In fact, in most cases, try to tweet one of their stories, using the twitter icon they themselves provide. It usually doesn’t work. Dear Mainstream Media, this just in: software is eating the world. Learn how to use it. Or stay a dinosaur and don’t shoot the messenger. In times when there’s an event that captures the world’s attention, the world turns to twitter. It’s the great equalizer and sorry, Wall Street, but we don’t believe it’s going to disappear any time soon. What news outlet didn’t feature #ScochiProblems in some article/report somewhere in the past few days? It’s a news breaker. Learn to use it properly, or it could be a deal breaker. Then again, Twitter isn’t Facebook and should not be measured using the same yardstick. It more a global IM platform than it is a social network, and again, we’re reminded of the words of Beethoven, when the maestros of the day complained to the composer that they had a difficult time with his music, to which the maestro responded: “I did not write if for you.”

AirBnB was the big winner on twitter in Sochi, @Airbnb: Having #SochiProblems? Hotel lacking water? Floors? 500+ Airbnb listings in #Sochi are ready ow.ly/tmECh. Social media does work. Know where to market. And target your audience.

Many of the remarks along the twitter stream were snarky and aimed at Putin’s anti Gay and Lesbian stance. It’s Russia. It’s Putin. Again, where’s the mystery? The twitterverse had a field day with the ‘Lemonade in Ass’ item on the menus. Not sure if it was part of the anti GL stand, but if it was, it, um, backfired.

Olympic athletes spend a lifetime training for their moment in the spotlight. Good sportsmanship – from all camps – should trump all. Relax. Sit back with a good glass of Scotchi – or vodka – and enjoy the games. Onward and forward.

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