Who do you trust? - the redux
I revisited this idea for my November column in Marketing Magazine. With added content and (to be honest) a better argument, I thought it worth another post...
I had the good fortune to share a stage recently with a senior Bloomberg editor. When the topic of social media came up, he was quite dismissive, stating "no one's ever going to make a going to make a $10 million trade based on a blog post". I had to agree, as there's certainly no denying his company's reputation for factual, impartial and timely reporting.
But perhaps times have changed. Those of us who've been looking at communications for awhile have been quick to celebrate the successes and opportunities created by social media and citizen journalism. We've also been quick to herald the "age of authenticity" - and relished the fact that "someone like us" is more influential (and trustworthy) than the 'old media' or advertising. But just as we heard the early chimes of traditional media's death knell ringing from blog post to blog post, three incidents over recent weeks have made me realize that the social media revolution is in its infancy. I also have come to appreciate that the route of social media ‘news' is one best travelled with care.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present my case...
September 24 - False text messages circulate in Hong Kong urging Bank of East Asia customers to withdraw their funds as the bank was allegedly in trouble because of its association with Lehman Brothers. These are followed up with posts to a local discussion board, and lead to a run on funds that saw around HK$2 billion in withdrawals. The police investigated and made arrests. In this case, the message was quickly circulated by SMS and fed on people's insecurity. As it was passed on from friend to friend, the BEA story gained credibility. SMS has a long history of being used in Hong Kong as an enabler of social movements and social change but in this case the motives were clearly malicious.
October 3 - A false news story is posted to CNN's citizen journalism site, iReport, stating that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a major heart attack. Though Apple was quick to deny the report, it spread throughout the blogosphere and led to a drop in shares to an 18 month low. Apple's prompt denial saw the shares bounce back quickly. The SEC is now looking into the source of the post. The fact that iReport / CNN make no guarantees about content seems to have made little difference to those who reacted to the 'news'.
October 21 - Xbox fanboys are blamed for attempting to sabotage the launch of Sony Playstation 3's ‘platform shifting' game, Little Big Planet. Their strategy? To post thousands of negative user reviews to game review site Metacritic.com. While Little Big Planet gained universal critical acclaim, scoring 9.5/10 from ‘real' reviewers on Metacritic, the thousands of fanboy posts ensured a user rating of a lowly 6.2/10.
So...what to do? Are these the ‘icebergs' that will sink the social media ‘Titanic'? Was my colleague from Bloomberg right in dismissing social media as a valid news source? Are the tools that have liberated the exchange of ideas and news failing us? Should we reject social media in favour of old media forms?
I say a no - but these examples reinforce that as information consumers we need to challenge the information we're receiving. Just because someone with a grudge, a PC or a mobile phone can publish information, doesn't mean we, the information consumers, have to blindly follow their direction.
In the Apple and Bank of East Asia cases in particular, people accepted the social media reporting on face value, and acted based on the assumption that the stories were factual. The articles were given credibility simply because they came from a reliable source - someone like them. Unlike traditional media, there wasn't an editorial function that vetted the accuracy of the statements or input. And therein lies the challenge.
In this age of authenticity, we need more than ever to treat the information we consume with a healthy grain of salt. One of the great opportunities that blogging and social networks provide is giving everyone the ability to be a publisher. Unfortunately, as these cases show, just because you can publish, doesn't always mean you should...
- Jeremy