
How Al Jazeera Is Using Promoted Tweets & Trends to Get Into U.S. Markets - rwwmike
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_al_jazeera_is_using_promoted_tweets_trends_to.php?sms_ss=hackernews&at_xt=4d4c7fc3c2f87cae%2C0
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liamk
From the article:

"Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring
collection is now available online at <http://bit.ly/KCairo.>

I can't believe someone at Kenneth Cole thought that tweet was appropriate...
Wow.

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cma
This is what happens when you pay people on commission.

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njharman
No this is what happens when you have a culture that is socially oblivious,
isolated, and self absorbed. All things that would be lessoned if Al Jazeera
(or Frontline like bits of PBS, non-us version of BBC, etc) were widely
watched.

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Hovertruck
I am actually part of the Meetup Everywhere team, and it's been really
exciting to see Al Jazeera use the platform we launched a few weeks ago to
organize their base. We're really hoping that Everywhere can become a go-to
solution for distributed movements like this.

I attended (well, hosted/organized) the last AJE Meetup here at our office
last night and it was a really good time. I recommend checking to see if
there's anything going on in your local community... Not because I work on the
product, just because I really enjoyed what came out of the event for me.

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jackowayed
I don't see a problem with this at all. Sure, it's largely about advancing
their company's goals, including profit.

But they're doing a magnificent job covering this crisis, so I don't see a
problem with them doing some advertising that says, "See how good we are at
journalism? Maybe you shouldn't shut us out of your country just because we
come from the same area as terrorists."

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vineet
The thing that I like about this marketing, is that they are not really
marketing to people to get them to pay money. They are using a host of tools
(here Promoted Tweets and Meetup Everywhere) to build a following that will
demand Al Jazeera. Such tools not only allows them to build a movement a
relatively cheaply using online tools (which is great), but also lets their
users better connect with one another.

I wish more companies did something like this.

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Pahalial
I'm frankly amazed that RWW is trying to present this 'neutrally' by asking
whether people see an issue with AJE trying to break into the [bigoted] US
market.

I get that they rely on user engagement and comments and so on, but really,
encouraging controversy about a respected journalism outlet's attempts -which
even they admit has shown its stripes with its Egypt coverage- to get carried
in the US? A bit disappointing.

The linked controversy-generation article just rings so hollow: "Wow, this
news network is BUYING ad space! Trying to BUY its way into eyeballs!" ...
Meanwhile, what, Fox/MSNBC/CNN/etc are completely non-profit? And that's
without even getting into comparisons of content quality.

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rwwmike
I wrote the article. I wasn't thinking at all about "user engagement." I was
thinking "Look, there's another article on this same thing, and that one takes
issue with this method." And then I thought, "I don't see any issue at all."

