Patricia Poon's Blog

A screenshot of a tweet is often now used as incriminating evidence for many controversial news stories – from suicides to teenage bullying, and now, even in the business world.

In fact, business journalists have been advocating the importance of twitter since 2008.

Taco Bell shows us how Twitter can be used successfully – in less than 140 characters, the company has conveyed a remarkable sense of humour and wittiness.

As of today, Nokia’s day-old tweet towards Apple, mocking its new line of 5C phones, has gone viral, and has been recorded as the ‘most retweeted brand tweets ever’.

If Twitter really is a gold mine – the widely accepted platform for companies to market their product – how should they go about doing it? Should they broadcast quirky quips to connect with the intended audience? Or should they remain professional? Is banter allowed between companies using the ‘@’ symbol? How far can they go until a tweet is seen as ‘mud-slinging’? In fact, this is not a one-time strategy by Nokia – I’m sure everyone remembers their ‘colour commercial’ earlier last year suggesting that iPhones were plain – which raised eyebrows at questionable marketing schemes. Should advertising really be centred around casual insults? Old Spice and Taco Bell share witty, but casual banter over Twitter in another popular viral thread:

Kenneth Cole recently argued that offensive tweets are ‘simply good business strategy’, after he tweeted about the Syrian conflict lightheartedly. In fact, the Business Insider CTO himself was forced to resign earlier this month due to a similar issue.

So, what do we think? A topic of ethical interest… Or good for a chuckle with your morning coffee?

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