Social idiocy

Social media "expert" pisses off client via social media. Ooops.

This is the charming story of senior Ketchum veep James Andrews, who managed to rile FedEx via his injudicious use of Twitter - unfortunately while explaining to FedEx how to use social media more effectively.

"We do not know the total millions of dollars FedEx Corporation pays Ketchum annually for the valuable and important work your company does for us around the globe. We are confident however, it is enough to expect a greater level of respect and awareness from someone in your position..."

Yeah, never a good sign when the client starts writing those sorts of emails.

Hey James, your village Twittered - they want their idiot back.

(Nabbed from Samer Costantini - cheers...)

Social networking 'not making money' shocker

Facebook, and other social networks, may be in trouble - a story from over the winter break.

No one should be really surprised about this - Facebook was grossly overvalued and the whole data-whoring - sorry, mining - thing has always proved problematic to actually capitalise on.

What does this mean for regional social networking endeavours, such as Jeeran, Dubai Lime, or AdNation itself?

Well, hopefully we might all be in better shape, having not squandered countless millions on development, or indeed strawberries and muffins. You would also hope that internet operations in the Middle East are more aware of how limited development has been in internet advertising here, and so have set their sights lower.

H2O - the developer behind Dubai Lime, and the technical stuff of AdNation, has just launched its own attempt to unlock some of the monetary potential from social networks. I'll be trying to speak to H2O headman Steve Vaile about this, and what potential he sees in the market - stay tuned for that.