Guest Tweeting and Racist Sweden. How to get it wrong.

Don't you just love Social Media and especially the fun you can have when people really screw it up? Aahh.


Guest tweeting. 


Seems like a lovely idea and it can be, unless you're in the country of Sweden. But I'll get to that. It'll be worth it.


The first time I came across guest tweeting was in a terrific campaign for Snickers in the UK. Using page 3/glamour model Katie Price (aka 'Jordan') she tweeted to her 1.5m followers about Snickers, keeping the campaign philosophy in mind which was, "you're a diva when you're hungry". 


In other words, when you're hungry you behave differently and if you grab a Snickers you'll get back to normal. The line is "you're not you when you're hungry".


You may have seen the TV treatments with Joan Collins and Aretha Franklin. Anyway.


So they had Jordan tweet about the Euro Crisis - not exactly the first thing that comes to mind about Jordan. One tweet went......


'Large scale quantitative easing in 2012 could distort liquidity of govt. bond market. #justsayin.' Ha! terrific.


Another went, "Chinese leaders now likely to loosen monetary policy to stimulate growth. Yay!!", "OMG!! Eurozone debt problems can only be properly solved by true fiscal union!!


I thought it was terrific by AMV/BBDO. 


Recently an Irish brand, worldirish.com, under the grand stewardship of internet pioneer and all round nice guy, Michael Branagan (remember Indigo? that was him) did the same. They handed over their @ireland to guest tweeters, called curators, each week (you can be one by emailing ireland@worldirish.com).


It also happened this week was Fr Bryan Shortall to tie in with the International Eucharistic Congress, which is taking place in Ireland. 


Yep, a priest and you know what, he did a great job. Really. One of the tweets about his Dad's train set, generated responses looking for pics and so he got pics and shared them. And he tweeted about his 10 year old nephew. 


Pop star Sinead O'Connor got involved by tweeting him and asking him if she should be a guest, given that she too is a "priest" (sort of).


So it works. Good solid Social activity.


And then we have the magic of Sweden.


The @sweden twitter project is an initiative of The Swedish Institute and Visit Sweden to get people interested in all things Swedish. Jesus. Like what? Snow?


So a 27-year-old Swedish blogger, who describes herself as a “a single and low educated mother” (low educated? nah, she's kidding) adding “at least I don’t do drugs and prostitution”, took over as the main curator of @Sweden this week and quickly found herself in the middle of a controversy over some of her tweets.


Whilst talking about her life, curator Sonja Abrahamsson went for it on Twitter.


On June 12 she wrote “Whats the fuzz with jews. You can’t even see if a person is a jew, unless you see their penises, and even if you do, you can’t be sure!?


@Sweden June 12, 2012 12:43 In nazi German they even had to sew stars on their sleeves. If they didn’t, they could never now who was a jew and who was not a jew.

@Sweden June 12, 2012 12:53 Where I come from there is no jews. I guess its a religion. But why were the nazis talking about races? Was it a blood-thing (for them)?

So I think you can take it she doesn't like Jews.

Lena Posner-Körösi, president of Stockholm’s Council of Swedish Jewish Communities told the paper. “They really should do a quality check on these people beforehand.” A quality check? Lena is being kind.


Other tweets include a "I hate Ikea" (Sweden's darling Ikea that is, masters of the flatpack) and "I wish I had Down's syndrome". Honey, that's the last of your worries, trust me.


Here you go https://twitter.com/#!/sweden


Even U.S. comedian Stephen Colbert weighed in, asking on The Colbert Report that he be allowed to control the Twitter account next. Colbert is running a campaign on his website asking his fans to send emails to “Sweden’s ministry of Twitter” to allow him to take control of the account for a week.


“Sonja Abrahamsson brought some attention to Sweden with her charming question: What’s the fuzz with Jews?” Colbert said on the Colbert Report on Tuesday. “I solemnly swear that I Stephen Colbert, know what the ‘fuzz’ is with Jews.”


The Visit Sweden people? They're so cool, they're letting her hang on in there because it's eh, "democratic" and because they think they're getting people interested in Sweden. Their massive spike in traffic obviously means the campaign is working, they think. I think, they're brain dead. And I also think Sweden is a kip. So there.


Like the good old "there's no such thing as bad publicity" yawn. Oh yes there is, when you portray yourself as racist.Trust me. Guessing you won't get a lot of Jewish tourism this year either.


And oh yeah, nearly forget, she's now on youtube. "Im bossy" and yeah that's it at the top of this blog.


Which actually I probably shouldn't have posted because it gives these eejits oxygen. 


Guest tweeting is a good idea but don't get it wrong.


And one last thing before I go, I'm posting this pic thanks to Daniel Greene. With total respect. Let Sweden know what you think. Tweet them.

Apple teams with Facebook. Tim Cook becomes Steve Jobs.

So for all the talk of Apple post-Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, the announcement this week of Apple's forthcoming Iphone/Ipad software update is a good insight into the way they're going.


The company will now feature Facebook as part of its full integration. In other words, easy access to Facebook on your phone will allow you to post images and video directly. Possibly resulting in a deluge of what is referred to as "overposting" but a clear signal of Apple's Social plans. If you own the device, you can spread the content. You can own the content.


Facebook will simply appear as a setting on the iphone/ipad (and other Apple devices) allowing you to say, sync Contacts/Events/Birthdays from Facebook so they'll appear on your most used apps such as Calendar. Everything integrated. 


Presumably too, location will be another feature shared. I guess gaming too - which is a real driver.


Previously we did see Twitter integrated of course and it tripled sales to Twitter users. Nearly half of all photos posted to Twitter come from...Apple devices. So this is another big win day for Apple.


From an Apple perspective of course too, it's also one in the eye for Google's Google+ and Android phones. And it's real marketing, real point-of-difference stuff that brings Apple up to speed and cool again.


Tim Cook might not appear to be Jobs, but he's not sitting on his hands either. It's again driving mobile as the device of choice and pointing to their development as the key to having Social in your pocket.


I note too that even in a depressed European market, smartphones will grow this year by 60% clearly marking a switch (since phone penetration is already maxed) to the smart device. People will be on them and these new applications point further to a great future.


Samsung too, the market leader, will not be far behind but the coolness of Apple as a brand is more attractive to the likes of Twitter and Facebook. A clear competitive advantage.


Make way for the new cult of Tim Cook.
It's here already.