Dominos YouTube PR Disaster

A few days ago, two teenagers who were workingat a Dominos pizza chain decided that they would make a video and upload it to YouTube.  The motivation behind this appears to be simply boredom.  So what's the big deal?  Teenagers post up videos on YouTube all the time, after all.  Well the difference in this case is that the video depicted the two teens dressed in full Dominos uniform, doing stomach-wrenching acts to food that was seemingly going to be sold to customers.  Sticking cheese up their noses and then placing in on a sandwich was just one example of the two teen's antics.  Dominos managed to act relatively quickly and pulled the video down in less than two days.  But by then the damage had been done.  The video had received close to one million hits by then, so it's safe to say that the damage had been done.  On top of this, it would seem that some viewers of the original video downloaded it off of YouTube and have since posted it back up.  In other words, the pizza clip is now impossible to squash.  But what does this mean for Dominos, or any company for that matter?  I mean, its not like the company did anything wrong themselves.  This could have happened to any company and this type of behavior is not unheard of in the kitchens of restaurants.  The difference now is that todays disgruntled employees now have the power to share their disgusting acts with the whole world instantly, and thus doing significant damage to the company and it's reputation.  This is a tough situation to deal with for any organization.  My advice to Dominos and pretty much any other organization is to keep a close and constant eye on what is being carried out in you name on the web.  The only other thing they could do is press charges against the offenders so as to make and example of them (Dominos is looking at this option) .  This will at least act as something of a deterrent.  Other than that, there's not much else to do.  There will always be unhappy employees and many of them will have video cameras.  Just hope their not targeting you with them.

Twitter Podcast

 

For this assignment, (Linked here or streaming above), our group was asked to produce a podcast that both showed that we had learned the skills needed to accomplish a task like this, as well as have the podcast cover a topic that is relevant to our studies in social media and web 2.0.  We all agreed that, because of the great deal of attention it has been getting lately, Twitter would be a good subject to cover.  Overall, I would say that our project was a success.  We began with an introduction, which laid out what we would be covering in the podcast.  Each member of our group then took on a different aspect of the micro-blogging service to analyze.  Then concluded it with our findings.  The entire podcast was recorded in my living room on my MacBook through GarageBand.  We didn't even need any extra equipment since the laptop has a mic built in.  After recording, we converted it into MP3 format and uploaded it onto our blogs.  

Show Notes

Social Media Today

00.14 Juan begins to introduce the show.

00.38 Juan introduces the various topics that will be discussed on the podcast.

00.42 Sara begins to talk about the use of Twitter for journalists.

01.49 Juan transitions topic to Kirby.

01.58 Kirby begins to talk about the advantages of Twitter for the average person.

03.01 Juan transitions topic to Joe.

03.12 Joe begins talking about the advantages of Twitter for business. 

04.38 Juan ends the show.

05.13 Podcast ends. 

 

Chapter 1 Citizen Marketers - My favorite firecracker

The summer before last, my roomate and I became obsessed with a video on Youtube known as "Drama Chipmunk".  This video is the definition of a firecracker.  The video depicted a prairie dog (not a chipmunk) giving a weird look to the camera, set to some very dramatic music.  I'm not really sure why the video was so funny, but believe me, it was.  Almost overnight, the video was everywhere.  I saw it posted on my friend's facebook walls, all over video sharing sites like youtube, it was even played on television a few times.  In addition to all of this, dozens of remakes and parodies of the drama chipmunk started popping up all over the place.  It was strange how popular the drama chipmunk became.  Why did this particular video succeed where so many others failed to become viral?  What makes a firecracker a firecracker?

Internet Democratization, Advancing Technologies, and a Grandma

Chapter 3 of Citizen Marketers, entitled “The Democratization of Everything”, covers a great deal of information regarding Web 2.0 being a “…multiple-way communication between Web-site owner and visitor, and visitors with other visitors.” This is in stark contrast to the “Web 1.0” model, in which the communication is passed one-way, from the content’s creator to the viewer, much like more traditional mediums (Newspapers, television, ext.). I found just about everything covered in this chapter to be, not just interesting, but exciting. However, it was what the authors, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, said regarding the younger generation that really sparked my interest. Quotes like, “Children are actively using personal music devices, digital cameras, and DVD players by the age of 7…” and, “Twice as many kids aged 4 to 14 owned personal music devices and digital cameras in 2005, while cell-phone ownership in the age group has shot up 50 percent since (2005).” made me take a moment to stop and think about how quickly our nation’s youth pickup these technologies and then surpass the generations in front of them in both know-how and creativity. It reminded me of a story a professor of mine once told to our class.

It was my first semester at St. Edward’s University and I was being taught Darwin’s theory of evolution by a Professor affectionately known as “Dr. Dave”. I can’t remember why, but one day he brought up his grandmother. He said that she was in her late 80’s and, bless her heart, simply could not comprehend that documents, pictures, ext. could be saved on the computer. She held the belief that once the computer was turned off, everything that was on it was lost for good. So, she felt it necessary to print everything out on paper. Dr. Dave told us that every year a different member of the family would take up the quest of getting grandma to understand the computer’s save function. And every year that family member would walk away defeated, their frustrated mumbling muffled by the sounds of grandma’s printer churning away in the other room. It’s been over four years since Dr. Dave shared that story with me, and yet I still remember it as if he had said it to me just moments ago. As for my recollection of the subject… Hmm, I know it had something to do with monkeys...

Anyway, I think this story stuck with me through all these years for two reasons. The first is that it’s adorable. The second is the fact that it forces me to ask myself a difficult question: “What kind of technology will I be unable to wrap my mind around as an old man? Could we really advance so quickly that I will not only fail to keep up with technology, but find myself unable to even comprehend it?” I’m not really sure. Sitting here in front of my computer as a 22 year old , it’s hard for me to even imagine myself as an elderly gentleman, becoming frustrated and perhaps even fearful of new emerging technologies. Could this really be my fate and if so, is there anything I can do to prevent it? After a bit more thought on the matter, I came to this conclusion: As long as I get to ride around on one of those Rascal Scooters, I don't really care.