Category: memes

Friday Five: Twitter favorites edition

Five read- and/or view-worthy items plucked from this week’s Twitter stream:

  1. 4 tools for better Facebook marketing from HubSpot (via @cksyme). (P.S. – Check out Chris Syme’s wonderful blog, New Adventures of an Old SID.)
  2. Twitter usage in America, the results of a 3-year study by Edison Research and Arbitron presented on Vimeo in the form of a 44-minute webinar/slideshow. Some interesting tidbits here. (For instance, nearly 1/4 of Twitter users are African Americans.) If you want the full report, you can download it for free by signing up at this Edison site. (Via @ggrosseck.)
  3. Glenn Reynolds: the higher ed bubble is about to burst (via @EMGonline).
  4. ‘Sex between ideas is the source of creativity’ — a fascinating piece on the evolution of humans and creativity (via @gapingvoid).
  5. The Star Wars kid grows up, and is now a law student (via @NewsSocialMedia).

Have a good weekend.

What hath @BPGlobalPR wrought?

It had to happen, I guess. The popularity of the faux Twitter account @BPGlobalPR has spawned a legion of imitators. As Mashable reported recently, “The @[insert name here]GlobalPR Twitter account is a true blue meme.”

Just a few of the @__________GlobalPR accounts now floating around Twitter.
Just a few of the @__________GlobalPR accounts now floating around Twitter.

Faux Twitter accounts are nothing new. (Remember @FakeSarahPalin?) But it takes timing, originality and just the right level of acerbic satirical commentary to pull it off. The success of @BPGlobalPR comes from the mix of those three elements.

@IsraelGlobalPR may also have what it takes to separate from the pack of imitators. The account’s timing was impeccable — it launched the same day Israeli commandos raided that flotilla headed for Gaza — and its focus is narrow enough and its voice consistently in character. But other copycat GlobalPR accounts, such as @USAGlobalPR, are just horrible imitations. My Twiter pal @KyleJudah and I agree that this slew of faux Twitter copycats are more lame than meme-worthy.

Maybe the whole @[insert name here]GlobalPR meme just needs better PR. Sadly, I don’t think @PRGlobalPR is up for that challenge.