$510 a word.
That’s how much the National Basketball Association has fined Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, for two recent tweets on Twitter. Cuban didn’t like the officiating in a game against the Denver Nuggets. The NBA responded by hitting the outspoken owner with a $25,000 fine.
Did I mention nearly 19,000 people are receiving Cuban’s tweets? That works out to $1.32 per follower.
Cuban isn’t the onlyone using Twitter to spontaneously rail against a business. Last night Jimmy Fallon, new host of Late Night on NBC, tweeted the following:
actually asked to leave a pizza place today
6:33 PM Apr 4th from webPosto on 2nd (they also own Gruppo and Vezzo)
6:35 PM Apr 4th from webcarb face carol rude to my 2 year old niece and an 11 month old (sleeping) because they heard i didnt like the pizza there.
6:36 PM Apr 4th from webnever go to Posto, Gruppo or Vezzo in New York City. i actually cannot believe how rude they were.
6:38 PM Apr 4th from web
20 minutes, several tweets and responses later, Fallow posts:
i’m sorry. i am venting. don’t boycott. don’t hate. i just have never been thrown out of a restaurant.
7:07 PM Apr 4th from web
Nice retraction but by then the damage was done.
He’s already told us the name of the restaurant, it’s address and the names of other restaurants run by the same owners.
Did I mention more than half a million people are following Fallon on Twitter?
What are people saying about your business on Twitter or other social media sites?
Where can you find these online conversations?
How can you/should you respond?
Lawrence & Schiller’s Social Media Bootcamp has the answers you need. The first session kicks off April 14th. Stay tuned for details and registration information!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter has certainly blown up…but here’s an interesting article I found on why certain companies shouldn’t tweet. Not because of the technology, but because of the way some companies may use (or misuse) the technology:
Top ten reasons your company probably shouldn’t tweet:
http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=135827
Twitter is definitely an extension of the word-of-mouth marketing that can sink or swim a business. It could be a dangerous weapon to wield, but it could also be a great sounding board for new businesses.
Domino’s provides a good lesson on why listening to social media is more than just a good idea.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/business/media/16dominos.html?ref=technology
The key quote is – “In social media,if you think it’s not going to spread, that’s when it gets bigger,” said Scott Hoffman, the chief marketing officer of the social-media marketing firm Lotame. “We realized that when many of the comments and questions in Twitter were, ‘What is Domino’s doing about it’ ” Mr. McIntyre said. “Well, we were doing and saying things, but they weren’t being covered in Twitter.”