Below the Line

Walgreen's Twitter Promo is a Big Loser

Walgreen's is running various programs with Twitter, including a customer survey about their Balance Rewards program which I filled out yesterday. I then was targeted with the below promoted tweet.

My first reaction to the promoted tweet was echoed by other users: "Walgreen's, are you calling me fat?".

Their tie-in with popular show "The Biggest Loser" has garnered them mainly negative replies by users. I'd say they fell into the trap of trying to leverage another brand's popularity, without considering the pre-existing negative associations with that brand - this has created a juxtaposition between their goal of trying to play in the health and fitness market with the belief many people have that the approach The Biggest Loser takes is "lose weight at all costs".

Key takeaway: chose your brand partnerships wisely.

 

Horrible JELL-O ad makes light of dyslexia

This Kraft JELL-O ad, which I spotted this ad in O Magazine, unintentionally makes light of dyslexia.

 

Facebook thinks I have too many friends

Bigger is not necessarily better

Facebook is now apparently encouraging users to delete friends.

Possibly, they are realizing people with too many friends are not seeing relevant posts from their "real" friends in their newsfeed. With their rollout of Graph Search, connections with only "real" friends will be even more important.

This is the second time in recent weeks a social network has come out with a bigger-is-not-better policy. Niche site A Small World closed to new members to focus on "the integrity of their membership".

Questions to ponder:

Could this be the end of vanity metrics, like the raw number of Twitter followers (rather than engaged followers in the target audience)?

How will this trend to reduce network size impact Klout scores?

 

Related:
Niche social networking site A Small World to close to new members
Related to vanity metrics/buying Twitter followers: 4 ways to get Twitter followers