E-Commerce Blog

The leading edge of online corporate outreach once was the executive blog. Carefully crafted messages on a range of topics, closely vetted by PR firms, were posted every few weeks, calculated to appear spontaneous and thoughtful. Not surprisingly, many companies learned that customers didn’t find those missives authentic, and they moved toward more dialogue-based tools. Now, with the advent of micro-blogging services like Twitter and Plurk, that leading edge has become more like a pinpoint.

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Catching the Micro-Blogging Itch, Corporate-Style

“What are you doing?” That question is the rocket fuel for Twitter — a hot social network service that lets you tell people what you are up to at any given moment of the day — via cell phone, instant messenger or the Web. Never heard of it, you say? “What are you doing?” is the question Twitter asks “Twitterers” to answer in a simple text message as they connect with friends, coworkers or the wider world. Twitterers “tweet” about everything from what they had for lunch to how much they enjoyed their latest Netflix DVD.

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Twitter and Twitterers: Running Full Speed Ahead to Keep Up

The other night I was watching a clip from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” the iconic teen movie of my generation. It’s the scene where Ferris and Cameron are at the Cubs game and TV cameras pan Ferris catching a foul ball. Mr. Rooney, the obsessive high school principal who devotes his day to catching Ferris ditching, looks away from the TV just at that second. Ferris narrowly escapes. It was then I realized just how dated this movie has become. A kid cutting school these days has a whole range of ways, beyond the chance pan of a TV camera, to get caught.

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Getting Found Out, Web 2.0 Style