There are several good analyses of the BP “brandjacking” that folks have kindly pointed me to subsequent to this post going live. Here are a few:

• 22 May — John Taylor: BP Gets Brandjacked on Twitter
• 24 May — Oliver Blanchard: Living in the past = working in the past: How not to get brandjacked like BP Global PR
• 24 May — AdAge: Why BP Isn’t Fretting Over Its Twitter Imposter

And here is a visual comparison of @BPGlobalPR, @BP_America and @oil_spill_2010, from TwitterCounter:

Comparison Of @BPGlobalPR, @BP_America, @oil_spill_2010 Using Twitter Counter

The advice is so old that it is trite: to conduct an effective crisis communications campaign, communicators have to be present and conversant in the channels/communities/media where they need to talk to people before disaster hits.

And a second piece of advice is also so tired that it seems trite: secure your company’s brand name whenever there’s a new technology. With web sites, I was advising folks in the mid-90s to secure the .com, .org and .net associated with their names … as well as logical “spoof” names. And that was when it cost bucks to secure names!

But it seems no one at BP had taken either adage to heart before last month’s explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

@BPGlobalPR, A Spoof Twitter Account

In researching Business Week’s top 100 brands, I learned last year that BP had lost @bp, legitimately, to Brian Pendelton. The company has owned @BP_America since 12 August 2008, but didn’t really use the account until this month. This week someone began making hay with @BPGlobalPR (established 19 May 2010). In fact, although the account is less than a week old, it has three times as many followers as @BP_America.

@BP_America : BP America
Until the explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last month, @BP_America averaged about three tweets per month. That’s not quite one a week. The tweets were all one-way, perfunctory, allowing someone in corporate communications to be able to say: “we’re on Twitter.” This month, in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, @BP_America is averaging about nine tweets per day.

TweetStats for @BP_America

Although BP has been trying to “talk” with people Twitter for more than a year, has anyone been listening? Prior to the 20 March 2010 explosion, the answer was “not too many” which isn’t surprising given how little BP was using the service. However, data from TwitterCounter shows a marked rise in followers since 5 May (2,306), when it began tracking the account. As of this writing, there are 4,623 followers, and the account is on 313 lists.

@BP_America Twitter Followers

The tweets are overwhelmingly one-way announcements with only a few @replies (less than 1% of the total, that is, only two). Perhaps not surprisingly, the account retweets @oil_spill_2010 (what’s with the underscores?).

@oil_spill_2010 : DeepwaterHorizon JIC

TweetStats For @Oil_Spill_2010

The account bio reads: “Updates from the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center (JIC) on Unified Command response efforts to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.” It links to the “response” website and was created on 29 April 2010. As of this writing there are 5,421 followers, and the account is on 375 lists. There have been 680 tweets, an average of 25 per day, almost three times as many as the @BP_America account.

So there are more people following this account and it’s more active. Moreover, unlike over at the @BP_America account, whomever is running @oil_spill_2010 is trying to engage with others on Twitter: about 1-in-10 tweets is an @reply. That’s not very high, but that’s better than 1-in-100.

@BPGlobalPR
The dark horse in this race for followers is @BPGlobalPR, a spoof account. In less than a week, the account has grown to 15,222 followers: more than three times that of @BP_America and almost three times that of @oil_spill_2010. And it’s on more lists: 394.

More importantly, from a PR perspective, people are talking about it and retweeting one of its 59 tweets. As of this writing, there are 12,774 tweets that mention the keyword bpglobalpr.

What do these tweets look like? Here’s a sampling:

@BPGlobalPR Tweet Sample

Whomever is tweeting on the account has created the hashtag #bpcares (a play on @comcastcares?). Currently that hashtag appears on 1,875 tweets: that’s about 30 for each tweet that @BPGlobalPR has made.

Not The Only Spoof Account
The @BPGlobalPR account is not the only spoof or opposition account created in response to the disaster, although it has the most traction with followers. Related accounts include:

• @AngryOilyBird (established 1 May 2010 by Save The Pelican) — 57 tweets, 360 followers
• @boycottbp (established 1 May 2010) — 489 tweets, 1,032 followers
• @BP_Fail (established 16 May 2010) — 34 tweets, 21 followers
• @bpglobal (established 9 November 2009 by Tricia Blocker) — 0 tweets, 1 follower
• @BPGulfLeak (established 21 May 2010) — 295 tweets, 115 followers
• @BPOilSpill (established 30 April 2010 by R. Haggerty) — 8,149 tweets, 337 followers
• @DrilledByBP (established 22 May 2010 by Jon Brett and Brandon Shuler) — 7 tweets, 48 followers
• @HealthyGulf (established 18 August 2008) — 167 tweets, 366 followers
• @IBRRC (established 16 May 2009 by International Bird Rescue) — 1,010 tweets, 670 followers
• @makebppay (established 7 May 2010 by Keith Haggert) — 1,716 tweets, 86 followers
• @oil_leaks (established 17 September 2009) — 2,476 tweets, 1,787 followers
• @ProtectTheOcean (established 7 May 2010) — 101 tweets, 347 followers
• @SaveOurGulf (established 2 May 2010 by the Waterkeeper Alliance) — 53 tweets, 170 followers
• @SpillBabySpill (established 30 April 2010) — 383 tweets, 140 followers
• @SpillBPSpill (established 9 May 2010) — 277 tweets, 32 followers

The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico cannot be mitigated by effective communication: actions do speak louder than words. And Twitter is certainly not the make-or-break space for BP’s public image. However, as the service goes more mainstream, it serves as a mirror for attitudes that extend beyond the techno-elite, attitudes that are held by influencers of all stripes.

Ignore it at your own peril.

Resources:

• @BP_America archive
• @oil_spill_2010 archive
• @BPGlobalPR archive
• #bpcares archive (1,875 tweets)
• #bpoilspill archive (1,503 tweets)
• #oilspill archive (5,081 tweets)
• bpglobalpr (12,774 tweets)
• BP Gulf Disaster (list by BPGulfLeak)
• BP Oil Spill (list by Australian Journalist Helen Tzarimas)

:: This article first appeared at Wiredpen.com
:: Related: Oil Explosion InfoGraphic
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This Chicago Sun-Times article features Dietzler Farms (@DietzlerFarms) from Elkhart, Wisconsin.

Dietzler signed up for Twitter last year out of curiosity. Her first tweet was an open invitation for a rack of short ribs.

“Within three minutes, Phillip Foss [the chef at Lockwood] texted me and said, ‘I’ll take them all,’ ” she says. Her second tweet included the link to Foss’ blog, the Pickled Tongue, which had details of the dinner that would feature those ribs.

This is a great example of both B2B and B2C tweeting!

What other farms are using Twitter?

This morning, @biz (Biz Stone) and @ev (Evan Williams) kicked off Twitter’s first official developer conference, Chirp, with some facts and data and a stunning announcement related to the Library of Congress.

First, the numbers. There are 105.8 million registered users but 180 million monthly unique visitors to the website. The deduction: non-registered users read tweets. And we know that registered users read tweets primarily from other devices. Williams noted that Twitter is currently handling 3 billion requests a day; this API-driven traffic is equivalent to Yahoo, he said, noting that no other major service is this distributed.

“Open exchange of information has a positive impact on the world,” Williams said in his keynote. Reflecting that sentiment, Twitter streamed the event live. Moreover, the sessions are archived at Justin.tv for delayed viewing.

An even more significant reflection of that sentiment: Twitter is giving the Library of Congress the entire corpus of public tweets (think of the potential for watchdogging government and politicians).

Expect to see an emphasis on the scholarly and research implications of the acquisition. I’m no Ph.D., but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data. And I’m certain we’ll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive.

Just before noon, @biz explained on the Twitter blog:

Over the years, tweets have become part of significant global events around the world—from historic elections to devastating disasters.

It is our pleasure to donate access to the entire archive of public Tweets to the Library of Congress for preservation and research. It’s very exciting that tweets are becoming part of history. It should be noted that there are some specifics regarding this arrangement. Only after a six-month delay can the Tweets will be used for internal library use, for non-commercial research, public display by the library itself, and preservation.

The six-month delay and non-commercial use are meaningful because they relate to potential revenue streams for Twitter, the company. But Twitter, the social engine, has responded to public interest pleas regarding access related to government and news. A big hurrah!

The final “open access” announcement relates to Google’s timeline search. Google Replay will let us relive a real time search from specific moments in time. (GoogleWave, anyone?) Although Google Replay currently accesses fairly recent tweets, @biz wrote that “eventually it will reach back to the very first Tweets every created.”

Feel free to give Replay a try—if you want to understand the popular contemporaneous reaction to the retirement of Justice Stevens, the health care bill, or Justin Bieber’s latest album, you can virtually time travel and replay the Tweets. The future seems bright for innovation on the Twitter platform and so it seems, does the past!

Finally, one of the coolest artifacts to emerge from the event this afternoon is this information graphic created by Gerardo Obieta (@G_Obieta), a graphic designer who works for Weber Shandwick Minneapolis. He shared it with the world via Twitter and TwitPic.

:: This post first appeared at wiredpen
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Presentation at UW on how hospitals are using Twitter; Get the Scoop: Media & Health.

:: This post first appeared at wiredpen
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What’s all the fuss about Twitter? In this workshop, we’ll learn how to get started with Twitter, how journalists are using Twitter, and some Twitter best practices.

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In less than an hour, I’ll be on stage at the Twitter Conference (#140tc) on a panel to talk about tools. Here’s the list I gave Steve Broback in advance, with some examples:

iPhone :
Twittelator Pro
http://www.stone.com/Twittelator/Twittelator_Screens.html
* I just like the interface — it took a little getting used to (because it’s different from TweetDeck). I use TP if what I want to do is check @replies or DMs. If I need to look at a search or list set up on TD desktop, then I use that.

PhotoGene
http://www.i-photogene.com/
* Not Twitter per se but iPhone — quick and easy edits before tweeting — see http://www.i-photogene.com/photogene/Tutorial.html

stats/monitoring/research :
TweetStats
http://tweetstats.com/
* great overview of account activity by key metrics
* see @barackobama (TS1, TS2)

TwitterCounter
http://twittercounter.com/
* show follower trends for most recent 3 month period (@massgovernor)

Trendistic
http://trendistic.com/
* see time trend for keywords (iPad)

Twapper Keeper (Steve talked about this in the AM session)
http://twapperkeeper.com/
* archive hashtag search

Tweetmeme
http://tweetmeme.com/
* broader than trending list

content :
TwitterFeed
Yes, I know it’s an RSS feed. sometimes that’s OK.

finding people :
We need more good directories like govtwit.com

:: This post first appeared at wiredpen
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The act of fishing, according to Texas State Rep. Aaron Pena, can be described as “slow, methodical and patient.” The act of phishing, on the other hand, can be described as methodical, patient and unscrupulous.

The first time I saw the word phishing, I did not immediately think of phreaking (hacking a telephone system). I thought it was a clever “respelling” of the word “fishing” since the two verbs share a common theme: to seek to obtain something indirectly or by artifice.

Phishing was first described in a paper in 1987 and first mentioned online in 1996 in an AmericaOnline newsgroup. Fourteen years later, phishing has spread from the relatively closed garden of AOL instant messaging to semi-closed gardens like Facebook and wide-open spaces like email and Twitter. Almost all online definitions of phishing describe it as an email-based scheme.

The language of the phisher seems relatively unchanged. On AOL in the 1990s, phishers would directly ask poential victims to “verify your account” or “confirm billing information.” This week, they are indirectly asking us for our Twitter login credentials. The phisher provides a link to login page that looks like Twitter, unless we examine the URL visible in the address bar. The unsuspecting click “sign in” and the phisher then uses this newly-acquired access to send the phishing link, as a direct message, to everyone who is following us.

Clearly, this system is methodical. It is, after all, governed by the if-else logic of computer code. It is patient: the phisher is content with a very small click-through rate. This is, after all, how real-world viruses propagate; everyone who is exposed to a cold or flu virus does not get sick. And it is unscrupulous: the phisher poses as us to our (initially at least) unsuspecting friends.

There is less malice in the current Twitter scam than in the Facebook “I’m stranded and need money” phising example. The Twitter attack does not seek to directly separate you from your money and possessions. But many people use the same login credentials for multiple accounts. That same patient computer code which now has your Twitter ID and password could be used to try to open other accounts: email, online commerce, banking.

A Plea For Virtual Safety
Here are some steps to secure your online identity:

• Just say no. Be mindful before clicking on links in Tweets, Facebook status updates and email. Think before clicking. Use a browser with built-in safety features. For example, Chrome, Camino and Internet Explorer warned me about the current phishing attack on Twitter; however, neither Firefox nor Safari provided a warning.
• Avoid creating new accounts. When a website asks you to create an account, opt instead to login with Facebook, Twitter, OpenID, Disquus, TypePad. In other words, use a preexisting account. If the originating website only uses FacebookConnect, consider sending them a note asking for choice.
• Segregate login profiles. The login profile for your online banking should be substantially more secure than one for reading a news site or for commenting on your favorite blog or for editing a Wikipedia entry. I don’t believe that it is reasonable to say “create a new password for every account” … because I know you won’t. It is reasonable to suggest mindfulness.
• Develop a password strategy. After you’ve thought about the types of profiles in terms of risk and frequency of access, develop a password strategy. For non-monetary accounts like most news sites, Wikipedia and your favorite blog, pick a password that is easy to remember. What is the worst that could happen if someone figures out your password to one of these accounts? They’re not going to get your mailing address or access to your bank account. In this case, memorable is probably more important than “strong.”
• Minimize duplicate instances of the same password when risk goes up. When the answer to “What is the worst that could happen?” includes access to personal or banking information, don’t use the same password for every account. As the risk goes up, make the password more secure. Whine loudly when a vendor (like Verizon) will not let you create a secure password on their system.
• Email passwords should be strong. In a perfect world, we’d use one email account for all of our financial transactions and a different account for corresponding with friends and yet third account for mailing lists and such. The more that you co-mingle the way you use your email account the greater the risk if the account should get hacked. The greater the risk, the more secure the password. Remember that email is often used as the way to reset account passwords!
• Completely segregate online banking. Your online banking password should not be used on any other account.

Now excuse me, please, while I go practice a bit of what I’m preaching.

01. Example of a Twitter Direct Message Phishing Attack. Question: Why Hasn

02-Chrome, Camino and Internet Explorer Detected Phishing

03-Safari and Firefox (Mac) Went Straight To False Login Screen

04-Remember To Look At URLs! In This Case, The URL Is A Dead Give-Away

:: This post first appeared at wiredpen
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Danny Sullivan weighs in on URL shorteners, blasting ow.ly for its framed content that deprives the organization that created the content from page views and, thus, ad revenue. Top two: bit.ly and tr.im (I use both). New to me: cli.gs.

On Monday, Twitter reported that it is managing 50 million tweets a day (600 tweets per second). In 2007, the average (?) was 5,000 times a day and by 2009 hit 35 million a day.

Twitter Reports 50 Million Tweets Per Day