It doesn't surprise me that according to a LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll 69% of folks surveyed "said they didn't know enough about Twitter to comment on the service". That's because Twitter is ridiculous. And even when Twitter is explained to you, it's really hard to grasp the concept at first because, well, because it's so narcissistic, usually. But considering it is a tool for mass marketing, it did surprise me a little bit that there were "17% of advertisers who admitted to not knowing much about the website." That seems kind of high for the group of people who are responsible for shoving advertising down our throats every waking second that we are on The Internets.
Regardless, do you really want to trust that your ad guy is not one of the 17% OR that he's not one of the 69% who is lying about not being one of the 17%? I don't know that you do. I'm fairly certain that you DON'T if you're WPMI-TV in Alabama. See, they might have thought that they had a firm grasp on what Twitter does and what Twitter is, but as you might have guessed from the tone of this post, they did not. Someone over there had the brilliant idea to have a WPMI-TV 
billboard with a live streaming Twitter feed of the daily news stories. That in and of itself doesn't seem like it would be a bad idea. The problem was that it wasn't just in and of itself. No, they decided that they would position the live Twitter feed (of which they would have little to no control over) next to a photo of their smiley and perky anchors. Hmmm. I wonder if that might pose a problem which could be misleading in anyway to anyone who viewed it? After all, we're talking about Alabama here. I also wonder if there would be any way that an idea like this could be potentially embarrassing for the smiley, perky anchors? The answers to those questions are "Yes" and "Oh, God, yes".
billboard with a live streaming Twitter feed of the daily news stories. That in and of itself doesn't seem like it would be a bad idea. The problem was that it wasn't just in and of itself. No, they decided that they would position the live Twitter feed (of which they would have little to no control over) next to a photo of their smiley and perky anchors. Hmmm. I wonder if that might pose a problem which could be misleading in anyway to anyone who viewed it? After all, we're talking about Alabama here. I also wonder if there would be any way that an idea like this could be potentially embarrassing for the smiley, perky anchors? The answers to those questions are "Yes" and "Oh, God, yes". The anchors over there at WPMI are a one Greg Peterson and a one Kym Thurman. Their weather sidekick is a one Derek Beasley. Behold!
A fine looking group of folks. It's very likely that they're all extremely upstanding citizens. But you wouldn't necessarily know that if you saw their pictures on one half of the billboard like this:
And the live Twitter feed with this story on the other half. Behold!
Oh, for cryin' out loud. Did no one stop to think that something like this could happen? Well, clearly not, but you know what I mean! Don't get me wrong, it's funny as hell! But come on! I'm not so sure that the anchors or Derek found it funny. And I know that whoever is in charge of things over there didn't find it funny since over there across the pond at The Telegraph, they are reporting that "two of the station's senior staff have been suspended" but that "...the station has yet to confirm this." And that means it's true.
Technology. It's a real kick in the pants if you don't know what you're doing. I'm wondering if the "senior staff" that were suspended had once worked at the TV station which aired the unfortunate pairing of a certain anchor alongside a certain police sketch of a rape suspect. Again, awkward? Yes. Friggin hilarious? Oh, absolutely.
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