Astroturfing on the web–Creating your own grass roots movement

Funny sounding title I know, but the very essence of what you and I read on the net is under threat from companies and lobbyists taking over social media sites to lobby or to create artificial grass roots movements. Online forums and blogs including Twitter are being taken over and hi jacked by people who aren't what they seem.

In December last year George Monbiot from the Guardian Newspaper in the UK wrote on his blog of the impact of astroturfing, here’s an excerpt from that story:

“The anonymity of the web is giving companies and governments golden opportunities to run astroturf operations: fake grassroots campaigns that create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular policies. This deception is most likely to occur where the interests of companies or governments come into conflict with the interests of the public. For example, there's a long history of tobacco companies creating astroturf groups to fight attempts to regulate them.

It now seems that these operations are more widespread, more sophisticated and more automated than most of us had guessed. Emails obtained by political hackers from a US cyber-security firm called HBGary Federal suggest that a remarkable technological armoury is being deployed to drown out the voices of real people.”

So can it happen here in this country, absolutely and it’s happening now, do you think that political issues like a carbon tax for instance, are not going to be fair game to give you and I information from sources that we believe to be genuine. By using the power of social media, governments and companies can create artificial movements designed to complement there mainstream media lobby tactics, but it can all be hidden under the guise of the everyday person.

Here’s some examples of how they do this:

• Companies now use "persona management software", which multiplies the efforts of each astroturfer, creating the impression that there's major support for what a corporation or government is trying to do.

• This software creates all the online furniture a real person would possess: a name, email accounts, web pages and social media. In other words, it automatically generates what look like authentic profiles, making it hard to tell the difference between a virtual robot and a real commentator.

• Fake accounts can be kept updated by automatically reposting or linking to content generated elsewhere, reinforcing the impression that the account holders are real and active.

• Human astroturfers can then be assigned these "pre-aged" accounts to create a back story, suggesting that they've been busy linking and retweeting for months. No one would suspect that they came onto the scene for the first time a moment ago, for the sole purpose of attacking an article on climate science or arguing against new controls on salt in junk food.

• With some clever use of social media, astroturfers can, in the security firm's words, "make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/herself to key individuals as part of the exercise … There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to fictitious personas."

Perhaps the most disturbing revelation is this. The US Air Force has been tendering for companies to supply it with persona management software, which will perform the following tasks:

a. Create "10 personas per user, replete with background, history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographically consistent … Personas must be able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world and can interact through conventional online services and social media platforms."

b. Automatically provide its astroturfers with "randomly selected IP addresses through which they can access the internet" (an IP address is the number which identifies someone's computer), and these are to be changed every day, "hiding the existence of the operation". The software should also mix up the astroturfers' web traffic with "traffic from multitudes of users from outside the organisation. This traffic blending provides excellent cover and powerful deniability."

c. Create "static IP addresses" for each persona, enabling different astroturfers "to look like the same person over time". It should also allow "organisations that frequent same site/service often to easily switch IP addresses to look like ordinary users as opposed to one organisation."

Software like this has the potential to destroy the internet as a forum for constructive debate. It jeopardises the notion of online democracy. Comment threads on issues with major commercial implications are already being wrecked by what look like armies of organised trolls – as you can sometimes see on guardian.co.uk.

The internet is a wonderful gift, but it's also a bonanza for corporate lobbyists, viral marketers and government spin doctors, who can operate in cyberspace without regulation, accountability or fear of detection. So let me repeat the question I've put in previous articles, and which has yet to be satisfactorily answered: what should we do to fight these tactics?

So there you have it, be very careful before you begin to follow and support users on social media sites.

I have taken the liberty of using excerpts from George Monbiots article which appeared in December 2010, you can read the full article here

Twitter to serve up ads

Twitter will begin placing advertisements known as 'Promoted Tweets' in the timelines of users who follow a particular brand or company.

Twitter said it will begin testing the new advertising offering with a number of companies including Dell, Gatorade, Groupon, JetBlue, LivingSocial, Microsoft, Red Bull, Starbucks and Virgin America.

Promoted Tweets from non-profits such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the American Red Cross will also be shown, the San Francisco-based Twitter said in a blog post.

'When we decide to follow a favourite brand, business or charitable organisation, we expect to be among the first to get a special announcement, access to exclusive content or a great offer,' Twitter said.

'That's why starting today, we're introducing a way to ensure that the most important tweets from the organisations you follow reach you directly,' it said.

Twitter has enjoyed explosive growth since it was founded in 2006 but it is unclear how successful it has been in translating its popularity into profit.

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo, speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado, last week declined to reveal whether the privately held company is profitable.

But he said the number of advertisers on the platform is up 600 per cent this year over last year, when it numbered in the hundreds.

Twitter said the new advertising scheme will involve placing 'Promoted Tweets' from accounts that a user follows 'at or near the top' of their timeline, or stream of messages, when a user logs in.

'These Promoted Tweets will scroll through the timeline like any other tweet, and like regular tweets, they will appear in your timeline just once,' Twitter said.

'Promoted Tweets can also be easily dismissed from your timeline with a single click,' Twitter added.

The advertiser-sponsored tweets will only be shown on the accounts of users of the Twitter.com website, not the scores of third-party applications used to access the service.

Books, Clothing Top Planned Online Purchases

Global online consumers say that books and clothes are the items they most plan to purchase in the next six months, according to analysis of Nielsen Company global data by My Coupon Codes. Forty-four percent of global online consumers say they will buy books online in the next six months, while 36% plan to buy clothing.

Other top planned near-term online purchases include airline tickets (32%), electronic equipment (27%) and airline reservations (26%).

East Beats West in Online Spending

Comparing global online spending in the Western hemisphere compared to the Eastern hemisphere, it becomes clear that consumers in the East perform more of their monthly shopping online than their Western counterparts. For example, 51% of Western consumers spend less than 5% of their total monthly expenditures online, 27.5% more than the 40% of Eastern consumers who spend this small amount online per month.

While 28% of both Eastern and Western consumers perform 5-10% of their monthly spending online, the real differences occur in the rates with which they perform 11-25% and 26-50% of their monthly spending online. Nineteen percent of Eastern consumers perform 11-25% of their monthly spending online, 36% more than the 14% of Western consumers who do so.

The discrepancy is even larger among consumers who perform 26-50% of their monthly spending online. Nine percent of Eastern consumers spend this amount, 80% more than the 5% of Western consumers who do so. Spending beyond this level online is rare for consumers in both hemispheres.

9 in 10 Asia-Pacific Consumers Have Shopped Online

Almost nine in 10 (87%) consumers in the Asia-Pacific region have shopped online. Rates online shopping among consumers in Europe (85%), North America (83%) and South America (81%) are relatively similar. However, only 53% of consumers in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan region have shopped online.

Asia-Pacific Consumers Most Critical

In addition to being the most active online shoppers, Asia-Pacific consumers are also the most critical, with 49% of reviews from consumers in this region being negative. Consumers in Europe (32%) are least critical. Fifty-seven percent of online consumers consider customer reviews prior to making a consumer electronics purchase; other items with a large percentage of online consumers checking reviews include cars (45%) and software (37%).

BzzAgent: Brand Advocates Share Info

Consumers who are brand advocates, meaning they habitually share information about products they use, are far more likely to share product data online than non-advocates, according to research released by marketing network BzzAgent in May 2011. This includes using social media, email, e-commerce websites, and online feedback mechanisms.

Brand advocates (28%) are four times as likely as non-advocates (7%) to share information about products, brands, sales or stores via online feedback mechanisms than non-advocates. They are also roughly twice as likely to share information via social media (58% compared to 27%) and e-commerce websites (43% compared to 22%). A smaller, but still significant discrepancy exists in the use of email (53% compared to 39%) for sharing product information.

Microsoft apologises for Winehouse tweet

Microsoft has apologised for a 'tweet' that has been blasted for seeming like a blatant effort to cash in on the death of 27-year-old British singer Amy Winehouse.

'Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse 'download' tweet seemed purely commercially motivated,' Microsoft UK PR said at a 'tweetbox360' account at microblogging service Twitter.

'Far from the case, we assure you,' the message continued.

Microsoft became a target of online ire over the weekend after the same Twitter account posted an update inviting people to remember Winehouse by buying digital versions of her Back to Black album at social.zune.net.

The Zune website is Microsoft's shop on the internet for downloading music, films and other entertainment content to computers, smartphones, and Xbox 360 videogame consoles.

Replies on Twitter criticised the Microsoft message as 'crass' and 'vile.'

Winehouse's latest album topped the sales chart at Apple's online iTunes music store on Monday while her defiant Rehab song was the tenth best selling single track download.

Winehouse's parents on Monday visited the growing shrine of tributes left outside her London home as a post-mortem on her body failed to establish a formal cause of death.

Winehouse was found dead at her house on Saturday and the police are not treating it as suspicious. The cause of death remains unknown.

With her sultry vocals and trademark beehive hairstyle, Winehouse was considered one of the finest British female singers in years, but she had struggled with drink and drug addictions.

'With Amy W's passing, the world has lost a huge talent,' Microsoft UK PR said in its most recent tweeted message.

'Our thoughts are with Amy's family and friends at this very sad time.'

'FaceGlat', Jewish answer to Facebook

A new social networking site for ultra-Orthodox Jews takes customary segregation of the sexes online and also bars pictures or ads deemed immodest in ultra-Orthodox society.

Go to www.faceglat.com and the home page has signs in Hebrew and English directing men to click on to the right of the page and women to the left.

Sign up and you will see a page identical to those on Facebook, but here photos posted on a man's wall may only be of other men; likewise for the women's side.

The virtual divide mirrors the practice at Orthodox Jewish synagogues, weddings and other events where the sexes are physically separated. On certain public bus lines running through ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods, women must stand at the back, to the outrage of feminists.

Israeli news website Ynet says FaceGlat -- Glatt is a term used in kosher food certification -- was founded by Yaakov Suissa from the Habad hassidic movement.

'It's not an alternative for Facebook, but something intended for a particular public,' Ynet quoted him as saying.

'I believe that it would be much more convenient for a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) man or woman to publish pictures and all kinds of other things to people of the same sex only.

'People who are God-fearing and care about their children's education cannot tolerate the ads and pictures one sees on the regular Facebook,' he said.

Men who sign in to FaceGlat as men cannot visit or post on the women's wall and vice versa, although at the moment there seems to be nothing preventing a member of either sex signing up under a false name and details.

Ynet says that plans for the site's future include modifications to prevent gender impersonation.

Executives Fail to Focus on Social Media Marketing Strategy

Recognizing its importance is not enough to make social strategy a reality

Social media marketing has gained its place at the table. eMarketer estimates 80% of companies with at least 100 employees will use social networks for marketing this year, up from nearly three in four last year. By 2012, usage will be even greater, and, in turn, efforts are becoming more sophisticated.

Most companies now recognize a well crafted social media strategy is a vital part of the marketing mix. In fact, a study from Jive Software and Penn, Schoen & Berland found 78% of executives thought a social business strategy was somewhat or very important to the future success of their business.

Despite this realization, most executives are still only in the tentative stages of making social strategy a priority.

The survey of executives who have final say or significant input on social business strategy found that only 27% listed social business as a top strategic priority. Nearly half (47%) admitted a social plan was necessary but not a strategic priority and 19% said social business strategy was simply not necessary.

Meanwhile, executives were also not overly optimistic about their current social strategy efforts. Only 17% felt their social strategy was ahead of the curve. About four in 10 (42%) felt their social strategy was just keeping up and 33% felt they were behind.

A different study from Forbes Insights and Coremetrics showed a similar amount of enthusiasm for social strategy. Only 11% of US and UK executives surveyed at large businesses listed social media strategy as a leading priority in 2011—tied for last place with mobile marketing. Social media strategy will receive a small boost in 2012, though, with 19% of execs listing it as a leading marketing priority for the coming year.

Many companies may be using social media marketing, but those that choose not to focus on a social strategy risk falling behind the curve in integrating social media with their overall marketing goals. Recognizing the importance of strategy alone isn’t enough; companies should start implementing a plan.

NBN to cost at least $60 a month

Households will pay at least $60 - and up to $190 - a month for internet services on the National Broadband Network, data from an internet provider shows.

The first retail pricing for services over the $36 billion NBN were released by internet provider Internode on Thursday.

Packages start at $59.95 a month for a basic 12-megabit-per-second (Mbps) service with a 30-gigabyte quota for downloads and uploads, The Australian newspaper reported on Friday.

At the top end, Internode said it would charge $189.95 a month for a 100Mbps service with a 1000GB download quota.

Internode blamed the high prices on 'existing flaws in the NBN Co wholesale charging model' and warned that regional customers could have to pay more to connect to the network.

Telstra, the commonwealth and the builder NBN Co signed definitive agreements for the rollout of the $35.9 billion scheme in June.

NBN Co plans to provide a fibre-optic cable network to 93 per cent of the population while the remaining seven per cent will have either fixed wireless or satellite broadband over the next decade.