No Twitter Account is Better Than a Bad Twitter Account

PR Couture wrote a post on its blog a few days ago about the fashion magazine Marie Claire and its strategy for being on Twitter. It praised Marie Claire for taking an active approach, and it also featured an interview with the magazine’s senior web editor and web associate about how they were using Twitter to their full advantage.

The post was demonstrating how effectively Marie Claire was implementing its Twitter strategy, but it also briefly mentioned that fashion magazines had been slow to join in this new online phenomena.

So, that got me thinking. Of the other fashion magazines that do have a Twitter account, are they doing just as good of a job?

The first magazine that popped into my mind was Cosmopolitan, and I quickly reached its Twitter homepage. Unfortunately (for the magazine), I was less than impressed.

1. CosmoOnline posted its first tweet on March 9, 2009. As of today, they have only posted 15 updates on their Twitter page. This makes it quite evident that they are not making Twitter a priority. This lack of dedication reveals that they are not quite equipped or eager to join in this new conversation tool.

2. The 15 tweets that the magazine has published do not add anything new to the conversation. They are merely headlines and announcements that someone could easily find on the Cosmopolitan web-site. Additionally, there is no personal touch. Followers have no idea who is writing these tweets. In my opinion, when dealing with company Twitter accounts, pointless tweets are worse than no tweets at all.

3. As I am writing this post, CosmoOnline currently has 1,994 followers. Clearly, people want to know what Cosmopolitan has to say. On the other side of the situation, CosmoOnline is only following one person. This indicates that the magazine must not care too much about what its readers have to say if they are not going to take the time to follow them back and attempt to engage in some sort of interaction.

Needless to say, Cosmopolitan has a lot of work to do. Luckily for them, it’s really not that hard! With dedication and effort, this ineffective attempt at PR can be turned around and made into one of the magazine’s most useful tools.

PR Nightmare for Chris Brown

The always exciting Grammy Awards were on TV tonight, so of course my roommates and I tuned into E! to watch the red carpet coverage. In the midst of the celebrity interviews regarding their love lives and fashion choices, an unexpected announcement was made about some breaking news regarding the evening. It was announced that the singer Chris Brown was being investigated for felony domestic battery and that neither he nor his girlfriend, Rihanna, would be present at the awards show.

Clearly, the speculation of a felony crime would not be good PR for anyone, but could things really get much worse for Chris Brown in this situation? All types of music fans, both young and old, watch The Grammy Awards to see their favorite artists perform. At this point, it doesn’t really matter much whether or not Chris Brown truly did assault his famous girlfriend – the assumption is out there, and that is just as bad as confirmation that the incident occurred as far as his reputation is concerned.

Talk about the occurrence is all over the web as well. The E! Online headline reads, “Police Looking for Chris Brown After Alleged Assault of Rihanna.” Another entertainment news site writes, “Rihanna Bruised, Domestic Violence Chris Brown Investigation!“

It’s definitely going to take a whole lot of good PR to restore his once favorable image after this mess!