Last week I was struck by an example of the ever-increasing power of social media.
On Monday, a question regarding oil company Trafigura’s dumping of toxic waste on the Ivory Coast was tabled for the forthcoming Prime Minister’s Question Time. When the Guardian attempted to report on it Trafigura’s lawyers, Carter Ruck, were quick to seek an injunction preventing them from doing so. However, the very same evening online blogs and Twitter users, unconfined by the same legal restrictions gagging the Guardian, had already uncovered all the details and they were freely available in the public domain.
By noon on Tuesday, the three most popular search terms on Twitter were "outrageous gagging order trafigura dumping scandal", "ruck" and "guardian". Trafigura and Carter Ruck, in attempting to keep the story under wraps, had inadvertently added fuel to the fire and grossly underestimated the power of the internet and social media. The injunction was dropped and Stephen Fry, surely the unofficial King of Twitter, proclaimed to his many followers, "Can it be true? Carter Ruck caves in! Hurrah! Trafigura will deny it had anything to do with Twitter, but we know don't we?"
People like Stephen Fry and other members of the ‘Twitterati’ have realised the potential of social media as a tool for socio-political comment. As this concept enters the mainstream it will inevitably have a huge effect on the way corporations try to manage online word of mouth.
And that's a great opportunity for marketing agencies...
Kyle Seeley, Planner-Buyer
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