On a lark, I tweeted this morning about the movie Julie & Julia. I loved half of the movie, the part about Julia Child. I hated the other half, covering the "Julia Child" blogger Julie Powell. During the movie, I couldn't wait for Amy Adams, who played Powell, to get off the screen. After the movie, I learned that the characterization of her in the movie (earnest, waifish, sympathetic) white-washed the real person (foul-mouthed, narcissistic, and generally not nice to people, including her husband, friends, and even the 9/11 families).
A few minutes after I posted that message, Twitter alerted me that the user "Julie and Julia," a marketing vehicle for the movie, is now following me. Not only is this unwelcome, but it's also more than a little creepy. That's probably not the effect that Sony Pictures wants.
I think the big dilemma for companies who are figuring out how to respond to individuals in the social media WITHOUT being creepy. Everyone seems to agree that responding is the next step to "listening", but a lot of the effort out there are, as you pointed out, simply too creepy. On a different note, I also think some companies need to understand what things like Twitter are good for, and more importantly are NOT good for - unlike if you had experienced a poor customer service experience at the movie theater, having someone from the movie company respond to your Tweet would not have changed your opinion about the film at all.
Posted by: Zachary Reiss-Davis | 08/10/2009 at 04:38 PM