By Joan Stewart
There’s no better ingredient than controversy to draw attention to your blog, and encourage your social media followers to join the conversation.
Here are two good examples of controversial topics that are doing just that.
Yesterday, my partner, Jeanne Hurlbert, posted here about Leveraging Social Media: How BP’s Foes are Hijacking Their Message. It was about the fake Twitter feed that’s passing itself off as British Petroleum’s official PR feed. After I read Jeanne’s post, I wrote about it at my own blog and asked, Should BP pressure Twitter to remove the fake feed? I linked to the post from “Craigslist: A Valuable Publicity Tool.” and from Twitter and Facebook.
I said BP should pressure Twitter to remove the feed, or at least post a disclaimer. And then I ended the post with this paragraph to encourage my readers to sound off:
Here’s another example of a survey that ties into a controversial topic.
Should Fox pull the plug on ‘American Idol’?
“American Idol” is still one of the biggest properties on network TV, but it’s coming off its worst season to date. Also, Simon Cowell, the judge everyone loves to hate and one of the key attractions on the show, is leaving.
Advertising Age is asking this poll question: With ratings down and Simon Cowell gone, should Fox pull the plug on “American Idol”?
You can vote and comment, for possible inclusion in next week’s issue of Advertising Age. The only thing I don’t like about this poll is that anyone who wants to respond must first log in with a username and password.
There are dozens of ways to use the results of a poll like this:
- As a blog post
- On Twitter
- On Facebook
- Create a video for YouTube
- On LinkedIn
- In a press release
- In a newsletter
- Link to any of the above in an email signature
What controversial topics have you seen recently at social media sites that have stirred the pot?Or which ones have you used to start the conversation?