Here & Now Guest:
- John Carroll, Here & Now media analyst and BU mass communication professor
Be careful what you tweet. Your 140-character comments could become part of a mass media advertising campaign, the basis for a book, or even a television series.
Kraft, American Express, Trident gum and others are pilfering comments made on social media sites to build traditional media campaigns, like television commercials and newspaper/magazine ads.
The publishing industry is also turning to social media to create new content. Several books, like “Tweets from Tahrir” about the Egyptian uprising, have been published based on material found online. And the popular Twitter stream, &^*( My Dad Says became a short-lived TV series, starring William Shatner.
So, who owns what you Tweet or post on Facebook? Here & Now media analyst, John Carroll, says most people don’t read the Facebook terms of agreement.
“They could own your first-born child for all you know,” he told Here & Now‘s Monica Brady-Myerov. “Facebook has rights to what you do there,” he said.
Carroll adds that when companies use tweets in their campaigns, they generally ask for permission, but they might not need to.
- Campaign Outsider: A Tweet New Advertising Gambit
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