Eastwooding

The internet showed how it morphs and forms itself this week.

It started with Clint Eastwood's appearance at the Republican National Convention where he talked to an empty chair as if it was Obama during his endorsement of presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The sequence starts at 3mins 25 secs...

The chat to the chair became an online craze almost immediately. The next step was images were photoshopped into the Chair including the Princess Leia hologram and scowling Olympian gymnast McKayla Maroney.

This spawned a whole lot of things including a Simpsons newspaper front page with Grandpa Simpson and the headline became "Old Man Yells at Chair" (originally it was:  "Old man yells at cloud")

Comedy site HUMORdy published a video of the chair's imagined response ("my record of providing excellent lumbar support is beyond reproach"). It is hilarious!!! Watch it here:

Then a @InvisibleObama appeared on Twitter.

Invisible Obama ‏@InvisibleObama

I'm the first to break through the glass ceiling. RT @mbierm:@InvisibleObama do you hang out with other invisible presidents?

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17hInvisible Obama ‏@InvisibleObama

.@mittromney is holding a "victory rally" in Cincinnati. "Mission Accomplished", Mitt. Was looking for the banner, but it must be invisible.

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31 AugInvisible Obama ‏@InvisibleObama

If I was a Droid, my name would be C-Thru-B-O.

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What was fascinating is that, according to Ohmygov in the 24 hours after the Convention, Romney gained 23 thousand new Twitter followers and Ryan gained 18 000 new followers but @InvisibleObama ended up with 42 000 new followers- more than Ryan and Romney combined.

After the final night of the convention, Robert Gehrke (@RobertGehrke) a reporter with the Salt Lake City Tribune, had a colleague take a picture of him pointing at a chair and tweeted it with the tag "Look its Eastwooding". Within hours they were joined by over 25,000 "Eastwooders" on Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram  all sharing pictures of themselves pointing at empty chairs.

This was followed by babies, cats and dogs staring at empty chairs.

Even the US President (or a clever adviser)  joined in the fun tweeting a photo of himself at the office in a chair marked "The president", with the comment "The seat's taken".

It is fascinating to see how Social Media can ru with something, develop and nurture it. If you want to see more of the Eastwooding pictures, check out my Pinterest board:

How to Get sued for using Twitter

Twitter is an amazing communications tool.  I type a message of 140 letters, press a button and off it goes to my 750 "followers". If they like it, then they may send it onto their followers. Potentially my message can then get to 225 000 people. If all those people like it and re tweet it, then that is 55 million people! Imagine what my Klout score would do if that happened (I am currently 63, Obama is 99 out of 1o0 and Justin Bieber is  92 ). I digress a little. 

As twitter has grown, we have seen grown adults cry over tweets, people resign, hide and get sued. While this is still a new field, Luke Scanlon a technology law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com has listed in The Register of the UK ten tweets to avoid if you do not wish to be sued. These in summary are: 

1. Using someone else's Branded Tweets or Hashtags. eg #Qantas #Southwest @Unitedairlines  potentially could result in a damages claim if the use creates a "likelihood of association or confusion with the products or services of the trade mark owner"
2. Copied tweets-  if the tweet which reproduces the work of another gives evidence of that other individual or company's unique choices in choosing and arranging the words or images or sounds.
3. Revealing personal or confidential information
4. Threatening tweets -  if the person to whom it was directed has a genuine belief that physical harm is imminent.
5. Impersonating Someone else is fraud 
6. If the tweet is deceptive in nature or likely to deceive 
7. Menacing Tweets - If a tweet could create fear or apprehension in the minds of anyone who may reasonably be expected to see it then the tweet can be considered menacing
8. Malicious tweets done with the intent of damaging another's business, goods or services through false statements
9.  Harassing tweets 
10. Defamatory tweets - you are libelous if you send a tweet which lowers a person's standing and expose them to 'hatred, ridicule, or contempt'. Does that mean I cannot Tweet about any politician?

#Biebs move over for Pres. #Obama

An event occurred this week which has impacted on the content of one of my Social Media training sessions! Up to this week, the world's most influential man on the internet was Justin Bieber. This little known fact excites or dismays my workshop participants.

In the last week, this changed with Obama moving to the top spot of the most influential person on the internet and Beiber sliding down. The arbiter of this is Klout, a somewhat controversial measuring tool. Barack Obama has  a Klout score of 99 out of 100 up from 95.  Justin fell an incredible eight points from 100 to a new Kout score of 92.

The cause of this swing was a change in the Klout algorithm. Previously Klout only measured Facebook and Twitter. Now Linkedin, Foursquare and Blogger are included. If you have a Wikipedia entry, this will also impact your score.

The effect of the new algorithm was a jump in my score from 57 to 66. This was after a period of lower activity from me which had seen my score drop down to 47. One of the other upgrades Klout is introducing is the provision of information on what activities cause your score to go up and down.  That will come in the next few weeks.

Klout says that the average Klout Score is around 40. They note that the Score becomes exponentially harder to increase as you move up the scale. For instance, it is much harder to move from a 70 to a 75 than from a 20 to a 25. My challenge is to get over 70!

One of the things that is interesting about Klout is that it does give you some sense of how well a person uses Social Media. For example, Beth Kanter who I consider to be the number one guru on Social Media and Not for Profits has a score of 79. Not quite Obama territory, of course,  but it is definitely enough to tell me she knows what she is doing (and I am not too far behind her!). I have a list of "influential" people that I am connected with.

Interestingly, high scorers can get Klout Perks, rewards for their influence. The idea is you take the perk and then Tweet or Facebook about it. The company providing the perk gets publicity althiugh Klout says: "You have no obligation to talk about the product. You're welcome to tell the world you love it, you dislike it, or say nothing at all. Most Perks seem to be for people with scores over 50 - and living in the USA.

So is Klout good or bad? Is it real or a crock? To be honest, I dont know but I do know that if you engage someone to do Social Media training or marketing and their score is 21, what does that tell you about how well they engage Social Media? You are wasting your time and money. You can find out someone's Klout score by entering their name at Klout.com. You can also download an app for your phone and an app that embeds into Twitter and tells you the Klout score of everyone who tweets.

And of course, Klout ignores the people who have an influence off Social Media. If a volunteer reaches a child to read on a one to one basis, what is their measure of their influence? Life changing but Klout does not measure that does it?

Terrifying Possibility of the new world.

It sounds like something from a Science Fiction movie.

Mat Honan was playing with his daughter on Friday August 3, when his iPhone died and then rebooted to the setup screen. This was irritating, Mat wasn’t concerned,  assuming it was simply a software glitch. As the phone automatically backs up every night. he just assumed it would be a "pain in the ass" [sic], and nothing more. Mat entered his iCloud login to restore, and it wasn’t accepted. Again, he was irritated, but not alarmed. 

Mat decided to restore the phone from his computer's backup. When he opened the laptop, an iCal message popped up telling Mat that his Gmail account information was wrong. Then the laptop's screen turned grey, and asked for a four digit pin number to access the laptop. Mat didn’t have a four digit pin. 

Now Mat, knew "something was very, very wrong". He walked to the hallway to grab his iPad. It had been reset too. Mat could not turn on computer, iPad or  iPhone.

Using his wife’s iPhone Mat called Apple tech support. While on hold, he grabbed her laptop and tried to log into his gmail account whereupon he discovered his password had changed. He couldn’t reset it either because the backup went to iCloud. Of course, the ICloud had already not let him in. 

Mat tried to log into Gmail again, but was told that his Google account had now been deleted. The way to restore it was to send a text message to my phone which Mat didn’t  have access to.

Apple tech support weren’t able to stop the wipe on the Macbook. Or provide the four number pin to log into it. Or give immediate access to my phone. 

What was going on?

At 4:50 PM on August 3rd, someone got into Mat's iCloud account, reset the password and sent the confirmation message about the reset to the trash. The backup email address for his Gmail account is that same .mac email address. At 4:52 PM, that person tried to log into Gmail by requesting a password recovery email. An email changing the Gmail password arrived two minutes later to the mac email account. 

At 5:00 PM Using ICloud,  the hacker remote wiped my iPhone. They then remote wiped the iPad at 5:01pm and followed that up with his MacBook Air at 5:05pm. A few minutes later, they had access to his Twitter account. Because Mat had linked his Twitter account to his ex employer's Twitter account years before, the hacker had access to that Twitter account too. A series of nasty tweets started being sent  from the ex-employer (Gizmodo).

Mat lost at least a year’s worth of photos, emails, documents, and more. 

Someone claiming to be the hacker got in touch to says “didnt guess ur password or use bruteforce. i have my own guide on how to secure emails.” Apple then confirmed that Apple tech support provided the hacker with access to the iCloud password. Before yelling too loudly at Apple, the hacker was able to use "

some clever social engineering that let them bypass  security questions"

My learnings:

1. Have a company policy around passwords eg when changed, length. We need to emphasise how careful we must be with passwords
2. do not write down passwords in public places
3. do not use the same password on every account
4. Have an email account that is only for backup password requests and the like. Give it out for no one and nothing
5. Be aware of who has password access to your organisation's server, email, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Change common codes when an employee or volunteer leaves
6. Do not use your Mother's real maiden name when asked that security question. This is the most common question asked. It does not take a genius to find out what most people's mother's maiden name is
7. Think about the other common security questions asked by companies. Eg where born (Facebook tells me that). My First car? If your facebook timeline says: Got my first Volvo in 1996 or if you sent a tweet that said " said good bye to my first car today. will miss my Toyota" then anyone can get that information
8. Do a password audit. What are all of the passwords in your organisation? In your personal life? Who knows what?

Klout Kollapse

Klout claims they are a way of measuring your influence on-line. My Klout score sits at 56-57 which is considered to be a very high score.

I recently took a three week vacation. While I did answer some emails, I enjoyed eating, drinking, exploring and visiting friends in Europe. My Facebook usage dropper right back and I almost completely stopped tweeting.

The effect on my Klout score has been dramatic. By the end of week one of my vacation, my klout score was 55. End of week two it had fallen to 54 and then 52 at the end of my vacation. It had a slight bounce in my first days back but after a week back at work, it is now 50.

I am interested to know whether it has any more room to fall or if this is it. Now to see if I can become influential again. Will people have missed me? (By the way 50 is still considered to be a very good score!)

Volunteer Managers- Thoughtful on Thursdays.

A group of people involved in the management of volunteers have kicked off a movement called "Thoughtful Thursdays". These people are using Twitter to to share ideas on topics related to the  volunteer engagement.

Last week's theme was tools and ideas to measure impact with a blog post written by Emma_C_Shelter on measuring volunteer impact as the kick off..

Comments can be left on the blog or by adding the hashtag #ttvolmgrs, people can join the conversation viaTwitter.

To help measure Thoughtful Thursday, the organisers are asking if people to  spend a minute filling in what they hope is the world's shortest Survey Monkey as well.

See you at #ttvolmgrs!

Tuesday Tech: Farmers Start Tweeting

West Australia's Sunday Times report the phenomena of Australian farmers tweeting. In the wake of the animal abuses recorded in the industry last year, farmers are looking for a way to communicate their work to city residents. This could be one way to bridge the urban rural divide in Australia. 

Animal Rights advocates have been very good with Social Media whilst farmers have been largely silent. Now West Australian Rural Woman of the Year, Catherine Marriott, (@roseycatherine) will run workshops across the state to help farmers understand how to use the technology. 

I am now following Stepahnkis  Coombs  who will be tweeting live from a cattle muster. Follow me @martinjcowling as I follow her and/or follow her directly @ausagventures  I also follow @AnimalsAus

Other farmers to follow:

@farmersway, @territorycattle, @kelpiestockdogs, @ABCcoppin, @WAfarmers, @meatlivestock

On the animal rights "side":

@animalrights, @Animal_Law, @AnimalRightsCom, @Animal_Place, @Animals_Watch, @Animalforce

Spotting Spam on Facebook [Updated]

I get a lot of questions in my workshops about the rash of spam that people keep "sharing" and "posting" on Facebook.  There are some ways you can spot such spam:

1. THE USE OF CAPITALS 

FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO...IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY I DONT KNOW ( HOW TRUE THIS IS BUT WHAT THE HECK DONT HURT ANYTHING SO I DID IT

As soon as you see a whole or most of a message in Capital Letters or one with lots of sentences which use capital letters, assume spam (or the writer is drunk)


2. Hysterical Headlines

eg IF YOU HAVE A CHILD THEN READ THIS!  PLEASE PASS THIS TO ANYONE THAT HAS SMALL CHILDREN!!  
or  


FACEBOOK FRIENDS!!! SOME APPS ARE SENDING NOT VERY NICE MESSAGES USING YOUR NAME!!!


The more hysterical the headline, assume it is fake.


3. Share this and a Child/Dog/Tree/Rainforest will recieve a donation of 1c, 3c, 5c, 10c, $1, $3 etc
What about the ones that promise you a donation to a charity, money, an IPAD or an iphone when you like a story or photo or if you share that story or photo. Sadly, simply sharing any story or image on Facebook wont make any difference to any cause. There is No money given for simple sharing a story. No hospital, charity, company or Facebook themselves have ever organised donations based on the number of times a photo, message or email is shared.

4. Heartwarming Fake Stories
The story below leaves one full of admiration for the airline staff. It has circulated widely with different airlines and destinations included.

On a British Airways flight from Johannesburg, a middle-aged, well-off white South African Lady has found herself sitting next to a black man. She called the cabin crew attendant over to complain about her seating. 

"What seems to be the problem Madam?" asked the attendant. 

"Can`t you see?" she said " You`ve sat me next to a kaffir. I can`t possibly sit next to this disgusting human. Find me another seat!" 

"Please calm down Madam." the stewardess relied. "The flight is very full today, but I`ll tell you what I`ll do-I`ll go and check to see if we have any seats available in club or first class." The woman cocks a snooty look at the outraged black man beside her (not to mention many of the surrounding passengers). A few minutes later the stewardess returns with the good news, which she delivers to the lady, who cannot help but look at the people around her with a smug and self satisfied grin: "Madam, unfortunately, as I suspected, economy is full. I`ve spoken to the cabin services director, and club is also full. However, we do have one seat in first class." Before the lady has a chance to answer, the stewardess continues ... "It is most extraordinary to make this kind of upgrade, however, and I have had to get special permission from the captain. But, given the circumstances, the captain felt that it was outrageous that someone be forced to sit next to such an obnoxious person." With which, she turned to the black man sitting next to the woman, and said: "So if you`d like to get your things, sir, I have your seat ready for you..." At which point, apparently the surrounding passengers stood and gave a standing ovation while the black guy walks up to the front of the plane. 

.. people will forget what you said .... .. people will forget what you did .... .. but people will never forget how you made them feel. 

This tale is almost certainly apocryphal. Add to it, the stories of kittens, Vietnam vets and doggies that appear regularly. Before posting something you can check if it is real at snopes.com or by copying or pasting the story inro Google or simply go to a news channel. Yesterday,  I was asked to commemorate the deaths of some soldiers in a nasty helicopter crash. The tragic crash which supposedly happened yesterday in fact happened last year.

5. False Sayings

I love this picture on the right because it illustrates the stupidity of posting without checking things. If you still don't understand this one: the net did not exist in Lincoln's day!

6. Links outside Facebook
Various messages get posted on Facebook that say: you can now see who has been viewing your Facebook Profile OR you can find out who has been stalking you OR you can now get the "dislike". When you click the button, you exit Facebook and are presented with the option of entering your password. Don't do it! This is dangerous. You are giving your log in and password to someone else. This is how people's Facebooks get "hacked"

Ever unsure of something isn't genuine, don't post it. Check out: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/facebook-related.shtml

Friday Facts: vizualize.me

This is really fascinatingly cool. Have a look at this summary of me!

Experience, education and recommendations!

Tuesday Tech: Korman Social Media learnings

The power of Social Media came to the fore this week with a three day campaign that resulted involving the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, (previously The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation).


Who are Komen

Komen, is the largest and most well known breast cancer organisation in the United States. After this week, it is even more well known. In 2010 it was rated the most trusted charity brand in the USA. The furore this week may have dented this. Its race for the cure is curently the world's largest fundraising activity. 

Background

Komen paid Planned Parenthood to provide 170,000 clinical breast examinations and over 6,000 mammogram referrals over the past five years. The services were provided to financially disadvantaged women across the USA. Planned Parenthood state they "delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide" They are viewed as controversial by some, because Planned Parenthood is an organisation that also provides abortion services. 

Last Week

On January 31, 2012, Komen stopped its funding to Planned Parenthood. They announced this was the result of a congressional investigation into Planned Parenthood. The investigation it has been reported was instigated by anti abortion advocates. 


Komen say on their website: Are you a member of a social network and want to show your support for a world without breast cancer? Now you can! See how easy it is to communicate and interact with us...Feel free to share your personal stories, pictures and videos as well!

On this issue, people certainly engaged. Within hours, Twitter went crazy. See graph on the right. In seven days, there were 306 000 mentions of Komen. Crucially the phrases  #shameonkomen ,and #standwithpp appeared in large number. 


Huffington Post has a collection of the funniest Tweets in reaction to the situation. 


Komen's  Facebook page has had over  38 000 comments in a week from people supporting and opposing the decision.


 The head of Planned Parenthood on Friday said "I absolutely believe the exposure on Facebook and Twitter really drove a lot of coverage by mainstream media...I've never seen anything catch fire [like this.]"  (Los Angeles Times). 


The Silicon Valley Mercury quoted one supporter as saying  "It's almost like Occupy Susan G. Komen," 


People used social media to tell stories about how they, or someone they knew used Planned Parenthood's basic health services. And they expressed fury at the suggestion that politics may have played a role in Komen's decision.

As the Facebook and Twitter world went crazy, the mainstream media world followed.  This was followed by a major increase in donations for Planned Parenthood (three million dollars in new donations) and threats to cut, reduce and end donations and sponsorship at Komen. Three resignations occurred at Komen and Komen affiliates distanced themselves from the decision.

Outcome
The uproar eventually led to Friday February 3, 2012's about face announcement from the Susan G. Komen Board of Directors  apologising "to the American public for recent decisions" and said Komen "will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants." Komen said it will amend criteria to "make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political".


Three days it took. And a massive social media firestorm.  

I am not entering into the politics or the right and wrong, I am fascinated by the power of Social Media in this situation and the way Komen reacted. 


Komen's lack of response on Social Media


Komen on their website regarding  social Media say: We will keep you posted on the latest discussions, news, upcoming events, pictures, videos, and more!  However..


What did they say about the situation on the blog  http://blog.komen.org/? Nothing. No warning it was happening, no 
explanation. No response. Their most recent two week old post was  on the 2012 Susan G. Komen Bahamas Race for the Cure

On their Facebook page, Komen didn't comment on the situation on January 31 instead announcing a new sponsor: Energizer .

Wednesday February 1, the silence continued and then on  Thursday February 2 there were a flurry of defensive sounding posts justifying the change.  

On Friday February 3 came the official (and still defensive) sounding statement: The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

Worse,  there were suggestions that initially the Social Media team were deleting critical or negative comments.

In Twitter world  there was no acknowledgement of the controversy on @komenforthecure.  On Wednesday, Komen tweeted six times. Two were links to a video statement from Komen founder  Brinker  three were stats, and one was a reply about the Komen Facebook page. 

On Thursday, there were 42 Tweets from Komen, all were statements not interactions or responses. On Friday, Komen finally began replying to tweets but the "damage" was done.




Learnings for Not for Profits

1. Be careful what you wish for: Be ready fot the consequences, if you say to your world, as Komen did. Feel free to share your personal stories, pictures and videos as well! 
2. Explain controversial decisions carefully
3. You need to monitor your Social Media all the time. 
4. Any spike in traffic needs to be prepared for, monitored and responded to in hours not days
5. Pro actively respond to criticisms- don't ignore them
6. Don't ignore what people are saying
7. Avoid being defensive
8. Always tell the truth in a situation (I m not suggesting anyone misled people in this case)
9. Dont delete criticism unless the criticism are libellous or full of expletives- and even then think carefully about it

Tuesday Tech: Qantas Social Media #fail

This week's Tuesday Tech was going to be on the changes to Google+ which will be of interest to Not for Profits. After the extraordinary gaffe that Qantas the Australian airline committed on Twitter,  that is now next week's blog. There is so much to learn from Qantas fatal actions so I am republishing (and adapting_ this post from my travel blog: Wild about Travel. 


It all started innocently. Last week Qantas began a new social media campaign called “Qantas Luxury”. From my view it seems to be an attempt to to win back the hearts and minds of Australians concerned about Qantas. The airline has been battered by four issues in the last year particularly:

1. a series of  incidents which have suggested to some that the airline appears to be less safe than it once was
2. a decision to shift more of the airline’s resources offshore
3. some of the most acrimonious relations between the company and the unions ever which has led to months of ongoing industrial conflict
4. the recent grounding of the airline by the CEO Alan Joyce which stranded 10s of thousands of people around the world

On Tuesday at 9am Australia Eastern Summer Time, the Qantas PR department sent these Tweets:

The first Twitter response said : ‘Planes that arrive intact and on time because they’re staffed and maintained by properly-paid, Australia-based personnel.


Then the Tweets poured in. Within two hours, #qantasluxury was sitting on 13 tweets a minute. By the end of the day, some commentators are claimed they had reached 51 tweets a minute. Within 24 hours, the hashtag #qantasluxury had 1.5 million impressions. Most of the Tweets were negative toward Qantas.


The chief executive of Qantas, Alan Joyce on October 31 after the grounding said “I think the Qantas brand is an amazingly resilient brand, and predicted it would bounce back. These tweets suggest the bounce back may take a long time…


PuppyOnTheRadio: BREAKING NEWS: Qantas introduce #QantasLuxury class. Same as standard class, but the plane leaves the ground.


corinne_grant: it’s a few weeks ago, but I wrote this break-up letter to Qantas. Seems pertinent again today. thehoopla.com.au/dear-qantas-me/ #qantasluxury #myarse


GrogsGamut:  #QantasLuxury is that safe feeling that comes from knowing your pilots are wearing the correct coloured ties [a reference to the suspension of pilots for wearing a red tie protesting Qantas management decisions]


jeremysear : Quick note to corporate Australia: when you’re in the middle of crushing your workforce, don’t start a twitter promotion. #QantasLuxury


rgcooke: Can’t wait to see the Air Crash Investigations episode on the #qantasluxury hashtag disaster.


RustyAway: #qantasluxury Alan Joyce giving his ill-gotten pay rise to charity and then resigning.


SoBohring: Not having to worry about the safety demonstration, because you can’t crash if your flight never leaves


Qantas soon had a Social Media #epicfail on their hands!


I think, at this point, they needed to acknowledge the seriousness of the complaints and make an apology to the public. Qantas needed to tell the public that they understand that the grounding of an airline was not going to be compensated for by a few pairs of pyjamas. Instead Qantas tweeted:


@QantasAirways At this rate our #QantasLuxury competition is going to take years to judge.


Ah, yes it will. The sensible thing next would be for the CEO to respond publicly promising that the issues in the tweets will be read and addressed. Then following that up with doing just that. There is enough unambiguous material in the Tweets to help the airline understand how the public feels. Instead Mr Joyce has “gone to ground”, vanishing from public view. He has done this amidst allegations that the action to ground the planes was preplanned. In addition, there is legal action by the pilots’ union alleging their lockout was an over reaction to wearing the wrong colour ties (no planes were cancelled by the pilots’ actions).


Joyce has now declined an invitation to appear before an Australian  senate inquiry into the Qantas Sale Act citing unavailability. This is despite his earlier assurances under oath that he was ”happy to defend [the decision to ground the airline] and talk about it in any forum, anywhere, because it was the right call”.


If the first sensible thing is not followed, then the next sensible action would be to sack Mr Joyce. Despite Amanda Vanstone suggesting he is a nominee for Australian of the year, Mr Joyce has lost the confidence of his flight crews, pilots, frequent flyers and the general public. To restore that confidence, he needs to be the Board’s Sacrificial lamb.


The twitter feed for  #qantasluxury is here: https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23QantasLuxury


You can also find tweets with a mis spelled version of Qantas (the airline does not have a U in its name). https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23QuantasLuxury


In the meantime, one of my favourites:


RT @kiwi_kali: #qantasluxury Somewhere in Qantas HQ a middle aged manager is yelling at a Gen Y social media “expert” to make it stop. / LOL