Online marketing news - Twitter not so hot for EU summit

6 January 2011

When EU summit organisers in Brussels embraced social networking in the form of a giant "tweet-wall" it must have seemed like a great online marketing gimmick, but when Italian Twitter users realised their comments regarding Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would become a live feed to the delegates the screens were filled with insults.

The wall had been in use for only two hours before it was pulled after all postings tagged "#EUCO" were fed to two large plasma screens in the main hall where 27 European leaders were debating measures to respond to Europe's current financial debt.

However, anti-Berlusconi messages quickly began to appear on the screens, including allusions to his sex-life, alleged vote rigging and putative connections with the mafia.

When high-profile blogger Joe Litobarski discovered the feed's destination, he wrote, "Uh oh. Italians have realised tweets tagged #EUCO shown on Twitter wall at #EU Council meeting expect mayhem."

But when Italian designer known as mpietropoli discovered the Twitter feed he decided to bombard the screens with embarrassing Berlusconi quotes, including:

"Mussolini never killed anyone. Mussolini used to send people on vacation in internal exile."

The council press team official who organised the tweet-wall, Dana Manescu said, "We had the tweet-wall up for two hours in the main hall, but it wasn't moderated and a lot of the tweets were ... well, very, very frank.

"The point was not to show insulting messages about Berlusconi. If anyone from the Italian delegation saw it, it would hurt their sensibility."

As a vehicle for free speech the unmoderated Twitter feed idea was extremely successful, however as an online marketing tool for politicians, press officers may have to have a rethink.