Dormant No More: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason is Now Tweeting on Twitter

The Changing of the Guard at Tesco

News/Analysis/Commentary

Breaking Buzz: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason (pictured above in a Fresh & Easy store) is tweeting, as in posting those no-greater than 140-character messages on one of the world's most-popular and fastest-growing social media and messaging sites, Twitter.com.

Mason himself, or one of his staff members, set up a Twitter feed in 2009 for the CEO, which for over two years hasn't been graced with a single tweet by the head of Tesco's El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market fresh food and grocery chain, which as of today has 164 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona -- until now.

The CEO of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market posted his very first tweet on Sunday, February 20, apparently shortly after enjoying a ski trip to Vail, Colorado, where he spotted First Lady Michelle Obama on the slopes. Tim Mason's first tweet on February 20, 2011: "Inaugural tweetThe first lady looking good skiing in Vail. Very cool in grey,same brand of ski jacket as my wife, I managed to get a photo."

The First Lady indeed was on a trip to Vail during the extended President's Day holiday weekend, as was announced by the White House and has been reported on by numerous national media outlets.

Mason looks to have enjoyed posting his first tweet on February 20; so much so in fact he followed it up with four additional tweets on the same day.

Two of those additional February 20 tweets involve a bit of lobbying Mason was doing at the California State Capital in Sacramento, including a visit with Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles), who prior to getting elected in 2008 to represent the people of Los Angeles' 46th District was the political director for the United Food & Commercial Workers (union) Local 324.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, including local 324, has been trying to organize Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's store-level employees since the first batch of stores were opened in November 2007, as we've reported on and written extensively about here.

Pérez was elected Assembly Speaker in January 2010. His career in the organized labor movement spans 15-years.

Here's what (italics) the CEO of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market "tweeted" on February 20, about a visit he had on Friday, February 18, with Assembly Speaker Perez: "Friday in Sacramento,speaker Perez gave me a plastic duck. Grand office,large plastic duck collection."

Interestingly, a second (the fourth out of the five tweets) February 20 tweet had to do with First Lady Michelle Obama, once again on the ski slopes in Vail.

The fifth February 20 tweet is about starting the day off with coffee beans from Fresh & Easy.

Mason followed up his five tweets on February 20 with one on February 21, one on February 22, and one yesterday, February 23, for a total of eight so far. Mason's last tweet, from yesterday: "The talk of the Capitol last week.Gov. Brown has replaced the table in his office with a picnic table.I guess so he can say this ain't no..." (There is nothing more after the no... Perhaps it's coming today?)

There were no February 24 tweets at the time this piece was published. But if the current track record holds out...expect at least one later today.

If you want to read the tweets not included in this piece, you'll have to find Tim Mason's feed on Twitter.com.

Mason currently has 40 followers - and is currently following three of those 40 followers - the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market feed, Fresh & Easy director of marketing Simon Uwins, who hasn't tweeted since October 1, 2009 and - most importantly - his new boss, soon-to-be Tesco CEO Philip Clarke, who's been "tweeting" since November 2010.

We're willing to bet Fresh & Easy CEO Mason's Twitter feed follower-count goes up a bit past the current 40-followers after this post is published.

As our 'The Insider' columnist reported yesterday - February 23, 2011: Incoming Tesco CEO Philip Clarke Visits America - And Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market - the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO's new boss, Philip Clarke, just recently spent 10 days or so, from February 6 -to- February 15, in the U.S., including at Fresh & Easy's Southern California headquarters with Tim Mason, who is adding the title of Tesco deputy CEO to his current one as CEO of Fresh & Easy.

Clark, who officially becomes Tesco's CEO in March but is already sharing duties with outgoing CEO Terry Leahy, comes to Tesco's corner office having held two senior executive positions at Tesco, which he joined in 1974 - head of Europe and Asia operations and chief of corporate information technology.

It's that latter position that makes Clarke a bit more keen on the Internet and particularly the use of social media that outgoing CEO Leahy was. And in November of last year, Clarke, who had been named Tesco's CEO-designate not long before that, started his Twitter feed, posting his first tweet on November 4, 2010.

As incoming CEO, Clarke is putting a greater emphasis on the use of social media, including Twitter, at Tesco, and among its executives, both those based at corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom and elsewhere around the globe.

Tesco UK has been using Twitter under Terry Leahy's charge. The retailer set up a food-oriented "Tesco Food" Twitter-feed last year, which its been using regularly.

In 2010 Tesco also started a couple special-interest Twitter feeds, including one focusing on clothing, which it sells in many of its stores in the UK, Europe and Asia. It's using the feed regularly at present.

Tesco has had a corporate Twitter feed, "Tesco Stores," since 2009. However, just two tweets, both posted on April 3 2009, have been made on the site despite the fact it has over 5,000 followers. We're told Philip Clarke plans to change that inactivity as part of his emphasis on the greater use of social media at Tesco.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market launched its Fresh & Easy Twitter feed in mid-2008 and has been regularly active on it since then, using it well in a number of ways, in our analysis.

Fresh & Easy CEO Mason's first tweet, on February 20, 2011, came a mere five days after his new boss, Philip Clarke, departed Los Angeles on February 15 to return home to the United Kingdom, according to 'The Insider's column linked above and published yesterday.

If the timing between Clarke's arrival and departure at Fresh & Easy headquarters in El Segundo California - February 10 -through-February 15 - and Tim Mason's beginning to tweet on February 20, after having his Twitter feed sitting dormant for over two years, isn't simply a mere coincidence, which sources tell us it isn't, then it appears incoming Tesco CEO Philip Clarke is a pretty good motivator when it comes to social media adoption and use among his key executives.

Fresh & Easy Buzz, which is on Twitter @FreshNEasyBuzz, welcomes Tesco deputy CEO and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason to Twitter.

And now that Fresh & Easy chief Mason is tweeting, we wonder if a new tweet will be forthcoming from Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market director of marketing Simon Uwins, who's most recent update was in 2009.

After all, if Philip Clarke can motivate Mason to tweet for the very first time, Mason, who is Uwins' boss and prior to moving to the U.S. to head up Fresh & Easy in California was in charge of corporate marketing at Tesco in the United Kingdom, might want to follow Clarke's example, and have a Twitter-chat with Uwins, one marketing guy to another, letting him know that incoming Tesco CEO Philip Clarke doesn't like dormant Twitter feeds. Just a thought. After all, marketers should set the example when it comes to social media and social media marketing, shouldn't they?

Related Stories

We've written extensively in Fresh & Easy Buzz about the use of social media, including Twitter, in the food and grocery retailing industry, by Tesco's Fresh & Easy, other retailers, and in general. To read a selection of those stories, click on the following links: Fresh and Easy on Twitter, grocers and social media, Grocers on Twitter, Twitter, F-E Gal, iKristen.

When Social Media Goes Bad - Maybe? Tesco and Waitrose Store Workers in the UK Use Facebook Sites to 'Diss' Store Customers

In this piece yesterday [Twitter Me This Batman: Are You Using Twitter? If Not, You Probably Should Be], we discussed the power for grocers (and others) of using social media and social networking Web sites like Twitter and FaceBook, as well as the use of such sites by a growing number of food and grocery retailers.

But like all new and powerful tools, particularly digital ones, there's also a potential downside to the use of social networking sites by grocers, individuals and other businesses.

Two reports out of the United Kingdom last week make this fact abundantly clear.

The first incident involves our very own (in the sense that we write about it) Tesco, which owns and operates Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in the Western U.S. A number of UK newspapers, including the Daily Mail and UK Telegraph, reported last week that Tesco corporate executives are investigating an incident in which a number of Tesco store-level employees posted abusive comments about store customers on a "Tesco" discussion forum on the Facebook social networking Web site.

Here are a few of the Facebook comments made by the about 60 Tesco store workers from the story in the UK Daily Mail:

>"Rob Richardson, from Newcastle, moaned about shoppers ‘who keep coming to find you ... even though there’s 20 other staff members about to help them find something’. His reaction? ‘Give me your damn shopping list, you senile old cow, and I’ll do your shopping for you. Just leave me alone!’"

>"One (Tesco store worker), who identified himself (on the Tesco Facebook forum) as Benjamin Clarke, from Leeds, wrote: ‘I had a guy on Saturday ... who complained about the prices of the reduced mini cucumbers from £1.29 to 64p. Hmmm, how expensive. Cheap ****!’He added: ‘I wish these f******s would just stay at home and shop online!"

>"Tesco worker Zara Ashley Earl objected to customers who put their money on the conveyor belt rather than in her hand.‘Do we have some kind of infection that you might catch??? Ignorant b******s ... And they think we are the stupid ones because we work at Tesco.’"

>"And, Tesco store employee Scott Harrop objected to having to serve ‘smelly ppl ... who make me feel sick’." [Note: A Tesco supermarket actually did recetly toss a customer out of a store for having a rather offending odor. Read about it here: Woman horse rider kicked out of Tesco store because she was 'too smelly'.]

None of the Tesco store employees posted the names of the customers on the Facebook page.

Fresh & Easy Buzz confirmed today with a Tesco spokesperson in the UK that the company is looking into the Facebook forum comments made by the store employees, saying the retailer is "taking the matter seriously."

Additionally, according to a Tesco spokesperson quoted in the UK Daily Mail's January 18 story: "A Tesco spokesman said: ‘Facebook is a popular and fun website but if some of our staff have gone too far, we will investigate and take appropriate action if necessary."

The Tesco employees' Facebook group calls itself "Tesco Employees Could Rule The World." It has about 2,000 members. Only about 60 of those 2,000 members made the remarks.

[Read the story, "Red faces at Tesco as dozens of staff post insulting comments about its customers on internet forum," here.]

And Waitrose too...

Ironically, at just about the same time the Facebook comments about customers made by the Tesco workers were discovered on the Web site, similar remarks made by store-level employees of Britain's leading upscale supermarket chain, Waitrose, also were discovered and reported on by the Daily Mail and UK Telegraph.

The Waitrose employees made similar deragatory comments about store customers on a Facebook forum called "Waitrose isn't a supermarket, it's a state of mind," which is a Facebook page devoted to social networking about the grocery chain.

According to a January 21 story in the UK Daily Mail, and another in the UK Telegraph, Waitrose executives are investigating offensive comments made by workers at the Finchley Waitrose store in London, England.

For example, one Waitrose employee called a female customer a "dirty old loon" and said on the Waitrose Facebook site: "You know, the one who you can smell in Fruit & Veg when she is on the drinks aisle," according to the Daily Mail report.

Another worker at the Finchley Waitrose store wrote of his lust for a regular female customer this way: "All the lads know who I mean. The 6ft tall stunner with the massive natural bristols and a boyfriend who looks like he might kill you for looking at her."

The Waitrose employee comments were in response to a question asked on the Website by a fellow store employee. That question asks store employees from Waitrose stores throughout the UK to list what annoys them most about the supermarket. [The Waitrose page was still up on Facebook today.]

In addition to the Waitrose employees of the Finchley Waitrose store that are being investigated by company brass, other store employees from throughout the UK added their own responses/comments to the Facebook question.

Below is what one of those Waitrose store employees, a worker from a store in Manchester, wrote in response to the question about what annoys him most about Waitrose:

His answer: the "Pikey skanks wait till the last minute, gathered around the reduced-stuff bin, or the cake shelves etc, to get the cheapest possible stuff."

Like the Tesco store employees, the Waitrose workers didn't use customer names in their postings either.

[You can read the full UK Daily Mail report: 'Mad, ugly pikeys': Now Waitrose workers use Facebook to insult their customers," here.]

Fresh & Easy Buzz Commentary:

The first basic question one would likely ask about these two situations is why the Tesco and Waitrose store employees used their real names in the posts? The answer is that most people sign up for Facebook using their real names. That's because it's a "friends-type" (like MySpace) social networking site in which people want to connect to each other, and businesses to real consumers, using their real names and identities rather than an assumed screen name. Also, when you post on Facebook you must use the name you signed up with -- your real name -- rather than being allowed to assume an anonymous handle for posting.

The deeper question is why these employees would post deragatory comments -- even general ones without using names -- about store customers when they know a wide-range of people, including their bosses, store customers and company officials, have access to the Facebook sites? But they are employee Facebook sites, and an employee did ask fellow employees what they dislike about the stores, after all.

We will save addressing that broader psychological and sociological question for another time. But we will suggest that for many people, especially those in their teens -to- mid-twnenties, Internet-based social networking is such a common thing that they think nothing about writing whatever is on their mind on their Facebook pages, or Facebook pages of others. It's similar to the question as to why so many folks post near-nude and completely nude pictures on their Facebook and MySpace pages. We will not attempt to answer either of those two questions today since we didn't plan on turning this into a ten thousand word essay. Perhaps we will address those questions another time.

But then again, they didn't use the names of customers. So is it really a big deal?

The good news is that in both the Tesco and Waitrose cases it was only a tiny percentage of the total users who posted the remarks. In reality probably no more, or even less, than would make such remarks verbally in public. The difference of course is that making such remarks verbally and in public would likelymean just a few people would hear them. But such remarks on popular social networking sites like Facebook can be read by millions, including ones bosses, the press and the store customers themselves.

It's really unchartered waters regarding what Tesco and Waitrose management should do, if anything, to these store-level workers. We aren't sure what we would do either. Since it's a first offense perhaps a strong warning will suffice. And, based on a couple inquiries, it appears that neither Tesco or Waitrose -- or most companies -- currently have a clear policy regarding employee postings on social networking sites, accept in terms of some that don't allow any access at all to the sites from the workplace.

It's also not clear legally if and in what ways employers can restrict what employees write on these sites. Employers can restrict access to the sites at work, of course. But what about from at home? After all that's likely where the store workers made the posts since it's not common to have access to a computer while working in-store.

For example, would it not infringe on an employee's free speech to prohibit her from writing while on the Facebook site at home that "she hates smelly customers," not mentioning those customers by name.? Or can an employer permit a store employee from commenting about his lust for a regular female shopper who frequents the store where he works? We think doing so by an employer would be legally difficult to do.

We do suggest that it's not a wise career move for employees to make even general comments like those made on Facebook about customers, particualrly on a Web site devoted to issues regarding the company they work for. Nor is it particularly good for the company's image, which is an image that should reflect on those who work for it and that they should in their behavior contribute to.

But then again, would the issue be viewed the same way if these employees were allowed to use anonymous screen names? After all, it is an employee Facebook forum. One would think that means employees should be allowed to vent on a wide range of subjects, right? Or should there be restrictions? And what about self-restraint? The viewing of Facebook forums can be restricted only to users. We don't know if the Tesco and Waitrose pages are restricted or open. But if not restricting them would be a simple soultion -- perhaps?

Meanwhile, all of those reading this who have ever worked in a supermarket can probably relate to the types of customers mentioned by some of the store workers. Supermarkets are among the most democratic of businesses. People from all walks of life frequent them. And every supermarket has its own cast of regulars -- and characters.

For example, there might be the eccentric retired man who comes in at least twice daily, sometimes perhaps in his PJ's, because he is lonely and loves interacting with the store employees and customers; the forty-something housewife who perhaps gets dressed up to the nines (including wearing a mini skirt skirt and high heels) to go grocery shopping, enjoying the attention she gets from the young male store employees; or the customer who's always complaining about store prices, telling the store workers how he or she can get this or that item at the supermarket down the street for much cheaper, but yet he keeps coming back into the "high-priced" store each week.

When supermarket employees get together it's not uncommon for them to compare notes on these "regulars." That's actually healthy behavior. But it's probably a good idea, when it comes to social networking sites, for supermarket workers to follow that old adage that you need not always say everything in public (or on a social networking site) that you're thinking --especially when that public is the vast one on Facebook.

But on the other hand, since the sites are "employee sites," why shouldn't the workers be able to offer whatever opinions they desire, especially if they avoid using the names of actual customers? It's not such a simple issue.

[Fresh & Easy Buzz welcomes your comments on the Tesco and Waitrose store employees and Facebook, along with any comments you have in general about the use of social networking sites by grocers and other businesses.

Are the Tesco and Waitrose store employees completely out of line in what they did? Or, do they have the right to their opinions on the Facebook pages? Readers, do chime in and offer your comments. We would particularly love to hear from current and past supermarket workers. Fresh & Easy Buzz has numerous Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store-level workers who read us regularly. Please chime in as well. You can do so anonymously at the "comments" link below. We encourage all readers of the post to comment.

Just click the "comments" link below. Also, you can e-mail this post to friends and foes alike (yes, a form of social networking) by merely clicking on the little folder at left, below. When you do it gives you a "ready-to-e-mail" template. Just fill it in and click. Don't say anything abusive about us though in your e-mail comments...please:)]

Twitter Me This Batman: Are You Using Twitter? If Not, You Probably Should Be

The Fresh & Easy Buzz 'Sunday Supplement'

Last Sunday, January 18, we wrote and published this piece [The UK Telegraph Reports on Tesco Fresh & Easy's Use of Twitter.Com; Since Fresh & Easy Buzz Was First to Report it, We Offer Some Added Value] about the UK Telegraph's story about Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's use of the social networking site Twitter.com. Fresh & Easy Buzz was the first publication to report in September, 2008 on Tesco Fresh & Easy's use of Twitter.

On Monday, January 19, the popular Southern California-based Web site Laist.com picked up our Sunday, January 18 story in the form of a post written by trend-maven, writer and Twitter-user Lindsay William-Ross. Read the Laist.com post by Lindsay William-Ross here.

A number of Fresh & Easy Buzz readers e-mailed us a link to the Lais.com post. So on Monday, January 19, we wrote and posted a follow-up piece about the Laist.com piece. Wait a minute, that's a form of social media networking, isn't it? Our January 19 follow-up piece: Sweet Tweets: Popular laist.com Web Site Picks Up Fresh & Easy Buzz's Buzz On Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Twitter.com; Adds A Little Buzz of its Own.

Fresh & Easy Buzz's Twitter site is here. The Web site Foodimentary - Twitter Grader, which follows, grades and ranks nearly 23,000 (and growing) sites/Blogs on Twitter.com, recently rated Fresh & Easy Buzz at the top of its list, with an overall grade of 98.7. Click here to view Foodimentary - Twitter Grader.com.

Grocers and Twitter

In our original story on the topic on January 18, we discussed the fact that numerous food and grocery retailers, in addition to Tesco's Fresh & Easy, are using Twitter as a social marketing and communications tool designed to talk (and listen) to customers and potential customers. We also listed a few of those retailers. We also suggested those grocers (and other retailers for that matter) that aren't currently using Twitter.com, or that have a Twitter site but barely use it, are in our analysis missing out on what is a very strong and super-inexpensive tool -- Twitter.

It appears others in the form of investors agree with us about Twitter.

New millions for Twitter, Inc.

Reports over the weekend say Twitter Inc. has reportedly raised about $20 million in new investments based on a valuation of the company at up to $250 million.

These reports come from the TechCrunch.com technology Blog and the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital Blog. Both Blogs, which follow the technology inductry and sector closely, are citing unnamed sources that are saying that the San Francisco, California-based social networking and micro-blogging company has followed up on its previous $20 million in funding with a similar sized round that has yet to be announced.

Both Blogs are very plugged-in to what's happening in Silicon Valley and in San Francisco's new media business community. Therefore the probability that the reports are correct are high in our opinion.

In the summer of 2008 the popular social networking site Facebook.com offered to acquire Twitter for what was about half of its current $250 valuation. It looks like the young twenty-something founders of Twitter knew what they were doing by refusing the Facebook deal and remaining independent.

Twitter has been growing users faster than wild mustard grows in Napa Valley, California after a spring rain, followed by lost of sunshine. Therefore its no surprise investors want to put money into the micro-blogging company despite the recession, and despite the fact Twitter doesn't sell advertising on the site and therefore has no real revenue stream -- yet.

Twitter as a user template

Twitter was originally designed as a social networking tool for individuals to let each other know what they are doing in real time. In fact, one of the site's tag lines is: "What are you doing."

However, numerous companies, non-profit organizations, political campaigns, newspapers and Bloggers have in recent times adopted Twitter for various uses.

For example, newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and many others post news reports and features on their Twitter sites, as do trade publications and Bloggers.

The winning Obama Presidential campaign used Twitter to communicate with voters. Cable News channel CNN used Twitter as part of its coverage of the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign.

Companies of all sorts -- such as grocery chains Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Whole Foods Market, 7-Eleven and others -- are using Twitter in a variety of ways, both as a social marketing tool as well as for other forms of communication. Corporate use of the site is new and evolving.

The New York City-based Embassy for the State of Israel even used Twitter recently for a citizen press conference regarding its invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile individuals remain the backbone of Twitter. And many refer to themselves as "Twitter addicts," posting such mundane messages (called Tweets) like announcements that they are at the grocery store or getting ready to go to bed. Twitter can be used via handheld personal communication devices as well as with desktop and laptop computers. But in many ways it is these mundane messages that make Twitter so interesting. After all, when was the last time a total real life (but not virtual) stranger told you he or she was getting ready to enter the grocery store or turning in for the night?

More grocers discovering Twitter - but most haven't yet

On the food retailing front vis-a-vis Twitter, we've recently found a few additional retailers using the micro-blogging site in a significant way, in addition to those we named in our January 18 piece. These grocers include: New Seasons Market, a chain of nine natural foods markets in the Portland, Oregon region; Elwood Thompson's, an innovative natural foods grocer in Virginia; Locali Conscious Convenience, the new hybrid grocery-convenience store that just opened in Southern California, and which we wrote about here on Wednesday, January 21.

Other food and grocery retailers using Twitter include: Wal-Mart; Wegmans, the New York state-based supermarket which was just-named as the fifth best company to work fro in America by Fortune magazine in its annual "100 Best Places to Work" ranking; and the Meijer grocery and general merchandise chain.

The folks at the retail industry consulting firm RetailNet Group have compiled a spreadsheet directory in which they list the Twitter sites of various retailers and retail-related companies, publications and other entities. Click here to view the RetailNet Group Twitter spreadsheet.

Keith Anderson of RetailNet Group says users can add the names of retailers that have Twitter sites but aren't listed as of yet on the directory. In other words it's a user-generated list, which in fact is an additional form of social networking. Anderson and two other staffers at the retailing industry consulting firm have their own Twitter sites. They are:

>Keith Anderson: http://twitter.com/keith_rng/
>Aaron Chio: http://twitter.com/AaronChio
>Tim O'Connor: http://twitter.com/timoc_rng/

They frequently post interesting information about the firm's research and other retailing topics, including in the food and grocery sector, at their Twitter sites. It's worth a look.

The vast majority of food and grocery chains, as well as independents, have yet to start using Twitter of other social media sites like Facebook, however. We think they are missing the consumer cyber-communications boat by not doing so. Of course, using Twitter and other sites is one thing -- using it well is another. Retailers and other businesses need to walk a fine line between using the sites too much for marketing, offering a blend of it along with useful and helpful consumer information. Also: making marketing-related communications useful and helpful, which they can be.

Infant Twitter: Human and social evolution

Twitter.com is only in its infancy. The site keeps getting deeper and richer -- and users keep finding new ways to communicate on it. In large part that's what makes the site so interesting -- that like the human organism and society it keeps evolving.

But then that's no accident. Fresh & Easy buzz believes that a major part of the popularity of social media and networking Internet sites is because they represent the latest stage of human evolution. Not to get too deep from an Anthropological standpoint but human and social development is all about groups: cultures, societies, voluntary and complex organizations and the like. Social media is evolving and in many cases redefining social organization.

It's no replacement for face-to-face interaction. But it is adding elements to social organization (both informal and formal) that were not dreamed of just a few years ago. And social media retains many aspects of the human experience, albeit via an electronic device and computer screen, which is why it attracts so many.

Social media also is starting to revolutionize the way business, politics and media is done. And it will do so even more. It will require businesses to be more transparent -- and already is -- and will allow businesses, if they use it right, to gain more and richer information and feedback from consumers than ever thought possible.

It's also starting to allow consumers to have far more influence over business, politics and media than has ever been the case. Bottom-up is becoming the new black. Top-down the new Edsel. These facets will only continue to increase as more people -- and companies -- use social media, and as new uses are discovered for sites like Twitter, Facebook and others. It's a brave -- but fun and productive -- new world.