Some of the BP appearances online are from BP themselves, others are to express the outrage that most people feel, but you can bet that it’s all spreading around with internet speed. On the outrage side, a Twitter account that pretends to be BP’s Global PR unit is actually bitter people with a sense of biting humor, (See it here: http://twitter.com/bpglobalpr) posting tweets like: “Surprised ourselves by getting emotional on the coast today. Turns out the wind blew dispersant in our eyes. #BPrebrand”
Search for BP on Facebook and you’ll see that 258,684 people “like” the page called “Stop the oil spill by stuffing BP executives into the leaking pipe”. They’ve got a Twitter account @BPglobalBS. A search for “Boycott BP” comes up with 474,103 people who like one page that teaches you how to say “boycott stations” in several languages, and an application with 10,534 users.
You can even download a Firefox plugin, that will cover any mention of BP in your Google searches with an oil puddle. See what it looks like in this article from Mashable.com.
BP is trying to turn the tide (get it? An ocean reference?) of attention to a positive wash for them by buying up the sponsored links on Google and Yahoo searches so they’ll show up at the top of the page. At least that’s what Mashable told us. When we search on either, we get news links first and find BP about 3 or 4 down, but with a link to their response to the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. Only time will tell if it’s enough.
Tags: Facebook, Google, Internet Speed, Twitter, Yahoo