Dear reader, TechCrunch owes you an apology. We thought the “104-Year-Old joins Twitter” story last week was Digg bait created by the media. It turns out it was all just old fashioned re-hashed PR. But at least we are apologising – unlike the many news outlets that ran with this manufactured story.
To explain…
On May 15 two UK newspapers ran the story about 104 year old woman “Ivy Bean” / @ivybean104 joining Twitter. Both The Daily Telegraph and The Sun ran with the story, which was followed up and “celebrated” by The Next Web blog.
What none of these stories told you, however, was that poor old Ivy had not joined Twitter just because it was suddenly the talk of the old peoples home. No. She joined because home PC maintenance company Geek Squad signed her up, propped her up for a photo opportunity and press-released the hell out of it. And frankly I hope they paid her, or at least donated to her favourite charity because this is one of the most self-serving, cynical PR stunts I can remember.
And to prove it, here’s the pictures all the news outlets ran (when they all have the same picture, it’s a sure sign it’s a press release). Is that a Geek Squad guy just behind her head?:
And here’s the incriminating Twitpic, clearly taken by Geek Squad of their man Martin Dix, hovering behind Ivy, having just signed her in to Twitter and presumably explained the service. (Dix also blogs for Geek Squad). It was even taken on Ivy’s own Twitpic account and frankly I seriously doubt she knew what was going on.
Note also that her first ever Tweet is clearly related to the PR shenanigans going on around her:
“I’m enjoying Twitter for the first time and having my photo taken.”
Now, she Tweeted that Tweet at “10:02 AM May 14th from web”. That’s important, because this was only one day before the story went live on the Sun, and Telegraph site at 8:20am May 15. In other words, cynical Geek Squad had already targeted Ivy as being the oldest person they could find and convince to go on Twitter. The fact it was a day before the story went live speaks volumes.
Ivy also Tweeted:
“I’m on Twitter! Come and follow my feed at IvyBean104.”
Since when did a 104 year old suddenly start using words like “feed”?
In fact, only The Sun newspaper actually indicated that this might all be PR-nonsense cooked up by Geek Squad, referring to its “Silver Surfers’ Day” campaign to “encourage more elderly people to get online”. Classic PR-guff.
However, TechCrunch’s (and here’s our apology) MG Seigler decided this whole thing was a ruse to get The Telegraph onto Digg. And admittedly, The Telegraph has been gaining a reputation for using Digg quite substantially lately. It gets a lot of traffic from social sites, and the UK press has a sneaking suspicion Tele sub editors have all taken courses in headline writing for Digg.
However, we’re happy to point out that the story wasn’t just cooked up by the Telegraph to get onto Digg – but lots of journalists and bloggers fell for Geek Squad’s PR.
Compounding the issue however is The Next Web which seems to think TechCrunch’s non-scoop was itself an attempt to get on Digg – and predictibly did a post on it in a slightly bizarre tirade. Clearly, The Next Web did not realise it was a Geek Squad press release the first time round and still hasn’t. They sign off their story with “This is clearly not a completely fabricated story.” Instead it attacks TechCrunch for not celebrating the fact a 104 year old is on Twitter, a story which “made people smile”.
Come again? Since when were independent bloggers supposed to just celebrate things – instead of getting the facts right?
My view is that WHERE stories come from is at least as important as what they are about. I hope we can all learn from this episode. In the race to feverishly post about Twitter, sometimes the facts are starting to get lost in the hype.
Oh, and to complete this ridiculous circle, feel free to Digg this post.
Update: As commenters below point out, Ivy was two years ago signed up to Facebook by her care home to be the “oldest person on Facebook”, presumably after they were incensed that a 97-year old French youngster had laid claim to the title. I look forward to the day Ivy is signed up by Digg as their “oldest user” and to her actually getting something out of being used in this way, simply because of her age.
Update II: A few people have inferred that I think @ivybean104 is actually fake – that she’s not tweeting herself. Frankly unless someone videos her doing it it’s going to be hard to absolutely verify, though her Tweetstream (e.g. “just had my tea now its a game of dominos with my friends”) looks plausible. What is slightly odd however is the fact she is following 94 people, many of whom, like @barclayjen in Columbia, SC, (Geek Squad was the first account she followed btw) she is unlikely to know personally. Unless 104 year olds are a lot more socially networked than I previously thought…
Thanks Mike for the explanation… good indept journalism (what the Guardian background isn’t good for
)
And we are techcrunched into reading all the twitter crap day in and day out..
I agree. Poor lady.
Why would anyone tweet ‘I’m on Twitter’ in the first place. Wouldn’t it be self-evident?
Actually it’s what most people do. It’s usually something like “Ok im on twitter, now what” etc etc! Still doesn’t mean this was written by her though.
Yes, that’s what many of the people whom I had introduced Twitter to would write as their first tweet.. Another line that’s quite frequent is: “My first time with Twitter. What do I do now? Let’s see”
Poor Ivy. the PRfect storm in a teacup.
She had cropped up a couple of years ago as the world’s oldest facebooker: http://bit.ly/vR2BS
hardly ‘poor ivy’ lol She’s loving every minute of it, i’m sure.
Mike, you’re quite right. We didn’t acknowledge it as a press release from Geek Squad, but we did mention the fact that Geek Squad had recommended the service. Irrespective, I completely disagree about the notion that this is one of the most “self-serving, cynical PR stunts” you can remember. You really think its that bad that a company took a photograph of this woman on her new twitter page and tried to get some press coverage out of it? I’ve heard of much much worse, and i haven’t been in the industry as long as you have.
Plus, she hardly got taken advantage of – she’s been in the Daily Mail as the “worlds oldest facebooker” too http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1045158/Meet-Ivy-Bean–worlds-oldest-Facebooker-aged-102.html .
Oh and also, I’d hardly call our 2nd post a tirade. I just pointed out what i guarantee many people thought, that the Techcrunch post was an attempt to generate a unique story off of another and yes, get to the front page of Digg.
There’s really nothing wrong with that except for the fact that if any story was completely fabricated, it was the TC one – and it seems like you’ve acknowledged that.
Oh and also, frankly, our post was intended to be slightly tongue in cheek (as the title might suggest) and so it wasn’t intended to be a personal attack on TechCrunch, MG or anyone related to TC. Not sure if you’ve just gotten out of bed on the wrong side or what, but certainly seems like you’ve taken the story a nudge too personally.
Zee, accusing us of being more interested in getting a top story on Digg than being interested in the *facts* is a somwhat rather a pathetic charge, but fear not, I don’t take any of this personally, nor is it meant personally in return. I am merely calling out the story itself. Note that I do not mention the writer of any story, other than our own.
BTW, your latest post says “This is clearly not a completely fabricated story.”
How was the story not fabricated by Geek Squad? I’d love to know!
Unfortunately we still don’t know what is real and what is fake here. Can someone give Ivy a call and ask her is she is still using Twitter herself(!) and whose idea it was to get started on Twitter? If the only thing she did was pose for the picture I’d be pretty disappointed (and would completely agree with Mike) but if she is real and the only thing that happened is that Geek Squad helped her a bit, well that would certainly make the whole thing less fake. Right?
But Mike, i personally genuinely do not think there’s any wrong with writing posts targeted and doing well on Digg if they’re genuine, fact based and interesting.
The reason why I wrote the post is because i thought it was ironic (and still do btw) that any blog could accuse another site of post Digg bait. It’s what we do, i think we’d be lying through out teeth if we said otherwise.
Regarding it not being a completely fabricated story…Well, the story is about a Geek Squad convincing an old lady that Twitter is where the action is and that she should join. They made the most of the situation and promoted the fact that they got her on there. She’s still tweeting now and so I just can’t see where the fabrication comes into play.
ps. I’m glad you haven’t actually taken any of this personally because it wasn’t intended and heck, if you don’t know it already, i’ve got a great deal of respect for ya.
It is fabricated, however, she was already well known for being oldest facebook user. They persuaded a old facebook user to use Twitter also. I think if you were covering the *real* story you should have mentioned the previous facebook story she was in (Several versions on google by searching for “Ivy Bean”)
when you say fabricated though, how do you mean? What aspect is fabricated?
I only think it’s fabricated in the way geek squad convinced her to sign up. The key difference would if they contacted her first or if she needed their assistance for something else and called them out. It seems likely given the facebook coverage from before it was the former.
TBH it seems likely that she could have signed up by herself eventually, since she must have seen twitter mentioned in the newspapers, TV or even from her facebook friends. A lot of my (non-tech) friends have heard of twitter but just not bothered to sign up (yet).
If she’s already been hailed as ‘the world’s oldest Faebooker’ maybe there IS more to this story than mere PR. Has anybody actually bothered to ask Ivy?
That really is pathetic. Exploiting an elderly lady.
“propped up”
“I seriously doubt she knew what was going on.”
What’s wrong with you people?
How dare you assume as a default that Ivy isn’t interested in computers and the internet? We need good role models to bridge the digital divide, and she’s definitely a good one.
The articles about this all have a flavour of ‘the internet is mine, all mine’. Are you sure you simply don’t like old women enjoying the internet?
The rest is irrelevant squabble.
I absolutely agree! For some reason, which I cannot fathom, this young man has assumed that old people are stupid and inept. This prejudice against older people is simply ignorant, the same as any other form of discrimination.
Why is this a problem? It was obvious to a chimp it was just a big PR stunt – but was a great story. I think it’s brilliant that someone of 104 is so open to new ideas that she Tweets with the rest of us.
My 79-year old Gran is a whizz with a DVD recorder and is an avid Facebook voyeur – loving keeping up to date with her nephews/nieces’ photographs and stories.
So what if it was a big PR stunt – well done the Geek Squad guys for persuading a load of journalists to run with the story. And well done to Ivy for keeping on Tweeting – I for one love her little insights into life in a care home.
Long may she reign as the oldest person on Twitter.
David I don’t mind the fact that it was a PR stunt – but media and blogs need to acknowledge that fact, not ignore it or cast a veil over it, like Ivy just “happened” to find out about Twitter. And I’m all in favour of silver surfers, honest
my sentiments exactly. Want to come blog for TheNextWeb, you explained yourself far better than I did just then
I’m really not sure where the scandal is here. Geek Squad did what Geek Squad is supposed to do: help people set up their computers, access the Internet and such. If it was her 17 year old grandson would you feel the same way? Of course Geek Squad issued a press release. Tech Crunch would have done the same thing (or at least posted a blog entry about it) if you guys had set her up. Besides, it’s not like they set it up for her as a stunt and left it alone — she’s been using it regularly.
It would be cynical if it was Twitter PR, but since it’s Geek Squad, and since the tweets were written in such manner that implicitly indicates that it’s a PR and not a ruse, I don’t think it’s really such an issue.
PR is sometimes good thing, and yes, you can celebrate a 104 old lady joining to Twitter, the same as you celebrated Oprah joining to Twitter without mentioning the word PR even once.
Do you think that Oprah signed-up to twitter by herself?
When Oprah joined twitter did you used the words ruse, non-scoop, PR-guff?
“And I’m all in favour of silver surfers, honest
”
The ironic smiley. But bully for you.
We couldn’t care less whether you’re on Twitter for real or you’re fake. How many accounts you may have, who posts to them.
You do however, seem to be using this story to exaggeratedly boost your pagerank with fake fights with your cronies.
This is a great piece, TechCrunch, and I hope it will be widely shared (I plan to).
I’m all about creative PR, but this is going a step too far. It’s obvious that someone thought this was a great story (and it is)…the issue is it was manufactured in a shameful way.
Of course, there’s no problem with older people using Twitter and Facebook. If Ivy’s grandchild had shown her Twitter, then no problem. It’s not like Geek Squad showed Ivy how to use it and then left her alone. No, instead, they used it as a photo opportunity – slimy. And so what if she used Facebook? That’s how the opportunity was sussed in the first place.
Sorry, and what does Oprah have to do with this? (one of the earlier comments).
The issue is not who uses Twitter and how old they are, it’s about the fact that a company blatantly used an older person and crafted a story for public relations purposes.
Cheap and shameful.
What’s really important in the end is ; is it really her using her Twitter account and tweeting about stuff ? If yes, I quite don”t see the problem. I might have been a PR stunt, it’s still a 104 yo using Twitter ! And even if it was planned, I don’t see a 104 yo spontaneously saying “hey, I should join Twitter, it seem to rock !”
What a truckload of nonsense.
I really hope this twitter thing disappears and something good comes up to its place.
Is there really nothing better to write about?
Imagine… if there was something better than twitter
Boo hoo
You’re pathetic!
As the only cat on Twitter I feel that this is a blatant publicity attempt by a human trying to one (hundred and four) up me. In protest, I am tweeting all my kitty litter related activities today when I prop myself up to cover my “doings”. For shame. Who would do something so shameless as to use Twitter for publicity? (Please Digg my Twitter account, meow).
did you know there are hungry kids in Africa?
posting to Reddit, just because Digg is naff
im amazed to see a 104 year old woman who can use a computer in any way shape or form. I assume geek squad only had the idea to “use” her as a PR stunt after being called to repair her computer, Unless they just searched for “old people” which would have been mind blowingly cynical.
I know! A WOMAN, even! It’s unthinkable!
(Sheesh.)
Nice bit of PR, I’d say…and it’s naive to think that the national media doen’t take PR-driven stories.
If the central message here is that Geek Squad helps people of all ages and abilities get to grips with new technologies, then job done.
You’e just feeling a touch embarrassed as your finger-pointing…
Our take here: http://www.theworldsleading.net/index.php/2009/05/18/ivy-bean-had/
The fact that she is still Tweeting says something doesn’t it. A typical PR-journo push wouldn’t go on much after the story had been published.
If Zee is from the Geek Squad please ring Butcher to sort it out. Reading a little quabble with passive aggressive comments (On both sides) is cringe worthy
lol, i’m not from the geek squad! I’m the editor at TheNextWeb lol…
So, who is sending out her Tweets if it’s not her?
Does anyone really care about Digg except the people who try to get their stories on it? No one I know looks at it. It’s like running a race without any spectators.
TC is exploiting the story and this this old lady asking us blatantly to digg it. double standards if you ask me.
besides who gives a damm if a 104 year old signed upi for twitter even if some one did it for her. wheres the story.
the buddy behind the old lady looks like Kevin Rose – Digg is everywhere
TC needs to stop hating. Go read @IvyBean104’s tweets… you think there is a GeekSquad guy fabricating those? I doubt it. Seems like the little old lady is using the service. Who cares if GeekSquad turned her on to it? And who cares if they got some publicity?
Stop hating.
Speed of publication vs verified information: 1-0
Folks:
Can’t we all just be happy the dear 104 year old Ivy is – based on the pictures featured – has found and indeed seems happily married to Abraham Lincoln? We in America had thought he met an untimely demise sometime ago. Phew, glad he’s OK.
Big congrats to Ivy, I’m sure most people would love so much attention and excitement in their second century
FYI – I’ve posted two updates on this post, here they are:
Update: As commenters below point out, Ivy was two years ago signed up to Facebook by her care home to be the “oldest person on Facebook”, presumably after they were incensed that a 97-year old French youngster had laid claim to the title. I look forward to the day Ivy is signed up by Digg as their “oldest user” and to her actually getting something out of being used in this way, simply because of her age.
Update II: A few people have inferred that I think @ivybean104 is actually fake – that she’s not tweeting herself. Frankly unless someone videos her doing it it’s going to be hard to absolutely verify, though her Tweetstream (e.g. “just had my tea now its a game of dominos with my friends”) looks plausible. What is slightly odd however is the fact she is following 94 people, many of whom, like @barclayjen in Columbia, SC, (Geek Squad was the first account she followed btw) she is unlikely to know personally. Unless 104 year olds are a lot more socially networked than I previously thought…
Is this what you do with you life? Sad.
Are you kidding? Mike gets PAID to do this stuff all day long. It’s a dream job. It’s brilliant!
Stint or stunt, the real issue is sweet aunt Ivy being the oldest twitterer – if she’s doing the tweets herself.
hey lay off, shes having fun.
bet she would have waved a crooked little middle finger at the camera long ago if she wasnt into it.
Obviously a 104 year old needs help by someone like the geeksquad to get started on Twitter!
And congrats for the PR stunt, I wish I had received so much publicity for signing my mom up on Facebook… just forgot to send the pressrelease to Mike
Look at the facts: If it really were a 104 year-old tweeting, I strongly suspect she’d have switched her twitter background to beige by now.
Hmmm, it is clearly a massive PR ’stunt’ and a bit of a shabby one at that. Looking at it from a mercernary PR point of view however, they’ve probably achieved what they wanted (lots of discussion about it etc) and who knows whether Ivy is pretty happy about it all.
Regardless of that though, I would like to point out that the queen of the silver tweeters is obviously @granumentally. Don’t know whether she’s the oldest (and obviously it’d be rude to ask a lady her age) but she’s definitely the coolest.
She had like 60 followers one day and then the next day she requested to follow me and she only had 45 at the time.
Its possible she doesn’t understand how the service works, its not about reading other peoples twits, its about pushing yours to as many people as possible. You know the old SV circle jerk.
I happened to be on my iPhone not my Blackberry Bold at the time she requested to follow (protected updates) and I fat fingered the block button instead of accept (which apparently theres no undo for). Which reminded me why I only use the iPhone as an Alarm clock and for browsing the web from bed.
Disclaimer: I don’t use twitter except for secretly following employee’s or prospective employee’s and stalking celebrities.
I am just not so amazed by older people wanting to learn modern tech. If she kept a detailed blog about how the world has changed over time I would read that. I don’t get why this made news, Twitter is just gabbing for her, she’s reached a great age for a human yes but what’s the big deal with wanting to be online? When/if I am 104 I will still stay current with everything I can and I would not think it that big a deal. Now when I win the Dakar-Moon rally as a 104 Gran yes I want headlines!
I fell for the ruse hook line and sinker, i must stop skim reading pages like that, whats next then for the PR depts? youngest? tallest? longest marathon sessions on Twitter? Ho hum
You know normally I love your posts but come on, this is really not your style. Let’s assume that you are right and poor old Ivy was taken advantage of for some PR. Surely that is not the worst thing ever done to an elderly person. She looks pretty happy in her pic.
You all are sounding a little like the government and sweating the small stuff. Don’t we have some bigger issues to deal with?
This story is absolutely rediculous. I love how people try as hard as they can to find anything ‘incriminating’ on major retail stores. Sounds to me like the Geek Squad was doing their job by helping this lady. She probably contacted them because she wasn’t too tech saavy, so why would it be wrong of them to try to show her new aspects of life in a digital world? What a garbage story trying to get people to come to your site.
If you check up on Ivy you may have noted that Ivy both competed in and won a gold medal in the “over 75 olympics”
The update states:
Ivy Bean just won a Gold medal in todays Over 75 Olympics
Very feasibly, she’s made many friends from facebook if not simply winning the competition which could account for those she is following as well.
I’m open minded, and at first I even considered the possibility that this was just a PR stunt, but if you do even the slightest amount of digging, I’d say it’s fair to assume that this woman can tweet just as well as the rest of us!
Frankly, if GeekSquad also trained Ivy to be a gold medalist, bravo to them! That’s certainly more than I ever did for my grandma when hooking up her dvd player!
I applaud you, Ivy!
Busted haha.. that story is hilarious.
Im guessing their link bait attempt worked better than they thought!
hello are u old
ohh
i know you hey when are u coming to me by preson
I completely disagree about the notion that this is one of the most “self-serving, cynical PR stunts” you can remember. You really think its that bad that a company took a photograph of this woman on her new twitter page and tried to get some press coverage out of it?i just found this amazing website, it has all kind of businesses from a cleaning companies to estate agents to banks, all I have to do is just type in the business type, and the location and it gives me all the results in that particular area, this website has a huge database of all sorts of businesses, I just joined a driving school which I found on this website. I would recommend this site to all the people out there.
While I appreciate and support your impulse toward journalistic transparency, I must say, your condescension toward the elderly leaves me cold.
You assume that Geek Squad “took advantage of an old lady”. Maybe, just maybe, the old lady thought their idea was cool — especially since she’d had experience with facebook.
Maybe, just maybe, Geek Squad going in and helping her get set up on Twitter was an act of charity and kindness. Lots of corporations do good works, and then publicize the fact. Is this wrong? Does it really matter whether they conceived the idea for the publicity, and decided it was a good work that would resonate with people, or if they were volunteers who spent some time with an old lady in a nursing home, and later chose to publicize it?
In the interest of journalistic transparency: You do not have the SLIGHTEST evidence that this woman was taken advantage of, manipulated, or harmed in any way. You do not have the SLIGHTEST reason to believe that she isn’t having more fun than she’s had since she joined Facebook.
In other words — you made this whole issue up out of whole cloth, and you owe this woman, and your readers, an apology.
Not because you’re wrong — I don’t know that either. But because it is condescending, insulting, and just plain Bad Journalism.
What i sad story. Something i experience so often with elderly people….they get used and abused because they do not understand the risks and neither the possibilities of the internet. And you don’t have to be 104. expertia User are an average of 52 Years and still hard to handle but undoubtedly an growing target group. Would they onyl be viral!! we have 10.000 open Jobs for Best ager and one of the best silver surfer network, yet they do not rocket like facebook people! Patience is all i have to offer! And of course we also startet to twitter! No one realy wants to follow! To afraid of misused data! http://www.expertia.de. Come and join if you have good ideas!