Corporate Twittering Whoo! SEC Disclaimer: This Whoo Tweet Is the Opinion of the Twitterer and Does Not Reflect the Official Position of Acme Inc.

Katherine Mangu-Ward | April 27, 2009

From today's Wall Street Journal, the art of including corporate disclaimers in 140 characters:

[eBay] launched a corporate blog in April 2008. Two months later, blogger Richard Brewer-Hay began "tweeting"—posting updates on Twitter—about Silicon Valley technology conferences, eBay's quarterly earnings calls and other topics....

The growing Twitter audience also attracted the attention of eBay's lawyers, who last month required Mr. Brewer-Hay to include regulatory disclaimers with certain posts. 

For an official corporate twit, Richard Brewer-Hay is pretty low key and personal. Sample tweet:

This ends the eBay Ink Twitter coverage of eBay Inc. First Quarter earnings 2009. Please drink responsibly. :)

Thanks to eBay's lawyers' fear of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), here's what he is posting now before liveblogging/tweeting:

Tweet 1: “Important information about the nature of this session. Forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Click here:”
Tweet 2: “This session will contain non-GAAP financial measures.”
Tweet 3: “The presentation of this financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for GAAP financial measures.”
Tweet 4: “A reconciliation of these measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measures can be found by clicking on the following link:”

Follow Reason staffers (disclaimer free!) by going here.

Via Bob Ewing.

Comments

|4.27.09 @ 12:25PM|#

Somehow I'm positive that in a year or so Twittering will be about as cool as having a GeoCities web page. Also, Yahoo! is closing GeoCities.

|4.27.09 @ 12:37PM|#

I STILL don't care about twitter.

That said, twitter has officially tweeted the shark.

ed|4.27.09 @ 12:38PM|#

Tweeting is so last month. My friends and I "twee." 56 characters or fewer, and no verbs.

|4.27.09 @ 12:45PM|#

Why is the media so obsessed by the latest craze in social networking? How many decades of it have to go by before they find something else to talk about?

|4.27.09 @ 12:53PM|#

God, somebody please kill Twitter already. Or at least the Twitter hype.

And John-David's opening comment here is correct. This is a phenomenon just waiting to be passe.

Paul|4.27.09 @ 12:55PM|#

Why is the media so obsessed by the latest craze in social networking?

That's an excellent question, one which I've wondered about myself.

"Look, people have found an interesting way to talk to eachother!"

Now let's do six months of stories on it.

Xeones|4.27.09 @ 1:02PM|#

Yo, fuck Twitter.

stuartl|4.27.09 @ 1:04PM|#

God, somebody please kill Twitter already. Or at least the Twitter hype.

Yo, fuck Twitter.

Hey, twitter can be a useful tool. I manage a HS age boys sport team, since the one common link they all have is a cell phone, I send practice time and place updates by twitter.

The hype let me know the tool existed.

Orange Line Special|4.27.09 @ 1:08PM|#

My twitter feed is like a backstage pass, containing special juicy nuggets not on my site. I also abuse the "partiers", although that's not as effective as I'd like because a) the messages on those tags are only on the front page of searches for those tags for a few minutes, and b) I don't know how many people read those searches rather than just send to them without reading what others send to them.

|4.27.09 @ 1:08PM|#

since the one common link they all have is a cell phone

Which means you already had a communications tool at hand: text messaging.

Why did you need Twitter to do that?

Fluffy|4.27.09 @ 1:11PM|#

Twitter = Fail.

By the way, here's an interesting philosophical question, that Lonewacko's post brings to mind:

If you tweet, but no one follows your tweets, do they make a noise?

ed|4.27.09 @ 1:14PM|#

Why is the media so obsessed by the latest craze

Like swine flu? That's this week's "it" girl.

Shannon Love|4.27.09 @ 1:16PM|#

So why can't they include the disclaimer in a link that says, "Disclaimers"?

|4.27.09 @ 1:21PM|#

Why did you need Twitter to do that?

Twitter could be charitably seen as a away to mass distribute text messages on an opt-in basis. An uncharitable way to look at Twitter is to realize it is basically Facebook with everything stripped out but the status updates.

The Angry Optimist|4.27.09 @ 1:22PM|#

Come on, Tom, don't be lame. You know you cannot send texts to more than X recipients at a time. Anyway, Twittering in that case is MUCH easier.

I say this as a Twitter-hater, but let's not go overboard.

stuartl|4.27.09 @ 1:26PM|#

Which means you already had a communications tool at hand: text messaging.

1) I can't send text messages to more than 8 people at once

2) I can't create a standard text address list from my phone.

So: "Twitter could be charitably seen as a away to mass distribute text messages on an opt-in basis." is exactly correct. I send one text to one address. Anybody following gets the message.

stuartl|4.27.09 @ 1:29PM|#

Don't let hype hate blind you, twitter is a useful tool for some things.

|4.27.09 @ 1:34PM|#

I can't send text messages to more than 8 people at once

Of this I was unaware. In that case, Twitter away.

Just please tell the media and blog world to cool the hype. Twitter has been around for a couple of years. No reason to treat it like The Groundbreaking Development of 2009.

|4.27.09 @ 1:35PM|#

Twitter won't be a true media obsession until it's used in a murder.

SugarFree is buying rope, duct tape, and a knife.

OO===D|4.27.09 @ 1:45PM|#

STFU LoneTwit!!!

T|4.27.09 @ 1:52PM|#

twitter is a useful tool for some things.

That's what I hear. I just don't know what they are, nor do I really care.

Warty|4.27.09 @ 1:54PM|#

The moment Lonewacko started twitting is the moment it became uncool. Shut the fuck up, Lonewacko.

|4.27.09 @ 1:57PM|#

I don't understand what that means or what's even happening right now. I never should have got out of bed this morning...

|4.27.09 @ 1:59PM|#

Warty,

He has 123 followers on Twitter. That means there are 123 people stupid enough to pay attention to him and smart enough to use a computer.

I won't lie and say this won't keep me up all night.

Xeones|4.27.09 @ 2:08PM|#

He has 123 followers on Twitter.

They're all SockPuppets, i bet. Or else he pays MexicanImmigrants to subscribe.

High Every Body|4.27.09 @ 2:10PM|#

He has 123 followers on Twitter. That means there are 123 people stupid enough to pay attention to him and smart enough to use a computer.

That is a bunch more than tha guy in Conspiracy Theory had on his snail-mail list.

|4.27.09 @ 2:11PM|#

His feed is nothing but tinyurls back to his craptacular blog. And the occasional observation about his qualms at eating meat.

High Every Body|4.27.09 @ 2:14PM|#

And the occasional observation about his qualms at eating meat.

Did you hear that high quality raw meet is better for you than cooked meat?

Might want to let him know the next time you guys are hanging out together ;)

T|4.27.09 @ 2:14PM|#

His feed is nothing but tinyurls back to his craptacular blog. And the occasional observation about his qualms at eating meat.

Yet you're the fool who went and checked. The rest of us were bright enough to know it was pointless.

|4.27.09 @ 2:17PM|#

T,

I wade in the swamps for you people, hoping to bring back a bloodless gobbet of humor for you. If for nothing else, at least have some respect for my strong stomach.

High Every Body|4.27.09 @ 2:19PM|#

SF,

If you were not goofing off on the OLS blog and twitter feed you could have told all of ua about this: Author tells women to marry early lest they lose "market value".

Sounds like it would be better for the Iowa Marriage thread.

Warty|4.27.09 @ 2:20PM|#

Don't worry, SugarFree. His minions are honor-bound to never abandon their Minuteman posts even unto death. They are the watchmen on the walls, they are the corpulent white line that is all that separates us from the slavering hordes of little brown cheese eaters. We are blessed to have such protectors.

Randall|4.27.09 @ 2:23PM|#

Does anyone else find it surprising that the "Feministing" site has nothing to do with fisting?

Warty|4.27.09 @ 2:24PM|#

Well, Randall is much funnier than me.

Randall|4.27.09 @ 2:29PM|#

"Well, Randall is much funnier than me."

It's not about being funny. It's just that every time I see or hear the word feministing fisting is what pops into my head, which is kind of odd that given just how much I like the diversity of porn (unparalleled diversity for which the industry deserves much praise) I find fisting to be kinda stupid.

|4.27.09 @ 2:30PM|#

HEB,

I've given up on linking to Feministing funny. I get too many whiny emails to my linked account to bother with in any more. "Why picking on Femisting? Libertarns are teh sux."

T|4.27.09 @ 2:32PM|#

I wade in the swamps for you people, hoping to bring back a bloodless gobbet of humor for you. If for nothing else, at least have some respect for my strong stomach.

Bloodless? Well there's the problem! Raw, dripping, bloody meat. That's what we demand around here for our humor-gobbets, not these bloodless dessicated husks you keep dragging back. Feed the animals, dammit, SF.

|4.27.09 @ 2:36PM|#

Did you hear that high quality raw meet is better for you than cooked meat?

Considering this was posted on thread about social networking, I will consider it an instance of RC'z Law.

|4.27.09 @ 2:36PM|#

You want red meat, T?

Universal is planning to remake Videodrome

There. You feel better? I certainly don't. [sob]

Warty|4.27.09 @ 2:42PM|#

Yes, Randall, but the fact remains that fisting is hilarious. Now, if you have a mental image of a militant feminist being fisted while ranting about systemic power imbalances of the patriarchal heteronormaocracy...now that's comedy gold.

Randall|4.27.09 @ 2:49PM|#

"Now, if you have a mental image of a militant feminist being fisted while ranting about systemic power imbalances of the patriarchal heteronormaocracy...now that's comedy gold"

I don't look at porn for its underlying comedic value. I just like the naked broads.

High Every Body|4.27.09 @ 2:53PM|#

I've given up on linking to Feministing funny. I get too many whiny emails to my linked account to bother with in any more. "Why picking on Femisting? Libertarns are teh sux."

That's what you get for putting an e-mail link in the clear.

|4.27.09 @ 2:53PM|#

"Broad" is a sizist term and is indicative of your rampant fatophobia.

Warty|4.27.09 @ 2:56PM|#

Pretty soon, Hollywood will decide that it's made enough movies and concentrate entirely on making shitty remakes.

Randall|4.27.09 @ 2:56PM|#

""Broad" is a sizist term and is indicative of your rampant fatophobia."

Booty is booty.

Xeones|4.27.09 @ 2:59PM|#

Pretty soon, Hollywood will decidehas decided that it's made enough movies and concentrates entirely on making shitty remakes.

Fixed.

T|4.27.09 @ 3:00PM|#

Universal is planning to remake Videodrome

There. You feel better? I certainly don't. [sob]

Humor, SF. There's no humor in that, other than speculating a) which bimbo takes the Debby Harry role and b) if they'll cut the cigarette scene out.

I'm holding out for Britney Spears and no. I mean shit, if they're gonna go ahead with this trainwreck, they might as well go full retard.

|4.27.09 @ 3:03PM|#

Of course they will cut the cigarette scene out. It will be Will Smith waxing off Eve Mendes' mustache.

T|4.27.09 @ 3:06PM|#

It will be Will Smith waxing off Eve Mendes' mustache.

Didn't they already do that scene in Hitch?

|4.27.09 @ 3:16PM|#

I didn't get the extended DVD.

Girl Peels Banana With Her Feet

Bluto|4.27.09 @ 3:51PM|#

I'm molving to Japan!

http://www.break.com/index/dont-ram-the-boobs.html?mrr=we

T|4.27.09 @ 6:01PM|#

Girl Peels Banana With Her Feet

She performs a variety of tasks with her toes. I don't quite get it, but if works for you, man, it's cool. Me, I think I'd turn down dinner at her place, tho'.

|4.27.09 @ 6:21PM|#

My beef with Twitter: I just discovered that some woman decided that "PapayaSF" would be a good Twitter handle, without doing a Google search and discovering that someone had been posting with that handle for about 10 years. Now when I search for an old post, I have to wade through bunches of her stupid tweets. Thanks, bitch.