Recently, I posted an entry about social media attacking - a post focusing on the AntiSocialMedia.net blog that many felt was developed solely to harass critics of Overstock.com.

Well, this is no longer a speculative issue because Judd Bagley, director of social media at the shopping site has admitted he is the administrator of the blog in question. Not surprisingly, vocal Overstock critic Gary Weiss blasted Bagley for his actions; going as far to suggest Bagley broke cyber-stalking laws by using ASM the way he did:

Only one question arises in my mind: What laws were broken? Not “were laws broken?” but “what were the laws that were broken?” The new federal cyberstalking law comes to mind, obviously, but what others? Regulation FD is another good possibility, given the ASM Lie Machine was created after Bagley became a corporate officer. (And speaking of corporate disclosure, shouldn’t Overstock file an 8-K disclosing its involvement in ASM?)

Weiss continues further, implicating Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne was complicit with Bagley’s actions. Whatever the outcome, Overstock’s actions show just how powerful social media can be, even when you purposely misuse it. There’s no way the Overstock braintrust can hide from their actions - not in today’s business arena when a very active blogosphere exists.

Perhaps they could generate positive buzz (at least from the guys out there) by turning the operations aspect of the business over to spokesperson Sabine Ehrenfeld - but it’s probably too late for even that…

Hat-tip to Lou Lawes who pointed this out in our comments section.

Posted on Monday, January 15th, 2007 at 1:48 pm. Permalink