Microsoft, Social Media, and a Guy Named Parker

by Jacob Morgan

Microsoft has decided to go the social media route in order to help push its e-mail and instant messaging services. Those of you familiar with the “I’m Initiative” may already know that Microsoft is giving money to charities based on the amount of users that begin using some of the Microsoft services. The more users, the more money charity will receive. From what I understand, the users even get to pick the charities the money goes to.

So what exactly is this social media strategy Microsoft is trying to employ? Let me first introduce you to Parker Whittle, he’s in his 20’s and going through somewhat of a crisis, he wonders if he has done enough over his 20+ years of life to help others and realizes he hasn’t. So what does Parker decide to do? He decides to see how many people he can get to use Microsoft Live Hotmail and Messenger in 30 days (so he can raise the money for charity). Sounds like a noble cause right? Well, there is only one problem, Parker is a fake character created by Microsoft’s marketing agency.

Now Microsoft’s agency said that they are making it blatantly clear that Parker is a fake character, however, it’s hard to tell from the website. So where is the transparency? Does it matter if it’s for charity?

Thanks for reading

Follow me on twitter

Connect with me on linkedin

Connect with me on facebook