A pretty interesting story to monitor the impact of social media on press coverage. Yesterday someone in my Facebook news feed shared a Facebook photo album, which at that time had only 12 Facebook shares.
Friend of a friend has her iPhone stolen on a Disney cruise…but unbeknownst to the thief (a Disney employee), the pics he’s taken on his “new” stolen phone are still updating to her photo stream. She made an album (and is my new hero).
The story itself is hilarious. Obviously Nelson, the alleged thief, is innocent until proven that he is guilty (maybe it was present, or something he bought from someone not knowing it was stolen), but he’s highly exposed now. And if he was the actual thief, well, it wasn’t very smart not to reset the phone.
What is mostly fascinating is the impact of the story. Posted on Facebook on Monday night by Katy, by Wednesday morning it was viral:
360084431872021088 shares on Facebook- Mentioned by USA Today, Huffington Post, Cult of Mac, theVerge, New York Magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo! News
- Public statement by Disney
A Disney spokesperson said the line became aware of the Facebook photos and the alleged theft yesterday, and said the iPhone had been recovered. It is currently on the Wonder, and the line intends to return it to the owner when the ship’s current cruise ends.
The spokesperson said that while situation is being investigated, the crew member, who is still on the Wonder, is on administrative leave and has been restricted from guest areas. [via USA Today]
A simple Facebook photo gallery, without any advertisement, made a significant media impact. Let’s just hope that Katy understands how to properly set her own Facebook privacy settings.
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