Skip to main contentYou may or may not remember that back in '08, Aaron Durand, the son of Portland's Broadway Books owner Roberta Dyer, wrote a blog post offering to buy a burrito for anyone who spent over $50 at his mom's ailing store. Long story short: He posted the plea on social media, the story went viral, many people bought books, and the store did not go out of business.
Last week, Twitter launched a self-congratulatory page called Twitter Stories, a page highlighting inspirational tales that "reminds us of the humanity behind tweets that make the world smaller." The page highlights several heartwarming stories—from a man who found a kidney donor to how Roger Ebert discovered his "new" voice—but the big feature piece is this video:
It's a sweet story (and has gained a second wind in the press thanks to this video), but what it doesn't mention is that Durand now works for Twitter. While that doesn't invalidate the story of a son using the Internet (including Blogger, Facebook, and email) to help his mom, it does make it difficult to buy their claim that it was all thanks to "that one little tweet."
A little disclosure goes a long way.
WWeek 2015