It’s a web 2.0 irony, that the biggest social networking platforms find their biggest pr nightmares occuring through the use of their very own structure. It happened recently with Facebook when users started setting up facebook groups demanding a return to the old design, after Facebook changed the layout of user profiles (to give public profiles – i.e businesses etc – more prominence).

More ironic, though, is the storm being created on twitter – against twitter, or rather some ‘small changes’ made recently to how the network deals with replies. Ironic because twitter has become one of the main engines for voicing public discontent with various brands – for example, the recent #amazonfail debacle where the virtual bookseller came under fire for changes to its ranking algorithms.

Head over to Twitter this morning and you’ll see that the top trending topic at the moment is #fixreplies, as users slam the recent decision to display to any given user solely the replys made to his/her account coming from people they follow. Previously you could also see replys to your account from people you don’t follow.

At least the twitter execs are coherent, using the network itself to try to win back some ground. Co-founder Evan Williams tweeted that they were looking at the tweets posted on the topic, and considering alternatives.

Tags: #amazonfail, #telegraphfail, clever use of social networking, pr on social networks