Social media policy

All strategies meant to address the risks involved with usage of social media should primarily focus on behavior of the user. This is through training support, awareness programs and policy development. The policies should serve to educate the staff and should flow from social media plan. There will be involvement of key staff in policy and development process. These staff should be especially those who are enlightened on what works well for the organization and those using social media tools (Shirley & Libby, 54)

Too restrictive policies handcuff staff and prevent them from ever making progress and developments on skills and processes. Good social media policies are premeditated to encourage engagement. It should be within a framework that provides clarity of purpose and direction. When an organization has good policies, the staff members are free to put more efforts and ideas. Some social media policies are a motivation to staff but their characteristics are the best.

Characteristics of good policies

All policies including social media policies have a number of similar characteristics. All the good policies are, practical, built on trust, without absolutes, designed to educate, friendly, in plain language and consistent. They derive on trust in that; all good policies should start from a trust’s position. One should believe that his or her people want to do the right thing. The intention of a policy is to guide people on their social media activities and behavior. A good policy focuses on what and how to do social media and it is preferable to a long list of what people should not do.

Having a reflection of values and culture from a policy makes it practical. A policies practicality means that the employees only review it when faced with unusual or new state of affairs but not always when they plan to interact online. A flexible organization empowers and trusts the employees more than the policy, hence grant the employees with greater discretion. Policies should not dictate on how the employees should work but only guide them through and remind them on what to do to avoid repeated mistakes (Brian & Wassom, 88).

Good policies have the motive to educate and since the social media is constantly evolving, therefore policies should be as much education as making rules. A social media organization should use its policies to help the employees become successful in their interactions online. They should be friendly, welcoming and heartwarming. Employees should feel safe and ready to engage since they know what they should do.

Things a policy should cover

A policy should cover personal use in the workplace. This mentions its authenticity, inappropriate sites, contents and conversations. It also entails the discussions of topics related to the workplace and the non-disclosure of topics related to business, in this case the social media organization. Employees should well understand this part since this is where loyalty starts. It should however not be too restricted.

It should also cover personal use outside the workplace. This is where there are standard disclaimers and warnings to the public about the employees. It contains restricted areas and lines of duty. It stipulates the dangers involved with posting too much information on an individual. It also has requirements for keeping professional content from personal. There is a mention of non-disclosure of content related to the business.

There is also the business use, which does not allow installations such as games and soft wares that could be a danger to the organization. It warns the workers not to share links and organization’s secrets. After the employees have gone through it, they understand that it is wrong to impersonate and failing to give credit while sharing someone’s content. Policies are however flexible and those who feel uncomfortable should always raise remedies to the relevant authorities.

Works Cited

Social Networking Privacy: How to be Safe, Secure and Social, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, June 2011.

Brian Wassom, 5 Predictions for Social Media Law in 2012, Mashable, 2012.

Sharlyn Lauby, Ethics and Social Media: Where Should You Draw The Line?, Mashable, 2012, David, Vinjamuri. Ethics and the Five Deadly Sins of Social Media, Forbes.com, 2011.

Social Media has taken, by far, the greatest lift thanks to the easy of access mobile devices offer.  Users can access their favorite communication systems from where ever they are.  These social media apps include, but are never limited to, sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, personal blogs and forum boards

.

Essentially, these services are simply allowing users to stay in constant communication with each other.  The ability to converse at any point in time with either an individual or the public is priceless.  This allows users to voice their opinion, share facts, and hold conversation from anywhere in the world.  The necessity of proximity for effective communication is no more.

What this means for companies is that the speed of business is going to skyrocket.  There is no more latency between meetings.  No schedule for travel time of agents, no communication lag between bosses and their subordinates.  This will even speed the process of order placement, shipment and reception.

Mobile Social Media can be boiled down to one point.  REAL TIME.  Every update and interaction is instantaneous.  Mobile devices have gotten rid of waiting to speak or be heard.  This is big for business too.  Mobile devices have made the cutting edge of business sharper.  It is no longer who can create the best long term strategy, but who can create the most effective short term strategy, which then leads into the next.  Decisions, advertisements, consumer statements and reactions all happen in real-time….     Keep Up!

Traditionally, the digital divide represented demographic inequalities among income, race, and location. Today, with technology becoming more and more accessible, the digital divide is more prevalent in age difference which ultimately boils down to interest.

The realm of social media has taken a little longer for older users to find interest in. However, over the past few years new forms of social media have increased the number of older generation users. Unlike Facebook, sites like Linkedin and Pinterest, appear to provide a purpose. You can see the difference in age demographics among Facebook and Linkedin users below.

As the social media activity of older users in sites like Linkedin continues to increase, I also believe an increase in usage of sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, and others will happen.

Citations:

http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/2011/09/linkedin-user-demographics-and-visitor-statistics-2011/http://www.kenburbary.com/2011/03/facebook-demographics-revisited-2011-statistics-2/

Your paper should have a thesis statement in its introduction in which you put forth a specific claim about the subject of your paper. The body of the paper should be the support for this statement.

These are some of the questions you might try to address in your paper.  You may not be able to answer all of them or you may want to add additional themes; they are to stimulate your thinking.  A good paper might address only a few of these.

• What are the strengths of this company’s social media use and how could it be improved?
• How has the company’s use of social media changed over time?
• What is the target market for this company’s products and how can they/are they using social media to target these consumers?
• What are the company’s/product’s competition?  How does your company seek to distinguish itself from the competition?
• What channels does your company actively participate in/on? Why do you think they chose the channel(s)?
• Are their any ethical or privacy concerns that arose around your company’s social media usage?
• Does your company’s message or style vary by channel? If so how?

Your paper must be written in well-crafted sentences and paragraphs of appropriate length (no one or two sentence paragraphs—it isn’t a news story).  You must spell correctly and use standard grammar, syntax, and word usage.  Your paper should have an introduction and conclusion and should be organized logically as a series of points, all of which are supported by evidence from your research.  Your paper should have a title, something more descriptive than “Industry Analysis Paper”.  Sources must be cited properly.  Poorly written papers will get bad grades even if the ideas contained in them are good.

Your report will be approximately five pages long and include the following sections:

1. Purpose: First, introduce your organization/brand and provide additional facts about it. Then include a statement of purpose that describes the need to monitor the online conversation about your organization/brand and the need to understand the industrial context which the brand/company operates within.
2. Methodology: The methodology section describes how you conducted your research. What social media sites did you visit? How did you locate these sites? What is the time frame (specific dates)? How did you determine the credibility of sources? What analytics tools did you use?
3. Results: The results section is the most important section of the report and therefore, should be the longest (a page or two). In this section, you will summarize what you learned about the organization/brand after reading the online conversations. You should organize the information by category.
   • Organizational use of social media
   • Competitive position with respect to industry
   • SWOT/Competitive analysis based on social media conversations
4. Conclusion: In this section, the researcher(s) will briefly interpret the results. Summarize your results and make suggestions for improvement.
5. Appendix: Sources and data tables summarizing the results of your monitoring and analytics assignments (not included in page count).

Here are some recommended page length and format guidelines.

• The paper should have a margin of 1 inch on all sides of the paper.
• The paper should be single spaced (if a 5 page paper) but can be double-spaced (for a 10 page paper).
• Any font that is simple, reproduces clearly and is easily read (Times New Roman, Ariel, Courier, etc.) is acceptable The same font/typeface and size must be used throughout the text.
• Acceptable font sizes are: 11 point and 12 point. Larger type up to 16 point can be used for document/chapter/section titles. Captions, footnotes, and footnote numbers can be in a smaller font than text, i.e., 9 point.
• The paper should be divided into sections, with section headers to improve readability.
• You can add an optional Title page and Table of Contents (not included in page count).
• References can be provided in any generally accepted citation format that includes, title, author(s), publication source, publication date and URL (for web materials).
• It must be produced in an easily legible Microsoft Word, simple HTML, or Adobe PDF format.

Grading criteria:

1. Content (e.g., overall understanding of subject, critical analysis, clarity, thought-flow, etc.)
2. Organization (e.g., grammar, spelling, language, format, ability to follow instructions, etc.)
3. Evidence of Research Thoroughness (e.g., documentation, identification of best practices, etc.)
4. Practical Nature of the Work for Business

The grade given to average work on all assignments is a C.   B or A indicates impressive achievement above the average.  A indicates especially exceptional work.  Grades C and below indicate inadequacies in any or all of the grading criteria.

Mobile Social Media Growth

Although social media growth has been exponential through most of the last decade, the incorporation of mobile social media has been like pouring gasoline on the flame. According to Nielson Wire, social media usage grew 66% percent between 2010 and 2011 (The Growing Role of Social Media in Business). Facebook’s mobile audience grew 50% since last year, twitter’s mobile usage increased 75%, and LinkedIn also saw an increase of 69% between 2010 and 2011 (Grove). With the growth of smartphone usage during this time, mobile media without a doubt played an important role in this growth.  The bottom line is social media usage has been rising at incredible rates, and does not appear to be slowing down any time soon.  (Grove, Mashable )

Types of Mobile Social Media

There are many faces to mobile social media. The primary kinds are:

1)      Online social networks on mobile devices

2)      Share content via social sites (ex. Instagram)

3)      Connect mobile sites and apps with social networks

4)      Mobile Social Networks

5)      Location-based check-in services

6)      Sharing and streaming content

7)      Social gaming (Berkowitz)

How to Use Mobile Social Media

Get in the game!

According to Jim Storer, “Mobile will become an imperative vs. a ‘nice-to-have’, as it [was] in 2011. Companies that figure out how to engage with consumers on their mobile devices will win”. (2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions).

Make something different!

Marketing expert Doug Haslam predicts that smartphones, ipads, will continue to grow for the next few years, and the companies that will survive will be those who get customers attention through these mediums (2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions).

Simplify!

The most important difference between mobile social media and traditional social media is simplicity expected by users. Whereas users are fairly tolerant of cluttered pages on their home computers, they expect sites, pages, and apps on their mobile devices to be especially well-organized, user friendly, and easy to navigate (Segreto). In addition, users are accustomed to advertisements on social media sites on their home computers, but have not yet grown accustomed to advertisements on their mobile devices to the same extent.   The easiest way to make a mobile social media campaign fail is to view it as another medium to publish advertisements.  People are already bombarded with advertisements everywhere they look, they do not respond well to them on their mobile devices. The beauty of social media is that it engages the customer and communicates with them. Mobile social media is the more intimate extension of this relationship where users now have continual access to their devices and to participate with your company.

Someone who did it right:

Dunkin’ Donuts took their already successful social media campaign to a new level with their implementation of the “Dunkin’ Coffee Customizer”.  This application is based on Facebook’s mobile platform and allows customers to build their own custom drinks from scratch, place an order for the drink, and post it to their wall to share with friends, all from their mobile device (Johnson). In addition, Dunkin’ Donuts has generated a great deal of buzz from their promotion of customers to check into a Dunkin’ Donuts via Facebook Places or Foursquare for a chance to win prizes (Johnson). The goals and success of Dunkin’ Donuts mobile campaign can be summed up in the words of Scott Hudler, vice president of global consumer engagement for Dunkin’ Brands said, “Leveraging the ‘Dunkin’ Coffee Customizer’ for mobile users is one of many ways we are interacting with fans in a way that is fun and celebrates their loyalty and how they are running on Dunkin’,” (Johnson).

Works Cited

“2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions.” 2011. Awareness. 25 April 2012.

Berkowitz, David. SlideShare.net. September 2010. 25 April 2012.

Boris, Cynthia. Marketing Pilgrim. n.d.

—. Marketing Pilgrim. 15 June 2011. 25 April 2012.

Grove, Jennifer Van. Mashable. 20 October 2011. Online . 25 April 2012.

—. Mashable . 12 February 2010. 25 April 2012.

Johnson, Lauren. Mobile Marketer-Dunkin’ Donuts Concocts Social Media Buzz via Interactive Mobile Campaign. 13 April 2012. Online. 2 May 2012.

Segreto, Paul. “Simplifying Social Media for Optimum Results.” August 2010. International Franchising Association. 25 April 2012.

The Growing Role of Social Media in Business. July 2011. 25 April 2012. <http://www.businessresourcecentre.co.nz/SG/SolutionGuideDisplay.aspx?SGID=169>.

The past year saw many new developments in online marketing, including evolving organic and paid search landscapes, convergence of social media and search marketing, growth of mobile and local searches and a rapid rise in spending on social media marketing using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Online marketers have only begun to explore and respond to these new opportunities. In this lecture we will discuss new tools and trends that may shape the face of social media this year. We will also discuss issues faces by companies when implementing social media.

Reading:

• Social Media Marketing and New Media Predictions, 2012

Guest Speaker Tuesday:

• Jamie Duklas, Director of Social Media at Booyah Online Advertising

Assignment

• No new assignment, finish your Analytics/Monitoring Project Paper

Presentations

If you want to present and write a blog post for this week’s topic please select an topic from the list below or choose some other current (2011/2012) topic related to social media to speak and write on.  Post a comment to this week (below)  with the topic or case you want speak and write on.  Every student presenting this week needs to present a different topic or case so look at what has already been selected before you make your choice.

• The digital divide
• Personal use of social media at work
• Social media policies
• The role of mobile in Social Media
• Find an article for a new social application or tool that is used with social media and present it to the class. The tool or application must have been released in the past 12 months.

When presenting a “topic” you need to have at least 3 external sources supporting your presentation.

When presenting a case, you may use the case list on the Resources page but you need to explicitly tie the case to the current topics for the week (how did that company do what we are talking about).

Use the category “future” for this week’s blog posts.

“Privacy is dead, and social media holds the smoking gun.”

- Pete Cashmore, Mashable CEO

(LBS) Location Based Software utilized by many social media platforms enables consumers to enjoy social interactions with incredible depth and remarkable transparency. The benefits included are not limited to simple discounts at retailers but rather an ability to survey an area for in depth information on anyone using LBS.

For example:      Girls Around me is a (banned) social media app which allows users to find women in an area allowing the user to review their social media information to “ideally” strike up a conversation and land a date.

There are many similar apps available to consumers such as Assisted Serendipity and Around Me. These applications allow a user to digitally scan the people around them for their own benefit.

Another, and more alarming application of LBS in social media is www.pleaserobme.com. This website will cross reference twitter and foursquare users to provide a notification of when the user is not at home so that burglars can confidently and safely rob the user. Please keep in mind this website is primarily a public awareness tool. However, the technology works and the information is out there waiting to be gathered and used by a criminal.

Video Parity – Please Rob Me

If you use Please Rob Me you will get this information.

Additionally, other LBS and mapping services have been used by thieves, such as…

A man in police custody for attempting to rob an Indian Head Park, Illinois home confessed that he used Google Maps to find expensive suburban homes and survey their properties to plan his break-ins.

Therefore here are a few Tips to help keep you safe.

1. Be very careful with your location based social media.
2. Carefully choose how you personally use all types of social media.
3. Turn off your GPS when you have no use for it.

Always remember GPS is tracking software which can be used for good and bad.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

References:

https://www.cdt.org/blogs/cdt/over-sharing-and-location-awareness

http://www.yalelawtech.org/anonymity-online-identity/insurance-hikes-privacy-risks-for-social-media-users/

https://www.eff.org/wp/locational-privacy

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/18/1340202/I-Use-Twitter-Please-Rob-Me

http://mashable.com/2009/08/27/facebook-burglary/

http://mashable.com/2010/02/17/pleaserobme/

http://shanebarker.com/15-great-social-media-quotes/

http://maruvishal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/location_based_map2.jpg

http://kexploresweb2.blogspot.com/2011/10/robbery-near-you-via-social-media.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/samuel-watson-used-google_n_985035.html

http://www.yalelawtech.org/anonymity-online-identity/insurance-hikes-privacy-risks-for-social-media-users/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/22/facebook-twitter-users-co_n_471548.html

The social networking sites are used by most people in the world for online interactions. The majority of their users are teenagers according to research that has been done. People share their personal information online through the personal profiles that they create. The information shared varies depending on each person (Mills Para. 6). These social networks are easily accessed by many people across the globe. The question that remains is how private the shared information is. Is there security guarantee of the privacy of the information that is shared online? There is no longer privacy in sharing personal details, as most young people disclose the most intimate profile information in these sites (Solove, Para. 4).

Companies are using the social sites for commercial purposes. The information that people post on these websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace can be accessed by companies and used for advertisements. Even when individuals delete some of the information that they have previously shared, the gadgets used by these companies are able to spam them back. It therefore requires that people re-examine the content that they share on the internet. There is fear that institutions might use the information shared on the internet against the individuals who use social sites (Betancourt Para. 1-4).

Another speculation is that some companies and private organizations use the information they get on the internet to accesses other types of personal information. Some of the data they uncover are credit card details, place of residence and even work place particulars. All the data and information that pertain to credit cards can be accessed through these channels. The information shared on social networks has no strict restrictions on the privacy. Perhaps the freedom that is allowed in the use of the internet has led to its misuse. If one delivers personal information to the wrong individuals, such data might be used against him/her. There are several reports that have been made where people are kidnapped in the name of meeting with friends (Angwin Para. 1-6).

According to Goettke and Christiana, the privacy in most social networks varies indefinitely (3). Goettke and Christiana categorized four most common networks into their privacy zones. Arranging them according to the order of the highest privacy in comparison with the others, Facebook.com and Classmates.com were ranked on the same scale of privacy. Facebook qualified for this because it does not allow for global searching. The settings options provided give the user a multiple of choices on how to privatize sensitive information (Goettke and Christiana 3). Classmates.com on the other hand requires a subscription fee, which bars many people from using it. As a result, only those who are willing to pay monthly are able to use it. It also restricts people who use it, and they should be strictly students (Goettke and Christiana pp. 4-5).

The other category that also shared the same class of privacy but relatively lower than that of Facebook.com and Classmates.com, was Myspace.com and Frienster.com. Myspace.com has ambiguous privacy settings as opposed to those provided for in Facebook.com, and its users find it difficult to alter them. At the same time, Frienster.com had similar features on privacy settings and the users must alter them from default settings in order to acquire privacy settings. Otherwise, the users’ profile and personal information is easily reached by the public. These are their appearances, starting with Myspace.com (Goettke and Christiana pp. 4-5).

In conclusion, the privacy of the information, which is shared by many young people and adults on the internet is not very secure. People are cautioned to evaluate the content of information that they share before they make their profiles public, in order to protect their privacy.

Works Cited

Angwin, Julia. “The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets.” Wsj.com. Dow Jones & Company, Inc, 30 Jul. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2012.

Betancourt, Leah. “How Companies are Using Your Social Media Data.” Mashable.com. Mashable, Inc, 02 Mar. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2012.

Goettke, Richard, and Joseph Christiana. Privacy and Online Social Networking Websites. Pdf.

Mills, Elinor. “SXSW Deebate: Social Networks Must Require Real Names.” Cnet.com. CBS Interactive, 10 Mar. 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2012.

Solove, Daniel, J. “Do social Networks Bring the End of Privacy?” Scientificamerican.com. Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc, 18 Aug. 2008. Web. 12 Apr. 2012.

But what if Courtney Love was not a famous celebrity and still tweeted the same exact things? This is where the ethical dilemma lies. Love defended herself saying that because of her status, saying something like this actually gave the company publicity and that it was not public slandering. But if someone who was not in the public eye said the same things about the company, would the lawsuit still gone through with? Also, what if Love’s twitter account had been private? Whoever is approved to follow her are following her for the reason to hear what she has to say. So is this a voicing of an opinion or slandering when its a celebrity that is doing the talking?

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/courtney-love-settles-twitter-defamation-case/#

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=7219953&page=1%20target=#.T5nAn3LLvAl

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/courtney-love-defame-lawsuit_b6126

I did a case study on Nestle’ and their social media disaster in March of 2011. It all started with a Greenpeace protest for the use of palm oil in their products. To get palm oil companies must cut down major sections of the rainforest which leads to deforestation causing endangered species to fight for habitat. After Greenpeacer’s started blowing up this issue on Nestlé’s Facebook fan page they started not only deleting posts but responding to offensive comments in a very negative manor. This caused the story to get picked up and soon Nestle’ was getting a bad rep in the social media community. The company even violated their own business principle of integrity and their commitment to “avoid any conduct that could damage or risk Nestlé or its reputation.” As you can read in the comments Nestle’s employee in charge of communicating with the public was rude, cynical, and abrasive. This not only affected the people who were engaging in dialogue with them but people just responding to the story. Some of the responses went like this, “Hey PR moron. Thanks you are doing a far better job than we could ever achieve in destroying your brand.” and “It’s not OK for people to use altered versions of your logos, but it’s OK for you to alter the face of Indonesian rainforests? Wow!” The main ethical issue was the fact that they had right to protect their intellectual property but that is NOT how it was portrayed by the internet community. In situations like this no one feels bad for the big bad corporation who was citing copyright and trademark laws, they feel bad for the people who Nestle’ tried to harass online! In situations like this it’s not all about law; but perception of your company and how they react to problems brought to light via social media. My questions for you are…
 Does it matter that Nestle legally had the right to delete the comments?
 Is it ever ethical to delete someone comment on your company’s’ fan page?
 Is flooding a company’s social media sites an ethical way to induce change?

Sources

http://www.joergweishaupt.com/online-marketing/facebook-online-marketing/nestle-meltdown-on-facebook-shows-sticky-side-of-social-media.html

http://www.ibe.org.uk/userfiles/social%20media%20briefing.pdf

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20000805-36.html

http://www.labnol.org/internet/nestle-facebook-page/13208/

You can update your status. Post pictures. Put any kind of information about yourself. Seems like fun to most people. Of course, you don’t want everyone to know everything about you. So, Facebook has a couple of options for privacy. For instance, friends only, or public. Friends only is when only your friends can see your posts or pictures. Public is open to anyone from anywhere. So you can hide your information from certain people. Or so you may think.

The real problem is Facebook itself. It is stated in their new privacy policy or what they call, Data Use Policy. What does this policy do? According to ABC News, Facebook depends on targeted advertising to gain revenue. Those cool games and apps on the Facebook page are essentially surveys. Surveys for advertisers. More like traps. Advertisers are allowed to look at the activity on someone’s page to know who to target. Facebook’s Data Use Policy, allows them to give away some of our information for a price. So, our information is being sold without our knowledge.

Survey

Only 20 percent “could correctly identify how to block outside applications and websites from accessing their information on Facebook.

46 percent of those surveyed say they will “change their behavior after reading the policies for both Google and Facebook

75 percent plan to change their privacy settings on Facebook

35 percent said they’ll use Facebook less

Solutions

First of all, keep pictures private! Especially those you don’t want others to see.

Second, don’t give any information away! No need for full names or where you live. Especially when you comment.

Third, don’t play games that ask for your profile to be public! These are tricks so that advertising companies can look at your profile.

Lastly, don’t click on any links you don’t trust! You will be hacked.

Sources

https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/your-info#inforeceived

http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/science_tech/facebook-tweaks-privacy-rules-ahead-of-ipo-wcpo1335286311621

http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/google-facebook-privacy-policies-more-confusing-credit-card-agreements-survey-734968

Here are the three most important common guidelines that should be followed by professionals using Social Media:

1)  Confidentiality – Never share private information about the company that has not been released to the public.  This includes future financial, consumer, or product information, and company trade secrets.

2)  Honesty – Be honest and transparent.  Always disclose who you are and who you work for and that the thoughts and opinions you express are that of your own.

3)  Respect – Know and respect your audience.  Never use  ethnic or racial slurs, obscenity, or personal insults or attacks.

As a user of Social Media, you are legally responsible for anything you post online.  Be careful with your words, think before you post, and make sure what you decide to post is meaningful and legitimate.  Furthermore, do not make statements that give consumers premature information if you are not authorized to do so.  These policies are in place to protect you and the company of any legal issues and/or liabilities.

Newsweek released the following 10 Key Habits to Protect Your Privacy Online:

1. Manage Your Cookies: While many sites requires cookie data collection to function, when you are done browsing it is always a good idea to delete cookies to ensure any passwords haven’t been stored in unwanted places
2. Don’t Put Your Full Birthday on Social  Media Sites: This is the most straightforward and easiest way to protect your identify from being stolen online.
3. Don’t Download App’s from Outside the United States: All apps pose a risk because they are mostly created by developers not associated with a trusted company. Apps from outside the U.S. have been proved to pose a higher risk of being malicious. Always read what information the app will be collecting from you, and check to see if it is coming from a credible company.
4. Use Multiple Usernames and Passwords: Keep your banking password and your social media passwords separate and non-related. This seems like a simple measure to take, but be honest with yourself. Are you actually taking  measures to keep your passwords and usernames unaffiliated?
5. Know How Much Private Data Exists About You: Have you Google’d yourself? How deep have you researched to find information about yourself? Do other people exist with your same name in your same geographic location? How does their image affect you personally? This information probably affects you more than you know, especially if you are in the job market.
6. Be Cautious About Geo-Tagging: Think about your personal security. Our world is filled with many more kidnappers, stalkers, and other scary people than we like to think. Turn off your geo-tagging, or wait until you are at a unknown location to approve the geo-tagged post.
7. Shred: While you can’t necessarily shred your online documents, making sure you shred all credit cards, credit card statements, bank offers, and other sensitive information will ensure your piece of trash doesn’t blow away and fall into the hands of someone who just needed an extra tidbit of information to steal your identity using the internet.
8. Opt out of People-Search Sites: There are many websites that collect and aggregate personal information. Whether this information is true or not, it will effect your image and therefore poses risks.
9. Max Out Privacy Control Features: Social media sites often change their privacy settings and it is up to you as the user to keep up with the changes. Check monthly to ensure your privacy settings haven’t changed, and also check to see if there are new security features you can be taking advantage of. (Check out this interactive link to see the Evolution of Privacy on Facebook).
10. Close Old Accounts: Haven’t used your MySpace in a few years? No? Then deactivate/delete it! This is the easiest way to rid extra sources of personal information of yourself.

Ask questions! Who can see my posts? What are other people posting about me? What is the total reach of my posts? Avoid losing your job because of a sensitive post. This teacher had to learn the hard way: Teacher Fired Over Facebook.

McAfee Suggests Several Ways to Increase Your Password Security:

Length of Your Password Matters! Create a password that is between 9 and 14 characters.

Complex Passwords are Harder to Crack! Avoid using all dictionary words. Include punctuation and numbers into your password.

Change it Up! Change your passwords at least every 3 months, especially on banking sites or sites that carry extremely sensitive information.

Use Multiple Passwords/Usernames! Have variety everywhere you go. Need help remembering all those usernames and passwords? There are several free and secure apps you can use to keep track and manage your passwords. Check out: memengo.com!

Keep Passwords Non-Personal! Even though none of your close friends ever remember what your mother’s maiden name was, this personal information is easy for hackers to search for. (Several celebrity nude photo’s were actually hacked and distributed because of this lack of attention!)

Malware: 

Malware is any form of intentional program that means to harm your computer. Scan your computer to check for any hidden and unrecognized programs. Do this for free by going to: pcpitstop.com.

Phishing:

Hackers create look-a-like web pages where users will enter in their private/sensitive information, giving it directly to the malicious hackers. Always keep an eye on your browser bar to ensure you are using a secure http whenever possible. Learn to identify phishing sites by taking this quiz.

2-Step Verification:

Facebook and Google allow your accounts to be recognized by the computer you typically log in from. Creating a 2-step verification will prompt your account to send you an extra password through a text message when logging in from an unknown computer.

Password Keychains:

Certain malware works by recording every individual keystroke make by a user. These programs are then able to record your passwords and hack your accounts. A password keychain allows your web browser to automatically fill in your password so you don’t actually have to type it out.

Protecting your online presence and identity will protect you more than you know. Being turned down for a mortgage, being denied health care, or losing your job because of the things you post isn’t fair, but it does happen.  Technology will only become more advanced and progress faster and faster in the future. Take the first steps into protecting yourself, by taking advantage of everything you know about online security.

Sources:

• www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx
• www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/10/22/10-ways-to-protect-your-privacy-online.html
• www.villagegamer.net/2012/01/24/over-half-of-canadians-do-not-consider-their-reputation-in-online-activities
• www.pcpitstop.com
• www.opendns.com/phishing-quiz
• blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/password-policy-length-vs-complexity

As social networks like Facebook and Twitter become ingrained in our daily lives, we need to understand the risks and take steps to change the way we interact on the Web. After all, our privacy and security on these sites — in terms of how much we share with others and what we consume — is ultimately up to each of us. This week week will examine privacy, security and ethical considerations for implementing social tools.

Reading:

• The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets
• How Companies Are Using Your Social Media Data
• Privacy as a Luxury Commodity
• Social Media Security and Privacy Settings

Assignment

• No new assignment, continue working on your Analytics/Monitoring Project Paper

Presentations

If you want to present and write a blog post for this week’s topic please select an topic from the list below or choose some other topic related to privacy, security and ethical issues in social media to speak and write on.  Post a comment to this week (below)  with the topic or case you want speak and write on.  Every student presenting this week needs to present a different topic or case so look at what has already been selected before you make your choice.

• Key Legal Issues in Social Media
• Legal Costs of Social Media
• Ownership of User-Generated Content on Social Media Sites
• Social Media Policies
• Essential Contracts and Related Enforceability Issues
• Privacy online
• Case study related to privacy, security or ethical problem faced by a company/individual due to their social media use.

When presenting a “topic” you need to have at least 3 external sources supporting your presentation

When presenting a case, you may use the case list on the Resources page but you need to explicitly tie the case to the current topics for the week (how did that company do what we are talking about).

Use the category “privacy-security” for this week’s blog posts.

First, the most important part of any social media contest is connecting with fans. The way in which this will be accomplished should be thought out and evaluated as to why this certain social media makes sense for us before choosing that route. In most instances the platform used will be either Facebook or Twitter. As mentioned in the presentation today, Facebook has daily traffic of around 845 million and 100 million on Twitter. The entry method should be easy and understandable for fans. The key it to keep it simple. Let fans know what you are trying to accomplish and do so in the simplest way.

The example I used for this instance was Frontier Airlines. Recently Frontier hosted a contest to let fans choose the next animal to be featured on their Frontier planes. After a lengthy contest a winner was chosen from the remaining 3 contestants. (They started with 18). For the final round of voting the animals were featured in interviews and funny videos to encourage fans to vote. The winner was actually just revealed last night; the winner was Polly the Parrot with a majority 32% of the votes.

The next key step to remember is the contest must serve a purpose. The best contests go beyond just a simple registration form to enter and require something more creative. This also is an advantage because it helps eliminate ‘bad’ traffic and contestants from entering. ‘Bad’ contestants are those who have no real interest in your company or brand and are simply just trying to win something for free. When a contest calls for a more creative entry this helps weed out those ‘bad’ contestants and find your true fans. Connecting with your true fans is very important as many social media experts believe that simply increasing likes or followers is a bad goal to have.

The example I demonstrated for this step came from the hip hop artist Drake. In early May Drake will begin a nation wide tour, called Club Paradise Tour, and he is looking for a new opening act. On April 16 a contest, created by Drake and friends, opened for aspiring artists to submit an original song on the social media music site ourstage.com. On April 30, the contest will end and the winner will be selected, by Drake himself, from the Top 100 songs voted on by fans. This is a pretty cool contest and a similar way to how Drake was born into hip hop music and is now giving another artist the same chance.

Finally the last key is to offer a reward. Obviously nobody wants to enter into a contest if there is nothing to win. Companies typically offer prizes in one of three ways. In most cases companies hosting the contest will offer a third party prize. For example, the Denver Nuggets giving away an iPad, its a third party prize. The next most common is by giving the winner a product in which is made by the company. The last prize offered can be intangibles. This includes exposure, win a day with a celebrity, or more likes or views on your Twitter or YouTube pages. Companies must evaluate their audience and their contest and decide what is the best prize to offer, the reward should relate to the contest or company in some way.

The example I used for the last step was Samsung. Yesterday Samsung introduced a Facebook contest called ‘Crazy Comics.’ This contest is basically filling in the words to a comic strip where the pictures are given to you. For 10 weeks, each weeks, one winner will be selected for the funniest and most liked comment and win a new Samsung digital camera. This is a smart prize because it is exclusive and directly related to the brand Samsung.

Social media contests are a great way to connect with fans and create brand awareness. Sometimes social media contests blow up way bigger than ever expected and sometimes the contests just never catch on. To insure the better end of this outcome thorough preparation should be done to explore what avenues to use for the contest, who will be targeted and what goal(s) will be accomplished through the contest.

Bibliography

When we talk about social media sites, we usually just mention the popular ones such as Facebook and Twitter, both of which there are millions of users on both platforms. When browsing these social media sites, most of the time all you see is text, and pictures posted here and there. Facebook obviously has one advantage over Twitter in that it’s easier to actually see when someone has shared or posted a picture. Twitter on the other hand is difficult, most of the time you have to click on a link, that loads forever in order to see the image. Well there is an application out there that many people use on their smartphones (predominately the Apple iPhone) in which images are shared to followers in a few easy steps.

Let me introduce Instagr.am, that is a social media photo sharing application for mobile devices. Not only is it beneficial to you if you constant post photos, but it also gives you the ability to edit on the spot and immediately share on multiple other social media sites such as: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and FourSquare. The best part of this is that once your image is edited and posted into your feed, people people that follow you can like and comment on it.

So when it comes to editing on Instagram, there are a few options that you have and with a combination of them you can do pretty cool stuff. You can add certain ‘filters’ to your photos that enhance the image even more, you can add a border, rotate, blur the edges or the sides and even select if it was taken out doors by selecting the sunshine button.

Here are all the filters that you can use on the ‘normal’ / original image:

This shows what all the filters are capable of once applied to the original photo.

After the applications of filters, you have the option to add a caption, a geotag as well as choose what other social media sites you would like to share the photo with. This not only makes it easy, but it also means that you don’t have to login into ever social media site that you are on in order for everyone to see it. With this one easy step, it saves you time in posting it on all your social media sites.

 Businesses that Use Instagram

It turns out that businesses also are starting to use Instagram to share with their fans and followers. A few that  I follow for instance are : PandoraRadio, Whole Foods Market and Starbucks. All three are very successful businesses that are well known names and they are the ones that are sharing with their customers in a visual sort of way, by posting updates in the form of images. Here is a list of 20 other businesses that use Instagram:

1.ABC World News (News)

2.Bergdorfs (Fashion)

3.Billboard (Music Publication)

4.Brisk (Beverage)

5.Burberry (Fashion)

6.Celtics (Sports)

7.CNN (News)

8.CNN iReport (News)

9.General Electric (Research & Technology)

10. Good Morning America (News/Entertainment)

11. Gucci (Fashion)

12. Incase (Fashion/Apparel)

13. MTV (Entertainment)

14. NBC News (News)

15. NH Hotels (Hospitality)

16. NPR (News)

17. Pepsi Max (Beverage)

18. Redbull (Beverage)

19. Sharpie (Art/Supplies)

20. The Situation Room (CNN) (News)

All of these businesses are all in different fields from fashion and apparel to news and entertainment to food  and research/technology. All of these businesses update by sharing photos, making the people who follow them enjoy what their companies are doing and seeing at a visual level.

Why should businesses use Instagram?

So the next big question is: Why should businesses use Instagram?

Well that’s easy, people now a days, more like consumers these, view things quickly and what better way to capture your audience than sharing pictures with potential buyers and current consumers. it’s easy to capture a moment and quickly edit and upload it, without the hassle of downloading it to the computer, doing any possible edits and then going to each and every social media site that your company has to upload it. It is all done in one easy step. Plus it has the potential of reaching 27 million+ consumers (and that’s on the iPhone market alone, they are currently planning on releasing the app on the Android market) and with the growth of smartphone usage, the potential of reaching millions of more people is growing everyday.

Well that is a brief overview of what Instagram is and why businesses should use it, for more information you can check out my references down below.

Here is also the link to my presentation:

http://prezi.com/equ9kaibvuh9/present/?auth_key=clxq2zj&follow=ezaa7zzqgtd3

Jantsch, John. “How to Use Instagram to Tell and Sell Your Marketing Story.” Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. Duct Tape Marketing, 05 Dec. 2011. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2011/12/05/how-to-use-instagram-to-tell-and-sell-your-marketing-story/>.

Keath, Jason. “Social Fresh.” SOCIAL FRESH. SocialFresh, 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. <http://socialfresh.com/brands-on-instagram/>.

Wormley, Rob. “Why You Should Be Using Instagram For Business.” One Social Media LLC. OneSocialMedia, 15 Mar. 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. <http://www.onesocialmedia.com/why-you-should-be-using-instagram-for-business/>.

Blue-Bell ice cream is an example of a company that has reached out to their customer base via social media, asking them what new flavor of ice cream do they want to see. After sifting through the good ideas and the crazy ideas, they have come up with new flavors such as hot chocolate, spiced pumpkin pecan, lemon ice box pie, and caramel kettle crunch just to name a few. The winner of this competition won free ice cream for the rest of their lives. Competitions like this tend to build brand loyalty. The consumers feel like they have a say in what new flavors come out feel more tied to that brand. Not only can product innovation contests bring in some new ideas for the company, they can increase brand awareness and loyalty-a win win for the company.

Dominos Pizza was receiving numerous complaints about how their pizza used to taste, and they determined that something had to be done about it. They turned to their social media channels to ask their customers and critiques what was wrong with the pizza and what they could do to fix that. After sifting through the millions of responses, they totally re-innovated their pizza, making it taste 100 times better in my opinion.

The list of companies turning to social media for innovation continues to grow, from Mountain Dew to Gillette, from Cisco to Frontier Airlines. If you can successfully manage your customer responses, any company could harness the continually growing power of social media.

Sources

The big picture here: Companies need to address the power of Social Media and get involved in the ‘conversations’ that are taking place out there. Social media for companies is a means to listen. And listening to pure thoughts from a consumer is a prime example of market research.

Many industry professionals are not emphasizing the importance of Social Media, or are not using it to their full advantage.  The thought is that companies are using social media for advertising, brand perception and brand awareness, when really the power of the medium is to listen.  Even more staggering is the recent report done on Fortune 500 companies about social media usage. A reported 62% of the Fortune 500 companies have active Twitter accounts, 23% have corporate blogs, and 58% have corporate Facebook pages.  You would think these numbers would be higher. If these companies have a desire to stay afloat, research suggests to hop on the social media bandwagon.   

A study conducted in Boston in 2010 proves just how powerful social media can be to companies not only for research, but yes, sales. The research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research company reported that many consumers stated they feel more compelled to recommend and buy from a brand after liking/following the brand on social media. Check it out:

All data and research aside, the verdict is in. Companies that use social media to listen and interact with consumers are ahead of the game. And companies that don’t are truly missing out. People are talking, talking, talking, and wise companies are listening. The social media medium is a primary source for consumer research.

Sources:

http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/fortune

blog.cmbinfo.com/press-center-content/bid/46920/Consumers-Engaged-Via-Social-Media-Are-More-Likely-To-Buy-Recommend

http://socialmediainfluence.com/2011/06/16/guest-analysis-moving-from-social-media-monitoring-to-social-business-intelligence/