Archive for May, 2011

Be Careful What You Say — Examples of Social Media and the Law

I’d like to welcome guest blogger Ashley Spade to the floor today.  Ashley is currently a law student and you can find here on Twitter at @ashpade. _____________ It is estimated that a total of 234 million people in the United States age 13 and older use some form of social media on a regular basis, with 9 out of 10 internet users accessing social media. According to one estimate, social networks now account for 22 percent of all time spent on the internet in the U.S. It should come as no surprise that social media has found its way into the workplace. In terms of promotion and marketing, social media can fit nicely into the business world. In terms of posting your opinion on much your boss sucks or even posting things that could be seen as trademark infringement, social media can get you into trouble at the workplace. Eric B. Meyer, of the labor and employment branch of Dilworth Paxson LLP, says that a company can and likely will monitor use of social media by their employees. Keep in mind that what you say and what you post reflects not only on you, but your employer. There is no law against using social media. However, what you post may be in direct violation of your company’s ethics policy. Some recent examples of social media having a direct impact on a person’s employment status include: A Connecticut woman was fired after she posted disparaging remarks about her boss on Facebook A Florida teacher was fired for posting vacation pictures of her in a bikini and subsequently found it difficult to find employment elsewhere A man in Indiana was fired for posting comments saying he didn’t like an energy drink that happened to be made by the company he worked [...]

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If You Ran Facebook

“We are not seats or eyeballs or or end users or consumers. We are human beings — and our reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it.” While I’ve never met him in person, Doc Searls is one of my personal heros in all things related to the Interwebz. He’s one of the visionary foursome who in 1999, nailed their version of the 95 Theses to the doors of corporate marketing departments everywhere. Twelve years later, most of Doc’s revelations have become reality. He can see the matrix. I stumbled across this video (among others) somewhere around 2AM in the morning on Monday night, while I was preparing for a talk at the Astute Solutions Customer Conference.  (If I’m nice to him, maybe Eric will allow me to post some of the video from the event here for you to see.) It’s interesting that Doc’s infamous statement that opens this post seems to relate to what I was getting at during my talk. Marketing is about delivering messages that encourage people to buy stuff. Yet, the web is now full of humans who simply want to dialog with each other.  Seems to me that Facebook does a decent job of that today (Thank you, Mark). But what if Mark wasn’t calling the shots? What if you were running Facebook? If You Were Running Facebook If you were running Facebook, would you side with Doc? Would you focus on building tighter relationships with Facebook users too? What about creating a Pro Facebook level? That would be a major shift in Facebook’s model. Would you take the risk? Or, would you take a different approach all together? What’s your take? nateriggsI advise mid-sized & large organizations on how to adopt and use social media to market through organizational culture and better serve their clients. I’m [...]

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