The Overshare Generation: Eight Tips to Staying Safe on the Social Web

Today’s culture is an over-sharing culture.  Between Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Foursquare, and numerous other social media tools at our disposals and on our personal devices, we are always connected and always sharing.  Our social calendar is on our social media.  While this has contributed to a smaller, more connected world, we must be aware of the new dangers that these sites and apps pose personally, financially, and professionally.  

Hackers can now easily access personal information that people willingly put out onto the Web.  People can put their thoughts out into the world in the span of a nanosecond.  Sensitive information and unpopular opinions can spread at a rapid pace with little to no control.  Social media is a whole new world and that presents whole new dangers.  In order properly practice and work within social media, you must learn how you can protect yourself and your organization.

Eight Tips to Keeping Safe

 

Here are eight major considerations one must take into account when dealing with social media privacy and policy:

• Always be aware of your privacy settings: Social networking sites such as Facebook are constantly changing their privacy policies. You must keep on top of these security changes and track what your privacy and security settings look like in order to protect the information you share with friends and family from strangers and potential identity thieves.  ZDNet offers a helpful guide on how to properly lock down your privacy and security settings on Facebook by walking the user through “a crucial focus area of Facebook's settings, and will run through every single setting, option and feature available to users, to ensure that your privacy is as protected as it can be.” (Whittaker, 2011)

• Avoid specificity: Social media is designed to share what you are doing, where you are doing it, and who you are doing it with.  However, this can be cat nip to potential identity thieves looking for whatever clues they can find about you through your social media accounts.  Avoiding specifics about your personal information, your daily schedule, and different aspects of your life can better protect you from those looking to exploit you.

• Know what you are clicking on: Link shortening sites such as Bit.ly are useful, especially with the rising importance of micro-blogging.  However, these tools can often obfuscate the link’s final destination.  Hackers can exploit an innocent click, planting viruses or malware on your organization’s computer systems.  Always exercise caution and always know where you are clicking to.

• Always pay attention to changes in the social media space:  New and exciting social media tools are being invented and popularized almost every day.  The social media user must always be aware of these emerging technologies and how they can be used against you and your organization.  Always be aware of how these new tools gather and disseminate your information and act cautiously.

• Every organization is different.  What may have been allowable in one office may not be allowable at your next.  Knowing your specific organization’s social media policy (what is right or wrong, what is considered proper and improper communication) will help you avoid a lot of headaches and trouble in the future.

• Just because your organization allows it, doesn’t mean you should be doing it:  “The NLRB takes the position that broad policies that substantially limit social media communications may violate Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which protects an employee’s right to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid and protection” (Collins, 2012).  Just because the NLRB takes this position does not mean you should feel free to share whatever you want to the world.  Always exercise caution about what you are saying because it could harshly effect your work environment later on.

• Know who you are speaking to:  As with everything communications: know your audience.  But in this specific context, be very aware of who you are speaking with, how they will take your content, and how that can affect you personally and professionally.  A funny joke to you and your friends may be considered offensive or disturbing to your co-workers and the public at large.

• Post as if you are speaking in a public square:  If it’s not something you would say loudly in public, it’s probably best not to say it at all.  This can often be hard to understand when you are sitting by yourself in front of your computer or hand held device.  Social media presents itself as a bit of false intimacy, like a small conversation with friends, when it is really a large megaphone to the world.

What Privacy?

We are living our entire lives on the social web and an effect of that is our information and private opinions are up for grabs by anyone willing to listen.  While this can be a great connective tool, the dangers are too great.  It is up to the user what they decide to share and how they share it.  The responsibility lies with you.

This is an aspect of today’s digital culture that is going under recognized.   That is why it is vital for an organization to have a strong social media policy that can enforce and guide what is acceptable.  As an employee, everything we do can reflect on the organization we represent.  It’s not just thieves and hackers we have to worry about, it’s ourselves.

The story of Justine Sacco is just such a case.  The ex-PR exec shared an inappropriate joke about AIDS and Africa and the company she worked for ‘parted ways’ with her.  In the aftermath, they issued the following statement:    

“The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question.  There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally.  We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core."

Proper social media training on the core principles and policies for the company could have avoided such a situation.  As the NLRB has clarified “individual employee rants…are not protected under the [National Labor Relations Act]…employees may be disciplined or terminated for engaging in such public rants” (Halpern & Gardner, 2012).  We are putting too much of our lives on the web and each of the points I’ve listed above can help in stemming that tide, protecting ourselves from digital thieves, hackers, and even ourselves.

Do you think we as a culture are over-sharing or is it just certain groups and people that are guilty of it?  How can we lessen what we put of ourselves online or is already too late?

References

Collins, J. M. (2012, February 01). NRLB Report: Employers' Social Media Policies Must be Narrow, Must not Restrict Right to Engage in Protected Activities. Retrieved from The National Law Review: http://www.natlawreview.com/article/nrlb-report-employers-social-media-policies-must-be-narrow-must-not-restrict-right-t

Halpern, S. J., & Gardner, C. H. (2012, December 03). When is Your Company’s Social Media Policy an Unfair Labor Practice? Recent NLRB Decisions Offer Long-Awaited Guidance for Employers. Retrieved from National Law Review: http://www.natlawreview.com/article/when-your-company-s-social-media-policy-unfair-labor-practice-recent-nlrb-decisions-

Stelter, B. (2013, December 22). 'Ashamed': Ex-PR exec Justine Sacco apologizes for AIDS in Africa tweet. Retrieved from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/22/world/sacco-offensive-tweet/

Whittaker, Z. (2011, September 4). September 2011: The Definitive Facebook Lockdown Guide. Retrieved from ZDNet:http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/september-2011-the-definitive-facebook-lockdown-guide/12641

The Late Night Talk Show Wars Will Be Fought On Social Media

Former Saturday Night Live star and Late Night host Jimmy Fallon entered broadcast history this week beginning his tenure as the sixth host of The Tonight Show, NBC’s venerable late night institution.  Surrounding the departure of Jay Leno and the arrival of the younger, more tech-savvy Jimmy Fallon, has been a lot of hype over how the younger-leaning Fallon will do against the well-established competition on CBS and ABC.  David Letterman is the old guard on the late night scene and the last standing ‘warrior’ of the so called ‘late night wars’ now that Leno has left the airwaves.  It's Jimmy Kimmel, however, who has been making waves at 11:30 ever since he was moved up from his midnight time slot just last year.  Ever since Kimmel started competing with the ‘big boys’ directly, he’s been making large strides building on the younger demos.  This is the reason behind NBC’s decision to put Leno out to pasture (again): despite the fact that he was still the ‘leader in late night’ in the ratings, his younger demos continued to shrink and that was leading to decreasing profits for the late night institution.

 

The key to Jimmy Kimmel’s success is no secret and it’s a large part of why Jimmy Fallon was chosen to succeed the older-skewing Leno on The Tonight Show perch.  Kimmel and Fallon share a great talent for creating great viral content and really pushing the limits of what social media can do for their respective shows.  Ratings all across the broadcast spectrum have been trending downwards but Kimmel has shown surprising growth ever since he was promoted to his earlier time slot.  If anything, Kimmel is demonstrating night after night that in order to succeed in late night today, you have to go viral.

Social Media Is The New Word of Mouth

As marketers, we must find a way to capitalize on the opportunity that social media provides.  It’s not enough to just communicate with potential consumers and hope they happen to click to your brand, like it, and interact with it.  We sometimes look at social media as something that is connecting people around the world to our brand but we have to look deeper than that.  Social media is connecting consumers with people in their own communities and personal spheres.  It is through interacting with other individuals talking about your company that consumers will engage, search, and find the specific brands and products that will be the best fit for them.  

The New Marketer

Traditional avenues of communications and advertising are important in attracting attention and brand resonance but social media has added a new wrinkle to the communication mix.  Powerful tools of communication are in the hands of the public now and they can at once hurt and help your brand in an instant, depending on their own personal experiences with it.  The power of word-of-mouth is hundred times more potent and powerful in this digital age.  “Social media has evolved from a mere post it-answer it model…to instantaneous publish-subscribe models,” providing an instantaneous call and response to an individual’s followers regarding what to purchase and where to purchase.   An excellent example of this kind of connection between consumers is when an individual “stands in front of a refrigerator in a store and check out reviews of that model; the consumer can Twitter his network to get advice on all models, this brand, and this store instantaneously…buying hesitancy is removed and the purchase takes place.” (Qualman, 2013, p. 83)

This is an extreme example but illustrates a great opportunity for marketers and companies to track how people are discussing the brand and allows them the ability to interject and take part in that conversation.  Word-of-mouth has always been an important tool that marketers were never able to take full advantage of until now.  Word-of-mouth now exists in the digital realm and happens in an instant.  Marketers can now physically watch and interact as it happens and spreads.  This video shows one small company, without the resources of a major corporation, finding great success in connecting with the word-of-mouth conversation already happening around the subject of wine.

Jared & Subway

So how can marketers take advantage of these conversations occurring without them?  Like the people at the Wine Library, they can jump into that conversation, searching for where people are talking about their product and comment and interact with consumers.  Subway is a major example of a company that nearly missed the boat on an opportunity where people were already talking about their sandwiches.

Jared’s Subway weight loss story was a major marketing win for the company.  His story presents the sandwich maker and its low-fat sandwiches in a positive light.  Since Jared started as a Subway spokesman, sales have grown at an incredible rate.  However, when the Jared idea was first introduced to the company, Subway rejected the entire idea behind it.  Jared was someone who “was an avid user of [Subway’s] product and service” that the company dismissed out of hand.  However, once they turned around on the idea, the company found unprecedented success.

Subway’s Jared experience, though not taking place through social media, demonstrates a great overall lesson that is vital we learn as marketers in this new digital age.  Essentially, companies “need to be comfortable in knowing that not everything related to the brand will be owned by them; their customers will take ownership.” (Qualman, 2013, p. 85)  Conversations about their products and brands are already happening on the Web and will continue to happen with or without their input.  Marketers need to watch this conversation happen and help guide it towards a positive view of the company and/or brand in order to achieve success. 

How can businesses use social media to steer the conversation?  Great, immediate customer service over Twitter and commenting on blogs is a great way to increase their own interaction with consumers talking about their brand.   But how else can companies interject themselves into conversations already happening in regards to their company/brand?

Works Cited
 

Qualman, E. (2013). Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Alone Yet Still Alone – How The Academy Award’s Most Obscure Nominee Became It’s Most Talked About

The 86^th Annual Academy Awards air March 2 this year with host Ellen DeGeneres.  The timeframe between the announcement of the nominees and the big show is a harried, frenzy time for film publicists looking to get their nominated film in the best position to grab Oscar gold.  Major studios pump millions of dollars into the system in order to garner a nomination and, hopefully, a win.  Big prestige pictures such as Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, and numerous others are released and promoted for months on end, both externally to the public and internally at big insider galas and events publicizing the film for awards consideration amongst the numerous awards-giving groups that help build buzz and eventual Oscar glory.  These are films that have been talked up around inner Hollywood circles for months now in the lead up to the big ceremony creating intricate narratives: Matthew McConaughey finding career redemption, Bruce Dern achieving respect and acclaim in the twilight of his career, 12 Years a Slave capping a vital year in black cinema.  However, there is one little film that definitely won’t be mentioned that night but has crafted its own very unique Oscar season narrative.

The film, Alone Yet Not Alone, was announced as a Best Song nominee with the rest of the above films.  The Christian-themed film about two young sisters kidnapped by Native Americans during the French and Indian War had its nomination revoked by the Academy’s Board of Governors.   So, what happened here?  And what lead to the Academy taking such a major step against one of its most minor of nominees?  The story behind this reveals how what could have been considered bad news might end up doing wonders for the small Christian-themed film at the box office.

The Super Bowl and IMC: What Place Does Social Media Have In Corporate Strategy

What role does a company’s communication play in day-to-day operations?  Argenti, Howell, and Beck argue in MIT Sloan Management Review that “strategic communication is inextricably linked to corporate strategy.”( http://bit.ly/1aWvfVH) With the continuing social media revolution and continuing innovations in how we speak and communicate with each other, company’s need to make sure strategic use of these new communication tools is effectively used and really become a part of their overall strategy.

When developing an IMC program, every element needs to align and create a specific message that best communicates a company’s branding message and selling point.  Social media is merely a new tool that needs to fit in and be used in an innovative fashion in order to get the most out of every opportunity.   Erik Qualman diagrams several ideal ways that an organization can structure their social media communications in the most ideal manner.  Qualman’s conclusions indicate that “the more ingrained social media was within a company, the closer it came to an ideal structure…it was organized communication.” (Qualman, 2013, pp. 231-232)  Each social media communication model has its pros and cons but one in which the entire organization is involved with a central idea of what and how they should be communicating over social media provides the best way to integrate into an organization’s overall strategy.

Aligning these social media channels with other IMC elements can be a challenge but one that is quickly becoming a regular facet within the marketing realm.  We’ve just come out of the biggest advertising event of the year: the Super Bowl.  Every year, millions are spent on 30-second ad buys in the hopes that it will produce a conversation and viral Internet attention that will increase brand exposure.  More and more, however, companies seem to be artificially enhancing media exposure through social media channels to extend those multi-million ad buys far beyond what they could have gotten a decade ago.  The above Scarlett Johansson ad for Sodastream was leaked earlier as a banned ad due to an innocuous, easily edited line about Coke and Pepsi but because they submitted this one first, it gained a bit of notoriety and they were able to pump out a few extra days of Sodastream mentions through viral social media mentions.

The above 30 second ad for the new Amazing Spider-Man movie also played during the big game but conversation about the movie extended far beyond its initial showing.  Sony wisely placed a Spider-Man hashtag at the end of the ad extending the conversation for the movie over to Twitter.  There, a new nearly four minute advertisement with even more footage for the movie was released on the official Sony Youtube channel.

Sodastream and Sony used smart traditional advertising buys and extended their message out through other communication channels over the biggest advertising day of the year.  These are just two examples from the day that used a smart IMC plan to integrate social media across their corporate strategy and create an alignment between each, separate part.

Works Cited

 

Qualman, E. (2013). Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.