Social Media Privacy

I have given several presentations on social media to the student-athletes and coaches at Marist College. The main theme of my presentation talks about a person’s digital footprint, which includes tweets, posts, photos, videos, emails, text messages, etc. I am often amazed by the reaction of both students and adults who have not given much thought to the fact that what they post can end up hurting their reputation down the line.

Social networking has changed the way we interact with our family, friends and colleagues. While social networks, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, FourSquare, and Google+, play a significant role in our lives, they are also a high risk for security threats (Bishop, 2013). With hundreds of millions of users, these social networking tools attract not only friends and family wanting to stay in touch, but they also attract people wanting to know about your personal life and information for the wrong reasons.

When you use social networking sites, you are posting personal information to the outside world. Once information is posted online, it’s no longer private and can easily fall into the wrong hands. Even with the highest security settings, friends, associates, and even the brands you “like” on your networking sites, can inadvertently leak information about you (Bishop, 2013).

 A 2012 report by SilkRoad Technology revealed that 75 percent of employees access social media daily on the job, with 60 percent doing it multiple times per day (Hamer, 2013). Developing and implementing an effective social media policy is critical for businesses and organizations. The hardest part is finding balance between employers’ interests and the employees’ rights.

 Listed below are a few tips for keeping your social media accounts safe and making sure that you are following the policies set forth by your company, school or organization:

 Create A Strong Password

• Create a strong password that cannot be guessed
• Use characters and symbols in your password
• Don’t use birthdates, pin numbers or family member’s names

Become A Gatekeeper

• Know who you are letting into your social network
• Don’t share personal information with people you don’t know

Know the Landscape

• Invisible markers that companies put on your computer called Cookies track your internet activity
• Websites, apps and games on social networking sites contain personal information about you
• Click on the “Do Not Track” feature to keep sites from tracking your activity
• Clear the cache and cookies on your browser regularly

Maintain Privacy

• The world doesn’t need to know everything you do
• Don’t post telephone numbers, birthdates or email addresses
• Refrain from posting your location and extended absences from your residence

Be Responsible

• You are responsible for your social media account
• This includes your posts and what others post about you on your accounts
• Adjust your privacy settings so that when people tag you it has to be approved before displayed

By examining the training module and reading the materials, I understand the importance of social media security and that there are people out there looking for ways to gain access to your personal information. While we may want to share photos, birthdates, contact information, personal messages and our travel location to family and friends, it is not a wise practice. Hackers and identity thieves prey on this information.

I also did not realize the National Labor Relations Board’s involvement in social media policies and that they have filed numerous complaints against employers whose social media policies may “reasonably” be read to restrict employee’s rights to discuss their terms and conditions of their employment online with co-workers or other third parties (Stevens, 2013).

References

Bishop, E. (2013, November 18) 5 Threats To Your Security When Using Social Media. All Twitter. Retrieved from https://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/5-social-media-threats_b51841

 

Hamer, S. (2013). Creating and Effective workplace Social Media Policy. Bloomberg Law. Retrieved from http://about.bloomberglaw.com/practitioner-contributions/creating-an-effective-workplace-social-media-policy/

Stevens, A. (2013, October 13). NLRB’S General Counsel Releases New Social Media Report Containing Much Needed Guidance on Lawful Social Media Policies. Haynes and Boone Blogs. Retrieved from http://blogs.haynesboone.com/index.php/2012/06/firm/some/nlrbs-gene…rt-containing-much-needed-guidance-on-lawful-social-media-policies/

 

Week Four Summary

Dawn, Daniel, Nicole & Joanna,

Thank you for your posts and discussion this week. There were some great discussion points in all of your blogs, and I hope you took something useful from the material covered. Here is a summary of the important themes and ideas from Week Four.

Dawn Markling – Social Commerce

Important Themes:
1. Generations Y and Z are born into the social media world, while generations X and Baby Boomers needed to adapt to the social media world.
2. The digital revolution has completely changed the way we consume information. Music and books are a great example of this.
3. Social media is used to streamline data in ways that allow us to make analytical decisions, based on what our peers have acted upon.

Feedback: Outstanding job with your blog! Your posts were consistent throughout the week and you did a great job engaging others. The material that you presented was thorough, informational and thought-provoking. The use of photos, graphics and videos was excellent!

Daniel Torres – Finding A Job via Social Media

Important Themes:
1. Stop thinking like an advertiser of a product and start thinking like a publisher of information.
2. Create information that people want and an online presence that people are eager to consume.
3. Social media is a hub for information, whether it be gossip or breaking news.

Feedback: Good job outlining real-life examples with your Facebook page. I would encourage you to interact with the people who comment on your blog more frequently. You have great experiences to share from your role in politics and involvement in the local community.

Nicole Valerio - What Is Social Commerce?

Important Themes:
1. Consumers are taking ownership of brands, and their referral power is priceless.
2. Social media creates an instant connection between and brand and its consumer.
3. Consumers now trust more what their friends are talking about on social media than what a business is trying to advertise and market them.

Feedback: Excellent job driving the discussion throughout the week on your blog. You raised a lot of great questions and made great points about the positive and negative impact of social commerce. The examples that you provided were also very relevant and were integrated well on your blog.

Joanna Zammiello – Social Media: The New Resume

Important Themes:
1. Social media is a new platform that allows a new way to interact and meet potential employers.
2. To find a job via social media you must pay attention to blogs, social networks, and online communities.
3. Our digital footprint is important. We need to continually talk about self-respect, dignity, integrity when utilizing social media.

Feedback: Great job this week! You provided great questions on your initial post which triggered a lot of discussion. It made people think about how they are marketing themselves through social media and things that they might need to improve upon.

Thanks again for your participation this week. I hope that you were able to learn from the experiences that you and others shared! Enjoy the few remaining hours of the weekend!

Travis

The Power of Social Media

I believe that the most important point in chapter four is the power that social media can have on brands and the fact that so many aren’t willing to take the risks.

Pages 54-55 in chapter four portrays a great example of a risk-taking supporter who was given the freedom to promote the Obama brand at a crucial part of the campaign. During the 2008 presidential election, Charles Stone III, the idea man behind the original Budweiser ads, created a satire of the 1999 “Whassup?” commercial to help Barack Obama’s cause for change in America. The spot featured a soldier stationed in Iraq, a person looking for help to pay for pain medication, someone distraught over the stock market crash and a savage trapped in a hurricane.

 

The Obama camp could have asked Stone to remove the controversial video for fear that it may have crossed the line. Instead, they allowed Stone to take ownership of the Obama brand and promote it. The ad received over 4.8 million views along with 14,891 user comments on YouTube a week prior to the election (p. 55). 21,746 viewers rated the video with an astounding five-star rating (Qualman, 2013).

Social media affords us a great opportunity, the ability to build relationships directly with consumers (Costa, 2013). Its power is through experiences and interactions. In the political world, Obama became a household name by utilizing social networks to reach people so that they felt connected personally (p. 53). No amount of media targeting has been able to achieve an emotional connection between a brand and its users like social media has. Creating and fostering relationships with consumers via social platforms is irreplaceable when it comes to the success of leaders and companies alike (Costa, 2013).

 In order for social media to be successful in promoting a brand, it has to be real and it has to be done right. Two-way communication has to exist. The brand leaders need to listen and respond to their most valuable asset – the consumers – on many levels (Costa, 2013). By engaging constituents directly, Obama was able to raise a staggering $660 million in campaign contributions (p. 53). Total views for Obama’s YouTube totaled 110 million. The approximate 14.5 million hours viewing time on YouTube would equate to $47 million for the purchase of campaign commercials.

Arianna Huffington, of the Huffington post website believes that if it weren’t for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president or even the Democratic nominee. Do you believe that social media and the internet had that much of an effect on the 2008 presidential campaign? Do you think that social media is powerful enough to win a presidential election for a candidate? If it were that easy and free, wouldn’t everyone be doing it?

References

Costa, J. (2013, September 19). Brand Building: Connecting With Consumers Through Social Media. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jose-costa/brand-building_b_3950341.html

Qualman, E. (2013). Social econiomics- how social media transforms the way we live and do business. (2nd ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 

The Strategic Communication Imperative

I agree with Argenti, Howell and Beck’s characterization of communication as part of an organization’s overall strategy. In order to enhance a company’s strategic position, communication must be aligned with the company’s overall strategy. Developing an integrated, strategic approach to communication is critical to success.

According to Argenti, Howell and Beck, (2005) communication professionals need to have a seat at the strategy-making table. The messages articulate the strategic direction of the company and motivate people to move behind it. If the communications professions within an organization are not involved and vested in the creation of those messages, it is difficult to deliver those messages. They cannot be expected to be the voice of the company if they have no idea the way that it is operating. Too many times communication professionals are not involved with the strategy-making process and are brought in after to deliver the message. Since they are on the front lines and will be fielding questions from various audiences, it is important that they know not only what was decided, but why it was decided.

This characterization applies to marketing, advertising and other elements of IMC and social media because communication is not a separate function. Communication must be integrated and deliver a harmonious message through marketing, advertising and social media. Messages should sound like they are originating from the same place and leading in the same direction. Employees responsible for advertising can’t have a different strategy than the people running the organization’s social media accounts. There has to be one basic message to the consumer.

Social media needs to play a major role in an organization’s overall strategy. In today’s world of instant feedback with social media, organizations must have a well-structured communication strategy that listens to and effectively reaches its consumers. How does JetBlue handle a disgruntled customer who takes to Twitter to complain about a rude ticket counter representative? How does McDonald’s respond to a Twitter user who complains that their order was incorrect and the food was bad? It is nearly impossible to respond to every Tweet, but there must be a strategy to deal with complaints and feedback. Social media can be a great tool for organizations to have immediate dialogue with the consumer in order to improve service or address an issue. People want to know that their voice is being heard. A simple response can ease some of the displeasure that a consumer might have experienced.

Argenti, Howell and Beck (2005) say corporations have multiple constituents, and their communications must be responsive to all of them. In order to align IMC elements and social media to enhance a company’s strategic positioning, senior management must determine which element of the overall strategy that is communicated to each constituency. Executives have to think carefully about an organization’s objectives for each specific communication, determine which constituencies are critical to meeting that objective and understand what types of messages to deliver to them through the most effective channel.

References

Argenti, P., Howell, R., & Beck, K.(2005). The strategic communication imperative. MIT Sloan Management Review, 46 (3).