Showing posts with label Social Media Policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Media Policy. Show all posts

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Avoiding The Social Media Minefield?


Beware of the social media minefield -- With the click of a button, you can instantly share lasting memories and moments that make your life great.

But with great power, comes great responsibility..



Social Media Has Defined Our Generation

Remember, as soon as you sign up for a social media account, you essentially become a publisher and as such, you are held accountable for what is said on your accounts – much the same way a newspaper must adhere to a code of conduct.

Here's a quick look at 10 do's and don'ts to make your social media experience safer and, above all, legal.

Do Check Your Privacy Settings Regularly

While social media is all about sharing your life, criminals can use the information you unwittingly share to rob you blind.

Take a look at the privacy settings on your accounts, and make sure you are only sharing your personal information with those you trust.



Do Screen Your Friends And Followers

The internet has provided Grade A creeps with the perfect mask of anonymity – so have a look at whose friend request you are accepting and regularly browse through your "followers" to make sure who they are.

You wouldn't allow a stranger to stand at your window and stare into your house, would you?

Do Post Things You Can Say Out Loud

While you can delete a post at ny time, there are always some eagle-eyed social media users out there who screenshot something they think is defamatory or racist faster than you can say 'wasn't me.'

A simple guideline to follow: If you wouldn't feel comfortable saying what you are about to post to a room full of people, or to the person you are posting about, don't post it.

No one needs to read your racist/sexist remarks anyway. We have enough negativity in our lives.



Ask Penny Sparrow

Do Understand And Respect That Your Opinion Is Just That -- Yours

Never expect that everyone online is going to have the same opinion as you do.

Sure, you are more than welcome to share your opinion, but never get caught up in an argument online just because someone called you out on something they don't agree with.

A comment written in anger can easily come back to haunt you.

Do Make Sure Your Information Is Reliable And In The Public Interest

Be especially careful sharing info if you are not sure where it came from.

The internet is a massively useful tool for gathering and disseminating information, but be warned – some people purposefully post incorrect info to get a reaction.



Most social apps have a "Reporting" option, so if you spot a page sharing malicious stories, report it, so that the lawmen and women of social media can shut it down.

Don't Spread Hate Speech Or Propaganda

The South African press code dictates that news services can only repeat hate speech or propaganda when reporting it is in the public interest.

You are a publisher, and should adhere to the same rules.

The media is never allowed to incite violence, spread propaganda or promote hate speech, and neither are you.

Don't Share Too Much Information

It might seem like a good idea to have your phone number visible, or your email.



It is also tempting to share your every move – for example checking in at your favorite chill spot.

But don't overdo it.

Tech savvy criminals can use this info to steal your identity or even worse – build a timetable of your movements to hijack you or rob your house when they know you are away.

Take care when posting, and make sure you are not giving opportunists a back door key to your life.

Don't Plagiarize

If you share something you did not write, or even a photo or video you did not take, be sure to credit the author.



Journalists for example make a living sifting through masses of information to give you the legitimate and necessary lowdown.

It's hard work, so always make sure you credit appropriately.

After all, plagiarism is illegal.

Don't Share Unverified Information

A post on social media can reach hundreds, thousands and even millions of people in a very short time.

Posting or sharing false information is a crime, and can be treated as such.

Always check with your local police or newspaper to verify information before posting it. People have been charged criminally for spreading false information, as it can cause mass panic which can lead to the injury or even death of innocent people.



Don't Forget To Check The Comments

So you shared a political, topical or controversial story that caught your attention.

Your friends and your friends' friends see it and they start commenting, and pretty soon a healthy debate develops.

But there is always at least one person who will drop a comment that is crass, damaging or often equates to slander.

Comments posted on your pages, even if it is by another individual, are your problem.

If you cannot prove in a court of law you showed due care to at least attempt to remove the offending comment, you are liable. In other words, delete the comments you see to be defamatory or rude immediately and drop the friend in question an inbox explaining why.

Guest Authored By Laurie Smith. Laurie is News Editor at Zulu Land Observer. She is also a Mom and fellow Insomniac. Follow Laurie on Twitter.




"Remember, as soon as you sign up for a social media account, you essentially become a publisher and as such, you are held accountable for what is said on your accounts. Much the same way a newspaper must adhere to a code of conduct." -LaurieSmith


    • Post Crafted By:
      Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO  where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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    Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

    Friday, February 9, 2018

    Social Media Startup Mistakes YOU Can Avoid?


    15 mistakes startups make on social media that yours can easily sidestep..

    Too many platforms being used? Lack of visuals? Misuse of hashtags? No social media manager? The list goes on..



    If you're a new business owner, you likely know all too well that establishing a strong social media presence is a must.

    Like any marketing tool, however, social media is useful only when it's used effectively. Just posting a cute picture of your cat with your brand logo up in the corner won't cut it.

    So, if you recognize yourself here -- and are vowing to make your social media work (better) for you -- here are 15 social media mistakes and how to avoid them.



    1. Not Having A Target

    Every startup needs a business plan, and your plan for using social media needs to be part of it. The key to setting goals for social media is identifying your target customers, then determining where to find them. If your demographic is women, look to Pinterest, but if you're aiming for customers under 25, check out Snapchat.

    2. Not Using Metrics

    Having a target helps only if you measure how well you're hitting it. With tools like Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics, you can track how customers reacted to specific posts, how often your brand is mentioned, which demographics responded most favorably and much more.

    3. Using Too Many Platforms

    It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of launching your brand, and join every site available. However, trying to juggle Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and a partridge in a pear tree will lead only to burnout. Start with just a couple of platforms and post regularly.



    4. Posting The Same Content To Multiple Platforms

    Copying and pasting is for spammers, not entrepreneurs. Another reason to start small is so that you can adapt and optimize your content to the conventions of each platform. Reading a press release about your new product through Twitter and then seeing a photo of it on Instagram will keep customers engaged on multiple levels.

    5. Losing Out On Traffic

    You may do your best work at 2 a.m., but that doesn't mean your customers will be awake to read it. Make sure you are posting when your base is online. According to Buffer Social, Facebook engagement rates are highest on Thursdays and Fridays and hit a weekly low on Saturdays, whereas click-through rates on Twitter peak on the weekend.

    6. Writing Too Much

    The good things you have to say about your startup could fill an encyclopedia, but on social media, less is more. Facebook posts with 250 characters or less get 66 percent more engagement, and although all tweets are necessarily short, those with 100 characters or less still get 17 percent more engagement (again, according to Buffer Social).



    7. Misusing Hashtags

    Hashtags help cut down on characters and craft targeted exposure for your brand, but only if they are used strategically. Tweets with hashtags have double the engagement, but engagement drops when more than two hashtags are used. Photo captions crammed with hashtags are less likely to be read.

    8. Not Paying Attention To Visuals

    The impact of visual marketing is well established. Tweets with images are retweeted 150 percent more often, and Facebook posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement than their text-only counterparts. Blurry photos and a lot of stock footage will make your business appear amateurish. Instead, up your game with high quality images, infographics and videos.

    9. Neglecting Your Bio

    On sites like Instagram, your bio is the first thing potential customers see. Successful businesses combine necessary information with creative flair to make their brands stand out. Describe the values behind your company in a few brief words, show the human side of your business with photos of your team or even use emojis to demonstrate how to use your product.



    10. Not Responding To Customer Complaints

    Every business gets occasional complaints, but when a customer posts an angry rant to social media, the rest of your customers are there watching how you handle it. Always respond to complaints promptly and in a professional manner. Ignoring the complaint, deleting negative comments or posting a sarcastic retort will only make matters worse.

    11. Not Asking For Customer Feedback

    Never pass up an opportunity to find out what customers think, especially when it comes to a future product launch. Customers respond best when given a number of options. Post open-ended questions to get a dialogue started in the comments section, create polls and surveys for anonymous feedback or form focus groups using Google+Circles or Facebook Live Q&A.

    12. Promoting Too Much

    While it may seem counter intuitive, promoting your business too much can backfire. According to Social Media Today, just 20 percent of your posts should promote your brand and 80 percent should be other content. If you sell a line of protein supplements, for example, link to news articles about nutrition, share your favorite smoothie recipes and post photos of you and your protein-fueled kids crossing the finish line at your local 5K run.



    13. Lacking Engagement

    Social media doesn't work if you don't socialize. Growing your business requires connecting with like-minded individuals via private messaging, commenting, or sharing their content, not just pushing your own. If you aren't trying to find ways to add real value to the lives of your target audience, you could potentially be making a fatal social media mistake.

    14. Not Creating A Social Media Policy

    One off-color remark or embarrassing photo can do a lot of damage when shared umpteen times. Every company needs a written code of conduct for its social media users. Profanity and racist or sexist language are clearly problematic, but you should also consider the values of your base. If your company sells vegan-friendly clothing, for example, avoid posting a selfie with a plate of chicken wings.

    15. Not Hiring A Social Media Manager

    By now, you're wondering how you can possibly devote the time necessary to launch a social media campaign effectively. The answer may be that you can't. Resist the temptation to enlist your tech-savvy teenage nephew or your already-swamped secretary and instead hire a professional. Look for an applicant with technological background, writing skills, marketing experience and entrepreneurial vision to take your startup's social media to the next level.

    Guest Authored By AJ Agrawal. AJ He is CEO and Co-Founder of Alumnify, an alumni-engagement platform. He's a Growth Marketer, Entrepreneur and Content Creator for Entrepreneur, Forbes, FastCompany and Fortune Magazine. Follow AJ on Twitter.





    "15 mistakes startups make on social media that yours can easily sidestep..

    Too many platforms being used? Lack of visuals? Misuse of hashtags? No social media manager? The list goes on.." -AJAgrawal



      • Authored by:
        Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBr@nd.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO  where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

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      Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

      Friday, August 11, 2017

      Blockchain Revitalizing Social Media?


      Social media is everywhere. The big players in the industry carry billions of users and boast massive layers of data and content. These days, though, social media may be in for a major change, possibly due to the rise of blockchain..


      After Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others spent the better part of the millennium rising at meteoric rates, users have recently started to abandon social media accounts, opting for a single account, or no social media at all. Recent reports about how social media affects psychological well-being reflect a general malaise among former fans, and it seems that even faithful social media addicts are starting to grow discontent with pictures of food and long diatribes about political issues.

      Users who took social media seriously and produced quality content discovered that all their hard work was consumed by the platform itself, leaving them with no financial gain, and just a few million likes and a moment of fame as compensation. Content on social media became the stepping stone to massive financial gain for the platform rather than the creator.

      What’s more, information on social media that had been intended to be private has been made public to governments, advertising companies, and more, making users far less willing to share intimate details of life. Potential violations of privacy abound, with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and the rest being willing to change the order of feed, link users with advertisers, and make information more transparent than users might like.



      In other words, social media is losing its edge. Meet Blockchain - Enter blockchain technology..

      Blockchain is the technology behind the recent media darling Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency built on the decentralized platform. A decentralized database, or decentralized ledger, blockchain technology creates new ‘blocks’ for information that is being stored or processed. For a new block of information to be stored, it must be approved by the entire chain, meaning that the chain is completely ‘decentralized’ and therefore secure and transparent.

      As Ian Khan, one of the TEDX speakers, puts it, “No more missed transactions, human or machine errors, or even an exchange that was not done with the consent of the parties involved. Above anything else, the most critical area where Blockchain helps is to guarantee the validity of a transaction by recording it not only on a main register but a connected distributed system of registers, all of which are connected through a secure validation mechanism.”

      Blockchain amps social media up to a whole new level. The very nature of blockchain technology provides a methodology whereby users can have vastly more control over privacy of information, while at the same time, potentially receiving monetary compensation for the viral content they create. Two companies have seen the potential and are leading the way.



      Privatizing Your Experience

      In the area of privacy, one such company is Nexus, the creator of the Social coin via a coming ICO (initial coin offering - think digital currency token). Nexus is designed to be a social media platform where users are able to post information, send private messages, and create public transactions, sales, and crowdfunding, all through the blockchain.

      The benefits should be immediately apparent. For starters, all the information that’s contained on the blockchain is private, and therefore any instant message could be sent between two people “without anyone, even Nexus, knowing its contents,” says Nexus founder Jade Mulholland. Information sent and received, as well as all data stored on the site and all transactions within the platform, would be completely private, creating a veritable haven for consumers burned by the world of social media.

      Further, Nexus intends to issue its own cryptocurrency called Social, which can be used as monetary device within the platform. Social can be earned and used to purchase goods and services, and all these transactions are also managed on the blockchain and free from prying eyes. Nexus has even linked their Social coin to a debit card, allowing users to spend their Social as fiat currency (dollars, pounds, euros) anywhere Visa is offered.



      Getting What You Deserve

      When it comes to monetizing content on social media, Synereo has produced a stunningly creative system called WildSpark which utilizes blockchain technology to allow users to get paid for what they create. Like Nexus, Synereo has created a cryptocurrency called AMP that can be used by ‘curators’ (those who see good content and distribute it, i.e., ‘like’ or ‘share’ it) as well as by the content creators themselves to distribute content and receive payment.

      Rather than all the financial gain being absorbed by the content middle man - the social media outlet - AMPs provide a means for users to share, enjoy, and get paid for creating and sharing information and content.

      If this sounds complex, it’s not. It’s simply using blockchain technology to allow users to control how their content and shared information is distributed, and help them to make a profit.

      Founder Dor Konforty says, “This way, a new economy is created, enabling users to employ their curation skills to profit from the successful distribution of UGC [user generated content], while granting creators a form of passive income.”



      In other words, creators and curators get paid for making and sharing social content, rather than the platform leveraging content for profit. Named one of the top 5 ‘Cool Vendors in Blockchain Technology’ by Gartner, Synereo is rapidly gaining traction in its Beta phase.

      Moving Forward

      As the heyday for legacy social media begins to wane, these companies, and others like them, are seeing the great potential of blockchain technology to revitalize it. Blockchain promises to move foundational social media to an entirely different level, and has the power to reinvent the very nature of how content and information is privately and profitably distributed.

      Guest Authored By Steve Olenski. Steve writes about advertising, marketing, media and all subgroups therein. He is a Forbes contributor, writer, content marketing influencer, advertising/branding guy, screenwriter, idea generator, massive coffee imbiber and member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing. Follow Steve on Twitter.





      “As the heyday for legacy social media begins to wane, these companies, and others like them, are seeing the great potential of blockchain technology to revitalize it.

      Blockchain promises to move foundational social media to an entirely different level, and has the power to reinvent the very nature of how content and information is privately and profitably distributed.."


        • Authored by:
          Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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        Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA
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