44% of companies monitor employees’ use of social media

A new survey has just been released , that shows how companies approach social media in the workplace, with some pretty surprising findings. When you work in a more open and flexible company, it’s easy to forget that many people, particularly in larger organisations, are subject to fairly intense monitoring or policing of access to social networks. And, somewhat worryingly, the policies adopted towards use of social media don’t just apply to the workplace, but outside of it as well. In the companies surveyed, 44% said that they had policies in place for use of social media that covered use both in and out of the workplace. Further to this, less than half the businesses in the survey said that they gave access to social media for all employees. While this is a difficult subject to broach and there is by no means a right and wrong answer, it nonetheless contributes to an unfair split in the level of access to information and connections.

71% block social networks in the workplace

To show just how extreme monitoring social networks has become, a staggering 70.7% claimed that they actively blocked social networks in the workplace. This is a huge figure and is somewhat surprising, given how pervasive social media has become in our daily lives. And while many may see this as justified, viewing social network use as something purely private, such blocking seems almost archaic :

The issue here is not so much in considering social media as a place to chat to friends, but in viewing it as a valuable source of information. Yes, restricting access to chat to your friends on Facebook is one thing, but restricting access to Twitter for example, is quite another when you consider the role that it plays in the circulation of information and news.

Who owns your content?

Where this gets even more interesting, is that such a large proportion of companies have policies that cover use of social networks outside of the workplace as well. This is a difficult reality for many people and it’s an outcome of the private becoming public. Where once you used to leave work and you had your private life to yourself, for many, that private life is being broadcast online, as you choose. For organisations however, this poses a risk if you are linked to your organisation in any way. Anything you say or do online could indirectly implicate your employer and you can understand the risk here.

But surely, as social media becomes more pervasive in our lives, this line of thinking can only go so far. We are only going to become more public and share more information about ourselves, so how far can the policing go? What’s needed instead of even more policing or moderation, is a step change in society that ultimately changes the relationship between employee and employer. Your job is your job but your life is your life. There will need to be a shift in thinking across society that what individuals do or say online (as long as it’s legal) should in no way affect your position 9-5. The alternative is a more policed society where the employer/organisation has absolute control and can enforce restrictions as they decide is best.

The need for anonymity?

This brings up an interesting issue of anonymity, which has been brought to the forefront since Google’s decision to ban users who don’t use their real names on Google +. Now while this is completely Google’s decision – their network their rules – when you consider this approach in line with how organisations are monitoring social media, it makes things rather difficult. If by default you are forced to use your real identity online but you know that your employer could be watching, it takes away a huge amount of freedom that everyone should have access to. The extent to which you have freedom and access to information online can be determined by your employer, which is a worrying thought and a fairly sobering view of the future.

Why a networked employee is a good one

Companies that restrict employees’ access to social networks, ultimately have a differing view to the benefits of social media. It’s clearly seen as something that can impinge on day to day working lives, as opposed to something that can view it. This, again, is a somewhat archaic approach. Sure, a significant part of social media is about purely connecting with friends from a social perspective. But it’s also about building connections, establishing authority and discovering new information. This can only be beneficial to an organisation. A networked employee is ultimately a better employee as it opens up the lines you have to information and the connections people build extend beyond being purely social and can benefit organisations by creating new opportunities, access to ‘influencers’ in your area and possible lead generation. Nearly 71% of companies are actively restricting this.

The World Wide Web turns 20 years old

Saturday is the 20th anniversary of a high-tech invention that changed our lives, the World Wide Web.

The first web site went online on August 6, 1991. The Internet already existed, and British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web as a way to communicate using hypertext.

Internet addresses starting with www are for sites on the World Wide Web. Now, 20 years later, Alexa.com reports the web's most visited sites are Google, Facebook and Youtube.

How to manage your online reputation

Over the past few years, several studies have been conducted looking at social media and employer hiring habits.  One of those studies, conducted by Microsoft, showed that 70% of employers in the United States screened out potential employees because of information found online.  The study also showed that the majority of recruiters and HR professionals indicated that they think it’s appropriate to consider personal information found online in screening potential job applicants.

This raised several questions in my mind: What procedures are in place to ensure that the information found online relates to the job candidate (there’s a Donna McNamara who was recently arrested and isn’t me)?  Do they differentiate between information voluntarily posted by an individual versus information someone else posts about them?  Is the information validated for accuracy?  Are there potential legal ramifications of online searching?

In several of my classes, we discussed the importance of having a digital footprint and using various types of media to convey your personal brand.  I’ve been to various speaker engagements that encourage job seekers to create professional websites and use Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. to build a personal brand online.  This way, when employers Google you, they find content you’ve created.  For some recruiters, a lack of digital footprint is viewed as a negative; suggesting the applicant hasn’t written articles, created a website, blog or LinkedIn profile.

For potential employees, online information can be especially troublesome as in the case of personal networking sites like Facebook.  Here, people openly post candid photos of themselves and allow others to tag them in photos.  This often means drunken escapes are captured for general public consumption (think Jackass star Ryan Dunn tweeting a photo of himself drinking hours before reports of a fatal car accident).  A potential employer may decide to

• Falsifying information about qualifications


• Poor communication skills (spelling and grammar count!)


• Discriminatory comments were found on posts


• Posts about excessive drinking or drug usage


• Provocative or inappropriate photographs or information posted


• Bad mouthing of previous employer, co-workers or clients


• Sharing of confidential information from previous employer

Issues with online search don’t just impact potential job candidates.  Recruiters and HR staff doing the searching can open themselves up for trouble by obtaining too much information.  For example, personal networking sites often include information about race, religious beliefs, age, sexual orientation and marital status; factors NOT to be considered in pre-employment screening.  By searching potential candidates’ personal sites, recruiters become exposed to information that does not pertain to the applicant’s ability to perform the job and may inadvertently consider factors such as age, race, etc.

I’ve experienced the use of waivers and releases at the point of application to circumvent such issues so employer concerns may become less problematic.  In addition, some organizations put blocks on social networking sites so that information may not even be available to them.  So what can you do to make sure your online image is what you want it to be?  Bottom line – clean up your social networking sites.

• Don’t have photos you wouldn’t want an employer to see.


• No drunken escapes, no profanity, or slurs.


• Don’t bad mouth former employers, bosses or co-workers.


• Make your social networking sites private.


• Sweat the small stuff. Your email address, spelling, and grammar speak to your maturity and communication skills.

 

Social Media Study: 60 % Say LinkedIn is Most Important Social Network Account

Performics, the performance marketing agency owned by Publicis Groupe, today released results from "S-Net (The Impact of Social Media)," a report from ROI Research Inc. sponsored by Performics. According to the survey of 2,997 active social networkers, 59 percent of respondents said it is important to have a LinkedIn account, more than any other social network.

Furthermore, of the study respondents with an active LinkedIn account, 50 percent visit the site at least weekly and 20 percent visit the site at least daily. While this new social media study shows the frequency of LinkedIn visits decreasing since the height of the recession in 2010 (67 percent weekly and 22 percent daily visits), the percentage of people who deem LinkedIn the most important social networking site jumped dramatically from 41 percent last year to 59 percent this year.

"We may not necessarily be in a double-dip recession but, individuals have embraced social networking as a means to actively manage their personal visibility in the global economy." said Daina Middleton, CEO of Performics. "Factors including LinkedIn's recent IPO announcement, the May uptick in national unemployment and signs of a slowed market certainly contribute to LinkedIn's attractiveness among social networkers."

The study also reveals how technology combined with social networks have changed the way people behave, how companies and brands can capitalize on new social media marketing opportunities. It specifically inquired about the purchase process for different types of products and in relation to other media channels. Some of the most astounding findings of the study include:

•     People recommend companies and buy products they follow: among active Twitter users who follow at least one company, 59 percent are more likely to recommend a company they follow, and 58 percent are more likely to buy a product they follow


•     Comparison shopping is prevalent: 59 percent use social networks to compare prices; 56 percent do so to talk about sales or specials


•     People are split about getting and giving advice: Half of respondents use social networks to give (50 percent) and get (50 percent) advice about products/services, companies or brands on social networking sites


•     Personal referrals wield power: 60 percent are at least somewhat likely to take action when a friend posts something about a product/service, company or brand

"The most effective marketers continue to adopt performance marketing strategies that engage 'participants' in every channel of their media mix - across platforms, devices and screens," adds Middleton. "In this day and age, participants is a much more accurate description for brand constituents than consumers as they are actively dictating what, where and how they interact with any company or product. Nowhere is this more prevalent than with social media, so brands that cede some control to embrace this reality have tremendous opportunities to succeed."

The study's findings related to brand and company interaction illustrate this power shift:

•     Fifty-three percent frequently or occasionally use social networks to provide feedback to a brand or retailer


•     Fifty-two percent agreed that people can influence business decisions made by companies, brands and retailers by voicing opinions on social networking sites


•     Thirty-four percent reported that interacting with a brand or company on social networks made them more aware of their eco-friendly efforts

"The best part about this fundamental power shift is how it motivates people to interact with the brands and companies they follow. Active social networkers report a desire for regular interaction with them," said Scott Haiges, president of ROI Research. "In fact, 53 percent said products, services or companies should communicate with fans on social networking sites at least once per week."

Performics and ROI Research this summer will release "vertical reports" that highlight findings specific to various industries including apparel, automotive, entertainment, financial services, travel and others. The vertical reports will benchmark how people use social networking sites to get advice on what to purchase, how they give advice on companies/products through social networks and their likelihood to post vertical specific content.

Obsessed with Facebook?

Why do people Like Facebook Pages?

As Facebook evolves, people are beginning to have different expectations of their user experiences on the platform. This is especially true with how customers interact with company/brand pages.

Graphic courtesy of: www.exacttarget.com

Fired Because of Social Media

We hear about it all the time: employees calling in sick and getting caught surfing Facebook. Employees bashing their employers and clients, or declaring their job search via their Twitter account. Workers posting inappropriate pictures and videos to YouTube, reflecting poorly on the company.

Social media faux pas happen every day, but people are starting to take them more seriously -- especially employers. So far this year, 21 percent of companies with more than 1,000 workers have disciplined employees for violating social networking policies, compared with 13 percent in 2008, according to a survey by Proofpoint Inc., an e-mail security company. About 9 percent have fired an employee for these violations, more than double the 4 percent two years ago.

Remember back in April 2009 when two Domino's Pizza employees posted a video on YouTube that showed one employee filming another sticking cheese inside his nose and farting on the food. Well, that's one way to get fired via social media.

While we hope you would be smarter than that, one can never be too sure. My all time favourite social media related firing involves a juror.

In 2008 in the  U.K., a juror was dismissed when she posted details of the trial on her Facebook page. "I don't know which way to go, so I'm holding a poll," she wrote.

I guess the moral of the story is not to post personal/confidential information publicly online.

Why Do People Like Facebook Pages?

As Facebook evolves, people are beginning to have different expectations of their user experiences on the platform. This is especially true with how customers interact with company/brand pages.

Graphic courtesy of: www.exacttarget.com

How to Add Social Sharing Buttons to Your Website

If you run a blog or website of any kind, chances are you're always trying to encourage more people to talk about and share your pages and posts through a variety of channels, including social media and e-mail. For many sites, adding social sharing buttons is a simple and effective way to quickly boost pageviews and sharing stats. Unfortunately, it can also be a way to clutter up your pages, confuse your users, and cause massive bugs and layout issues.

Here's a quick guide to best practices for adding social sharing buttons to your site or blog.

1. Use a Catchall Service

One way of getting a streamlined row of similarly styled buttons on your pages is using a catchall service like ShareThis or AddToAny. These services will generate a tidy interface -- just a few lines of code -- for you to place on your site.

The downside is that these buttons may not have the big, call-to-action impact of a Twitter or Facebook stand-alone button. And they may not give you a count of the number of shares. The upside is that you can't really screw them up too much. If your site is prone to clutter, this might be a good idea for you. Most of these services will also give you a decent dashboard for analytics.

Here are a few services to try out.

• Add to Any features the most streamlined sharing button we've seen. This service's stats can be rolled into Google Analytics.

• Add This is a popular sharing platform with a huge list of services readers and users can share through. The interface isn't unpleasant (as many catchall interfaces are), and it can be customized to feature small or large buttons for popular services. Buttons with share counts are also available, although this beta feature isn't as visually appealing.

• Share This is a similar service with a UI that features a small, single button, large icons, or even larger icons with horizontal or vertical share counts.

Other catchall services worth checking out include Sociofluid and Joost de Valk's WordPress plugin Sociable

2. Use Only What You Need

Another approach that we favor is giving your users only the buttons they're actually going to use in significant numbers. This frees your page from clutter and frees your users from irritating and possibly confusing fly-outs, all while providing compelling, actionable buttons for the services that affect your traffic the most.

Most social sharing services will have buttons and code for you to grab -- check for resources provided by the service you'd like to include.

Twitter and Facebook work well as sharing buttons for almost every kind of content. Use a LinkedIn sharing button if you're going for a big professional network or creating content around professional topics. An RSS button is good if your audience is nerdy enough to appreciate RSS, and include an e-mail button if you're cultivating an older or less "public" demographic -- or if your content is sensitive or personal. A Hacker News button works great if you're going for a technical audience. Likewise, Digg or Reddit buttons are best if you're aiming for virality with a general and Web-minded audience, and Stumbleupon is useful if you're going for casual and social browsers.

Ultimately, the best practice is to take note of where your current traffic is coming from and optimize accordingly. If 80 percent of your non-search traffic comes from Google Reader and LinkedIn, maybe a LinkedIn button and RSS button are all you need.

Whatever you do, don't go overboard. Aim for fewer than three buttons for social sharing, and house them within one widget. "Stop adding so many social media widgets to your websites,"advises Community Manager Elliot Volkman. "You only need one. If people like your content, it will spread... Base your design off of user experience and necessity."

3. Where to Put Sharing Buttons

In a great article on "web shui," the folks at SocialFollow write, "There is a theory in conversions that the bigger the button, the more action it will receive. While this is true of call-to-action buttons that actually create conversions and sales, the rule doesn’t always apply to your social media buttons."

Discreet but cleverly placed social media buttons strike the right balance between content and promotion. They don't draw too much attention to themselves, but they are simple to find.

You should include your sharing buttons "above the fold" on all relevant Web pages -- that is, it should be visible as soon as the user loads your page, no extra clicking or scrolling required. In some cases, especially if you tend to write long blog posts, you can also include sharing buttons at the end of the post.

Courtesy of  http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/how-to-add-social-sharing-buttons-to-your-website-jolie-odell

Social Networking in Ireland

A couple of recent reports by Comscore and Ipsos MRBI into social media usage in Ireland have been recently released. They provide the most up to date look at the reach and use of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked In, from an Irish perspective.

Social Networking in Ireland



84.2% of all Irish Internet users used social networks in December 2010. This is up 8.1% on December 2009 (Comscore)

The average Irish person spends 18 hours and 7 minutes online each month (Comscore)

Facebook

77% of all Irish internet users use Facebook (Comscore)

That average Irish person spends 4hours 10 minutes on Facebook per month, well ahead of competitors Google sites (2hrs 51mins), Microsoft sites (1hr 36mins) and RTE.ie (22 mins). (Comscore)

According to Ipsos MRBI, 1.75 million or 50% of the entire Irish population, over the age of 15 years, use Facebook. 175,000 new Irish users joined the site in the last six months.

Facebook’s own figures estimate there are 1,865,000 Irish accounts on the social network.

90% of those aged 15 – 24 years use Facebook, and two thirds of those use it every day. (Ipsos MRBI)

20% of those aged 55 – 64 years use Facebook, and 35% of those check their account daily. (Ipsos MRBI)

Twitter

245,000 people over the age of 15 have a Twitter account. That’s 7% of the total population. (Ipsos MRBI)

This figure remains static with little to no growth, however the numbers who check their Twitter account daily have risen considerably from 18% to 30%. (Ipsos MRBI)

Linked In

In August 2010 4% of the entire Irish population were using Linked In. (Ipsos MRBI)

This figure increased to 9% of the Irish population by February 2011, pushing it ahead of Twitter in the number of users.  (Ipsos MRBI)

According to Linked In’s own figures there are almost 420,000 Irish accounts on the network.

Social Networking Continues to Grow

The most staggering figure presented here is that 9 out of every 10 people aged 15 to 24 years use Facebook. It underlines just how dominant that network is amongst the teenage and early twenties age group, and how much they rely on it for connecting with friends. This age group has probably neared saturation point and future Facebook growth in Ireland will come from older age groups. The average Irish user is just under 30 years of age so growth will more than likely come from the 35+ age group.

While Facebook is the out and out leading social network in Ireland, both Twitter and Linked In are continuing to grow. While Twitter has not increased in numbers, those who do use it, are using it more frequently. Perhaps this points to more people ‘getting it’ as a source of news and information, rather than just a social network to connect with friends. If the Ipsos MRBI fugures are accurate Linked In now has a greater reach than Twitter, although how often and for how long people log into either, I assume, will be very different. Twitter is something that is better to dip in and out of over the course of the day, while Linked In is something that would be checked less frequently but, perhaps, for longer.

What does bode well for both the smaller networks is the potential for growth as the saturated Facebook audience get older and their tastes and needs diverge. This younger audience (the 15-24 year olds) have grown up with social networking. Once they leave college and begin to look for careers, Linked In will be perfectly positioned for this well connected audience. So too will Twitter be as they seek to be better informed and to connect with their peer’s and industry colleagues.

Courtesy of   http://blog.neworld.com/?p=964

Too much Facebook gets nun banished from order

Maria Jesus Galan had 600 Facebook friends. She liked to communicate with them, to spread good news.

However, her Facebook habit has lost her something very dear--her habit.

Galan, you see, spent 35 years inside the Santo Domingo el Real convent in Toledo, Spain. It's an introspective place that doesn't encourage its nuns to have too much contact with the outside world.

However, according to the Telegraph, the convent allowed a computer into its midst 10 years ago.

Sister Maria saw the future that this computer offered. She digitized the Dominican convent's archives. The computer also offered more mundane assistance.

"It enabled us do things such as banking online and saved us having to make trips into the city," she told the Telegraph.

 

Sister Maria's Facebook page

The local government even gave her a prize for her digital initiatives. Oh, but with the prize came the fame. She began to collect more friends on her Facebook page. It seems, though, that this made her enemies within her own walls.

Her fellow nuns reportedly claimed that Sister Maria's Facebook activity "made life impossible." She was therefore asked to leave and now lives with her mother.

The Dominican order has refused to comment on Sister Maria's departure. However, her Facebook page is overflowing with sympathy. Some posters tell her that now that she has her freedom, she can travel to places like Australia. Some declare themselves sad that she was the victim of such an injustice.

Jose Maria Blanco Jimenez, for example, wrote: "Even though I am an agnostic, I respect your beliefs, and if you have dedicated 35 years of your life to this order, it is very bad that they treated you this way."

Another poster, Gerry Livingstone, offered: "They don't deserve you and you don't need them!"

It seems rather sad that, in an era in which the Vatican has a YouTube channel and the iPhone a rosary app, there are still people within the Church who might not feel comfortable with the comforts technology can bring.

At least Sister Maria understands the opportunities an online life can offer. She used to have 600 Facebook friends. Now her Facebook community numbers more than 5,000.

Courtesy of  http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20033933-71.html?tag=cnetRiver