Lately I have been reading about social media being used in extreme ways. Scammers are using these channels in corrupt ways, spammers are infesting every corner, intelligent agencies can’t find agents without Internet trails, court law papers are served over Facebook and now companies are using social media channels for analyzing future employees. Interestingly enough some people have not got jobs because of it. Slowly but surely it seems that the freedom the Internet provided us, is coming back and biting us.

The Internet gave us the means to express ourselves, a connection to resources and the ability to communicate and network with people. Naturally with any good, comes the bad.

Companies use social media in the hopes of enhancing their public appearance and to positively promote themselves. They hope this will bring positive attention towards their brand/product and “buzz” around them. Unfortunately, we have all seen companies that aren’t ethical or transparent and have been slammed down by social media because of it.

But now businesses are using social media channels to analyze future employees. Viewing people’s profiles on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn is not unheard of. They look for personality, what you are writing about, whether you swear a lot or not and in general how you come across in your ‘natural’ state.

So don’t use the Internet if you are not willing to be examined under a microscope! It’s sad to think that we no longer have that freedom. Everyone needs to understand that by using the internet, you are exposing yourself beyond your understanding. For companies, customers will look over every fine detail of your business. One wrong doing and you are done for. For people, your personal information, photos and anything of the sort is exposed as well, ready and available for anyone to get a hold of.

Keep this exposure in mind while using the Internet. Act as if the world is starring!

Reading a blog post Blogs Aren’t Inherently Trustworthy written by Dave Fleet showed that word has been spreading about online consumers no longer trusting corporate blogs. The word is blogs by themselves aren’t inherently trustworthy. People might not trust corporate blogs because they might come across as impersonal. Consumers see a huge company’s logo but don’t see the people behind the scenes. People like to deal with people and might trust companies more if a designated face was given to a blog. Dave asks what can corporate blogs do to gain consumer trust.

I do agree with Dave to a degree that people like people, and are not as intimidated by one person as they are with a corporation. Getting a personable picture up on your site gives a face to the “voice” of the blog posts. For example this could be the president of the company and blogs written in first person.

It has been shown in polls that 36% of consumers say they think more positively about a company that has a blog. More statistics show that $148 billion is spent on advertising but a mere 14% trust it. Half is spent on social media but a whopping 78% trust it. It is clear we live in the age of reference and companies need to be aware of this.

Corporations need to understand that each interaction is an impression. Their blogs are a way for a company to show how their brand fits into a persons/consumers life and what relevance it has to them. If companies are filling their blogs with useless information, people won’t be interested in what that company has to say, and will lose interest. That is why proper use of social media is important because it will build brand trust.

If corporations are transparent, up front and open about their brand and what they stand for, their message will be trusted, respected and accepted by consumers. And like Dave Fleet says, companies need to match their actions with their words. Social Media can go bad, like what to Tourism Queensland.

Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book, says the basic rules to a blog are:

• Respect your audience
• Show proper consideration for others’ privacy
• Avoid topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory, such as politics and religion
• Find who else is blogging on the topic and cite them.
• Don’t pick fights
• Be the first to correct your own mistakes.

I think those are safe rules for everyone to abide by.

I’ve noticed quite a few Facebook related articles circulating around the web, most of them concerning scams and spammers. Who would have thought our beloved Facebook would come down to this?

Spammers:
So they are everywhere and annoy all of us equally. With Facebook’s rule and strick regulations who would have thought that people would still find a way to irritate a social media networks people. Who and what are they doing? For starters, groups on Facebook are created for all sorts of reasons. From silly to serious, Facebook is inundated with groups, especially those pertaining to schools or universities since Facebook was originally intended for college and university students ex: Class of ‘09. Now that it has gone public, more and more school groups are being created with slightly different purposes. Most school/university groups have been created to give prospect students information about the school such as registration dates, tours etc. Here’s the twist, spammers are creating Facebook groups with the exact same name as the school or date of graduation. Some are even going as far as writing ex: OFFICIAL group of ’09. Some spammers don’t create the groups, but pretend to be students and invade different groups. It is becoming clear that viral marketing campaigns are to blame for these spammers or posers.

It’s frightful to think that potential students and graduates are part of groups or have members in them that aren’t actually there for the purpose that was initially intended. Schools and universities have to take action to take control of the Admin and to make sure that no one is tampering with such groups. It is important to bring awareness to this situation.

For more information read this article

Scammers:
Ok so maybe spammers have an easier job on Facebook compared to this next example. Apparently scammers have been hacking into people’s personal Facebook accounts. They look through all your personal information, photos, friends etc and really get to know you and what you are about. Then when they see the chance, they strike up a conversation with your friends on Facebook chat and ask for money. Either saying you are stranded somewhere and need help or your stuff has been stolen, these scammers try and get money out of your friends. How terrifying is this?? I dug a bit deeper and found that is actually a regular occurrence amongst Facebook users!! The horror. Innocent people using social media sites that are being scammed thinking they are doing good. It annoys me to think that people like this are out there, invading social sites and giving them bad names.

I hope Facebook takes further action on both matters, and instead of them worrying about breastfeeding mothers posting pictures of bare breasts, they should worry about bigger matters such as these. 

The day before Obama beat out McCain in the 08 election, I was attending Marketing Week, Toronto listening to one of the speakers telling us that there was absolutely no possible way that McCain was going to win. Obama’s social media campaigning was too perfect and too powerful. I agreed that it was most likely that Obama was going to be elected as the next president of the United States but I still believed that it was awfully bold to stand up in front of a few hundred people and make such a matter of fact statement. Of course, having seen this YouTube video, produced by will.i.am. of the Black Eyed Peas, I can see exactly what made the speaker so certain. Please take a look at this powerful video and then read Kim’s past postabout Obama’s awesome online fundraising activities, entitled Obama and Social Media.

Yes We Can – Obama Video

Obviously Obama got it right on many different levels.

As much as I love Twitter and could go on talking about it each week, I’ll move on to something equally as interesting.

When I first started Social Media Marketing, I found that LinkedIn was an amazing social media channel. Packed with professionals willing to network and exchange information on discussion boards, it was easy to enjoy LinkedIn’s atmosphere.

After creating a few social networking accounts, I found the biggest leads were coming from LinkedIn, and the response rate was a lot faster than any other site. Yes, including Twitter. I had actually lost my faith in Twitter cause I really couldn’t believe that you could get followers out of thin air. With LinkedIn it felt like it was easier to approach people by joining groups and discussions, as well as post interesting articles for everyone to read.

I was interested and blown away recently to find out that not everyone on LinkedIn wanted to connect. For me this just doesn’t make much sense. If you are a part of a social media channel that encourages people to connect, but you don’t want to, then I am not sure what you are doing there in the first place. If you ask someone to connect, they have three options. To accept your invite, to archive you, or “I don’t know you”. The only problem with this is if they click on “I don’t know you”, you get into a lot of trouble on LinkedIn and warned. The problem is that if you keep asking people to connect and they are saying they don’t know you, you will frequently get into trouble and potentially kicked off. What’s the point of being part of a networking system if you don’t want to openly network?? I agree that spammers and the like should be ignored and reprimanded, but if you are apart of the same group and just want to share business information to expand your network and add value to each other, then I don’t see what the issue is. I feel differently about Facebook, because it is used for more personal use versus LinkedIn.

I have seen a few complaints from people on LinkedIn because of people clicking on the “I don’t know you” button, and some groups are even kicking people out for clicking it. Most groups have openly advertised that they are there solely for the purpose of connecting, so I agree with them on these drastic measures. If you “archive” someone it’s a nicer way of putting them to the side without tainting their profile on LinkedIn.

So be aware of what you are doing on social networking sites because it can damage or affect someone else’s social experience unnecessarily. If you aren’t sure of their intentions, ask them straight out and determine your next move accordingly. I’m all for keeping a happy playground. 

Last week, a long time client called to tell me that he couldn’t pull the trigger on a 30K yellow page ad. Although his yellow page ad has worked for him in the past, these are different and difficult times. He didn’t want to tie up 30K for twelve months in one advertising medium. That’s the beauty of PPC or SEO. You can shut down your programs when necessary and speed up as you see some strength in the market.

In the florist industry, 50% or more of the business comes during four holiday periods,Valentine’s day, Mother’s day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. With PPC or SEO, you can put more emphasis on your keyword terms during peak periods while maintaining your regular campaign throughout the year. Still, you can shut it down when and if you need to. 

In the end, the client passed on the yellow page ad and saved the 30K.  It just made sense. 2009 will prove to be a very treacherous year for advertisers. You want to be able to adapt quickly to consumer buying behaviors. You will need to be able to turn on a dime or you will wind up wasting your money.