Sunday, June 12, 2011

Some Social Media Legalese

The rumor mill has it that one of the new social networks is so large that it could be the third largest country in the world. That means it could have the third largest problems in the world too. This will bring to mind that there are some legal problems with social media. So included with your plan for covering your social networking strategies, include this in it.

Many social networking tribes use the main social network platforms for a variety of reasons. One of the most common here is to network with friends and acquaintances for business purposes. Updating your status many times a week helps to keep you in the mind of tribes that you may want to do business with. 
The law in this area is changing constantly and we hope for the better. It is wise to be aware of these few issues .

Tribes that are using Social networking have to obey the law s regarding copyright infringement and trademark laws. There are no special rights  granted here. These are sometimes referred to as Intellectual Property.

Along the same lines , Social Network sites do not confer immunity from defamation laws. Be careful of any flaming or derogatory comments that you make when talking about someone else. 
Be aware that a lot of the information you provide to the network is available publicly. Things such as the name of your main employer or photographs that may put you in a compromising position. The problem here is that if you later want to claim that it is private, you may find it difficult.

So much is said about identity theft today and a lot of it is true. Social networks ask for a lot of information when you sign up and this information can be stolen. I tell most of my clients to use a PO box for this pupose. Just in case there is someone out there looking for you. Let's just say that your favorite I-Phone gets misplaced. 

This might give someone the opportunity to hack into one of your social network accounts and steal your information. Your personal information could be used to open accounts in your name and buy stuff that you may have to pay for.

Not only that, but personal information can be used against you in a court of law. Does that sound familiar? Just think about how this information may be seen down the road. 
Some of these things may seem like common sense, they did to me.

Then I was reminded of the family that went to Florida for a week and told all their social media networking friends about it. When they got home , the furniture was gone. 

I would like to hear from my many fans about experiences with this. Go ahead and shoot me an email , or better yet, make a comment on my blog. 

Until next time.


Sunday, June 5, 2011

Your Social Scanning Activities

Can I regale you with all of the benefits of Smart phones? You’ve probably heard it all by now. You stay connected to all your social media networks by using the Internet. All the time. You keep in touch because the email is close to you. In addition to all this, you can stay more organized than you have ever been and there are more and more services out there to help you do just that.

Most , if not all , of the new services actually need to mature a bit and experiment with the model a bit more, in my humble opinion. For the immediate future , you may want to watch developments here.

In the past it's been said that smart phone owners have the world at their fingertips . This may sound a bit pompous, but the inertia of the of the mobile phone business is gaining momentum. To my view , its because of the many different applications that are available. One of them that has caught my eye is mobile scanning technology. In some circles its known as social scanning. These are applications that allow comparison shopping using bar codes.

This means that you , as a Smart phone owner, can get to your machine, load an application and a code and get access to all the relevant information about that code. This activity is really the application of bar code scanning and social media to create a paradigm of social scanning.

To the big search engines, this means there is a way to track offline scanning behavior. Location services track the data and so now QR code details are being given away to retailers with popular Place Pages. This is because you now have a connection that you can touch to the digital world.

An added benefit here is that you will be able to aggregate all of your membership group details, punch cards etc. into an easy to access digital format . You'll be able to scan stuff such as credit and debit cards too. There are backup programs to keep your digital data safe also.

Some may think that these scans aren't really social in nature, but because they can double as verifiable place check-ins, they also share the same properties.

It is also possible to leverage Mobile Technology in order to create brand awareness and product loyalty. This can be done using location platforms and apps that are creating the new ;loyalty platform. Whoever does this the best will stand out. Its just a matter of learning to use a few programs.

Social Capital is an important concept too. This is what drives all social phenomenons to go viral on the internet. This makes it something to focus on. It has been called the currency of social media.

As social scanning and other as yet to be found applications show up, we will be learning more and more.

Let me in on any discussions you might have about this and we'll go from there.

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