The Double Edged Sword of Social Media and Privacy: What is the Responsibility of Communicators?

 

 

Social media is by definition, public information.

 

As a marketer and public relations professional, I have really enjoyed the fact that I can easily share, find and communicate with people.

 

As a power user, I love that everything and everyone is at my fingertips and that I can so easily share amazing stories and experiences with people I would have never met otherwise.

 

But….as a mother, friend and human being that cares, I have some concerns.

 

Our Eroding Privacy

 

My first concerns came as Facebook started to continually shift its privacy settings as it added new features and everything was opt out. At the status quo on Facebook, advertisers can use your connection with a brand to market to your friends without your knowledge through social ads; any of your friends can “check you in” to a location without your permission; if you add your cell phone to the system, marketers can harvest it for promotion, as well as your email through apps; until you reset it, your posts to your wall are set to public, and so on….

 

Recently Facebook settled with the US Government over how it “misled users about the use of their data.”

 

But the real concern is actually integration. Once you integrate one social network with another, or even a website, unexpected things can occur. For instance, my friend Tonia Ries blew the whistle on the Klout integration with Facebook, which had the effect of a minor getting a Klout account just from posting on his more public Mom’s wall.

 

This led to an apology by Joe Fernandez at Klout and also led to Klout adding a way to “opt out” of a profile on that service.

 

How Far Is Too Far?

 

And that is the rub. As adults we can make decisions about how much information to share, and we can thicken our skin an take the hit if we happen to make a mistake.

 

But as my 7 year-old son asked me a few weeks ago, “Mom, why is is okay for you to use your whole name online and not me?”

 

As a marketer and public relations professional, I believe I have an ethical duty to ask myself how I am using people’s data. I have started a Scoop.It topic on the issue of Social Media and Privacy. If you are interested in this, be sure to follow the topic in the graphic below.

 

How do you feel about privacy and social media? How far is too far? What, if any, is our responsibility for using this data?

 

Evolving Privacy in Social Media

 

 

Direct link to all privacy articles

 

Photo credit:

Double face by Photo by uzi978

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The Holy Grail of Social Media: Three Questions to Ask, Three Archetypes to Avoid

 

Everything you need to know about risk and social media you can learn from Monty Python.

 

Okay, perhaps not everything, but the classic scene where the Knights of the Roundtable approach the “Bridge of Doom” in their quest for the Holy Grail holds a lot of wisdom.

 

Three Questions to Ask for Your Social Media Strategy

 

1. Who are You? Knowing who you are as an organization isn’t as easy as it sounds. You need to understand the culture of your company, and you need to know a lot about your stakeholders. Are they a Facebook crowd or more likely on LinkedIn? What about Flickr or YouTube?
2. Where are you going? I am always amazed at how many organizations have no real goals for their social media interactions. Be sure you have some SMART Objectives in place and know what are you are trying to accomplish.
3. What don’t you know? You need to know Your Achilles Heel. What are your weaknesses as an organization? Where are you likely to stumble? Do you have a secretive culture? Be sure you have guidelines in place to keep things moving in the right direction.

 

The Three Archetypes to Avoid

 

The Early Adopter. This may be a sacrilegious statement for some, but don’t aim to be an early adopter. This personality has more of “shiny object” syndrome and often is not the most efficient. Sir Lancelot only made it across the bridge with a turn of good luck and some bravado. Moving first has its advantages, but notice that King Arthur wasn’t the early adopter in this clip, but instead used his intelligence to outwit the bridge keeper.

 

 

 

 

 

The Overconfident Guru. The other archtype is one that gathers a few case studies, attends a few webinars and decides that this social media stuff is pretty easy. Problem is they often fly without a plan. Like Sir Robin, they push others to go first and then come in behind with an arrogant attitude. Sometimes they end up in the “Gorge of Eternal Peril,” too (Muhaa-ha-ha).

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Copycat. The final archetype is one that carefully studies the market and his or her competitors, then decides to do something “just like” a competitor. In this clip, Sir Galahad is not true to his own personality, and thus end up in the Gorge with the others.

 

 

 

 

If nothing else, I hope it makes you chuckle.

 

Many thanks to I have to give credit to Kathi Kruse (@kathikruse) whose own excellent post on this subject inspired me to add the captions.

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Think that Celebrities are a Home Run for Fundraising? New PayPal Study Says Community Works Better

It turns out that when it comes to fundraising for a cause, it is not about who knows YOU, but who you KNOW. A recent study sponsored by PayPal Nonprofit, and penned by Geoff Livingston and Henry Dunbar for Zoetica, shows that a personal story, a tight knit community and the authenticity of the messenger count more than simple fame.

 

 

Four Tips for Fundraising with Weblebrities

1. Personal connections and authentic passion for the cause.

2. Willingness to ask their personal friends to get involved and not just their ‘publics.’

3. Identify avid users of social media, both by the celebrity and their social networks.

4. Welcome the non-traditional celebrity.

 

Consider just these few examples where micro-celebrities outperformed well-known celebrities:

Facebook’s Causes

Paddie O’Brien, a 9-year-old cancer patient with virtually no online presence generated more donations than any other individual, including television star Ashton Kutcher.

 

DonorsChoose.org

Tomato Nation’s Sarah Bunting raised over $383K, beating out better known names like TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington and All Things D’s Kara Swisher.

 

Kevin Bacon’s Six Degrees

Scrapbooking blogger Ali Edwards, whose son has autism, outpaced 60 celebrity fundraisers, including Kanye West, who didn’t get even one donation. By contrast Edwards brought in 2,313 donors giving 47,849 to benefit Autism Speaks.

 

PayPal-sponsored Regift the Fruitcake

Filipina singer Charice and her engaged fans beat out more notable celebrities such as Paris Hilton [4 million+ Twitter followers], Billy Bush of Access Hollywood, the NBA’s Lamar Odom and his reality TV star wife Kloe Kardashian. None of these delivered Charice’s impact.

TwitChange

 

In a charity auction where fans buy mentions, follows, and retweets from celebrities on Twitter. Two of the celebrities drawing the most attention and highest bids have been actor Zachary Levi (of TV’s Chuck) and celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart, beating stars such as country singer LeAnn Rimes and celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton.

 

 

You can download the Effectiveness of Celebrity Spokespeople in Social Fundraisers, in full from the Scribed site.

 

Case Studies

• How Reddit Rocked Stephen Colbert’s World

 

Other coverage of the paper:

• Celebrities May be Overrated, Chronicle of Philanthropy
• Paypal Research Shows Strength of Community Trumps Popularity,

  Geoff Livingston  How Reddit Rocked Stephen Colbert’s World

• PayPal Paper Shows Celebrities Not Always the Best Choice for Fundraising, Zoetica

• Good News for Giving 2.0: Your Organization’s  Champions are Your Most Valuable Resource, Beth Kanter

• Online Celebrity Fundraisers Only Succeed with Authentic Interest, The Case Foundation

• Online Celebrity Fundraisers Only Succeed with Authentic Interest, Razoo

• The Effectiveness of Celebrities in Social Fundraisers, Frank Berry on NetWitsThinkTank (Blackbaud)

• Is Ashton Kutcher a Fundraising Dud?, Sherrilynne Starkie

• Celebrity Schmelebrity, The Facts Don’t Lie, PVSM Blog

• Do Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Other Celeb Tweets Really Help Causes?, Huffington Post

• 4 Top Tips for Recruiting Celebrity Fundraisers, Charity Buzz

• Who would you pick as your next spokesperson… lady gaga or your next door neighbor?, Social Citizens

Photo Credit: Photo from Blue Oregon coverage of the Ali Edward’s fundraiser for Kevin Bacon’s Six Degrees

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