Social Media: Legal, Polices, and Ethics

Social Media: Legal, Polices, and Ethics

"Social Networking Law Blog" is all about the connection between social media and the law.

A New Jersey woman created a FAKE FaceBook profile pretending to be her ex-husband in hopes of hurting his reputation. (Did that grab your attention, like it did mine?) This lady went as far as to make remarks about him having an STD, calling prostitutes for sex and using illegal drugs. These statements are obviously defamatory and can clearly hurt someone’s reputation. Once she was discovered to be the person behind the profile she was taken to court.

"The New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice defines the offense of impersonation/identity theft to include "impersonat[ing] another or assuming a false identity and do[ing] an act in such assumed character or false identity . . . to injure or defraud another."

After many attempts to get her case dismissed by stating that there is no mention of electronic communications, the presiding judge has decided to go forward with it.  (Its mind boggling to me that she knows it’s ILLEGAL to say defamatory statements, but believes because she made those statements over the internet and not in person there shouldn’t be the same consequences.)

I wish this woman was feeling remorse, instead of trying to manipulate her way out of it. She should have thought twice before making a FAKE FaceBook. I hope they throw the book at her.

The problem is that Law based on the internet is still a very new concept so many people are unaware the consequences that come with it.

Social Media Policies for Legal Types is a great article that gives great advice as to what is legally appropriate/not appropriate when it comes to social media in both the business as well as professional world.  

A question that is often asked nowadays is: Are professionals allowed to have a personal life on the internet? My answer to that is, “If you don’t want your boss to see it, it should be out there.” My dad always reminds his employee that they as well as their Facebook’s are a reflection on his company. However, what do we know? Below are Harvard's Law Guidelines.

Harvard states:

“As a general matter, you may post content freely to your blog and to those of others, so long as the content is not illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, infringing of intellectual property rights, invasive of privacy or otherwise injurious or objectionable."

I am the first to admit there is so much for me and the world to learn when to comes to social media and the law.

APPS

So Sorry- Want a FREE App?

RIM says sorry in the form of Apps

 “Apps” are, without a doubt, the greatest thing to happen to this world since sliced bread! They are the sole reason that nearly everyone has a smart phone in their hands these days! From checking Facebook to playing words with friends, mobile devices are a great way to pass the time and stay connected!

When the IPhone 4S was released customers in US, Europe, Middle East, and India experienced some of their services being shut off for their BlackBerrys.  I’m sure many people were angry. For one they didn’t have the new cool IPhone and two their current phone wasn’t working.   In an effort to make up for their poor service and to do some damage control Rim decided to offer free apps to their customers.

These FREE APPS include:

DriveSafe.ly Pro
iSpeech Translator Pro
Drive Safe.ly Enterprise
Nobex Radio Premium
Shazam Encore
Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant
The Sims 3
Bejeweled
N.O.V.A.
Texas Hold’em Poker 2
Bubble Bash 2
Photo Editor Ultimate

I don’t exactly see how getting a free app would make up for the lack of cell phone service, but RIMS gets an A for effort. After all, everyone loves getting something for free.

Words with friends, is without a doubt, one of the most popular Apps on smart phones.  People literally spend hours competing against one and other in hopes of beating out their opponent with their clever words.  I thought this game would be boring, but after one game I was HOOKED! If you haven’t played it, I dare you! You WILL become addicted too!

Search Engine Optimization- The taggers AKA JC PENNY

JC Penny- Shady Business.

The New York Times published a story last February regarding a serious SEO no-no and a JC Penny Scandal.

JC Penny has become a house-hold name and seemed like the go to place for just about everything from luggage to the “little black dress”.  JC Penny quickly became the number one search for hundreds of items such as, comforter sets, clothing, and home décor.  

Investigations soon began of the strange search engine results. It was found that JC Penny had found a new niche to the online dark-side to market their company. Leave it to JC Penny to be shady! What JC Penny didn’t know was that Google sorts their results in accordance with many factors, and one of those being the number of outside links that filter into any given site. What does this mean for JC Penny? Well come to find out JC Penny had tagged more than 2,012 sites with a direct link to their site. The bulk of their tagged websites were out of use meaning that the sole purpose was purely to boost JC Penny's search ranking. WAY TO GO JC PENNY!

New York Times reported that tags were found off topic sites:

New York Times reported that JC Penny had attached the phrase “black dress” to the bottom of a website titled nuclear.engineeringaddict.com.

What else did they find, you may ask? “Evening dresses” was on a site called casino-focus.com while  “Cocktail dresses” showed up on bulgariapropertyportal.com. ”Casual dresses” was on a site called elistofbanks.com and “Semi-formal dresses” was pasted on usclettermen.org.  JC Penny seemed to cover all their types of dresses…… (Good thinking, JC Penny!) The list seems to go on and on as the links to JCPenney.com’s dresses are on sites about, cameras, dogs, travel, snoring,  online games, jewelry stores, ADOBE flash, and even dentist.  JC Penny was clearly targeting a wide audience.

The links were quickly taken down, however it did shed light on how effective their  scheme was.

"At 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, J. C. Penney was still the No. 1 result for “Samsonite carry on luggage.”  Two hours later, it was at No. 71." Sorry about your bad luck JC Penny.

Collaborative and Distance Communication Tools

Skype and a Webcammm PARTY!

If you have been reading my blog lately you already know Skype is sweeping the nation.  Skype is a great tool that allows people to communicate with one and other  through video chat. This type of communication can even happen when those people are continents apart! Crazy huh? There are countless benefits when it comes to Skype including many reasons why one would use Skyp. Some of these include: personal, educational and professional.  If you read my previous entry you know that younger grades are starting to Skype with schools across the Atlantic. Seems amazing right? Well not so…according to some teachers who note that unless education stays the main topic of conversation Skype can become just another distraction. (Who would have thought?!) SKype also allows people to stay in touch with friends and family. Last, but not least Skype is helping the business worlds, and saving it TONS of money. Skype is also great for interveiws!

Another social media outlet catching the world by storm is called clubbing from home via Ustream or Boiler Room. I have never heard of this, however I think it’s VERY sad if you and your friends sit at home and watch people party, or if you have the time to “see if the party is worth going out for.” Can you say lazy?????????? No wonder Americas obesity is up! Oh and one more thing-Is anyone else freaked out that people can tune in and see whos at a party? I think that sounds like a murders/psychopaths dream.

Viral Video

Viral Video Star Hits Big Screen by Nina Metz, was the first article I read.

This article addressed how a viral video can make someone famous, over night!

This is exactly what happened to Jack Rebney when he had a video go viral. He was an overnight sensation when outtakes of a commercial he filmed more than 20 years ago were posted to Youtube and became a huge hit! As a result many film directors are interested in making a documentary of his life. Now at 80, Redney is still surprised that those crazy out takes give him so much attention.

I loved reading this article. It got me thinking of how crazy it would be to be in his position! It also reminded me that Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian both became famous, virtually overnight as well, after their sex tapes went viral. (Does it seem like more now than ever people are becoming famous for nothing?)

The second article I read was by Dan, author of The Secret Strategies behind Many "Viral" Videos. His article states that almost all videos with over 100,000 views did not get that many viewers on their own. (No kidding?!)

According to this article there are nine key strategies that professionals use to help make videos go viral.

1. If a video goes viral, someone meant for that to happen.(Isn’t that common sense?!)

2. Below are some key things that will help you in your efforts to make your videos go viral:

Make it short: 15-30 seconds is ideal.  People are more attracted to bite-sized clips rather than long stories.
Make it shocking: The shock effect makes a viewer want to investigate further, and viewers tend to share shocking videos they see with their friends giving your video more publicity.
Use fake headlines: “Holy shit, did that actually happen?!” (Please use a classy headline like that...)
Design for remixing: Try to create a video that will be easy for others to remix. That will allow others to "spread" your video as well.
Don’t make an outright ad: If a video seems like an ad, viewers are more likely to shut it off and not share it. (Can you think of the last time you shared an ad? Didn’t think so.)

Appeal to sex: It’s no secret, sex sells. So if all else fails, use sex appeal. Your video will, without a doubt, get more views if you have an attractive girl or guy in it. (As previously stated it worked for Paris Hilton.)

3.The amount of views is the most important factor in making a video go viral- So the most important part of this process is understanding how to get people to view your video. It’s important to consider this question: How will people find out about this video? The best way to do this is to know your audience. What type of social media are they using? Reaching out to various mediums is very important. The more attention you can get the better. Whether it’s using facebook, twitter, youtube, ect it’s important that you get your video out to as many mediums as you can.

The rest of the steps address secrets on how to make your video go viral with interesting ideas. Clink on the link if you’re interested in learning more!

The article was very interesting and gave great information. Before reading this article I had no idea of the process and hard work it takes to make a video go viral.

Locating social media... A stalkers dream

Locating social media

   

In today’s internet –crazed world one thing is clear, privacy is little. What does this mean? It’s only natural for location based social media to thrive and flourish. Users of sites such as Foursquare and Facebook's now have location options that allow users to share their whereabouts and swap information and happenings in their area. All done by a simple click. I know this because often times I go to dinner with my sorority sisters and within minutes if parking Im "checked in" to the resturant as well as my 20 sisters. Great Idea?!? If you ask me it’s so scary to think that thousands of my friends, which some I am not sure I even know, can know my whereabouts whether I want them to or not.

 A new mobile app that is sweeping the nation is TagWhat. Tagwart is an application that allows users to upload mobile photos of landmarks around their location, adding personal comments to the image. Types Commentary can vary but usually include personal stories, random facts, historical information, deals, tips, anything others may find interesting.
 
Maps meet scrapbooking meets Facebook meets Groupon in TagWhat. WHAT A COMBO.The potential to share deals and helpful information based on your location could reshape social media. The application surly does have a ways to go, but it's of potential is hard to comprehend. I bet those psychos on that coupon show are filled with joy.

Natalie Giddings, a well known blogger addresses the offers TagWhat provides in comparison to other social media sites by saying,

  "What differentiates TagWhat from Foursquare (and what makes it more like Facebook), is the fact that it eschews the formers' game mechanics and focuses on the user interaction and community building aspects of the latter. The basic use of TagWhat is that it lets users turn a view of any location into an engrossing, educational experience, as users provide interesting stories and entertaining information about every single thing that can be captured by your camera - think a diner and its history is interesting enough? I Love this examples they give on their website. Try to point the device at the tables, perhaps a user has tagged the exact table where a famous actor used to sit during his lunch breaks. TagWhat makes the world more interesting."

Youre right Natalie.. Thanks for letting me know that TagWhat does make the world more interesting... (Or not)

Read more: http://technorati.com/blogging/article/augmented-reality-meets-location-based-social/#ixzz1a7bHNVet

A personal note- If you ask me if can be quite creepy and dangerous to think of these types of applications getting into the wrong hands. (These apps could be a kidnapper or pedophiles dream.)  Sometimes I fear for my future children.

Traditional views and Social Media

                               

 

                           Traditional views and Social Media

Traditional media outlets seem to be strung out across a range of emotion towards social media. Our traditional friends may want to thumb through an AA 12-steps-to-acceptance pamphlet next time they go to CVS, because social media is here to stay.

one: Admit we are powerless over the rise of social media- our professional fields have changed

two: Power greater that ourselves lies within social media, that can be harnessed for good

three: Stop turning a blind eye social media, and come to terms with the changing times of all media outlets.

four: Make a searching and fearless inventory of social media sites and their potential as it pertains to us.

five: Admit to ourselves and our professional counterparts our previous wrong in verbalizing scathing and offensive thoughts towards social media in a vain effort to change the unchangeable.

six: Ready ourselves to take the plunge into mixing tradition with the abyss of social media

seven: Humbly remove all bitter emotions and prejudgment towards online networking

eight: list all opportunities we have lost in our stupor of close-mindedness

nine: make efforts to uptake all opportunities that were lost do to reasons described on the previous step.

ten: continue to make steps to remove the bitterness and hostility that has inevitably cemented up into a wall of disdain towards social media and its users

eleven: sought through research and trail to improve our outreach through understanding social media. We understand this will give us power to carry our messages to the masses

twelve: Having been awakened from our slumber of ill-mindedness, we try to carry our message of glad tidings to all media experts who are hiding from the truth.

Now that we've excepted that the rise of social media has finally caught up with traditional views of marketing and business; we can move past of fragile, scared state and be welcomed into the world of media relations.
Clearly,  now more than ever, social media is working to redefine business and politics. In Liberal Democrats' View: It Was Traditional Media That Did It by Mark Pack, liberal representative's social media sites were monitored during a British political debate. After the debate finished, the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg's Facebook following had risen percent, while his Twitter following rose 23 percent.
This information gave voice to the face that social media is not just for twenty-something’s posting pictures of themselves in the mirror anymore. Social Media is a real time representation of what is happening in our world. Twitter has supplied an opportunity for politicians to communicate their position with a mass audience.