Smart words on social intent

There it was in my Twitter stream this morning. Another one of those tweets:

Are Social Media Ethics About Actions or Intentions?: What is your social strategy? Are you trying to increase t… bit.ly/wK5afJ

— OGILVY (@OGILVY) January 30, 2012

I girded my loins expecting another unrealistic diatribe about how businesses should be using social media to have a nice chat with people, which, of course, they’d love to do all day, but would be the fastest way to the bankruptcy courts known to man. Instead I found a well thought through article about the abuse of the reviews system. Recommended reading for PR folk!

PS I’m @claireatwaves on Twitter if you want to say hi!

LinkedIn Privacy

I had the following email, which I’m sharing here, with the English tidied up a little.

LinkedIn’s privacy settings have changed, meaning your picture can be used for their social advertising.

This has been a blanket change, rather than opt in, so it’s worth letting others know as well.

LinkedIn obviously recognised the value of trust in business, hence using the images of  people known to the advertisement target. I am surprised, however, that they haven’t seen the flip side of this and taken it to its logical conclusion. Creating a false trust can at best be short lived. In a business network which has previously been trustworthy, if a little staid (business and conservatism make good bedfellows), this could be very damaging to LinkedIn and individuals alike.

I’m disappointed that this is twice in one week that I’ve had good cause to write somewhat negative reports on a network that until very recently had more trust than the others.

I couldn’t see the point of business contenders like Viadeo – just more to manage – but LinkedIn could find itself with a serious challenger if it continues to abuse the trust of people who have been loyal to it for years by failing to consider the user as it grows.

The email: 

I received the following message from a contact and I am forwarding it for your awareness and due consideration.

Without attracting too much publicity, LinkedIn has updated their privacy conditions. Without any action from your side, LinkedIn is now permitted to use your name and picture in any of their advertisements.

Some simple actions to be considered:

1. Place the cursor on your name at the top right corner of the screen. From the small  pull down menu that appears, select “settings”
2. Then click “Account” on the left/bottom
3. In the column next to Account, select the option “Manage Social Advertising”
4. Finally un-tick the box “LinkedIn may use my name and photo in social advertising”
5. and Save

How to inform your connections? Simple! Via ‘Inbox > Compose message’ in Linkedin, you can send a message to up to 50 connections at once, all of whom will appreciate being informed.

NMA Awards now open

By Claire Thompson, freelance PR Consultant (Reading, UK)

The annual New Media Age awards for digital goodness and innovation are now open.

Key dates:

ENTRY DEADLINE

Tuesday 13th March 2012

AWARDS CEREMONY

Thursday 28th June 2012

I’m always amazed at how few businesses do put themselves forward. I suspect that in our day-to-day routines it’s easy to focus on what’s not done, or could be done better, rather than celebrating some of the great things that so many in the digital field achieve on an almost daily basis.

Happy Chinese New Year

“Gong Xi Fa Cai”

Happy Chinese New Year.

I have in a Chinese feast to celebrate tonight.