Policy & Guidelines

Troll control tips!

Solid 'House Rules' are the anchor of a troll-proof Community Management policy. This subject comes up when I counsel clients who face attacks that threaten online reputation. Those who run social accounts that draw unwanted visitors will find this especially useful.[read more]

If you have tuned into any of the shout shows or news across the cable network board in the past couple weeks, you will have found no shortage of debates taking place among political pundits emphatically emitting their views. Some are crying it is a gross invasion of privacy, while others are contending it is an effective counter-terrorism tactic.[read more]

Perhaps more than anything else, it is discourse that separates social media from most conventional forms of communication. Take that away and its value is significantly diminished.[read more]

In the wake of the AP and Verizon phone record scandals and the Supreme Court’s decision to allow DNA swabbing of people arrested for “serious crimes,” people are finally questioning tradeoffs between freedom and security.[read more]

3-D printing is already shaking our institutions. The recent issue of a 3D printed gun – and the availability of the drawings for free on the web – has scared many. Governments are already considering how they should change the regulations around weapon acquisition and export; on the other side hackers defend the freedom of internet.[read more]

The average person on the internet knows nothing about third party tracking and targeting. The very idea that there is a third party that is tracking our online behavior feels wrong. It feels invasive. But in actuality this is both old news and benign.[read more]

Topics Discussed: How is HR changing to accommodate social media in the workplace.Challenges of managing social media usage among staffers at Applebee’sOvercoming the operational challenges social media at workBusiness case for HR to manage social media usage in the workplaceSocial media compliance in an era of increased government...[read more]

The FTC recently updated their guidance on disclosures in digital advertising to take social media and mobile requirements into account. Check out these clear right vs. wrong examples.[read more]

Do you know how to comply with FTC advertising regulations on digital media? A summary and explanation of the March 2013 FTC guidance which explains how to make disclosures in digital advertising clear for consumers.[read more]

Socially Stephanie to the rescue!

This week, Socially Stephanie helps out a real estate agent in Atlanta whose real-life social shyness extends into the online world: "You'd think the social media revolution would have been the answer: fewer face-to-face meetings, just dash off an email and hit send! But it hasn't gotten easier."[read more]

Smaller organizations tend towards complacency, believing that attacks only target government, military and high profile organizations. This leaves them vulnerable to easily preventable attacks.[read more]

Marcy Kaptur (D-OH9) tweeted a joke from the White House Correspondents Dinner. But then she erased it 8 minutes later. What if more members of Congress could embrace the boldness of a funny tweet, without running away from it as if scared of their own shadow? We might see more real discussions among our elected officials as they work to solve our very real problems.[read more]

Last week, a gang of cyber criminals perpetrated a $45 Million fraud by hacking their way into prepaid card systems at several banks and extracting their take via ATM machines in 26 countries. The US portion of the scam took place courtesy of ATM’s mostly in the Northeast, giving too much publicity to the ensuing spending spree and clearly illustrating the risk that needs to be addressed via the EMV standard.[read more]

social media meltdown / shutterstock

It’s easy to read about best practices, nod your head in agreement, and then move on. But the fine folks Amy’s Baking Company are in the middle of writing a modern cautionary tale that shows just how important keeping control of your social self really is.[read more]

Social media as court evidence? You have a legal duty to preserve it. From attorney Emily Huters, "If you are involved in litigation where social media evidence within your control may be relevant, don’t delete the data or deactivate the account, which could lead to deletion."[read more]

Maybe I’m off-base here, but I think the lack of White House response to these events via social media is outrageous. Not just because there are policies in place to handle events like this, but because it is just common sense to want to put the public at ease when they may be thinking a bomb exploded at the White House and the President of the United States was injured.[read more]

Having troll trouble online? Trolls have been with us from the day that computers were linked together and that online anonmity was made possible. As more and more people adopt social networks, encounters with these seedy denizens of the web rise in frequency, tainting many a person's first forays into online spaces. Here is a field-tested technique for dissuading trolls in forums and social networks.[read more]

Real-time social media marketing can be incredibly powerful as it adds elements of context and relevance to your social media content and audience interactions. The challenge for many organizations is that existing processes can stand in the way of engaging and interacting with audiences in a timely manner. Process by its nature takes time, and virtually strips organizations of being able to act in real-time.[read more]

Hacktivist group Anonymous

With the recent controversy over a bill to increase cyber security, called CISPA, businesses have the right to hand over your information to the government. This leaves your actions and privacy vulnerable to prying eyes, while businesses are free to share data. Is this fair?[read more]

Monitoring public information on the internet is not a violation of privacy. Much ado has been made about colleges that follow their athletes on social media. Time for sanity in the discussion. As of this writing, there are 35 states considering some form of digital privacy bills making it illegal to ask for social media passwords and usernames for purposes of gaining private information.[read more]