Policy & Guidelines

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]

David Eby / Shutterstock.com

Let's examine two brands' actions last week, during the frightening events in Boston: one from NBC Bay Area and the other from Ford. Issues of ethics are not clear cut, and while it is easy to see when a company crosses the line with both feet (as did NBC Bay Area), it can tough to discern as brands toe the gray line (as did Ford, in my opinion). I believe the time has come for social media marketers to reset their moral compasses, not because our souls need saving but because our brands do.[read more]

CNN/Hollywood Reporter

As last week proved, social media can be an unpredictable, uncontrollable force. It’s important to critique it and to think of ways it can be tempered, especially during crises. Patronizing journalists should set examples for how social media ideally would be used. Blaming people who only wanted to help won’t make your jobs any more secure.[read more]

When say, national security is at risk, the social media rules come a little more strict. The Internet can be a creepy place, and by limiting what personal information is available, we can help protect others and ourselves, no matter our positions.[read more]

With new US and UK regulatory guidance, social media and financial services are firmly linked. Here's an updated guide to managing social media engagement for the financial services industry.[read more]

Questions and answers with the FTC about changes to the COPPA rule, from the recent Children's Advertising & Online Privacy Conference 2013. The chat was hosted by Liisa Thomas (Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP), with FTC representative Mamie Kresses joining via Skype. The pair discussed many of the upcoming changes to COPPA that consumers, businesses and child safety advocates need to know about in order to comply with the changing law.[read more]

Social media certainly inspires a mob mentality and in the case of any form of investment of this nature, sentiment and confidence matter a lot. Outside factors aside from social media certainly affect Bitcoin prices (i.e. hacking, MTGox’s reliability and security issues). However, social media reflects this on a hyper level, creating both ups and downs at a super-fast rate.[read more]

Marketing..."expert"? / shutterstock

How often do you see or hear people claim to be inbound marketing experts? Have you heard someone claim that they "will get you on the first page of Google"? Don't be fooled. Here are some tips to help you determine if your inbound marketing expert is truly an expert.[read more]

There are three significant pieces to your channel that have been changed, and while you may not have been forced over to the new format yet, it's coming. Google's analytics tool has also been made easier for admins to access with the new design, which is a good thing if you are tracking your success on the site.[read more]

online censorship / shutterstock

Cody Snyder is frustrated. A distance runner for the University of Virginia, he wrote a piece published in the CavalierDaily.com on what he calls the unfair restrictions put on student-athletes who use social media. What can universities do in response to situations like this?[read more]

social media profile

It’s been said that you have 10 seconds to make a good impression, which is especially relevant if you are a user of any of the social media channels. Even if you don’t share all of your personal life online there still is a good chance that certain elements of your life can be traced.[read more]

Internship season is rapidly approaching and a large and eager workforce will be looking for real-word experience. With a majority of interns working for free, how can a company create motivation?[read more]

email marketing no-no

Brands can’t serve customers well by assuming they all want the same thing. Ask them. Or look at the analytics of who’s opening the emails. Technology makes it so easy to customize email marketing. It’s easy. It works. And it’s essential to good customer service.[read more]