Mediaboss Marketing

Despite large-scale successes by Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, innovation in the social networking sector is alive and well.

Reid Hoffman at D

Reid Hoffman, LinkedIns co-founder and executive chairman and Silicon Valleys so-called start-up whisperer appeared onstage today with LinkedIns CEO Jeff Weiner at D: All Things Digital to speak about social networking and his investments at Greylock Partners.

I think the Valley declares old trends dead before they should be, Hoffman said. In particular, he said, with the success of various social networks, investors and entrepreneurs think its dead.

Hoffman says hes still seeing a lot more opportunities. In fact, his last two investments qualify as social: Wrapp participates in the social gifting space, while Edmodo allows teachers to create secure classroom communities.

In terms of the overall investment scene, Hoffman voiced the criticism that theres so much money chasing the same deals in Silicon Valley that, as a result, valuations are artificially high and unsustainable.

AllThingsDs Kara Swisher asked what the long-term impact of that will be, but Hoffman said he didnt know.

Im living in this boat along with you, he said.

No, Swisher corrected, shes not in the same boat. Im on land, waiting to see if you sink.

Originally posted here:
LinkedIn's Co-Founder Reid Hoffman Says Social Innovation Isn't Over

Indian cos prefer face-to-face meetings over social networking Press Trust of India / New Delhi Mar 09, 2012, 19:00 IST

Social networking sites might be catching the public's imagination but Indian companies still feel face-to-face meeting will be the most effective way to lure customers in the next two to three years, says a survey.

A study by global workspace provider Regus, conducted among over 600 senior business managers, has found that a majority of companies (62%) in India believe face-to-face networking will be the most effective way to find new customers over the next two to three years.

"Face-to-face networking remains the top new business technique, despite a 10% fall over the previous period ... The rise and rise of business social media networks mean that today they are as essential a tool to finding new customers as face-to-face interaction," Regus Global Director (Product and Business Development) Andre Sharpe noted.

However, the increasing importance of professional social networking sites such as BranchOut, Viadeo and Xing stands out in the research, also witnessed by increasing user volumes, with LinkedIn having reached more than 135 million members.

Interestingly, small businesses (65%) believe that face-to-face networking will be key to recruiting customers over the next three years, compared to only 57 of large businesses.

Besides, 59% of respondents also declare online advertising to be one of the top channels to find new customers in the next three years, up from 49% in the previous three years.

Attending trade exhibitions (46%) and public speaking at key events (34%) are also regarded as significant tools for future customer recruitment, the survey noted.

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Indian cos prefer face-to-face meetings over social networking

STAMFORD -- The school district's first social media policy has been approved by the Board of Education, outlining proper conduct for employees on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The policy is not intended to be an instrument for punishment, but rather a guideline for acceptable behavior and a resource for faculty members, Interim Executive Director of Human Resources Fay Ruotolo said. Ruotolo headed up the committee that was charged with conceptualizing the policy.

The new rule grants the school board the power to "regulate the use of social media by employees, including employees' personal use of social media," when use: interferes with the work of the school district; is used to harass coworkers or other member of the school community; creates a hostile work environment; breaches confidentiality obligations of school district employees; disrupts the educational process; harms the goodwill and reputation of the school district in the community; violates the law, board policies and/or

other school rules and other school rules and regulations; or uses social media to enter into inappropriate contact with students, their families or guardians.

It does fully not preclude faculty members from being "friends" or "followers" of students or students' families on social networks, Ruotolo said.

"If there's a situation where a teacher knows a family or a student in a different capacity, as a neighbor or a family friend, this helps protect them in terms of being connected to them online," Ruotolo said. "This is supposed to help maintain a balance of the private and personal lives of our staff members."

Though there were some concerns raised about regulating staff behavior during their private time during policy committee meetings earlier this year, at which the resolution was developed, Ruotolo said the district's public trust policy already lays out what teachers can and cannot do and publicize in their personal time.

The board's public trust policy states that the effectiveness of school board employees "depends on the members of the community maintaining respect and confidence in such employees in regards to their on-duty and off-duty conduct."

The policy further states that off-duty misconduct that can damage the public's trust and confidence are considered to have occurred during the course of employment. "Accordingly, such misconduct, even if it occurs off school property or during off-time, can be the subject of disciplinary action by the Board up to and including termination of employment."

The social networking policy, which has been refined over the course of a year, helps further define this public trust policy.

The rest is here:
Schools OK first social networking policy

Blanket bans on social networking in the workplace are stupid, but even workplaces which encourage the use of Twitter or Facebook worry about what their employees are getting up to. Presumably that explains why were going to see a rise in the monitoring of social networking tools by IT security departments.

Picture by jmcar.net

According to Gartner, while just 10 per cent of organisations currently monitor social media for potential security breaches, that figure is expected to rise to 60 per cent by 2015. This is a quite distinct activity to monitoring social media for consumer reactions, a role usually performed by marketing departments. However, it creates additional challenges, as Gartner analyst Andrew Walls points out:

There are times when the information available can assist in risk mitigation for an organisation, such as employees posting videos of inappropriate activities within corporate facilities. However, there are other times when accessing the information can generate serious liabilities, such as a manager reviewing an employees Facebook profile to determine the employees religion or sexual orientation in violation of equal employment opportunity and privacy regulations . . . The problem lies in the ability of surveillance tools and methods to produce large volumes of irrelevant information. This personal information can be exposed accidentally or become the target of voyeuristic behaviour by security staff.

Do you always assume that what you do on a social network while at work might be monitored? Or do you stick to using your phone? Tell us in the comments.

See the article here:
Spying On Social Networking On The Rise

The market for enterprise social media and Web 2.0 tools is growing by over 20 per cent a year and will top $126m (80m) by 2017 as firms look for better ways to collaborate and manage content across Asia Pacific, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan.

The analysts Enterprise Social Media and Web 2.0 Market 2010 report describes the region as the fastest growing in the world when it comes to consumer social networking pointing to countries such as the Philippines and Malaysia where some services are used by 85 per cent of the population.

That fondness for public social networks will drive adoption of enterprise social networking and collaboration platforms from vendors such as Microsoft, Novell, IBM, Huddle, Yammer and Socialtext, the report says.

The need for intranet, file storage, project management and email integration capabilities will foster take-up of Web 2.0 tools while enterprise content management products will increasingly be made available online, again bolstering adoption of enterprise social media, the report predicted.

However, Frost & Sullivan warned that its still early days and many firms are reluctant to invest in technologies that could take a long time to deliver a return on investment. The fact that few concrete examples of successful deployments are to be found is another potential retardent.

Easily measurable KPIs will help decision makers to justify the investment in enterprise social media applications, said Research Analyst Jessie Yu.

A KPI that can be easily measured is the increase in intercompany communication and knowledge sharing, which is a clear indicator of the breakdown of information silos in a company.

While smaller firms will plump for free versions of tools such as DropBox and FileShare or Google Apps, their larger counterparts will need to invest in enterprise social networking and collaboration products to get the functionality they need to manage large numbers of geographically dispersed staff, said F&S.

Originally posted here:
Biz social networking set for take-off