Mediaboss Marketing

March 27, 2012, 7:30 AM PDT

Takeaway: Jack Wallen says employees should have access to social networking sites at work. See if you agree with his reasoning and take our poll to let us know where you stand.

I get it Youre completely convinced that allowing your employees to get on Facebook and Twitter would pull the rug out from under your bottom line. Because of that, you block chat, tweets, and all other social networking to make sure your workers are doing only what you pay them for. I am here, however, to suggest that there can be a backlash from that approach. Social networking can actually help you in the long run, and I want to try to open your eyes to this fact. In the end, of course, its your business and your call. But lets see if you can be swayed.

Back in the 90s, people wanted to be hired by companies that were cool to work for. And when the employees actually enjoyed working for a company, they did their best work. Morale is a huge aspect of the business world, but few owners and managers seem to get it. Low morale among the workers breeds contempt, and contempt breeds disloyalty. Disloyalty, as you know, breeds attrition.

Your reputation is everything in business. And in this day of instant gratification and notification, finding yourself with a reputation going down the drain is little more than a disgruntled employee away. That does not mean you must cater to every whim and folly of your employees. But giving them tiny crumbs (like social media access) will go a long way toward keeping your reputation healthy.

Communication whether its internal or external is key to business success. One of the fastest means of communication today is social networking. In fact, its just about the most immediate form of communication you can find. Your employees may be communicating with the outside world, but many of those people on the outside are consumers and possible clients.

Dare I say free advertising? I dare and I do. Social networking brings to businesses a boon of free advertising. You cant afford not to hop onto this bandwagon. And getting on board early shows the public that you are an agile, aware company. Allowing your employees to take advantage of social networking also shows you care about them. In this society, caring goes a long way. All of that makes for some seriously powerful advertising.

Social networking facilitates collaboration internally, but it also lets users collaborate with the entire world. I have done this countless times. When Ive been stuck on an idea, I call out to my followers on Twitter or Facebook to get a deluge of answers. Its free and its fast.

You need your finger on the pulse of society. You can get this with your employees on social networking sites. In fact, youll have instant access to the court of public opinion even as it evolves in front of you. This is another (free) way to expand your companys reach.

Your company and its employees need to know how to use social networking effectively. Why? Because our society is on a collision course with an even further embedding of social media into our lives. You want your company and your employees at the forefront of that trend. At some point, your employees may have to use social networking to market and sell your product. Allowing them to use it on a daily basis now will ensure that theyre social media savvy, without the need for training.

See the original post here:
10 reasons NOT to block social networking at work

By Patricia Reaney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most of the world is interconnected thanks to email and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, according to a new poll released on Tuesday.

Eighty five percent of people around the globe who are connected online send and receive emails and 62 percent communicate through social networking sites, particularly in Indonesia, Argentina and Russia, which have the highest percentage of users.

More than eight in 10 Indonesians and about 75 percent of people in Argentina, Russia and South Africa visit social media sites, the new Ipsos/Reuters poll showed.

Although Facebook and other popular social networking sites, blogs and forums, were founded in the United States the percentage of users was lower at six in 10, and in Japan it fell to 35 percent, the lowest of the 24 countries in the global survey.

"Even though the number in the United States was 61 percent, the majority of Americans are using social media sites," said Keren Gottfried, research manager at Ipsos Global Public Affairs.

The fact that more than six in 10 people worldwide use social networks and forums, she added, suggests a transformation in how people communicate with each other.

"It is true interconnection and engagement with each other. It is not just about a message back and forth but building messages across communities and only the meaningful messages stick," she explained.

"It looks like a majority of the world is communicating this way," she said, adding the numbers were more than half in almost every country polled.

Ipsos questioned a total of 19,216 adults around the world in the online survey.

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Most of world interconnected through email, social media

Published on March 26, 2012

By Allyn V. Baldemor

Online social networks mobilized hours after Noemi Lagman, 21, was reported to have been missing January 6, 2010. The student of Asia Pacific College Magallanes left her house in Multinational Village in Paranaque between 9 and 10am. Last seen near Duty Free in Paranaque, Lagman had with her Php33 thousand for enrollment but classmates said they did not see her at school, and her mobile phone could not be reached. A community page on her behalf was created the following day on Facebook, detailing the girls description and contact numbers.

On January 10, an announcement that Lagman has been found and is back safe with her family went viral. We were advised by the authorities that information on how and where she was found be kept confidential for her and her familys security and privacy. We ask for your understanding on this matter, read the post by cousin Allan Capulong.

The account on Lagmans disappearance was shared by at least 8,000 people on Facebook alone. It was through social media where we got the first lead, according to the familys message. Social networks breathed a collective sigh of relief but a few who commented on the developments demanded details, saying the family owes it to those who reposted the initial announcement.

That it took only a few hours for the news to break on a massive level and four days for the matter to be resolved begs the question: Are social networking sites bound to render legitimate news sources obsolete? If it takes mere minutes for anyone with a computer or mobile phone to publish online an incident, are formally trained journalists headed for extinction?

IMHO, no.On both counts.

I searched the Internet for news on this subject and found only a handful of news sites carrying it. The copy often mirrored the post on Facebook. I can only assume that a more detailed account will be published in news sites in the coming days. When and if pertinent details could be had. and Or if not, it is in deference to the familys request for privacy.

The topic calls to mind some basic journalism tenets: There has to be anews-worthylead, yes, but it has to have a follow-through as well. To report the news, the journalist has to tap into various verifiable sources (plural), who have to be protected at all cost. Perhaps more crucial, the reporter must keep a certain distance from the issue.

Case in point: the girls family need not be further anguished by people compelling them to divulge details, which they regard could be potentially harmful. It is unfair for the people who responded to the call for action to believe that the family owes them. If the news was reported by a journalist, s/he would (or should not) be expected to do so. The journalist is required is to follow-up a news-worthy lead and tell the story factually using verifiable information from credible sources. If the reporter finds that no more details could be had, s/he tells it like it is and writes -30-. The development and subsequent substance of a report depends on who writes it: An enterprising journalist or someone just cruising through her/his beat.

Originally posted here:
On Mobile Journalism and Social Networking

Posted on March 25, 2012, Sunday

MIRI: Barisan Nasional (BN) members here have been called on to use online social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Datuk Sebastian Ting, political secretary to the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water, said social media is an excellent platform to share the governments messages and policies with the people.

Even the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) encourages the use of social networking websites because it is one of the ways for the government to be close to the people, he said during the Majlis Mesra Rakyat 1Malaysia organised by Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) at Kampung Lereng Bukit on Friday night.

Although online sites are often used negatively against the government, Ting said they could also be utilised for good.

I hope that people can see Facebook and Twitter as something positive because the majority of Malaysians are actively involved in social networking websites.

We should seize this opportunity to create awareness among the people on various government policies and messages, he said.

Ting, who is Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP) Piasau branch chairman, said party members should work to reach out to the people so that they could be of service at grassroots level. He invited the people to approach the party with any concerns or problems.

I hope we (BN members) can all collaborate together more aggressively to nurture trust among the younger generation towards Barisan Nasional.

We must not be too engrossed with past success but we need to work hard continuously, including by listening to the needs of the people. If we neglect all this or refuse to accept criticisms to develop further, the party will be at a loss, he stressed.

More:
BN should use social media to reach people – Ting

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Social networking sites are versatile vehicles for articulating views of a society or of sections of it. Thus politicians and other decision-makers cannot remain indifferent to views being posted on these sites. They need not always take the expressed opinions seriously but they cannot be ignored.

Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, has recently spoken about the problems being created by these sites for those who are responsible for governance. Speaking in Singapore on Wednesday, Mr Bloomberg said, Social media is going to make it even more difficult to make long term investments. Mr Bloomberg said this in the context of urban development and added, We are basically having a referendum on every single thing that we do every day. He pointed to the difficulty of taking a decision in the face of constant criticism and with the prospect of an election process looming. Before any comment is made on these views of the mayor of the Big Apple, it should be noted that he is no stranger to social media and is not hostile to it. He has his own Twitter account with a following of around 2,30,000.

Mr Bloomberg, intentionally or otherwise, may have hit upon one of the fundamental issues facing democratic governance. Social media have made democratic polities more accessible to direct interventions by the populace. Social media are as close as it is possible to get to vox populi, the holy grail of democracy.

In developing society, and even on occasions in the democratic world to which Mr Bloomberg belongs, modernizing projects cannot always ignore the opinion of those who see themselves as victims of the projects. To take an example with a contemporary resonance: Calcutta has many markets that are old and have outmoded electric wiring; these markets are a fire hazard. But any attempt to modernize them will entail closing them down for a period of time and that will result in the loss of livelihood for a number of people. No political leader dependent on the electoral process can risk taking such a decision unless he wants to be a martyr for a cause. To enable such a project a degree of coercion like in China, Singapore or in other parts of East and Southeast Asia may be needed. Development and democracy often do not intersect. Mr Bloomberg was perhaps drawing attention to this when he spoke of a daily referendum.

The mayors comments also pointed to a tension that lies at the heart of liberal political theory: between State and civil society. The rights and interests that constitute civil society are often in conflict with the power of the State. The emergence of social media has only heightened the tension because the networking sites offer a direct articulation of the views of civil society. Democracies, both at an intellectual and a practical level, have not addressed this problem. It is possible that Asian perspectives on the matter may differ from the Western one.

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Source: The Telegraph (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120324/jsp/opinion/story_15286606.jsp#.T22sKNVIvYQ)

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Social media heightened tension between State and civil society