Mediaboss Marketing

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Think of it as an elevator-pitch competition for social media marketing ideas, only with some of the pitches submitted by video.

That seems to be the idea behind a Friday announcement from Dunkin Donuts and its ad agency, Hill Holliday of Boston. In a press release, the two said they are sponsoring a competition --- dubbed the Dunkin Donuts Start-up Turbo Shot --- that asks start-ups from across the country to devise a plan that will help make Dunkin the most social brand in America.

The event will pit start-up companies against one other to pitch Dunkin Donuts their idea for addressing a specific marketing challenge, Dunkin and Hill Holliday said. The winner will get $5,000, access to and advice from senior Hill Holliday and Dunkin Donuts team members, and also have the chance at a paid assignment to execute the idea.

Based in Canton, Dunkin Donuts is a restaurant change specializing in coffee and baked goods. On the chains behalf, Hill Holliday devised the America runs on Dunkin ad campaign. (Other Hill Holliday clients include Verizon Wireless, Bank of America, Liberty Mutual, John Hancock, the Chilis restaurant chain, and the drug maker Novartis.)

The Dunkin Donuts Start-up Turbo Shot competition will be part of FutureM, a marketing event scheduled for next month at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston. The organizer of FutureM is the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange.

Entrants in the turbo competition are asked to submit a three-minute video that explains how the start-up can help make Dunkin Donuts the most social brand in America. Pitch videos will be accepted through Oct. 10, and the finalists announced a few days later. On Oct. 23, the finalists will make pitches to a panel of judges at FutureM. Dunkin said it will announce the winner on the spot.

In a statement, Scott Hudler, a Dunkin vice president, said: Were always looking for new and unique ways to celebrate our passionate Dunkin Donuts fans through innovative social media campaigns and initiatives. As our community of fans and followers continues to grow, were excited about the opportunity to offer one start-up a chance to add value to our social media program.

Hill Holliday, meanwhile, is linking the Turbo Shot event to its Project Beacon program, which is designed to deepen the ad agencys relationship with start-up companies. The program launched last year, and its first class was made up of 12 start-ups, Hill Holliday said.

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Have a black belt in social media marketing? You may want to sign up for the ‘Dunkin’ Donuts Start-up Turbo Shot ...

Published: Sept. 28, 2012 at 3:13 PM

WAHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Internet censorship is increasing as authoritarian regimes attempt to impose more restrictions on online activism, a U.S. watchdog organization reports.

Free speech group Freedom House said repressive laws, violent attacks on bloggers and government surveillance are among the biggest emerging threats to Internet freedom, CNN reported Friday.

Freedom house analyzed restriction of access, content censorship and violations of users' civil rights in 47 countries.

Iran, Cuba and China were the most repressive in terms of restricting Internet usage and freedoms, the group said.

Authorities in China conduct the most sophisticated censorship efforts, Freedom House said, because major Web portals and social networking sites, even though not state-owned, must obey with strict government censorship rules or risk being shut down.

Beijing's influence as an "incubator for sophisticated restrictions" has not gone unnoticed, the group said, with governments including Belarus, Uzbekistan and Iran following China's model for their own Internet crackdowns.

"The findings clearly show that threats to Internet freedom are becoming more diverse," Sanja Kelly, a project director at Freedom House, said.

"As authoritarian rulers see that blocked websites and high-profile arrests draw local and international condemnation, they are turning to murkier -- but no less dangerous -- methods for controlling online conversations."

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Global censorship of Internet on the rise

Friday September 28, 2012

DAWSON RASPUZZI

Staff Writer

ARLINGTON -- The Battenkill Valley Supervisory Union delayed approval of a social networking policy that prohibits online communication between students and staff.

A motion to approve the policy was rescinded Wednesday after the board learned principals and the districts attorney had yet to review the policy that has been in the works since last school year. The policy would be the first of its kind in the area putting restrictions on social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and other sites that continue to increase in popularity both among children and adults.

In addition to many common sense points in the proposed policy -- such as obeying all laws, following confidentiality requirements, and refraining from defamation of character, to name a few -- it also looks to separate employees personal and professional lives.

The policy cautions employees about the content they post on their personal Websites, although it does not prohibit positing items that may be deemed inappropriate by some. Instead, Superintendent Karen Gallese said, the policy is intended to be less restrictive of rights of employee on their personal time, but to distance that personal time from their professions.

Gallese said the four-page policy was drafted by BVSUs three-member Policy Committee and herself using other districts policies as templates. Although, there are few examples of such a policy. Neighboring supervisory unions -- Southwest Vermont and Bennington-Rutland -- have Internet-use policies, but nothing specifically addressing social networking nor communication between students and staff outside of school.

A social networking policy was the idea of previous Superintendent Thomas Gallagher and the process began prior to Galleses hire this summer. Gallese said she agrees there is a need for one with the intent to prohibit social networking at the schools and restrict personal or damaging information from being made public.

Part of the policy states "staff should never use or access social networking sites of pupils and should never accept an invitation to friend a pupil."

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BVSU delays approval of stiff new social networking policy

New York, New York (PRWEB) September 28, 2012

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CEBU, Philippines - Banning social networking sites in the workplace is now considereda less popular method in promoting productivity andensuring IT security, a recent study revealed.

The study entitled Global IT Security Risks: 2012 showed that companies are most likelyto restrict access to online games, with 71 percent of the IT professionals surveryed saying this was part of their strategy.

The study further revealed that banning social networking sites, on the other hand,is not anymore popular.

The study,conducted by Kaspersky Lab, one of the worlds leading developers of secure content and threat management solutions,was carried out in partnership with B2B International in July 2012. It aims to find out the opinions of IT professionals in medium-sized to large enterprises regarding corporate security solutions, determine their level of knowledge of current threats, and look at how they evaluate risks.

Kaspersky surveyed more than 3,300 senior IT professionals from 22 countries. All respondents had an influence on IT security policy, and a good knowledge of both IT security issues and general business matters (finance, HR, etc.).

The results also covered measures which are directly related to infrastructure security and data safety. For example, 50% of companies have restricted or prohibited the use of file exchange services, and 47 percent have enforced similar rules for connecting external devices to work computers.

More worrying, though, 43 percent of IT specialists have already faced deliberate or accidental data leakage due to employee actions. This significant figure suggests there is insufficient control in terms of storing and communicating corporate information.

Of this figure, 42 percent of the respondents said that cybercrime will become a bigger concern in the next two years. This is more than likely to happen considering the increasing number of malicious programs and the emergence of new types of attack.

Half as many of the professionals surveyed believed there would be an increase in other IT risks: intellectual property theft and industrial espionage scored 19 percent each, while those foreseeing future risks coming from computer fraud amounted to 16 percent of the respondents.

Among the other IT security risks cited were intellectual property theft (31 percent), computer fraud (26 percent) and industrial espionage (24 percent).

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Banning social networking sites does not guarantee data safety in workplace -- study