Retailers Are Using Your Social Media Profile

If you have a social media presence (and who doesn't these days?), be assured that retailers and other businesses are using your photo, your profile, and all other information you post on those sites to sell you something.  Facebook, Google, Apple, and others all collect social media users' "faceprints" to enter these photos and information obtained from your social media sites into a facial recognition database.  What do they do with that information?  They use it to target personalized advertising, of course.  If you have ever wondered why you keep seeing ads on the Internet that seem particularly targeted to you and your preferences and recent activity, you can be certain that these ads have been generated because of information you provide online. 

 

Laws in Europe require that companies obtain permission before they collect a faceprint.  However, there is no such law in the United States.  So, until the law catches up with technology, you should expect that any information you provide online is open fodder for commercial use. 

 

For more on this topic, check out the ABA Law Journal article "Is your photo online? Are you on Facebook? If so, retailers can ID you and your shopping profile."  You can also check out a recent story about Google Glasses and its facial recognition capabilities.

Are Your Employees Posting Work Videos on Vine?

The Wall Street Journal blog has a new article about Vine, the video sharing app developed by Twitter for iPhones.  According to the article, employees use Vine to post videos about their employers, co-workers, and themselves, while on the job.  Videos include an employee wearing a company uniform smoking from a bong and another employee filming herself leafing through what appears to be confidential business plans. There are plenty of videos of employees venting about how much they hate their jobs, including an employee making an obscene gesture at a grocery store where he apparently works.

 

You can access the article on the WSJ blog. Or, go to Vine and search for "work" videos. Just use your lunch break. And, be smarter than these employees - don't video yourself watching them.  If you have an Android phone?  Forget about it - Vine is only for Apple users.

How To Use LinkedIn More Effectively

Most professionals recognize the value in setting up a LinkedIn profile, but are you using LinkedIn effectively?  Here are a handful of tips for getting the most out of your LinkedIn experience:

 

1.  Use a Professional Profile Photo. 

Save the pictures of your puppy or kids for your Facebook profile, and make sure you are using a professional headshot for your LinkedIn profile.  Ask your employer if you can use the headshot from your company website if you have one or spend a little money and have one taken. 

 

2.  Fill in the Details.

Make sure you fill in your background, skills, education, experience, and publications.  Use links and upload documents to make it easier for potential employers, clients, or customers to learn more about you.  Link to your website and any other professional social media site (blog, company Twitter or Facebook) but avoid linking to personal social media sites.  Think about LinkedIn being an extension of your resume. 

 

3.   Connect.
LinkedIn is about connections, so make them. Invite people you recently met at a conference or discussed business with at your kids' school to connect with you. Make sure your clients or customers are connections - they are your best source of recommendations or endorsements. LinkedIn is not a popularity contest, so you can (and should) be a little more choosy in your connections - remember, this is a professional networking site. 

 

4.  Join Groups.

If you aren't joining groups in your field, you may be missing out on making valuable new connections.  LinkedIn will provide you with recommendations of groups based on your profile and summary information in "Groups You May Like."  But, you may need to dig a little deeper.  Search for organizations you already belong to and see if they have a LinkedIn group - they probably do.  Join your company group.  See what groups your connections belong to and join those.  

 

5.  Keep it Current.

Every couple of months, or immediately after a significant professional change (i.e., new job, promotion, publication), review and update your profile with new skills, activities, publications, etc.  In addition to keeping your profile current, it also keeps your connections informed of new activities.  

New Study on Teens, Social Media & Privacy

On May 21st, the Pew Research Center released a study titled "Teens, Social Media, and Privacy." The group had surveyed 802 teens about their social media activities and how they protect their privacy online. Not surprisingly, teens don't have the same privacy concerns as adults  do in using social media.  They also don't like to "share" their social media sites with adults - leading to the movement from Facebook to newer sites like Instagram. Fastest way to make something unpopular with teens? Bring in old people.

You can access the full report here, and a summary of the findings is below:

·        Teens are sharing more information about themselves on social media sites than they did in the past. For the five different types of personal information that we measured in both 2006 and 2012, each is significantly more likely to be shared by teen social media users in our most recent survey.

·       Teen Twitter use has grown significantly: 24% of online teens use Twitter, up from 16% in 2011.

·        The typical (median) teen Facebook user has 300 friends, while the typical teen Twitter user has 79 followers.

·        Focus group discussions with teens show that they have waning enthusiasm for Facebook, disliking the increasing adult presence, people sharing excessively, and stressful "drama," but they keep using it because participation is an important part of overall teenage socializing.

·        60% of teen Facebook users keep their profiles private, and most report high levels of confidence in their ability to manage their settings.

·        Teens take other steps to shape their reputation, manage their networks, and mask information they don’t want others to know; 74% of teen social media users have deleted people from their network or friends list.

·        Teen social media users do not express a high level of concern about third-party access to their data; just 9% say they are "very" concerned.

·        On Facebook, increasing network size goes hand in hand with network variety, information sharing, and personal information management.

·        In broad measures of online experience, teens are considerably more likely to report positive experiences than negative ones. For instance, 52% of online teens say they have had an experience online that made them feel good about themselves.

New Bill Exempts Professional Accounts From Social Media Password Ban

Effective January 1, 2013, the Illinois General Assembly enacted a law prohibiting employers from requiring employees to provide passwords to their social networking accounts. 9 other states have enacted similar laws, the most recent having been adopted in Colorado.

The Illinois law is very broad in its prohibitions and includes the following language:

It shall be unlawful for any employer to request or require any employee or prospective employee to provide any password or other related account information in order to gain access to the employee’s or prospective employee’s account or profile on a social networking website or to demand access in any manner to any employee’s or prospective employee’s account or profile on a social networking website.
 

The use of the language “on a social networking website” essentially covers all social networking websites, not just private websites. Senate Bill 2306 proposes to amend this statute to clarify that the ban does not apply to “professional accounts,” defined as an “account, service, or profile created, maintained, used or accessed by a current or prospective employee for business purposes of the employer.” A “personal account” (still subject to the ban) is defined as an “account, service, or profile on a social networking website that is used by a current or prospective employee exclusively for personal communications unrelated to any business purpose of the employer.

Currently, this bill has passed the senate and is on its third reading in front of the house. We will continue to update you as this legislation progresses.

Guest authored by Bob McCabe

Is Instagram the New Facebook?

In researching for my book, Social Media & Local Governments: Navigating the New Public Square, I was struck by the sheer number of social media sites.  Just a decade ago, we were talking about Myspace and Friendster, with Facebook just entering the horizon.  Now, we have dozens upon dozens of different social networking options, with a new site seemingly popping up every day.  As I watched the move The Social Network again this weekend, I wondered how Facebook went from being the social media platform for the "cool kids" (teens and college students) to what it has become today, with the parents and even grandparents of these kids setting up Facebook profiles, and becoming active users of the site.
 

 Now, I don't have anything against grandparents jumping on the social media bandwagon, but I am guessing that the younger demographic might.  And I wonder if that's the reason why Instagram has gained so much popularity with that younger demographic, particularly tweens and teens.  Instagram's growth and success is staggering - over 100 million users in a little over 2 years (It took Facebook over 3 years to reach those numbers).   Instagram claims that 45 million photos are uploaded by users to its site each day, with 8,500 likes and 1,000 comments per second.  That's a lot of activity.  If you have tween/teen aged kids or know some, you know they are choosing Instagramming over Facebooking. 
 

Which makes me wonder what the next hot "thing" in social media will be.  Maybe I should ask a 10 year old. 

Bill Protects Student Social Media Passwords

HB 64, enacting the Right to Privacy in the School Setting Act, just passed both houses of the Illinois General Assembly.  The bill has two separate sections, one covering social media passwords of post secondary school students and the other deals with elementary and secondary school students.  The language is similar to the employee social media password law that took effect earlier this year and is summarized below.

1.  Post Secondary Schools

 

The bill would make it unlawful for a post secondary school (college or university) to require a student to turn over his or her social media password or other account information or provide access to the student's social media account.  This ban does not, however, prohibit a post secondary school from establishing policies on the use of school computers and other electronic equipment.  It also would allow post secondary schools to monitor activities on school equipment and to access student information in the public domain.  In addition, the law does not apply when a post secondary school has reasonable cause to  believe that a student's social media site contains evidence that the student has violated a school disciplinary rule or policy.

 

2.  Elementary and Secondary Schools

 

The ban on requiring a student to turn over his or her social media password does not apply to elementary and secondary school students, although the school must notify the student and the parent or guardian prior to requiring the password and can only require the student to provide his or her password when the school has reasonable cause to  believe that a student's social media site contains evidence that the student has violated a school disciplinary rule or policy.