Social Networking

Company Forces Employee to Delete LinkedIn Profile

On February 8, 2010, In Comm, By Tac Anderson

I received a disturbing email from a friend of mine. I have changed the message and obscured any personal or employer reference for obvious reasons.

Due to the recent FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc) ruling (see below) I will have to take down my LinkedIn profile. The finance industry is so far behind the curve on social media communications it may be a while before my profile is back. In the meantime, feel free to contact me via e-mail or on Facebook (while I can still use it!).

The FINRA has released it’s first member firm communication relative to regulatory treatment of social media communications. Regulatory Notice 10-06, emphasized that all broker-dealer business communications taking place through social networking Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn are indeed official communications with the public and are subject to all corresponding FINRA supervisory requirements. This Regulatory Notice confirmed that a profile page on LinkedIn is considered an individual registered representative web site

The FINRA does not make the rules. They provide guidance and the individual firms have to create rules based on those recommendations. There’s a lot of room for interpretation. It turns out that while some firms allow for individual representative websites some do not. My friend’s firm obviously does not. I asked another friend in the financial industry on their thoughts (also changed and held anonymously).

My opinion is simple, if you don’t have confidence in the people you hire to deliver the message and give people appropriate information whether on or off the clock then you have hired the wrong people. Our job is rather simple, but most advisers are too lazy to stay well read because all they see is money(commissions) thus it’s easier for companies to just control what their employee’s say.

I have read through the 10-06 document and can’t find any specific recommendations for Facebook vs. LinkedIn. I can only assume that my friends firm determined that LinkedIn is a more professional network and Facebook is more personal. It will be interesting to see how they react as our personal/professional lives continue to converge.

Ars Technica has a good post explaining more details on FINRA 10-06: Brokers must think twice before tweeting, Facebooking

The new guidelines have two broad effects on the way financial firms use social media. First, the new rules attempt to take the traditional distinction between marketing a brand and hawking specific investment products, and to enforce it in online venues that sport a constantly evolving slate of features and functionality, and where the lines between the personal and the professional—or, the personal and the promotional—aren’t always clear.

Has anyone else been effected by this new ruling? Let me know: tac [at] newcommbiz [dot] com.

I think it’s going to be really important to watch, especially as other regulated industries have yet to make up their minds. I’m afraid we’re beginning to see a general backlash against social media by companies unsure what to do with it.

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Popularity: 36% [?]

Chase Your Customers not Your Competition

On December 30, 2009, In Comm, By Tac Anderson

: Image by ryancbriggs via Flickr

2009 was the year of action. No longer was it good enough to talk about what companies *could* do, you needed to do it. If you presented at a conference and didn’t have any personal case studies of either yours or your companies you were wasting everyone’s time.

Now that we’ve moved past The Tipping Point it’s time for everyone else to play catch up. Everyone else will want to replicate the successes other companies – and in many cases their competitors – have had. The problem is that most of these new efforts will be based on 2009 examples.

2010 is a different world than 2009. Most companies that try to play catch up this year will be playing catch up to the wrong people. They’ll be playing catch up to their competition.

Almost every industry has someone who’s entered the social media space. Either they’ve started a blog, a Twitter account or a Facebook Page or even at least advertised on one of the many blog networks. Those who haven’t will feel increasing pressure to enter the space.

In my experience companies that play catch up are usually just copying what came before. This is a bad mistake for two reasons:

Your competition has moved on. No one wants to be a “me too” marketer.
Consumers are even further ahead of your competitors. You should be catching up to them.

I’m afraid that 2010 will be a lot of rehashed 2009 social media tactics.

Consumers are the trend setters. Consumers are driving the demand for mobility. Consumers are the ones who created this new marketing world we live in, not your competitors. They’re the ones with blogs, YouTube channels, Twitter, Posterous and making mashups. They are the ones who will define what comes next. You should not just be chasing customers for their business, you should be chasing your customers for their innovation and creativity. Learn from them and their business will follow.

Learn from them and you’ll crush your competition.

This post is an Updated Post. An Updated Post is where I take an older post and update it based on current thinking or examples. The original post can be found here: Chasing Your Customers vs Chasing Your Competitors

A Collection of 2010 Social Media Predictions (newcommbiz.com)
Social Media Is Getting Too Orderly #imbored (newcommbiz.com)
Just because you can update all you networks at once doesn’t mean you should (newcommbiz.com)
The New Comm Biz Facebook Fan Page (newcommbiz.com)
The New Comm Biz Twitter Page (newcommbiz.com)

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tagged with: Add new tag • Blog • Facebook • Social media • Social Networking • Twitter • YouTube

Some Thoughts on Disclosures [and Some Disclosures]

On July 26, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

Disclosures can be tough when you’re at an agency. Especially if you don’t blog about your work that much but you blog about industries your clients have a stake in.

I blog about marketing, technology, journalism, mobile, business models, startups, and any related trends or anything I find mildly interesting. I blog about those things on New Comm Biz and my Tac Anderson lifestream and share links on Twitter and bookmark, highlight and annotate thing on Diigo and all those aggregate to my FriendFeed.

How do you disclose any potential conflict across all those channels? It’s impossible really. It was easy when I worked at HP. I just said I worked at HP and that covered it. But at an agency where I work with dozens of technology clients and several more that we represent that I don’t work with regularly how do you cover it all?

I have a disclosure on my main blog and state that I work for Waggener Edstrom on most of my bio’s but if you aren’t in the industry there’s a really good chance you don’t know who Waggener Edstrom is. Even if you do know who we are you may not realize all the clients we work for (and that’s not even a full list).

The short answer is:

If it’s even vaguely technology related I represent someone who has an interest in that field.

And in many cases we represent several clients with a vested interest. Should I create a full page of all potential conflicts work related or otherwise? Should I disclose personal biases? Maybe I just don’t like some companies. Or had a bad experience with a product. I have good friends that work at certain companies, should I disclose those as well. What about services that I use and like, should I disclose those?

Or is stating my employer and trusting that if people really want to know they can go look? I think what I will do is add the above,” if it’s technology related” line to my bio where I can.

What about you? How do you deal with all the potential perceived or real conflicts of interest?

Photo via my own Flickr

Life on the Dark Side. Agency Update: They Have Cookies (newcommbiz.com)
Blogs Aren’t Dead, They’re Just Fragmenting (newcommbiz.com)
What I learned from HP about co-opetition (newcommbiz.com)
Hints of many business models in Twitter 101’s case studies (venturebeat.com)
Where are all the good long tail blogs (myventurepad.com)
Despite the Promise of Social Networks Local Businesses Struggle with Marketing ROI (myventurepad.com)
The White House Has a Ban on Twitter (laughingsquid.com)

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tagged with: Business • FriendFeed • Marketing • Social Networking • Tac Anderson • Twitter

If you care about your job in marketing and PR, read this post.

On June 12, 2009, In New, By Tac Anderson

This was originally posted on the WE Studio D, Thinkers and Doers blog and is an adaptation of a previous post on this blog.

Social Media Marketing Madness Cartoon by HubSpot

I know there are still some social media hold outs among you. Of course if you are then you probably aren’t reading this. Let’s try this again.

We all know some social media holdouts. I’m not talking about your grandma. I’m talking about in the field of Marketing/PR. Forward this blog to them. I’d like to talk to them for a minute.

Hi. Your friend who cares about your future as a Marketing/PR professional is worried about you. Unless you’re retiring in a few years you need to wake up. (And seriously does anyone really think they’re ever going to retire?)

You’re asking yourself: What is the big deal about Social Media? Why do people think that anyone cares enough about what they have to say that they start blogging or twittering? If you don’t know, you are obviously not involved.

I often refer to myself as a Phenomenologist. Phenomenology is a type of research, that comes from the field of Anthropology. It requires the researcher to experience that which they are studying as a complete participant, not as an outside observer.

If you really want to understand what all the hype is, get involved. At least try it out. Start reading blogs. Start your own blog, you can even keep it private until you get comfortable. At least start an account on Twitter (come on you know you’re curious).

There is a whole new level of collaboration and innovation that is happening on the web and if you’re not involved you are missing it. Even if you’re reading blogs and watching what’s happening, you won’t be getting the full advantage the social web has to offer.

And I promise you that if want to even have a chance at any type of job security coming out of this economy, you had better at least understand the tools. Would you hire someone who couldn’t use word processing software really well? Personally I wouldn’t hire someone who couldn’t use Social Media really well.

Yes, Social Media is overhyped. No Facebook is not all it’s cracked up to be. Twitter is cool, but not THAT cool (ok, maybe it is). But collectively the power of all of these new mediums and platforms combined is revolutionizing the way that people communicate and collaborate.

The businesses that get it will have a significant advantage. This is was a case of first mover advantage. Now it’s a case of self preservation. If you play the wait and sea game any longer , it will be too late. And just for the record, no you do not have to be an expert, just proficient.

How can you figure out if this is the right thing for you and your company or what is the best way to implement it? Become a Phenomenologist.

Image by HubSpot via Flickr

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tagged with: Blog • Facebook • Social media • Social Networking • Twitter

What is a conversation anyway?

On January 27, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

Twitter is like the crazy girlfriend: You like being with her because she’s hot but you really love telling your friends the crazy stories.

Seriously, what would we all blog about if it wasn’t for Twitter?

My favorite Philly area tech blogger, Regular Geek, has an interesting post on Twitter and Facebook. Status Updates Are Not Conversation | Regular Geek Robert was admittedly cranky when he wrote the post and I attribute this to the fact that I actually don’t agree with him for once.

His basic premise that Twitter status updates are not conversations is only partially true.

I completely agree that using Twitter and conversations as synonyms is just wrong. Robert sais, and many of his commenters agree, that Twitter is a horrible place to have a conversation. While I understand their POV, I disagree with it. I love the conversations I have on Twitter and watch people all day long have meaningful conversations and debates on every topic under the sun from music, politics, religion, business, technology, food, and thousands of other topics.

Is a single Tweet a conversation? No. Are multiple tweets between two or more people a conversation? Yes, absolutely.

Is Twitter an ideal place for a conversation? Depends on the conversation. Is a bar lounge an ideal place for a conversation? Depends on the conversation.

His annoyance with Twitter raising more money at such a large round is totally understandable. In fact I raised a similar concern. But scaling a company is expensive. Twitter was started by experienced serial entrepreneurs. It also has some extremely smart VC’s behind it. They have a view into the company that we don’t. We don’t know what Twitter or its investors are planning. I can only hope it’s something good. I want to see Twitter succeed as much as the next user does.

His other premise is that Facebook could put Twitter out of business if they really wanted to. He makes it sound like Facebook and Twitter are direct competitors. I don’t see this at all. Twitter has a very specific purpose, Facebook has a very different purpose. In my point of view this would be like saying MySpace and YouTube are competitors. Do they compete? Kind of. Will or could one put the other out of business? No way. There is more than enough room for multiple social platforms.

Twiter has always taken the approach of pushing it’s information away from the site. Facebook has always taken a very different approach of capturing and keeping as much of it’s information as possible. I also don’t see Facebook as any better (or worse) of a place for conversations. He also encourages Twitter to take an acquisition offer from Facebook should they get one. They did get one. It was all for Facebook stock (which is way overvalued IMO) and I think they very rightly turned it down.

The truth of the matter is that I got bored with Facebook years ago. I actually never really got to into it. Some people love it. Some people love Twitter. While other people are aready bored with Twitter and have moved onto FriendFeed. Just like all businesses, there will be multiple players, some will dominate the market while others successfully serve niches. Either way it’s fun to watch and provides endless blog fodder.

I love Robert’s post on Regular Geek and normally agree with (almost) everything he writes. I highly recommend you subscribe to his blog if you haven’t already.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tagged with: Facebook • FriendFeed • MySpace • Social Networking • Twitter • YouTube

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