Nowadays when so many people who are engaged in social media networking have become more cautious of their networks’ privacy policies, Facebook, one of the top social media networks in the world, implements a new privacy policy to serve their users better.

With less than seven thousand user comments about the new privacy policy, the social network giant Facebook has adopted a new privacy policy to ensure their users that their personal information will not be divulged unless with their consent.  The new privacy policies attempt to run the platform in an open and transparent way.

The following are some of the major updates with the privacy policies:

• Users can change or delete their profile information anytime by going to the Edit My Profile section.  All changes adapted by the user will be updated immediately.  A user’s date of birth cannot be deleted; however, there is an option to make it invisible from the crowd.

• Users can deactivate their accounts and no other user will be able to see it, however, it will not be completely deleted.  Deactivated accounts can be activated later on and user information will be restored.  If a user would want to delete his or her account, the account will be permanently deleted and no information about the user will be saved.

• Users have limitations on removal of information.  Even after an account or account information is deleted, copies of those information may remain viewable; but the user’s name will not be associated with those information on Facebook.  Facebook can also retain certain information to prevent identity theft and other misconduct even if account deletion has been requested.

• Any removed and deleted information on Facebook may still be stored in the backup copies for up to ninety days but will not be available to other users.

For more detailed information, better check out this new Facebook privacy policy.

Tagged, Inc., a social networking site operator that has almost two million users in Texas alone has finally received the enforcement action from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. The agreed final judgment obtained by the state, Tagged must implement new privacy features and take additional measures to inform their users on how the social network will use their personal information.

In order to use Tagged, users must sign up and create an account. What users didn’t know and what the state investigators found out, is that Tagged misled its subscribers into providing Tagged access to their email address books. Tagged used their access to send misleading electronic invitations to users’ personal contacts under the users’ names. The “users” offered to share photos and media with the recipients but when the recipients tried to view the shared items, they were prompted to sign up to the social network and gave Tagged access to their address books, thus continuing the social network’s deceptive practice.

The Texas Attorney General’s resolution states that Tagged must clearly state how the users’ address book information will be used and must provide users with noticeable “cancel” or “skip this step” buttons and requite a single page disclosure for users to accept access to their address books.

Proper and established social networks such as Facebook and Myspace don’t access their users’ address books without permission. However, up-and-coming social sites would go through great lengths to steal their users’ contacts and trick them to increase their number of users and appeal to various advertisers.

As part of the social network’s agreement with the Texas Attorney General, Tagged must pay $250,000 for its violations and for the cost of the state’s investigation.

For the past 12 months since I have engaged in social media, I have had quite a few responses from various page and group requests that have made me ask myself if I did anything wrong or if ever I have offended anyone. Most unpleasant replies to group and fan page suggestions sounded annoyed and irritated and they don’t want to be connected with such groups nor do they want to be connected with me.

Just recently, a contact wrote on my Facebook wall that he’s annoyed with my fan page suggestions and said “Sorry, I have to un-friend ya.” I was startled why it was posted on my Wall and I, being cautious, deleted it immediately. I started thinking over and over again and asked myself, “Where did I go wrong?”

When I engage myself in something like social media, I make sure that I am on the right track so as not to violate the terms and conditions of social networks and not get banned from their sites; and not to be identified as someone who hounds social media and uses networks for shady purposes. That’s why I thought of brushing up on social media ethics so I will be constantly reminded of the dos and don’ts in social media.

The following is a list of basic social media ethics from this site and I have added some of my own thoughts:

1. Honesty: State only what you know to be true – and be clear about opinion or conjecture vs. fact. Honesty is still the best policy; only state facts.

2. Transparency: Be straightforward about who you are – and who you’re representing online. With social media (especially in social media marketing), it’s better to let people know who you really are and what company or product you represent.

3. Respect: Respect for yourself, your peers, and even your adversaries. In order to reap respect, it must be sowed first. If you don’t want others to disrespect you, don’t do anything not worthy of respect.

4. Privacy: Treat the intimate details of others as you would your own personal information. If you don’t want your private details to be divulged, better set limitations on what you share with the world and never share information about others that may put them and yourself at risk.

5. Relevance: Ensure that the content you’re posting is relevant to the audience and the venue where it’s being posted. This is self-explanatory. Don’t post information about tomatoes on potato groups and vice versa.

6. Responsibility: Take ownership of your online activities, the content you’ve created, and any missteps you’ve made along the way. Take responsibility with every action you make. If you have offended anybody, apologize.

The day that bleak message was posted on my Wall, I imagined the monitor eating me up. I was ashamed of that yet I knew I should not linger on that incident. I decided to do better, become more aware of social media ethics and make sure that I’ll enjoy social media networking without a guilty, unethical feeling.

After Google Wave launching another improvement launched by Google today which come in handy for Adroid, iPhone and Plam WebOS users. This is the Personal Suggest. This feature syncs Gooogle search history to the mobile phones which will show anything you’ve searched in the in your desktop will show on your mobile and vice versa. This is very useful if you often have repeat searches since you dont have to re-type it all over again because a drop down bow will show your past searches.

For example, you search on your desktop for “empire state building” on Google.com and then later on search the “empire state building” on your mobile phone it will automatically suggest the latest searches you made on your desktop. This feature requires you to signed-in to the same Google Account on your desktop and on your mobile phone and Web History must be enabled in Google Account. In addition, you can also switch on or off option of your history on Google.com settings by selecting “Save Searches” or “Do Not Save Searches”.

At this time and age when people are always on the go, it is essential that people remain connected to each other to keep updated with the times. Nowadays, there are many gadgets in the market that keep people connected to the web without having to log into a computer – smartphones!

With the upsurge of smartphones, being connected anytime and anywhere has become easy. Accessing important mail and messages is now easy and updating social media networks and microblogging statuses has never been easier!

For those who have smartphones and are interested in secured staff communication and microblogging, you can choose to load the Socialtext Mobile application on your phone! Socialtext is a web-based social network that can now be accessed out of the office and on the road with the launch of its beta Socialtext Mobile package.

The functionality of Socialtext Mobile is similar to that of the Socialtext Desktop and it allows users to share insights form the field and always participate in the conversation with private and secure Twitter-like microblogging; connect with colleagues and click to communicate though social networking; know what people are working on and are sharing through the activity streams; and collaborate with colleagues and access the company’s content whenever needed.

Socialtext can be accessed by iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry users and wider smartphone support is expected soon. The news system ca be used to view messages, find and call or email essential contacts, or view important messages.

If your company would want to stay connected to each other even when you are outside the office, better equip yourselves with smartphones and stay connected through Socialtext!

]]> http://www.socialmediawatch.net/index.php/social-media-tool/socialtext-mobile-mobile-updates-for-people-on-the-go/feed/ 0 http://www.socialmediawatch.net/index.php/social-media-news/michael-jackson-this-is-it-documentary-trailer-can-now-be-viewed-on-myspace/ http://www.socialmediawatch.net/index.php/social-media-news/michael-jackson-this-is-it-documentary-trailer-can-now-be-viewed-on-myspace/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:11:01 +0000 Angela http://www.socialmediawatch.net/?p=2972

We just can’t deny it; Michael Jackson still reigns supreme even in death. The King of Pop passed away at a critical time when he was preparing for one of the major points of his musical career – This Is It, a series of 50 concerts to top his successful, colorful, and controversial career. However, due to Jackson’s untimely death, This Is It did not come into bloom.

This Is It may not have pushed through but the preparations for the event were well documented. The video footage of the preparations were collected and turned into a documentary aptly called This Is It. The documentary is set for release on October 28 and the trailer was first shown at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 14.

MySpace, one of the top social networks in the world today, has released a high definition (HD) version of the trailer. The trailer features costumes, sets, green screen effects, videos, and Michael Jackson’s signature moves.

Michael also said of what people could expect from his supposed set of concerts:
“This is an adventure, a great adventure. We want to take them places that they’ve never before. We want to show them a time that they’ve never seen before.”

It’s so sad This Is It the series of concerts did not come into fruition but many thanks to MySpace for the This Is It documentary trailer below.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It in HD

I am a StumbleUpon user and I have benefited a lot from the site for social media purposes. StumbleUpon is not only a great site to make connections and find articles, images, and videos; it is also a great site for sharing different kinds of media with other users of the site! StumbleUpon, which is better known as SU to avid users, has its main purpose of sharing great content and for those content to get exposure among millions of users.

StumbleUpon allows content to be rated with thumbs up or thumbs down ratings and it also allows reviews. It has allowed instant sharing to all SU friends! These wonderful and easy to use features of StumbleUpon are very helpful yet some people have abused the site. SU has recently reviewed and banned users who have abused their membership and have used the share feature of the site excessively.

If you are a StumbleUpon user and you use the site quite often, how would you avoid getting banned? Here are some tips you have to bear in mind:

Don’t excessively use the share button. If you are promoting certain pages, do not keep sending the same data to your SU friends just for the sake of getting traffic. Sharing these pages for your friends and requesting them to rate and/or review them may harm not only yourself but your friends too! Even though if you love a particular site and keep thumbing up great content from that site, you have to bear into mind that there’s a possibility you will get banned for doing so. SU wants diversity and content from different sources. Discover, rate and review content from other sites too not just the ones that you love or need to promote.

Learn to say NO to shared pages that don’t fit your interests. Whenever there are SU friends who keep sharing pages that you are not interested with, don’t bother to give it a rating or review. If these friends of yours who seem to be spamming their sites by sharing them with you will get banned on SU, there’s a possibility that you will be banned to if you keep thumbing up their sites! Sometimes we have to learn how to say no to people who might be abusing our peaceful existence on SU.

Be careful with what kind of stuff you share and with whom. Serious SU users tend to be picky with stumbles and shares that is why you better be careful of what stuff you discover or share with them because if you are not cautious enough, some of them might flag you or just stop looking at your shares. Also be careful in tagging your discoveries. Irrelevant and misleading tags to the sites you discover might get you banned fast!

Send different content to different friends. Don’t send the same stuff to the same people every time because it may get you and them banned from SU. Diversion is key in SU that is why it is better if you share different stuff to different people at different times, and maybe even discover stuff you have not seen before!

If you plan to use StumbleUpon as a traffic generator, better use it wisely and don’t just post irrelevant pages or ask the same people to rate the same content all the time. Getting banned on SU will only make you lose all the effort you did to promote your sites.

StumbleUpon is a great site and I guess all of us users should live by the rules if we don’t want to get banned from it!

There are many social media sites found on the web. And it’s a fact that we all have accounts in most of these social sites. And some users would like to build a unique identity online through their preferred usernames.

This is the main purpose of using Namechk.com. Namechk.com was designed by David Gosse and Andy Edinborough. Originally the concept of the site was inspired by a similar site of Jon Sykes which is not maintained and later domain got sold. Since they thought that the idea was useful and ingenious they recreated the idea into Namechk.

Currently Namechk.com has 72 social sites in partners. All you need to do is input the desired username at the text field and click “chk” button. After awhile if the username is available the social site will appear green, and the sites where username is already taken will be in color red.

The Namechk.com site is a tool for checking preferred usernames and URL only but very helpful to create unique identity on the web. And Namechk.com developers are continually working for additional features of the site.

Social networking has been thought of only as a tool for connecting with social circles outside of the workplace. Facebook and Twitter were only regarded as tools for swapping drunk pictures and ridiculous videos among friends, and as a means of updating relatives on what’s going on in each other’s lives. This line of thinking seems to be fading right now since Facetime’s survey has revealed that social networking has other relevance especially to working people.

According to those surveyed, social networks are useful tools in the business world and the IT professional who were polled are all right with people accessing social networking sites at work more than ever. Forty-six percent of IT professionals viewed social networks as having business value. However, not all social networks in the sphere are acceptable in the workplace since 74% of those surveyed said Second Life has no business value at all.

Then what specific web services are okay in the workplace according to the study? The top replies included LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These sites are useful in building networks with professionals in the same or different fields, allow sharing of links to business websites, encourage interaction among its members and groups, and so much more!

If 46% find social networks as okay to be accessed at work, 43% think otherwise. Those who think that social networks should not be accessed at work think that Web 2.0 tools should only be accessed if they can be secured and controlled. No one can be so sure that vital company info cannot be hacked through social networking sites.

The bottom line is this: those in the IT world are well aware that their workers are accessing social networks in the workplace and some admit to doing it themselves; they are only worried that company secrets and proprietary information might leak along the way. This conclusion expands the market for tool that will help companies enable their workers to connect and share information to be able to do their jobs better, without selling out along the way by leaking intellectual property onto the social web.

Do you find social networks useful for you and your companies? Do you think it is all right to access social networks at the workplace? Share your insights with us!

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We can’t deny it that Facebook is on the top of the social media stratosphere and it has more than 250 million users from all over the planet! Over the years since it was born, Facebook has evolved and its user demographic has changed too!

A recent study by a research firm took a look at the data the social network uses to know which ads to serve up to its users. The Social Ads platform of Facebook has revealed that the number of users aged between 18-24 years old has only grown 5% from January to July this year. The number of users aged between 25-53 years old has grown by 190%, and Facebook has attracted 515% more people who are aged over 55!

The data shows that in terms of growth, Facebook is attracting a much more mature audience. It should be taken into account that the number of young users has also grown but the growth in other demographics is just too great to be ignored. Facebook was originally patronized by younger age groups yet now, parents and grandparents are signing up in order to keep up to date with the lives of their family members. Adults in the above 55 age range have also discovered that Facebook is a wonderful tool for tracking and keeping up to date with old and new friends.

The data gathered were based on ads which are aimed at users in the 25-34 age bracket who have more disposable income than those aged between 18-24. The research data may be incomplete that is why more adults are counted as new users. High school and college students are not reporting their school affiliations that is why there is a reported decline in their age groups by 16.5% and 21.7% respectively.