Socially Working

Why you need a social email address.

Mike Talon — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:16:33 +0000

Email is a part of daily life. A few companies trying to outlaw it aside, everyone uses it and deals with tons of mail every day. What many users of Social Media don’t think about is keeping that email separated from their personal email accounts via another address entirely.

There are many reasons to set up and keep a distinct email for all your social stuff, but the two main ones are:

– Anonymity: If you’re planning on creating a persona distinct from your real-world one, then you want to keep email from and/or about that persona distinct from email that you get for everything else. This also goes for the inevitable spam, “new feature” blasts and all the other garbage you *will* get whenever you sign up for a Social Media site/network. Keeping a different address just for your accounts means that you can ignore it whenever you need to, while your co-workers and friends can still get their messages to you on your “real” address.

– Company ownership: Following on from last week’s post, there is always the chance that you may change jobs at some point. Hopefully, that’s because you got a spectacular offer and voluntarily left. If you’re using Social Media in conjunction with your job, and then suddenly aren’t, will you still have access to your work email until you can shift everything off of it? For most of us, the answer is no, and that poses a major problem. By using a different email address that you control, you can get everything that doesn’t belong to the company off of it, then hand it over to them if they want it.

A cautionary tale to illustrate both points:

I was just listening to a story about a friend who had two co-workers quit. As is the usual case in these instances, he got to watch their email accounts in case a customer who didn’t realize they left reached out for something. He now knows way more than he ever wanted to about their social lives, and also knows that they’re trying very hard to change login information, addresses, etc. Why? Because they both used the company email address when signing up for Social Media sites and networks, and all those emails are still flowing in.

So, better safe than sorry. Sign up for another email address (possibly a free service like GMail or a low-cost fee-based option, your choice) and use that address for your Social Media stuff.

Photo Credit: Horia Varlan

Keeping work and play apart

Mike Talon — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:20:36 +0000

Talking to people means you have to have things to say. That’s a pretty basic rule of conversation, and it can lead to some interesting consequences on Social Networks.

While talking on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. you will meet all different kinds of people. They’ll want to have all different kinds of conversation on a myriad of topics. You have to be very careful not to fall into the trap of saying something inappropriate in timelines and pages that are directly affiliated with your company, lest you incur the wrath of the Powers that Be.

In my case – just as an example – my company preferred that I did not tweet personal conversations on my corporate identity, so I have two different Twitter timelines. @miketalonnyc for personal stuff, @VSI_MikeTalon for anything dealing with my day job. This lets me talk to my online friends about whatever I want, without those conversations crossing over to the timeline I use when I need to transmit corporate messaging.

There is another reason to keep different identities for work and play – ownership. When you tweet about your company, you’re directly affiliating with your company. That means – unless you have a written document saying otherwise – that the company can claim ownership over your Twitter, Facebook and other accounts. Why would they do this? Because your friends and contact lists constitute a customer list of sorts, and companies absolutely love customer lists! While this is still being challenged in the courts, at least one case may end up in favor of a company over the guy who built up the Twitter follower list. That’s bad enough, but he may have to pay the company in question for “using” their customer list if he loses the case – no small amount of cash to be sure.

By having one identity used for work, and one for your own stuff, you can clearly show the line between what posts and followers are yours and which “belong” to the company you’re working for.

In some cases, you may be lucky enough to be able to keep one account for work and play. If you are, get it in writing to protect yourself, then have at it. For the rest of us, keeping two identities is a good idea both to allow you to speak freely and to ensure you know what both you and your organization own.

Photo Credit: KM Photography

It’s about communication

Mike Talon — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:01:27 +0000

As with any form of transferring information, social media can become mired in the idea of broadcasting information out, instead of being true communication.

Take Twitter, for example. Many folks use this networking tool as a broadcast medium. They send out dozens of tweets, but never interact with anyone else. Others do nothing but retweet and repost, but do not listen for feedback. This is a one-way broadcast, not a true communication or collaboration.

Facebook, G+ and Pinterest can be the same way, with people blasting out update after update and pin after pin, but not listening to what other folks are saying in comments or in their own independent posts.

Falling into the trap of broadcasting only can be a killer for any Information Worker. We’re planning to use social media to communicate with customers, potential clients and others; but in reality we’re just screaming into the wilderness. That means the message will quickly get lost.

It’s relatively easy to communicate instead of broadcast, but it does take a little effort. Here’s a few simple ideas to keep in mind:

– Follow other people. So many folks on Twitter just send out information, but follow so few people back that they cannot possibly be listening to what’s out there. This isn’t to say that you should automatically follow everyone, or that you should randomly follow folks. See who interacts with you, and pick some people who you want to interact with. Then follow those people to foster a two-way communication stream.

- Reply and answer back. In addition to posting, read the timelines of those you follow and those who comment on your posts. Reply to them to say thanks, or to ask questions or make comments to foster more dialog. This doesn’t have to be an all-consuming time-sink, just a few minutes here and there in your day is enough for most people.

- Do share links and retweet/repost, but don’t flood your timeline. Forwarding on things you find that are part of your message is a great idea, but a constant stream of links and RT’s can put people off. Instead, use a service like Buffer to spread out your links and other posts so that you reach more people in more places. This gives you the ability to start a dialog with more people in more places, too.

- Talk about other things. Yes, we – as info professionals – mostly talk about what we’re doing/selling/creating. That’s normal and expected, but shouldn’t be the only thing in your timeline. Talk about what’s going on around you – such as local cultural and sporting events happening near you. This allows people to see that you’re not a one-trick-pony, but rather a real person who is willing to talk, not just broadcast. This shouldn’t be forced, however. Pick things you’re interested in to talk about. Got a hobby, play certain games or have an interesting side-job? Talk about those things, so you can show that you’re interested in more than just the corporate message.

Remember, social networking is networking. Multiple people sharing information and talking to each other. Don’t fall into the trap of making your social media streams become a loudspeaker that tunes out anyone else online.

Photo Credit: Wayne Large

What We Can Learn from the Instagram Buyout…

Mike Talon — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:47:19 +0000

It’s not news to anyone that Facebook bought out Instagram for One Billion US Dollars.

For me this was a bit of a kick in the gut, as I had just recently left Facebook over concerns about how they use personal data (see last blog post on this site).

So what did I learn from seeing an app I love being scooped up by a site I would rather not be part of?

- Be wary of anything free.

Free software that is not ad-supported should be a gigantic warning sign whenever you see it. If an app has no revenue stream, then it has no purpose but to get itself acquired by some larger company that actually makes money. Hat-Tip to several folks I follow on twitter (@miketalonnyc) who have already posted quite a lot of info on this phenomenon.

- Never assume your data is going to stay put.

When FB integrates Instagram, you can be sure that all the photos you have taken on the indie app will end up on Facebook. Whenever you post something online, just take it for granted that it will eventually become public. No matter if because a site changes its policies, or gets bought by a company with different policies, any data that you don’t hold on your local machine will eventually be seen by everyone.

- Always know how to remove (and how to keep) your stuff.

Instagram has a page where you can delete your account – so you can indeed remove all the data they have from you. That doesn’t help much if you actually want to keep all your photos and move them elsewhere. Sites like InstaPort.me can give you a backup of your photos before you delete them, and even move them over to another site if you want. Note that this site is also a free app, but at least they take donations so they have *some* kind of revenue stream going.

- Know where to go next.

There are generally many apps that can do something you want to do. Finding the right one is tough, though, as many of those apps are bad ripoffs of the one you need to get rid of. Sites like AppAdvice can help sort through the crap to find the good tools.

As for my personal feelings on Instagram:

It was a great tool that did some nifty things with photos. That was about it. I loved using it, and would have liked to keep using it, but I very much dislike Facebook and don’t want the apps I’m using to be owned by them.

I’m very happy for the creators of the app who just hit a major payday, and I don’t fault them for taking the money when it was offered.

Finally, I did not “rage quit” Instagram. I took a day, thought it over and really asked myself if the app was good enough to keep using it in spite of who bought it out. The answer – in my case – was “no.” So I calmly found a site to help me get my data downloaded to my desktop, deleted my account, and then the app. No one should get so attached to an app that major changes like this cause them emotional turmoil.

So what did I switch to? Hipstamatic. It lets me take fun photos with filters and effects, and it’s not a free app, so it’s less likely they’ll get bought out and make me go through the process all over again in the near future.

Photo Credit: Amagill

Don’t Panic Over Requests to See your SocMed

Mike Talon — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:44:59 +0000

Alright, we’ve all seen the headlines.

Employers are demanding to see your Social Media profiles, and even – in some cases – demanding usernames and passwords to sites.

Before you panic, keep a few things in mind:

- Asking for your profile information before you are hired (NOT username/password) is something you should not fight against. There are two reasons for this. First, that information will only let them see what’s already available to the public at large, and so it’s stuff they could find on their own anyway. Giving them your screen names will at least let you know they’re looking. Secondly, knowing that they’re looking can come in handy, as you can ensure that there’s nothing you don’t want them to see before you hand over the info.

- Asking for private information before you are hired is NOT OK. Asking you for your login information is a severe violation of privacy, and should not be permissible for any employer. They cannot ask for your bank account information, they cannot – in most states – ask if you’ve been arrested (though, interestingly enough, they CAN ask if you’ve been convicted of a crime) – why should they be permitted to ask for private online information access?

- Asking for private information after you are hired is another story. If you signed an employment contract that gives them the right to ask, then you have to give up that info or risk termination. This is why you need to read your pre-employment and post-employment documents very carefully.

What I’m saying here is that many employees are raising the same level of alarm to the question “What is your FaceBook name?” as they are to the question “What is your FaceBook username and password?” These questions are not the same, and should not be handled the same.

The first question is perfectly reasonable. They want to see what you let any other person in the world see already, they’re just lazy and don’t want to Google search for your profile. The second question is a privacy violation.

We – as a community – need to differentiate between the two and only scream about the true violations, otherwise we risk having the general employer community accuse us of crying wolf over the issue.

That being said, what should you do if asked either type of question?

Pre-Employment:
If they just want to know your online name, give it to them. Prior to beginning the interview process you should have made attempts to sanitize your profiles anyway.

If the interviewer demands your login information, politely refuse. Also inform them that you will note that the question was asked, and take your refusal into account if you are denied employment. In short, put them on notice that you’re still happy to work for them, but that you will not be pushed around.

Post-Employment:
Read ALL documents carefully to ensure you’re not giving away rights to your personal accounts. This is critical, as you may need to turn down a job offer if the company demands that all employees give up their logins. You may be able to negotiate a rider to your contract that explicitly states they don’t have rights to your Social Media accounts, but usually it’s either “do this” or “don’t work for us.”

If your employment paperwork does not explicitly state that you are required to give that information as a condition of employment, and you are still asked for it; refuse. Also note that you are not required to do so by your contract, and be very clear that you feel that logins are Personal Information and not subject to company disclosure. Let them know that they are very much welcome to view your public information, however; so that it doesn’t appear like you’re trying to hide anything.

In short, treat your FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest and any other Social Media site login info the same as your bank account info, your medical info, etc. Unless you specifically agree – in writing – to give up that information as part of your employment, don’t give it up.

What if you get fired over this? I’m not a lawyer and you shouldn’t take any legal advice from me, so I won’t give you any. If you are terminated for not giving an employer your login information, seek legal help immediately. If you are denied a job for not giving your login information during an interview, seek legal help immediately. Many free advocacy groups exist, so hunt around and get help!

Secondly, if the employer in question is going to be that strict about your personal life, do you really want to work for them? If you have no choice (it is still a bad job market, after all) then you have to make a very tough decision, but if not, walk away. The employer may realize their mistake and ask you back, sans the request for your passwords.

To sum up: If the company only wants to see public information, or if you willingly agree to give them the logins in your contract, then give it to them. If they fire you unduly, or refuse to hire you because you won’t give them personal info, get legal help. But don’t raise the alarm over public data or data you agreed to give up, save that for the real bullying and privacy violations.

Photo Credit: Flattop341

Why I’m not on Facebook anymore

Mike Talon — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:31:23 +0000

Several folks have recently seen that I’ve disconnected from Facebook. Since I deleted my account there, I figured I should let folks know why it’s gone…

Facebook has never been good about privacy, I’m well aware of that, and had been willing to put up with the stupidity of their constant screw-ups until now. But this time was the last straw, and I’m not putting up with it any more.

Recently, Facebook updated their Data Use policies in a way that I do not agree with, and will not stand for. In short, they are allowing friends’ application to share your data with other people – who many not be on your friends list.

I have – or rather had – a lot of info in my Facebook profile that was public. I had no problems with applications sharing that data, but data that was marked as “friends only” or “private” should stay that way until I choose to share it with someone. And if I do choose to share it with someone, it should be limited to that person, not to anyone using the same apps as they are.

The Washington Post has an article that explains the new changes to the Data USe Policy, but the one point I have a major objection to is this:

Data use is further defined under the “Sharing Your Content and Information” section, which explains that applications you have downloaded have the right to see your content, given that you downloaded the app and gave it that permission. Now, it clarifies that an application your friend has downloaded also has the right to your information because you’ve allowed that friend to see your content.

I specifically have a problem with the second part of that statement, where friends’ apps can get access to non-public data on *my* profile. You want to give your information to Zynga, go for it. But you do not have the right to share my data with them unless I say I want to share it with them.

I’m sorry, Facebook, but because I chose for a friend to see some data does not mean that I want any application they use to see it – and harvest it – as well. I don’t want Farmville and dozens of other spam-friendly games to have access to information and be stuck in a situation where I cannot explicitly block them from having it.

And anyone who thinks that games and apps won’t take advantage of this to harvest info is just being naive.

The additional decision of the big F to think they can trademark the words “book,” “poke,” and several others is just insult to injury at this point. Yes, I’m aware they did it because some unsavory sites were using those words to create an implied link to FB, but let’s not incinerate the bath to get rid of both the bathwater and the baby – and the house too.

Nope, I can’t abide Facebook making private information public through applications that friends have installed. So I’ve done what anyone can do – stopped using Facebook. I’ve instructed them to delete my account, and in about another 8 days it will be gone. I’m also not alone, apparently international users are up in arms over this one, and governments may get involved. Personally I think government interference isn’t the answer, just stop using the service and Facebook will figure out that they’re loosing too much revenue to not change the policies back to a reasonable, sane setting.

Remember, our data is their product. Remove the data and you hurt their revenue. Hit them square in the pocket-book and they’ll either change or die out. There’s plenty of competition out there to take over if they cannot adapt to their users requirements.

Speaking of which, join me over on Google+ – at least they’re open about the fact that they’re evil, and they rarely ever allow apps.

Photo Credit: erix!

Klout: What’s in a number?

Mike Talon — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:49:23 +0000

Most folks who use Social Media know about Klout – the ubiquitous rating/ranking system that shows what you’re influential in. Love it or hate it (and there are equal numbers of people on both sides of that argument) most folks just plain don’t understand it.

There are many rating and ranking systems for Social Media, from Kred to Twitgrader and back again. Klout seems to keep its status as the perennial favorite though, and many writers, employers and pundits are beginning to look at Klout scores to see if someone is really as big as they say.

The first major question I get is “Do I have a Klout account?” followed closely by “I didn’t sign up for this! Why is it there?”

Everyone who has a *PIBLIC* Twitter account, and most folks who have G+ and/or Facebook accounts, also have a Klout account by default. Your score gets tracked based only on PUBLIC information you share on those networks, and nothing more. They’re not doing anything illegal, and without you specifically signing up and confirming who you are (Klout uses OAuth to confirm identity), no one can give you +K or otherwise interact with you on Klout. You just have a public score, nothing more. Note: You can get rid of even your public score by opting-out if you want to.

Once you do log in, you can see your score, and see how you appear to be influenced and what you’re influential in yourself. These metrics are managed by the Klout numbers and algorithms.

But, how do they get to those numbers?

Unfortunately, the ranking systems used by Klout are proprietary and confidential. They’re also subject to change at any moment – and a recent change that knocked most people’s scores down about 10 points created a near exodus from the service itself. There are, however, a few things we know Klout looks at:

1 – Your number of followers, and the ratio of how many folks you follow to how many follow you back. This means you can’t bump your score up by just getting 1000 bots to follow you, and also that you can hurt your score if you follow significantly more folks than follow you back. Again, the equations are a closely guarded secret, but these metrics appear to influence your score.

2 – How you interact with others, and how they interact with you. This means Likes, ReTweets, Replies, etc. Klout is looking to see if people actually read what you tweet and post, or if they’re just following you and never actually looking at what you share.

3 – What topics you appear to influence. This is the most confusing topic – based on questions I get asked all the time about why people appear to be influential in one topic or another. It’s not what *you* tweet about, it’s what the people who interact *with you* are tweeting about most. If the majority of folks who follow you tweet about cars, Klout figures that you must be influential about cars, since the folks who specifically follow you are talking about that topic a lot.

4 – How influential your followers are. Not only do you need to interact with other people, but you should interact with influential people if you want a higher Klout score.

All that (and – according to the company – some more too) gets put into a mathematical formula that attributes different weights to different components. This spits out your current Klout score.

In addition, what you appear to be influential about and those you appear to influence on those topics (as well as those who appear to influence YOU on those topics) are calculated.

Then, when you visit your Klout page, you see a readout of your current score, the topics you seem to be influential on, and who you appear to influence and be influenced by. Klout doesn’t say when scores are calculated, but I have never noticed my score being updated more than once a day or so.

Now, what does all this mean? Not much really, in the grand scheme of things. You can happily ignore Klout entirely, and even opt-out of the scoring completely if you want. However, if you want to see what you appear to be influential in, Klout can be one (of many) ways to find out that information.

How to use Klout is another story. You can give someone who influenced you a nod by giving them +K on the topic they influenced you about. If they don’t show up on your influencer list, you can search for the person and give them +K that way. As you gain more Klout, you can even add topics to other people, but they (and you) always have the ability to remove any topics from lists. Other folks can give you +K and add topics for you as well via the same methods.

With enough Klout in certain topics, you can become eligible for perks. These are discounts and free stuff from advertisers who want you to see and play with their products and services. You’re never under obligation to accept a perk, and even when you do you are not required to say anything about it online unless you want to. It’s entirely up to you if you wish to participate in any given perk, and you can tweet and post whatever you want about it afterwards.

Personally, I’ve found some perks useless, and said so on Twitter and other places. No advertiser has ever come after me for doing so – though a couple of times they did indeed try to reach out to help with whatever was going wrong. I’ve also had great perks and tweeted about how good the item or service was – so advertisers know they can get free publicity through Klout.

One last thing, you should avoid spamming your Klout interactions whenever possible. I, personally, limit myself to 3 or 4 Klout tweets per day at a maximum, to keep the timeline manageable. I’ll give +K to a few folks each day, and acknowledge one or two of the folks who gave me +K as well, but that’s it. Spamming your score, metrics, and/or 10-20 +K’s each day is a great way to ensure your Klout score will go DOWN as tons of people unfollow you – so remember to use it wisely if you choose to use it.

If you don’t want to be part of it? That’s fine! You can ignore any Klout-related posts and just ignore the whole thing if you want, or you can opt-out if you really hate the idea. For the rest of us, it’s a fun way to see who and what we influence. Nothing more, nothing less, and nothing to even pay attention to if you don’t care.

Photo Credit: Sean Rogers1

Do’s and Don’ts – Twitter

Mike Talon — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:09:55 +0000

Twitter is one of the first places people think about when you say the term Social Media. While Twitter didn’t start the web 2.0 revolution, they did have a pretty big hand in shaping it.

So, what are some guidelines for using Twitter as an Information Worker?

Do’s:

- Do get an image. Using the default “newbie” icon for Twitter is always – ALWAYS – a bad idea. Find an image that is small enough to fit as a user icon, and that represents you, then use it. You can change this on the Profile or Bio page of your account. Remember to respect copyrights and trademarks and only use images you have the right to use.

- Do tweet about all kinds of things. Sticking to just corporate news is a sure way to lose followers fast. Try tweeting about things going on in your life that have some connection to your work. For example, if you make auto parts, talk about the work you’re doing on your own car outside of the parts you sell yourself.

- Do know what you can tweet about. Many companies have strict policies on what can, and cannot be said on Twitter by employees who are affiliated with the company. Make sure you only tweet information that is cleared and ok to send.

- Do remember it’s a conversation. Twitter is not a one-way communication tool, and so you should reply to people, start and participate in conversations, and generally remember that you don’t want to sound like a guy on a street-corner with a megaphone.

- Do keep your ratio. There’s a great temptation to follow a large number of people, but this is not a great strategy. If you’re following hundreds more people than follow you back, most experienced Twitter users will shy away from following you. The reason for this is simple, mass-following is a well-known technique employed by spammers, so you get hit with guilt by association. Start out by following no more than 25 people than follow you back, and stay at that ratio until you’re over 500 followers, then you can open it up to 50.

- Do balance your tweet types. It’s always best to mix up what you’re tweeting. Send some text, some links and some ReTweets (RT’s), and not too many of any one type. Mixing your content types allows others to see that you have a lot to share, that you’re not just spamming press releases, and that you interact with the community.

- Do keep multiple accounts for work and play. If you think you might want to tweet about stuff that isn’t acceptable to your boss, create a different account to do that. This account should clearly state that it is yours, and not affiliated with any particular company at all.

Don’ts:

- Do not spam, ever. Though the temptation is to blast your message out to everyone all the time; keep in mind that Twitter is a conversation and make sure you’re not just spamming links to random people.

- Do not engage in “link building behaviors.” This one is critical. Many so-called Twitter “experts” will tell you to follow thousands of people, then unfollow anyone not following you back. That’s bad for a large number of reasons, not the least of which is that you’ll lose any legitimate followers you were going to get and be left with a huge list of followers who don’t listen to your message anyway. Avoid buying followers or using faulty methods like “TeamFollowBack” and the like. Be a real person, the followers will… well… follow.

- Do not DM on Follow. This is a massively annoying habit most so-called experts still engage in. Direct Messaging someone just to say “thanks for following” – or worse, pelting them with your links and ads, is a sure way to get people to immediately UN-follow you. DM’s are typically sent to mobile devices and generate alerts on the desktop, mobile, etc. This is quite annoying to anyone who gets them and finds out that they’re nothing but a “hello” message.

- Do not sweat it if people don’t follow back. You’ll find that some people don’t follow you back. Don’t worry about it. Keep doing all the things you should do, and many folks will follow you. Annoying one person who doesn’t follow you with @Replies is a sure way to ensure that many more people don’t follow you – so it’s counterproductive.

- Do not tweet on behalf of your company. That is, unless you have express permission to do so, of course. Remember that you’re someone who works *for* that company, you are not officially representing that company. Many folks have gotten in a lot of trouble for speaking on behalf of their employers.

- Do not EVER forget that Twitter is public. Even DM’s can become public in some circumstances, and if you’re tweeting for work, then your boss is looking. A lot of headaches due to this can be avoided if you follow the “Do” about keeping work and personal accounts separate.

If you’re looking for a much more comprehensive list of what not to do on Twitter, have a look at Snipe’s page on why you should not be a “Social Media Marketer” – NOTE: it’s not safe for work.

Photo Credit: Twitter

Why your company needs a clear Social Media Policy for employees

Mike Talon — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:54:57 +0000

Every organization is made of people. That’s both good and bad. People make the company what it is, and that’s good. People also have opinions – which is usually good, but can become bad if they’re not representative of your brand and organization.

You can control access to the official corporate Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and LinkedIn accounts, but what happens when employees tag, retweet and link to those pages from their own accounts? That’s where a clear and comprehensive Social Media Policy (SMP) comes into play.

The SMP needs to clearly state what is acceptable and unacceptable for tweets and posts that are linked or tagged to the corporate identities. In other words, you should have language in the policy that clearly states that anything that goes against company policies (like disorderly conduct, HR violations, etc.) should never be linked or tagged to a corporate identity. Ever. For any reason at all.

The policy should also detail what rights and responsibilities an employee has if they choose to affiliate their personal accounts with the company via logos, images, re-tweet streams, etc. If you believe you have control over any account that has your company logo on it – for example – you need to state that very clearly and directly to avoid problems later on.

Of course, if your firm is particularly conservative in these matters, you may simply have a blanket policy that says that only the corporate identities can have anything to do with the company on Social Media. That’s usually a very bad thing to do, as it will severely limit your ability to take advantage of a lot of opportunities that leveraging employees can bring to the table. However, if that is indeed the way you want to operate, every employee needs to know it as soon as possible to avoid confusion, embarrassment and bad blood.

Finally, don’t make the mistake of believing your current employment agreements have you covered. If those agreements haven’t been updated in 3-5 years, you need to revisit them and ensure that the sections on intellectual property and corporate ownership of resources have been updated to operate in the digital age.

Photo Credit: Mr. Norris

Remember, it isn’t private, ever.

Mike Talon — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:31:31 +0000

When using social media services, the biggest mistake folks make is to believe – even for a minute – that anything they say is private. That leads to embarrassment, possible employment termination, and lots of other consequences.

For example, many users believe that their Twitter direct messages are not shared with anyone but the recipient. That’s not necessarily the case.

When you DM someone on Twitter, the message can be seen by everyone who subscribes to their timeline if:

– There is an image attached to the DM – image services are not private, and will carry the text of the message as a caption to the image on the photo-sharing site.

– There’s a link or you use a tweet shortening service (like TwitLonger). This one burns people even more than the image services, as you may have a shortening service enabled for all tweets in a 3rd-Party Twitter product on your desktop or phone. Bit.ly links and other URL shorteners are also public, so links in tweets can become public very easily.

– They retweet it. Twitter will try to stop them from doing that, but there lots of ways around that.

– You accidentally replied instead of sending a DM. It’s easy to do, and you’d be surprised how many times it happens.

On Facebook, all the default security settings make nearly everything in your profile and posts public information. Even if you think your data is shielded, a change to profile information policies can flip things to public without warning – it’s already happened several times.

The same goes for Pinterest and other sharing sites. Even though you can try to keep everything private, the sites are designed from the ground up to share, and with one wrong click the world can see whatever you posted.

Just before this went to post, Eileen Brown posted an article that proves the point. Twitter is allowing 3rd-Party companies to mine historical data from their archive, which means that your tweets could be used by another company. While they don’t seem to want to expose DM’s, one poorly-coded script could make that happen.

So, use social media wisely. Remember that it’s supposed to be SOCIAL, and that sites and networks are designed to facilitate public communication. Even if you think something is private, there’s a good chance it’s not – or it may become public later.