social media

Proposed Change to Liability for Online Comments

January 10, 2012 By Irene Bodle 2 Comments

The Joint Committee on the Defamation Bill, a Parliamentary committee reviewing proposed new UK defamation laws recommends that web hosts and ISPs should be allowed to keep allegedly defamatory comments online, as long as the author of the comment is identified and a notice of complaint is published alongside the comment.

Current Law

Currently web hosts and ISPs must immediately remove online comments upon gaining actual knowledge that the comments are defamatory i.e. they are informed that the comments are defamatory or they moderate comments on the website. Failure to remove defamatory comments exposes the web host or ISP to a claim for damages for defamation.

Under the provisions of the E-Commerce Regulations web hosts can currently avoid liability for defamation if they act as a mere conduit or cache or host material. This generally covers service providers who:

do not initiate the transmission of defamatory comments;
do not select who receives the comments; or
do not select or modify information in the transmission of the comments.

Proposed Changes

Due to the above, many service providers do not moderate comments or content on websites to avoid having “actual knowledge” of defamatory comments. In order to remove this disincentive to moderate websites, the Parliamentary committee has proposed that there should be different rules for dealing with defamation which depend upon whether or not a comment is made anonymously.

Anonymous Comments

Upon receipt of a complaint a web host or ISP should immediately take down anonymous comments unless;

the ISP believes that it is in the public interest for the material to remain on the website i.e. whistle blowing; or
the author promptly responds positively to a request to identify themselves, then a notice of complaint should be posted.

Anonymous authors of comments can be sued for defamation if they can be identified, and web hosts or ISPs that refuse to take down anonymous material can also be sued.

Identified Author Comments

Upon receipt of a complaint a web host or ISP should;

publish a complaint notice beside the comment; and
then have a judge decide whether or not the comment should be removed.

Liability

If web hosts and ISPs comply with the above they should not be liable for online comments. However, if they fail to comply with the above anonymous authors of comments should be sued for defamation if they can be identified, and hosts or ISPs that refuse to take down anonymous material could also be sued as publisher of the material.

Filed Under: Internet Law, Online PR, online public relations, social media

Using Social Media Effectively for Online Marketing

December 2, 2011 By admin 2 Comments

Guest Post by Daniel Elroy

Our inboxes are crammed with spam, our computer screens are besieged by pop-up ads and every Facebook page has a multitude of advertisements begging for our interest. The average computer user has learned to tune out all of these ads as nothing more than minor distractions in their everyday lives. We’re too savvy to fall for gimmicks, and even ads that might interest us are given short shrift as we simply don’t have the time to look at them. Thus, in a world where we are all constantly barraged by online marketing tactics, how do you find a way to make your campaign worthy of attention?

CREATE PREMIUM, SHARABLE CONTENT

When we see an advertisement for a film, we are often wary of the onslaught of adjectives flashing in front of our eyes (“A tour de force!” “Masterful!” “The Next Orson Welles!”) Yet, if a friend recommends it to us, we’re usually more inclined to take a chance. Social networks provide an endless array of possibilities for your existing consumer base to give your content the “thumbs up” it needs in order to have maximum impact on consumers who otherwise might not have been interested in your product.

Focus on content that’s story-driven. Dos Equis has achieved a legion of online fans by furthering the mythos of “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” including a “Stay Thirsty My Friends” website; indeed, there are countless “unofficial” Facebook fan pages devoted to him. The Old Spice Guy has his own Twitter account, which he frequently uses to offer up witticisms as well as to chat with fans.

Most importantly, make sure that your content can be easily shared. Axe is particularly masterful at offering up a never-ending assortment of humor-filled videos that can be passed along to friends with the click of a button. This approach has led to just under 2 million fans on Facebook alone.

A LITTLE PERSONALITY GOES A LONG WAY

Online marketing has grown increasingly personal. Take the opportunity to create a sense of intimacy between you and your consumers by engaging in conversation. On Facebook, Wendy’s recently asked the question “Do you eat your fries one-at-a-time?”, which generated over 600 likes and 400 comments. The M&M’s U.S.A Facebook page generated over 3,000 likes by simply posting a pic of a hapless looking yellow M&M with the caption, “I’m trying to prep early for Thanksgiving. It’s not going so well.” Give thought to your brand’s particular “personality,” then introduce yourself to the world. Your consumer base will be excited by the ability to partake in an ongoing dialogue with you.

BREVITY IS A NECESSITY

With only 140 characters at your disposal, Twitter encapsulates the philosophy that should be motivating your online campaign: communicate succinctly, or don’t communicate at all.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Your online advertising can flourish by using social media to strengthen your relationship with longtime consumers, as well as creating opportunities to reach audiences who tend to ignore traditional advertising. By focusing on story-driven sharable content, creating an ongoing dialogue with your consumer base and remembering that less is almost always more, you can provide a solid foundation for a successful online campaign.

Filed Under: social media

Social Recruiting: Is it an Equal Opportunity Hazard?

October 17, 2011 By DG Leave a Comment

Here is a question for all recruiters and HR professionals: If your organization relies heavily on the use of social media, LinkedIn or search tools to fill your candidate pool – Is there not a risk that you are restricting the supply of talent your business needs by overlooking the potential of the broader market? Are you also risking a breach of Equal Opportunities legislation?

I am more interested in the spirit of Equal Opportunties legislation here than the exact wording or the nuances of the law in different countries. I believe the root of all this legislation is very simple and most people would agree that everyone, regardless of age, gender, race, physical ability, religious belief etc. deserves an equal chance of being employed by you determined by selection criteria based on the job to be done… simple!

Most organizations of any stature have equal opportunity policies (they may even have been legal counsel approved)…job done…? or is there something that has been overlooked? If your process only really kicks in once you have a candidate selection pool… how are you forming that pool in the first instance?

Let’s go fishing for talent

The sea is rich in life. There are species of sealife that can feed you, kill you or cure you. If I am a bit lazy and short of time it’s easy to stand on the banks of a local lake that has been stocked with trout for sportsmen just like me… Caught 7 today … All Trout! Even if I venture away from the local trout stocked lake and onto the high seas in a boat with only shrimp bait on board it’s a fair bet that we know what we will catch.

The pitfalls of candidate pre-selection

My argument is this. Everybody (even although we try to be aware of the danger) is prone to personal prejudice. If your organzation is overly reliant on Social media and LinkedIn style talent attraction then you run a risk of having a starting pool of talent (i.e. the talent pool that becomes subject to your Equal Opportunity selection policy and from which you select your shortlist for interview) that does not represent the wider market.

After all, not everyone is to be found on social or business network sites – indeed I wonder if there will be a growing split in the use of these sites with millions creating profiles but also those (especially senior candidates) pulling back from them on concerns over privacy etc. Add to this the potential personal bias of recruiters when they are searching for talented people and the concern is clear.

Social and Network recruiting – finding the right mix

There are plenty of arguments for using tailored search within Social and Specialist Network sites – the ability to identify candidates in these ways is exciting and been proven time and time again.

I run the risk here of taking the fishing analogy a little too far but remember that if you only ever fish with a few different types of bait you are potentially missing the very special, the unusual and the unknown.

Find ways to engage with those who don’t yet know you and those who simply have never signed up to the networks you are using … sometimes you need to trawl with a much bigger and different shaped net.

Filed Under: LinkedIn, SEM Jobs, social media, Social Networking, Web Analytics Jobs

Google Real time search update

April 29, 2011 By Brian Kane 1 Comment

Google Real Time Results
Google has been providing real time search results for a while now. These can be accessed by selecting the real time navigation option in the left hand bar which appears after performing a Google search. These real time results are also occasionally blended into the main Google search results in the same way they bring in images, video, new results etc. Obviously the exact mechanism which triggers these result being blended is part of Goggles Algorithm but there is an obvious link with popular events & topics that have lots of social media ‘noise’ associated with them.

google realtime search results

What’s changed with real time search results ?
Up until now these real time results have virtually all came from twitter mainly because of the deal struck between the two companies on data sharing. More recently Google made a significant change and is now bringing in real time results from other sources such as Quora, Gowalla, Facebook & several others. This brings a new dimension to real time results and makes this feature of search a bit more interesting for the end user

Real Time Search Results and Online marketing
So why is this important form an online marketing perspective ? . Initially it’s hard to see how this could have a direct influence on search engine optimization, being just a real-time random snapshot in time of tweets, mentions & comments etc. However when you combine this functionality with Google’s social search which delivers personalized Google results based on your networks (facebook, twitter, LinkedIn etc) the possibilities for targeted online marketing become pretty interesting. As an example, consider promoting your own events using multiple social media channels and using the power of social search to deliver real time results to your own networks through Google.

Social Links in Search Engine Optimization
It’s also becoming clear that social media links are becoming a factor in SEO with facebook links, tweets etc all having some influence on search engine rankings. To what extent this is hard to quantify and while the biggest weapon in SEO is still the high authority back link, the weighting of social links is something that all internet marketing professionals should be monitoring very closely. The multi channel, blended approach to marketing on the internet is become increasingly important

Filed Under: Google, Google News, google social search, SEO, social media

Facebook Commerce

April 19, 2011 By Angela Wilkinson 5 Comments

Last month Webtrends and Adgregate Markets published a white paper investigating “The Effect of Social Networks and the Mobile Web on Website Traffic and the Inevitable Rise of Facebook Commerce”.

The key findings and investigation undertaken to reach these findings made for an interesting read; and should encourage those with a website and a Facebook page to start analyzing traffic and behaviour on both to see which channel is engaging their visitors more effectively.

It would seem our online behaviour is changing. While user reviews within web stores, ‘independent’ blogs and forums etc. have had a big impact on e-commerce in recent years, it seems that Facebook may offer something more; the power of recommendation and trusted opinion from your friends and contacts. This is possibly more appealing as people begin to distrust (with good reason in many cases) the authenticity of product reviews scattered around the web.

What is clear based on the Webtrends & Adgregate data is that for non ecommerce sites, Facebook pages are definitely pulling traffic away from company websites. While there may be many reasons for this, I am sure the ability to interact with the business in the dynamic way Facebook enables, has a big part to play here.

KEY FINDINGS

Websites that do not engage in e-commerce are losing traffic to their Facebook pages at a startling rate
Facebook stores are very efficient at traffic acquisition acquiring visitors at no cost through wall posts and establishing a store monthly user base equal to 1-10% of the retailer’s fan base
Facebook commerce conversion rates ranging from 2% to 4% are on par with Commerce websites.

Webtrends-Adgregate_Social_Commerce_Whitepaper_03172011

When the figures were grouped into e-commerce and non e-commerce, the impact of Facebook on websites with an absence of e-commerce became more significant as the table below shows.

Webtrends-Adgregate_Social_Commerce_Whitepaper_03172011

Although this trend is not impacting as strongly on websites with an e-commerce presence; the whitepaper predicts that this will be short-lived if Facebook is able to offer a seamless e-commerce experience.

Already Facebook commerce conversion rates are in the same range as e-commerce websites and with retailers and brands joining up to this channel and the opportunities available; the negative impact on website traffic is likely to continue to grow.

Organizations can no longer ignore the social network in favour of their website. Online traffic should be monitored; in particular the behaviour of users on their websites and social media channels to ensure the appropriate content and opportunities to engage are used on every channel.

The white paper can be viewed here.

Filed Under: Facebook, social media, WebTrends