November 2010 – Page 2 – Andrew Careaga

Could your social media policy spark a lawsuit?

Last week, I blogged about the importance of developing social media policies/guidelines that make sense to the people they’re supposed to cover or protect. Later in the week, the Federal Labor Relations Board issued an announcement that drives home the point — and that probably makes many bosses cringe.

Coming to the defense of an employee who badmouthed her supervisor on Facebook, the FLRB issued a statement that says, in essence, employee criticism of supervisors on Facebook is protected speech.

In the FLRB’s opinion, anyway. In this case, anyway.

There’s been no investigation yet. No hearing. But still, the announcement is making waves in legal, HR and PR circles.

It also ought to make us rethink the way our social media policies are presented.

Why? Because the FLRB is claiming that the company’s social media policy went too far. According to the New York Times report on the case, the FLRB is arguing that “workers’ criticisms of their bosses or companies on a social networking site are generally a protected activity and that employers would be violating the law by punishing workers for such statements.”

The case centers around the firing of an emergency medical technician for “violating a policy that bars employees from depicting the company ‘in any way’ on Facebook or other social media sites in which they post pictures of themselves,” according to the Times.

This news led Forbes’ Media Mix blogger Jim Nichols to ponder whether overly restrictive social media policies could lead to similar lawsuits. “This case could have a tremendous impact on how social media policies must be drafted, writes Nichols in a recent post. “A blanket ‘you can’t say anything’ policy is simply too broad and can arguably violate our free speech laws.”

Then the money quote:

While businesses need a social media policy, it should be designed to help guide employees about their conduct online; it shouldn’t be a laundry list of what employees cannot say or do.

Chris Syme also posted her take on this case and its ramifications on social media policies. “Social media policy devised correctly,” she writes, “will teach employees to help protect the company’s reputation online, but that has to start with in-house culture.”

* * *

One more reminder: Teresa Parrot and I will be delving into the particulars of social media policies and guidelines in our upcoming Academic Impressions webinar, Crafting and Effective Institutional Social Media Policy, on Dec. 7. We hope you’ll join us.

Friday Five: 5-year blogiversary and a shout to the new kids

Five years and two days ago today, this blog was born with little fanfare, an audacious title and a post about the escalating cost of a public college degree: A UC degree: ain’t it (about a hundred) grand? Five years and 800-some posts later, this blog is still chugging along. And since we’re still talking about the affordability of a college education, I guess this blog is still relevant.

Anyway, to celebrate five years of blogging about higher ed marketing, I thought I’d give a shout out to some of the new kids on the higher ed blogs. These youngsters all have the right stuff and should be required reading. I hope they keep blogging, vlogging and sharing great ideas long after this blog bites the virtual dust.

1. Patrick Powers, who keeps cranking out good, relevant posts about social media in higher ed.

2. Higher Ed Live, a weekly webcast about all things social media in higher ed, hosted by Seth Odell.

3. Mobile in Higher Ed, Dave Olsen’s excellent blog about the world of mobile web.

4. Graduate/Professional School Marketing, by Davina Gould. Though her blog is geared for marketing folks in those fields, Davina posts good stuff for just about any higher ed marketer.

5. New Adventures of an Old SID, by Christine Syme. This is the only blog by a sports information director that I read routinely. Chris talks about much more than sports.

Bonus blog: I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Karine Joly’s College Web Editor blog has been around even longer than this one. Karine commemorated her blog’s 5-year anniversary last February. Finally, Karine is the elder for a change. Among higher ed bloggers, I believe that only Michael Stoner has been at it longer.

Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere

Once upon a time, when Technorati was a major player in the world of blogging, its annual State of the Blogosphere report was big news. Bloggers would mine the report for nuggets of insight. The report was a kind of statistical abstract, a snapshot of where we bloggers stood in the brave new world of online media.

No more. A search of my overloaded, underread Google Reader turned up only three references to the latest report, which came out last week:

The obligatory tech blog post, this one from TechCrunch, complete with Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra’s ad:tech slideshow (embedded below). TechCrunch’s key takeaway: Facebook and Twitter drive most of the blog traffic these days.
A rundown of supposedly essential statistics by the Online Marketing Blog. (Sample stats cited: Most Bloggers update 2-3 times per week, one-third of us have worked in traditional media, and 25 percent of us blog from our smartphones. Interesting? For stat geeks, probably. But essential?)
A reference in the text summary of Shel Holtz’s latest podcast, which I didn’t bother listening to.

It’s kind of sad that so few bloggers care to report on this report. I guess it’s because blogging has become more mainstream, and there isn’t much new and exciting about it anymore.

But I for one am glad Technorati still cares enough to analyze, compile and share this information. Not just because it gives me something to blog about, but also because it assures me that blogs still matter — even in the age of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr.

To no one’s surprise, blogs are being transformed by other forms of social media. Technorati tells us that blogs are “in transition” from their “upstart” status of just five years ago. (Coincidentally, this blog was born in November 2005.) Technorati further tells us that the lines between blogs and other forms of social media are blurring. “As the blogosphere converges with social media, sharing of blog posts is increasingly done through social networks — even while blogs remain significantly more influential on blog content than social networks are.”

From my perspective, the key takeaway from the Technorati report comes from this Fast Company article. Weighing in on blogging’s impact on traditional media, FC concludes:

The traditional media should realize blogging, as the prime example of what’s dubbed “new media,” is a measurably more serious threat to its dominance in the publishing business. Blogs are using ever-more sophisticated tools, that tend to make their final products more and more indistinguishable from online efforts of old-media established names, and in some cases probably surpassing them, as new entities may be more flexible in their thinking (exemplified in the embrace of social media). Bloggers are making more money from their business, and have increasing confidence in their ability to have a positive impact on the media and the world.

Blogs are using ever-more sophisticated tools, that tend to make their final products more and more indistinguishable from online efforts of old-media established names, and in some cases probably surpassing them. … Hmmm. Maybe there’s a lesson here for higher education.

* * *

Update, 1:45 p.m. CST Friday, Nov. 12: In another case in which blogging may pose a threat to mainstream news, Yahoo announces plans to expand its blog network and has recruited some seasoned journalists to move the effort along. The new blogs launch on Monday, Nov. 15.

* * *

For those interested, here’s the slide presentation referenced above.

State Of The Blogosphere Presentation 2010 http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=40905784&access_key=key-1aofwtzfebkp6idy2b9e&page=1&viewMode=slideshow

A video I love and why

You may credit (or blame) Tim Nekritz for inspiring me to post the following. It’s in response to his “invitation to join me in the blogosphere for a conversation titled A Video I Love And Why, where anyone is welcome to blog about or discuss great web video.”

For his entry, Tim chose the poignant and powerful With Glowing Hearts video from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. It’s a great video, and Tim provides a solid list of reasons for why it appeals to him.

And now for something completely different.

I’ve opted for a less polished, animated piece called Battle of the Album Covers. (Warning: Nothing poignant to see here, but there is some blood, gratuitous violence and frontal nudity.)

Why do I love it? Well, let’s see:

1. The concept. Breathing motion and cartoon life into album art is just a clever concept. I wish I’d thought of it.

2. A tribute to a lost art form. Album cover art is an under-appreciated and nearly extinct pop art form. This video captures many well-known album covers, along with some obscure titles, and sets them in motion through some brilliant animation.

3. How many can you spot? Don’t you love those games that challenge you to spot as many things as possible? I do. Hence, I love this video.

4. Four Pink Floyd album covers. Did you find them all?

5. The humor. OK, so it’s sick, twisted humor, maybe. But it’s funny. At least I think so.

6. The production values. What production values? Precisely. This is not high art. It’s folk art — of the people, by the people, for the people. It’s what YouTube was created for. It’s punk.

So, there’s my entry. Let’s keep this meme going. Blog about a video love and tell us why, then let Tim and me know about it.

Social media planning and policies: the view from the ground

Sometimes when creating policies, it’s easy to forget about the real needs of people who are supposed to follow those policies. I’m sure I’m not the only higher ed administrator who has gotten tangled up in a rule created by HR, legal or some other department that sounds good on paper, but doesn’t quite fit the situation I’m dealing with. As you probably do, I scratch my head and wonder what the geniuses who created this policy were thinking.

I don’t want to be one of those geniuses. Do you?

Creators of policies sometimes get so hung up on viewing everything from 30,000 feet that they forget about the people on the ground. For those of us charged with creating social media policies or guidelines for our institutions, it’s important to remember the practical needs of people who are supposed to abide by or carry out our rules.

This point was brought home to me recently when I co-delivered a talk about social media policies and planning to a group of intramural and recreation staff last week at the NIRSA National Marketing Institute. My co-presenter, Teresa Parrot, and I interacted with staff who work with hundreds of students — intramural participants as well as student-employees — and face a variety of social media challenges.

What do you do about students who take photos and videos of intramural games and post the content on YouTube or Flickr?

What happens when a student gets hurt in a game, and before the campus administration even knows about the incident, other students are tweeting about it or posting it on their Facebook pages?

Chances are great that the communications and marketing staffers who are creating a campus social media policy, with counsel from HR and legal, haven’t given much thought to those types of circumstances, or many others.

It’s important to keep in mind the needs of those staff members, students and administrators who are supposed to benefit from our social media policies or guidelines. Let’s make sure we’re creating documents that are a benefit, rather than a restriction. Let’s make sure our guidelines are practical.

[shameless plug]If you’d like to learn more about developing a social media policy, join Teresa and me as we co-deliver an Academic Impressions webinar on that topic on Dec. 7. Registration for Crafting an Effective Institutional Social Media Policy is now open.[/shameless plug]

In the meantime, here are a few other resources to help you along in developing or tweaking a social media policy:

.eduGuru’s Social Media Policy Resource Guide for Higher Ed offers links to several college an university policies. A hat tip to .eduGuru contributor Mike Petroff, who pulled together the examples.
Social media policies was the topic of discussion for much of Episode 7 of Higher Ed Live, a weekly webcast hosted by Seth Odell. Seth interviews Mike Petroff about the importance of developing practical social media guidelines. Although there were some technical issues with this webcast, it’s worth tuning in to. The social media policies discussion starts at around the 12:30 mark.
Last June’s Academic Impressions interview with Teresa and me about social media policies might be worth another look. The money quote comes from Teresa: “We need to focus not on how we can control the message, but on how we can provide resources and guidance for those who are communicating.”
So you need a social media policy… by Jennifer Doak, CASE’s online communications specialist, on the CASE Social Media blog. (Hat tip to Michael Stoner for pointing out this post.)

Photo via Red Shoes PR (www.redshoespr.com/blog/bid/9640/Creating-a-Social-Media-Corporate-Policy).