Social Media | Speed Communications Blog

August 26th, 2010 by Nicky Savage

Law to prevent employers looking at Facebook pages?

I often snoop around the US news websites if I am in the office early to see what might be hitting our shores in the next few hours. Today – I read a piece from USAToday.com that got me thinking. The piece talks about a proposed new German law proposed by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere. The law, if passed would make it illegal for prospective employers to snoop on private internet postings. The law doesn’t prevent you from stalking through publicly available information but it does say that you cannot add a prospective employee as a friend and (in the words of USAToday “peek at photos from that keg party in college”.

AP explains a little further:

“If an employer turns down an application with another reasoning it might be difficult to prove” that the negative answer was based on the Facebook postings, de Maiziere said.

A rejected job applicant who proves he or she was turned down based of violation of the new law could take the company to court and claim damages, he said.”

Now – I have interviewed a fair few people in my time – I will admit that (especially with grads) I tend to search for them on google, twitter, facebook etc etc to see if I can get any additional information. And yes- I have already decided whether I am likely to like them or not in advance based on what I find. If a potential grad has a good twitter following and engages on topics related to my clients then they look pretty good to me. If however (as did once happen) I see a facebook status update saying “can’t be ar*ed writing my interview presentation for tomorrow – going to wing it…” then I will think badly of the person and will bring it up in the interview and watch them squirm.

Most of the comments on the piece suggest that if someone is stupid enough to add someone they don’t know on facebook then they deserve to be judged based on their facebook content. I am not sure – it is a tricky one – knowing where the public / private boundry lies. I wonder whether as time goes on – we might start going back the other way – making less and less information available. Techcrunch writer and community ‘celeb’ Paul Carr has already shut down all his social networks – one of the reasons being “people who enjoy my day-job writing are inevitably disappointed by the humdrum reality of my actual life, as laid bare by social media.”

I use the networks for specific things – to share pics with friends on facebook (am approaching my sixth weekend of weddings / hens – it is useful) and to get information on twitter. I have friends that deleted their accounts for a while but are now back on. I am nosy- I like knowing what is going in the world – both with my friends and my ‘internet friends’. My accounts will stay open for now. But I won’t be accepting any people I don’t know as friends on facebook. Not that I am looking for a new job @wadds / @mynameisearl

Posted in BizComms
Tags: Facebook, facebook privacy, German law, German law facebook, google, Law, Law of Germany, Online Communities, Paul Carr, social media, Social network, Thomas de Maiziere
1 Comment »

April 23rd, 2010 by Gerry Grewal

Digital PR demands discipline

There can’t be a PR agency in the UK that doesn’t have clients who remain snow blinded by social media. They know the internet offers a world of new opportunities for the creation and sustenance of positive influence and engagement, yet they don’t know where to start or where the best routes to value lie.

Social media doesn’t change the way in which human beings communicate. If anything it offers the potential to simplify communication by cutting out ‘the middle man.’ You can see social networks in action around the bar in a pub every day. And in this context the person with the most influence and the greatest reputation is not a Facebook geek, but landlady stood behind the bar.

The conventional approach of media relations no longer works alone. The media required to engage with an audience is now diverse: print media, social media, all kinds of media. And all of this is not only confusing, it’s bloody difficult.

We’ve seen the rise of specialist social media or word-of-mouth agencies to address this emerging opportunity. They have a role, but it is just one piece of the new jigsaw. More traditional firms have attempted to drag their antiquated techniques into online environment creating confusion in their wake.

PR agencies have taken three distinct approaches to social media:

- The creation of a team to focus exclusively on social media programmes. Potentially short term, not inclusive and creates a silo of expertise

- Hiring a high profile individual or small team to handle digital assignments. Likewise not inclusive and silos expertise

- Building skills throughout the organisation and integrating digital into a client’s campaign where it’s appropriate – Speed’s gig

The PR industry is undergoing a radical modernisation. If you work in the PR industry and want to continue working in the industry you need to equip yourself with digital skills in order to help clients integrate digital PR into their broader communication effort.

Posted in Technology
Tags: digital pr, Public relations, social media
3 Comments »

April 19th, 2010 by Chris McCrudden

Nike wants us to reclaim the streets?

Picture the situation. You’re a huge brand with a dominant position in your market. You have enough power and money to make King Solomon blush, but you have a couple of problems. Firstly, by virtue of your size, people think you’re a bit faceless. Secondly, you’ve been the subject of some damaging investigations that have linked your products to exploitative labour in the developing world.

So you make money, but oridinary people hate you. What do you do?

What Nike’s done. That’s what.

Nike started the 21st century as a corporate social responsibility whipping boy. Na0mi Klein’s demolition of its brand in No Logo transformed its public image from being a world-leading manufacturer of posh trainers into the kind of villainous organisation that, had it been around in 1830s London, would have been pushing small children up chimneys armed with toothbrushes.

To its credit, however, Nike has slowly and carefully repaired a lot of its damage to its brand. And not by the kind of defensive top down activity that huge global companies default to, but by initatives designed to build a strong, positive relationship with the people who consume most of its products. Runners.

Nike’s marketing over the past few years has been a textbook example of how to do ‘relationship marketing’. After working out that runners liked listening to their iPods as they ran it teamed up with Apple to develop the hugely successful Nike+. It picked runner-friendly celebrities for its charity tie-ins, it blogged and offered exclusive content on Facebook. Basically everything you should do to get a constituency of hobbyists who could act as your brand ambassadors on side.

Now this strategy has taken an interesting turn with the Nike Grid campaign. This is a street-running competition devised by Nike that people join via Facebook (through Facebook Connect) and which encourages them to race each other through the streets of London, using the capital’s under-used network of phone boxes as staging points. The more phone boxes you connect, the more points you score. It’s a cute idea, and one that indrectly associates Nike with ‘reclaim the streets’ activism – a subtle kind of activism that puts Nike on the same level as the (running) man in the street.

It’s not something you’ll care about if you’re not a runner, but that’s exactly the point. Nike has done very well out of cultivating niche markets, and this is a brilliant example of how a brand can harness the various tactical methods of keeping in touch with people in today’s connected world, and turn them into an elegant integrated campaign. It makes you feel part of a community, but also reminds you that you need a new pair of running shoes…

Posted in creative
Tags: Athletic, Athletic shoe, Brand, community, corporate social responsibility, CSR, Facebook, Facebook Connect, Footwear, London, Marketing, Niche market, Nike, running, social media, sport, trainers
1 Comment »

March 9th, 2010 by Dan Howe

Ideas Worth Spreading at #TEDxWarwick

This past weekend was TEDxWarwick 2010. TED, being the nonprofit organisation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading and x, meaning an independently organised event inspired by TED. These events are being held around the world as people get together to share ideas.

Despite not having morning event tickets, we got there early. The University of Warwick students were excellent hosts and snuck us into the last half of the session, just in time to catch Dr. Rachel Armstrong present the idea of living buildings and using protocells to help prop up Venice. Up next was a video presentation from Hervé This, father of molecular gastronomy, a hot trend in cuisine. TEDxWarwick so far was truly an interdisciplinary event.

The topic I found most interesting was presented by Alex Wright, author of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. He presented over Skype from his apartment in Brooklyn, NY and began with an observation on how we take technologies or systems developed for other reasons to do more interesting things with. Alex wouldn’t have known it, but just a few speakers prior to him Simon Berry from ColaLife had a great example. He’s trying to use Coca Cola’s existing distribution network to send life saving medication to hard to reach communities.

My understanding of Alex’s idea is that what we do with cool new technologies are rooted in our primal instincts. He discussed how we went from an oral culture to a literate one, but the oral elements never really went away. With the recent rise of social media, more of our oral culture is beginning to make a comeback in the way we communicate and share stories.

I would have loved to of heard more, but because Sir Roger Penrose’s presentation ran a little long and we still needed to fit in Noam Chomsky they had to cut Alex off. I guess I’ll have to grab his book.

The day was filled with brilliant, inspiring and interesting ideas. I was busy scrawling down notes, trying to capture all the excitement, that I am now having trouble deciphering. There are TEDx events happening across the UK and around the world. Check one out. There’s no doubt you’ll learn something.

Posted in creative
Tags: social media, Social Networking, TED, TEDx
2 Comments »

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