And, they will find it.

It probably comes as no surprise that some employers have been using social media sites to research their candidates—using the information obtained as somewhat of an informal background check. However, according to legal expert Mark Schickman, this is not necessarily a smart practice, and employers need to be careful about what they’re digging up on potential employees.

The danger, Schickman says, is that as an employer, you’ll find out something that you really didn’t want to know. For instance, you may discover that the candidate’s political beliefs don’t align with yours. You might learn the candidate’s age, marital status, and information about their children. Or maybe you’ll see messages about medical issues or family problems. These sensitive subjects are off limits in job interviews, but if you saw this information on Facebook, would you be able to make your hiring decisions without it leaking into consideration?

If you’re being completely honest, the answer is likely no. And that, Schickman says, is a recipe for disaster, as you could be opening yourself up for discrimination lawsuits. As it turns out, there is such a thing as having too much information about a candidate.

Still, as employees, we’ve all heard the horror stories in recent years. We’ve known people to lose their jobs based on what they have posted about themselves on the web. Schickman suggests that job seekers should “sanitize” their online presence, making sure nothing inappropriate is posted, but also urges people to continue to be themselves.

The fact of the matter is: what we put in our online profiles contributes to our personal “brands,” and it’s smart to be conscious of that. In person, many people try to keep their work and personal lives separate, yet most people don’t think twice about accepting coworkers or bosses as “friends” on Facebook.

But really, is it fair to be judged at work for things we do outside of work? Should people really have to censor themselves and keep secret the fact that they support a certain presidential candidate, or that they had a few drinks at a bar on Saturday?

I think employers need to consider not only the potential legal ramifications, but how the practice of checking up on people reflects on their company and its culture as well. Seeking out personal details (whether on current or potential employees) on Facebook can be viewed as intrusive, or “spying”—even if the individual has the information out there for whomever to see. Think about how a reputation like that could affect employee morale and recruitment!

Many companies have social networking policies that provide guidelines for what employees can and cannot post in relation to their jobs. In fact, just last week, an employee of the Pittsburgh Pirates was fired for venting his frustrations about the team’s losing streak on his Facebook page. Although he was speaking as a lifelong fan, the Pirates write his paycheck, and as an employee, it’s common sense not to bash your company on a public forum. Still, placing restrictions for posting that are too strict can reflect negatively on an organization as well. When it comes to social media policy, companies should consider establishing a middle ground.

In the end, if an employee works hard and is a valuable member of the team Monday through Friday, does it matter how they spend their time when they go home for the weekend? And really, who wants to work for a company that can’t have a little fun on Facebook?

Equally strong, yet on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the first rule for talking to mom bloggers is you do not call them mommy!

For a majority of women who blog—and who also happen to be mothers—they don’t like the term “mommy blogger.” It limits who they are and carries with it a sense of disrespect.

Earlier this spring, The New York Times published an article titled, “Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy Building My Brand.” This article caused an uproar in the female blogger community because of its cutesy and condescending tone it took toward so-called “mommy bloggers.”

The truth is that these bloggers are educated and creative, and have a strong point of view. It’s true that many blogs written by women do have a focus on motherhood and family; however, often they are a reflection of their complete lives—which started before they became mothers—and also include thoughts and prose on health, fitness, travel, business, and much, much more.

In marketing, we like to categorize people and call them things like market segments, target audiences, and influencers. We use these “buckets” to find commonalities among people. However, when dealing with female bloggers, even mom bloggers, be warned. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Each blog is as individual as the woman who writes it.

It will make sense for many brands to connect with women and mothers and the blogosphere is an excellent place to start. In fact, we achieved great results working with influential mom bloggers when we introduced a new Sucrets® product—Sucrets ICE—but you have to play by the rules.

In addition to avoiding the term “mommy,” be sure to follow these practices:
• Make It Personal: Get to know them. Read their blogs. Communicate on Facebook and Twitter. Look for ways to meet them in person.
• Make It Relevant: Get to know what makes them tick. Look to connect more personally with relevant information. Genuinely care about what they care about. And, don’t send generic press releases.
• Be Pitch Perfect: Or at least try. These bloggers aren’t starving for pitches and free stuff. They are discerning and, like the media they complement, want to deliver value and relevance to their readers.

We all know strong, wonderful women. Many happen to blog. Many happen to be moms. And, now you know how to reach out and show some respect.

Whether you agree or disagree with Facebook’s privacy changes, it’s tough to ignore the outcry that has emerged.  Ever since the f8 Conference back in April, when Facebook decided to open up its privacy doors to the public- – establishing an opt-out privacy policy — users have been in a tizzy over their rights to privacy, and control over their personal information.  This situation with Facebook excellently demonstrates the harm that can be caused by supporting opt-out policies over opt-in policies – especially when it comes to issues as important as personal privacy and informational control.

Public outcry has consisted of calling out Facebook – claiming that it’s not the company it promised to be when it was founded back in 2004.  Try and adjust your privacy settings and you’re thrown into a confusing mess of options that tiptoe next to chaos theory.    The difficulty behind the settings may open the network, but some people don’t want that. Luckily, it seems that Facebook may have heard the public’s concerns about the confusion, and is now working to make the privacy settings easier to adjust.

Those of us using social technologies in a professional setting understand that control of the brand is moving away from the company/organization, and into the hands of the consumers and users.  But when control starts moving away from the companies and the consumers and into the hands of a select few companies, it brings up questions about what we really have control over, and whether we can find our way out if we really want to.

According to a Kaspersky Labs executive quoted in CNET, “…the company is scanning nearly 500,000 new unique URLs that appear in Twitter posts daily. Of those, anywhere between 100 and 1,000 are malware attacks…”

Although most social networking sites have their own variation of a spam filter, unwanted links and materials still manage to sneak through unnoticed. Companies that have traditionally developed anti-virus software for e-mail programs are now turning their attention to social networking sites.

Is anyone already using this kind of software and can you speak to how effective it is? The most common piece of malware associated with Twitter links is Trojan-Clicker. HTMLIFrame, a malicious JavaScript, can get downloaded to a computer when it visits a compromised Web site. (SOURCE: CNET)
(Credit: Kaspersky)

— Kellie Fronk

In a PR capacity, I wrangled media to attend and cover the discussions around the evolving marketing and communications landscape, as well as the business applications of social media. When the work was done and I got a chance to listen in, I was immersed in discussions ranging from branding and measurement to corporate blogging. Here’s a snippet of the line-up and key points I took away:

• Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO at Kodak: talked about ROI (or Risk of Ignoring) and explained how his “4 E’s of social media”—engage, educate, excite, and evangelize—interconnect and enable companies to humanize their brands. He also referenced a quote from Kevin Flynn’s presentation, “When the horse dies, the rider must dismount.” In other words, companies can no longer attach another wagon to the dead horse, but rather embrace the wave of social media as an increasingly necessary complement to your overarching marketing strategy.
• Niki Black, counsel to Fiandach & Fiandach: discussed the legal implications around engaging in social media, and stressed the importance of having a social media policy.
• Miguel Llano, a Martino Flynn colleague: moderated panel sessions, encouraging the audience to tweet their questions for panelists by using the #SM2Day hashtag.

A separate graph is warranted for the keynote speaker—the charismatic Chris Brogan, who made a special trip to Rochester for the conference. Attendees were naturally enthralled by his presentation, which in several respects emulated the very crux behind social media itself. For one, it was a conversation with many, as he took questions from the audience. And rather than divulging the secrets of social media success, the discussion itself underscored the importance of relationships with people—in new media and in life. But I think most importantly, Chris was “human,” and he practiced what he preached. He may be a superstar in the social media world, but he is also a humble, personable individual who genuinely enjoys connecting with–and relating to–people.  It was a refreshing feeling to have in this crazy, wired world we’re in. Those who attended SM2Day really appreciated that.

The audiences of your company would appreciate that, too. People want a relationship and a personalized experience when it comes to companies and brands. They want to feel like an insider instead of having a “one brand stand.” Companies that welcome people into their worlds and give the audience the microphone will find—in time—that it will come back to them in a good way.

- Sharon Harper

@Sharon_Harper

The Martino Flynn PR team had the opportunity to hear a who’s who in the PR and social media world speak on the topic. Instead of divulging all the secrets of how to effectively use social media, Peter Shankman claims there really aren’t any, and backed this up by sharing his four “rules” of common sense:

• Transparency: No one is perfect: everyone is going to make a mistake at some point. And with all the social technologies available, it’s especially important these days to be upfront and transparent.
• Relevancy: We’ve become a society of microjournalists, where people are “experts” on every topic you can think of. This makes it all the more important to know with whom you’re communicating.  Why not ask your audience directly what exactly it is they want and need—and how they wish to receive it?
• Brevity: The average attention span for teenagers in the 80′s was 3 minutes—or the length of a music video. Now it’s only 2.7 seconds, or the time it takes to read a 140-character tweet. 
• Customer service: It’s all about karma. “Make your customers addicts” by working your network. Make a consistent effort to reach out to a few people in your network on a daily basis—whether it’s wishing someone a happy birthday on Facebook or simply phoning to say hello.

The latter point resonated with me the most.  Shankman cited a few examples of noteworthy individuals who took a few minutes of their time to do this simple, but smart exercise.  It paid dividends down the line when various contacts recalled the person they felt they already knew and trusted, and got in touch to do business. This was Shankman’s very impetus for creating Help A Reporter Out (HARO), a free exchange between journalists looking for sources on deadline and more than 100,000 worldwide sources—largely PR practitioners scouting opportunities for their clients—who are looking to be quoted in the media.

In reality, social media are best utilized when they complement existing communications strategies. What’s even better is getting someone to do your PR for you. How can this be done, you ask? Forget Facebook [for a moment] and get back to basics: focus on customer service. Ask them directly about what it is they want and need, and then give it to them. Your good karma will come back around in the form of positive PR.

- Sharon Harper

The report also discusses social media marketing as an effective branding strategy. Influencing brand reputation, increasing brand awareness, and implementing a search engine optimization strategy are currently considered by marketers to be the most effective outcomes of a successful social media campaign. And although at present social media marketing has not been proven as effective in generating sales leads or increasing online sales, more and more companies are proving that this can be achieved.

In addition to “actively seeking out their favorite brands,” Mashable contributor Adam Ostrow points out that consumers are also engaging with companies as a result of word of mouth via a friend’s online suggestion or website links. In a personal experience of mine, the chief blogger for Frito Lay was listening to a suggestion I made and directed me to the company’s blog, which I now read on occasion as I anxiously await the arrival of the wide-mouth salsa jar for the optimal tortilla chip-eating experience!

— Sharon Harper

Marchese explains that, “Fans, by definition, have raised their hand to indicate some sort of affiliation to a brand. The intent of that affiliation can vary widely, depending on the individual. Perhaps the ‘fan’ simply wanted to tell her friends about a brand she liked, one time. Perhaps the ‘fan’ wanted to get the coupon offered by a brand for becoming a fan. Or perhaps, and this is the one the brands want to hear, the ‘fan’ wants to hear from and talk to the brand going forward.”

The question he asks, and I agree with, is why are brands looking at their fans, or followers as the end goal for their social media marketing efforts? Yes it’s great to have a large following on social networking sites, but as a marketer your job is not done just by securing this “fan” base. In most cases, these are people who already associate with you, or like your product. The people that need more persuasion are those who have not yet opted to “follow” you. These are the people who you need to convince the most.

— Kellie Fronk

It explains how the blogging, microblogging, and social networking aspects of digital communications are mainly driven by the PR function, whereas the email marketing and SEO aspects are generally led by marketing.

Quoted in the article is the VP of marketing for the Public Relations Society of America, who says: “Social media puts the consumer in control, and PR professionals have always interacted with customers who are in control, also managing the brand reputation and relationship with them.”

A blog post by one PR professional also provides rationale why PR is ideally positioned to drive social media marketing. Others, still, have unique perspectives on how this will pan out for the PR world.

Nonetheless, the road (social platforms) is paved for accommodating what PR naturally does (engaging and communicating). Still, while social media may best be driven by the PR function, the outcomes are best maximized when it is integrated with other aspects of marketing.

- Sharon Harper

To join the party people had to sign up with their twitter ID prior to the start of it at 5 Minutes For Mom Blog (the event co-sponsor). Land’s End hosts were on hand to answer any back-to-school shopping questions and more than 20 product giveaways were awarded during the two-hour event.

Land’s End also had a $250 gift card up for grabs, which it promoted on its website prior to the event to create a viral effect. In order to qualify for the gift card you had to create a post on your own blog about the event using the “Fantasy Backpack at Packland” application.

With 106 registered participants, and countless more who joined in at the last minute, it appears the party was a hit. Follow: @LandsEndPRKira, @LEPRAmanda, @LandsEndPRAdam, or @5MinutesForMom on Twitter for all the details as they become available. More information about the incentive can be found at ThisFullHouse.com.

— Kellie Fronk