While email is still the number one marketing tool, social media sites have become an attractive option for marketing campaigns, according to Social Media: Bridging the Gap.

Tomeeka Farrington, principal of Spotlight Communications and SMU (Social Media U), said, “There’s an assumption that everyone who has a smartphone or an iPad knows how to use social media but that may not be the case.”

“Awareness is so high because things like Facebook and Twitter do such a great job of branding themselves …There are those people who are setting up the tools [social network accounts] but don’t necessarily know how to implement the tool and they just stop. And time is always going to be a factor with everything. How much time do we really have to be on these sites?” Farrington said.

Young adults and students may find these statistics surprising because they assume everyone else their age is just as active as they are. However, the average Facebook or Twitter user is around the age of 30 years old.

“There are people like us who are frequent social media addicts or users… we assume everyone’s doing it. But really, the average Twitter use is 29, the average Facebook user is 38, the average Myspace user is 31 years old. Even though we think it’s dominated by kids in their bedroom on Facebook, it’s actually not the case,” Farrington said.

Cathy Waters, graduate program director for the Integrated Marketing Communication Program at Emerson said, “It used to be that younger people were more likely to use social media, but baby boomers are the biggest growing group on Facebook.”

According to Waters, people’s interest and interaction with social media is more affected by values and the way they want to spend their time.

“It matters in terms of your personal values. I know 22 year olds who’ve never touched Facebook, and I think there are a lot of 22 year olds who would say,’ Oh my gosh, really?’ … A few people get very engaged. For the most part, it’s a time commitment so the majority of people just lurk in the background and read and absorb but aren’t necessarily participating,” Waters said.

Those who are active social media users and those who aren’t are still likely to share one common form of communication – email, Farrington said.

“Email has been out there the longest and that’s the one that everybody understands… In 10 years, we would be saying that Twitter is the biggest marketing tool. It’s never been a question as to if someone has an email account. You pretty much can’t communicate or can’t do business without it these days,” Farrington said.

Waters said email is easier and more time efficient than social media.

“It takes a lot of time to do those one-to-one conversations [using social media]. And it’s a lot less time to blast out an email,” Waters said. “There’s just a lot of hours that go into managing those other tools [on social networking sites]. And people have to ask themselves how much time they want to put into this, and what’s the ultimate objective.”

Farrington and Waters agreed that overall, people and businesses have to decide if social media are worth the extra time and commitment to learning how to effectively use them.

“I think business are just learning what social media is and how to adopt it… they’re learning that it’s much more time consuming than they’ve previously thought so they are having to bring on staff members to help them with this,” Waters said.

Will the statistics be different in the future? Both Farrington and Waters agree that it is only a matter of time before more people and businesses are using social media.

“Stats have always shown that costumers prefer to do business with businesses that do social networks. So keeping that in mind, I don’t think that businesses are going to stop using social media because this is what customers are demanding of them”, Farrington said.

Ms. Water’s is excited about the future of social media, especially Twitter.

“I can’t predict technology but I think it’s exciting to think about using Twitter where you come into town, and you say ‘I’m looking for a good hotel room, who’s got a good deal for me?’ And boom! Offer delivered…, Waters said. “We kind of have to catch up with it because people don’t necessarily live their lives that way. I think the technology is ahead of the way the average person lives,” she said.

© Copyright 2011 JSONS

Ally’s former high school classmates, Sarah Johnson and Jeff Martone (currently University of Connecticut students), created a fake Facebook account in her name.

Ally only found out about the Facebook profile two weeks after it was posted, but it was not her page. She was able to guess the secret security question and was granted access to the account.  Unlike many cases of cyber bullying, police have made two arrests in this case, all because Ally refused to be a victim, did her own sleuthing to help police find two teenage suspects.

It turns out that the creators posted offensive and insulting comments to the fake Facebook profile for everyone to see.  The page impersonated Ally, including her name, birthday, and even listed the school she was attending. The default picture was a cow, and the profile made fun of Pfeiffer’s weight, even going so far as to describe her “likes” as “being fat and not running,” while her interests included: “Crisco, Ben & Jerry’s, whales, desert for dinner, and eating.”

Even worse, Ally says that one of the two creators of this Facebook page was formerly her best friend. When Johnson and Martone were asked why they created the page they answered that they were bored and it was something to do.

Johnson and Martone were arrested on charges of second degree harassment and will appear in court this month and Facebook has launched its own investigation.  In a statement about the two students, UConn spokesman Mike Kirk said, “When a student is found to be in violation of the UConn student code of conduct for on or off-campus behavior, they are subject to anything ranging from a warning to expulsion from the university.”

So what is Ally’s response? She wants to step-up and become an advocate for cyberbullying and says that if she can save the life of just one girl, who may be undergoing cyberbullying and even contemplating suicide, then coming out publicly to address the situation will be worth it.

“I gave myself one day to cry after I found out about it and I decided I have to work for myself from here on out. My mission is to help other teens. I want to help anyone I can,” she told the Today Show.

To watch Ally’s story on the Today Show, visit: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/40565123#40565123

1. Tweet that you are Job Searching. No one will know that you’re looking for a new job unless you tweet about it. Send a tweet to all of your friends letting them know that you are job searching. Do this often!
   
2. Include a Link to your Online Resume. Make it easy for your potential employer and include a link to your online resume or bio. Use a service such as VisualCV to help do this.
3. Every Tweet Counts. Employers will want to get a feel for what type of candidate you are by looking at your tweets. Make sure that you keep your tweets clean, intelligent and even take this opportunity to demonstrate some industry knowledge.
4. Use your Social Network to Network. They call it “social” networking for a reason, because you are in fact networking! Even if you only have three twitter followers, one of those three may have three-hundred followers. The connection you make with your potential employer will most likely result from someone re-tweeting your message.
5. Keep your Photo and Bio Professional. Put your 30-second sales pitch into your twitter bio. The trick to marketing yourself in 85 characters or less is to make it memorable, such as “They call me the Public Relations Princess.” or “Financial guru, in the market for an opportunity to number crunch.” Make sure to use a professional looking photo of yourself, because it will help humanize your profile.
6. Follow Companies & Recruiters. The best way to find out about career opportunities is straight from the source. There are a variety of Twitter accounts dedicated to providing job listings by industry, company, and more (i.e., @attjobs, @jobsinhiphop, @artdirectorjobs). Once you’ve decided which criteria best matches your job search, turn on text message alerts, so you can be among the first to receive messages from those sources.
7. Have another helpful twitter job search hint? Tell us about it.

The scary part is that over 50% of parents say they don’t know what their kids are doing online. Cyberbullies are dangerous because they are only limited by their access to technology. This form of harassment can take place via social media networks, instant messaging, e-mail, or websites such as College Anonymous Confession Board, which encourage students to post damaging remarks about their peers. Unfortunately, once these posts go viral and spread to the masses, they often result in tragic consequences, such as murder or suicide.

Here are some tips to help you and your child prevent cyberbullying:

1. Download a mobile web application. Cell Safety works on smart phones and is available with all major carriers. Parents receive alerts when certain keywords that are potentially problematic are sent to their child’s phone.

2. Educate your kids about consequences. Let your kids know that they could lose their Facebook or IM accounts, for example, if they engage in cyberbullying.

3. Find the Source. If your kids encounter any type of bullying on a social network with someone who was a “friend,” have them read through all of their recent exchanges with the bully. If they have become unfriendly to the cyberbully unknowingly, have them find out if there is a chance to sort it out. Have your child reply to ask them if they still want to be friends or talk it out.

4. Teach your kids to “Take 5!” before responding to something they encounter online. Jokingly encourage them to “Drop the Mouse! And step away from the computer and no one will get hurt!”

5. Ignore them. Tell your kids to ignore any e-mails, messages, or instant messages. If they are not friends with that person, tell them not to reply! Giving any type of response could just be adding fuel to the fire. The cyberbully wants to know that what they are saying is reaching your child and impacting them. They are more likely to stop if they don’t have confirmation that it is working.

6. Block them. Encourage your kids to stop all forms of communication with the cyberbully so that they are unreachable. This means blocking them on Facebook, or deleting them from instant messenger, for example.

7. Keep any messages that were exchanged. Don’t delete the messages. If the harassment continues, you will need proof to prove that your child is being cyberbullied. If the cyberbully continues to send your child messages, check to find out what internet company they are using. Then call the company and ask them to issue a warning.

8. Remember, you can always take legal action.

2. Fill-out your Profile (Completely). Most new users put only their current company in their profile. However, this severely limits their ability to connect with other users. You should fill-out your profile as if it’s your executive bio, or résumé. Make sure to include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities. The more info you fill-out, the better!

3. Increase your Visibility. Add connections! This increases the probability that people will see your profile first when they’re looking for someone to hire or conduct business with. Users would much rather work with those who come recommended by their own friends and colleagues. This is a perfect example of how LinkedIn can help you network AND increase career opportunities!

4. Change Your LinkedIn URL (which can help increase visibility!) When you create a LinkedIn profile, it creates a random URL for your profile. You can however change that to something simpler and search engine optimized, such as your name. Click here to edit the URL of your LinkedIn profile.

5. Share Your Link. Make sure to include a link to your profile as part of your email signature. The link enables users to see all of your credentials, versus having to send along an additional attachment.

6. Ease those Interview Jitters. Have an upcoming job interview? Use LinkedIn to research your interviewer ahead of time.  Sharing that you went to the same school, play hockey, or have mutual acquaintances can help break those awkward silences.

7. Learn More About your Colleagues. Starting a new job? Use LinkedIn to study fellow employees’ profiles and get to know them much faster than meeting at the water cooler.

Farmville, Frontierville and Texas HoldEm Poker. We’ve all received the Facebook invitations to join these games. Some of us accept them, while others of us choose to go about our Facebook business. But the truth is there are more people on these third-party applications or “apps” than you may think—59 million users on Farmville to be exact. And as the Wall Street Journal reported this week, some of these apps have been providing access to user’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies.

Oh CRAP, you played Farmville once or twice, so what does this mean for your privacy? You have your account on the strictest privacy settings possible and you’re still not sure if that’s enough!!

Know this: (1) Facebook does have a well-built privacy policy, and it also allows each user to have very specific and customized privacy settings to share only information that they want to with whomever they wish; (2) The only way to protect your settings is to educate yourself about which parts of Facebook remain secure and which are risky.

So wary Facebookers, here are our top recommendations when it comes to protecting your Facebook privacy:

1. Be aware of any game or application that requests information from your profile. Games and Applications are third-party applications of Facebook. This means that most of them aren’t made or regulated by Facebook, but by independent software developers.
2. Facebook has created an exclusive User ID number that is uniquely tied to your profile. This ID does not permit access to your private information on Facebook. However, if you do not have your account set to the highest security level possible, any of your profile information that is set to “everyone” may be visible to these third-party applications.
3. READ THE PERMISSIONS YOU GRANT APPLICATIONS.  A not-so-virtuous person or company could easily take advantage of your eagerness to try out their application and have you grant access to your entire profile. The permissions you grant for these applications persist, long after you’ve forgotten about the application. Make sure that you are comfortable with the permissions and don’t just accept them without thoroughly understanding them.
4. Bottom Line: regardless of policies, privacy settings, and permissions, you have to be careful with any and all information you put on the internet. Chose the information you put on your profile (both public and private) wisely, because you can’t take it back once you put it out there.

I started with a short analysis of how social media is really not that different from a cocktail party. I mean think about it, imagine if your business was holding an actual cocktail party and you jumped on the bar to lecture the crowd about all of your accomplishments. OR you mingled throughout the crowd handing out a set of message points and your mission statement (can we say crazy?), or worst yet– you have your biz peeps go from circle to circle asking for credit card donations. That’s just party faux pas behavior. So try to follow my three golden rules of the cocktail party conversation:

1. Converse, don’t lecture.

2. Genuinely care about what your audience thinks.

3. Don’t come to the party unless you’re planning to network.

Maybe it was the fact that the ladies had cocktails, but that party scenario really hit home.

So now that you know my golden rules your homework is to figure out which social media networks your business should be tapping into, whether it’s Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube or another. Figure out the right fit for your business, just remember to listen to your audience (your customers, clients)  and you can never go wrong.

Check out my party pics!

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Hope to see you soon at SMU!