Social Misuse Fact Finding Session

By Rachael Licata 

In searching about some of the legal issues while using social media, I am most interested in what employers can and cannot do. Especially when done within the realm of their employees  personal time. 
I found the following information from Saper law offices. 

• Can an employer check up on employees through social media?                                       Yes, with some limitations

• Employers can check LinkedIn to verify information supplied by an applicant or employee on previous work history.

• Employers can check Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. for postings that may be viewed as harassment of other employees or if an employee who called in sick is really out partying

• Employers cannot use information found on social medial to discriminate against employees or candidates due to race, religion, sexual orientation or other protected class. (Better have screening policy in place) 

Social Media & Employment

• Employers may use social media User Generated Content  UGC for hiring/firing decisions

• Corporate “social media policy” can prohibit employee participation, e.g.  tweets, marks/logos, use of company IT 

• Marketing/PR positions present different rights & risks

• ECPA and/or CFAA may protect non-consensual intrusion into third-party employee accounts 

Intellectual Property

• Who owns the Copyright to material posted on Social Media?

• The original author owns the copyright to their posts on Social Media.

• If someone is hired to promote a product to friends or other users on Social Media , the Work For Hire doctrine will apply, and it is best to clarify ownership in the contract.

• However, it should be considered that many postings may not meet the minimally creative threshold and therefore may not have Copyright protection. (Facebook Status updates? Twitter updates?)

However, there is no “law of social media,” yet!

Law evolves slowly and cannot keep up with technological change

Legacy real-world rules apply, and adapted to social stream,  otherwise unlawful practices are still illegal when online.

So what are some best practices?

• Culture— Foster corporate culture of openness. Listen to & respect opinions of employees, customers and other stakeholders.

• Trust— Employees should be trusted to communicate and develop relationships with customers. Do not review content prior to posting.

• Training— Provide employee training about how to blog; review legal issues with employees. Give employees option of participation for off-hours socmedia activities.

• Transparency— Disclose connections with customers. Reveal commercial and sponsored relationships. Transparency and authenticity are key.

• Accuracy— Confirm facts. Check with colleagues before publishing content that will affect them. If employees write about private matters, insist upon permission before postings. 

• I think I will inherently keep all of these things in mind if and when I start using Social Media in the work place.  

Looking for My Personal Brand

-How I can find the target for my personal brand

 

Where am I going to look for these people?

First I need to define some keywords for the industry I want to target.

Electric Utilities

Clean Energy

Smart Grid

Demand Response (DR)

Energy Efficiency

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)

C-Level Executives

Marketing Energy Programs

Department of Energy (DOE)

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

National Association of Regulatory Utility Commission (NARUC)

Edison Electrical Institute (EEI)

Association of Energy Service Professionals (AESP)

These types of things can come up within Industry Publications and direct websites for some of the associations.

I would like to capture their attention by calling out to the fact that I have experience within the Industry

I would also like to call out to them by showcasing my love for rock climbing. I would like to call attention to the fact that I have a passion for the outdoors which leads to the motivation to be environmentally friendly.

It helps fuel my cause as a marketer. I want to get the word out and help fuel a desire to be environmentally conscientious.

I will do so through clean energy blogs

www.seriousenergy.com/blog/energy-efficiency

www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/10/13/taking-look-demand-responses

green.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/demand-response

By sharing my industry knowledge within these blogs, I am positioning myself as an expert within the industry

I can also promote my knowledge to others within the industry by pointed them to the work I've been sharing on the blog sites.

I can create specific Facebook and / or Twitter messages to lead them to these sites.

For Example:

See how innovative Demand Response programs are changing the energy insusty for good by following (link to blog site).

Or

See how you can help utilities manage peak demand by following this link

I want to engage the audience and let them see my knowledge of the industry.

By using these sites and keywords, I can create a network of people interested in following the subject within these blogs. At the same time, I am drumming up my own network for my personal brand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cleaning the Corporate House

By Rachael Licata

Cleaning up our blog. I have now deleted and made some changes to my blog posts.
We want a uniform look and feel to our blog, so I've deleted some of my "drafts" if you will.

Look and feel is important to our blog as is it to any company's collaboration of sales tools.
Whether it is a sales presentation or collateral leave behind, everything should fall under a "corporate" look and feel.

While doing marketing for a smart grid technology company, I was tasked to clean up our current portfolio of sales tools.

I took apart our collateral, and rebuilt it within a theme.
I did the same for the powerpoints.

Version control is an important aspect in doing this.
You can't have different members within the company using different versions of these tools.
How do you control these things?

Well I'll tell you that I implemented a central point of contact. I used our Intranet as the On Demand Download center.

Everything our sales team or other users of the tools needed could be found on the Intranet. They could rely on getting their source material from one central location.

Updated versions always had the priority of getting posted on the Intranet. This way, these people could relay on the fact that the most current version was updated and uploaded for them to use on that site.

We also had access to new collateral from this site. It was called our On Demand Brochure system. They could always order more collateral right from the Intranet site.

They could specify shipping times/dates along with the quantity needed.

We also gave a style guide and posted it on the Intranet website. The style guide included guidelines that we wanted in order to keep a certain look and feel.

The guidelines included: font types, Powerpoint guidelines for graphs & charts, color schemes, Pantone colors (PMS), correct logo usage, just to name a few.

These are all very important attributes to a company's look and feel, which is why it is a very good habbit to get into while doing the blog in this class. I guarantee that it won't be the last time you see an attempt for uniformity.

Indeed, Indeed!

I have a lot of professional contacts on Linked-In. All of these people are a potential prospect for a networking opportunity.

I am keeping in contact with them, I continue to let them know I am looking for a new position and I have been encouraging them to contact me with any leads.

I found that I made many friends within the industry. I traveled often with these people and we've become... well... close.

So here is what i propose. I would like to use a personal brand statement. Not a personal brand blog entry. No one wants to read how I love rock climbing or how I got interested in marketing.

I propose that I use a quick, short, statement of my objectives.

And Here it goes!

A seasoned marketing communications professional and effective leader with a proven ability to exceed in marketing. More than 7 years of combined experience in creating brand awareness through print and electronic marketing media plans, promotions, tradeshows, and public relations events.

I would like to put this brand statement in my Linked-In. Not the lengthy, wordy disaster I've been working on.

How else will I get the message out there?

Indeed.com

I am very interested in possibly relocating out of this state. Indeed gives a full coverage of jobs that are out there. There are job forums that are useful in networking.

Most of all, I am most excited that you can search one site for job listings, not 10. They offer all the job results in one place from multiple sites.

Indeed, you have my vote


 

To Linked-In or Not to Linked In

By Rachael Licata

So I'm having some issues with connecting with my classmates on Linked-In. Well, let me rephrase that; I'm having trouble with the idea of sharing my personal brand and all the other work we are doing with the professionals connected on my Linked-In account.

Why you ask? Well, I'm just not so sure I like the idea that people within my industry and my current/old coworkers can see the work I'm doing. Let's be honest. This work is forced.

Not that I don't enjoy this class, because I do. I am just not keen on the idea of letting the world see it. If I choose to blog, It's my choice to do so. I can put my own personal statements on my Linked-In account. Not the personal brand developed in class.

The work I do here in class doesn't have a bit to do with the Clean Energy sector in which I was employed. That is the type of job I'm looking for. And those are types of things I should be sharing on Linked-In.

So my question is, do I need to start all over again and write something I might share on Linked-In?

Yelp! May Have Saved My Broken Heart

Yelp and Facebook have teamed up to create an easy user experience. Yelp, a social media tool that is now connected to Facebook, is a way for people to rate and review local businesses. Whether it is a restaurant or gas station, yelp has a review. People can also check in at certain places. When you check in somewhere, they sometimes have a coupon, deal, or promotion offer for that place.

I used Yelp for the first time this week. I was looking for an animal shelter for my two cats. I have recently moved in somewhere that doesn’t allow pets, and I really wanted to make sure my two loveable, social cats found a proper home.

Yelp provided me with reviews of a few nearby shelters. I feel this was especially helpful since I was heartbroken to have to send them away. Hearing that the animals were actually taken care of help put my heart at ease.

I chose yelp to look for reviews because it was simple and easy now that it is connected to Facebook. I found that when I updated my mobile app for Facebook, Yelp was already included and downloaded for me.

The transition was easy, and therefore they got my business (so to speak).

But, if anyone does actually know someone who would give my two cats a great home, please let me know.

by Rachael Licata

Turning My Passion Into My Career

by:

Rachael Licata

In the year 2001, I was just about to graduate from Middlesex County College (MCC) with a liberal arts degree and with no idea what I wanted to do with it.+

During my time at MCC, I was President of the College Center Programming Board, President of the Social Committee, President of the Forum Committee, as well as, Chairperson for Scholarship Fundraisers.

Leading all of these committees, I found a passion for Marketing.

How, you ask?

Well, I'll tell you that leadership had everything to do with it.

I led these organizations to succeed in maintaining relationships with the students. I did marketing campaigns to fuel momentum for student activities on campus. I also led them to succeed in their events, whether it be a speaker on Astronomy, or a fundraiser for scholarships.

It was my duty to choose what students wanted from their student activity experience on campus.

To make an educational seminar on cancer fun, I hired Tom Green to come and speak to the student body on his experience with cancer.

To gain more support for scholarships, I held a themed fundraiser party that hosted a wide array of events.

These events included a battle of the bands, DJ dance party, Homecoming pageant, laser tag, and other "Space" related themed activities.

To gain support from the students, we handed out 3 foot tall blow up, green aliens that held the fundraiser's event date and time printed on them.

Needless to say, when about half of the student body was walking around with green aliens, it created quite a buzz.

This is where I fell in love with marketing. The power and recognition I felt from creating a successful campaign was priceless.

From then on, I knew what I wanted to do with my life.

A few years later, I began working as a Marketing Coordinator for a smart grid technology company. I was doing exactly what I had always loved -- specializing in trade and event marketing.  

I love the respect that comes from a perfectly executed conference or press event, or when sponsors, attendees and internal executives are amazed at the amount of work and effort that went into the project - from start to finish.

I love seeing the people I manage on my team come together to fulfill a project through to its end.

I love the satisfaction that comes from seeing a project through to fruition and the sense of achievement in knowing that I gave it my best and I brought a project to its end... Successfully.

And I must say, it is far better to love what you do, than hate your chosen path.

To understand my passion for marketing, you need to understand my passion for rock climbing.
From January to April I work out at an indoor rock gym 3 nights a week.

This is to get my body in shape for outdoor climbing which has proved to be harder than indoor rock climbing.

Outdoors we typically take weekend trips to various sport climbing areas. These areas include: West Point NY, Birdsboro PA, Rumney NH, and The Gunks, PA

Outdoor sport climbing involves using your own rope, Gri Gri or ATC (which is your belay device) along with climbing shoes and a harness.

The difference between sport climbing and top roping is that while climbing top rope (typically found in the gym) the rope is already attached to carabineers at the top of the wall.

In sport climbing, you take the carabineers and clip them into the rock as you climb. Then you take the rope and clip it into your carabineers which is now clipped into bolted rock areas usually 7 to 10 feet apart on a specific routed climb.

It is more dangerous to climb this way because if you fall, you will only be protected from your last clipped carabineer; however, if you want to enjoy outdoor rock climbing, you must get over the fear of falling and just do it.

I really enjoy climbing outdoors. It allows you to be free in nature and it allows you to experience different kinds of rock and formations unique to specific regions.

I believe the dedication it takes to become a good climber reveals a lot about my personality.

I believe the same dedication is needed to exceed professionally.

I have demonstrated both.

What is the message here?  Love what you do, and do it well because the positive reinforcement from doing it right is enough to fuel you to do even better.

Secondary to that, please find a balance between work and other aspects of life.  Because giving it your all isn’t just for your professional life, it is very important in your personal life as well.

Finally, if you can link and attribute distinct characteristics from within your personal life to your professional life, you will go far  because you know what it takes to make it. 

You've already shown yourself that by being motiviated within your hobbies.

POST BY:
Rachael Licata