I want it, and I want it now!

Brian Camen has written a thought provoking post on the “right now” generation inspired by the lyrics to The Black Eyed Peas’ “Now Generation” (see below). It’s true; with the integration of the ease and accessibility of the Internet into our daily lives, information on just about anything is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can easily find many answers with a few mouse clicks from your couch or desk or bed…depending on where you use your computer. You can also order just about anything and have it delivered to your door…. from almost anywhere. Easy? Yes. Convenient? Yes. Creating lazy, whiny, people? Maybe….

I love being in an on-line world. I love looking up recipes, shopping for the perfect gift, getting ideas for home decor. I love being able to connect with friends I may have otherwise have lost touch with thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and the like. Sure, it’s easy to look things up, but I still have library cards for three different counties in South Carolina. I enjoy face to face visits with relatives and friends, and there’s nothing like a good phone call and the sound of a friend’s laugh. I am amazed at the opportunities it has given me to build upon my own education in addition to the classroom environment.

I think it depends on the individual.

What do you think? Check out the song:

Lyrics from The Black Eyed Peas – “Now Generation” -

I want it, I want it, I want it now
Fast internet
Stay connected
Ineject, WIFI, Podcast,
Blastin’ out an SMS
Text me and I text you back
Check me on the iChat
I’m all about that http
You’re a PC, I’m a MAC

I want it
Myspace and yourspace
Facebook is a new place
Dipdive is socialize
And I’ll be out on cyber space
Google is my professor
Wikipedia check it
Checkin’ my account
loggin’ in and loggin’ out

Current conclusions regarding social media

Social media is a fascinating subject. There are numerous websites, blogs, journals and other resources in the online community to discover information regarding social media and its relatively recent impact on organizations, employees and online presence. At the beginning of this study, I began by asking myself several questions:

How and to what extent do HR departments and professionals screen employees before hiring by searching and examining their online presence?

Preliminary conclusions: I have spoken to about 10 different employers by mouth and Twitter… about half said they check out social networks either before or after an interview. Depending on my time, it might be interesting to look at several different fields to see if this changes. I have found multiple articles on online presence, but not published data on specifically on how often it is used by employers to screen.

Additional conclusions:

Thanks to Lindsay Olsen at the Ladders.com, I was able to find some interesting statistics regarding this:

• 22% of hiring managers use social networks to research profiles (+11% from 2006)
• 34% of hiring managers dismissed a candidate based on what they found (out of the 22%)
• 24% of hiring managers found information that was used to hire a candidate
• 77% of recruiters use search engines to learn more about candidates
• 35% have eliminated a candidate from consideration based on the information uncovered online
• 16% of executives found information they fear if seen could eliminate them from consideration of a new job.

Googling a candidate’s name to see what comes up in the search was one of the most frequent items that I came across in researching this question. Job seekers should occasionally Google their own name to monitor what “surfaces” when this is done. If anything negative is found, the candidate should contact the website and ask that it be removed.

What do they look for?

Preliminary conclusions: The employers that I talked to said that they look at the information posted by the potential employee, pictures, and content to judge professionalism.

Additional conclusions: Lindsay Olsen’s information shared some highlights on this as well:

• 41% of candidates posted information about them drinking or using drugs
• 40% of candidates posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information
• 29% of candidates had poor communication skills
• 48% of candidate backgrounds supported their qualifications for the job
• 43% of candidates had great communication skills
• 40% of candidates were a good fit for the company’s culture.

How many business organizations and what kinds of business organizations practice this?

Conclusions: This is one area that never quite developed. I did not come across many defining lines among industries that said this industry participates, this one doesn’t. This leads me to believe that all industries are in some way, shape, or form, jumping on the social media bandwagon. Because the involvement of social media is so great, I would imagine that it is affecting all industries.

How can social media be used as a tool to enhance one’s job application, professional career and networking abilities?

Conclusions: Absolutely! By engaging in the constructive use of social media, one can put themselves at an advantage by learning how to communicate in new, innovative ways. With work and diligence, these skills can be honed and can greatly enhance networking abilities and career advancement. In addition there are new positions being created everyday to engage and manage social media as well as develop new social media communities. Because of the social media boom, or what is also referred to as the development of Web 2.0, the nature of business and organizational communication is changing. By being familiar and skilled at working with social media, professionals are able to tackle a new way to communication with consumers and clients.

What does a professional online presence consist of?

Preliminary conclusions:
    Establishing a professional, clean, online presence can make one more versatile in the job market for several reasons. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, PROpen Mic and LinkedIn offer the opportunity to connect with professionals in your field. You can also connect visually through friends and friends of friends, one can ask questions, learn about job openings, etc.

Having recently joined Twitter, I have seen many job openings posted just since I joined. On Twitter, the content of postings has a lot to do with how the site functions as a tool. If one posts, say, what they’ve eaten, where they’ve gone, or some other unnecessary detail. This isn’t really using Twitter to an advantage. However, by responding with educated thoughts, a user can offer succinct opinions and share valuable information with a easily reachable target audience. The user can also “follow” other users and gain information this way. Many users post articles and information about topics relevant to a field, and users can also search by keyword.

I have not found very much information on Facebook as a professional tool, but have heard more about it as a tool to “research” potential employees. Although users can join groups associated with their company, post job history and education info, and publicly advertise, I have found that it is used more as a friendly social networking site and less used for professional networking. LinkedIn, however, is primarily for posting professional information. Users of  LinkedIn can connect with other users resulting in a professional network that can be reviewed visually. On Facebook, one can create groups to separate different types of “friends”, but those “friends” can be from any area of one’s life.

Also in researching these sites, I found the site called VisualCV.com where one can publish their Resume or C.V. as well as work samples, visual images, audio and video samples, etc. All of these components are linked on a site with a personalized web address which can be published on various social networks and exists online for employers to review. Personally, I think it’s brilliant and competitive and should be a requirement of colleges and universities. Documents from many programs can be uploaded to an online portfolio, and the visual CV can be linked to a number of different social networking sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, and Twitter. It can also be downloaded and exported as a PDF to be printed or e-mailed. According to their website:

“A VisualCV is an Internet-based, multimedia resume that provides a comprehensive picture of you professionally and allows you to stand out from the crowd.”

Additional conclusions: When I initially began this project, I pictured online presence as an entirely personal thing. However, when I began researching, I realized (as more of a “Duh!” moment than an “Aha!” one) that businesses and organizations are also striving to develop effective, successful online presences as well. There are lots of websites out there with encouraging lists, tips, and recommendations on how to develop and maintain an effective online presence. Some common themes I found are:

• Work at it. Establishing profiles, developing websites, maintaining blogs, tweeting, and posting are not a onetime deal. They are in constant need of updating and management.
• Analyze and appeal to your audience. Without losing the essence of what you and/or your organization represent, appeal to your audience through words and visuals, by promoting other professionals like you , and staying on top of new information that affects your career and industry.
• Stay positive. This rule applies especially to job seekers and potential new employees. Blogging about employers- especially negatively is dangerous territory. The only people who get away with this are those that already get paid to do so.

In addition to the themes above, I have also published multiple blog posts regarding the development of online presence. One of my favorites is the 19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day by Chris Brogan, which I plan to begin working on starting tomorrow.

 What are the effects of social media as a screening tool on college students and recent graduates?

Preliminary conclusions: Social Media is a quickly growing industry and there are professionals needed to run it and keep companies current on the various social networks and social media sites. Many companies have hired professionals simply to improve their online presence. Since they basically offer a way to conduct free advertising, companies can harness this by appointing a position to use social media to their benefit. Potential employers who are competing in a technical, global market realize this. By enhancing your abilities to use social media, and knowing how to effectively use it, one can boost their job application and resume.

Social Media is also being referred to by some as a “bandwagon”, but it does have its advantages. I can definitely see how it could be huge cost in inefficiency by being abused by employees who have access to it during the day. It also has the capability to hurt one’s reputation by the “wrong” material being posted. However, I feel that if it is used wisely, it offers potential employees, current employees, and companies a great way to expand their outreach and receive feedback in a global economy.

Additional conclusions: According to an article by Dan Schawbel in Business Week Online, “72% of companies plan to invest more in recruiting through social networks”. This means that recent college graduates should be actively developing their online presence, monitoring their current one, and deleting all of those party pictures from Facebook, or at least making them visible only to select persons. I saw an article on TechCrunch yesterday where Facebook is now the 4^th largest site in the world having grown in the last year by 157%! Amazing. I can remember in about 2004? 2005? When I was first hearing about it. In the month of June alone, it had 77 million unique visitors. Schawbel also offers tips to job seekers regarding each of the major social networking sites, and the tips seem to be geared towards younger users.

In addition to those initial questions, I looked at and blogged about research regarding:

1. Social media as an HR tool, how it is used in employee recruiting and its impact on hiring and firing practices.
2. The development and establishment of social media policy in the corporate environment
3. The developing and changing role of social media in public relations
4. Professional online identities and personal branding, as well as online branding for organizations

The amount of information that I have reviewed over the last five weeks is enough to make one’s head spin, and I feel like I have only scratched the surface. There is still so much more information out there; I look forward to my continued learning about social media and its impact on society.

Social Media Spreads the Message

In everything I’ve read for this study about social media, words like skeptical and hesitant have appeared and re-appeared in quotes and statements by professionals regarding the use of social media in their careers. The same seems to be true for the PR, Marketing and Advertising industries. The stories continue to unfold. Well-known, credible professionals are initially hesitant to use social media but then finally take the leap and find it indispensible.

The Hartford Business Journal Online recently featured “Public Relations Pros Using Social Media To Spread Message” by Kate Farrish. The article opens by telling the leap-story of the VP of Communications for ESPN, Mike Soltys. “Though he was initially skeptical about Facebook and Twitter, Soltys, like other public relations professionals in Connecticut, are turning to social media, direct mail, e-mail, blogs and YouTube to reach their audience”.

The article also quotes Constance Fraser, the director of communications for the state Department of Higher Education, who says that social media has had “a tremendous impact on our ability to get coverage”.

Public relations professionals are employed to aid in the maintenance of relationships and transmission of information, ideally TO and FROM the professionals and organizations they represent and their publics. By engaging in the use of social media, the world opens up to PR pros. The Hartford article gives an example:

“You have to communicate with people on multiple fronts,” said Kathy Frega, director of communications for the Connecticut Education Association.

A year ago, the teachers union hired a new media coordinator who sets up Google chat groups with teachers, posts videos on YouTube and sends out e-mail alerts using the Constant Contact software program, Frega said. CEA also sets up “micro sites” to drive debate about issues such as last falls’ proposed constitutional convention she said.

“The audiences have really broken down, so you have to reach people on their own digital turf,” she said.

As my search for social media information continues, I am learning more and more that the impact on business and the way it is conducted has been incredible. Farrish’s final quote from Soltys sums it up, “The social media give you the opportunity to go directly to people,” Soltys said. “In the public relations business, it’s an important thing to play with.

Social Media vs Traditional Media: Apples & Oranges Are Both Fruit

People have opinions – good ones, bad ones, strong ones. Social media exists primarily to facilitate expression. People are able to express their feelings, values and opinions through blogs (WordPress, Blogger), photography (Flickr, Picasa), videos and slide shows (YouTube, Slideshare), “tweets” (Twitter), social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace) and other social media outlets.

The development of social media has given the mass public influence on society in terms of PR and marketing. The public has more access to express these opinions and influence the development of products, services, and ideas. Traditional media keeps the power of opinion in the hands of those whose job it is to express that opinion, PR, Marketing and Advertising professionals as well as journalists, etc.

Todd Defren makes comparisons between social and traditional media at PR Squared. He points out that the credibility and recognition of bloggers and blog content has come a long way in terms of PR and journalists. He also recognizes that not everyone will be successful in both social and traditional media, but that “the goal is to do a good job in Social Media and in Traditional Media. Success in BOTH arenas creates a force-multiplier effect.”

Again, the idea is presented that “Social Media demands 24/7 presence, frequently-updated and relevant content, a diplomatic and distinct voice.” Defren also compares traditional media explaining that it “requires careful timing, a differentiated story, a proud voice, a tightly-packaged and closely-held assembly of content, verifiable proof and articulate defenders”.

By aiming to accomplish all of these goals, businesses, organizations, and professional give themselves the most opportunity for success.

Tips for Developing an Online Presence

One post on the Bio Job Blog offered links to articles, tips to help the novice develop their online presence and a brief description for personal branding and online presence.

According to the post’s author, “put simply, you the jobseeker, are the brand and to be successful (get a job), the brand must be vigorously promoted!” Suggestions for personal branding include joining social networks, blogging and creating your own personal website.

The post also features three tips for “developing an effective online presence” from Web Worker Daily:

• Check your Google profile.  What comes up when your name gets typed in?  Know what’s out there so you don’t get surprised.
• Own your domain name.  Even if you don’t want to do something with it now, you might later.
• Develop your personal brand.  Set up a LinkedIn profile.  Write a blog.  Be a guest writer on blogs specific to your industry (maybe you could write a post for me – describing your job, etc).

From the information I’ve gathered so far, personal branding appears to be a simple concept. Anyone can develop a profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or another social network. Anyone can blog about anything. However, if you’re serious, it takes work. You have to maintain those memberships, update profile information, publish new, relevant, interesting blog posts. It seems that all too often, people use social media for purposes of vanity. For example, no one wants to receive a “tweet” on their cell phone letting the world know that you’re running to the grocery store. I have found most interesting, the sharing of information instead of the “tooting of one’s own horn”. Those are the people and blogs that I’ve followed on Twitter and added to my Google reader.

Classifieds are out; social media is in

Business Week Online featured an article by Dan Schawbel in which he declares that “LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and blogging are much better tools for finding jobs that speak to your passions than job boards and corporate Web sites”. The original article can be found here.

The article presents a staggering statistic regarding employee recruitment; “72% of companies plan to invest more in recruiting through social networks”. To give an idea of how many professionals are currently using social networking, as of the publication of the article, LinkedIn has “more than 40 million professional member profiles across all industries”. Also, “with 250 million users, Facebook is the largest social network and is home to both corporate recruiters and headhunters”. Schawbel describes one user that “landed his current job as a sales associate for EMC without even submitting his resume”. He goes on to describe how potential employees can use each of these three social media to their advantage in finding a job “faster than the competition.”

When using social networking for professional advancement, Schawbel offers several tips including:

• LinkedIn
  • “Construct a flawless profile that will impress recruiters”.
  • Use your professional headline “to position yourself for the job you want, not the job you have.
  • “Obtain your unique LinkedIn URL so that it appears as http://linkein.com/in/yourfullname”

    **this is called a vanity URL, which many social networking sites are using because it comes up faster in search engines.

• Blogging
  • “Recruiters can gain a better understanding of an individual based on a blog, compared to a resume that has the same boring standard fields, such as experience and education.”
  • Blogging gives hiring managers an idea of how an applicant “may fit into an organization’s culture and the specific role that needs to be filled”.
  • “To be a successful blogger, passion, hard work, integrity, and the ability to take criticism are required”.
• Twitter
  • A potential employee can post their resume “on Twitter using twtjobs.com”.
  • “You can search for jobs by going to twitterjobsearch.com”.
  • Because of the restrictions placed on Twitter users, Schawbel suggests that users “go to twitbacks.com and create a custom background, which can include more of your information to paint a stronger portrait of your personal brand.
  • “Focus your tweets on your expertise instead of randomly tweeting about anything that comes to your mind, so you can become the go-to source for information on that topic”.
  • “Follow people in your field, especially those employed at companies that you want to work for”.
• Facebook
  • “Hide those party pictures and set privacy settings”.
  • “Get your custom URL by going to facebook.com/usernames and selecting facebook.com/yourfullname”.
  • “Status updates can be a job-seeking tool”…”as a way of networking old contacts without harassing them”.

With applicable tips and good advice, this article is like a mini-guide for social media and job hunting. Schawbel calls social media “the great equalizer” because it gives job seekers the ability to “connect directly with hiring managers who work for companies you have genuine interest in instead of applying mindlessly through job boards”.

A problem with social media

Barry Hurd discusses his interest in an “Internet Persona” as well as employee management with regards to social media in his blog post “Online reputation expert? I have a question for you”.

He brings to attention a problem that he describes as reaching “a point of explosive conclusions”.

The Problem: Reputation management as a whole has become a crisis point. There are companies charging thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars to clean up search results, move critical information around, syndicate positive information, and

The Crisis: a majority of these firms lack understanding of brand impact, search engine problems, public relations nuances, legal ramifications, and everything in-between. The band-aid solutions that are being employed are like using duct tape to keep the Titanic from sinking. Eventually the clients relying on those businesses will succumb to an incredible spotlight of publicity they didn’t want.

Although his post sounds more like a pitch for a business venture, he addresses an interesting issue. Social media does not come with easy fixes, problems or solutions. Because the World Wide Web is, well, a web, there are many, many connections that just one post, sentence or even phrase can affect. One person’s opinion regarding an organization can easily become misconstrued and become viral…it can easily do harm rather than good. It can also have the opposite effect, which is what many companies hope and attempt to do by engaging in the use of social media and in encouraging their employees to do so.

More on Social Media Policies

I found an article on 123 Social Media dot com which includes a list of at least 30 social media policy examples (included below):

POLICY EXAMPLES

• Blog Council – Disclosure Policy
• Greteman Group (Marketing Agency)
• IBM Social Computing Guidelines
• CISCO Internet Postings Policy
• HP Code of Conduct
• Intel – Social Media Guidelines
• Opera Employee Blogging Policies
• Sun Guidelines on Public Disclosure
• Harvard Law School – Terms & Policy
• BBC – Editorial Guidelines, personal use of Social Networking
• US Navy – Web 2.0 – Utilizing New Web Tools
• CivilService – Code for Online Participation
• (CIPR) Chartered Institute of Public Relations Social Media Guidelines
• CIPR – Social Media Guidelines for Consultation
• US Air Force Social Media Policy (with flow chart)
• Porter Novelli (PR Firm – added 2-26-08)
• Government Policy (added 2-26-08)
• Dow Jones Social Media Interaction Policy
• WellsFargo Community Guidelines
• Wall Street Journal
• GM Motors Blogging Policy
• Gartner Web Participation Policy
• Associated Press Social Media Policy

Some things I noticed in exploring these policies:

-          As I’ve previously mentioned, many social media policies are taking a positive stand point and telling employees what they can do as opposed to what they can’t. For example, Opera Software encourages employees to

“Be open and use this service for discussing life at Opera, or talking about topics outside of work. This area is yours, use your personality and use your language, whether that’s English, norsk, casual, refined, techy-jargon, or Pig-Latin.”

-          IBM’s Social Media Policy is much longer and more detailed than Opera Software’s. It also has a special section directed at managers and executives:

“Managers and executives take note: This standard disclaimer does not by itself exempt IBM managers and executives from a special responsibility when blogging. By virtue of their position, they must consider whether personal thoughts they publish may be misunderstood as expressing IBM positions. And a manager should assume that his or her team will read what is written. A public blog is not the place to communicate IBM policies to IBM employees.”

I thought this was a brilliant addition to the policy. Although every employee has a responsibility to their company, it’s important for managers and executives to remember that they are especially visible as representatives of an organization, as well as “role models” for the employees that they supervise.

-          Another important point that policies explore is content rights. I found that Harvard’s Social Media Policy thoroughly covered these rights from the get go:

1. Rights in the Content You Submit

Default Creative Commons Public License

Unless you specify otherwise, any and all works of authorship copyrightable by you and posted by you to any blog (“Content”) are submitted under the terms of an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons Public License. Under this license, you permit anyone to copy, distribute, display and perform your Content, royalty-free, on the condition that they credit your authorship each time they do so. You also permit others to distribute derivative works of your Content, but only if they do so under the same Attribution-ShareAlike license that governs your original Content.

Please read the full text of the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons Public License.

Amongst other things, this license permits RSS aggregators to copy, distribute, display and perform any Content on your blog that you syndicate using RSS. All Content on your blog is syndicated for RSS aggregation unless you change your settings to indicate otherwise.

Option for More Restrictive License Terms

If you prefer to offer your Content on more restrictive terms, you may do so as follows:

For Content you submit to your own blog, remove the Creative Commons logo from your blog template (contact us if you require instructions).

For Content you submit to a blog other than your own, label your submission with a full copyright     notice, i.e., your name, the word “copyright” or symbol “©” and the year of first publication.

By posting your Content using the Services, you are granting Harvard a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, and worldwide license to use your Content in connection with the operation of the Services, including, without limitation, the license rights to copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Content, and/or to incorporate it into a collective work.

Attribution

When publicly displaying, publicly performing, reproducing or distributing copies of your Content, or Content as incorporated into a collective work, Harvard will make best efforts to credit your authorship. You grant Harvard permission to use your name for such attribution purposes. You, likewise, agree to represent yourself accurately. You acknowledge that misrepresentation may lead us, in our sole discretion, to cancel your use of the Services and delete any of your Content.

Social media policies are written differently for every organization. Some go into more detail regarding rights, some regarding content, etc. Ultimately, they are written to encourage social media usage as well as to encourage conduct that supports both the individual and the organization.

Control

I’ve just discovered Mashable which deems itself “The Social Media Guide”. In one article, Paul Worthington, head of strategy for Wolff Olins New York, explains information control and social media involvement saying “by not involving yourself you actually do more to remove control than if you did”.

Worthington describes an “illusion of control” and points out that “great branding has always been about “influence and not control”. In the traditional market, communication about marketing and branding is oriented in a one-way fashion, explains Worthington, and this gives the professional the feel of control. However, this does not give a company or organization any control “over what people think and how they will respond to you”.

The article also offers “three principles that good influencers appear to demonstrate”:

“1. Listen then respond. Brands are not generally good listeners, mostly because they’ve never had to be. Before engaging with the conversation it’s important to first listen to it, see what is being said and interpret what this means. Once you engage with the conversation it’s important to be honest and to have real sense of empathy in what you say – if people are excited and interested in your brand you must be supportive. If people have issues or problems with your brand you must seek means of genuinely helping them.”

“2. Be comfortable with ambiguity. Conversation is messy, real time, and often capricious. At first what you will see will appear chaotic, unmanageable and intimidating. The reality is that it isn’t your job to manage or control it – bu to respond to it. Here you must learn to filter what you see and think in order to respond and take part.”

“3. Filter through your purpose. If you’re a great listener, and you’ve become comfortable with ambiguity, you still risk being overwhelmed by the conversation pulling you in multiple directions.” Worthington explains that a strong brand purpose “defines the nature of your brand’s conversational voice, and is fundamental to the influence that you seek”.

The article goes on to explain how The Flying Dog Brewery uses social media as a benefit to their brand. They are present on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr as well as maintain a blog. Worthington encourages brands to “think through what kind of influence you want to achieve, and then think about how you might engage in order to achieve it.” He also notes that though there are many good examples of social media engagement out there, there are “thousands of brands large and small who are struggling to figure this all out”.

I found Worthington’s views began to answer some of my how and why questions. He offered some insight into why it is important and beneficial for companies to engage in the usage of social media.

A Social Media Policy

One recurring topic that I have found in several articles/ blogs is the importance of a company to develop a policy on social media… when and how it is used, what is published or posted, who has access at work, etc. Since anyone can publish or post just about anything, I agree that it is important for companies to come up with a policy for handling social media and social networking sites. This policy will vary from industry to industry, but should still exist.

With “more than twenty years’ experience in corporate communications and technology marketing in Europe and North America”,
Michael O’Conner Clarke advises that “every organization needs to look at this space from their own perspective and figure out what’s going to work within their culture” in his blog “A Common Sense Social Media Policy” published on A Fistful of Talent. Kelly Dingee offers brief advice on the subject which points out that “employees need to be reminded of your company’s expectations of representation”. Uninstalled. Another post that mentions this idea is

Sharon Lauby, the president of International Talent Management (ITM), guides readers through “10 Must-Haves for your Social Media Policy”. ITM is a company specializing in employee training and human resources consulting. Lauby’s list:

1. Introduce the purpose of social media
   
2. Be responsible for what you write
   
3. Be authentic
   
4. Consider your audience
   
5. Exercise good judgment
   
6. Understand the concept of community
   
7. Respect copyrights and fair use
   
8. Remember to protect confidential and proprietary info
   
9. Bring value
   
10. Productivity matters
    

Of course she expands on each of these ideas. They all consider upholding ethics and morality. Most items are self explanatory, and can be easily explained from organization to organization except number 1. The purpose of social media is where organizations are still navigating territory. This is where organizations should address what they are trying to accomplish by engaging an audience through the use of social media.

Here are some links to actual social media policies published online by organizations:

Mosman Municipal Council

GM Fastlane Blog

Sun Microsystems

Intel Social Media Guidelines