Social Media, Digital Marketing & PR Agency

Privacy seems to be the word on everyone’s lips in digital land this week following Facebook’s changes last week. Even the launch of the new Amazon tablet, the Kindle Fire, (which has been generally well received, although not as a competitor to the iPad) has been tainted with privacy issues too.

Facebook has been inundated with requests for hard copies of data that they hold on users and Spotify has angered a lot of users by making membership of Facebook compulsory. In fact, Facebook looks like it will face official investigations. We’re sure this story will run and run…

In other news, there are lots of new shiny phones on the horizon, just in time for Christmas – well, it is almost October after all. Some clever peeps in Germany have taken all the iPhone 5 rumours and made their own prototype – if they’re right, it does look suitably gorgeous, but we will we to see the real thing next week. And not to be put off by the hype around Apple, Google (well, Samsung) and HTC will be launching new uber lovely products in the following week.

Things are a little quieter over at Google, but they have just celebrated becoming a teenager with another fantastic google-doodle. And they have just announced a new sooper-dooper eco-friendly data centre in Dublin, which was selected for its cool climate – saves on air con apparently, which is all good.

In the meantime, those Twitter people are sailing merrily along and they must be pleased to see that their revenues are predicted to go through the roof in the next year or two.

This is good to hear as this week has been dominated by the gathering storms of a Euro Zone/global financial crisis and there’s also been talk of a tech bubble, which might burst sometime soon.

Ah well, at least we have the iPhone to look forward to and it’s hot, so not all bad. Have a good weekend!

Unless you have living under a rock for the last week, you will know all about Facebook’s new design. It’s a gorgeous design; I have it and I love it, yet it is a stalker’s dream, with stuff you thought had long fallen away (in fact, HAD long fallen away) suddenly up front and easily accessible to anyone you allow to view your profile.

In addition there are the ‘patterns’ that Facebook has been very upfront about admitting was one of the main components of its redesign, and which make it far easier to track your behaviour so it’s easier to sell stuff to you that you might want to buy. Which I don’t personally have a problem with as I don’t mind being targeted for ads; in fact I would prefer to have targeted ads than any other sort, and would prefer them to paying for social media if I am honest.

So this isn’t written to scare you off Facebook, or indeed Google+, Tumblr, YouTube, Twitter, or any other place you connect socially online, because the truth is that they are so ingrained now that the you simply can’t close Pandora’s Box, and nor would many of us want to because they give us and society too many benefits. This article is just to remind you that these sites are free for a reason. And that is because it gives them access to demographics and data, which when taken all together makes the Magna Carta and every census in every country look like a bit of graffiti in the park, of the “I wuz ere” variety, because it’s by selling that information to businesses that they make their living.

However, what I do object to is people I don’t know and aren’t providing me with a service, or paying those that are, having access to personal data including, though not exclusive to, where I live, where I am going, and if I am away from home. I also don’t want to think that my children’s faces are making a paedophile happy, that a stalker could target them easily, or that they open themselves out to identity theft or online phishing. I also don’t want them to regret anything later in life – I actually suspect that that digital transparency will be the norm when they are grown up, and that anyone who doesn’t have a full online digital profile will be regarded with suspicion (Where have you been? Who are your friends? Who ARE you?!), and that quite a bit of silly youthfulness will be taken as given, but still… I don’t want them to be caught out later because my theory turns out to be wrong!

So here are some points for you to remember – and to teach to your kids:

1. Everyone is now a Celebrity
Google indexes your Facebook feeds, your Tumblr blogs and your tweets and lots of other things you forget about 5 minutes after you post them. And sticks. You are a celebrity, or a brand if you prefer, which is a great thing for raising your personal profile if you do it right, and will obviously be a bad thing if you post swear words, drunk pictures and stupid comments etc etc.

2. People are watching.
That creepy guy you remember from primary school?

He’s found you online, he’s connected to people you know, and he can read everything about you on your Facebook page.

The Ex you wish you never met?
She can Google you and get your up to date life story in a flash, not to mention where you are going tonight. And with whom.

Your future employer
Let’s hope she or he is liking what they see.

3. Online Behaviour Creates a Digital Tattoo
It’s there, and once it’s there it’s indelible and since it is now officially OK for people to do social media background checks, that means that unless you have set your privacy consistently across every network and been careful about what you post, everything is accessible if people want to search for it. And maybe they won’t – but if you are looking for a mortgage or applying for a job that you’ve been dreaming about forever, people COULD be searching about you on your social media  profiles… so let’s hope what is there makes them feel inclined to say yes once they have found you.

4. Everything Makes Patterns
Everything you do online is really just you, and you are a creature of habit, like all humans, and so everything you do makes lovely interesting patterns. Which not only makes it easy to target you with advertising and to market stuff to you, which is why Facebook are so into monitoring everyone’s patterns and why businesses are so interested in the data.

However, it also makes it easier for criminals to learn what you like doing, where you go, where you hang out, and who you hang out with, which can make it easier for them to steal your identity, for example, and to set you up. Say you always watch a certain programme and they review stuff you might want to buy there and then? And so you go online on your phone or laptop and buy it. But in fact you didn’t buy it because it wasn’t the real page you ‘bought’ it from but one created by fraudsters to look like the real page because they know you – and lots of people like you – will be watching and will want to buy or donate, and so they set up a replica and so harvest your credit card details. This is known as ‘Google Poisoning’ by those in the know and is currently one of the biggest online problem currently identified by Norton.

Being aware is the key, whether you are the consumer or the brand doing the selling – establishing that a site is safe and trustworthy is as important as it’s ever been, and avoidance is easy enough by setting up internet security on your computer.

5 Everyone Knows Where You Are
Social Location can be really helpful and is brilliant for businesses … and yet flipping dangerous at other times. What if, for example, you have just checked into a hotel in Italy and your privacy ISN’T set and then a potential burglar sees it…?

So, just be mindful of how much personal stuff you put up online and who can see it, and then don’t panic about all the scare stories in the media and continue to enjoy social media for what it is meant to be – the perfect way to connect socially online, and how consumers can easily and directly interact with and influence brands and businesses, and how they can easily connect with people and give them the products and services they desire.

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And if you want to talk to us about securing your online presence or building your online reputation, mail us on hello@themediamarketingco.com.

Wow!  What a week!  We had been promised a raft of far-reaching changes from Facebook, and boy, did they deliver on their promise.  With the new-look Facebook, featuring the timeline – do watch this video as it really does show how well it will work and how it’ll chart your life (or as much as you choose to put up there) year after year.

We already have our Timelines installed and we can see information going back to 2007, which is when we first we joined Facebook – no doubt ‘Facebook time’ is going to go through the roof in coming months as people add to and curate their timelines back to… well, when they were born!

In addition, Facebook have joined up with a host of other companies like Spotify and are moving to more active emotions and activities, so rather than just saying that you ‘like’ something, you will be saying ‘I am listening to something’,  or I love running’ for example.  Facebook have covered all bases, so books, films, newspapers, TV, places, food are covered by a host of collaborations and apps.  It’s a digital Lifestyle and you can read all about it here.

One of the very interesting things about the new format is that news will be going social.   A huge number of media organisations including The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Mirror have ‘signed up’ with Facebook to provide news feeds – just quite how this will leave Mr Murdoch and Son over at The Times with their paywall, well we’ll have to wait to see.

In fact there are so many new features (with more to come apparently) that it’s difficult to digest all in one go, but the initial concern for a lot or people is the privacy and security one. A lot more information will be readily available so users will have to be much more careful about their privacy settings and what they say about what they are doing (as opposed to have done).

As cases continue to hit the headlines where Facebook  has played a major part in serious stalking cases,  all concerned will have to be more aware and this will obviously have an impact on using Facebook for brands and businesses – more of that to come.

So dragging ourselves away from Planet Facebook, those folks over at Google have also been busy and have this week thrown open the doors of Google+ to the public.  To be honest, Google+ must be reeling from the Facebook announcements and at the moment it seems waaay behind on most fronts.  Even with nice launches like ‘wave and pay’, a convenient method of paying in stores via your mobile phone it’s hard at the moment to see how Google+ is going to find its place in the market, although their phenomenal search capabilities can never be underestimated.  We feel that maybe it may become more of a business networking channel…  time will tell….

And in other news, we are possibly facing global economic disaster and the laws of physics have been turned on their head as scientists have detected neutrinos travelling faster than light, which is a forbidden by Einstein’s theory of special relativity

Interesting week, whichever way you look at it. Have a lovely weekend and see you next week.