Developing an Enterprise Social Networking Policy

DEVELOPING AN ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKING POLICY March 2010 Robert Keahey

WHITE PAPER

Copyright (c) 2010 SummaLogic - All rights reserved

CONTENTS Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Why Have a Social Networking Policy? .................................................................................................................. 2 Guidelines for Developing a Flexible yet Meaningful Social Networking Policy....................................................... 3 Keep It Simple.................................................................................................................................................... 3 Keep It Separate ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Make IT Visible and Readily Available, but Unobtrusive...................................................................................... 4 Involve Your Community.................................................................................................................................... 5 Share the Importance of “Your” Brand ............................................................................................................... 6 Define Social Networking................................................................................................................................... 6 Define Desired Behavior versus Expected Behavior ............................................................................................ 7 Provide Guidelines ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Deal with the Code of Conduct ........................................................................................................................... 8 Review and Refresh Often.................................................................................................................................. 8 Summary ............................................................................................................................................................... 9 Glossary ............................................................................................................................................................... 10 Appendix A – Do’s and Don’t’s for a Positive Social Networking Experience ......................................................... 12 Appendix B – Social Networking Usage Statistics................................................................................................. 14 Appendix C – Example of a Typical Social Networking Ecosystem........................................................................ 15 About the Author ................................................................................................................................................. 16 About SummaLogic ............................................................................................................................................. 16

Figures Figure 1 - Social Networking Policies ...................................................................................................................... 1 Figure 2 - IBM's Employee Blog Website ................................................................................................................ 4 Figure 3- Social Networking Usage Statistics ....................................................................................................... 14 Figure 4 - Social Networking Ecosystem .............................................................................................................. 15

Tables Table 1 - Do's and Don't's ..................................................................................................................................... 13

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Much like the way the famous Looney TunesTM cartoon character, Taz the Tasmanian Devil creates a whirlwind of excitement, anticipation and sometimes dismay, social networking has burst onto the scene of both personal and professional interaction in the digital age. And like Taz, it continues to cause fear, uncertainty and doubt with each new appearance – whether it be a new offering or service or an uproar over the latest clash between corporations trying to capture market share and those who feel imperiled by the apparent (real or perceived) lack of privacy with the new generation of tools that expose so much of our daily behaviors.

The lines between our personal and professional lives are quickly blurring.

Facebook, Orkut, Linkedin, Twitter, Google Buzz… and the hundreds of other social networking tools are smashing together at unprecedented speeds, leading to a conglomeration of information about us as individuals and us as part of a bigger corporation ecosystem. The tools that provide that amorphous view of our blended personal and professional lives are no longer separated by the walls of our corporate headquarters. They are now one and the same, and those tools are becoming an essential component of the new digital life supply chain. So whether you like it or not, you have to face and hopefully embrace those tools and the participation in the new supply chain that they force upon us.

With the concerns of privacy and loss of productivity comes a natural reaction by many companies to limit, if not completely prohibit the use of these new FIGURE 1 - SOCIAL NETWORKING POLICIES tools. Much like the failure of trying to limit the use of email, prohibiting the use of the new generation of social networking tools will only result in employee backlash, lack of morale and lack of productivity. Leadership in the digital age requires embracing and championing new models of employee, vendor and customer interaction. Failure to do so will ultimately spell disaster.

On the other hand, opening up the flood gates of social networking interaction is not a good strategy. Like any other business tool it must be used effectively and efficiently. More importantly, it must be used to preserve and enhance your corporate brand which is now mostly out of your control and standing unprotected before the masses, waiting to be pummeled at the slightest misstep.

Many companies, in an attempt to restore order during this onslaught of social networking tools, techniques and mindsets fall into the trap of relying on the corporate “code of conduct” as a means to ensure employees do not put the corporate brand at risk. The new workforce, even if it recognizes this model of corporate governance, does not always respond to it. Corporations must rethink their approach to corporate policies which must now provide guidance instead of regulation. Unfortunately, as seen in Figure 1, the large majority of companies have not taken steps to ensure that their employees understand the importance and potential impact of their presence and participation in the world of social networking.

This white paper provides a framework for developing new guidelines that will create an inclusive view of the importance of personal and corporate citizenship in the digital age.

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WHY HAVE A SOCIAL NETWORKING POLICY? “According to the Law of Disruption, technology changes exponentially, but social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. As the new world runs increasingly ahead of the old, social systems invariably break down, only to be dramatically reinvented to better suit the new environment to which human beings have already relocated.”

As demonstrated by the data shown in Appendix B, both the number of users and the time they spend on social networking sites is growing at a dramatic rate. Add to this the unseen “complexity” of the social networking ecosystem as shown in Appendix C, and it quickly becomes apparent that a large percentage of your employees’ time may be allocated to the maintenance of a multi-faceted relationship model that includes friends, co-workers, vendors, partners and customers.

As author Larry Downes points out in his book, The Laws of Disruption1, the systems that support the new model of personal Larry Downes, author and business interaction in the digital age will reinvent themselves The Laws of Disruption: Harnessing the in an attempt to adapt to the new model, but will continually lag New Forces that Govern Life and Business behind as the social norms continually evolve. Adding to the in the Digital Age chaos are the phenomena of groundswell and crowd-sourcing, where in the absence of any meaningful progress (or at least the perception of) or direction, the masses will take control and define their own rules for social, economic and legal engagement. These same rules apply to your most precious asset – your brand. Without diligent and focused attention to the many internal and external factors that affect your brand you run the risk of significant financial impact.

Historically your brand was primarily what your customers saw in print and television advertisements. In the last decade the brand image has been expanded to include corporate icons (e.g., Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Meg Whitman, etc.). The quality of your advertising, the reliability of your product, and the charisma (and behavior) of the corporate leaders (rock stars) comprised the bulk of your brand’s value. Now your employees – every one of them – hold the power to shape your brand. In the past we went to great lengths to ensure that our employees felt that they were valued as a key part of the company’s “supply chain”. It’s now time to make them feel, and understand, that they are a crucial element of your company’s brand.

Your Brand Could be Under Attack from Your Own Employees!

Tesco – staff posts abusive comments about customers on Facebook Domino's Pizza – employees post video on YouTube of themselves contaminating food Ryanair – irate staffers enter into a blogging war with a self-proclaimed "hacker" Honda – product manager fails to disclose his corporate relationship after “pumping up” a new model design on Facebook Target – marketing staff dismisses a complaint from a blogger by saying that it "does not participate with nontraditional media outlets" Belkin – company representative solicits positive product reviews on amazon.com and other ecommerce sites in exchange for money Starbucks – notified by a well-known blogger that one of their locations was posting inappropriate photos of their customers on Flickr 1

Downes, Larry The Laws of Disruption, Harnessing the New Forces that Govern Life and Business in the Digital Age. New York: Basic Books, 2009

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GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING A FLEXIBLE YET MEANINGFUL SOCIAL NETWORKING POLICY KEEP IT SIMPLE

"THIS CONCEPT OF TRYING TO CONTROL OR BLOCK [SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE], IT IS NOT GOING TO WORK," DANGSON SAYS. "THERE'S GOING TO BE A DIVIDE, WITH SOME COMPANIES THAT SHUN PUBLIC SOCIAL NETWORKS AND ARE FEARFUL OF USING THEM, AND SOME WHO EMBRACE IT AND TAKE THE RISK."

When it comes to defining policies the old adage “less is more” usually holds true – especially in this case. All too often companies try to cover all their bases when it comes to corporate policies, codes of conduct and the like. For the new era of social media and social networking it’s better to stick to a simple, easily readable and CAROLINE DANGSON, IDC understandable framework. First, the rapid rate of change in tools, technologies and modes/degrees of personal and interaction change at such a rate that it makes it unfeasible to maintain a large, unwieldy document. Secondly, the people you expect/require to read it are unlikely to spend much time reading, much less comprehending a long document. If it takes more than five minutes to peruse and digest the intent of your social networking policy then it has missed the mark.

Beware of companies offering up social networking policy “templates”. One company offers eighteen different policy templates ranging from “blogging policy” to “blog commenting policy” to “Twitter policy” to “YouTube policy” to “Facebook policy”… and on and on. The last thing you should do is establish several different policies to cover various social networking websites or communities. It will be hard enough to get your employees to embrace a single, well-written, easily understood policy. Complicating the process with multiple documents, each of which must be maintained and communicated separately makes no sense.

KEEP IT SEPARATE When we begin our employment with a new company we sign a stack of papers covering everything from the employee agreement to benefits enrollment to tax forms. More often than not, those papers are stashed away never to be seen again unless they are needed to clarify a point or dispute a claim. Among those documents is usually found the Employee Code of Conduct. Some companies require an annual review and recertification of at least the employee’s acknowledgment that they have read the latest document. This usually turns out to be a tedious process which solicits moans and groans from the individual employees and adds yet another “to do” to the managers’ task lists – much like Sarbanes Oxley and other compliance requirements.

Making your social networking policy part of the Employee Code of Conduct relegates it to the same stature and timeliness. Employees simply do not want to be forced to revisit these documents on a predetermined basis – even if it is only annually. And the cost associated with tracking and following up on non-compliance probably outweighs any potential risks involved. But this is not to say that your employees should not be aware that they are expected to comply with the guidelines set forth in the policy. Just the opposite.

A better way to approach this problem is to reference the policy in the employment agreement, outlining that compliance is expected, that the guidelines will change from time to time, and that the burden is on the employee to maintain a current understanding of the guidelines. Using this approach, you can obtain agreement to the policy during the hiring process and then simply send out notifications to all employees when changes occur – reminding them that it is their responsibility to ensure they are aware of and understand the guidelines – and the potential impact of non-compliance.

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MAKE IT VISIBLE AND READILY AVAILABLE, BUT UNOBTRUSIVE As described above, most employees cannot readily place their hands on their copy of the Code of Conduct. While most companies now maintain an online version of the document, it is often buried among the hundreds of links found on one of the tabs of the numerous Human Resource web pages.

Companies that are leading the charge in the digital age are practicing a new level of transparency that makes cold chills run up the spines of a lot of people in HR and Legal. What have historically been tightly-held secrets is now be placed in the public domain for global consumption, review, criticism and in many cases, re-use. Take IBM for example. IBM is one of the most technically advanced companies in the world – a leader in innovation and thought leadership. Historically, large companies like IBM would closely guard the intellectual capital housed in the minds of its employees, delegating the dissemination of their employees’ thoughts and ideas to a few trusted individuals in marketing and sales. The world of social networking and social media has now turned that model upside down.

FIGURE 2 - IBM'S EMPLOYEE BLOG WEBSITE

Figure 2 shows the banner page from IBM’s employee blog website (source: http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/).

What IBM does, which most companies should (must) consider, is place their guidelines for “social computing” (another name for social networking) in the public domain for not only the IBM employees, but also for the consumers of IBM’s thoughts, ideas and positions to see and reference. By doing this, IBM sets not only a level of expectation for its employees, but also gives its consumers insight into the expectations they have for their employees who are operating in an open, global community.

By placing its guidelines along side of the social networking tools it provides to its employees, IBM keeps its expectations “top of mind” with those who are expressing thoughts and ideas that have the potential to affect its brand. Doing so in this manner provides ready access to the guidelines it expects its employees to follow without the “in your face” response that a required annual “recertification” usually evokes. Taking a proactive, yet unobtrusive approach demonstrates thought leadership, innovation, and most importantly, trust – something that is sorely lacking in the culture of many “brick and mortar” companies trying to participate in the digital age.

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A “laundry list” of things you need to be prepared to discuss with your employees as you develop your social networking policy and guidelines · · · · · · ·

· · · · · · · · · · ·

Appropriate content Brand importance Company philosophy Competence (in the use of social networking tools) Confidentiality Copyright and other legal issues Definition of “social networking” and related terms Disciplinary actions Disclaimers Disclosure Endorsements (people or products) Integrity Productivity impact References Respect for others Right to privacy Terms of service Use of corporate assets (trademarks, logos, taglines, etc)

INVOLVE YOUR COMMUNITY Employees, vendors, partners, customers (those who like you and those who don’t)… They are all part of the community that shapes your brand.

Some of them play key roles in the creation and delivery of your products and services. Some of them are custodians of your corporate resources and more importantly, have the direct or indirect (authorized or unauthorized) ability to use those resources (including your messages and images your corporation presents to the market) for good or (unintended) evil. So why not include them in the process of defining how you want your image, and subsequently your brand, shaped by your employees?

The most critical member of the community named above is your employees. At a minimum they must participate in the crafting of the policies and guidelines you want in place to protect your brand. They must be able to point to tangible and meaningful ownership of the policies and guidelines. Otherwise your policies will be viewed as nothing more than another corporate decree to be filed away with the countless other employment-related forms that fill personal files.

Involving the employee community is actually quite simple and can be accomplished using several methods. The traditional method is to take a random sampling of employees across the entire enterprise - limiting the sampling by job code or title is of no use in this exercise since everybody participates in the social networking world. There are “personally identifiable information” considerations that must be taken into account when conducting this on a global scale, but these should not be a limiting factor with respect to participation (this is one of those few times I recommend engaging HR/Legal to ensure compliance with PII laws).

Once the sampling is defined you can then conduct the traditional round table sessions to craft the message and agree upon a reasonable definition of the policy or guidelines.

A more “open” method is to establish a “wiki” (or similar community driven process) and allow everyone to contribute to the creation of the corporate position on social networking. This method has both positive negative aspects. While it engenders ownership in the process, it can also result in a disjointed collection of thoughts, perspectives and opinions – the latter of which can quickly deteriorate into a battle of views on the topic. Using this method requires careful preparation and communication up front to ensure the employee community understands that the final crafting of the guidelines rests outside of the contributing community.

Involving your vendors, partners and customers is more difficult in that it consumes their time and requires commitment of resources to make the process worthwhile. However, the outcome of the effort can be

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extremely valuable since these participants in the community have a perspective of what’s important to them, and this perspective translates into how they react when your employees represent their opinions and views which ultimately link to your corporation – regardless of how you think otherwise. It is good for your employees to hear these perspectives directly, during the development of the policies and guidelines as opposed to being the result of an unwanted or unexpected negative reaction to their behavior in the social networking world.

SHARE THE IMPORTANCE OF “YOUR” BRAND Notice that the heading of this section uses the word “share” versus “explain” or “communicate”. When you share something with someone you give them part of what you have. The single most valuable asset in your company is your brand. Physical and people assets are important too, but without a brand you have no company. One key thing your employees should realize is that they are part of your brand, and as such their “personal brand” becomes part of the “corporate brand”. In the digital age the two brands basically become inseparable.

With the advent of Google search, MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, Linkedin, Plaxo, Classmates, Twitter and the countless other social media sites on which establish our individual personas, it is impossible to hide your identity – and your relationship to your employer. The internet is now dotted with companies that focus on building and maintaining your personal brand – Kirsten Dixon, William Arruda, Susan Whitcom and Chandlee Bryan to name just a few. In each and every case, the central theme from these personal brand evangelists is “your dirty laundry follows you everywhere and forever on the internet”.

This is a key message you must convey to your employees. Without a solid, respected and exciting corporate brand there is no corporation. And without a corporation there is no paycheck.

It is our responsibility as leaders to not focus on the negative aspects of corporate and personal brand management. Our job is to create excitement, energy and passion around our brands and translate that into the excitement, energy and passion that our employees will share in the digital marketplace. That passion comes from inclusion.

The corollary to this discussion is that our employees are also the frontline defense in the battles that sometimes occur as a result of poor management decisions. Consider the receptionists and call center personnel and companies like Enron, WorldCom and Toyota. So as you prepare to convey the importance of the “your brand” message, keep in mind that brand management is not a one-way conversation!

DEFINE SOCIAL NETWORKING Why would you even consider this exercise? If you are reading this white paper then it’s a pretty good bet that you know what social networking is, what it can do and how you can use it for business gain. But how is it different from social media? Are they the same thing? Does one enable the other? We all know that Facebook is a social networking site, but are your employees’ personal blogs considered to be social networks? What about email? Newsgroups? Is a social bookmarking site the same as a social networking site?

These may seem like mundane questions, but there are as many different views of social networking as there are social networking sites! If you are going to establish an effective social networking policy and associated guidelines then it is important that you are speaking the same “lingo” as the people to whom you intend it to apply. Consider that some may think that Facebook defines the bounds of their social networking world and don’t give a second thought to how they communicate via email or post pictures on Flickr or Picasa. If your company

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utilizes a wiki, is it considered part of your social network – especially if it is “externally” facing? These are simple but critical questions that need to be discussed with your employees as you develop your policy and guidelines.

The “lingo” of social networking extends far beyond the basic terms of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter.

What about splogs, microblogging and lifecasting? How about lifestreaming? Is there a difference? The Glossary of this white paper provides a definition of a few of the commonly used social networking and social media terms.

It is critical that you understand these terms (and is highly suggested that you let your employees embellish and extend the list) to ensure that your policy and guidelines actually address the aspects of social networking that are important to them – and you.

DEFINE DESIRED BEHAVIOR VERSUS EXPECTED BEHAVIOR Historically we have relied on our legal departments to draft up a set of airtight policies defining how we expect our employees to behave. That model may have worked well during the industrial age when manufacturing systems dictated strict adherence to processes and procedures. Management had a natural tendency to extend that discipline to the overall behavior of employees, dictating what was acceptable or expected behavior.

Today’s complex supply chains require loosely connected processes, organizations and resources to come together in different time/location continuums. Work in the digital age “ebbs and flows”, driven by the tides of consumer moods, economic trends and geopolitical stability. Digital age workers no longer think in the context of strict policies and guidelines. We expect them to act with agility to meet the latest deadline. Innovation is the catchphrase. And their personal lives are driven by much the same model of loosely connected, loosely integrated planning and execution. We “meet up” with our friends based on geo-location services and applications to form and disband “social tribes” as we see fit. So why should we expect them to embrace policies and guidelines that impose strict rules and regulations?

As we have discussed, your employees are a critical element of your brand – and they each have their own personal brand. Helping them understand the importance and fragile nature of the corporate brand is the first step in guiding them towards the behavior you would like to see them exhibit. But that behavior must be expressed in terms of how you would like to see your brand as a result of how they conduct their work and interact with others in the social networking world. It must be defined in terms of your vision of what your brand can be if they – the owners of that brand – are successful. Their success is ultimately directly tied to the success of your brand. You must instill “brand passion” within them - much like IBM, Intel, Apple, Nike, Pepsi, Southwest Airlines and similar successfully companies have accomplished. Only then, when your corporate brand becomes almost indistinguishable from their personal brand, will they exhibit the behavior you desire!

PROVIDE GUIDELINES Providing passion among your employees for your brand is the first step, but by itself will leave you exposed to the risk that one of your employees will cause some degree of damage to your brand as a result of their actions in the social networking world. And it will happen. It may be a simple, innocent incident, or it may be a significant, brand tarnishing event that requires your corporation to “hunker down”, regroup and put your CEO on the firing line in front of consumers, critics and Wall Street – just ask Domino’s Pizza. Once consumer confidence is lost it is very hard to recover…

Too often we assume that all our employees are technically savvy and understand the “ins and outs” of the social networking world. And we also incorrectly assume that they understand some of the basic “rules of the road” when it comes to social interaction. Both of these are dangerous assumptions. Therefore it is imperative that you SummaLogic

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talk to your employees about how the things they do can both positively and negatively affect “their” brand – a combination of both your corporate and their personal brand. This will be a tough conversation with some audiences as it will tend to offend them on two fronts. First, it may offend them that you would think they would do things that might negatively affect your brand. Second, it may offend them that you think they don’t already know and understand what appears on the surface to be very elemental aspects of social behavior. But if you don’t have this conversation with them, then you are definitely exposing yourself to unnecessary risk.

Appendix A lists a set of basic “do’s” and “don’t’s” of social networking behavior. It covers some of the most common behaviors that can help avoid some of those brand damaging interactions. The key to success in providing guidelines is to use effective coaching, mentoring and group interaction techniques. The easiest way to get your employees to understand and accept these guidelines is to have them develop them. Use Appendix A as a discussion tool – and ask them to tell you what they should and should not do to ensure that “their” brand remains untarnished!

DEAL WITH THE CODE OF CONDUCT This white paper focuses on developing a social networking policy that is created, embraced and becomes a part of your employees’ daily lives. The underlying theme has been to create an environment of trust, supported by strong, visionary leadership. From the trust that is created with your employees will come great things.

Unfortunately you still have to deal with the issue of employee misconduct – it does and will occur, in spite of the most well-designed, well-adopted policies and guidelines.

The corporate Code of Conduct that we mentioned earlier should be the single source to address the “expected” behavior of employees and the repercussions if they step outside the bounds of acceptable behavior. The question becomes “should you include your Code of Conduct as part of your social networking policy?” The answer is yes, but as a reference only. Whether you make the reference the opening or closing statement of your policy is a matter of choice. And whether you place your Code of Conduct in the public domain (as an example http://www.ibm.com/investor/governance/business-conduct-guidelines.wss) is also a matter of choice. But in any case, you must ensure that your employees clearly understand that there are significant risks and consequences associated with improper behavior in the social networking world.

REVIEW AND REFRESH OFTEN As with all aspects of life in the digital age, change is imminent, fast paced and often unexpected. To be relevant, your social networking policies and guidelines must be a living “work in progress” document. The rules of engagement, socially acceptable behavior and privacy considerations are changing almost daily. Your policy, and the process you use to maintain it must be flexible and agile. While annual reviews for you Code of Conduct may be appropriate, your social networking policy must be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and especially sensitive to technology trends (e.g., location-based services) and geo-political issues/requirements (e.g., photo-tagging).

It is recommended that your company appoint a Social Networking/Social Media office to help organize the efforts around defining policies, practices, standards and tools for your activities in the digital age.

Good luck!

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SUMMARY Social networking and social media are one of the most significant technological and social advances of the last century. We are now truly a globally connected community. The way we conduct business and commerce has rapidly evolved to include multinational supply chains consisting of hundreds of suppliers and partners, serving an almost unlimited customer base.

Communicating with those suppliers, partners and customers now occurs in near real-time. The messages we send about our products and services shape and reshape our brand on a daily basis. The global community now determines the value of your brand.

Your employees are a critical element of your brand. They interact with your supply chain constituents in numerous ways and channels. Social networking and social media have opened the floodgates of communication – and your employees are participating at never-before-seen levels.

Hoping that your employees understand the value of your brand and the role they play in protecting it is a recipe for disaster. You as leaders must take an active, visible role in shaping the policies and guidelines that help your employees understand and stay within the boundaries of acceptable corporate behavior. But you cannot dictate behavior, you can only influence it. Thus you must develop a corporate social networking policy that is owned, internalize and embraced by your employees.

The time to develop your social networking policy is now. The rate of adoption and expansion of social networking and social media is driving rapid change into global corporations. Waiting and hoping for the best with respect to your participation in the global social networking community is extremely risky. Your employees must have a meaningful and visible policy that guides their behavior in the global community.

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GLOSSARY Following are some key terms that relate to different concepts and rules of engagement in social networking and social media. A basic understanding of these terms will be useful when developing and discussing your social networking policy and guidelines with your employees.

Astroturfing – A fake or insincere grassroots campaign to create the impression of legitimate buzz, hype or interest in a product, service or idea. Often this movement is motivated by a payment or gift to the writer of a post or comment or may be written under a pseudonym.

Blog Swarm – Bloggers going after (and in many cases, verbally attacking) a particular company or person who has done something egregious.

Civic Media – Any form of communication that strengthens the social bonds within a community or creates a strong sense of civic engagement among its residents.

Copyleft – A play on the word copyright. The practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions.

Crowdsourcing – Proactive, planned harnessing of the skills and enthusiasm of those outside an organization who are prepared to volunteer their time contributing content or skills and solving problems.

Digital Story – A short personal nonfiction narrative that is composed on a computer, often for publishing online or publishing to a DVD. They are told from the narrator’s point of view and the subject is generally about something the maker experienced personally. Digital stories typically range from 2-5 minutes in length (though there are no strict rules) and can include music, art, photos, voiceover and video clips. They are also typically created by one person with little technical training, rather than by a team of professionals.

Doppelblogger – Someone who plagiarizes the content of another blogger for personal gain or recognition.

Fair Use – A doctrine in U.S. law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without obtaining the permission of the copyright holder, such as use for scholarship or review. Fair Use is delineated in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Code.

Flash Crowd – A group of individuals who gather and disperse with little notice for a specific purpose through text messages, social media or viral emails.

Ghost Blog – A blog run and managed by an anonymous author(s). A ghost blog can also be a blog written by a company or person on behalf of another company or person.

Lifecasting – An around-the-clock broadcast of events in a person’s life through digital media. Typically transmitted over the Internet and can involve wearable technology.

Lifestreaming – The practice of collecting an online user’s disjointed online presence in one central location or site. Lifestreaming services bring photos, videos, bookmarks, microblog posts and blog posts from a single user into one place using RSS. Friendfeed and Tumblr are examples of lifestreaming services.

Meme – A type of online chain letter where bloggers answer questions or participate in a quiz designed to give a quick overview of the author’s personality. Once the author completes the meme, it is customary to tag other bloggers to participate.

Microblogging – The act of broadcasting short messages to other subscribers of a Web service such as Twitter and applications like Plurk and Jaiku that share “bite-size” media.

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Microsharing – See Microblogging.

Moblog – A blog published directly to the Web from a phone or other mobile device. Mobloggers may update their sites more frequently than other bloggers because they don’t need to be at their computers to post.

Open Video – Refers to the movement to promote free expression and innovation in online video.

Personal Media – User-created material — refers to grassroots works such as video, audio and text. When the works are shared in a social space, the works are more commonly referred to as social media.

Social Bookmarking – A method by which users locate, store, organize, share and manage bookmarks of Web pages without being tied to a particular machine. Users store lists of personally interesting Internet resources and usually make these lists publicly accessible.

Social Capital – A concept used in business, nonprofits and other arenas that refers to the good will and positive reputation that flows to a person through his or her relationships with others in social networks.

Social Media – Works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, podcast, forum, wiki or video hosting site. More broadly, social media refers to any online technology that lets people publish, converse and share content online.

Social Networking – The act of socializing in an online community. A typical social network such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or Bebo allows you to create a profile, add friends, communicate with other members and add your own media.

Social Tools – Sometimes referred to as social software. Software and platforms that enable participatory culture – for example, blogs, podcasts, forums, wikis and shared videos and presentations.

Splogs – A short for spam blogs – blogs not providing their own or real content. Unscrupulous publishers use automated tools to create fake blogs full of links or scraped content from other sites in order to boost search engine results.

Troll –Someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

UGC – Stands for “user-generated content”, an industry term that refers to all forms of user-created materials such as blog posts, reviews, podcasts, videos, comments and more.

Videoblog or Vlog – A blog that contains video entries. Sometimes referred to as video podcasting, vodcasting or vlogging.

Virtual World – An online computer-simulated space like Second Life that mixes aspects of real life with fantasy elements. Typically, you can create a representation of yourself (an avatar) and socialize with other residents for free, though you can also buy currency (using real money) to purchase land and trade with other residents.

Second Life is being used by some nonprofits and businesses to run discussions, virtual events and fundraising.

Sources:

:

http://www.socialbrite.org/sharing-center/glossary/ http://www.blogossary.com/

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APPENDIX A – DO’S AND DON’T’S FOR A POSITIVE SOCIAL NETWORKING EXPERIENCE Defining “desired” versus “expected” behavior requires guidance, coaching and mentoring on the part of your corporation’s leaders. Providing constructive input and examples of how you would like your employees to conduct themselves in the social networking world demonstrates acceptance and support of your employees’ desire to express their ideas, thoughts and opinions. At the same time, it is important to share with them a few areas that are critical in ensuring that both the corporate brand their personal brand are protected. Here are a few tips on discussing some basic “do’s” and “don’t’s” that will help your employees be positive and productive role models for your corporation.

Do

What this means…

Be yourself

Don’t try to portray yourself as something you’re not. Share your area of expertise, your passion. Don’t try to build yourself up for attention or pretend that you are knowledgeable in an area in which you are not. People will see through your façade fairly quickly.

Be transparent

Don’t have a hidden agenda. When participating in social networking disclose who you are and for whom you work. Indicate the areas that are of interest to you.

Think before you speak, write or act

Reacting too quickly to a comment or topic often results in poor judgment and unexpected and undesired outcomes. Take a few minutes to think about what you want to convey. You can’t take it back once the “enter key” has been depressed.

Portray a positive image

Remember, you are placing your personal brand in the “public domain” for everybody, including friends, relatives, customers and potential future employers to see – from which they will form and lasting impression.

Speak in the first person

Communicate with your audience as if you were speaking to the faceto-face. The thoughts, ideas and opinions you are expressing are yours – so speak to them as such. Share your personality with your audience.

Respect the opinions of others

We all have different perspectives. Respect the opinions and views of others. While you may not agree with them, they may be based in beliefs, cultures or religions that are different from yours.

Listen to others

Listening is one of the best learning tools. With social media tools, another person’s true meaning may get “lost in the translation” that sometimes occurs over the different media. Ask clarifying questions before you jump to a conclusion.

Acknowledge your mistakes

We all make mistakes – it’s human nature. Not acknowledging those mistakes demonstrates immaturity and insincerity on your part. If you make a mistake, acknowledge it quickly, and if an apology is warranted, don’t hesitate to offer one.

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Appendix A - Continued Don’t

What this means…

Don’t blur the lines between corporate and public life

If you are participating in social networking forums as employee of the company, then make sure that the persona (identifier) you use is separate and distinct from those you use in your personal social networking activities. Ensure that any identifiers (names, userids, etc.) are appropriate for a professional environment.

Go “off topic”

Going “off topic” means taking a conversation or “thread” in a direction that is not germane to the original topic. This is most often encountered in forums that are dedicated to specific subjects, but can occur in almost all forms of social networking. Going “off topic” usually results in unexpected and undesired reactions and responses from your audience.

Pick fights

We all have views and opinions. Just like any other public forum, social networking provides the opportunity to express different opinions. If you don’t agree with someone else’s views, then simply acknowledge their position and respectfully move on. Engaging in a “war of words” only leaves a trail of evidence that will eventually come back to haunt you.

Represent your own views as the views of your company

By developing a corporate policy for and providing you with the tools to engage in social networking, your company supports your desire to express your thoughts, views and opinions. But at the same time, the company must protect its brand, and encourages you to do the same. Make sure that when you express your views or opinions your audience clearly understands that they are your personal views and not those of your company.

Talk about your customers

While you may represent yourself as an employee of your company (through the disclosure process) you should never reveal information about your customers – public or otherwise. While your intentions may be good, your audience may possibly interpret your message in a way other than you intended, potentially resulting in irreparable damage to your relationship with your customer.

TABLE 1 - DO'S AND DON'T'S Sources: Social Media Governance - http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php

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APPENDIX B – SOCIAL NETWORKING USAGE STATISTICS Social networking is exploding all around us! These two charts from The Nielsen Company demonstrate the dramatic increase in not only the number of users participating in social networking, but also the significant increase in the amount of time being spent on social networking, search, shopping, reading news and conducting research.

FIGURE 3- SOCIAL NETWORKING USAGE STATISTICS

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APPENDIX C – EXAMPLE OF A TYPICAL SOCIAL NETWORKING ECOSYSTEM The following diagram depicts the relationships between various social networking tools that may comprise a typical users “social networking ecosystem”. The ecosystem shown here represents the ecosystem of Jason Perlow, an Analyst at ZDNET. Read his perspectives on the complexity of social networking here.

FIGURE 4 - SOCIAL NETWORKING ECOSYSTEM

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Successfully identifying, analyzing and creating compelling value propositions for emerging technologies that drive both top and bottom line value for global enterprises of all sizes is Robert Keahey’s expertise.

Mr. Keahey, who holds an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) V3 Foundation certification, brings to his clients a successful track record of innovation, strategic technology and business planning and development, superior service delivery and operational know-how complimented by a variety of information technology industry experiences. He has a network into high level executives in the information technology industry and has partnered with key players such as Microsoft, Sun, Cisco, EMC and Oracle to develop industry leading capabilities. He also has relationships with numerous venture capital firms and has assisted in the evaluation, development and acceleration of the business plans of several of their portfolio companies.

Visit his blog at www.robertkeahey.com

ABOUT SUMMAL OGIC SummaLogic helps you with the tough challenges facing your business. Our team of industry experts draws upon a wide variety of skills and experiences to develop solutions that fit your budget and schedule - and deliver measurable results! We provide a full range of services including strategic innovation, marketing and product development, operational planning and execution, continual service improvement, program and project management and collateral and web site development.

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