Red Circle

Privacy breach?

Social networks are increasingly being used by official sources, i.e. work places and education centres, as ways of tracking what their members are doing and of deciding who will join the organisation or not.

The article titled Caught on camera – and found on Facebook reports about the disciplinary measures taken by Oxford University against some of its students that had posted pictures where they were breaking the rules of post-examination celebrations.

An entity, be a educational one or a not, has the right to have its set of rules and it is up to the incumbents to accept them or refuse them but the real problem here is how did the university representatives got access to these pictures. If, as it is believed, they were able to access any profiles ay such ease, then I think the real problem is the social network. People use it because they think it is a save way of sharing information with friends but as proven recently, almost anyone can access any profile.

Is this a privacy breach or are these type of organisations entitled to look in your personal profiles for additional information. Well, if they have access to your profile it is not a private platform in the first place and even though most people won’t like it, there is nothing that can be done but to be more careful in what type of information you decide to put up and disclose – not so much fun anymore, eh?

Daily Roundup

VCs Factor In Facebook

Venture capitalists are now quizzing Web entrepreneurs on their "Facebook strategy."

For more on Facebook, read my post from 26 June on – it is seriously taking off!! Scores of New Faces on Facebook

New report shows big growth for second-largest social networking site.

Microsoft's Billion-Dollar Fix

In the face of staggering customer returns of the Xbox 360 console, the software maker announces a charge of at least $1.05 billion to address the problem

Sunny days in

London

(no link)

After some grueling weeks, the sun has finally come out in

London

– everything looks much nicer under the sun, people are happier (or look happier), and now with the wireless, we can all do our social media stuff and seat outside while drinking a cold lemonade or , more in the British style, pimms - how beautiful is that?

Second Life - do we all need one?

From the article “Welcome to the unreal world”: 

Second Life is proof that we are entering a much more immersive era for entertainment,” says Justin Bovington, chief executive of Rivers Run Red, a London-based company that helps clients develop a presence on Second Life. “It offers a whole new level of experience with something that you’re interested in.” For example, Bovington’s people recently helped the ING Renault Formula One team create an island on Second Life for petrolheads. Based around a racetrack where you can take a virtual ride in Renault’s 2007 F1 car, the R27, there is a message centre where fans can send questions to the team, and a garage and pit lane where you can learn about the jobs involved in one of the most pressured areas of grands prix – the pitstop.

“Second Life isn’t for everyone,” says Philip Rosedale, the chief executive of Linden Lab and the game’s creator. “But I do think that in one sense or another it has something to offer most people. You can play games in-world [there are many of them], but you can also spend your time sightseeing, building, shopping, socialising – really, you can do whatever you want because you are limited solely by your imagination.”

Many of our clients will read articles like this and believe Second Life will make their brand look modern and will increase people’s awareness on their product – and that is, positive awareness.

I was talking to a colleague the other day, and he mentioned something I had not considered before (I was just too excited about all the amazing things you can do in Second Life and how fun your avatar can look like – wings anyone?) and is that the audience in Second Life – the Second Life community – is composed of tech experts or people who, to put it bluntly and of course not in all cases – have a not very social life in the real world.

Is the Second Life community the right audience for your product? Many companies have already experienced with Second Life thus opening a space there does not guarantee editorial space any longer.

As Philip Rosedale says, Second Life is not for everybody nor for every brand.

Daily Roundup

Working with Widgets 

Industry giants and widget-makers scramble to find pot of gold at end of widget rainbow.

Widget Makers Eye MySpace

Developers express hope and trepidation that social network giant may open site to third-party widgets.

Online, a Global Strategy Starts at Home

When attempting to reconfigure their Web sites with foreigners in mind, companies often overlook domestic minority groups.

A Boon for Apple, a Chance for Rivals

S&P predicts iPhone sales won't disappoint, but shoppers turned off by long lines or high prices will snap up Palms and BlackBerrys.

Facebook

9.00 am in the morning – half of my colleagues have already checked their Facebook profiles (and are poking each other). 13.00 – lunch time – the other half check their profiles. Since starting an account on Facebook, my office seems to have become a more interactive place and colleagues that before were just that, colleagues, are becoming more human to my eyes and by knowing what their favourite TV shows, books, etc are I find it easier to relate to them and feel that I know them.

Of course there is a downside; if you have work colleagues in your friends network and write that ‘you don’t feel like working today’ or like a colleague of mine who wrote ‘“Susie” came into the office and spent three fhours on Facebook’, then you may be better off by not inviting/accepting your colleagues to your network.

Work colleagues will also be able to see all the crazy/ silly things you have done in the past, should you want to share this information on your profile. This makes your profile more personal and likely to be read by your network but what if a potential employer chooses not to hire you based on a silly comment/ picture posted by someone else (exactly! Not even you!) on your profile.

And what about poking? Or super-poking? Throwing a sheep at someone – does that sound familiar? Basically, it is just a way to have some fun while seating in front of your PC, either at work or elsewhere. We spend such a big portion of our days in front of a screen that knowing you can keep in touch with people either in another continent or a few yards away in such easy way – and without even having to speak/ write to them – makes Facebook so appealing to all types of audiences.

Today I started my first Facebook group and I can tell already that it won’t be the last one. I am organising a holiday with some friends yet we have officers, we have a discussion board, we even have a description for our group! The truth is, we just want to have some fun but the fact that Facebook allows you to make it so official in a very easy way just adds up to the diversion.

I was at a party on Saturday and people were discussing ‘poking’, were taking pictures that were added to their profiles before I even woke up on Sunday and were explaining all the different things you can do to your friends on this virtual platform. Not being on Facebook (at least in the

UK

) is the equivalent to not having an Ipod or not knowing what a blog is – basically, not cool.

Marketers and PR practitioners are already trying to figure out ways to capitalise on this platform to bring PR campaigns to life, especially those seeking to promote word of mouth.

A sponsored group programme at Facebook lets companies buy a link from the Facebook sign-in landing page to a “group page” that contains ad copy and a message board. Here is a complete list of all sponsored groups that have been purchased on Facebook. Companies that have Facebook sponsored groups include Apple, Fox News, Macy’s, Maxim, Microsoft, Panasonic, Sony,

Toyota

among others.

However, as Justin Smith puts on the Inside Facebook blog: “Brand advertising products (like sponsored groups) will become a significant component of social networking revenue. While Facebook and MySpace will always have trouble getting a high click-through rate on standard ads (because kids come to hang out, not to buy), what they can offer Madison Avenue is the opportunity to have a presence where all the kids are — A, in a way that looks at least somewhat cool, and B, in a way that allows and measures various ways of interacting with the brand.”