Social networking is a topic I talk a lot about. I strongly believe that brands should embrace this technology, but with the caveat they do their due diligence before starting any social campaign (or any campaign, for that matter).
Since social media is a technology, and it’s apparent that technology moves fast, one must stay on top of what’s going on with their companies, not just what’s the new feature on the platform. A great example of this is Google’s changes to their privacy policy. Only this Tuesday, I was alerted to the fact that Google saves your search history (if you have an account), and after the switch to a unified privacy policy across all of its products, your search history will stay with your Google account. That history will be used to give marketing data, which will be tied to your name. (The deadline to do so is March 1, but can’t confirm it’s before or until midnight tonight. So, if you can still do it, here’s how you go about that, and note how to turn your search history to anonymous statistics).
This speaks to a greater point, that whomever touches your social media platforms needs to be on top of these kinds of changes, especially when it deals with privacy. Ensuring your brand’s safety is of the utmost importance when it comes to the internet, especially when you have groups like Anonymous around who are ridiculously savvy when it comes to hacking.
My advice is to make sure the right people are monitoring the right spaces. Google’s official blog, or Facebook’s official blog. Other user-produced blogs like Techdirt, Mashable, and any other techy blogs that relate to social networks.
[Now, keep on the lookout for new Facebook changes as they migrate users to their new Timeline. More on that another time.]