Are we prepared to be “public figures”?

Over the last months or maybe more, the news have informed about several cases of people that have been affected in their private lives because of issues that have exploited in their “public lives” on the Web. Some people have been fired because of a comment on Facebook or Twitter, other people  share pictures thinking, probably, that they are sharing them just with their friends – without noticing that actually they are sharing them with everyone, generating complicated consequences, marriages that are having problems because of “news” or “comments” on Facebook, among other situations, that appear almost every day in newspapers or magazines, making it even more PUBLIC!

It makes me think that social networks appeared out of nowhere and have become part of our everyday lives so fast, without letting us notice about their relevance and how they are changing our “private lives” into “public lives”. Facebook shows you “news” about your friends as they were “figures” that you need to be aware of, even, with multimedia content available for you! A complete news coverage to have the latest news of everyone you care about…or at least…you want to know about.

The problem is that most of social networks’ users are not aware of “privacy settings” or maybe don’t think about the consequences that a comment or picture can have in their lives. In some way, we are becoming a kind of “figure” that suddenly have to face issues because of our “sayings” on the Web, in the same way that happens with “Hollywood stars”. I know it probably sounds a bit exaggerated but it is true. Social networks have been developing faster that people’s capabilities to understand what they are and their influences on our lives.

Maybe, as Hollywood’s stars do, we need to think and be more prepared before saying something “public” on the Web. We need a bit of preparation and mostly to understand that social networks can be controlled by us. We can say only what we want and we can share just what we want and just with certain people.

Maybe it’s time to make a pause and think before uploading a new comment or picture. Have a think and then have your say!

10 Dos and Don’ts for Brands on Twitter (via @Mashable)

A very interesting post created by Mashable and very useful for companies and brands:

When it comes to Twitter and brands, consumers who are also Twitter users have plenty to say on the subject. We’ve interviewed a few folks, analyzed a couple of streams, and come up with ten common, recurring requests and complaints from users who’ve engaged with brands on Twitter.

As it turns out, the rules they expect brands to follow are distinct from the code they expect “normal” users to follow.

Check out these dicta and caveats, and let us know your experiences and best practices in the comments.

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1. Don’t Be a Showoff

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Give Twitter users your features and benefits. Let them know about special deals. Don’t post links to your latest press release, promote articles written by your CEO or make extravagant claims. A good rule of thumb to determine whether a tweet is user-friendly or brand vanity is to ask yourself, “If I didn’t work here, would I care about this?” If you’re not sure, ask a brutally honest friend who doesn’t work at your company.

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2. Don’t Use Poor Grammar or Spelling

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If your replying 2 a user make sure ur social media intern doesnt do it like this LOL!

Seriously, grammar Nazis abound on the web. Write words out in their entirety, don’t use confusing abbreviations or too many of them, make sure punctuation is pristine and try to keep “lolspeak” and emoticons to a minimum.

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3. Don’t Get Too Personal

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You might be a real person hiding behind your brand’s Twitter account, but depending on the size and nature of the company, this isn’t likely the best place to share your favorite band’s latest track, or compliment a user’s hairdo. Keep your conversations warm but professional; it’s what users expect from a brand ambassador, and anything else comes off as creepy.

To read the whole post click here.

Evan Williams: “Twitter fundamental to government”/What do you think?

Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter says in a recent interview on BBC that ” Twitter fundamental to government”. The idea of the company is to push the development of technologies (simple technologies) in all the countries because they consider that nowadays Twitter is fundamental for communications and even more for free communications.

Using the recent example of the earthquake in Chile I believe that yes, that’s true… Twitter has a very important role in communication system, as a tool to communicate with everybody around the world and maybe the most important thing during unexpected disasters as the earthquake with a simple use of technology and of course Internet or SMS if you configure your mobile phone to send posts using SMS.

That’s the reason why during the earthquake in Chile although people were not able to use mobile phones to call others, they could use them to tweet…. and that’s was really useful. From my personal experience I was in London trying to communicate with my family and trying to know what has happened in Chile and the best way to know about that was the Twitter and Facebook applications! I could communicate with some friends using that but I couldn’t communicate by phone with friends and family.

However, I think we don’t have to forget about traditional communication system because the true is that although a lot of companies and citizens are looking for the spread of technologies around the world, not all the people have access and of course not all of them use Twitter. We can improve technologies around the world but is so or even more important to teach people how to use technologies like Twitter or other social networks.

If  you want to read the full interview to Evan Williams here is the link to BBC website.

Social media: key for SEO

Why Social Media is so important? Why your/my company should be on Facebook or Twitter or even both? The first approach about this is: marketing! being where my clients are… and yes, that’s true, but, moreover…it’s about Search Engineering Optimization…the famous SEO. “Now that Google and Microsoft have concluded deals to include real-time content from Twitter in their search results, social networking has an even greater potential to throw a spanner in the works of carefully-laid search plans”, a report states on Marketing Magazine.

And that’s true. Try yourself and search your name on Google. The first that you’re going to see are your posts on Twitter and in real time! And if you have open privacity settings in Facebook, you’d find that too. Imagine, doing that with your company. That can be good if you want to promote your professional profile also.

Because of this, start thinking about social media as a business tool and not only marketing. It can be really usefull if you kwno how to use it in a good way.

Copenhagen: Breaking news on Twitter

Copenhagen Summit finished yesterday without the agreements and results that most of people were waiting around the world. A lot of people is really disappointed with the President of United States Barack Obama and there were many protests that were so or more important than the leaders’s speeches during the meeting.

From the media point of view I think that this event is another illustration of the importance that are having social networks as New Media, especially Twitter, which is changing the way of communicating news, moreover, breaking news. I followed ant “tweeted” (as people say when they publish posts on Twitter) during all the event, it means, during almost 2 weeks and it was amazing to see and be part of a “microblogging special report”, where a lot of reporters, assistants to the event and even people who were following it because they are concerned about environment were commenting every minute – and sometimes more than once in a minute- about what was happening on Copenhagen. Also, you could read and follow links in different languages and generate a very interesting feedback.

Of course the first day was the more intense day in Twitter and the last one, yesterday. The last hours of Copenhagen were full of adrenaline, passion and of course a lot of people in the real life -in the event- and in the virtual life -in Twitter- were tired and waiting for the last answer, the last speech. Maybe that finals hours were when most people “twitted” making different comments and trying to find some news in the others posts.

More important even… I think with this kind of tools we are creating important communities that help to spread information without limits and restrictions. At least more freedom than the one that some traditional media have. And more quickly. If you wanted to know the last new and the more current one, the first step was to look for that in Twitter and reporters were also working in that way in Copenhagen.

Here it’s a picture of Copenhagen as “Trend Topic” in Twitter: