Should You Ban Facebook at the Office?

staci baird — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:04:34 +0000

Let’s face it: Your employees are using Facebook (and Twitter…and LinkedIn…and…) while on the clock. If you’re lucky, they’re using social media to talk up your business. But that’s not always the case.

Don’t dash off that e-mail banning Facebook use altogether just yet. Social media can be a great way for your employees to extend your company’s brand and engage in a meaningful conversation with your customers. But that doesn’t mean some rules of the road aren’t in order.

Your Tweeting employees could put your business at risk, inadvertently or not, by misrepresenting it online, says Kevin Beaver, an independent information security consultant with Atlanta-based Principle Logic.

Just over one in three employers had a social media policy drafted and implemented last year, estimates Eric Meyer, an employment lawyer with Dilworth Paxon in Philadelphia. Eric urges every company to create a social media policy. “It’s a way to protect you, the employer and your employees by reminding them what is appropriate online behavior.” Along with a set of social media rules, Eric recommends including five guidelines in your social media policy:

1. Remind employees to be civil and polite and to use good judgment when they’re conversing online.

2. Encourage employees to refrain from making anonymous posts or using pseudeonums. Employees should be transparent about who they are and who they work for.

3. Explain what social media is and give examples. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, message boards and blogs are all social media.

4. Warn employees not to let social media interfere with their job responsibilities.

5. Advise employees to think twice before posting. What they say online can potentially expose them and your business to litigation.

Eric says that most social media policies only need to be one or two pages and shouldn’t take more than two hours for an experienced lawyer to create.

Of course, once you have a social media policy in place you’ll need to devise a way to enforce it. Eric cautions employers not to discriminate. Monitor everyone at your company or monitor no one. And because of the ever-changing nature of social media you’ll need to review your social media policy every six months to a year to make sure it’s still relevant.

Originally posted on the Open Mic blog at Bizmore.com May 13, 2010.

San Francisco State University Newswire Campaign

staci baird — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:41:26 +0000

The Journalism Department at San Francisco State University is embarking on a new Web initiative designed to showcase the best of student work. SF State Newswire will give Bay Area news organizations access to our students’ incredible work and will allow students to build a strong digital portfolio. But we need your help.

We’re launching a $10 fundraising campaign and asking a select group of alumni and friends to assist.

Please donate $10 and ask 10 friends to do the same.

And encourage your friends to ask another 10 friends.

Our students are doing great things and your donation could help make their work more visible.

Help us with the SFSU Newswire $10 Campaign —> DONATE NOW.

If you’d like to here more about the SF State Newswire proposal, please feel free to contact me.

On Twitter: @girljournalist
Via e-mail: sbaird [at] sfsu [dot] edu

On Twitter, Quality — Not Quantity — Is Key

staci baird — Tue, 11 May 2010 19:19:53 +0000

Photo by Robert Scoble/Flickr

You hear about Twitter every day, but aren’t at all sure what it can for your business. We know Twitter can be used to quickly spread news and information about your business — and to deepen ties with existing customers. Just take a look at Humphry Slocombe, a small ice cream parlor in San Francisco. They’ve built a huge following on Twitter thanks to the unique “voice” of co-owner Sean Vahey, who “tweets” about new flavors and specials.

So how do you build a following?

Twitter allows you to follow up to 2,000 people. So, if you’re just getting started, use the Twitter Find People search to find authors, experts and businesses that you find interesting. According to Tweeting Points, if you follow 2,000 people, at least 200 should follow you back.

But don’t just go for numbers. As Scott Wilder, former general manager of Intuit’s Small Business Online Communities, said in a recent Bizmore Social Media 101 webinar, it’s the quality, not quantity of your Twitter followers that really matters. Twitter followers are part of your social network and can help bolster your reputation. Conversely, the wrong kind of followers (e.g., porn producers and spammers) can hurt your brand.

Gina Zane, for example, recently noticed that some of her Twitter followers were not the kind of followers she was hoping to attract. The owner of GZM Accounting Software Solutions says that, for inexplicable reasons, she started drawing very “disturbed individuals and the porno crowd.” Janet Fogarty, who coaches CEOs through Vistage International, a private association of about 14,000 top execs from around the world, has encountered the same problem and advises weeding out unsavory followers once a week.

Here are two ways to do that:

Configure Twitter to send you an alert email every time someone starts following you. You can do this by logging in to Twitter and clicking on Settings, then Notices. Check the box next to Email when someone starts following me.
As noted above, Tweeting Points statistics show that if you follow 2,000 people, at least 200 should follow you back. After about a week, weed your list. Try using one of these six Twitter follow/unfollow tools to show you which people you’re following are following you back. Trim your list, add more followers, repeat.

Sure, it takes work to monitor and maintain your Twitter followers. But in the end, you’ll get a better return on your efforts.

Originally posted on the Open Mic blog at Bizmore.com March 25, 2010.

The $100 Hamburger

staci baird — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:04:08 +0000

Jay Baird conducts a pre-flight check of a Piper Cherokee Warrior at San Carlos Airport in San Carlos, Calif.

Private pilot Jay Baird took advantage of the good weather and flew me (his wife) to the Hollister Airport so we could eat a at the Ding A Ling cafe.

It’s sort of an inside joke amongst pilots to call quick trips to small airport cafes flights for the “$100 hamburger.” It refers to the cost of renting a plane for a couple hours. As Baird explains, the “$100 hamburger” is one of the reasons he obtained his private pilot’s license.

Photos taken with a Nikon D90 (which I am still learning how to use), audio captured on a Flip Cam..

Listen to excerpts from my interview with Jay in my previous post, Interview with Private Pilot Jay Baird.

View more photos from the trip in the $100 Hamburger Flickr photo set.

Interview with private pilot Jay Baird

staci baird — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:16:44 +0000

Jay Baird watches as a plane takes off from Hollister Airport in Hollister, Calif.

Jay Baird got his private pilot license in 2004. Since then, he’s flown about 100 hours. Jay is my husband. I think it’s pretty cool being married to a pilot. It means we can wake up on Saturday morning and fly to Hollister for a $100 hamburger. (More on that below.)

I’ve wanted to interview Jay for awhile so I finally took the opportunity (while he was willing to humor me) and asked him a few questions about being a pilot and what it means to him.

In this clip, Jay explains his greatest fear…

I asked the Twitterverse and Facebook what they wanted to know from Jay. Here’s a few of the questions and answers:

Kelsey asks, “Has he ever had to pull down the oxygen masks?”

@jrustigian asks, “Do pilots ever get scared when landing/taking off?”

And here it is, the million dollar question…

“What is with the $100 hamburger?”

I’m working on a photo/audio slideshow which will be posted soon. I’ll add the link when it’s live.