Social media has given the everybody in the world the chance to connect and keep connected. It’s a great place to meet friends, find old colleagues and develop new friendships. No matter how ‘free’ some people feel on these sites, the truth is, people you meet on them should be treated like they would if you met them in person.

Keeping good online etiquette when on these sites is extremely important. Here are some things to remember.

• Be clear and honest to avoid misinterpretation.  The thing with social media is that it’s so easy to be understood.  This isn’t something you would want to  happen since it can cause a lot of loss especially if you are a business using online marketing. Make sure everything you say on these sites is clear and true.
• Say please and Thank you. Whenever somebody shares something that is in your best interests, remember to thank them. People have to feel appreciated and a simple ‘thank you’ may be all they need. In addition, it shows that you notice and aren’t only after what you can get from them.
• Keep your fingers in check. Always think before you comment or say anything on these sites. It usually takes a single careless comment to ruin relationships for good. Try and avoid using these sites as your personal outlet and keep things professional.
• Expand your network. Do what you can to expand  your circle of friends. This will have a huge impact on your ratings and reputation.

Online social marketing is a very effective marketing method to employ but can also be used against you if you aren’t careful. In order to keep your online reputation up, you must keep good manners and maintain proper etiquette online.

Additional tips can be found here.

In many companies, what you do during work hours is totally their business. For this reason, social media sites have been blocked in the office. Though there have been a lot of differing ideas weather this should be done, many companies agree that it is in the best interests of the company to ban these sites.

You would think that this being so, there is nothing that the company can do if you spend your free time Facebooking your rants and raves. Think again:

Damian O’Keefe, a former employee of The Good Guys in Townsville, was dismissed after using Facebook to post an expletive-filled rant against a manager on his day off.

Fair Work Australia heard that O’Keefe’s employer sacked O’Keefe after interpreting his comments as a threat to operations manager Kelly Taylor.

What do you think? Did Damian deserve to be fired? After all, he was doing this on his day off, at home! The fact is the barrier between personal and company is narrowing and fast. Do companies have the right to use what is done in an employees personal time as ground for dismissal?

There should be clear rules about this or else a lot of injustice will happen. Companies ought to have clear rules and regulations about what is expected of them when it comes to using social media in and out of the office.

Having a clear policy is the only way for there to exist harmony between employee and employer. Everybody should understand what is expected of them.

Read more about this here.

Social media has indeed become a very powerful tool being used by businesses both big and small businesses. Traditional marketing alone has become seldomly used by companies these days. Still, there are many ways in which traditional methods still have an edge. One of these is when it comes to regulation. Newspapers, TV and other sources of media can be controlled to some degree. Even when customers don’t like what is being advertised, their opinions can’t really have such huge effects.

When it comes to social media, there is no controlling what and how news is spread. This can be a good thing if it is in favor of your business. The problem arises when comments are negative. One unhappy client simply needs to post something negative on their site and in minutes, your ‘bad’ reputation is is spread. Shrugging off such a spread as ‘temporary’  can be dangerous. Companies must act so that they can control how this news is spread.

One very important thing to consider is how you talk to your customers on these social media sites. Talking ‘at’ them gives a selfish impression that won’t be good at all. Your customers will think of you as simply a company trying to get something from them. A better way to interact is to talk ‘with’ them instead. Try and direct these converstations to involve  youself but also be a good listener.

The way news spreads on social media isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, many defects have been identified because of customers’ complaints on these sites. The key here is to build your integrity online and get your customers to trust you.

Marketers must find creative ways of directing these conversations, involving themselves, and, most importantly, listening to what’s being said.  Using this information, adjustments can be made to more effectively serve buyers’ needs.

Read more here.

Randi Zuckerberg, who is director of marketing at Facebook and also the sister of CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg — is leaving the company after six years to start a new media firm to help companies become more social.

The question on everyone’s minds now is how will this affect Facebook? Randi-Mark’s sister has made very big contributions to Facebook and can definitely be said to be one of the pillars that has brought the company to where it is.

Randi plans to start her own company focused on the media trends underway. This will allow her to take on many clients but we really hope she doesn’t include Google + on her list or this will be very disloyal thing to do.

What did Mark have to say about all this? Well, no comment was made from Mark so we really don’t know how her brother feels about Randi’s resignation.

Mark better find a good Marketing director to take his sister’s place and hope Facebook keeps its current rank. The fact is, this change may be just what other networks need to get a little ahead of this giant company.

As for the other social networking sites, this new development may be viewed as a golden opportunity to get ahead.

Read more here.