social media stage

The social Media stage

JANUARY, 2011

2

Setting the stageHave you been open to the idea of social media for some time now, but are still unsure

whether you’re ready to go all the way? Frankly, you are not alone. The conflicting reports

are numerous, arguing both for and against “letting go” of control. Unfortunately, the “con”

arguments often read as “what were they thinking” stories. Some folks are diving in without

a keen understanding of what they’re doing, how they’re doing it and why they need to

do it in the first place. All the while, marketers are offering Web 2.0 services without truly

understanding what the term actually means.

Tweetworthy:“When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch.”

When a new communication platform emerges, it’s hard not to be attracted by its promise of

quick fixes to old communication problems. Social media is no different.

In order to establish useful, long-term communications with a solid ROI, a social media

stage has been established to ensure that new ideas generated are filtered through a set of

criteria to ensure:

a) the success of the program

b) that the suggested program observes the organizational mandate and group priorities as a whole.

If the suggested program does not pass the filter test, further discussion on the validity of

the program in general is needed, or another communication avenue would better serve the

objective.

microsite

“Let’s do a... !”blog!

podcast!

viral video!influencer outreach

event!

facebook page!

social network!

widget!

social media press release!

consumergenerated mediacontest!

influencer

identification

initiative!

digital reputationprogram!

wiki!

app!

internalcommunications

licensing

partners & suppliers digital, events,

grassroots, WOM

boutiquesretail public

relations

marketing & advertising

Inconsistent measurementsLost insights Unclear ROI

download @ http://bit.ly/gqjtsJ3

The Sporadic StateWe all know that social media can be successful in the “one offs”. The problem is, a

sporadic state leads to scale issues, inconsistent measurements, lost insights and unclear

ROI.

Digital CommunityGuidelines

Reporting & Metric

Calibration

Risks &Realities

Assessment

In�uencerEngagement

ProtocolDetractor

Engagement Protocol

CommunityManagement

Standards

reporting process

transparencyquality standards

tone of voicescalability

�exibility

ethical standards

retail brand advocates

partners & suppliers

internal

licensing

public relations

marketing & advertising

boutiques

digital

events

grass roots

word-of-mouthetc.

from all sourcesideas!

download @ http://bit.ly/fxAse9 4

The Social Media StageAt its heart, the social media stage is a flexible model to help brands determine what they

will and will not stand for in this space. Ideas can come from anywhere and they should! The

social media stage for brands encourages ideation from any source: digital, creative and

public relations agencies, suppliers, partners, associates - anyone.

Passing these ideas through these basic brand standards and filters will help you decide if it

meets the requirements befitting your brand in the social space.

5

IdeasIdeas come from many places: internally, suppliers, partners, agencies, even the public

can provide an idea. Innovation comes from ideation, so encouraging ideation is always

advisable. Ideas are seemingly ubiquitous, so the challenge is to develop a useful framework

that will allow you to capture the great ideas and filter them from the not-so-great ideas. This

saves time, money and keeps the brand focused on its goals.

FiltersWhen you are considering a social media program, consider the following questions to

determine the merit of the proposal before you begin.

Will This Program...

be on brand?

relate to brand or product in a relevant way?

provide subject matter that the brand has a right to speak on?

provide the opportunity to start the conversation, or should you join an established one?

be transparent?

be clear that the brand will be the driving force behind the idea?

be flexible?

allow you to evolve the program even after it has launched to the public?

offer quality?

be representative of world-class branding?

promote rich interactions and encourage advocacy and participation?

set an ethical standard worthy of the brand?

allow relationships to be naturally cultivated? Or are you trying to “buy” your way in?

further the goal of truly being a voice of authenticity and trust?

be scalable if/when the idea “goes viral” or is re-applied in other markets? If successful, can it grow into a larger program?

offer a consistent tone of voice?

allow the brand to continue in a way that’s consistent with ongoing communication efforts, digital and otherwise?

6

Influencer/Detractor Response ProtocolWhat if they say something bad? Count on it.

Say a comment has been found in the social space of your market regarding your brand,

one of its products or programs. The following protocol will help you determine if you should

respond and in the case that a response is necessary, how you should respond.

But remember…

Assess1Evaluate2Respond3Final Evaluation4Considerations5

Adapted from U.S. Air Force Public Affairs, Emerging Technology Division http://airforcelive.blogspot.com

If after a �nal evaluation you decide to respond, ensure you take these considerations into account: Response Considerations

InfluenceFocus on the most

in�uential blogs related to your organization

Tone & MannerMaintain professional

brand tone yet match thepost/platform manner.

TimelinessEnsure responses aremade quickly from a few hours to a day

SourcingCite your sources byincluding links, video,

images or other references

TransparencyFully disclose your

af�liation with the organization

NO

YES

YES

YES

NO

YES

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO YES

NO

YES

NOYES

Final EvaluationBased on review of all options, advocate or detractor in�uence and issue prominence.

Will you respond?

Monitor OnlyAvoid responding to speci�c posts.

Monitor the site for relevantinformation and comments.

“Unhappy Customer”Is the posting a result of a negative

experience from one of our stakeholders?

Let Post StandNo response is necessary.

Continue to monitor.

“Misguided”Are there any errors

in the posting?

Assess Against ObjectivesIs the post relevent

to the program?

“Rager”Is the posting a rant, rage, joke,

ridicule or satirical in nature?

“Trolls”Is this a site dedicated to bashing

and degrading others?ConcurrenceA factual and well cited response, which

may agree or disagree with the post, yet is not negative.

You can concur with the post, let standor provide a positive review.

Do you want to respond?

Assess ContentDoes this post contain errors or misrepresentationof the organization’s messages and/or position?

Assess InfluenceInitial guage of platform audience will determine

whether any action is necessary.

Does post merit attention?





RestorationRectify the situation. Respond and

act upon a resonable solution.

Fix the FactsRespond with factual, informative comment.

Social CommentA social comment has been

discovered about your brand/program.

Is is a positive posting?

7 download @ http://bit.ly/fYAucO

X

8

Influencer Engagement ProtocolOnline influencers are different than traditional publications, but they are all interested in

publishing useful stories or offering insights. That’s why your pitch should be in a format

that makes it easy for authors/bloggers to digest. Avoid ostentatious claims and use natural

sounding language like you were talking with a friend. Avoid extraneous techno-babble that

clouds your story.

best Practices for online influencer engagement:

Mandatory: Add their name, the name of their blog and the relevance your pitch is to them. It’s no different than calling someone by name in a regular conversation, it grabs their attention and helps let them know this is not spam.

Who? Who is the news about (include a link to your company backgrounder and website blog or SMPR, especially if the blogger isn’t aware of who you are).

What? What is the news you’re pitching - no marketing fluff. Give it to them straight.

Where? Not always relevant in the electronic age, but if it is, state it.

When? Give dates and times.

Why? This is the important part. Your pitch should be no more than three sentences and it should be compelling. (Easier said than done.)

Add contact information, title and employer.

Do not attach press releases, however if one is available, post it on the web and send a link.

Online influencers can be contacted by email, mail, phone, etc. Some of them have

information on their preferred method of communication listed on their blog. Take the time

to see and follow their requests. It will both increase the likelihood of a post and secure a

trusting relationship with the influencer for future correspondence.

Tweetworthy:“Keep your friends close and all influencers even closer.”

Approve1Schedule2Assess3Post4Track5

Adapted from U.S. Air Force Public Affairs, Emerging Technology Division http://airforcelive.blogspot.com

If after a �nal evaluation, you decide to respond, ensure you take these considerations into account: Post Considerations

Cross PromoteSeek opportunities to cross

promote and redistributein other Social Platforms.

MeasurementCon�rm program willcapture results and

adapt where necessary.

TimelinessEnsure responses aremade quickly from a few hours to a day

ModerationEnsure you are preparedto frequently moderateconsumer response.

TransparencyFully disclose your

af�liation with the organization.

NO

NONO

NO

NO

NO

YES

YES

YES

NOYES

YES

NOYES

NOYES

Final EvaluationDouble check against protocol to con�rm

it meets all requirements.

Does the content meet all requirements?

ProofProofread the content, and adapt

tone appropriately to platform.

Does the content meet the editorial standards of the brand?

EvaluateDoes the content meet the technical

and editorial guidelines of therequested social media platform?

ScheduleIs there room to post this content

within platform messagefrequency guidelines?

ApprovalHas this content been approved

for posting?

RejectIdentify requirement gap with

content stakeholder.

Request re-submission to Calendar.

Seek Priority ApprovalSubmit content for approval.

Update all content stakeholders.

Has content and post schedulebeen approved?

Assess PriorityDoes this content take priority over

currently scheduled content?

New ContentNew content has been identi�ed for posting

on a brand social media platform.

Is the content currently on the Social Media Calendar?

9

Post Creation & Engagement ProtocolYou have new content that you would like to post to the social space. Perhaps it is a video

on YouTube or an update to your brand’s Facebook fan page. This protocol will help you

determine 3 things: if you should post; how you should post; and what to do after you post.

download @ http://bit.ly/gWY5e3

10

Recommendations for Social Media GovernanceProtecting yourself, your agency, brand or organization is just good legal common sense.

It is good practice to ensure that you have reviewed the community guidelines and terms &

conditions of the social platforms you are posting to and have these documents prepared

and posted for communities that you are hosting.

Community Guidelines, Terms & Conditions

3rd Party Community Guidelines

When considering involvement with a 3rd party

platform (Flickr, YouTube, etc), an exploratory

review of the platform’s community guidelines

is a necessary step to ensure that your brand

is welcome and invited to participate in that

platform’s space. These guidelines can often be

found in the footer links of most social media

platform websites. Please make sure you review

them before you engage, and review them again

before starting new programs to ensure that they

have not changed.

Reference Links:Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines Yahoo Answers - http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines

Reference Link:Social Media Governance. A list of over 138 Social Media Policies including Coca-Cola, Dell, Microsoft, Walmart - http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php

Reference Links:Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne WorldVision’s community guidelines for Facebook Fan Page - http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=108970206976&topic=10468

11

branded Community Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions are the “laws” of the community. As such, you need to draft all the

legal restrictions, copyright, liability etc. in a tone and manner befitting a court of law (legal

protection). Terms and Conditions protect you legally, so refer to them when challenged

over legal issues, claim disputes etc. As a preventative measure, make sure a link to them is

present on every page possible.

Community Guidelines

Consumers using your platforms will generally not read the Terms and

Conditions, as the content is generally not easily digestible to the average

person. It is best practice to draft a set of “behaviors” expected of

consumers on brand related social platforms. The tone and manner must

be direct, but comprehensible for the average layperson to understand. It

is wise to cover your back and cross link the terms and conditions for

that extra legal security.

Community guidelines help you moderate the content by offering simple

rules for posting. If the community member breaks those rules, you can refer

to them when deleting or moderating. It is important that you enforce community

guidelines on an ongoing basis to protect the integrity of the community and the brand.

12

HR Social Media Guidelines

Whether or not employees and agents are active in the social space, it is wise to ensure

you have an official guideline for them to understand what it is they are allowed to do and

say in this infinitely scalable public forum. If your employees and agents are not using

Social Marketing in their job, this helps empower them to get started. Once this is in place,

you should encourage employees to adopt Social Influence Marketing – whether they are

personally on Twitter, running their own work blog, posting comments on someone else’s

blog, or otherwise participating in the world of social media.

When employees live the social values, the brand exercises

leadership and becomes more experienced. There should be no

attempt here to stifle their social voice. Rather, the intent is just the

opposite – encourage them to embrace the social media world by

providing some guidelines.

Tweetworthy:“The voice of many exceeds the voice of one.”

Community Management Standards

It doesn’t matter if you built the community, or if you’re simply

participating in other communities such as Facebook or Flickr – you

must respect the members of your community. The following DOs and

DON’Ts illustrate how to act with that respect in mind.

DOs & DON’Ts of Community Management

13

DOs

Follow and enforce community guidelines

be honest and fair

When possible, offer members a chance to remove their

own offending content before you do

be direct

Encourage discussion

Consider adding a “Report abuse” form to areas where

user-generated content lives - most healthy communities

are excellent at self-policing

➔

➔

➔

➔

➔

➔

DON’Ts

Do not “hog the floor”

Do not push content. Instead, leave it in places to be

discovered.

Do not be indecisive. State clearly your comment with

intent and resolve.

Do not “shut somebody down” if they disagree with your

point of view

Do not be a bully

➔

➔

➔

➔

➔

14

Community ManagerA Community Manager position is a broad encompassing role. And it really should be!

They’re the voice of the company externally and the voice of the customers internally. The

value lies in the Community Manager serving as a hub and having the ability to personally

connect with the customers, thereby humanizing the brand. They play a valuable role in

providing insightful feedback to many internal departments including development, PR,

marketing, customer service, and tech support among others.

The community manager is a busy role. Their day-to-day work will include influencer

identification, content gathering/creating and posting, reputation monitoring, community

growth, technology evolutions, community moderator management and outreach and public

interactions. It’s due to all these interactions that a successful Community Manager must

commit to the rules outlined in a Community Manager’s Oath (see appendix).

Typical Community Manager Responsibilities

• Conduct influencer identification, tracking and reporting

• Relationship management

• Outreach

• Total Engagement

• Issue Identification

• “Official Responder” for all issue and category questions

• Responsible for generating insights and executive summary from program reports

• Measurement

• Accountable for project goals and business objectives

• Create and manage response protocol

• Build community through relevance

• Reputation management

• Maintain identity and public persona by being an official representative, not hidden behind a logo, i.e. richard@dell

Public Persona? Really?Yes, people are allowed to make mistakes - brands are not. (The lawyers love this.)

16

Risks and RealitiesSocial media is a strange place that can cause anxiety when thinking about what people

might be saying about your brand. Often the first risk identified is, “what if they say

something bad”. The reality is, they probably already have. There are so many places online

to publicly discuss brands - they don’t need you or your web properties to communicate

what they have to say. Consider participating as a member of the various social media

platforms and be there to guide the perception of complaints that may or may not be out

there.

Whenever assessing risk and reality in social media, be sure to look at it from all points of

view. Sometimes risk can be the biggest opportunity you have - the opportunity to engage

and guide perception.

Risks and Realities Worksheet

Use the following worksheet to predetermine messages you know you are going

to face by engaging in conversation. Remain flexible and ready to consider new

issues that you have not captured, and be sure to run the same exercise a few

times. Most importantly: do not post anything issue-based without legal input/

consideration.

Tweetworthy:“The fear of taking action is often more dangerous than the action itself.”

Risks and Realities Assessments When considering a new social program, ensure you have a good understanding of the risks and realities before engaging. The following worksheet will help you determine how you will respond to situations before they become an issue.

Key Issues and BarriersList 5 issues sourced from social media listening that could negatively impact the brand/program. (Use another sheet if you have identi�ed more)

1. Resolvable? (y) (n)





(example: Consumers repeatedly leave comments that our product is too expensive)

How will you respond?List the response that has been approved by legal/PR for each issue. Also list places where you will post the comment and/or links to the of�cial statement. Complete the section below for each issue.

(draft: Submit to legal electronically.)

Where will you post this response? Circle all that apply.

Website PR Resource Centre Twitter Facebook Youtube

other (list)

17 download @ http://bit.ly/hLNhml

Evaluate reactions to official position.

If consumers are still not responding, can you take a different approach to establish a

position? Can you take a different position?

18

MeasurementSocial Media may actually be the most measurable form of mass media that has ever

existed. The types of measurement have left most analysts with a problem of abundance.

What do you measure? And what does it mean? Do these questions sound familiar?

HOW MaNy friends should we have on Twitter?

HOW MaNy Tweets should we make per week?

HOW MaNy updates to the Facebook page do we need?

HOW MaNy people should ‘Like’ our Facebook page?

HOW MaNy video views on YouTube mean success?

So What?The problem is, none of these metrics lead to any sort of business objective. No objective,

no measurement will ever be relevant. This makes the planning of a campaign all the more

important. Understanding what you want to get out of it will help you understand what to

measure.

Primary Media MeasurementsThe following is a list of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that will help you get started in

this space.

Volume Score

Measures relevance by volume of peer-to-peer, peer-to-brand conversation.

Number of Fans

Number of Followers

Number of @mentions

Number of Retweets

Number of Views

Number of Embeds

+2 points for a positive mention.

+1 point for a neutral mention.

-1 point for a negative mention.

19

Establish a measurement program…(That has defined benchmarks with measureable goals)

…against business objectives… (like more customers buying more often)

…via key media metrics… (engagement, sentiment and advocacy)

…to find ROI.

Notice that the volume of brand-to-consumer mentions is not a KPI? Although it can and

should be tracked, brands pushing content should be measured against the impact it has

had in consumer reaction and peer-to-peer conversation. This is the world where trust and

credibility is earned.

Sentiment Score

Measures consumer attitude in peer-to-peer, peer-to-brand

conversation. By using a typical scoring system (example right),

then adding these up and dividing by the volume, you will get

a calibrated number that you can benchmark over time, and

against future campaigns.

Again, brand-to-peer is not mentioned in the sentiment score.

Of course you are going to be positive about your brand, so the

impact of your posts against this metric will skew the results.

Reach Score

Measures consumer reach in peer-to-peer, peer-to-brand conversation. How far did your

message get? When determining this score, we measure Advocate Generated Impressions

(AGIs). These are impressions created by non-brand reps in the digital space. This is a key

metric in determining the success of the campaign as a whole.

20

Proximity alertsProximity Alerts is a measuring and reporting system for campaigns and always-on digital

media programs.

Scale

Proximity Alerts is customized to clients’ needs and sellable to clients’ programs.

Process, Not Technology

There is no single piece of technology that can produce all of the

numbers required to get a holistic listening and measuring program.

Proximity Alerts is a process, not a technology. Various pieces of

technology can be used in order to gather the numbers. If clients have

established social listening platforms, no problem! This system will

allow you to plug them right in.

ROI

ROI is determined based on business objective

– NOT media consumption. This must be

considered.

benchmarking

Benchmarking has been well established

for purchased and owned media. There are

currently no industry standards for earned digital

media. It is important to build benchmarking into your

plan and evolve/react over time to the results.

EARNED PAID OWNED

RE

PO

RT

ST

OO

LS

ME

DIA

ME

TR

ICS

Sysomos, Radian 6, Alterian, BackType,

ComScore, Facebook Insights, Google/YouTube

Insights

Blog, Twitter, YouTube Posts, Social InteractionsComments, Likes, Shares

Views, Embeds, ReTweets, Social

Interactions

Click ThroughImpressionsInteractionsTime Spent

SharesDemographics

Visits, FrequencyPath to PurchaseDemographic Info

InteractionsTime SpentConversions

Google AnalyticsFacebook InsightsServer Analytics

Customized reports to program needs and frequency.Includes: Executive summary, KPIs, insights, raw data, trend analysis,

benchmark achievements recommendations, watch outs, raw data.

Media Program ReportsServer Reports

Brand to PeerPeer to PeerPeer to Brand

Volume Sentiment

Reach

Reach Engagement Conversion

FrequencyEngagement Conversion

Brand to PeerPeer to Brand

KP

IW

ho

Wh

atM

etri

c (eg.)

How

(eg.)

21 download @ http://bit.ly/eMauVB

22

About the AuthorCollin Douma is the VP Global Digital Planning Director at Proximity

Canada and BBDO New York. He has been working in the digital space for

over 16 years. He blogs at http://www.radicaltrust.ca Tweets at Twitter.com/

collindouma and can be reached by email at [email protected]

ConclusionSocial media is a state of mind, not another channel. If you approach it with the right

attitude, prepared for the best and the worst case scenarios, you will find that your brand

can be both socially relevant and successful. If you are measuring against objectives and

remain flexible to the changing landscape, you will discover that your new-found social

relevance is actually making an impact on your bottom line. And you will be set up to repeat

your success into the future. Set up your social media today.

24

AppendixFree Social Media Listening & Monitoring Tools

brand Monitoring Tools

HowSociable? http://www.howsociable.com/

A simple, free tool that can measure the visibility of your brand on the web across

22 metrics.

addict-o-matic http://addictomatic.com/

A nice search engine that aggregates rss feeds, allowing you to quickly see the areas where a brand is

lacking in presence.

Socialmention http://www.socialmention.com/

A social media search engine offering searches across individual platforms (eg blogs, microblogs) or all,

together with a ‘social rank’ score.

TECHNORaTI Search http://technorati.com/search

Technorati’s new search interface. Use it to find top blogs based upon inbound links only.

TECHNORaTI advanced http://technorati.com/search?advanced

Technorati’s advanced search page allows you to search for blogs (rather than posts) based on tags.

Google blog Search http://blogsearch.google.com/

Google’s index of blog posts. The advanced search tab allows you to search based on additional criteria.

Very good for searching between specific dates.

IceRocket http://www.icerocket.com/

Blog search tool that also graph-ifies!

blogPulse http://www.blogpulse.com/

Search for blog posts by keyword. Developed by Nielsen Buzz Metrics.

25

buzz Tracking

Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends

Shows amount of searches and google news stories.

Trendpedia http://www.trendpedia.com/

Create charts showing the volume of discussion around multiple topics. Generates cool graphs with

competitive analysis opportunity.

blogPulse Trends http://www.blogpulse.com/trend

Compare the mentions of specific keywords and phrases in blog posts. (LEFT vs. RIGHT)

Omgili Charts http://omgili.com/graphs.html

Omgili Buzz Graphs let you measure and compare the Buzz of any term. Mostly from review sites/forums.

eKstreme http://ekstreme.com/buzz

Blog data is obtained from Technorati and the social bookmarks come from del.icio.us.

Message board Tools

boardTracker http://www.boardtracker.com/

Tracks words in forums.

boardReader http://boardreader.com/

Search multiple message boards and forums.

Google Groups http://groups.google.com/

Searches Google usenet groups.

yahoo! Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/

Searches all Yahoo! Groups.

26

Twitter Search Tools

Twitter Search http://search.twitter.com/

Search keywords on Twitter which self-refreshes. See what’s happening — ‘right now’.

TweetScan http://search.twitter.com/

Search for words on Twitter.

Twit(url)y http://twitturly.com/

See what people are talking about on Twitter.

Hashtags http://hashtags.org/

Realtime Tracking of Twitter Hashtags.

Tweetbeep http://tweetbeep.com/

Track mentions of your brand on Twitter in real time.

Twitrratr http://twitrratr.com/

Rates mentions of your search term on Twitter as positive/neutral/negative.

TweetMeme http://tweetmeme.com/

View the most popular Twitter threads occurring now.

TwitScoop http://www.twitscoop.com/

Through an automated algorithm, twitscoop crawls hundreds of tweets every minute and extracts the words

which are mentioned more often than usual and creates a tag cloud.

Twilert http://www.twilert.com/

Twitter application sends regular email updates of tweets containing your brand, product or service.

Search Data

Google Insights for search http://www.google.com/insights/search/

Compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames.

Google Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternalS Generate keyword ideas for related keywords and search volumes.

27

Website Traffic

Compete http://compete.com/

Competitor site traffic reports. Estimates only of monthly visitor data. Best used on large high-traffic Web

sites.

Quantcast http://www.quantcast.com/

Use this on large high-traffic websites. It allows you to compare multiple websites in one handy chart.

Estimates only of monthly visitor data.

alexa http://www.alexa.com/

Comparative site traffic reports. Includes estimated reach, rank and page views.

Multimedia Search

youTube http://www.youtube.com/

Search for videos and channels by keyword.

MetaCafe http://www.metacafe.com/

High-traffic video search engine.

Google advanced Video Search http://video.google.com/videoadvancedsearch

Search for videos, what else?

Compfight http://compfight.com/

Search Flickr for photos, groups or people/users.

Truveo http://www.truveo.com/

Aggregate video search engine. Search videos from YouTube, MySpace, and AOL.

Viral Video Chart http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/

Displays top 20 most-viewed videos (1, 7, 365 days). Includes view counts and charting.

Guardian’s Viral Video Chart http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/series/viralvideochart

Weekly roundup of what’s excellent on the web.

28

accuracy I will post as accurate only

information that I know to be

accurate. Whenever possible, I

will provide sources and links. If

accuracy may be in doubt, I will

convey this to the reader.

attribution I will not plagiarize material, nor

quote without attribution.

Comments I will delete comments only

when they violate the rules of

my platform, such as needlessly

inflammatory, racist, or spam

comments.

Completeness I will try to ensure that what I post

is not only accurate but presents a

complete picture, I won’t post only

part of a story or an argument.

Confidentiality I will not reveal details that have

been given to me in confidence. I

won’t publish private emails unless

explicitly permitted to do so. I

won’t publish names or details

when asked not to do so.

Copyright I will respect other people’s

copyrights and not post without

the copyright holder’s permission.

The Oath Adapted from the “Blogger Code of Ethics”

Disclosure I will disclose whenever/wherever

I am participating that I am a

representative of said brand.

Do No Harm I will not attack, embarrass,

humiliate, or make others fear for

their safety. I will certainly not do

so and then accuse my victims of

being overly sensitive or needing

to have thicker skin.

Editing I will try to ensure that my posts

are edited for spelling, grammar

and clarity - and that all links are

correct.

Fairness I will always provide all

facts relevant to an opinion

when criticizing. I will always

assume possible confusion or

misunderstanding before labeling

something or someone as

fraudulent. In this case, I will first

try to work things out privately,

and, if not satisfied, let the facts

speak for themselves in as

unbiased a manner as possible.

Originality I will try to provide original material

of interest to my readership. I will

not simply quote or link to other

blogs.

Privacy I will not pass on gossip about

private individuals nor report on

embarrassing facts about others. I

will not link to or report information

that is accidentally leaked.

Respect I will respect my readers, critics,

and subjects of my posts. I will

discuss and answer all people

with respect - regardless of age,

sex, race, religion, nationality,

ability, attractiveness, and social or

economic status. I will not respond

with rudeness to rudeness. I will

apologize when appropriate and

stand on principle only when

absolutely necessary.

Responsibility I will affirm what are my own words

and posts, and not claim credit

for others, or deny responsibility

for my own. I will clearly separate

what are my own words from

others.

Safety I will not post anything that could

endanger others’ safety, including

identifying information about

minors or vulnerable individuals.

End Note About Humorous Posts

I may occasionally post something that appears to

violate one of these codes if it is clear that my post is

meant to be humorous or satirical. For instance, I may

pretend that someone said something that he or she

didn’t for comic effect. Any post of this sort will be

obviously intended as humor and I will ensure that it

cannot be misconstrued otherwise.

social media stage

Business

monthly visitor

social media

post standno

social media

proximity

raw data

community

social platforms