Legal, Policies, Ethics - Is Pinterest A Legal Matter?

I love Pinterest...the fun little pin-board social photo-sharing website. Pinning or posting almost anything that represents you such as recipes, home decor, gardening and even wedding ideas. It's a great way to pin ideas and things you spot on the web rather than keeping a never-ending list of what it is and where it's found (not speaking by experience of course). I refuse to own a Pinterest account.... but only because I would never get off it. This may change as school comes to a close and there is a much-needed break from finals. For now, however, it happens to be a "catch it when I can" sort of deal. 

Little did I know there were so many legal issues attached to this cute little thing. In fact Kristen Kowalski, photographer and lawyer, wrote a blog post that turned viral on how she realized her infringing pins needed to be deleted. The realization came on how this site where simple virtual scrapbooks of images "pinned", could turn deadly. Ms. Kowalski is now part of Pinterest's effort to push away these concerns and avoid the problem that shut down the digital-music-sharing website, Napster, in 2001. This was to prevent the trading of copyrighted music on that network although sites and other alternatives have given room to do so. 

Ben Silbermann, Pinterest's co-founder and chief executive, really did want to know what they could do to resolve these issues. He contacted the "tearfully" disheartened photographer after reading her blog of removing her pins. Word says that is currently being worked on, but for a million-dollar company, I'm sure they can decide to do whatever they want until matters get worse. Pinterest claims to repeat the rights of copyright holders and will, in fact, offer guidelines and tips for best practices. Every Pinterest user agrees to the terms and conditions read before signing up because of problems that might arise in connected with anything pinned. 

Pinterest was founded in 2009 and attracted 17.8 million users in the month of February. I'm sure Pinterest users are overly confused to hear that you can't pin anything you don't own where the main purpose of the site is to say that you can. The main difference between pinning someone else's material versus your own, is that individual images have to first be upholder and then pinned to a board previously created. 

With photographers getting ticked at the reproduction of their own imagines, Yahoo Inc.'s Flickr added an opt-out code for users of the photo-sharing website. Any user of images they don't want pinned can disable images and bar them from being shared on Pinterest. A variety of companies are now selling rights to their images via Getty Images. Some lawyers are still coming out saying that the company needs to address the inconsistency of its legal fine print if there is to place any blame. Little issues include whether the pictures pinned are copyrighted photos that can be found easily on the Internet, which would constitute the “fair use” where the images’ creators are credited, or if it can be link back to the site of origin. 

As for now, no steps have been taken as far as copyright laws are concerned. Lawyers interviewed for the article Is Pinterest the Next Napster? in The Wall Street Journal, said the courts are far behind where Pinterest could present issues based on copyright laws. So in the end, I’m not sure what the future of Pinterest will be. For now, it’s fun just to look at what other people find and have interest enough in to pin. 

QR Codes....Worth the hassle?

When I first discovered this site, I got overly excited and felt like I had discovered a brand new way of rebranding and making a digital/online profile for myself. That's what this Scan Pages does. They create a QR code and can connect whatever you want to it whether it's your Facebook profile, blog, or even contact information. Lately, an online presence says a lot about a company or individual. This is a mobile way to connect people to all social media pages and websites. A customized mobile site if you will. Scan Pages will also give statistics including where and how many times your QR code has been scanned. And it's free! So I thought, "Why not?" Why don't I create my own QR code and include it in anything and everything I produce, write, design, etc.? As I continued to read about scan pages, my social media nerd kicked in and I was prepared to share my findings with #socmeddiscuss (my handy dandy social media class). As I skipped up to the front of the room and started to describe my new finding, the energy was pulled from all thoughts and feelings I had about this little feature. Apparently QR Codes are not going to be a thing of the future? At least that's what I gathered from the discussion. We all know things are constantly changing and there will always be improvements....in fact, hopefully, one day media and technology will form to create nifty things found in this video:

But for now, how do you get your name out there? How can you provide a one-touch feature that will allow future employers or clients to access all your information in one spot? I imagine handing in a resume with a QR code up top to connect to files of all my work and past experiences.

I suppose there are some downsides to QR codes such as "Attaging" or Attack Tagging. This is where hackers will take a QR code and change the sites or even create one with a malicious site. For the most part, QR codes seem to be an amazing way to utilize technology and brand yourself.

Search Engine Optimization

I love social media. I love what is happening to our world with social media. With tagging (@), hash tagging (#)....I can't wrap my mind around it sometimes. It will be interesting to see where social media can take us when it comes to companies and branding. I've found that the more a company implements social media, the more they can seem credible and knowledgable. Most of the time, businesses can be found through the web.  That's why I found this nifty article on search engine optimization. They had 55 tips. I choose to only name 10 but knock yourself out on the rest if you so desire (these are search engine tips mainly for larger companies but can also work for individual branding). 


1. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.


2. Use captions with your images. As with newspaper photos, place keyword rich captions with your images.


3. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.


4. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.


5. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.


6. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.


7. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.


8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.


9. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.


10. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore (Another one I liked with this one was adding viral components to your web site or blog – reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.). 


Well there you have it. 10 ways to implement social media and better ways to search for and find your company. The more branding you can have the better marketing opportunities. And with a world continually changing with the internet, why wouldn't you want to make yourself/company known? 

21st Century Valentine's Day

Day of love. Such a great thing. I found these little beauts and thought they totally explain our world today. Poor St. Valentine....what turned out to be a recognition of your death turned into a world-wide celebration of love. Although there are many rumors involving the origins of Valentines Day, there is one I'd like to think is true. Third Century. Rome. Emperor Claudius II decided that soldiers were better if they were single. He outlawed marriage and our Valentine priest continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. Awwwwww.... Cute. But then he was put to death (You'll find other rumors here). Whatever the reason, love the holiday. Just for fun here are some social media valentines....21st century style.

Taste of PR - Kick-off Dinner for PR Conference

Last Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to attend Taste of PR, the kick-off to the PR conference coming up in a couple of weeks. The guest speaker for the event was KSL Social Media Director, Natalie Wardel. She gave some really good tips that I wanted to note that are important for anyone interested in getting better with business or even personal social media outlets. She talked about different things that would classify public relations in the past that included writing and sending press releases as well as calling and kissing up to media. Public relations now (which I am SO grateful for), are more about managing your own message. This includes event planning, managing web content, listening and responding, marketing, blogging and media pitching just to name a few. This is a chance to have diverse opportunities and bypass the newsrooms. This Live News Week Instagram photo brought up another discussion on how social media is starting to be a huge part of our lives. Corporations can be a trusted voice when social media can live on it’s own 50% of the time. One of my favorite things she said last night was that social media is the ingredient and not the solution. Many companies or those not familiar with social media and what it can do think it’s the end-all. This is the driving point that will take them where they need to be. Social media is simply a tool that when combined with other great marketing and promoting effects, can take businesses or your own personal reputation to the next level. When it comes to trust and investing in a business, studies have shown that it’s usually through a friend’s mouth that recommendations are spread. Marketing Sherpa said that 87% trust a friend’s opinion over a critic’s review. Bzzagent, along the same lines, said that one word-of-mouth conversation has the impact of 200 T.V. ads. That is huge when it comes to social media and that it’s not just put out by professionals. WE have the chance to say what we feel and give our own opinions! Natalie also said that the goal is not to be good at social media but rather to be good at your job BECAUSE of social media. She gave 10 signs that let you know you are involved in public relations and the one I connected with the most was, “You find yourself performing other duties not assigned the first week of your new job.” I could relate to that because I LOVE doing the out-of-the-ordinary. Going above and beyond to do what you need to do to help a business or company be effective. Can't wait for the conference first weekend of March!  

Roald Dahl Stamps

I loved Road Dahl books when I was younger. I vividly remember my mother reading The Witches to my sisters and I, leaning on every word when hearing about these horrible creatures, wondering if they were possibly real. So imagine my happiness in seeing these darling stamps. Royal Mail has come out with this series of collectables. And to quote the brilliant author himself, they are, "Wonkalicious Whizzpoppin Swizzfiggling Gloriumptiously wonderful." 

Are they as charming as they seem?

In conjunction with my previous post, I just had to include these little gems. If only Walt knew.... 

Someday My Prince Will Come ...

prin·cess noun \prin-‘sesˈ(usual British)\

1: a woman considered to have the qualities or characteristics of a princess.

She steps out of her coach, glances up at the castle and with a deep breath, slowly begins her ascent up the stairs hoping this is the night she will dance with the prince. After mindlessly viewing every fair maiden in the kingdom, the prince feels he must give up for there is no one for him.  ”Suddenly, he stops. He looks up. For lo… there she stands. The girl of his dreams. Who she is or whence she came, he knows not, nor does he care, for his heart tells him that here…..here is the maid predestined to be his bride.” (sheeersch….record player stopping music.) Okay people. End scene. You get the picture.

Such is the magical world of Disney Princesses. Grace and beauty combined with a strong will and attitude. These heroines have spirit. All these thoughts processed in my mind a couple Saturdays ago when my sister, who works for The Child and Family Support Center of Cache Valley, asked me to volunteer at its 2^nd annual Princess Party. And for two hours, as I lifted little girls on to their princess pedestals to get their picture taken, my mind began to wrap around the idea of where all this started. The “fad” that has carried this multi-billion dollar company to where it’s at today. Why the fascination (and at times obsession) with Disney Princesses?

I think one of the ideas, for now, is today’s society. Women want to be pretty. Women want to be beautiful. They want to feel like they are making a difference in the world. Rather than take real life women for an example, why not take cartoon characters with perfect looks and features? It is also the image of that perfect fairytale ending. The princess finds her prince and…. cue music … lives Happily Ever After. It’s the wish of a fantasy world. The escape from the real world where relationships and marriages aren’t always what they seem … where she gets upset when he leaves his swords and muddy boots all over the castle suite following his hunt with his friends.

In Disney’s newest animated feature, Tangled, the world was introduced to Rapunzel: a spunky dreamer with little experience in the real world. But what I loved about this new role model is that Disney did not create an all-around perfect superwoman. Rapunzel has her faults. Although beautiful in her own way, she is drawn with freckles (something not even imagined before) and a little bit of an overbite. She too is clumsy and may not have all the class and proper attitudes of your average royalty. Nonetheless, Tangled won the hearts of America. In fact, when Disney was swearing off new animated princess films, according to the Los Angeles Times, the outrage of fans was so massive that Pixar Animation chief Ed Catmull issued a retraction on Facebook, promising great things to come. With the film’s opening in November of 2010, Disney found it might not be such a bad thing to leave the thought of noble and brave women behind. The Disney version of retelling the story of the maiden with long locks trapped in the tower, waiting patiently for life to begin, rung in nearly $194 million in worldwide ticket sales.

In the end, a princess is a power, an ideal and a way of life. The Google search of the phrase ‘Disney Princess’, brings up over 45 million articles and makes it obvious how much they are adored. I’m not complaining however. It doesn’t take much to admit that I forced my mom to take me to see Beauty and the Beast nine times in the theaters.  Yes, a tale as old as time…. I too am obsessed. Disney knows how to do it well especially when it comes to captivating both the young and the old. And that captivation comes, most of the time, through these beautiful princesses.

Death of Traditional Media

I recently ran across an interesting video that talked about the death of “traditional media”. This got my mind thinking back to about six years ago when I first discovered Facebook. At that point, media and marketing were all about having a high engagement and high reach to anyone who would listen. Now, where social media has become the center, and if you want to have any affect as a business or corporation, your status and tweets need to be up to date. This is where this video came into play for me. I understood the importance of social media but the way Ernest Barbaric (@ebarbaric), a professional social media marketing speaker and consultant, speaks about it just makes sense.

 In today’s world, it’s finding that target audience and starting out with lower engagement and reach that helps the product or business grow. It seems almost opposite as to what you would want to do but when products are marketed to a specific group of people (low engagement and reach), that specific group will share it with those would like the same thing. Another article I read talked about how it seems that those who create the most visually unappealing and least user friendly websites are those created by newspapers, TV stations and radio stations. They are afraid to change with the times. When it comes to social media, rather than casting all over the net, you work to help consumers find you. By being effective with a social media plan, when you provide a product or service that interests people, those same people will find you if you allow yourself to be found.

Social Media vs. Traditional Media

Livin' in a Blogger World....

From crafty moms to catchy reads, blogs have the capability of sucking any time for something productive into 3 hours later…. you’re still reading. I think we’ve all come to that point where we wonder what we are doing with our lives as we read about the next celebrity mishap or newest low-fat cookie recipe. Looking at the top 50 blogs, The Huffington Post stands as number one. Didn’t realize why until I checked out what the hype was about and discovered the human mind is attracted to pictures. Huffington has it laid out where if you want read up on something: great! Find the picture you want and click. If you don’t, skip down to the next set of pictures or better yet, select an overall category. If it weren’t for my self-control that decreases every time I find a new blog, I’d never get anything done. The Sartorialist blog, a man walks around the city of Manhattan looking to spot an outfit he likes. He puts it up on his blog, will maybe place a comment and with over 70,000 viewers a day, it collected a spot in one of Time’s Top 100 Design Influences. It’s amazing what fads will catch on and what may start as a small can have a large affect. Stephanie Nielson was in a tragic plane crash with her husband in 2008 where over 80% of her body was burned. Being a blogger before brought her some attention but as she started writing about her experiences of being a wife and mother, and now, a woman healing with new skin, it caught on. Her ability to look at everything positive and laugh in every situation is captivating. She has been featured on many talk shows (not to mention Oprah) and radiates. She is currently writing a book and has won many awards, including . Blogs have the ability to motivation and influence others. 

The World's 50 Most Powerful Blogs

Organizational Uses: Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

Having a Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Small businesses sometimes need a guide when it comes to the social media jungle. I found this article where it highlights eight social media tips to help small businesses grow. I’m not an entrepreneur or anything, but someday I hope I can help revamp social media sights for a small or large business. These tips are great not only for businesses but for any organization (even when marketing ourselves!).

1.     Show the “real you”

It’s good to put up tips or link to a new blog post but companies and professionals at times will want to see the real you. What can you bring to our business or better yet, this world? Also including thought provoking questions like, “How can we encourage America to become more social media savvy?” help to show your thoughts.

2.     Pick one thing and do it really well

I don’t know if I completely agree with this because the whole point of social media is to market and use all sources possible for information. They brought up a good point when they said prioritizing resources towards activities that deliver the most impact is smart (for example Follower wonk). When you find what network has concentration of target audience, you can focus more on what networks need more attention.

3.     Turn Facebook page into a lead-generating machine

Collecting names and e-mails to communicate with an ideal audience on a regular basis puts your business out there. In fact, without a list of qualified leads, you don’t have a business. This list can grow through marketing moves on Facebook (iFrames) and other networks.

4.     Invest in a great twitter design

There are plenty of people or businesses I have found and follow on Twitter because of their great design. The fact that they invested the time to create one shows they mean serious business (no pun intended). One way they suggested how to market your Twitter account is through following Twitter ads that market to your niche. Many will click to confirm and be directed to your page. If they are interested, they will follow back. One company (@HungerGamesPod) searched a basic @TheHungerGames ID and added over 4,000 followers to his account in less than a month by doing so.

5.     Bring company onto video

Adding short videos is one of the number one ways to get to the top of search results. Customizing channels on you tube adds credibility and increases the chance of viewers continuing on to the website. When humor and graphics are involved, views will increase, as well as when it’s three minutes or less. The shorter, the better.  

6.     Master video marketing

Learning how video content can increase exposure in search results is key (through proper tags, titles and publishing). Video thumbnails have higher attraction than just text. Video can also highlight a company’s personality.

7.     Monitor your clients and prospects

Showing clients you are interested in them can be done through creating alerts and adding their blogs, creating a twitter list and also adding a tweetdeck. Adding social connections and monitoring what clients say and do in social networks helps to serve their needs and build relationships faster.

8.     Give away the secret sauce

When content is displayed on how-top tips and industry secrets, it creates content that solves customers’ problems. It’s a competitive advantage where content will rise in search rankings and be shared through many networks with your business title as tagged.

I thought these tips were all really smart and presented ideas I had never thought about. When you look at successful businesses, make sure to look at their social media. It’s a rare occasion when successful businesses will have only a few networks.

Source: 8 Small Business Social Media Tips 

The Big Seven .... Well, 2 of them!

Not gonna lie. Love Facebook. When signing up for it 6 years ago (when you had to be connected with a university to join), I thought it’d be something fun to pass the time. I was wrong. With over 800 million users, Facebook continues to climb the social media ladder offering a way to connect to friends and family, shop and store information, and open up to the world. They’ll have to add more kick to their step however now that Google has created its newest jab at a social media network: Google+. Both sights have the positive and negatives that can entice users to switch or become a part of both.

While looking at the difference between the companies, it helps to see who heads the businesses. Geniuses Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) and Larry Page (Google CEO) are up front and with a competitive edge, both companies are working hardest at having the best teams with the best technology.

Paul Adams, a social researcher for Google was one of the masterminds to create Google+. He didn’t quite get to interject this idea when Facebook asked him to help design advertisements. Adams reply to this on his blog? “Google values technology, not social science.” Thus the war begins. This is the war of all wars for the future of web technology. Receiving and getting info, communicating, posting and living our lives electronically come down to a user name and password for either or both of these empires.

Google, created in 1996, has organized the world’s info and currently stands at $38 million in revenue. It all started with a search. Now they come to offer more than a search with their new baby, Google+. Within the first 4 months, the network had seen 40 million users sign on. This has been the biggest overtaking since Facebook blew MySpace out of the water (Yes, my MySpace account is nonexistent).

Some of Google+ ‘s top features include:
- a one click picture upload from a mobile device (Facebook can do the same but it’s not an automated feature)
- a clone of Facebook’s like feature (+1)
- circles, a feature where it’s easy to decide who can see posts by separating groups of friends (Facebook has run into problems with privacy and where online sharing is broken, Google+ users can share as they do in the real world)
- hangouts, a video chat through the account where Facebook only has the text chat feature
- sparks, collected info on a select topic in one place through what friends are sharing or from blogs on the internet (not a feature on Facebook)
- huddle, enables group chats (also not on Facebook)

Google’s main goal now is to slow down Facebook and use Google+ to improve maps, search engines and advertisements. Improving You Tube and Gmail, Google’s other clients, will also make their ads more relevant.

Facebook, owner of the world’s identities, lets your friends talk about things they’ve searched (whether through Google or not). Facebook has come out on top with connecting thousands of apps and websites along with investing more money into advertisements. In fact, their ad revenue will grow to 81% this year more than doubling Google’s 34%.

Facebook also has their competitive advantage with:
- the new timeline feature which allows users to express the story of their lives through a digital scrapbook
- deeper connections with social integration with Netflix and/or Spotify
- a hidden stab where four of the 11 top executives hail from Google
- the opportunity in four months to mint millions (an expected $80 billion) when the long-awaited initial offering of going public actually occurs
- seeking for a closer relationship with one of Google’s biggest rivals: apple
- the comment on Google’s fight being a “validation as to how the next five years are going to play out” (a.k.a. we created it first and they are duplicating)

Any nice play today kids? A Stifel Nicolaus analyst, Jordan Rohan thinks not. "It's highly unlikely that either Google or Facebook could grow by the billions that investors expect in the display market without engaging directly and stealing market share from the other." With Google+ coming out, Facebook initiated a lockdown motivating and pushing employees to replicate features of their enemy. Zuckerberg served free food this summer to workers on weekends where Page pushed his team to add features at a quick stride – more than 100 in first 90 days. Page even moved his personal office in with the Google+ team creating one of the largest engineering endeavors they’ve undertaken in their 13-year history.

Google has offered their top engineers and executives more than $10 million in cash and equity if they stay. Their workforce has also received a 10% raise. Even with this, Google’s employees would do better to support their company in valuing that their proposition is different from Facebook; that will compel people to switch accounts or use both. Of the 40 million users on their new site, Google is not certain how many are active in their account. The plus side however is when Facebook makes a mistake next, Google+ will be waiting with arms wide open. Where mobile is the next background for Google, they will find ways to put Google+ in phones.

Being the best will be a fight so may the best company win (seeing most Americans will probably be comfortable with wherever they are at).

Sources:

5 Differences Between Google and Facebook

Facebook vs. Google