Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

Using a social media web site (Ex. Twitter, Facebook and now Google+) is a common place activity for many, but every time a new social media site comes online the same discussions surfaces and the same comments are made about rights grabs, privacy concerns and the need to lock your personal information & photos offline to preserve your ability to protect your work/business. This later concern is one photographers repeat every time a new site comes online and its often backed by erroneous information or a simple lack of understanding of the Terms of Service (ToS) of the new web site.

The Basics
Before I go further it’s important to note that a Terms of Service document is a legal document. To get a definitive take on what a specific Terms of Service document says consult a lawyer. I am not a lawyer and what I’m about to share is based on my personal experience as a web entrepreneur, full-time professional photographer and former corporate web manager. If you’re reading this and you’re a practicing lawyer I welcome your feedback, input and contribution to the information below.

Jockeying for Legal Protection – How Each Party Protects Themselves
Me – As a professional photographer I don’t just think in terms of producing photographs; I think in terms of intellectual property. As such all of my work is filed officially for copyright with the U.S. Library of Congress. (For more on my copyright work-flow see Copyrights: Protecting My Photography or 10 Must Read Copyright Articles for Photographers.) This is important because it helps me protect my creative work to the full letter of the law in the event my work is misappropriated. And by that I mean companies of all sizes will almost always take note of a copyright infringement claim when notified of a formal copyright filing with the U.S. Library of Congress as it can mean real impact to their bottom-line.

Copyright protection helps me gain footing to protect my business and secure future income even when up against a person or company infringing my copyright that might have greater resources or might otherwise chose to ignore a complaint it sees as a non-priority.

Them – Not surprising companies behind social media web sites also think in terms of intellectual property and take necessary steps to protect themselves.

• First and foremost they want to establish that they own the code behind the functionality that makes their site work (ex. site users don’t own how Google+, Twitter or Facebook works or any portion of code behind the sites). This is almost always under a Proprietary Rights and/or general License section of a ToS.
• Secondly they want to establish they hold the right to share submitted information (syndicate information) in such a way that the site functions as expected in regard to sharing content and can be ported to sister web properties or web partners (ex. Tweets can be ported to a blog via a Twitter widget, Tweetdeck or Hootsuite can receive/display your tweets from Twitter, etc.).  Social media is about sharing, so syndication is a central function to secure rights for. In general such terms can be found under a Content License section of a ToS.
• Thirdly they want to make sure they are not opening themselves up to lawsuits (ex. liability, privacy or copyright infringement and claims regarding security breaches). To safeguard against such claims “Liability”, “Security” and “Privacy” disclaimers are always present. Copyright & Trademarks are often covered on 3 fronts: End User content (content you own that is shared), 3rd Party Content (content you share owned by others) and Developers (programmers creating new software leveraging an API to port shared content to plugins, apps, etc.) Because of the complexity surrounding copyrighted and trademarked information terms are usually divided between several sections in a ToS document.

If you were to start a social media company these would be your top 3 concerns. Creating a social media web site takes a lot of time, planning and resources. Losing that investment would be catastrophic hence the need for legalese covering the aforementioned concerns.

My Top 4 Factors Dictating Participation on Social Media Web Sites (ex. Google+)
Note: Google+ is used as an example, but could be replaced by any company/site name.

1. Is a claim made that the copyright of my work is transferred to Google+ (or company X) upon posting/submission?
2. Is a claim made that my copyrighted work will be distributed to sites under a set umbrella of sites  and services (ex. Google+, Gmail, Buzz, Google Search, Google Image Search, Google Maps, Google Places, etc.), or far beyond such as a blanket claim to sub-license my shared work to known and unknown companies/services (ex. 3rd party advertisers or image licensing services)?
3. Do terms used in relation to any claimed license include “irrevocable”, “perpetual license”, “fully paid”, “royalty-free” or the classic phrase “by all means and in any media now known or hereafter developed”?
   Horrible example often absorbed in boiler-plate ToS:

   You agree to grant to “Company X” a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual license, with the right to sub-license, to reproduce, distribute, transmit, create derivative works of, publicly display and publicly perform any materials and other information (including, without limitation, ideas contained therein for new or improved products and services) you submit to any public areas of the Site (such as bulletin boards, forums and newsgroups) or by e-mail to “Company X” by all means and in any media now known or hereafter developed. You also grant to “Company X” the right to use your name in connection with the submitted materials and other information as well as in connection with all advertising, marketing and promotional material related thereto. You agree that you shall have no recourse against “Company X” for any alleged or actual infringement or misappropriation of any proprietary right in your communications to “Company X”.

4. Can the Terms of Service be terminated by myself and not just by Google+?

How Google+ Holds Up to my 4 Factors of Participation
As I read the Google Terms of Service document my 4 Factors of Participation break out as follows:

1. Copyright – I retain my copyright and all other rights held to submitted content. (Win!)
   

   11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. (for remainder see #3 below)

2. Content distribution & claimed rights
   

   11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

   This is a broad statement, but rights aren’t given to 3rd parties outside of the scope of syndicating content. As stated earlier sharing is a central pillar to social media so I’m OK with this. (OK)

   In addition Section 11.3 clarifies an often abused statement “by all means and in any media now known or hereafter developed”. Content will be changed or adapted to meet technical requirements of future networks, to fit future devices, services or media. It’s open ended but makes logical sense to me versus being an extremely vague rights claim. (OK)

   11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

3. Use of “Red Flag” terms
   

   11.1 (cont.) By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

   • Yikes Google starts using red flag terms “perpetual”, irrevocable”, and “royalty-free” and “non-exclusive”. To their credit they use “worldwide” and not “universe” which I’ve begun seeing. At first glance I’m turned off by these terms, but I fall back to my entrepreneurial experience from the dot com days and recognize these are terms necessary to use to reproduce content online. Think of this blog post. The title and abstract of its contents can be displayed in Google+, shown on a Google Custom page, in a Google RSS Reader, be translated by Google Translate, repurposed via Google owned Feedburner, appear in Google Search, etc. Each of these services needs to modify the display and length of this posts content. On top of that there is no limit in time-frame to when someone might find a search result for example. (Reluctant OK)
   • Google clarifies why the aforementioned red flag terms are employed, but also states these terms may be revoked per the terms of other Google services. This part per my earlier explanation makes sense, but ends in a way that makes me a little nervous as its open ended. (Reluctant OK)
4. Termination of Terms of Service
   Google outlines in Section 13.1 and 13.2 that you can terminate the ToS and provides a mechanism to do so. (Win)

Keeping an Eye on the Big Picture
Social Media sites can be used in a variety of ways to support personal and business goals. While they’re fun to use I strongly believe they should be used with a goal in mind. Goals for personal use may vary drastically compared to goals for business use.  On top of that goals for business use vary as well based on the type of business you run, how you run your business and who your target audience is. My top 4 concerns in evaluating the ToS for a social media site may not be the same as your own, but I personally think they’re a good start in making an early evaluation of a particular service and whether they’re worthy of using.

In my example I’m OK in using Google+. Having read the Google+ ToS I have a better feel of how my content is being used and have identified short comings that might force me to modify my sharing behavior there. Ultimately I find no reason yet to curb my sharing behavior, but as with all new services I’m starting off conservatively to see how Google+ evolves during the closed beta.

Social media is a great tool. As always I recommend approaching it with an open mind and in an educated fashion.

Related Articles:

• TOSBack Terms-of-Use Tracker
• Terms Of (Ab)Use – Electronic Frontier Foundation
• The Clicks That Bind: Ways Users “Agree” to Online Terms of Service – Electronic Frontier Foundation

Update: Google+ ToS from an Attorney
Google user licenses: clarification would be nice, but they’re not panic-worthy

Getty Images Blesses the Google+ ToS for its Flickr Collection Contributors
Getty Images has responded to inquiries that posting images on Google+ does not violate the terms of Flickr Getty Contributor contracts.
If you’re a Getty Flickr contributor you can view this private link with specific details

Google+ Not Part of Google Display Network (Ad Network)
Google representative states “Google+ is not part of the Google Display Network” in this wired article Google+ vs. Facebook on Privacy: + Ahead On Points — For Now

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Terms of Service, Terms of Use, ToS, ToU, Google+, Photography, photo, professional, Google, copyright

Today I’m kicking off the 2010 Photographer Social Media Survey and you’re invited to take part by clicking on the red link below:

2010 Photographer Social Media Survey
Estimated time of completion – 10-15 minutes
Please note by 2010 we mean business year 2010

This survey is being co-run with Miki Johnson and is a follow-up survey to the 2009 Photographer Social Media Survey. The goal of this survey is to evaluate and share developing trends of how photographers used social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and others in 2010 as compared to 2009.  The 2009 Survey was an incredible success thanks to your participation and word of mouth to your peers.

I invite you to take part in this survey and to spread word of it to other photo communities and photography trade organizations. Data compiled from this survey will be shared upon its completion to all who are interested.

Thanks for your interest, participation and efforts to share this survey with your peers.

Technorati Tags: photography, photographer, survey, social media

Ever see an odd pixelated square graphic like this one on a web page, print magazine or as someone’s social media site avatar? If you haven’t yet I guarantee you will now. This type of graphic is called a QR Code and something you’ll want to take note of and to creatively use in the future.

What is a QR Code & Why Use It?
QR stands for Quick Response and essentially are bar codes, a different variation to what you find on grocery labels in the store. In essence QR codes are a visual representation of a web URL. They’re used in print and on web pages to help people load a web page from their camera enabled mobile phone.  This is particularly helpful to transition viewers quickly from the world of print to the web.

How Does One Use A QR Code?
The simplest use-case of utilizing a QR code is as follows:

1. Viewer sees a QR Code on a print ad or a web page
2. Viewer loads a QR Code scanning application on your mobile phone
3. Viewer photographs the QR Code with your mobile phone
4. The QR Code scanning application then provides the viewer with a URL and the option to load it on your phone’s web browser.

The aforementioned use case is the basic way to use a QR code, but there are many creative applications in using a QR Code. Case in point is the C.A.O.S Living book (see below) where QR Codes were used to create a book that never grows old. There are several interesting ways to use QR Codes as they can be included on business cards, online avatars, promotional mailers, guerrilla marketing, tattoos…. OK maybe you shouldn’t use it as a tattoo. Recently I made use of a Wordpress plug-in that auto generates QR codes for every blog post on my blog. If you look on the right side of my blog I now have a section titled “QR Code To Go”. The purpose of this is to allow people to transition reading my blog from their computer to their phone if they’re on the go and need to be mobile.

As for what QR Code app to use… there are numerous QR Code readers now available in the iTunes and Android marketplaces. Take a look to find one that will work on your phone. It’s a great app to have on hand.

How Do I Make A QR Code?
The simplest way to create a QR Code is to access one of the many online QR Code generator web sites now available. I personally use the Kaywa QR Code generator. From this site and equivalents you can enter a URL and download an image file of your QR Code in various sizes. You can then use the image as you see fit to direct people to the URL entered into the generator.

Final Thoughts
QR Codes are definitely growing in popularity and they’re worth exploring if you haven’t already begun to do so. They’re big in Japan and they’re growing in popularity across the globe. If you come up with a creative use of a QR Code or know of a great example be sure to let me know in the comments. It’d be great to share some inspirational uses with others. If QR Codes are new to you then definitely take a look at the videos and resource links below.

Demo Videos
How QR Codes Work – Scanning QR Codes Found on NY Streets

Timeless Book Video

Additional Resources & Reading on QR Codes

• More Details on the Basics of QR Codes
• How to Scan a QR Code on an iPhone
• How to Scan a QR Code on an Android Mobile Phone
• QR Code Features (For the Technically Minded)
• QR Code Best Practices
• QR Code Generator
• Tips on Advertising with QR Codes
• 33 Ways Photographers Can Use QR Codes

Who’s Scanning QR Codes (via Jumpscan & Mashable)

Technorati Tags: photography, marketing, qr code

Cell phone photography is exploding in use these days. As our ability to take photographs becomes easier, so too does the inadvertent spread of our personal information. Devices such as the iPhone automatically embed GPS data into EXIF data of its photos. Uninformed use of certain social media sites / image hosting services can result in the inadvertent spread of personal information such as your approximate home address or daily routine.

It’s important to note that I’m a firm believer in embedding EXIF data into professional images from a dSLR so that you can be found for future work, image licensing or print sales. In this instance I’m focused on images that originate from mobile / cell phones and other mobile devices. For a complete list of what social media web sites preserve metadata refer to David Rieck’s Controlled Vocabulary Social Media survey.

As it relates to mobile / cell phone photography and privacy I was tipped off to the following news report by Michael E. Gordon. Ever aware of metadata and my online activity with my iPhone photography I felt comfortable I was in good shape on the privacy front, but I decided to check sites that I disiplay my iPhone photos just in case. What I learned was that my settings on some sites were not 100% correct. Below the following video I’ve outlined what sites did or did not include GPS data and what I had to do to adjust my settings to hide personal GPS data.

Mobile App Communities (ex. Best Camera, Instagr.am, etc.)
A general rule of thumb is that anytime a mobile app applies a visual change to your photos there is a good chance, as of this post date, the metadata of your photo is not being preserved. Apps such as Best Camera and Instagr.am that apply pre-set filters to alter the look of your photographs do not carry over metadata to the final version of your image. As it relates to privacy this is great, but if you’re sharing dSLR photos that are being made available commercially this is not such a great thing.

Facebook – Mobile Uploads & Places
Facebook has never preserved image metadata to the best of my knowledge. Once again this is great if you’re concerned about location related metadata in your mobile / cell phone photographs, but horrible if you’re uploading dSLR images for business purposes.

Flickr
Flickr has long been at the forefront of geotagging photographs. They’ve implemented an elegant solution to read GPS data in a photographs metadata on import and show the location via Google maps on each photo page.  I have (2) two Flickr accounts. One account is for my professional work and the other highlights photos taken from my cell phone. Checking my cell phone Flickr account I found that personal location data was being revealed on numerous photos and I had to remove it. The fastest way to do this was to batch remove GPS data.  Here is how I did it….

Batch Delete GPS data on Flickr

1. Navigate to “Organize & Create”
2. At the bottom of the browser window just above the row of image thumbnails click “Select All” and drag them to where it says “Drag items here to edit them as a batch”
3. Select the “Location” menu and choose “Change geoprivacy”
4. Select remove Map information

To stop Flickr from importing GPS data from your photos (highly recommended for mobile phone images if privacy is a concern)

1. Navigate to “You” > “Your Account” or click on your account name in the upper right of the browser window
2. Select “Privacy & Permissions”
3. Click on “edit” for “Import EXIF location data”
4. Uncheck “Yes, please, that would be lovely.” and click Save under “Shall we import that information when a photo or video is uploaded or replaced?”

FourSquare & Gowalla
These applications are a fun way to share your whereabouts and activity with your social network. While shared images do not contain EXIF data the application is capturing / providing information on your location you voluntarily share with others via location services.

GPS Settings on your iPhone
To be 100% certain what applications are providing location based information about you via GPS you should check your iPhone settings. To do this follow these easy steps:

1. Click on the Settings app
2. Choose “General”
3. Select “Location Services”
4. Turn on or off the ability to relay GPS data to the list of apps found on your phone

Final Thoughts
I hope this information helps you get the most out of your online / mobile experience while preserving the level of privacy you prefer. I do not have access to an Android phone so if you have privacy tips please feel free to share them in the comments.

Technorati Tags: Photography, mobile phone, cell phone, privacy, GPS, geotagging, iPhone, Android

Last week in my post Social CRM: Opportunity Knocking I discussed the flip-side of common online privacy concerns highlighting opportunities for individuals and small businesses. With the rise of Social CRM solutions aggregating personal information to paint a picture of who you are to others I noted the importance of  actively managing your online profiles and accounts. To extend this point further I wanted to share with you another area of opportunity for those who are managing their online presence in the Social Search space. Enjoy Part 3 of 3 on the topic of privacy and social media.

It’s been roughly 14 months since I wrote Why Social Media Matters to Photographers and in this time it’s very likely that the exploration of this new communication medium has resulted in your creation of multiple accounts either to experiment with or align into a larger communication strategy. In the past year Social Media use has exploded and the large search engines have taken note. So as to not become obsolete search engines have begun spidering entries in many social media communities to display alongside their traditional search results. Google quickly realized the best way to make sense of all this information in relation to individual identity was not to necessarily rely on algorithms to map things together, but to rely on individuals to piece their online presence together into a single profile… enter Google Profiles in mid-2009. In creating your Google Profile you can actively list sites that pertain to your online persona and footprint in a similar fashion noted in Social CRM: Opportunity Knocking. As an example here’s my Google profile page… feel free to follow me.

In late 2009 Google launched Social Search, 6 months after the launch of Google Profiles, enabling a new means to find information with in your social network. Google maps your relationship to the contacts in your social network and spiders content found with in the listed sites of each of your friends Google Profiles. The end result… for each of your searches Google will present the traditional results reflective of all content across the web and a special sub-set of results reflective of content amongst your contacts. To get a better idea of what this means see the video and screenshots below. (more after the jump)

Read more…

Last week in my post Privacy: You’ve Just Given It Away What Next? I discussed recent news surrounding Facebook to challenge your thinking on what you’re getting in return for revealing your personal or business information online. If you’re curious to learning more on my thoughts I highly recommend  you read a response I made to a comment by Don Giannatti (@Wizwow). While my original post highlights some concerning areas of social media in regard to privacy I wanted to discuss the flip-side to the discussion: how are current trends presenting opportunities? It turns out there are two areas I wanted to explore on this front and as a result I’m going to expand this series to 3 posts. I hope you enjoy  Part 2 of 3 on the topic of privacy and social media.

Much has been said about becoming part of the conversation and for that Social Media helps us become human in the seemingly sterile environment of the Internet. Emoticons have only taken us so far since the mid-1990’s. Social Media gives our online personas dimension, allows us to self-publish and allows us to network.

This is the Social Media we know as of today, but it is only the beginning. Social Media on the surface may look like fun and games, but when you look beneath the surface you’ll see it’s about capturing personal data. Personal data that can be leveraged to generate revenue. Two articles published since my last post highlight current trends & demand in this area:

• IPs Linked To Major Corporations Downloaded Leaked Facebook Profile Pages Torrent
• The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets

The most frequently discussed revenue model for Social Media sites is targeted advertising, but a new revenue model may soon be upon us in the form of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions.

Social CRMs enables a single point search across all public social media profiles to give you a glimpse of who you’re communicating with. In the past before meeting clients or running workshops I’ve employed this tactic manually through Google, searching client names to research who I’m going to be interacting with. It has kept me from insulting my clients, provided conversation points to put my clients at ease and allowed me to learn more about my clients preferences and tastes.

Click to Enlarge

One of the first resources I’ve found that takes the work out of this research and is on the cutting edge of Social CRM is Rapportive. Rapportive’s Firefox or Chrome plugin provides a simple solution to see public Social Media profiles of every person who contacts me through my Google GMail account. The ability to see profiles in a consolidated fashion for sites such as LinkedIn, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. is an increasingly valuable tool.

Social CRM is in its very early stages, but well worth paying attention to. Rapportive is but 4 months old as of July so the service has its bugs and room to grow. Rapportive also has competition in the form of etacts whose service also tracks conversations and sets conversation reminders.

This news should also be a warning to you, if you have public profiles available on the Social Media sites you frequent be sure they won’t alienate your clients or hurt your business. Proactively managing your Social Media profiles is a business critical activity as Social CRM emerges. Know what accounts of yours are public and private and what they contain. Social CRM solutions generate best guess profiles based on publicly available information so you may need to be proactive in defining the information found within your profile.

Martin Kleppmann, co-founder of Rapportive, was kind enough to share the following in my correspondences with him:

Rapportive doesn’t show things that aren’t already public, but just makes them more easily accessible (compared to using Google and the various sites directly). That information can be really valuable for both sides of a conversation to understand each other better, but of course that only works if the information is accurate and up-to-date.

Rapportive pulls information from various sources, as described on our FAQ. However, those sources aren’t always perfect, so the best way for people to make sure their information in Rapportive is accurate is to edit it directly in Rapportive (or to email us, as you have done). Any change you make to your own profile is immediately reflected to all other Rapportive users.

Given developments in Social CRM it would seem that we are on the verge of seeing more robust solutions that allow us to mine the personal data of others who we communicate with. This should be refreshing news when privacy concerns are often focused primarily on how larger players such as Facebook and Google utilize our information with out our full understanding. Social CRM developments are also a reminder that we need to be both diligent in managing how our personal information is being used by large players and small. I often hear comments that baffle me “If it’s on the Internet you should assume its public!”, strangely not too different than “If its on the Internet it’s free!“, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Social Media sites provide guidelines about the use of information you share with them and many provide a framework to support private information. Bottom line is know what sites you share information publicly, which allow you to make information  private and proactively manage how these sites piece together a larger aggregate image of who you are and/or what your business is about.

Next on the topic of Privacy & Social Media Opportunities:
I’ll share with you one of the notable developments of 2010 that exemplifies managing your aggregate Social Media persona. Stay tuned for Social Search: Competition = Opportunity

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You’ve found my blog, but you’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg… follow me on Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed.I also invite you to listen and subscribe to my podcast “EXIF and Beyond” featuring photographer interviews and the chronicles of creating some of my photography

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Technorati Tags: Social Media, Social CRM, Rapportive, etacts,  Facebook, technology, privacy

Before the tidal wave of change that swept through my life the past couple months I had intended to write about the privacy controversy surrounding Facebook. Back then Facebook not so elegantly made their “closed garden” an “open garden” and in the process made a lot of people angry. Facebook’s privacy settings were and still are confusing. Facebook heard the uproar though and attempted to make some changes.  This post is Part 1 of 2 3 on the topic of privacy and social media. Facebook for better or worse has grabbed our attention on the topic of privacy but there is much more to discuss and much of it provides great opportunity.

Facebook’s Permanent Impact on Privacy
At one time the title of this post was going to be “Privacy: Facebook Wins, You Lose”. On some level I still feel this way, but in short Facebook provides a service that to many is worth giving up some if not all of their privacy for. The problem with Facebook is they’re not very ethical about this… they force their privacy changes on people. Jason Calcanis put it best in his assessment of why Facebook is not trustworthy. I should state that I whole heartedly agree with Jason on principle.  But why did Quit Facebook Day flop with only 1 in 15,000 accounts being deleted?

I personally was a bit caught up in the arrival of my son when this was all happening, but that was fortuitous as it gave me time to better understand this question. My wife and sister are on Facebook quite a bit. Why? It’s the one place you can go to see an instant update of everyone you know. No digging though email or haphazardly taking instant message chats. Convenience trumps privacy… for now. Of Facebook’s 500,000,000 members you’re likely going to have a good number of friends and acquaintances that are on the site making it easy to track news and updates with in your social circle.

Let’s be clear from the start Facebook operates in a constant state of conflict. They make it easy for you to share information about yourself to your friends, but they make money from sharing your information with other companies. The two goals are diametrically opposed in regard to privacy. Complicating this is that Facebook started out as a “closed garden”. What I mean by this is that Facebook was originally developed so your information was private, to be shared only with people you knew. Now they’re being influenced by Twitter and seeing more income opportunity exists in the free flow (public display) of your information. For the past several years they’ve been slowly realigning their system to maximize how they share your information… making it an “open garden” by removing their walls / barriers of entry. Problem is they got millions of members to join under the guise of privacy. It’s important to note here that the public display of your information has helped Facebook.com become the #1 visited site surpassing Google.com.

Once Facebook hit a certain size in audience, let alone traffic, Facebook won and you lost. You have forever lost. Enough people have said its OK to reveal their information publicly, even if its not for you. The ability to have Facebook revert if not significantly modify their system is lost and they’re betting that you’ll never leave because it’ll be too difficult for you to reestablish your network elsewhere. A new open source solution with greater respect for user privacy such as Diaspora could arise… but it will be a while. (Ironically even Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook has provided money for Diaspora to get off the ground in a PR move to show good faith.)

So seriously at this point how likely are you to quit Facebook over privacy? Slim to none I bet even with news yesterday that 100 million Facebook users had their public data stripped from Facebook and made available via a download.

Next on the topic of Privacy:
Facebook’s flip-floping business model has thrust you and I into a position to rethink what privacy means to us, but as you’ll see in my next post as a business owner this shift in privacy has its upside. Stay tuned for “Social CRM: Opportunity Knocking”

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You’ve found my blog, but you’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg… follow me on Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed.I also invite you to listen and subscribe to my podcast “EXIF and Beyond” featuring photographer interviews and the chronicles of creating some of my photography

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Technorati Tags: Social Media, Facebook, technology, privacy

Over the past couple of months I’ve read a few blog posts and Facebook entries from acquaintances expressing concern about Social Media activity in relation to time burned and eventual payoff. I’ve been meaning to write something up on this topic for a while, but had to wait for the right time to squeeze it into my schedule (see tip #3).  I am certainly pro-social media, but at the same time I’m quite the pragmatist in knowing that different folks will manage their social media activity differently based on their comfort level and business needs. Rather than reply here and there online as this concern is aired here is my consolidated list of 10 Tips to Manage Social Media Productivity:

1. Scanning versus Searching for Activity
If you’re not up for scanning for activity through out the day search for updates/topics/people at one set time through Twitter search or set up a listening post for terms relevant to you. A listening post will allow you to scan for activity on your schedule.

2. Activity on Your Terms
While it can certainly help to be active everyday for certain social media strategies, don’t feel you have to manage social media every day. Many social media web sites are a constant flow of data/messages/interactivity that can overwhelm even seasoned social media pros. If you miss something it’s not the end of the world. If you want to catch up see tip #1. You can’t take a sip of water from the bottom of Niagara Falls.

3. Prioritize
Prioritize online activity choices and match it to the time you can allocate to social media work. This tip is particularly true if you have a presence on multiple sites.

4. Fun versus Work
Keep in mind the difference between social media activity with a business purpose and social media activity with a personal/for fun activity. If you’re lucky you’ll have both blur together more times than not. Per tip #2 if you’re working focus on addressing work updates versus personal updates. Being disciplined in this area can save quite a bit of time.

5. Don’t Stretch Yourself Thin
Do what you can when you can. Set a schedule if it helps to have 30 min a day you’re active online or set a day/week that you check online regularly and another day/week you’re offline. Activity on social media sites should be done when convenient for you. You shouldn’t become a slave to it.

6. Don’t Be A Slave to Engagement
Adjust your marketing mindset and don’t get turned upside down.  Social Media while about interaction/engagement is also about publishing. It’s ok to have a bit of old school one sided publishing in the mix. Not every online activity has to be interactive, but to be social you should have a decent of amount of it. Perhaps a 60/40 mix will work for your audience versus a gung-ho 90/10 social to publishing mix. To know what works best for you and your audience may require a bit of experimentation.

7. Responding to Followers & Fans
While its great form to respond to everyone that reaches out to you, as you increase your fan base/followers it becomes unrealistic to do so. Don’t feel beholden to respond to everyone. If you can you’re a rock star, if not its because you’re a working professional and there’s nothing wrong with that.

8. Know When to Scale Back If Necessary
If you’re not having fun being active in your social media marketing or its not adding to your productivity/opportunity… consider scaling back or even cutting out activity on less productive web sites. Social Media marketing is in its early stages and not all services are mature nor are all online marketing techniques optimized. A lot of this is still experimental so consider yourself an early adopter. This being said I would investigate methods of optimizing your activity before you completely pull the plug on taking part on certain web sites or with social media all together.

9. Consolidation & Connectivity
Look for opportunities to consolidate online activity to a central forum (your blog, Facebook, or Twitter) and set expectation with your audience. You don’t have to interact with people on the same post in 3 different locations. If you have yet to read my blog post The Birds and the Bees of Social Media Connectivity be sure to do so.

10. Know Who & What You Are
Remind yourself who you are and act accordingly. Are you a photographer, a blogger or social networking butterfly? (If you’re not a photographer replace it with whatever profession you are a member.) If you’re getting sucked into Social Media and finding your time is disappearing asking yourself this question is a quick way to get yourself back on track. This is one tip that has helped me stay on track over several years of social media activity.

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You’ve found my blog, but you’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg… follow me on Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed. I also invite you to listen and subscribe to my podcast “EXIF and Beyond” featuring photographer interviews and the chronicles of creating some of my photography

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