Facebook Changes Link Previews to Help Combat ‘Fake News’

By Caitlan McCafferty

Big changes from Facebook took effect the week of July 18. In order to combat the ongoing spread of misinformation, Facebook has changed the way users can edit the previews of links that they post to the social media platform.

This latest update from Facebook eliminates the ability to customize link metadata, which determines the headline, description, and image shown in the preview of the link.

According to an article by Engadget, the preview function has been abused by many fake news outlets, which “have been taking advantage of the ability to customize a story's metadata to spread misinformation.They often replace the headline, image and snippet with something controversial to get the most shares, likes and comments possible." This change allows Facebook to eliminate at least one method of disseminating false information.

The social media platform recognizes that legitimate publishers and content creators rely on the customization function to tailor their shares in order to improve audience engagement, and Facebook developers have been working on a solution for them. In the meantime, content creators can continue to customize how links appear with Open Graph meta tags. Open Graph meta tags are an important option to consider to optimize content on social media.

Overall, this change signals a serious commitment from Facebook to curb the spread of false information. Shortly after the 2016 election, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced an initiative to stop fake news. The elimination of the ability to alter link previews appears to be one of many steps the social media giant is undertaking to achieve that goal.

From Oscars Flub to Fake News: What We’re Reading Now

By Jackie Sofia

‘Envelopegate’ and the Power of Public Memory
The PR nightmare continues for PwC in the wake of this year’s Academy Awards, during which the accounting giant somehow mixed up the envelopes announcing the coveted “Best Picture” award winner. Jaws were left visibly hanging after Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway handed the golden man to the wrong man.

After the debacle, PwC was spotted on Twitter trying to bury their shame amongst unrelated news content about the firm. The distraction was not very effective; CBS News reports that the two individual accountants involved will never work the Oscars again, and the relationship of the entire firm is “under review.” While PwC’s reputation is now tarnished, they may have inadvertently buffed up the image of several other accounting firms just in time for tax season. One man’s loss is another man’s win.

An Instagram How-To: Multiple Image Posts
Instagram continues to advance its offerings for users. A new feature allows users to post multiple photos at once with a slideshow effect. The digital flip book allows you to post up to 10 photos simultaneously and already has been implemented widely by advertisers on the platform.

Marketers can use this feature to relay more extensive messages to their audience, or get creative and compile step-by-step guides for their products and services. Speaking of step-by-step guides, here’s a tutorial explaining how to use the new feature.

What the CIA is Saying About the New Wikileaks Document (Vault7) 
Wikileaks released its latest batch of CIA documents, a series titled “Vault7.” It’s a cool name, but the contents may be more sobering. The information released this past week includes thousands of documents that describe software tools and techniques for breaking into people’s phones, televisions and other electronic devices.

CIA spokesman, Dean Boyd, said of the surprise release, “We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents.”  Michael Hayden, the former CIA and NSA director, tried to further soften the blow by assuring viewers on CBS’ The Late Show that these purported tools would not be used inside the U.S. unless a domestic agency received court permission. The jury is still out on whether these leaked documents will be followed up with additional details, and whether the agency will have to come up with a more pointed public response on the matter.

Facebook Launches ‘Fake News’ Flag
Facebook has finally taken steps towards identifying “fake news” on its platform. The company launched the beta version of a two-pronged initiative back in December, which allows users to “dispute” an article if they think it’s fake. The reported dispute is then passed on to third-party fact checkers who determine whether the article receives the label permanently.

Granted, Facebook isn’t known for its transparency, so it’s unclear whether this will be a truly crowdsourced initiative, or whether a select few will have their say on the back end.

Meanwhile, be prepared for disputes over whether a news source should be marked as disputed.

Battle Alternative Facts with a Customized, Fact-Based Infographic
If you still have reservations as to whether Facebook is doing enough to combat the spread of fake news, take your own initiative and fight the good fight with a sharp infographic. People process visual content 600,000 times faster than text, and retain 80 percent of what they can see, compared to only 20 percent of what they read.

This is reason enough to ensure that your visual content doesn’t get buried among all the alternative facts. We’re digging this step-by-step hack for uploading custom-sized graphics along with your Facebook posts.

5 Social Media FAQs for Lawyers

By Gina Rubel

We recently discussed the top social media trends that we are likely to see in 2017, many of which apply to organizations that have been active on social media for some time. Still, we field questions all the time from lawyers and law firms about whether social media should be a part of their marketing plan. During a recent legal marketing webinar hosted by MyCase, I addressed the basics of digital marketing for lawyers. Here are links to a full recording of Digital Marketing for Law Firms along with a MyCase recap of the webinar on their blog.

This program discussed the reasons why lawyers should be engaging on social media, in blogging and what types of content draw the most attention. Here are answers to some of the most common legal marketing questions that came up.

Should companies that have various office locations make separate profiles for those locations, particularly on Facebook?

For companies such as franchises, the answer to this question is yes, and there is a framework in Facebook that allows users to do that. There is a Facebook discussion on the issue at Can you set up multiple locations for a business’ Facebook page?

For law firms, however, I do not recommend setting up separate social media profiles for each office location. The bottom line is that it dilutes the firm’s brand, increases marketing costs unnecessarily and decreases marketing productivity, thus diminishing the return on investment in marketing.

How often do you recommend lawyers update social media?

Social media is just that, “social.” Pick one platform to start with and make sure it’s the one that is used by the majority of your clients and referral sources. Remember, people do business with those they know, like and trust. Then spend 10 to 15 minutes each day updating your profile, connecting with people and sharing relevant information. That’s it.

If I’m posting on LinkedIn, do I really need my own blog?

If you are publishing on LinkedIn Pulse already and you are sharing that out, you do not necessarily need a separate blog. LinkedIn Pulse is essentially a blogging platform, but remember that it is not branded for your business nor does it have a URL that is unique to your practice area or location, which helps with search engine optimization.

Is there an application that will allow you to post on Facebook and Twitter at the same time, for efficiency purposes?

At Furia Rubel, we use Hootsuite for some clients and CoSchedule for others. There are many other apps that allow you to share on multiple sites and schedule your shares. Keep in mind, however, that when scheduling your social media shares, if something happens in the media, your posts can be easily misconstrued. For example, you don’t want to be advocating for Second Amendment Rights on the same day as a mass school shooting.

What is a reasonable ‘investment’ in SEO? Recommended budget figures seem to vary widely.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in many forms. “Organic” SEO is supported by creating and sharing content such as blogs, images, videos, and making website updates, distributing online press releases, garnering online media coverage, and just about everything we do at Furia Rubel for our clients. Organic SEO is a strategic byproduct of well-thought-out marketing and public relations initiatives. On the other hand, there is paid SEO services, which vary greatly from company to company, practice area to practice area, and region to region.

A good place to start in determining your SEO budget is to read “How much should you spend on SEO services,” published on Search Engine Watch, which provides more technical and detailed information about search engine marketing.

Top 2017 Social Media Trends

By Caitlan McCafferty

Whether your business is already firmly established on social media, or whether you are just getting started, social media should be a top consideration for your B2B marketing plan for 2017. Here are some of the most important social media trends to consider in your social media marketing planning for this upcoming year.

1. Live Video

Social media users are increasingly interested in vicarious experiences. People don’t want to just see what their friends are doing, they want to feel like they’re there with them.

Snapchat’s success and popularity has encouraged other social media companies to incorporate live video into their platforms. Snapchat is likely to grow in 2017, with increased messaging services and real world glasses that capture a user’s world view.  Facebook and Twitter have also incorporated livestreaming into their platforms with Facebook Live and Periscope, respectively.

Due to the increasing popularity of the feature, brands should consider incorporating livestreaming into their social media marketing to reach their target audiences. Livestreaming would be a perfect social media tool to engage with your audience about grand openings, customer appreciation events, or product announcements.

2. Employee Ambassadors 

With LinkedIn’s Pulse feature, employees can be brand ambassadors for their companies. Ryan Holmes, Founder and CEO of Hootsuite, suggests motivating employees to post about the company on a regular basis. Employers should make it simple to share and allow the employee to edit the post to suit their audience.

Employee advocacy is digital "word of mouth" that allows a company’s brand and message to reach more people, with no cost to them. If the content is shared by the employees, the content then can be shared by the employee’s network, building an enthusiastic, engaged audience for your brand.


3. Facebook and Targeted Ads

Facebook’s audience is changing rapidly. It is no longer the favored social media platform for millennials. A survey from 2016 found that 41 percent of millennials still use Facebook every day, but Facebook is more popular among non-millennials. Simultaneously, Facebook has changed its algorithm making it more difficult to build an audience organically.

In 2017, targeted advertising will be the best way to push your message to an audience. The change in the algorithm might seem disappointing, but targeted ads provide better analytics to understand the ROI of a communications campaign.


4. Influencer Marketing 

EMarketer predicts that digital advertising will surpass TV advertising in 2017. With this new development, companies have more opportunities for Influencer Marketing.

A survey found that 47 percent of consumers block advertisements, so influencers are becoming the best way for brands to reach an audience. Influencers have established credibility with their audiences, and now they are using that credibility to vouch for a company’s brand. Using their own personal brand and voice as support, influencers can bring increased visibility and awareness for a given brand.

5. Chatbots for Customer Service  

Similar to the Influencer Marketing trend, consumers are craving a personal connection with their favorite brands. A way to service that connection is Chatbots for customer service.

With the evolution of messaging services with each social media platform, and the popularity of Chatbots like Slack and Skype, customers are interested in more conversational experiences.  This allows marketers to engage with their consumers on a regular basis. "Conversational Commerce" will only grow in 2017, and it will allow brands to provide their audiences an easier way to access their products and services.

The preferred social media platform for any given audience continues to evolve, but one thing remains consistent: consumers want brands that are easily accessible and personable. Incorporating these trends into your 2017 social media strategy will ensure that your brand stays ahead of that changing landscape.

Digital Marketing for Law Firms Webinar

By Gina Rubel

During a one-hour legal marketing webinar hosted by MyCase, I addressed the basics of digital marketing for lawyers. This program covered the basics of why lawyers should be engaging on social media, in blogging, and what types of content draw the most attention.

One of the things I like about webinars is that participants can ask questions. Some of the viewer questions answered during the webinar towards the end of the program include:

• What is the ABA's position on using Facebook for law firms?
• For those of us who target businesses, how relevant is Facebook in a non-consumer-facing practice? 
• How does one expand contacts on Facebook?
• Is it okay to mix personal content such as travel photos with business content such as blogs on my social media profiles? 
• Should you ever share any personal information in social media like your vacation plans, personal thoughts or supporting your favorite sports teams?  

A full recording of Digital Marketing for Law Firms can be found on LinkedIn’s SlideShare along with a MyCase recap of the webinar on their blog.

How Much Should I Budget for Facebook Ads?

By Heather Truitt

We recently discussed top tips to keep in mind when considering whether and how to advertise on Facebook. One of the most important factors, however, deserved a whole post of its own – setting the budget.

If time and money were unlimited resources, there would be no need to set a budget for anything, much less advertising. But, of course, those resources are not unlimited, so determining a budget for your Facebook advertising campaign is crucial. As with many things in life, spending too little will hamstring your campaign before it even begins, while spending a great deal may be overkill.

Here are some basics to keep in mind when deciding how much to spend on Facebook ads.

Setting the Budget

Facebook advertising works on a budget. You can set the budget to spend a certain amount per day or a “lifetime” budget of the amount to spend for the entire campaign. If you choose a budget per day, after the daily budget is exceeded, Facebook will stop delivering the ad to viewers until the next day. If you choose a lifetime budget, the advertisement will continue until your budget has been spent down to $0.

As far as how much Facebook advertising really costs, if you are setting your budget per day, the minimum budget fluctuates from $1 to $40 a day depending on the way by which you select your ads to be charged. Below are the tiers Facebook has set up showing daily minimums:

• If the ad set gets charged for impressions, its daily budget must be at least $1 a day.
• If the ad set gets charged for clicks, likes, video views, or post engagement, its daily budget must be at least $5 a day.
• If the ad set gets charged for low frequency events like offer claims or app installs, its budget must be at least $40 a day.

Some examples: If you set up a “per day” budget at $5 per day, and set your duration for 30 days, your overall ad budget for the month is $150. If you set up a “lifetime” budget at $200, and set your duration for 30 days, Facebook will try to evenly distribute the budget (about $6 a day).

Click here to read more about advertising budgets and how they work on Facebook.

Tracking Results

When first beginning a Facebook ad campaign, you can set your budget relatively low and track the results to see what works best for your organization.

You can also test out different images and text and see which works best. You can create several ads with variations and track which advertisements drive better traffic and click-through rates.

Boosted Posts

If you don’t want to invest in an entire Facebook ad campaign, “boosted” posts are another option Boosted posts appear more frequently in people’s news feeds, increasing the chances that your audience will see the posts. Similar to Facebook ads, you also can set a budget and duration for boosted posts, and you will be able to see how many people have viewed the post. Click here to learn more about boosted posts.

Top Tips for Advertising on Facebook

By Heather Truitt 

When integrated marketing and PR agencies such as Furia Rubel create advertising campaigns for clients, one channel we often consider is Facebook. Different social media platforms are appropriate for different kinds of businesses, but Facebook is one that is often appropriate for our professional services clients.

By now, it should be no surprise that social media platforms enable companies to target advertising to very specific audiences, and Facebook certainly offers that ability. More than 1.4 billion people use Facebook, and more than 900 million of them visit the platform every day, according to statistics from the company.

To get the most out of your investment in Facebook advertising, here are some tips to keep in mind.

Advertising Goals 

Make sure to set a goal before you start to spend money. What do you want to accomplish? More Facebook likes? More website visits? More completed forms on the website? Setting a goal first is necessary in order to effectively measure the success of the campaign.

Images and Text for Your Advertisements 

When you start to design your ad, one of the decisions you will have to make is which text and which images to include – and how much of each. If you have overlaid text on your image, Facebook has a set of guidelines, which you can view here to see if you have too much text on your image.

Facebook prefers 20 percent or less of your image to contain text. Facebook ads that have little or no text will cost less money, and they will achieve better delivery rates than images that contain text. See below for different examples of image-to-text ratios.

Facebook also has a helpful automated system that you can check to see whether your image falls within Facebook guidelines.

Ad Targeting 

Ad targeting is a way of setting the parameters to determine the audience for your Facebook advertisement. You can set the targeting using the following criteria:

• Location – by country, state, city, and/or zip code. This can be as targeted as you would like. If you want your ad to be seen only in Chicago and the surrounding areas, set the City to Chicago and then add a 10- or 20-mile radius surrounding Chicago. 
• Age – settings range between the ages of 13 to 65+. 
• Gender – female or male, or all. 
• Language – reach people who have set their Facebook preferences to a specific language.
• More Demographics – provides a listing of other items including relationship status, education, work, financial, home, ethnic affinity, generation, parents, politics (US), and life events. 
• Interests – search for specific interests, or pre-select from Facebook’s list. Facebook will show you interest levels for various topics. 
• Behaviors – reach people based on interests such as how they shop, what kind of device they use when checking Facebook, specific job roles, if they are a homeowner, etc. 
• Connections – add people who like certain pages, or exclude people who like certain pages. This is helpful if you want to reach new customers that aren’t already connected to your Facebook page.

While you are setting your ad targeting, watch the “Audience Definition” meter to the right of the page. As you start to narrow down your target market, the numbers will diminish for your audience selection. If you target too specifically, the daily reach could be less than 100, which would not be ideal.

How to Measure Success 

Facebook offers robust tracking systems. If you are tracking people who go to your website to fill out a specific form, or purchase an item, you would install a small snippet of code, and then Facebook will know if the action was completed. If you were driving traffic to your website to have a form filled out, you would place the tracking code snippet on the “Thank you for filling out this form” page. By adding tracking code, Facebook will track the “completed” actions for the advertisement.

If you are considering whether a Facebook advertising campaign is right for your marketing strategy, contact the experienced marketing and PR team at Furia Rubel Communications.

5 Reasons Your Business Should (Still) Be on Twitter

By Sarah Larson

If you follow financial or tech news, you know that Twitter has had a rough go of it lately.

In the two years since its Nov. 7, 2013 IPO, Twitter’s stock price has fallen and it recently announced it would cut more than 300 jobs as it struggles to find a way to make money. Meanwhile, other younger, prettier social media platforms (e.g., Snapchat, Instagram) have gained ground on Twitter and the two other best-known networks, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Those may be good reasons for you to examine your tech stock portfolio, but it does not mean that your business’ social media strategy should boot the birdie out the door. At least not yet.

If your organization is investing in content marketing, Twitter still should be part of that mix. Here are five reasons why.

Twitter is public. That means anyone who goes to the Twitter app or site can see the photos, status updates, and links that have been shared. Not so on Facebook, where users must create their own profiles before they can see the profiles of others, or LinkedIn, where access to profiles and newsfeeds is very limited if you don’t have an account.

Twitter shows your content to all of your followers. Businesses that use Facebook to connect with customers often are frustrated by the filtering algorithm Facebook uses to decide which posts those customers see. They may have 5,000 “likes,” but they are ecstatic if even 1 out of 10 of those people ever see a given photo, video, or status update. That does not happen on Twitter. Unlike Facebook and some other social media platforms, Twitter does not filter your content in any way. Anyone who is using Twitter and has elected to make your content part of their feed will receive all of your content.

Twitter is easily searchable. The use of hashtags to categorize content ensures that people looking for that type of information will be able to find it. A Twitter user may not follow you directly, but if you’ve posted about #finance or #leadership, #healthcare or #IP, people looking for information related to that topic will be able to find it with a simple hashtag search or follow stream. (For a real-time demonstration of how this works, try following the hashtag of any major sports team’s name during one of its games.)

Twitter is a favorite of journalists. If you are looking to get to know journalists who cover your industry, Twitter can be a powerful research vehicle. Journalists interact there, they look for sources there, and they monitor and contribute to developments in real-time there. Watch for the stories they tweet. Check out their interests. See what hashtags they are using and, if you have relevant observations or content to share, reply to them and use the same hashtag.

Twitter is great for repeated sharing of content. There are 347,222 tweets sent every minute of every hour. That’s 500 million tweets a day. That means that users’ news feeds move quickly and continuously. That enables you to share the same content repeatedly over time, increasing the number of views on each piece of content in your content marketing initiative. Just be sure to space the shares out over time. Scheduling apps and services can help you plan accordingly.

While social media continues to evolve, its use in content marketing changes as well, and PR and marketing professionals need to be prepared to change strategy. For now, though, keeping Twitter in your marketing mix still makes good sense.

Is Your Law Firm Making These Social Media Mistakes?

By Megan Quinn

Social media in general and its various platforms in particular are not always easy for lawyers to fully understand, much less embrace. Social media engagement also is something that must be maintained over time to be successful. Unfortunately, too many attorneys and other professionals refuse to invest the time and energy needed in order to use social media as a successful public outreach tool, and so end up doing it poorly.

Other industries that adopted social media sooner have invested that time and energy into social media plans. They’ve practiced and learned from their mistakes, making them better marketers in the process. Getting the most out of social media requires the three Ps: practice, patience, and perseverance. It requires calculation and investment. It also requires a willingness to overcome preconceived notions about social media. Below are five mistakes attorneys often make regarding social media.

1. Thinking that simply being on social media equals engagement with target audiences. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter allow you to engage with your audiences, but this can be tricky because it requires actual two-way participation. Social media is not like a billboard or a newspaper ad. You can’t just push, push, push out your own content and messaging. It has got to be a real conversation.
2. Deserting a social media account when you’re not the getting results you expected. Great outcomes from social media marketing take careful planning and lots of time. Earning the users’ trust is key, and that can take months, if not years. Posting consistently about current industry happenings, commenting on others’ posts and being part of the conversation can help establish your credibility.
3. Not knowing the difference between social media platforms. For example, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn each have different posting and image standards so it’s important to research each platform before diving in. Put in the time and effort to understand each platform and tailor your posts according to each network’s best practices are the best ways to boost the results of your social media marketing. 
4. Not tracking and measuring metrics. This can be the most difficult task for attorneys to accomplish for several reasons. First, because many want to be able to draw a straight line between a social media post and a new client, and that often just can’t be done. Second, breaking down metrics is time-consuming and requires an in-depth understanding of each platform in order to determine whether what you are doing is working.
5. Not driving your social traffic to your website. Social media offers an opportunity for law firms to engage online with all target audiences and, by doing so, to be seen as a valuable resource. When a potential client or referral source has a legal issue, guess who they will be calling first? The firm that comes to mind first. That's where content marketing comes in. Sharing links to your firm’s blog posts about trends in the industry or to news items should point back to the firm's website. This will help you establish a following and keep you top of mind for the day when they do need your services.

The only way to truly know if your social media marketing plan is working is to define SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound. What are your goals for your social media marketing plan? What tools or approaches have worked for you? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Does Your Headshot Make You Look Competent, Likeable or Influential?

By Megan Quinn

I recently tested out my professional headshot through a web service called “Photofeeler.” This photo comparison website has been gaining traction lately as a tool used by professionals - and even for Tinder or Facebook users - to see if their photos are attracting the right audiences for business, dating or social purposes.

This website allows users to upload profile photos for those three categories, and receive feedback on the effectiveness of each photo. Users can vote on the photos of other participants to gain virtual credits to use in turn for their own photo comparison analysis. A brilliant, endless feedback cycle!

I chose a headshot that is on our company’s website and my personal LinkedIn profile for the “business” section without hesitation (and when I had time) proceeded to vote and earn 40 credits. Votes are cast on a 0-3 scale of whether the photo communicates a sense that the person is “competent,” “likable,” and “influential.”

The rankings are a comparison between your photo's score and all the rest that have been tested on the Photofeeler site given as a percentile. So, for instance, a score of 71% means your photo did better than 71% of photos tested on their site.

I guess I can give the influential category some leeway since I am at the start of my career in public relations. Even though I may not have received the kind of numbers I was hoping for in that section, overall, the voting style is very classy.

After casting a vote, you may also submit constructive feedback on a user’s photo. There are no write-in comments, instead there are options to choose from such as “a little too blurry,” or “would like it better with a different background,” to say politely. Some users commented that my photo is great and for this I have Allure West Studios to thank!

The biggest takeaway from this experience has been realizing how much a person’s photo can count as a first impression. Since many of us probably have our photos online, it’s important to remember that our photos should be sending the right messages. For example, a professional traveler isn’t going to be wearing a suit in an office setting for their headshot. There really isn’t a cut and dry method!

Social Media Etiquette for Business on the ‘Big Three’

By Kim Tarasiewcz

We all have those friends whose updates you dread seeing in your Facebook feeds – they type in all caps, they post their political rants, or they just can’t stop posting every move they make on any given day. You try to scroll past them, but they just keep coming. And for whatever reason, you can’t unfriend the person without causing family, business or friendship issues.

Fortunately, privacy settings can be used to hide feeds entirely or to allow you to see less of certain types of posts in your news feed. Just click on the small arrow in the top right corner of the post and chose an item from the drop-down screen. Currently, however for Facebook, there is no way to unfriend someone without alerting them, so hiding posts is the best way to remove them from your feed so as not to cause disputes.

In business social media, the rules become a bit diluted and are still evolving, but there are three main platforms with which every business should be familiar. Where Facebook is the most common and one of the oldest social media platforms, LinkedIn is probably best known as the connection spot for business. LinkedIn is less about your personal connections and more about sharing business ideas and networking. Twitter moves faster with shorter “bursts” of information which can be great to get news out to the public quickly, but can be dangerous if the information is incorrect or controversial.

Facebook allows flexibility when sharing information on the site, but how often should you “tag” another business? Probably never unless previously approved by the business. At Furia Rubel, we share our client’s news and events, but only after they have sent it out and only with their permission. Our site is maintained and reviewed so that nothing offensive is on it and there is no need for clients to worry if we share news. Allowing other businesses to tag you can lead to problems if their site isn’t constantly monitored.

So what are the connection rules on LinkedIn? I’ve had several times recently where a salesperson has called and as soon as I hang up the phone telling them we don’t have a need for their services, they are connecting with me on LinkedIn. Do I accept their connection or not? I find it a strange concept to connect with someone you’ve never met and most likely won’t meet or ever develop a relationship with. But it’s business, so most of the time, I will connect because there may be a need in the future for their services or for business leads, but also because I don’t like to burn bridges.

Twitter can be a great tool, especially for events like a press conference or seminars as you can give quick updates on what is happening and provide links to details if people need more information. Because Twitter limits the number of characters in an individual tweet to 140, it forces creativity with wording in your messages and choosing hashtags or you may end up with a stream of unwanted items. It’s so easy to send something off; before tweeting or re-tweeting, be sure the information is legitimate.

But as with any social media platform, too many posts, tags or tweets can cause viewers to hide or to skip your posts. Look around – if the same person repeatedly comments on your items or if no one is commenting, maybe you need a campaign to attract new followers or to add something more interesting to your pages. And for goodness sakes, DON’T POST IN ALL CAPS – no one likes to be yelled at.

Twitter Does Not Give you Carte Blanche to Threaten Rape

A New York Post article detailed the harassment of Gabby Schilling.

By Kim Tarasiewicz

When baseball great Curt Schilling tweeted congratulations to his daughter, Gabby, on being accepted to play softball at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, he likely didn't expect that the response from some men on Twitter would be to threaten to rape her with a baseball bat. Or their fists. They weren't particularly picky.

He was upset and appalled – and rightly so. Now he is pursuing legal means to press charges. I, for one, am pleased to see someone making it clear that threatening and demeaning online statements are acceptable. Not just the bullying, which everyone agrees is wrong, but the idea of online anonymity and the breakdown of common courtesy and respect. Many of the offenders in this case were not teens, but were young adults who should have known better.

Working in online marketing and media, I wasn't surprised to learn how easy it was for Schilling to track down and uncover the real-life identities of the offenders. We've written about social media “privacy” before on the PR Lawyer, but it’s amazing how many people who use social media do so without truly understanding that nothing is anonymous.

“It was easier than anyone might think,” wrote the New York Post. “Schilling, 48, began Googling their Twitter handles, their online friends, tracking down their Facebook and Instagram pages, following all the little cyber bread crumbs we unknowingly leave behind each day.”

How did these men think they wouldn't be found? But more importantly, how did they think this was acceptable behavior in the first place?

After two of the men were identified, they faced consequences of their own. One, a Yankees employee, was fired from his job, and the other, a New Jersey community college student, was suspended and “will be scheduled for a conduct hearing where further disciplinary action will be taken,” according to a statement the college posted on its Facebook page on March 2.

The public relations fallout for both the men and the organizations to which they are tied is very real. The college had to do damage control by suspending the student, dealing with the police and putting out a statement of apology. Now every time someone runs a search for that college, this will show up in the newsfeed - probably not helping recruiting and, I’m certain, causing long-term public relations issues for the college.

From the liability aspect, the legal rules and precedents of social media are just beginning to be formed, and my guess is much development and change still is to come. Social media is a new focus for law firms and attorneys have begun to caution their clients to refrain from using social media when they are a defendant in a case. Social media statements are also starting to be admitted as evidence in some court cases.

While the full legal ramifications of the Schilling case have yet to be seen, the public reaction has been clear. The general population is fed up with online haters, and it’s time for things to change. My hope is that the courts agree and rule in favor of civility and respect.

Social Network Sites: How do they Work for you Personally?

By Rose Strong

What started out in 2004 as a small network at Harvard has grown into something much, much bigger than just a group of students using “the facebook” to connect with one another on a Massachusetts campus. Besides giving us the ability to keep up with friends and family, social networking sites became the go-to space by which business connected with their audiences / clients / customers.

In PR and marketing we know what it’s used for: pushing out product information, connecting with customers, seeking new business leads and the like. But, how do you make use of sites such as Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook for your personal connections that have nothing to do with business?

How do you use social media personally?

A few weeks ago, my wife had a medical emergency just after we had eaten dinner. After heading to the emergency room and sitting there for hours on end amidst a sea of flu-stricken adults and toddlers, I kept my friends and family updated through Facebook’s Messenger app. When texts wouldn’t go through, the Messenger app, posting directly on Facebook or sending a picture through Instagram worked!

The best thing about using social networking sites during an emergency like we experienced was that my friends, several of which are insomniacs or in different time zones, were there and supported me through a very long and intense night.

This is just one example of how these sites also have given us ways to get information out en masse to those we wanted informed.

How’d we do it back then?

In the olden days – she said very sarcastically – I would have had to wait until I returned home to make many phone calls to family and friends. It would have been exhausting. By the time things were stabilized at the hospital and I was able to go home at 6:45 a.m., I only had to make a few personal calls and take a much-needed nap.

According to a survey done by PewInternet.org, Facebook remains the most popular social networking site today, although its growth has slowed somewhat. Other popular sites, meanwhile, are making headway and seeing growth.

From the highlights of PewInternet.org survey, I found the following pretty fascinating:

• Social networking sites are increasingly used to keep up with close social ties
• The average user of a social networking site has more close ties and is half as likely to be socially isolated as the average American
• Facebook users are more trusting than others
• Facebook users have more close relationships
• Internet users get more support from their social ties and Facebook users get the most support

I know it may sound strange, but I’ll admit that I have friends online whom I’ve never met but who still mean a lot to me. I belong to several closed Facebook special interest groups. The people in these groups share my interests and we often speak beyond our interests either online in the group or through email or instant messaging, becoming distant participants in each other’s lives simply through social networking.

We share our lives with each other. And only what we want to share. Several people have lost husbands or wives, some long-time members have passed on, family members of the group associates have become sick, graduated school, seen the births of their first grandbabies, and lost pets or adopted new ones, been in car accidents, won awards, traveled around the world, been laid off, fired or found new jobs. In each instance, members of the group rally, be it with tears, kind words, encouragement or congrats.

Without these folks from all over my social network sites, I don’t know what I’d have done to get through such a long and arduous night in the emergency department. I found it a godsend to be able to keep my friends and family updated and gain their support back as I needed it.

Facebook is Changing Everything AGAIN - And You’ll Never Believe How

By Sarah Larson

See what I did there? I crafted a clicky headline that (hopefully) piqued your interest enough to get you to click on the link and open this post.

It’s called “click-bait” and it has spammed all corners of the online universe, but Facebook – arguably the birthplace of click-bait – is taking a stand.

The behemoth social network announced recently that it is changing the way its News Feed works. “We’re making two updates, the first to reduce click-baiting headlines, and the second to help people see links shared on Facebook in the best format,” Facebook said in its announcement.

Even if you don’t know what the term click-bait means, if you’ve spent any time online in the past two years, you instinctively know what it is. Click-bait is a post carefully designed to appeal to human curiosity in order to get you to click on the link. Think Buzzfeed, Business Insider, or pretty much anything posted from Upworthy.

Link-clicking is oxygen for online companies. It helps them build their audience, an audience against which they can sell advertising. It is how they survive.

After spending three years in the ultra-competitive, lightning-paced world of online news, I can tell you two things. No. 1, click-bait is annoying. Everyone claims that they hate it. But, much like negative political advertising, it continues to flourish because (point No. 2):

It works.

It works because we really want to know what that kitten did, and how many Basset Hounds fit into the “clown car” of the doggie house.

And when the content itself reinforces our own world view – “Take a look at these kids and parents and then tell me why the hell we’re sending them back ‘home’”; “People say this world is going to hell in a handbasket, but they’re wrong. Here’s why.” – well, then, that is Internet gold.

Racking up huge numbers of eyeballs on digital content does not just happen. The algorithms that control the content delivered to a Facebook news feed or a Google search results page have enormous power to shape who sees what and when. Changes to those algorithms can blow up a site’s traffic or slash it to zero overnight. This piece from The Atlantic offers an interesting look at the history of the rise of click-bait headlines and how it was driven by the ongoing battle for supremacy between Facebook and Twitter.

Crafting headlines is not easy. There is a reason why, in most traditional news organizations, reporters did not write headlines. Copy editors did, and it takes an extremely under-appreciated talent to write good ones.

Crafting great online headlines is even harder (and many of the best practices for newspaper headlines do not work online). It is a fine line to walk, this idea of giving a reader enough information to decide whether to click, without giving it all away and negating the need to click at all.

As to the specific changes Facebook is implementing, you can take steps to ensure that your content still has good chances of being seen on the world’s most important social network.

First, make sure that if your headline promises glory, the post itself can back it up. Facebook's new algorithm will take into account how long people stay on a post after they've clicked on it. A quick return back to the Facebook feed will be seen as an indication of shallow content.

Second, Facebook makes it pretty clear that the actual way people share links matters. Follow Facebook’s advice and post a link as a link, not in the caption of a photo:

“We’ve found that people often prefer to click on links that are displayed in the link format (which appears when you paste a link while drafting a post), rather than links that are buried in photo captions. The link format shows some additional information associated with the link, such as the beginning of the article, which makes it easier for someone to decide if they want to click through. This format also makes it easier for someone to click through on mobile devices, which have a smaller screen.”

Both those best practices go back to the core truth of content marketing: poor content won’t market anything effectively, no matter how you got the reader to look at it. Focus your efforts on capturing the full attention of your future customer, not on tricking them into clicking.

Bait, after all, is for traps.

Easy Steps to Increase Your Corporate Social Media Presence

By Kim Tarasiewicz

Many companies these days are eager to launch a social media program, but once you have your system set up and your employees trained, how do you keep your people engaged with corporate social media? To be successful, any social media endeavor must be sustained over time. It isn’t enough to post a few things to Facebook and call it a day.

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A monthly reminder email is a perfect way to keep social media top of mind for your employees. Send them a note asking them to connect with your company’s social media sites. This will boost your social media presence and expand your opportunities for potential clients to learn about your company.

Explain to your employees the importance of supporting your marketing and public relations efforts. Show how sharing corporate social media pages will increase business and benefit everyone. Prompt employees with the following in a monthly email or perhaps an internal newsletter:

Ask your employees to keep in mind these questions and provide material to your social media manager when available:

1. Have you seen any significant industry trends or news about which you would like to write an article, blog post, etc.?
2. Do you have any industry-related experience that we could use to promote you as a resource for the company?
3. Is anyone in the company scheduled to speak at a business function within the next 60 days? Or have you spoken anywhere in the last 60 days?
4. Have you hired any new staff members that should be highlighted?
5. Has anyone in your department been nominated for an award or received any awards or recognitions?
6. Has anyone in your department been nominated or elected to any boards, committees or other positions? Even if it does not pertain to your industry, it can still help increase your SEO.

Remind employees to make corporate social media part of their weekly routine. Ask them:

1. Have you shared the company’s most recent blog post through your own social media sites? If not, please do (And provide them the link).
2. Have you reviewed the company website and, most importantly, your own bio lately? If not, please take a look and let IT know if anything needs to be updated.
3. Have you updated your LinkedIn profile with company contact information? Have you endorsed anyone for business skills? Invite at least two people to connect each month. This is a great way to create business leads and get the corporate name out there.
4. Have you visited a competitor’s social media pages? It’s always good to compare notes and make sure nothing negative is out there about your company, too.

Everyone needs a reminder once in a while. Whether a senior manager or an intern, when employees understand the importance of corporate social media and how it fits into your marketing plan, they are more likely to be engaged in it, thus helping your business reach its full potential.

How engaged are your employees with your company's social media presence? We would love to hear from you.

Who Has Your Company’s Twitter Password?

By Kim Tarasiewicz

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Small businesses today recognize that social media can enhance a marketing strategy. Too many, however, do not think to take simple steps to secure their company’s social media accounts. 

Here are factors to keep in mind when setting up a social media presence and policy for your company:

• Protect your password – Use the same policy for access to your company’s social media accounts as you would for your company’s other sensitive information. Limit the number of employees with the password; the more people who know the passwords, the higher your risk of a leak that will allow someone else to access your account without your permission or perhaps even your knowledge.
• Control account use – If several employees will have access to social media accounts such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook, consider using software such as HootSuite. It allows approved employees access to the accounts without giving them the actual password, thereby adding another level of security to your accounts.
• Alert employees about phishing – Employees can be the targets of phishing emails which leave the company open to security breaches. Phishing is when you receive an email that looks as if it is from a legitimate organization but contains a link to a fake website. If these links are opened, they may capture secure passwords that employees have recently used or saved. 
• Set security policies – Don’t assume your employees know all the rules regarding online security; take time to make them aware. Clearly include social media rules in company handbooks and security-related policies. Social networks have privacy settings that need to be administered on all sites so that your social media platform is not left open to attack.
• Provide training - Require employees to learn about security measures for their personal accounts and suggest they use maximum privacy settings. This will make them more aware of security settings and policies so if employees “share” company social media pages and links, they are doing so in a more secure manner.
• Monitor your sites - All corporate accounts should be monitored regularly and kept up to date by an assigned person or committee. Often, organizations set up social accounts and then don’t update the password on a regular basis, which makes it easier for accounts to be hacked.
• Create a crisis plan – If you find immoral, illegal or offensive content on your social media channels, you want to be able to stop it immediately, so determine ahead of time who will be assigned to deleting inappropriate postings and responding to or handling damage control. 

Privacy and Sharing Photos on Facebook

By: Kim Tarasiewicz

I had a very exciting weekend! My eldest son went to his first prom, so of course, being the dutiful mom, I wanted to share those photos with the world – well, at least my social media world. But as I was downloading and getting ready to post the photos, I realized that many of them included my son’s friends. Of course, I hadn’t taken the time to ask each one if I could add pictures of them to my Facebook page. I’m certain the kids were tweeting them all over, but what was my responsibility and how did it affect my urge to share my excitement?

I read the Facebook privacy policy many years ago when I set up my profile and I vaguely remember changing the settings at one point when I heard about people hacking into Facebook pages, but did I know the full extent of who could see my pages or my “cyberprint ”? Probably not.

I approached the sharing of my own photos on social media with the same caution that we advise businesses to exercise. Our clients often will hold fundraisers, events and meetings where photos or videos are taken. As a public relations and marketing agency, we encourage our clients to share as much as possible – when it makes sense. We encourage them to proactively share their stories online, which also boosts the search engine optimization (SEO) of their websites.

As is standard practice, our clients are always directed to obtain signed releases when producing professional videos or photographs. But what rules govern more informal situations, such as 300 people in a ballroom at a charity event?

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Companies should keep in mind a few simple rules when posting photos on platforms such as Facebook or Instagram:

• Photos taken at public events and in public places are usually okay to use but always ask yourself if people in the image have a reasonable expectation to privacy.
• If you are not sure if someone would want their image posted online, ask them first when possible. It never hurts to provide such a courtesy. 
• Assume that everything you share will not be kept private - if you post it online, it’s public.
• Follow the rules of the individual social media site you are using.
• Ask permission before reposting content you did not create.

There is a great article in USA Today by Kim Komando, “Think twice before taking pictures in public .” It’s worth reading and heeding her advice.

Companies use social media to send information out to the masses, but publishing the wrong information can interfere with daily business or personal issues. Monitor your company pages and think before you post.

And in the end, I did post a few pictures, taken from a distance, of the friends I knew best.

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Technology & Maturity – Closer than you think!

By: Kim Tarasiewicz

When anyone mentions the technology generation, our minds go right to teens and twentysomethings. But don’t rule out the older generation when using technology to market your product or service. 

With their kids grown and out of the house, today’s Baby Boomers are living longer and are willing to spend on luxuries. More and more, this group is becoming Web-savvy and technology driven, either from remaining in the workforce longer and keeping up with technologies or sometimes out of necessity to keep in touch with family and friends.

While in their late 60s, my parents decided to purchase smartphones so they could keep in touch with their grandchildren. They now check email on their phones, download apps and use tablets while traveling. This trend is quickly becoming the norm; according to Pew Research, 50 percent of seniors are using social media. Sure, there are seniors that don’t know how to log onto a computer – but do you want to miss marketing to those who do?

Email use by Americans 65 and older is at a whopping 88 percent and this group may very well have more time to read your message. Social media also has captured the attention of seniors as almost half of those using the Internet are on Facebook. These numbers most likely will increase as this population ages and continues to use more technology. The trick is identifying the right mix of marketing for this group while keeping the other target clients in focus as well.

Review your marketing plan to see what age groups currently receive your messaging. Younger audiences use mobile apps and social media regularly, so those tactics should be included in your plan if targeting that segment of the population. The mid-age range group is using a variety of technologies while the eldest group is on email, at the very least. If your budget allows, choose a mix of several methods to reach your audience such as text messages, advertisements in demographically chosen publications and newsletters. Supplement these items using social media, but be sure to target the messaging - tweet to the younger audience, which spends a lot of time on Twitter, but post a message on Facebook if trying to appeal to the older age group.

If your company has an electronic newsletter, consider creating several versions, which is an inexpensive way to appeal to your different audiences. Your website should hold Frequently Asked Questions that relate to all age groups and it should be kept current to engage clients. Post relevant videos on YouTube and add them to your website. Another way to reach different age groups is to use technology that identifies very specific audiences such as Pandora which can identify the exact age of its users and send specific messages aimed at that group.  

The key is to be sure your message reflects the values of the company and how you will meet the needs of your clients. Your clients may be aging, but they still see themselves as young, and with technology, they can keep up with current trends and feel young. Keep up with them as they grow old and you will keep them as clients. Who knows? They may even “share” your information with their grandchildren while on Facebook.

2013 Top 10 from The PR Lawyer – Vote for Your Favorite

Radio and TV stations, magazines and websites all are compiling “Top Ten” lists of something as 2013 comes to a close. As a marketing and public relations firm, we are always interested in measurement and analysis of the work we do. Our clients span many industries, but each one comes to us searching for the right combination of marketing and public relations in today’s ever-changing world.

Our team makes it our mission to keep up with new technologies, fast-paced social media outlets and search engine optimization rule changes. We then share that information with each other, our clients, and even here on The PR Lawyer. Each week, we write about new or updated technologies, information we think our clients could use or sometimes just a topic we find interesting and hope others will too.

So as we close the year, we decided to create a list of some of our favorite blog posts from the past year. In no particular order, here is our list of Top Ten 2013 Blog Posts:

Top Email-Related Post: Rein in Your Inbox: 7 Tools for Email Efficiency 

Top Holiday Post: The Well-Crafted Holiday Greeting – Marketing Tool, Holiday Message or Both? 

Top Frustrations Post: When YouTube and Google+ Profiles Violate Copyrights – How to Protect Your Image Online   

Top Emotional Post: U Could be Liable 2 

Top Facebook-Specific Post: Facebook Graph Search – Are You Ready? Big Brother is Watching You. 

Top LinkedIn How-To Post: LinkedIn Now Allows Users to Display Portfolio Pieces, Presentations and Videos   

Top Mobile Website Post: Mobile Website Design and Development: Font Treatment and Readability 

Top Webinar Post: Leveraging Website Content for Maximum Engagement 

Top Social Media Strategy Post: Beyond Facebook and Twitter: Using the Conversation Prism to Guide Your Social Strategy 

Top Legal Post: Do Google AdWords Work for Law Firm Marketing? 

Which one is your favorite? We’d love to hear from you what topics or information you would like to see in 2014. Meanwhile, we wish you a happy, healthy New Year.

Beyond Facebook and Twitter: Using the Conversation Prism to Guide Your Social Strategy

By Sarah Larson

You've launched a Facebook page and a Twitter feed, and you've got a few hundred followers on each. Maybe you even monitor and update them regularly.

All the firm's principals are on LinkedIn and properly connected to the firm's page. (You have created a LinkedIn page for your firm, right?)

Congratulations: that's a good start.

Traditional social media now is entering its second decade, as measured from the launch of the seminal social site, MySpace, in August 2003. In early years, social media was seen as the Internet's crowded community promenade, safely sequestered away from the "serious" business and media websites that once defined the Internet's popular profile.

Today, social media has grown up. Instead of being a place your kids hang out, social has evolved to become the default mechanism for public interaction between any two - or more - parties online.

Whether the conversation is between a store and its customers, a TV anchor and her upset viewers, or a firm and its (prospective) clients, social is virtually always the medium.

As you might have guessed from this post's title, that medium has grown well beyond the marquee names of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Those forums remain incredibly important, to be sure, but it's not enough to plant your firm's flag there and call it a strategy.

If you're not really sure what your next social step entails, The Conversation Prism, released this summer by Washington, D.C.-based design firm JESS3 in collaboration with digital analyst Brian Solis, might help you get your bearings.

The Conversation Prism organizes the social Web based on types of services, encompassing everything from social marketplaces like Etsy and LivingSocial, to location-based apps such as Foursquare, review sites such as Yelp, livecasting services such as Livestream, photo sites such as Instagram and 500px, and curation sites such as paper.li and Pinterest.

It's true that many of the platforms shown on this infographic predate and challenge what we've come to think of in the past few years as "social media," and that's the point.

The graphic demonstrates, in a powerfully visual way, how social media is no longer something we do, it is the way we live. It is not a fad, it is not going away, and its influence is transforming the way we do business.

First released in 2008, the Conversation Prism has changed over the years, reflecting the evolution of the social Web it monitors. In the latest version of the graphic, 122 social media services have been removed, and 111 new ones added.

One aspect remains constant, though. At the center of the prism is "you," the person or business looking to make their latest social move and choosing platforms to meet their goals. 

Whether that goal is listening, learning or adapting social for your company's use, the Conversation Prism can help guide a social media strategy, reinforce a strategy already in place, or inspire management teams to think about social in a new way.

What social media platforms does your company use? Have you identified any new platforms you would like to use? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Note: Click on the graphic to enlarge it for easier viewing.