How Far Will Employers Go to Control Employee Social Media Use?

CareerBuilder released some survey findings today indicating that over a third of employers in the U.S. are using social media to promote their company. It's employee use that still has some businesses worried.

A lot of companies are afraid to let their employees use social media freely, but they're also afraid not to. On the one hand, there are obvious reputation and brand issues that could come up from irresponsible employees social media use, but on the flipside, some of those issues can be avoided with responsible employee social media use. Of course there are many other benefits as well.

This week, FaceTime Communications introduced a new tool called Socialite, which is a security management and compliance solution for social networks. Available in Software-as-a-service form or as on premises solution, its aim is to give companies control over social media features and communications for users on corporate networks.

A rep for the company says key benefits include the ability to: track users across multiple social media platforms; prevent data from leaving the company, either maliciously or inadvertently; empower IT admin to manage access to Facebook and its thousands of “applets” by category or individual application; manage access to features (ie, who can read, like, comment upon or access 95 distinct features on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter); control Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, so content is required to be pre-approved by corporate communications or other third party; empower IT admin to capture all posts, messages and commentary in context; and export to an archive of choice for eDiscovery.

"Organizations in regulated industries are faced with the need to manage the features used and content posted on social networks in order to protect themselves and their customers," said Erin Traudt, Research Director, Enterprise Collaboration and Social Solutions for IDC. "FaceTime's heritage in the IM and Unified Communications markets should play well as communications move into the social arena, but still require security and compliance controls."

A lot of companies are simply creating social media policies and hoping employees abide. There's no telling how often or how strictly these are actually enforced. I would guess that a lot of infractions get overlooked until they cause real damage.

It will be interesting to see if more services like FaceTime's start being used in corporations as time goes on and social media continues to become more unavoidable. source: webpronews.com/topnews/

Yahoo Comes Up Shy With Q2 Earnings Report

However else Yahoo's shareholders may feel about the company's financial situation, they can perhaps take comfort in the idea that Carol Bartz won't be wasting lots of money on champagne and confetti today.  Yahoo's second quarter earnings report didn't contain much news the CEO could celebrate.

The company failed to hit three out of four major targets.  First, in terms of gross revenue, it reported $1.60 billion instead of the $1.64 billion analysts expected.  Second, with respect to net revenue, Yahoo reported $1.13 billion rather than $1.16 billion.  Then, Yahoo reported $175 million, not $178 million, in operating income.

The bright spot - and it's not a big one - just came with Yahoo reporting GAAP earnings per share of $0.15 instead of $0.14.

Also, for whatever it's worth, Bartz said in a statement, "We're pleased that we continued to deliver strong operating income and margin expansion.  Our search fundamentals are improving . . ."

But investors literally aren't buying it, sending Yahoo's stock down 7.24 percent so far in after-hours trading.  Which makes for a worse fall than the one Google suffered after delivering its second quarter earnings report; it was down only 4.02 percent around this time of day.

Yahoo fans who want to put these results behind them should know that the company announced, anyway, "Revenue for the third quarter of 2010 is expected to be in the range of $1,570 million to $1,650 million.  Income from operations for the third quarter of 2010 is expected to be in the range of $160 million to $200 million." source: www.webpronews.com

BBC.com Launches New U.S. Website

The BBC said today it is launching new U.S. edition website along with a redesign with advertising partner HP.

"Building on the incredible journalism already available on BBC.com you're going to see more analysis, more insight and more perspective that connects the dots on events and issues that affect us all in the U.S.," said Miranda Cresswell, SVP, BBC.com.

"Our new redesign will make it even easier to find, use and share this great content."



The new U.S. edition will be staffed by a new team of online journalists now based in the BBC's Washington, DC bureau, led by BBC.com Editor, U.S. Matthew Davis.

Later this summer, BBC.com will launch a travel section, in partnership with its sister company Lonely Planet. It will be led by former NYTimes.com Travel & Style Editor, David G. Allan who was recently appointed Editorial Director, BBC Travel. Improved sports, technology, business and entertainment sites will launch soon.

BBC.com also offers apps, including BBC News and the BBC Sports app. The BBC News app is the sixth most popular app in the U.S. BBC.com attracts over 16 million users a month in the U.S.

New Google Release Could Change Everything. Will it?

It's a simple concept, with enormous implications (even for non-Android users). The introduction of App Inventor has provoked a great deal of discussion around the web and with good reason. The product basically puts app creation into the hands of everyone (though you will still have to learn how to use App Inventor itself, as Jason Kincaid points out. Think Dreameaver for apps.) Businesses will be able to create apps on the fly. Consumers could be able to create apps that cater to their personal preferences, and therefore make their devices more useful.



Simplification often leads to wider adoption. Look at what blogging platforms did for online content creation. Look at what Twitter is doing for news consumption (essentially what RSS has been doing for years). If people have a simple way to create apps quickly that can be used by users of any Android device, they are probably going to take advantage, and those apps will get users, and inspire more app creation.

Too Many Bad Apps?

Users ultimately decide what apps to put on their phones. It's not like using the web. Your Android device is not going to be spammed with so-called bad apps. Android is an operating system, not the web. You don't use Android like you use the web, you use the apps themselves that you decide to use like you use the web. source: www.webpronews.com/topnews/

MySpace Upgrades Global Music Offerings

MySpace users all over the world should have a much easier time discovering music thanks to some new changes. This afternoon, MySpace overhauled its approach to playlists, eliminating (or at least cutting back) limitations that might have affected the way people shared songs.

A key point before we get much further: this development involves all MySpace territories other than the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, meaning the rollout's pretty huge.

As for some specifics, Rebekah Horne, Managing Director & GM of MySpace International, explained in a statement, "MySpace users worldwide can create an unlimited amount of multi-song playlists (up to 100 songs) which they can broadcast and share on their public profiles."

Furthermore, "Each playlist a user creates will have its own page to share with friends," and users can "manage playlists using a new product called My Music and check out Public Playlists to hear playlists created by artists and other MySpace users."

These changes could do a lot to keep bands and music lovers coming back to MySpace. If not, well, MySpace did ask for feedback and hint that more upgrades are in the works, demonstrating that it's committed to finding other solutions. source: webpronews.com/topnews/

Massive YouTube Film Experiment Announced

A project that should entirely live up to the billing "historic cinematic experiment" has begun. Ridley Scott, Kevin Macdonald, YouTube, and LG have asked people all over the world to record (part of) their lives on July 24th, and then much of the footage will be used to create a single film that'll premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

This undertaking has been labeled "Life in a Day." It's meant to act as a sort of time capsule, showing what the earth was like at a specific point. The only restrictions involve not including trademarks or copyrighted content (music, TV clips, etc.), and would-be participants must also upload their footage before July 31st.



As for the men behind the project, Kevin Macdonald, who directed The Last King of Scotland, will be responsible for actually editing the footage together, and Ridley Scott, who's perhaps best known for his work on Gladiator, Blade Runner, and Thelma & Louise, is acting as executive producer.

The final product could be quite remarkable. Scott, Macdonald, YouTube, and LG have created a strong incentive for people to participate - 20 contributors will get taken to the premiere, and everyone whose footage is used will be credited as a co-director - so there should be no shortage of material.

More information is available here if any of this sounds interesting to you. Good luck to all involved.