The downside of Linkedin

One of the concerns of Linkedin must surely be the easy collection of data and contacts for someone to steal.

As the register reports

An ex-employee of recruitment firm Hays has been ordered to disclose details of his profile at social networking site LinkedIn. Mark Ions set up a rival agency and is accused of using LinkedIn to steal clients. He says Hays encouraged his use of the site.

As the report continues

Hays alleges that while still an employee Ions copied and retained confidential information about clients and contacts of Hays. The firm says that Ions used that information for his own venture and that he breached his contract of employment. Hays went to the High Court in London to seek pre-action disclosure from Ions and his firm, i.e. an order to disclose information that Hays could use as the basis of a subsequent lawsuit.

Twittering for a living

I have spent the day back at my old stomping ground at Uclan taking part in a seminar organised by Francois Nel on twittering for a living.

It's part of three workshops aimed at getting students from both the media and business faculties to enter the entrepreneurial world of work.

This,the second of the three was aimed at showing how social media can be used to build a brand both a personal one and a business one and how social media can help to build a network.

I used by experiences at Innovation Manchester as a case study in point whilst my co presenter Simon Harrow looked at the theory behind networks.

One of the questions that came up was the time factor and we both made it clear that creating a social media brand was not something you could do overnight.In fact we both agreed that the strategy could easily take six to twelve months.

It was interesting to note how few of the assembled audience used social media tools other than facebook and as I pointed out in the question and answer session,converting some of that facebook time to social media sources could well benefit them.

We were joined on webcam by Joanna Geary from the Times who told the audience that she had always been more comfortable using social media as a medium for communicating with her audience and emphised how building a brand is so important now especially in the world of journalism.

Use social media in the corporate world but don't overestimate its power

Social media is increasingly becoming the battlefield for disputes between David and Goliath.

That's according to Patricio Robles from Ecoconsultancy who believes that

Thanks to the spotlight that social media tools like Twitter and Facebook can shine on these disputes, individuals have more power than ever to get companies to acknowledge their complaints and resolve disputes out in the open

However the scales may not have tipped as much as you may think and sometimes it pays not to overestiate the leverage that an individual might have.

Remember: your '15 minutes' in the spotlight will probably last about 15 minutes because the next big social media firestorm is right around the corner. Companies will increasingly recognize this and factor it into their responses.

Honda soaring with social media

Toyota may be under pressure but it Japanese rivals are making good use of social media.

New Media age reports this morning that the company is to create a documentary film using content and people contributed through social media channels.

The Live Every Litre project will film people taking journeys they’ve always wanted to make across Europe using the Honda Hybrid CR-Z car.
Honda offering anyone the chance to be part of the film, with hopefuls posting videos to liveeverylitre.com, explaining the journey or challenge they’d like to take. They will also be encouraged to promote their entries and gather supporters through social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.