We’ve put together some bits and pieces that had us buzzing over at the water cooler.  As the week comes to a close, we’re logging out with these in mind.

Facebook Announces a Preggo Status, and Reaction Wise, “It’s Complicated”

STFU Parents just got a whole lot of ammo. Facebook has ushered in an update where expecting parents can edit their “friends and family” tab to announce a pregnancy to their entire newsfeed. While individual reactions in our office have run the gamut from horrified to amused, two things are for certain: this feature will be heavily utilized, and people are going to use this addition by listing non-fetus Facebook friends as their progeny-to-be.    What’s next, fetal tweeting?

Google + to Add Businesses

Since the initial surge on Google +, we’ve been thinking about how brands would mix. Although Google has announced that Plus for Businesses will be unveiled in a few months, they’ve kept mum on anything else. After a deleting spree of pages by brands that had jumped the gun, there’s been a bit of tension lingering since Ford  and Ford Europe were allowed to keep their accounts as beta models.  We particularly liked this blogger’s take on how Plus could be best utilized for brands. At the moment, Plus is accepting applications for brands and businesses, but their link is down. Keep hitting “refresh.”

Klout Factors in 4Sq, Gives Us Social Anxiety

We work hard to stay relevant and influential on our respective social media sites, but Klout just threw in a bit of a wrench to our carefully calculated Tweets. Klout has decided to factor Foursquare into their mysterious influence algorithm. We’re assuming that our Foursquare Klout will be according to our check-ins and mayorships, so even though we’ve previously set a truce over the office mayorship, who are we to argue with the gods of Klout? Let the great Affinitive Staff Mayorship Race begin!

Yeezy and Gaga Invest in Turntable

Despite some shaky legal issues, Turntable has smoothed things out by signing a deal with ASCAP to legally license music and landing Kanye West and Lady Gaga as investors. While there’s no word on how much each artist put down, the duo were part of a venture round that raised $7.5 million for the site. With these two huge names (and egos) backing Turntable, the fears of hesitant artists and labels might be slightly assuaged.  Perhaps we’ll soon be hanging out in Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters Room on turntable, DJing next to the popstar in our little robo-bear suit.

AirBnB Issues an Apology

In a day and age where customer service interactions are becoming more transparent, AirBnB made a serious misstep when they inadequately responded to a user whose home was ransacked after using their services. After much media attention and scrutiny, the company issued a public apology, launched a Trust & Safety Center dedicated to protecting their users against fraud and robbery, and issued a $50,000 retroactive insurance guarantee. In addition to these new measures, the company has also announced that its customer service will now be 24/7.  A costly make good for AirBnB, a wonderful case study for brands to learn how important a Crisis Management Plan really is.

Did we leave out some buzz? Let us know and join in on the conversation!

Thankfully, she was found safe a few days later (turns out she had run away and was not abducted). End of story, right?

Not exactly. In an effort to protect her privacy (and not have the incident “follow” her for the rest of her life), people are being asked to remove any mentions of the incident, the child’s name, as well as photos, etc. – essentially, an attempt to give this child a “clean slate”.

A totally understandable request (which is why I haven’t linked to any of the aforementioned content), but therein lies the problem. The web is a hydra of information, and every piece of content posted online – every blog post, photo, status update, video, tweet, comment, etc. must now be treated as permanent, decentralized record. Even if something is deleted, odds are that the information has been archived and/or reposted elsewhere and will no doubt be discovered in the future. Not a big deal for the average “joe the plumber” (oops, scratch that…), but you never know when something like a moment of, say, teenage indiscretion can come back to haunt you later in life when going for a job interview, running for office, etc.

Censorship versus Privacy versus Slander

I’ve identified the following types of social media “messes” that we will all need to face at some time. If you can think of other categories, definitely drop me a tweet or post a comment:

1. Censorship – Attempt to wipe out or suppress the creation of any factual information that may harm the reputation of a person or organization. See China and Scientology.
2. Privacy – Attempt to protect the personal information of an individual that can put their identity or safety at risk. An example would be a crazed fan posting a celebrity’s email address, phone number, social security #/credit card info, location of schools attended by children, etc.
3. Slander/Libel – Attempt to challenge/rebut damaging (let’s assume false) information posted by an individual or a in more organized, calculated manner. But whether something is considered libel or slander is up for debate.

A Social Media “Fixer”?

So, how do you deal with/clean up a social media mess? Like the Harvey Keitel character in “Pulp Fiction”, could there exist a social media “fixer”, i.e., someone who can clean up a social media “mess”? That would be virtually impossible. Sure, there are plenty of companies out there who tout “reputation management” services, but those are more ongoing/proactive and often involve trying to “bury” the offending information in search results.

I’ll admit, these are somewhat uncharted waters and my analysis may be way off base but this is pretty eye-opening issue. Please don’t take this to mean we must all fear social media, but rather that we must understand how to co-exist with it (and if done properly, embrace it) and choose to accept the consequences of the actions by both ourselves and others (and have a strategy in place to deal with any future social media “messes”). Come on, we were all young and stupid once…