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- Does your company really need a social-media team?
Companies are going on a social-media hiring kick -- but it's not altogether clear they are getting their money's worth, writes Felix Gillette. Many social-media hires are intended to placate executives' worries that they're missing the boat more than to meet any specific strategic need, Gillette argues, and the only guaranteed winners are the "self-styled experts ... finding a way to capitalize on the corporate fever for Internet-a-go-go." Bloomberg Businessweek
(7/15)      
- Vaseline raises eyebrows with "skin lightening" app
Vaseline is drawing criticism after launching a Facebook application that lets users see what they'd look like with lighter skin. The app is targeted at Indian consumers to promote skin-lightening creams, prompting a string of angry comments from users, such as one who called it an attempt to "make profit out of a bias that unfortunately exists in the Indian society." CNN
(7/16)
- FarmVille gets branded crops
Organic-food company and General Mills subsidiary Cascadian Farm has struck a deal to offer branded crops in Zynga's wildly popular FarmVille game. By offering crops labeled "organic" to the game's users, Cascadian says it hopes to raise awareness of organic produce and of its own brand. "We're looking to get our message out in a bigger way, and we wanted a creative way to do that," said the company's marketing manager. The New York Times (tiered subscription model)
(7/14)
- Social-media users are still worried about privacy
Two studies suggest that social-media users haven't forgotten their privacy concerns. Half of all social-network users described themselves as "very concerned" about privacy in a poll by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. In a separate poll, more than half of location-aware network users say they have privacy and security concerns about the technology. GigaOm
(7/14)
- Facebook closes in on 500 million users
Facebook is poised to announce its 500 millionth user, just five months after notching its 400 millionth user, according to reports. Jason Kincaid notes that this would mean the network's growth rate is holding steady, adding 100 million users every five months. TechCrunch
(7/15)
- Twitter integration lets Zendesk users help customers
Zendesk, a provider of help-desk software, is rolling out Twitter tools and integration that should let corporate users build social-media monitoring and response into their standard help-desk work flow. Tweets can be turned into help-desk tickets with a single click, and the tool keeps an audited record of all Twitter conversations pertaining to a given ticket. ReadWriteWeb.com/Enterprise blog
(7/13)
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- Go offline to gauge social-media success
If you're measuring your social-media strategy's success using online monitoring tools, you could be missing out, writes Tom Webster. Social-media activities feed into consumers' broader view of a brand and influence their offline purchasing decisions -- and you're shortchanging your social strategy if you fail to take into account that fact, Webster argues. "This isn't to say that you shouldn't be monitoring or mining this data online; it's an essential input to the process. You do, however, need to augment it with offline inquiries," he writes. BrandSavant.com
(7/15)
- Don't let lawyers derail Gov 2.0 projects
Federal agencies and government contractors are using digital and social-media tools to promote greater transparency, collaboration and openness -- and that's an opportunity and a potentially thorny legal challenge, say government lawyers Hope O'Keeffe and Elizabeth Hochberg. To avoid having your projects derailed, identify tech-friendly lawyers and bring them in at the planning stages, and be sure not to assume your ordinary policies take precedence over government rules. "We understand that you have your policies, but we have our laws," Hochberg said. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Social Media
(7/16)
 | People don't trust corporations as much as they used to. They trust third-party experts, and they trust people like themselves."
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Recent SmartBrief on Social Media Issues:
- Thursday, July 15, 2010
- Wednesday, July 14, 2010
- Tuesday, July 13, 2010
- Monday, July 12, 2010
- Friday, July 09, 2010
| | | Lead Editor: Jesse Stanchak
Editor at Large: Andy Sernovitz
Contributing Editor: Ben Whitford
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