Last week, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) announced a new set of rules to govern bloggers with a connection to any company selling a product they are writing about. So, how far will the government go?  Right now, it’s unclear, but the guidelines could extend to regulate posts people make on Facebook and other social networking sites.

So what does this mean for our 1st amendment rights?
•    The government will have the ability to further dictate the parameters of individual communication via the Internet.
•    Several new questions arise about what exactly constitutes blogola and disclosure. (For those unblog-savvy types, “blogola” refers to posts made by bloggers who have been given some sort of incentive to post about a product.)  Should the disclosure be written in the post or can it be in the bloggers “about me” page? Is blogola really that different than traditional forms of advertisement and promotion?

However, here at IMI, we do believe that there are two sides to every story:

•    Libel is illegal. Defamation is illegal. Do they still happen frequently?  Yes.  Do they happen on the Web?  Way too often, but it’s not rigorously regulated online at the moment.  These new regulations will hold people responsible for their blog posts, which is a logical extension of current laws surrounding these concepts.
•    Has anyone ever posted anything nasty about you or someone you know on ripoffreport.com, juicycampus.com, etc.?  These sites continue to pop up every day, constantly grow in usage and exposure, and have significantly injured the reputations and careers of many.

So, what’s fair?  What do YOU think?  We’re interested, let us know…

By now you have probably heard of Social Media.  If you have not heard of it yet, now is a good time to learn more about it, what it does, what it can mean for your business, and your branding efforts.

Social Media is what the industry commonly refers to web applications, tools, software, or websites that connect people to one another.  Famous among these are the likes of facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit,  Xanga, Flickr, YouTube, Digg, and many, many more.  These  allow people to connect to one another in one form or another, to read the opinions of one another, and to base their own decisions on what the “communities” of these sites say.  But, that is not all that Social Media is excellent for.  In fact, it is becoming an increasingly important part of a company’s arsenal of marketing, messaging, and customer interaction.

To understand why Social Media Optimization (a.k.a. SMO) is an ever increasing crucial part of a company’s marketing strategy, one only needs to look at the success that Alltop (Guy Kawasaki’s company) has had by looking at their Twitter efforts. According to Guy Kawasaki, 6% (http://bit.ly/HeGOs ) of all traffic to Alltop comes directly from one source alone – namely Twitter.  Alltop is not the only example, and it may not be the best tool for your customer either.  In fact, here at IMI we decided to run a test a pilot run for one of our high end customers with a niche market – the highly affluent people (in other words, rich!).

We decided to do this test on one site only.  We posted a forum on investments begininning at $5mm on aSmallWorld.net.  The response was astounding, because witin 5 minutes of posting we had our very first interested potential investor. This was social media at its finest.  Our poster already had a following on ASW, had been an active member, and with their post they were able to prove the model – social media optimization works.  SMO does not only work, but it is absolutely crucial for companies wanting to build branding, obtain customers, and expand, and pinpoint demographics for their product, services, or brand.  Without SMO, you may very well be giving up the edge for your competitors to run with.

I shall tell you a story:

Once upon a time, little Joyce received her admittance into college. One of the first things Joyce did was tell her family and friends. Then she joined Facebook. Facebook was one of those elitist networks that only big kids in college had the privilege of joining. And once a newly-admitted student joined, one could look for fellow students who were in the same college or year or major and “meet” the new suitemates and feel kind of cool and plugged in.

In these past four years, Facebook has since taken over the world. According to the research firm comScore, in April of this past year, Facebook outstripped Myspace as THE online social networking hub based on monthly visitors, largely due to its translation application. Facebook has been snapping up international users like chubby little kids grasping for candies on Halloween. (… which it happens to be today! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!)

Facebook has also changed drastically throughout these past few years. In September of 2005, high schoolers were welcomed to join Facebook. However, the step in Facebook development that most applies to Social Media Optimization (SMO) was when Facebook was opened to anyone with a valid e-mail address in September of 2006.

Suddenly, the possibilities were endless: By creating a page for your company on Facebook, you can access a network of over 110 million active users across the world. However, since Facebook profiles are intended for individuals, your business can create a Facebook business page. Once you have created an account for your company, remember to feature links to your company’s website, update your Facebook regularly, and keep your “fans” posted with news, events, photos, videos, and whatever else your heart desires!