DELEGATES from the Anne Penman Laser Therapy stable are today attending a social-media-for-business presentation and workshop, hosted by WordMediaCo director David Boyes.

He will be explaining the main principles involved in the use of social media by corporate organisations and demonstrating some key techniques to help business managers capitalise on its enormous power.

From Twitter to Facebook and blogging, the presentation provides essential insights into the “what”, “why” and “how” of social media, which is outpacing traditional media and advertising through its ability to:

Quickly and effectively establish lines of communication

Engage potential customers

Establish and enhance reputations and brands

Social media is THE tool of the moment for business. Unfortunately, many are fearful of trying it, some are prejudiced against it and the minority muddle through with it.

The fact is that social media is an immensely powerful way of communicating in an intimate way with your target audience.

Gone are the days when a company would purchase space in a sector-specific publication or mainstream newspaper for the insertion of an advertisement that would, generally, appear once.

Social media allows companies to engage with their audience 24/7 in a way that has previously been impossible.

After today’s presentation at the Anne Penman offices in Glasgow, the delegates will have a clearer understanding of the principles of social media and how to use it regularly and effectively to locate and engage customers and potential customers, while building a credible online reputation.

IT’S that time of year again – or, rather, that time of the year is coming back round fast. Yes, the festive period will be upon us soon, and that should concentrate the minds of those with an interest in apps.

With Christmas  exactly nine weeks away, businesses need to ensure their digital magazines, books and catalogues are ready for the biggest download day of the year.

Apple will be closing their App Store to developers on or around December 21, 2013, which means that any new apps will have to be submitted to Apple by December 1, which is just six weeks away.

Bearing in mind app developers will need a minimum of a couple of weeks to build any app (depending on its complexity and features, of course), then the time to act is fast approaching.

So if your organisation is serious about selling its content in the optimum manner and to the maximum audience over the Christmas period, NOW is the time to get your thinking cap on.

CONSIDER THIS FACT:

Android and iOS device activations reached an incredible 17.4 MILLION on Christmas Day LAST YEAR – an increase of 332 per cent on the rest of December.

So guarantee yourself an Appy Christmas by making sure your content is there for everyone to download.

IN this social media-crazy world, it may seem ridiculous to consider the possibility of a human right “to be forgotten”.

Yet this is exactly what is happening at the heart of Europe’s legal system – and the ramifications for Facebook, Google+, Twitter et al could be enormous.

In an era of ever-expanding communication and an implicit acceptance of the concept of the “well-documented digital life”, the European Commission has probably set its continent on collision course with other parts of the world – not least the United States, which is the spiritual and corporate home of social media.

The principle of the right to be forgotten – or, put another way, the right to be left alone – will go to the heart of the legal bedrock of Europe and the US.

The roots of this entitlement exist in Europe and can be found in French law, which recognises “le droit à l’oubli” – a right that allows convicted criminals who have been punished (for certain crimes) to object to the publication of details of their criminal past.

In the United Kingdom, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 is an example of the acceptance of this principle of the human right to be forgotten.

In America, by contrast, publication of someone’s historic criminal activity is protected by the First Amendment.

If, as seems likely, the human right to be forgotten becomes enshrined in law in Europe, social media companies could be held legally liable if they fail to remove photos or information that people post about themselves and later regret, even if the material has been widely distributed already.

This will apply to all European Union citizens, not just those who have been involved in criminal activity, and will form part of a greater civil data protection umbrella.

“The best steps toward privacy and the right to be forgotten may be just to avoid the necessity in the first place,” argues academic and social media influencer John Nosta in a blog post here.

It is my view that the solution may, unfortunately, turn out to be a little more complex. This, to me, is just one of many  examples of the tussle that is playing out between, in the blue corner, the law, society and sovereignty and, in the red corner, iconoclastic social media companies and a disruptive concept of totally open communication that is being driven forward on a daily basis by millions of people across the world.

THE business case for social media is now being laid out cogently and regularly by large organisations across the world, particularly in the United States.

However, there is a perception that large organisations are the ones that stand to gain the most from the fastest-adopted medium in human history.

This is not true, as a study proves. The key lessons being learned about social interaction are as relevant to large companies as they are to smaller ones.

Whether an organisations is a multi-national, multi-strand business with tens of thousands of employees or an SME, the take-home messages are identical, as are the methods of application.

One of the biggest changes that social media has introduced for corporate entities is the principle of interaction not just on a B2B or B2C basis but on a P2P principle.

This ability to interact with a wider audience of people in a more intimate and meaningful way as they go about their daily lives is a hugely powerful and useful tool that has not been available to any business of any size up to now.

Social media is now knitted into the corporate fabric of trail-blazing companies such as Pepsi, Virgin and American Express, who are developing the methods and principles of interactive best practice that will be followed in future by millions of firms the world over.

Whether that’s talking to customers in inspiring ways, engaging with potential new clients, exploring radical new applications for social media or breaking down barriers within internal communications frameworks, these firms are all firmly committed to the cause.

The question for SMEs now is: are you ready to lead your company and its employees into a new world of social connectedness or are you just going to sit back and wait until the time is “right” to follow?

Watch the video below from Hootsuite, and decide:

SOCIAL media is now a key way for investors to keep track of developments in the corporate world, thanks to a ruling in the United States.

It is yet another indication that social sharing is becoming, almost by the day, more mainstream and that it has formed an essential component of modern communications.

The ruling was prompted after movie-sharing company Netflix used Facebook to share information which boasted that their customer base had grown to a million subscribers, leading to an increase in share values.

An explanation from the Wall Street Journal shows how social media’s stock is rising and how the Securities and Exchange Commission reached its landmark decision.

Social media’s rising stock

Video here:

Social media: a new world for corporate reporting

Or watch this from TheStreetTV: