August 18, 2011
Your SXSW Greater Good Panel Picker – Rock the Vote
It’s SXSW Panel Picker Time! Having trouble sorting through them all? We have you covered, here’s our top picks from the Greater Good track. Vote and comment please!
Content As A Means For Social Change
Arianna Huffington – Huffington Post
Help MTV crowdsource a pro-social campaign @SxSWi
Jason Rzepka, MTV
Reaching Teens on the Digital Streets
Anastasia Goodstein, Inspire USA Foundation/ReachOut.com
Be a Design Superhero: Vanquish the Wasted Pretty
Eve Simon, Lawrence Swiader, Traci Sym, Maria Giudice
Build. Community is easy, saving the world is hard
Eric Asche, Legacy
The Hills are Alive … With Social Data
Annie Lynsen, Small Act
Better Nonprofit Websites: 52 Tweaks in 52 Weeks
Chris Tuttle, Blackbaud
Filed under: Events, New Media, Social Media
July 21, 2011
The Power of Social Media in Politics Presents Itself (Again)
We know from Anthony Weiner that misuse of social media can impact politics. But can proper use of social media impact politics as well?
On June 24th, the New York State Senate voted on the bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. The bill passed, thanks to Republican Senators Mark Grisanti and Steve Saland, who at the last minute broke away from their party to support it.
In the days following the vote, Senator Grisanti received about 5,000 additional “likes” on Facebook. But whereas Grisanti now has over 8,000 “likes,” Saland has barely over 2,000. Saland’s Facebook page does not allow users to write on his wall, yet some people used his most recent (yet unrelated) note to comment on same-sex marriage both before and after the vote. Now, I can’t guarantee that the supportive comments before the vote pushed these politicians over the edge. But at the very least, the mass of comments that flooded in after the vote was undoubtedly recognized as proof of support.
Filed under: Social Media
Tags: Social Media
July 19, 2011
Social Media Background Checks – Would you pass?
The next time you apply for a job your ‘could-be employer’ may require a social media background check. That’s right. Employers looking at candidates’ presence online is an actual “thing” now. If you’re waiting for a, “It’s like a criminal background check but not,” line…well. Keep waiting because it’s exactly like a criminal background check. A company called Social Intelligence actually specializing in professional eligibility research recently made its service available to businesses everywhere.
Here’s how it works: Company A wants to hire Candidate B but also want to make sure he/she won’t cause the company any trouble down the road. Company A hires Social Intelligence to stalk Candidate B from information obtained from his/her resume (name, email, school, hometown, etc). They look up Candidate B’s activity on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, MySpace, dating sites, forums, blog sites, Wikipedia (Get the point?) over the last seven years and compile a document that then tells Company A that Candidate B has or has not engaged in illegal, racist, mean, or sexually explicit behaviors…publicly at least. Candidate B either passes or fails. It’s like Googling someone, but excessively more effective.
While I certainly have some concerns about the subjectivity of what’s “too inappropriate” (all checks are done by humans by the way, not computers), I think we all knew this day was coming. ‘Social Media Background Checks’ are the new ‘Character References’ and, as a person who desperately wants to know if he would pass or fail his own official background check, I understand how much insight this service could offer an employer.
Filed under: Social Media


