INTA, the International Trademark Association, is a group of nearly six thousand trademark professionals in 190 countries.  They protect the world’s brands.

They’re being Twitter-squatted.  There’s no pretty way to say it.

In 2007, someone apparently seized their name as a Twitter handle and posted one five letter word, “srrrr”.

This looks like a case of first-mover advantage again trumping mark holder in social media.

So what’s the lesson here: that squatting can happen to anyone, anywhere; that Twitter is tough; or that someone needs to drink their INTA juice?

Section 230 Isn’t for Bullies
Online communities such as Yelp are usually protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This online law protects publishers; without it, social media would likely never have been.  It’s such a valuable protection that I think even lawyers in South Carolina deserve it. However, Section 230 has limits.

Yelp may have stepped outside of  §230’s protection when it made offers to take down negative ratings for firms for a fee. From a distance, this seems less like providing a public bulletin board, and a bit more like a shake-down for brand protection.

That’s how Beck & Lee in Miami and The Weston Firm in San Diego see it. They have filed a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court alleging unfair business practices.

Yelp Suit Connects Legal Marketing and Social Media
Of course, such a case requires a blog website where you can “share your Yelp story” and read damning coverage of Yelp’s sales practices before joining  the case. It is ironic that plaintiff’s counsel is asking those Yelp has reviewed to now return the favor. And it’s another example of social media getting into legal case generation.

Sue the Funded
At the turn of the year, Yelp was reportedly valued in excess of $500 million in a purchase negotiation with Google.  Yelp recently closed a private round of financing.  Though the pockets could have been deeper, the defendant is well funded … Although some would say that’s in part through unscrupulous sales practices.

Hungry investors stake their claim in digital marketing IPOs.
Back in December I suggested that 2010 will be a big year for digital IPOs. We’ve already seen this playing out in the FriendFinder IPO.

New theme: concern over foreign ownership of social networks.
As social networks become investment targets, international ownership may fuel new concerns over privacy. One of the things I learned from the FriendFinder prospectus is that the majority of its 135 million members are outside the US.

Do you think ownership of social networks by companies backed by foreign governments would have a chilling effect on users? Imagine how much advantage one could gain through detailed knowledge of social networks.  An adult site like FriendFinder is chock full of secrets, which could be useful in manipulation.

First off, I just wanted to thank Dave for inviting me to join in the conversation on Ghostwriting in Social Media. Secondly, I want to make something very clear before I stand up on my soapbox: I am a marketer—and founder & CEO of the interactive e-marketing firm ListEngage.com—and as a company, we do represent various clients and organizations in the social media space by helping them market their products and services on a daily basis.

As an organization, when invited to work with a client, although we may not initially feel one way or another towards, let’s say, the medical device industry for example—we do feel strongly about the real-life people, friends, and partners that we support with our efforts. So, when a client asks us to engage their audience because they don’t have the expertise, the resources, or “bandwidth” to execute their social media strategy, we lend a hand.

In my mind, this new “digital ghostwriting push” is actually nothing new: popular brands have been doing it for years—via customer service “response” letters, pre-recorded phone calls, emails and direct mail pieces. This is just the latest version of busy people outsourcing their surplus work to others who they have trained and who they trust.

Do you think that Teddy Roosevelt (or any President for that matter) really replied to every letter he received during his time at the White House? Do you think that the Beatles really penned back responses to all their swooning teenage followers?  Do you think that the President of Ford, Toyota, Coke, or (Fill in Big Corporation Here) always respond directly to letters, emails, or tweets that they receive? Do you “believe” that it is absolutely from them if it has their name on it?

Bottom line: the average person only has so much bandwidth with which to process and reply to the information coming at them—and if you’re @THE_REAL_SHAQ (a brand in and of himself), for example, there’s just no chance that you can reply to almost 3 millions followers’ messages and maintain any semblance of a life… yet someone is taking the time to reply to his fans every day…

Not only is it naive to assume that big names and small companies are executing 100% of their own Social Media—it’s also a bit silly to get offended if you find out otherwise.

Social media opens up avenues of conversations that customers and fans have never had before, but it also opens up the virtual floodgates to companies and people who are in the limelight, and if you don’t know how to manage this, don’t have the time, or the expertise—then you’re liable to get burned, unless you have the right (and properly trained) “support team” behind you.

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Last week a family member had serious enough surgery that I took time away from my job to be a caregiver. Surprisingly, this has connected me more to social networks and this blog. You see,  our hospital has wi-fi in its waiting areas, so writing online is productive way to pass time, and absorb the waiting with grace. When I wake up at night to give medication, the online community is there and I appreciate it. I’m finishing this in a waiting room now.

Research shows that more than three in ten U.S. households (31.2%) report that at least one person has served as an unpaid family caregiver within the last twelve months, leading to an estimate of 36.5 million households with a caregiver present. My own experience illustrates what sociologists have told us about caregiving for decades: caregiving is a social role that needs to be balanced.

You see, once someone in the family is the identified patient, their caretakers become reluctant to receive care or to be patients themselves. Many caretakers have untreated medical issues, preventative health needs, or just a chronic need for relief.  When your job is to be the one who helps, it’s easy to skip self-care.

Community Beats Isolation: It Keeps Drama in Check
Fortunately for me, our friends are instinctively hip to this. Our kids have had lots of play dates, church friends have dropped off some meals, and our extended family made all that hospital waiting-room time possible.  Which brings me to introducing this free online workspace for caregivers and their friends, Lotsa Helping Hands.

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This response was originally posted on Shava Nerad’s blog Memesplice. It is used with permission.

This is a response to Ja-Nae Duane’s article, which in turn responds to Dave Weineke’s article, both on UsefulArts.us, Dave’s blog.

You should go read both.  But briefly, Dave thinks a blog article written by one person and posted under another name is a violation of ethics.  Ja-Nae, speaking as a client, begs to differ.

Let me, as a professional, explain why Ja-Nae is not only justified, but supported by a long history that should be admired and respected.

Those of you who know me in person probably know I come off better in print than I often do in public.  I’m not a stylish dresser.  I’m a bit geekish, and when I am not on a podium, my speech is overly-mannered and too fast.

But I can write.  And I have a terrific ear.

I have ghost written a blog for a Harvard professor and have ghost written speeches for a major figure in philanthropy and a number of politicians.  I have written articles for CEOS and professors that were placed in major publications, and ghosted an article by a major magazine editor when he was asked to write a guest column for Newsweek.

My name not on those works.  Not only that, but in many cases, I am contractually or otherwise professionally obligated not to list those works on my resume or mention the clients by name.

But I have to say, I was paid well by most of them (some of the political work was volunteer).

Is it ethical to publish an article solely in our client’s name?  It always has been.  We might be listed as staff on a publication, or a roster.  The thoughts we write are not, technically, our own.  We don’t really do much more than a radio journalist does when interviewing a public figure, cutting small talk, removing the um’s and ah’s, and re-recording and restating questions to better fit the time allotted for a story.  Oh, wait — you mean you didn’t know they did that either?

Even when ghosting is transparent, it has been quickly forgotten or overlooked by the public in the past.  Every American history reader knows President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country!”

But Kennedy only *said* those words, which are attributed to him in every reference work of quotations in the world.  A genius speech writer, Ted Sorenson, wrote those words for him.

Sorenson, an intelligent, intellectual, modest man, did what he did out of purpose and love, with a finely honed sense of language — and an intimate understanding of the man he worked for.

His words carried Kennedy’s authentic voice around the world.

The job of a ghost or speech writer is to get so far inside the mind and skin of her/his client that you are no more “faking” the person’s words, than a hairdresser is “faking” the person’s hair. Ideally, a professional makes the expression of style a natural extension of the individual. The client runs a comb through, and every word falls in place as though it grew that way.

Sometimes, the “fix” is obvious.  Did anyone think Sarah Palin solo’d her book?  Authenticity is transparent with or without a ghost (Lynn Vincent, senior writer for the Christian publication World Magazine).  The Christian Science Monitor estimates that 90% of politicians’ books are ghosted, Obama’s being a notable recent exception.

Some of us do this better than others.  We have, in the parlance of social media, been “delivering authenticity” for longer than any media workers.

Continued

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to yesterday’s post, The Ethics of Ghost Writing and Marionette Social Media.

As someone who does a tremendous amount of outsourcing, this is a topic that is near and dear to me.

Blogging:
I am a huge advocate of outsourcing my blog writing. Why?

Well, I have two reasons:

• Time: I am an idea person. I think of more blog posts that I can actually write. It sometimes inhibits my ability to even outline a blog post. With that being said, it is much easier to create a topic and a few key points that I want highlighted and then hand it over to someone I trust with “my voice” and who can deliver it to me in a timely fashion.
• Trust: Tina and I have been working together for a while now. She gets who I am, what I am trying to say, and how I want to say it. She was the one who took my notes, outline, and previous articles and assembled my new book, “How to Start Your Business with $100”

Because she and I worked so closely on something so personal, it was an easy switch for her to start writing my blog posts for my blog as well.

Social Media:
This is an area where I change my tune.

SM interactions have to be personal. Sure, you can have someone scan news and articles for you, but at the end of the day, only YOU know how you would respond to a comment or how you would engage an individual.

As a social media strategist, my team and I have had to take on personas more frequently than I would care to share. I make the recommendation to have us teach the individual how easy it is to engage in the social sphere, however, many people still feel that social media is overwhelming and refuse to touch it.

On the flip side of that, how would you feel if you were corresponding with someone who was not really that individual? Would you feel cheated? Would you care?

My experience is that people absolutely care. They want to know that they are reaching that individual and not a member of their staff. It completely changes people’s perception of that individual.

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The road to hell isn’t just paved with good intentions. Its slope is masked by perfectly plausible justifications.

So here’s the nice, clear thesis this post will advance:

Unacknowledged ghost authorship of social media is unethical if you put your name on it.

Many errors seem benign in the beginning. But no matter how gradual its onset, the practice is wrong, unethical, and a threat to reputation and business.

The Slippery Slope
Personal conventions and ethics are still catching up to the “Brand You” world we live in.

Social media is a good way to extend your brand. So, first comes the blogging. That’s essentially a magazine, and publications outsource their writing all the time. So after a while trust, authenticity, and transparency become just production values in the service of gaining subscribers and brand awareness.

And once you have a ghostwritten blog, it’s a small step to ghost Twitter updates. Again, there are justifications (did you think Obama did all his own campaign Twittering?).

But the whole point of social media is to have a two way relationship. So these channels generate comments and replies, and then other blogs and Twitter feeds comment on them.  The next step is outsourcing these interactions — and that’s how brands can end up with a social media house of cards.

The Truth is Simple
A byline is a statement of fact; it identifies the author of a piece of writing. Therefore, it must be accurate.

Kanye West’s blog, which kept publishing posts even after he was jailed, exposed a factual lie. Hugh Jackman’s Twitter feed, ironically called The Real Hugh Jackman, was embarrassingly shown to be written by staff. Outsourcing social media is okay; lying about it is an error.

The problem in both these examples isn’t that the celebrities were exposed for not writing the entries personally.  It is that they were making a factual claim that was false.

Less Conflict of Interest, More Feigning of Interest
Guy Kawasaki gracefully disclosed his use of three ghostwriters on his Twitter account.  Having been a proponent of social media and transparency, some of his readers found his outsourcing hypocritical.  One reader said he was complimented that Kawasaki had taken the time to read and comment on his blog. Now he has cause to question whether that was a faux-personal touch.

Like Martha Stewart, who advocates a lifestyle that isn’t sustainable by a single human, Guy Kawasaki is also an evangelist.  His use of technology and social media is core to his brand.  As he noted in his defense of outsourcing part of his Twittering:

“Basically, for 99.9 percent of people on Twitter, it is about updating friends and colleagues about how the cat rolled over,” he said. “For a tenth of a percent it is a marketing tool.”

Compare Guy Kawasaki to Charlie Baker
Continued

AdAge proclaimed Clorox’s move to hire a social media attorney as “Testament to the Importance of Twitter and Facebook“.  Like much of traditional ad media, AdAge is rushing to show it gets social media and is relevant.

This made quite a forward-looking headline, but the joke is on AdAge. Clorox scored some free ink, while AdAge got to affirm how aware it is that social is the next big thing. But as described, the attorney job seems pretty traditional.

The attorney’s primary duties are to clear and procure intellectual property rights regarding production and distribution of advertising, including Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Recording Artists issues, consumer privacy, and video licensing.  That sounds like a media attorney, perhaps with an online orientation, but not much different than what you’d find at any big advertiser.

How about online brand protection? Or using social listening to reduce liability? Or extending the brand in virtual worlds?  But clearing rights with SAG and video licensing are just old media duties in service to the social.

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Legal Marketing articles describe marketing with social media in vague terms. “Start a blog”, “listen”, “create good content”. This isn’t new stuff, heck, over the weekend even the Pope told Priests to Blog.  Its time to get real about social media and law firm marketing.

So here are seven meaty examples of one law firm, Sokolove Law,  doing its legal marketing with social media. There they go, connecting with prospects and personally building trust with visitors, while sharing the firm’s expertise to benefit the larger community.

Social Marketing on Law Firm Websites:
Increasingly social media is becoming central to the law firm’s websites.

• Parents of children with birth injuries often can’t imagine their child grown up and how they will overcome disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy. Sokolove Law’s site ChildRC is publishing a five-part series on going to college in a wheelchair.  This is a totally different view of college life, which is not as accommodating as we might assume it should be.
• YazTalk is a socially driven website and Facebook presence that connects women with concerns about this medication with each other and the firm’s expertise.
• And Sokolove Law’s Melissa Hayon is a social worker who builds relationshiops through its Mesothelioma Cancer website and the broader community of those battling this disease.

Continued