September 2012 – A Sauder Blogger but not a Tree Logger

Social Media – Checklist for powerful and effective content

☑ Relatable

Audiences will most often reject new products, information or services if they don’t relate to their previous experiences or knowledge. If your content has information that can create a link to their lives, they will most likely have a feel-good impression.

☑ Engaging

Engaging not only means capturing the attention of your audience, but allows others to easily share your content elsewhere. Social media, if effectively implemented, should impact others enough to reference others to.

☑ Unique

Find your originality! What is your niche in the market? After you have found what makes you special, claim it. Embrace this point of difference and make sure that it isn’t hidden in the foreground of your content.

☑ Relevant

Nobody wants to read content that seems to be exaggerated and unrealistic. Make sure that your content is compelling and believable, most importantly, relevant. This can thus make a lasting impression in the consumer’s mind.

☑ Dynamic

Is your content and context ready for change? Because of the constant change in technology, you must be prepared to lead the way in the sector of innovation, because social media allows to do so with ease and speed. It is a strategy to include current events so that more traffic is directed to your online presence.

☑ Interactive

Lastly, an important feature of social media is allowing direct interaction with customers instantaneously. This information is important to you, as you can get their feedback and input on their thoughts on products, services and image.

Business Ethics – Compromising Whilst on the Hunt for Money

As in the article Stop collecting health numbers, SaskTel told demonstrates, identity theft is still an ongoing issue in society. The Canadian telephone company SaskTel , based in Regina, Saskatchewan, was found to have breached the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

A customer was surprised the company had their personal information: health card number, as well as SIN number without their permission. The company claims to need two pieces of information (such as SIN number or a driver’s license) for credit worthiness. The fact that they had the customer’s information without having asked for it is quite terrifying.

Since the incident, SaskTel had attempted to clean up their mess by implementing and improving rules on customer privacy, such as allowing customers to pre-pay their bills if they do not wish to share two pieces of information for credit worthiness.

How did they get these private pieces of information? For what purpose do they need this information for?

Companies exploiting people’s personal information is just one part of a constant battle with business ethics. Conflicts of interests arise – trying to earn as much money as possible just isn’t going to cut it in reality.

How can we protect ourselves, and our businesses, and attend to each of our individual interests? Each one of us share a part in a group or organization. The biggest organization, is the global village. We all must have responsibilities for a functioning, balanced world. Seemingly miniscule decisions makes a huge difference if added up together. It changes situations completely.
For example, if every Canadian decided to eat vegetarian on Mondays, it would equate to being 1/7 of the population being vegetarian!

Massive corporations are treated as “people” in the courtrooms. From observing the personality of this “individual”, we can conclude that the corporate individual is a sociopath. Without being able to tell the difference between right and wrong is not only harmful to others, it is also self-destructive.

As in the SaskTel example, companies must compromise their ways to fit business ethics, otherwise, taking advantage of others will only corrode the balance of the economy.