What You Need to Know About SOPA and PIPA and Why it Matters to You

If you’ve been online at all over the past few weeks, odds are you’ve run across stories, comments and posts regarding two pieces of current U.S. legislation: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Both bills revolve around the issue of online piracy and protecting copyrighted materials. SOPA is a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives and PIPA was introduced in the U.S. Senate. Generally, numerous media outlets, publishers and lobbyists for the media industry are in support of the bills. Detractors, including a majority of companies and associations in the technology industry, claim that these bills will have a negative, and even long-term detrimental effect, on the Internet’s stability, security and innovation.

Both pieces of legislation are complex and fairly difficult to understand. This Mashable article offers a succinct layman’s explanation of the two bills and where they stand today while this PR Daily article goes a bit more in depth. Currently, SOPA is being held up in the House, but the Senate is planning a vote on PIPA as early as next week. All of this is causing quite a stir online. Multiple prominent online companies - including Wikipedia, Reddit and Mozilla - are planning a 24-hour blackout tomorrow in protest of both SOPA and PIPA.

The subject of online copyright enforcement has been around as long as the Internet and impacts companies of all sizes. The same can be said about innovation, creativity and the sharing of ideas and information online. Where do you stand?

An Emerging Trend for 2012: The Collision of Social Media and Crisis Communication

The most frequent questions I encountered in 2011 included: what should we do when a detrimental story about our company breaks online? How do you respond to social media posts or comments from angry customers, or even disgruntled employees? Or do you avoid response and consider deleting comments? Worse, how do you stop the spread of misinformation, or blatantly false claims about your CEO, company or its products?

It used to be that the worst-case scenario for a business going through a crisis was a story appearing on an evening network newscast or in the morning paper. Today, the greater risk is what happens to that story, or any unfavorable story for that matter, when it is broadcasted across social networks. In the era of social media, not only does the public have the opportunity to say, report and offer opinions at will, but they are able to do so without any type of factual check and balance. And all of that information lives online in perpetuity, eroding reputations that took years to build.

A quick search for “crisis communication” on Mashable turns up a lengthy list of situations and case studies that played out over the past year: Taco Bell being under fire for the ingredients in its ground beef, the reaction to NetFlix’s price increase, and there were plenty of political figures who had their issues. As you can imagine, the list is quite extensive.

During 2011, GroundFloor Media saw a large increase in the number of clients that were looking for answers to the “what if” social media crisis questions, and even a few clients who experienced the intersection of crisis communications and social media firsthand. We expect this trend to continue in 2012 as more and more individuals, companies and their customers continue to expand and engage in social networks.

In December, GroundFloor Media launched its proprietary Online War Room™ to help prepare businesses and organizations for scenarios that can, and will, occur on social networks. This secure tool allows our Rapid Response and social media teams to work with clients to customize training sessions and mimic online crisis and issues management situations and conversations, in real time. We all know that preparation is key in any crisis situation, and the Online War Room allows our clients to discover what they need to include in their social media response plan, test their existing response plans, refine the processes for reacting and responding to negative sentiment and misinformation, and even put executives more at ease with communicating in the social media space.

In most cases, the first 120 minutes of a crisis can determine the public’s perception of an organization, and social networks exponentially emphasize the need to be prepared for any number of public conversations and crisis-related scenarios. What are your company’s plans to effectively manage its online reputation in 2012?

~ Jim Licko

Navigating the Pinterest Craze

“I’m obsessed.”

“It’s your fault. I just can’t stop!”

“It is so addicting.”

For the last few weeks I have been receiving text messages, emails and Skype messages with these complaints from friends, family and coworkers. Why? Because I have been encouraging anyone and everyone I know that likes social media and blogging to get on board with Pinterest.

“Pinning” could be the next it verb to coincide with “tweeting,” seeing as how Pinterest is now on the list of the ten most visited social networks according to Mashable—and it is still an invitation only network.

If you have chosen to ignore the Pinterest craze, an easy way to think about the concept is that it’s the modern day equivalent of tearing out photos from magazines and newspapers and saving them all in a “someday” box under your bed. Members of the network can either chose to “repin” or “like” images from the Pinterest site, or a button on your browser that allows you to pin any image, from any website, across the entire Worldwide Web. Images that you pin are then organized by you onto virtual inspiration boards.

For example, if you love to bake then you can pin photos of cakes, cupcakes and muffins and save them all to a baking themed board. At any time you can go back to your boards to remind yourself of décor ideas, recipes, travel destinations, crafts (the list is endless) that caught your eye and pursue your passions accordingly.

I could go on and on about why Pinterest has become a personal obsession, but what I find even more exciting are the opportunities for early adopters to carve out a niche space for brands. Mashable recently published a great piece with five distinct ideas for how brands can think about leveraging Pinterest and are right to point out that smaller brands who have a hard time cutting through the clutter on Facebook might just have the chance to be a little more visible to their fans on Pinterest.

Why and How Nonprofits Should Use Pinterest and How 11 Brands are Reaching Customers on Pinterest are two other smart reads for helping marketers decide if the platform is a fit for 2012 social media strategies.

If you are considering Pinterest but still need a nudge to get started, here are a few ideas to make it work for a brand:

• You have at least one Pinterest obsessed employee who would be eager to be the Pinterest ambassador for the brand.
• Your brand story lends itself to being told through pictures, or your product inspires people to aspire. For example, Whole Foods pins photos of dream kitchens in which they’d love to cook healthy, wholesome meals while West Elm pins photos of patterns such as chevrons and stripes that inspire their designers to create the items you can buy in their stores.
• You are looking for new ways to host contests, promote products and give customers a more intimate look into the culture of your organization. In December 2011, Land's End was among the first to successfully host a national, public contest on the platform--all based on having customers pin pictures of their favorite Land's End products for the chance to win gift cards.
• You are willing to tip your hat to what inspires you or your business to succeed by pinning images and pages generated by others, not just your brand or close associates.
• Social media giants like Facebook are not moving the needle as much as you would like, and you have the capacity to try new platforms that reach your target audiences. 
• If you can think outside your own brand box and show people how your brand might influence other areas of their life, Pinterest might be for you. For example, if you own a cupcake shop, pin photos from blogs about planning great parties, or if you sell cars, pin photos of amazing road trip destinations that could be made possible by traveling in one of your vehicles

For more inspiration from brands that are doing a great job on Pinterest, read this article from Mashable which highlights recognizable names like Martha Stewart, Today (as in the show) and the Travel Channel.

Happy pinning!

~Alexis Anderson