These are my links for January 14th from 14:03 to 17:45:
- Finland makes broadband access a legal right – The Finns are leaps and bounds beyond the Brits in making access to the internet a human right – 1Mb connection for all, going up to 100Mb by 2015. Meanwhile, Britain's Digital Economy Bill seems us reach for the hills with 2Mb connections by 2012, and a proposed 'three strikes' internet policy (emulating France) to kick people offline for file-sharing accusations, without a proper legal process.
- 5 Ways Small Businesses Can Avoid Social Media Panic – More straight-down-the-line advice for small businesses as to how to lightly plan their social media engagement strategy, and ways to monitor it. It's tricky as social media is a slow build tactic, but may not suit a fast moving start-up. It's also worth testing it out, and if it's taking up more time than it's hitting the goals, look at other tactics. I'd argue SM is an integrated tool within a larger marketing/engagemnt strategy – not a standalone thing.
- Employers reject jobseekers over social networking – Further to my recent post, it seems recruiters are getting heavy-handed at screening applicants using social media. Interesting stats but to me it doesn't stack up: how are companies they accessing personal updates on private network sites e.g. Facebook? This shows also that emloyees should update their privacy settings (and favour closed networks like Facebook over open ones like Twitter or MySpace) or only let real 'friends' see their updates if they're likely to get personal in what they are posting. This sort of suggests it's better to NOT be doing anything real on social media, which is sending out the wrong messages to particularly younger job seekers. It's also furthering a divide between the heavy-hand of corporate employeeism, and the open and transparent expectations of enterprising and freelance employment.