… it’s about public relations, marketing, retail quirks, government communications and oddities … and written in Canada!
There’s an eerie similarity between the costumes and the dance moves in these two videos:
The Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic,
A clip from Raquel Welch’s 1970 TV special, Raquel!
h/tip to Crying All The Way to the Chip Shop
Technorati Tags: Raquel Welch, Beastie Boys, Intergalactic, Devo ripoff
Tag clouds. There’s your next content analysis tool. With Tagcrowd’s “Alpha” service, you can easily analyze any text for recurring words and concepts. Obviously, tag clouds work best when applied to a large database: either a long speech or a quantity of smaller pieces.
For example, here’s a tag cloud of Canada’s 2006 Speech from the Throne:
It’s a useful tool to generate a first impression of a text or a presentation, but there are both advantages and drawbacks:
Drawbacks:
Advantages:
Tag clouds are also helpful in comparing texts. Over at pollster.com, you can see an analysis of the speeches delivered by the Democratic presidential candidates on Thursday night.
The breakthrough of TagCrowd is the easy capability to develop a tag cloud from any text - online or off line. This is a practical application of 2.0 technology to our everyday work as communicators and marketers.
As more web apps and mashups can be applied to offline tasks, these forms of technology will be integrated into the everyday work of all communicators and marketers - not just by early adopters and the technically saavy.
Technorati Tags: tag could, textual analysis, media analysis, word association
The key to continuing customer loyalty is never stop delivering on your brand and product promise. Tim Hortons, the Canadian coffee and donut chain, knows this and delivers in spades.
A year ago, Tims opened up an outlet at the Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan. There are 2500-odd Canadian troops operating in Afghanistan, as well as other international troops.
The company’s regular Roll Up The Rim promotional campaign gives away thousands of prizes at outlets across Canada: cars, bbqs, free drinks, donuts and cash prizes are up for grabs. The campaign has become a pseudo-cultural event for many Canadians.
Winning codes can be found under the waxy rim of each paper coffee cup. (There’s even a custom tool for rolling the rim.)
This year, Tim Hortons has launched a custom Roll Up The Rim campaign designed specifically for the troops in Afghanistan. The cup design incorporates modern camouflage patterns, and the in-store promotional posters are in several international languages. 5 prizes of $1000 are available to be won, as well as caps, digital cameras and the usual donuts and coffee.
That’s a customized promotional campaign, built on the existing material, for ONLY ONE OUTLET.
This is a company that understands its brand and product promise - and knows it has to deliver this promise at every outlet.
Have you ever wondered what a combat zone coffee shop looks like? Take a look at this Canadian Forces Combat Camera footage shot by Sgt. Ed Whitmore (15 meg .mov)
Photo by Sgt. Roxanne Crowe, Canadian Forces Combat Camera.
Thanks to David Akin for the pointer.
Technorati Tags: Tim Hortons, Roll Up The Rim, Coffee Shop, Donuts
If you’re a Moleskine addict like me, there’s a number of different styles on clearance at Amazon.
Cardinal Edward Egan is featured in the NYT, and one of the topics of discussion is his financial management of the Archdiocese of New York. Egan claims to have eliminated the Archdiocese’s deficit, and is paying down the debt. Still, he won’t release financial records - a step already taken by Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Brooklyn.
” … Will this white-haired prince of the Roman Catholic Church follow the lead of other large dioceses and release the archdiocese’s financial reports to the public?
Cardinal Egan considers the idea for a second or two, and offers a smile more suggestive of steel than humor. Wall Street titans sit on his finance council and study his ledgers. The cardinal sees no point in public inspection.
“I am transparent to the best possible people,” he said in a rare interview in his 20th floor office on First Avenue in Manhattan. “So when you say, ‘We don’t know,’ well, my ‘we’ knows.”
In North America, agencies can disappear quickly. No matter the reason for their closure, a similar pattern is followed:
The only things left behind are toilets, elevators and attractive brick walls.
That’s the price of working in a world dominated by curtain-walled buildings.
In the Old World, an old agency office can live on. Noisy Decent Graphics’ Ben describes his visit to a hair stylists’ - and was once a pharma advertising shop:
“…Through that door, top left used to be the photocopier and where the nail varnish type stuff is used to sit the fax machine.
It was very odd going back. So many memories, so many visual memories smashed by CH’s architect. The place looks really nice, by the way.”
There’s a quote in Wolfe’s You Can’t Go Home Again that applies to both commercial office properties and advertisers:
“… she had slept with everybody. . . but she has never been promiscuous …”
Yeah. That’s right. Just a little to the left. Harder. Ooooh.
I’ve been nominated for the Bloggers’ Choice Awards, for best marketing blog (talk about some stiff competition). That’s the button over in the sidebar, breaking my column width. Unfortunately, when I try to scale it down, it becomes illegible.
Vote for Canuckflack if you’d like.
Ummm. I guess there’s an obsession for everyone. Like people who really get into journalists who wear glasses. I mean so obsessed that they try to guess the journalist’s prescription.
Here’s an example:
“…royboy 11 May 2005, 21:13
hey mimi — i agree with u that bill hemmer is so hot and has the perfect face — his glasses are natural part of his face, i wonder why he doesn’t wear them all the time — they enhance his beautiful face and are so non-obtrusive …” (Eye Scene Forum)
Technorati Tags: journalist obsession, fetish, eyeglasses
It’s a retread, but I still find it funny. An hour long clip from a 2002 broadcast of the Opie and Anthony radio show that takes a swipe at all the tired comedy and entertainment bits you find on AM and FM radio. (10 meg download from OAvirus.com. Look for the file called new-format(full-bit)01-02-2002.mp3)
Includes such familiar old gags as:
Please remember, in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last ten years, that Opie and Anthony can be over the top and sometimes offensive. Their comments don’t represent my opinions or beliefs.
Technorati Tags: radio bits, radio gag, tired radio, radio format, comedy
Adwords. Bloggers don’t mind running Adwords alonside their text because the Google program usually produces national-level text ads or extremely targeted text ads that complement your content.
But what if Google signed up with Pennysaver, the international chain of free weeklies that specializes in very cheap and very temporary local classified ads? That may just be in the works:
“…The companies also are talking about running a “bid-for-print” advertising test between PennySaverUSA.com’s parent Harte Hanks and Google. Under the deal, Google also could end up training sales reps at the “shopper” publications to sell AdWords to offline merchants that Google otherwise would have a hard time reaching …” (News.Com Google Blog)
All those half respectable ads could be replaced by geo-targeted classified notices. Bake sales. Charity Runs. Car Parts. Lost Pets and/or Children. Blood Drives. Your neighbour selling his old fridge.
That would really drag down the perceived value of your blog, wouldn’t it? Ads like the ones below showing up alongside your blog?
Technorati Tags: Pennysaver, Adwords, online classifieds
“The most important phase of the communications survey is the evaluation phase.” Ever heard that? You have, at least from your boss during the annual performance review. Or from a media monitoring vendor making a pitch.
Of course, every communicator is painfully aware of the weaknesses of common evaluation methods.
Sure. I’m exaggerating. I’m overlooking the benefits that can be found in each approach.
But everyone can relate to MRad’s “Don’t Coach Me On How to Answer Your Stupid Survey.” His VW dealer suggested how MRad should fill out his customer satisfaction survey, so the dealership could keep their company’s high performance rating.
The problem with this approach? By suggesting how to undermine the survey process, the dealer is undermining the customer’s confidence in the “five star rating,” the “certified service,” the “top customer service award” - all the crap that convinced the customer (who’s sitting RIGHT THERE, let’s remember) that this particular dealership wasn’t out to screw him.
Naturally, the dealership wants to make sure you leave a happy customer. There’s even some value, given the emphasis put on quality service by dealer groups, manufacturers and ratings groups, to making sure customers don’t leave with hidden grudges or issues.
But when you influence survey results with customers by drawing the link between their ratings and your pay package, you render the survey nearly useless.
And you weaken their confidence in your actual commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.
Technorati Tags: survey, survey technique, auto dealer, customer satisfaction
I think everyone is aware of the financial implications of identity theft - and we likely have all suffered from it. But are the consequences greater when your identity is mimicked on sites like LinkedIn, MySpace or Facebook? The digital trail left by an identity thief can leave a lasting - and possibly damaging - history of misleading posts, poorly considered group memberships and intellectually inconsistent political positions.
The most elementary type of personality theft is the fake celebrity MySpace page - is that really Jessica Simpson who’s agreed to be my friend?
But, as we begin to consider a world where our digital breadcrumbs will help shape how people think of us - now and in the future - the prospect of personality theft becomes more threatening.
Social networking sites have advanced too far as useful tools to describe their users according to simple stereotypes: drunken frat boys; Jersey girls; desperate job seekers; young professionals; or techies.
Today, you’re as likely to find your grandma or your boss on a social networking site. That means your boss or your grandma could be browsing through your online profile, message board postings, and group messages.
If you wrote them, that is. What if someone assumes your online identity, lifting a photograph, getting enough personal details right to fool some of your friends, and then starts undermining your personality?
That’s what seems to have happened to Samer Elatrash, who describes in this week’s Montreal Mirror how his identity was appropriated in a fake Facebook profile.
For Elatrash, though, there doesn’t seem to have been a financial impact. Instead, the Fake Elatrash simply muddied his online personality profile. He/she was joining groups with inappropriate political affiliations and making outrageous comments in others.
The impact of this type of identity theft, though, can be a long-lasting as when your bank details are stolen.
For a generation that lives its life online, your online record is your portable biography. If the information becomes corrupted, it not only casts doubt on the social network but on your real-life personality.
Is the key a system of third-party identity verification programs? More stringent verification procedures by social networking sites? Or is it up to people participating in networks to question new members or those seeking to “connect?”
I can see it now: in among the forms you’re handed on your first day as a freshman at university, there will be a list of personal question and answers that will be shared with your friends, so that later in life you will be able to verify their identity online.
“Colin McKay wants to connect”
“What was the name of your father’s first pet?”
Technorati Tags: Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, identity theft, personality theft
How should a national television reporter evaluate his participation in Facebook and its many affinity groups? David Akin of CTV pulls back the curtain and reveals how Facebook plays into his reporting on the activities of Canada’s national politicians:
“….So, for example, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a Facebook account and, when I signed up, I sent him a note through the service asking to be his FF. It took a while but eventually he (or, most likely, the staff member at the PMO who monitors these things on behalf of the PM) agreed to be my FF. So what does that mean? Well, it certainly doesn’t mean that Stephen Harper and I are friends in the offline sense of the word. We don’t go to the mall together. We don’t phone each other up late at night to kvetch about our wives. We don’t borrow each other’s gardening implements.
What it does mean, though, is that I can “see” Stephen Harper’s Facebook profile and I will be notified on my own Facebook feed about activities he’s involved in. So, if Harper puts up a new photo of himself, I will see that he has done that back on my own Facebook page and, if I’m so inclined, it represents a cue for me to visit his page and check out his photo. Conversely when I do something on Facebook — I change my Facebook status several times a day, for example — Harper will be tipped to that fact back on his page.
Importantly, Harper and I know each other. We have an offline relationship. I’m a reporter; he’s the Prime Minister. You get the point.
Akin discusses several other important aspects of his participation on Facebook: how is his membership in any number of local or regional candidate support groups perceived, and how could his membership affect the actions of that Facebook group?
“…For me, a political reporter, this seems like a great place to connect with the so-called grassroots of any one political movement. And so I’ve joined the Liberal group and the Conservative group and so on. Again, I hope that most Facebook types will be sophisticated enough to figure out that I join these groups not to endorse them or to help them achive their political ends but to — and let’s be frank here — to spy on them! The more extra stuff I can learn about the activities of Liberals and Conservatives and NDPers, the better a reporter I can be.
Still, Akin decided to leave a lot of these types of groups a week ago - out of concern that “because the group is so overtly political, the benefit[s] of remaining a group member are not greater than the risks of me being perceived as endorsing any one candidate.”
Technorati Tags: Facebook. political reporter
Steve Postrel left some incisive comments on Grant McCracken’s This Blog Sits At, building on Leora Kornfeld’s question:
Why does everyone call themselves a strategist nowadays?
“Just for laughs, when someone claims to be a strategist, you could ask them which tradition of strategy they represent. Economic? Then ask them to define a Nash equilibrium and see how they feel about Cournot vs. Bertrand models. Military? Then ask them about Clausewitz or John Boyd or Edward Luttwak. You can do the same thing with sports, chess, marketing, or any other domain they claim that has a tradition of strategic analysis. …
As a rule, I am opposed to credentialism, especially in ill-defined areas such as strategy. In fact, there really is no body of knowledge whose possesiion truly entitles one to claim “I am a strategist” or whose lack bars that claim. But it sounds like people are pretending that such a credential exists and then further pretending that they possess it. For a modest fee I’d happily prick that double-bubble.”
Ouch, I have two degrees in International Relations and consider myself well-educated in the areas of military and economic strategy - and I don’t think I could meet Steve’s standard.
Grant, naturally, digs into the question in a separate post. He rightly points out that many marketers, communicators and other of our ilk claim strategic skill and strategic insight - despite having no education in the field or demonstrable experience as a strategist.
“And then the question is, why should this rhetorical misbehavior be necessary? I am quite sure that other professionals do not suffer the temptation. Lawyers, doctors, civil servants…they don’t use the term. (”What kind of medicine do I practice? Oh, I do strategic medicine, you see. I don’t just identify symptoms. I think about them.”)No, the buzz word abuse that Leora spotted is a symptom. The field of marketing and the fact that it is not in fact a profession at all …
Without sorting, we are reduced to making boosterish, self aggrandizing claims, dressing ourselves up in the dignity of someone else’s language.
It’s not clear how we solve this problem. I agree with Steve that certification (or credentialism, as he calls it) is probably impractical. Reputation helps of course. It would help even more if those of us in branding circles had the depths of knowledge that distinguish the McKinsey consultant.”
Of course, the trend towards ostentatious titles may be a lingering backlash against the more outrageous job descriptions adopted during the late 90’s tech boom. After all, once you’ve lost hundreds of millions of dollars, you’re less likely to place your faith in:
Technorati Tags: Strategic , Strategic Communciations, Strategic thinker, credentialism
Okay! I’m in too!. I’ve volunteered to write a chapter - okay, a one page note - on how government communicators will have to adjust to dealing with the the members and issues embodied by new online networks and affinity groups for the new e-book being corralled by Gavin Heaton and Drew Mclellan:
… And out of that blogging conversation and a few e-mails, Gavin & I concocted the idea for an e-book about this new era of communications we’ve all entered together. But not just any book. It has to be a quick book. Exciting. Sharp. Inclusive. It had to be a book about community and conversation that came from that community and spoke the same vernacular. The title — The Conversation Age.
And that is why we are talking to you. Our idea:
- 100 authors. We’re a few but need more.
- The overriding topic is “The Conversation Age” — where you take it is up to you.
- The items are short - one 8.5″ x 11″ page — it can be words, diagrams, photos (again up to you) If it is words - about 400, give or take a couple.
- We write it quickly and get it out there. We publish electronically.
- We make it available online for a small fee and we donate 100% of the proceeds to Variety the Children’s Charity — which serves children across the entire globe.
If you’d like to write a chapter, here’s what you need to do. E-mail Drew with a commitment and a focus/topic that will fit under Conversation Age (first in gets to choose) by April 11th. Drew will going to keep the master list so we keep the content from getting too overlapped.
Your chapter will be due April 30th.
The initial authors included the people below. I’m sure the list has grown since then.
Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Technorati Tags: The Conversation Age, e-book
David Armano has been building out an argument for the role of a “community architect” at his Logic + Emotion blog. BusinessWeek has given him a chance to speak to a more general audience this week, and many of Armano’s clear and informative graphics accompany the piece.
The image above is taken from a presentation, Emerging Media’s Impact on the Customer Experience, that Armano prepared for a MarketingProfs webinar last week.
Bob Glaza posted some observations after participating in the webinar:
“The obvious - and foremost - thing for us to remember is we serve people. Whatever our vocation, calling, job, gig - call it what you will - if we are not putting people first - it won’t work. We might call them customer, consumers, readers…but cut to the chase…and its people. And people want good experiences. Part of a good experience is good design. In order to help create good experiences, we need to be good designers. Design is not about making something look good - thought that is part of it - but its more about creating an experience that is pleasurable. “
While Glaza was referring to marketers and more consumer-oriented marketers, his comments apply equally well to the role of government communicators.
As well, Armano’s emphasis on conversation architects, instead of conversation managers, points to a weakness of many of the plans developed by government communicators: a belief that we can manage a conversation at all. Or even manage the environment around messaging and interaction with our stakeholders.
As I’m finishing this post, I’ve realized that Armano’s The End of Thought of Leadership, posted today, provides a perfect capstone to this observation:
“In the conversation economy, dialogue rules. Monologue, and rehearsed presentations play second fiddle. An academic or corporate pedigree is nice—but really doesn’t matter. If you have something valuable to say and you are willing to listen, share and participate—then you have the opportunity to “submit” your ideas and be heard.
These are the new rules of the conversation age, or economy or whatever you want to call it. This is why, if you have adverse reactions when you hear strange words like “blogging” or “twittering”—then you are a fool. I’m sorry but it’s true. I’m not saying that we should all jump on the bandwagon of the latest buzzword or technology that gets thrown out there. I’m actually saying the opposite. We need to investigate the latest tools to the best of our abilities and decide how they impact our own worlds. The blogging movement was never about blogging in the first place—it’s about a new way to share, connect, collaborate, discuss, debate, and ideate.” (Logic + Emotion)
Our challenge is to learn how to play within both this traditional model and as participants in a newer, looser, more reactive online environment. We’re no longer the refs in the conversation game: we’re not even linesmen. We either learn how to dribble, pass, lateral or shoot - or we go home.
Technorati Tags: conversation architect
(Crossposted to SoSaidThe.Org)
Where else but in a world curling championship would the final championship game be halted by an excited audience member shrieking - because she won the 50/50 lottery draw?
Sure, she did win $16,000, but the two teams on the ice were visibly surprised by the noise. The Canadian skip (team captain) had to stop his shot until the noise died down.
Then the national television feed cut to the lady as she calmed down. Cutting back to the ice surface, the mike on the Canadian skip caught Russ Howard telling a teammate “I had to wait for that chick to quiet down.”
The hundreds of thousands of Canadians watching the Canadian and World curling championships in Hamilton and Edmonton these past five weeks have certainly noted something else about the Russ Howard’s rink (team):
They’re working hard to bring white belts back into style.
Of course, where else but a Canadian-hosted world curling championship would they actually announce the results of a 50/50 lottery during the last few minutes of the match?
Yeah, I’m Canadian. I drove about 800 kilometres round trip yesterday to go shopping at an outlet mall in central New York. I paid the duty and taxes on what I bought, too! Just keeping it real, peeps!
Unfortunately, my kids know that there’s a Disney Radio station in Syracuse. I have two observations to make from four hours of listening to that pre-adolescent hell:
This is a post about information design. How do you help the general public understand the speculative nature of the real estate market? A market where investors (home owners) are aware of local prices and costs, but blissfully unaware of long term trends in real estate?
Plot the history of real estate prices (adjusted for inflation, of course) to a rollercoaster. Then create a video of that roller coaster in action. That’s what the folks at speculativebubble have done.
It takes the peaks and valleys of historical data and prompts a visual and physical reaction as the roller coaster peaks and dips. At the end, as your car coasts to a halt at the edge of a giant precipice (the future data hasn’t been mapped, of course), you can see how far the market has shot - it’s far, far above any other past peak.
That startling view prompts two thoughts:
The video can be seen at speculativebubble’s site, or at:
Technorati Tags: information design, real estate prices, information presentation
While it’s true that advertising cultures change (sometimes drastically) from country to country, it’s important to note that the British advertising industry feels sufficiently slammed by consumer advocates to launch an online petition to battle back against accusations that advertising is the source of all evil.
Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
Still, we would do well as advertisers, marketers and public relations experts to pay attention to the backlash building in many markets in Europe and North America. Even as technology and careful planning allow us to target markets more effectively, consumers, watchdogs and governments are focusing on the community-wide impacts of consumer marketing. (think kid’s snacks = fat kids)
Campaign magazine has come out swinging, hosting an online campaign calling on British ad types to speak out against increasing restrictions imposed on the industry.
There is a manifesto associated with the campaign, and it attempts to take a punch at all sorts of perceived opponents:
‘We’ve become complacent about single-issue consumer activists,’ an industry lobbyist claims. ‘They get listened to sympathetically, and what they say is often taken as gospel, without any proper investigation of their claims.’ …
‘The Government’s attitude is schizophrenic,’ [Hamish Pringle, Director General of the IPA] declares. ‘It says it supports the creative industries, which it hails as the saviour of UK Plc, while it continues to bash us.’ …
‘Just listen to Caroline Flint, the public health minister,’ one industry leader says. ‘She already talks as if she thinks she can tell us what to do.’ …
[Peta Buscombe, chief executive of the Advertising Association] says the key challenge is for the industry to reclaim control of the agenda and to show not only how important it is to the economy, but also how self- restrained and responsible it is. The rigour applied to devising advertising codes would put many Parliamentary law-makers to shame, she declares. … (Campaign)
Comments
I have three comments about the petition campaign:
I’ll leave the larger issue of, you know, blaming the messenger for another day. God forbid any parent assumes responsibility for the actions of their children, or any consumer make a conscious decision about their purchasing habits.
Technorati Tags: Campaign magazine, Haymarket, Action for Ads, IPA
If you remember, back in November I posted about the ingenious advertising gimmick used by a local Ottawa firm called Tony’s Snowblowing.
As the winter wore on, it became evident that Tony’s was not living up to its contract with many clients, based on the dozens of hits I would get the day of a major snowfall.
Eventually, that post about an advertising gimmick received over 50 printable comments. I had to edit quite a few because I considered them over the top or they were simply drive-by comments and slurs by competing snowplow operators.
The most constructive comment was the first, by my friend Bob, who recommended potential customers look at the Better Business Bureau record for Tony’s.
Today, I received an email (with a made-up name and addy) asking me why I had closed off comments to that post.
Here’s my comment policy: I encourage comments. I want to know your point of view. I want to give you a chance to criticize what I’ve written, or add information to the story. You have to provide an actual email address. BUT - if your comment borders on slander, promotes abuse or violence, or divulges personal information not already revealed in my post, I reserve the right to edit, erase and close off comments. I will always provide an explanation for my decision.
So - if you feel like commenting on any follow-up action by Tony’s, do it here. Or if you feel like commenting on my policy, do it here.
But don’t send me a chickenshit little anonymous email and complain that I’m not letting you express yourself. If you don’t have the guts to add your name to your comment, then it probably isn’t worth posting.
Technorati Tags: Tony’s Snowblowing, snowblowing, comment policy, customer complaints
It’s engaging. It’s got a Pixar/Dreamworks/Disney feel to it. It has family cast of characters like Meet the Robinsons. It includes an online board game, but with some well drawn and engaging interactive components.
It’s Get The Glass, the latest advertising campaign and online add-on developed for the California Milk Processor Board.
Unfortunately, it loads really slowly. Really slowly! Like molasses in winter slow. Like week-old gluten-free bread moving through the digestive tract of a forty-five year-old vegetarian slow. Like headache pills on Ash Wednesday in New Orleans slow. Like Twitter during the closing hours of SXSW slow! Like DMV lines when you’ve just bought a new Mustang slow!
That wouldn’t be much of a problem - but that each phase of the game requires a separate download.
(and yes, I DO have broadband, thankyouverymuch!)
On the other hand, the island and Milkatraz Island portrayed in the game seem to draw from the inspiration of Japanese model train afficionados. (examples here, here and here) Oh - and French model train afficionados as well.
Technorati Tags: Get the Glass, Milk, Goodby SilverStein & Partners, CMPB
Technorati Tags: Ninja, Kohler, viral video, flush
When you speak to the other 90% of the world that barely understands the concept of social media, is your rhetoric more Anthony Robbins or Rush Limbaugh? In your pitches, are the benefits of social media innovation balanced against the potential risks to corporate information?
As corporate consultancies begin to play in the arena, this type of analysis will become more prevalent. And it will sway corporate decision makers without the appropriate level of preparation by social media evangelists.
For example, Clearswift recently conducted surveys in Britain and the United States to examine use of social media and “Web 2.0? sites in the workplace. Their news release highlighted the term “data leakage,” and the U.S. n