http://libn.com/youngisland/2012/04/27/social-media-takes-center-stage-in-business/

Hello my friends!

The end is creeping up on us ever so slowly, and I am wishing that is comes very soon! I for one am getting very ready for summer and really looking forward to it. The article that I looked up for this blog post today is about how social media is playing a big role in some types of businesses. The interviewer asked a few different types of questions about social media to a group of individuals at a company. The article is mostly consisting of a long video that is filmed. The man in the video is the one who has written the article and it is him doing a seminar of sorts for companies and social media. One of the major points that the author brings up is the legality of social media demands from companies.  The author states, “The ease with which companies now engage in social media marketing and branding means intellectual property rights and privacy rights may not always be properly respected.  Companies must be mindful of these social media legal issues, or run they run the risk of exposure to costly litigation. And employers have recently started requesting social media account information during interviews, but few realize that social media use in the hiring process may expose a company to a host of potential legal issues and state and federal laws.   I stressed that employers should plan ahead before deciding to delve into social media in the hiring process.” So, what the author is talking about is that it is not really worth the potential risks to the companies of being sued by employees. I would tend to agree with the author.

Hopefully this will change soon!

PJ

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_20443117/maryland-first-state-ban-employers-from-demanding-workers

Hello my friends! I cannot believe that there are only two more weeks of class left in the semester! It has gone by very fast and we will soon be Sophomores and Juniors. But the my post today is not about how times fly, but it is about my post from last week. There has finally been a state that has stepped up to the plate to ban companies from demanding that their employees give their social media passwords up when the go to work. This state is: Maryland. The measure, which handily passed the legislature earlier this month, keeps managers from snooping on password-protected content, a practice advocates of the bill say violates privacy and intimidates job seekers and employees. This is extremely important for the work force because now there is a presedent in place. Other states can look to this and make decisions on whether or not they want to impose this same law to protect their citizens. To me, this is a major step to start to win this war against the companies. With this new law in place, it really shows that there is actually some people out there protecting our freedoms. What the companies were doing was compleyely wrong, and I for one and glad there is something being done about this. In the future, I hope that there will be more states that will adopt this law so there will be protection for us when we get into the workforce once we graduate.  

PJ 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/04/11/investopedia79181.DTL

Hello my friends!

Today I will be talking about an article that I found from the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper and talks about a hot topic being discussed: employers asking or demanding the social media passwords from their employees. The article first gives a great overview of the problem. The problem, as the article tells us, is that employers are looking to hire people and know they are trying to hire the right people, but feel that they should take a deeper look into their employees before they decide to take a risk and hire them to represent their company. The article then goes into discussing some of the various reactions that a potential employee could do if this were to happen to them. In the article, they talk about that the most effective way for the employees to react is to take the employees to court. By taking legal action and bringing this to the courts attention really is the best course of action for employees wanting to be hired. It is totally wrong for employers to do this to their future employees or even current employees because this puts them into a really hard situation. Do they lie to their employers and say they do not own a social media page or do they give them their passwords and risk that they find something worth firing you over. Again, it really is difficult because they are doing this in their own time and should not be required to do this. Hopefully soon it will all work out!

Stay safe my friends!

PJ