Early in the morning on March 6, 2012, the news poured into the online world from MSNBC.com’s Red Tape section. Government agencies and colleges demand applicants’ Facebook passwords, the headline reads. It seems that SOPA and PIPA aren’t enough; it seems the social arena is one area the government, colleges and employers just can’t leave alone.
When social first started, it was just a place to socialize online. Then businesses with one-track, money-oriented minds began to see an easy opening into consumers’ thoughts. Says the marketer to the CEO, “Suppose we can use this whole social thing? What if we could ‘befriend’ our customers? This is a direct line to them: a place where we’d have no problem creating brand advocates and cheerleaders!” Nod, nod, goes the CEO…
Sometimes we forget that not everyone is buried in online marketing like we are. In fact, most people aren’t… it boggles the mind. Did you know most people aren’t professional SEOs? Makes sense; if they were, we wouldn’t have jobs, but it’s that whole “circle of I” syndrome we keep talking about.
You’ve all see the predictions about 2012, I’m sure. 12 Troubling Predictions for Internet Marketers in 2012 is a good example, along with 275 Internet Marketing Predictions for 2012. We don’t really offer predictions, but one we at Level343 can provide with a high degree of accuracy is this: we’re going to give back to the community.
For the first time since Level343 opened its doors in 1998, we’re closing for the holidays! There won’t be a blog Thursday, but don’t worry. We’ll be back with fresh content, updates and general mayhem, Monday, January 2, 2012. In the meantime, we’ve started a quarterly enewsletter (first installment went out early this morning). We invite you to view the email in your browser and click on the subscribe link.
