Banks have already begun assessing their risks in regards to this subject, and also the theme of security has been at the forefront of bank agendas. Being proactive in the new economy regarding any internal or external risks can only benefit an institution in the long run. With the web being wide open to risk, it is important to evaluate all policies and procedures to have a clear understanding of what each bank considers comfortable risk. For example, there are very real and serious threats to any institutional website including, trojans, worms, phishing and other attacks targeted specifically at the users of these sites. Bank employees need strict corporate policy to adhere to and detailed descriptions of what is proper behavior. It may be a best practice policy to block an employee’s use of any online portal that is a threat to an institution’s security.

I bought the iPad for one reason: to ensure that I get my daily cardio done. No, seriously – that’s why I bought it. A good friend of mine and I decided to embark on a sort of adventure in fitness. The theory: we both HAVE to check email and do our social media comment marketing daily, so if we could also get some cardio in at the same time, would we actually stick to our fitness plan. The way I see it, if I had an easier way to thoughtfully and easily dig into my email while on a machine, I wouldn’t have an excuse not to get it done. My iPhone was too small and heavy to really write long emails, and a laptop set up wasn’t possible because of the arms on my elliptical trainer at home. So, we challenged each other to test if the iPad was an answer to this.

The results: yes. So far, I, Amanda Vega have been able to complete cardio while also working pretty easily with my iPad. You can read more about this adventure on our blog IHateCardio.com.

Anyway, so for what MY purposes were, the iPad rocks. As for the rest, I’m not sure that for a power user/buyer like myself, the iPad replaces anything I already have. For instance, while I love the way faster turning of pages in books on the iPad (I’m a speed reader,) I do not like the backlit technology over the liquid page technology of the Kindle. My eyes were more tired for sure reading on the iPad. Additionally, I found way less available books, and the ones I had purchased on my Kindle to then test drive on the iPad cost almost double on iPad.

Secondly, the connectivity is a bit challenging. When I was at the airport I attempted to connect to the wifi and download my email prior to my flight. It was a no go. I was sad. And to test whether it was the iPad or the wifi, I pulled out my MacAir and connected quickly and easily. An answer to this was brought to my attention by another user of the iPad who had tethered his phone to his iPad to get his connection. But, do you really want to have to do that?

As for my apps and the like, they work seamlessly and just like my iPhone. My experience with Words is certainly more fun – though my friend Akira Hirai is still beating me over and over.

I did download a movie using Netflix and also participated in a webinar with my iPad in the first week -both went really well. The vivid color and big screen was really great.

I have to say I was a bit disappointed that a case didn’t come with the iPad like it did with my Kindle.

And the biggest praise I have of the iPad is the battery life. After two hours of use with multiple apps and songs and the like, I still had over 90% batter left. For all of you that are iPhone users, you know how shocking this was. If only my iPhone could last this long.

My husband thinks that the iPad will work well for him in traveling. He doesn’t juggle too many documents and gets about 1,000 less emails a day than I do. So for that type of user that doesn’t already have a great traveling laptop, the iPad may be a great solution.

But for me overall, while I love my new toy, I can’t say that it changed my world, or made me more productive professionally. It did, however, make me get my cardio done almost everyday!

Anyone else have thoughts?

But on the other hand, we certainly are a snitty bunch with overinflated egos and attitude problems.

Hang out on Twitter for a few hours after you’ve (thankfully) gained more than a few followers and you will begin to see the true community that drives this micro-blogging site and makes it truly hum.  It’s like an electronic high school really – with the differences in class and caste, and the behaviors and uses of Twitter vary with each subgroup. Oddly enough, most of the “social media experts” that write books on the subject (read: get paid to speak, not to actually have ever managed social media for a client) tend to spend most of their tweets sharing quotes and news stories.  The celebrities are split into two groups: ones that say really mundane things that we adore like reading People Magazine and the ones that attempt to use it as a platform for social change (yet don’t follow anyone back.) Most of the companies on Twitter are talking at you in a way that is basically an advertising bastardization of this social tool. The “professionals” seem to think that passing along news articles all day long is the sole use of Twitter – and sadly most of them are about 3 hour behind everyone else.  The MLM crowds spam you constantly and create one or two fake “real tweets” between spam to fool people. (Who? I’m not sure.)

And then there are the nerds.

The nerds (I use the term fondly,) are the ones that I believe are the real social wizards. They are the “social media experts” more so than the aforementioned authors. Many of them log more hours than anyone else on Twitter. A great many of them are doing valuable client work, creating the tools we use in social media every day, and forging this industry. They connect all hours of the day and handle multiple streams of consciousness and conversation at any given time while juggling work (we hope.) And they all consider themselves the rulers of Planet Twitter.  Often times, you see them fighting for title of king much like beauty queens – tearing everyone down in their path publicly (while acting under the guise of being “helpful”) in order to make themselves stand out and seem more crown worthy.

Pay attention. You’ll see tweets like “take your chatter to direct message” or “why are you telling me what you ate for breakfast?” You will find instances of people publicly ridiculing someone for not using a URL shortener, cursing, sharing promotions, and tweeting while drunk. And they aren’t just shouting their opinion, they are frequently adding to their beating words like “you can’t do that” or “you aren’t supposed to do that” or “you’re using Twitter wrong.”

The reality is that there isn’t really a wrong or right way to use Twitter. We all have our opinions on the subject. (I personally believe that if you aren’t having any two-way conversation on Twitter, then you aren’t being social and therefore likely not optimizing the tools power.)  But those that hang out the most control the reality – and they want you to know so. There’s no official rule book, use book, or directive from Twitter (like there is on Facebook with regard to Fan pages, etc.) telling you what to do with the tool. It’s the reason most major media still have no clue about the sub communities and what really happens with active Twitter users (yet they all have accounts now so they can talk at us – occasionally.)

I believe some of the angry banter is the cyber equivalent to heckling, and some of it is truly arrogant overstepping from some that somehow think there are official rules of engagement and that they are assigned to police the tool. I see a lot of it coming from people that in ‘real’ life would never speak up to anyone. I also see a lot of it come from people that in my own opinion aren’t very adept in social – on or offline. But at the end of the day – it’s the collective crowd of active users that do create and manage the community, which includes the bylaws and social etiquette rules. It’s the beauty of social media, really. But, the next time someone tells you that you’re using Twitter wrong, remind them that they aren’t the ruler of your world (or of Twitter) and to back off. (Or, shove them in a locker.)

Here we are in the 21st century.  We monitor our trading, we monitor our friends, we get real time information (or as real time as we can), yet big brother is still trying to hold us back.  Why is it that so many of corporate america can’t seem to catch up to the trends?  Are they going to miss out on the best and brightest because of their hesitation?  Seems to me that every time a new technology starts to take roots the people who should be embracing it tend to dismiss or defend against why we shouldn’t have or use the new technology.  I know information directors that don’t have computers at home and believe it or not there are still executives that have all their email correspondence printed for them and they dictate or write the responses for their administrative assistance (I know, seems like a cliché from 9 to 5 with Dolly Parton).  Ok, so lets get down to brass knuckles, why is it that adaptation comes so easy to some and so hard to others?  It’s a risk perception whether it be personally or professionally.  People innately evaluate the cost benefit to themselves and or their company.  

On a personal level the risks are minimal to the population.  If I were to get hacked my identity might get stolen and I would be in a world of hurt, and may even face some public retribution, but overall the impact would be isolated. Even so, some people choose not to assume this risk and choose not to participate in social media which is an individual preference.  Now let’s talk about corporate risk.  Many people would argue that the number one risk associated to social media is reputation.  The thought is that if you allow your employees to access these sites, it could pose a reputational risk that you are unable to address.  Funny, when I write reviews about a company or service I receive it isn’t as though I work for that company, rather I received their service.  I would say that the inability to receive or view that feedback could lead to more negative connotations vs. the ability to receive that information and prepare an appropriate response.   Another difficulty to companies limiting their employees is the lack of control of those employees when away from the office.   This is why I argue that the number one risk associated to social media is ignoring it.  The lack of accepting social media as a successful form of communication could really hurt your company through lack of your participation in the conversation. And believe me, the conversation is already going.  

Another interesting standpoint to social media is the freedom of the information.  When people post public information, it is very difficult to remove it from every source possible on the internet.  This allows people and companies to view their information without any risk of invasion of privacy because most the sites with the exception of Facebook are open communities.  There are all sorts of tools that you can use to monitor traffic as it pertains to your company, brand, and even industry.  If you haven’t already started, just set up some google alerts to see what is being circulated about your company.    

Other risks associated to social media are the liability risks and enterprise security risk which each have their own subcategories such as personal information, financial information, legal liabilities, network risk etc.  These are the risks that any company has regardless of their stated participation level or acceptance of social media.  Someone somewhere in your employee population is participating, therefore your company is as well.  Guilty by association.  The best way to address these risks is to address the population with training and policy.  Note that training was first on my list because of the trust factor that seems to be imbedded with all users of the internet, people need to understand the risks associated — how many times have you clicked a link that you didn’t really know where it was going to send you?  Most employees don’t understand that clicking that link is risky business.

1. “We meant to do that” – a response when we pointed out that a site a client built (who claims to do web development on the higher end levels) wasn’t visible in Google.

2. “We have too much business” – their continued rebuttal which I found incredibly odd in general, but especially in a down economy. I’ll be sure to check back in with them in 3 months.

3. “We didn’t have any business in January, so we are not going to do any advertising in February” – well, you can see where the flaw is in this one if you know about my rants, but more importantly, the client was on vacation all of January so his phones were not answered. You know how I feel about that.

4. “The internet has only been around for 10 years.” This came from a guy who sells interactive advertising.

5. “There’s not a whole lot of people using the Internet yet.” Self explanatory.

6. “I don’t think we should deal in that social media stuff.” – This from someone who has no ranking in Google for his own name, but there are over 10,000 NEGATIVE posts ABOUT him in Google. 

Got anymore? Share them here!

Shortly after that, you saw a deluge of new sites come up across all industries all with one special moniker…”e” or “i” something or other. For what was really YEARS after the web was already in use, the rest of the world outside us nerds got on board and agencies all over the nation were quick to set up web pages and give them all clever URLs like “eINSERTINDUSTRYHERE.com” or “iINSERTINDUSTRYHERE.com” over and over.  It was maddening.  

Now with the new recognition of what many of us have been doing for years (blogs, community sites, forums, video,) we see the rest of world calling this “Web 2.0″ which is great in so many ways, but also showing the non-creative side of traditional minds getting on board with something us old zealots have been preaching for years. 

So now, you see “Web 2.0″ churning out numerous followers to this tagline.  ”Sales 2.0″ “Real Estate 2.0″ and the “Economy 2.0.”  It makes me wonder though, now that the leaders in our space are forging into “Web 3.0″ to give a name to the NEXT level of integration, will we now see “Dating 3.0″ or “Banking 3.0?”