The Fundamentals of a Successful Corporate Social Media Policy

By Ari Rosenstein

The most recent statistics report that LinkedIn now has over 100,000,000 users and Twitter has over 175.000.000. But Facebook leads the pack with over 640,000,000 users - that is more than double the population of the entire United States!
So what does that have to do with work, you may ask? Well, consider these incredible statistics as reported last year by Network Box, an online internet security firm:
An analysis of over 13 billion business URLs in 2010 indicates that almost 7 percent of all business internet traffic goes to Facebook. The report also shows that 10 percent of all corporate bandwidth is used on YouTube!
The bottom line - the chances are, on any given work day, your employees are online. Whether your corporate culture embraces social media, or despises it (or simply doesn't understand it), it is crucial to implement a social media policy in the workplace. Any business that does not have a solid policy in place, or doesn't train its employees on the do's and don'ts of social networking as it relates to the company, exposes themselves to significant risks. Beyond disparaging remarks or negative press, this can include opening its doors to the release of trade secrets or confidential information.
There are several venues now for electronic and social media, and businesses should have a policy in place that addresses each one.

1. Social Media Guidelines: The Social Media Guidelines address the posting on a company-sponsored website. Your company may have a Facebook, MySpace or Twitter page and employees are allowed to post comments and interact with customers and clients through this medium.


2. Blogging: Blogging is the posting of information on either a personal or someone else's site, web log, journal etc and also includes posting opinions on YouTube, Twitter, bulletin boards, chat rooms, etc. It is on-duty and directly relates to the business of the company


3. Social Networking: Social Networking addresses how employees represent the company or speak of the company while they are off duty


4. Electronic Media: The Electronic media and monitoring policy is about how employees use the company property issued to them, whether it is a PC or a laptop, Blackberry, mobile phone or office phone, stationary or mobile equipment. This policy addresses the appropriate use of the equipment, and the understanding that because it is company property, there should be a greatly reduced - or zero - expectation of privacy.

The law permits employers to regulate and even prohibit employees from engaging in online social networking activities while on company time, property or business. It is also appropriate to LIMIT employees from posting disparaging comments or discussing company business while social networking by adopting a policy making it clear that such conduct is inappropriate. Again, the objective is to lower the expectations of privacy of employees when implementing these policies.
Other Factors to Consider
The wording of the policy may vary depending upon your industry and business but there are certain basic fundamentals to keep in mind:

1. First and foremost: While common sense may make sense to you, always have legal counsel look over your policy before distributing it to your staff.


2. Keep the social media actions in line with existing company policies regarding use of the company's electronic media (phones and computers), confidentiality of company information, and all laws regarding harassment and discrimination.


3. Similar to other corporate policies, other off-limits or inappropriate social networking behaviors would include, profane, vulgar, defamatory, threatening, harassing, hateful, abusive, bullying or embarrassing comments or postings about other employees.


4. Employees are expected to be respectful of the company's products, and services. Though discussion of pay or policies may be protected activities, running down the quality of service or products should be disciplinary issues


5. Let employees know that information regarding the company's clients, business partners, or details of projects and plans are off limits.


6. Specifically state that use of protected logos and trademarks is forbidden.


7. If an employee identifies themselves as a company employee, or discusses matters related to the company on a social media, require that the site must include a disclaimer on the front page stating that it does not express the view of the company and these are strictly personal opinions and views.


8. Finally it should be clearly stated in the policy that they should expect compliance monitoring without prior notice.

The prospect of creating and introducing a social media policy may seem daunting, if not down-right impossible at first, but don't underestimate its importance. With social media gaining momentum both off-site, and on the job, the time to begin working on a plan is now. Always consult with legal counsel or a professional knowledgeable in labor and employment laws if you need help, but get started today!

Ari Rosenstein is the Director of Marketing at CPEhr, a human resource outsourcing firm, specializing in labor law compliance and PEO services. It currently services 15,000 employees and hundreds of clients nationwide.
CPEhr was founded in 1982 and assists small employers with the management of their employees and compliance with employment regulations.
Services include: - HR Compliance - Human Resources Administration - Legislative Compliance - Employee Benefits - Risk Management and Workers' Compensation - Payroll and Tax Administration - Management and Employee Training - Recruiting Services

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ari_Rosenstein

Is Print Media Still Relevant in This Digital Age?

By Henry Ng

Print media might seem to be going the way of VHS movies, cassette players, and floppy disks that are becoming quickly obsolete, since everything is done in electronic form now. However, don't count print media out just yet. There are many applications for print sources of content that electronic media just cannot replace. There are different forms of advertising, for one. A lot of advertising is done over the internet, through the television, and on the radio. Also, newspapers and magazines are starting to transition to electronic sources only. However, there are still flyers, brochures, pamphlets, posters, etc. You can see flyers posted on bulletin boards and wall posts, pamphlets and brochures in the dentist or doctor's office, and posters in the classroom. These are the only forms of advertisements and information dissemination sources that you could find out in the real world and where electronic media is of no use. Therefore, print designs will be relevant for years to come yet.
Print designs are important for marketing and advertising purposes, especially for Small and Medium sized Enterprises who cannot afford other costly media advertising. This includes flyer designs, pamphlet designs, leaflet designs, booklets, brochures, etc. The designing process for these types of print media involves displaying content in such a way that it will capture customer's attention and engage their interests. It also involves the quality of the ink that the content is printed with and the clarity of the images and text used in the medium, as well as the quality of the paper that the different sources of informative or persuasive material is printed on. These are qualities that are unique to print media.
You could create the designs yourself on these different print media. However, using a printing company, which provides these types of services, to do it for you could be helpful in terms of the professionalism that their print designs will bring. This could be of great help to mostly corporations and businesses, for which professionalism is a must in everything they associate with, including the print media that they use.
The different elements of print designs include pictures, images, text, color of background and text, font size and type, size and type of paper, and more. A good design company should be able to come up with a design that will reflect the message that you want to convey. They should also be cost-effective and provide good return-on-investment.

Adding a little bit of fun or cheekiness into your print media often results in a word of mouth advertising too and can bring even better results. Verz Design is a web design company that also provides Graphic and Print Design Services in Singapore. Visit us if you are interested to instill some fun into your print media design.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Henry_Ng

What the Heck is Social Media?

By Peter M. Humleker

Because of the new developments of technology and the way people communicate with each other, a now form of media called social media, has emerged. Basically it's media that is shared or communicated through social interaction. However, this type of social interaction is mostly done online or with the use of the Internet. If in the past, media was communicated by means of a monologue style of deliverance, social media uses actual dialogues between the audience and media provider.
The different types of socialized media are concept, media and social interface. Concept social media refers to those that are in the form of art, information and meme. Whereas there is also physical, electronic or verbal social media. While social interface media refers to social media that is either intimate, direct, uses community engagement, is social viral, electronic, broadcasted, syndicated or physical media.
There are various forms that this new media is expressed. These are either by way of concepts or slogans that are designed so as to make sure that they are on the awareness of the audience at all times. Grass roots social-media meanwhile is done by speaking to the audience publicly, setting up installations, doing performances or making demonstrations.
There is also social-media in the form of electronic media, wherein the media can be shared; there is electronic media that is syndicated as well as social media that is done via search algorithm techniques. Meanwhile, print media is media that is meant to be circulated as well as distributed and redistributed.
Social media is distinct from industrial media, such as newspapers, television, and film. At the same time it is relatively inexpensive and has accessible tools that enable anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information, industrial media generally requires significant resources to publish information.
Examples of industrial media issues include a printing press or a government-granted spectrum license.
In order to fully understand the concept of social media more intimately, let us compare it with traditional forms or media. The more traditional forms of media are mainly broadcast or mass media. Although both forms of media, traditional and social, are able to effectively reach a wide audience in almost all parts of the world, media that is social is more accessible to people of all classes.
The reason why social media is infinitely more accessible is because it has tools are often free or available at a low cost. For example, the Internet is now being offered at a very low price to most audiences. In fact, many people are able to access the Internet for free, because of the availability of free wireless internet access in most places or locations today.
Meanwhile, traditional forms of media require subscriptions, such as cable television, magazines, newspapers and the like. Therefore, if there is a choice between having to shell out money for information or getting it for free, as with social media, the general audience will choose to get the information they desire for free.
Moreover, in order to engage in traditional forms of media, expertise and great skills are required. People expect more from people who write articles in newspapers and magazines, as opposed to someone who writes down his daily thoughts in an online blog. Therefore, there are less inhibitions and restrictions when it comes to expressing oneself in the realm of social digital media.
Social media is also oftentimes more updated and more accurate than the information that traditional media offers. The reason for this is that social media is released almost as soon as it is typed or uploaded online. And if there are any mistakes or corrections to be done, it can easily be corrected right away as well. There is no need to wait for the printing press to publish all those newspapers and magazines anymore.

Peter Humleker is the Founder and President of Miami Internet Marketing. We specialize in helping local small businesses explode their website traffic using the Internet, Mobile, and Social Media marketing. Get our free report, "7 Profit Killing Mistakes Small Businesses Make" at our website Miami Internet Marketing dot com!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_M._Humleker

Using Social Media to Enhance Direct Marketing

By Johann Williamson

Ifyou have ever posted a message on Facebook, in trying to find an apartment, sell a car, or invite friends to a gathering, then you yourself have used social media to enhance direct marketing. Because what you are doing as an individual is exactly what businesses are trying to do every day and all over the world.
The most important asset you have as an individual is that when you ask people to respond, they know you and hopefully trust you. Businesses do not always have that point to start from.
Obviously a business such as McDonalds or GEICO has a name which 'needs no introduction', and so their main goal is simply going to be to target as many potential customers as possible.
Small businesses, however, have to build trust. One way to do that is to build a network of people who know their company and who do business with them, and who communicate with each other. The use of social media reinforces a basic rule of commerce: people buy on the approval of others.
Any company interested in increasing its customer base will want to use social media in order to improve its sales and growth curves. There are two levels of activity which you should be looking at:
1) Electronic media alone; 2) Electronic media in conjunction with print media.
The most obvious examples of electronic media alone are email, Facebook and electronic coupons. Let's examine these in more detail:
Email can be used to send a "letter", just the same as a letter can be sent through the mail. The problem with email is that they are often treated as spam, and many are filtered out. Many more are deleted by the recipient without having been read.
On Facebook, it really is true that 'corporations are people'. Any company or organization can set up a Facebook account, and can begin to attract friends, and can create posts which detail company events and new products. A company can reward viewers to the site by awarding them a discount, coupon or special offer if they will use the "Like" feature in favor of the corporation. Because of Groupon and its many imitators, the growth of online couponing has changed the face of marketing. New businesses have to at least consider using them. The advantage of these programs is that they can bring a huge number of new customers. The disadvantage of these programs is that they can bring a huge number of new customers! The key here is to limit how many customers you can serve and to limit how much you can give away in a discount. The goal is to gain new customers, not to put yourself out of business on a single deal.
Electronic media in conjunction with print media.
The possibilities here are numerous. Any postcard, poster, flyer, brochure or booklet can be printed with links to media: QR codes which can be read from a distance, and PURLs which can send a customer to a website.
The idea here is that print media leads to electronic media, and electronic media leads to special offers and incentives to act.

Contact Conquest Graphics today to find out more about using social media to enhance your direct marketing efforts. Direct marketing may include bookmarks or brochures or many more items.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Johann_Williamson

Publishing And Digital And Electronic Rights

By John J Tormey III, Esq

The following publishing industry article addresses some of the legal issues arising for publishing lawyers, entertainment attorneys, authors, and others as a result of the prevalence of e-mail, the Internet, and so-called "digital" and "electronic publishing". As usual, publishing law generally and the law of the digital right and electronic right specifically, governing these commercial activities, has been slow to catch up to the activity itself. Yet most of the publishing industry "gray areas" can be resolved by imposing old common-sense interpretations upon new publishing lawyer and entertainment lawyer industry constructs, including the digital right and electronic right, and others. And if after reviewing this article you believe you have a non-jargonized handle on the distinction between "digital right" and "electronic right" in the publishing context, then I look forward to hearing from you and reading your article, too.
1. "Electronic Right[s]" And "Digital Right[s]" Are Not Self-Defining.
All publishing lawyers, entertainment attorneys, authors, and others must be very careful about the use of jargon - publishing industry jargon, or otherwise. Electronic and digital publishing is a recent phenomenon. Although as a publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney and unlike some others, I tend to use the phrase "electronic right" or even "digital right" in the singular number, there probably tends to be no single consensus as to what constitutes and collectively comprises the singular "electronic right" or "digital right". There has not been sufficient time for the publishing, media, or entertainment industries to fully crystallize accurate and complete definitions of phrases like "electronic publishing", "web publishing", "electronic right[s]", "e-rights", "digital rights", or "first electronic rights".
These phrases are therefore usually just assumed or, worse yet, just plain fudged. Anyone who suggests that these phrases alone are already self-defining, would be wrong.
Accordingly, anyone, including a publishing lawyer or paralegal representing a book publisher or entertainment lawyer representing a studio or producer, who says that an author should do - or not do - something in the realm of the "electronic right" or "digital right" because it is "industry-standard", should automatically be treated with suspicion and skepticism.
The fact of the matter is, this is a great era for authors as well as author-side publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys, and they should seize the moment. The fact that "industry-standard" definitions of the electronic right and digital right have yet to fully crystallize, (if indeed they ever do), means that authors and author-side publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys can take advantage of this moment in history.
Of course, authors can also be taken advantage of, too - particularly those not represented by a publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney. There is a long and unfortunate history of that happening, well prior to the advent of the electronic right and digital right. It has probably happened since the days of the Gutenberg Press.
Every author should be represented by a publishing lawyer, entertainment attorney, or other counsel before signing any publishing or other agreement, provided that their own economic resources will allow it. (But I am admittedly biased in that regard). Part of the publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney's function in representing the author, is to tease apart the different strands that collectively comprise the electronic right or digital right. This must be done with updated reference to current technology. If your advisor on this point is instead a family member with a Smith-Corona cartridge typewriter or a Commodore PET, rather than an entertainment attorney or publishing lawyer, then it may be time to seek a new advisor.
Even authors who cannot afford publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney counsel, however, should avoid agreeing in writing to give broad contractual grants to publishers of "electronic publishing" - or the "electronic right", or "electronic rights" or "digital rights", or the "digital right". Rather, in the words of "Tears For Fears", the author and author counsel had "better break it down again". Before agreeing to grant anyone the author's "digital right: or "electronic right", or any elements thereof, the author and his or her publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney need to make a list of all the possible and manifold electronic ways that the written work could be disseminated, exploited, or digitally or electronically otherwise used. Notice that the author's list will likely vary, month to month, given the fast pace of technological advancements. For example, these kinds of questions can be considered by the author and publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney alike:
Electronic Digital Right Question #1, Asked By The Publishing Lawyer/Entertainment Attorney To The Author: Can the work be published in whole or in part on the Internet? In the context of an "e-zine"? Otherwise? If so, how? For what purpose? Free to the reader? For a charge to the reader?
Electronic Digital Right Question #2, Asked By The Publishing Lawyer/Entertainment Attorney To The Author: Can the work be disseminated through private e-mail lists or "listservs"? Free to the reader? For a charge to the reader?
Electronic Digital Right Question #3, Asked By The Publishing Lawyer/Entertainment Attorney To The Author: Can the work be distributed on CD-Rom? By whom? In what manner and context?
Electronic Digital Right Question #4, Asked By The Publishing Lawyer/Entertainment Attorney To The Author: To what extent does the author, himself or herself, wish to self-publish this work, either before or after granting any electronic right or any individual "electronic publishing" rights therein to someone else? Will such self-publication occur on or through the author's website? Otherwise?
Electronic Digital Right Question #5, Asked By The Publishing Lawyer/Entertainment Attorney To The Author: Even if the author does not self-publish, to what extent does the author wish to be able to use and disseminate this writing for his or her own portfolio, publicity, or self-marketing purposes, and perhaps disseminate that same writing (or excerpts thereof) electronically? Should that be deemed invasive of, or competitive with, the electronic right as otherwise contractually and collectively constituted?
The above list is illustrative but not exhaustive. Any author and any publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney will likely think of other elements of the electronic and digital right and other uses as well. The number of possible uses and complexities of the electronic right[s] and digital right[s] definitions will increase as technology advances. In addition, different authors will have different responses to the publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney, to each of the carefully-itemized questions. Moreover, the same author may be concerned with the electronic right in the context of one of his/her works, but may not care so much in the context of a second and different work not as susceptible to digital right exploitation. Therefore, the author must self-examine on these types of electronic and digital right questions before responding to the author's publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney and then entering into each individual deal. Only by doing so can the author avoid the pitfalls and perils of relying upon lingo, and relying upon someone else to dictate to them what is the electronic right or digital right "industry standard". As the publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney should opine, "There is no such thing as 'industry standard' in the context of a bilaterally-negotiated contract. The only standard that you the author should be worried about is the motivational 'standard' known as: 'if you don't ask, you don't get'".
Finally, the author should be aware that while the electronic right, digital right, and components thereof can be expressly granted, they can also be expressly reserved to the author, by a mere stroke of the pen or keystroke made by the publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney. For example, if an author wants to expressly reserve the "portfolio uses" mentioned in Electronic Digital Right Question #5 above, then the author should ask his or her publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney to clearly recite this reservation of the author portfolio electronic/digital right in the contract, and leave nothing to chance. In addition, if the author has some negotiating leverage, the author, through the publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney, may be able to negotiate the "safety net" of a "savings clause" which provides words to the effect that: "all rights not expressly granted to publisher, be it an electronic right or digital right or otherwise, are specifically reserved to author for his/her sole use and benefit". That way, the "default provision" of the contract may automatically capture un-granted rights including any electronic or digital right for the author's later use. This publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney drafting technique has likely saved empires in the past.
2. Publishers and Entertainment Companies Are Revising Their Boilerplate Agreements, As We Speak, In An Effort To Secure The Electronic Right[s].
It is well-known and should come as no surprise that right now, as we speak, publishers and their in-house and outside counsel publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys are furiously re-drafting their boilerplate contracts to more thoroughly capture the digital and electronic right - that is, all of an author's digital and electronic rights. The typical publishing agreement drafted by a company-side publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney will recite a broad grant of rights, then followed by a whole laundry-list of "including but not limited to" examples. If the author receives such an onerous-looking rights passage from a publisher or the publisher's publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney, the author should not be intimidated. Rather, the author should look at it as an opportunity to make some money and have some fun. The author can first compare the list suggested in Electronic Digital Right Questions #1 through #5 above, to the publisher's own laundry-list and the author's own imagination. Then, the author can decide which if any of the separate digital or electronic rights the author wants to fight to keep for himself or herself.
If the publisher tells the author to blindly subscribe to their entire digital or electronic right[s] clause (or clauses), then the author still has the ultimate leverage, which is to walk away from the proposed deal prior to signature. Of course, this strategic approach wouldn't be advisable in most cases - unless perhaps if the author has other written offers from other publishers already on the table. However, an author shouldn't be forced by any publisher or any company-side publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney to sign away the electronic right, digital right, or any other rights that the author would rather keep - particularly rights which the author never specifically intended to shop to the publisher in the first instance.
The author should keep in mind the psychology and motivations of the publishers and their publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney counsel when doing all of this. A Vice-President (or above) at the publishing company probably woke up one recent morning, and realized that his/her company lost a great deal of money on a particular project by not taking a prospective license or assignment of an electronic right or digital right from another author. The VP probably then blamed the company's in-house legal department publishing lawyers or entertainment attorneys, who in turn started frantically re-drafting the company boilerplate to assuage the angry publishing executive and thereby keep their jobs. When in-house publishing lawyers, entertainment attorneys, or others engage in this type of practice (some may call it "drafting from fear"), they tend to go overboard.
Accordingly, what you will probably see is a proverbial "kitchen sink" electronic right clause which has been newly-drafted and perhaps even insufficiently reviewed by the company-side publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys, internally and themselves - wherein the publisher will ask the author for every possible electronic and digital right and every other thing, including (without limitation) the kitchen sink. The only response to such a broad-band electronic right or digital right clause is a careful, deliberate, and methodical reply.
Using the approach outlined in Section #1 above, the author and the author's publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney counsel must separately tease apart each use and component of the electronic right and digital right that the publisher's broad-band clause might otherwise capture, and then opine to the publisher a "yes" or a "no" on each line-item. In other words, the author, through his or her publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney, should exercise his or her line-item veto. It's the author's writing that we are talking about, after all. The author should be the one to convert the singular "electronic right" or "digital right" into the laundry-list of electronic rights. That's why I use the singular number when referring to "electronic right" or "digital right" - I like to let the technologically-advanced author have all the fun making the list. That way, too, the author can tell me what he or she thinks the phrases actually mean, and what the difference between the two meanings really is, if anything.
Next, a few words in defense of the publishers and the publishing lawyers that work for them!
Up to now, this article discussed how phrases like the "digital right" or "electronic right" should not be assumed to be self-defining, even by and between publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys, and how it is incumbent upon authors to reserve needed rights like the digital right or the electronic right to themselves in the context of a publishing deal. Next up, let's examine concepts such as the digital right or electronic right from the perspective of the publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney, and the standpoint of fairness - who between author and publisher should in fact hold on to the digital right and electronic right, once and assuming that they are first properly defined?
3. Yes, Digital Right And Electronic Right Uses Do Compete With Traditional Book Publishing Uses.
A publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney may be called upon to handle an author-side deal. A publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney may also be called upon to handle, under different factual circumstances, a publisher-side deal. So, now, a few words in defense of publishers, I suppose.
There is a perception in the author and Internet communities that publishers should not be taking broad grants of the digital right or electronic right from authors, since "digital rights and electronic rights do not compete or interfere with traditional book publishing and other media rights".
Not true. Not anymore. For proof of that fact, ask a few veteran news desk editors whether or not they followed, or were otherwise concerned about, what appeared on the Drudge Report during the Clinton administration. Ask the CFO's or in-house publishing lawyers of a few traditional encyclopedia companies how they feel about Wikipedia.
Incidentally, although as a publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney and unlike some others, I tend to use the phrase "electronic right" or even "digital right" in the singular number, there probably tends to be no single consensus as to what constitutes and collectively comprises the singular "electronic right" or "digital right". There has not been sufficient time for the publishing, media, or entertainment industries to fully crystallize accurate and complete definitions of phrases like "electronic publishing", "web publishing", "electronic right[s]", "e-rights", "digital right[s]", or "first electronic rights".
Nevertheless, electronic media and specifically the digital right and electronic right, have already changed our history. You can be sure that they will have some effect, at a minimum, on most author's individual publishing deals henceforth, and will be the fodder of publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney discussion for years to come. The fact is, electronic uses inherent in the digital right and the electronic right already do compete with older, more traditional uses - particularly because digital and electronic uses are cheaper and faster to deploy, and can potentially reach millions of users in less than, as Jackson Browne might say, the blink of an eye.
Commerce is increasingly relying upon the Internet and other electronic phenomena, and the linchpin of this reliance is the digital right and electronic right. After all, you are reading this article, and ostensibly gleaning some information or material from it. The Web, for example, has already put a sizable dent in dictionary and encyclopedia sales, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably an employee in a dictionary or encyclopedia publishing company or publishing lawyer in-houser in denial of the digital and electronic right, trying to protect his/her stock options. As the recent and well-known Stephen King pilot program will attest, fiction is the next subject matter area to be affected. Many of us book lovers including publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys don't like to think about it, but bound hard-copy books may soon become the sole province of book collectors and publishing lawyer vanity bookcases alone. The vast majority of book readers, however, may so wholly embrace the digital right and electronic right that they soon even lose the patience to wait for their "amazon.com" mailed shipment.
Very few people who work in the publishing, media, and entertainment industries, including as amongst fair-minded publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys, should dispute that electronic uses inherent in the digital right and electronic right can easily cannibalize the older and more traditional forms and formats. This cannibalization will only increase, not decrease, as time goes on. Again, the author should put himself/herself in the mind-set of the publisher or its in-house publishing lawyer, when having this digital right/electronic right argument with the publisher or publishing lawyer. The publisher otherwise may want to invest marketing and personnel support in the author's work, and perhaps even pay the author an advance for the writing. In their view, though, the publisher's publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney argues, why should they do so, and not also capture the author's digital right or electronic right?
The last thing that the publisher or its publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney wants to do is to pay the author - and then discover that the author has "scooped" the publication with the author-reserved digital right or electronic right, stolen the publisher's proverbial fire, and undermined the publisher's investment in the author and the writing. The concern of the publisher and the book company's in-house publishing lawyer or outside entertainment attorney is rational and valid. If the publisher allows the author to potentially undercut the book by exploiting author's reserved digital right or electronic right, then the publisher is threatening the publisher's own investment in the author and in the written work. (And on some subliminal level at least, the company's in-house publishing lawyer also knows that this could come out of his or her future comp).
Compromises are available. One traditional compromise effected between publishing lawyers or entertainment attorneys is a so-called "hold-back" on the digital right or electronic right, whereby the author promises not to use or license-out any author-reserved digital right or electronic right for a certain period of time following publication. The author will need some leverage to get a publisher to agree to such a compromise, though. And a publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney should draft the clause - the author's publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney, not the publisher's counsel!
An author may think that small "portfolio" uses (e.g., tucked inside greeting cards, on an author's personal web site, etc.) are so minor, that they will never compete with publishing rights granted for the same work, and may tell the publisher or the company's publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney as much. The greeting card example does seem innocuous enough, but the publisher and its entertainment or publishing lawyer will likely not agree with the author regarding the author's personal web site. It is the electronic right or the digital right that really scares publishers and their publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys, and is perceived as threatening to their long-term investment in the author and his or her work.
The distinction to be made here is between hard-copy portfolio uses, and digital right or electronic right "portfolio uses". The fact is that computer-uploaded text is so easy and quick to transmit, receive, and read. The posted content's popularity could also spread like digital wildfire, so quickly - for example, if a company hyper-links to the author's site, or if "Yahoo" bumps the author's site up in their search-engine pecking-order. Many successes have already been made by virtue of digital right and electronic right self-publishing, and more will follow. Traditional (book) publishers and their publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys already realize this fact. Accordingly, traditional book publishers and their counsel also realize that once they acknowledge an author's reservation of a "self-promotion" digital right or electronic right, they risk losing control of a potential wildfire dissemination method. Again, this would put the publisher's investment at risk - but smart business people and companies and the publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys that represent them, don't put their own investments at risk.
4. The Party To The Contract That Has The Better And More Immediate Means and Resources To Exploit The Electronic Rights, Should Be The One Who Takes The Electronic Rights.
Here is the final point. If a contracting party has no means and resources to exploit a digital right or electronic right or a given bundle of them, then that same party has no business taking (or reserving to themselves) those same digital or electronic rights by contract or even negotiating such a position by and between publishing lawyers or entertainment attorneys. To analogize, if I am a screenwriter who options or sells my script to the Acme Production Company, LLC, through an entertainment lawyer, how should I react if Acme asks me to specifically and contractually grant them "theme park rights" in my literary property in the negotiation between the entertainment attorneys? (Don't laugh - this practice is now very prevalent in film and entertainment deals).
Well, if Acme doesn't have its own theme park, I (or my entertainment attorney) now have a powerful argument for reserving the theme park rights to myself instead. "Hey, Acme", I (or my entertainment attorney) say, "... how do you have the unmitigated gall to ask me for my theme park rights, when you don't even have the ability to exploit or use them yourself? You don't even have a theme park!" I (or my entertainment attorney) then make it clear to Acme that I don't intend to be giving them any trophies that they can put on a shelf to collect proverbial dust.
The same argument can work in the publishing context, particularly as argued between publishing lawyers and entertainment attorneys, regarding the digital right or the electronic right. The author can proverbially cross-examine the publisher (or try to cross-examine the company's publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney) as to what successful past uses they have made of other author's digital rights or electronic rights across multiple books. The company President may fudge the answer, but the publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney representing the publisher must answer truthfully. (One good reason to negotiate through counsel).
If the true answer to the question is "none", then the author can use the "trophy" argument stated above. If the true answer is, alternatively, "some", then the author has a negotiating opportunity to compel the publisher and its publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney to contractually commit to digitally and electronically publish the author's work, too. The author can argue: "I won't grant you the digital right or electronic right unless you, publisher, contractually commit in advance as to how specifically you will exploit them, and how much money you will spend in their development and marketing". The author or the author's publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney can then carve those electronic right and digital right commitments right directly into the contract, if the author has the leverage to do so. Again, one should not try this at home - but instead use a publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney.
Needless to say, once the author makes the publisher commit, presumably through publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney counsel, to a development budget or other marketing or "release" commitment for the digital right or the electronic right, then both the author and the publisher might thereby also have some basis for numerical valuation of the rights themselves. And, it is an entirely reasonable argument for an author or author's publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney to say to a publisher that: "I will license/sell you the following listed digital right[s] or electronic right[s] if you pay me the following additional amounts for them:_____________________. And in the blank space, the rights can be listed like menu options as they have been broken out in Item #1 above, each to which separate dollar values - that is, price-tags - are now assigned.
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This article is not intended to, and does not constitute, legal advice with respect to your particular situation and fact pattern. Do secure counsel promptly, if you see any legal issue looming on the horizon which may affect your career or your rights. What applies in one context, may not apply to the next one. Make sure that you seek individualized legal advice as to any important matter pertaining to your career or your rights generally.
Publishing And Digital And Electronic Rights
© John J. Tormey III, PLLC. All Rights Reserved.
My law practice as a publishing lawyer and entertainment attorney includes the drafting, editing, negotiation, and closure of agreements including digital and electronic rights matters as they may arise therein, as well as in the fields of music, film, television, Internet, and other media and art forms. If you have questions about legal issues which affect your career, and require representation, please contact me:
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Electronic Press Kit - An Innovative Marketing Promotional Tool for Musicians

By Keshavsing K Solanki

An Electronic Press Kit (EPK) also known as Electronic Information Kit (EIK) or Electronic Media Kit (EMK) is exactly what the name suggests - a press kit in an electronic form. EPK can be distributed through CD, DVD, a thumb-drive, an e-mail, or a Web site.
Why EPK?
The world has change a great deal for the musicians with the advent of social media. From marketing to the artist-fan relations and distribution of music, everything is now taking place online. The traditional way of presenting music to industry stakeholders through the press kit is no longer the most effective marketing strategy.
EPK or Electronic Information Kit is an innovation that allows every musician to showcase their entire range of works online
EPK - an Online Press Kit
EPK or Electronic Media Kit is an online press kit.
Using an Electronic Information Kit, you can send information about your entire gamut of work to whosoever you want including the press.
However, unlike a normal e-mail, which can be accessed by only the sender and the receiver, Electronic Press Kit goes on to appear on search engine and therefore can be accessed by every online visitor. Now imagine the benefits of getting such a vast exposure without making even a bit of extra effort and penny!
Electronic Media Kit - quick, engaging and up to date
One of the worries that most of the musicians face is related to the time and effort they need to invest every time they launch a new album or hold a concert. Electronic Media Kit takes this worry out of equation as using it you can up-to-date about all your activities and coming events online. Thus, an EPK also spares you money and time in distributing information.
Become a leader with EPK
EPK or Electronic Information Kit also enables you to keep track of your online visitors. This helps you to know exactly who your target audience is and what they want. Thus, you can always be a step ahead of your competitor and keep your art in tune with the demand of the market.
Whether you are a dancer, singer or a percussionist, an EPK can be tailored as per your specific needs. An EPK can be easily disseminated using an e-mail and therefore an artiste can send it to the specific group of audience with specific information.
A golden platform for new arrivals
EPK or Electronic Information Kit has an extensive reach. Distributing Electronic Press Kit using social networking sites like face book, my space and you tube, you can take your work to every art lover on this earth. This is especially beneficial for a budding artiste.
With an effective Electronic Press Kit, you can receive the attention of a great number of people and make your work known worldwide.
Cost effective and highly effective
By using an EPK, you can reduce the cost you, as an artiste, have to bear in promoting your work and reaching the audience.
Electronic Media Kit is simple yet highly effective.
You need only a simple click and bingo! Before your blink your eyes, your work has reached the place and the person you want. Thus, using Electronic media kit saves you time and money which you otherwise have to spend in printing and disseminating promotional materials.

Keshavsing K Solanki is a veteran IT professional with ten years of experience in writing on various technological topics. The author has been associated with various major electronic press kit [http://epk-electronicpresskit.com/] and Electronic media Kit [http://epk-electronicpresskit.com/Electronic-media-Kit.html] service providers.

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Marketing Real Estate Properties in Jordan Via Electronic Media - What Are the Chances of Success?

By Steve Shishani

Marketers of properties in the Middle Eastern country of Jordan have always relied on traditional marketing techniques. In most cases, sellers and buyers of land, residential, and commercial properties rely on brokers and their agents to facilitate the process. Property owners who have the time and stamina, in an attempt to save on commissions, resort to other means such as placing print ads on local newspapers and real estate specialty magazines, or simply use for-sale-by-owner signs to showcase their properties and attract buyers.
Recently, the ubiquity of computers coupled with the availability of broadband internet access in major metropolitan areas such as the capital Amman, Zarqa, Irbid, and Aqaba is slowly changing the way Jordanians carry out their real estate marketing transactions. New real estate listing and marketing websites servicing the Middle Eastern markets are popping up on the internet at an unprecedented pace. Owners of these websites are trying to walk in the footsteps of highly successful western website operators who have achieved a good level of success serving their local markets. Nowadays, it is possible to find advertisements for all types of properties such as land, apartments, villas, and condominiums on such websites in Jordan.
Email usage by Jordanian is also on the rise. In fact, the growth has been exponential and unprecedented in the last two years. Some brokers and their agents are finding new and exciting marketing opportunities in this new communications medium. It is not uncommon for an average email user to receive two or three email blasts from real estate agents on daily basis.
Marketing real estate through the internet in Jordan is still in its nascency though. With the absence of accurate official research on its efficacy, its hard to tell at this stage if it is worthwhile for the traditional Jordanian advertiser to jump on the e-marketing band wagon. This dearth of information and lack of credible third-party research is forcing some website operators and young e-marketing companies to conduct direct customer surveys on their own in an effort to validate their e-services to the distrustful public.
A recent customer survey conducted by "Nizah for eMarketing," a startup firm specializing in e-marketing services in Amman, Jordan concluded that most customers still preferred the more traditional advertising means such as print advertising over placing property ads on websites. Additionally, according to the survey, some were suspicious of the effectiveness of mass email campaigns as well. However, the majority of the people surveyed expected the situation to change in the near future as the cost of connecting to broadband internet becomes within the reach of most middle-class Jordaninas.
So, is there hope for e-marketing to enjoy any level of success in Jordan any time soon? Well, Jordanian have in the past welcomed and embraced technology as an enabler in all facets of their daily lives; it is just a matter of time before e-marketing garners enough trust and gains the required credibility to take its rightful place alongside other more traditional marketing media.

AqarLink is a real estate listing and marketing website serving the Arab world. It aims to employ the internet as a marketing tool to enable the real estate markets of the Middle East to catch up and keep pace with their counterparts in the developed countries, thereby improving their competitiveness in the new global economy. The website is a highly advanced technological platform created to serve individuals, private and public corporations of all sizes, financial institutions, and investors in the Arab world.
Apartments for sale in Jordan
Villas for sale in Jordan

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