guidelines

 

Google has posted some official guidelines for listing your business in Google Maps. As more and more people refer to the Internet rather than the phonebook for looking up local businesses, business owners will want to pay close attention to the rules, so they are easily found on Google Maps. The new guidelines read as follows:

If your company has a presence on Facebook, the social network wants you to promote it.  Cross its figurative heart, hope to die, and so on.  But Facebook wants to keep your company separate from its brand, and so has issued some detailed guidelines.

The TUC, the organization representing trade unions in the UK, adds its voice to the big debate on what to do about Facebook and employee use. In a practical approach to an issue that some companies see as a problem that can be solved only by banning it from the workplace, the TUC says that’s not the best approach:

Last week I did a post on Search Engine Watch about 11 guidelines for pursuing authoritative links. This post on SEW provides an overview about pursuing the highest value links from sites as part of a long campaign. And this is a great approach to pursuing links.

Last November, the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) issued a call to action to the PR community inviting comment on a discussion paper about the opportunities and risks social media present in public relations practice. The CIPR’s plan was to incorporate it into the association’s code of conduct for members, following the public consultation.

Since announcing algorithmic adjustments to the calculation of landing page quality score, and the subsequent impact on minimum bids, Google has been the object of some scrutiny from its advertising partners. Following much anticipation, the company has finally released more concrete basis of suggestion for achieving high quality score ratings.

It's good to see that the CIPR, the body representing the public relations profession in the UK, has taken a lead in formally starting a debate about social media and PR.