Didn’t know that could happen? Well, according to Google the company must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), under which children younger than 13 must provide the permission of a parent or guardian before giving out personal information online.

In a letter tittled ” Google, thanks for making my daughter cry” posted on Reddit, the girl’s father blasted Google for not clearly stating the age restrictions during the sign up process. ”I set up a gmail account for my daughter so she could send email to her grandparents,” he wrote.

The decision has sparked a bit of controversy and also reopened a long dormant debate over how young is too young for the Internet.

Google’s decision is a bit strange especially when you consider the “Dear Sophie” campagin they ran last year.

Two can play that game. Kremlin wants protestors to Like them.

After a tumultuous year in which many uprisings around the world were waged through social media, it appears Russian officials  are trying to quell anti-government sentiment by posting heart-felt messages on Facebook regarding possible violations at polling stations during the December 4 election of President Dmitry Medvedev.

The British newspaper “The Telegraph” first reported the post and the continued subtle dialogue being waged by the president across his official Facebook page.

“People have the right to express their views which is what they did yesterday,” wrote Mr Medvedev. “I don’t agree with the slogans or the declaration that rang out at the meetings. Nevertheless, instructions have been given by me to check all information from polling stations regarding compliance with the legislation on elections.”

Bad news for Moscow: The vast majority of comments were negative.

Russians play rough over Twitter

In other Russian social media news, the BBC reported that hijacked PCs may have helped drown out online chat about Russian election protest. Trend Micro researcher Maxim Goncharov discovered pro-Kremlin Twitter messages were being auto-generated by computers, spamming conversations and pushing down the voice of dissent. The bots used the protesters’ hashtag #триумфальная (Triumfalnaya) to drown conversations, while posting up to 10 messages per second, according to the report.

If at first you don’t succeed, try something underhanded and illegal.

When it comes to parsing social media numbers, however, it’s important to keep all the variables in proper context. Because this wildly popular medium remains in its relative infancy, it’s often hard to contextualize what is actually important and what isn’t.

For example, is it more important for a brand to have 30,000 Facebook fans or 1,000 hardcore Twitter followers? Of course, the answer may depend on particular business goals, but the point is that it can be easy to get hung up on all those readily available metrics.

And when it comes to Twitter these numbers border on the astronomical. After all, the platform favors quick bursts of information over lengthy contextual content.

Still, the numbers are telling us a story and it’s how you chose to leverage these statistics that is important. If you knew that the best time of the day to get re-tweeed is 5PM (apparently this is true), you’d likely start doing some testing of your own to maximize your efforts and nail down some re-tweets for your latest release.

It’s a well-worn fact that marketers love stats. So with that in mind I’ve compiled a bunch of alleged facts about Twitter from a combination of sources.  (All sources are in parenthesis)

Tweets and Twitterers

• 200 million Twitter users (Twitter)
• 450,000 new Twitter accounts open per day, or  5.2 every second (Twitter)
• There are 1 billion new Tweets posted every week = nearly up to 180 million per day = 138,888 every minute = 1650 per second (Twitter)
• Just 5% of users create 75% of the content (Touch Agency)
• 52% users update Twitter status daily (Pew Research Center)
• 24% of users check twitter several times a day (Pew Research Center)
• 5pm is the best time to get re-tweeted (marketing scientist Dan Zarrella)

Twitter Usage

• 200 million Tweets go out per day (Twitter)
• A billion Tweets are sent every five days (Twitter)
• 40% of tweets come from mobile devices (Twitter)
• 50% use Twitter on more than one platform nearly. a 200% increase over last year (Twitter)
• 182% increase in users over this time last year (Twitter)
• 18,000 search queries every second (Twitter)
• 10% of Twitter accounts follow more than 50 people (Silicon Alley Insider)*
• Only half of Twitters’ registered accounts follow 2 or more people (Silicon Alley Insider)
• 1.5 Million Twitter uses follow more than 500 people (Silicon Alley Insider)
• 75% of Traffic comes from outside Twitter (Twitter)
• More than 1,000,000 apps that work with Twitter (Twitter)

Twitter User Demographics

• 8% percent of American adults who use the internet are Twitter user (Pew Research Center)
• 70% account are outside the US (Touch Agency)
• 46% of users are male (Ad Age)
• 54% of users are female (Ad Age)
• 41.5% of Twitters users are 18-29(Touch Agency)
• 42.3% are 30-49(Touch Agency)
• 13.7 are 50-64(Touch Agency)
• 2.6% are 65 and over (Touch Agency)
• 11% of UK online population are on Twitter(Touch Agency)

Twitter and Brands

• 30% of Twitter users have household income of over $100,000 (Business Insider)
• Estimates suggest between 20% and 40% of Twitter users follow at least one brand (Touch Agency)
• 75% of users are more likely to purchase from a brand they follow (Touch Agency)
• 67% are likely to recommend a brand they follow (Touch Agency)
• 3 million questions are asked on Twitter every month (InBoxQ)
• 80% of customer services Tweets are negative or critical (InBoxQ)
• It costs $120,000 each day for a promotional Tweet (Twitter)
• 67% of Asia-Pacific companies have Twitter accounts, showing a dramatic rise from only 40% in 2010; follower numbers quadrupled from last year (Burson-Marsteller)
• 83% of European companies now have Twitter accounts, up from 71% in 2010; follower numbers more than tripled (Burson-Marsteller)
• US companies with Twitter accounts remained at 72% (no change from last year), but number of followers per account more than doubled(Burson-Marsteller
• 1,000,000 people view Tweets about customer service each week (Twitter)
• Twitter valuation is estimated at about $8 billion

*Silicon Alley Insider’s source is someone with full access to Twitter’s API.

1. Apologize
It sounds simple because it is. The first step to recovering from a social media blunder is to apologize. Plain and simple.

2. Don’t Lie
If there’s one thing that Anthony Weiner has taught us it’s that lying about an embarrassing social media faux pas will only make things worse in the long run. Nobody’s buying the old “I’m not sure if it’s me in that photo” excuse so it’s best to own up as soon as possible – before you start losing credibility.

Lying about doing something bad only adds insult to injury.  Own up while you still can. People will be more likely to forgive you if they don’t feel deliberately deceived.

3. Use the Medium
This is one case where a press release simply won’t cut it. The people who are tweeting about your brand are not the same ones who will pay attention to corporate press releases prepared by your PR firm. If your slipup happened on Twitter or Facebook, you can bet your bottom dollar that people will be tuning into your brand page or feed on those networks to find your response.

4. Don’t Wait
Don’t wait to act. News spreads fast online so if you don’t quash any negative talk early on, you risk letting rumors grow out of control.

Make a statement early on to reduce speculation and avoid having to answer questions like “Why did you wait until now to address this?”

5. Take Action
If an action needs to be taken, then take it! Make sure you explain the actions you plan on taking and your reasons for doing so. If you are going to fire an offending employee or refund a swath of disgruntled customers, your followers and fans should be made aware. Proving that you are proactive is a crucial step towards repairing a damaged image.

6. Be Genuine
Avoid the stiff language of typical corporate apologies –you can save that for the press release. The social space is better suited to more casual and informal language. That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t take the issue seriously, but a stiff apology isn’t going to win you any admirers.  Find a way to address the issue in a manner that is both professional and accessible.

7. Don’t be Defensive
If you think people won’t recognize a non-apology apology, you’re wrong.

• Apologies that start with “I’m sorry you were offended by….” imply that the offendee is at fault for being offended.
• Apologies that start with “I’m sorry we offended you but it wasn’t really such a big deal…” marginalize any offense felt by your follower base.

Both types of defensive apologies should be avoided. Be honest with yourself. Did you mess up? If the answer is yes, then say so.

8. Continue to Post
Don’t act like nothing happened, but don’t resort to radio silence either. Continue to address any lingering issues and comments as they arise.

How do you ensure that the results that come up positively reflect your company? Turns out there is no magic formula but there are a few key steps necessary to cement positive mentions of your company at the top of your search results.

Tiger Woods — A classic example of a reputation in need of repair

1. Company website.

Your company’s website is  invariably the first place potential clients will go to check you out and is ultimately a brochure available for you to put the best possible face on your business. The website should include:

2. Micro sites.

Create satellite websites that are specific to the work your company does. This will create more opportunities for you to show up on the first page of a Google result and will also help users quickly get to the exact content they’re looking for.

3. Your company blog.

Use a blog to tell your story in the most positive way. Your blog is the “face” of your company and users will turn to it to find out the latest information about your company and provides a terrific forum to:

• Talk about new products
• Tout success stories
• Announce special deals
• Talk about recent company developments

4. Social media accounts.

Social media accounts (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) tend to rank very highly in Google results. These are great places to publish positive news about your company. Use these accounts wisely. Effective use of social media sites can enhance your brand, attract leads, and even lead to direct sales. Misuse of these accounts can severely injure your brand and your brand’s credibility and reputation.

If your employees have personal social media accounts, then you should have policies about what is posted on them.

5. Establish yourself as an expert.

You almost certainly have expertise and experience that you can share with others. Establish yourself as an expert in your field. You can spread positive mentions of your company through guest posts on other blogs and websites.

• Blogging (and then seeking out industry websites that might link to your blog)
• Commenting (Find blogs that cover areas of your expertise. Add your comments, your wisdom, your knowledge)
• Become an expert on an industry website (websites are always hungry for meaningful content)

6. Online press releases.

When there is positive news about your company, get the word out there. Online press releases get quickly picked up by search engines and news aggregators (e.g. Yahoo! News, Google News, and many smaller outlets).

Whether your company is online, offline, or both, your online reputation will have a huge impact on how potential clients and customers feel about you and your brand. It’s important to make sure your online reputation is as positive as it can be. This works proactively from the moment you start posting content and also acts to limit potential public relations damage in the future, should someone post something negative about you.

A version of this article originally appeared on YoungEntrepreneur.

The Dangers of Not Having A Website

Not having a website is like voluntarily wearing a muzzle.

Clients regularly come to Blue Fountain Media looking for help with their online reputation. These clients fall into two categories: a) Those who want to build their online presence in general; and b) Those who want to build an online presence in response to specific events.

Problems inevitably occur in business, and it’s important to be prepared. Having a web presence means you have a forum to communicate with the outside world. If When something happens, people will turn to your website and blog for information.

Here’s an example of a big company neglecting their online presence and (probably) regretting it:

An Example: AT&T Has Trouble Communicating

iPhone sales have been halted in New York City and AT&T has given no explanation.

Over 500 news articles about the New York iPhone debacle

Last night The Consumerist & CNET reported that AT&T had stopped selling the iPhone in the greater New York area. News immediately spread though the internet and the story was almost quickly picked up by the main stream media (e.g. New York Times, CNN). With no direct channel for finding out information about AT&T, the media ended up quoting numerous conflicting sources.

Here are some of the justifications that were reported:

Sales were suspended due to “increased fraudulent activity in that area when ordering the iPhone” –AT&T Support Representative

“We periodically modify our promotions and distribution channels.” –AT&T Spoksman

“New York is not ready for the iPhone. You don’t have enough towers to handle the phone.” –AT&T Support Representative

How could a company not know the reason behind suspending sales of its flagship product to their largest market for that product? And more significantly, how could a communications company do such a poor job communicating?

A search for "ATT Blog" turns up no official AT&T blog

As the web buzzed about the halting of iPhone sales and the potential cause, I tried to look for an official response or statement from AT&T. A Google search for “ATT blog” returned a bunch of results on other websites–mostly blogs talking about the iPhone sales halting. Other searches also resulted in simalar dead ends. I just couldn’t find an AT&T blog. Either they don’t have a blog or it’s just impossible to find.

This means that when I do a Google search about the problem, instead of an official explanation or at least a note that they’re looking into the problem, I was forced to find out news from third-party sources.

What We Can Learn

If AT&T Wireless did have a blog (and they actually used it), it would have been virtually guaranteed to be the top result of any iPhone-related searches today. AT&T could have posted their official response and the entire blogosphere would have linked to it. Instead, they kept everyone guessing with vague responses and no clear official spokesperson for the company.

The Internet is one big conversation. Having a strong web presence means that if you ever need to insert yourself into the conversation, you can. Without a web presence, you give up control of your message and your brand.

Don’t Let This Happen To You

Give your web presence a kick start. Blue Fountain Media can help you plan your website, blog, or social media presence. To speak to us about our Online Reputation Management services, request a quote or contact us on 212-260-1978.