Social Media Minute: Friending Your Boss, Facebook Ad Rates Up

By Jason Harris (@harrisja) Jul 21, 2011

Social media moves so fast, it's hard to keep up. Here are the week's top stories in scan-friendly format:

Have You Friended Your Boss On Facebook?
Wikipedia Rolling Out Article Rating System
Couples In Relationships Like to Snoop On Each Other
Facebook Ad Rates Rise 22%

Have You Friended Your Boss On Facebook?

There's no doubt that Facebook allows us to establish and strengthen relationships online among our friends, family and anyone else you want to engage with. However, is being "friends" with your boss on Facebook an appropriate use of the social network? According to a new survey published, 65% of respondents think that connecting with a manager is inappropriate.

In other behaviors examined in the study "Business Communications Inappropriateness," texting colleagues after business hours also ranked as being unacceptable. Another behavior that is not accepted is participating on a conference call in a public place and copying your boss on an email to gain leverage.

As social tools spread into workplaces, these types of questions point to what's acceptable in work culture. A study in a few years to show differences and new norms will be interesting to look at as social networking tools connect us with our co-workers in all hour of the day.

Wikipedia Rolling Out Article Rating System

Wikipedia is likely the world's most actively used wiki and is a resource for millions of information seekers. We're invited to help contribute to articles in which we have expertise, but user participation is about to get a shot on the arm in a whole new way. As recently announced by Wikipedia, all articles will have the opportunity to rate articles on a one to five scale (five being a high ranking) in four areas including trustworthiness, objectivity, completeness and whether the article is well written.

In early testing, Wikipedia reports that user response was positive to the rating system, with most reporting they found the system useful. Also, raters were compelled to offer feedback and were more likely to begin editing articles for the first time. The feature is confined to the English flavor of Wikipedia at this point in time.

Wikipedia is an amazing resource (most of the time, when articles are accurate) and having community-offered rankings should add more relevance to new and existing articles. Would you use the ranking system on Wikipedia? Why or why not?

Couples In Relationships Like to Snoop On Each Other

In an age where we live much of our lives online now with regular photo sharing, thought sharing and place check-ins, it's natural to wonder what those closest to you are up to. This is likely why those in romantic relationships, whether married or dating, are increasingly checking in on each other's online profiles. This information comes from online shopping and review site Retrevo in a study of 1,000 online respondents where 1 in 3 reported "spying" on their spouses by either reading their email or browsing call history without the other parties' knowledge.

"Snooping" on your significant other is easy to do — with phones being left on a table or laptops being left open, opportunities abound. Females reported the snooping more frequently than males: 35% of dating and 41% of married women confessed to snooping on their partner. Likewise, 30% of dating men and 33% of married men admitted to this same activity.