According to QuitFacebookDay.com, more than 11,000 people have signed up to delete their Facebook account on May 31, as part of a growing rebellious response to privacy and security concerns.

I read an article on CNN.com via CNET.com) today recapping the movement happening against the online behmoth, from a Facebook protest group, to a Huffington Post online video walking you through the steps of how to delete your account.

Yet with all of this attention, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn continue to grow.  I’ve personally had a Facebook account for two years now, and I can genuinely say I’ve enjoyed participating on the site.  I love seeing where old friends ended up, pictures of their children, exciting places they’re traveling.  It’s been a great way for me to keep in touch with people I can say with almost 100 percent certainty I wouldn’t have kept up with otherwise.

Am I concerned about some of the potential privacy breaches?  Sure.  But I try to take precautions to limit strangers’ access to my information and only allow certain people to see certain aspects of my profile.  (I more worry about my mom, who’s not as comfortable on the computer and just recently started a Facebook account.  I secretly go in behind her and make sure she’s set her account settings appropriately so she’s not divulging anything she shouldn’t).

As social networking continues to evolve and grow (and it will, it’s here to stay), it will be a constant challenge to keep people’s private information private, and stay one step ahead of the evil hackers (that Nigerian minister finally stopped e-mailing me – I guess he got the hint).

I think I could “quit” Facebook if I wanted to, but I don’t.  I trust the company is working towards a solution to keep their account holders information as private as they indicate. Maybe that makes me naive, but I’m more worried about people stealing the credit card offers that arrive in my mailbox than hacking into my Facebook information.   (The credit card thing actually happened to me a few years back).

Are you on Facebook and are you thinking of pulling the plug on Monday, May 31? Do you agree with how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been handling the situation? I’d love to hear what people are thinking about this issue, which is definitely a larger conversation about online safety and privacy in general.

The Full Circle team has been helping with a lot of client events recently (see Kim’s recent post, It’s a Team Thing), and the topic has been popular at Social Media Club and PRSA meetings I’ve attended this week. Spring must be event season.

Regardless, working in the world of fast-paced, unpredictable event planning has been a learning lesson for me as a new member of the PR industry. Events are so much more than what is seen in the final product, and you would never know how many hours and people it takes to put it on if you weren’t behind the scenes watching its construction.

From both these meetings and recent personal experiences, I’ve learned that basic life lessons can really help the process of event planning and execution.

• Quality is always more important than quantity. No matter what aspect of event planning you’re considering, high attendance numbers (quantity) don’t mean anything, if the message doesn’t reach your target audience (quality).

• If you want attention, you have to be unique. Especially in recent times, you have to be different to make an impact. While you’re at it, offer something that engages your audience so you can learn something from them.

• We not me. It’s never about you or the brand, it’s about the community. Greenville is a great city in work, live and play in, and anything that brings this community together will be widely accepted.

We pride ourselves in our ability to plan great events, and it’s a refreshing aspect of PR practice, although I can’t say I’d choose it as my full time job. I highly commend anyone who is in the event planning business.

Do you have any great stories or advice from your experiences in event planning? If so, we’d love for you to share.

Bill Cosby once said, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

I thought about this comment a lot this weekend, especially after I read the Charlotte Observer’s Sunday paper and its “Charlotte’s social media policy: Not so social?…No Comment” article.

The City of Charlotte wants to incorporate Facebook and Twitter pages to communicate its news and messages to its audiences.  Sounds good…so far.  But they want the ability to control comments on these pages – and to be able to remove negative comments when posted.  The problem is, when you start pushing your messages out to people but don’t give them the opportunity to express their opinion, ask questions or generally comment on items, then your page becomes static – and it serves as nothing more than a Web site.

People who are interested in starting Facebook or Twitter pages for their companies/brands sometimes ask, “What if they say something bad about my brand?”  My response is:

• People are already saying what they want about your brand offline.  With social media, you can actually participate in the conversation, ask questions, clarify items and even learn from negative comments.
• If your company’s page receives a complaint about a product or service, you can use this constructive criticism as a way to connect on a more personal level with the person who had an experience bad enough to complain about it.
• If the comments are obscene, false or irrelevant to the content you are posting, feel free to delete it.  But don’t view every negative post and dismiss it – you will be ignoring many opportunities to engage with loyal ambassadors and continually improve your brand.

Bob Hagemann, one of the city’s staff attorneys, said “”The city has decided that the risks of potentially establishing a designated public forum through social media (and the consequences that follow) are not worth whatever benefit might be obtained.”

And that’s O.K.  Liza and I always say that social media isn’t for everyone and every organization.  If you aren’t going to use social media tools to create an ongoing dialogue with your audiences ( and essentially remove their right to make comments in the first place) then you don’t have to use them at all.

Extended team member, Ty, with Liza at a recent press conference.

Caitlin and Julie after a successful event at the BI-Lo Center.

Liza and I have been very mindful of creating a culture where we work very hard to produce results for our clients, while also fostering a fun, positive environment for our employees (who hopefully know how much we appreciate everything they do). As we grow, it’s crucial that we add team members who have the same mentality.

Over the past 7 months, we have added clients, projects and grown existing business.  And more recently, we have been coordinating a handful of special events for several of our clients. This means long hours, lots of meetings and coordinating the tiniest of details to ensure success.

We wouldn’t be able to do any of this without a dedicated team.  (I’m sure we all have experiences from school, jobs or projects where we had to carry the load of several team members – and that is never a sustainable, successful way to run anything.)

We’re all chipping in with one goal (create and execute successful events to communicate key messages to the right audiences), and it’s been a pretty painless process because we all share this goal.

Our work hard/play hard mentality will carry on.  And once all these events are completed, I can see celebrating with our team with a glass of champagne in our hands.

Thank you Liza, Caitlin, Julie and all of our clients with whom we have thoroughly enjoyed working with!!!  And Go Team!