Cooks Source Magazine has developed an amazing tactic for increasing the number of people who like them on Facebook. Namely, plagiarizing the work of someone else.

Essentially, a few years back Monica Gaudio published some apple pie recipes on a blog that specializes in medieval cooking. Recently, Cooks Source republished the article word for word without permission.

Gizmodo has the whole story right here, but my favorite part is the email that Gaudio allegedly received from Cooks Source managing editor Judith Griggs:

But honestly Monica, the web is considered "public domain" and you should be happy we just didn’t "lift" your whole article and put someone else’s name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offence [sic] and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally.

Which is just plain wrong.

Since this story started appearing around the Internet, the Cooks Source Magazine Facebook page has been inundated with comments from people critiquing their ethics and their interpretation of copyright laws (full disclosure: I ended up liking them specifically so I could leave snarky comment on their page). From watching the page, it looks like they’re averaging several posts a minute right now.

Clever ploy to get fans? Or just sheer bone headedness?

For a couple months, I’ve had a love-hate (Like/Unlike?) relationship with the increasingly ubiquitous Facebook “Like” button.  On one hand, I love the idea of it but, even at the most basic level, it raises some simple English language problems. For example, when I’m talking to someone about a film and they tell me, “Oh, I liked that yesterday,” my instant reaction is, “Well, what about today?” Beyond basic usage, though, there’s also been some questions about who precisely uses the Like button and what value, if any, it has.

Well, those questions are now being answered and the information is amazing, even for folks that don’t have a data fetish like me. In a post made by the media analytics leader for the Facebook Developer Network Insights team, Facebook quotes hard numbers showing increased user engagement, increased page views, increased referral traffic through the use of the Like button. For a sample of what they’re saying, all you have to do is look to the left.

According to them, your average “liker” is 34 years old, possesses 2.4 times the amount of friends as a typical Facebook user (312, by my estimate), and clicks on links on Facebook more than five times as often. If you look at some of the internal data the Facebook has release, the age bands most likely to share are between 25 and 44, with significant drop off occurring at 55 and above.

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Last week, the writers behind Syfy’s Eureka went public on their blog about a bizarre hostage situation that had been going on in their office. Between random notes glued together with letters cut from magazines and threats of teddy bear torture, the Eureka staff managed to craft together a nearly perfect post illuminating the kind of corporate culture they have in their office.

As with many such situations, this one began with a puzzle – literally. See, the Eureka writers had taken to doing jigsaw puzzles when they needed to think about something else besides writing. While attempting a particularly daunting 1,500 piece map of the night sky, they discovered that a key piece, part of the galactic equator, had been kidnapped. This set in motion a sordid tale that involves both sides taking hostages – on one side, the aforementioned puzzle piece. On the other, two teddy bears that were blindfolded and threatened with execution unless the piece was returned.

The whole thing is documented on their blog, complete with pictures of the escalating ransom notes, and it’s worth a read, if only for a laugh. What I find most entertaining about this, though, is that it makes a pretty clear statement about their office culture without ever specifically talking about it.

Many people distrust declaratory statements about a company’s culture made by the company itself and, as it turns out, with good reason. According to much academic research, people tend to be pretty bad self-evaluators, often being more forgiving in their assessments of their own personalities. Discrepancies between self-perception and others’ perceptions are nothing new and psychological research has been discussing this for almost half a century. There’s even research specifically on self-presentational theory (that is, how we talk about ourselves) that suggests we present ourselves in ways designed to create a favorable impression and avoid looking foolish or inconsistent.

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Yesterday, I delivered two webinars discussing the social media space and potential uses in the higher education market. It probably doesn’t come as a shock to most people that social media is on the rise. Right now, three-quarters of adult internet users communicate through social media. To continue reaching potential students, colleges and universities need to include social media in their marketing strategy.

In yesterday’s webinar, we reviewed current market trends and discussed how colleges and universities can interact with current and potential students through social media venues. For anyone who didn’t have the opportunity to attend, I’m embedding the presentation here for you to see it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t include any of the wonderful questions we received from participants, but for anyone interested, we’ll be giving another social media webinar in July. We’d love to see you there.