Allegations that hackers hijacked the Fox News Twitter feed Monday and used it to tweet incorrectly that President Obama had been assassinated have showed the dark side of social media.

Imagine that?Hackers take control of the Fox News Twitter- a site everyone is sure to believe in and tweets this really bad news. What does this say about social media in general then? It definitely has its dark side.

No matter how useful it may be for your business or for keeping in touch with friends, the fact remains that you really are in danger online. Not only do these ‘criminals’ hack into sites but they post subtle messages and hide them in links to alleged funny videos.  But how do they do it?

Jeff Misenti, vice president and general manager of Fox News Digital, said in a statement: “The network was not in control of the account once it was hacked, and Twitter was unreachable until late morning eastern time yesterday. The tweets were taken down as soon as Twitter gave back control of the account to the network.”

This shows the ‘sad’ truth-Twitter, Facebook and all other social networking sites really can’t stop these hackers. For users, everything you put out there has the potential to be hacked into. Lesson: BEWARE.

As for the social networking sites, well lets say people shouldn’t believe everything they see there. I mean look at Twitter, if hackers were able to hack into Fox News, whose to say they aren’t the ones behind whatever news you hear there!

Conclusion-it’s a risk entering these networks but you just have to make sure it’s a risk worth taking.

Read the entire article here.

Credit:mindshift-media.blogspot.com

With the popularity of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites, many companies are finding it beneficial to create a profile on these sites. Marketing online with the help of social media has lead many to increase their revenue a lot. Would it be wise though to focus all efforts on these sites and forget about your website?

That would be a huge mistake! The fact is Websites and social media should work hand in hand to promote your business properly. If you simply use social media, there is very little that you will be able to accomplish.

Social media sites have a limit when it comes to the number of characters you can post. This means you can’t say much at once. Only on a website can you do this. You can give more information about your business if you have a website.

The key is  balance. Keep your website. In fact, upgrade it and do whatever you can to get its ranks up. Then use Social media to direct traffic to your site. This will be a far better strategy.

What companies should all keep in mind is that social media cannot stand alone. For you to be effective, you have to use other online marketing techniques and bring them together on your social media sites.

In other words, social media needs to support a company’s Web site, and a Web site needs to support a company’s social media efforts. They complement and work for each other as opposed to competing. It’s not an either/or proposition.

More information here.

The dangers social media poses has become something  Britain’s Military of Defense is planning to focus more on. It will be initiating a new campaign with the goal of educating it’s personnel  on the dangers of releasing too much personal information.

“Guarding personal information released into cyberspace is as important as defending a barracks from attack,” the ministry says. That’s the message the Ministry of Defense wants to get across to all recruits and service,” officials said.

The campaign, aptly named “Think Before You …,” is a security guide for social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It aims to decrease the risk of service personnel who are at an increased risk of attack online from potentially releasing too much information about themselves or military operations.

Does this mean that the organization is going against social media? Not really. They understand the right everyone has to open whatever account he wishes on cyberspace. The campaign is simply after awareness. This will be a huge way to make everyone understand the responsibility they have to keep both the organization and themselves free from any cyber attacks.

The same principle can be applied to other businesses. It’s not a matter of banning social media in the office  but simply a matter of keeping people up-to-date and fully aware about their online responsibility towards the company.

Read more here.

Many Facebook users can relate to the fact that this social networking site simply isn’t what it used to be.  If you think about it, the reason you may have had for joining this site is probably to keep in contact with friends. You wanted to have that ‘inside peek’ on what’s happening in their lives since you couldn’t be with them physically. Everything just seemed to be so simple  with this site. This idealism is changing and fast. Users are leaving Facebook for good. Why?

“People are becoming aware of the limitations of Facebook’s semi-public, ‘all of your friends under one roof’ system,” said Dr Bernie Hogan of the Oxford Internet Institute. “As soon as mum joins Facebook, people have to make sure Facebook is mum-safe. If a teacher becomes friends with a student on Facebook, they have to make sure the content is appropriate for their role as a teacher. What that does is water down one’s capacity to fully express oneself in this space.”

Since the site has become extremely popular, it’s becoming very hard to limit the people who you want to interact with. You have to really think twice before posting anything on these sites: What will Mum say if she saw this? Is this really something I want people to know? Will this affect my reputation? All these questions are making Facebook somewhat of a hassle to use. You don’t have the freedom to post ‘whatever you want’ anymore.

Then is the ‘keeping up with your appearance online’ problem. With everyone able to see your photos, comparing is something that comes naturally. So you end up spending too much time ‘beating’ other people’s poses. This social competition online can be depressing if you are on the ‘loosing side’. It’s like if you aren’t popular on FB , you’re nobody.

Other than this is the issue of privacy. With the increase of cyber attacks, there is no assurance that your personal information won’t get into the wrong hands. Once it’s out there,  you really can’t control where it ends up. With the constant changes in the features on Facebook such as the  recent issue of face tagging, people don’t feel safe on Facebook any longer.

The result? People figure if you really are friend’s you’d keep in touch the old fashioned way.

Read more on this here.

The founders of today’s common social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn had absolutely no idea of the impact these social networking sites would have. What started out as a simple way for college students to keep in touch has become a worldwide network connecting not only individuals but businesses and organizations. This unexpected popularity has brought about a very important issue: SECURITY.

The ‘safety’ that users felt on these sites is slowly becoming questionable. These sites have become the places hackers and other ‘cyber criminals’ find their prey. The bottom line is everyone-moderators of these sites included must pay more attention to their online security.   You think your social networking site has done all they can to ‘ensure your safety?’

Security researcher Rishi Narang recently discovered a security flaw with LinkedIn’s use of cookies and, as a result, the site reduced the persistence of cookies it uses to identify users. Patches and updates from the social networks themselves occur on a daily basis in an effort to combat crucial security flaws. As of the writing of this article, in 2011, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have undergone updates 528 times, with over 50 updates occurring on Facebook alone.

The fact is no matter how hard owners of these sites may be trying, it will be hard to keep up to pace with hackers.  Apart from that is the problem of confidential information finding its way to wrong hands. An example of this is of  Scott McClellan, the chief technologist and interim vice president of engineering for HP’s new cloud services business. Scott ‘carelessly’ posted the company’s plans on his LinkedIn page which wasn’t supposed to go public yet.  Though the comment was later removed, the damage had clearly been done.

How can a ‘safer’ social networking site be created then? No doubt, these sites are doing all they can to try and update their settings. As users though, there is much that can be done to try and minimize the chances of becoming a victim of these cyber attacks.

Being careful before clicking on something our friends’ have posted will be a big step. We may be trusting by nature but clicking on unknown links may open the way for hackers to access our information.

Another factor has to do with confidentiality. Though you do have the right to rant and rave on your page, avoid mentioning things that you don’t have the ‘right’ to share. This is especially true when it comes to company policies or updates. Keep your personal social networking sites PERSONAL.

Keep yourself well-informed as to updates these sites have made security-wise.  You may have to update your profiles’ security settings to keep yourself protected.

For more information, read the source article.

Photo from womenonthefence.com

It has been commonly thought that those who spend a lot of time online and are involved in social networking turn out to be more ‘anti-social’ in person. Their virtual world becomes more of a reality to them and they end up having problems connecting with the real world. They turn out to be geeks who only have friends and friendships online. Is this the case? Does social networking negatively affect the social relations of users?

The findings of a phone survey of 2,255 American adults conducted by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project last fall and released late Wednesday showed that Facebook users are hardly socially inept geeks. Rather, they are more trusting of other people, they have larger numbers of close friends, they exhibit higher levels of civic engagement, and they get more social support from their pals.

This is indeed a very interesting find!It does make a lot of sense when you think about it. Being able to connect with people that you may not be able to talk to on these sites, gives you a chance to widen out in your friendships.  In turn, you will be able to better interact with these people when you do meet them in person.

Facebook is in effect teaching people to develop their social skills online. If they gain confidence in the virtual world, they will be more likely to be more social in the real world. The amount of time spend interacting on these sites is staggering!

On an average day, 15 percent of Facebook users say they update their own status; 22 percent comment on a friend’s post or status, 20 percent comment on a friend’s photos, 26 percent say they “like” a friend’s content, and 10 percent send another friend a private message.

Many businesses are also finding ways to use their personal online social popularity to their advantage. The study also shows that 70% of businesses use Facebook and Twitter to market their business and with success as well.

Like with everything, ‘too much is always bad’ and the same principle applies to using these sites. They are addictive. Though they may not have negative effects on ones’ social life, they are time consuming and may cause lowered productivity in the workplace. Balance is still the key.

Read the source article here.

taken from thetechherald.com

For many parents in the 21′st century, Facebook, Twitter and the like have become terms that they hear from their kids daily. If you are informed parent, you probably already know what these sites are all about.  The issue that has presented itself now is how young or how old should kids be before they are allowed to enter these social networking sites. Should there even be such an issue? What’s the big deal anyway?

The bottom line is social media can be useful in communication. These days, even teachers are using these sites to post assignments and even exams so it’s not really all about fun anymore. With this in mind, should parent’s allow their minor kids to get connected to these sites? The key is teaching them to be responsible. Like one of the Coronado Mum’s Council members Morgan Benzian puts it:

Rather than turn the issue of social media and the Internet into a debate, I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to adopt an open-door policy and encourage communication. We should teach our children about how to use social media and the Internet effectively and with caution.

Since there is  an increase in the instances of cyber attacks, parent’s ought not to feel like they are invading their kid’s privacy if they set some rules about social media. Here are some practical things that can be done in this regard.

• Take charge. No doubt, your kids’ won’t like the idea of having you among their friends but since they are underage and are still under your control, you have the RIGHT to do it. Make them understand that if they want to get involved with these sites, they would have to come to terms with the fact that you will be  there to monitor them. The truth is, simply becoming their friends on Facebook will be good enough reason for them to ‘behave well’ online.
• Be open. If you discover that they have posted some ‘improper’ photos online, let them know. Kids are usually unaware of the long term effects their posts or photos may have. Many company’s are now carrying out background checks with the use of these sites. Explain to them that their reputation will be affected by what they post there.
• Teach them respect. Kids may  have the notion that they can get away with stuff online since it isn’t in person. The truth is whatever you do on these sites says a lot about you. Make your kids understand that positing harsh comments may get them to fights and ruin their reputation.

Most kids today have grown up with the internet. Social networking has in effect become part of their lives and we can’t see any hints that this is about to change. You can still be a ‘cool’ parent and let your kids’ use these social media sites while protecting them at the same time.

Read the source article here.

The Grammy’s are upon us once again.

Of all the nominees in the running, the one that has caught my attention the most is Lady Gaga.

In case you haven’t heard of the eccentric entertainer, you probably been living under a rock. In fact, in the news recently there was outrage over the fact Lady Gaga couldn’t be nominated in the Best New Artist category due to a technicality.

Having said that however, she had a decent haul of 5 nominations, including Record and Album of the Year. Yet what’s even more remarkable is how rapidly  she rose to fame in such a quick time. Within the space of a year she has been hailed as the next Madonna and is on track to becoming one of the fastest rising stars of all time.

This reminds me a lot about affiliate marketing on Twitter, strangely enough. For one thing, I believe Lady Gaga is one sharp marketing genius. But here’s the other 3 quick explanations of the similarity between Lady Gaga and Twitter affiliate marketing:

1) Your Tweets Must Look Like Lady Gaga’s Outrageous Costumes

Love her or hate her, you definitely can’t forget those crazy fashion statements courtesy of the Haus of Gaga. And that’s in a existing crowd of extreme fashionistas.  In the same manner, your tweets need to stand out in the sea of noise. Promo and advertising tweets are just going to be plain ignored in a realm where every spammer has taken advantage of Twitter’s ease of registration and has tweeted the heck out of your already overwhelmed prospects.

2) Your Links must Sound Like Lady Gaga’s Catchy Songs

To me, Poker Face is one of the catchiest songs of the year. And that single epitomizes the rest of Lady Gaga’s catalog. Great dance songs that add color to people’s drab lives. Your links must do the same thing. It must add value and flavor to your follower’s life. People are not going to stick around to click on your promotions unless your Dell, Zappos or something like that. Give them a reason to stay by consistently tweeting cool inks.

3) Your Promotions Must Feel Like Lady Gaga’s Live Performances

Have you ever seen Lady Gaga’s performance? Her spectacular theatrics are more performance art than anything resembling a conventional concert. In the same manner, you got to adopt the same attitude when it comes to your promotions. Your affiliate marketing efforts cannot be the same as anyone else, or else it gets treated with indifference. How come 2 affiliate marketers can tweet the same promotion and one makes 10 times more? The difference lies in the secret sauce revealed below…

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ADMIT IT: Who here is actually successfully using Twitter for affiliate marketing? Who here is actually making a killing with every tweet they put out?

If you’re one of those who sheepishly put up their hands, don’t worry, because you’re not alone.

Frankly… Judging from the kind of terrible affiliate marketing examples plaguing the Tweetasphere, I don’t blame you.

It’s almost like Twitter’s ease-of-use and real-time function is both its biggest blessing and curse. Sending one tweet takes only 20 seconds or less. And making even tens of dollars from such minimal effort seems rather alluring. Yet the end result is a lot of noise and very little conversion. As a result, you get travesties like:

• Endless bots with sexy fake photos sending endless tweets to random unconnected Clickbank offers…
• Or those annoying @username messages where you get a supposedly personalized message from strangers that end up with yet another CPA offer…
• Or one of those Twitter affiliate marketing home study courses that advocate connecting RSS feeds to their Twitter account as the the ultimate way to getting a big fat commission.

It really shows the level of cluelessness in the social media scene, doesn’t it?

I don’t mean to bash my fellow marketers perching on my high horse. Nosiree. After all, I myself was guilty of those sins once upon a time.

And yes, I didn’t exactly get rich using those despised tactics either.

I have since reformed. And I have now tested and tracked my wait to rapid Twitter profitability.

I must confess… I’m not making millions of dollars from using Twitter for affiliate marketing. There are FAR SUPERIOR ways to increasing your bottom line.

Yet done right… You can make a nice supplementary autopilot income on Twitter… Provided you know what to do…

I’ve been working on something that helps the average marketer become a Twitter Superaffiliate. After humiliating trail and error and intense testing and tracking, I have discovered a template for affiliate marketing on Twitter that’s both effective and profitable.

Remember, you could be one tweet away from fattening up your holiday earnings that you can use whatever way you please.

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Watch this Twitter Marketing video now. Click to play.

There’s a Twitter marketing myth that’s really prevalent in the Twitter community, and it goes something like this:

“It’s about the quality of followers, not the quantity.”

Their rationale is, who cares if you got thousands of Twitter followers if nobody cares what you have to say.

I admit, there’s a grain of truth. If all you do is harvest followers, you’re nothing but a spammer. But here’s why this reasoning is flawed…

No matter how much so called quality Twitter followers you have, the dismal percentages remain the same.

2% click-through rate. 5% if you’re lucky.

Here’s 3 surprising reasons why:

1. There’s too much noise. Your followers follow hundreds of others. Hence  your tweets being lost in their tweet-stream as thy’re assaulted by noise.
2. Not everyone is on at the same time. The US has six different time zones. Then there’s the rest of the world. People wont see your tweet because they’re not online at that time.
3. Your followers are not targeted. People can follow you over a Chuck Norris Joke as much as sound marketing advice.

So here’s the deal, Guy Kawasaki says…

“Twitter is a numbers game.”

To overcome lower response rates, you need to get more followers to compensate that lack. And the good news is Twitter is phenomenal when it comes to generating leads really fast.

You see…

• The more followers you have, the more influence you wield.
• The more followers you have, the more chances of RTs.
• The more followers you have, the more SALES you make.

Here’s the simple answer that make pumping the numbers so much easier.

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