Archive for April, 2010

Social Media Blog: Social Media Addicted Students – Anyone Surprised?

Monday, April 26th, 2010

A University of Maryland study released last week suggests social media addicted students may be real. 200 students who participated in the study were asked to abstain from ALL media for ONLY 24 hours.

Yes, all media which meant no cell phones, no computers, no television or ipods, and no newspapers (although how a newspaper is media I'm not quite sure).  And this abstinence was only for 24 hours.
 
The students ended up writing about their boredom, loneliness, and anxiety in what totaled up to 400 pages between them writing about their loneliness, anxiety, withdrawal symptoms, and  dependency. Interestingly,  the study's authors think that the symptoms reported by the students were akin to those who felt withdrawal symptoms from drugs and alcohol.
 
The study reported that students felt that cell phones and the Internet were "basic necessities" for college students. I think it's a basic necessity for most of us who want to remain connected. I've tried staying away from the computer over the weekends but I cheat by checking my emails on my phone. 

Can I remain unconnected to the world and abstain from "all media" for 24 hours? Probably. But can I live without it for 48 hours? Definitely not! I guess that makes me addicted too eh?

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Posted in Internet Marketing, Mobile Phones | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Facebook’s “LIKE” Option Confusing

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Change is good right? Even when it's happening as fast as it is on Facebook. Lots of people are complaining about the new changes on Facebook, the biggest one being the renaming of the "become a fan" function to the "Like" button. Facebook has also launched Community Pages AND it has revamped its privacy controls but more about that in another post.

So you can no longer "become a fan" when you come upon a "fan page". Now you can "Like" the fan page or not. But note that this "Like" is unlike the "Like" that you select when you like a video or a status posted by your friends. This new "Like" means you are connected to the page that you say you "Like". So that means that your profile will show that you "Like" a new page.

The other "Like" is only you telling your friend that you liked what he/she posted and didn't need to leave a comment behind.

Confusing? Yeaaaah! But I'm sure it'll be just like anything else, pretty soon it'll be how we talk to people.

Here's what Facebook says about their "like" feature introduction. Hmmmm…lightweight???

 
FACEBOOK-LIKE-BUTTON_2

Annnyway!  I wonder when Facebook will introduce the "Dislike" button!!!

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Social Networking Blog: Nokia For Social Networking Ease?

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Nokia's got some cool new toys err phones being released. Yes, Nokia plans to give Blackberry a run for it's money with its Nokia C3 phone which has Wi-Fi capability. It allows easy access to Facebook and Twitter and allows a users social networking updates to show up on the phone's screen.
 
In addition to the Nokia 3, there are the Nokia C6 and the Nokia E5 – all three of them have full qwerty keyboards with easy messaging capabilities and inclusive of social networking tools.
 
The Nokia C6 has a slide out keyboard and a 3.2 inch touch screen which can display images from its 5 megapixel built in camera. It also includes free walk and drive navigation and Ovi Maps.

 
Nokia C6

[Nokia C6]
 

The Nokia E5, can access corporate e-mail through Mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler.
 
According to industry analysts Nokia's phones are priced low to allow Nokia to target consumers in low-cost countries like China and India. So it appears that these three upcoming phones have been designed to kill a few birds with one stone. Let's wait and see how they do when they come out in the upcoming two quarters.

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Posted in Mobile Phones | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Malware Loves Social Networks!

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Cyber criminal activity is growing and social networking sites are leading the pack in helping spread this activity. No, not intentionally but by virtue of the fact that social networking sites allow ease of sharing content, malware is easy to pass around.

According to a new report released by Blue Coat, a cyber security firm, cyber criminal activity is spreading so rapidly that security solutions providers are unable to keep up and continue to play catch-up.

Blue Coat reported that online storage and software downloading sites were two of the most common sites where malware was hidden. However what was most concerning in Blue Coat's report was that since social networking sites accounted for 25% of top internet activity, that's where most of the cyber attacks are happening. When networking on popular networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, opening links that contain malware is the leading cause for the spread of malware.

We've seen such attacks on Twitter where a user gets a tweet asking him or her to change their password and the minute they do so, their account is hacked into.

Some simple, common sense steps will help you from falling victim to malware and cyber criminal activity:

  • Change your passwords on a regular frequency
  • Make your passwords complicated enough so they cannot be guessed. Trust me, "password" is NOT a good password.
  • Use tools like Tweetdeck for Twitter where you can "preview" links before opening them.
  • Do NOT click on links sent to you via Direct Message (DM) on Twitter from someone you know
  • On Facebook, use caution when accepting friend requests from people even if they are connected to others in your network
  • Think before you post ANYTHING, and I mean anything. Sharing vacation plans online, is a strong no-no.
  • Use caution when providing your information on new sites, you can't know how secure or not secure they may be.

Social networking requires MORE not less caution than before. Before, all we had to worry about was spam in our emails. Now, it's real-time information that's out there for anyone and everyone to see. Prevention is better than cure when networking online; so prevent the "bare-all" behavior and you'll be fine.

 

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Posted in Blogging, facebook, Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, twitter | 3 Comments »