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

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

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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Posted in facebook | No Comments »

Social Networking Blog: Nokia For Social Networking Ease?

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!

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 »

Social Media Blog: Twitter Hacker Gets Into President Obama’s Account Too

March 29th, 2010

Well, even the President of the United States is not safe from hackers. Yep, read today that the Prez’s Twitter account was hacked into by a young Frenchman who was arrested in France for “allegedly” hacking into Twitter accounts of President Barack Obama and others.

And the worst part is that he was able to do so by simply “guessing” the passwords. Uh, Secret Service high-tech geniuses like the ones you see on the popular TV show 24 are obviously not for real. Otherwise you’d think they’d have a Twitter password that’s tough to guess or break.

Apparently the so called hacker was just trying to prove he could.

Just a word of caution to all of you out there who love to use simple passwords like “password”, “name1234”, and other very common passwords. Don’t!
 
Take the time to use a password that is not your name and birth date or name and social security number combination. AND, try to change it often, like once a month at least. It’s just embarrassing that our President’s Social Media managers didn’t follow what is simple, yet age-old advise “make passwords a bit complicated”…..You don’t have to make the same mistake.

 

Posted in twitter | 1 Comment »

Social Media Blog: New versus Traditiona Media – What Still Works!

March 25th, 2010

We always stress that new media (social networking) does not replace traditional media (email marketing and other). And so we weren't surprised when we read a report published by eMarketer which states that new media or social media marketing boosts the benefits of email marketing campaigns because social media marketing is yet another way to engage with customers and prospects.

So if you want the stats on this, here they are:
 
Of the businesses surveyed by Emarketer, it was found that over 40 percent of business owners stated that they plan on integrating social media and email to their marketing initiatives in 2010. About a quarter of the businesses surveyed claimed that they had already done so and the rest were still researching on how to make it happen.

So the message is clear; businesses do see the benefit of increasing brand awareness, visibility, and engagement via social networks. Yet, many businesses aren't able to devote time or resources to make this happen. We at NET believe that that's where our biggest value proposition comes in because our customers can hand-over their entire marketing campaign to us. Using new and traditional strategies, we provide our customers with the biggest bang for their buck. Are you ready???? Contact us today to see how we can help!
 

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Posted in Branding | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Catching Thieves with Social Networking

March 19th, 2010

Yep, so naturally if social media can help criminals, so can it help law enforcement catch the same criminals. Here's an interesting story which also highlights criminal stupidity.
 
Apparently, the thief, listed the Garmin Forerunner watch he had stolen from a home for sale on Craigslist. A man who wanted to buy the watch went and bought the watch from the thief. But when he tried to connect the watch to his computer, the new buyer discovered that the watch was registered to another individual.

After finding out the owner details that were listed for the watch's registration, using Facebook, the new buyer contacted the original owner of the watch along with four other individuals who had the same name. The victim of the burglary responded to the new buyer and also contacted the police. Long story short, the criminal was arrested and placed behind bars.
 
So, here's adding one more use for Social Media websites; Catching Thieves!

Posted in Branding | 2 Comments »

Social Media Blog: Leveraging Social Media to Fight Extremism

March 17th, 2010

Interesting! A two-day London summit had social media activists from across the globe exploring ways to combat extremism using popular social networks. The event was organized by Jason Leibman who is the co-founder of the Alliance for Youth Movement and who stated that popular social networks like Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter are critical tools to fight extremism.
  
He reiterated the point that we always tell our prospects and clients – which is that social networks provided a wider reach at lower cost and allow the spread of powerful messaging in an easy manner.

I found that there are many ways people are using social networks for political awareness. Twitter was used to protest Iran's censorship on the Internet, people in Nigeria are using their phones to help people learn more about the next elections, and we ourselves know that the biggest social media success story is our US president Barack Obama who systematically created an outreach that is unparalleled anywhere, through popular social networks.

So the uses for social networks continue to grow and surprise some of us. We, the hands-on practitioners of social marketing feel that it's time for a lifestyle change for businesses. Businesses need to embrace social media today because that's the only way we'll all be able to remain viable, current, and engaged.

 

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Posted in facebook, Free Speech, Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Ok, we get it, Facebook is finally # 1!!

March 15th, 2010

Well, here's more research and now it appears that finally Facebook IS the number one site accessed by internet users as of last week. According to an Internet Research company, Hitwise, Google got 7.03% of all web visits while Facebook got 7.07%.

Hmmm……….

Ok so Facebook and Google will probably play this number 1 or number 2 dance until a real winner emerges or a third player enters the competition. Google or Facebook, it matters not to me, I visit both frequently but I do visit Google more than Facebook. Perhaps it's the nature of my business or perhaps it's that I just like Google more for now.
 

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Posted in facebook, Google | 2 Comments »

Social Media Blog: So Where Are You? Facebook & Twitter Ready to Implement Location Feature

March 10th, 2010

As if the "bare all" online is not enough, now users can share their location with their friends online any time. Facebook says it will add a "friend location information" which will be introduced at a developer conference in April 2010. So what will this friend location do? Basically you can where you are when you updated your status with your friends.

Twitter plans to do just that with its geolocation feature in it's site soon, perhaps to beat Facebook to it?
 
So why is this "location" sharing so important that Facebook and Twitter are going live with it? And you know that others will follow suit, right?

Well, mainly because users can get localized news and find local people in their area. The power of this will help businesses seeking to do localized marketing.
 
But as I eluded to above with my "bare-all" comment, won't this geolocation create additional vulnerability for social network users? Criminal activity is growing on social networks so is it really wise for social networks to introduce a feature which will drive more criminal behavior?
 
When and how will social networks balance "access" with "safety"?

 

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Posted in facebook, twitter | No Comments »

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