For all of us who tinker around on Facebook and want to make our posts stand out more or just look prettier, Social Media Dialogue has published a useful list of how to create symbols in Facebook posts. Want to create a heart, a musical note or a male or female symbol. Check out this useful list:
Alt + 1 ☺
Alt + 2 ☻
Alt + 3 ♥
Alt + 4 ♦
Alt + 5 ♣
Alt + 6 ♠
Alt + 7 •
Alt + 8 ◘
Alt + 9 ○
Alt + 10 ◙
Alt + 11 ♂
Alt + 12 ♀
Alt + 13 ♪
Alt + 14 ♫
Alt + 15 ☼
What are social media cookies? Well, they are little reminders of the big things that make our networks grow and allow us to touch others lives with our messages & causes. I made these for the Warner Center Business Professionals Holiday Party we had at our favorite networking luncheon haunt, the fabulous restaurant BJ‘s in Warner Center, Woodland Hills, CA.
Can you guess what social networks the letters stand for? There are “F”s for Facebook, “T”s for Twitter, “L” for LinkedIn, “Y”s for YouTube and “G”s for Google. All the colors are matched to the actual logo colors of these social network monoliths. The Gs were my favorites to do because they were so colorful.
Happy Social Holidays to one and all and a Happy Blog Post! =)
Small businesses opportunities through social media have grown. It’s been a while since I sat down and took a deep look into social media stats and how they are looking these days. I ran across this article and the numbers just keep getting bigger and better.
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-promising-social-media-stats-for-small-businesses/
For those that like quick, dirty numbers and don’t want to read whole articles, these tidbits might just tempt you to take the time to read this one:
Consider what is here as an incentive to work that Facebook page you set up a year ago and haven’t done anything with.
This day’s Facebook News Update is courtesy of PC World. See the full article at: http://www.pcworld.com/article/229870/facebook_photo_tagging_a_privacy_guide.html .
Ah, Facebook is at it – again. When will these people learn that their network (all of us who use Facebook) HATE CHANGE and especially BEING TRACKED, like some weird scenario out of the book “1984”? They are really caught between a rock and a hard place. Their users and fans demand they stay on the cutting edge of technology, yet anything implemented immediately elicits the response of putting up a, “I Hate the Latest Change Facebook Has Made to My
Page” fan page. Who needs t.v.? It’s as entertaining to watch the users react as it is to watch Facebook react to the reaction.
This week’s trauma & drama comes courtesy of the Facebook Gods decreeing there will be an easier way to tag your photos via facial recognition. Should you be afraid of it? Should you react like a cobra who reacts to being stepped on – with hissing and spitting and biting back the hand that enables our world’s largest social network? Uh, no. And here’s why:
If you are afraid of this newest tool, you could be an escaped convict on the run and shouldn’t be playing around on Facebook in the first place, so do us all a favor and go quietly turn yourselves in to the police already.
Or you could be an overly paranoid person, in which case you might want to go take some courses on self-esteem. They can only do you and your friends a world of good.
If you are neither of these, you are probably a pretty well-balanced person who just doesn’t want your ex-husband or boyfriend to find you. In that case, turn off the Facial Recognition option and go back to your business. You see, that’s the problem with this implementation because, like everything else Facebook had done, they have turned this damn option “on” for everyone instead of “off” and letting people decide for themselves whether they want to utilize it or not. Maybe it’s a limitation of the software platform they use, but if it is, they should find a way to remedy that before they get into trouble with someone big enough to do something about it like, say, the Gods of the Internet or the U.S. Government.
And if you think the government isn’t watching them, check out this little factoid in an online article amusingly called, “The Paranoid’s Guide to Facebook”: “Congress recently sent Facebook an open letter asking the company to explain the disclosure of user identities to third parties (as originally reported by the Wall Street Journal), and how the
company plans to address this issue.” Yeah, that’s the ticket, now we’re really getting Orwellian on their hinies!
If I were you (or me) I would be MUCH MORE WORRIED about the utilization of Facebook “places” for as this same article continues, “Using Facebook Places has its benefits, but whether you’re using a mobile device or a desktop, telling the world where you are has major disadvantages. When you broadcast your location, you’re exposing vulnerabilities for an ill-intentioned person to swoop up. And your iPhone or Android-based Smartphone can broadcast your exact geographic coordinates down to a few feet.”
Yes, there is a lot to be paranoid about in the world, people, but we can only keep track of so much of it. Pick your battles and win them so in the end you really can win the war.
Article also cited:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/210859/the_paranoids_guide_to_facebook.html%23tk.mod_rel
This day’s Facebook News Update is courtesy of msnbc.com’s Technolog
Facebook attacks scam spam with new security tools
Facebook has the never-ending job of protecting its users from their own curiosity and it isn’t easy. Big events such as Osama Bin Laden’s death are always potential tools for people to prey on the unsuspecting Facebook user. In this case, it was the promise of satisfying a morbid curiosity to see photos of Bin Laden’s bullet-riddled corpse.
Last week scammers tried tricking Facebook users into spamming their friends accounts with a link supposedly from the BBC showing Osama’s body after U.S. troops got through with it, but all the link did was let a virus into their address book that spread the obnoxious message to everyone connected with the user.
“Clickjacking”, as it is known, tricks a person into accessing links and/or “Like” buttons by hiding the code underneath content that piques your interest — such as a video of that thing Justin Bieber did to that girl that “YOU WON’T BELIEVE”. Facebook claims it has fixed the hole in their system that let this particular virus run rampant through their community, but that never means we should drop our guard and think it’s safe (or wise) to click on the next implausible link that comes our way.
It is always in human nature either to ignore the advice to be careful or to say, “I’ll never forward anything or like anything else on Facebook again.” Let’s take the smart and cautious middle road, people, and just use a little common sense instead of either being cavalier or paranoid.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. “Like” and “Share” items of interest to your audience. If you are doing business and networking, stay away from the taboo subjects of sex, politics and religion (unless you are either a politician or a nun, of course, and that IS your business). Some family subjects are always safe to share such as a new child or grandchild in the house, but don’t go overboard. Let your audience gush over the news and give you a reason to gush more and upload more of those baby pictures.
CHECK SNOPES.COM FIRST! I can’t emphasize this enough! People either don’t know about snopes or forget to check before their itchy trigger finger hits that “send” button. Snopes.com gives you the lowdown on all the urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation out there that is or was circulating. Typing a few keywords into their search engine will bring up articles that either prove or disprove that incredible story you can’t wait to share. Remember the tired old, but reliable phrase, “If it is seems too good to be true, IT PROBABLY IS.”
MSNCB’s Technolog tells us, “Facebook’s new ‘Self-XSS Protection’ is meant to prevent spam spread by users tricked into cutting and pasting malicious code into their address bars. According to the Facebook blog, ‘Now, when our systems detect that someone has pasted malicious code into the address bar, we will show a challenge to confirm that the person meant to do this as well as provide information on why it’s a bad idea.'”
They will also be providing free tools for “safe surfing” by Web of Trust, so be on the lookout for them and they won’t take you by surprise.
My favorite tool so far has been the new “Login Approval” system implemented last month. I had hired an East Coast social networking promotion company to take care of promoting my jewelry and design business in the hours of the day either too early for me or while I am busy offline creating new designs. A great idea, but a surprise when I received an email of an attempt to log into my Facebook account from somewhere located in Maine. I knew who it was, called them to confirm they had attempted to login in to begin my campaign, and then verified the attempt as a valid one. It was a minor delay to my time and I appreciated it because it showed that Facebook was on the ball and now had a way of further safeguarding our internet accounts. You will not hear me complain ever about this new tool and the next person whose account is compromised by a hacker won’t complain either.
~ synopsis provided by Kristine Cherry, an internet guru/social networking junkie who will gladly help you if you ever have a question about a suspicious email or Facebook notification you get.
I went to edit a new landing page Monday. It seemed to work, but when I logged in the next day, it said the page would be down for 24 hours. That was just the beginning of the irritation.
Today I logged in and it said I had to change the landing page ID…which I did. About six times. Still didn’t work, so I’ve switched back to the good ‘ol static FBML app I was using before. Any suggestions on something better would be welcome, but for now, it works.
Just a link for now. It’s a 10 page read and though I read it already, I need time to review it more thoroughly and comment. In the meantime, what do you think of it?
(This scares the heck out of me)
When social networking fledgling giant Twitter began to pick up speed and gain popularity last year, all I heard from clients was, “I don’t want to get on it because I couldn’t care less when someone goes to the store, sees a good program on t.v. or is sitting on their porch doing nothing.
I couldn’t agree more.
But then we all started hearing how staggeringly useful it was when a hotel was bombed by terrorists in Southeast Asia – the “tweeters” getting the story out to the world before the media could comprehend what had happened. Again, when unrest hit Iran and their government imposed a media blackout, Twitter was asked by the U.S. government to delay their maintenance cycle so that the flow of information from that beleaguered country was not impeded. I myself used Twitter to warn locals of a water main break and to avoid that area like the plague and recently to warn my clients of the health warning of a salmonella outbreak in eggs across the United States.
What does all this tell us?
That Twitter is a force for either good or evil, depending on who you follow in your network.
It is easy to blame the other guy for their tweets, but since we cannot control the actions of others, doesn’t it make more sense to take the responsibility of harnessing Twitter’s power for good and choose who we follow more carefully? Take a few seconds when considering whether to follow someone or not and do a quick scan of their last few tweets…are they garbage or are they useful, inspiring, uplifting and motivational information? Choosing to association with people that tweet with care will also reflect better of our character to others who choose to follow us. No one with a busy networking schedule wants to follow someone who follows gossipers and time-wasters, or worse, someone who constantly swears…if you really need to follow people like that, get a private Twitter account and follow such people anonymously. You will find it will make life a lot easier.
Follow me at: http://twitter.com/civicsitedesign . If you tweet responsibly, I will gladly follow you back.
When posting to forums, learn which symbols mean a topic is “hot”, i.e. one that is viewed and commented on A LOT. It might be a picture of a piece of paper on fire, or even the word “HOT” to the left of the title of the post. Commenting on these topics will get your posts seen more often than posting anywhere else in that forum.
Another tip…some forums (like one I discovered tonight), actually tell you how many people are viewing that topic RIGHT NOW. Go there – post, comment, participate. That will get you noticed.
Come back and tell us how that worked for you. We want to know!
First off, you might be asking some serious questions like these:
1. What are online newsletters, or eNewsletters as they are commonly called?
2. How are they done and what is their purpose?
3. How do they get me more customers, leads and/or sales?
4. Why should I go with a hosting company for the email lists I will be sending them to?
Let’s address these questions before going further. I promise you these answers will be quick.
1. What are online newsletters, or eNewsletters as they are commonly called?
Remember that newsletter your school class used to put out?
Ever see a newsletter sitting among the magazines at your doctor’s office? One that praises their hard work and shows off their knowledge in their field of specialty?
Or, did you get a flyer in your grocery bag that had tips on how to cook for the upcoming holiday and what was on sale right now at your local grocery store? (Gelsons supermarkets chain puts out a very nice flyer/newsletter, by the way. Check it out for a great example.)
These are all examples of newsletters. An “online” newsletter, or eNewsletter as we are going to call them from now on, is simply a newsletter that is available to view through email or by browsing the internet.
2. How are they (eNewsletters) done and what is their purpose?
eNewsletters are done two ways: either through a web page editor such as Adobe DreamWeaver, or through a program which, for the purpose of this discussion, is one that is hosted by an internet company such as Net Atlantic or Constant Contact.
Their purpose is simple: you use them to advertise your business and to keep in touch with your current customers.
3. How do they get me more customers, leads and/or sales?
Once your business starts taking off, a large percentage of your sales will be in return customers. You can use an eNewsletter to remind them of who you are so they keep you in mind the next time they go shopping, or need to use the type of services you offer. Customers will read your eNewsletter and if you have written it well, they will be impressed by your knowledge or drawn in by any images you have inserted of your merchandise. Leads will naturally follow if your readers know of someone who can use your product/service because people love to forward emails and if you have sent your eNewsletter via email, it could very well reach many more people than just your target customer!
4. Why should I go with a hosting company for the email lists I will be sending them to?
Heh, well, if you are new to this, the answer is simple…because you don’t know what you are doing at first (let’s be honest about this!). Veterans that have sent eNewsletters before will also know it streamlines the process of creating them. Using a hosting company’s tracking reports to see if customers are even opening them and/or forwarding them to friends is also an important way to see if this whole eNewsletter business is really for you, or is just a waste of your time. These reports are helpful and vital. You NEED someone else to do this work for you – a company that is an expert in tracking email blasts and campaigns. Honestly, you are in business to sell jewelry/create websites/sell real estate…why would you take more time away from that than you need to by doing this the hard way? You don’t, so do it the easy way and let someone else handle the tasks you can’t while you are learning the ropes on how to do all this!
So that’s it…eNewsletters. What they are, why you need them, how they work. If this is enough information to get you interested in their potential usefulness to your business, then see our review on two companies that handle eNewsletters distribution in the world of the Internet – Net Atlantic and Constant Contact.
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