Security Implications of Social Media

October 26, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

We usually focus on the positives that social media can bring about, but right now we are going to hop to the other side of the fence for a bit and discuss some of the dangers that can arise via social media. Not too long ago, I was called out at work for something that was posted on my Facebook. It wasn’t anything offensive, just one of my friends happened to go on my profile while I was logged in, and put an unsettling status about me, which made my friends think that I put it about myself. Sure, it was all fun and games to my social circle, but when things like this get brought up at your place of business, it makes one think about the effects that social media can have on one’s life, safety, security, perceived character, and well being.

Sure, social media is a great way to bring traffic to your site, brand your products and services, generate leads, and so on; but how safe is social media? Social media encompasses a wide spectrum, two out of three Americans use social technology, social sites are now the 4th most active online activity – ahead of email, and it accounts for about 10% of all time spent on the internet. Being that so many people in the world are involved in social media, what are some of the potential implications?

1. National Security: Currently the US Marines have banned social media for the next year. According to the Marines:“THESE INTERNET SITES IN GENERAL ARE A PROVEN HAVEN FOR MALICIOUS ACTORS AND CONTENT AND ARE PARTICULARLY HIGH RISK DUE TO INFORMATION EXPOSURE, USER GENERATED CONTENT AND TARGETING BY ADVERSARIES. THE VERY NATURE OF SNS CREATES A LARGER ATTACK AND EXPLOITATION WINDOW, EXPOSES UNNECESSARY INFORMATION TO ADVERSARIES AND PROVIDES AN EASY CONDUIT FOR INFORMATION LEAKAGE THAT PUTS OPSEC, COMSEC, PERSONNEL AND THE MCEN AT AN ELEVATED RISK OF COMPROMISE. EXAMPLES OF INTERNET SNS SITES INCLUDE FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, AND TWITTER.”

Imagine if there was a marine tweeting something like “hitting golf balls into the Adriatic sea.” Not only does he give away his location, but just the mere fact that he tweeted something puts his whole company under potential attack. Anyone can go online and track where anyone tweeted last from in the world.
2. Publicly Traded Companies: Twitter grew 1382% from January to February in 2009. Let’s face it, the world is on Twitter. If I was part of a publicly traded company I would be wary about what my employees are tweeting. Imagine the implications of an employee tweeting out of excitement after a new purchase, endeavor, or business acquisition. This can be considered an insider tip, and if one sees this tweet and purchases a good amount of stocks, SEC insider-trading implications may occur.
3. Personal Safety, Security, and Information: Social media has jeopardized the life of many individuals, not so much life and death, but prosperity and well being. You can potentially lose your job over comments said over Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. You can be caught cheating on your spouse through tagged and/or posted pictures, statuses, and other comments. Businesses now use social media to screen potential employees. Insurance companies also view social media to see what kind of lifestyles people are living before insuring them. There is a lot of personal information exposed on social media; you can be unfairly judged based on postings on social media that may or may not be taken out of context.

My message: Be careful and be conscientious and understand that everything you do online is potentially reviewed in the future. Big Brother? Maybe, but no one is forcing you to use the social media. Just be smart, enjoy the benefits of social media but be acutely aware of the consequences of perceived poor behavior or judgment.

Content management and blog marketing: tools of future businesses

October 24, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Technological developments have pushed investors to consider the virtual world as a great place to start a business. Websites and blogs are the materialization of our every need. Content management and blog marketing are the online services that can offer the guarantee of a constant flow in your accounts.

For all those that have decided that computers are not harmful, but, quite the opposite, they can represent a powerful source of income, there is great news. The time you used to spend trying to come up with attractive and well-structured texts for your website or blog is now history. Content management is an online tool that can do all that for you. Its main purpose is to keep your site or blog up-to-date with the necessary improvements, and the texts well written.

According to the domain or subject that your site is based on, you must be aware that there are certain keywords that make it easily traceable. Content management is all about this. Using those keywords gradually, but regularly, when creating certain articles or pieces of advertisements, will make a big difference. These will not only help the users come into contact more easily with the site or blog, but it will also help them select from the information they need.

The entire process is not at all complicated. Content management does not involve software modifications nor does it necessitate other system interventions. This does not need downloading or installing various software packages. Specialists in blog marketing are going to take control over your own blog and make sure that it meets your expectations. You must be satisfied when it comes to what you earn or gain by exploiting a web site or blog.

Virtual markets are perfect opportunities for people (entrepreneurs, in particular) to start a thing on their own. Unfortunately, along the way, many realize that they did not take into consideration all the aspects that come with the responsibility. For example, on the Web, being up to date is crucial. This is when you can count on services like content management and blog marketing to have everything in order.

A smart entrepreneur knows that quality services and quality information are extremely important. This is the first step towards earning the trust of the public. Nevertheless, this is not all. Having a flawless text to complete the imagistic and aesthetic part could be the recipe for success. In this manner, your blog or website will enter the registers of search engines and will be easier to trace, because the texts are going to benefit from writing based on an unlimited number of keywords.

The keywords are comparable to milestones on the map of the site or of the blog. Content management is about making all the arrangements in order for you to worry less about composing attractive pieces of writing that match perfectly the profile of the web site or the blog. After all this has taken place, you could take into consideration the general perception of the public of your business/product/service. You can easily increase your income by soliciting and accepting recommendations from the specialists in blog marketing and using their personalized packages. Use these resources: they are tools designed specifically to help you promote your enterprise.

Why you should be using ?Collaboration Marketing? to grow your business quickly.

October 21, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

What is Collaboration Marketing?

Collaboration Marketing is an abstract mind-set used to describe a business building process that involves two or more entities (with similar, but non-competing products, services or ideas) that agree to contribute their existing assets (people, time, money, processes and resources) for the synergistic betterment of a newly formed relationship, business, or process.

What?

Ok, here?s a better way to understand “Collaboration Marketing”.

Collaboration Marketing

Collaboration Marketing, (CM) often referred to as a Strategic Alliance (SA), Joint Venture (JV?s), or Corporate Partnering (CP) can be defined as “a mutually beneficial relationship between two or more parties”. Collaboration Marketing can range from being very simplistic, quick, informal one-time events to very formal, long-term projects, relationships, or even the creation of a completely new company or company division. The power and possibilities that you can accomplish from a well-planned “Collaboration Marketing Process” are numerous, exciting, and (can be) quite profitable.

In this article, I?ll focus primarily on giving you some high level examples on the benefits of using an informal Strategic Alliance for getting new clients quickly.

The underlying principle that makes a Strategic Alliance so powerful is that they work on the basis of a “trusting relationship”. Trust among the participating parties, trust between the network of clients, members and any other circle of influence you or a potential Strategic Alliance partner may have. Trust that in most cases has taken you or your future Strategic Alliances partner months and even years to develop, cultivate, and nurture.

Ok, stay with me while I give a you an example of “the reason why” Strategic Alliances work…

Think about how you make your buying decisions. What?s the first thing you usually do when you need to make a product or service purchase that you?ve not used or consumed before. In most cases you?ll ask your a family member, friend or business associate for a referral. Are you asking for a referral because you don?t know were to find the product or service you?re seeking? Unlikely, the Internet, Yellow Pages, and 411 information services are overflowing with invasive ads for products and services (this is also another reason to use Strategic Alliances, but we?ll talk more about penetrating the “Noise Barrier” in a future Collaboration Marketing article) More then likely, your asking someone you “trust” because they have already gone through the sales experience with a particular vendor and can possibly save you time, money, and frustration based on their experiences.

Let?s take an example of how a start-up company used a Strategic Alliance to generate new clients within one week with little to no marketing and advertising cost.

Simon opened his Web Design Company with a passion for creating websites, logos, and custom graphics for his clients. Simon was a skilled graphic designer, but his sales and marketing skills were based solely on theory and what he learned from a few books he had recently read. Simon wanted to do a promotion offering 25% off his services for new clients. Simon and I had a conversation about this promotion and asked me my advice and thoughts on this type of promotion. His objectives were to find new clients quickly without spending a lot of money on marketing. I told him that he had two primary objections to overcome since his business was new, he currently had only one client and his competition in the Web Design space was fierce and while competing strictly on a discount price point may work, I suggested he use a Strategic Alliance to keep his prices at a competitive market rate to obtain new clients, while creating a “leverage switch” with a complimentary business owner that already had the a trusting relationship with the exact type of clients Simon was looking to provide service to. I suggested Simon call local printers, illustrators, and web programmers in his area. I had him pick local vendors (so he could actually go meet these other business owners, which builds rapport and trust) that work in complimentary, not competitive businesses. Simon contacted a local print shop, introduced himself and offered to provide a “Web Design” division to the print shops existing base of over 300 clients. Within one week, Simon and the owner of the print shop wrote an email letter to his existing clients announcing the new service. Within two weeks Simon gained an immediate influx of client requests with an acquisition cost of zero!

The reason this relationship worked is based on the established trust the printer had with his clients and the trust that Simon built with the printer. By showing him his portfolio, proving to the printer that Simon was capable and skilled, meeting him in person (not necessary, but it?s an added way to build trust and rapport) and offering the printer an added profit stream opportunity to open a new “web division” with minimal to no out of pocket costs. This was clearly a win-win Strategic Alliance. The printer was able to provide a profitable service (that his clients were asking for) and Simon was able to position himself in front of an established “warm market” of prospects.

What Strategic Alliance opportunities could you use to expand your business this quickly?

Copyright (c) 2007 Christian Fea

Make Sense of Your Ancestry with a Genealogy Tree

October 14, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Are you just starting your family history research? Would you like an easy way to record your information? If so, consider a genealogy tree.

A genealogy tree is one of the easiest and fastest ways to record your family information. The first genealogy trees appeared in the Holy Bible. This allowed you to record your family information in a book that you were more than likely to keep for future generations. Areas were provided for birth, marriage, and death.

Family trees evolved over time. Most bibles no longer offer areas for recording family information. Our ancestors also used family tree sheets. Rudimentary forms were set up just like an actual tree. Branches of the tree consisted of different family members like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

If you are just starting out your family history research, then recording it in a genealogy tree is a good idea. It is nice to have a visual hard copy document of your research. I would also recommend that you back it up electronically as well.

Family Tree Maker offered by the Generations Network is an example of an electronic genealogy tree. It is the best selling family tree maker software nationwide. It provides you with so many different possibilites. You can now incorporate video and slideshows into your family trees.

Some of the other benefits of an electronic program include:

1. Ability to scan pictures directly into your family tree

2. Ability to correctly cite sources of the documentation that you used in your research

3. Ability to search the web for copies of original documents pertaining to your ancestors

4. Ability to print family trees and family group record sheets in a simple format

So remember, start out with a paper family tree first. It is the best way to begin recording information. After you have done this, find an electronic program to purchase to store your information.

Comcast California Internet Deal

October 5, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Are you looking for a value-filled way to get the best home entertainment services? How about looking into the many options that Comcast offers? There are other cable companies out there, but none offer the same level of high quality services and the same great values that this one does. You will not find as fast of Internet, as good of home telephone service, and definitely not as comprehensive of television service anywhere else as you will with Comcast. And, right now is a great time to get started with your own telecommunications package because new Triple Play bundling options allow you to get HD in with all of the other great services!
Whether or not you choose the Triple Play option, Comcast definitely has great options for you to choose. Right now, there are three main services that the company offers- digital cable television, high speed broadband cable Internet, and digital telephone service. All of these are based on extremely advanced digital technologies that deliver quality services right to your home. And, all of these are easy to get started with, using only your existing cable line to deliver all of the telecommunications services you need! Therefore, using any or all of these services makes a lot of sense and is a great way to use the best of modern technology to improve your life!
When it comes to getting good entertainment, both Comcast’s cable television and high speed Internet are smart choices. The cable TV selection includes hundreds of channels that run the gamut from sports to children’s shows. Of course, there are several programming packages to choose from, which each provide a generous mix of all types of channels. Comcast’s digital cable also has a ton of additional features that you may enjoy even more than the programming package itself! For instance, there is an absolutely incredible selection of On Demand programming that contains thousands of movies, shows, and more. Whether you are hoping to watch a new movie or catch a favorite show, you have a good chance of finding it among the On Demand menu. Other favored features include commercial free music stations, interactive games, and free movies. Of course, you will also find DVRs and plenty of HD programming in order to get the absolute best entertainment.
Comcast’s high speed Internet also will serve to provide you with excellent entertainment options. With extremely high speeds and the most reliability possible, you will be able to download any movies, shows, music, and other media that you wish. You will also be able to interact in online games, chats, and anything else with absolute ease. Downloads of even large files will be extremely quick thanks to PowerBoost, which increases your download speed and even uploads are fast and easy. Of course, knowing that you are protected by the free McAfee security software that comes with every subscription will also allow you to enjoy the internet fully without fear of malicious software.
Even talking on the telephone has been made more fun by Comcast. Because you don’t have to worry about racking up huge bills or paying extra for calling features with Digital Voice, you can talk for hours any enjoy every minute.
People everywhere are realizing the benefits of joining Comcast and are enjoying better services and lower prices because of it. Just a few minutes of your time will allow you too to start getting the service you have always wanted.

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