This morning I had two new Direct Messages in my twitter account both read -

lol , this is funny (and a LINK) and the other one  read   Lol. this you?? (and a LINK) Different people and profiles sent them to me but it was the exact same link.

This was a Twitter post from a friend of mine. He opened one of these links, you can tell what happened to him.

Both are most likely a phishing scam since part of the link included a login area.  It is a method to try and capture my username and password. Why? …  is sometime still beyond my understanding but once they have the password they need then the hacker sometimes sends messages from your accounts to your friends and followers saying they were stuck on a trip and to wire money – so I guess if even a few people fall for it – that may be why the hackers do this. Other reasons, may be simply because they can and some links will include viruses as well.

How do you protect yourself in a world where you can be connected to thousands of people and have no way of personally knowing each person and knowing you can trust every link that come your way.

Be Aware:

• Check your own sent Direct Messages on Twitter and Facebook and make certain that any sent messages are ones you did send.
• Read messages before clicking. Yes that means slow down your trigger finger and read. If you don’t know the person, use caution – look at the link and make sure it seems reasonable. If it is out of character for that person then be wary.
• Contact the other party and ask if they sent you a message that said ” lol is this you?” Don’t include the link or they may click on it – but your note back to them may be the first they realize they may have been hacked.

Checking your own profile regularly should be a part of your weekly tasks on social media. It is something we do for our clients when we manage their social media accounts.

Look at your profiles, messages and posts – make sure it is all correct. If it looks messages have gone out that you did not setup/authorize – first thing to do is change your password.  As noted in a previous post, your email password assigned to your social media accounts should always be different a well.  If it is not – then you also need to check that account and change its password.

Online Reputation is a big reason why people use social media – having it compromised can bring you down, and you may not ever realize what happened.  Be Aware and Keep your Reputation more Secure.

Technorati Tags: online networking, social media security

If you are having trouble finding your fanpage – we are here to help. This short video will show your three ways to find your fanpage.

We are always here to help with your social media questions. Ask us a question directly on our fanpage wall or follow us on Twitter.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, fanpage on facebook, social media training

On February 2nd, Twitter put out a status note about a concern they discovered and the biggest message coming from this is: Password Security. Digging into one issue brought up a discovery that many people are still using duplicate or similar passwords on various sites.

Security of social networks tends to be taken lightly as most think that “What can possibly happen if someone were to get my password from twitter or facebook?”

I like to remind my clients that a major reason why they have started using social networks is for Online Visibility and to build an Online Reputation in your area of expertise. In one fell swoop, that could get destroyed or at the very least take time to build back up.

Once a password is captured, the ‘hacker’ may try to lock you out of your account by changing your password. Then they move on to sending messages to contacts/friends/followers. Then comes attempts to try and access the email account attached to the hacked account.

The answer to the question above “What can possibly happen?” is simple…

Your Online Reputation is what is at stake and for many that is priceless – especially if you have worked very hard to build it up.

How can you protect yourself?

The best way is to NOT have the same password for every social networking account profile, and to change your social network passwords often. But one thing many forget to think about is having a different password for the email accounts used with social networks. These emails should ALWAYS have a DIFFERENT password. Always.

Having a separate email password also protects you from hackers changing your twitter or facebook password-  both networks send a confirmation email when password requests are made. Nathan Hangen also has some more good ideas at Twitip for protecting your account.

Stop thinking the hassle of managing the usernames and passwords will be troublesome. I manage hundreds of usernames/passwords between my own and my clients. How? I use Roboform to store all my usernames and passwords – and it is worth it.  Roboform is a password keeper installed on your own desktop and is very easy to add new ones in. You can also save identities with name, info and contact so with one click of a button you can fill in online forms.  It save a lot of time and is not frustrating to manage all the IDs – plus it is faster to sign in when needed. Just click the ID to use and it takes you to the url and signs you in.

Twitter has good info on tips to keep your accounts secure, dealing with phishing and hacking scams all the time they have to keep updated on how to protect their users.

Now. Go change that email password as I know most of you reading this have it set the same! Protect your Reputation!

Technorati Tags: Facebook, social media training, Twitter

I’m here in Atlanta at a conference focusing on Social Media Marketing – had a bit of sightseeing in Atlanta with my Cousin Colleen before the start of the conference, the highlight of which was my trip to CNN headquarters!

The conference has been helping me learn many new aspects of social media marketing and new tactics and strategies for businesses as well as an opportunity to meet many of the top internet marketers, bloggers and leaders in this industry.

I’m learning many new skills I can bring back to my clients and also my social networking connections. Today the group created an audio product with 5 of the world’s most successful Internet Marketing masters. I wanted to share it with you since I was so exciting to see something happen so fast – right before my eyes!

You can click here to see more information and learn about the Strategies 4 Social Marketing Success and how to get a copy for yourself as well. If you have any questions, please let me know – I will happily answer them but you may find some of the answers you are looking for directly in the Strategies 4 Social Marketing webpage.

Technorati Tags: contest, how to use social media, social media training

Social Media networking can be a great boon to your business, but one thing many people need to always keep in mind is that what you say/do online IS your online presence and it is important – if you are networking for your business – to remain professional.

I’m not saying you cannot have a good time or that everything you say on your networks has to be 100% happy and upbeat at all times. Trust me, I am never 100% positive, but I am professional.

I can be seen airing my frustrations of the day – but rarely anything that could be construed as an unprofessional. My gripes tend to be technical-related ones or ones that don’t offend people but make them see how ‘real’ I am.

A software program causing issues in my email program is okay to complain about – but you will never hear me venting about a client or frustration related to my clients. That crosses the line and I would never want people thinking – “Is she talking about me?”, or “That seems mean.”.

This is my number one lesson with clients.

Never say or do anything online that you wouldn’t do in person.

Pretend you are at a business networking event and act according to that. You will find this keeps it fun and professional and makes your time on social networking sites useful for your business and great for building relationships.

Technorati Tags: social media training, social networking

Well, I finally took the plunge and finished my first ever eBook. I wrote it, formatted it, found some people who had real-life examples, created a sales page, setup an online product to sell and now it’s ready.

It took me a while and I learned many new things and met some new people (virtually of course!) while going through this process, but I think it was definitely worth it! I even have an idea for a second book.

What I did was take many of my client-training sessions on Twitter and compiled it into an easy-to-read eBook to help beginners understand better how to talk on Twitter – the end result… Talking on Twitter!

What you will learn from this eBook is how to :

	Learn the basics of Twitter – understand what a DM, RT and Hashtag are and how to use them
	Understand what the Settings are on your Twitter profile and how and why to change them
	Know the difference between your home and profile pages and what everyone else sees about you on Twitter
	Learn the Art of Conversation on Twitter and how to engage others
	Follow a typical schedule that will help you remain efficient and effective with your time spent on Twitter
	Build up your followers and connections when you start out on Twitter and how to find people.

You can read some testimonials from others who have bought and read Talking on Twitter… it’s a good alternative to try out before investing hundreds of dollars in a training program.  Many of these programs are fabulous, but you still need to understand the basics of using Twitter and that is what this eBook is all about.

I have found with most clients, once they understand how to navigate twitter and how others view what you say,  the lightbulb goes off and they comprehend how it is possible to bring in new contacts, and ultimately business, from using Twitter.   Get your copy today and see if you notice a difference in your level of engagement on Twitter!

Technorati Tags: how to use twitter, Twitter

Well, the holiday season is here and I always find I have time to pick up a new book.  Yesterday on Mashable, there was a great post about 10 must-read eBooks for people into Social Media. It’s a list complied and supported by the New York Times Reader – a downloadable app that gives you the New York Times directly on your computer.

The list compiled has some top names from social media on it – Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk and Chris Brogan. I’ve heard lots of good things about Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk so that will be top on my reading list.

With these eBooks, you can buy them direct from Amazon and purchase a hardcover or Kindle edition.  For those who have not yet heard Kindle – it is a wireless reading device that allows you to read eBooks and pdf files. It is quite small and can hold up to 1500 titles, it provides a way to read electronic books and can also read the book to you.

I think the Kindle is going to head onto my “Wish List” for my birthday. I read a lot of eBooks, and I cannot read them from my monitor, so I end up printing them and reading that way.  I suspect the kindle will save me a bit of money in paper and ink for my printer… not to mention a few trees!

What’s on your reading list for this year?  I always love getting book recommendations.

Technorati Tags: recommended reading, social media training

Twitter has a great help topic on rules regarding all sorts of automation when it comes to posting updates on your Twitter profile. Because I manage other people’s twitter accounts I am often checking any updates and notices Twitter has to their terms of service and help menu. It keeps me on top of what my client and I can and cannot do.

Using a free platform such as Twitter, you will always want to be current with their terms in order to ensure your account does not violate any policies that will put you and your profile at risk.

Not only do you learn the ‘rules’ but you also get informed as to other aspects of using their service. There are many applications out there that allow you to automate messages, posts, @ replies and following and unfollowing users; and Twitter has some very specific info on what is allowed and not allowed when doing these types of actions. They explain how Twitter OAuth approval works as well (how the system works when you allow other applications to update your twitter profile).

If you have not read this recently – or ever – you may want to take 5 minutes today and check it out.

Technorati Tags: how to use twitter, social media training, Twitter

There are several Twitter Management systems out there – Hootsuite, Seesmic and Tweetdeck – which is my preferred system and today’s update confirmed my belief in them as the leader in their field.

Today’s release of Version 0.32 has seen them add some fabulous features to help you manage ALL your networks.

1. Linked In integration – add your Linked In account and keep updated of groups, status updates, Q & A’s and more!
2. ReTweet addon – Choose to Retweet as Twitter now allows you to – OR the previous method available on Tweetdeck which means you can still EDIT the tweet.  I personally like this choice as the option to add your own comment can increase the value of a Retweet .
3. Twitter List support – You can manage your lists directly in Tweetdeck, add other users to your lists and follow or unfollow other lists as well.

If you haven’t tried Tweetdeck lately as your Twitter Management System I recommend you do.  They have really changed since their first release.  One of the best features is the ability to post directly to your fanpage wall. The ability to keep up and in contact with those whose tweets you don’t want to miss is the mainstay of Tweetdeck, everything else is just icing on the cake.

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Tweetdeck, twitter management tools

Okay… so tonight I got an odd message on Facebook when visiting someone’s fanpage.  The error message that came up said:

IMPORTANT: Facebook have announced that all links, boxes and ‘info sections’ for applications will be REMOVED from your profile in the next few weeks. To continue using this application you must add a bookmark for it now so that you can return to it after the links have been removed from your profile. To add a bookmark now, simply click this button and confirm…

Well… this got me a little panicked and for good reason. Most, if not all, of the fanpages I have created for clients involves boxes.  Yikes!  At first I couldn’t find anything on my major research areas.  So I posted a couple questions online and in some communities I belong to. Then I did some more research and found the answer thanks to Allison Gianotti at Snipe.Net

Her article led me to the Developers Page on Facebook – which didn’t seem to come up in my initial searching.

And now after reading this, I am definitely SCARED, and apparently will be very busy in the next week.  I need to do more research as to whether this will affect Boxes tabs on Fanpages as well.  Profiles tend to refer to personal facebook profiles, so I am hoping, but it does not look good as they also make note of the fact that:

Application tabs will be the only way to integrate applications into profiles and Pages. Application tabs will shrink from 760 pixels wide (today) to 520* pixels wide to accommodate a slightly revised design. Boxes, info sections, and the Boxes tab will be removed in the near future.

When will this happen?  Well apparently in “Late 2009 or Early 2010″  – not the best description, and the error message I got above, makes it seem like it will be sooner rather than later.

I will be looking into more detail and keep you updated.  But it may be best to backup your fanpage info if you have not done so already.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Social Media