7 tips for better Twitter chats

An article I recently read gives readers seven tips to be a better twitter user.
Here are the seven steps to becoming a better twitter-er.

1. Be clear about your goals going into a chat
2. Choose a topic people care about
3. Be authentic
4. Choose a schedule and be consistent
5. Plan, but stay flexible
6. Bring in thought leaders
7. Thank people who participate

I think these steps can be very useful when chatting on twitter because there can be a lot of productive things happening through chatting if these steps are considered. Going through this process before starting a twitter chat can prove to be a more effective way of chatting as well since more people are likely to participate if these steps are considered.

Optomizing Linked In: Making the Best of Your Linked In Account

This article talks about everything that needs to be on a linked in profile in order to make it more effective. This article provides helpful suggestions on how to make your linked in profile even better.

First of all, the article suggests users of linked in need to make sure their profile is complete. Creating a complete profile includes providing as much information about work history and skills as possible. The article also suggests to maintain up-to-date contact information, headlining, and pictures as well. Creating a complete profile can help the user's name show up more in search and potentially lead to more job opportunities.

Second, the article suggests users of linked in ask and give useful recommendations. It can be crucial to have useful recommendations on a user's profile. Also, it is important to not place recommendations on a profile which are repetitive.

Third, this articles suggests to add applications which add value to your profile and are a way to profile what is going on in life that can add to your professional appearance.

Fourth, the author of this article says that users of linked in should give their opinions by responding to other user's posts dealing with different professional issues that the user is dealing with. By participating in these posts it is a way to get a user's name out there and become and influence among linked in users.         

Lastly, the author of this article also suggests to use the linked in resume builder that linked in provides to their users. I think this could be a good idea, but it important to avoid to have a resume look to much like a template.

All in all, through utilizing these concepts in a linked in profile, a linked profile can be more effective and show up more in search results.                                                                                                      

Linked In is Taking Care of Business

Recently Linked In reaches 100 million users. This key statistic mean that Linked In has more users that some countries have people. Information about this social media website shows that the business networking site is constantly growing and changing. Since Linked In conception 8 years ago, Linked In has continued to show how profitable the company can be to everyone. This networking website only takes 12 days to gain a million more viewers than it had before. This is an incredible statistic to show how successful Linked In is. Also, Linked In gains another user every second. With all of the interesting statistics mentioned in this article, everyone should be using linked in in order to improve their business network. Linked In is filled with business professional and executives of many of the top companies in the world. Through utilizing Linked In people can build their professional network and become better known among top business firms. Also, through this type of professional facebook, users are able to search for jobs, belong to groups and professional organizations, and many other features which make Linked In an indispensable tool among business people. This features of Linked In are just another reason why everyone can utilize Linked In. Everyone can use linked in whether they are college students or Fortune 500 CEOs. With these features and other additions Linked In is planning, there is no doubt Linked In will continue to grow. 

Twitter Costs Jobs

I recently read an article which mentioned how a lady lost her job because of an inappropriate tweet she had posted on her company's twitter account. The tweet had suggested that she blow off work in order to play golf. As a avid golfer myself, this can of course be tempting on a nice summer day. However, she needed to realize there is a place for work and a place for play. As a result of her negligence when dealing with twitter posting, the worker was served severance papers during the weekend after she had posted the tweet about "summer hours" at the place of work. An executive from the company mentioned that workers are only allowed to leave early on Fridays if the worker already has their 40 hours in. However, the Friday when the tweet was posted, no one left the workplace early. As a result of this tweet, the woman who was fired clearly did not consider the consequences of her twitter actions. After this twitter debacle the company has changed it policy with workers leaving early. The company has now said that someone needs to be here Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Most workers have started not to leave early no matter what the situation. Possibly the workers are not leaving because they are afraid to get fired. I think this is a real event in the workplace today, people need to be careful what they are posting for themselves as well as to other people on social media sites. Stories like this one show that you never know what people are going to see from your posts.

The Evolution of Facebook

Recently an article was published in the New York Times about the new additions which are potentially being added to Facebook to make the social media site even better. In the article Facebook does not directly comment on their move to join with media partners. However, media executives from the company did mention that partnering with media partners are a way for Facebook to become more of a media hub that it is aiming for with its users. Facebook feels because of its 500 million users, partnering with media companies would be a good move for Facebook as well as the companies they are partnering with. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook's CEO) mentions that they want to make Facebook do everything you would do with your friends. So, he wants Facebook users to be able to listen and share music, books, and other forms of media with their friends. This is article is very relevant to Facebook users because music sharing is already happening through social media sites since this article has been published. I think this is the next step for Facebook because it seems that everything else is able to sync with Facebook. For example, people are able to link their contacts from email to facebook; people are able to sync their Linked In and Facebook accounts. Therefore, media linking and sharing is the next step to keep Facebook growing.

Find the rest of the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/technology/27facebook.html

How Facebook is Becoming Involved in Career Networking

Recently an article was posted in the Wall Street Journal talking about how Facebook is becoming more involved in career development. Through reading this article it almost seems Facebook is partnering with social media companies which deal with career networking (i.e Linked In). An example of how Facebook has partnered with these companies is when users of Linked In are notified when their friends from Facebook are also using Linked In. Branch Out Inc. (an application for facebook based on professional networking) mentioned in the article that they company raised 18 million in venture capital because of their efforts with social media and professional services. So, how does this effect users of Facebook and Linked In? I think this article shows that users of social media should be careful of what is posted on their social media sites no matter what the website. Job searching though social media avenues have been shows to be an increasingly popular way of searching for jobs. CEO of Jibe Inc. says that its 200,000 active users have landed hundreds of jobs by sending applications through its service. I think this is a new way of searching for jobs other than filling out paper applications. it is important to mention that the companies which these people are getting jobs at are not just small companies. Individuals using this method of job application are getting jobs at companies such as Amazon.com and MTV Studios. However, one of the contributors to this article mentioned that Linked In is still the place to go to get in contact with recruiters and job searchers. I think facebook job search will become more and more popular as social media advances. All in all, a basic principle still applies in this article....BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES!!!

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303654804576349582096516372.html#ixzz1aWV0JTXj

Spear Phishing Becomes Scary in Emails

Spear Phishing is when you receive an email from someone you know would not send you an email as a scam. Therefore, you are more likely to open because you know the person sending the message.Recently the Google had discovered an attempt to hack into many gmail accounts using Spear Phishing. These accounts included the email passwords of many government officials, important people in the country, and people with access to top secret information. This form of cyber attacking has becomes increasingly popular in the recent months. Symantec, a major computer security firm mentions in the article that in the month of march they intercepted 85 attacks per day using Spear Phishing tactics. I think this applies to everyone who is participating in email or other social media sites because we all need to be careful about what we open in emails, and what we allow in the inbox. One way to do this is to set the inbox setting to "exclusive" which sends email not from you contacts immediately into the junk mail folder. Also, I think people need to be more careful about the passwords which guard email accounts. Never use the same password for many social media sites, email accounts, or other websites which require passwords. Even though it can be very hard to eliminate spear phishing, but by being more careful with emails and passwords, users can help diffuse the risk

Social Media vs. Politics

Most people do not associate social media and politics, but in today's society politicians are seriously involved in various social media avenues. Social media outlets (such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc.) are a vital way politicians can reach out to people and potentially gain more votes. An article I read talked about the Anthony Weiner scandal and how politicians need to be more careful when it comes to posting items on social media sites. I think this is very important because politicians and other key people in society are always in the spot light when it comes to how the public views them. However, this applies to everyone when it comes to posting on social media sites. The phrase comes to mind, "don't post it on facebook, twitter, etc. if you don't want your grandma to see it!" Even though this can seem childish, I think this applies to how people should approach social media. This is true because we never know who could be watching our social media actions.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304906004576371821086375068.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_tech

The Onion's Twitter Posts Leaves a Sour Taste

I recently read an article discussing the reaction of the US government to the Onion's (a comedic news website) twitter posts. The government says that the Onion was posting false reports which stated that there was a hostage situation in the capital building. The post even showed a congressperson holding a gun to a young girl's head. Obviously, no one found the post amusing and immediately disregarded the false reports. A spokeswoman for the Onion declined comment and the situation seems to still not be addressed. However, she does mention that the Onion's Twitter account was not hacked into. This is a serious situation because of the strong following of the Onion among the American people. After taking this into consideration, it will be very interesting to see if there is any actions taking place with this situation. I can't imagine that the US government is going to sit and watch this event pass by without consequences. All in all, this shows how influential social media posts can be, and how careful everyone needs to be (including companies) when posting on social media avenues.



http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/the-onions-hostage-tweets-draw-scrutiny/?ref=socialnetworking

Mastering Social Media

I recently read an article which talked about certain things everyone can do in order to master their effectiveness on their respective social media sites. This is article stated many ways individuals need to do to make their social media sites appropriate as well.

First of all, the article mentioned to mind your etiquette and attitude. This aspect of the article mentioned that everyone should pay attention to what they are posting online. This seems like a reoccurring message in a world filled with social media participants. In this section of the article, it also mentions not to post generic information on social media sites. The author suggests to post things which make yourself stand out in a positive way.

Second of all, related to the first point, the second aspect of this article mentions that social media participants need to mind what they are posting in order to protect their online reputation. The article mentions how your online reputation is just as important as your offline reputation.

Third of all, the article mentions to keep your posts compliant since the SEC is always "sweeping" what is posted online. It is important to make sure postings are legal and appropriate.

Fourth of all, the article mentions that is important to be mindful of your time but also use your social media. This aspect of the article mentions that even though you want to be mindful of time commitments in posts, you should also be mindful of how often you are posting to the respective social media sites. the article says that is you don't use your social media site you lose your social media site effectiveness. I think this is a very interesting point and summarizes the meaning of the article very well.

All in all, this was a great article and provided great insight into the world of social media as well. Everyone can learn from this article concerning the do's and don'ts of social media.