I don't know what it is that makes people want to "tell-all" on social networks. Why oh why do you have to tell people about thing that are best kept secret? And when you are looking for a job, social networks may become your biggest enemy if you love to tell all.
 
You know that Facebook is one of the biggest social networking sites with over 400 million active users. And you should know that employers are leveraging the power of social networks to find out more about potential and current employees.  So what are some "don'ts" on social networking sites like Facebook?

• First impressions can be lasting: Hide those photos that show you totally drunk or behaving inappropriately. Ask your friends NOT to post pictures of you online without your permission.
   
• Quit whining online: Complaining about how tough life is, what an ass your boss is or how difficult it is to work at your current employer is not going to win you any brownie points with potential future employers.
   
• Beware what your status updates share: Ummm obviously you don't want to be constantly updating your status during work hours. Nor do you want to talk about missing deadlines due to planned parties or vacations. Bosses don't like stuff like that and neither do prospective employers
   
• Use your privacy settings:  Make privacy setting updates your priority. Check and recheck who can see what information on your profile so that you are protected.

Beware and be smart. If it can land you in jail or unemployed, don't post it online.

Smartphones, smartphones, smartphones. That's what's hot!!!

Smartphone users are using their mobile browsers to network on Facebook and Twitter. ComScore, a web metric reporting firm reported that there was an 8 percent jump in the usage of social networks using Smartphones in January 2010.

Facebook access through a mobile browser jumped to 112% and Twitter saw a 347% increase in mobile browser based access when compared to previous year's usage.

Now although Mark Donovan, senior VP of mobile at ComScore, thinks that this jump is attributed to the fact that since mobile users are constantly in touch with their network via phone, text, and email, networking on social networks is a natural next step.
 
See, now that's where I think differently. It's not just that people communicate with their circle of friends using mobile phones more and more. I think it's happening because smartphones are a great time-filler. I mean have you of late found yourself getting annoyed when someone's late? Instead, don't you just breathe a sigh of relief and think "oh, thank god, now I can go tweet"?

I know what I do when someone's late; I whip out my smartphone and first I check email, then I log on to my yahoo chat, then I go visit Twitter to read and tweet. The next thing I know, my late appointment shows up and all the fun ends. LOL
 

I still would advise my kids to not gripe on a public forum about any of their teachers. Nor I would be let them join any "I hate Joe Schmoe" group, you know the Facebook groups that kids set up when they decide to pick on a peer?

But kids who do engage in such activities online are perhaps rejoicing after hearing that a federal magistrate ruled that a student who created a Facebook page to complain about her teacher was protected under the 1st amendment. Apparently in 2007, a senior named Katie Evans said this about her teacher "the worst teacher I've ever met". She took down the page a few days, got suspended by the school's principal, and got moved from her advanced placement classes to regular classes. The principal got sued and the magistrate ruled that the suspension was unconstitutional AND asked the principal to compensate the student who was "wrongly" suspended.

Huh!!!
 
I think there's something wrong with this whole thought process. Let's see how it plays out in future cases.

Social medial marketing today represents the biggest opportunity for businesses seeking to connect with customers and prospects online. Social networks are where businesses will find people who are networking and socializing and researching; almost laying around in anticipation of buying something.

Social networks are where people are influenced by what others say more than by marketing messages and television commercials geared to attract a buyer. However, despite being easy, free and so effective, social media marketing requires expertise and a certain level of skill. You can’t just begin Tweeting self-promotional stuff and hope to make a sale.

Tips for Successful Social Networking

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you begin networking on the various social networks.

a) Monitor Your Mentions

You need to monitor your company’s name and note how it appears in the search results and google alerts. Keep an eye on conversations about you and your company. Pay special attention to find any negative comments or not-so-flattering discussions happening online about you, your company, its products and services.

b) Be Engaged in Conversations

One you get online, you must engage with others. Asking questions, answering other people’s questions, commenting on someone’s blog, retweeting information, etc. are some of the ways you’ll have to “engage” with others. If someone posts a comment on your FB status, you have to respond back to that. If someone asks you something on Twitter, you’ll have to respond back to them.

c) Assume Selfless Objectivity

Social media marketing is not just about you bragging about your company, promoting your goods and services, narrating your uniqueness and what makes you the best etc. By the 2nd week, people will begin avoiding you. To get the most from your social media marketing activity is to assume a selfless objectivity where you mention yourself and your company intermittently. Focus on sharing information, content, and participating in discussions while showcasing what you do. Try to connect and engage and be authentic.

Social media marketing isn’t much unlike face to face networking. The same rules apply. You have to connect, engage, ask questions, provide information, and build relationships. You wouldn't ask someone to buy something from you the first time you met them in person, would you??

Here's another reason I think I need to go over to the dark side and get a MAC.
 
A news article published today showed that 99 percent of all malicious software is targeted towards companies using Microsoft Windows.

Now Microsoft Windows is one of the most popular operating system being used throughout the world and so it may make sense as to why it is also loved by hackers. But could it also be that hackers find it easy to penetrate Microsoft Windows than they can a MAC?
 
Last year a German anti-virus software company documented over 1.5 million new malware.

Ok, enough said. I think I'm going to go research some MAC's right now!

Since Google Buzz's launch a few days ago, most people opined that Google's newest plan to engage in the social networking arena was to give Facebook and Twitter a run for their money. But Google VP of product management, Bradley Horowitz, assured critics & others that that was not their plan. Hmmmm…..

He said that Google's Buzz is focusing on creating "conversation" which is missing in most other social networks.

Double hmmm!
 
Horowitz emphasized that for Google's  Buzz conversation and engagement was the focus and it wasn't just about checking or updating status like people do on Facebook or Twitter. Google also plans to create services around that engagement and interaction.
 
OKAY! So the Buzz is different according to Google. But I just don't see the difference yet; at least not from the standpoint of engagement. I engage with people on Twitter. I do a lot more engagement with people on Facebook than I do on Twitter. I've checked out Google's Buzz and I see the same kind of opportunity to engage. Except now I can stay on the Buzz and also email people.

Anyone want to enlighten me as to what I'm missing that's so special about the Buzz that it fills a "market need"?

So Facebook was a bit unaccessible yesterday. I read people complaining on Twitter and other sites about how frustrated they were that Facebook wasn't loading or had a lot of errors.

Hello!!! People! What's wrong with this picture?

Social networks are there to help us have fun and connect and interact so that we have fun in our lives. But our life should not become so dependent on social networks that their unavailability makes us frustrated and angry. I personally find it quite funny that people were complaining about their time being wasted because they couldn't get on Facebook and someone actually threatened to cancel their account if Facebook didn't get their act together.

If Facebook's down, pick up the phone and call your friends and family. spend some time with a family member. Aren't we missing the point here if our life is going to get stressed out over online networking?

Pleaserobme.com is a social media website "listing all those empty homes out there". The website aggregates all Twitter tweets which have location based information or information telling others that the user is not home. The website explains its purpose with this little explanation in their "Why" section:

"The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you're definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we're leaving lights on when we're going on a holiday, and on the other we're telling everybody on the internet we're not home."
 
Here are some recent feeds from the site; although I've protected them by leaving out the tweeter's information:

• @xxx I'm at http://4sq.com/9i…..

NetWitness, a Northern Virginia security firm found that between 2008 to January 2010, over 75,000 computers in 2,500 or so firms across the US and the world were attacked by cyber criminals. NetWitness states that these attacks targeted corporate data, credit card information, and other sensitive information at health and technology companies in 196 countries including the US, Mexico, and the Middle East.

A NetWitness engineer discovered the intrusion last month and learned that the hackers lured employees to download infected emails or software which when downloaded allowed the hackers to take over the computers, scrape the passwords, and use that data to login other systems.

What this report highlights is the need for more robust security software for companies and individuals. The hackers are getting more and more sophisticated and its time for all of us to really get focused on online security.

Have you noticed the #spon hashtag on Twitter? Has it confused you? The first time I saw it, I did a double take but as soon as I read the ad I was able to deduce that it was an ad and that the twitter user was doing his part in disclosing to the general public that it was an ad.

So what's a #spon hastag again? It's a tweet which is or has an advertisement.

This new hashtag was in response to nwe guidelines released by WOMMA, the word of Mouth  Marketing Associaton in response to the Federal Trade Commission's call for bloggers to be more explicit in disclosing their endorsement of a product in exchange for compensation.

I searched on ""#spon" and found a lot of tweets now contain this new hashtag which goes to prove that new taxonomies and trends are easily adopted on social networks; well, especially on Twitter.