A friend recently remarked, "I'm a stalker on Facebook because I am too, too, too much of a private person". That pronouncement got a lot of comments from other friends who attempted to defend their own actions and postings on Facebook and other Social web sites. It also led to a loud discussion about netiquette and what should and should not be posted online. But the thing that got everyone stumped was when a friend who had been pretty low-key through the whole discussion asked "ok, so how would you manage your privacy when someone else posts your pictures online on their own Facebook page"?

The look of horror on the "so, so, so private" friend would have been funny if none of us felt the same horror about not having control over content that would get posted online.

Most of us are more than happy to let people take our pictures at social events and work events. But what if someone takes photos of  you and places them on their page but that person has a list of friends whom you don't want to have access to your photos?
 
Complicated? No kidding! Solution? None that we could come up with after lots of debate and dialog about how to monitor and control online content publishing that is done by others over whom you  have no control over.

Thoughts???

Toyota has joined the ranks of automotive giants like GM, Ford, and others who are already on social platforms and are getting a lot of good visibility from them.

Toyota announced the launch of their Social Media Program where Toyota will be engaging with customers, suppliers, dealers, and other stakeholders and facilitating communication through these online channels.

How much money they plan on spending online is unclear but if there's one thing that we can learn from the Japanese, it's that they may start slow but they'll catch up speed pretty quickly and race past the early adopters. So GM and Ford, I'd say should beware of Toyota's online presence. They have a way of "taking over" fast and furious.

Oh but I forgot to mention the whole purpose of my discussing Toyota's online foray. Here it is!

If larger brands can do it and they have plenty of money to spend on their marketing initiatives, smaller brands can do it too. When larger brands move to online media for marketing, they end up saving money by not paying for those expensive TV, billboard, and other campaigns. Smaller brands can move online and capture the market that they never had access to in the past. So what's stopping you smaller brands? Get online and if you need help,  you know who to call! (NET of course!)

If you are a Twitter user, you've come across direct messages that ask you such questions like "Are you in this video?" or "What's your IQ?" These are malicious viruses that are being spread across the social media networks causing quite a bit of guilt and embarrassment to unsuspecting users.

Another scam that is quite popular on Facebook is the "Western Union scam" wherein friends of users whose accounts have been hacked are approached with long-soppy stories about the user being stuck somewhere and requesting money through Western Union.

So what to do to prevent yourself from falling victim to such viruses and scams?

• First and foremost don't have passwords that are easy to guess. admin123; 12345678; 87654321; and password are just some of the very very very commonly used passwords. Why allow yourself to be vulnerable with a password that can easily be identified by spammers who have use of sophisticated password guessing software? Also, try not to use birth dates, names, and easy to decipher passwords. Create a combination of letters, numbers, and characters that is unique.
   
• Change your password every 30-45 days. It will only take a minute to do so, so make the effort to protect yourself.
   
• Try not to click on any links from anyone whom you don't know. Any information that looks suspicious should be ignored and only trust links that come to you with real information.
   
• Trust no one with your passwords.
   
• Keep an eye on news items that may report on what's happening in the social networks with new viruses or scams so that you can be one step ahead of the scammers and spammers.

Social networks are MORE and MORE susceptible to crooks than any other media to-date. Stay vigilante!

Many people claim “lack of privacy” the reason they don’t use social networks. A friend of mine states that he doesn’t use it because he doesn’t want the government spying on him.

But then there are others, and quite a few of them for that matter, who don’t mind giving out details like birth dates, email addresses, and other information on Facebook, without a second thought!

In a study conducted by Sophos, an Australian Security Team, up to 46% of users blindly accepted friend requests from fake Facebook accounts created by the Sophos team. Once the friend requests were accepted, personal information was more than readily available.

Now think about the implications of this in general for pretty much all of us but especially so for those groups (elderly, youths, etc.) who are more susceptible to predators online.

Mack Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, stresses the importance of using privacy tools. Facebook has also recently formed a safety advisory board to improve online safety for its users.

So! Here’s the bottom-line. Even if you are smart and don’t think you will ever fall prey to crooks online, think twice before adding friends arbitrarily. Privacy or lack there of is nothing to take lightly.

Don't go where others are going. Protect your privacy, protect your information on social networks. Forewarned is forearmed, right?

Friendster.com – one of the top global social networking website based on traffic (Source Comscore August 2009) announced that the US patent and trademark office has awarded it a patent on “Method for Sharing Relationship Information Stored in a Social Network Database with Third Party Databases” (U.S. Patent No. 7,478,078).

This becomes the fifth patent awarded to friendster, validating Friendster’s innovative excellence in the field of social networking.

The awarded patent is for sharing information stored in the database of the social networking platform with another database. It is also for owners of the second database to use this information to better manage their customer engagement and targeting.

Friendster allows people to meaningfully participate in discussions with others in exciting and fun ways. Will this patent helps it get an edge over its competition?

Facebook, watch out. Myspace may no longer be competition but Friendster?

Facebook has the best #1 iPhone application in the iTunes store, and with the arrival of Facebook 3.0, I am sure it will maintain its top position—or even break its own record.

The Facebook 3.0 iTunes App comes with a host of new features, enhancements, and fixes. It includes viewing upcoming friends’ birthdays, the ability to see upcoming events and RSVP to them, write notes, read friends’ notes, and a lot of other cool features.

And there’s something for everybody in this latest app. For photo and video fans, the new version allows them to upload videos and photos to Facebook directly from the iPhone. It also allows creating and managing albums, photo tagging, and updating your profile picture. You can now zoom-in on photos, see news feeds as the Facebook website, and visit links in a built-in browser as well.

As a die-hard iPhone user, I love the new Facebook iPhone version 3.0 app, and I can’t wait to see what the future will bring.

A year ago, who knew that Yahoo! and other sites that prospered through advertising revenues were going to get their biggest advertising competition from social networking websites? comScore Inc, a marketing research company recently published a study that showed that one of every five ads is viewed on a social networking site!

The study by comScore also showed that MySpace and Facebook delivered over 80% of the adverts delivered on social networking category.

So why is advertising on social networking sites becoming so popular? (I say getting popular because not everyone has adopted it yet).

Well, a few reasons:

• Social networking sites have a huge reach—reach that becomes viral—multiple connections are possible.
• Advertisers become participants in the “socialscape.” They are part of the conversation.
• Ads can be engaging, not static: commenting, gifts, polling… actions can be embedded into the ads.
• Friends can see other friends engaging into these opt-in ads.
• Advertisers can tell their stories in meaning, relevant, authentic ways through social media advertising.
• Social networking advertising is highly targeted, not just demographically, but more importantly, psychographically—so the advertiser’s reach is more effective.

These factors make social media advertising more cost-effective than other online advertising platforms.

Quite a few big name players are spending big bucks on social networking advertising. Isn’t it time you switched to a more lucrative form of online advertising?

Get out there!

Have you heard about the new Novo Nordisk Twitter page? It’s been the talk of the pharmaceutical marketing world for a few weeks now. Released in mid July, the page currently has 517 followers. It’s tweeted by a real-life celebrity with diabetes—race car driver, Charlie Kimball, and borders between slightly interesting and plainly obvious marketing jargon. Therein lies the problem. Charlie tweets about 5 times a day… chronicling his travels, races, and daily life. But he never forgets to mention when he’s taking his Novo Nordisk medication and where followers can buy it. It’s a very stale marketing voice, day after day after day. Not very authentic or connective—the whole purpose for a brand to use Twitter. Okay, so I agree, it’s an historic use of platform, being that Novo Nordisk is the first branded pharma page in the history of Twitter, but I’m not sure it’s making the most of it. Nothing is there to engage followers, and it’s not all that personal. Charlie is a real-life person who, I assume, Novo Nordisk hired as an individual that other people with diabetes can relate to and share their experiences with. I don’t see any of that happening, and it’s almost been up for a month now. So even though it’s great to see pharma companies using Twitter as a branded marketing tool, this one doesn’t hit the mark. Novo Nordisk needs to back off and let Charlie do his thing, without getting involved in his story. And Charlie needs to expose a bit more of himself: “In Iowa… It is very hot and humid” is just downright boring and has nothing to do with why people are following a sports celebrity succeeding in life with diabetes. Let’s get personal, Charlie.

Facebook. Blogs. Bookmarking. SMS. SEO. SEM. Post a Reply… ASAP! Whew. As if your life wasn’t already cruising at I-95 speeds, the Web keeps hitting you with more and more to learn. Yes. Everything digital seems to move in warp drive. So just take it a day at a time, experiment, and get as involved as you can. Different techniques work for different business. Understand what works best for you. But know this—there’s no avoiding the digital age. It’s here and it’s happening. Your goal should be to get your brand there, then keep it relevant and updated. And really, the benefits are tremendous—from unlimited creativity in your strategies, to pinpoint targeted accuracy AND measurable return, the digital age is a gift to marketers… when used wisely. There will always be a new buzzword or acronym to understand, but as long as you’re willing to get your hands dirty, you’ll come out fine; in fact, you may absolutely thrive like so many others have. So just let go and embrace the digital age. It’s here to stay.