Twitter Power, in 30 Days!

In my quest to be heard by the pulsing, heaving masses, I have sought out books that promise to increase my blog traffic, Facebook page interest, and my Twitter following (these are the big three for me). These books are often boringly, drily written, don't apply to me (I'm not "marketing" a product; I'm just a wee writer trying to get my ideas out there), or are too technically confusing.

Currently, I have a decent number of Facebook friends (almost 600), a promising number of Twitter followers (over 300), and a laughable lack of content on my blog (I like to joke that tumbleweeds pass across my blog). I know, I know; if I build it, they will come. But I'd like to play around with attracting the right audience in large numbers with nuggets of brilliance, before I set to building with too much ambition.

In this endeavor, I decided to home in on Twitter; it's still very relevant, and 140-letter posts are pretty adorable. It is quite a feat that in the last little while we can interlink so much of our social media, posting on Facebook and having it appear on Twitter, connecting LinkedIn to my blog and Facebook, et cetera. I figured if I can stoke the Twitter engine, it would fire up the rest.

For this reason, i was immediately attracted to the book Twitter Power by Joel Comm. I think the fact that my idol, Tony Robbins, wrote the rousing foreword was the second major selling point. If Tony backs this guy, he must be legit.

Truly, this book provides useful, commonsensical advice on how to utilize Twitter and why Twitter is so relevant. He speaks of the potential for building relationshops one tweet at a time, and how amazing it is to, haiku-like, write brilliantly in a very limited space. The best writers write with economy, and Twitter gives me the impetus to Tweet well. I wish very much that Hemingway could come back to life and open a Twitter account. It's modern literature and the quintessence of bon mots creation.

He highlights two types of followers that anyone self-promoting needs, and has a 30-day plan for taking a twitter user from "Johnny-No-Friends to a powerful social networking force". When he describes it as a "giant virtual water cooler" he puts the power of it in terms I can understand and appreciate.

Overall, he is accessible and engaging; my eyes tend to glaze over when given more technical advice on social media utilization, but his simpler wisdom of Twitter's value made me embrace his advice.
It is easy and understandable when he walks the reader through the simplest aspects of creating a self-brand, with the picture and profile and with choosing the type of following to achieve certain aims (in my case, making people laugh and think and want to read my blog). He lost me a little bit with his talk of APIs and data feeds, which was my fault more than his. I will attempt to penetrate that more fully in the future, because based on Comm's general savvy, it's probably very valuable information. I wish my eyes didn't glaze so readily during those parts of a communication technology tome.

The 30-Day Plan, the culmination of his motivating tips, moves slow for me: Day 1 just has the reader sign up, and he doesn't direct the reader to write tweets until day 4! After that, some gems appear, requiring a switch-up of approaches, a cultivation of certain types of followers, adding links, and eventually setting up a second account. Unfortunately, I don't feel that much of this list is aggressive or innovative enough to be ground-breaking. I feel that much of this is stuff I've attempted. Even so, i haven't attempted them all, and I haven't attempted them in this particular order, so I'll have to report back in 30-days' time to let you know if it geometrically increased my following. Perhaps I'll be reporting back to you in my private jet.

Ultimately, the most useful and fun thing I got out of this book was the list of "Power Twitterers" near the end. Although this book is a few years old and some on the list aren't the Tweeters they were in 2010, there were some entertaining and essential examples, such as Wil Wheaton and Guy Kawasaki. And with Comm's strategies, perhaps I can try to impress them with some direct reaching out.

On that note, and in conclusion, what I got out of this is that who you know is as important on Twitter as it is anywhere else.

Susan Silkwood

The Social Business Revolution

The Social Business Revolution

Growing up many of us learned about the industrial revolution in Social Studies.  We learned how America leap frogged the world in our ability to invent and refine our industry to become a rich and powerful country. 

Today we are in the midst of entirely new revolution.  One that has been in effect for the last 2 decades.  The technological revolution.  Over the past 20+ years we have seen changes to society in how we shop, interact, date, communicate, and even go to school.  We have seen new advancements in technology make it possible to automate industry, store and access large amounts of information, and even do surgery on a patient online thousands of miles away.  These advancements have changed how we live, communicate and do business.

In today's business world so many things have changed, but more importantly are still changing.  Social media is on the verge of redefining business communication.  This is happening with how we interact with consumers, but also with how employees and managers interact with one another within a company.

Social Media Platforms

Today, through social platforms employees can collaborate and interact like never before.  Mike Rosenbaum at Salesforce.com say of Company Communities Intranet sites, “With Salesforce Company Communities, companies can create social and mobile intranets that connect employees to the critical information, people and apps they need to be successful from anywhere on any device.”  They can work on and edit documents together in real time, they can tweet or IM one another and share ideas across multiple departments in an instant, and they can perform critical business tasks much more quickly and efficiently.  Through the power of internal social platforms companies can give their employees access to 1000% more information than ever before. 

With companies worldwide spending more than $2 Billion each year on company intranet sites it’s easy to see that the idea of abolishing silos of information and creating collaboration within the workplace has become main stream. 

Or you can look at Google.  Google’s mission according to their corporate website is “….to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”  What an overwhelming task, but their doing it.  Look at Google Drive.  A revolutionary product that allows you to store and share information with anyone, anywhere in a private platform.  You can also collaborate in real time on documents editing and adding information in real time at the same time. 

Information has now become the driving force behind the world’s most successful companies.  Not just by creating tools or widgets, but by using these tools to empower your employees.   Technology has truly given us the ability to multiply our efforts and synergize our organizations.  Living in this “Information Age” we now have access to more content than ever before.  Companies that embrace the “Technological Revolution” will thrive.  Companies that fail do so will parish.

Josh Hares

Leiss, W. (2013). Social communication in advertising: Consumption in the mediated marketplace. UK: Routledge.

The Perks of Being a Social Butterfly

How Social Media is taking the World by Storm   

Nicholas E. Phinney

Social media is no longer a tool solely used by hip individuals and celebrities; everyday individuals and even many businesses now use it. Something that began as a fun way to connect with others has now become one of the most prominent business and marketing strategies.  In fact, “Social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are fundamentally changing the way businesses and consumers behave, connecting hundreds of millions of people to each other via instant communication. This is a massive socio-economic shift that is fundamentally changing the way consumers and companies communicate and interact with each other” (Qualman, 2013, p. 5). Advertisement began as word of mouth; one man wanting to be the first to inform another of something they’ve learned. That competition; however, no longer exists. The constant updates coming from across the globe have made it nearly impossible to claim who knew what first. World, social, and personal news have ultimately become inevitably unavoidable to anyone involved with social media.

            It is no secret that what is created through the use of social media has a significant affect on our economy and the establishments that function within it. The VP of Chadwick Martin Bailey, Josh Mendelsohn, states, “While social media is not the silver bullet that some pundits claim it to be, it is an extremely important and relatively low cost touch point that has a direct impact on sales and positive word of mouth.” Social media has become so common that society often will doubt a company’s relevance that does not have a digital identity. We have become so dependent on social media that our own opinions are easily altered and swayed by the judgments and perspectives of others.

            With just the click of a button, companies are able to share with the world photos, updates, or any other sort of important information. From there, any followers or fans can spread the word by sharing information. Sharing a link or commenting about it, for example, a person posting a picture of a product that they recently bought, generates followers. It is said that about 53% of people on twitter recommend products in their tweets. This benefits companies because it spreads interest among the online community, which ultimately leads to more sales. Studies have concluded that more than 50% of twitter followers and Facebook fans are more likely to purchase or advocate companies and their products. Nearly every news station that was previously only available on television now has a twitter.  The majority of our population not only uses their social media devices as televisions, but every fact and breaking news story no longer has to be seen by the naked eye. It can be read and summarized in 160 characters or less on twitter. Not only do social media present a faster more reliable source for information, we are able to see other’s opinions as well.

            It is evident that today’s trend, social media, is the most prominent promoter for companies and their products. Through the use of technology, consumers no longer have to look for news; it now finds them. Companies who have not jumped onto this new way are already one step behind the game. At this moment in time, social media runs the economy. After all, “Social Media isn’t a fad; it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate” (Qualman, 2013, p. 208).  The well-known action of “hash tagging” has become a way of creating trends. Within 5 minutes, millions of twitter users will participate in a worldwide activity, which will most likely last less than 10 minutes. The speed, causality, and personal aspect of social media have introduced a new way of living. Through social media, the relationships between businesses and consumers have increased and become more personal. Businesses and society have all come together to create a powerhouse of networking thus leading to the concept alteration from economics to socialnomics.

The Social Media Revolution

References:

Bailey, C. M. (2010, March 25). Does Social Media Affect Buying Behavior? Retrieved from http://www.viralblog.com/research-cases/social-media-affects-consumer-buying-behavior/.

Leena, O. (n.d.). Is Social Media Taking Over Our Lives?. Retrieved from http://www.webfly.com/what-are-the-psychological-effects-of-social-media/

Social media. (n.d.). Retrieved June 23, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

Qualman, E. (2013). Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Ode to Blogging: The Good, The Bad, The Unethical

Ode to Blogging: The Good, The Bad, The Unethical

By Jason Rogers and Zena Horne

June 21, 2013

     Ode to Blogging, the good blog, the bad blog, and the unethical blog. Individuals create blogs to convey their ideas, opinions, and passions. The content of an individual blog is usually designed around the author’s personal style, ideas, and at times their emotions (Handley & Chapman, 2012). So, what happens when an individual allows their emotions effect what is written on their blog? First let’s talk about the good blog.

     When an individual writes a good blog, he or she takes responsibility for the content by demonstrating honesty, transparency, and respect for others (Tchividjian, 2009). The good blog speaks to its intended audience and creates a forum for discussion. It recognizes” the capability to reach small or large audiences; for example, either a blog post or a television show may reach zero people or millions of people” (Gupta, 2011).

     What constitutes a bad blog? A bad blog reflects its authors’ inability to capture the attention of its targeted audience. Either the blogs' author is nontransparent or the blogs content has no relevancy for its targeted audience. Even if the blogs author publishes a blog adhering to ethical writing practices such as being truthful, transparent, and respectful to others privacy, it also has to attract the attention of its targeted audience. In other words the bad Blog does not reach out and touch someone’s similar passion, so it just exists in cyberspace. For example, HubPages.com provided five examples of a bad blog; bad blog is an understatement, these five blog posts should go down in blog history as bad blogs gone ugly, uglier, and ugliest.

     And finally, how do we describe the unethical blog?  The contents may be an invasion of privacy and nobody wants their privacy invaded, not only is it unethical but, it can be harmful as well. When individuals publish information that is consider to be an invasion of privacy (intimate details of others) (Tchividjian, 2009) the posting of those intimate details can put them in harms way (Newser, 2013). For example, Blogger Christopher Fountain allowed his personal and/or political emotions affect his better judgment when he decided to post the home addresses and phone numbers of the 50 Journal News employees including the newspapers publisher Janet Hasson Blogger Posts Newspaper Staff Addresses over ‘Gun Map’ ( Newser, 2012). And if that wasn’t enough, Fountain “included Google Map shots of Hasson's house, complete with interior photos” (Newser, 2012). If Fountain’s initial intent was to generate some discussion regarding the current “Gun Control” controversy he certainly did just that; along with unethically invading the privacy of everyone depicted in his post.  After all, if Fountain wanted to target a specific audience regarding “Gun Control” all he had to do was design a blog targeting people who share his opinions about “Gun Control”.

     Just as it is important for an individual to make sure that their blog, and any social media publications for that matter, are following ethical guidelines, corporations hosting blogging sites and social media must have a code of ethics that they follow. Social networking sites “have been targeted, especially in mass media, as potential hosts for a broad spectrum of ‘cybercrimes,’” (Vallor, 2012) and many times the company does not have the proper security in place to protect its customers personal information. Also, companies like to share a person’s personal information under the auspices of giving them a more personal online experience, but when has the sharing of an individual’s information gone too far? Does the company have the right to send your personal likes and associations to other companies without your permission? Sadly, the answer is, yes they do. By using a social network, the user gives up certain freedoms for privacy to the control of the company they are using. The responsibility of the company to handle the individual’s private information needs to be taken seriously and acted upon with the utmost ethical behavior and guidelines.

     A good corporation will treat a person’s personal information and rights to their intellectual property as they would want their own rights of privacy to be treated.  Only worrying about the “bottom line” and ignoring the fact that a person might not want their likes, dislikes and personal information to be spread to affiliated companies is unethical and a spit in the eye of the customer. As well, an ethically sound company will not look upon a customer’s blog as an open door for the spread of links and pop-ups of material or merchandise.  How a company treats its customer’s privacy and personal information is a direct reflection on the ethical soundness of the corporation and should be given the proper consideration, less they become the facilitators of negligent actions.

     Weather it is an individual trying to spread their thoughts or a corporation trying to run a business involved in social media, a solid ethical foundation must be followed.  The individual must make sure that they are truthful, transparent, and respectful and the corporation must insure that a person’s privacy is at the forefront of the companies inner-workings. It is easy to think that you are behind a vale of privacy when using social media, but what is said and done on the net can affect people. The bottom line is this, individuals and corporations should both adhere to ethical practices when posting information to their Blog or other online media vehicle of choice.  So, go forth America and Blog; Blog to the east, Blog to the west, but Blog ethically, the entire world is watching.

 

References

Examples of a Bad Blog. (2009). Retrieved from http://zball24.hubpages.com/hub/10-examples-of-a-bad-blog

Gupta, S. (2011). Exploring Social Responsibility Through Social Media. Retrieved from http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/71947164/exploring-social-responsibility-through-social-media

Pennock, T. (2009). Ethics and Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.ruderfinn.com/blogs/ethics/2009/07/ethics-and-social-media.html

Russell, M. (2012). http://zball24.hubpages.com/hub/10-examples-of-a-bad-blog. Retrieved from http://www.newser.com/story/159955/blogger-posts-newspaper-staff-addresses-over-gun-map.html

Global Media Journal: Indian Edition, 1-15.

Vallor, Shannon, "Social Networking and Ethics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/ethics-social-networking/>.

 

"Social Media" - Do you know if you are being recruited as a pawn in the game of terror?

Ann Painter, Caleb Lowry, CJ Lay

 

 FBI Cyber-Crime Website

Cyber Terrorism has been on the rise in the last decade with all of the advancements in technology and the knowledge base is evolving with the use this outlet.  Even a basic computer virus could hold the key to a plan to another horrifying attack like 9/11 on US soil. With Domestic and International terrorisms on the rise one has to be aware of how you could be recruited or used as a pawn. The Boston Marathon Bombing is a recent example of this. Terrorist groups have put together a massive following with the use of the internet and social media, terrorists use chat rooms, you tube and Facebook to do their recruiting as well as use these social media tools to gain intelligence.  There has been a lot of recent media on the investigations into social media terrorism.

Recruiting Terrorists With Chat Rooms

Advances in cyber communication including chat rooms made it easier for terrorist groups to organize.  The first chat room was available in 1974 then publicly available chat threads in 1980.  Chat rooms were the popular route for recruiting prior to the outbreak of social sites and disposable emails addresses.  The recruits for these terrorist groups are groomed through the various websites and private chat rooms.  The private chat rooms in Paltalk has become a popular communications for tactical information and generate support amongst the different terrorist groups.  These chat rooms have both message and video capabilities. Paltalk has just been introduced with the rest of the world lately because of the investigation from the PRISM Company.  They were put on the watch list due to a large amount of traffic during the ongoing Syrian Civil war.  In my research, Paltalk kept popping up in most of my research with being investigated for terrorist activities and communications violations (Tsukayama, 2013). 

Chat rooms are tools for terrorists.  Younes Tsouli was an internet terrorist between 2003 and 2007.  Tsouli received a nickname of Irhabi 007 because of his savvy ways on the internet.  He started joining different internet forums for terrorists and posted instructional manuals for computer hacking.  After posting on these different chat room forums he was recruited by al-Qaeda leaders to work on their online operations.  He published bomb making manuals and suicide bombing operations for al-Qaeda on their forums.  Tsouli was caught in 2006 after he hacked into Arkansas state government website.  He was posting Al-Qaeda propaganda and beheading videos on the website (Weimann, 2011).    

Recruiting Terrorists With YouTube

The blue print of terrorism has changed tremendously from its original make-up.  With all of the advancements in technology this was bound to happen.  With the accessibility of the World Wide Web, terrorism has gone global in communication and has taken the front seat.  With the advancements in technology and the distribution of the news, it has leaded the Muslim community to be more aware of their battle with the world.  This flood of information has sparked an all-out feud with less than aware Muslim activists and who they would call “Infidels”.  With a higher number of terrorists coming from wealthy families in the Middle East, this advancement has made it easier to recruit poverty stricken candidates to join the fight. 

Terrorists have seen how successful the media and internet have been and have adopted these forms to aid in their endeavors.  The FBI has had many confirmations of Al-Qaida and other known associates of theirs using Facebook and YouTube to connect with each other.   It has been noted that terrorists have used the social network as a catalyst and recruitment element to build their numbers.  This was Osama Bin Laden’s key asset in his war agent the US campaign.  Numerous terrorist cells utilize YouTube for an abundance of recruiting assists and intimidation tactics.  YouTube on numerous occasions has been asked to remove these posts, but it is understood that by removing these video will futile; thus as access to other facets of social media would be used.  Affiliates understand by leaving these communications up, awareness to this behavior is more imperative.  So a viable question to this dilemma would be; “Does YouTube support Terrorists, or does YouTube support the War on Terrorism?” 

Recruiting Terrorists With FaceBook.

Cyber-terrorists hide their activities. In fact, cyber-terrorists use methods that are extremely difficult for law-laden Western counter terrorism experts to locate. If you add the vast array of social networking sites you have a very big problem with recruiting and the spread of terrorist information (Ayers, 2009). Facebook can be used by terrorist groups to expand networks and exchange real-time information, enabling operatives to organize and act quickly (304th Ml Bn OSINT Team, 2008). Terrorist groups spread messages by creating pages and establishing a good “like” base, this page spreads to other users and gains exposure. Organizations will also use Facebook to recruit the “lone-wolf” operative and then further use it to keep in contact with that operative.

There are dangers in liking Facebook pages. First, by liking pages on Facebook you allow the page to access your information (to include personal information found on your page) making it more likely to be hacked. Second, by liking a page you also run the risk of downloading a virus (malware, spyware, Trojan) from the content found within the page. Third, since you have liked their page they now have access to see other pages you have liked. A study by Cambridge (Kosinski, Stillwell, & Graepel, 2013) reviewed 58 thousand Facebook users’ profiles and with surprising accuracy was able to decipher personal details about the users from just the pages they liked. Terrorists could also review your likes to further compromise Facebook users. Terrorists could then use this information to make assumptions about you to lure you into their group and recruit you based off the information they deduced from your Facebook.

Social media has proven to be a successful tool for both terrorists and those who fight the war against terrorism.  This media outlet has taken the power of the freedom of speech to a new level.  We cannot stop the progression of the world’s technical evolution, but it is a must to stay one step ahead of the game.  Anyone can be targeted and sometimes we do not even know it is happening. Terrorists have put together a massive following with the use of the internet and social media, terrorists use chat rooms, you tube and Facebook to do their recruiting as well as use these social media tools to gain intelligence. We need to be aware of what is going on around us to include the digital realm as well. We are in the age of “connection” but not all the connections are good or positive ones.

References

304th Ml Bn OSINT Team. (2008). alQaida-Like Mobile Discussions & Potential Creative Uses. Retreived from http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/mobile.pdf.

Ayers, C. E. (2009). The Worst is Yet To Come. Futurist, 43(5), 49.

Corera, Gordon, “Al-Qaeda’s 007: The Extraordinary Story of the Solitary  Computer Geek in a Shepherds Bush Bedsit Who Became the World’s Most Wanted Cyber-Jihadist,” Times Online, 2008, retrieved at http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life _and_ /w omen/the_ way_we_live/article3191517.ece.      

Kaplan,Eben. (2009). Terrorists and the internet. Council on Foreign Relations, Retrieved from

http://www.cfr.org/terrorism-and-technology/terrorists-internet/p10005

Kessler, Ronald. (2011). Facebook, youtube, and terrorists - a deadly mix. Newsmax.com,

Kosinski, M., Stillwell, D., Graepel, T. (2013). Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior PNAS 2013; published ahead of print March 11, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1218772110.

Lightman, David. (2007). Fighting terrorism on the internet. Tribune's Washington Bureau: The

Retrieved from http://www.newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/Facebook-YouTube-FBI-Terrorists/2011/02/18/id/386589

Sauter, Mark, A., &Carafano, James, J. (2005). Homeland Security:  A Complete Guide to

Swamp, Retrieved from http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/05/fighting_ terrorism_ on_the_inte.html

The free dictionary: cyberterrorist, 2013. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary. com/cyber-terrorist

Tsukayama, H., PalTalk: The PRISM company that you may have never heard of, June 2013, Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/paltalk-the-prism-company-that-youve-never-heard-of/2013/06/07/02a0f2c4-cf79-11e2-8f6b-67f40e176f03_story.html 

Understanding, Preventing, and Surviving Terrorism. New York: The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc.

Weimann, G., Al Qaeda Has Sent You A Friend Request: Terrorists Using Online Social Networking, Israeli Communication Association (2011), retrieved at http://www.cleanitproject .eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012-Terrorists-using-online-social-nerworking.pdf