Facebook 101

As businesses increase their use of social media to attract new customers to their products and services, Facebook can be a valuable tool for attracting your ideal client.

According to HubSpot Blog:

"Facebook has over 200 million active users and that number continues to grow steadily. It is the third most trafficked website in the world (behind Google and Yahoo) and the most trafficked social media site in the world. As early as July 2007, Facebook started calling itself one of the top people/social search engines on the web, though some disagree."

Don't make these Facebook faux-pas - they might cost you a great opportunity.

Introductions: When joining any online groups or attending networking events, make sure to introduce yourself to the host of the event. It is proper to let the host know that you are appreciative of them taking the time to put this event together. You will put yourself in a higher category than those who just attend and lurk in the corners.

Speak to everyone: While it is natural to want to make your presence known to the movers and shakers in the room, it is also good to speak and mingle with the average "Joe/Jane" in the room, you never know who knows whom. But most importantly, it is just common courtesy to speak to everybody.

Share but don't Sell: Relax. When people can see that they can relate to you, oftentimes it will lead to a conversation about what you do. Be sure to also add value to your networks. Answer questions; leave encouraging comments- anything to build up others is a plus.

Be genuine: Be nice: This may seem like a given, but you would be surprised how many people check their manners at the door, especially online. Remember to say "please" and "thank you." First impressions are lasting impressions.

Give before you take: Share useful articles and links to presentation and valuable resources that interest customers and prospects on your wall, to establish credibility.

Follow up: Be sure to make some kind of contact with the persons you've met at the event. Politely remind them how you met, comment on what you enjoyed about the interaction and see how you can be of help to them in the future. Also, if someone has made a comment about a blog, post or tweet you sent out, be sure to acknowledge them. You are letting them know that you are paying attention and you care about what they have to say.

Respect others: The best way to do this is to treat others as you would want to be treated.

Following these simple yet important etiquette tips are sure to lead you on a smooth path to making great social and business connections.

Facebook Acronym

The creation of an acronym for the word F.A.C.E.B.O.O.K. was developed to help you look at it through new eyes as a good way to be transparent and successful on Facebook. Share in this article are a few tips to help you in your journey of learning how to use Facebook to grow your business.

One way that you can think of Facebook is as a business component that is an extension of your business. As an extension of your business, Facebook can help you reach others online that you may not have had the opportunity to reach.

Below is the acronym to help you remember how you can use F.A.C.E.B.O.O.K. in unique ways:

• F: Friendly should always be the way you choose to be positive with others via Facebook. Even if someone doesn't treat you respectably, you shouldn't respond negatively. As a business owner, your online presence is very important and how you treat others need to reflect this.
• A: Access to you is something you clients and business partners like to have when doing business with you. Using some of the communication applications that Facebook provides is a way to build in accessibility. Doing a search in the Application of Facebook will render many helpful application such as Social RSS or Clobby.
• C: Connecting with your mentors, clients and business partner via Facebook means that you are able to have an open dialog or communication stream with them. This could allow you to attract new clients or business associates.
• E: Encouraging others is another way to grow your circle of influence on Facebook because being positive draws others to you. As you encourage others in a positive way then you too will receive encourage from those you are connected to via Facebook.
• B: Building your reputation online in your industry is another good example of how you can use Facebook. As you connect with others and share your information, your reputation with grow.
• O: Opportunity to network is one of the main reason to use Facebook. As you network, keep in mind that being pushy can be seen as negative. Show respect to others and get their permission before you blast them with information about you and your products.
• O: Overflowing goodwill is a great thing because you will be given the opportunity to give to others through your overage. Such as giving away freebies to those who "like" your fanpage on Facebook.
• K: Knowledge-sharing is important to growing your circle of influence online. By sharing your knowledge with others, you can become known as a subject-matter-expert which can help you cultivate a speaking career.

Hopefully, these tips will encourage you to implement Facebook in your business if you haven't already. If you have implemented it in your business, maybe you learned something new that you can do to use Facebook to grow your business.

Fact or Fiction: Social Networking

Social networking sites are fact or fictional? Whether these sites can help one to improve in the online business? These are some of the questions that appear frequently in the internet. Let us find out the answers for the questions in this article.

1] New York Times! The leading newspaper in United States published interesting and surprising news that the account holders in Facebook have crossed 500,000,000. Let us not analyze the reason for this increase in numbers. While some claim that the users are from various parts of the world and others say it is due to the free registration.

The point we are going to discuss is whether this social networking website has helped any ordinary person who is not well aware of the search engines, SEO contents etc. to improve in his online business. Everything is possible in the internet as there numerous successful entrepreneurs who were an ordinary person earlier. So, the increasing members in social networking sites are healthy one.

The following is the statistics of some social networking sites.

* Buzznet - This website is used by music and pop lovers globally. The membership number in this site has crossed 10,000,000.

* Café Mom - This website is a landing place for all the moms. Almost 1,250,000 members have registered in this site.

* Classmates.com - The site is useful for children of all ages. Competitive tests and classes are regularly conducted through these sites. Notes and question papers for college students can be downloaded from these sites. The approximate members in this site are 50,000,000.

* Flixster - This is a popular movie site where the members have crossed 63,000,000.

* Facebook - it has crossed 500 billion users. 50% of the users log in every day. 35 millions users update information in these sites every day and more than 3 billion photos are uploaded monthly.

So, with the above details you can clearly come to a conclusion that people are in search of certain information. They visit sites like these to fulfill their requirement. They share their ideas with others and find solution to their queries. When one gets the required result, the other user starts using the same site for gathering the information.

Now, the question is whether you can draw audience at the first instance just by communicating with many people. It is practically possible only if you're using the internet marketing in the right way. As an individual, you need to decide your fortune. All the facilities are available in the internet. Using it wisely, one can successfully shine in the online business.

Utilize Your Twitter Account

If you're not using Twitter, you should be. Consider how much trouble you have on a regular basis getting your emails through to someone's inbox. Spam filters, trigger happy deleters, and people who just don't read email can result in hundreds of lost emails.

Twitter is different. It provides direct, constant access to your prospects without filtering and with no spam risks. As a marketer, that kind of access is unprecedented and can help make up for all the lost prospects via email.

But, that doesn't mean everyone is having the best of luck. Some people - a lot that I've talked to - are having tremendous issues getting those followers to click through and convert. Others are simply having trouble getting followers.

Luckily, there are some specific strategies you can use that will significantly improve your overall Twitter performance.

* Follow the Right People - Just because you have trouble building relationships on Twitter doesn't mean everyone else does. Find someone who is a networker extraordinaire and tag on to them. Follow them, find the people they connect with and get involved.

The joy of Twitter is that you can see pretty much anything anyone is doing and you can get involved at any time. It's about reaching out to those people and landing the largest possible share of the market.

* 90% Useful Information - Everything you post should be valuable, useful information that your followers will be interested to read. Don't post what you had for lunch (unless you're a dieting guru trying to inspire your followers). Post things that they want to know.

The key here is to generate a mixture of useful information that can be leveraged at any given time to develop an ongoing relationship with your followers. Some people do this by reposting new blog entries. Others offer videos. Others just offer simple advice or answer questions.

* Have a Marketing Plan - As long as you see Twitter as a diversion, that's all it will be. You need to start thinking of Twitter as the valuable, high tech marketing tool that it is, and that requires a solid marketing plan.

Write up a list of tweets for the next 4-6 weeks, at least one for each day, and then use a tool like TweetLater to load them up in advance. It's hard to write tweets on a daily basis, but if you do it all at once, it might take an hour and you're set for weeks.

* Link to Twitter and Populate Your Bio - Generating followers for a Twitter profile is never easy. To supplement that, add links to your Twitter profile everywhere you can - on your blog, on your sites, on Facebook, in your articles, and in email newsletters.

Additionally, make sure that anyone who clicks those links finds a well written, concise bio that they can learn more about you from. Most people won't read your tweets to find out. They need to be told what you have to offer.

* Real World Marketing - It's too easy to get caught up in the online world and forget that you can get new followers by handing out business cards, flyers and twitter cards with your username on them. This works very well for Facebook as well.

* Aim for Retweeted Content - Aim for content that gets retweeted as much as possible. The more viral your messages can go, the more people will come see the original tweeter and possibly follow you. Images, videos, and insights into news pieces are all good examples.

* Get Some Good Tools - There are many tools out there to make Twitter easier to use. Install it on your mobile phone, add it to your web browser (TwitterFox) and load it up into schedulers (TweetLater). You can even use a service like Ping.fm to post to all your profiles, including Facebook, at once.

Twitter is not going anywhere and as it reaches a wider audience and starts to approach critical mass with more users on it than off of it, marketers will have no choice but to build their lists. Right now, it's still at the in-between state.

But with advertising platforms, sponsored tweets, ever changing rules and a vastly increasing user base, it's growing too rapidly to ignore.

Prepare yourself for the future now, and along the way make some new friends, generate some additional sales, and master the marketing tool of the 21st century.

Secure Your Facebook

There are a lot of things that I encounter that most people don't due to the nature of my work. And honestly, many of the problems I'm called upon to fix can be avoided by taking simple steps to practice what I'd like to think is "common sense" security with a healthy dose of mild paranoia.

That being said, I'm going to relate to you, my top 5 Facebook security tips to help you learn some of these common sense techniques while employing that healthy dose of mild paranoia.

Tip #1: Assume that Facebook (or any social network for that matter) is not secure.

I know you read all the social networking articles about how Facebook has upgraded their security, changed their security settings to protect you better, and so on and so forth. However, there are about the same amount of news articles being posted of how the Facebook security settings didn't work as they were intended which allowed everyone to view your profile information or your friends, how some hacker accessed Facebook account information on hundreds (and thousands) of users exposing login information and other personal data, and the list of flaws could go on.

The point is, as long as there are hackers and identity thieves, there will be flaws in even the most promising security. Assume that nothing is secure.

Tip #2: Don't post anything you would not want a stranger to see.

Just recently, a friend of mine saw that two of his Facebook connections had posted their new cell phone number on their wall. When my friend decided to call them out on such behavior, the two friends replied that only their select friends could see the post based on the security setting used when posting. See Tip #1 above if you believe that the information you've posted and set to secure is indeed secure.

Tip #3: Social Engineering is the hackers tool of choice.

Social engineering is the art of becoming friendly with a person and thereby gaining your trust. Once trust is established, the hacker can then casually get you to disclose your personal information easily and effortlessly.

As part of my student's assignment in my computer security courses, they are taught how to employ social engineering and have the assignment of just watching for signs that someone is using it. One student took those skills to a cell phone kiosk and while chatting casually with a woman about a cell phone she was using, gained information about her 4 digit pin code to lock her phone and that she used that number for everything including ATM machines. By the end of the conversation, he knew where she worked, her full name, and what she did for a living. He did all this by pretending he wanted to buy the phone she was holding in her hand! He was shocked not only by the fact that he was able to effortlessly get this information out of her, but that he, with little training was able to accomplish it.

Keep in mind that most hackers don't need complex scripts or tools to betray you. You give them the information freely every day. And if you have any doubt about that, think about how many times you hear people disclosing personal information while on their cell phones near you!

Tip #4: Pay attention to your friends.

The biggest sign that something isn't right is when your friends start behaving in ways that are not common for them to behave. What I mean by that is, recently, I had one of my Facebook friends inbox me that she was in the U.K. stranded and needed some money to get home. As it turned out, her account was hacked and this message went to all her friends. I knew she wasn't in the U.K. but had just launched a new solo business. Because I was paying attention to her posts and the way she interacts, I didn't fall for the scam.

Many times, account hacks are not so easily detected. For example, a teen received a link from a friend in Facebook chat. The friend always sends various links to him via the chat. The sad news was that the link was to a malware site that totally destroyed his laptop. This situation leads me to Tip # 5 below.

Tip #5: Always err on the side of caution.

This is where the healthy dose of paranoia comes in.

As in the case of the teen given the link from Tip #4 above, the teen should always respond back to the friend before clicking the link. If the hacker is on the friends account, one of two things will happen. Either he/she won't respond back to the chat ping, or they will not be able to answer the question regarding the link properly.

Let me explain. Let's say that this teen and his friend normally share links having to do with monster trucks because they both love them. But they hate cross-overs and SUVs. The teen could have responded to the chat link with the following message, "Is this another video about that awesome Cadillac Escalade?" A hacker, not knowing that their being baited, will respond, "Yes!" Thinking that this should be the appropriate response. If the friend legitimately sent the link, then the friend will definitely ask you if you are a hacker on the account because his friend would never respond like that!

The point is, there is a way to test your friends using very intimate details about your relationship that only the two of you know and has not been publicly announced on your Facebook wall. Obviously, if this teen and his friends bash cross-overs or SUVs, then this example might not work. But I think you get the picture.

Remember, security is a process - not an endpoint.

Boost Sales with Facebook

You really need a website first, and then you can drum up business via the Facebook epoch.

It takes almost no effort to make sales via the Facebook method. Since people aren't watching television and listening to the radio like they used to, businesses need to explore the new types of emerging businesses.

You can post as much as possible, which is a great way to engage the audience that you might have on Facebook. Get as many likes as you can and then build up from there.

Link everything that you can think of. Facebook's threaded comments make it a much better tool than Twitter for interacting with your fans. Having all your replies in one place makes conversations much more natural. Try to keep up with the responses as well, as these can all be potential actuations to your website.

Facebook fan pages are another great way to generate sales and energy. There are some easy ways to promote your page. Of course add the widget on your sidebar. But did you know you can even post it anywhere you need it on the web? It can be where you want it all the time.

If you have someone stop by the fan page, they can click the "like" button. Attach the Facebook "Like" button to your blog, newsletter, home page of your website, or anywhere else online.

Use these tips to generate more leads and traffic. There are many social networking websites, but Facebook is currently the leader in users and buzz.

Your updates will link to your friends' walls to show them what you are doing. Create contests that can run within Facebook maybe your campaign would push all contest entrants to Facebook. Then you could even move on to other things like referrals that get you into the game.

I am a Webby Geek

Are you just making fun when you get online? Oh come on, it's about time that you get serious. Why? It's all because you can actually create your own business online, and it's not any monkey business that you think.

Now you are interested, are you? If you are then it's about time that you start creating your own website. Web hosting is not a problem, anyway. Why do I say so? It's because webhostinggeeks.com is here to help you get started. No, it won't ask you to give up your riches because you can already subscribe for a web hosting service from them for $10 per month. And that's very cheap as compared to other web hosting services you know.

Ok now you are decided to start a new lifestyle, a new business to start with and to make you more money. Planning is pretty simpleve, but it will be simpler if you entrust your website to a company that caters high quality web hosting service at a price that is very easy on your pocket. And nothing can beat the expertise and dedicated service of webhostinggeeks.com.

Visiting their site doesn't just end there because you'll be amazed to find their various web hosting options that you can choose from. I bet you might also love trying out their green hosting service.

Web Buff Needs New Eyeglasses

You are in need of a new pair of eyeglasses. So why be discourage upon seeing those expensive eyeglasses offered by many optical stores? You can actually get the cheapest pair yet stylish and high quality ones. Yes, you can find it online by visiting Zenni Optical website. According to one article featured in the New York Times, Zenni Optical in the New York Times?! that talks about how cheap Prescription eyeglasses for only $8! is.


Retaining your old pair of eyeglasses can prevent you from Seeing Straight Without Breaking Bank which is the most important factor in buying eyeglasses. Of course, you have to consider your budget for that. Check it out so soon and you will surely get the best pair that you need.

Be Free to Play Online

Considered as a multi-million dollar business, online casinos is indeed one of the many flourishing industries today. It has been a preferred entertainment source for many casino goers. This has been brought about by the internet's success as well as the development of more technologies .

free online casinos gives us a complete freedom to choose what to play, how long to play, when to play, and without money to lose. Looking back at the traditional casinos, pressure from the spectators can make you feel nervous if you lose the game. Unlike in online casinos you don't have to worry about losing as there will be no crowd to witness how you play the game.

The opportunity to play, understand and learn the ins and outs of casino games without paying anything are the benefits that you could get in playing online casino games. Same thing is true for new casino players who want to experience the excitement of the game and that is through free online casinos.

Freecasinos.ws is the chosen free online casinos of many casino game players. It has been in existence for seven long years and is still offering the best games anyone would wish to play on. Its gambling portal is user-friendly so newbies and other casino players will surely enjoy the fun out of playing casinos.

Golden Palace

Las Vegas is the most famous city for casino. Tourists and residents would often go there to enjoy a night filled with fun and excitement. Winning bucks of money are certainly their ultimate goal., and it's something that make these people keep coming back in Las Vegas. But for us who are located in far away places, we can settle for something that has a feel of Las Vegas too.

Yes, you can feel it right at your home and in the comfort of your seat. Ever heard of the Golden Palace Casino? It's downloadable in your computer so you always have a look at how this casino online can turn your home a Las Vegas in the making.

Golden Palace is known as the top chosen casino online. It has everything you need and the environment that perfectly looks like a real casino in Las Vegas. Why would you miss the fun when it's something that many home bodies chose to play. Check it out and you will surely be excited of how it can turn out the excitement in you.

Do You Suffer From These Symptoms of Internet Addiction?

Sure, you're not addicted to the internet. You just enjoy surfing the web and checking web sites, don't you.

Check how many of these internet addiction symptoms you have if you dare!

• You simply must log onto the internet first in the morning, even before you've brushed your teeth.
• You eat your meals or regularly snack whilst surfing the web.
• You check your emails every minute or two and start getting nervous if there are no emails to download because it's so soon since you last checked them.
• You've got one or more instant messenger chat windows open at any given time.
• Hours pass whilst your surf the web yet it seems like minutes.
• Your social life takes second place to your mouse and keyboard.
• Sneaking onto the internet when others aren't looking.
• Chatting online and surfing the web whilst you're supposed to be doing work.
• You're computer desk is surrounded by "stuff" because you haven't had the time to clear things up - you've been too busy checking out the next "must see" website.
• You've never met your circle of friends in person - they're all (or almost all) people you've met on the web.
• You check your Facebook page every few minutes, just in case you've got a new friend or someone's poked you.
• Your first thought when you take a movie on your cell phone is "this would make a great YouTube video".
• You fall asleep at the keyboard and get woken by the bleep of your instant messenger.
• Your first instinct when you meet someone face to face is to type them a message.
• The internet is your only form of "escape".

The more of these symptoms of internet addiction that ring true for you, the more likely it is that you're becoming addicted to the internet. Get help while you can!

Find out how to easily deal with your internet addiction and regain your life again. Check out how to overcome your addiction to the internet.

Relaxation Tips for the Internet Addict

Are you an internet addict? Do you compulsively check your inbox 30 times per day? Is your main social communication making comments on forums and blogs? In theory, the internet is supposed to make our life easier and save time. However, increasingly people realise the internet provides countless opportunities to waster time. If we are not careful, several hours can fly by and we have achieved nothing other than watch some old comedy on youtube, and read an endless number of articles on "the top 10 ways to stop wasting time on the internet." Here are some tips to make better use of your internet usage, this will you have a more relaxed attitude to the internet.

1. Have a clear Focus to achieve something.

One problem is that when we switch on the computer, the first thing we like to do is to browse our favourite sites - Newspapers, stumbleupon, webstats, our email e.t.c. We are spending time browsing the internet, but we are not achieving anything useful. In the back of our mind, we know we are doing nothing useful, so we cannot relax. When we achieve are doing something useful, we feel much better and more relaxed. Before opening our laptop we should try a have a clear idea of what productive thing we are going to do.

2. Don't Waste Those 15 minutes slots.

Another problem is when we only have 15 minutes; if we have only a short time span, we feel we don't have time to "do anything". Therefore, we use those 15 minutes for just browsing and checking mail. The problem is that there are quite often several 15 minute slots in the day. Either, we can try to do something productive in 15 minutes, - even if it is to just write half a blog post; alternatively, we could do something else other than use the computer.

3. Do one Thing at a Time.

With tabbed browsing it is quite possible to try and do several things at once. - Write a blog post, upload content, and be surfing other blogs. The problem is that when we do this, it is easy to get distracted and we make mistakes in doing some task. If we do one thing at a time, we can have more focus; if we are more concentrated we will makes less mistakes, and also we will get a greater sense of achievement. Trying to juggle several things is usually stressful, we should try to avoid this.

4. Switch off Internet Access.

It's hard to believe but society used to function perfectly adequately before the advent of the internet. If the internet was unavailable for a day, you might be surprised at how much you might enjoy it.

5. Check Email Once a day.

This might be a bit radical for some people. But, if you check email once a day, you will save alot of time. You can also be focused in replying to all emails. Sometimes we check email, but don't have time to respond properly. We then either forget to reply, or we rush a reply that we later regret.

6. Write Emails only when necessary.

Email can be a way to save time, but it can also create unnecessary communication. Always bear in mind the limitations of email. Words cannot convey expressions. It is easy to send a message that can be misinterpreted. If possible communicate in person or through video conferencing. It makes communication much easier and more natural.

7. Take a Break every Hour.

If we are not careful several hours can fly by, we feel tied to the computer and the unending amount of things we can do / read on the internet. If we can pull ourselves away from internet we will be able to get a wider, more detached perspective.

Listen to: Online Relaxation Music

Shop for Post Holiday Gifts

Holiday Season was over but in my case, I am still engrossed on how our holiday celebration went through. It was superb, really. And up until now I am still thinking of giving gifts to those special someone whom I've not given gift on Christmas day. It's not yet too late. After all, it's better late than never, right?

Oh well, too much for holidays as I need to make myself busy from now on. But then again, I am still giving myself a quick time to shop for some gifts. And since it's gonna be a quick shopping I won't have enough time to go to the mall to search for unique gift items. It's just a good thing that while I was browsing the net a while ago, I've stumbled upon shopwiki.com. It has been the ultimate online shopping source of many people all over the world. Aside from a wide array of options to shop for, you could also enjoy great discounts which you may seldom experience at the mall.

As for my choice, I am thinking of giving my newly born godson with a Stroller since my son's stroller was already given to my little boy cousin-inaanak a month ago. I've seen a lot of designs to choose from and I guess I'll go for that boyish look stroller. I am also eyeing on that PSP which I'll be giving as my gift to our youngest brother. He just turned 12 last December 30 and I haven't bought him anything as my present except for a big box of chocolate.

But I promised him that I'll buy him a video game soon. And that's gonna be real soon since I already decided to save for it in the coming days and hopefully purchase it online at shopwiki.