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How to Remain Safe on Social Networking Sites

May 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Social networking sites are growing in popularity and are gaining users daily. Social sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter can be great fun but joining them also may pose risks. Safety is of the utmost concern when using any social site.

Almost every social site that can be joined has a profile page. This page is the page that needs tailored down for most users. Yes you can list name, address, phone number, email and where you work but stop and think about it? Would you give a total stranger that information on the street? Protect your privacy. When you list such information on a social site that is exactly what is being done. Limit the information given out, especially when your profile page is open for all to see.

Downloading photos to a social site is as common as tweeting or creating a status on Facebook. Not every photo should be considered appropriate for public viewing. Use common sense; once it’s out there, it’s out there. Employers are increasingly using Google to perform reference checks. Do you really want that search to turn up a picture of you at a wet T-shirt contest at a bar?

 

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun... 

Image via CrunchBase

Let’s face it we live in a dangerous world and children on social networking sites are a pedophiles’ dream. Be especially vigilant in monitoring children or teen’s accounts if you allow them to have one. Be sure they know each and every person they are adding as “friends” personally.

 

Social networking sites can be fun but they can be dangerous. Be sure to be vigilant regarding the information and content you add to yours.

 

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Technology and Kids’ Social Lives

March 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Technology has done a lot of wonderful things for society.  However, too much technology can impede on your child’s non-Internet social development.  Although technology will remain a vital tool for business and socializing, you need to teach your child how to develop face to face social skills as well.

Make Them Go Outside

Has your child been chatting on Facebook all day?  Pull the plug on the computer and make your child socialize with a friend.  Your child may complain that he is already socializing with his pals on the web, but you know as he gets older games of football and capture the flag will make better memories than posting pictures online.

Do It For the Sake of Spelling

The Internet is ruining the way kids use spelling and grammar.  Between instant messaging and texting, abbreviations are out of control.  Face to face communication can force children to speak in more complete words and sentences. Also encourage your kids to write an old fashioned letter to a friend who has moved away or a cousin.

The Internet is Cold

In person, it is easier to hear someone’s tone. Things like sympathy, sarcasm, joy and other emotions can be hard to express over the web.  Face to face play dates will help your child practice their mannerisms. As your child gets older, lacking face to face social skills can ruin their interview at a college or for a job.  The Internet also takes away physical interaction.  Hugs from a friend and a high five after winning a game are important moments  that should happen often.

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The Most Addictive Facebook Games

March 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Facebook can be a great place to connect with friends and family.  It can also be a great place to promote your business.  But beware, Facebook has tons of addicting games that can distract you from doing work or cleaning the house.

Farmville

This game by Zygna allows players to make a virtual farm.  Although at first this may sound boring, once you log on you can see how hard it is to stop playing this game.  Players can win mastery signs for planting a certain amount of specific groups.  The game is also very interactive allowing players to post mystery eggs and other items in the Facebook newsfeed to win prizes for their farm.  Farmville is always publishing new content such as holiday games and more.

Bejeweled Blitz

Think of this game as a shiny version of Tetris.  Players have to line up specific jewels in a row to make them disappear and earn points.  As players are busy matching u jewels, more jewels are raining down from the top of the screen.  If you let too many jewels build up to the top level you will lose.  This game is simple and hard to stop playing.

Family Feud

Similar to the TV game show, the Family Feud game on Facebook allows players to answer random questions and earn points if their answers appear on the board.  Players have a chance to try and win the bonus round by themselves to earn coins.  If a player does not make it to 200 points on their own in the bonus round, they can send out a request to other Facebook friends for help.

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Technology Safety Tips

March 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Technology can be a wonderful thing but it also brings up a lot of new safety concerns.  Both you and your children should practice caution and be aware of potential dangerous that may lurk online.

Your Employer is Watching

Make sure to keep your Facebook profile and other profiles private.  You would not want your current or future employers to see pictures of you partying with friends or other private moments.  It can also cause drama with jealous co-workers.  Make sure that your main profile picture is something appropriate and does not show you drinking, smoking or doing anything else questionable.

Monitor Your Children’s Online Friends

Make sure to monitor what type of friends your children have on instant messaging and social networking sites.  Two kinds of problems can arise concerning children and friends.  The first type is school bullies or jealous classmates tormenting your child online.  Your child should not have to be online pals with anyone who makes them feel uncomfortable.  There is also the issue of child predators and other shady adults trying to contact your children.  Check your child’s profiles often and ask about any names that you are unfamiliar with.

Watch What You Write

It is important to remember that blogs and sites like Twitter are not your diary.  Remember that other people can read it, so only posts things that you want read.  Know that if you talk about political items, be prepared for other users to have potentially opinionated responses.  It’s usually not a good idea to talk about personal money woes or anything else you do not want coming back to haunt you.  You can use blogs and Twitter to grow your business if you use them smartly and correctly and avoid any drama.

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Geo Social Networking

March 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Geo social networking is the latest and greatest form of social networking.   Some people find geo social networking addicting and wonderful while others consider it dangerous and a tool for stalkers.  What do you think about geo social networking?

What is Geo Social Networking?

Geo social networking allows users to use their smart phones to mark down and share with friends where they are at any given time.  Users can share on social networks their location at restaurants, movie theaters and other places.  Friends of users will see the name of the venue as well as the coordinates on the map.

FourSquare

FourSquare is a leader in social networking that allows users to “check in” to places.  Users can even check in with friends.  As users check into different places they can earn badges.  Badges that can be earned included things such as the gym rat badge when someone checks into a gym multiple times during the week.  Another badge is the swarm badge which is awarded when a lot of foursquare users are all checked in to the same place.  This often happens at concerts and sports games. Another fun feature is that users can become a mayor of a certain places if they hold the most check ins to the venue.  Some restaurants will even go as far as giving a free cup of coffee or discount coupons to the mayor of their establishment since they are helping them to gain free promotion.

Facebook Check In

Facebook invented it’s own check in tool where users can check into place directly from their Facebook moblile accounts.  Users can also tag friends that they are with or add a message.  One main difference is that Foursquare allows people to share their location on many social sites including Facebook all at once, where as the Facebook check in is for Facebook users only.

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Ways to Market Yourself on the Internet

March 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

If you are looking to market yourself on the Internet there are many free websites that you can join to promote yourself.  Self-promotion is great for freelance writers, internet marketers, small businesses, charities and more.

Twitter

Twitter is free to join and allows you to connect with an unlimited number of like minded people.  Twitter gives you the ability to post small messages of 140 characters or less as often as you’d like.  You can attract like minded people to your posts by using hash tags to mark topics.  For example, if you post an article about green living, you can post #greenliving after the link to your article.  Make sure to be friendly to other users and post useful information and not just spam.

Facebook

You can use Facebook to promote yourself or your business as well.  You can choose to make a personal page or a fan page.  A personal page will allow users to interact with you more, but will limit the number of friends that you can have.  A fan page allows for less personal interaction, but will allow an unlimited number of people to be a fan of you. If you have money to spend on adversity, you can place targeted ads that will show up on the side of Facebook.

Digg

Can you Digg it?  Digg allows you to post interesting articles, your own articles or others articles in hopes that someone else will digg it.  When someone diggs your article, it bumps it up on the list of posted articles for the day attracting more page views and promotion for you.

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