Now that many people use both Twitter and Facebook, users look for ways of sharing information between the two social media networks. Recently, companies have come up with ways of posting updates to both places relatively simultaneously. The trend means that people and their friends keep in touch on both networks. Now, it is possible to use Facebook as the primary means of updating both accounts at once.

Facebook contains an application to allow users of both social networking sites to update status messages from Twitter right into Facebook. The Twitter application in Facebook is the best way to do this. All one needs to do is install the app and then click to allow Twitter to update the Facebook status. The screen that comes up when the process has been completed asks the user of Facebook if he or she wants to allow status updates from Twitter. Once that has been done, the user can change the setting back via the Edit Applications Page in Facebook. A Tweeter app also lets users do the updates, and gives them additional options for seeing and responding to tweets while still logged into Facebook.

Tweeters who use more words to say what they mean would do better with the Selective Twitter Status application. This version only updates a person’s Facebook wall with tweets including the #fb hashtag to let them know what is new. A program entitled TweetSync uses a keyword operated version of the function and lets the user decide whether to take all tweets or sync only those containing a certain keyword. That filtering can even help sort tweets to the user’s Facebook page, making communicating with friends simpler by giving priority to the messages he or she really needs to view.

Another way for people to bring in Tweets and Facebook content is to use Facebook Connect as the bridge between services. This gives site developers and owners a way to immediately let new users log into other sites via their Facebook accounts. Twitterer’s in this case will enjoy using Tweetpo.st to grab the advantages of Facebook Connect in linking Twitter to Facebook. Tweetpo.st provides opportunities for obsessed Twitter users to create meaningful Facebook updates. Tweets can be posted as status updates, obviously, but advanced users also may figure out how to more selectively update a status, and add in rich media links to their wall, convert Twitter handles in replies to real names, and even track link performance.

Using these ideas links a person between Facebook and Twitter. These methods work especially well going in the direction of Facebook to Twitter, but can be reversed to send information in the other direction as well. After all, users need to go both ways to share the content they enjoy with friends and work content with colleagues for a more productive world. Facebook and Twitter both give the dedicated user the means to connect with anyone in the world, so if the need presents itself, you can easily connect to either platform.

Social media sites have definitely been a big hit with the masses for the past 5 years. These social networks apparently are not ceasing when it comes to computer use only. In fact, there is presently a movie about Facebook in the making.

The movie is going to be called “The Social Network” and plans to begin working on the film have already been arranged. According to Filmofillia, “The Social Network” has been given the green-light from Columbia Pictures and will start shooting this year. ”
They are scheduling to begin shooting the film in Boston, Massachusetts. The film is loosely based off of the founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg.

The film is going to go over how Mark started the social network and came up with the idea for Facebook while he was studying at Harvard. Rumors are stating that part of the movie that was actually filmed at the Harvard campus. The film will be directed by David Fincher who has already received a three time winning Oscar for his direction in the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

The Social Network movie for Facebook is actually based off of a prior released book that was named the Accidental Billionaires. The book was written by Ben Mezrich and it made the news for properly documenting how Facebook was created and how presently it is ranked one of the most popular social networks on the internet with over 400 million users.

The entire book is not a proper documentation of Mark Zuckerbergs life, so there are some part of the book that are not entirely true and are presently under dispute for their falsified statements. Facebook is not only a social network that many friends use to speak amongst each other; there are many people that have utilized this network as a means to showcase their businesses as well.

The Facebook movie entitled the Social Network will have some familiar faces playing the leading roles in the film. Jesse Eisenberg from the movie Adventure land will be playing Mark Zuckerberg while Justin Timberlake has also been casted to play Sean Parker in the film.

If you haven’t a clue who Sean Parker is, he is the founding president for Facebook as well as the co founder for Napster. An interview was conducted with Jesse Eisenberg regarding the movie and his role that he played. Eisenberg stated that the entire movie is not just centered on Facebook, but it also reviews over the challenges that were faced when it came to creating the social network.

In fact, there are a lot of companies and businesses presently that are using Facebook in order to not only fit in, but generate the kind of responses that Facebook was able to accomplish with their websites.

If you are already an established internet marketer, chances are you are probably already using Facebook to draw in an adamant crowd of followers that are interested in your niche. However, there are a lot of beginners that are new to this form of marketing that often times find themselves making some costly mistakes with their marketing ventures.

A lot of the major and most common mistakes that people make when they are new to marketing their business on Facebook can be grouped into three different categories. To help you to be able to identify these three common mistakes please take a gander below.

1. Marketing your website, niche or yourself too much. Social media networks are intended for people to connect with others on, they were actually not intended in order to lure customers to your website. If you consistently market your business or your site you risk the chance of losing a lot of friends.

   Instead of just marketing all the time you can nonchalantly market what you have to offer. There is a rule that states that a marketing relationship should be based on a ratio of 80-20. 80% of your interactions with consumers needs to focus on relationship building and the other 20% should focus on marketing. When you build relationships with people there is a strong chance they will be more open to listen to your marketing venture ideas.

2. Not keeping regular updates on your Facebook page. You need to update your friends about various things that are going on in your business but first create the connection with them. Tell them about different things that you have found pertaining to your niche that doesn’t make you sound like you’re over stretching your marketing bounds.
3. Creating one Facebook Page for business and pleasure. A lot of people try to mix their personal world together with their marketing world. This is a big mistake, instead build two separate pages one for your personal life and the other for your marketing life to help you gain more followers.

   A personal Facebook page can only have a maximum of 5,000 friends. However, fan pages can have an unlimited amount of friends and followers. Thus not only increasing your clientele but also making it easier for your Facebook page to be seen by search engines.

Avoiding these three crucial mistakes will help make your marketing endeavors a lot more beneficial and assist you in obtaining the amount of attention that you demand for your page to obtain. People new to marketing through Facebook will always make mistakes; however these three mistakes can now successfully be avoided.

Effectively knowing how to use social media networks in order to obtain the amount of site visitors that you desire is crucial to any aggressive internet marketer. There are many simple tips that you can use that will allow you to communicate effectively with your contacts in order to render the aggressive marketing goals that are set for your online business.

Perhaps the easiest way to get your information out to your friends on Facebook is to send mass emails instead of sending out separate email correspondents to everyone that is featured on your friends lists. This mass emailing feature that is incorporated into Facebook makes sending out emails extremely easy and fast to do.

The first thing you need to do in order to be able to send massive emails through Facebook in order to capitalize on the amount of traffic that you can render to your business is to set up your very own Facebook account. It would behoove you to use a name that signifies the specific niche that you are promoting.

The next things you will need to do after your account has been properly set up is access your dashboard and visit the friends link on your page. This link is visible on the left side of your computer screen. After being taken to this page, you will see a tag that displays the name lists on it. If you have not created lists on Facebook yet for all of your contacts you will need to create them in order to take advantage of the mass mailing features on the site.

If you presently do not have any friends on Facebook, it is imperative that accumulate a nice following of friends before you commence in trying to build a list to fit everyone on. It would be easier if you create two separate Facebook accounts, one for your marketing efforts and the other for personal connections with friends and family.

Upon creating your lists you are almost finished with your mass email campaign. You will need to visit your Facebook email inbox and scroll over to compose a new message. After clicking the link an option will come up that will allow you to email individuals or email an entire list of people that you have created.

Be aware (at the time of this writing) that each list is limited to only 20 people. So you will have to repeat this process a couple of times to get your message out to a larger subset of Facebook ‘friends’. If you already have your message copy ready, a simple ‘copy, paste & repeat’ routine will allow you to complete this process at a much faster rate.

Most importantly, don’t spam your prospects. Sending out new messages from time to time is okay, do this too much and you can end up with a deleted Facebook account -not to mention a gang of several angry Facebook ‘friends’.

In the modern day it is not odd to see someone browsing their Facebook page via their computer or mobile phone. However, although Facebook is by no means a horrid thing to be a part of – it can take your attention away from things that you should seriously be thinking about.

It’s one thing to use your Facebook page to share pictures of your family or simply write down some of your thoughts, but if your Facebook page were to catch the attention of a job recruiter you definitely would not want your “overly personal” information being seen. Some of the things on your Facebook page may not be essential for helping you land a job or an interview with a prestigious company.

Whatever you post on your Facebook page is a clear reflection of your maturity level and your level of discretion. If you lack the proper judgment to censor things that may be seen inappropriate on your Facebook page, obviously you will turn a few highly impressionable employers off.

It may surprise you that there were actually a significant amount of employers that perused the Facebook pages of prospective applicants. A survey was actually conducted in 2006, regarding employers who used social media pages in order to find out a little bit more about their applicants. 11% of employers in 2006 actually admitted to going on a few social media sites in order to find out some information on the person applying for a position with their company.

On CareerBuilder more than 63% of the hiring managers that were seeking out employees actually performed a few searches under the prospective employees name in order to find out some information about them. Honestly, if you were applying for the job of your life time, would you want something such as a comment that you transcribed on your Facebook page to get in the way?

Some people believe that with prospective employees being able to judge you by your social media page something should be done to rectify this. However, employees gaining access to your social media pages are by no means an invasion of your privacy. If you are willing to emphasize certain things about yourself via your Facebook page, then you should be more than willing to let anyone gain access to this information.

This is why using language that is appropriate and being friendly (but still holding a high caliber of standards about yourself) is the best thing to do when you are involved in different social media networks. If you would not want your family or someone that is considering you for a job to gain access to certain information on your Facebook page, the information should not be made available to them in the first place!

Facebook may be seen as an innovative tool for networking as well as promoting your online and offline business. However, with every innovative creation there are some downfalls that must be accessed. Facebook has written, as well as unwritten rules that they expect their recipients to follow. If you break one of the rules instilled by Facebook you run the risk of getting a warning or getting your account banned completely.

There are several different reasons why your account could end up getting banned on Facebook, below is just a list of obvious deactivation reasons:

-If you send out too many friend requests within one day, session, or throughout the week you risk the chances of having your account banned.

-If you transcribe too many wall posts or you compose multiple posts that are identical your account can become deactivated.

-You religiously send out the exact same friend request message to all recipients that you are hoping to befriend.

-You post way too many event invites to people.

-You send out far too many promotional links to different people associated with your friends list.

There is a theme that you will discover when people end up having their account banned from Facebook. The theme is showing people engaging in too many spamming activities at once. If you’re seen as a spammer or a possible spammer, Facebook does not take any time to delete your account from their system.

So, how can you avoid having your account deleted from the system? Well, the answer to your question is incredibly simple; all you need to do is not do anything in excess. Instead of sending out multiple group invites start building up your Facebook network in a slow matter, this way you can enjoy using the system without having the fears of being deleted from it.

A lot of people end up getting themselves into a realm of trouble when they try to extend their marketing activities to places such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Remember, that although these platforms are infamous for promoting your business their initial function was set up to allow individuals to meet one another.

Always be courteous to everyone who is a part of the Facebook community and do not speak your mind, per say. There are rules and regulations as far as derogatory sayings are concerned. Try to steer clear of saying anything that someone may take the wrong way.

Social media websites are becoming one of the leading platforms for people to showcase their businesses. Although, commercial companies are prohibited to utilize these sites for sheer advertisement purposes there are ways to get around some of these rules in a graceful manner.

Facebook is known to the masses as one of the most popular social networking sites on the web. This site is avidly growing every single day and adding a plethora of new members. There are literally millions of people that are a part of Facebook and millions of more people join this networking community daily. With all these people crowded on one website, identity theft is bound to happen at one point or time.

Utilizing Facebook is a great way to market your business as well as connect with friends from the past. However, you should make it a point to not openly display confidential information about yourself on your Facebook page. You need to safeguard your page to ensure that no one can gain access to some of your private information.

The amount of information that can be gathered about someone through simply utilizing Facebook is quite shocking. There are people that list information pertaining to their birth dates, their full names and even their places of residency. In fact, there are some people that even include their full addresses and their phone numbers for people to get in contact with them.

The bits and pieces of information that are shared on Facebook are actually quiet alarming. Thieves can easily take your information pertaining to your address and put in a change of address at the post office in order to have all of your mail diverted to them. After they have gained access to your private information they can then begin receiving credit card statements and gain access to your personal social security number.

There have been some new breakthroughs for identity thieves to steal information through different means. All a thief needs now is your birth date as well as the year that you were born and the city or state where you were born. So if you have your full birthday listed on your Facebook page, delete the year immediately.

Whenever you meet new friends on Facebook it is imperative to be nice, but still keep some safety protocols in perspective as well. Set your Facebook page to be viewed only by your friends. This way you do not have to worry about random people gaining access to your personal information.

When it comes to accepting friend request from other Facebook users only accept friend requests from people that you consider a friend in your day to day activities. Reconnecting with old friends is a different scenario, however if you do not know the person sending you a friend invite, do not accept the invitation.

As long as you practice a high caliber of common sense when using social media sites, you can easily avoid becoming a victim of identity theft. You definitely wouldn’t want to write all of your personal information on the outside of your home, so why would you want to commence in this sort of activity via the internet?

In this economy, small businesses have it tough. Advertising costs have soared, and these days you have to be a savvy marketer in order to reach your market. Social media is a great place to receive free advertising for your small business, and a Facebook fan page may be just the ticket to helping you reach hundreds, or even thousands, of new customers.

A Facebook fan page is an option for every user to establish a dedicated page to the topic, person, or organization of their choice. It’s a way to display the details of your business on Facebook separate from your personal profile. Regular participation is key to the success of a Facebook fan page, so a small time commitment is imperative, although updating the page is relatively simple and easy compared to a regular website.

At the bottom of your profile page, click on “Advertising”. Choose “Pages”, then “Create a Page” and follow the prompts. Add as much information as you can for your clients and customers. The more information, the better your page will look, and you can include videos, tutorials, graphics, and your company logo. Adding convenient Facebook apps can improve your Facebook page and engage customers, so make careful decisions about what you want to include.

Remember, your page does not appear on Facebook until you hit the “publish” button, and the page is simple to edit and update, so don’t be afraid to experiment until you get the effect you’re looking for. Once you are satisfied with the results, publish the new Facebook fan page for your business or service, and get down to the real work – promotion.

You won’t have fans if no one knows it’s there, so now is the time for some promotion. Post the link to the new page to your personal status feed, letting people know you now have a Facebook fan page and they should check it out and become fans. If you are a Twitter user, Tweet several times over the course of a week or so about your amazing new page. Include the link to the Facebook page on your email signature, and on any signature you might have in relevant groups or forums. Post a Facebook button on your website, and go through your contacts and send them an invitation to visit.

It will take some time to establish a fan base, and you must keep the information on your Facebook page fresh, relevant, and interactive. Update often with fun and valuable information, and watch the word spread. With just a little bit of effort, this is free advertising that can reach new customers without a dime coming out of your budget. Small business advertising doesn’t get any better than that.

By now most of us know how fun Facebook can be to keep connected with family and friends, play games and make new connections. However, like most things in life too much of a good thing is almost always contradictive to our well being. There are literally hundreds of Facebook apps, that can be exciting to use, but if you are not careful you may find yourself wondering what happened to a large portion of your day. Some of the more addictive Facebook Apps include:

1. Mafia Wars: Mafia Wars is a multi-player web-browser game developed by Zyanga and offered on Facebook, among other social networking sites. Set in New York City, you are a member of the Mafia with the mission of completing “jobs” for cash, experience, and special items. As you complete your jobs, you conquer certain levels, unlocking more experiences. As of this writing, over 25 million players are involved with Mafia Wars.
2. Farmville: Also developed by Zyanga, Facebook presents this interactive game in which you build a farm and plant crops which you then harvest. You can also visit neighbors and fertilize their crops, send each other gifts, and by attaining different levels, more items to plant and harvest are unlocked. The graphics are excellent, and you can also raise cows, goats, chickens, sheep, goats, and the occasional lost animal that wanders on to your farm.
3. YoVille: Facebook also provides a game for people familiar with the Sims series of games. In YoVille, you are given an apartment to decorate and you can earn cash by holding a job. Visiting your friend’s apartments also provides you with cash and points, and you can chat with them in real-time. Your avatar can go to the bank, visit the gym, or hang out in a nightclub. This game is also a Zyanga creation.
4. Bejeweled Blitz: If interactive games are not your style, Facebook offers up one of the most popular games on the internet, Bejeweled Blitz. Developed by PopCap Games, this is a puzzle game in which you switch out different colored jewels to clear them from the screen. Facebook keeps track of your score and compares that to the score earned by your friends, sparking a little competitive spirit. The jewels are mesmerizing, and once you start clicking, expect the hours to fly by.

There is no question that a large portion of the games offered on Facebook are fun and can provide you with hours of entertainment. Some of the aforementioned games even allow you to trade marketing information (surveys) for more clout in the games. But as mentioned before – be cautious – the games where designed with a specific purpose ($$$) and sometimes that purpose can really suck the productivity right from your day.

Additional sources:

Five clues that you are addicted to Facebook

Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD)

Image credit

When involved in the Twitter universe or inhabiting the virtual world of Facebook, getting out of a “relationship” in either case can be a sticky situation. Some people will take it very personally when a follower on Twitter decides not to follow them anymore, and others think the world has come to an end when they are dropped from someone’s Facebook roster.

Image source Fotolia

First of all, there is a big difference between a Twitter and Facebook account. Twitter is designed to find new connections; a framework for which you can choose the content based on your interests. Facebook appears to be for friends and family, family friends, etc. so the connection is much more personal. Therefore, handling an un-friending on Facebook is liable to cause more problems than an un-following on Twitter.

When someone drops you from Twitter, it is safe to assume that person just isn’t interested in the same things you are, and the action should not be taken personally. It’s better for you both to move on to what benefits you the most, and just like offline life, people will come and go. It’s best to just forget about it, because in all likelihood it’s not meant as a personal attack or have anything to do with you at all – other than a failure to connect. It happens.

By the same token, although an un-friending on Facebook could have more serious connotations, taking it personally is a mistake. If you know the person offline and it’s really bothering you, pick up the phone and discuss it in an adult manner. Otherwise, make the same assumption as the drop on Twitter and just move on. There are plenty of other people out there with whom to connect, and unless it is a really close family member or friend doing the dropping, chances are you won’t really feel much of a void.

On the other hand, if it’s you doing the dropping, sometimes a simple message or e-mail will ease the sting, if any. This is strictly a judgment call. Most veteran Twitter users understand how Twitter works, and if someone isn’t interested or interacting with their Tweets, it makes sense to clean up the Twitter stream and move along.

On Facebook, depending on your reasons for dropping someone from your roster and your relationship, you may send a message just to state your intentions and assure the other person it’s nothing personal. If it is a truly sticky situation, Facebook offers privacy settings whereby you can restrict the person from accessing your Facebook account, and that might be all you need to do.

It may be difficult at times, but try not to take an un-friending on Facebook or un-follow on Twitter as a personal affront. Sometimes, it’s just time to move on.

When you think of Facebook, you may only think of the innovative way to keep in touch with long-lost friends, far away family members, or establishing yourself in a business sense. However, there is more to Facebook than meets the eye.

Facebook provides a venue for a number of charities to reach over 300 million users with their message and solicitations of help that require small action on the part of the participant, whether it be from simply clicking on an advertisement on Facebook or filling out a survey that takes only minutes of time. Most people are more than willing to help out, but in these busy days it can be difficult to find the time or the hard cash, and Facebook has many fan pages of charities that can help people to fulfill their wishes to contribute.

Image Credit The ASPCA Facebook Fanpage

Charities from the ASPCA and Humane Society to the Susan G. Komen For The Cure have active fan pages on Facebook, as well as the Ronald McDonald House. Facebook has itself established a page titled “Facebook For Good” which lists the many charities for which one can donate as well as providing a venue for updates from the charities involved.

Image credit Susan G. Komen For The Cure

Even the smaller charities benefit from a wide audience with Facebook fan pages. Good Samaritan, Good Vibe, iRipple, and Good Search are just a few examples of successful charities that have utilized the power of Facebook to keep their non-profit endeavors alive. With the economy struggling, more and more people are in need, and a Facebook presence not only helps the charity raise money, it also raises awareness for a variety of different causes and provides information to people who may need their services.

Image Credit Ronald McDonald Charities Facebook FanPage

Since most applications require very little time from Facebook users in order to raise money, more people are willing to click an ad or fill out a survey to add pennies to the pot. With over 300 million users to date, Facebook is giving a boost to all charities with minimal investment and cost to both the charity and the Facebook users both.

Many offer badges that can be displayed on a user’s Facebook profile, and participants are urged to pass the message along to their friends list. Spreading the word on Facebook and soliciting donations has reduced overhead costs for the charities, money better spent on the important work they are trying to accomplish.

If you have a Facebook account, the next time you’re clicking around or playing one of the entertaining games they offer, check out the Facebook For Good fan page and see what you can do to support your favorite charity. Most involvement takes less time than it does to plant a farm on Farmville, and you will be doing a good thing for not only the Facebook community, but for the greater community as a whole.

Facebook offers a status update, similar in many respects to Twitter. Your status updates appear in a feed, viewable by all the friends on your friends list. The option to upload photos is especially popular, particularly for loved ones who live far away and viral photos that get passed around. If you are using your Facebook account for both personal and business purposes, you should monitor what you update in your feed and in your photo album or it could affect your job and your family.

As social media has exploded with Facebook as one of the front-runners and more and more jobs becoming more than just eight hours in a cubicle, the lines between job-related information and personal information shared with close friends and family are becoming quite blurred. Chances are, if you wouldn’t want your grandmother or your CEO to know something about you, you are better off keeping that piece of information to yourself and not posted on your Facebook wall.

While Facebook is an excellent way to keep in touch with family, friends, and colleagues, sometimes too much information is really…too much information. You might have had a great time at the bachelor party last weekend with your buddies, but neither your boss nor your mother needs to see the picture of you receiving a lap dance. Your co-workers might understand your frustration with the boss, but he probably won’t appreciate the comment that he’s a jerk – that appears in your feed.

Image credit buzzfeed.com

Caution is the byword, and Facebook does provide tools for you to manage who sees your feed and photos and who doesn’t. It takes a few minutes to set up separate groups for personal and business information, but it’s time well-spent if it saves your job or your mother from a heart attack.

Under settings at the top of your Facebook toolbar, you can choose who sees your information. You can also control who can find you through a Google search. In the photo section, there is also the option to choose who can and cannot see your photos. Take the extra time to carefully evaluate who is on your Facebook friends list and what you want them to see. There is also a block function which comes in handy for people with whom you don’t want to share any information.

Taking the time to evaluate whom you allow access to different parts of your life makes things easier for you in the long run. People have lost their jobs over what they have posted on Facebook in a careless moment, or in the heat of a bad day. While your friends and family may understand, an employer will not, and jeopardizing your career over a reckless moment is not worth it. Take a few minutes and review your privacy settings on Facebook on a regular basis, and you’ll be able to breathe a little easier and enjoy the Facebook experience to its fullest potential.

Video is everywhere. It has become one of the hallmarks of the social web, it is the basis for several internet memes, we watch it on TV and we all known someone that wants to record every minute of every event – in what seems like … everyday. You have webcams for your computers, you can send and view video on your cell phone, and many of us can create videos straight from our smartphones.

If you are one of the 350 million plus members of Facebook community who enjoy viewing, creating or even editing video you are going to be happy to know, that Facebook has several applications that can foster this activity.

Video – Probably on of the most obvious applications, this function can be accessed underneath the input box that asks you “What’s on your mind?”

This is a very popular application for members of the Facebook medium, since it allows people to add videos to their profiles directly from a hard drive, webcam or cell phone . Most people also enjoy it because it’s easy and it’s fast- so there is very little waiting for the finished product.

YouTube Video Box – This is a great way that you can show off the favorite videos that you have found on YouTube. You have the ability to share multiple videos, and each video is provided with a wall of its own – allowing users to comment on each one individually.

Netflix Movies – If you are someone who uses Netflix, they have made it rather easy for you to rate movies and share this information with your friends on Facebook. Once you have connected to Facebook from your Netflix account you can allow Netflix to post your movie ratings onto your personal home feed. From here you and your friends can comment, ‘like’ or add the movie to your Netflix Queue.

Montages- This app lets you create your own personal slide shows from video and photos. It supports several transitional slide show effects as well as the ability to rotate, clip and edit your videos.

Private Video Gallery – This Facebook application allows you to share and view video with only the people you want, by creating a simple access list for your users. Until Facebook finishes their facebook privacy implementation across the board, you may want to show mom and dad exactly how to use this application to save you from possible future embarrassment. Case in point …

Mesmo TV – Make me a Celebrity – Created for the TV buff at heart this application allows you to not only view TV shows online, it also allows you to play Trivia, take TV quizzes , read the latest buzz on your favorite shows and much more.

Flixster Movies – This isn’t really something that allows you to add videos, but it is a popular application nonetheless. It’s one that works with the Flixster site and allows you to share your movie tastes with other people, as well as find out what their movie tastes are.

It’s now official users of the popular Pandora Free Internet Music site can now easily post their songs and radio stations to Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook users will be able to listen to a quick thirty second preview of the post while tweeps will be able to send out shortened urls. These links will then take users to the feature page in question.

Users will have the choice to autoshare to their Facebook or Twitter accounts by adjusting their options under their account settings. But I would not recommend this if your friends are easily offended by autoposts.

To those who may be unfamiliar with Pandora its a nicely packaged web application that allows you to listen to free music online or while using an iPhone. Pandora currently allows you to create up to 100 radio stations based off of your personal listening preference. For each station you create, songs are generated based off of the …

Genome Project, the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected. It represents over eight years of analysis by our trained team of musicologists, and spans everything from this past Tuesday’s new releases all the way back to the Renaissance and Classical music.

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While many states will fine you for even messing around with your smartphone- some are more than happy to send you tweets regarding current traffic conditions. This is very disconcerting for safety experts who claim this sends a mixed message to driving smartphone users…

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Jonathan G. Parker, 19 of Fort Loudoun, Pa., decided to logon to his facebook account while robbing a house in Martinsburg, WV. In the robbery Parker stole some jewelry valued at $3,500 and Googled “best escape routes” in the process. When leaving the premises Parker left his facebook account logged in…

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The saga continues as more evidence points out that Apple may have lied to the FCC and did in fact reject the Google Voice App for the iPhone. While Apples stands firm stating they did not reject the app and they are still studying it. Google fired back releasing the previously secret document to the FCC- accounting for all interactions between Google and Apple (pdf here)…

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First there was MySpace and it seemed that everyone had his or her own page set up. You put pictures and information about yourself, your family, your pets – your profile was online for your friends and family members to see.

And then all of a sudden, everyone started talking about Facebook. So what is that all about? It seemed like the same thing, so why do we need two major social networking sites that do pretty much the same thing?

Well, they do have their differences and attract different groups of people. Here is what sets each one apart from the other.

The design of the page:
Facebook has a one-size fits all white background; MySpace allows more creativity with the use of additional colors and graphics.

The demographics of the site:
MySpace was created as a means to connect with family and friends and was quickly embraced by kids and adults alike with the average age of its users as 35; Facebook was geared towards college students but has grown to incorporate up and coming professionals. Average age on this site is 23.

Locating others on the site:
MySpace users sign up with a screen name. Being that it started out as a networking tool between you and people you already knew there isn’t really a way to locate someone on MySpace unless you get them to invite you as a friend. When you sign on to Facebook, your first and last name are registered so you are able to put in the name of an old colleague and see if they are registered with Facebook.

Privacy:
This is a big difference between the two sites and it has to do more with the way the sites were positioned. MySpace was really meant for reaching people you were already familiar with but you have to make sure you adjust your settings accordingly so that not just anyone can view your page. Facebook contains information of a less personal nature and you must be approved before anyone can reach your page.

Additional features:
Facebook has an instant chat feature that MySpace currently does not have. But MySpace has the ability to incorporate music on your site. Many musicians are using their MySpace page to build a following or to share their music with family and friends.

Which brings us to the most recent entry into the social media scene: Twitter. Its presence was just as abrupt as MySpace and Facebook – all of a sudden one day, people are talking about it everywhere you go. The first time I hears someone say they just tweeted I thought it was a reaction to something they ate. But alas, Twitter is all about “What are you doing?” I mean, right now. You sign up and the messages are kept to a certain number of characters. You can tweet with friends and family or celebrities.

Check out each site and see which one fits your needs. Just don’t wait too long to sign on- you never know when the next new networking site will pop up.

It used to be that social networking was the way to promote your business or services. You passed your business cards out to everyone and anyone you were able to speak to about your business. You went to trade shows to be in front of like-minded people who might be interested in your services. And you joined leads groups so that you could stand in front of the group and deliver a presentation so that the people in your group would use your services and/or pass along your information to friends, family members or their own clients who might possibly be interested in your company’s services.

Even though those practices are still in place, they seem archaic compared to the massive audience that the social media scene provides. The amount of people that can be reached through the likes of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others boggles the mind. And the speed at which the information travels is even more incredible. It’s like the difference between a horse and buggy or the Concorde.

So how exactly do you use social media to promote your business? Major companies (one coffee company in particular) uses their Facebook page to directly reach their customers and ask their opinions regarding their products. They get immediate reactions that may result in bringing a product back due to popular demand, helping decide between two new products, or getting feedback on improving customer service in general.

Polls and surveys taken through social media sites are direct and immediate. Companies don’t have to pay big bucks for any type of media demographics profiles that take time to tally responses and provide results. Responses are directly from the very people that they are trying to reach.

And the best part is part of the protocol from the old networking days is still at hand here. The only difference is when someone shares their likes or dislikes regarding a specific company, it can be through a blog that will instantly reach hundreds of people as soon as the send button is pushed, as opposed to telling a couple of your friends over dinner.

The impact that social media has had on businesses today is immeasurable. The branding alone is solid and the control of the marketing is directly lead by the company itself. It is as easy as building a following on Twitter, or promoting a new product line ahead of schedule on your Facebook page. Direct click throughs and hits on links provide companies with instant feedback that used to take months to compile.

Probably the best part of joining the social media scene is that you can reach a massive audience with one touch of a button, it is a free medium, and you have your choice of sites to choose from – one or all. Each one just reinforces the other providing you with an even larger audience to market to.

Even though this is still a relatively new way of promoting your company, it is an equal opportunity forum. With the number of telecommuting positions available today, you can be an independent contractor or a major corporation and still realize the benefits of social media marketing.

Twitter Plans to Add GeoData to your Tweets

In a blog post on Thursday Biz Stone announced that they will be adding a geolocation feature to Twitter that will be first rolled out to developers. With this option users will be able to turn on an optional location aware feature that will add GeoData to your tweets (latitude and longitude). This sounds both fun and dangerous at the same time. On one hand it would be nice to use with family and friends, on the other hand if rouge users have access to your twitter feed, this opens the door for personal attacks.

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Twitter Plans to Bring in Revenue From Businesses

Twitter is hoping to have the processes in place by the end of they year to charge business users’ a fee for added account features. While users and companies will still have the option to sent tweets for free, the added features will include a subset of special tools to assist businesses in tracking the effectiveness of their tweets.

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Facebook: First Cyber Bully to be Put in Jail

Vile Keeley Houghton, now 18, was the first person in Britain to be put in jail for cyber bullying via Facebook. In her taunts she threatened victim Emily Moore stating the she was an actress and she was going to murder her …

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Facebook is now allowing Status updates to be Sent to Twitter

Facebook announced that it will allow Public figures and Businesses to post profile updates to Twitter. The company feels that they often go tweet the same information so this would basically save them a step in the process …

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Phishing Apps Found on Facebook

Trend Micro reported that they found a some phishing apps on Facebook that sent users to other rouge sites (as most do). These sites would then ask for your login information, to steal your Facebook credentials. While Facebook has since removed these apps, this seriously questions the integrity of the Facebook application review process. I mean if they let these apps in and were not aware of their activity, who is to say there are not 100s even 1000s of these apps on Facebook right now…

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Apple, AT&T and Google the Google Voice iPhone Saga Continues

Much buzz was created around the net when Apple supposedly rejected Google’s Voice App from being available in the iPhone App store. Now that the FCC has decided to intercede into Apple’s magical app selection process – Apple claims the App is not rejected. They claim that they are still analyzing the app to see if it does not alter the iPhones core phone functionality.
AT&T remains adamant stating they have nothing to do with the Google Voice App rejection and they really have nothing to do with the app approval process from a contract stand point.

Outed Google blogger Rosemary Port To Sue Google

A media storm was created over some blog posts that referred to model Liskula Cohen as “The Skankiest in NYC”. A court ordered Google to release the IP address of the once phantom blogger responsible in order find their identity. Google initially fought to keep this information private but needless to say was unsuccessful.
Rosemary Port the owner of the blog Skanks of NYC, now plans to sue Google claiming they “breached its fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity”.

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There are millions of people who are on Facebook, but not all of them know about some of the best applications that are available for use on Facebook. Some of these are fun applications, others are quite useful. In general all of the below mentioned apps should provide you with some extra amusement during your daily Facebook travels.

College Humor – This is humorous content in the form of images, articles, and videos that you can add to a Facebook profile with just a click. You can also add applications that will showcase the content that is most popular and newest and content that is from a particular school.

Social RSS- This has built a headline animator on Facebook, and it’s something that is going to display the very latest headlines from a person’s Feedburner podcasts, RSS feeds, and podcasts. It’s a graphic that is dynamically generated and it can be customized as it is shown on your profile on Facebook.

Splashcast – This is something that allows you to create your very own channels that you can add programming which has been found across the web, and that includes images and videos. You have the ability to create a channel that is just for Facebook, and you can also create and edit channels through Facebook as well thanks to the new platform.

iLike- With this handy integration, you can personalize the information that is incoming from iLike based upon your own Facebook friends and music. It will also alert you when your favorite singers or bands are going to be in your area, along with telling you which of your friends are going to be going to the concert. You also have the ability to search and add your favorite streaming music to your Facebook profile and find new music based on what types of music your friends are currently listening to.

Slide FunSpace- This is one integration that is easy to explain – it allows you to integrate the slide shows that you have created into Facebook. You can send them to your own profile on Facebook or you can also send them to your friends on Facebook. Not only that, there is something known as Slide Guestbook, and this allows friends to add photo, text, and video comments and therefore make it a collaborative effort. There is also Slide SkinFlix, which allows you to personalize your videos with themes and skins.

These are just a few fun types of applications that you can use on Facebook. They are easy to use and they help you to share interesting and creative things with other people. Facebook is one of many places on the internet that you can have fun and share things with other people who have similar interests. With the applications which are listed above, you can share things quickly and easily and let other people know what you have found.

MySpace announced today of its intent to purchase iLike, a music recommendation service that has been made popular through its integration with other Internet-based services such as Facebook, iTunes, Bebo, and yes – MySpace. As the majority of social network users have flocked to Facebook (+700%) this year, MySpace (-31%) has begun to feel like the next Friendster – slipping in both rank and hype in the face of other services such as Twitter. The question that begs to be answered is – How will it survive?.

This move may prove to be the edge that MySpace needs to solidify itself as the premier social music site. Many bands, local and national, rely on it to serve up news, their latest music, and tour information, often forgoing a website of their own in order to take advantage of the built-in audience (and support features) that MySpace provides. Perhaps MySpace is following the playbook of other companies that have risen from a tenuous business model to focus on what they do best, like IBM did when it dropped OS/2 from consumer PCs in 1995 and exited the PC market in 2004.

There have been no precise details on how MySpace will take advantage of their new acquisition, but according to a conference call with CEO Owen Van Natta, the discovery technology will be expanded beyond the boundaries of music and into other media categories such as videos and games.

While I prefer the simple, yet intimate format of social networks like Twitter, I am looking forward to seeing how MySpace will leverage its new purchase. But as you can learn from anyone who owned a Starter jacket, once you lose your cool, it’s nearly impossible to get it back.