Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

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The Life Impacts of Constant Connectivity

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

Do you remember a time when you took your dog for a walk without texting, or watched a game with your friends without checking your email? It was called downtime and it was healthy for you. In this age of connectivity it appears as though that may be a thing of the past. Today having our devices with us at all times is not unusual, but is it healthy?

It’s extremely hard to argue that our gadgets—our smartphones, tablets and laptops—haven’t made our everyday life simpler. We can make dining reservations as we drive down the highway. If we’re lost, we can find directions on our smartphones. If we need recommendations on how to deal with our child’s fever, we can find medical advice by tapping the screen on our iPad.

But are we paying for this connectivity more then just monetarily? As we are always connected, we rarely, if ever, are alone with our ideas. Lots of people have wondered if this is negatively affecting the philosophical, pensive, aspect of humanity.

That is not a question we’ll explore here, but it’s something to think about. A more pressing question is, what is being continually plugged in doing to our health?

Always being connected takes its toll, whether it’s for work or for play. The human body needs time to rest, and not just when it’s asleep. If you find that you have trouble with being away from your phone, or have anxiety about not checking your mail, it may be time to shut off your devices.

While being connected helps grow relationships online it can harm ones offline. When you’re out with your friends and family members it may be good practice to unplug. It’s just too easy to text and check your email, forgetting to give the ones around you the attention they deserve.

If you are one that always has their gadget in their hand, think about how your life may being impacted by it. Try leaving it at home one day, or turning it off on the weekends. You may find that you are considerably more laid back because your brain is not focusing on more then just being present.

I know that some of this my be quite controversial and even difficult to swallow, but I would encourage you to try to “unplug” every once in an while.  What are your thoughts on the subject?

Posted in Connectivity and Acess, Facebook, Social Media, Technology and How it's Used, Time Management | No Comments »

The Connected Car: Good or Bad

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

As the world becomes more connected so do our cars. Cars such as the Audi A6, Ford Edge, and the Lincoln MKX allow people to surf the web when in their front seat. People may now, stream music, get up-to-date traffic information, but is all this access the best thing while driving? Generally it’s exciting to see technological advancements, however, when it comes to our safety on the highway can there be such a thing as too much connectivity?

Challenges of the Connected Car

The connected car is a bit worrisome. It’s well known that drivers become distracted when they text or chat on cell phones while driving. This leads to accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that 80 percent of all traffic accidents involve some variety of driver inattention within three seconds of a crash. If texting and cell phones are distracting to drivers, think of how distracted motorists will be when either they or a passenger is watching streaming video of a cat slipping off a counter top.

Does Tech Distract Drivers?

Obviously drivers ought to concentrate on driving, and several things like eating, talking on their phone, even talking to a companion within the car can be a distraction. These distractions may bring about serious accidents. This reason is in part why the idea of having more connected cars doesn’t automatically make people jump for joy.

Browsing the Web Inside Your Car

Personally, I’m not a big fan of additional regulations but this might be an area in which some regulation is in order.  Left unchecked, individuals will soon have the capacity to stream YouTube videos, Google an answer to a question, and correspond via social media sites in their cars. Maybe the next step should be to increase the self-driving aspects to cars; but perhaps that would detach us even more to the world around us.

As we said before, we usually consider advancements in technology as a great thing, however, the potential negative impacts that connected cars could have make us stop and think. While having these tech features in our cars improves enjoyment on the road it’s important that they don’t become a disruption to the driver.

What are your thoughts?  I’d love to hear them!

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Posted in Connectivity and Acess, Social Media, Technology and How it's Used | No Comments »

Why You Should Care About Pinterest

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

Are you burned out on social media? Then you will not be thrilled to hear that a new social media site is gaining traction. However, you might be interested to know that this new site, Pinterest, doesn’t focus on the minutiae of day-to-day living as sites such as Twitter and Facebook seem to. Instead, Pinterest encourages users to talk about their interests with other people. And in this way, at least, Pinterest does more to encourage creativity among its users than sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook.

The site’s name gives a clue as to what it’s all about: Pinterest is a combination of “pin,” as in pinboards, and “interest,” as in what you are all about. When you sign up for Pinterest, you make your own “pinboards” or categories. You then attach photos and pictures that fit within those categories, as if you were pinning these images onto a bulletin board.

Creating Pinterest Categories

With Pinterest you can create different categories, like business and fashion, then pin images to each category and make notes about the images along with links to the website you found them on. You can then decide to share all of your pinboards or only a couple with other Pinterest users.

The Social Part of Pinterest

Just like Facebook and Twitter, you can elect to follow coworkers and friends. You don’t have to follow all of a friend’s collections; for instance, you can decide to follow only their collection of art, while choosing not to follow the restaurants they enjoy in their area.

Joining Pinterest

The one challenge with Pinterest is that you have to get invited to obtain an account. You can visit pinterest.com and request an invitation but it may be a while before you receive one. The more surefire strategy to get an invitation is to have a friend invite you that already posseses an account.

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Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

7 People You Should be Following on Twitter

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012

So now you are on Twitter, and you follow your family and friends, but you are sick and tired of learning about the brand new restaurant your sister went to. You want to hear more intriguing and worldly information.

Well, lucky for you, almost everyone has a Twitter now.  This can include celebrities, scientists, entrepreneurs, and legislators and you can follow them and hear what they have to say.

Here are 7 interesting people who will get you started if you are not sure whom to follow:

  1. Conan O’Brien: The late-night talk-show host is definitely one of the wittiest people around. He’s also a master of the absurd. That said, his Twitter comments are always entertaining. You’ll be happy to know, too, that he never promotes his show through his Tweets.
  2. Marissa Mayer: Mayer is the first female engineer at Google, you can get a glimpse into the life of a tech expert as well as learn some interesting things about Google by following her @Marissamayer.
  3. Mike Massimino: Follow @Astro_Mike, if you would like receive the inside scoop about NASA. Mike Massimino is an astronaut who recent made an appearance on The Big Bang Theory, which he then tweeted about.
  4. Rainn Wilson: You may know Rainn better as Dwight Schrute from The Office. If you find his character quirky and entertaining, you might also enjoy his tweets. Follow @Rainnwilson. Here’s a recent Tweet from him: “If I had a bird, I would call it James VanDerBeak.”
  5. Ryan Penagos: If you appreciate comics, you have to know Ryan Penagos. He’s the editorial director of Marvel Comics. He’s also a busy Tweeter at @Agent_M. Penagos and recently Tweeted about a new Spider-Man video game and gave his thoughts on his favorite comics. He likes the work of writer Brian Michael Bendis.
  6. Barack Obama: You can get a peek at the day to day life of the Commander in Chief @BarackObama.
  7. Bill Gates: You might not like Microsoft Windows, but you should still check out the Twitter feed of Bill Gates. The man has made an undeniable impact in the tech world. And today, he and his wife are devoting their time and energy to important charitable causes.

Just, just to be clear, I don’t put each of these folk on the top, nor the bottom, of my list of favorites.  They simply have some tweets that you might find worthy or the 140 character read.  As alway, I’d love to hear about your favs!  Who might they be?

Posted in Just for Fun, Social Media | No Comments »

The Changing Face of Business

Monday, November 14th, 2011

The face of business has turned online the past few years. There was once less competition for business and getting your name out was straightforward, hire an ad agency or go door to door introducing your business. Now the number of business that offer similar goods and services is incredible and it’s easy to get lost amongst them. For this reason, small-business owners have had to reevaluate how they sell. But how do you convince prospective customers that they should choose you out of the many. Developing a strong online presence is a proactive way to do this, below are a few options open to business owners today.

Becoming Mobile

Mobile devices are becoming more and more common. People carry them to make their lives simpler as they can stay connected to their business and personal lives.. This can make commuting valuable working time instead of dead time. Unfortunately many regular sites aren’t very readable on a mobile device because of this many businesses have mobile sites. They retain the companies branding while allowing for faster, easier navigation on a mobile device. Mobile site makes your company more easily accessible to consumers.

Social Sites

These are an interesting phenomena, originally they were intended as sites primarily for personal socializing. But when Facebook came out, their clean utilitarian site enticed businesses owners. Those individuals realized they could reach a wide audience by developing a social face for their business. Now almost every business has a Facebook page. Social sites give companies a platform to share interesting and fun content that is relevant to their industry with consumers. Creating this on-line community is a passive way to create sales. You might have been aware of Google , they have recently unveiled their business pages. Check out this walk-though to learn how you can create a Google business page. Social sites are a non-intrusive way to interact with a large audience that I predicted the relationship between businesses and social sites a long and fruitful one.

On-line Education

You have likely noticed the growing number of businesses that have blogs, these allow companies to give educational information without trying to obviously sell the individual something. Offering educational content is a terrific way to show for potential customers how knowledgeable your business is and develop trust. Webinars and blogs are two great ways to do this. In this way companies can stand out from their competition by showing their extensive knowledge and this can result in sales indirectly.

Most people like to visit a local shop where the owner works behind the counter. This is still available to us but that shop probably has an online presence even if it’s a small one. It can’t be denied that businesses are not just street facing but Web facing as well. Being open to the changing face of business will make you a more informed consumer and/or business owner.  Read this article
to learn some great reasons for creating an on-line presence. If you’ve had success at creating your on-line presence, please let us know what you’ve done.  We’d love to hear about more successes.

Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Technology and How it's Used | No Comments »

Is Online Anonymity a positive Thing

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Google has recently gotten a small amount of press because of their restriction of users creating profiles under pseudonyms. Currently, Google doesn’t allow fake names, and this has some people upset. One of the appealing things about the Internet is that is seems to offer umbrella anonymity. Anyone can be whomever they choose, but is that necessarily a good thing? To answer this question, we first have to take into account the pros and cons of being anonymous.

Pros

There aren’t many sites that require you to use your real name, or even have any means of verifying that the name you provide is real or not. This allows you to assume numerous personalities, crafting a new version of yourself every time you log on. This can provide a layer of safety when providing your full identity can be dangerous. Consider users who have been the subjects of abuse or stalking, the freedom to be anonymous on the Internet helps them to be less accessible and therefore less vulnerable. Anonymity comes with a certain level of freedom.

Cons

Many problems caused on the Internet begin with a improper use of anonymity. Email scams, social media spam and profile hacks begin with the creation of a fake Internet identity. While tactics such as IP address tracing and validating the information given when setting up Internet profiles can provide the true identity of any Internet user, creating a counterfeit profile is the easiest way to scam someone else. While being anonymous on the Internet is often a plus, it’s important to consider the negatives that complete anonymity can create.

The moral value of total Internet anonymity is a matter of personal responsibility. It is only as good as the person who uses it. Anonymity being good or bad is not a matter of anonymity itself, but rather, a matter of the users of the Internet. When considering if you are for or against it, first reflect on how you use it.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Please comment below!

Posted in Social Media, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

Avoiding the Facebook Trojan Viruses

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Did you know that Facebook has over 500 MILLION active users and that over 50% of those log in on any given day?  It has become a great place to connect with friends, find out what’s happening, playing a game or to take part in discussions.  It’s also become one of the easiest places to get infected with a Facebook Trojan virus or other Facebook related malware.  As it turns out, these types of nasty little bugs are abundant and a lot of them can be quite serious. The Koobface worm is probably the best known Facebook malware but compared to Facebook Trojan viruses, this worm is sweet and harmless.

Facebook viruses use a lot of different techniques to infect your computer and even experts in the field can never be confident that you’ll never be caught by one of the new techniques that just seem to keep coming. There are some simple measures that can help, but if you aren’t diligent about following them, it’s almost guaranteed that sooner or later you will pick one up.

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Posted in Facebook, Malware, Social Media, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments »

The Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

by Roger G. Best

There’s an old hoax that has been spreading like wildfire though the Twitter hashtag “RIP Johnny Depp” and other such captions.  It’s an easy “snag” that draws people into action.  In this case, the action is to click through to get the scoop on the story.  So, before we go any further, let me make it perfectly clear that Johnny Depp is alive and well.  The rumors of his demise have been  greatly exaggerated! (more…)

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Posted in Malware, Social Media | 7 Comments »

5 Don’ts in Social Media Marketing

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Social media usage is growing at an unbelievable rate every month and there seems to be no foreseeable end to that trend.  With that, comes ever growing opportunities to promote your business and “get the word out” in ways that haven’t been available to us in the past.  If done properly using these various sites can be an effective tool to promote, and grow, your business.  But, before you move too quickly, there are a few things you should know.  At the very foundation of Social Media, in general, is the understanding that people become a part of these sites with a purpose… and that purpose is NOT to buy anything.  The join to connect with old friends, meet new ones, find a lost love, keep up with family members and stay in touch with the people of their choosing. (more…)

Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »

Social Media Can Lead to Better Collaboration

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

by Roger G. Best

If you read much I’m sure you’ve heard things about how enterprise computing is rapidly heading in the direction of better collaboration and that social media will be a big part of that drive. We’re seeing an ever increasing trend to add social media to enterprise collaboration portals. The corporate need for better collaboration tools has been on the plates of many business professionals for years now.  Everything from things like the telephone (and even the telegraph), fax, telex, email, video conferencing, instant messaging, and on-line chat have all been a part of building a collaborative workplace. (more…)

Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »

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