Original Research - Most Facebook Subscribers Don't Trust Facebook

One important part of the FTC complaint against Facebook that hasn’t received as much attention as it should is count 7:

Facebook has provided third parties with access to a user’s profile information – specifically photos or videos that a user has uploaded – even after the user has deleted or deactivated his or her account. 

A study of Facebook subscribers I conducted this summer finds that 80% of subscribers don’t “trust” Facebook to follow through with their promises. When asked whether they believed Facebook would delete their records immediately after the subscriber deleted their account, 119 people out of 150 surveyed, or 80.41% said they did not. 56% did not believe Facebook immediately removed posts after they were deleted, and 65% believed their records would still be available on backup tapes after they deleted them.  

In focus group discussions that followed, respondents repeatedly used the word “trust” to describe their relationship with Facebook. They said they didn’t trust that Facebook would handle their records the way they expected; deleting the records when they hit delete, keeping information private when they set privacy settings. But, they said, they used it anyway because they had to: all of their friends were on it.

With these survey results in mind, the FTC settlement that not only requires Facebook to be more consistent and truthful about privacy, but requires a third party review of their practices, may actually lead subscribers to trust Facebook more. A good sign for a company about to go public.

Article first published as Original Research - Most Facebook Subscribers Don't Trust Facebook on Technorati.

Journalists Silenced in Mexico

Weekly Mexican News publication Riodoce, based in Culiacan in Sinaloa State, is reporting that their web site has been taken down by a denial of service attack. Riodoce received an email from their hosting provider, Dreamhost, saying that the Riodoce site had been taken down from the web due to a distributed denial of service attack. Dreamhost apparently called it a large attack that was threatening the sites of other customers.

On November 22 one of Riodoce's founders was awarded the Committee to Protect Journalists 2011 International Press Freedom Award. The publication's executives believe the attack is a result of their reporting on the activities of the drug cartel in their area. Many press outlets have been shut down as a result of the drug violence, and some have self-censored in the face of threats and violence, such as 35 bodies being dumped on a main highway during rush hour. In some cases, citizens have turned to Twitter in order to stay informed of attacks or threatened violence in their area. In 2009, Riodoce had a grenade thrown through their office window.

A distributed denial of service (ddos) attack is essentially a large volume of requests targeted at a single web server with the intent of overwhelming that server and making it impossible for non-hostile traffic to gain access to the site. Typically a ddos attack occurs when a hostile actor hires a botnet - a large network of computers that have been infected by malware and viruses that are waiting for their "master" to tell them what to do. This botnet is then told to target a particular web server, and thousands of requests for web pages are continually sent to that server. A ddos is very difficult to defend against.

Article first published as Journalists Silenced in Mexico on Technorati.

What the Facebook Settlement with the FTC Means for Privacy

Facebook has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they have engaged in deceptive practices. Some of the accusations made by the FTC include; sharing information with third parties when it told users it wouldn't, allowing access to content after users had deleted that content, and making changes to privacy policies and privacy protection settings that made information public that was supposed to be private.  The FTC press release offers more detail.

While the terms of the settlement may seem severe at first, Facebook has already taken steps to address most of these issues. In addition, Facebook has been preparing for upcoming changes to EU privacy laws and an upcoming IPO. The real impact of this settlement for Facebook subscribers will most likely be better communication about changes to policy and privacy settings, and most likely a more confusing set of agreements about how personal information is shared with third parties, since most subscribers have no idea what information about them is actually shared.

The real implications of this settlement are for other social networking services and startups. The U.S. has essentially established a set of privacy ground rules that social networking services need to follow. While the ground rules are still pretty vague, they are a good start. The settlement terms from the FTC press release are:

1. Barred from making misrepresentations about the privacy or security of consumers' personal information; 
2. Required to obtain consumers' affirmative express consent before enacting changes that override their privacy preferences; 
3. Required to prevent anyone from accessing a user's material more than 30 days after the user has deleted his or her account; 
4. Required to establish and maintain a comprehensive privacy program designed to address privacy risks associated with the development and management of new and existing products and services, and to protect the privacy and confidentiality of consumers' information; and 
5. Required, within 180 days, and every two years after that for the next 20 years, to obtain independent, third-party audits certifying that it has a privacy program in place that meets or exceeds the requirements of the FTC order, and to ensure that the privacy of consumers' information is protected.

Article first published as What the Facebook Settlement with the FTC Means for Privacy on Technorati.

Morning Coffee - Privacy and Tech News

Stories about privacy, new technology and the social implications of computing gathered from around the web:

ISPs
Verizon to add 26 channels to XBox live for FIOS customers

Social Media

The apologies of Zuckerberg, a trip down memory lane of privacy changes and his reaction

Path 2 allows you to "easily share your path through life"

Path - Introducing Path 2 from Path on Vimeo.

Great internal conversation on the FTC settlement with Facebook - Zuckerberg finds it ironic that FTC wants you to "like" them

A good article on social media and the Arab Spring

Privacy/Surveillance

Researcher discovers secret tracking software on Android phones:

Higher Education
New course management software takes on Blackboard

Policy
Mozilla increases fight against SOPA, PIPA

Did WIkileaks Harm National Security?

The Army private accused of handing over sensitive government documents to Wikileaks may be mounting a defense that the exposed documents did not harm national security. Bradley Manning's attorney, David E. Coombs, submitted a court filing last week asking for a damage assessment from the Pentagon and State Department.

Manning is facing more over twenty different charges including aiding the enemy, multiple counts of theft of public records, transmitting defense information, computer fraud, and violating the Espionage Act. Prosecutors have said they will not pursue the death penalty but life in prison.

Coomb's defense strategy is in part to claim that the records made available by Manning were already mostly part of the public record and have done no measurable harm to national security or United States foreign policy interests.

Manning's  Article 32 hearing is set to take place on December 16, which will determine whether the case is referred to court-martial.

 Image from: http://ohinternet.com/Wikileaks

Article first published as Did WIkileaks Harm National Security? on Technorati.

New Jersey DMV Workers Charged With Identity Theft

Two New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicle employees were charged by prosecutors (pdf) with identity theft in Mercer County, New Jersey. The two were caught selling personal information including names, addresses, birthdays, and social security numbers of Mercer County Residents. 

Sherilyn Rivera and Johnny Semon will face 5  years without parole and up to ten years in state prison if convicted. The investigation also led to the arrest of Lee Daniel Roberts, a tax preparer in Trenton, and Abdulah Sumo, an employee of a real estate company, both for trying to sell identities they had available to them through their work.

While digital identity theft, such as the Sony Playstation Network hack,  is on the rise, old fashioned theft such as stealing personal information from your trash and grabbing your wallet, purse, or laptop are still the most common methods of identity theft.

While you can't protect yourself from your identity being stolen by DMV workers, you can take the steps recommended by the FTC to deter, detect, and defend yourself against identity theft.

Article first published as New Jersey DMV Workers Charged With Identity Theft on Technorati.

U.S. May Have Shut Down Over 130 Pirate Sites

Last year during Cyber Monday, the U.S. Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized 82 domains suspected of the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit and copyright protected goods. A list of 131 domains has recently been published, but no official word from ICE has been released.

According to a press release from last year's action, the seized sites were first investigated by an undercover agent that attempted to purchase illegal or copyright protected material from the site. If the undercover sting was successful, the domain name of the site was added to a list of offenders. The investigation was called "Operation in Our Sites".

This list of domain names was then seized prior to cyber Monday in order to protect the intellectual property and copyrights of creators, as well as to protect consumers from fraud on one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. When a customer attempts to visit a site that has been seized, they see a banner that informs them that the domain name has been seized by federal authorities.

The legal authority of ICE to conduct these seizures has not been publicly clarified and is being widely questioned since domain seizure is one part of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which has proven extremely controversial. 

Article first published as U.S. May Have Shut Down Over 130 Pirate Sites on Technorati.

11/29 - Morning Coffee - Privacy and Tech News

Stories about privacy, new technology and the social implications of computing gathered from around the web:

Gadgets
Rumor - Iphone 4 to have 4 inch display

Social Media

Facebook under scrutiny in the EU again. Here is a good story about what's new from GigaOm, and this one from read/write web adds value and is worth the read.

Facebook and Twitter continue to grow as identity management services.

Explicit vs Implicit social graphs - understanding how social media and search engine optimization are changing

Facebook IPO projected for April

Privacy/Surveillance

Wikileaks lawyer seeks damage assessment from U.S. Government - was the leaked data harmful to national security?

TSA accused of profiling in Hawaii and New Jersey.

NJ DMV workers caught selling identities for $200 each.

Australian ISP's to crack down on piracy

Good points about Blue Coat enterprise monitoring and Syria. How can Blue Coat be surprised their systems were deployed when enterprise systems require updates and support?

Some Historical Background on SOPA

When considering any legislation, politicians need to take into account the needs and desires of their constituents, the value of the policy to the public good, and the timing of the policy. Sometimes good ideas don't get passed because the public isn't ready or interested at that particular time, and sometimes poor legislation is passed because "the time is right" - the public is ready for our elected officials to do something about a problem or event.

I thought it would be interesting to pull together some of the events over the past year that might have made it seem like the time had come to pass the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Did I miss anything? Leave a comment and let me know.

Morning Coffee - Privacy and Tech News

Stories about privacy, new technology and the social implications of computing gathered from around the web:

Gadgets/Hardware

Does maintenance increase downtime? Coupled with poor documentation and human error, yes.

Tiny robots developed to study swarming behavior

Hacking
How not to get an IT job - hack the employers system and threaten extortion

4 people in Philippines accused of hacking U.S. AT&T accounts and diverting funds to terrorists.


Higher Education
Mississippi state auditor questions laptop purchase that didn't go out to bid

China canceling unprofitable college majors

Software

System can recognize Human emotion:

I'm tougher than you are because I work at a startup.

Social Media

Venture capitalist uses the term "social proof" rather than "testimonial" to describe marketing - interesting for vocab reasons.

Privacy/Surveillance
Good post about protecting "your" data

Palantir would like to aggregate government databases to fight terrorism

A future vision of airport security - cloned sniffer dogs, thermal lie detectors

Policy
Feds supposedly seize 130 domain names, why do we need SOPA?

Illinois Water Pump: Cyber Attack or Mechanical Problem?

A Russian hacker breaks into a water plant in Illinois, taking control of the facility remotely and turning the engines on and off, eventually burning them out and disabling the plant. Sounds like a scene from an action film, and according to the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, it is fiction.

The Department of Homeland Security Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team - ICS-CERT - has released a statement asserting that the alleged attack never happened.

The FBI and ICS-CERT have collaboratively analyzed "all available data" and  determined that there is no evidence the failure at the water plant was due to a cyber attack. The original analysis by the Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center claimed that the attack was made possible by first compromising login credentials and that the software vendor may have been involved. The FBI and ICS-Cert report says there is no evidence to support these claims.

The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software that controls the pump does not have the ability to log access to the system, so direct evidence of access isn't available.

Article first published as Illinois Water Pump: Cyber Attack or Mechanical Problem? on Technorati.

Senator to Delay Nominations Until FCC Releases Documents

Senator Charles E. Grassley (R - IOWA), ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he will place a hold on two of President Obama's FCC nominations to the five member board until he receives more information on the FCC's decision to allow LightSquared to test it's cellular network without a vote by the committee.

The FCC has released documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Grassley and others claim these documents only include information that was already publicly available, and that internal correspondence and records of deliberation are still being withheld.


"Whether it’s posting a bunch of old-news documents the day before Thanksgiving, or telling 99.6 percent of elected members Congress that the agency doesn’t have to be responsive to oversight, this is an agency with a very serious transparency problem."

LightSquared has had a history of controversy. The company has built a wireless broadband network using satellites, creating competition for the large wired service providers. The technical problem is LightSquared uses frequency close to that used by GPS signals, creating interference for existing military and civilian GPS services. LightSquared has been working with GPS providers to resolve these issues.

The political problem is the FCC approved a special request for LightSquared to proceed with testing without the FCC board voting on the decision.


Article first published as Senator to Delay Nominations Until FCC Releases Documents on Technorati.

Shopper Surveillance: The Mall is Tracking You

During the upcoming holiday season, two U.S. malls will track the unique identifiers of shoppers cell phones in order to track the movement of shoppers. The Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond Virginia will use a UK company called Footpath Technology to track shoppers movements.

The company claims that there are no privacy implications because no personal data is collected; the name and phone number of each individual is not collected or tracked back in the companies records, only the unique identifier of the phone is collected and stored. The company uses each phones unique identifier to track the movement of individuals through the mall, and then aggregates and analyzes those data to show the movement of shoppers within a few feet.

Using antennas placed throughout the mall, the surveillance technology can tell which products people paused to look at, and shop owners can then go back and determine how well these products sold.

The malls in question are at least notifying shoppers (using small, printed signs) but there doesn't appear to be an opt-out mechanism.

The claim that there is no threat to privacy is absurd.Tracking the unique identifier of my phone as I walk into the Gap makes it simple to connect my purchase to that identifier at that particular time. In addition, asking a customer to "like" your company on Facebook in exchange for a discount would also break this thin veil of anonymity.

Article first published as Shopper Surveillance: The Mall is Tracking You on Technorati.

Morning Coffee - Technology and Privacy News

Stories about privacy, new technology and the social implications of computing gathered from around the web:

Hacking

Federal officials find no evidence of hacking in Illinois water plant

Privacy/Surveillance

Malls track shoppers on Black Friday

Infrastructure

FCC warned about Lightsquared, approved test without vote

FCC Moves to Block AT&T Merger

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has taken a first step in blocking the $39 Billion merger between AT&T and T-Mobile on Tuesday. Genachowski called for an administrative hearing to review the terms of the merger.

The call for review came after FCC staff reported that the deal would harm consumers, create an unprecedented concentration of power in the industry, and would ultimately reduce jobs and increase prices. The move by the FCC to block the merger is in addition to the Justice Department federal antitrust lawsuit that was filed in August.

The FCC gets to weigh in on the merger because combining the two companies; the second and fourth largest wireless phone companies in the U.S., would require a transfer of licenses to use public airwaves for cell and wireless Internet service.

Article first published as FCC Moves to Block AT&T Merger on Technorati.

Software Review: Summify

Have you seen the Tweets that include statements like "Just got my summary"? Some of these have been automatically generated by software called Summify. I signed up to check it out and so far have found it really useful. I sort through around 100 emails a day and thousands of Tweets, keeping an eye out for news related to new technology, privacy, and social networking. Summify is a helpful tool to have in the tool box.

Here's how it works. Summify uses "crowd-sourcing" to determine the most interesting stories in your related social networks. You start by logging granting Summify access to your Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ (sharing anything is a privacy risk, allowing access to multiple accounts makes me itch). The software then crawls your different connections, looking at the public postings, likes, retweets etc. of your connections. These various "news" stories are then dropped through an algorithm to determine which are the most popular. A pretty nice looking and easy to read summary is created: http://summify.com/NewTechObserver/2011/11/23/1/

Summify can automatically tweet your summary to your followers, and you can make your summary private.

Overall, this is a great tool for aggregating interesting articles and creating a single, attractive crowd-sourced collection of articles.

I have heard people refer to "the wisdom of the crowds" in the context of news before, and here is where we need to be careful. Crowd-sourcing will tell us what is interesting, but not what is important. An example from today is the FCC move to block the AT&T T-Mobile merger. This is an incremental piece of news, but probably the most important thing that is being reported on in the last 8 hours. It didn't show up in my summary because it really is pretty boring to most people.

Who cares about the merger? Everyone should, but most people don't. They just want to know when it goes through if it will effect them. The wisdom of the crowd refers to statistical accuracy - if you ask enough people, you will most likely get the right answer in the aggregate - not to determining importance. If we relied on crowd-sourcing to determine what is important, we would find cat videos, sneezing panda's and Charlie at the top of the list.

Morning Coffee - Technology and Privacy News

Stories about privacy, new technology and the social implications of computing gathered from around the web:

Gadgets

Lenovo working on 5 inch tablet

Hacking

Software

Android leads mobile impressions

Social Media

Google News adds social recommendations to search results

The effect of social media: The Pepper Spray Cop

Facebook introduces sponsored stories

Degrees of separation - 4.74 not 6

Privacy/Surveillance

Carrier IQ has issued a cease and desist to a privacy researcher reverse engineering their surveillance software

South Africa passes a secrecy bill, Mandela and others don't like it

Policy
Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) opposition goes viral

FCC moves to block AT&T T-Mobile deal

Wyden Vows to Filibuster Piracy Bill

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Or) says he will stand on the floor as long as it takes to block the passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. Senator Wyden says he will read the names of each individual that opposes the bill.

SOPA is the Senate counterpart to the Protect Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA. Both bills are aimed at creating a new infrastructure, tools, and incentives to protect copyright holders from illegal sharing of their content. The current system of copyright protection requires the copyright holder to submit a "notice and takedown" to the accused violator and offers the Internet Service Provider protection from liability if they cooperate with the notice and takedown process. This process was defined in the 1998 bill the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA.

The current proposals would require Internet Service Providers, advertising agencies, payment support companies (like paypal), and search providers to block a site that has been accused of copyright infringement, what is currently known as a denial of service attack. The infringing site would not show up in search results, would not be advertised or receive ad revenue, would not be able to receive payments and would not be accessible by either domain name (www.something.com) or IP address.

The bill is currently supported by 40 Senators on both sides of the aisle, so it is very likely to be considered and has a strong chance of passing. A vote on the bill has not been scheduled, but Wyden has told organizers to be ready for a vote by next week.

Article first published as Wyden Vows to Filibuster Piracy Bill on Technorati.

Hacker Compromises South Houston Water and Sewage System

A hacker claims to have infiltrated a South Houston supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. The system automates the controls for the water treatment plant in Harris County, Texas.

The hacker goes by the name of "pr0f" and claims that he is trying to expose flaws in the U.S. national infrastructure, and our ability to respond to these types of threats. Apparently the SCADA system was exposed to the Internet and protected by a three-letter password, making it relatively easy to gain access.

In a post on Pastebin, Pr0f included screen shots of privileged access to the software and claims not to have made any changes. A similar attack occurred in Illinois on November 8, and after investigating the incident, a DHS spokesman said "At this time there is no credible corroborated data that indicates a risk to critical infrastructure entities or a threat to public safety,"

Hackers scan the Internet for systems that present a certain "footprint" like SCADA systems, and then try to compromise those systems by looking for weaknesses in the software or the configuration and management of that software. 

Former CIA director Michael Hayden has called for a separate, secure Internet to protect national infrastructure.

Image courtesy: ttp://www.tech2date.com 

Article first published as Hacker Compromises South Houston Water and Sewage System on Technorati.

EU Bans X-Ray Scanners at Airports

The European Union has decided to ban the airport body scanners that use x-ray technology to detect hidden weapons and contraband, according to a recent news report. The EU has established standards that will allow for the use of other body scanning equipment, as long as that equipment does not store images of the scans. These regulations will help protect both physical health and privacy.

TSA head John Pistole agreed earlier in November to a request by Susan Collins (R- Maine) to conduct another independent investigation of the safety of the x-ray scanners. Pistole has decided to forgo the independent investigation, citing the results of a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report. The TSA has a blog post on the safety of the scanner technology they use.

As part of the blog post, the TSA cites an news report that says  drinking 3 glasses of water a day for a year exposes you to five times more radiation than an airport scanner, but ignores this letter from researchers urging President Obama to conduct and independent investigation.

What is lost in this discussion is whether the current mix of airport security screening is necessary and effective.

Image courtesy of: http://blog.amal.net/?p=2425

Article first published as EU Bans X-Ray Scanners at Airports on Technorati.

Morning Coffee - Privacy and Tech News

Stories about privacy, new technology and the social implications of computing gathered from around the web:

Gadgets
Google drops the price of the Chromebook to $299

Toyota lets passengers ride in self-driving Prius

Hacking
AT&T stops "organized" hack attempt

Hacker attacks south Texas water infrastructure by cracking 3 character password

Public Library offers fabrication lab space

Software
Bill Gates takes the stand in monopoly case

Google launches app for Ipad with Siri - like feature

Domino's let's you make a pizza on the Ipad and order it in real life

Social Media
Half of Facebook users post political messages

Google+ new feature - mutual circle chat

The effect of YouTube - UC Davis Chancellor apologizes

Privacy/Surveillance
EU bans x-ray scanners at airports for health reasons

Afghanistan shares biometric data with U.S.

Policy
Wyden pledges filibuster for SOPA

UAV lands on moving truck (video)

Secret Surveillance Catalog Leaked

The Wall Street Journal has published a catalog of surveillance tools available to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The catalog was gathered from attendees of a "secret" surveillance conference near Washington D.C.

The documents are organized by the Journal into 5 categories: Hacking, Intercept, Data Analysis, Web Scraping, and Anonymity. The Hacking section, for example, has marketing material from a company called VUPEN that promises to give law enforcement agencies that contract with them the ability to use previously undiscovered software vulnerabilities to hack into a suspect's computer system. 

In the Analysis section, a company called SS8 networks offers social network analysis tools that help create visualizations of connections between people, and not just using social networking data. Email, blogs, and web site information can all be used to generate a visual map of connections between people.
While the companies listed in the documents aren't "secret" companies - most have public web sites - a collection of vendor materials all in one place makes for an interesting overview of potential surveillance capabilities of law enforcement agencies.


Article first published as Secret Surveillance Catalog Leaked on Technorati.

Surveillance Scope Creep: What Do We Do With All of the Informaiton?

Cameras placed throughout the District of Columbia are collecting 1,800 images of license plates per minute, according to the Washington Post. These license plate images are downloaded to a database where they can be used to track the movement of anyone in the city.

The cameras are owned by different agencies, so the data retention policies vary from one to three years, making it possible for your location to be pinpointed anywhere you drive in the city for up to three years.

While this is an incredibly useful tool for law enforcement, serious privacy concerns are raised when we start storing data on the movement of thousands of citizens without their knowledge or consent, and without consistent policies and standards regarding the retention, access rights, use, protection, and sharing of these data.

Captain Kevin Reardon of the Arlington County Police is quoted as saying "One of the big questions is, what do we do with the information?"


Article first published as Surveillance Scope Creep: What About All of the Information? on Technorati.

Guest Blog Post: Social Media Marketing Overview

This post was originally published by Accelerated Freelance -   http://www.acceleratedfreelance.com/blog/
Accelerated Freelance is a team of freelancers, and weekend warriors who are passionate about website and software development, print design, and Internet marketing.

Overview of Social Media Marketing 

With so many options and new services popping up every day, social media can be confusing for a small business or not for profit organization that can’t afford to hire it’s own in-house marketing firm. This guest post will serve as an overview of the different social media pieces and how they fit together; a quick ramp-up for the busy professional or entrepreneur who quickly wants to get up to speed to ask the right questions or hire the right experts, like the folks at Accelerated Freelance.

The Pieces

A complete online marketing strategy may have many different pieces, or channels, that you will have to maintain. The most important first step is choosing the channels that will best reach your audience, and making sure you are actively engaging customers through those channels.

This is important: it is better to simply have a message directing customers to another channel than to have a poorly maintained one.

Channels can include the company web site, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, and a blog. I’ll briefly discuss each below.

Web Sites Are Still King

I came to web development in the late 90’s when all you needed was Notepad, a little html knowledge and a lot of persistence. Add a few keywords and shared links, and you were pretty well assured to build traffic to your site. Your company’s web site was not only your front door online, it was the only door.

Web development has changed significantly and the growth of social media has dramatically changed the number of ways potential customers can find you. Now you not only have a front door, but many side doors, and customers aren’t always polite enough to use what you consider the front door!

Despite these changes, a well-designed web site is still considered your most important asset. This is where customers will ultimately go to find reliable information about your products. Without a web site, most potential customers won’t believe you are operating a legitimate business. All of your other channels should point back to your web site, and your web site should list all of the channels you have chosen to maintain. The web site is the hub of your marketing efforts.

Facebook

There are many different social networking sites and depending on your industry, you may want to look for a more specialized niche site than Facebook. With 800 million active users, Facebook is hard to ignore. Creating a Facebook page requires you to first create a Facebook profile for yourself. You can’t create a page without that page being tied to an individual’s profile. The steps to create a page are pretty simple and can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/help/pages

Linked-In

Linked-In is a professional social networking site. This service has fewer subscribers than Facebook, but people interact with a business focused mindset on Linked-In. You will find mostly mature professionals that are looking for business connections and to find help and answers to business problems. Companies also use Linked-In to advertise jobs and recruit new employees. Creating a Linked-In company page starts here: http://www.linkedin.com/company/add/show

Twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging site used mostly by the 25 and older crowd. You will find all kinds of information shared here, but it is particularly useful for breaking news and quick answers to simple problems; like finding a resource on the web or a software tool to achieve a specific goal. Creating a Twitter profile is relatively easy; go to www.twitter.com, submit your email address and username and you are ready to start tweeting!

Google

There are other search engines, but Google has the majority of search and advertising traffic. Optimizing your site so a search engine can find your information can get pretty complex. The simple and most important things to keep in mind; constant updates to your site, descriptive page titles, keywords and section titles will raise your ranking. There is a whole science and industry built around search engine optimization, but Google offers some getting started advice.

Blog

Writing a professional blog is one way to keep your content fresh. The blog can be hosted by a free service like blogger or wordpress.com, or you can ask your webmaster to host the site on your own servers. Blogging is an inexpensive way to reach your customers by offering valuable information that is relevant to your field. The important thing here, which is true for all of these channels, is to stay with it!

Putting the Pieces Together

Hopefully the brief description above is enough to get you started asking questions on your journey down the social marketing path. The important points I want to emphasize:

1.     You don’t need to use all of the channels, but once you pick one, stick with it!

2.     Social marketing is about building relationships through excellent customer service and expert advice. Giving away information that visitors find helpful will eventually turn them from visitors to customers.

3.     Overt advertising is considered spam. Start using social media by listening. Don’t send out a bunch of press releases and advertisements. Listen and try to help your customers, see how other people are using these channels and figure out how your company should be portrayed. No matter how long your company has been around, you are building a reputation for the first time on each new channel.

4.     Each channel is different. There are tools that will allow you to send your Facebook updates to Twitter, for example. This is obnoxious and will annoy people, don’t do it.

Hopefully you find this information helpful. Please leave a comment and let us know what you think or whether I left anything out!