How Twitter Got A $1 Billion Valuation
September 30, 2009 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
How Twitter Got A $1 Billion Valuation:
80% of Twitter Users Are MeFormers
September 30, 2009 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
80% of Twitter Users Are MeFormers – According to a recent analysis of the content and characteristics of social media activity by Professors Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase of Rutgers University.
The remaining 20 percent are informers who share information, have larger social networks and are more interactive with their followers.
Social awareness streams like Twitter and Facebook are mostly populated by a new category of Internet users known as “meformers”: a term coined by Rutgers researchers. Meformers are “people who use the platform to post updates on their everyday activities, social lives, feelings, thoughts, and emotions.” Read more
4 Tools To Protect Your Tweets
September 27, 2009 by Stephen S Alison · 1 Comment
4 Tools To Protect Your Tweets – With the US federal government calling for accuracy on Twitter, CNN broadcast a segment this morning on building a more “trustworthy Twitter”: ways to use web tools to avoid untrustworthy links and spammy Twitter users.
The following 4 websites were featured:
- Powertwitter.me
- Tweetblocker.com
- Tweetgrade.com
- Twitter.com/spam
PowerTwitter – a browser add-on that expands short URLs so you know what you’re about to click on. The features are now available as a Firefox Add-On, a greasemonkey script, and for Safari as a GreaseKit script. They will soon have an open web version.
Tweetblocker – a Twitter spam-fighting site that lets you enter a username and see if that person is a spammer. Previously covered by TweetTweet in our article Block Twitter Spammers.
TweetGrade – A handy tool that lets you enter a Twitter username and see how worthwhile it would be to follow that person: it’s particularly useful if you receive a message that the person is following you and want to know if you should follow them back.
Twitter.com/spam – is the official mechanism for reporting spammers to the Twitter personnel. You just send a direct message to this account to let them know you’ve spotted a spammer.
Tweeting Misleading Applications
September 26, 2009 by Stephen S Alison · 4 Comments
Tweeting Misleading Applications – In our recent blog post entitled Protect Your Privacy on Twitter we asked the question What’s Behind That Tiny URL?.
We went on to state that “Another threat that has emerged as a result of social networking is the tiny-URL attack. Unfortunately, attackers can easily exploit a shortened URL to lure users into accessing malicious Web sites.”
Now as reported by the San Francisco Biz Journals, a recent article by Symantec Corp warns that “Shortened web addresses that are the backbone of microblogging service Twitter Inc. could end up being used by malware authors to infect computers.” It offered examples with a YouTube video, which is a demonstration of misleading applications that are being spread through malicious Twitter accounts:
The company said that in addition to its own security software, some browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer allow users to check the full URL of a link before clicking on it.
“While this won’t tell you for sure if the link is malicious, it will at least allow you to look more carefully before clicking.”
You can click on Tweeting Misleading Applications to read the full article…
Windows 7 Freebies For Twitter Fans
September 25, 2009 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
Windows 7 Freebies For Twitter Fans – Microsoft is continuing its social media campaign to promote Windows 7.
Microsoft Windows is the most widely used operating system for desktop and laptop computers. It provides a graphical user interface and desktop environment in which applications are displayed in resizable, movable windows on screen.
Windows comes in both client and server versions, all of which support networking, the difference being that the server versions are designed to be dedicated.
Twitter users who search for the #WinWin7 tag can win pizzas, candy, gaming keyboards and other “somewhat goofy” prizes, a spokesman said. Read more
Protect Your Privacy on Twitter
September 25, 2009 by Stephen S Alison · 1 Comment
Protect Your Privacy on Twitter – Just read an interesting article on PCWorld which identifies some of the key dangers of social networking.
The article offers a few practical and easy steps that you can take to stay safe online and safeguard your identity and your personal data in the age of the social Web.
For your ready reference, I have summarised the tips to Protect Your Privacy on Twitter: Read more
Marketing Small Businesses With Twitter
September 24, 2009 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
Marketing Small Businesses With Twitter – I have just read an interesting article in the Search Engine Journal (SEJ) entitled “Why Your Company Needs Social Media”.
The article states that “case studies abound of how big brands…have put social media into action and the success that they’ve had with it” and poses the question “Can small businesses be just as successful using social media?”
The answer is a resounding “Absolutely! With the current state of the global economy, social media networks are even more critical to companies, especially small businesses. And there are many advantages of using social media during the sales process for customer service, sales prospecting and customer retention for small businesses.”
Sales Prospecting – Each time that you engage a potential customer on one of the social media networks such as Twitter, you’re exposing your small business to thousands of other possible connections through the friends and or followers of the person you engage.
Customer Service And Retention – It’s even more crucial how these new customers perceive you and your brand. Failing to meet their expectations can actually damage your brand. That’s where social media comes into play. From monitoring your online reputation to engaging with your customers to attracting potential customers, social media can assist you in helping meet your customers’ expectations.
You can click on Marketing Small Businesses With Twitter to read the full article on SearchEngineJournal.
Phishing Scam Steals Twitter Passwords
September 24, 2009 by Stephen S Alison · 5 Comments
Phishing Scam Steals Twitter Passwords – A phishing scam is circulating on Twitter that aims to steal users’ log-in credentials and then forward scam messages to all their friends in the hope of tricking them too.
Phishing, in computer security terminology, is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames and passwords.
The Twitter phishing activity was reported earlier Wednesday on the Mashable blog, which says it received “multiple reports that a new, convincing, and dangerous worm and phishing scam is making the rounds on Twitter. Hacked accounts are sending DMs to users and stealing their login information”.
Unsuspecting users are receiving DMs with the text shown in the graphic above. If you get this DM, YOU ARE ADVISED NOT TO VISIT THE LINK.
This is not the first worm to hit Twitter, but this one is especially dangerous because the login page is convincing and it is spreading via DMs from friends you trust.
Scammers Auto-generate Twitter Accounts to Spread Scareware
September 23, 2009 by Stephen S Alison · 4 Comments
Scammers Auto-generate Twitter Accounts to Spread Scareware – As reported in Computerworld “Scammers are increasingly using machine-generated Twitter accounts to post messages about trendy topics, and tempt users into clicking on a link that leads to servers hosting fake Windows antivirus software, security researchers said Monday”.
The latest Twitter attacks originated with malicious accounts cranked out by software, said experts at both F-Secure and Sophos.
The accounts, which use variable account and user names, supposedly represent U.S. Twitter users.
Some of the tweets exploit Twitter’s current “Trending Topics,” the constantly-changing top 10 list of popular tweet keywords that the micro-blogging service posts on its home page. Others are repeats of real tweets.
All the tweets include links to sites that try to dupe users into downloading and installing bogus security software, often called “scareware” because they fool users with sham infection warnings, then provide endless pop-ups until people pay $40 to $50 to buy the useless program.
You can click on Scammers Auto-generate Twitter Accounts to Spread Scareware to read the entire Computerworld article…
Making Money Using Twitter
September 22, 2009 by Stephen S Alison · 1 Comment
Making Money Using Twitter This is the 6th article in our mini-series entitled Making Money Using Twitter.
In a previous Making Money Using Twitter blog post we stated that “the best kept Twitter secret is that to start Making Money on Twitter, you have to get people AWAY from Twitter, and on to your optin-list!”
In the same article we also stated that “the 2nd principal step in Making Money Using Twitter is to Get your Followers to Click on Your Links.”
So how do you get your Followers to Click on Your Links and On To Your Optin-list? Read more
