TweetA colleague is working on a couple of corporate Facebook fan pages. She suggested we add the company’s Twitter feed to the fan pages so the tweets would show there. I replied that I didn’t think it was a good idea.
Many people would opine it’s not a good idea to do this because of duplicate content concerns. I disagree with this argument. I believe there are many on Facebook who don’t do Twitter. There are probably some on Twitter who don’t do Facebook, too. There is also the possibility that if someone were on both services, they may not follow you on one or the other. So, I think it’s OK to post the same content in both places.
My reason for not wanting to post on Facebook via the Twitter application is illustrated in the image below:
These are identically worded links on Facebook to the same blog post. The bottom one was entered first on Twitter and fed to Facebook via the Twitter application. The top one is the exact same text (I copied and pasted) but entered via Facebook’s web interface.
Notice the difference The one entered on Facebook’s web site has a nice thumbnail, the title of the post in bold along with the name of the blog and a short excerpt from the first lines of the post. It’s very nice and catches the eye much better then the link on the bottom.
If you enter your link through Tweetdeck (or similar socmed app) the Facebook link will also appear like the bottom one in the example.
Think about it
Your Facebook fans may have updates from hundreds of friends and other fan pages. If you can do something to make your link stand out, why not do it? Even if you post the exact same text by copying and pasting as I did in the examples above, the effort brings a much better result.
What do you think?
Is it OK to port your tweets to your Facebook page? Why or why not?
TweetLast week I wrote about the Dave Ramsey EntreLeadership Seminar I attended. I mentioned at the end of the post that I was going to make a goal to list some books to read and read them before the end of the year. I thought I would share the list.
I may have already read one or two of these, but I can’t remember for sure. I guess if I can’t remember reading them, it’s probably a good idea to read them again.
You may very well be wondering what all of this leadership development talk has to do with web marketing and such. The answer is quite simple: If you’re going to be working on teams, you may very well be looked to or even appointed as the lead for the group. Development outside IT or Marketing subjects is important in such cases. Even if you’re not the appointed head of the group, knowing about leadership and business will help you be a better technician or marketer.
TweetMy wife and I attended Dave Ramey’s EntreLeadership 1-Day seminar in Dallas on March 11th. This is an intensive series of lessons which is a highly condensed version of his 5-day intensive EntreLeadership Master Series.
EntreLeadership was born out of Dave’s need to develop leaders within his organization. His team was at a point where it was expanding and bringing on new people. Skilled leaders were needed to bring these new team members into the fold and help them succeed. He asked for volunteers to stay after work for an hour a couple times a week. During that time he went over leadership principals and shared vision with those who volunteered.
One day, someone in the group asked if a relative could join in. Later someone else, seeing the value in what Dave was teaching, asked if their pastor could sit in on the sessions. Soon there were more non-employees than employees in attendance. It didn’t take long to figure out there was a genuine need for the information he was putting out.
This leadership training grew into a 3-day seminar in Nashville and eventually evolved into the Master Series held a couple times a year.
The information presented is also the way Dave runs his business; one he grew from a small thing rnn on a card table in his living room to a multi-million dollar enterprise. He’s bound to have learned something along the way.
The 1-day seminar was divided up into seven chapters:
EntreLeadership Defined in which he defines what an EntreLeader is. It is a combination of “entrepreneur” and “leader”
Dreams, Visions, & Goal Setting going over the importance of having dreams, setting visions and putting goals down on paper
Time Management & Organization
Financial Peace for the EntreLeader – Did you think there would be a Dave Ramsey class that didn’t cover this?
Team Math – Adding & Subtracting in which he goes over his own hiring process, which is very detailed and involved, but is also very successful in getting the right people in the right place
Delegation – A very important and often neglected subject
Making The Call which explains the importance of being decisive.
It was a little over 5-and-a-half hours of great instruction, information and humorous stories. Much of what Dave taught one can learned from other teachers such as Stephen Covey, Zig Ziglar, John Maxwell and others. In fact, much of what was presented I had learned in leadership schools I attended in the military. The part that made it more valuable was Dave sharing his heart, his successful experiences and some huge failures as well. Experience is the best teacher, and, like I tell my kids: It’s easier to learn from others’ mistakes than from your own.
Whether you work in the corporate environment or you own your own business I believe you would benefit greatly from this training. The things you will learn and the inspiration you will get is well worth the relatively small cost and taking a day or two off to invest in yourself.
Random Quotes
Some of these may be Dave quoting someone else. If I miss a proper attribution I apologize in advance. These are from notes I jotted down because they struck a chord in me:
In your business: “You are the problem. You are also the solution.”
“Employees come in late, leave early and steal while they’re there. Team members work towards a common goal to win.”
“Take chances. Do the right thing even when no one else sees it.” (A classic definition of integrity)
Regarding setting goals: “Be careful what you write down.” You never know what might come true.
“‘What is the goal of this organization?’ If the team members cannot answer this question, communication and unity are not happening.”
My First Change
One change I’m going to make immediately is to unplug our cable television and cut off the service. We watch way too much T.V. in our home and thus waste a lot of time. I plan to use the time to read more and write more often here and in my other two blogs.
Dave, like many other business leaders, highly recommends reading. When I was younger I was a voracious reader, but got out of the practice when I married and started having children. I’m going to pick up the habit again in earnest. As one of my first written goals, I’m going to make a list of books I want to read by the end of the year. Less time spent watching T.V. will go a long way to help me reach this goal.
If you’re interested in attending Dave’s EntreLeadership training, you can get more information on his web site: EntreLeadership.
TweetThe main reason I hang out in the social media space is because you never know who you’re going to meet and what kind of things you can get involved with. I’ve met some great people I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. I’ve also gotten to participate in some interesting events I might not have ever learned of without being on Twitter or Facebook. My recent opportunity to speak about social media security was a direct result of my participation on Twitter and relationships I’ve made there. Without being in the space and participating in conversations, I doubt this would have happened.
You never know what opportunities will come your way. Whether you’re in it for your business or for personal reasons, social networking participation can broaden your horizons without the need to leave your desk:
Need a focus group? No problem. If you hang out on Twitter or Facebook you can probably get some folks to help you with a question, a web site review, or whatever. Just remember to return the favor or pay it forward to someone else.
Need a better way to connect with friends, family or customers?
They’re already on Facebook, and probably on Twitter. Go out there and meet them. You might find they have some interesting ideas.
Looking for New Ideas?
I can’t count how many interesting ideas and new ways of thinking about things I’ve gotten from the people I follow on Twitter.
There’s gold in them thar hills
You just have to participate to dig it up.
TweetI recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by a local television station’s news department about the recent spate of worms going around on Twitter. You can view the piece on YouTube. I wish there had been more time to cover the subject in more detail, but when there are only 2 minutes available in which to condense down and show 20 minutes worth of interview, some things are bound to be left out.
Because we talked about phishing scams in general as well as security on Twitter and Facebook, I thought I’d go over some details which I wish there had been more time to cover in the piece.
There Is Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself
Caution in your web dealings is always good practice and a little paranoia can be a good thing. But, I don’t think there is a need to be fearful of using Twitter and Facebook. These, and other social media web sites, can be very valuable and enriching tools to help you keep in touch with friends and family members and even meet new people you may never had an opportunity to meet otherwise.
Circles Of Trust
I use different social media sites in different ways and each site has its own trust level. For instance, on Facebook I only “friend” people I know or who are close friends of people I trust. I haven’t necessarily met everyone IRL (in real life), but I have some kind of ongoing relationship with them. My Facebook privacy is set to show my updates to only friends. This way, I can be a bit more free about how much personal information I post there.
On Twitter I will follow just about anyone and allow just about anyone to follow me from my mom to selected celebrities. I closely follow those whom I think will point me towards interesting and enlightening things to read, who will tweet things I find humorous, and whom I find otherwise interesting. I am very careful not to tweet too much personal information because I know Twitter is not nearly as private as Facebook.
I have also been playing with Foursquare lately. Because this service can offer clues as to when I’m home or not and where I am, I do not have each “checkin” ported to Twitter, but I do to Facebook. Again, I have more trust in those whom I friend on Facebook as opposed to the very public Twitter. In my short time on Foursquare I have been very choosy who I will allow to follow my status.
The Latest Twitter Worm
Problems on Twitter and Facebook tend to be more along the lines of phishing scams rather than a virus or malware infestation. In the case which prompted the interview for the TV spot, one would see a message in their Twitter Direct Message list, purportedly from someone they follow. Included in the message is a link which when clicked led to a very convincing, but bogus, login page inviting the visitor to provide their Twitter user name and password.
When the bogus login page was used, the user’s name and password was captured by the web site and used by a program to log into the unsuspecting person’s Twitter account and start sending messages to try to trick others into clicking the link and giving their Twitter user names and passwords to the phishers. It’s amazingly simple, but clever. And it works – even against those who are rather social media savvy.
Protecting Yourself
I mentioned in the interview that you should be cautious about login pages which come from emails, tweets or Facebook wall postings. If you are asked to log in, check the URL in the address bar very closely. For instance, the login for Twitter is at www.twitter.com/login. So, if you see something like http://twitter.anyotherdomain.com you can know immediately this is a phishing site.
To better protect yourself, take the time to go to the login pages for your email, Twitter, Facebook, your bank, etc. Pay attention to the URL in the address bar as well as how the page looks.The URL in the address bar is much more difficult to fake than the look of the login page. Being familiar with the addresses will also help you avoid other phishing attacks which are more sophisticated and more difficult to detect.
Keep in mind, too, your bank is most likely not going to email you if there is a problem with your account and ask you for your user name and password. Neither is Western Union, eBay, PayPal, the FBI, the IRS nor any other government agency. If you get a message from your bank, or anyone else, with a link supposedly leading to a login page, don’t click on the link but instead type the address into your address bar – or (even better) click on the link in your web browser’s favorites list or booksmarks which you created earlier. That way, you can avoid the phishing site and know you are going to a legitimate site.
If you do receive an odd message which looks like it’s from someone you know, don’t be afraid to email the person and ask about it. It could be they actually did send the message. Go with your gut feeling: if it looks strange and out of place it probably is. It doesn’t hurt to ask. If the message didn’t come from them, they might appreciate knowing their account had been been compromised.
Be cautious of third party applications developed for services like Twitter and Facebook. There have been instances where people have set up malicious applications disguised to look like a game or a useful tool to help you get more out of the site. Check out third party applications before you provide your user names and passwords to them.
User Names And Passwords
I did a piece last year about passwords which you can check out here: “Four Steps To Better Passwords.” In it, I advise people not to use the same password on every web site. This is especially important if you use the same user name on every site. Think about it in light of this situation: if you used the same user name and password for Twitter as your other services it would be very easy for someone to completely take over your online life. Think about having your email, social media, PayPal and/or eBay accounts taken over by someone else. It’s worth repeating: Use a different password on each web site which requires a password. You can use the pattern method I describe in the post linked to above or come up with your own system.
I even go so far as to have a different user name for my online banking account. I love the convenience of online banking, but I feel that convenience needs to be balanced against some healthy caution when it comes to keeping things secure.
Social Media Tip for Those With Teens
A friend of mine who has a teenage daughter vets those her daughter friends on Facebook very carefully. Before her daughter is allowed to friend someone on Facebook, she is required to explain how she knows the person and confirm the person is really who they say they are. I believe with teens this is a very prudent way to help prevent perverts from taking advantage of kids.
What Do You Think?
Do you have any hints to share about security on social media sites? Please tell us about it in the comments.
