Happy #Tweetsgiving: The Power of Online Networking

Send out a tweet about all that you are thankful for this year and at the same time join an online celebration of gratitude. In November 2008, Epic Change launched an innovative new campaign to raise money to build classrooms in a school in Tanzania: The event raised $11,000 in 48 hours!

This  year, through the use of social networking sites and Thanksgiving events sponsored throughout the world, they hope to raise ten times that amount. Anyone who doubt the power of social media should speak to “Mama Lucy” Kamptoni, who founded the Shepherds Junior School that now serves over 300 children near her home in Arusha, Tanzania. The 2009 fundraising strategy includes interactive discussion and videos between donators and the school children. At TwitterKids you can connect with the very kids whose lives are impacted by the money collected or view their story on YouTube, then continue to watch the viral promotion as people share the information with their network connections on Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, reddit and Digg .

First, I urge you to give to the wonderful cause. Then, take a moment to analyze this campaign and use it as a guide on how to effectively use social media networking tools to successfully market your company against bigger-budgeted competitors.

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Just Announced: New partnership between LinkedIn and Twitter

A collaboration between LinkedIn and Twitter was just launched on Tuesday and what a great new update!

You can now get more “bang for your buck” from your LinkedIn account: It’s simple! When you post a new status on LinkedIn you can set it up so it will automatically go to Twitter. In addition, send a tweet to LinkedIn, either automatically or by choosing specific tweets to share.

LinkedIn is a great opportunity to build your brand online and now you can increase your readership by spreading the message to your Followers on Twitter!

How to connect LinkedIn and Twitter

To join the two accounts all you need to do is to go to your LinkedIn Home Page, underneath the Network Updates Box (Status) you will see the Twitter logo.

Click on the Twitter logo and it will prompt you through the setup process. First, you need to specify your Twitter account name and if you want it posted on your LinkedIn profile; check yes or no. 

Last, you are asked to decide whether you want all your tweets to automatically go to LinkedIn or only the ones that you have chosen. If you pick the latter, you will need to add the hashtag “#in” to your tweet and it will then post back to your LinkedIn status.

With so much information-sharing on Twitter and LinkedIn you will be able to reap the benefits of sharing both online worlds in your social network discussions.

Check out the LinkedIn blog at http://blog.linkedin.com/ for other up-to-date news.

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Is Your Facebook Page Private?

Is your private Facebook page safe from employers or recruiters viewing it? Did you know that there are ways for the public to view your page without you accepting a Friend Request?

It’s probably not as secure as you would think! When a Facebook user posts personal information, photo’s and videos on their profile page they expect that that this information would be kept private. Technically, employers and recruiters aren’t allow to use the private information on your site to monitor your behavior. Facebook’s privacy policy even warns that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable

So how can people get into your site without your permission? One way that I discovered was through my network. No, not my friends, my network. A network is often posted on the profile page as a college or high school that you attend, an employer or even region. When I first joined Facebook a few years ago I was nervous about posting private information online so I set my network to read ‘Boston’ instead of my home town of ‘Topsfield’. Unbeknownst to me, I just opened up my ‘private’ profile to anyone who put their network as Boston . . . 1,200 PEOPLE! Why did my page open to these people? Whoever you have entered in as your network can view portions of your site if they enter the same network, whether or not you have accepted their Friend Request. Also, many of Facebook’s Limited Access settings default to ‘Everyone’. That doesn’t just include your Friends, but your Network as well.

Many of you are new to Facebook and probably have unprotected accounts. I have posted step-by-step directions on my blog at http://blog.myriadmarketing.net on how to set your Limited Access account settings on Facebook.

It’s a good policy to remember that if you post something on the internet that is intended for only a few close friends, it might not be as private as you would like.

I will be posting short bi-monthly Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter tips on how to use these sites. Subscribe now if you would like to be kept up-to-date on the latest in social networking!

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