Jeffrey Cox, recently fired for comments on Twitter, is further proof that social media has real consequences. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Jeffrey Cox, formerly a deputy attorney general for the state of Indiana, was recently fired for comments he made on social media sites. He said on Twitter that pro-union protesters in Wisconsin should be cleared from the capital with “live ammunition,” and the comment was relayed to his bosses. This is only the latest piece of evidence show that irresponsible use of social media can ruin a career.

Lawyer loses job with three malicious words

Recently, a controversy began on the social media site Twitter. The popular news opinion site Mother Jones was Tweeting updates concerning the ongoing union protests in Wisconsin. When Mother Jones tweeted that Wisconsin police might be used to corral unruly protesters, another user replied “use live ammunition.” The user further tried to justify his comment, saying use of force by police cannot be called “murder” because law enforcement officers have the right to use force, according to Mother Jones. The website did some digging and discovered Jeffrey Cox was the author of the comments. The entries on Twitter and his now-defunct personal blog were passed on to his superiors — thus ended his 10-year career as a lawyer.

Many before Cox have made that mistake

There are numerous tales of people losing their jobs because of gaffes on social media sites. In the case of a Twitter user who came to be called “Cisco Fatty,” a tweet destroyed the user’s chance at a job before she even took it. Cisco Fatty wrote “Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against … hating the work.” Cisco, being the computer savvy company it is, found out about it, discovered the person’s identity and promptly rescinded the job offer.

Deep web

Companies can find out a lot of information about potential and current employees, and it is remarkably easy to do. Using a website like Pipl.com or a program that searches the “deep web,” or the information that traditional search engines don’t always include in results, a company can see a person’s profile on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook or Myspace, any blogging activity and even voting history. Corporations and governments have an image to maintain, and employees are tied to those entities. What people do in their free time can certainly affect the company when it’s known who someone works for.

Sources

Mother Jones

Twitter and Facebook firings on Huffington Post

Pipl

The government of Egypt has sent the Army to enforce a strict curfew and clamp down on protests. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

The government of Egypt has sent the army to enforce a curfew to quell protests. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is due to address the protests amid calls for him to resign. Mohamed Elbaradei, his chief political opponent, is said to have been placed on house arrest.

Protests in Egypt prompt army to enforce curfew

The government of Egypt has sent army personnel into major cities to enforce a strict curfew in an effort to curb political unrest, according to CNN. Over the past few weeks, the nation of Egypt has been paralyzed by massive political protests and popular unrest. Army units have been sent into Cairo, Alexandria and Suez in order to enforce a 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew. Protesters have clashed with police and Egyptian security forces for days over stagnant economic conditions and encroachments on civil liberties. The government has seized cameras and video equipment and closed the offices of Al Jazeera, the largest news network in the Middle East. The Egyptian government has also cut all internet access, notably blocking any access to social networking sites.

Hosni Mubarak to address the nation

Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt, is due to address the nation to deal with the protests. Many are calling for him to leave, though it isn’t known if he will willingly resign and leave, as the president did in the recent government shakeup in Tunisia. Mubarak has been president of Egypt since 1981, and he was democratically re-elected in 2005. As of Friday, Jan. 28, protests and demonstrations have been declared illegal, according to the Christian Science Monitor. A presidential election is scheduled in September, which some believe will be a a rigged re-election of Mubarak or installation of his son Gamal Mubarak into power.

Chief political rival arrested

One of the greatest political rivals to Hosni Mubarak is Nobel Laureate Mohamed Elbaradei. Elbaradei, aka Baradei, is the leader of the opposition party, and went to Cairo to take part in the protests. Elbaradei was seized by authorities and has been reportedly placed under house arrest for the time being. Elbaradei has said that he would lead or assist any transition government if asked by the people to do so.

Sources

CNN

Christian Science Monitor

Facebook Places location-based networking lets users broadcast their location in real time to mobile advertisers and people they may or may not know. ThinkStock photo.

Facebook Places introduces location-based networking to the world’s biggest online social networking site. Using Facebook Places on a GPS-enabled smartphone, users can let their friends know where they are and see friends who are nearby. Facebook Places also lets users tag friends who are with them. Places also suggests other locations nearby the user may be interested in. Broadcasting a user’s location has created another layer in the Facebook privacy issues debate. Facebook Places gives businesses a powerful tool for mobile advertising and search. It could also be used by burglars and other criminals to identify targets. Personal information is vulnerable by default, but Places can be disabled in Facebook privacy settings.

Facebook Places: a tool for  mobile advertising

Facebook Places imitates innovations created by location-based networks like Foursquare and Gowalla, which allow users to “check in” at places and broadcast their location to friends. Michael Sharon, product manager for Places, told the New York Times that Places was meant to get the 500 million Facebook users to increase their usage of the social networking service. The Times pointed out that helping Facebook tap local and small-business advertisers to gain a competitive advantage over Google is the more likely objective for Places. Analysts say both companies covet the potential market for mobile advertising and search. For corporations, seeing when and where people check in offers a way to gather lucrative data on personal identities and behavior.

Facebook Places privacy issues

Broadcasting the location of Facebook users and their friends at any given moment with Places for the benefit of mobile advertising comes off as creepy to Sam Diaz at ZDNet. Diaz writes that given the ability of guests at a party at his home turning his address into a public “place” on Facebook, his only recourse is to flag his address to have it removed. He also questions the idea of being tagged by friends at their locations. However, permission to be tagged by friends can be allowed or denied in Facebook privacy settings. And Diaz said he couldn’t help but wonder how long it takes for Facebook Places to be used for a “who’s not home” app for burglars.

How to disable Facebook Places

For Facebook users who prefer to keep their location private, or stop their friends from posting it, Lifehacker provides instructions. Disabling Facebook Places requires logging in and changing the Facebook privacy settings. Facebook Places default settings allow locations where a user checks in to be seen by friends. The default also lets people know a user is at a particular location via the location’s Facebook page or in a search for people near the location. The Facebook privacy setting default also lets a user’s friends check them into places and share that location with people the user may or may not know.

Get your errands done quickly and easily using a (human) TaskRabbit. Image: Flickr/wwarby

TaskRabbit is a new online service that calls itself  “service networking.” Anyone who needs help with a task can match up with someone who has some extra time. By combining user ratings and reviews, TaskRabbit proves to be safer and more reliable than other, similar services online.

The idea of TaskRabbit

The basic idea of TaskRabbit is simple: there are things that people need help with. Be it watering window boxes, picking up dog food or running dry cleaning, everyone has something. Most people can’t afford a personal assistant to do their running around, but TaskRabbit helps them find help. Anyone with a task posts the details and how much they’re willing to pay, and someone in their area can agree to help out. It ends up being a win-win.

Making money with TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is attractive not only because people can get things done, but because you can make extra money. The system of TaskRabbit allows for runners to make counteroffers or bids for the tasks. The “service networking” system helps anyone with a few extra minutes turn it into cash. There are a few major considerations to keep in mind when accepting a task. First, what the cost of the task might be. Second, how much time the task might take. Finally, consider what your hourly rate is going to be and if amount offered is enough for what you’re worth. Remember that you will have to pay self-employment taxes if you make more than $600 in a year.

TaskRabbit in your town

Currently, TaskRabbit is only available in Boston and SanFransisco. There are plans for TaskRabbit to expand, but it will take time for the service to add extra cities. If you’re in one of the many areas where there is no TaskRabbit, then you can still make extra money with the concept. You can check out the “gigs” section of Craigslist, first. You can also get a business license and hire yourself out as a “personal assistant” by the hour.

How would you feel about one search engine combining all of your social networks? Image from Flickr.

Spokeo.com claims to do something very simple: aggregate all the publicly available information about a person and sell it to anyone who is willing to pay with payday loans or otherwise. Many are asking if it’s a Spokeo.com scam, or if Spokeo really does offer a legitimate service. The answer is … sort of. “Spokeo.com is a scam” isn’t entirely true, but the functionality of Spokeo isn’t necessarily entirely legitimate.

What Spokeo.com offers

Spokeo.com itself is a search engine that aggregates social networking information. Any information considered public on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ning, Netflix, Flickr, Last.fm or any other network is aggregated using the Spokeo.com search. The aggregator matches the information it gathers with an e-mail address. Spokeo.com then sells the information it aggregates to anybody who gets payday loans no faxing or any other financing to pay for the information.

Spokeo.com scam?

There have been many allegations that Spokeo.com Scam might be a better name for the company. Spokeo.com itself states in its privacy policy that it only gathers publicly available information. Independent tests by snopes.com and news services have found that the opt-out process on Spokeo.com is spotty. Spokeo.com scam whistle-blowers also claim that Spokeo.com scam billing processes are of concern.

The response of Spokeo.com to scam allegations is that company heads are “just launching a new version of Spokeo and are reviewing policies and algorithms.”

Keeping social networking information safe from Spokeo

The spookiest thing about Spokeo.com, scam or not, is that it aggregates information on the internet you may or may not want shared. More important than which web sites like Spokeo.com might be aggregating your information is what you choose to share. If available, set your privacy settings to a level you are comfortable with.

Spokeo.com is an aggregator – so be sure to remove information you do not want public from the original web site where the information was available. Beyond protecting yourself from the potential Spokeo.com scam, it is just good practice in protecting yourself online.

Sources

Snopes.com
Pandia Search Engine News
Spokio.com blog

Last week, more users typed www.facebook.com into their browser than www.google.com. Image from Flickr.

Last week, Facebook took a crown that Google has long held as its own: the most visited web site for the week. As reported by web traffic ranking service Hitwise on March 15, Facebook accounted for 7.07 percent of United States web traffic in the week ending March 13, while Google accounted for 7.03 percent. It may seem like a very minor difference, but in the battle of the web giants, the Google/Facebook rivalry has implications bigger than guaranteed payday loans.

How Facebook is catching up to Google

As reported on CNN.com, the most surprising thing about the report from Hitwise wasn’t necessarily that Facebook overtook Google’s visit statistics. It was, instead, that Facebook can claim 185 percent growth in traffic in just the past year, while Google’s growth is pegged at 9 percent. This explosion in growth shows that more and more people are treating Facebook as a web destination – and the growth in games, applications and tools on Facebook helps account for this expansion of market share.

How Facebook and Google differ

Of course, when looking at these numbers, it is important to consider the basic differences between Google and Facebook. Facebook is very much the “social destination” — the place you go on the web to chat with friends, play games, and generally hang out. Google, on the other hand, is more like a jumping-off point. Users don’t tend to hang out on Google.com. Instead, they use it as a portal to find exactly what they are looking for.

While both web sites make a large portion of their operating cash from advertising, the basic business model and offerings of the web sites are, at their base, different. This is not to say there is not crossover. Google’s recent launch of Google Buzz brings the search giant into the social-sharing sphere, though Facebook has yet to offer anything that directly competes with Google’s search offerings.

How the Google/Facebook numbers were calculated

As the New York Daily News points out, the Hitwise numbers that put Facebook as the most-visited site in the United States do not include “visits to other Google websites, such as Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps.” What this means is that the numbers only indicate the number of times users typed www.facebook.com and www.google.com into their browsers.

It does not account for anybody typing search strings such as “military personal loans” into the Google search boxes available in web browsers, on outside web sites, in Google toolbars or on their mobile phones. It also does not account for many of Google’s more popular web properties, such as the fifth-most visited site in that same week, YouTube. Taken in combination, Google and its properties most certainly still have significantly more traffic and daily users than Faceboook.

What this means for both Google and Facebook

Basic differences in offerings and statistics calculation aside, the fact that Facebook surpassed Google in number of visitors last week does still fire a shot across the bow of Google. Because both web sites are advertising-supported, both web sites are essentially competing for the same number of dollars, just in more places. Google, a relatively new startup itself (though ancient in web terms), has always considered the possibility of “the next startup” dethroning it. Facebook does definitely have the user base to be able to give Google a run for its money.

At the same time, Facebook is focused on the social networks and groups that individuals form for themselves, while Google is more focused on providing search and services for individuals. The difference in their business models mean that both Google and Facebook will continue to draw in hundreds of millions of page views – the real question is where will advertisers decide to spend their money? Only time will tell.

(Image from cote, Flickr.com)

In part one of this series, readers learned that Twitter can be useful in creating additional income streams or just useful for fast cash in emergency situations. As we journey further into the opportunities for making money on Twitter, we’ll show you how to use it to save money in order to pay down debt or how it can be used to raise funds for charitable efforts.

The following ideas round out our series for making fast cash on Twitter:

Search for Deals

It is likely that you’ve fallen into debt because you’ve been paying too much for items that you use every day. Therefore, it is time to tighten your belt and start searching for deals on these items, instead. Make a list of the products that you regularly use and then go in search of their manufacturers on Twitter. Follow them to receive regular updates on sales and coupons being offered on many of these same items.

Also, follow coupon sites that offer a variety of different coupons or sites like Woot or SlickDeals, which offer or advertise a wide selection of deals on different items every day. While deal mining won’t put fast cash directly into your pockets, it will save you money that can be applied to your existing debt.

Solicit Donations

If you are raising money to benefit a charitable cause or if you are just in a tight bind and in need of a little fast cash till payday, ask your Twitter followers if they can share a few bucks to help you out. While this isn’t something you’d do every day, most people don’t mind contributing a dollar or two to charity or directly to your PayPal account when you need emergency cash. If fifty of your kindest followers are able to share two bucks, you’ve made $100 for your charitable efforts or to help you get out of a crunch. Chances are you’ll need more space than the 140 characters Twitter allows per tweet to explain your situation, which is where sites like ChipIn come in handy. By setting up an event there, you can explain your need and give your followers an opportunity to chip in. You may even want to offer an incentive, such as a service in exchange for donations. For example, if you are adept at making Twitter backgrounds or setting up WordPress blogs, offer your followers a special gift of one of these for the money that they donate.

Stay Home and Tweet

Twitter and other social networking sites are free to use and can introduce you to people all over the world. So instead of going out and spending money on admission, food, drinks, gas and other expenses, why not stay home and socialize online instead? Sure, it’s not face to face interaction, but it’s also not costing you an arm and a leg to participate. When trying to get out of debt, your focus has to be on saving money, so if you’re a social butterfly but fluttering from event to event in the real world is keeping you in debt, learn to tweet, instead.

While these tips on making money with Twitter won’t make you rich, each one of them can help you climb out of debt if you apply them properly. When you are in need of fast cash, it helps to think outside of the proverbial box and try things that you ordinarily wouldn’t. Bear in mind that, although Twitter does represent a money making opportunity, the key to success in any social networking activity is to personally engage those who are taking the time to follow you. Do not bombard people with advertising or financial requests simply because you have a need for fast cash. Instead, take the time to interact and build strong relationships and then, if you find yourself in need of emergency cash or swimming in debt, you are in a position to use these, and other, creative ways of turning your tweets into cash.

Looking for fast cash?  Apply HERE!

(Image via keiya, Flickr.com

Just a few years ago, twitter was something people did with their thumbs when bored. Today, it still involves using your fingers, but engaging in Twitter connects you to a world of people with similar interests. For those in debt or who are involved in a charitable effort and frantically searching for ways of making fast cash, why not consider the opportunities literally at your fingertips via social networking?

The following are a few possible ways of making fast cash on Twitter:

Promote a Business or Service

This one is obvious, but if you haven’t tried it yet, it’s time to start. Everyone from your neighborhood Avon lady to Bill Gates is using Twitter to promote their business. People engage in social networking with others based on their common interests. Now, we all know that, in business, what you’re selling first to the public is yourself. So, since you’ve already been successful in selling yourself, making friends and building a following, why not take the next step in inviting your online networks to do business with you?

Sell Your Stuff

Look around your house and consider that any gently used items you’re not using anymore can be sold to someone else. When you find yourself in debt and in need of fast cash, think of Twitter as your own personal garage sale site and offer these useful wares to your followers.

Get Paid to Tweet

A lot of business owners would like to advertise on Twitter, but don’t have the time to engage in social networking. Therefore, smart entrepreneurs have taken to paying others, who are savvy at social networking, to tweet about their special sales, discounts, new products, special events, etc. Rates for this service may vary according to the amount of people following you or if you have to establish a separate account and build a following for each particular client, but the payoff can be big if you work hard at it. While having one client pay for this service may not produce enough fast cash to get you out of debt, if you extend this service to multiple clients, you just may be able to get the cash you need while building a new business niche.

Sponsored Tweets

It is rumored that Kim Kardashian charges up to $10,000 for sponsored tweets running in her timeline. Now, while you probably don’t have the following that Ms. Kardashian does and, therefore, cannot charge nearly what she and other celebrities do for sponsored tweets, you can still benefit from sponsored tweets. Internet companies, like Ad.ly exist for the sole purpose of connecting you with businesses willing to pay you for the opportunity to advertise to your followers.

In part two of How to Make Money on Twitter, you will learn more on how to use social networking to make fast cash, but you’ll also learn how to use sites like Twitter to save money when you need to tighten your budget or raise money for charity. Individuals who are serious about making fast cash on the Internet to get out of debt can do so with these tips and other creative social networking ideas that are applied with serious effort.

For Fast Cash, apply HERE!

"Whut? U poked her instead of going out wit me?"

I’m a statistic. You may be a statistic, too. But I didn’t get ‘faced and mess around on Facebook during my marriage in order to become one. If I had, I would have needed a whole lot more than a cash advance to fix that kind of trouble.

Despite the seeming stupidity of it all, the London Telegraph claims that 1 in 5 divorces refers to Facebook. I cringe, and not just because of the horrific grammar in that linked phrase that I use to ensnare you, random Google surfer. I cringe because people use social media like Facebook and Twitter without thinking. Even Tiger Woods didn’t air his escapades for the entire World Wide Web to see.

Poke, Poke, Cheat, Cheat

Twenty percent of divorces are prompted by Facebook indiscretions? That’s a staggering number, but Mark Keenan of Divorce-Online tells the Telegraph that “I had heard from my staff that there were a lot of people saying they had found out things about their partners on Facebook and I decided to see how prevalent it was I was really surprised to see 20 percent of all the petitions containing references to Facebook.” Inappropriate sexual conversations with inappropriate people are big factor in divorces and other marital strife. E-mails, scrawling your libido on a Facebook wall or flashing the hot to trot via a mobile Facebook app are all signs that people have a lot to learn about being decent people. Remember, it’s quite easy for wronged lovers to track that kind of stuff.

But Everyone Deserves Physical Fulfillment

Yes, they do. But when you’re in a relationship, you’ve made a commitment to that person. That deserves more than what one 35-year-old woman got from her husband. Apparently, she discovered he was going to divorce her by combing his Facebook communications. Privacy and trust issues aside, show some class! A partner deserves face-to-face communication. No text message breakups, no phone calls, no E-mails, no Facebook posts. You make the commitment to be intimate with that person in the first place; show them the basic human courtesy of discussing it with them face-to-face before you shoot it off for the rest of the world to see.

Relationship Status: Too Stupid For a Relationship

Yes, 1 in 5 divorces refers to Facebook (to repeat the grammatically painful keyword). Many more relationships end because the couple is unwilling or unable to communicate in a respectful, healthy manner. But if your admission amounts to changing your Facebook relationship status, you are without question too stupid to be in a relationship.

What about full-on role play in the virtual world? Second Life and MMORPG venues have that covered, even though Linden Labs or any other game company would certainly say they do not condone such behavior. And I’d believe them. I find Second Life to be a neat idea for harmless fun, so long as that Second Life doesn’t become your first life. Yet having a virtual affair is not harmless fun. I know of at least one married former co-worker who played another game (a Final Fantasy MMORPG, I think) and had what amounted to an online affair with another player. Sadly, there are countless examples of such behavior going on in cyberspace, each and every day. Not only do these people often convince themselves that they need a cash advance to fund their gaming habit, but they have the gall to justify what they do as harmless fun.

Be Smart, Be Respectful

If your relationship is important to you and your partner (yes, you should honor your partner, all things being equal), work on your problems. If the differences are irreconcilable, talk about an exit strategy together. At least then you’re making the effort to show your former loved one respect and aren’t adding to the rubbish heap of statistics that includes such concepts as “1 in 5 divorces refers to Facebook.”

Related Video:

Whether you are creating a brand new, home-based business or recreating it to make a fresh start or help with debt relief, there is always a lot of work to do. You need to do market research to see how your product or service will be received by the public.

There are a number of ways to do this, including telephone surveys or paper surveys. However, these tactics are becoming somewhat outdated, and they are time consuming considering the amount of response that is received. Taking this to the internet is a better idea.

Beginner’s Websites

Just putting a business online is a little more difficult than fixing an already existing one, especially if you don’t know how to create a web site. You can obtain free web site templates through WordPress from sites like TheBuckmaker.com, or you can purchase them and receive backup support included with the cost.

These come with instructions and tutorials to help. Web sites such as 4CreatingaWebsite.com supply you with all the information you need to create your web site, or you can hire inexpensive help from freelancer web sites such as eLance.com.

Business Blogs

If your business is based online, you already have a web site, but creating a blog to go along with it will drive more traffic to your site. Using search engine optimization to do this targets the specific market you want to draw to your site and blog. If you create fresh content for your blog every week that uses appropriate keywords with tags and titles, you can improve the traffic flow to your blog and potentially to your site.

Using Social Networking

If your business is based on the internet or you have just created a web site for your home based business, social network forums are a great tool. The most common ones right now are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. All of these huge social networks create connections between people.

For a company, it is an opportunity to reach millions of people. To give you an example of how widely these are used, there are 14 million visitors to Twitter per month, and only half are actually registered users. By the end of this year, the number of registered users is expected to rise to 12 million.

Article Submissions

To direct more traffic to your site or blog, you can submit articles to directories. That way, people who have searched under a certain topic and have found these pieces will see them. The articles must be interesting and unique to keep the reader’s interest and entice them to visit your web site. You must be careful in the directories that you choose to submit articles to.

When you peruse the internet, you will find companies that promise 12,000 submissions, but not all of these will actually render you any benefit. There is more advantage to submitting articles to 500 directories that have thousands of visitors, then 12,000 directories that only have 100 viewers. You can find the very top article directories at FridayTrafficReport.com. To find information concerning determining the best directories, you can visit WebmasterWorld.com.

Link Directories

Link directories are sites where you can post your link, and people who are searching for related items can find it. The same rule applies to these as goes for the article directories. It is important to choose the right ones and to place your link in the right category.

For example, if you are opening a business selling souvenirs, then you can pick your link directory and post your link under gifts. There could be a number of categories to post your link so use your best judgment. The site, StrongestLinks.com has a list of directories that can help the search for the best link directories.

Links and Backlinks

These are created in a number of ways. There are three-way, two-way, and one-way links. The best of these is the one-way or the backlink. This means that a person has placed your link on their site and is recommending your site.

These are created by all of the above categories, and it is a way to dramatically increase the number of visitors to your site. It is also a good idea to have links on your site that lead to professional business or information web sites. This will add credibility to your service and reputation.

Growth in Internet Business Sales

If you can utilize these tools effectively, you will see your home-based business profits increase tremendously. Moving a business to the internet is now the norm. In 2005, there were almost 14 million small businesses online. Since then, these businesses have seen an average of 15 percent increase of sales per year. This means that in the last four years, that home-based business saw a 60 percent increase in sales.

Making Your Dream

Not all businesses have seen this and not all will, but it is certainly more than possible if marketing tools are used correctly. There are millions more businesses on the internet, and they are all trying to get a piece of that profit. It takes excellent marketing strategies to do this, but these tools will help.