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Who tweets for you? You’d be surprised!

Are you the only person who can tweet on your twitter account?  The answer is probably “no”.

As I checked Twitter this morning, I found a number of tweets from a friend that related to Miracle Berry product. Amazing Weight Loss products have nothing to do with her business.  I sent her the following:

Hi, xxxxx.
 
There are a couple of posts from you on twitter that point to sites that are inconsistent with your normal tweeting pattern.
 
Please login to Twitter ASAP to see if these are yours. If not, you can delete the tweets and change your twitter password.  Also, go to your Twitter account settings and see which applications have authority to post tweets through your account. Disable any that you don’t recognize or don’t currently use.  Link is https://twitter.com/settings/applications
Well, that’s probably good advice for me, too. I checked my applications page and found that over the last year or so, I’ve given over 25 applications and services the right to post tweets on my behalf.  In that fine print we all ignore when clicking on the “login with Twitter” button on various web sites, we often grant applications and web sites the right to post items to our twitter feed. It’s a good idea to take a few minutes now, review the list, and revoke permissions for those you’re not currently using or don’t recognize.
 
How did my friend’s account get compromised? We’ll probably never know.  It could be a rogue application or a non-SSL login on an open WiFi access point. It could also be a password she uses on multiple websites and services, where one was either hacked or was a designed as a password collector.
 
The key takeways are to keep an eye on your tweets, change your password from time to time, never re-use a password, and review the applications allowed to post on your behalf.
 
To whom have you given the keys to your Twitter and Facebook feeds?
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Social Media for Non-Profits

Do non-profit organizations need to use social media?  Of course they do.  This presentation covers the basics of any social media strategy and an overview of how to present a non-profit brand and message via social media.

The basics are:

  • Develop a communications plan
  • Set goals
  • Execute
  • Evaluate

[slideshare id=10096788&doc=socialmediafornonprofits-111109185255-phpapp02]

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Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader via Social Media

Social media tools offer you the opportunity to establish yourself as a "thought leader", a person recognized as either an expert in or guide to a particular field. Thought leadership is a tool to help you become recognized in a job search, position yourself for a promotion, or to promote your projects and plans.

 

[slideshare id=9191105&doc=establishyourselfasathoughleaderthroughsocialmedia-110909065833-phpapp02]

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Facebook Duality: My Profile and My Page

I’m splitting myself in two on Facebook. My profile page is “me”, to share and be shared with my friends. Stuff related to technology, social media, and in general things that might play better in the world of work, will be on my page, “Steven D. Stern” and on twitter @sds52. Please pop over to my page at http://on.fb.me/sdstern and “like” it.

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Blogging on Facebook?

In the process of learning how to create and maintain Facebook pages, I've set up my own at http://on.fb.me/sdstern.   I learn best by doing.  Unlike my personal Facebook page, this is intended to be a publicly available site that helps establish me as a "thought leader" in technology using social media tools. 

What is a blogger to do?  I'm currently blogging on my Drupal platform, demonstrating blogging on WordPress, and now I have a Facebook page.  In the short term, I'm going to continue auto-posting all content here to Twitter and install the Drupal for Facebook module to push content from Drupal onto my Facebook page.  Longer term, I need a solution that lets me post on any of the platforms and update the others. 

Suggestions are welcome.

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Tech talk from Roger McNamee

Roger McNamee, founding partner of Elevation Partners and major investor in Palm, talks about how technology is changing the economy.  Roger makes a lot of money guessing right about technology. Click here to view the presentation

Some  points

  • Disintermediation allows anyone to become an independent operator.
  • The future is on the mobile network
  • Windows is a dead end, social networks are the new medium (although Twitter really doesn’t understand what they have)
  • Redefine success in terms of wha tyou can monetize,
  • Big doesn’t work
  • Aesthetics matter
  • Stay out of the way of giants and do what they can’t do
  • Smartphones are a disruptive technology — at the cost of PCs
  • If you’re going after companies, give them ways to get rid of people
  • If you’re going after consumers, give them ways to be happier or have more time
  • Social networking is giving value to get value
  • You better have a plan!  The idea that web 2.0 tech shouldn’t be planned is wrong.
  • 1/3 of the people in California are on Facebook — it’s where the small guys should advertise
  • Too many people have one morality at home and another at work.
  • A jobless recovery is not a recovery