Conversation seems to be the major Buzz word of the day..hour…make that year I guess.  Get engaged and add value and you will be showered with leads and profits. Apparently anyway.

It all makes for more genuine relationships online , and if thats all it brings to the table then its worth it.  Have a gander at this handy Linkedin Tips video to see what I’m talking about:

Joining a Linkedin group Conversation is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

Creating something original doesn’t necessarily mean you need a massive budget or some new (and expensive) technology.

Usually it takes a little creative thinking, out side the box, and of course a video camera.  Coca Cola have done a great job in getting some excellent branding views with this viral video currently doing the rounds on Youtube.

Having set up a coke dispensing machine in a cafeteria they filmed the reactions of students in a kind of Big Brother, unscripted, and very natural way and it worked a treat.  Having a body of people interact with their product and end up smiling from ear to ear, only to have the situation expanded into the surreal, further increasing the engagement with the brand and the positive feel good feeling makes for incredibly effective viral video marketing.

Have a watch and enjoy.  All it takes is one good idea to be effective.

Happy Machine from Coke – Making viral video easy is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

So you use Google all day everyday and you might even use Google Chrome, their browser they launched last year ( if you don’t, don’t panic its not essential) and if your moving in tech circles you might even have heard whispers about Chrome OS, Googles operating system for your computer. Again, if you haven’t, don’t panic, its not essential!

Most of us will have fallen into the second category and right now are sitting wondering what this Chrome OS thing is and what I’m on about, well, instead of making it even more complicated, why not watch this handy video to see what I mean and all will be revealed.

Googles Chrome Operating System explained is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

Having caught a tweet this morning from @millerian regarding a change in the Linkedin Public Profile URL I checked out the post he linked to on Search Engine Chocolate and began my usually 10 minutes of head scratching and wondering what the hell was going on.

It seems that the public URL structure we have become accustomed to on linkedin has incorporated a Geo-location type attribute in the link structure and I couldn’t quite figure out why they made this change from a usability perspective and because, as Joanna Butler explains it actually makes the process of connecting and networking on a global front a little more confusing and limited especially when you consider that not everyone is confined to the area they live in when it comes to doing business.

Take my very own situation as an example. I’m from Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and I live in Spain. I network and work with people from all over the world and of course locally, but according to this new definition of the public profile URL I will end up with a profile that includes the ES (España) geo tag included in my public profile to encourage the use of local search in search engines, potentially limiting me from appearing in searchings on another local… go figure.

This means that the “claimed” public profile URL I have:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/justinparks will become http://es.linkedin.com/in/justinparks in the future, because I am residing in Spain. Joanna rightly points out the issues of duplicate content per profile and canonical URL issues regarding SEO but most importantly the need to rebuild your profiles authority on a local and international level may be the greatest issue.

Regarding the reasoning behind it, again as Joanna points out I can only guess that they have done this to allow more people, with the same names, to have more specific public profile URLS. Some food for thought I guess.

Linkedin makes a change to Geo specific public profile URLS is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

I read a post today on Tech Radar that implied that twitter, facebook and social media in general was costing the British economy £1.38bn a year in lost revenue and income.  Quite honestly this made me laugh, especially after I read the first comment on the post which summed the “survey” up nicely in my mind. If your interested in reading the article, go right ahead: Twitter ‘costs Britain £1.38bn’ Stop wasting time Tweeting, beg British employers

Centred on the UK alone and having surveyed only 1460 office workers about their use of social media and Philip Wicks, who conducted the survey thinks that the figure is actually higher than the official published results.

“When someone is asked for their own use they say around 40 minutes a week, but when asked about their colleagues they say they say up to an hour a day. We have used the lower of those figures rather than the high point,” said Wicks.

“It is the sort of thing people constantly use which means that it’s not quite the same as doing a crossword, where you spend half an hour on it and it is finished.

“When it comes to an office environment the use of these sites is clearly becoming a productivity black hole. Social networking can be a cause for good when it is used professionally but I think organisations need to wake up – that is not the way it is always being used.”

As I mentioned, the first comment on the article summed things up quite nicely:

Bollocks- that assumes that people would be doing something productive if they weren’t using Tiwtter. Did the survey take into account the money saved by people being online for longer. Utter self-serving tosh

Delving deeper into the original article from the Telegraph.co.uk, more balanced options refelcting this comment came to light in the form of David Clubb, managing director of Office Angels, a recruitment firm:

“As younger generations join the workplace, I believe UK businesses will, inevitably, have to embrace social networks, recognising the benefits of providing staff with well deserved downtime, but also their potential for business networking.”

Of course, the Telegraph article dives right back in to focus on the negative use of social media ad social networking straight away quoting some high profile stories about staff and their comments regarding clients from British Airways to Currys and PC World.

So thats the story.  Social Media is driving the economy into even deeper debt due to the time spent using the various etworking tools and applications. Its in the paper, so it must be true.  Yeah right.

Surveys cost the economy billions of wasted effort

I hate these types of surveys. If I wanted to I could find information reflecting on the “cost” of different actions.  How having a washing your hands after the toilet costs the economy 55 billion in wasted time, how that extra coffee at lunch can cost us all 14 billion in lost revenue and of course, how surveys can cost businesses 199 billion a year in misguided results and analysis, forcing businesses to focus in on administrative costs and unnecessicary internal monitoring that costs even more money and in all probability only serves to loose more revenue and waste more time.

Realising the Results

Thats not to say that time isnt wasted on things like twitter and facebook, of course it is, just like time is wasted in any area of our working lives, from delayed trains, lengthy meetings or even, quite simply, bunking off work out of pure laziness (or a hangover :P) but these types of time loss and costs are, in the most part, unavoidable, or even accepted to some extent.

Really though, any self serving business is able to look past these types of results.  Social Media has made a dent in the daily activities of millions of people and unlike other mediums, the systems can be used to help business, if businesses WANT and ALLOW them to. Maybe its time more businesses looked at exactly what they have at their disposal and investigated it a little further to understand if and how this could happen.

Social Media costs business and the economy billions is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

Sometimes its great to take a step back and have a good look at the industry you work in and remind yourself that while you continually read, research and engage in conversations with your peers and clients regarding search engine optimisation, the advancements and new features that appear are not necessarily the best means or methods to utilise when working on a website.

Remember the end user

One of the most important, and probably most overlooked parts of search engine optimisation is the actual users you are trying to reach so its healthy to take a minute and reflect on how they interact and use the search engine to find exactly what thjey are looking for.

Old habits die hard for users and no matter how many options their are on offer, what refinements and filters they can employ, and how they actually indulge in making a search we, as web designers, developers or SEO’s, have to keep pulling our selves back to the basics.  Its all to easy to get carried away on the new media and technology advancements that are being offered.

Simplify search

That is why I love simplicity.  It remind me that you don’t have to be a genius to use search engines, and all of us, as users and creators, would do well to remember just who we are aiming to reach in our efforts.

That’s not to say that we cant offer some tips and advice on search to people either. Simplifying and explaining these tips though is something I often find myself repeating to people on a regular basis, which is why I love videos like this.  It serves to remind me that search is simple for the vast majority of us while at the same time, it helps explain the way search engines work and can be used in a smart way.  Gotta hand it to the guys at Common Craft, they know how to make things simple.

Take a minute to watch the video, no matter if your an expert SEO, avid internet surfer, or a casual searcher, it will bring a smile to your face when you remember just how simple things can and should be.

Getting smart with searching on the search engines is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

You might be trying to figure out what the hell the word “phishing” means(and how to pronounce it) right now, so lets clear that up.

I pronounce the word as “fiishing” because for me, the significance and definition are somewhat similar. Here’s are some more definitions and reading material describing the term phishing.

Whats phishing?

Phishing happens when some arsehole decides to send out automated emails or instant messages with the intent of stealing your username, passwords, credentials or other important or personal information. These arseholes (yes I am going to continue using that term throughout this post so get used to it) are smart, sly and incredibly convincing if you are not aware of the scam and it can have disastrous consequences, not only for you but your email contacts or connections on social networks as well.

The basic ploy is relatively simple.  The arsehole in question will create an email that replicates a bank, business or brand (lets take a bank for the sake of this example) that the majority of us will recognise followed by an official sounding letter asking you to login to your account, or similar, and check some strange activity or authorise a transaction.

They work on the pretence that if they send out 100,000 of these emails then a percentage of people will be with the targeted bank and will recognise it as a scam and another percentage, unfortunately will not and they will click the links and sign in, becoming a victim to the arseholes scheme as the page you are signing into is not actually part of your bank but in fact has been set up on a website to look exactly like your banks login page. Sneaky, sly and yes, criminal.

Phishing rinse and repeat

Phishing  scams have a relatively short lifetime as word spreads about their existance and the pages or websites get closed down but by then the damage is usually done. Eventually the scam fades in our memory and eventually we forget about it, only to have it resurface 6 months or a year later and the whole problem begins again.

It only takes a moment for a lack of concentration to fall foul of these scams and thats where the danger lies.

Phishing scams have developed even further now as they think up new methods of trying to fool us into making these judgement errors at every opportunity and of course they have targeted the social networks as well.

Video Phishing scam on twitter

Twitter has been attacked on occasion and the most recent was just this week (its still ongoing it seems). The one large advantage that a network like twitter has is that users can inform each other very quickly about the phishing scam but of course, this does not mean users will not be caught out.

Reports began appearing about a DM (a private message in twitter speak) that people began receiving which said something along the lines of:

• “You’re on this vid!”
• “hah, i think i seen u on here,”
• “wow. you look different on here,”
• “rofl this you?“

Each one included a shortened URL link or a link that begins with “http://videos”.

Any users that clicked the link where taken to a page that had been purposely designed to be exacly the same as the twitter home page and they may be duped into thinking that they had to login again to see the video. Once they login, they have just given away their username and password to our (not so) favourite arsehole, the phisherman.

How people are caught out

The unwary clicked the link for two reasons.

Firstly they have been sent a Direct Message (DM).  In twitter you can only receive a DM once you are following someone and they are following you back, therefore the DM is seen as being more trust worthy, IF and only IF you have been carefully selecting who you follow back.  Those who use the auto follow back functions provided by third party sites are wide open to this type of scam.

The 2nd reason is the URLs (web page address) or links in twitter usually take the form of a shortened URL, a requirement on twitter to conserve space due to the 140 characters limit. This makes it incredibly difficult to decide in advance if the link you are about to click is a legitimate site or not.

How the phishing scam gathers momentum

It only takes one account to get hacked for the phishing scams to gain momentum hence the most dangerous time is on its initial deployment of the scam as users get caught out and this is where the viral nature of social media can be a disadvantage, especially if the scam has the functionality to spam auto DMs to the accounts followers. Let me illustrate:

1. Scam launched at a person from existing account.
2. User gets phishing DM and clicks the link
3. They login to he phishing site and the username and password are captured
4. The scammer immediately takes control of the account and sends a DM to all the followers with the phishing link (say 100 people)
5. 10% of those getting the DM from a trusted source, click the link and give  their details to the scammer (10 new accounts)
6. Scammer takes the 10 accounts and DMs all those followers (100 followers per account x 10 new accounts = 1000 new victims)
7. 105 of the 1000 click the link, and the trend continues exponentially.
8. The scam goes viral and everyone gets really pissed off with phishing scam arseholes.

Not a pretty situation… and the kick on effect is, many people will use the same password for twitter as they do for their email accounts. Thats where the real problems begin because the scammers then have intimate access to an email account and they can then try and login to different networks, pretend they have forgotten the passwords and click the “forgotten password” buttons, and Ta DAaaa! A convenient email arrives with the new password.

Now they have access to a lot more than just twitter.

How to avoid becoming a phishing victim

There are a few ways to avoid these types of scams, but none are 100% foolproof unfortunately. A healthy amount of caution (paranoia!?) is always required, avoid using third party auto follow software or tactics (makes life more difficult for the scammers), use different passwords for your accounts (Tim Nash made some startling discoveries on User Password Habits – Very scary!) and say informed about these scams, like the post Craig Edmonds wrote right here on CloudMixer about a similar Domain Name Appraisal Scam currently doing the rounds.

After that, its really down to trusting in the common sense you where born with and the common sense of your network!

Tweetdeck users take note

**TweetDeck can help yopu here.  If you use tweetdeck (you should imho!) click the settings button on the top right and in the General settings window tick the box marked:

Show Preview information for short URLS.

To activate it you may need to restart Tweetdeck.  Its a little annoying if you click a lot of links but if it stops you becoming a vicitm to phishermen arseholes then its worth it.  After activating this option, every time you click a link on tweetdeck it will pop up a small window with more details about the destination link helping you to decide if its authentic or not.  Not perfect, but every little helps!

Other phishing stuff

To see the latest information about the twitter phishing scam check out the feedback from twitter users on the subject.

Other examples of scams on twitter, and their rather tasteless, if not disgusting methods employed can be read about on Mashabale regarding the abduction of a child, known as the“98B351″ scam, because of the apparent car registration license used in the fictitious abduction.

The details of which make me sick to my stomach and quite honestly I would love to find the arsehole who thought of this and beat there damn brains in.

Be careful out there all, don’t become a phishing victim!

Twitter Phishing Scams and Arseholes with Hooks is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

Leo Laporte began “This Week in Tech” and “TwiT” network of podcasts talks quite frankly in front of the Online News Association with an explanation of his experiences and business model targeted at niche and dedicated markets rather than the old model of vast, unassuming and uninterested groups.  Sound familiar? Very revealing and well worth the 40 minutes to watch.

He points out that we have and currently are involved in a communication revolution that historically has been experienced and proven and occurred before, from the ancient days of hand written scrolls to the creation of moveable type and the printing press though radio, TV and now the interactive methods of the internet. The most interesting point was that he’s not claiming that these new media will destory newspapers or tv and radio but rather will change the way they work in the most fundamental manner.

Take the time to watch it.

The New Media Broadcasting Model

Original article quoted from: Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine (its also worth reading the comments on this original piece.)

TV is dying – broadcasting the new media model is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

What’s your brand?  Its not a simple question but its one being studied, analysed, developed and argued about on a multitude of levels as businesses and individuals work on establishing what their message and brand means exactly.  Its not unique to social media but it seems to be an issue that’s at the forefront of many minds moving within social media.

So what about sharing a brand?  The guys at Spike TV made this video which I thought was a great way of sharing an already established brand. After all, both of these are aimed at the same market, so effectively they are drinking from the same cup, so why not work together and strengthen each other by sharing the brands.

If your not familiar with Spike TV, according to Wikipedia:

Spike (formerly called Spike TV), a division of MTV Networks, is an American cable network designed for an audience described demographically as “young adult males”. Today, after several changes of ownership and name, Spike operates as part of MTV Networks, owned by Viacom and is one of 4 to not belong to a brand.

Boy, do they know their brand.

Stars Wars, as we all know is massive, in fact, massive isnt a big enough word, its beyond massive and its the “young adult males” playground, not exclusively, but most definitely in a major segment.  Spike TV created a few sketches that although we laugh at them and enjoy them, also include some very distinct messages that resonate with “young adult males”.

1. Competition can bring out a guys dark side.
2. Never assume cute means harmless.
3. When Challenged, there is strength in numbers.
4. If a guy looks dangerous he probably is.
5. All these messages are tailed by “There is much to learn”

The whole reason for the clip was to promote the broadcasting of all 6 Star Wars Movies on Spike TV and with this clip they managed to associate and algin their brand with the Star Wars franchise really effectively while still poking fun at it and touch a nerve with their target market, very smart indeed.

Now this is out of the majority of peoples leagues obviously.  We don’t all run and operate TV channels but that doesn’t mean that we cannot combine services and businesses where the sharing of a brand can benefit both parties and achieve a mutually beneficial result.

What businesses could you work with to expand your profile, who could you work with to increase your brand and how can you help them in the process (if you cant think of any then… oh dear.) Look at who you are associated with already, whose services are you using and can that relationship be developed and increased?

When you do think of some, get in contact with them and express the wish to move forward with an idea or proposal, get it “on paper” solidify it and move forward, otherwise everyone will be missing out on these simple yet effective opportunities.

Sharing a brand in Social Media is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas

If we haven’t already met then I guess its time for a semi-formal introduction so pull up a chair and lets get acquainted.

Hello and how you doing!

I’m from Northern Ireland and have been living in Marbella on the sunny Costa Del Sol since 2001.  I run an independent consulting agency offering services in Social Media, Search Engine Optimization and a range of other areas of web design implementation and application. Since 2001 I would estimate I have built, worked on, been involved in or managed close to 500 websites or on line businesses for clients from the ground up and beyond.

The Blogging Thing

You might think that blogging is a frivolous activity, usually associated with people who keep diaries or notes on mundane episodes in their lives such as walking the dog or what they had for breakfast.

Don’t kid yourself, and don’t let anyone else kid you.

While blogging may have begun like that, remember that websites and the internet actually developed from the same pond, and turned into an the vast ocean of today. Blogging has developed into so much more than its initial humble beginnings and offers a range of opportunities for us to develop our professional opinions and expertise in a personal fashion and transparent manner. Yes, I’m a blogger and I love it. Don’t be shy, drop in and say hello on Justinparks.com any time.

The Social Media Thing – No Regrets

I began using social media seriously about 12 months ago after having studied its growth potential and realised its effect on the online world and consequently the real world as well. Since then its been non stop.

Using social Media to network and market has been a real pleasure for me since I dedicated myself to it. Initially I went through the same difficulties many of us face, a little trepidation at how effective it would be and the usual questions reared their heads, things like:
“Would I be wasting my time?”
“Is it worth the required dedication?”
and of course;
“Will I regret this?”

Guess what.

“It hasn’t be a waste of time”
“definitely worth the dedication”
“No regrets, whatsoever”

Having developed skills with the wide range of tools over the last year and focused in on the intricacies of how they work and interact, it has paid off some major dividends for me personally and professionally. In fact this very same blog you are reading now has come into existence as a direct result of this networking, something that would have been possible in the past, sure, but it certainly would not have been as efficient (or as fun!) to implement had it not been for the opportunities I have taken advantage of today. Because of this my network now spans the globe, literally, with friends and associates on every major continent in the world.

The Shaping and Brain Storm Thing.

Im a brain stormer and a shaper. I love your ideas. Wacky, different, old, new, it doesn’t really matter, ideas are what make us tick. But what adds the cherry to the cake is shaping your ideas into working models. Extracting all the problems, recreating them into viable solutions, simplifying processes and producing a final working construct is what puts a smile on my face and a smile on yours.

The Sharing Thing

I share a lot.  As much as I can in fact.  If I read something good, I share, if I see a great photo I share it and if I have advice or ideas they get shared, so who do I share with?  Everyone I can. The fundamental part of interacting is sharing good and interesting information and subject matter and having information shared with you.

I share my ideas on my blog with my readers, sometimes they are observations, sometimes they instruct or inform and sometimes they are just a good old fashioned rant, but its all worth sharing and its up them them how they share it from there.

The Mistakes Thing

I don’t claim to be perfect. I make my fair share of mistakes, we all do. Its not like I aim to or want to but mistakes happen and I try to learn from them and move on positively.  Making mistakes and admitting to them isn’t a bad thing, in fact its healthy, making mistakes in public and dealing with them can be embarrassing but we learn from them, and quickly. I make mistakes so you don’t have to.

The Communicating and Community Thing

I love community. On line, there are hundreds of thousands of communities in existence and these a communities cater for everything, all you have to do is find it. Working in communities can be incredibly rewarding both personally and professionally and creating and developing your own, although its hard work and needs to be a labour of love, its rewarding beyond compare when a community begins from nothing and you see it grow and grow.

The Enough Already Thing

Yeah, I can go on and on, but no way can I say all I want to say in a single post.  Get subscribed on the email or RSS and say up to date with myself and all the other authors here on CloudMixer and maybe we can all get to know each other a little better, you never know where these things will lead. In the mean time, feel free to say hello on twitter or on a professional level check out Linkedin to get connected. For a full list of my other profiles and where I hang out you can check my Google Profile.

Justin Parks, Social Media Consultant and Cloud Mixer Author is a post from: Cloud Mixer - Mixing New Media Ideas