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Three Little Steps to Avoid Being Facebook Hacked

By:  Tami Wessley - VP Client Services | Partner

For those of us old enough to remember “real” diaries, there was nothing in the world as embarrassing as having our innermost feelings, admissions and secrets shared without our permission. Sometimes it was an annoying little brother, sometimes a bully at school. But, chances were it was someone we knew and our secrets were generally only shared with a small, if not significant, group of acquaintances. Today, in the Facebook world, having our privacy violated can be as minimal (but still embarrassing) as a rouge post on our walls to an extreme of our whole lives being shared with the entire internet.

Having been spammed/hacked a few times myself, I’ve become reluctant to post as much as I normally would via social media. Today, a friend shared with me some extremely helpful Facebook account settings information I never knew existed that go above and beyond the privacy settings I thought were designed to keep my information safe. Updating these settings makes me feel a little safer and maybe even a little more likely to re-engage.

1.    Check your connection – When logged into your Facebook account, take a look at your URL. Do you see HTTP or just www.Facebook.com? If yes, you do not have a secure connection and can easily be hacked. To make sure you always have a secure session, go to Account -->Account Settings --> Account Security and click change. Click the checkbox next to “Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible”. There, you now have a secure connection.

2.    Track who tries to access your account – In the same section noted above, there is a Login Notification section. By checking one or both of the checkboxes, you will receive a notification directly from Facebook when an unrecognized computer or device tries to log onto your page.

3.    Require a security code for login – You can make it a little more difficult for unrecognized computers or users to access your account by simply requiring a security code. The random code is sent to YOUR phone whenever a new or unfamiliar device enters your username and password. The code you received will need to be entered for access. It’s a bit of an extra step if you happen to try to log in from someone else’s computer but well worth the extra security.

Someone will always find you interesting and want to know more about you – these tools just give you a little more control over what is shared with whom.

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Interesting Bus Stop Ads

It has been one “hot” week to say the least, and I know the last thing you would want to do is think about sitting outside in a bus stop. But these 20 Clever Bus-Shelter Ads are not only genius, but also a good way to brighten your morning as the week is coming to an end.

The list of shelters was put out by adweek.com. Look at the ads here.

You can create your own opinion on them, but I couldn’t resist myself on a few….

#6. Fitness First – I understand the idea of shaming people into joining your gym, but this is just mean! Maybe the scale should have said a lighter weight and reminded sitters they could weigh this if they joined a gym. At least that removes the public humiliation and is more positive.

#9. Big Brother – This is just creepy. Yes, many retail stores have already started using mobile advertising by sending text messages to your phone when you are outside their store, but if I was at a bus stop and got a text that read “I’m watching u”, forget the bus, I would be running.

#15. 3M – Now for this one, I find it hilarious. Could you imagine sitting in a bus stop and watching people try and break open glass to get at the money. In fact, I would just sit in the bus stop all day to watch people kick and scream at glass.

#17. Science World – We have had mean, creepy, and hilarious, but now this is just gross. At times, sitting on public benches can be gross enough. Now imagine the bus stop itself is sneezing at you, eww.

And my favorite is…
#20. Sun Smart – This is just an awesome idea. We have all been there, you can feel your skin starting to burn but do not have any sun block with you. Well surprise, the bus stop does!

5 Reasons to Use HubSpot

As a certified HubSpot partner, Weidert Group fully believes that inbound marketing is going to be the future for many businesses. We chose HubSpot as our inbound marketing foundation for five primary reasons:

1. Marketing tools galore: Using HubSpot allows you to manage social media efforts, search engine optimization, analytics, your blog, website landing pages and email marketing campaigns all from one site. The amount of time saved is simply amazing.

2. Endless Resources: To help you in the best way possible HubSpot offers a comprehensive library of marketing resources. These include whitepapers, webinars, blog posts, videos and ebooks about nearly every marketing subject you could think of.

3. What once was lost is now found: In order to get found today businesses must focus on SEO. HubSpot offers a Keyword Grader, Page Grader and a Link Grader tool that will ultimately increase qualified leads. Plus, it provides valuable insights into what your customers are doing online. It even shows you their results!

4. Turn visitors into leads: HubSpot thoroughly keeps track of information about every lead that visits your site. This means that you will know more about what their needs are before you even start a conversation.

5. Evaluate with ease: Keeping track of ROI is what HubSpot does best. It allows you to measure site traffic, brand reach, blog analytics, and competitor’s web success.

We love their latest video describing exactly what they are– check it out!

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Tweet Your Way Into College

I stumbled across this article on Twitter today and thought it was worth sharing.

The University of Iowa has taken college applications to a whole new, social media level. The university is asking prospective students to compose a tweet (yes, 140 characters) to answer the question “What makes you an exceptional Tippie full-time MBA candidate and future MBA hire?”. The winner of this contest will receive a $37,000 scholarship to the university’s business school. The university is saying this will give them a lot more depth about the candidates than an essay would show them and that it is helping students get to the point and improve their social media skills.

My opinion? This is crazy for multiple reasons.

I would assume most teens about to enter college do not need a university to teach them how important social media is. This age of kids have been on social networking sites since their early years of high school if not middle school.

Also, a full ride scholarship recipient being selected off of a 140 character tweet is unfair and a waste of funds. I personally think that money could be better allocated in scholarships to students who need it in order to attend college, not because they are witty tweeters.

Now I am a strong supporter of social media and have done my fair share of college applications and I do agree that essay responses can be very dry, dragged out, and stuffed with “sucking up” techniques. However, I would suggest a better solution to get to know prospects better, would be better essay questions. For example, instead of tweeting their response, why not ask them how important they think Twitter will be in their future endeavors?

Before we know it, it will be: Applying for College? There’s an app for that.

Let me know your opinions.

Check out the article here.

A Google Monopolized Web

Recently, Google has been a hot topic of conversation around our office. We have been discussing all of the changes that are being made and how they will affect the way that we will use the web. Personally, I can categorize my internet use into a very short list. I realized that Google has some part in nearly everything I do online. Below is an overview of that list and the role that the web giant plays

(or could play) in it.

1. Searching: Being a search engine is what Google was originally known for. Although competitors like Bing and Yahoo are desperately trying to catch up, over 65% of searches are still done through Google. Typing in Google.com is a reflex that I don’t expect to change anytime soon.

2. Reading/Writing Blogs: Google currently owns Blogger, which is an easy to use blogging platform. It was just announced that Blogger will soon be renamed to be called Google Blogs.

3. Social Networking: I typically have used Facebook and Twitter to stay connected socially but after hearing all of the buzz about Google+ I will probably switch over. Considering the features that this social site offers I’m sure that others will as well.

4. Email: The email service that Google offers helps users stay organized and informed. I have a few different work or personal email addresses and they can all be fed through one Gmail account.

5. SEO/Analytics: Google Analytics is a free web product that Google offers to track website/webpage traffic. These insights can be used for tracking your personal blog or your business blog and website.

In addition to Google Analytics, Google also offers a free Keyword Tool that allows users to research appropriate keyword terms for use on their website and other optimized online content.

Google Panda has become another huge factor in determining SEO. This Google search algorithm fights content robbers by ensuring that duplicated content does not pop up in search results.

6. Watching Videos: Although the Google name is not directly associated with online videos, the Google Corporation does own and control YouTube.

After reading the list above it seems like the people working for Google should have their hands pretty full. However, the seven web products mentioned above are only part of the over 50 different products that Google owns.

Is Google becoming a web monopoly? How long will their reign as the largest and most used search engine last? Will Google+ eventually overpower Facebook? Let us know what you think.

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