The Power of Facebook

(Note: as of Feb. 9, 2012, I see there is nothing  that is new in the posting below, but much still applies. My friend and consultant, Dick Billick, of Dick’s consulting, (phase3training@live.com)  gave me homework which took a considerable number of hours. I have claimed my location on Google Maps, joined Google +, completed my Google profile, claimed my Yahoo Maps location, opened a Yelp account and completed my profile and location, opened a Manta account and completed the information, opened a FourSquare account, opened a Twitter account, completed the profile, and read a couple  of books on Twitter, and recorded and uploaded 50 informative YouTube videos. And, of course, I keep writing these blog postings. Internet marketing and social media are things you either love or detest. If you love it, there are endless things you can do for yourself. That’s part of the beauty. J.B.H. 2-9-2012. I have moved my visability from barely there to “good” with Dick’s help. His monthly report keeps me on track.)

We were just chattering on Facebook, about another potential threat to our privacy (and now another, from Google J.B.H. 2-09-2012. But, we all sense Facebook’s,and social media’s power. Facebook, MySpace Twitter, Linked In, and many others. Facebook and MySpace posts are now showing up a lot in my divorce trials.

I have it on good authority, by a person who wrote a book about Facebook of course, that Facebook and the rest are the next waive in the evolution of our species, The Facebook Era, Clara Shih, Prentice Hall, 2009.

Whether it is keeping track of the adult children and grandchildren (WE LEARNED JUST NOW ANNA LOST HER FIRST TOOTH AT SCHOOL. IF SHE CALLS US, WE WILL PRETEND WE DON’T KNOW, BUT WE DO. THANKS BONNIE!), OR, if you have a friend who is an artist, song writer,or philosopher, and you follow every word, Facebook IS powerful. (Note: since posting this, I have signed up for Spotify, all the songs you could ever want, the revised Pandora, and learned of Apple’s Match + which can store your music library in the cloud and upgrade your songs to the highest possible, for $24.95 a year. J.B.H. 2-9-2012.)

As I mentioned two weeks ago, the Internet can also induce a vulnerable woman to send $11,000 to new Facebook boyfriend, who is probably some guy toked up on drugs in Nigeria, or Cleveland.

My guess is the conscientious consumer who takes time to read Facebook Help Features will do just fine, but here are some other resources.

Clara Shih’s websites: www.thefacebookera.com and www.facebook.com/the facebookera

Facebook, The Missing Manual, Pogue Press, O’Rielly, by E.A. Vander Veer ; This is a handy book with lots of tips and ideas. They call it “The book that should have come in the box.”. Website: www.missingmanuals.com

I have got the most from:

The Social Media Bible, Wiley Press, by Lon Safco and David K. Brake; “Tactics, Tools and Strategies for Business Success. website: www.TheSocialMediaBible.com.

That is because the social part has been sort of intuitive for me. I have been a semi-pro connector for my college and high school classmates for the last 20 years or so. We were already doing neat things with the internet and carried it over to Facebook, but using it to become visible to the legal consumer.That’s a mystery.

Today a guy offered to sell me the url www.westvirginialawyer.com for $1640. I passed.

My advice, set all Facebook settings to “friends only”, don’t be afraid, set Google alerts for all the variants of your own name. You want to know what they are saying about you out there, and Google will send you an e-mail if someone mentions you! I use it for Irish Road Bowling too.

Make sure your Google commercial account is current, especially Google Maps; the same for your Yahoo Account. You do want to show up on the maps!

Remain curious, enthusiastic, and reach out to people.

Have a nice week-end.

Burt

This post was written by Burton Hunter