In essence, the first thing you ask yourself, is how you want your business to look to the Twitter community, then you take it from there.

In this particular case study – Etsy is a buying and selling online marketplace for handmade goods. They hosts shops for more than 400,000 sellers and offer sellers an @etsy account. Obviously their sellers’ success is their success, so like all good hosts do, they share tips and tricks, as well as feature interesting products from sellers which are often individually highlighted.

Their Twitter strategy started in December 2007 when the @Etsy team joined this site. Initially they were unsure how to make the most of their new membership – Twitter was relatively new back then, but individual Etsy sellers soon started using the product very creatively and showing the @Etsy team, their innovations in marketing strategies. The team drew insight from this by following sellers Tweets, and was soon able to offer great hints and tips to new sellers too. This is one Twitter community which regularly comes up with truly fantastic and creative marketing ideas.

Twitter is now used to notify sellers how to share their own tips and tricks, and encourage them to do so. This is on a scale whereby Twitter alerts are more than mere RSS Feeds to their weblog. They have become convinced that Twitter Alerts provide a remarkable way of channeling collective brain power into new and even more dynamic marketing ideas.

This is a brand with a strong culture in learning insatiably from their community. They are the kind of company which actively seeks to ‘learn’ from its users/sellers. Twitter has proven to be one of the ideal catalysts for this job. They use re-tweets and monitor feedback on individual or even all 400 000 Etsy sellers – this information all arrives and can be dealt with in real time and re-tweeted. It allows methodologies such as creating focus groups, alerting followers to new and even more creative products and imparting information regarding upcoming promotions or events.

Although people new to Twitter may find it hard to comprehend that this makes a dynamic business tool, the thing is to actually use it, try it, and see – this is not just another thing to follow or ‘keep track’ of . There is only one way to find out if a marketing opportunity really works, and once Twitter starts working for you – you will get a ton more marketing bang for your bucks. There is a very definite Twitter success factor for virtually every marketing possibility, including boosting the chances of improvement and exposure for every possible career. There are tons of Twitter tips for the music and other creative industries; even how to tweet your way to a new job. The point is that this vital real time tool is a fantastic way to connect to all kinds of people. By the way, when looking for help on Twitter, here is a crucial tip – use the word “help”, it is one of Twitter’s most optimal words.

Using Contests (and Twitter) to build your Business

While crowd sourcing may not be the typical way of getting a story written Tim Burton has once again broken barriers by crowd sourcing a story on Twitter. The name of the Burton project on Twitter is “Tim Burton Cadavre Exquis”. Loosely translated it means exquisite corpse and was a game where a group of people added random phrases to a piece of paper to create a story, sometimes funny, outrageous or indecipherable, but always interesting at least to the Surrealists.

The beginning of this project was one line written by Tim Burton about the adventures of a character named Stainboy and he has been asking people to contribute to it by adding a line to the story with the tag #Burton Story.  The end of the Burton story on Twitter was scheduled for Dec sixth. Each day the best tweet was chosen and added to the story line.

Tweets such as the crowd sourced story gather those interested in works by Tim Burton, would-be writers and fans of the outrageous and they encourage tweeters to interact. Crowd sourcing a story might not work for every small business but the idea is a great one. Encourage interaction make it fun for the followers and the rest comes naturally.

Contests are one way the small business might take what they learned from Tim Burton and put it to good use. Tim Burton, who though already famous is keeping his name out there on the front lines using community brain power and the energy of the crowd. While the story may not be gaining any literary awards, it is gathering Tim Burton a lot of attention and almost all of it positive.  This well known producer has gained from Twitter and entertained thousands of followers who anxiously posted their tweets hoping to win a line in this convoluted story.

How can you use a contest to launch a new product or service?

Please share your ideas and comment below.

Learning from the Big Guys on Twitter: What works for them can work for the little guy too!

Cramming anything meaningful at all about a car into 140 characters would seem difficult and particularly from major car manufacturers, but its not and people are interested. It may seem strange but big name auto manufacturers are turning to Twitter to respond to customers and reeducate them on their brands. When big companies with all the capital they need to advertise turn to a free method such as Twitter the wise small business takes heed. What works for them can work for the little guy as well.

Chevrolet has multiple Twitter accounts and Adam Denison is the official Social networking guy for Chevrolet on Twitter. Their tweeter was on hand to help answer questions and clear up misconceptions during a GM loan hearing.

The Ford company is represented by Scott Monty (@ScottMonty) and they quite frankly admit that using Twitter is part of a company PR strategy to humanize the large and almost iconic brand, Ford. Ford states they plan on expanding their Twitter presence.

GM is represented on Twitter by the name @GMblogs. The stated purpose of their presence on Twitter is to clear up consumer misconceptions about their products as well as to announce shows, events and of course to interact with customers.

Honda’s official tweeter is Alicia Jones (@Alicia_at_Honda) and she states that though Twitter is only a small part of her job that she follows up personally when she responds to tweets directed at Honda.

Although each of these car companies has a different stated strategy the most successful of all, Ford with 8,425 following and 8,494 followers show an enthusiasm for the social networking platform and an enthusiasm for cars, in particular their brand.  Bringing a true love of social networking to the table and knowledge of a product can work for the small business owner just as well as for the large company and possibly with even more success.

Can you bring your expertize to Twitter and engage your audience?

How can you do this?

Please share your ideas and comments below.

In this era of too many places to post to, too many jobs to be done, and when even the most efficient mult-tasker finds there are not enough hours in the day, Hootsuite is a savior. Hootsuite is a web based application containing an entire set of tools to manage, track, analyze and schedule your social network media campaigns.

Not only does this web application let the user post to multiple social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin and more, it helps to schedule tweets and updates their status. If fans and followers should be updated about a blog update for tomorrow, the tweet or shout can be scheduled today.

Included in this amazing web based application is something called Ow.ly which is a Hootsuite tiny URL so there is no need to use another service to provide a tiny tweet friendly URL. Team and single Twitter and Facebook activities can be shown at a glance from the customizable activity page. Ow.ly URL shortener users can track all clicks through Google and see just how fans and followers reacted to posted content and hyperlinks. This can help a marketer adjust their campaigns on the based on statistics to achieve the results they want.

Hootsuite even has a browser plug-in so that one or many social network accounts can be posted to on the fly while browsing the web. Just one click and any content can be shared and all without leaving the browsing session or going to another site to post or Tweet or Shout.

When the business uses a social networking team to interact on their various media it is a simple matter to assign responsibilities and track activities using Hootsuite. There is even an iPhone app in the works to further simplify tracking results and using Hootsuite from any place the marketer can use their phone.

While social networking is certainly making a big impression with fans and marketers as a medium for hearing what consumers have to say, one company has gone a step further and intervenes when things go awry for their customers.

Delta Airlines are not only using Twitter to listen to their audience but to respond as well. People tweet about almost everything, good and bad and when there is a customer service issue Delta has customer service reps monitoring tweets from early morning to 9:30 pm on business days.

Rather than letting a customer service issue escalates, these reps step in to at least acknowledge the issue and work to resolve it. Whether the customer in question is a celebrity or a business traveler or family on holiday, frustrated stranded passengers have a lot of time on their hands and sometimes use it online to grumble.

When a complaint is addressed within hours or even minutes this presents a shiny company image to fans and followers and ensures greater customer loyalty as well.  Obviously not ever complaint can be handled within minutes but sometimes frustrated or disgruntled customers just want someone to acknowledge the problem. This forward thinking step is a breakthrough in using social networking to improve customer service and also to shine up the company image.

Although a small business probably can’t dedicate a full staff or even an employee to monitoring Twitter for complaints, establishing a Twitter presence and monitoring the company account once or twice a day is one more way to interact in a positive and meaningful way with the customers. Additionally this small investment in time for almost any company can help nip problems and complaints right at the start and turn what could be negative customer feedback into a positive experience that promotes greater loyalty.

What are some other ways Twitter can help you with your customer/client service?

Please comment and share below.

Welcome to the new feature here on the FMMG Blog:

Twitter Tuesday!

Twitter describes itself as, “a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” And if you search Google, you’ll see that Twitter also describes itself as “ without a doubt the best way to share and discover what is happening right now.”

However you want to describe it, Twitter is, without a doubt, not only an effective, albeit new, way to communicate, it is also a great way to brand yourself and your business. It is also a great way to stay in touch with your community.

Here is a great little movie explaining twitter – enjoy!

If you have questions or suggestions or would just like to add to the conversation, please comment and share below.

Twitter is taking a huge step forward, completely changing the way they look and how we interact. Personally, I think this is great. Twitter will now have much richer content available right on the site. I have been a huge proponent of the many great uses for Twitter. I hav been espousing those reasons to my clients for years. This new uber-rich delivery system, in my opinion, the the experience on both sides, that much more valuable. Make sure you take a look at the Video from Twitter about their changes at the bottom of this post. And like always, please comment and share!

Here’s a story published today in the USA Today:

Before nearly 100 reporters and analysts at its San Francisco office today, the social-media giant unfurled a redesign, which includes multimedia links that can be viewed from within a Twitter account, rather than from a separate browser page.

Previously, Twitter.com users had to view photos and videos from a separate Web page and not from the microblogging service. About a quarter of all tweets come with a link.

The upgraded Twitter site is splashier and more user-friendly than previous versions. User profile pages have also been updated. The layout in some ways resembles the user-friendly display of an Apple iPad.

As part of the overhaul, Twitter announced agreements with 16 tech vendors, including YouTube, Flickr, uStream and Justin.tv, to help enhance its new links. More partnerships are to come, Twitter said. The new Twitter.com launches today in an incremental roll-out over several weeks.

“We needed a better site,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in an interview. “It hasn’t been changed in four years.”

The social-media service, with 160 million users, says its mobile use is up 250% this year.

Twitter CEO Evan Williams said that Twitter is for people who like to read short blog posts as well as those who like to write them. “To get value out of Twitter, you don’t have to tweet any more than you have to create a Web page to use the Web,” he said.

You can read more about the new Twitter on Twitter at #NewTwitter.

Original Source: USA Today

Well, that’s not quite what I did. I went a little more elaborate. After spending some time thinking about what my offer should be – I decided to share something really good: How I added over 10,000 twitter followers to my personal Twitter account in under 90 days.

I have laid it all out step by step in, not a 2 or 3 page download, but in a 20 page illustrated ebook that I am offering for one single dollar.

So go ahead – it’s only a buck, and I am offering a double your money back guarantee! if you’re not totally thrilled by your dollar purchase…

Let’s see, what can I buy for a dollar?

A Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, a head of iceberg lettuce, a McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger off the dollar menu… The list is, well not going to help you leverage the power of Twitter for your business, but then again you can’t eat my book…

If you are reading this – You most certainly are looking for ways to improve your efficiency and results with your online marketing efforts. Well here you get a very detailed guide to add  thousands of targeted Twitter Followers – with not a ton of time or effort.

Click here to read more.

If you are breathing right now… YOU HAVE HEARD ABOUT TWITTER! The social media site has become enormously popular with everyone from celebrities to major corporations. For small businesses, Twitter can be a valuable tool – if you know how to use it effectively. That is the key… How do you use Twitter effectively?

Here are some tips on how to make Twitter work for you.

1. Create Your M.A.P.

Create a “Marketing Action Plan”. We have our clients put together a list of things they can tweet about – things like resources, facts about the company, Company/Product history, interesting company trivia, their products, and what discounts or promotions are okay to offer (really, whatever is relevant). This starts with a list of Ten Topics that reflect their business, vision, mission. and purpose.

Conversely, we also have them make a list of things that are not okay to tweet about.

2. Add Some Personality

Small businesses can be more informal and friendly than they they think they can, so use this to your advantage. Larger companies like the Luxor Hotel Casino, Jet Blue, Southwest Airlines, MailChimp, and Starbucks (Our Model) offer great examples of how to inject a little personality into your tweets.

Some large companies stay away from being too opinionated – but adding some personality make you more approachable to your clientele and customers.

Says Matthew Griffin, president and CEO of Baker’s Edge, a baking products company in Carmel, Indiana. “There is no backlash if we state we don’t like a particular food or if we endorse a local team. These little nuggets go a long way to humanize us, and that personality is reflected in our products.”

3. Know Who’s Talking About You – And Reply

See who talking about you and what they’re saying. Keep an eye on your “mentions” – the posts that mention your name. Click on the @username link in the right-hand column of your Twitter home page. When your name is mentioned, take the opportunity to respond and to make a connection.

You gain a lot of credibility in the marketplace (and on Twitter) by personally responding to mentions or reTweets. It adds tremendous value to your followers. A friend of mine tweeted a link to an article about Denny’s “unhealthy menu items” and guess what… Denny’s responded with info about some healthier choices…

4. Respond to both Positive and Negative Tweets

Ignoring criticism doesn’t make it go away. Take the time to respond, assist and try to wind back a disgruntled Twitter user. This may not always work but by taking th time to work on remedying the situation, you gain some more of those valuable marketplace points.

What you can do is take this opportunity to explain things about the company that the poster may have misunderstood. You can politely and in a helpful way educate the person (and the rest of your followers) by giving them the real scoop about your company or service.

Don’t let a negative tweet get you down. Instead, relish the opportunity to be able to undo this misunderstanding and about your company. There is a direct correlation between a company that deals effectively with an issue when it arises and how they are perceived in the marketplace. Studies show that companies that have honestly worked to solve problems (and indeed solved them) get more respect in the marketplace than similar businesses that have never faced adversity.

“If one of your customers has a bad experience, fix it. Reach out to them publicly, apologize for the mistake, and resolve it .  Not only will this be visible to the person complaining, but to everyone else who stumbles across the tweet, post, or whatever it is,” says David Neuman, social media supervisor for Prime Visibility of Long Island, New York.” He goes on, “It can significantly enhance the brand image of your company if you make the effort to reach out to individuals directly who had a bad experience with your business.  A lot of companies are hesitant in doing this because they are worried that it will add “fuel to the fire”, but there really is no negative in replying to an angry customer and doing what you can to fix the problem.”

One final, very important thing: NEVER EVER respond in anger or frustration or in a condescending way to the tweeter… This will only add more damage to your reputation in the marketplace!

5. Offer useful Information, Not Just Ads

If all you ever Tweet is BUY MY PRODUCT… that’s just not going to work… But, if you were a health and fitness coach like our client Pilates instructor, Lindsey Borden, you could provide frequent diet and exercise tips.” Are good rule of thumb that we give to our clients is to ask yourself the question: Does this benefit my audience (followers)? If you answer “yes”, then Tweet it.

6. What is your Frequency?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to the frequency of posts. It depends on what you say, and who your followers are.

How often should you tweet? Some “experts” will tell you that once or twice a day is good., that anything more can be almost annoying to some people.

That philosophy we don’t agree with. Twitter moves very rapidly. If you aren’t staying in touch with your market by Tweeting enough to make an impact, you are doing little good. If you are continuously delivering relevant and useful content, more is probably better. See how your audience reacts to your frequency, and adjust accordingly.

7. Find Your Clients – Don’t Assume They’ll Find You

Your potential customers/clients won’t always find you. Use the Twitter search function to search for specific keywords that will lead you to users that might be potential customers. For example, since we offer web design, we could search for key phrases like, ‘I need a website.’ Then we follow and start a conversation with them using Twitter’s @ feature.

8. Customize Your Twitter Profile

Since your Twitter page is valuable (and free!) real estate, make sure you have a complete and well-written profile, a URL linking to your business’ website or Facebook fan page, and a custom background. In our backgrounds, we always use the company logo, a photo and info about the person behind the tweets – it acts as a complete branding package and it really makes a difference.”

9. Use Twitter Tools

There are several handy tools that can help you manage your posts and see what others are saying about you in theirs.

It’s important for businesses to use monitoring tools such as Google alerts or Netvibes. It’s also important for the Tweeter to learn how to use tools like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to manage updates, responses and all the aspects of communicating on Twitter.

(HINT: some of these tools will allow you to manage Facebook, LinkedIn and other networks too!).

10. Offer Special Rewards to your Followers and make them Feel Like VIP’S

This makes your followers feel special, encourages others to start following you and gives you tons of traction in the marketplace!
Take Naked Pizza, a small pizza parlor in New Orleans, for example. The pizzeria is equipped with a large, prominent sign encouraging people to follow the eatery on Twitter. Naked pizza also measures its success through sales. On a record breaking day, over 68% of total sales and 85% of their new customers were from Twitter.

Abbey Klaassen, in an AdAge article writes:

Twitter’s real-time messaging service is turning out to be a boon to local establishments, who are starting to get onboard — mostly because the message pops into users’ Twitter feeds and they’re close enough to act on it. For Mr. Leach, who is targeting people within a three-mile radius of his store, that’s key. He’s gone so far as to erect a billboard outside his store publicizing Naked Pizza’s Twitter handle…

11. Use Hashtags

One of the most complex features of Twitter for new users to understand is the hashtag, a topic with a hash symbol (“#”) at the start to identify it. Twitter hashtags like #followfriday help spread information on Twitter while also helping to organize it.

Enter a hashtag by inserting the “#” symbol before important keywords. This makes the term a clickable link.

The hashtag is a favorite tool of conferences and event organizers, but it’s also a way for Twitter users to organize themselves: if everyone agrees to append a certain hashtag to tweets about a topic, it becomes easier to find that topic in search, and more likely the topic will appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.

Hashtags are used by millions of people to find relevant tweets and accounts that cater to their needs.”

To Sum it all Up

Experts agree (and we concur) that Twitter is a must have tool for today’s small business owner. By taking just a little time on your tweets every day and adding a personal touch to your conversations with followers, you can use Twitter to give your business a big boost – and best of all – it’s free.

Are you on Twitter? If you are, you certainly know that you are not alone–32 million others are tweeting right along with you. But did you know that you can use this awesome social media tool to help you find a job? A recent Yahoo! HotJobs poll showed that only 8% of respondents have used Twitter to help with a job search. Considering the state of the job market today, don’t leave any stone unturned if you are out there looking for a job.

Dan Schawbel, author of “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success,” shares  some tips to help you use Twitter to raise your professional profile and put your job search on the fast track.

1. Brand yourself. Instead of just jumping in, Schawbel says, “Before using any social network, create a single, unified social-media strategy, so that your brand remains consistent throughout each network that you join, including Twitter.” He recommends using the same professional picture or avatar and user name, a consistent bio, and a “personal brand statement” that explains what you do and who your audience is.

2. Fine-tune your Twitter homepage. Twitter has some great tools that you should use to make sure that your Twitter homepage looks professional. Schawbel: “Just like your other social network profiles, your Twitter profile should be completely filled out. This includes your full name, location, a biography, and — the single most important element — a single link to a site of your choosing. I recommend directing people to a blog, your LinkedIn profile, or a site that you feel best represents you. If you really want to take your brand to the next level, then a custom Twitter background, which you can make using twitterimage.com or twitterbacks.com, is required.”

3. Build your audience. Don’t think you know anyone on Twitter? Think again. “A percentage of your friends, family, and previous coworkers are already on Twitter,” says Schwabel. “You can easily import contacts from most Web-mail programs or find people using Twitter’s search engine and invite your network onto Twitter with an email invitation. Then, use Twitter search to locate people in your industry, follow them, and interact with them through a series of tweets and ‘retweets’ over time.”

4. Start tweeting. Not sure what to tweet about? “Tweet what you know”, says Schawbel. “The more you tweet about what you know, the more you’ll become the go-to person on that topic in the Twitterverse. The key to building an audience is to remain interesting to your current followers so that they retweet your messages and more people discover and follow you. And, again, by constantly following more people, namely the influencers in your industry, and pushing out relevant tweets, your audience will grow rapidly.”

5. Don’t be shy-let people know you are looking. There are a few ways to let your followers know that you’re in the market for a new job. “First, revise your Twitter profile to call attention to the type of job you’re looking for. Second, customize your Twitter background and add in text that talks about where you’re headed in your career. Finally, you can send a tweet after you’ve built your follower count, which states your expertise and the type of job you’re looking for,” he advises. To get a job you may have to help others find them too. “If you discover a job lead on Twitter and it’s not related to what you want to do, passing it on is an effective way to network.”

I follow the rule that says if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

Do You Want 10,000 Twitter Followers?

Well signing up for a service might get you 10,000 followers – but chances are it won’t give you a very responsive group – just a big number.

If you are going to  use social media for business, a non-profit, or just to connect with like minded people – you need real followers. This doesn’t happen overnight. It happens because you make an effort to reach out and touch people. That’s right, people, not numbers. The wonderful thing with social networking is it has given us the opportunity to build relationships on a scale never before seen. We can touch people instantly in all corners of the globe.

So how to get Twitter followers?

1. Be interesting – Yep, that’s right… Might be somewhere outside of your comfort zone but if you want people to listen – be interesting.
2. Be honest – Authenticity is the name of the game. It also gives you the opportunity to grow yourself. What a concept, right?!
3. Be attentive – to your followers wants and needs. Ask questions of what they are seeking and then give it to them.
4. Be active – Don’t Tweet once per week and expect to cultivate a real following. Tweet often (and be interesting. See #1).
5. Be cool – Follow people back. Starbucks and the Los Angeles Lakers are following me. Once you have more than a few hundred followers you can’t follow every conversation. That’s what the @ reply is for. But it sure does breed goodwill and you will  find gems in your time line!
6. Be a resource – Post links to good, useful articles (yours and other people’s).
7. Be inspirational – Spread light throughout your network by posting some good quotes – make people think and smile.

The benefit by growing your Twitter Following organically is that your list of followers will be responsive to your message. That’s why they checked you out in the first place, isn’t it?

It actually seemed very automated but very clever too.

The Hackbot found its way into the shopping cart admin – a bug that has now been fixed – in and of itself not a huge deal – but here is the clever  part (sort of, except in this case it didn’t actually work, it just broke part of the site – which is how I discovered it).

In theory, the would have created links (about a dozen) that led to different profiles in a online forum (for real estate in Mexico – I alerted them about the bogus profiles). Those profiles all had links to “Canadian Pharmacy” sites (read about them on Wikipedia: http://spamtrackers.eu/wiki/index.php/My_Canadian_Pharmacy & http://spamtrackers.eu/wiki/index.php/Canadian_Health&Care_Mall). Here’s what spanwiki says about “My Canadian Pharmacy:

My Canadian Pharmacy (referred to in this document as MCP) is a longstanding Russian or possibly Ukrainian spam operation which has been relentlessly spamming email users around the world since at least the spring of 2004. The operators are currently wanted by numerous international law enforcement groups including Interpol and the FBI. They largely appear to be tied to credit card fraud and identity theft. There have been reports of consumers actually receiving a shipment in response to an order, but none known to us of a shipment containing active medications rather than placebo.

Numerous pharmacy oversight organizations have fielded several thousand complaints per year regarding this illegal operation. They and numerous law enforcement agencies continue to investigate as much as possible regarding the spamming, website setup, DNS setup and (alleged) order processing of this spam gang. This investigation is ongoing.

Spamhaus claims that this group of websites (and their other web operations including International Legal RX and US Drugs) may be linked to the illegal spam group Yambo Financials, who they allege also have direct ties to Alex Polyakov, currently the #1 spammer in the known world. Subsequent research has uncovered that this spam-promoted property is actually a part of the affiliate program known as “Bulker.biz”, whose public forum was at bulkerforum.biz prior to being shut down.

My Canadian Pharmacy is part of an umbrella group of websites which purport to offer discounted pharmaceuticals to an unwitting public. They are notable in that literally every single word, every single claim are 100% false. They lie in the spam messages they send, they lie in telling you their site is secure, they lie when they say your order is on its way. Even the name itself – My Canadian Pharmacy – is a fallacy. No known connection to the country of Canada is present in anything this group has done.

Wow, right!? So these guys not only inject code into unsuspecting sites but the also take over other servers to serve all the site images etc. Then when they are done they erase all trace of themselves.

So again – Hackers suck!

Twitter was shut down for hours Thursday morning by what it described as an “ongoing” denial-of-service attack, silencing millions of Tweeters. It was the first major outage the service has suffered in months and possibly the first ever due to sabotage.

Now this morning Twitter was shut down by what is known as a denial-of-service attack, silencing millions of Tweeters. It was the first major outage the service has suffered in months and possibly the first ever due to sabotage. So, what is a denial-of-service attack? In essence, the hackers overwhelm a site (in this case, Twitter) with so much inbound traffic that it disrupts or completely shuts down the network. Here’s what Wikipedia says:

A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or persons to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root nameservers.

One common method of attack involves saturating the target (victim) machine with external communications requests, such that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so slowly as to be rendered effectively unavailable. In general terms, DoS attacks are implemented by either forcing the targeted computer(s) to reset, or consuming its resources so that it can no longer provide its intended service or obstructing the communication media between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately.

Here’s the definition from US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team – I didn’t even know we had one):

In a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, an attacker attempts to prevent legitimate users from accessing information or services. By targeting your computer and its network connection, or the computers and network of the sites you are trying to use, an attacker may be able to prevent you from accessing email, web sites, online accounts (banking, etc.), or other services that rely on the affected computer.

The most common and obvious type of DoS attack occurs when an attacker “floods” a network with information. When you type a URL for a particular web site into your browser, you are sending a request to that site’s computer server to view the page. The server can only process a certain number of requests at once, so if an attacker overloads the server with requests, it can’t process your request. This is a “denial of service” because you can’t access that site.

This episode seems almost over, as Twitter is back up. However, their status blog still says:

The lesson here for all of us is – stay diligent, be smart, especially if you are running your own site. Understand what is happening on your site. If you suddenly were missing money from your checking account – my guess is that you would notice… The same holds true for you own site. Chances are that us “small fries” won’t ever be subject to a concentrated attack but the automated ones can be just as bad…

1. “I don’t get it” or
2. “What’s Twitter?” (These folks are living in a cave or worse…)

Over the last several days, my Twitter follower count has been on a steady decline including one drop of nearly 200 overnight last Wednesday.

So, what does this all mean?

What it means is that Twitter is cleaning house. They are removing spam accounts in droves! Unfortunately some innocent folks are getting wiped out  as well… This from TechCrunch:

Spam accounts on Twitter are becoming a big problem, inflating follower counts and setting the stage for unwanted commercial come-ons and scams. (And you thought spam on Gmail was bad). As Twitter inches towards becoming a place to do business, it needs to sweep the spammers out of its system. Inevitably, some innocent bystanders will suffer collateral damage.

Collateral Damage… hmmm.

This whole Twitter Spam business led me to this conclusion: On some level – mass spamming must work or the spammers wouldn’t continue with it, right? I have to think so. So my question is: Who the hell clicks on these spam profiles and then actually follows the links?

My guess – the same people who follow the links in their spam email. The same people who were ready to pay (or did) for that bank transfer from a Prince in Nigeria… Get my drift. The spammers are getting pretty creative with their methods too. Here’s one I discovered this morning while searching for trending Twitter topics on Bing Tweets:

If you look at the above picture, the entire tweet from these “people” are the moments trending topics: Jay-Z, Follow Friday, Comic-Con, New Moon (the new Twilight movie) and USF Tampa. Clever for a spammer to find a way to show up in Twitter’s trending topics – But rather insidious too – here’s why:

USF Tampa was a trending topic because the campus had sent out an alert via Twitter that there was a gunman on campus and they issued the following warning:

Good Samaritans around the world using Twitter re-tweeted the warning and even praised Twitter’s ability to spread this kind of information.

Cool huh – unless you are a damn spammer muddying up the water when a real emergency is in progress.

Personally, I am happy that Twitter is cleaning house! I say clean it good.

Twitter is the most efficient way for me to stay in front of my current and potential future customers/clients. It is a great platform for the spread of information, for dialogue, interaction and quite cool for just learning new things… Let’s just say NO to the Twitter Spammers!

The trending topic that really inspired this post: Twitter Cracks Down.

What steps can Twitter take against these Twitter Spammers? Please add your comments below – Thanks!

If you liked this post, why not re-tweet it using the above link (right next to the title).

Twitter suspended

Yesterday provided an amazing lesson. A ton (yes, probably a ton, if you could weigh them) of legitimate Twitter accounts were suspended. WOW! We’re not talking any accounts here, we are talking big hitters like my friend and social media goddess Mari Smith (Twitter – @marismith), Twitter blogger @AlFerretti, plus – @CoachDeb, @JoelComm, and @Tweetlater.

Twitter says that the account suspensions were due to human error. Here’s what they had to say:

Earlier today, we accidentally suspended a number of accounts.

We regret the human error that led to these mistaken suspensions and we are working to restore the affected accounts—we expect this to be completed in the next several hours.

One additional note: some the accounts suspended were using the third-party site Tweetlater. However, Tweetlater is not to blame for these suspensions nor is it in violation of our Terms.

Read all about it here on Twitters tatus  Blog:

http://status.twitter.com/post/136164828/restoring-accidentally-suspended-accounts

Oops!

Mashable was one of the first to break the story – and a story of intrigue it was.

There seems to be a wave of suspensions going around Twitter today, and it’s turning quickly into an echo chamber of confusion and frustration. We’ve received several tips (the first one being from Mashable guest writer Matt Singley) that a range of users are being taken down, including some with large followings such as @marismith and the LA Times Top of the Ticket account. A quick look at Twitter chatter is another indication that something’s amiss.

Read Mashables article here:

http://mashable.com/2009/07/05/twitter-account-suspensions/

So is there anything to be learned from all this?

1. As with an off-line brick and morter business, disaster can strike. Just like a flood might “liquidate” your business, one push of a button can inadvertently delete your social network account… OUCH! See Number 2
2. Make sure you are connected in multiple places, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed and your own blog! That way if disaster strikes in one arena – you have connections and friends in the others that can help!
   As Mari puts it herself on her great blog: Why Facebook

   It’s vital to your social media success to be diversified and have a) a built-out Facebook profile (unless you’re choosing to only use your profile for close personal friends/family), b) a built-out Facebook Fan Page,  c) an active blog with increasing subscribers, d) an active account on LinkedIn with increasing contacts e) an active channel on YouTube, f) an active, built-out account on FriendFeed… and many, many more platforms.

3. Stay connected and pay attention to your connections – Don’t simply go after numbers of social media connections, go forth and engage people. This will help both your presence and business grow online.
4. Make sure all of your  networks are intertwined – Very convenient if you have a problem with one – then friends can alert you through another.
5. Take action – At one time or another, I have had my Facebook and Myspace accounts suspended. By being  proactive, meaning I contacted them (vigorously), I got my accounts restored.This from Al Ferretti at TwitterWatchDog.com:

Sadly, tonight Skeeter Hansen and myself (Al Ferretti) became part of the suspended on Twitter. When we logged into twitter we received a message in a redbox that states:

Account Suspended
This account is currently suspended and is being investigated due to strange activity. If we have suspended your account mistakenly, please let us know. See Suspended Accounts for more information.

Meanwhile, if you visited our updates while we were under suspension, you would’ve seen the infamous “Mosey along now”

Ouch Again!

Read more from TwitterWatchDog.com here:

http://twitterwatchdog.com/2009/07/05/mosey-along-now-accounts-suspended-on-twitter/

Read the rest of Mari’s article:

http://whyfacebook.com/2009/07/06/lessons-learned-from-temporary-twitter-account-suspension/

How many times in an email, Facebook, Twitter or other sites have you seen a web address like this: www.govisitmysite.com and the damn thing isn’t clickable? A little annoying, right?

How many times have you copied and pasted the link?

My guess… very few. By adding these 7 simple characters, you unleash the mad, straight up power that is the INTERNET! You are leaving money, leads, customers, clients (and did I mention MONEY) on the table by not making your link clickable everywhere and anywhere you can!

NEWS FLASH —–> No one is going to take the time to copy and paste your link, EVER! (almost)

Err on the side of good business – use the http:// and your link  becomes live: http://www.govisitmysite.com (this is an example only). Don’t leave prospective clients, customers and/or cash hanging on Facebook, Twitter and even in your email.

The other bonus is that you get those important backlinks to your site – without the http:// all you get is some text on another site…

Here’s a little experiment for you. Pay attention to all the non-working links you see, just on Facebook (especially on the person’s profile and their own link) and report back here. I would love and appreciate the feedback. If you found this post helpful, Please leave a comment!

Thanks and happy linking, Facebooking and Twittering…

Yesterday morning, I uploaded a Twitter Introduction Video to YouTube. I had seen a few others and thought that the notion of a Twitter Introduction video would be great. Twitter is such an amazing platform. Not only can I really connect with people and follow what they are doing, I can also share my activities with others. It’s very cool. I even got an invitation to have a beer from Internet Marketing Guru Matt Bacak (@mattbacak).

So back to the Twitter Introduction Video. It is a great way to be a little more than 75 pixel square image on your Twitter page. It allows you to be a real flesh and blood human. After all, if we are going to establish relationships online with social media, what better way than a video.

The process is really simple. You can capture video from your webcam on your computer, or video camera. I used a Panasonic DVX-100 – imported it into iMovie – no editing and uploaded it onto YouTube.

Once it was uploaded, I made sure to direct message all new followers with a thank you and link to my YouTube page.

That’s easy. What I also did was a little SEO on my Youtube page (including inserting my links to my Twitter page and blogs right in the description), did a little bookmarking, then uploaded it to other video sites.

Now if you search Google for “Twitter Introductions” you see these results:

Click above picture to enlarge.

What you see at #4 is a double video listing with thumbnails (two of them) and the only ones on the page. Do you think people will click that link more often as a result of the picture? I think the answer is yes. Now if you look above the two thumbnails, you’ll see a link to Mixx. Yep, that’s also me. That’s three links in the top four slots.

All this in under thirty-six hours!

So here’s the intro video:

Some YouTube tips:

1. Always add links with the full URL in your YouTube description. (http://www.yoursite.com). I added a link to my Twitter and my two sites.
2. Add a good description – with some good keywords.
3. Add a creative title – I titled mine, “The Truth about Twitter Introductions”.
4. Add good tags – If you add tags with two or more words, use quotes around them or YouTube will separate the words, e.g.. “Social Networking”.

Some Twitter tips:

1. Be real.
2. Post good links, not just links to your site… boring and selfish.
3. Show interest in others – after all, this is social networking…
4. Did I mention, be real?

If we are not yet following each other on Twitter, please use the Twitter link to my profile and follow me. I will follow you back.

http://www.twitter.com/lenapple

If you want to check out the Google results, click here…

So with a new age of promotion among us, is it any wonder that Barak Obama’s administration would lead the way for government to find a beter way of keeping us informed allowing for simple feedback?

Taking a cue from the updated WhiteHouse.gov Web site, the federal government has gone Web 2.0 with is own site.

“Using these Web 2.0 tools is a huge opportunity for government to be transparent and save valuable tax dollars,” said Beverly Godwin, director of USA.gov, in a statement. “Tools such as RSS feeds and gadgets allow the public to directly access content from the original source, no matter which Web site they’re on. It reduces duplication across government, because an agency creates content once and makes it available for reuse by others.”

By using social media, and by this I mean truthful and honest interaction witth your existing and potential customer/client base, you create familiarity which breeds trust.