Expected Outcomes

This past Wednesday, January 26, 2011, Alex Rice of Facebook, noted in his blog that Facebook has developed an enhanced security feature which is especially desirable for those users who do use public computers or non-secured public Wi-Fi locations to be on Facebook.

Facebook has enabled the “https”, not just for login, but for your entire Facebook experience if you choose that enhancement.  The way you choose that is to go to Account, Account Settings, Account Security.  There you will find an alternative called Secure Browsing (https), Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible.  Just check the box and click the save button.

The “down” side to this feature being enabled is that not all third party applications on Facebook provide for https connections so you may still be at risk  when using those applications.  Also https can slow down the Facebook and any secured applications because encryption takes longer to load a page.  If you do online banking you may have noticed this.  It is important that any time you are doing any activity that involves personal information on the internet, especially if you are doing these things in an unsecured Wi-Fi environment, that you check to be sure you see https:// in your address bar of your browser.  Sometimes it may also appear as highlighted in green, or there is a locked (meaning secure)/unlocked (not secure) icon in the lower right hand corner of your browser window.

Alex also mentions that Facebook is experimenting with a method called Social Authentication to make sure you are who you say you are.  Most sites, including this one, will ask you to enter the letters and numbers in a box (called “Capcha”) before you are allowed to submit, for example, a form to the site.  Facebook is working on testing your knowledge of who your friends are, and other information you have provided to them that only you (and Facebook) should know. How this turns out wil be interesting to watch because someone who decides to “hack” you may be a friend who knows all that information about you already.  This might protect you from someone in another country who does not know you, but it might not protect you from an angry ex-friend.

Since security issues may be one of the top reasons business people are reluctant to start their Social Media Marketing Strategy process,  Facebook has added yet another reason as to why they are the number one social media site today.  If you have questions about Social Media Marketing, strategy, security, Facebook or other social media tools, just call us or email us from our “Contact Us” tab here at expected outcomes and ask your questions.

Do you have an experience(s) you can share about Facebook, or any other social media tool?  Just let us hear about it by commenting below.

Recently a website owner/blogger has been copying and pasting articles written by legitimate freelance travel authors into his/her own blog.  The freelance authors own their copyright and did not give this blogger permission to copy their article.  And to add insult to injury, the blogger seems to have run the articles through a software product that re-writes the article.

That kind of software is legitimate for re-writing your own materials, but not other people’s content.  And depending on the quality of the software, sometimes the end result looks pretty badly written, which was the case here.  It is a criminal act against copyright law to deliberately steal someone else’s content and re-purpose for your own blog.

It is a legitimate use of others’ content to take the first 100 words or the first paragraph of an article you want to reference and then link back to the original article with a “read more” link.  If you are uncomfortable with that concept, you can always check with the author.  This kind of content referencing is called a “pingback” and is actually a good link back for both the original author and your own blog.  This method of referencing an article will increase search engine rank status as well, depending on how many pingbacks an article receives.

There is a form most web server hosts require to investigate this kind of illegal activity.  expected outcomes has a copy of this form should you ever need it.  You can simply email us via the “contact us” tab on this website to request a copy of the form.

On behalf of the two authors who’s content was stolen,we requested the site be removed/taken down by the web hosting company.  Since this only just occurred, check back in a few days to see what the end result is.  we will comment to it here.

Have you ever had your content stolen and misused?  Comment here and tell us about it.

UPDATE – January 28, 2011:

After submitting the appropriate form on behalf of the content authors, including screen shots of the pirated content, the legal department of the hosting service wrote back thanking us for our due diligence and that the website had been taken down pending removal of our content.  Last night when I clicked on the bad content the site was dead with a message to contact the hosting site.  This morning the site is back up but the scraped content we complained about has been removed.  Most of the content on the website has been scraped from other legitimate websites.  Hopefully those website owners will find out they are being scraped and take action as well.  All is well that ends well.

2 auto-response tweets email alerts

If there is one thing in today’s world that sends my blood pressure soaring and my irritation level through the roof, it is auto-tweets.  I know it was considered a time-saving, “good” thing to do back a couple of years ago.  Today, when people auto-respond to my “follow”, whether with a “Thank you for following, look forward to reading your tweets” or something way more irritating, “Thanks for the follow. Check my website on how to make a million bucks in the next 5 minutes with my online marketing”, I want to go shout at them.  I certainly consider an immediate “unfollow”, depending on the contents of the auto-response.  If all it is about is how they can sell me something, I “unfollow”.  Sometimes I cut a little slack if it is in an area of interest that I am passionate about – pets, certain causes, business related (just not their business).  But for the most part they clutter up my inbox, my smart phone and generally irritate me.  I can guarantee you I do not read their tweets and I do not retweet them.

How do you feel about auto-responses to your “follow” for someone?  Tell me how you handle this issue?  Do you auto respond?  If so, why?

To me, challenges are opportunities.  What is a nearly insurmountable challenge to some businesses is an opportunity to me.  So as I talk to potential clients and customers about how blogging is the logical bridge between their business and their social media and the rest of the world, I am frequently asked by them, “What is your greatest challenge when blogging?”

Examples of blogging challenges -

• Writer’s block -

Everyone knows about writer’s block. But when you have been in business a while and know it like the street you live on, finding something to write about just comes naturally.  So that can be a challenge for some, but it is probably not the norm.

• Grammatical and contextual expertise -

Some people do not even know they have these challenges.  They go through life unaware of word spellings and proper grammar usage because they did not learn it in elementary school, nor was it corrected in the advanced studies.  Some people know they shortcomings in this area, but are at a loss as to how to correct the issue.

• Technical issues -

Which platform to be on – do they use Typepad, Blogger, WordPress hosted, WordPress self-hosted?

Once the platform decision is made, learning the tool and being able to insert galleries of pictures or a video or podcast can be challenging.

Internet connectivity can frequently be a challenge.  If your host has problems, you have a problem. Is your site slow to load? Are the pictures not the right size?  Do they not present well?

Is the blog part of your domain name and site or is it jury-rigged to your website?

So when I reflect on my answer to the question, I have two challenges.  Both are great opportunities and both feel like mountains to be climbed on any given day.

In a nutshell – my number 1 is SEO.  Keeping up with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so that every article is completely optimized is challenging for nearly everyone.  I study and read and learn, but there is always more.  Just about the time I think I have it figured out, a major search engine adds something to their algorithm, changes a parameter, puts out some new direction they are using to judge our entries and there goes my learning curve ….again. Still everything I learn, as I learn it, opens more doors and provides greater opportunity.

Super Blogging - My other challenge relates to a site I have recently initiated for a group of writers.  I am the publisher of a travel site magazine, Striped Pot, with a dozen plus writers from around the nation and a few international writers.  These people are great travel writers and fabulous people.  But keeping them motivated, publishing articles, copy editing, technical issues, disseminating stats and keeping the site up and running smoothly is a little like herding cats or nailing jello to a tree.  How do I describe this challenge?  It is the best, most exciting opportunity and I am blessed many times over to have every one of these writers publishing. Welcome to super blogging!

What is your greatest challenge to blogging?  Let me know in the comments below.  And if expected outcomes can help turn it into opportunity for you, we will!

The social bookmarking site, Delicious – owned by Yahoo, may be either sold or shut down, leaving its users without a social bookmarking site.  Information was leaked this week after layoffs that affected Delicious and other tools Yahoo owns.  It was then reported on All Things Digital by Liz  Gannes.  Of all the products expected to be shutdown Delicious seems to have brought out the most angst among users, indicating its popularity.

Yahoo says they are still supporting the site and will let its users know if that changes.  I have bookmarks on Delicious.  Do you?  What do you think of losing Delicious?  Leave a comment below and state your case.