Over 360 million people are actively using Facebook these days. Most of us are using Facebook responsibly to connect with friends, family and as a business publicity tool. However, as trends show, the hackers, spammers and opportunists are following suit. Lucky for us, the folks behind Facebook are protective of us and they work diligently to keep Facebook safe.

Just the same, let’s not make identity theft easy for anyone. There are a few simple ways to safeguard our identities while using Facebook. For starters, you can control what people know about you by editing your personal profile. The most obvious information to conceal includes your birthday and your address.

To edit your birthday information, go to your Profile Page. Directly under your picture, you’ll see “Edit My Profile.” Click that to open your personal information. Under the “Basic Information” tab, you can opt to show your full birthday, only the day and month, or not at all. I choose to show the day and month, so that I show up in people’s birthday reminders. I do not show the year, and recommend that you don’t either.

You can also edit the information box that appears under your profile picture to include your birthday or not. Just click on the pencil icon to make your changes.

Next, edit your “Contact Information” tab to make yourself as available as you feel safe with. Personally, I think my email address, website and city is enough information.

Go through the rest of the tabs on your profile page to make sure you are happy with the information listed that you’re sharing with the world… and don’t forget to save your changes!

Let’s keep Facebook friendly (and safe)!
Charlene

www.STUDIOmurphy.com

I love social media marketing. It is the first time in history where everyone has the free opportunity of a global audience. It’s really amazing when you stop to think about how that impacts us all. For the entrepreneur and small business owner, it means that we have as much voice and opportunity as the big players of yesterday. The playing field has been leveled. For the consumer, it means we can be choosy shoppers and savvy buyers with a world market at our fingertips.

Facebook is my favorite social media tool for business by far. Do you know that over 360 million people are actively using Facebook? It has become a social and business hub for many. It’s cool that we can connect with so many like-minded people around the world. Facebook has indeed made our planet smaller!

Another thing I appreciate about Facebook is that it is a “gated community” of sorts. There are Facebook staff out there monitoring us to make sure we behave and use good form while connecting with others. I for one totally appreciate that. It’s one place I don’t have to worry about spammers… too much anyway.

Wherever an opportunity for business exists, there will always be those who just don’t get it and end up violating the rules by pushing their agendas. They end up killing the joy for the rest of us. Twitter is a great example of that. There is an art to social media and once you know it, agenda pushing becomes obsolete. Sharing is the name of the game… and meeting people, building relationships…

So with that, Facebook users everywhere, in an effort to keep Facebook friendly, I have a request of you. When you reach out to “friend” me or anyone else, there is a little link in the friend request box that reads “Add a personal message.”

Do that.

Let people know how you have come to know them: through mutual friends, a common group, belong to the same network… anything that establishes you as a human reaching out. Otherwise, a friend request without a message doesn’t  feel friendly. In fact, it feels spammy. In most cases, unless we have 50 mutual friends, I ignore those friend requests.

Facebook is a wonderful place to build your professional platform as long as you remember this little rule: Relationships first, business second.

Let’s keep Facebook friendly

Peace-
Charlene

As you know, the world is on Facebook with over 250 million active users. Never before have we had the opportunity of a global market at our fingertips, for FREE, I might add.

Facebook is growing at a staggering rate and many of us are using Facebook for business, which is completely appropriate. However, as we build our professional platforms, it’s important to mind our manners to best leverage the immense power of Facebook and keep it friendly.

Today, I want to talk about writing on other people’s walls. There are definite DOs and DON’Ts when it comes to this.

DO write on other people’s walls to thank them or to congratulate them or recognize an achievement, milestone or celebration. This is their wall and anything you write on it should be about them. All of their friends will be able to see what you’ve written and your post might inspire or remind them to congratulate their friend too!

DON’T write on other people’s walls to promote yourself! This is NOT the venue for that. Don’t post an event, your website link, affiliate link or anything about you. This is considered SPAMTASTIC and very bad form, which is terrible for your business in the long run.

The world is watching… give them your best and you can expect the best in return!

Express your brilliance!
Charlene Murphy
STUDIOmurphy

I always knew the Internet was going to be a big deal and revolutionize the world. I was one of those geeks you saw on the news who camped out all night in front of Office Depot waiting for the arrival of Windows 95. I was one of the first people in my community to own a personal computer and I couldn’t wait to get on the “information super highway!”

Back then, I studied Guerilla Marketing and started a graphic design company that created beautiful, practical and smart marketing products. As time progressed, it was apparent that the Internet was taking the place of traditional marketing and then one day, I got an inside glimpse into the magnificent power of Internet marketing like never before!

It came in the way of this low-budget, online movie, The Secret. The only marketing this movie saw was in the form of Internet marketing. It was the most significant, mind-blowing viral marketing campaign I’ve ever witnessed… even to this date, which is three years later. The Secret was only available as a download at first, but it just exploded across the Universe and products were then manufactured to appease the people. Talk about brilliant marketing! (Plus, the content was amazing, which is a huge and essential factor!)

Look at the aftermath of The Secret. It has super-launched the careers of James Ray, John Assaraf and Michael Beckwith, who are all brilliantly using social media and Internet marketing to further their missions, by the way.

The Secret changed my life profoundly on many levels. Its greatest impact was in the area of my spiritual growth and following close behind was the epiphany of the power of the Internet, viral marketing and social marketing. As a result of this new, first-hand knowledge, I altered my business to capture and best utilize this powerful tool beneath my fingertips!  And today, I am a changed woman. Now, I am a multi-media Internet marketing goddess!

The Internet has made our world a much smaller and friendlier place. Old school marketing tactics are now somewhat barbaric and have been replaced with a kinder, gentler, small neighborhood approach. And this, my friends, makes my heart sing because for the first time in my marketing career, I am free to be me! The new paradigm says, “Let me see the real you. Let’s connect. Let’s drop the crap and relate to one another as people.” The new marketing paradigm is all about transparency, authenticity and creating relationships, which is so feminine in nature and so honest.

I expect to see women stepping up and taking over the Internet marketing industry. This new shift is in alignment with our DNA. We have always been the gatherers of people. We can now express ourselves and our businesses in our authentic light, instead of some manufactured one we thought we had to do in order to be perceived professionally. This is a phenomenal time to be in business for yourself, and just to be alive, really. The shifts we are experiencing now are calling us out to be authentic, self reliant and purposeful with our lives. No more looking “out there” for the answers. We’re being called to look within. How exciting is that?

I have much to say about this subject that I am so passionate about! In fact, I am in the midst of writing a book about it called, Goddess Marketing. It will be available this fall. The focus of Goddess Marketing is all about TRUST. I know that if you trust in these three things, you will be more successful than you ever imagined:

• Yourself
• Universal Law
• Multi-Media Internet Marketing

I can’t wait to share more with you, and I will next week, but like you, I’ve got work to do, kids to drive around…

Bye for now and take good care!
Charlene Murphy
www.goodlife-media.com