The new craze on the Internet is social networking. Being able to connect with people all over the world gives individuals tremendous power to accomplish good, but at the same time it’s a two edged sword; you can very quickly and with relative ease, make a fool of yourself and discredit all that you’ve worked to accomplish.

I think we’ve all witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly of social networking. We’ve probably also heard of the mishaps that have taken place because someone posted a bit much on Facebook or Twitter. A random party photo, or a snide comment about a co-worker or boss, can come back to haunt the individual.

In order to take advantage of the best social networking has to offer, we can’t just focus on doing the positive things, we have to also limit the negative things we do too. It’s like wanting to be rich, earning $500,000 dollars but then at the same time spending $500,000. In the end, your negative (spending) cancels the positive (earnings).

Social networking has some clear negatives to avoid, and good to do:

BAD: Irrelevant Updates: Unfortunately no one cares that you just woke up at 11 AM (actually, it makes you look lazy, and potential influential connections will look down upon these things). No one wants to know that you had cereal for breakfast, brushed your teeth, or walked the dog. Everybody does those things, so it’s nothing new, nothing important. There’s nothing wrong with the everyday things, but keep it minimal and interesting.

GOOD: Insightful Updates: Post about things you’re reading, comment on events, and what others have said. Updates are like free marketing, it is a great way for start-ups and companies to gain an underground following.  You can use it to broadcast updates, news and even articles and blog entries to the masses. Individuals can also use it to show their skills, talents, expertise, and by the value of your content, prove to others that you are worth the connection.

BAD: Insincere Connections: On more of the social variety of networks, it amazes me when people you haven’t spoken with in over 15 years request your ‘friendship’…only to turn around, after you accept, and never contact you again. Others post themselves on various sites just to be able to get more followers or contacts, just for the sake of numbers.

GOOD: Powerful Connections: Your contacts should be useful. You should stay connected with these people, comment on what they are working on, reading, actually stay in touch with them. When the time comes that you may need something, they will readily come to your aid. If you haven’t ever bothered to stay connected (other than just having the connection) there’s little chance that you’ll get any help. Show your worth and when your contacts need something, they’ll come to you.

BAD: Inaccurate Contact: If your contact information is old, and not up-to-date, it’s of no use to your contacts. If you have a Web site listed in your profile, keep it up-to-date. If you don’t have time to do that, make the site just a landing page with basic information on how to contact you.

GOOD: Up-to-date Contact: If you have work information, skills, experience, etc. keep that up to date too, you’ll be surprised how many people look at that and if the information is old you may miss some opportunities. I would suggest that you “Google” your name and see what is out there, then get to work at building your personal brand. Your personal brand is your name, if you have a common name it make take a little more work since there will be many other people doing the same time. Setup your basics, Web site (with your name [or a variation] as your domain name), Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GoogleProfile. Get your name out there, what you do, and how to contact you.

Taking some of these basic steps will ensure that you develop at strong, professional online profile that will be useful to you and not something that will handicap you in future opportunities. Developing an online profile through social networking will increase the influence you have from your normal social group of co-workers and friends to include a whole wide community of people with similar interests, skills, and experience throughout the world.

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There’s been a lot of changes recently to Internet security done mostly by browsers to improve the online safety of Web users. Even though I have a security background, I have some serious issues with the stance browsers and other technology companies have been taking in improving Internet security. My major concern is that not enough is being done to educate end-users.

I understand that there has always been an epic battle between businesses, tech people, and end-users, in regards to educating the everyday computer user. I know it has been a losing battle and understand that companies often resort to “well, if the user is going to be dumb, then I’ll just do everything I can to prevent them from making a mistake”. This mentality is, in an of itself, a mistake. Non-educated users are prone to finding innovative ways to make mistakes, regardless of the safeguards we put in place, despite the amount of preventive security that is put in place.

If you’ve ever seen a site that looks like this, you’ve been “saved” by a browser’s attempt to block “bad” sites. The problem with this is that your safety net, as a user, is dependent entirely upon a browser‘s ability to scan millions of sites and be able to differentiate between those that are good and those that are bad.

Unfortunately, browsers will never be able to catch all bad sites, some are going to get through and users will be defenseless. At some point, we will need to weight which losing battle we will want to fight. So far educating users has not been a popular choice of action, however, there are some changes in the horizon.

I came across a new Web site by Verisign, Phish or No Phish, which quizzes users on which sites are phishing Web sites, and which are real Web sites. It then promotes the use of EV (Extended Validation) SSL Certificates (the green bar on the browser) to identity secure domain names. I like that the approach taken was to educate the end-user on the reality of bad online and how to spot those sites that are bad. I also thought that the Verisign quiz was biased towards having users miss more questions than normal so that they can then show how bad the problem really is. Again, I have a security background and admit that I did not get 100% of the phishing sites on the quiz.

The problem, really, is that most phishing Web sites come from non-standard domain names for the company being copied. Verisign, on the otherhand, user man-in-the-middle (same domain name on both screenshots) for all but one of their quiz questions. Hate to break it to Verisign, but very little of the phishing sites out there operate this way. Most are coming from the garbage domain names. In any case, the overall, the positive effect here is that more emphasis is being placed on educating users.

As technology professionals we can only do so much. Eventually, our users will be left on their own and will have to stand on their own two legs, the question, then, is “will they do the right thing?” I certainly hope that we see more of this from technology companies.

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When starting out in a new area, you’re bound to get advice from all over the place. Family, friends, random people, supposed experts, how-to books and Web sites will all attempt to tell you “how to do it”. Whatever it is that you set out to do in this life, there is one phenomenon that remains the same. You are bound to achieve the most success by simply being yourself.

Don’t just settle for the “10 things to do” and “5 rules to always break” and “1 most whatever” as the de-facto standard to accomplishing greatness. Just remember, those who really have been accomplishing great things have blazed their own trails, dared to take a leap and try something new, something they felt they had inside and wanted to bring out to the world.

In a USNews online article, Curt Rosengren explains it as this:

When your work is out of alignment with who you are, it’s like having your wheels out of alignment and having to constantly put effort into adjusting the steering just so you can keep moving straight ahead.

On the other hand, when you are doing work that is aligned with who you are, you get energy from it. Not only do you not have to put energy into being who you’re not, the very act of doing that work energizes you. The resulting energy differential is huge.

It all boils down to this: you can never be anybody else half as well as you can be you. Keep that in mind as you plan the rest of your career, and you will discover a path that makes the most of your potential.

Whether your goal is business, educational, or personal, remember to just be yourself. “Copycat marketing” (just doing what others are doing) may work for a time, but it doesn’t set you apart from what else is out there. You are just one among a mass. Be yourself and you immediately have something unique to present.

There is a danger that when areas where there is repeated emergence without any significant unique additions being introduced, that the overall results, services, or products that are the outcome of the imputs will, without a doubt, diminish in its ability to satisfy. For example, think of the Web hosting industry. It’s a market that is extremely saturated and which has even more extremely tight margins for profit. Rarely are new, unique introductions made into the system. Without this, companies rely on simply upping the amount of the services given to its customers. In the end, it’s a fickle business because really, because it relies on the same tired approach to its product and services offering. I mean, does your every-day Web hosting customer really need 1 billion terabytes of storage space for their family Web site? Would they even be able to get that if they were to ever try and use it all? Is a hosting company that offers 60 Terabytes THAT much better than one that offers 59.9? At some point the tired outputs just don’t mean anything and we’re left wanting something more, something that’s actually satisfying.

It never hurts to pave the way by being unique, being yourself. There’s a popular Web viral video that has been seen over 6 million times by people online. “Everyday” by Noah Kalina, is genius. It is “marketing” at its best. The input is simple and unique. Yet, in the end, we’re left with admiration of ones dedication to a project. It’s a project that spurs conversation between people. You can see the Web site with the most up-to-date information here: http://everyday.noahkalina.com/

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