Advertising For Success

Andy Beard's Take on Twitter

10:17 PM

I have never met Andy Beard, yet I trust his opinion on all things having to do with Internet marketing, social media and general business. He is one of the most prolific writers I have met, but each post is packed with information you will not find anywhere else on the Internet. This latest post caught my attention because I use Twitter sometimes I wonder why.

Twitter Lists (part 1) – Twitter Wants Your Brand

. . . if you don’t have a Twitter account for your brand that is actively used (it is fairly safe to squat), it is highly likely that you will never have Twitter appear with realtime results for brand searches in the main SERP unless you are a trending topic.

Andy Beard provides information on optimizing for Twitter, yet he emphasizes that the Twitter appears to prefer name and brand in its ranking algorithm.

Take a moment and peruse http://andybeard.eu. It is well worth a look. I have put Andy's picture up so that if you see him at a conference, you may want to introduce yourself and attend any session with which he is associated.

Digg and Technorati : Who is driving this bus?

2:19 AM

Color me surprised. I tried to bookmark on Technorati using [add this] and was told they would hold my bookmark, but I could not really do anything at this time. The entire premise of the original program is gone. Technorati was one of the first blog post aggregators and ranking and social media site.

Next, I was flabbergasted when I tried to digg an article. This message displayed under settings said: PLEASE NOTE: We're migrating all your settings over to the new Digg. Unfortunately, your settings will be temporarily limited.

I have no idea what Technorati has planned nor what Digg has been doing since September 2009. I have a feeling that we are in store for some content writers. Or maybe baby blogs; they are very small but big on key words.

What makes me made is that I joined these programs years ago. My profile has ways to contact me. As a last option, you can visit any of my blogs or websites and contact me through Kontactor. Evidently, I do not have enough authority to be informed that everything is changing at the programs

I blog because of who I am. It brings me pleasure, I did not start out to be the latest marketing guru, Holly/Bollywood gossip, dirt slinging racist or Godless heathen. I do not capture demographic information or try to fill matrices with downlines. MLM equals pyramid scheme in my book.

I am a simple blogger who needs validation and readers. Common courtesy from programs to which I belong would be cool, too.

Got an App for Violating Your Privacy?!

2:31 PM

Before you download another "app for that," you may want to delve into how your number and other personal information is shared by these apps. The ease of use of these sophisticated communication devices, such as iPhone, Android and Blackberry, as well as the plethora of applications available, may be blinding users to privacy issues.

MediaPost Publications Mobile Apps Leak Consumer Data 08/02/2010-read complete article

Up to four million consumers of Android phones have downloaded wallpaper apps that take personal data from the phone and transmit it to a Chinese-owned server. A pair of developers created more than 80 wallpaper apps, including "callmejack" and "IceskYsl@1sters!" that have accessed personal data. One application sent data to a Web site in Shenzhen, China.

Lookout, a mobile security data company, found that dozens of Android applications (millions of downloads) often transmit confidential information without the user being aware of it. Information such as cell phone number, voice mail phone number, PIN and serial number of SIM card.

Lookout also scanned nearly 300,000 free applications for the Apple iPhone and other phones built around Google's Android software. Many of these applications also transmit personal data as well. Mobile apps on other platforms, including BlackBerry and Symbian, can also potentially gather sensitive data.