Facebook's Privacy Settings... Not Much Privacy There.

Image Credit: AdnetworkSolutions.com

Is there anyone you know who isn't on Facebook yet? I doubt... Well, no one who matters anyway! I kid. I kid. I think with Facebook being the most popular social network almost everywhere, there is no doubt you'll be running into most people that you know, and probably most of those are after things to gossip about.

That's where the privacy settings play a big role... making sure that those annoying people you want to keep out of your business in real life are still out of your business online without rudely ignoring them (Yeah I'm sure that each one of us had to at least accept a friendship request from a few people we don't really want to be friends with but couldn't quite have the nerves to ignore them because we know it'll be awkward when we happen to run into them somewhere).

Now who hasn't been bothered by the way Facebook keeps changing their privacy settings almost to make it impossible for you to hide anything at all! Obviously some didn't care, but at least 36,042 people were so angry that they decided to quit facebook on May 31st as seen on www.QuitFacebookDay.com. With over 400 Million accounts on Facebook, that number seems too little to make a difference.

However, it seems that it wasn't actually as Facebook rolled out its new simplified privacy settings on May 26th. Now I wonder how many of those actually did quit after that since the website served them only notifications to deactivate their accounts on that day but can't actually take measure to automatically deactivate the accounts for them. Saying you are going to quit smoking doesn't actually mean you've quit!

Surely I wasn't too surprised as I've predicted the new change in privacy settings shortly before it was announced as I gave an interview to Saudi Gazette which was published on Friday, 28th of May, reported by Afifa Jabeen. For my personal opinion and tips on privacy settings, check out the article here. 

I'd be glad to hear your opinion on this as well and how you make sure your privacy is protected.

Top 5 Smartest Brands

I'm a branding fanatic, thankfully not a brand addict or I'd go very broke very fast. You would think that unless you're in marketing, you wouldn't care much about brands and the philosophy that goes behind them, but we're all parts of brands whether we know it, want it, or can't care less about it!

In my daily interactions with brands as a consumer (or usually an observer, depends on how much cash I have), I've come to think of brands as people: they can be funny or serious, interesting or boring, stupid or smart...

I thought it would be fun if I made a list of brands that I think are smart, whether seriously or sarcastically. Try to figure out which is which since I still couldn't buy the SarcMark.

5 Facebook

It has come a long way since 2007 with over 400 million users as per its latest statistics. It's a brand that managed to convince over 400 million people worldwide of the "necessity" of belonging to it, and coming in interaction with it by using it for 55 minutes a day on average. It started as a closed network for Ivy League University students, grew into a wider network for family, friends, colleagues, and classmates, and now it has developed into a book of records where the world posts its status updates, photos, videos, links, and others, and basically lay your life out there for everyone to see. How smart is it really? Well I recall getting to know someone on Twitter and asking him to connect on Facebook, to which he said he doesn't have a facebook, to which I replied: "OH MY GOD! Who doesn't have a Facebook in these times?! It's a MUST!". He asked why it's a must, I couldn't give a satisfactory answer in 140 character, and that's why Facebook is ranked 5.

4 FarmVille

Why is it smart? Apparently because it has convinced over 80 million people that online farming is so cool and irresistible that they have to spend hours every day tending to it, and making it bigger and bigger as if the end prize is actually a real farm of its equivalence. I find it smart how 80 million people find it more enjoyable to make a hundred clicks a day at a cold screen than to buy a small plant, water it every other day and actually see it and feel it grow. Why is it smarter than Facebook? because I suspect that those users spending 55 minutes on Facebook spend that time farming, harvesting, milking cows, finding stray animals and sending them as gifts to those who haven't converted to "FarmVillism" yet.

3 Twitter

Twitter started in 2008 as a means for people to update their statuses in 140 characters or less with personal information (where they are, what they are eating, what they are doing, etc.) for their family and friends to read. However, now, that's practically the one reason you won't be using Twitter for! Now, Twitter has an army of 3rd applications supporting many uses to make it much more than just a 140 characters status updating tool, and 10 Billion tweets are there to prove it. It's becoming much more like Facebook but without the annoyance of having to ignore requests from friends and strangers that you don't really want to connect with, and also very useful if you just want to connect to someone without giving them the choice to ignore you. Yeah, it goes both ways! So it's smarter than Facebook because it became huge with out actually putting forth much effort, you gotta appreciate that!

2 Google

Why is Google smart? Seriously? Just google that question and you'll definitely get an answer! Oh, hold on, let me try it. Ok, I got 119,000,000 results but none of them really answers the question so let me do it. Google basically has become the equivalent of internet. Can you actually think of internet without getting the image of Google as the homepage?! That's just from the personal perspective. On the business level, all websites are fighting and competing for Google's attention as if nothing exists beyond it. Not to mention all the services that Google has (Google Docs, Google Maps, etc) that basically you'd find it hard to function without. So with such huge signficance why isn't it number 1?! Well have you seen Google Buzz!

1 Apple

Why is it smart?! Ask any Apple user, but get ready for a 30 minutes enthusiastic monologue on the greatness and awesomeness of Apple products! There's just something about Apple that turns its users into fanatics whose answer for ANY problem is "Get an iPhone/Mac/iPod...". Try it. Strategically distance yourself within an earshot of an Apple user and complain about something random like "I had trouble waking up early today and my coffee was too hot", they'd hurry over to you and excitingly suggest you get an iPhone, because, after all, there must be an app for that! So, yes, Apple is the smartest brand of all time because of its effortless ability to turn every consumer into an annoying persistent sales representative, and that not only without paying them to do so, but by even overcharging them for products!

So those were what I consider to be the top 5 smartest brands. What are yours? And in what order?

4 Easy Tips For the Social-Business Networkers

image credit: Businesswest

It is in our human nature to form relationships and bond with other people who share our interests or networks. Yes, no newsflash there. And perhaps the most rewarding type of relationship-building and networking is professional business networking. I don't mean rewarding monetarily only; it is only through business networking that we are able to grow professionally and improve our performance which helps us attain job satisfaction and thus reflecting on our personal life alike. When is the last time you saw someone with a lousy job cheering about how happy he/she is!

Now I can say with utmost assertiveness that all of us business networkers, and especially the younger ones like me, must be thrilled with how social networks have made it a lot easier (and much more fun!) to find, meet, and interact with professionals from all over the globe with no restrictions. And I just wrote a post earlier about how thrilled I am with this, titled "Doing Business Naked" and I encourage you to read it and cast in your vote for the ending question.

However, as I already mentioned in that post, there are certain limitations that you should keep in mind when you're socially getting involved with your business contacts. And here I present them to you as tips based on my personal opinion and experience:n

1. Just because your business contact befriended you on a social network, that doesn't mean he/she is your new best friend. Don't rant to them about your latest tech shopping spree, and certainly don't cry to them about your relationship problems. Maybe you aren't saying that directly to them, but you might be publishing it! To avoid that your business contacts read stuff they aren't supposed to be reading: a) stop sharing them b) or control your privacy settings. For example, on Facebook you can create a friend list for business contacts only and always edit the settings of something before you publish it. I could recommend you to have two facebook accounts, one for professional use and one for fun and going wild, but that can really be difficult and time-consuming, and you'll probably end up sacrificing one on account of the other.
2. Just because you don't have to be formal, it doesn't mean you can be rude. You don't need to call a business contact by his/her last name, but you can't start calling them "dude/chick; buddy/woman". Those things might not sound so bad to you, but they are very bad if it's someone you don't really know well or for long. You can and should be friendly and casual, but don't disrespect the other person. And I might be pointing the obvious here, but you also shouldn't: a) cuss, b) talk dirty c) flirt shamelessly d) use foul languages, etc. To put it clearly, I will quote Scott Stratten (the creator and owner of UnMarketing, and a pretty cool guy on Twitter @unmarketing) saying: "Don't tweet anything you wouldn't want to see on a billboard with your name/face/logo/phone # and your mom driving by."
3. Don't overwhelm your contacts with your contributions. Some great tips to use when interacting with new people are to learn a bit about their interests to find commonalities between you, comment on things they share constructively, or even compliment some things you like about them (surely without faking it!). But PLEASE don't overdo it. It is so repelling when I add a new contact then find them messaging me, emailing me, leaving me comments etc. over 10 times a day before I have time to reply! Of course that would be amazing if they were constructively commenting on my posts. Don't just email your contacts or leave them messages repeatedly in a short time interval even before giving them a chance to respond to your first email or message. Always keep your interaction with them in the beginning to a minimum so you don't make them feel like they are being smothered by you.
4. Be as nice as you are, unless you are overnice. I don't know how many people out there are like me, but when someone I only recently added to my network starts stalking my every move and talking about how great/special/impressive I am as a person (even though they don't know me well enough to judge), it starts creeping me out because I think: a) they're either faking it because they want something in return or b) they have a secret shrine for me where they worship me and finally intend to sacrifice me to gain blessings. Even if I'm wrong about both reasons, it'd still be very uncomfortable for your contact to have a stranger adoring everything about him/her and firing grandiose compliments at him/her back to back until he/she has nothing back to say after expiring all the thank-you lines. And one more point, we appreciate you being super-nice and complimenting everything and everyone, but I'm sure you don't want people to feel obliged to fake-compliment you back.

At the end, you can be yourself and have fun until it starts annoying your contacts (and trust me, you'd know if they think you're annoying). And always remember that not all people are alike, some contacts might welcome any behavior and attitude, while others might still prefer formality and professionalism online as much as offline. You just need to know who you're dealing with first!