Gearheads: The Sterling Communications Blog

5 Facebook Widgets For Business Users

Check out this article from CRN: It leads with the "Golden Rule of business: it's not so much what you know, but also who you know.

"But do you know them on LinkedIn? Friendster? Facebook? MySpace? All of them?

Networking is an integral part of doing business, but online networking has changed the rules. Instead of spending (wasting?) hours shmoozing in smoke-filled lounges and cocktail parties, networking is as simple as a search and click to 'link' with people. Most of Facebook widgets are fluff and games, but Test Center bravely ventured forth and dug up a few that business users should consider."

Thousands of hyphens perish

Some of the 16,000 hyphenation changes in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, sixth edition:

Formerly hyphenated words split in two:

fig leaf
hobby horse
ice cream
pin money
pot belly
test tube
water bed

Formerly hyphenated words unified in one:

bumblebee
chickpea
crybaby
leapfrog
logjam
lowlife
pigeonhole
touchline
waterborne

My dad finally understands what I do all day!

First of all, I didn't realize my father reads the WSJ, but apparently he does! and he recently emailed me this article: Got a great Business? Spread the word. It talks about the benefits of a PR firm for SMBs... thought I'd share in case you parents are also still confused about what you do, despite many conversations at the dinner table whenever you go home for a visit.

Dilbert's on a Marketing/PR swing this week

check it out! Monday and Tuesday

Citizen news agenda differs from mainstream media

A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that the news agenda as defined by traditional media differs markedly from what citizens find important. Well, at least those citizens who contribute to sites like Digg and del.icio.us...

Of note, however, is the fact that during the time period of the study (7 days in June), just 1% of the stories featured on social news sites were user-generated. The blogsphere regularly predicts the imminent death of the mainstream media with an air of triumphalism if not outright glee. But before that becomes even a remote possibility, citizen journalists need to do a lot more original reporting that actually gets noticed.

"A new age of identity theft"

A man indicted in Seattle yesterday is being portrayed by prosecutors as the poster child for a new age of identity theft.

He used peer-to-peer file sharing programs to scan the hard drives of unsuspecting victims, harvesting bank and medical records which he then used to secure credit cards and loans.

According to the Seattle Times:

The Seattle resident allegedly used the peer-to-peer network to infiltrate hundreds of people's hard drives and steal tax returns, student financial-aid forms and other sensitive personal data. According to a federal indictment, Kopiloff then used that information to create bogus credit-card and bank accounts and illegally purchased thousands of dollars in merchandise.

..."We are entering a new age of identity theft," said Robert Boback, chief executive of Tiversa, a computer-security firm based in Pittsburgh that has conducted extensive research on peer-to-peer networks. "Tens of thousands of individuals make a living doing this."

Now that's good PR

Many years ago, I had about 15 seconds of fame because Steve Jobs called me at home after I raised a fuss about defects in the fabulous, and fabulously expensive, Mac Edsel ... er, I mean, G4 Cube ... that I'd recently bought. (Actually, all kidding aside, I loved that computer...) At the time, I remarked that while I was annoyed by the problems I was having, I was impressed by Jobs' call and didn't think Michael Dell was resolving too many customer issues personally. Yesterday, Apple dropped the price of the iPhone by $200. Good news, in general, but it pissed off a lot of people (including me) who had shelled out $599 for the device in the scant two months that it's been on the market. Today, Jobs announced a $100 rebate (details to be determined) for all early adopters of the iPhone. And I didn't even need to send him a nasty letter this time ... though it sounds like many other did. Sure, you could argue that Apple should have priced the iPhone more reasonably from the get go, but this is a masterful PR move that keeps the company's best customers happy. Just don't count on this becoming a trend among other technology companies...