The Danger of Identity Theft

Any business owner or even every single person should be well-conscious of the current state of identity theft. And we all must know how important it is to to protect your customers and your own business from fraud to maintain its well-known reputation and stable development.

What is identity theft?

Identity theft is defined as the fraud of someone to make money from using your confidential document or illegally enter any transaction under your identity. An example can be the “credit card cloning”. The culprit may use someone else’ information and apply for credit cards, bank accounts to buy items through the Internet, One other of the most common identity theft cases is tax fraud and scams that may be greatly damaging under any tax season no matter how safe and secured your personal info is. Specifically, the identity thieves use made-up Social Security Numbers (SNN) randomly and file the tax forms to try to claim any possible return. And sadly, the chances of being the random victim can be you.

The consequences can be terrific and time-consuming for anyone, which which can lead to nonstop amount of unknown debts, bankruptcy, etc. Even worse, solving your identity theft case or reversing the harm from the fraud is also as troublesome as it can go for years to settle.

Facts of Identity Theft

Frank Agagnale once said, ‘the police can't protect everyone. Individuals should be more mindful and instructed about identity fraud or theft. You should be a little bit wiser, and smarter; plus, nothing is wrong with being skeptical. We live in a world where if you make it easy for someone to steal from you, they will eventually.’ And I believe this always stays true. Up until now, there have been over 8,513,000 identity theft victims worldwide, which is happening every two seconds. Identity theft is a growing serious issue in the United States which has risen alarmingly over the last decades. Another surprising fact is that currently, medical sector has been on top of those that have data stolen by identity thieves since five years ago. Hence, protecting your own health insurance is as crucial as your SSN.

How do you protect your identity from being theft?

This question must be constantly asked right after the frightening facts above have been shown.Fortunately, there are many easy and effective ways to protect yourself. First of all, having the  best paper shredders  can be the foremost solution to dispose of any sensitive information and that info will stay safe and secured within your organization. Other possible ways can be regularly checking your credit reports to let your bank know about any suspecting spending amount, strengthening your passwords and well securing any of your contact information or important accounts. Personally, I would recommend that you change your passwords for any highly-secured accounts every 6 months. Also, you should be smart and wary in using social media because there have been plenty of scams online. Social media has become tremendously so popular that even a company will look at the profiles of their job candidates through those media sites. Hence, people tend to upload most of their personal data but forget that they themselves make it easier for scammers to duplicate their information.

By implementing these steps, any top secret documents such as employee files, social security numbers, banking details, medial insurance information, and addresses cannot be stolen and frauded. If you can secure yourself first, the chance of the information being stolen can be surely eliminated. And your company can avoid being sued for violating regulations on information protection. Likewise, Bill Nelson once said, “If we don’t act now to safeguard our privacy, we could all become the victims of identity theft”.

Criminals look at identity theft and say only 1 in 700 criminals gets convicted of it. And they look at check forgery and they know that for every 1,400 forgers arrested, only about 123 get convicted and about 26 go to jail. So the rewards are great, but the risks are very slim. So that's one of the reasons that make it very popular.

Facebook Will Now Translate Page Posts

You don't need to post bilingual posts on facebook as the social media giant brings a new technology that will allow users to read posts on their preferred languages.

The AI-powered translation tool has been tested from the beginning of the year by the company owners and had been made available to certain facebook users and now has been made available to the public. The company already had a translation engine as many frequent users have noticed on the social network but this move by Facebook will bring an improvement to translation of text into a variety of languages to allow easily accessibility to some pages and services on the platform.

This amazing tool by Facebook is currently limited only to desktop users which lets users select from a variety of languages while composing a post. The post will be published in the language that has been selected by the the composer but it will appear to readers in the language that they prefer for example, English will be automatically to translated to Spanish to a Spanish Facebook user, so users will receive posts in the languages that they prefer.

The translation feature is available to those who are managing pages already, so if you are using a page then you check activate it on your page setting as the feature going through even though it is made available to use. the feature can be enabled in the language section on Facebook settings and also on the page settings.

If you have something interesting to add to this story please feel free to share with us in the comments box below and wish you the best week ahead.

10 Effective Tips on Creating Shareable Social Media Content

What makes content go viral on social media? Is it the shock value or is it relevance? Think about why you remember some posts and not others, and you will see that there is no simple answer. If you have a definite purpose for sharing content other than sheer exuberance, then you need to know how to create effective social media content that suits your needs. Here are some tips to which you should pay attention.

Target your audience

Social networks are geared for particular types of people. Some prefer one social network over another. When you are creating your content, you have to identify your target market so you know what social network will respond more readily to your posts. However, more importantly, you should know your target market thoroughly. You should know their habits, needs, wants, prejudices, and psychology. In other words, you should know where the buttons are so you can push them.

Write stuff they want to read

If you know your target market, you can create content that they will read. You should still keep in mind your purpose for posting (brand awareness, content marketing etc.) but make sure that it is a good fit for your audience. It should offer useful advice, interesting information or entertainment.

Aside from utility, you should strive to get your audience to make an emotional investment in your post. Encourage them to participate in the conversation and to air their opinions. Respond promptly to them and always conclude with an open-ended question. It keeps them coming back for more. You will get more shares that way, which is what you want.

Keep it bite-sized

Create several short posts as opposed to one long chunk. You can overwhelm your audience, if you give them too much information in one helping. Some important information of what you want to say may also get lost in the crowd. Isolate one or two ideas, expound on it in detail and lead them to check your next post for more information. It is easier to digest and remember, and, more importantly, it is much more shareable.

Make it visual

Content is not just about what you say, but what other people see. Pay close attention to how your post looks; it should be easy to scan and follow. People have a tendency to abandon articles that look too hard to read. Avoid long paragraphs; it should have no more than three to five sentences. Lead off with an interesting visual or break up long entries with an illustration. Giving your reader’s eyes a break will keep them engaged.

Use high quality language

You may have something really important or valuable to say, but may not have the skills or time to put a great article together.  They say the mark of a good leader is the ability to delegate. For example, you target Australian women for your marketing campaign and you have a difficult time choosing the right words that would appeal to them. You can outsource content creation at Australian writings to native speakers and professional writers to ensure that you are turning out high quality work. You may also write the content yourself and contract an expert to edit and proofread your content. 

Encourage sharing

You want your content to get as much exposure as possible. That is the whole purpose of social media marketing. You can make it easy for your reader to share your excellent article with their friends by providing them with a Share button. You can even encourage them to do so by offering incentives such as giving them freebies for sharing.

Provide a sharing platform

There is nothing easier to create than a post that gives your audience a chance to share their own accomplishments or experiences. Solicit them to submit photos or videos of their creations, travels, families, and so on. You can make it a contest of it if you want, but it is not always necessary. People enjoy attention, and take every opportunity to get it, even for a little while. When they tag your post or share it so their friends and family can see it, it gives you more exposure.

Engage influencers

There are people who have the credibility and ability to sway public opinion. As a social media marketer, one of your most important tasks is to identify these individuals and get on their good side. Persuade them to share or endorse your content by following them, quoting them or otherwise stroking their ego. At the very least, avoid antagonizing, contradicting or challenging their opinions. They can either make or break you, so tread carefully.

Build trust

You can also become an influencer in your particular niche, if you build a relationship with your audience. Many people engage in social media to get expert advice, so a good way to build trust and rapport with the audience is to provide them with what they need. You can give troubleshooting advice or point them in the right direction to solve their issues. Cultivate a personal approach when answering questions or inquiries so that you appear friendly and approachable. Avoid the temptation to pitch to them at every opportunity; this can harm your credibility. Always provide objective advice; they are more likely to believe you when you do make a pitch.

Tag away

Do not hesitate to tag other people in your post, even if they are not influencers, if they posted something you can connect to your business. Most people find it flattering, and very few will pass over content that specifically mentions them. It will encourage them to like, comment on, or share your post. Tagging is also a good way to get the attention of potential clients if they are already looking for your product or service.  It gives you a foot in the door, and you are doing them a service besides. Nothing is more satisfying than mutual satisfaction.

Creating content that will make a splash on social media is not easy. There are flukes, of course, but in most cases, it requires patience, careful study and a sound strategy to build a presence that can positively affect your business. If you follow the tips given above, and get professional help when you need it, there is no reason why you cannot create content other people will share on social media. 

  

Stephanie Norman from Sydney has been a content marketing specialist and professional writer for 4 years already. She writes business, creative, and academic content as a freelancer. You can follow her at Facebook and Google+.


 

Pinterest Hits 100 million Users

Pinterest has hit a very huge growth recently after its marketing campaign in March 2015, which has made them to break the 100 million daily users milestone.

The addiction to the pinterest network has increased as it had on imstagram as the app has reached over 100 million active monthly users which has increased it market value to over $11 Billion USD which has it to

It is confirmed that about 70% of the 100 million monthly active users on Pinterest are not there for pins and other related things but usaully visit the social network for saving links or clicking on to learn more. The number of Pinterest searches has grown to 70% last year as confirmed by the company.

With this increase of monthly active users, the number of daily pins have increased to 24 million pins shared by the users.

Pinterest has become more of a place where users want to share the products they want to buy online and sharing online for reviews on what they want to purchase online while at the other hand advertisers have been finding Pinterest useful when it comes to promoting products on the internet. Pinterest has introduced sponsored pins which appear on the users news feed, the sponsored pins are usaully used by businesses to share their products on the app.

Pinterest has shown a big growth but it probably far from the rivals Twitter and Instagram which are above three times as Pinterest. Follow us on Pinterest @ajaxsurf, wish you the best user experience on the App.

Facebook Working on a 'Dislike' button

The long waited for 'Dislike' button which many Facebook users have been waiting for, has been confirmed by the CEO Mark Zuckerburg as one of their plans for development.

In 2009  Facebook was tempted by some users who were suggesting the company to bring out a "Dislike"
Button which will look like an inverted like button. Facebook did not accept the 'Dislike' button because it was believed that the button would not sound good to other users as many may feel bad or harassed when their posts were disliked, but due to many requests by the social network users Facebook has no choice but to make the 'Dislike' button to all of the app users.

This button is believed to be a disaster by many media houses as they believe that this button will not go well as other social networks have used it before but did not work very well as planned, this button will eventually cause a reduce on the self esteem of some users causing them to not post often on their walls as they might fear of getting more dislikes than likes.

Mark Zuckerburg believes that the Dislike should not be used to express discouragement but instead it should be used to impress sympathy, not to make others feel bad about their post. The 'dislike' button is designed to show compassion not to show hatred or any form of disrespect towards other users. As Zuckerburg confirmed that with the dislike button they are surely not intended to turn facebook into a forum where users will like or dislike, but to use the 'dislike' button to show compassion.

With the Facebook 'Dislike' button rolling out in the next months, what do you have to say about this great move by Facebook. Please feel free to leave your views in the comment box below.

Google and Twitter team up to Bring Instant Articles

Google and Twitter team up to bring instant articles, which will be displayed only for mobile users.

Recently Facebook, Apple and Snapshot have introduced an “instant article” feature which is designed to give instant articles to the site mobile users. This move by Google and Twitter will allow mobile users to get instant content delivered to their mobile smartphones without having visit the publishers sites.

This move by Google will favour many bloggers and publishers online as the instant articles will be snapshots which will be taken from different online sources, this move has not found favour with some sites from around the world as it is believed that it will cause many sites to lose traffic as readers will not have visit the internet for articles but will have to read articles from snapshots.

There are critics by many publishers as it will cost them a lot of revenue as readers might not be able to to visit the home pages of these sites, which will cause high drops of traffic.

Publishers also had to criticize this move as Facebook introduced instant articles which caused many publishers to complain about this move by tech companies as they use Facebook and Twitter to get traffic, and with the introduction of instant articles many sites are to be affected.

This automatic articles will not be branded or have any attributes on them but will rarely be snapshots that could be easily read by the mobile users.

The plans of Google and Twitter are far more different than those by Facebook and Apple as they are have not stated about the revenue that can be given to the publishers as they will be using snapshots. The Good news about the Facebook instant articles is that publishers will get 100% of the Ad revenue generated by their content.

Facebook will be turning Pages into an Online Mall

The social media giant Facebook has made things easier for marketers and companies as they have made headlines as by turning the app into an estore.

At first it was shopify which allowed users to promote product through facebook which was not a success, now Facebook pages will now have services and shopping section which will allow companies to easily sell both their products and services without leaving the social network.

Facebook which is a home to over 50 million pages will now make things easier for page administrators by allowing them to sell on Facebook, this was tested by Facebook two months ago and the implementation has been confirmed by the company COO, Sheryl Sandburg. The company is believed to change the way ecommerce works as it will cause many clients to abondone many ecommerce sites into joining Facebook and using it to sell their services and prices.

This will allow retailers to sell their products on Facebook and many other services such as plumbing, garden services and many other things will be easily done on Facebook. The new features are currently being tested by a group of retail businesses and some of the features will be released to Facebook in the next comming weeks.

Facebook will surely takeover some blogs with this move as they will be adding some special estore features such as the "add to cart" , "Buy now" and the "donate button" which will allow non profit organisations to recieving funds directly from Facebook.

Facebook is looking forward to improve the seller and customer relationship by including contact buttons which will appear on the page, Facebook as a social network will allow customers to contact, call or send messages direct to the retailers. This imptovements by Facebook are believed to improve the user rate of facebook as many bloggers and online retailers will be turning into Facebook due to its wide upcomming ecommerce services.

Governments want your personal data, Twitter Confirms Requests have increased by over 52%

Well user privacy cannot be guaranteed these days as governments have seen social networks as an advantage of which they can easily access user data. Social Networking sites have been attacked by governments requesting user data for conducting investigations. These sites includes Twitter, Facebook, Google plus, Linkedin and Whatsapp.

In the recent months facebook was made to release the data which belonged millions of users to the united states government and to the other regions of Europe and now Twitter is getting the sting to do the same. Twitter has confirmed that the requests have increased by over 52% in the first half of this year.

The senior manager of Twitter   Jeremy Kessel have confirmed on the Twitter Blog stating that this is the biggest data request ever to be submitted to twitter, within the June to August period request have increased 56% internationally as governments want to access peoples profile data.

The largest requesters of user data has been USA, Japan and China with USA having over 50% of the data request followed by Japan and China both sitting at 10% while the other international governments fill the the remaining 30% of the data requests. The United Kingdom and Turkey maintian an avarage of 8% data requests making them one of the major countries that are forcing Twitter to release user data.

Twitter has refused to give user data to some international countries as they had to strongly protect the user privacy, Turkey and Brazil are among the countries with rejected orders, Turkey standing with over 768  court orders and Brazil with only 17 court orders.

The Twitter live streaming service Periscope have received over 1391 copyright takedown which have been made by Governments which are fighting for the release of user data for investigations. These takedowns have been done in the last six months since the beginning of 2015 to an unbelievable 1391 requests in a short amount of time.

Twitter publishes most of thesevgovernment takedowns on the web site known as the Chilling Effects which you can use to see recent data requests sent on Twitter.

Facebook Launches Live Streaming For Famous People

It is one of the Biggest moves by Facebook as they had launched their first Live video Streaming at it launch which was done on Wednesday.

The Live video streaming will be restricted to famous people only which will mostly depend on the the number of followers you have on your facebook page. This video streaming service will be added in the Facebook mentions which was launched in 2014 to improve engagements between the celebrities and the their fans whereby they can respond to their followers questions and comments.

The Facebook Live feature will show up in you timeline whenever a celebrity that you are following decides to go live and while watching the broadcast you will be able to  like, share or comment without having to get desrupted.

Accessing the Facebook Live feature will really be  easy as the celebrities will only have to go the the mentions feature, select the post option and from the option they will have to select Live Video to start broadcasting their video whenever they feel like. Celebrities will also be able to see how many users are tuning in the broadcast by easily toggling with their rear camera. Broadcasted videos will be automatically saved to the Facebook Page after the live broadcast. The broadcasts will show on the News Feed as seen on the image below and whenever the fan clicks on the video, the video will start playing.

Facebook had a video hosting service which was available all users which was hosted by a 3rd party service not Facebook, Celebrities were able to share video on Facebook until the Facebook Live feature was introduced to Facebook which will fully be controlled by Facebook.

The First Celebs to use the live video sreaming service were Dwayne Johnson aka "The Rock", Serena Williams,  and Martha Stewart who were to promote the Facebook video Streaming service on it wednesday launch by going live using the Facebook live feature.

Google Plus to Split up in The Next Months

On Monday Google plus have confirmed that they will be improving the quality of their service by splitting their social network into different categories to improve growth.

This development by Google plus has been sparked by the social media improvements that have been brought by Facebook and Twitter to help them improve user commitment as they have added new customizations which has divided the social network. Things that were done on services like youtube using a Google profile will no longer require a Google profile which means that Youtube users will not use a Google account to comment on the youtube streaming service.

This change was being inspired by Google after it social network failed to match up with the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin which are the most broad growing networks as they have even improved recently making Google plus to stay behind as one of the least networks. These changes by the Google plus team are believed to bring its network to a good position as they are to seperate the Well known Photos, Youtube and Hangouts, away from the social network itself making it a stand alone.

The well known Google plus profile will not be visible on search engines which means that you profile searchable or followable which is the biggest change by Google plus . Among the major changes by Google plus is Youtube as the video sharing service will be one of the big companies to experience the changes as the comments made on youtube will no longer be linked to the users Google+ profiles as confirmed on the Youtube Blog . Youtube users will continue be allowed to use the Google plus profile to share videos until Google confirms the deadline date.

Google plus users are currently motivated not to stop using youtube, Photos and other services to be affected by the updates as the big changes will take months before they are implemented on the network.