RebelMouse Creates a Collage of Your Digital Life

With more and more social networks popping up daily, many Americans find themselves with so many different sites to check and manage and not enough time to do so. Enter RebelMouse, a self-dubbed “social front page” that lets users add content from other social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The site, which is part of Soho Tech Labs, an incubator funded by Lerer Ventures, serves as a sort of hub for users' social media content. All of the different updates come together and create a Pinterest-style collage of a user's digital life. Users can choose to have their tweets, Instagram photos, and other social content upload to RebelMouse automatically, but they can also add stories and move around the content on their page so they have more control over how it looks.

The purpose of the site is to help you create a page where other users can get a glance at your overall social media presence. If you often share about politics, technology, and startups, for instance, someone can take a look at your RebelMouse page and see that you often talk about those topics and then decide if they'd like to subscribe to your updates on Facebook or follow you on Twitter.

Says CEO, Paul Berry:

“What people share on social networks is now a part of their identity, but their sites don't show that.  RebelMouse allows everyone to create a truly social site in minutes.”

Currently, RebelMouse has more than 25,000 sites and is growing quickly, according to Berry, who got the idea for RebelMouse when he was CTO of the Huffington Post:

“This is really just the beginning.  We'll be adding more networks and more design options so your RebelMouse can be as customized as you'd like. Soon we're releasing the ability to read content from those you follow on RebelMouse and we'll eventually help you find the best in your network. We also will help people power their own domains through RebelMouse.”

Oracle security advisory addresses Black Hat database flaw disclosure

Oracle Corp. has issued a security advisory addressing a serious vulnerability in its database server that a prominent researcher disclosed at the 2012 Black Hat Briefings.

Technical details of this vulnerability have been very widely disclosed and one can easily find sample exploit code over the Internet.

Eric Maurice, director of software security assurance, Oracle Corp.

The database giant said the privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE 2012-3132) can be exploited remotely to gain system privileges. The user would have to use credentials to pull off a successful SQL injection attack. Oracle is urging users to deploy the patch as soon as possible. The component that would be targeted in an attack is included in the Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Enterprise Manager and Oracle E-Business Suite.

"The attacker needs to have credentials and specific privileges, including the 'Create Table' privilege, in order to create the exploit conditions," wrote Eric Maurice, director of software security assurance at Oracle. "Oracle recommends that organizations apply this Security Alert as soon as possible because the technical details of this vulnerability have been very widely disclosed and one can easily find sample exploit code over the Internet."

The issue affects Oracle Database Server versions 10.2.0.3, 10.2.0.4, 10.2.0.5, 11.1.0.7, 11.2.0.2 and 11.2.0.3. The July 2012 Critical Patch Update addressed the issue for users of versions 11.2.0.2 and 11.2.0.3.

David Litchfield, one of the industry's top database security consultants, demonstrated several proof-of-concept attacks targeting indexing flaws in the Oracle database management server at Black Hat. He showed how to create a condition to elevate his privileges to the database administrator (DBA) level. System privileges enable the attacker to manipulate database indexing records or to change and delete tables remotely via SQL injection.

Litchfield also demonstrated attacks using vulnerabilities that were reported and patched as long as two years ago. The expert said the flaws are still useful because many organizations fail to deploy them in a timely manner or fail to test and deploy patches altogether.

Older versions of Oracle DBMS are also vulnerable, but won't likely receive an update, said Alex Rothacker, director of security research at New York City-based database security vendor Application Security Inc. In a blog entry providing analysis of the vulnerability, Rothacker said that system privileges are typically granted to DBAs, application developers and others.

"In order to perform the exploit, one needs to have CREATE TABLE and CREATE PROCEDURE privileges as well as EXECUTE privileges on the DBMS_STATS package," Rothacker wrote. "Many common software packages don't implement proper separation of duties and grant the app account excessive privileges which can be used to exploit this vulnerability."

Should You Become a B Corp?

When most businesses think about incorporating, they consider S corps, C corps or LLCs. But there's an emerging alternative for business owners who want to tie their corporate goals to not just finances, but societal good.

The B Corp, officially called Benefit Corporation, is a legal structure that requires businesses to not only generate profits but also create social and environmental benefits.

Starting with Maryland in 2010, eight U.S. states now offer the B Corp structure and several more are considering legislation to adopt it. (A nonprofit called B Lab, which advocates for B Corp laws, also allows any business to be voluntarily certified as a B Corp.)

Some states have also adopted other similar types of corporate structures, including flexible purpose companies (FlexC) and low-profit LLCs (L3Cs). Check out this slideshow by Harvard adjunct professor Kyle Westaway to learn more about these different structures.)

Under the state laws, B Corps must include social and environmental goals in their bylaws and put out an annual report that explains how well they've performed those goals. It's a way to ensure that the business is just as committed to generating social and environmental good as it is to generating profits.

As the B Corp structure gets more acceptance, more businesses are using it to show their commitment to environmental and social strong practices. Outdoor apparel company Patagonia incorporated as a B Corp in California early this year. Read this Wall Street Journal piece about several other companies that have as well.

Becoming a B Corp. offers several potential benefits to businesses that care about sustainable business practices. Here are a few to consider:

1. Walking the talk. Being a B Corp. is another way to show your customers your genuine commitment to ethical business practices. Not only are you promising, but your legal structure requires it.
2. Continuity of commitment. Once you've incorporated as a B Corp., you and future owners of your business will be bound to following the rules. It's a way to ensure the commitment you've made to sustainable practices extends well into the future
3.  Standing out. Businesses with a B Corp structure stand out from competitors by showing a higher level of commitment to environmental or social responsibility.

All said, however, not everyone is convinced that B Corps are worth it. Environmental and social goals can certainly be attained without the B Corp structure. Some critics also worry how B Corps will be viewed by potential investors who might be looking at the financial implications of being a B corp.

What do you think about B Corps? Have you considered a B Corp structure for your business, or would you?

B Corp Photo via Shutterstock

Three Reasons Why Online Video Is The New Direction For Businesses

Not too long ago, people started putting down their newspapers and listening to the radio. The transition from radio to television happened shortly thereafter. While new forms of media don't necessarily cancel out their predecessors, the market becomes diluted and it starts to become more diverse as people look into other directions to get their information and entertainment. Back in the early 90s, no one really used Internet video much. Only 20 years later, we're practically living on YouTube.

A study recently conducted by Ad-ology Research shows that 45 percent of businesses plan on getting more involved in online video through the year 2012. If businesses really get serious about this, video is about to become a very competitive venue for marketing,  if it hasn't become this way already.

Of course, you want to know the reasons why you should get your feet wet with online video. Here are some reasons given by Michael Mills, executive producer at TeleStory Pictures:

1. People find it far easier to watch a video than read an article or copy on a website. A growing number of executives are trending this way preferring to watch video presentations over reading the same information.
2. Video is both visual and auditory which touches more of our senses and connects us emotionally with a brand message. That can have a huge payoff when it comes to increasing a company's products and services revenue. Consider the recent Subaru commercials.
3. Lastly, and most importantly â€" Video can build instant trust and rapport! It allows the viewer to connect with products and services by seeing them in action. Additionally, it allows viewers to connect with the personalities or personnel of a company helping them quickly decide if they spend their hard-earned-money with that particular company. According to Internet Retailer 52% of consumers say watching a video of a product makes them feel more confident with an online purchase (Internet Retailer, 2012).

Basically, if you want to relate to your clients in a meaningful way, there has to be a lot more to your online presence than some text and images on a screen. You'll need to tell your story in an audiovisual way to reach deeper into your customers' emotional centers. Services like TeleStory Pictures can help you. But if you are a DIY kind of person, start hitting the books and learn about lighting and camera placement. You'll quickly discover that there's a lot more to proper filming than simply pointing a camera at a person or object!

Bootstrapping In The Age Of Automation And Outsourcing

Bootstrapping stories always excite me, and what Sean Broihier has done with Fine Art America is nothing short of amazing. Let me start by saying that Broihier doesn't have an art background. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in mechanical engineering.

His first venture, Local Automation, a website designed for engineers, still exists today. Broihier followed that with the company he heads today, Fine Art America. One thing that sets Fine Art America apart from other online companies is how few people it takes for a company to generate $5M+ in revenue.

Broihier's introduction to computers came early in his life. He taught himself, with the help of a book, how to program BASIC on a Tandy TRS-80 computer that his parents owned. He continued to dabble in programming throughout high school and developed a fascination for the idea of programming for the Internet when Netscape came out in the late 1990s.

Despite his fascination for programming, Broihier spent 10 years working as an engineer in New Jersey, the desire for entrepreneurship tugging at him the whole time.

By 2005, Broihier decided to give in to his desire to be an entrepreneur and founded Local Automation, a marketplace for engineering firms that allowed them to advertise their products on the Internet. The idea for Fine Art America came to mind while he was helping out his brother, who owned an art gallery. Every time an artist put out a new piece, planned to do an in-store appearance, or changed a price on something, Broihier's brother would call him to update his website.

It was then that Broihier realized there were artists and photographers all over the world who wanted an easy way to get their artwork online to sell. So, he re-purposed the code from the engineering website and launched Fine Art America in 2007.

Fine Art America's print-on-demand business model is ideal for artists and photographers from all over the world who get to name their own prices for the work they upload to Broihier's site. Buyers can select and customize the artwork and photographs that they want to purchase all through Fine Art America. The consumers pay for everything, artwork or photograph, mats and frames.

FineArtAmerica makes its money by marking up the prices of the frames and mats, which the company gets at wholesale prices.

The artists and photographers themselves generate the buzz that surrounds Fine Art America. When they promote the work that they've uploaded to the website, they're simultaneously promoting Fine Art America and all that it has to offer artists and photographers … and consumers.

Broihier has set Fine Art America up in a way that it almost runs itself. The company is partnered with three different fulfillment companies, one in North Carolina, one in Atlanta and one in Los Angeles. Fine Art America's entire system is fully automated. The artists and photographers upload their work and set the prices for it themselves.

Each photograph that is uploaded must be approved by a Fine Art America staff member before it appears on the site, but that's it. Photographs, of course, are easier to process than paintings. Some painters are not good photographers.

The purchasing process is fully automated. Once an order is complete, the details go to one of Fine Art America's three fulfillment centers, depending what type of product the consumer purchased. The Atlanta processing center fills greeting card orders. Framed prints are filled by the North Carolina center.

It's important to note that website is coded in such a way that customer orders go where they should automatically. No one on Fine Art America's staff has to do anything manually.

What's really exciting about Fine Art America's story is that the company earned $1 million in revenue in 2009. By 2011, that number had grown to $5 million. Projected revenue for 2012 is $15 million. And Broihier only has two people on payroll besides himself. By March 2012, Fine Art America was processing 10,000 uploads per day from close to 100,000 artists â€" a number that grows by 150 to 300 daily â€" and hundreds of thousands of customers.

Allowing contributing artists and photographers to set their own prices is the big differentiator between Fine Art America and competitors like Art.com, CaféPress and Australia's RedBubble. Contributors like National Geographic really appreciate having the freedom to choose how much they want people to pay for the photographs they upload.

The extreme levels of automation and outsourcing have allowed Sean Broihier to bootstrap a fast growth company to substantial revenues with just three people, including himself. Of course, the business supports many jobs right here in America through the outsourced fulfillment centers, so the net job impact of the company is not insignificant.

In this era of outsourcing and automation, we need to get used to this mode of ultra-lean startups, and in fact learn from them.

Photographer Photo via Shutterstock

Why Your Small Business Shouldn\'t Be Overlooking The Power Of Social Media

In the words of Roxane Divol, David Edelman, and Hugo Sarrazin of McKinsey Quarterly ,

“Social Media remains wrapped in an enigma for business executives, particularly non-marketers”.

As a matter of fact, Social media remains “enigmatic” for many small business owners, self-employed individuals, and marketing executives, along with many large businesses.

It's not surprising as to why tapping into social media for businesses remains a mystery. Businesses look for sales, cash flow, and ultimately profits while building brand in due course of time. Social Media is not a channel that facilitates direct sales like a shopping store, mall, or even a mail catalogue.

The vagueness around social media stems from the fact that it's “social”. It's all about doing business while casual banter occurs. It's about pushing the right pitch, at the right time, when conversations happen naturally.  Social media is where consumer behavior comes alive, in action, and ready to engage with businesses as never before.

Putting it as simply as we can, here are a few ways you can use social media for the benefit of your business:

Social Media demands what businesses don't want to do

If a business just wants to “sell”, social media would surely disappoint. You'll see some random lead generation but it's far from sustainable. Social media demands pure engagement between you and your customer. Just as two friends meet and discuss anything but business, your “business” has to take this approach with the world waiting to engage. For long businesses have merely pushed to sell wares. Today, social media demands a “pull” approach. It's no wonder then most marketers and businesses can't get their hands wrapped around social media.

Social Media creates hype, buzz, and spreads the word

Mathew E.May â€" author of Laws of Subtraction â€" refers to how Grasshopper, a virtual phone system for businesses built up business purely based on buzz. He defines buzz as a tangled mishmash of PR, Word-of-mouth, and guerilla marketing. Social media uniquely stands as the perfect medium for creating buzz. GM's Ford Fiesta campaign got at least 7 million views on Youtube with 50,000 requests about more information on the vehicle leading to a smashing sale of more than 10,000 cars within 6 days of launch.

SouthWest Airlines is incredibly social  with nearly 3.5 million actively engaged people on its Twitter and Facebook accounts combined. The University of San Francisco  has some more interesting information: Starbucks's saw more than 1 million footfalls when it launched “free pasty day” on Twitter while it saw the best of brainstorming when it launched “My Starbucks Idea” on Twitter. 

Social Media is instant feedback and surveys on steroids, on a global scale 

Sending fresh college interns out on the streets for feedback, large market research projects, and even online surveys are all passé. Today, social media â€" collectively speaking for all sorts of online communities and channels â€" provides the best form of feedback a business can ask for: unsolicited and unfettered. Can businesses handle that? Can you get priceless insights from your customers about your products and services?

You bet. Customers speak out their minds fearlessly and relentlessly. What's this worth to your business?

Social Media can do what traditional media can never hope to achieve. As businesses, our job is to monitor conversations, respond to feedback while gaining insights from it, and develop relationships.

Do you tap into social media as well as you should?

Blizzard password breach not as bad as originally feared

Gaming company Blizzard has said that its uses the Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect passwords that were stolen last week.

The company behind World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo admitted that its security team found an unauthorised and illegal access into its internal network and while there was no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses or real names were compromised, a list of email addresses, the answer to the personal security question and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed.

Mike Morhaime, president and a co-founder of Blizzard, said in a blog post that the details were for Battle.net, the account management and login service gamers use to play Blizzard games. The security questions and account authenticators were used by players on North American servers that also included players from the US and Canada and in Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.

However Morhaime also said that ‘cryptographically scrambled versions of Battle.net passwords (not actual passwords)' for players on North American servers were also taken. He also said that as it uses SRP, it would make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password as each password would have to be deciphered individually.

Morhaime said that Blizzard will prompt users to change their passwords and secret questions, while mobile authenticator users will be encouraged to update their authenticator software.

“We deeply regret the inconvenience to all of you and understand you may have questions. Please find additional information here. We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened,” he said.

Writing on the blog for Mac security firm Intego, Lysa Myers said: “Blizzard did one thing very right in terms of protecting their users' passwords. The passwords were not simply ‘hashed', but also ‘salted'.

“Each of these alone does not represent a sufficiently significant hurdle to someone being able to bulk process the list and get the passwords out again, but by combining them, it makes it so someone would have to individually process each password, and at a good cost of time for each password.

“So while this doesn't mean the password list is useless, it does mean it's unlikely the breach of this list will cause much harm. It's still a good idea to change your security questions and password for Blizzard and any other site where you used the same question or password (and don't forget to choose a strong password).”

SC Webcast: Cleaning malware infections becomes a weekly job, as reality of helpdesk enquiries exposed

Malicious attacks account for a third of IT support tickets, according to a poll in a recent SC Magazine webcast.

Of the various threats to contend with, the question posed to the 350-strong audience of the webcast Today's Top 10 Threats Unmasked was which are responsible for the most IT support tickets: malware/virus attacks; changes made by user to configuration settings; system issues with unauthorised applications downloaded; or other?

The first accounted for 36 per cent of the response. Bryan Littlefair, group technology security director at Vodafone Group, predicted that this would be the most likely, as if users can make changes, then you are going to have a problem with malware, especially if you allow administrator access on PCs that are infected.

Littlefair said: “Malware is always going to stay, we have got anti-virus products out there that are the best of the best, but they are still only 40 per cent effective. You've got polymorphic malware, you've got zero-day attacks and everything to deal with, so that is never going to go away.”

Adrian Davis, principal research analyst at ISF, said that he expected that malware/virus attacks or changes made by user to configuration settings was the biggest issue, but he expected ‘system issues with unauthorised applications downloaded' to be a bigger issue in the future.

“Everyone can download something from the App Store so I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing a changed emphasis. One of the things we see helpdesks are not equipped to deal with is the sheer number of platforms that are out there,” he said.

Littlefair said that he agreed with what Davis said, as there will be a ‘tilt' where the IT manager loses control of the device.

Another poll asked how often malware infections or mis-configurations were being resolved on an employee's PC, to which 69 per cent said this was a weekly occurrence for a small number of computers.

Thurstan Johnston, head of engineering at Faronics, who presented during the webcast, said that often it is the same PCs or users that are infected, which makes it easy to identify the weak points, but it is a pain for IT to be constantly updating the same machines.

Johnston‘s presentation revealed that whilst 42 per cent of the mailboxes targeted for attack are high-level executives, senior managers and people in R&D, the majority of attacks are being aimed at people without direct access to confidential information who are serving as ‘back doors into even well-protected companies'.

Listen to the SC webcast by clicking here.

One Frightening Statistic on Small Business Health Insurance

The other day a reporter asked me what one statistic I thought best showed small business's problems with the U.S. health care system. After thinking about it for a while, I decided that it's this one: Since 1999 the average cost of employee health insurance premiums (for family coverage) has risen 84 percent in inflation adjusted terms (148 percent in nominal terms).

Source: Created from data from the Kaiser Family Foundation's Employer Health Benefits 2011 Annual Survey

In the figure above, I chart the trend in the cost of premiums for family coverage at small businesses, using data from the Kaiser Family Foundation's annual survey on employer health benefits. Statistically, an upward sloping straight line (included in the chart) fits the data pretty well.

To understand why this is a problem, consider what has happened to the average business's revenues since 1999. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) only provides data on business revenues through 2008.

But between 1999 and 2008, the revenues at the average American company fell 5 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. Over the same period, employee health care premiums went up 64 percent when measured similarly.

The rapidly rising cost of employee health insurance means that the cost of health insurance has increased from 5.4 percent of total worker compensation in 1999 (PDF) to 7.7 percent in 2012 (PDF), according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

You don't need an economics Ph.D. to see why for why these numbers are frightening to small business.

QR Codes Are Falling Out Of Fashion, But Web Addresses Still Work

Initially, QR codes were the biggest craze, with everyone and their mother talking about them. Unfortunately, they didn't get as popular as you would think. While the idea behind a QR code is magnificent, it's counter-productive only because people have to download special software to even read them.

The Logo Company, a company that provides clients with custom logo designs, just conducted a research survey consisting of 2,047 Americans. And the results? They read something like this:

• 53 percent of Americans haven't ever used a QR code. Considering that more than half of them haven't even touched QR scanner software, this begins to raise questions as to whether small businesses would really benefit from having them. 47 percent of people using QR codes, however, is still a significant amount.
• 71 percent of respondents said that QR codes are “pointless.” 68 percent of this particular demographic said that they'd rather just type in a company's web address.
• People who were asked about the strangest locations they've seen QR codes in said they seen them across the line in subway stations, clothing, billboards, and nightclubs. All of these places have poor visibility and require you to get closer to the code, if it's possible at all to get a clear image.

So, what lessons have we learned?

• Posting your company web address is much more essential than dropping a QR code. Anything that requires an extra software download will hinder access to those in a hurry. Many of the people passing by will not want to bother with it.
• If you are going to use these codes, place them on a highly-accessible flat surface where they can be read clearly. Shirts, pants, dark areas, and the non-passenger side of subway rails are all horrible ideas. You'd best place them behind a glass pane, on a well-lit area, or on an exterior wall.
• Include your web address within the code. Customers don't like receiving useless information.

If you don't want to bother with all the extra steps you need to take, it's probably not worth it for you. Having your customers read information with proprietary software is a terrible way to engage them. If you're going to hop into it, at least place your web address somewhere nearby so that they can explore your site without having to deal with app marketplaces. They do that enough on a daily basis.

On Direct launches business solution of online file storage

A file-sharing tool for businesses has been launched that enables users to access files at any time and on devices including smartphones, tablets and laptops.

According to On Direct, its solution Cloud Direct : ABC simplifies the way that companies share information amongst teams, while ensuring documents are secure and available to only the right people. Unlike consumer-based platforms, Cloud Direct has an ISO 27001 certification, uses SSL for traffic and is centrally managed by an administrator.

Speaking to SC Magazine, On Direct technical engineer Will Rowley said that over the last 25 years, IT decisions have been made by the IT department and they had the controls around it, but consumerisation has put the potential for data loss into the wrong hands and it needs to be put back into the hands of the administrator.

He said: “There are a number of free services available for data backup and collaboration, and you can get hosts with 1GB of data storage for free, but for the IT administrator it is a nightmare, as it is a gateway for confidential information, as the employee controls it.

“To ensure your compliance you need to control it, so we allow the administrator to ensure that it is secure, safe and compliant, as we have gone through rigorous testing.”

Rowley explained that the solution is entirely cloud-hosted and businesses need a tool with a capability to back up but with more capabilities than standard consumer models.

“The product does both back up and collaboration and we have added remote access management as well,” he said. “It is access to data that everyone is working on, as without it you just have SharePoint. With Cloud Direct : ABC we're offering businesses of all sizes, an enterprise-class, easy to manage solution that is affordable and flexible, and makes collaborating as part of a team both easy and secure.”

A three-user licence is offered with up to 25GB of storage, while a minimum five-user option offers 100GB option, with one user appointed as the administrator. Rowley said: “So the storage follows the user rather than the PC as you can use it as a back up or put all your data into project files.”

Rowley said that an enterprise edition will be launched in a few months, which will add features such as managing settings of other users.

LogMeIn adds anti-virus monitoring and management for remote worker control

LogMeIn has added anti-virus monitoring and management capabilities to its IT automation product.

According to the company, the additions to LogMeIn Central make it easier to secure remote PCs as it gives IT professionals the ability to monitor anti-virus installations, run full threat scans and receive virus threat detections on any number of remote PCs under management.

The company said that the new capabilities include support for anti-virus software offerings including Norton, AVG, McAfee, Kaspersky Lab and Microsoft Security Essentials and run on Windows 7, XP, Vista and Windows Servers 2003 and 2008.

Matt Kaplan, LogMeIn's vice president of products, said: “When we talked to our customers about anti-virus management, it was clear that threat detection and security are critical mandates, but to date, monitoring and managing a mixed environment of anti-virus products has been a cumbersome task.

“The new capabilities in LogMeIn Central were designed to centralise and simplify the most common tasks associated with anti-virus management in a way that makes securing hundreds or even thousands of machines under management incredibly efficient.”

App.net Plans a Better Twitter

The days of Twitter and some other social networks may be numbered, if App.net founder Dalton Caldwell has his way. Caldwell's new social network operates on a principle as revolutionary as cable TV might have seemed back in the days when broadcast television was the standard model. Caldwell wants an advertisement-free social media platform supported by payments from users.

A New Direction

Voting with their money. If you think Caldwell is crazy, think again! The company has already raised more than $500,000 from 7,372 “backers” who have already signed up to be App.net's first users. Membership starts at $50 for the basic service and goes up to $1000 annually for “Pro” service. The Verge

No fuss, no muss. Take your first look at the App.net site, and it may seem a bit spartan when compared with its more lavishly funded and ad-driven competitor, Twitter, but Caldwell is quick to remind users his team built a functional Web application and API to demonstrate App.net in action and that there is much work to do now that funding goals are reached.  App.net Global Feed

Rallying the troops. Caldwell thanks his supporters as the App.net team reaches its ambitious funding goal, giving a bit more insight into the new business model the social site represents. If this is the social media community you wish to join, there's no better introduction. Dalton Caldwell

Twitter Troubles

Welcome to the underground. Deep beneath the surface of the busy world of networking and 24/7 patter that is Twitter lies a thriving underground economy where followers are sold by the thousands over Ebay and other Websites, and many are fake. Barracuda Labs

Blackout…again! Yikes! on July 26 Twitter again experienced a worldwide outage, this time from between 8:20 and 9:00 a.m. to10:25 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. The outage is the second for Twitter in just over thirty days, and was caused this time not by a “cascading bug” but by two redundant parallel systems failing simultaneously. Twitter Blog

Still the One

Social Media U. But for all its shortcomings, Twitter has many qualities unparalleled for the online business owner or social media entrepreneur, qualities perhaps hard to replace with a pay-for-use system some will not think worth the cost. KissMetrics

Twitter basics revisited. For those who will be staying with Twitter or who perhaps haven't yet used the service for business, here is a collection of must-have resources to start making your Twitter efforts the best they can be. Idea Sprouts