Mutt Media | the Daily Bone 9.7.09 uSocial services to "buy" your Facebook friends

09.07.2009
Mutt Media disusses stealth marketing using uSocial

Mutt Media disusses stealth marketing using uSocial

Anyone with any sort of message that they want to communicate to a large audience is, at some point – faced with the age-old challenge of how to gain a following to spread the word.
In the current Information Age, this challenge has been met with numerous solutions. Since a growing number of people in all age groups, socio-economic backgrounds, geographic locations, varied sizes, shapes and colors are becoming plugged in to the web, reaching any number of us has become less and less of a challenge.
Social Networking, advertising, marketing, email, file “sharing”, eSurveys and the like are all just variations on the same theme – acquire your personal data, analyze it, organize it and exploit it. If you find yourself in the position of needing to spread a message and want more of an audience (to acquire more Twitter followers or increasing the amount of Facebook “friends” you have) then you may want to take a look at an Australian-based service called uSocial (uSocial.net).
Created by a 24 year old named Leon Hill, uSocial.net is a service that bills themselves as a social bookmarking service, among other things. Here’s a screen grab from their FAQ page wherein they briefly describe their services.
uSocial description of servicesUsocial was just launched but has already caused a stir. Facebook is claiming that uSocial violates its Terms of Service which prohibit users from sharing their passwords with a third party. What does this mean? A user can have their account taken down if an allegation such as this is proven. Mr. Hill has stated publicly that not only is this unlikely, but that

“Unless they actually say anything, unless they make it known to Facebook or Twitter that they’ve actually bought my services, there’s absolutely nothing they (Facebook or Twitter) can do.”…In the end the thing is that I’m not actually ever doing anything against the terms of service — it’s the actual users who purchases my services (who is),” he said.

That means that from their standpoint – uSocial is not the culprit – we are! How much does this service cost? For $177 you can gain 1000 Facebook Fans and for $1177 that number goes up to 10,000. On Facebook, the maximum number of friends one can have is 5000, which is why the Fan Pages are so great – no limits there. But you can buy your friends, too. For $727 you can take your friend count to it’s limit. Too rich for your blood? $200 will get you 1000 friends.
The way uSocial works entails logging into a client’s profile and seeking out people who would be a good fit, sends them a friend request and never mentions that the third party is pulling the strings. In essence, the friend request comes through transparently and uSocial can avoid accountability.
Remember – agreeing to any sites Terms of Service is giving your word that you will adhere to their guidelines.
Not many people actually read the Terms of Service, but if considering a service like uSocial, it is advisable.
According to the Associated Press, Facebook is currently “investigating” uSocial’s practices.
What do you think? Would you use this service? Is it appealing?

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Mutt Media | Daily Bone 5.29.09 Top 10 Tips for marketing yourself online. Tip #9: Get them talking!

05.29.2009

Mutt Media Tip #9

Another Tip from Mutt Media NY

Another Tip from Mutt Media NY

9. While you do want to be stringent about monitoring your social networking sites for undesirable photos and questionable alliances, we should never forget what they are for – networking! By all means, use your contacts. Ask them to post a link about you. Your audience will increase exponentially (see earlier post and the viral networking Faberge illustration).

Provide your friends with a link to your Blog (you should set this up asap as we discussed earlier this month – see Tip #4). There are several sites that are really user-friendly including WordPress and Blogger that make it very easy for you to set this up.

Make sure your posts are relevant and blog often. If people find you interesting, they will come back and voila! You can amass a following and get viral marketing to work for you. Remember, fresh and interesting content is the most important thing! And what’s more interesting than you?

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© 2009 Mutt Media NY LLC All Rights Reserved

This has been your Daily Bone
© 2009-2013 Mutt Media NY LLC All Rights Reserved

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Mutt Media | Daily Bone 5.27.09 Using Social Media sites for your job search

05.27.2009

Another Mutt Media Tip

Another Tip from Mutt Media NY

Another Tip from Mutt Media NY

Ok….so this was not an original one of our Top 10 Tips but it well could’ve and probably should have been.

Considering the extent to which social media and micro blogging can reach, these mediums can and should be used to let your network of contacts know that you are in the market for work and what you can offer.

Remember that you can be exposed to not only your contacts, but to your contacts’ contacts too, depending upon their account settings. Like a virus, word will spread that you are available for employment or internship. I may not be looking to hire, but think of it like the old Faberge Organic Shampoo (with pure wheat germ oil ‘n honey!) commercials….(yes, I am dating myself) where the girl was so enamored of her shampoo that she told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on and so on…..take a look if you’d like a stroll down memory lane.

This is a great example of viral marketing in it’s most basic form and the principle can be applied online to your job search efforts. Visibility is key and as you know – once it’s out there, it’s out there. So go ahead, post your unemployed “status” on Facebook or Tweet away to your heart’s content. It can only help.

Oh, and provide an online link to your resume that will contain your contact information…you never know whose virtual desktop it will land on!

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© 2009 Mutt Media NY LLC All Rights Reserved

This has been your Daily Bone
© 2009-2013 Mutt Media NY LLC All Rights Reserved

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Mutt Media NY | Daily Bone 5.8.09 Taking Social Networking to a new level. What's on your mind?

05.08.2009

I woke up this morning and had my tea, looked through the newspapers and began to check my online accounts – same routine as usual. Mixed in with the typical status updates was a glaring remark from a teenager who is one of my “friends” on Facebook who proclaimed, “_____________(insert name) just found out his dad is moving out”. This was followed by a barrage of comments from other friends telling this teen how sorry they are to hear this sad news.

I am dumbfounded…by this news, by the manner in which it was delivered and by the public responses to such a personal upset in his life. Clearly he needed to talk this out and this just happened to be his communication tool of choice, but what does this say about our evolving society and how our children cope?

Unfortunately, separation and divorce have become almost commonplace. But status updates on such a personal level seem disturbing to me and are shedding light on a trend. Never has the question, “What’s on your mind?” felt so loaded as it does for me today.

Mutt Media discusses taking Facebook Status Updates to a whole new level

Mutt Media discusses taking Facebook Status Updates to a whole new level

On a personal level, this is upsetting, but in this situation in particular, I know the family will be ok…they are all good people. It furthers my thinking on this subject though. Don’t know how many reading this read the book or saw the movie, “He’s Just Not That Into You” but Drew Barrymore delivers one of the most funny and telling dialogue in the film when she tells her friend that she is (and I am paraphrasing) “exhausted” from chasing the different modalities of messaging.

We can video chat, instant message, BBM, text, leave a voicemail, use a pager (very retro, it seems), tweet, report our status and the list goes on. We can communicate instantly without ever really connecting and to take it one step further, people are really doing a lot of their living – totally online.

I personally feel lucky to have grown up in a different time while still being an active participant in this constantly-evolving technological boom we find ourselves in the midst of. There is an expanding gap for our children but they don’t even feel it because that’s all they know. I already find myself sounding like my parents when I tell my kids “when I was your age, we didn’t even have cell phones” in response to my daughter’s request to upgrade to a Blackberry. She tells me she needs it and that a bunch of her friends have one. She’s 11. I feel like I’m living in upside-down world but then again, I am the most guilty enabler. After all, wasn’t it me that text her to come down and set the table?

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This has been your Daily Bone
© 2009 Mutt Media NY LLC All Rights Reserved

This has been your Daily Bone
© 2009-2013 Mutt Media NY LLC All Rights Reserved

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Mutt Media's Daily Bone asks, "How connected are we and to what?" David Horsey comic sheds some light.

05.04.2009
I recently came across the cartoon below in Newsday. Just to properly give credit where credit is due, it was apparantly picked up from the Seattle Post and was created by David Horsey. I think it’s a brilliant illustration of just how plugged in we’ve become but I wanted to share a bit of irony here.
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Yes, we have become experts at posting our Status Updates on Facebook, Twitter or your social networking platform of choice, but have you noticed just how disconnected we have become from (what I like to call) Life Proper?
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In my family, it is almost impossible to catch the four of us together where one, two or all of us are not attached to some sort of device. We are out to dinner. We are at the Yankee game. We are at a school concert. Someone is always removed from the moment and distracted by Blackberry, IPhone or just texting a friend. Yes, we may be Tweeting to the world about what we are doing, but are we really “there”? Not really. Not enough in my opinion. This is a commentary on the way the world is changing and how social media has impacted the way our children are growing up, their modes of communication and their interactions with the world around them.
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Our kids do not communicate the way we did. And they won’t in the future. Look to my future blogs to enlighten you about how far kids are going to shorten, abbreviate otherwise alter their native language. You will be shocked. This goes way beyond ROFL and POS (Rolling On Floor Laughing and Parent Over Shoulder).
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If you didn’t know those two, we have our work cut out for us. Keep checking back.
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© 2009 Mutt Media NY LLC All Rights Reserved
Do you think we have become too "connected" or too disconnected?

Do you think we have become too "connected" or too disconnected?

This has been your Daily Bone
© 2009-2013 Mutt Media NY LLC All Rights Reserved

Filed Under Communication & Connectivity, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment