Greetings Family,
(Contact Information At Bottom Of Page)

It's your friendly neighborhood "Digital Drummer" again (smile)

As an online activist, and promoter, I maintain a major presence in most social networking communities, such as MySpace and FaceBook. After Time magazine announced the year of user-generated content, everybody and their brother, now has their own personal profile somewhere in Cyberspace.

Wherever there's a crowd...There's Money! According to the research firm ComScore (www.comscore.com) the top networks generate on average, 50 Billion page views a month. So is it no wonder that your inbox is full of friend requests from people, companies, causes, and contacts you've never heard of.

Most people have an average of a couple hundred friends; the 20 or so genuine BFF's, couple of people from work, the local party/music promoter, family, and the dreaded nerd that sits behind you in class. But now we're seeing more and more...that business wants to be your online friend.

In the past 12 months, more than four-fifths of social networking site users said they have received unwanted (or Spam) "Friend" invitations, messages or postings on their social and/or professional network account. Some sites even warn you not to accept anyone that you do not know or do business with...But people keep clicking on "Accept"!!!

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As an online promoter, I would be the first to point out that businesses have a Constitutional Right to contact you. But how do you determine if a Friend request is Spam? It has been my experience that repeated Friend requests from the same source...are Spam! You've seen them; different names and profile pictures, but the exact same profile content (graphics, text, links).

Common sense reigns supreme here. First, before you click Accept, take a look at their profile to see if they are a real person. Secondly, what is the commonality? Why do they want to be your online friend...to sell, inform, or entertain you? The bottom line is, they just might want to meet new people...but you should determine this before clicking Accept.

The consequence of not evaluating your friend request is multiple Spam posts in your Comments section, possible mulware, and in a worst case scenario having your profile hacked or phished. According to a Harris Interactive poll, these are some of the primary reasons why people don't participate in social networking (http://www.emarketer.com/article.aspx?id=1006366&src=article9_newsltr).

As I've written in the past (see Blog link) this new online phenomenon in social networking, is empowering and facilitating new "Rich Media" entrepreneurs; thereby, creating new products, developing new markets, and generating new sources of revenue for the Black online community.

Advertisers now see a number of new online applications as a prime way to reach consumers who regularly visit social networking sites (see Opportunities Available For Black Developers). But the ads are taking a different form than the traditional banner ads/links typically seen on a Web page...and they all require you click Accept!!!

We've all experienced the benefits of online networking. We see the potential, but like anything else...proceed with caution! Things (and people) are not always what they present themselves to be.

Remember, We Must Share The Knowledge (Network)...To Share The Dollars!!!

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Jim Neusom (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Executive Director/Publisher
InterServe Networks/City Lights Software, Inc.
www.citylightssoftware.com
www.freshfaces2u.com
www.myspace.com/jimneusom
www.myspace.com/freshfaces2u

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