Redefining 'Personal information' online

There has been a lot of debate about the use of PII or Personally Identifiable Information on the internet these days. Many a blog post and many a newspaper article has touched on the subject, some pro, some anti PII-usage especially when it is used for targeted marketing and advertising.

SO, I raised the topic among some friends, you know, everyday people; not business people, not social media and internet gurus - everyday people. Do you know the response I got? Stares, yes, that's right I got blank "what the hell are you talking about?" stares.

This didn't quite shock me, if I'm being honest because I was trying to prove a point to myself. I was trying to prove that for all the pro/anti PII usage article and blog posts, those who are affected, those who are being exploited, don't have a clue what the expert are talking about.

So You think you're not addicted to Facebook? {IMAGE}

There have been very interesting debates about obsession with/addiction to facebook, with many people invariably denying their excessive usage of the social network has any correlation to addiction or obsession.

Well, I'm sorry guys, but this latest infographic provided by Mashable.com proves us ALL to be wrong (well, I was one of you until I migrated to twitter).

The facts to end the debate of ALL debates can be found below...don't cry too hard!

Anytime soon if not already in existence, some of us will decide we need to rectify our "problem" and check ourselves into our local FA (Facebookaholics Anonymous) centres. What is the world coming to?

4 Simple Steps to Social Media Success for Business

Why are you here?

Everyone has a purpose. Everyone has a reason for doing what they do, even if they are not aware of it.

For your business success, you must be aware of your purpose and your reasons for undertaking any action.

There are four steps any business should take to ensure they get the most out of their interaction with social media.

New Year, New You?

Is the coast clear?

Are you all sober enough after the two weeks of festivities?

Great! Perfect time to write this post.

It's around this time every year that everyone publicly tells everyone else what their 'New Year's resolution' is..."New Year, New Me" they say...."What a load of piffle" I say.

The point is not that we cannot make resolutions, but that perhaps we are approaching our resolutions wrong.

New year, New me, what do you mean by that? Are you suggesting that you are starting all over again? Are you suggesting that you are going to throw away the book that you are writing and start a fresh one?

Is this the right way to approach our lives?

Most of us seek success, yet any successful man or woman will tell you one of the secrets of their success was continuity and consistency, how can we be consistent if we are continually attempting to "change" ourselves so abruptly?

In fact, how many of us even follow our resolutions past January? How many of us fall into the same old routine?

Facebook Privacy - Part 2: Who else has access to your Info?

Last week I wrote a post about being in control of our privacy settings on facebook, which to my estimation shows how facebook views our privacy and the level of control it gives us.

Recently, again, I was browsing facebook and noticed something I have seen hundreds of times before but never really taken much notice of, until I remembered what I had written about earlier and it slapped me in the face - how had I not realised this all along?

What am I talking about? I am talking about Facebook Apps.

Facebook Privacy: Are You In Control?

There has been much talk about how much (or how little) emphasis facebook puts on privacy. Personally, I have always ensured that I checked my privacy settings on facebook every now and then, but I took it for granted that not everyone understands how the facebook privacy settings works and facebook haven't really done much to rectify the problem either.

All the rage at the moment is how much control we have over our privacy and the obvious 'Big Brother' society. So, it is curious to know exactly how much control we have over privacy on such a simple platform as facebook.

Last night, I was undertaking one of my privacy checks on facebook ensuring there were no (visibly) added changes to the system as often occurs and sure enough there were changes. It was seem that facebook has heard and acted on calls for more understandable privacy settings and have provided a "simpler" format (pre-formatted) of options users can choose from.

The features on facebook now, that allow your friends to see your comments on the pictures and status' of another friend's profile (who they are not friends with), is in itself a testament to how much control we have over privacy. Let's just take a look at the facebook privacy settings page.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on Lack of Female Leaders (Video)

It is one thing to mention a female leader, and receive raised eyebrows, it is quite another to mention that the female in question is the Chief Operating Officer of the largest  social networking site, facebook. Yeah, we all thought Mark Zuckerberg was a one man army at some point.

The question many people ask is why is there such a great lack of female leaders? If there are, many why are they not given exposure to the world in order to inspire other women into action?

"A nation can rise no higher than it's woman," that is something I was brought up believing, and this does not extend to the workforce it extends to all fields of life and living, from birth right up to careers. James Brown sang the words,"this is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl."

I sometimes feel women do not realise their potential, they do not realise their power. The ability to create new life is a profound ability, that sets women on a pedestal higher than men in worth and value. The great men we see in society could not be great if it were not for a caring woman, whether that be a wife, a mother, or both.

So when I logged into the TED website and saw this video I thought it would be inspiring and encouraging for other women trying to get up the ladder.

If she can, you all can.

Have a look at the video here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html