GeekSugar

31 Days of Spring Cleaning: Perform a Social Media Audit

Kelly Schwarze — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:41:36 PDT

Sign online in the morning and it's likely your first stop of the day is a social network. We pour our lives into these digital communities, sharing party photos, funny videos, and clever status updates. Do you know who's looking at all these updates, though? Take today's Spring cleaning tips as the chance to finally update your social media privacy settings and take charge of the online image you're sharing with the world. Perform a social media audit by following these tips to put your best profile forward.

Search yourself - Sign out of every social media account and view how your profile looks to a stranger. Does any embarrassing or questionable material show up that you'd rather future employers, family members, or anyone of significance not see? First, secure your public accounts if you prefer to control who sees your tweets and "likes." Update account privacy settings to further secure your profile from people you are already linked to, or play it safe and delete the material entirely. Go an extra step and Google your name to ensure there's really nothing wild out on the Internet you don't want others to see.
Use a pseudonym - If you're looking to keep your online activity private, don't sign up for accounts under your full name. Also avoid usernames you used before privacy was a concern, you know, like that AIM handle from high school that's just slightly inappropriate for anyone over the age of 16.
Use an alternate email - In addition to the alias, separate your social media accounts from your work and personal email by using a secondary email account in your profile information. This way people searching for your profile via your personal email address won't find you as easily. Don't worry if your Facebook or Pinterest account have already been created, you can change the default email address.
Prevent future offenses - Avoid future online embarrassing moments by keeping your social record clean. Don't add photos of you raging at a party to Facebook or bite your digital tongue when it comes to ranting about a current work situation. Even with hypersecure privacy settings, a good rule of thumb is just never share images or thoughts online you wouldn't want forwarded to someone else, since anyone can screen capture your content.

Britney Spears Joins Path: 3 Reasons She Might Love It

Kristy Korcz — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:01:23 PDT

Britney Spears has joined Path after visiting the SF HQ yesterday. Path has been around since 2010, but recently found a surge in popularity after its last update in 2011 that revamped its UI. Britney is no stranger to social networks, as she has over 2.3 million followers on Google+ (a tech-focused and male-dominated network, no less) and over 14 million followers on Twitter. But I know what you're thinking - "Do I really need yet another social network?" Here's three reasons why Britney Spears (and you) might love Path.

It's limited to your closest friends - Path only allows you 150 friends on its network. This helps your inner circle stay close and informed, while keeping your news feed free of too much "clutter" from your acquaintances and distant relatives. But this spells bad news for her millions of fans - this is one social network you won't be able to follow her on.
It's beautiful - The Path app looks amazing on your iPhone or Android device, with big photos that you can edit using a number of Instagram-like filters right in the app. Path also allows you to create a "cover photo" (just like on your Facebook Timeline), that gives your profile an extra boost of personality.
You can share more of what you love - Path allows you to share "moments" with your friends and family, including check-ins, photos, music that you're listening to, as well as text updates. You can even easily choose to share (or not; it's up to you) these moments on your other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Tumblr.

Are you already on Path? Tell us what you like about it (or don't like about it) in the comments!

Lego Fans Get Their Own Social Network: ReBrick

Kelly Schwarze — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:31:34 PST

We've seen some pretty awesome usage of Legos that show that the bricks aren't just child's play. Now you can share your own impressive creations with a group of enthusiastic fans on the Lego-sponsored social network ReBrick.

Though the site is run by the Lego company itself, it's not designed to sell new Lego sets. Instead, its purpose is to let the creativity of the community speak for itself. As you would with a Facebook Like button, ReBrick uses a browser bookmarking function for users to share stunning brick finds and cool photos with the network. Follow users whose work you love, browse the most viewed photos, and receive community feedback as you would with any other creative social platform, like Instagram for example, only with that colorful brick angle.

A team of official moderators and community members work diligently to ensure content is appropriate for all users and the house rules of the site are maintained, making the site something both children and adult Lego brick-builders can enjoy.

Source: Flickr User Avrene

Best Social Network or Social App of 2011

Kelly Schwarze — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 06:21:08 PST

Our social networking addictions were certainly fed throughout 2011. The usual suspects like Facebook and Twitter stayed in our lives, but we made room for new sites that told our statuses through beautiful pictures or the shows we loved to watch. Which social network or app was in heavy rotation on your phone this year?

How-To: Keep Your Social Networks Private

GeekSugar — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:53:22 PDT

While most social networks offer enhanced privacy settings, which will allow you to keep your profiles private, there are a handful of things you can do to make your accounts less accessible and susceptible to searches made by your new guy's ex or an old friend you don't want to have to ignore online. Check out these tips on staying private online.

Create an Alternate Email Address For Account Sign-Up - If you don't want to be found, sign up for your social networking sites - from Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter - with a secondary or alternate email address so when people search for you based on the email in their contact list, they don't find you immediately. This will allow you more control of who can see your profiles. If your accounts are already set up, change the default email to a new one to prevent any new snoops. You may also consider using one email account when you sign up for sites in an effort to keep your social networking organized.
Disable All GPS/Locator Apps and Settings - Don't want people to know you're tweeting from the coffee shop around the corner from your ex's at 9 a.m., on Sunday? Don't tweet with your location enabled, and don't sign up for Google Latitude, which will allow friends insight into your locale.
Go Invisible or Block and Group People You Don't Want to Talk To - Don't want to see your boss on Gchat every time you sign on, or don't want your ex's ex to be able to see your Facebook profile? Play with your settings! AIM, Gchat, and any major chat client will allow you to make yourself invisible or block a specific list of people. Check out Facebook's guide to blocking people for support. You can also use friend lists on Facebook to control how much certain or all friends see.

See the rest of the tips after the break.

4 Social Networks Beyond the Usual Suspects

Kelly Schwarze — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:51:08 PDT

Feeling victim to social network fatigue? Whether you follow 500 people or friend 70 people, it can sometimes seem like weeks have passed by without an interesting tweet, status, or mobile upload. Break out of the rut and sign up for these four social networks guaranteed to make Internet sharing fun again.

Pinterest - Share your design aesthetic and all those gorgeous little things you come across when surfing the web. This site has users set up boards around a central theme like "camera accessories," "cool typography," or "Star Trek crafts" to share with the community. The in-browser add button makes pinning a cinch, and the simple user interface keeps site exploration from being overwhelming.
Instagram - A beautiful, easy way to show friends what you're doing without word limits. Available as a free iPhone app, take a photo in Instagram, add a filter, a quick caption, and easily share with followers or to Facebook and Twitter. The process is really that easy, and, after all, a picture is worth much more than 140 characters.
Tumblr - Sign in to Tumblr and just try to spend less than an hour on this sharing, blogging platform. With predesigned templates and a user-friendly dashboard, the personal blog you've been putting off can finally find a home. Search for other blog interests to follow, reblog their posts, and grow your own Tumblr community.
GetGlue - For entertainment junkies, connect with fellow Mad Men junkies when you check in as viewing a show or waiting in line for the newest Hollywood release. GetGlue partners with the media providers themselves to offer discounts and rewards to loyal gluers.

5 Signs of Social Network Addiction

GeekSugar — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:21:58 PDT

Refreshing your Twitter feed for breaking news is one thing, but becoming a slave to your social networks is another. While some people use Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media to stay in touch with friends, others can't step away for five minutes without losing their minds. Are you one of them? Here, five signs you may be addicted to your social networks and what you can do about it.

You're constantly checking for updates - Checking Facebook or Twitter for new updates a few times a day is one thing, but if you're checking on the bus, as soon as you get to work, constantly hitting the refresh button on your browser, and several times at night is going overboard. Sure, slacking off at work every so often has been proven to increase productivity, but if you're missing deadlines and getting into hot water with the boss because of your incessant need to examine your networks, you could have a problem.

Get the rest of the symptoms after the jump.

Facebook's New Privacy and Sharing Controls Explained

Kristy Korcz — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:34:10 PDT

Facebook just rolled out new privacy controls for the things you share. Similar to Google+, Facebook is allowing users to share posts and photos with certain groups or lists of people and making it a whole lot easier to manage your photos and content. Find out more about each of the changes (which should be rolled out over the next few days) in this slideshow guide.

How to Remove Your Name and Photo From LinkedIn's Social Ads

Kristy Korcz — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:41:33 PDT

Remember when everyone got all up in arms about Facebook's social ads back in March? LinkedIn recently followed suit, making changes to its privacy policy to automatically include your name and photo in its social ads by default.

Good news is, it's easy to opt-out. Follow these steps to removing your name and image from LinkedIn's new social ads feature.

Should Governments Have the Ability to Block Usage of Social Networks?

Kristy Korcz — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:24:59 PDT

The London riots have caused more than physical damage to the city - it has also started the discussion on whether or not governments should have the ability to block usage of social networks if they believe those tools are being used to spark violence and unrest. Reports state that a large part of the London riots have been organized via social networks (like Twitter and Facebook) as well as BlackBerry BBM. RIM is already cooperating to hand over information relating to the riots while the British prime minister has issued a call to ban users from social networks who have used them to organize riots, and he's asked sites like Twitter and Facebook to remove posts relating to those actions.

Earlier this year, we saw the population of Egypt blocked from Twitter and Facebook to prevent videos, photos, and information from being shared about the country's protests. While the British government isn't asking to totally block social networks from the country as a whole, rather it wants to ban individuals using it to organize riots. The question can be asked - where do we draw the line? Obviously, sites like Twitter and Facebook have the right to shut users down for violating terms of service, but should that power also be handed off to the government?

What do you think - should governments have the ability to block social networks to prevent violence, or is any blockage considered censorship?