I would say that the say I'm in the Facebook and MySpace demographic age group. I"m 24 and I have been on Facebook and MySpace since college. Our company has also considered creating a Facebook page. Speaking in general terms but I would say that people in my generation are not affected by advertisement. We have been bombarded with ads on the internet since we can remember and either ignore them completely or avoid them. I can't think of one person that would click on a flashing internet banner that said I was the 1000th whatever and there is no way I would ever click on anything that said "Free". I believe that if a social networking page on Facebook or Myspace is even PERCIEVED as a marketing campaign it will fail. No one I know trusts anything a marketing piece says. You have to make it a resource. The problem with social pages and groups is that you have to constantly be updating or adding information. If a group has not been updated in one or two weeks... I considered it a dead group. The problem is that when a page like this is used a resource it is very difficult to determine how the page effects your bottom line considering the time that it takes to properly maintain. I wonder when the last time any of the above MySpace pages where updated.
Myspace Anyone?
- Thread starter new insurance girl
- Start date
Excellent points! Especially the part about becoming a resource. That is the most important thing you can do on the web. The search engines love that and the longer your site visitors stay the more important your website is deemed especially by Google.
- 672
I may be in the minority, but I just don't think Myspace, Facebook, etc. are professional business outlets.
It doesn't matter if they are professional. What matters is if they work.
Last edited:
Depends on your agency. I wouldn't want an unprofessional sight connected with my agency. Do you want to be the insurance pimp or the insurance professional?
- 672
Well, obviously you don't want the insurance pimp, but some think that anything outside of 3 piece suits and white shirts is unprofessional. What I'm saying is that all else being equal, people buy from people they know, like, and trust. Facebook is another way of meeting people and making friends. If they like you, there is a much better chance they'll think of you when it come time to shop.
- 117
The other thing about Facebook is you can search for peoply by location. That means you can find everyone on Facebook in your city or state and invite them to be your friend, most won't accept the invite if they don't know you but if you have a slow morning why not take some time and create an account.
I created a facebook account for my agency last year and never logged into it again. I will probably start a new one and use my name rather than the agency name so it doesn't look like marketing. Than get as many people in your market to be your friends. Once you have friends you can occassionally put a link to your blog or your site without bombarding them.
I don't know if it'll work but it's more productive than watching youtube videos from 10-11 am everyday.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
You're not going to believe this but one of my Facebook friends just asked me to help him with insurance today. I updated my status with a link to my most recent blog entry and he replied to it by asking me for some help.
I know that is totally uncommon and it's not going to happen often but his home and auto insurance will help put some Christmas presents under my tree.
I created a facebook account for my agency last year and never logged into it again. I will probably start a new one and use my name rather than the agency name so it doesn't look like marketing. Than get as many people in your market to be your friends. Once you have friends you can occassionally put a link to your blog or your site without bombarding them.
I don't know if it'll work but it's more productive than watching youtube videos from 10-11 am everyday.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
You're not going to believe this but one of my Facebook friends just asked me to help him with insurance today. I updated my status with a link to my most recent blog entry and he replied to it by asking me for some help.
I know that is totally uncommon and it's not going to happen often but his home and auto insurance will help put some Christmas presents under my tree.
Last edited:
"Most won't accept the invite if they don't know you" I would agree with this if your profile picture is a picture of your agency building or profile name is your agency name. Either one of these will come across immediately as a marketing campaign. You can have a professional personal profile that doesn't look corporate. If you profile looks personal I think most people will add you as a friend. I think this is especially true in the 18-28 bracket. Many of my friends will invite anyone who doesn’t looks scary or is just going to advertise to them. Keep in mind that by Facebook guidelines you are not allowed to create a profile for an agency specifically. You can however create a "group" or "page" for an agency once you have created a profile. If you invite someone as a friend one KEY thing people look at is how many "mutual friends" you have with that invite. If someone invites me to be a friend AND I QUESTION their motives or credibility I look at how many mutual friends I have with that person. If I have 3 or 4 mutual friends I will add them. If none, I won't.
Here is clip from some of the research that I have done:
Invite Friends
After creating a Facebook Group or Facebook Page, you can select from your friends list who you would like to invite as a member. It does not appear that you can invite people directly to your groups. They have to accept your friend request before you can directly invite them to your group. Members of the groups can also invite their friends. Individuals can search for the group and then join at will if it is an open group.
Challenges/Obstacles
By the terms and agreements of Facebook, an individual cannot create more than one user profile. This means that if someone has a personal account then they cannot create another personal account for business activities. Commercial activities cannot be conducted through user profiles as profiles are for personal interests only. Corporations can create Facebook Pages to make a presence in the network. The problem with Facebook Pages is that individuals cannot be directly invited to the page. Page membership would be based on current members inviting their friends or individuals searching for the specific page. If the corporate page was set up through an individual user, then friends of the individual user could be invited directly to the page/group.
Example Corporation:
After creating a Facebook Page for Classic Cars, membership would grow based on how many people saw the page and wanted to join. If Tim Jones joined the page, and liked it, he could then directly invite any and all of his friends to join. The Classic Cars page itself would not be able to directly invite people to the page.
Example User Developed Group
Kim Thompson has a user profile which she used to create a corporate Facebook Page/Group for Classic Cars. (I don't think a corporation can create group by itself). Kim can now invite all 258 of her friends to be members of the group/page. If the invite comes from a friend, individuals are more likely to accept the request and join the group. Kim can now also join other classic car groups, invite people of those groups to be her friend, and then invite them to her Classic Car group directly. From my experience people are open to accepting people as friends even if they don't know them, especially if the invite is accompanied with a message relating them through a specific classic car group. I.e. "I'm a member of 'X' Classic Car group also." The problem with doing it this way is that Kim's individuals profile many lose it's "personal value". All of her friends now are people that she doesn't know because she wanted them to join her Classic Car group.
Here is clip from some of the research that I have done:
Invite Friends
After creating a Facebook Group or Facebook Page, you can select from your friends list who you would like to invite as a member. It does not appear that you can invite people directly to your groups. They have to accept your friend request before you can directly invite them to your group. Members of the groups can also invite their friends. Individuals can search for the group and then join at will if it is an open group.
Challenges/Obstacles
By the terms and agreements of Facebook, an individual cannot create more than one user profile. This means that if someone has a personal account then they cannot create another personal account for business activities. Commercial activities cannot be conducted through user profiles as profiles are for personal interests only. Corporations can create Facebook Pages to make a presence in the network. The problem with Facebook Pages is that individuals cannot be directly invited to the page. Page membership would be based on current members inviting their friends or individuals searching for the specific page. If the corporate page was set up through an individual user, then friends of the individual user could be invited directly to the page/group.
Example Corporation:
After creating a Facebook Page for Classic Cars, membership would grow based on how many people saw the page and wanted to join. If Tim Jones joined the page, and liked it, he could then directly invite any and all of his friends to join. The Classic Cars page itself would not be able to directly invite people to the page.
Example User Developed Group
Kim Thompson has a user profile which she used to create a corporate Facebook Page/Group for Classic Cars. (I don't think a corporation can create group by itself). Kim can now invite all 258 of her friends to be members of the group/page. If the invite comes from a friend, individuals are more likely to accept the request and join the group. Kim can now also join other classic car groups, invite people of those groups to be her friend, and then invite them to her Classic Car group directly. From my experience people are open to accepting people as friends even if they don't know them, especially if the invite is accompanied with a message relating them through a specific classic car group. I.e. "I'm a member of 'X' Classic Car group also." The problem with doing it this way is that Kim's individuals profile many lose it's "personal value". All of her friends now are people that she doesn't know because she wanted them to join her Classic Car group.
G
Guest
Guest
- Staff
- #50
Kaspersky Lab Detects New Worms Attacking MySpace and Facebook
New worms target both MySpace and Facebook users
Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management systems, has detected two variants of a new worm, Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.a. and Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, which attack MySpace and Facebook respectively. As part of their malicious payload, the worms transform victim machines into zombie computers to form botnets.
Even though the worms are currently only infecting MySpace and Facebook users, Kaspersky Lab analysts are warning users that the worms are designed to upload additional malicious modules with other functionality via the Internet. It is highly probable that victim machines will not only be used for spreading links via these social networking sites, but the botnets will also be used for other malicious purposes.
Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.a spreads when a user accesses his/her MySpace account. The worm creates a range of commentaries to friends' accounts. Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, which targets Facebook users, creates spam messages and sends them to the infected users' friends via the Facebook site. The messages and comments include texts such as Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street; Examiners Caught Downloading Grades From The Internet; Hello; You must see it!!! LOL. My friend catched you on hidden cam; Is it really celebrity? Funny Moments and many others.
Messages and comments on MySpace and Facebook include links to Web Hosting, VPS and Dedicated Servers by eBoundHost.[skip].pl. If the user clicks on this link, s/he is redirected to Web Hosting, VPS and Dedicated Servers by eBoundHost.[skip]***, a site which purportedly contains a video clip. If the user tries to watch it, a message appears saying that s/he needs the latest version of Flash Player in order to watch the clip. However, instead of the latest version of Flash Player, a file called codecsetup.exe is downloaded to the victim machine; this file is also a network worm. The result is that users who have come to the site via Facebook will have the MySpace worm downloaded to their machines, and vice versa.
“Unfortunately, users are very trusting of messages left by 'friends' on social networking sites. So the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high”, says Alexander Gostev, Senior Virus Analyst at Kaspersky Lab. “At the beginning of 2008 we predicted that we'd see an increase in cybercriminals exploiting MySpace, Facebook and similar sites, and we're now seeing evidence of this. I'm sure that this is simply the first step, and that virus writers will continue to target these resources with increased intensity”.
Kaspersky Internet Security detected these threats proactively and signatures were added to the database on July 31, 2008.
About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab delivers the world’s most immediate protection against IT security threats, including viruses, spyware, crimeware, hackers, phishing, and spam. Kaspersky Lab products provide superior detection rates and the industry’s fastest outbreak response time for home users, SMBs, large enterprises and the mobile computing environment. Kaspersky technology is also used worldwide inside the products and services of the industry’s leading IT security solution providers. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com. For the latest on antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and other IT security issues and trends, visit www.viruslist.com.
New worms target both MySpace and Facebook users
Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management systems, has detected two variants of a new worm, Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.a. and Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, which attack MySpace and Facebook respectively. As part of their malicious payload, the worms transform victim machines into zombie computers to form botnets.
Even though the worms are currently only infecting MySpace and Facebook users, Kaspersky Lab analysts are warning users that the worms are designed to upload additional malicious modules with other functionality via the Internet. It is highly probable that victim machines will not only be used for spreading links via these social networking sites, but the botnets will also be used for other malicious purposes.
Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.a spreads when a user accesses his/her MySpace account. The worm creates a range of commentaries to friends' accounts. Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, which targets Facebook users, creates spam messages and sends them to the infected users' friends via the Facebook site. The messages and comments include texts such as Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street; Examiners Caught Downloading Grades From The Internet; Hello; You must see it!!! LOL. My friend catched you on hidden cam; Is it really celebrity? Funny Moments and many others.
Messages and comments on MySpace and Facebook include links to Web Hosting, VPS and Dedicated Servers by eBoundHost.[skip].pl. If the user clicks on this link, s/he is redirected to Web Hosting, VPS and Dedicated Servers by eBoundHost.[skip]***, a site which purportedly contains a video clip. If the user tries to watch it, a message appears saying that s/he needs the latest version of Flash Player in order to watch the clip. However, instead of the latest version of Flash Player, a file called codecsetup.exe is downloaded to the victim machine; this file is also a network worm. The result is that users who have come to the site via Facebook will have the MySpace worm downloaded to their machines, and vice versa.
“Unfortunately, users are very trusting of messages left by 'friends' on social networking sites. So the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high”, says Alexander Gostev, Senior Virus Analyst at Kaspersky Lab. “At the beginning of 2008 we predicted that we'd see an increase in cybercriminals exploiting MySpace, Facebook and similar sites, and we're now seeing evidence of this. I'm sure that this is simply the first step, and that virus writers will continue to target these resources with increased intensity”.
Kaspersky Internet Security detected these threats proactively and signatures were added to the database on July 31, 2008.
About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab delivers the world’s most immediate protection against IT security threats, including viruses, spyware, crimeware, hackers, phishing, and spam. Kaspersky Lab products provide superior detection rates and the industry’s fastest outbreak response time for home users, SMBs, large enterprises and the mobile computing environment. Kaspersky technology is also used worldwide inside the products and services of the industry’s leading IT security solution providers. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com. For the latest on antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and other IT security issues and trends, visit www.viruslist.com.
31 Jul 2008
Similar threads
