If you’ve seen something like this on Facebook:

“WARNING ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Don’t go into or open the group “WE’RE AGAINST THE 14.99 A MONTH CHARGE FOR FACEBOOK FROM JUNE 30TH 2010″, it has a virus in a link that opens unstoppable windows with horrific images of humans in states of mutilation. Everyone, PLEASE repost.” …read on.

The message is TRUE; the group page contained a link to a malicious website. The part about Facebook charging $14.99 for basic services is a rumor that was probably started by the people who started the malicious group page.

You can read more at Hoax-Slayer.com.

Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow

My Facebook Fan Page:  www.facebook.com/SocialNetworking4Biz, Become a Fan Today

Today Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook now has 350 million users!  Just 2 short months ago, Facebook had 300 million users and just a few months before that they were at 250 million users.  Facebook is experiencing tremendous growth and is constantly making changes and improvements to their social network to keep up with the growth.

Upcoming changes will involve regional networks and increased user control regarding privacy settings.  Read Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post for more info on the changes.

Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow

Become a Fan of our Fan Page:  Social Networking 4 Biz

Facebook just announced that they are adding a new way for you to tag friends, groups, events, applications and fan pages directly in your Status Updates.  This is another way you can let the Facebook community know who you are talking about and what you are saying about them.

So how does this affect a business that has a Facebook group, fan page or event postings?  I’m assuming that items tagged via a status update will appear in the home page highlights section thus giving the tagged items more exposure on Facebook.  If this is true, you could potentially tag your own groups, fan pages and events AND your endearing friends could also tag your items as a way of promoting you and your business.

Here is info directly from the Facebook blog:

Now, when you are writing a status update and want to add a friend’s name to something you are posting, just include the “@” symbol beforehand.  As you type the name of what you would like to reference, a drop-down menu will appear that allows you to choose from your list of friends and other connections, including groups, events, applications and Pages.  Soon, you’ll be able to tag friends from applications as well.  The “@” symbol will not be displayed in the published status update or post after you’ve added your tags.

Friends you tag in your status updates will receive a notification and a Wall post linking them to your post.  They also will have the option to remove tags of themselves from your posts.

Exactly how this feature will work and the benefits that it will produce remain to be seen.  Facebook will be rolling this feature out over the next few weeks…you may not have access to it yet.  One way to check is to start typing a status update and use the @ symbol.  If a drop-down menu appears, your account has the new feature.  If it doesn’t appear, try again in a few days…

I will post additional information on this blog or my Social Networking Facebook Fan Page as it becomes available.

Tag…you’re it!   How do you think this new feature will benefit your business?

Kimberly Yow
Marketing That’s Easy.com