Mediaboss Marketing

Yesterday I reviewed the leading social network for book readers, Goodreads. In the second post in my Social Books series, I'm checking out a brand new social network for book writers. Called Writer's Bloq, it was founded by a young wannabe writer from New York named Nayia Moysidis. In a phone interview, I discovered that Moysidis, a graduate of Columbia University's creative writing program, started Writer's Bloq because of the frustrations she encountered trying to get her first novel noticed by publishers. She'd sent 93 individualized letters to publishing houses, but only received a few generic rejection letters in response.

Like many entrepreneurs, Moysidis is a very determined person. After being largely ignored by publishers, her next step was to take an intern job at Simon & Schuster. There she was dismayed to find her very own novel - submitted under a pen name - in the slush pile! On the plus side, Moysidis saw first hand that it was impossible for a publishing house like Simon & Schuster to pick up every book sent to them. They simply receive too many manuscripts.

After seeing the writer submission process from the other side, Moysidis concluded that publishers are so overwhelmed that they aren't discovering enough new talent. She felt that writers needed a better way to try and get noticed, which ultimately would help publishers too. So she created Writer's Bloq, a wonderfully named social network where writers can post snippets of their work and network with others in the industry.

The first thing that struck me about Writer's Bloq when I signed up for a nosey, was its crisp and clean design. Goodreads could learn a thing or two from it there!

There are two main sections: a writing section and a reading section.As with any social network, it's advisable to have a look around first before posting your own content. There are many ways you can discover the writing of others on Writer's Bloq - by genre, format, status (published or unpublished), or tags.

You can choose to read a piece immediately, or save it for later. You can also send it to your Kindle. The staples of social networks are all there: comments, likes, sharing via Facebook and Twitter, the option to subscribe to the author.

Writer's Bloq is clearly very early in its evolution - there isn't a huge amount of activity on the site right now. That is of course the problem every new social network has. Goodreads is at the opposite end of the social network spectrum. It's a mature social network that reached its tipping point a few years ago and is now in the midst of mainstreaming (10 million users and counting!).

So the challenge for Writer's Bloq is to get its core user base - budding writers and people in the publishing industry - to sign up. I asked Nayia Moysidis why new writers should post their work on Writer's Bloq. Why not just self-publish, if they aren't able to land a traditional publisher? She replied that when writers submit a manuscript to a publisher, essentially they are after the following three things:

Originally posted here:
Social Networking For Authors & Overcoming The Rejection Slip

'Don't use social networking e-mail id for online transctions' Symantec MD Shantanu Ghosh replied to a query on steps needed to be protected from cyber attacks Press Trust of India / Chandigarh Sep 13, 2012, 19:25 IST

Security software maker Symantec today advised internet users not to use e-mail ids being used for social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter for carrying out online banking or business transactions in order to prevent stealing of financial data.

"They (internet users) should be more cautious while on social networking sites. They should have separate e-mail id for social networking site and other e-mail id for carrying out transactions like banking," Symantec MD Shantanu Ghosh told reporters here while replying to a query steps needed to be protected from cyber attack on social networking sites.

"Cyber attackers then can try to get into your e-mail ids through malware on these sites and try to steal vital information like credit card information," he said.

He said not to click on any "untrusted" link in their e-mails or social networking site as it also poses threat of stealing important financial information of the user.

Ghosh also cited an example when a malware in the name of bollywood female actor Katrina Kaif video was received by internet users on their e-mail ids in India and later it was found that the malware was intended to steal credit card information of the user.

Acknowledging that the number of malwares in the cyber world has grown to millions in India in last few years, he also stressed on be cautious on framing a secure password for their e-mail ids to avert any cyber attack.

"Some users use e-mail password as wife's birth date or anniversary day or birth year and most of these details are available on their social networking site account and it can also be misused by cyber attackers," he said.

He added that small and medium business in cities like Chandigarh, Surat, Jaipur are facing the threat of cyber attack because of less spending by small entrepreneurs on security technology and growing use of internet.

"Small cities, including Chandigarh, are sharing good amount of malware activity...(because) these companies are not spending much on security technology which makes them vulnerable to cyber attack," Ghosh said.

Read more here:
'Don't use social networking e-mail id for online transctions'

By Paul Schott

The Board of Education has a new status update: It has approved revisions to the Westport school district's social-networking policy.

The changes do not alter the scope of the district's policy. Instead, they essentially revise some of the policy's structure and wording, with the intention of making the district's social media regulations clearer and more specific for Westport educators. The new version, for instance, updates the policy's list of regulated social media to include Instagram, a photo-editing and sharing app whose popularity has exploded since the board approved the original social networking policy in April 2011. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and MySpace were already covered in the first version.

"There was no intent to change the scope of the policy; it is to be more specific," acting Board of Education Chairman Jim Marpe told the Westport News on Tuesday, a day after the board approved the revisions. "It's an attempt, I believe, to make it easier for our employees to read and see what we're talking about."

The approved changes constitute the first update to the school district's social-networking policy since it was adopted last year. Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon recommended updating the policy in an Aug. 13 letter to the board to "address the changing landscape with regard to social networking."

Landon expressed satisfaction Monday with the adopted version of the updated policy approved by the school board.

"This will probably become a policy that is recommended to districts throughout the state," Landon said. "Its message is clear. It protects the rights of the individuals who exercises their First Amendment rights and it also protects kids.

Education board members said they expect the district's policy to be periodically updated in the future.

"We're going to have to see where society and technology goes," said board member Mark Mathias. "It's better than it was. I think it improves and clarifies it."

No audience members commented on the policy at Monday's meeting.

See original here:
Schools' social-networking policy tweaked

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 13, 2012) - ON24, Inc., the global leader in webcasting and virtual event solutions, today announced a new family of enterprise social networking widgets.Integrated within ON24 Platform 10, the new Salesforce.com Chatter, VMware Socialcast and Microsoft Yammer widgets significantly enhance the social networking capabilities of online events powered by ON24, including webcasts, virtual shows and virtual briefing centers.

"Social media is playing an increasingly important role in enhancing the effectiveness of enterprise webcasting," said Steve Vonder Haar, senior analyst with Wainhouse Research. "By providing tools that enable the integration of enterprise social media applications, such as Chatter, Socialcast and Yammer, ON24 is supplying solutions that make it easier for employees to be engaged with virtual events and corporate webcasts."

In addition, ON24 is releasing a Cover Flow widget designed especially for virtual training. It enables the addition of a playlist of on-demand videos to a webcast and features a carousel-style presentation that creates a visual content library. The widget allows the audience to browse thumbnail images of the videos and then play them immediately within the webcast environment, increasing engagement and helping to deliver a cohesive story by providing relevant background and/or refresher information.

"With these new widgets, we are enhancing the power of virtual communications solutions for enterprise business applications," said Tom Masotto, vice president of product management at ON24. "Our focus is on building widgets to support employee training and collaboration specifically."

The new widgets join an existing widget line-up of more than 30 application widgets that support ON24's "One Widget, Any Platform" architecture, designed and built to extend virtual event reach and engagement. ON24 offers widgets for applications ranging from breakout sessions and collaborative idea brainstorming to integration with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. ON24 widgets are based on Flash technology, and ON24's open architecture means that third-party developers can create and add their own application widgets for the ON24 platform.

Specific features and functions of ON24's new widgets include:

"The depth and breadth of the ON24 solution continue to define the virtual communications market," commented Masotto. "No other company can deliver the scalability and performance of ON24, and no other provider has ON24's suite of products and the open Platform 10 widget architecture. This combination delivers a unique set of tools designed to empower our customers -- enabling them to create engaging virtual events and environments that deliver maximum value and ROI."

About ON24, Inc. ON24, the virtual communications platform for the global enterprise, provides interactive, impactful cloud-based solutions that drive outstanding results. ON24 offers a broad and innovative product portfolio, including webcasting, virtual events and virtual environments, accessible from any device and supported by robust reporting and analytics. Applications for the ON24 platform include demand generation, partner enablement, training, product launches, company town hall meetings and user conferences. More than 700 organizations, including IBM, CA Technologies, Merck, Unilever, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, Amazon and New York Life, rely on ON24. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information, visit http://www.ON24.com.

The rest is here:
ON24 Announces Enterprise Social Networking Widget Family

12-09-2012 23:21 Highlights of this day in history: Israel and the Palestinians sign a major accord; President George W. Bush takes responsibility for the federal response to Hurricane Katrina; Attica prison uprising ends; Rapper Tupac Shakur dies. (Sept. 13)

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Today in History for September 13th - Video