CHANGE YOUR TWITTER PASSWORD!

twitter got hacked today and is sending out bogus direct messages from some tweeple's (twitter people) accounts.  while no one seems to know what started this, the only way to ensure that your account is safe is to change your twitter password.  unfortunately will all the twitter apps out there, most of the people on twitter (myself included) are giving their twitter passwords out a little too freely.  chris brogan wrote a great post today with step-by-step instructions to change your twitter password.  here is the link to his blog post, it's great and all the tweeple out there should read it!
Log Into Twitter and Change Your Password -- Chris Brogan

facebook 401 -- creating photo albums and uploading photos

now that you have made some friends on facebook, you probably want to share some of your photos with them. personally, this is one of the things that I use facebook for the most. there are two things that you will need to do, create a photo album and upload pictures to that album.

creating new photo album:
you can create as many photo albums as you want to, but you can only put 60 pictures in each album. I typically create an album for each month and add the pictures that I want to share during the month (I find the 60 picture limit keeps me from boring my friends with too many pictures). I will create a separate album for special events (i.e. kids birthday parties, Christmas, etc.)

1. from your main facebook page, click on the photos tab or click on the photos icon on the bottom left hand side toolbar.
2. click on "create a new photo album" on the top right hand side of the page (right under your name).
3. give the album a unique name and add a location and description if you want to.
4. set your privacy for this photo album, by default it is set to let everyone see your photos. (I usually set mine to only let friends of friends see my albums)
5. click on create album.
6. if you want to start adding photos to this album now, start with step 4 on the instructions below.
   

adding pictures to a photo album:

1. from your main facebook page, click on the photos tab or click on the photos icon on the bottom left hand side toolbar.
2. your albums will be listed on the bottom of the page. click on the album that you want to add the pictures to.
3. click on "add photos" or "add more photos".
4. you can browse to the folder where the pictures that you want to add are located using the folder list in the left hand side of the screen.
5. you will then see the pictures that are in that folder in the right hand side of the screen. click the check-box next to the pictures that you want to upload.
6. once you have chosen all the pictures that you want to upload from that folder, click on "upload" (you can only upload pictures from one folder at a time).
7. the pictures will then be uploaded to facebook.
   

facebook 301 -- limiting your profile

as I make more and more friends on twitter and through my blog, I am getting more friend requests from people on facebook that I don't know "in real life." I've been pretty open with what I share on facebook, so I wanted a way to limit what some of my "friends" could see about me on facebook. here is what I have set up:

1. set up a group of the people that you want to limit
2. click "settings" on your facebook toolbar and click "privacy settings"
3. click "profile"
4. click "customize" for the items that you do not want the group to see
5. in the "who can see this" window that pops up, add the group name to the "except these people" section listed at the bottom
6. click "ok"
7. repeat steps 4-6 for all the items that you do not want the group to see

see how easy that was!

creating podcasts

my brother in law asked me last night about creating/distributing a podcast.   I twittered the question out and as usual, my twitter friends gave me some great responses!  here are the links that I got:

librarian and information science news -- podcasting section
youtube video on podcasting
podcasting for dummies book

TalkShoe.com -- an online community/service that helps you create podcasts

thanks to @michelletrent, @stephenk, @onegate, @dananner, @nikkimk and all my other great twitter friends for all the suggestions.  as I have said many times before, you guys ROCK!!

facebook 203 -- creating groups of friends

1. on your facebook page, click on friends on the top toolbar and then click on all friends.
2. you will then see a list of all your friends. click on make a new list on the left hand side.
3. give your list a descriptive name (i.e. waco friends, on-line friends, or family) and hit enter.
   
4. you can add friends to your list by either typing their name or click on select mulitiple friends to bring up all your friends and you can click on the ones you want to add to the group. once you have selected the friends you want to add, click on save list.
   
5. you can add or remove friends from your groups at any time by clicking on the group name.
6. to remove someone from a group, just click on the "X" to the right of their picture and current status. you will then have the option to remove them from the list or remove them from your friends all together.

groups are a helpful way to send information and invites out to only certain friends, you can also lock down your profile by using groups. more about that next week!

facebook 202 -- removing friends

it happens to all of us, sometimes we need to cut people out of our lives, so here is how to remove a friend that you have made on facebook:

1. click on "see all" on your friends section on the left-hand side of your facebook wall.
2. find the friend you want to remove and just click on the x for that person.

see, wasn't that easy just two steps!!

facebook 201 -- making friends

there are two ways to find and friend people on facebook.

1. you can search for people by typing their names in the search field in the upper left hand corner on your facebook screen. OR
   you can also search through the friends of your friend's by going to your friend's facebook page and click on "see all" under the friends section on the left hand side.
2. once you find the person that you want to be friends with on facebook, click on "add as friend" on the right hand side.
3. you can then click on "add a personal message" if you want to add a note with your friend request and then click on "add friend."
4. facebook will then send the person a message saying that you have requested to be their friend, and you will get a message once they accept you as a friend.

feel free to search for me and friend me on facebook. my name is caryn berger brown and if you put "it's all geek to me" in the message in your friend request, I will add you as a friend.