I just heard that Japan has had another 6.8 magnitude earthquake, and another tsunami warning has been made. This is just two weeks after a devastating 9.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami. It is just all too much….

Most employers check out potential new hires on facebook these days.
According to CareerBuilder.co.uk, more than half (53%) of employers research potential job candidates on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
The days of simply relying on the candidates CV and what their referees say, is long gone.
Our ability to easily upload content to the internet from anywhere means that future employers will be tempted to look for this content in order to better understand what you may be really like.
They want to confirm that what you have on your CV is factual, and that you are not a secret sociopath who may cause damage to the company in the future. Also, human nature being what it is, they just want to know stuff about you.
A decent percentage of employers do admit to finding out items online, which has persuaded them to not hire a candidate.
For example, this article discusses a female psychiatrist being passed over for a role, due to pictures posted on facebook.
And it does not end at getting the job.
As I have blogged about before, you can get “facebook fired” ifyou decide to post negative comments about fellow workers or the company that employs you.
The rise of activity like this has led to companies such as Reputationdefender.com, and many others, springing up. Reputationdefender.com offers to monitor your Web reputation for $10 USD a month, plus a one-time fee of $30 USD to remove something from the internet, if an unwanted item somehow gets out of control.
This is a good service and may be very useful to some people.
I still believe that the simplest course of action to defend your reputation, is simply to use your common sense.
If that fails, then here are some quick tips to keep in mind:
If you want to do well on the internet, I actually advise you to adopt a paranoid mindset, so that you will THINK BEFORE YOU POST. This will help make your online life much easier to enjoy.
Inspired by the whole Rob Granito kerfuffle, I decided that what the world needed was something to help find Jay Diddilo.
So, I made these 3 t-shirt design ideas.
Now, anyone can make sure the world knows who they really are.
Jay Diddilo need never be a mystery figure again!
Feel free to give me your feedback on these ideas.
Of course, if any of you actually wanted any of them made into a real live shirt, let me know that too.
I can make that happen.
Or, you could just trace these designs, print them on a shirt, and claim it as your own work…..
The best thing about social media is that most people still are not sure what it is all about.
Especially many businesses.
Sure, they know it has something to do with connect to their customers, but they are not precisely sure how best to do this.
Many believe the marketing department is the best part of their organisation to handle social media, as it is just another marketing medium, right?
The great thing for many “marketers” who now promote themselves as being experts in the field, is that they can claim this based on the flimsiest of reasons.
They claim to understand and be experts on this new medium, with reasons such as:
The truth (i.m.o.) is that the marketing department should stay away from social media in many cases. They are not always the right people for the job, and social media is not just a marketing medium.
Community managers should be employed to help mange your social media presence. These people are usually the ones with a much better understanding of the new landscape.
They can work in with marketing to help make a campaign more successful, but their most important task is to help keep your social media frontier moving forward, especially when marketing have forgotten it while they go off to prepare their next EDM strategy, or website promotion.