Reality Checked - Book Review

Reality Checked - Life through Death, is a moving saga about finding meaning in a world of suffering and pointless hate based on the color of skin. Former school teacher and Theologist, Victor Waller has incorporated many of life's issues through the lives of his characters who were forced to make decisions in hopeless situations. Racism, revenge and hate are rampant in this book. Domestic abuse and the dangers hidden within our society's foster care system are also addressed.

There is only one main character - Catherine Brown - along with a host of supporting characters. Catherine grows up under the terrible threat of racism - which many use simply as an excuse to harm another human. In fact, her father and uncle were orphaned at a very young age through a racist attack. The fairy-tale romance of her parents slid away as fears of her father's suspected infidelity enforces her mother's accusations that she is being poisoned. Never really knowing the truth, Catherine stumbles through her youth and into adulthood.

Unfortunately, a disturbed individual brutally murders her family and Catherine is dragged away by the police and incarcerated for many years. She survived the harsh environment through the friendship of her cellmate - and their hunger for revenge.

As an old woman, Catherine is only free from the bars of her prison. Her body is now her jailer - it is discovered that she inherited her mother's mysterious illness. Thinking she had no family remaining alive, Catherine is surprised when she is invited to a family reunion. This reunion proves to be one of Catherine's greatest challenges. As she seeks to repair the family discord, she is contacted by a person from the past and her chance for revenge is handed to her on a silver platter.

Victor Waller has created an important and meaningful story in Reality Checked. In fact, the work is well titled. The novel provokes the reader to question their own choices in life -and possibly, to release some of the pessimistic inner voices which influence their decisions.

I give this 377 page novel the highest of ratings with no hesitation, what-so-ever.

ISBN#: 0976498103 Author: Victor Waller Publisher: Turn Key Press

Reality Checked - Book Review

Reality Checked - Life through Death, is a moving saga about finding meaning in a world of suffering and pointless hate based on the color of skin. Former school teacher and Theologist, Victor Waller has incorporated many of life's issues through the lives of his characters who were forced to make decisions in hopeless situations. Racism, revenge and hate are rampant in this book. Domestic abuse and the dangers hidden within our society's foster care system are also addressed.

There is only one main character - Catherine Brown - along with a host of supporting characters. Catherine grows up under the terrible threat of racism - which many use simply as an excuse to harm another human. In fact, her father and uncle were orphaned at a very young age through a racist attack. The fairy-tale romance of her parents slid away as fears of her father's suspected infidelity enforces her mother's accusations that she is being poisoned. Never really knowing the truth, Catherine stumbles through her youth and into adulthood.

Unfortunately, a disturbed individual brutally murders her family and Catherine is dragged away by the police and incarcerated for many years. She survived the harsh environment through the friendship of her cellmate - and their hunger for revenge.

As an old woman, Catherine is only free from the bars of her prison. Her body is now her jailer - it is discovered that she inherited her mother's mysterious illness. Thinking she had no family remaining alive, Catherine is surprised when she is invited to a family reunion. This reunion proves to be one of Catherine's greatest challenges. As she seeks to repair the family discord, she is contacted by a person from the past and her chance for revenge is handed to her on a silver platter.

Victor Waller has created an important and meaningful story in Reality Checked. In fact, the work is well titled. The novel provokes the reader to question their own choices in life -and possibly, to release some of the pessimistic inner voices which influence their decisions.

I give this 377 page novel the highest of ratings with no hesitation, what-so-ever.

ISBN#: 0976498103 Author: Victor Waller Publisher: Turn Key Press

Why You Should Not Connect Your Twitter Account to Your Facebook Account

Twitter has made it very easy to connect Twitter to your Facebook profile or fan page. This allows you to make a post on Twitter and then have it automatically come up on your Facebook page. While this seems ideal, this is not a very good idea for many people.

Twitter and Facebook, while overall do the same thing, have very unique etiquette and rules. It's not very hard in Twitter to get up to 1000 followers. When you have that many followers, you won't see many of their tweets. If you tweet 10 times in a day, odds are many of them won't be seen and will get drowned out by the other ones. However Facebook is more personal. It's harder to get 1000 friends because you have to accept them as friends. So when people go onto Facebook, they will see most of the messages that people post. Users usually will only make a few posts a week, so those will be easily seen. If you make a lot of posts on Twitter and connect these accounts, then all these posts will show up on Facebook. That could make your Facebook friends very mad.

Secondly, the format of writing is different. Twitter allows only 140 characters per tweet, so people abbreviate a lot and skip words to get their point across in that short frame. Facebook doesn't restrict you at 140 characters, so Facebook users expect full sentences. Pulling over your short tweets won't translate well to Facebook.

Also, many items are used in Twitter that aren't in Facebook. Hashtags are used frequently in Twitter and people search for them constantly, however those aren't really used in Facebook. The same goes for mention (@), when you are directing a tweet towards someone. Also, RT (Retweet) is commonly used in Twitter, but not at all in Facebook. You might see a tweet like this in Twitter: "Hey #ClevelandFolks, I'm all set to see @LadyGaga tonite! RT if u r going too" Now this gets your point across in Twitter, but your Facebook friends might appreciate a full sentence or two on it.

One final thing I like to do in my Twitter account is promote my Facebook page. It's a great way to get fans to your Fanpage if you own a business or blog. However, making a tweet like "Check out my Facebook fanpage at.... And let's be friends there too" will not come off well if that gets automatically transferred to Facebook!

The only people that I see connecting accounts good for, are those people who only make 1 tweet a day at most and don't employ all the hashtags and mentions. If you simply use Twitter to make a tweet or two about your day that could fit into Facebook, then this would be the only reason to connect accounts. Otherwise, it's best to leave them separate.

Does It Pay to Be LinkedIn?   How Social Networking For Business Came to Be   Making Social and E-Mail Calls to Action More Effective   Making Efficient Use of Your Social Media Campaign - A Debut Into Social Media Marketing   

Engage in Social Networking the Twitter Way

To be an effective social networker/marketer setting up your profile is the first step, but it goes far beyond the setup. The saying from the Field of Dreams movie... "Build it and they will come" will not work in this instance. You must continually develop online relationships and share relevant information from your expertise. Like your website and blog, social networking is a constant work-in-progress. Don't let your shoulders sag, engagement does not need to take you endless hours every day.

Today I will focus on... How to strengthen your Twitter participation:

To be an effective member of the Twitter community you need to tweet on a consistent basis. Note tweets are limited to 140 characters including spaces and the URL you are directing the reader to. Your tweets can be just about anything. Such as, your latest book, your newsletter, book reviews, author interviews, and information you find interesting to the freelance writing career, etc. My rule of thumb is to tweet at least 4-5 times per day, Monday through Friday. I give myself off the weekends for good behavior.

Use Tinyurl dot com to shorten the length of the URL you are providing in your tweet, so you save valuable characters for your message.

Don't just tweet about yourself. Avoid the "it's all about me attitude", become a master communicator with tweeting a combination of your own tweets with those of colleagues.

Take out ten to fifteen minutes per day and visit Twitter and retweet (RT) posts of interest for those you are following. You'll be amazed how appreciative tweeters are for RT. It is a terrific way to broaden the contact base for all those participating.

Scheduling Your Tweets Ahead of Time: Save valuable time and plan your tweets ahead of time (at least weekly). Create your tweets in Word and double check the character length by highlighting your tweet, clicking Review in the toolbar and to the right of Translate on the far left click the ABC/123 symbol. A pop-up screen will appear providing full statistics and make note of the Characters (with spaces) number. To set-up and schedule your tweets, I recommend Dynamic Tweets. Once you register an account you will be able to schedule a one-time tweet or tweets you'd like to repeat throughout a specific timeframe. The template/site is simple to use.

Tweeting Lingo and What It Means for Your Tweeting Experience:

# - hashtag - by searching for a keyword with the # (hashtag) before it will pull you up a list of the latest tweets regarding the topic. This is a great way to get in specific conversations and tweeter parties.

@ - symbol before username - by searching for a particular username the results provides their tweets and mentions by fellow tweeters.

Direct Messages - by clicking on the "head" image the pull down menu will appear. Click on direct messages, here you will find a listing of all messages sent to you by fellow tweeters.

For more lingo details visit: https://support.twitter.com/articles/166337-the-twitter-glossary

Remember, tackle your social networking campaign with baby steps every day for each step will develop into a quantum leap.

Next month I will discuss the social networking platform LinkedIn.

As a PR Publicist I offer an array of services to help you free up your valuable writing time, visit Author PR Services for details.

Thank you for joining me today, it's been a pleasure.

Does It Pay to Be LinkedIn?   How Social Networking For Business Came to Be   Making Social and E-Mail Calls to Action More Effective   Social Networking - A Beginners Guide to LinkedIn   Making Efficient Use of Your Social Media Campaign - A Debut Into Social Media Marketing   

Making the Most of Marketing Via Twitter

How do the best Twitter Marketing Greats get the top results that we see them getting from their tweets? What are the tricks of the Twitter Marketing Trade that help businesses get their products and services into the hands of the right people?

One important note to make before beginning is that marketing via Twitter, even B2B Marketing, is not necessarily the most effective form of online marketing for all businesses. Like any kind of advertising, whether it be online or offline, it is important for the businessman or woman to continue to optimize, experiment and develop their marketing approaches as time goes on.

With time, it might become clear that Twitter is not the forum for you and your business, or you might find a sudden wave of successful leads coming in to your site as a result of your marketing efforts in the "tweeting" department.

Finding out whether Twitter is the forum for you and your business is something that you need to follow up on. However, we can give a few helpful hints to begin with and a few Twitter Marketing Tips to put into practice via the post.

After taking a look at these tips, you might find that you have been approaching Twitter Marketing all wrong and you might find that our ideas lead you to lead-generation success. You might also find that these tips help to reiterate the fact that Twitter is not for you and help you make the decision to concentrate your online marketing efforts in other spheres.

Either way, the reading of this post is going to be helpful, so let's get cracking...

1. Use Industry Keywords Not only should you be using the # key in your tweets to identify industry keywords that will help people who are searching via Twitter to find you, but you should also use the # key to then highlight industry keywords in your Twitter Biography.

When you land on the Facebook Page of any Tom, Dick or Harry, you can instantly find out lots about them. We jam our blog bios full of information and it is probably safe to say that nearly all websites have an "about" page.

Therefore, why not share your industry information via Twitter using the # key to ensure that the people who need to know about this vital information get to know about it without difficulty?

2. Share Third-Party Content As with any other form of online content, what you share, what you highlight and what you offer your followers, must be of great value to them. If you don't offer this, there is no reason for them to follow you.

Therefore, search well and find people in your industry who are doing great things worth sharing. Tweet the content of others from their Twitter profiles, their blogs and from industry news sources too. Value is the key.

If you can become a valuable Twitter source, the results you get from your online marketing via Twitter will make you smile.

3. Find and Follow Don't be passive with your Twitter Marketing. Instead of waiting for someone to tweet you, why not tweet them and introduce yourself?

Industry leaders, who can be found throughout the various Twitter directories and lists, will respond to your tweets if it is clear that you are offering something of use to the industry as a whole and something that they too can use as a way of publicizing their Twitter profiles as effective sources of up-to-date industry information.

4. Tweet links from your company Don't forget about all the wonderful things that your company is doing when you are Tweeting. It is OK to link to your special offers and link to a page about the services that your provide because you are using Twitter as a marketing forum and everybody knows that.

Try different kinds of links. Try blog posts, try landing pages, try your events agenda (if you have one), etc. and see which form of Tweeting to your particular website seems to generate the most amount of Twitter activity. When you find the kind that works the best, stick with it for a while and remember to keep reviewing, as with any kind of online marketing, after a few months.

5. Follow general news sources and trade publications If you want to remain an authority in your industry, then you must keep up-to-date with your industry news. In order to stay up-to-date, take the time to read the Tweets of important news sources and publications associated with your business, twice daily if possible.

Don't use this time to re-tweet necessarily, unless you find something that really MUST be shared, but instead treat this time as research time and simply read the information that you are given and digest it as much as possible.

Swallow the facts and make sure that they have sunk in sufficiently to be of use to you whenever the time presents itself.

Does It Pay to Be LinkedIn?   How Social Networking For Business Came to Be   Making Social and E-Mail Calls to Action More Effective   Social Networking - A Beginners Guide to LinkedIn   

Choose Your Social Networking Friends With Care

Are you a couch potato or are you out running every morning or at keep-fit classes most weeks? The chances are, if you are a couch potato, most of your close friends are also slobbing out in the evenings too. And if you are a fitness fanatic, your buddies are also likely to exercise a lot. Your physical activity is usually roughly the same as that of your closest friends. Similarly, your salary or your business income is likely to be roughly the same as your closest mates too. There is plenty of research which shows that if you change social groups you tend to their average in any measure.

So if you want to lose weight, change your friends to people who enjoy losing weight. If you want to make more money, get to know more millionaires. Every social group, it seems, tends to produce "norms". If you want to effect a change in your life, it can usually best be done by changing your social group. And that's why change is tough - you don't want to lose your friends or give up being with them, so you stick with them and that means you don't change.

Children are much the same - they join a social group and then "become" that group. They like the same things, do the same things and their behaviour averages out. If you want to change your child's behaviour you need to alter their social group. Look in any school playground and the active children will all be together, while the bookish ones are also together. Like attracts like.

So, when it comes to dealing with common childhood issues, often the resolution is in splitting groups up, leading to all kinds of trouble. Take, for instance, the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Fat children have other fat children as mates. Even if you can get the obese child to try to lose weight, they give up because their friends aren't doing it. In other words, the social group tends towards its norm. If you want fat children to lose weight, they need to be in a social group with thin children, perhaps those underweight. The social group will then get a new "norm" with the obese child losing weight as a result.

You can see this kind of theory in a recent study highlighted in the medical journal Pediatrics which looked at levels of physical activity in after-school groups of young children. What the researchers found was that children tended to do more physical activity if their four closest friends also did a lot of physical activity. In other words, the group "normed".

So, if you want to increase your income, hang out with people online who earn more than you. If you want better search engine ranking, connect with people who are better at it than you. And if you want to lose weight, stick with thin people...! The social norming effect will mean that you will adjust your behaviour to reach the common ground of the group. Sometimes you don't get the results you want with your online business simply because you have the wrong friends...!

Does It Pay to Be LinkedIn?   How Social Networking For Business Came to Be   Making Social and E-Mail Calls to Action More Effective   Social Networking - A Beginners Guide to LinkedIn   Making Efficient Use of Your Social Media Campaign - A Debut Into Social Media Marketing   Top Reasons to Engage on Twitter   

Pinterest Makes You Define Social Networking For Your Business

Pinterest is the one of the new top social sites everyone is raving about. It is natural then that business and internet marketers alike are rushing over there to capitalize on this new opportunity. You have to remember, though, that it is social network, and with all social media sites you can only achieve one, maybe two goals at once. This is why so many people get frustrated with their results from social networking; they have no clearly defined strategy and are trying to be all things to all people.

There are six broad objectives that social media sites can help you achieve. Once you pick the one you want most, then you can refine how you will use Pinterest to fulfil that goal.

1. More Sales.

Most business owners will tell you their number one marketing objective is more sales. Pinterest is a good delivery system to that ball rolling, since it has been proven to deliver significant traffic to sites who promote in a visually exciting way on that platform.

2. Higher Prices.

If you need to raise your prices, you have to tell a better value story about your product or service. Why are you worth more money? If you can demonstrate that extra value in pictures, Pinterest is a fine social network for you to use here.

3. Bigger Market Share.

Pinterest helps in two ways on this objective:

researching your competitors to see what they're doing and determining how you can improve on that reminding your customers of all that you have available -- sharing that information,of course, not simply bill-boarding, or blasting the message with a barrage of product shots.

4. Respect and Recognition.

To earn respect, you will need to demonstrate superior skill and market leadership. Pinterest is built for exactly this purpose! By sharing your expertise, and by recommending others, you appear more authoritative. That may not sound logical, but it is true. Only a confident person knows enough to recommend another with true altruistic spirit, asking for nothing in return.

5. Partnerships and Joint Promotions.

Scanning pin boards enables you to quickly see who has something that catches your eye. Thus, Pinterest can show you who might be a feasible option for a partnership and how might have an interest in promoting your product alongside their own.

6. To Be Bought Out.

As of March 2012, most UK Pinterest users were male, venture capitalists, according to research conducted by Mashable. Whether they are browsing for a business NOT making the most of Pinterest, or the "next big thing" is unclear. What has always been true for social networks is that the larger the tribe, the louder the noise a company makes, the more juicy they look to the Big Boys!

As you can see there are six options with Pinterest, and it's up to you to define social networking goals that make sense for your overall objective on social media. Just remember that you can't be all things to all people, and you can't achieve all six objectives at once.

Does It Pay to Be LinkedIn?   How Social Networking For Business Came to Be   Making Social and E-Mail Calls to Action More Effective   Making Efficient Use of Your Social Media Campaign - A Debut Into Social Media Marketing   

Building Meaningful Relationships With Influencers

Marketing to influencers is an important part of your business's success. Strong relationships are at the heart of your professional success. Take it one step further and cultivate and maintain relationships with people who are influential in your Industry.

Influencer marketing is not a new strategy or way of thinking. It has been around for a very long time. Business people have recognized its value for ages and the way in which you use it will determine how successful your business will be because of it. There are many things to think about when it comes to targeting influencers. The first thing is that you need to identify who the influencers are and connect with them so that you can start to build meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships with them. An interesting point is that the people who are the strongest influencers for you today may not be the same people tomorrow. Because of the rapid advancement of technology and how that affects businesses today, they are connected to the tools that are being used for business on a consistent and regular basis.

Making influencer marketing a part of your overall online marketing strategy

You may be asking yourself why you would want to incorporate influencer marketing into your marketing strategy. Of course, just as traditional marketing can have a positive effect on your business (and certainly should), influencer marketing can have an equally positive effect. The following positive results will become apparent very quickly:

Getting your influencers to interact

You should try to get your influencers to write guest blog articles, get involved with podcasts, or do interviews with you. That will serve several purposes. It will impress others to know that your influencers support your business and believe in your offerings. It will also keep things interesting and your efforts to continue to bring fresh, innovative ideas to the table through your influencers will make other people want to continue to be involved with you and your business.

Earning more mentions online

If you can get your influencers to speak about you and your business online, through their efforts, you will be strengthening your reputation and increasing your exposure. Where you are mentioned is not nearly as how often you are mentioned (as long as it is in a positive light, of course).

Increase your traffic

If you can tap into their audiences, you will be able to increase the amount of online traffic that comes to you. That can only be a positive thing for your business.

Determining the value of your business and your offerings

A great way to know how valuable you are to other people is through the communications that others express among themselves. It is one thing that you totally understand how valuable your products and/or services are and quite another for other people to understand it. You are the one person who is not allowed to sing the praises of your business.

Earning credibility, trustworthiness, and selling more

If you have the support

Social Networking and Your Business

Social networking is undoubtedly one of the most talked about subjects in the world of Internet marketing. The modern Internet is very much about sharing content with others and this is precisely how good content ends up going viral and becoming extremely popular. Social networking allows Internet users to share content that they like, comment on it, join discussions and groups and much more. If you are the owner of an online business or a traditional business with an online presence, the importance of it should never be underestimated.

What is Social Networking?

It is a form of social media which incorporates various features. The world's most popular social site is Facebook. Facebook and sites like it allow people to keep in contact with friends, join groups and discussions on subjects which interest them, share content they like and much more. While Facebook is the epitome of the networking scene, there are also other popular services, usually targeting a different type of clientele. For example, the site, LinkedIn, is targeted towards professionals, businesses, freelancers and those looking for work. MySpace, although nothing like as popular as it used to be, is popular among younger people. Facebook, on the other hand, is for pretty much everyone with a staggeringly huge user base approaching one-billion members.

How Can Social Networking Help My Business?

Making a success out of any online venture largely relies on building up your website traffic. You can never have too many visitors! While making sure that your website appears in the search engines is just as important as ever, one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your site is to have your visitors share content they like. If you are a Facebook user, for example, you have no doubt seen the numerous links to websites which people post. If someone likes an article or YouTube video, for example, and they share it with their friends on Facebook. One or more of their friends may, in turn, share it with their own contacts. Obviously, this is extremely good for the owner of the content.

It is not just about sharing content. Sites such as Facebook also allow businesses to create their own accounts, fan pages or groups. This allows your business to interact directly with customers and potential customers. It provides a way to organize events, provide news and updates and advertise your products and services.

You should also give your website's visitors a chance to easily share content they like on their favorite site. This means adding buttons linking to the more popular social networking sites on each article or blog post. You may have noticed such buttons on many websites which allow people to share content with just a few clicks. This is more convenient for your readers who would otherwise have to manually copy the link, log into their favourite social networking site and then paste the link. Adding social networking links or buttons to your site is normally quite straightforward, particularly if you use a content management system such as WordPress, for which plug-ins are provided to do the job for you without requiring any knowledge of coding.

Does It Pay to Be LinkedIn?   How Social Networking For Business Came to Be   Making Social and E-Mail Calls to Action More Effective   Social Networking - A Beginners Guide to LinkedIn   Making Efficient Use of Your Social Media Campaign - A Debut Into Social Media Marketing   

Facebook For Newbies

Social networking is becoming much more popular as the years are passing by. Chances are, if you do not have a Facebook, you probably will at some point in the near future. Many people have put off getting one, because they either don't have time for it or do not want to learn how to use Facebook.

If you are new to the site, it may seem very confusing. When it first became popular it was pretty simple to navigate and figure out how to use. They have now introduced "timeline" which can be complicated to get use to if you have not used sites like this in the past. There are a few great tips to follow which allow you to make Facebook use simple and enjoyable.

Make sure that you use a current and updated picture for your profile. You can post as many pictures as you would like to on your profile, but for the main picture that people see when they look you up you can only choose one. Having a current picture can help people searching for you find you much easier.

When creating your Facebook.com profile and timeline be sure to use your full name, and any former names, such as a maiden name. Facebook.com allows people to search for others by other names they have used in the past, so this should make locating and friend requesting old acquaintances easier.

Requesting friends on Facebook can be very exciting. You can simply search for a name or put in an e-mail address and if your friend or family member has a Facebook account it will let you invite them to be your friend.

You may feel like you are overwhelmed at first with trying to find people but at the side of your screen it will show you suggestions of people that you may know which can make it easier for you. It is very important not to give your password out to anyone, or add random people that you do not know. Scammers and spammers are lurking all over the internet and can do harm to your computer.

Online social media has become the way of the future. It seems anybody with a computer or smartphone is logging on to tell the world where they are and what they are up too. Facebook is the biggest social media site in history and has currently topped over 900 million users. The popularity is all down to the simplicity of keeping in touch with contacts, chatting, advertising and sharing information with the people who matter directly on Facebook.

There are many beneficial reasons for become an active user on social media online. A business for example could easily create a group directly for staff and keep them informed about work practices, seminars, and other useful titbits. It is a huge time and money saver. There is also the option of uploading documents and files for private access by group member, this can also be a popular way to try and recruit new people and get others interested in the business. A lot of companies have found new staff through online profiles so it is a quick and easy way to find a new team.

Advertising and making profit on Facebook is easily at hand for beginners and experts. This can be done by creating a count and advertising through links or status updates, while getting others interested. Another way for those with less time on their hands is to pay for some cleverly placed company adds which will then be simply accessible from Facebook users. The fee is affordable and very worthwhile when you are looking at a website that has millions of users logging in on a daily basis from all over the globe.

For those looking to get their name into the world wide web or just connect with people who matter then join up with Facebook today.

Does It Pay to Be LinkedIn?   How Social Networking For Business Came to Be   Making Social and E-Mail Calls to Action More Effective   Social Networking - A Beginners Guide to LinkedIn   Making Efficient Use of Your Social Media Campaign - A Debut Into Social Media Marketing   Top Reasons to Engage on Twitter   

The Type of Person That Social Media Privacy Is Best for in Every Situation

Social media privacy is best for everyone. It does not matter what they do, where they live, or any other mix of factors. Everyone should have social media privacy no matter what their circumstances are in life. However, the social networks seem to think that they have the right to know everything about a user and then use that information to monetize their system. Whether they are right or not is irrelevant, it is legal under the current law structure because of the fine print that the user agrees to before using the systems.

Everyone needs social media privacy because that is what they expect when they join a social media system. The social media systems do not make it very clear how they will use the information that they gather from their users. They hide this information inside their fine print and legal babble intentionally. This is because most of the major social media systems use the demographic information to help sell their advertising. The major key to their income is their ability to sell the information that they gather about their users. This is because knowledge is power and no other system has the power to gather information about a person with their consent. Therefore, social media is a wealth of information about a target market, their likes, their dislikes, and what types of people they associate with on a daily basis.

If this seems like a scary proposition, it is because it is really just that. The social networks have a wealth of information about everyone who uses their systems. They know more about a person and their habits than even the government does because the people who use the systems give the information to the social network without hesitation.

The truth about this fact is that most of them do not even know that they are doing it. This is the reason why the social media systems hide the information in their fine print. It would be much harder to get the information if the person knew that they were doing it. For example, if the information that social network was asking for was done by a person on the street or even a well known business, the user would still think twice about giving up the information. It would not matter if that business was a major hamburger chain or the person's favorite clothing store if the establishment asked for a person's list of friends and what movies they watched, the person would be unlikely to give it to the business.

However, social media is the one place where the information is given away freely with or without the user's knowledge. The biggest asset that the major social networks have is that they have convinced the populace that the social networks should know everything about a person and their habits. There has never been another social network where a company knew so much about an individual and got them to hand over the information about themselves so easily. This is the major advantage the social networks have over all the other information methods.

Even though they do not use this information to its fullest, they are still one of the most powerful advertising mediums that a business owner can be involved with at the moment. This is because the users have little to no privacy on the networks, and this allows their advertisers to pin point a target market with scary accuracy.

Does It Pay to Be LinkedIn?   How Social Networking For Business Came to Be   Making Social and E-Mail Calls to Action More Effective   Social Networking - A Beginners Guide to LinkedIn   Making Efficient Use of Your Social Media Campaign - A Debut Into Social Media Marketing   Top Reasons to Engage on Twitter   

Reality Checked - Book Review

Reality Checked - Life through Death, is a moving saga about finding meaning in a world of suffering and pointless hate based on the color of skin. Former school teacher and Theologist, Victor Waller has incorporated many of life's issues through the lives of his characters who were forced to make decisions in hopeless situations. Racism, revenge and hate are rampant in this book. Domestic abuse and the dangers hidden within our society's foster care system are also addressed.

There is only one main character - Catherine Brown - along with a host of supporting characters. Catherine grows up under the terrible threat of racism - which many use simply as an excuse to harm another human. In fact, her father and uncle were orphaned at a very young age through a racist attack. The fairy-tale romance of her parents slid away as fears of her father's suspected infidelity enforces her mother's accusations that she is being poisoned. Never really knowing the truth, Catherine stumbles through her youth and into adulthood.

Unfortunately, a disturbed individual brutally murders her family and Catherine is dragged away by the police and incarcerated for many years. She survived the harsh environment through the friendship of her cellmate - and their hunger for revenge.

As an old woman, Catherine is only free from the bars of her prison. Her body is now her jailer - it is discovered that she inherited her mother's mysterious illness. Thinking she had no family remaining alive, Catherine is surprised when she is invited to a family reunion. This reunion proves to be one of Catherine's greatest challenges. As she seeks to repair the family discord, she is contacted by a person from the past and her chance for revenge is handed to her on a silver platter.

Victor Waller has created an important and meaningful story in Reality Checked. In fact, the work is well titled. The novel provokes the reader to question their own choices in life -and possibly, to release some of the pessimistic inner voices which influence their decisions.

I give this 377 page novel the highest of ratings with no hesitation, what-so-ever.

ISBN#: 0976498103 Author: Victor Waller Publisher: Turn Key Press

Reality Checked - Book Review   Reality Checked - Book Review   

Reality Checked - Book Review

Reality Checked - Life through Death, is a moving saga about finding meaning in a world of suffering and pointless hate based on the color of skin. Former school teacher and Theologist, Victor Waller has incorporated many of life's issues through the lives of his characters who were forced to make decisions in hopeless situations. Racism, revenge and hate are rampant in this book. Domestic abuse and the dangers hidden within our society's foster care system are also addressed.

There is only one main character - Catherine Brown - along with a host of supporting characters. Catherine grows up under the terrible threat of racism - which many use simply as an excuse to harm another human. In fact, her father and uncle were orphaned at a very young age through a racist attack. The fairy-tale romance of her parents slid away as fears of her father's suspected infidelity enforces her mother's accusations that she is being poisoned. Never really knowing the truth, Catherine stumbles through her youth and into adulthood.

Unfortunately, a disturbed individual brutally murders her family and Catherine is dragged away by the police and incarcerated for many years. She survived the harsh environment through the friendship of her cellmate - and their hunger for revenge.

As an old woman, Catherine is only free from the bars of her prison. Her body is now her jailer - it is discovered that she inherited her mother's mysterious illness. Thinking she had no family remaining alive, Catherine is surprised when she is invited to a family reunion. This reunion proves to be one of Catherine's greatest challenges. As she seeks to repair the family discord, she is contacted by a person from the past and her chance for revenge is handed to her on a silver platter.

Victor Waller has created an important and meaningful story in Reality Checked. In fact, the work is well titled. The novel provokes the reader to question their own choices in life -and possibly, to release some of the pessimistic inner voices which influence their decisions.

I give this 377 page novel the highest of ratings with no hesitation, what-so-ever.

ISBN#: 0976498103 Author: Victor Waller Publisher: Turn Key Press

Reality Checked - Book Review   Reality Checked - Book Review