Cary, NC – In 2011, most businesses, organizations, non-profits and civic groups have Facebook Pages. Now, there’s a unique, branded way to control the link you share with your audience.

What’s in a Link?

Links are among the most important components of digital communication. Using proper links is a subject we frequently cover on Goodtree & Co: Blog.

On Facebook, links have always been problematic, especially on Business Pages. For example, our old link was a combination of letters and numbers and looked like this:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/CaryCitizen/124390674088

Not very memorable.

Unique URLs for Pages

Months ago, Facebook rolled out unique URLs (web addresses) for Profiles. Now, that same option is available for Business Pages.

Here’s our new Facebook URL:

http://www.facebook.com/carycitizen

That’s better!

Why It’s Important

Unique URLs for Facebook Pages are a giant step forward for business on the world’s most popular social platform.

• Easy to remember
• Simple to tell

This makes it so much easier for your audience to find you on Facebook. Easy for the customer is good when it comes to communication.

Now you can easily associate your brand in a direct way with Facebook and control how you appear in your web address.

How to Change Your Facebook URL

If you have a Facebook Page, follow these steps to change your web address.

1. Go to your Facebook Business Page
2. Click on “Edit Page” (upper right)
3. From the admin area, click on “Basic Information” (menu on left)
4. Click on “Username” (second item from the top of the form)

Be warned: you can only do this once. Make sure before you make the change.

Update Your Other Info

Don’t forget to update your website, business cards, LinkedIn profile and everything else with your new Facebook Page web address.

Of course, feel free to friend us on Facebook at facebook.com/carycitizen.

Attorney General Roy Cooper is warning users of the Facebook social networking site about a trick that can give scammers access to information in users’ profiles. Facebook has a feature that allows users to indicate that they “Like” something that appears on the website, such as a post or photograph.

Scammers figured out that users also want to be able to indicate when they don’t like something on the website. The scammers are luring users to click a link to download an official “dislike” button.  The message containing the link appears to have been sent by a friend, but it was actually generated automatically when the friend also had fallen for the scam.

There Is No Dislike Button

There is no official dislike button, and clicking the link can extract the user’s personal information and give it to the scammers. Avoid clicking on suspicious links whether they appear in emails or on websites. Remove suspicious applications (“apps”) from your Facebook profile if you think you might have been deceived into loading them. Remove all references to them from your Facebook features (status, News Feed, Likes and Interests) so you don’t accidentally encourage someone else to click that suspicious link.

This message brought to you on behalf of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Cary, NC – Facebook is a hive of community activity if you know where to look. We can’t vouch for the particulars of any page or group (like the David Bowden Fan Page), but here are two new and interesting destinations on Facebook:

Cary Greenways – Page by Greg Lytle,  former Greenway chair also on the TOC PRCR Board. The page is brand new (this week) but is doubling in size every couple of days. Be good to have a robust FB group about the Grenways.

History Did Not Begin in 1877 – Group by Holly Brewer, Associate Professor of History at NC State University. Purpose of the group is education reform. Holly told CC she started the group on February 3 of this year. It has 9,036 members as of Feb 19.

If you hear of any interesting local groups or pages on Facebook, let us know.

BTW – Bowden’s “fan” page has been taken down. No word on why.

The internet is part of everyday life for more than 200 million Americans.  With 98% internet access in Cary, it’s a way of life for many of us.  From sending emails to online banking to reminiscing with high school classmates on social networking sites such as Facebook, or microblogging on Twitter – the internet is an amazing tool.  However, most people navigate cyberspace with little, if any, formal training and a lack of awareness of the precautions that need to be taken to ensure that your personal information is protected and computers and networks are safe.

It may seem that the newspapers and radio and television news broadcasts detail online crimes every day. In fact, there are 32,000 suspected cyber attacks every 24 hours. You may not know it, but many viruses and SPAM (unsolicited bulk email) you receive is sent by computers that have ill equipped virus protection.  These can be sent by what we call “zombie networks” or “botnets” – networks of infected personal computers in homes and businesses across the globe.  Reports are that almost 90% of all email today is SPAM. Every computer user plays an important role in using the Internet safely and securely by protecting themselves and the networks they are on.

As more and more of us jump (and stay) online, it’s always a great  time to employ some universal precautions to stay safe and secure online. The National Cyber Security Alliance, a private-public partnership focused on educating and empowering a digital citizenry, wants you to know that you don’t have to have an advanced IT degree to protect yourself online.  A combination of off-the-shelf security tools coupled with some universal behaviors will enable all Americans to protect themselves.

All of us need to:

• Know who you’re dealing with online.
• Keep web browsers and operating systems up-to-date by setting them to automatically update.
• Back up important files. (Yes, you!)
• Protect children online. (Click here for tools to help)
• Use a full suite of updated security tools as a first line of defense.
• Use wireless devices and networks securely.
• Use hard-to-decipher passwords (long with numbers and symbols).
• Learn what to do if something goes wrong.

In addition, we all need to employ the same judgment  we use in the “off-line” world by remembering three letters: WWW.  Whenever you are asked for information online, make sure to ask yourself:

1. Who is asking or going to see this information?
2. What is the value of the information I am being asked to share?
3. Why do they need to see it?

If you are not comfortable with the answers to any of the three questions above, be very cautious and think twice about providing information.More cybersecurity and cybersafety information and tips can be found at www.staysafeonline.org www.onguardonline.gov and
http://www.getnetwise.org/

Lori Bush is a Solutions Development Manager at Cisco Systems, and the Secretary and Board member of the National Cyber Security Alliance (staysafeonline.org) and an involved citizen of Cary. You can follow Lori on Twitter.