Recently, I’ve received an influx of invites on Facebook from people who enjoy showing off their body parts.

Typically, I just ignore them until they go away. While I’m not a prude, I’m also not interested in networking with folks who cannot have some sense of decorum in a network I use for both personal and professional reasons. 

Last week, though, I received an invite from a woman who thought her breasts were her greatest asset. They spilled out of a teenie tank for all the world to see – including me, someone who does NOT know her.

I’d finally had enough. Who were these these people sending me friend requests? Was there something in my profile sending them my way? How could I make it stop? Were they following me from MySpace, which I dumped for this very reason?

I decided to check out this person’s profile. Can you guess?

She was an author searching for an agent.

I was blown away. This sort of drunken-looking pose was supposed to make her a literary catch? I could not help but ask myself, What was she thinking?!?

For some, photos like this might be fun to take at parties and share later – privately – with friends, but to make it public for the viewing pleasure of millions is, in many instances, career suicide. Even if your profile is private, the profile photo is still available on most networks.

If you are serious about your craft,  think about your image with everything you post – especially photos.

If photos speak a thousand words, what do your public photos say about YOU?

My personal Blogger account got hacked. It’s my own fault, of course, I rarely use it anymore and had wondered if I should just delete it.

While trying to find information for how to deal with this, I came across an interesting post at TheNextWeb.com. The site was hacked and all that showed was a Turkish flag gif image. The Web host was able to set things to rights pretty quickly, but the blog author was really curious why his blog was targeted.

So… he interviewed the hacker. Check out the interview here. It’s pretty interesting.

Facebook

In a message posted this week, Facebook founder Matt Zuckerberg talks about more changes coming to the popular social networking site.

Regional networks will disappear and privacy control settings will be changed. This is to better streamline sharing controls on the site, which are a bit clunky right now.

Read his letter.

Digg

For those who don’t know, Digg is a social networking site where you share stories you like and give them a thumbs up. Other Digg users can then rate the same story by either "digging" it, or "burying" it (which means they don’t like it). The stories with the most "Diggs" get on the front page of the site.

Blogs want several Diggs so they can get on the front page and get more hits – and hopefully long-term traffic increases. Some individuals use it to network with people who like the same articles. There are several articles online about the benefits of backlinks from Digg. The site is even more attractive since its hits have risen by the millions in recently months, according to Mashable. BizReport says that Digg, along with Facebook, have the most loyal members.

I’ve used Digg for personal and professional use and find it to be just like high school – some days, worse. Sure, I’ve found some terrific stories, and got a handful of hits for a few posts, but I’m so turned off by some Digg users I simply just don’t want to visit the site anymore – even for the articles that catch my attention.

Digg offers a host of anonymous online trolls who are just waiting to sink their teeth into any innocuous comment you make. There are some users who are interested in discussion – are polite even – but more often than not someone is just waiting for you to leave a comment so they can pounce.

I don’t mind Digging a story, but I refuse to leave any comments anymore because of the trolls. Recently, I left a comment on an article about Mac versus PC. I told the readers I switched to Mac because I’d had terrible personal experience with PC and refuse to go back. Here is one of the nicest comments/messages I received:

This is not my only experience with commenting on Digg. I’ve had a few other comments that just left my jaw on the floor with the rude, profanity-ladden replies from some of the users. If you really want to test the Digg troll waters, get on a liberal story and leave a comment that leans conservative – or vice versa. Be polite no matter what you leave. Within minutes your comment will be buried and you will have several replies – most of them filled with profanity or calling you an idiot, stupid, unlearned, uneducated, a terrorist and so on.

Michael Gray has an older, but good post on Digg trolls and how the Digg system is flawed because users abuse the bury feature.

I have clients who want this feature used because they have a starry-eyed belief that they will get to the Digg front page and suddenly get a multi-million dollar blog. What they don’t understand is that Digg is a popularity contest. If someone suddenly decides they don’t like you, they will enlist the help of their own little Digg army to bury your story. I’ve read accounts of Digg users losing their own accounts because too many stories were buried, signifying to the Digg team that those stories were poor quality or spam.

Also, Digg has been a go-to network for one site in particular I work with. Rarely do we receive more than one Digg per story submitted – which means that we are reaching no one by submitting our links there. And yet, we are still Digging into oblivion.

In the long run, Digg did nothing for myself or clients in the way of long-term hits. In terms of Analytics, it didn’t even leave a ripple.

In my experience, Digg is not a bad site to use for social bookmarking, or to search for weird news that helps stir creativity. It is not, however, a terrific place to network, find breaking news or truly engage with users as you would during a virtual book tour or in forums and chats with readers.

If you Digg, share your experiences with the site. I would especially like to know how you have used Digg effectively to drive significant traffic to your blog or Web site.

If you like Digg or want more details about it, take a look at these posts:

How to Use Digg: A Beginner’s Guide (Webrampage.com)

How to Use Digg Like a Pro (Mahalo)

Guide to Traffic from Digg Comments (SEOmoz)

Author Joanna Penn offers an excellent list of social networks for authors at her blog, The Creative Penn.

Check it out, and connect with her!

I discovered this fantastic resource for author blogs. Authors Blogs is a resource of Web design company DreamForge Media, headed up by author Mica Stone and Web designer Vibeke Courtney. It is fast and easy to add your blogs to the growing list Vicki Taylor, Yasmine Galenorn, and Lorraine Bartlett.

If you haven't already, also post your blog to Blog Catalog and Blogorama directories.

Social networking is the key to your writing success. And Facebook is the hottest social network around. Without the clutter of MySpace, Facebook offers easy navigation to help you find fans old and new through friends, groups and fan pages. Through Facebook, you can promote yourself to a more mature demographic – one that reads and has cash to spend. Limiting the number of friends each user can have forces users to target their demographic – a key component to any successful marketing strategy.

Today, I chat it up with Mari Smith, relationship coach and Facebook expert. She has great tips on how to utilize this important social network.

Mari, how did you become a Facebook expert?

My background is as a Relationship Coach. I have certifications in relationship coaching, success coaching and developmental coaching. I've always been fascinating by people and relationships and I have much expertise with many personality assessments. At the same time, since 1999 I've been an internet marketer and have created many successful information products.

I felt I was running a "two-hat" business! So when I became active on Facebook in July 2007, it was such a natural fit for my personality and skillset because my two worlds merged perfectly: relationships + the internet. I quickly immersed myself in Facebook and before long my peers started asking me to teach them how to get started with the platform.

What are the advantages to using Facebook over other social networking sites?

In my opinion, Facebook is very stable and is here to stay – they will be one of the long-term giants alongside Microsoft and Google. They are rigorous about enforcing their terms of use, their platform has more whitespace and is cleaner/easier to use than likes of MySpace. The demographics show members are more mature (average age is 35), better educated and more quite collar workers.

In addition, Facebook's feeds enable members to create consistent visibility among their friends. Plus, members tend to be more responsive when you reach out to connect via a wall post or email, for example.

What are the disadvantages?

If not approached properly, Facebook can be a huge time-drainer. It's vitally important to have a strategic plan, a way to measure your results, limit your time and delegate some of the activities to a trusted assistant.

Applications are a PAIN, but many feel if they ignore a request, or block an application, that it will hurt their social networking savvy on Facebook. Is that true?

Gosh, not at all. I recommend to my students and clients they make best friends with the "ignore all" button! There are simply way too many applications to worry about using/testing them all. When you ignore a request to add an app, the friend who sent you the request doesn't receive a notification. You can block apps, ignore all app requests from specific friends or just use the ignore all button which seems easiest.

Every day, I get three to five emails from the same groups, or individuals on Facebook. I've finally started deleting without opening, because I simply don't have time to read them all. What should Facebook users know about using the email option in the site?

I'd love to see improvements made to Facebook email. It's possible to email any other member on Facebook unless (a) you've blocked them/they've blocked you or (b) they've set their privacy settings to not receive emails from non-friends. So, you could find yourself receiving a LOT of email the more active and visible you are.

Responding to email is one of the primary tasks my Virtual Assistant helps me with.

Many group members send out excessive emails to the point it feels like spam. The simple solution there is to leave the group.  If you're a group owner, keep in mind once a week is probably sufficient – and/or be sure to survey your members and ask them what they want to receive.

Is there a way to send a mass email out to everyone in your Facebook network without typing in each name?

No. This is one of the most popular questions I get. Many marketers want to be able to build a "list" and message them all at once. Facebook wasn't designed to be used this way. You can message up to twenty friends at once – but there's no BCC and the default is "reply all." So, often you may find yourself on the receiving end of an email thread that has no relevance to you. My recommendation with emailing lists of friends is to only message people who (a) have a pre-existing relationship or (b) the purpose of the email is to introduce them.

The good news, however, is there are workarounds to reaching your friends en masse. Building out your own group is a popular way as is creating a fan Page. Other workarounds, include staying active to maintain a presence in the News Feeds of your friends.

Facebook offers Fan Page and Group options. Tell us about these and how they work.

A Fan Page is one of Facebook's solutions for business. The idea is you build up fans (as opposed to friends on your personal Profile). Everyone in business should for sure create at least one Page for two primary reasons: (1) the Page gets indexed so can be found on search engines and (2) you'll need another place on Facebook to direct people once you hit the 5000 friend limit. With Pages, you can have unlimited fans.

Groups are also a must-have for business owners. I recommend setting one up for a special interest or particular focus of your business, as opposed to a Group just for your business. The nice thing about groups is they are more informal and members tend to be more active than on a page. However, I do recommend having both at least one Group and one Page for starters.

Facebook ads are becoming more frequent. Do they really work?

It depends. I have read stats that show the click through rate is lower on social network ads because members are not in the mode of searching, unlike on Google. However, Facebook's Social Ads can be a powerful way to increase visibility and notoriety. And, with consistent use, over time you may see a significant increase in click throughs. Ads are also good for promoting a one-time event, for example.

How can you make Facebook ads work for you?

Advertise something that is inside Facebook, not outside. For example, your Page, Event or Group. That way, members don't feel like you're trying to sell them something. So, you can use ads to simply build more awareness of your presence on Facebook and then use the Page, Event and/or Group to further build your relationship with your friends.

Can using Facebook mean better sales?

Absolutely. More and more business members are discovering the power of Facebook to reach targeted clients, set up profitable joint venture partnerships, and deepen relationships with key influencers in their industry. All this leads to an increase in sales.

Are contests effective on Facebook? Can they really drive traffic to your site, or increase your number of friends?

It depends on how well executed the contest is. If a contest also includes promotion on your blog, Twitter, YouTube, press releases, ads, interviews etc. then for sure you could increase your friends. However, would they be key targeted individuals? I'm a huge advocate of building out your friends organically, deliberately and strategically. With over 110 million active users and you can only be friends with 5000 of them, why not choose your friends very, very carefully!

How should you consider working your Facebook presence into your marketing campaign?

I would start with a solid blog with a design that reflects your brand. Import your blog into Facebook using the Notes application. Set up an account on FriendFeed – import every site you're on with an RSS feed. Add the FriendFeed Facebook application.

Give us your top 5 tips to using Facebook.

• Focus on quality relationships, not quantity.
• Import your blog using the Notes application.
• Be active daily, if only for five minutes.
• Include Facebook as part of your overall marketing plan.
• Start a Facebook Page to represent your business, along with your Profile.

Special thanks to Mari Smith, Facebook diva. Mari offers free Facebook advice on her YouTube channel. You can also find her on Twitter, WhyFacebook.com and her Web site, MariSmith.com.