Social networking has past the threshold of becoming a part of the social fabric.  Like Jeff Foxworthy’s “you know you’re a redneck when…” you can similarly say technology is part of the mainstream when…

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This past Tuesday (2/10/200) Microsoft released some critical patches for “Patch Tuesday” for all Windows users.   Did you get it?

What is Patch Tuesday you ask?  It’s nothing like Fat Tuesday, that’s for sure.   Patch Tuesday is the second Tuesday of each month, the day on which Microsoft releases security patches.  Who knew? 

Like a Fat Tuesday party, the February Patch Tuesday was a big one that you probably don’t want to miss.   This is especially true if you use Internet Explorer 7 (IE7).  Which begs the question, why are you using IE7 anyway?  Read my blog post about browser safety at http://www.biologyoftechnology.com/?p=4, but I digress. 

Microsoft declared many of this month’s patches as critical for IE7 running on Windows XP and Windows Vista.  This patch fixes IE7 holes that allow an attacker to break into systems that visit websites with specific malware land mines.  So if you use IE7 and you don’t want an attacker to penetrate your PC, you need this patch.

To make sure you have this update, go to the Microsoft update website at the following link and follow the prompts.
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

If you are up for some real “exciting” bedtime reading about Patch Tuesday, you can read more than you want to know about this “techie” holy day at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_Tuesday

By the way, the real Fat Tuesday this year is February 24, 2009.

See you there!

Think blogs are just a bunch of “blah, blah, blah” with rants about what’s wrong with the world, what they did today, or who’s doing what?  While that may be true, it can also be a place for you to promote your business.  And you can use your blog to tap into the power of social networking.  Use your business blog to post to Facebook and other social sites.

But first you’ve got to have a blog.  So let’s start form the beginning.

What is a blog?
A blog is a web page made up of frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically.  Think of it as on online journal.  The term is actually weblogs coined by Jorn Barger in 1997.

Why do I need a blog for business?
You have great ideas.  So why not post them on a blog.  This shows your clients and potential clients that you are an expert in your field.  Think about it, when you are looking for a service you want to deal with someone who knows their field.  A blog is like a living resume of you and your skills.

And Now a Warning…
In the movie “Death Becomes Her” after Meryl Steep’s character drinks the magic youth potion she is then told, “And now a warning”.  She promptly replies, “NOW, a warning!”!  So before you start prompting yourself on your blog, here is a warning.  A business blog is not a place to showoff, but to show what you can do to help customers and potential customers.  Be creative, be smart, but don’t be a blog bragger.

Use Your Domain for you Blog
There are a lot of free tools for blogging that may be okay for personal use.  But for your business blog you should use your domain.  Think about how you feel when you get a business card that has an email address using aol.com, gmail.com, hotmail.com, or any of the other non-business domains.  Then compare that to someone whose professional email address uses a business domain.  You will tend to trust the business email address.  The same is true of blogs.  It lends credibility to your blog posts if they are under a professional domain and not something like myblog.freeblogger.com.  (I just made that up, so don’t click on it.)
Also, if you read the fine print on a lot these free blogging services you will find that you do not own the content of your blog.  Once posted to the so-called free site the content of your blog becomes property of the hosting company.  And they have the right to take you offline if they do not like what you are posting.  So while you do have free speech, there really is no such thing as free blogging.

At TechAdvocate Solutions we can help you setup your blog under your domain.  Click on the following link:
http://www.techadvocate-solutions.com/contactus.php
Fill out the brief online form and let’s get started!