Reputation Management, Internet Privacy, and Social Media Quick Hits

Today, we talk about Twitter’s growth, Google Buzz’s backtracking, and Facebook’s love/hate relationship with Zynga. Check it out!

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Twitter Hits New Milestone: 50 Million Tweets Per Day

In January, Twitter users posted as many as 50 million tweets per day. This is the highest number of updates on the service yet, and it represents a significant increase from the same time last year when the site was only registering approximately 2.5 million tweets per day.

There are some problems with the statistics, however, including the fact that Twitter didn’t incorporate spam accounts into the research, which seem to be increasing everyday and flooding the site with meaningless updates. Additionally, despite its rapid growth, Twitter still hasn’t done much in the way of forming a meaningful revenue model.

How to Say Sorry to Friends When You Fall for a Phishing Attack

If you’ve been the victim of a phishing attack on a social networking site, the biggest feeling you get isn’t anger, but embarrassment. You probably ask yourself, “How did I fall for that?” This embarrassment becomes particularly acute if your Twitter or Facebook faux pas then led to your friends and family getting stung by a phishing attack as well.

In a post for MSNBC, Suzanne Choney talks about her own experience falling for the popular “LOL – is this you?” Twitter phishing attack and walks other victims through the delicate process of apologizing to their friends online.

Talking About Zynga with Founder Mark Pincus

Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and other web-based games from Zynga have become an integral part of the Facebook experience for millions of users worldwide. In this CNN article, Doug Gross talks to the Founder of Zynga, Mark Pincus, about his company’s grwoth, its early legal problems, and the increasing resistance from non-players over automated messaging from the games clogging up their Facebook feeds.

Early Google Buzz Users Given Chance to Reconfirm Followers

Per their promise, Google is now allowing Google Buzz users to reconfirm who they do and do not want to follow, essentially taking users back to step one. Google’s initial plan of automatically connecting users with their most frequent followers was met with wide frustration from users and prompted the company to apologize and make several early changes to the product.

Should You Share Pictures of Your Kids Online?

For parents, it is a natural desire to post pictures of your children online so that your family and friends can see them as they grow up. However, there are also drawbacks to sharing photos of your children that some parents don’t consider. As with anything you post online, you have to be careful that you have control over what you’re sharing. This article offers some advice for parents who want to share pictures of their kids online safely.