What if you could do away with passwords forever? Seriously.

The average person has to remember as many as 10 passwords, often for accounts that require periodic resets. No wonder people complain that passwords are annoying and too hard to remember. In fact, many IT professionals cite lost passwords as the number one complaint they hear.

So what's the solution?

Don't use a password. Instead, create a complex Pass Phrase, something easy for you to remember but meaningless to anyone else.

If your password is made up of common words it is easily guessed. Even if it is random, a password that is only 8 characters long can crumble under a brute force attack in 16 minutes. Make your Pass Phrase a variety of characters both in upper and lower case and extend it to at least 12 characters in length and the results are astonishing - it takes the same hack millions of years to get past it. Even better, you can create a Pass Phrase for multiple accounts that will be unique to each even though it is the same phrase.

4intrY2G2axceS combines numbers with upper and lower case letters, is 14 characters in length, isn't made of words easily guessed or in a dictionary (note entry and access are misspelled). Best of all, it is something easy to remember. Read it as "for entry to Google to access." The G stands for Google. If using such a Pass Phrase for multiple accounts, it would look like this for Twitter: 4intrY2T2axceS.

Admittedly, there are drawbacks to using the same Pass Phrase for multiple accounts. If one account is compromised that jeopardizes all of your accounts, so you must be diligent about security. Don't give your Pass Phrase to anyone - EVER. Make certain the URL at the top of the screen matches the page you are viewing. Don't surf with your email account open and always use an up to date anti-virus and firewall.

Key points:

• make the Pass Phrase at least 12 characters
• use both upper and lower case
• combine letters and numbers
• use alternate spellings (misspell)
• security tactics need to be maintained

If you have any questions about Pass Phrases please feel free to leave a comment. I'm always happy to hear from you.

You know, the other day I was talking to my mom in line at Walmart. She's going to be ordering some things from a catalog for us and I told her my credit card number and gave her that funny number from the back of it. She wrote it all down with my billing address and read it back to me out loud to make sure we got it right. The cashier suddenly told me that we should be more careful with our personal information. I can't believe she was so rude! Mom and I were having a private conversation and this complete stranger just butted into our business. Walmart really needs to retrain their employees..

That's a pretty ludicrous scenario, isn't it? Nobody in their right mind would read their credit card info outloud to another person in line at Walmart or any other public place. Not unless they were looking to be ripped off.

We've been taught to guard our personal information and most of us think we're good at protecting our privacy. But every day people share personal details in their status updates on Facebook and Twitter, allowing the whole world to read about who we're dating, how upset we are with our boss and when we are going to be away from home.

The media is full of stories about social media invading our privacy, but the real problem is people not protecting their personal information. The internet is a web of connections. Information posted in one spot is accessible from many different pathways. Just as we know better than to write down our PIN number and store it in our wallet with our debit card, we should all be wary of posting any information online that could be exploited and cause us harm.

True privacy controls are not settings on our social media accounts. They are the discretion and caution we should all exercise when in any public forum whether it be real or virtual.

Twollowers. Those elusive creatures that spell success for any Twitter marketing campaign aren't as mysterious as you might think. People are naturally curious, and you can play this to your advantage.

Here are three simple rules to remember when trying to attract followers for your Twitter account.

Bio:
Your bio should tell people who you are, what you do and why they should be interested. Limited to only 160 characters, you have to be creative in what you say. Remember, though, you have a completely customizable background at your disposal.

Communicate:
Remember that nothing is so boring as someone who only talks about themselves. In the world of Twitter it is a quick way to get yourself unfollowed, or worse, labeled as a spammer. The best way to get people talking about you is to have people talking to you. Find people you'd like to attract as followers, follow them and respond to their Tweets. Also, be creative and work current events into your conversations to attract more attention

Hashtags:
Those little # that people use in their Tweets are called hashtags and they are used to label and track trending topics. Twemes.com has a list of trending hashtags that will help you find relevant Tweets and conversations you can respond to. Don't forget to Tweet hashtags, too.

Keep in mind, Twitter followings grown over time -organically- will create the sort of communication that Twitter excels at.

If you run a business, chances are you understand the acronym ROI. "Return On Investment" is the ratio of money spent to the gains achieved. A smaller percentage of business owners know the acronym SEO refers to tweaking your website for "Search Engine Optimization". Fewer people know the acronyms CGM, SMO, SMM, & ORM.

That's where I come in. I'm a social media connoisseur and SMM, ORM, CGM & SMO are what I do; I definitely understand what they mean and how they work. As your social media coach, it's not my job to talk over your head in crazy acronyms and geekspeak, so I don't make a habit of brandishing these terms about. However, I'm seeing these three letter gems in more and more news reports these days, so here's the word on what they mean.

CGM- Consumer Generated Media This is social media. It's all the neat ways people connect online including the current biggest news-makers, Facebook and Twitter.

SMM - Social Media Marketing Viral video and email chains fit in this definition. SMM is the process of creating content and releasing it onto the internet for the purpose of selling a product, service or idea. It also is a component of publicity campaigns. SMM played a big part in our last presidential election and the Haitian Relief efforts.

SMO - Social Media Optimization This is similar to SMM in that you are using the internet to spread the word about your business, but this is focused on how your website is linked into social media. Adding content to your website that will be spread through various social networks is SMO. This dictionary is an example of how that works.

ORM - Online Reputation Managment The internet is a vast sea of opinions and like it or not, opinions about your business can be broadcast by any user who wants to voice them. Refusal to participate in online marketing leaves businesses at the mercy of what everyone else is saying about them. Remember, ignoring social media only makes you mute, not invisible.

So, what I do for a living is focus on ORM, with SMO strategies that include creating a SMM campaign through CGM. Easy enough to understand?

In 1999, YouTube, flash mobs and viral video didn't exist. The vehicle for visual music was MTV. In this pre-dawn of modern reality television, the technology we take for granted today were bare wisps of thought.

Spike Jonze, armed with a boom box, a few camcorders and accompanied by the "Torrance Community Dance Group," set up outside a movie theater in Westwood, California. With very little pre-production, these six actors, playing people who couldn't dance, and Spike, portraying a choreographer who couldn't choreograph, produced an award winning video that is still praised for its genius.



So what's the secret and is it possible to recreate this sort of success? Viral marketing can promote your work like nothing else if you do it right. There are three key elements Spike Jonze tapped into when he created the video for Fatboy Slim's song, "Praise You."

First, remember that people are naturally curious and voyeuristic. We like looking at other people. Especially when other people are doing nutty and unexpected things that make us laugh. The old saying, "it's like a train wreck, you can't look away" is very true.

Second, the video has a simple premise, if you want to call it that. Ground breaking in its execution and different, yes, the video has a very basic concept. It isn't visually overwhelming. As much as people love special effects, they love a story they can follow.

And most importantly, people really dig the underdog. Spike Jonze's video was up against major productions at the MTV Awards that year. These videos had cost thousands of dollars and took weeks to shoot. "Praise You" was shot in 10 minutes with a budget of $800.00. And fans loved it. The Torrance Community Dance Group was made up of normal looking people, people like you and me. Though I'd like to think I can dance better than that.

In the end, you want to create a video that fans can identify with. Remember to encourage comments and allow them to share it with their friends and your video is ready to take off.

By the way, this is me, encouraging comments here. I'm always interested in your thoughts and opinions so please, drop me a comment.

Thanks for reading,