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For political parties in Dallas, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have become valuable tools for communication and winning votes. The opportunities offered by these sites made a big difference in the 2008 elections, and many hope to capitalize on them again in November of 2010.

For Democrats, social networking connects to voters they need to target. "In 2008, we saw a whole new set of voters come in," according to Steve Tillery, executive director of the Dallas County Democratic Party. "A lot of local candidates had been using it, and there was lots of chatter there. We decided we needed to get in on this and build some excitement."

"It's helped in a few ways," Dallas County Republican Party chairman Jonathan Neerman said of social networking. "We've become more nimble in our communication tactics. When news breaks, you can quickly notify your entire mail list. It has also helped us reach out to different audiences."

The Democratic and Republican Parties both utilize Facebook, mostly to pass along political news of local interest and to promote their candidates. It has also been an effective fund-raising tool for Republicans. During a recent Dallas visit by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the county GOP used Facebook to promote a "money-bomb," a concentrated money-raising effort. Supporters were asked to contribute to the party in a "money-bomb" to counter Pelosi's local fund-raising efforts. All told, county Republicans raised over $10,000.

According to Tillery, the county Democratic party does not use social networking for fund-raising. "It just hasn't been successful for us," he said. What has worked for Democrats, he said, is using Facebook to organize volunteer efforts. During several recent neighborhood walks to "get out the vote," over 100 volunteers turned out, largely due to word on Facebook.

Some candidates also use social networking as a fund-raising tool. Stephen Broden, who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in District 30 (Texas), uses Facebook and Twitter to communicate with supporters, even those outside his district. Many of them use links on his Facebook page to contribute to his campaign.

YouTube may be an entertainment source for most, but it has become a powerful political tool as well. The Dallas County Republican Party has used their official YouTube channel (dallascountygop) to post news stories, videos from rallies and speeches, and even original viral videos. When chairman Jonathan Neerman posted a video of his young daughter delivering yard signs, the response was instant. "We had people calling us wanting to have my daughter deliver signs to them," he said.

The Dallas County Democratic Party also has an official channel (dallascountydems2010) that shares videos of recent neighborhood walks in Dallas. The Dallas County Young Democrats posted a series of videos called "Meet the Democrats," featuring local candidates speaking from the heart about why they are running.

Twitter has been an especially effective tool used by candidates to keep in touch with supporters, and even make news. When Debra Medina was running for governor, she often made announcements via Twitter, ahead of traditional press releases.

As both parties look to make the most of their social networks, the big question is what comes next. "I want to know what is going to be the next big thing we will have to get into," Tillery said. "What is going to replace Facebook and Twitter?"

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Dallas Political Parties Use Social Networking to Reach Voters

CLEARWATER, Fla., May 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- GFI Software today released its VIPRE Report for April 2012, a collection of the 10 most prevalent threat detections encountered last month. In April, cybercriminals were seen exploiting users of major social networking sites including Facebook , Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest in order to spread malware and spam surveys.

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"In the same way that the popularity of social networking sites makes them a widely accepted tool for businesses to reach customers and elevate brand awareness, it also appeals to cybercriminals seeking a large pool of captive users to be targeted for malware and spam attacks," said Christopher Boyd, senior threat researcher at GFI Software. "Established sites like Facebook and Twitter have long been a breeding ground for new cyber-attacks, but now we are seeing scammers taking an interest in the popularity of newer sites like Pinterest in order to catch victims off guard and trick them into clicking on something they shouldn't."

Twitter users were the quarry of cybercriminals looking to distribute fake antivirus applications during a particularly vicious spam run which tweeted a link labeled "must-see" from numerous compromised accounts and spam-bots. Followers unlucky enough to click on the links were directed to a site infected with a fake antivirus program. Once installed, the program constantly alerted users that their machine was infected and requested payment to clean up the system. The next day, additional links used the Blackhole exploit kit to infect victims' machines with malware before automatically sending them to a site that was hosting another scareware program called "Windows Antivirus Patch."

Twitter was also used as a platform to take advantage of users on Pinterest, a social networking site which is rapidly gaining popularity. A spam campaign using the account "Pinterestdep" claimed to be offering Visa gift cards to users willing to provide their opinions about Pinterest. Instead of being directed to a user feedback form, victims were sent to a site which required them to complete up to 11 reward offers and to refer three friends to do so as well. Scammers also took advantage of Tumblr users who mistakenly entered "Tublr" into their web browser when attempting to access the popular micro-blogging site and redirected them to a message that claimed the victim had been selected as a "daily winner." Like the scam on Pinterest, the victim was then asked to fill out surveys or complete other offers in order to claim the prize.

In a rehash of a popular lure used previously on Facebook and MySpace, scammers tricked users into installing a fake application which promised to show them a list of people who had viewed their profile. The application did little more than tag the victim's friends in a spam image in order to spread the fake application among their network and serve them with surveys that generate affiliate cash for the scammer.

"With countless studies being released which point to the regularity with which users are visiting their favorite social networking sites, it should come as no surprise that cybercriminals see these sites as prime targets for their attacks as they look to reach as many people as possible," continued Boyd.

Top 10 Threat Detections for April GFI's top 10 threat detection list is compiled from collected scan data of tens of thousands of GFI VIPRE Antivirus customers who are part of GFI's ThreatNet automated threat tracking system. ThreatNet statistics revealed that Trojans remained the most used attack method in April 2012, taking four of the top 10 spots.

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GFI Labs Observes Cybercriminals Targeting Users of Major Social Networking Sites in April

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

President Obama expanded his social networking repertoire Tuesday by joining Pinterest, the scrapbook-style website where users can pin messages, photographs and videos to virtual boards.

So far, the president has eight boards, or categories of pins. One, called Just the facts, includes three pins promoting Obamas signature health care law, whose constitutionality was debated in oral arguments before the Supreme Court this week.

But most of Obamas new Pinterest boards, managed by his campaign staff, are devoted to lighter fare: Obama-inspired recipes and Pet Lovers for Obama.

A majority of Pinterest users are young and female, a demographic the Obama campaign began targeting more heavily this month. Four years ago, Obama earned 56 percent of the female vote.

During the 2008 election and since, Obama has embraced social media as a way to connect with voters. He has more than 13 million Twitter followers and almost 26 million Facebook likes. The Obama campaign used Twitter to announce that the president had joined Pinterest.

By 4 p.m. Wednesday, he had more than 7,000 followers.

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President Obama joins Pinterest, the social networking website popular among young women

London, May 6 : A leading public school headmistress has warned that social networking sites and celebrities are creating a generation of 'mean girls'.

In a fierce attack, Helen Wright said sites such as Facebook encouraged teenagers to believe 'bitching is good'.

'They're far more used to defriending friends online rather than befriending them in reality. If it's possible in just a moment to defriend someone or unfriend them on Facebook, then people say, 'Why can't I do that in real life'' the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

'We are in real danger of cultivating a generation of 'mean girls'',' she said.

The headmistress of St Mary's Calne in Wiltshire also criticised a lack of positive role models for young women, saying high-profile female friendships seem to be based on 'bitchiness, meanness, cruelty and criticising what someone's wearing and how they look'.

'Many young women mistakenly se women like Paris Hilton and her latest BFF [best friend forever] and the cast of The Only Way Is Essex as relevant role models and seek to emulate their behaviour,' she said.

Party-loving Paris Hilton and TV personality Nicole Richie had a public falling-out in 2005, after which the two refused to speak to each other for more than a year.

It was rumoured Richie had caused the rift by showing friends a sex tape featuring the heiress, but she denied this.

In other rows, Gwyneth Paltrow aimed barbed comments at Madonna as they competed for the services of a female personal trainer, while Geri Halliwell was the one 'Spice Girl' not invited to the Beckhams' wedding after her clash with Victoria.

Former pupils of 29,694-pound-a-year St Mary's include David Cameron's sister Clare and Jade Jagger, who was expelled for sneaking out to meet a boyfriend.

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Social networking creating generation of 'mean girls'

NEW YORK - Okay, admit it. We're all crazy about our dogs.

We watch them on YouTube and post their pictures on Facebook.

But now it's time for dogs to have a social network of their own. At least that's what the brains behind a New York startup think.

Take, for example, a dog named Bandit.

"He had plenty of friends back in San Francisco," his owner Anthony McGee says. "But now it's time for him to meet new friends in New York."

So McGee used the startup site MatchPuppy.com to find puppy playdates, a clear indication that social networking has indeed gone to the dogs.

Site founder Michael Chiang says the original business plan was to help with 'puppy love,' connecting owners looking to breed their pets. But eventually the team decided "just friends" was okay too.

"We realized there was a bigger need in the market, to help dog owners kind of facilitate playdates online," Chiang says.

Matches are made by neighborhood, breed, and age. But some pet owners have the same kinds of concerns with it as with 'human' online matchmaking.

"I would be a little concerned, because I don't know the dog," said prospective puppy-dater Shameika Bloice.

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'Match Puppy': Social Networking Has Gone to the Dogs