Administrators of domains that use Google Apps can now enable a technology known as DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). This technology is intended to prevent “spoofing” of messages, the widely-used spam technique of sending emails with a bogus “from” address, or one that’s real, but not sent by that person. DKIM uses a pair of keys — one in the domain’s DNS records, and one in sent messages — supposed to prevent address spoofing.

This new option is added to SPF, another spam-fighting technology that Google Apps has supported for some time. And users of the paid Google Apps for Business suite can refine their spam filtering using Postini, which Google bought several years ago.

If these spam-fighting tools aren’t enough, Google has also announced that it’s now possible to entirely turn off the ability for some users to send or receive emails from outside one’s own domain. While this feature was originally intended for Google Apps for Education used in schools, it’s also available in the Business and Government editions.

I’m not sure how many businesses would find internal-only email addresses useful, since there are many other options for communicating privately within organizations. But internal email would have some similarities to the “not-really-email, only-receive-messages-from-your-friends” Facebook Messaging system.

How many spam messages are arriving in your inbox? What do you use to control spam?

Image by sxc.hu user kveselyte

When you get a spam message, don’t open it, but don’t trash it right away. You should first report the message as spam to your provider. Here’s how Gmail and Google Apps users can report spam. Other mail systems have similar procedures.

• If you’re using Gmail’s web interface, check the box to the left of the sender’s name, then click “Report spam.” The mobile web interface has a similar option.
• If you check mail using IMAP and a mail client like Outlook or Apple Mail, you can report spam by moving messages to the folder called [Gmail]Spam.
• If you use the Gmail app for Android, check the box to the left of the subject line, then click the Menu key and select Report Spam.

How do you keep the spam level down in your inbox?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req.):

• Social Inbox Vs. the Future of Email
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Unlike certain other, similar services, temapalias doesn’t require you to register with an account or provide any personal info (apart from your real email address), and the service is completely free — there aren’t even any ads on the site. And while there are services like Mailinator that are also free and don’t require you to register in order to use them, with tempalias your email is kept private and is sent to your personal inbox, rather than being available on the web.

How do you avoid spam?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Email: The Reports of My Death are Greatly Exaggerated

(via One Thing Well)

Chris Brogan’s new book, “Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online,” offers bite-sized chunks that will allow you to make the most of social media, whether you fit into one of the categories above or you have a different set of problems. Each section is short — the book is 337 pages, divided into 87 different sections — but that structure elevates it from a how-to manual to a great reference book.

Sitting down and reading straight through “Social Media 101″ probably isn’t the best way to approach the book. Instead, since each section offers tips that you can take action on immediately, it may be best to dive into the sections you need right now and then get to work on implementing some social media strategy. Once you’ve got that section down, get into the next one.

The information covered in the book isn’t basic “here’s how to sign up for Twitter” stuff, though. Brogan has managed to condense discussions on topics like creating a community with a blog into something that you can act on. There’s a lot of big picture packed into this little book. That alone is enough to set “Social Media 101″ apart from the majority of social media books that have been coming out lately. It doesn’t hurt that Brogan actually takes the steps he discusses in the book — you can see how he’s implemented them on his own blog. He also points out plenty of people who are doing it right throughout the book, which allows you to take a look at case studies in action, not just the parts that Brogan wants to emphasize in his book. You can get a good overall picture of social media by reading the book, but if you look up who Brogan references, you can create your own master class in social media.

It is worth noting that “Social Media 101″ is geared to be an introductory-level resource. If you already spend your entire day plugged into social media, you may already be familiar with much of Brogan’s advice. Even though I’m active on social networking sites and in social media in general, though, I did find some interesting tidbits in the book. Brogan breaks out some tips for specific career paths, like real estate agents, that gave me some ideas on how other people are using social media, reinforcing the idea that it’s not just the platform that makes social media important.

I think that “Social Media 101″ may turn out to be a particularly useful resource when I’m working with someone who needs to get up to speed on social media — and fast. While I did receive a review copy, it’s a book that I would have picked up anyhow, just to have a copy to loan out to people who ask me social media questions. It’s worth taking a look at even if you’re at a more advanced level, though.

Have you read “Social Media 101?” Let us know what you think of it in the comments.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Social Media in the Enterprise

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t want to have a lot of followers. I’m saying that you don’t want to have a lot of the wrong followers. There is nothing to be gained by accumulating “empty” followers. Why? Because they are not listening to you! Your core followers — those you who actually listen to you and interact with you — are the real value of Twitter, and that’s why you should never, ever automate your Twitter account to increase follower count.

How Auto-Gathered Followers Hurt You

There are services available that claim to increase your follower account automatically. These are a bad idea, however, because auto-gathering followers creates:

• Chaos and noise on your Twitter stream if part of the automated follower-building process you’ve adopted entails “auto-following back.” That reduces the value of your Twitter stream as a listening tool and information source.
• Followers who aren’t listening to what you have to say. That diminishes the value of marketing anything on Twitter and reduces the chance of being heard at all.
• Overinflated follower numbers, which are a turn-off for those looking to make meaningful connections. Many people use the “follow-to-follower ratio” as part of assessing someone’s “worth” on Twitter, as opposed to sheer number of followers. For example, if someone is following 48,895 people and has 46,975 followers, that looks suspiciously like they are fishing for followers rather than genuinely interested in interaction.
• Automated activity in your Twitter account that you don’t control.
• The possibility that your Twitter password gets into the hands of an untrusted third party.

Twitter Doesn’t Measure Your Worth

A common mistake many people make about Twitter (or any other social media tool) is that quantity matters more than quality and, as a result, an ever-increasing number of services out there that offer to get you thousands of additional followers. But thousands of additional followers who aren’t listening to what you have to say aren’t worth much at all. Your value isn’t based on your follower count, it’s based on the value of our interactions, the strength of our relationships, the nature of our reputation, and the integrity with which we use our communications tools.

Let’s get this straight: Twitter is a communications tool. Yes, communications tools can be used for a variety of activities. That includes marketing, as the basis of good marketing is good communications. But the idea that you can just jump onto Twitter and instantly get in front of thousands of new customers is a sham.

Using Twitter Sensibly

Some sensible reasons to get onto Twitter include:

• To learn about a new communications tool and how to use it well.
• To communicate your point of view or people with whom you want to interact.
• To have more mobile or flexible methods of communications.

If Twitter doesn’t seem to be helping you to achieve your goals, then what? For most people, the first 30 days of Twitter is full of chaos, confusion and question marks. If you have the time, patience and determination, push through those early days, and you will most likely find some real benefits from using Twitter properly. But if you don’t, don’t sweat it, and don’t get lured in by schemes promising lots of followers easily. Focus on the tools that work best for you, and use them well.

Why People Follow Each Other

Unless you’re stuck in a “popularity contest” mentality, you probably follow someone else for one of the following reasons:

• You know them.
• You want to know them.
• You know someone who knows them.
• You like what the person tweets or what they stand for.
• You have discovered them elsewhere and want to follow them in a more real-time manner.

Let’s cut through the hype, the barrage of “get followers quick” schemes, and an unrealistic need to accumulate a lot of followers in order to be “more effective,” and realize that the tools we use are only effective when we use them well, and don’t abuse them or try to game the system for greed and indiscriminate gain.

Slow down; be thoughtful; use courtesy. There are real people on the other side of a tweet. Handle with care.

How do you feel about the followers on Twitter, and how do you discern who you’ll follow and who you won’t?

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This is the fourth in a series of online community management posts. Earlier posts covered online community manager jobs, what community managers actually do, and what skills are required to be successful in the role. I don’t want to leave anyone with the impression that community management is all sunny skies, unicorns and rainbows, though. Communities have their fair share of trolls under the bridge, wicked influences and other elements representing the dark side of the force, as Robert S. Robbins points out in a comment on one of my previous posts. Robert said:

“You seem to be ignoring the dark side of the profession. I’ve seen a lot of challenging issues come up in the online communities I participate in. For example: you’ll have to deal with trolls and other disruptive individuals, you’ll have to deal with copyright issues when content providers put up material they don’t own the rights to, and you’ll have to deal with security when women attract stalkers and kids are being preyed upon. YouTube started out as a video sharing site and then became a social networking site but they failed miserably when it came to managing that aspect of the business.”

The dark side can take many different forms. Here are just a few of them.

Trolls. These are the people who engage in a community with the sole purpose of baiting other users into disruptive and often emotional arguments. The best way to deal with trolls is to ignore them and refuse to take the bait, which usually drives them to leave your community for other communities where they can find an audience and an argument. Don’t feed the trolls.

Spammers. Use every tool at your disposal to deal aggressively with spammers using automated spam control software, like Akismet, and other tools that allow community members to report spam and automatically bury spam comments. As soon as the spammers realize that you are slow to deal with spam, you will find your community overrun with Nigerian royalty who need help transferring money, Viagra ads, foreign brides, and more.

Lawbreakers. This comes in many forms depending on the type of community – members uploading content they don’t own, scammers, and much more. How you deal with it depends on the ways that people are exploiting the system. In general, you should make sure your guidelines clearly state how the community can be used, get rid of any offenders quickly, and put technical solutions in place to discourage the behavior in the first place (reporting mechanisms, etc.)

Meanies. These are the people who make the community unpleasant for the other members: harassment, predatory behavior, bullying and more fall into this group. Again, make sure you have clear community guidelines (Flickr is a great example). Give people a warning or two about their behavior with a pointer to the guidelines, and then get rid of the members who refuse to comply and continue behaving inappropriately to other members.

How has the dark side manifested itself in your communities? What issues have you experienced, and how do you deal with them?

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