No doubt one of the great benefits of the Web is how malleable it can be; if you mess up, there’s still time to fix it. But often by the time an error is corrected it’s already been seen, and depending on your site traffic that could mean 10 people or it could mean 10,000. So, sure. The option to edit is nice — but why not get it right the first time?

Whether you manage a Web site for your business with thousands of unique views daily or a small personal blog with just a few thousand a month, consistency plays an important factor in establishing credibility. Style can be your greatest unsung hero or your worst glaring nightmare: if it remains consistent, it’s never noticed. But as soon as it’s inconsistent, it becomes like a bad nursery rhyme — caps lock here, no caps lock there, hyphens, dashes, everywhere.

Because we’re part of the media — whether you consider yourself part of the social media or an online publication like a webzine — we like to swear by the journalist’s bible: the AP StyleBook. Having a hard and fast reference point like the AP StyleBook allows for no gray area. If you’ve got a question on whether to capitalize or not, how to list something or where that comma belongs, the answers are here. We recommend ponying up for the $25 online subscription to the StyleBook because it’s easy to search and often faster than flipping through the printed version.

In the meantime, we’ve pulled some notable Web-related entries from the StyleBook for you to peruse here.

dot-com An informal description of companies that do business mainly on the Internet.

e-mail Acceptable in all references for electronic mail. Many e-mail or Internet addresses use symbols such as the at symbol (@), or the tilde (~) that cannot be transmitted correctly by some computers. When needed, spell them out and provide an explanatory editor’s note.(Also e-book, e-commerce, e-business.)

Web Short form of World Wide Web, it is a service, or set of standards, that enables the publishing of multimedia documents on the Internet. The Web is not the same as the Internet, but is a subset; other applications, such as e-mail, exist on the Internet. It is generally credited as the concept of researcher Tim Berners-Lee, who developed the first practical system in 1989.
Also, Web site (an exception to Webster’s New World College Dictionary first listing), and Web page.
But webcam, webcast, webmaster.

software titles Capitalize but do not use quotation marks around such titles as WordPerfect or Windows, but use quotation marks for computer games: ”Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?“

composition titles Apply the guidelines listed here to book titles, computer game titles, movie titles, opera titles, play titles, poem titles, album and song titles, radio and television program titles, and the titles of lectures, speeches and works of art.

–Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters.
–Capitalize an article – the, a, an – or words of fewer than four letters if it is the first or last word in a title.
–Put quotation marks around the names of all such works except the Bible and books that are primarily catalogs of reference material. In addition to catalogs, this category includes almanacs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, handbooks and similar publications. Do not use quotation marks around such software titles as WordPerfect or Windows.

home page Two words. The “front” page of a particular Web site.

You can also follow @APStyleBook on Twitter or download the new iPhone app.

Happy editing!

First of all, a HUGE thanks to everyone who had anything to with making BarCamp Memphis the success it was. Attendees, presenters, volunteers, sponsors, and planners all came together to make BarCamp Memphis a truly great weekend.

The weekend began, staying true to our Memphis roots, at Ground Zero Blues Club in downtown Memphis. We met a lot of wonderful new faces, and found some pleasantly familiar ones there for some great mixing and meeting. The crowd was fun, the food was great, and it really set the mood for our Memphis-style tech conference.

Early the next morning, we were greeted at the Emerge Memphis building by a mountain of Red Bull and a slew of great presentations. Topics varied from Ruby on Rails programming, to RSS feeds. All of our speakers gave home-run presentations including LunaWeb’s Dave Barger demystifying LinkedIn and Mitch Canter teaching attendees to “Make WordPress Dance.” There were also some very passionate words exchanged during a great open conversation about Social Media privacy/etiquette.

Between all of that, and some great Memphis BBQ from Rendezvous, BarCamp Memphis was one of our best events yet with the Memphis community. Thanks again to absolutely everyone who made it possible!

blogpost by lunaweb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Social Media is providing some great resources for small businesses to draw from during the current economic downturn. Coming up on October 29, Network Solutions is hosting the Solutions Stars Video Conference. The conference will be free, and will allow participants to stream video from industry leaders while chatting live with the self proclaimed Social Media Swami Shashi Bellamkonda and Geoff Livingston, author of Now is Gone.

The conference, which will be held between 12:00 pm and 2:30 pm CST, will feature insight from industry leaders on how small businesses can use the internet to their advantage. There will be a large range of topics to choose from, including You Need Social Networks and To Blog or Not to Blog. For a full rundown of speakers and topics for the event see the conference’s website and Facebook event.

Memphis, of course, is doing its part as well! The monthly Social Media Breakfast is getting bigger and better with each passing meeting. Attendees of the Social Media Breakfast meet on the first Wednesday of every month to discuss the latest trends and tools in Social Media for businesses. The breakfast has been a huge success with each month showing greater interest from the public, and consistently eye-opening presentations.

The next Social Media Breakfast will be on November 5 at the Crescent Club in East Memphis, and is open to the public. You can see details, as well as RSVP for the event at the group’s Meetup page.

Be sure to take advantage of these upcoming opportunities to see what Social Media has to offer!

It’s hard to believe, but the Social Media Breakfasts seem to keep getting better! This month we had our largest group yet meet at the Crescent Club in Midtown Memphis for what promised to be a great way to start the morning. There were plenty of familiar faces mixed in with a great group of Social Media newcomers.

LunaWeb President, Dave Barger, hosted the event and kept everything running smoothly, as well as answering questions on all thing Social from a crowd that eagerly supplied both answers and inquiries. After some initial discussion, long time Social Media Breakfast attendee, Bob Hazlett, gave a hilariously informative presentation on Social Media campaigns gone wrong entitled, “You Suck at Social Media.” He effectively walked us through the best of the best on down to the abysmally low in Social success (from Zappos shoes to Microsoft’s twitter presence).

As always though, the best of Social Media Breakfast happened before and after the official presentations. Staying true to the idea of being “social” there were plenty of opportunities for networking, catching up, meeting new connections, and sharing new Social Media information.

You can already RSVP for the next Social Media Breakfast on the MeetUp page. And be sure to check out photos from SMB #7 here! If you haven’t already been to one of the Social Media Breakfasts, talk to one of the people who have. We’ll see you at the next one!

The first event to give Memphis some much-deserved national attention was the LaunchMemphis TechFuel night featuring Business Week writer, Yahoo! TechTicker host, and blogger, Sarah Lacy.  Sarah, being a Memphis native, was already familiar with the local business climate.  After interacting with a full host of entrepreneurs during the stop on her User Generated Book Tour, Sarah wrote an epic blog post about what Memphis is doing right.

The Geoff Livingston tweetup on the 22nd was the second event to spawn great press from a better source.  Geoff, author of Now is Gone and top ranked PR blog The Buzz Bin, met with a group of Memphis entrepreneurs and Social Media proponents at Quetzal cafe, where he got to know several members of the business community, and shared some great conversations everyone there.  Afterwards, The Buzz Bin interviewed LunaWeb President and LaunchMemphis co-founder, Dave Barger, about the future of entrepreneurial Memphis and Social Media.  You can see the post here.

If you missed Sarah and Geoff, there’s still more on the horizon in Social Media.  Upcoming on the calendar is the Social Media Breakfast on October 1.  As well as Barcamp Memphis on November 7-8

It’s an exciting time to be a Memphian!  Let’s keep up the good work and continue to make Memphis great.

Monday night, Geoff Livingston, author of Now is Gone and his PR blog, “The Buzz Bin,” met for a tweetup at Quetzal cafe in downtown Memphis.  Attendees included everyone from seasoned Social Media veterans, to several fresh faces looking to see what the web has to offer their business.

Despite the excitement surrounding Geoff’s attendance, the evening took on a very relaxed tone as the crowd mixed through the room networking, finding familiar faces, and engaging the featured guest in conversations about the state of the blogosphere and the benefits of Social Media for business.

As the evening progressed, the tweetup culminated in a Geoff becoming the centerpiece of a group discussion, moderated by LunaWeb’s Dave Barger, where an eager group shared their ideas and questions about Social Media, while the Washington D.C. based PR and blogging guru addressed each topic, drawing from his own experience for examples and anecdotes.

The event was a huge success for LaunchMemphis and a great experience for all of the attendees.  Upcoming on the Social Media horizon is the Socia Media Breakfast on October 1st at the Crescent Club.  The breakfast is open to everyone!  See details on the Meetup page.

After some initial meet-and-greet time, the evening started off with some quality time with the internet celebrity.  Sarah spent about 20 minutes talking about her experience in Silicon Valley, sharing moments from her book, Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0, and answering questions from an eager assembly.  After that… the party started.

The group dispersed to the next room over to mingle over drinks and food, while Sarah signed books and gave advice to some very eager Memphis Entrepreneurs.  For 3 straight hours, with the support a single Heineken, Sarah spoke to every single person who approached her at the event.  Some of these conversations were simply humorous anecdotes of Silicon Valley personalities, while others were filled with unflinchingly delivered, hard, straight-shooting advice to entrepreneurs who willingly took the kind-hearted criticism she delivered.

The next LaunchMemphis event will be with PR guru Geoff Livingston at the Quetzal coffee shop on Monday the 22nd from 7-9 p.m.  Geoff is the author of Now is Gone and high-profile blog writer.  Join the Facebook event for more details!

Over the course of its existence, Facebook has been a benchmark for security among social networking sites.  However, within the last few months even Facebook has fallen victim to the worst of the web… SPAMMERS! Now that we have your attention, please refrain from spiraling into a panic, deleting all of your social accounts, and retreating into the mountains.  Not only is Facebook fighting back against would-be evil doers, but there are simple actions you can take to protect yourself while out in the social spheres.  These are straight from the security experts over at Facebook.

• Remember, Facebook will never ask for your password in an email, Facebook message, or any medium that isn’t the login page. Though you will need to re-enter your password when you set a security question, change your contact email, or send a virtual gift.

• Be extra aware of weird Wall posts. Don’t click on any links—on a Wall or elsewhere—if you don’t know where they go.

• Set a security question for yourself on your Account page. If somehow something malicious shuts you out of your account, you will need the answer to that question in order for our User Operations team to let you back in. (If you’ve already set your security question, you won’t see a prompt for it on your Account page.)

• Be extra aware of what website you are using to log in to Facebook (and other websites). Phishing websites can be made to look like other websites (like the Facebook log in page), and might try to disguise their urls. Be smart: www.facebook.com.profile.a36h8su2m8.info/login starts out looking like a legitimate Facebook website, but that a36h8su2m8.info part means it’s fraudulent. Set and use a browser bookmark to make sure you always log in from facebook.com

• If you see a Wall post that looks like spam on a friend’s Wall, tell the author to delete it and reset their password immediately.

• Use a modern web browser to benefit from anti-phishing protection

• Check out opendns.com. This is another method for blocking specific domains that host phishing sites.

If you think you’ve been phished or find a phishing site,

• Reset your password on your Account page.

• Report the issue to Facebook here.

• Submit phishing sites here and here.