Most companies have learned that social media can be an innovative marketing and branding tool. Chip Farmer, executive director of RichTech in Richmond, thinks they now want to know the potential risks of integrating social media into the workplace. For example, there’s a need to control bandwidth, he said. Also, there are network and security issues, plus the need to protect intellectual property and employees.

Freshmen can avoid money woes College freshmen, listen up. Get your financial life on track this first semester—or you may wind up making mistakes and paying a heavy price later, warned R.D. Norton, author of “Start Here: Getting Your Financial Life on Track.“ Living away from home with your peers is awesome, isn’t it? But, as a freshman, “there are plenty of things that can get you into trouble,“ Norton said in an interview.

Crooks set sights on bank ATMs Stop and look before inserting your card into an ATM machine. Crooks have been tampering with automated teller machines around the world—and in Virginia, striking last summer in Hampton Roads and leaving behind 100 victims including those from Richmond and Chesterfield County. The victims were robbed of about $500,000, according to the Secret Service in Richmond. An investigation is ongoing.

Turn your angry clients into happy ones. Do it soon after a conflict arises, said Maribeth Kuzmeski, founder of the Chicago business consulting firm Red Zone Marketing LLC. Kuzmeski also is author of “The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life” (John Wiley & Sons).

Scareware won’t shield computers Thieves in the cyber underworld are making a ton of money pedaling scareware—rogue security software—to unsuspecting consumers, a new Internet report says. Symantec, the California maker of Norton brand security products, IRIS
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said consumers unwittingly are downloading rip-offs of real software. Or they’re downloading downright-fake software that provides no protection, giving users a false sense that their computer is protected, or software loaded with the malware that it purports to protect against.

Self-described de-motivator Lawrence Kersten will speak Thursday at the Venture Forum’s “2010 Greater Richmond Companies to Watch” event. Get ready to giggle, guffaw, grimace, snicker and laugh out loud as Kersten talks about the challenges of being an entrepreneur, and about how his company, Despair Inc. (http://www.despair.com) in Texas, got started.

Red flags while job hunting Unemployed and feeling desperate? This is no time to drop your guard and inadvertently expose your personal data to identity thieves posing as potential employers. Plenty of con artists are lurking around seeking personal information that they can steal—or, in a case that the Virginia Attorney General’s Office is pursuing against Virginia Employment Services Inc. of Norfolk, guaranteeing people a job in exchange for an upfront fee, typically $365, and then failing to find them employment.

Web sites manage social loans Do friends or relatives ever hit you up for a loan because they know you have a nest egg? Then they don’t repay the money, or they take their sweet time making the payments? Next time, consider using a social-lending Web site. There are several that, for a fee, will set up and manage loans between families and friends. Virgin Money, LoanBack and ZimpleMoney are examples.

With Virginia’s unemployment rate hovering at 6.9 percent, and the average length of joblessness dragging on for more than six months nationally, some talented jobless workers may consider becoming their own boss. They might rationalize: “Well, it looks like I can’t find a job. Maybe I should start my own business.“ But should they - even if they have sizable savings and a handsome severance package to use as seed money?

Keep an eye on your credit score If you manage your credit well, you shouldn’t be angst-ridden about achieving a perfect credit score. You don’t need an 850 FICO score to get the best rates and terms, said Rod Griffin, manager, consumer education for the national credit agency Experian. Above a certain score level, he said, it doesn’t make a difference.

Pitfalls lie in mattress purchases My column earlier this month about buying a mattress really riled up some of you. So we decided to let you vent and we’ll provide some lessons. Mattress sellers weighed in, too. Representatives from Leo Burke Furniture, mattress manufacturer and wholesaler Custom Comfort by Winn and even a writer from trade publication Furniture Today said consumers should buy quality mattresses from trustworthy stores staffed with qualified sales associates.

Compulsive buyers drawn to Internet Compulsive buyers prefer the fast, secret thrill of shopping on the Internet rather than in bricks-and-mortar stores. They don’t want anyone witnessing their obsessive behavior, said University of Richmond researchers Monika Kukar-Kinney, Nancy M. Ridgway and Kent B. Monroe. The findings of their survey of 314 customers from 42 states, all customers of one e-retailer, appear in the September issue of the Journal of Retailing.

What big purchase did you make over the Labor Day weekend? I bought a mattress. Buying a mattress can be a dreadful experience. Here’s what I scribbled on a notepad as I headed out with a fistful of mattress sale circulars and a checklist of wants: “12:30 p.m. Headed out to shop for a mattress. I’d rather eat dirt. Can we make this quick?“

Time to get out the flak jacket, the Charlottesville Venture Group said of its signature angel investor event, Live Fire!, coming to Richmond on Wednesday. For 15 minutes each, in front of a live audience, five regional companies will stand at the podium with PowerPoint presentations and try to get money from a panel of angel investors to help fund their ventures.

Atight economy can be a good time to start a business. Danielle Vallee, an Alexandria small-business consultant, pointed to a new Kauffman Foundation study that says that more than half of the companies on the 2009 Fortune 500 list and just under half of the 2008 Inc. list began during a recession or bear market. It supports the premise in her newly released book, “Whiz Biz in Changing Times,“ that economic downturns present new opportunities to start a business.