Sneaky people are trying to spread malware and spam on Facebook and Twitter. The newest worm that is infecting Facebook is via direct wall posts. The language is as follows:
If you see this do not click on it, it will affect your computer because it is malware. If your computer is currently infected, change your password and delete all the posts in question.
John Botch
www.Laserburnmedia.com
john@laserburnmedia.com
It seems almost every business, organization, politician, and celebrity has their own Facebook page. Most of these pages, however, are all fairly generic and look exactly the same. They are also, usually, boring, unimaginative, and add little value to either the organization or the “fans” of the Facebook page. All of this is unfortunate because a well maintained, well thought-out Facebook page can prove to be tremendous asset to the organization. Here are five ways you can get better at Facebook.
Some businesses and organizations see a Facebook page as a Pet Rock. They really want one, but once they have it…they’re not so sure what they should do with it. By incorporating these five simple strategy’s into your Facebook page, you can transform it from a meaningless novelty into a valuable business tool. And if you’re serious about using the power of social media to help build and strengthen your business, organization, or brand, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly. We can help.
See also: Five Ways to Get Better at Twitter and Five Ways to Get Better at Blogging
-Dan Cheek
www.LaserBurnMedia.com
dan@laserburnmedia.com
Many more companies are starting to get on the social media band wagon. It is a subtle way to sell things on a social media site. It is not your typical sales style that these companies are used to. Every company want to be advertising in these social media sites. It is really word of mouth marketing in the end. Someone is usually spreading the word about the company at all times of the day and in all the contries that your brand has a presence in.
Multinational corporations, such as Ford Motor Co. and Coca-Cola Co., are beginning to use social media to increase positive sentiment, build customer rapport and correct misinformation, says Adam Brown, Coca-Cola’s Atlanta-based director of social media.
“Having the world’s most-recognized brand, we feel like there’s an obligation or a responsibility when people are talking about us; we have a duty to respond,” Mr. Brown says.
Best Buy Co. Inc. riled up the social-media world earlier this summer with a job posting for a senior manager of emerging media marketing. One of the job requirements, as originally posted, called for applicants to have more than 250 followers on Twitter. (When that caused an online backlash, the electronics retailer opened the process of crafting a job description to the public.)
The larger companies are starting to catch on to this free advertising source. Why wouldn’t a company use social media? Social media is so important and moves at such a rapid pace that it can become overwhelming for one person to handle. Most of the complaints that people post on Twitter or Facebook want a fast response. So it is not just word of mouth marketing it is also part customer service.
The lightning-fast pace of social media, and Twitter in particular, has forced businesses to act in a whole new way, says Mr. Brown of Coca-Cola.
“If you don’t respond within three or four hours, you might as well not respond at all,” he says.
For example, a man on Twitter recently expressed annoyance at his difficulty in claiming an all-expenses-paid trip he’d won through the My Coke Rewards program. He Tweeted, “Coca-Cola, bring down your drawbridge,” Mr. Brown recalls. Within half an hour, Mr. Brown had engaged the customer on Twitter, got on the phone with him and resolved the problem.
Not long after, the man changed his Twitter avatar to a can of Coke Zero.
It is so important to have a one-to –one conversation with your followers even if the post is positive. Keep your followers engaged in the conversation public square that we call social media.
-John Botch
www.Laserburnmedia.com
john@laserburnmedia.com
Special Labor Day Edition.
Since this is a national holiday and some of our fellow American’s are not here to celebrate with us. I thought that I would take a look to see what things people are doing to thank the troops.
I saw this advertisement on facebook the last few days; it is called “Cup O’ Joe For A Joe”. So I decided to click on the advertisement to see what it is all about. A company called Green Beans Coffee has launched this campaign.
In our travels to see the Troops, many share with us their sense of loneliness, isolation and feelings of being forgotten. Their commanders tell us that some Soldiers never receive mail from home. In response, Green Beans Coffee has launched Cup of Joe For A Joe to let anyone, anywhere in the world, say thanks to our troops through the simple act of buying a cup of coffee and having it delivered along with their own personal note of encouragement into the hands of a deployed Soldier.
Please join Green Beans in honoring our Troops. It only takes a few moments plus the spare change in your pocket to say thanks. Simply choose a purchase of any amount and we’ll do the rest!
Here is how it works. First you choose your gift. Gifts range on the donation to the troops is $2- any amount that you want to donate. A $60 gift sponsors 30 soldiers. The second step you write a message. Yes that is right, You get to write a message to the troops that you are sending your gifts to. Then enter your payment information and then they will deliver your gift. The soldier also gets a chance to respond to your message. Click on the link to donate or see more of what the program is about. http://www.greenbeanscoffee.com/coj/index.php
While searching for another story I came across one called U.S. troops in Iraq to get cigar gifts. The owner of a Phoenix cigar distributor collected over 6,000 cigars all donated by people and businesses.
The owner said this:
David Haddad said he packed his collected cigars into a package for the overseas troops and is personally traveling to Iraq to present his gift as “a little bit of hospitality,” The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday.
“It’s an honor to the heroes … because they do what they do (in war) to make it possible so that I get to do what I do … My company offers … cigars to resorts all over the world,” Haddad said Wednesday. “It’s to bring a little bit of hospitality to the troops.”
Fumar Cigars Director of Operations Bradley Meduna said the cigar package has an estimated value of nearly $30,000.
The owner David actually got a chance to go to Iraq and have the biggest ever cigar party in a war zone. Many people are dong different things for the troops. I know that they appreciate every gift that they get.
John Botch
Laserburnmedia.com
john@laserburnmedia.com
When you give a gift to a friend on Facebook you will now have a new option. This new option will allow you to pay a little more for the gift. The proceeds from the special gift purchase will go to a charity.
In a test starting next week, (RED), Kiva, Toms, and WWF will each offer 1-2 gifts at $5 or $10 each. Facebook users will be able to buy these gifts for friends, and the proceeds will go to the charity associated with the gift. This is essentially an extension of an increasingly popular offline concept – the idea of giving a gift to a recipient’s favorite charity as a present.
This isn’t the first time Facebook () is experimenting with virtual gifts for charity – earlier this year, they launched a similar initiative upon hitting the 200 million member milestone. However, as Facebook moves further into gifts and payments, charity gifts may become a staple of the site.
According a company spokesperson, “this is an alpha initiative and is not available to other charities at this time, but we may open up the program to new partners in the future pending the results. It is our goal to give our users a way to support the causes and issues that are important to them on a global scale.”
This allows you to give a virtual gift to a friend and still let them know that you are thinking about them. The charities also get a boost because you are donating to them when you purchase their gifts. Since this service is so popular in Facebook the charities are looking to get a large stream of revenue.
John Botch
Laserburnmedia.com
Facebook changed their privacy policy. These policies will be put in place over the next year. Below are a list of the most important changes that will take place.
Applications will be required to more specifically tell users what type of information they are accessing, both from their profile and from those of their friends.
Facebook will more clearly distinguish between deactivating an account, which keeps your data on the site for potential future reactivation, and deleting it completely. The company also plans to further detail what happens to deceased user’s accounts.
There will be clearer explanation of how Facebook plans to use certain types of data – like birthdays – and how the company tailors its advertising to specific users.
Overall the big concerns that the Canadian Government had where addressed. The Canadian Government also put out a press release on this issue. Most of the concerns that I hear people complaining about are being taken care of. The bad part is that they are taking a long time to implement these changes.
John Botch
laserburnmedia.com
john@laserburnmedia.com
Ever since Facebook has decided to keep users information even if they cancel their account I have heard of people complaining about it. No one wants a company especially an online social media company keeping their information, especially if they canceled their account. So this isn’t really news to me because I knew that it would be against the law in once country or another.
Facebook has been facing some heat in Canada for violation of that country’s privacy laws, and tomorrow the Canadian privacy commissioner will announce what the social networking company will be doing to address those concerns.
The issue surrounds retention of customer data even after a user cancels his or her account, which the Canadian privacy commission claims violates the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
There are also apparently concerns regarding how Facebook () shares user information with third parties, particularly the now almost one million software developers making use of the Facebook application platform.
Though there’s no word yet on what exactly Facebook will do to address the privacy concerns, what is revealed at tomorrow’s press conference could have wider implications for other social networks and services surrounding privacy standards and the usage of customer data. Tamir Israel of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic said he also expects those changes to extend beyond Canadian borders as well and to possibly be implemented Facebook-wide.
Facebook has also informed us they’ll be doing a follow-up after tomorrow’s announcements:
“We will be having a media call tomorrow following the Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s press conference. The call will be tomorrow (August 27) at 11:30 AM EDT.”
We should know by later today if they decided to uphold the law in Canada or not. I for one am not a fan of facebook keeping information after someone cancels their account. There are other issues that people have with facebook like to sharing of information to third party developers. Hopefully these issues ill be squared away sometime in the short future. I am a huge fan of social media but people need to rise up and challenge these companies if there is something wrong in the way that they conduct their business. I applaud you Canada!
John Botch
Laserburnmedia.com
john@laserburnmedia.com
This all goes back to the topic that has run through some of my previous blog posts. Word of mouth marketing runs throughout all types of marketing. Just think about how you use twitter and facebook. They both are relationship sites whether you like it or not.
Do Facebook & Twitter have any intrinsic value. Is it possible the value is between people and profiles and not the site? Take out the people, leave the content. Is there’s value and power to influence?
Twitter is a bit easier to look at this way. I tweet around 4 to 5 times a day on average. I probably read dozens of tweets a day. I rarely go to Twitter.com. My relationship with Twitter.com is nonexistent. For me, Twitter is actually more of a relationship API than a website.
Now this is something for marketers pause and consider. Twitter.com is as relevant as the concrete poured in the foundation of my neighbors house. The site is a construct where relationships happen but it does not create, foster or enable the relationships, therefore measuring the value of the concrete is erroneous.
Now can we take this even further and consider if ANY website holds value? Is it possible that nearly all traffic on the web is some form or relationship media, where the value and influence is between personas and not between the site and the visitor.
I recently tweeted on this and got a response claiming that even with social media, it is not always about relationships. The example given was a user recieved needed technical answers he was seeking from people he did not know, who had tweeted out into the ether.
From my perspective this person trusts the collective intelligence and personas of the Twitterverse. He is using the Twitter API as a channel to connect with people he doesn’t otherwise have access to. I believe that IS relationship media at work. He has definitely moved past finding value in a site or destination in exchange for connecting with expert personas.
Even beyond social interaction I think we can see the web has shifted primarily to relationship media. Consider the 90/9/1 rule where 90% of engagements on any social site are people consuming but not participating in the conversation. I see a relationship here. The 90% has a relationship with the 10% of content producers. And that relationship is often more sought after because it is deeper and more trusted than most institutional sources.
So for marketers what does this mean? I can’t help but wonder if we have moved to relationship media while not fully aware, and not comprehending what it means. Are we continuing to build sites while focused on the value of these destinations, meanwhile ignoring the value of personas & relationship fostering, that may truly be at the core to building relevance and influence on the web?
As long as you keep the conversation brand related when you find new customers, you should have success. It takes five minutes to set up both types of accounts. Twitter makes this next part easier. All you have to do is search for your brand, or you could search for people where you live. Most likely you know some of your customers by name already. You could also make a list of customer’s names or have a signup sheet or contest. If they want to sign up to become your friend on facebook or give you their twitter name so that you can follow them on twitter, and hope that they return the favor. This can all become time consuming especially if you have a store front with an online presence. Social media is relationship management for businesses. It allows businesses to protect their brand and gain new customers in the process.
John Botch
Laserburnmedia.com
john@laserburnmedia.com
What is behind these short url’s that social media site Twitter is using? There is a new company out there now that specializes in URL mapping. They will redirect the short url to website that you post.
With a vested interest in making sure that people can use short URLs confidently, many of the leading short URL providers have signed up for 301works, an independent URL mapping directory service (you can think of it like archive.org but for URL mapping). The venture will be managed by GNIP, Inc. The announcement reads:
Leading Internet software companies have joined together to launch an independent URL mapping directory service. The new service will allow all participating short URL providers the ability to make their mappings available as regular updates or as a historical archive through the directory. The service is planned to launch in the next few weeks after participating companies individually inform their respective user communities of their planned participation. Once launched the service will be available at 301works.org and will be managed and run by Gnip, Inc. while the participating companies work to identify an appropriate non-profit organization to manage the directory long-term.
It is with these shared goals for improved permanence and transparency that Adjix, awe.sm, betaworks, bit.ly, Cligs, Gnip, URLizer, and urlShort have joined to launch this new organization.
In plain English: the URL shorteners want to establish some sense of permanence to the mappings they provide, making users more confident that their links won’t just break at some point in the future. It’s a good first step towards addressing concerns about the dangers of short URLs.
So if this non-profit that they want to come up with might give users more certainty that their short link will be redirected or even stolen. Twitter uses these short urls for their users. More companies are on board to use short url’s. It looks like short url’s will start becoming a thing of the future. The one thing that I really want to know is why Twitter uses these short url’s? Is it because they didn’t want people to keep on tweeting about their business? Is it because they want people to see as many tweets as they can fit on a page?
John Botch
Laserburnmedia.com
john@laserburnmedia.com
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