Facebook Makes Me Mad Sometimes (Updated)

Posted this back in 2011. Well, its been nearly 2 years since my Facebook rants ... and plenty of changes have passed then ...  I think the users have more than tripled or more ... and my FB friends have surged to just over 100, still manageable ... but the inherent silliness still prevails.

I can appreciate the wonders of Facebooking, to keep in touch and to share, in a manner that is more intimate and profound than say just by emails.

After sitting at a computer typing all day, the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of another computer so that I can read the fascinating facts and fancies on "25 Random Things About Me" from 3 of my friends.

I also don't feel the need to constantly update an entire network of friends about the daily minutiae of my life. My life is to be lived, not to be updated. And the mf box "What's on your mind" ... I mean if I tell you what is really on mind mind, I would have no friends left??!! I mean, how to say "I have been thinking of screwing with the cleaning lady ten minutes ago"??!!

The silly mf strategy games they play ... so you have grown the world's largest cabbage, go and eat it yourself.... so you are looking for carrots and manure, fuck me silly if I am bothered to even care. My eyes have glazed over hundreds of time whenever I open my Facebook. Soon, I will be doing a Linda Blair, my eyeballs will make a 360 degrees revolution from too much eyes rolling.


(Coffee Bean sure did not have locals at management level when they issue these cups in Malaysia and Singapore ... does not quite have the same meaning)

Then, there are the friends who will update you at least 5 times a day, as if sooo many people are so interested in the most mundane aspects of your lives. I mean, I seriously get postings such as: "... sigh, just wondering about nothing ..." I mean, seriously, go fuck yourself silly, even your own mum would be cursing under her breath. Stop the narcissist in you, no more "look at me, look at me...".

Don't just simply whack without offering solutions, I always say. Well, I hope Facebook will make all users to flag all their comments to 5 categories: if you are making a senseless comment that only your wildest fan or stalker will enjoy hearing, flag that as "1"; if its about something that is mildly important or things you found funny from some obscure site, then click "2"; if its and opinion that some may enjoy, then click "3"; if its a major development in your personal life or career, click "4"; if its absolutely must be viewed by all your friends, then click "5". Your friends , like me, who have a low tolerance of everything and anything, will possibly allow comments and updates that are "4" or "5" to filter to my account.

If by chance you have a nonsensical update and you put that as a "4", I guarantee you I will go and write a load of b.s. on your fucking wall for not being able to decipher what is "value add commentary / opinion" and what is crap.

For now, I cannot go and tell all my friends that they are idiots for writing what they wrote cause its so prevalent. Till today, after nearly one year, I still have less than 40 friends (now just over 100), and proud of it.

I won't be wasting time 'poking' cyber friends. Pick up the phone/mobile and call to ask them out for lunch or dinner, poke here poke there for fucks!!??

People make friends like they are collecting sand, ... "today I made another 4 friends", ... well, fuck me, I did not make four new friends the whole of last month in real life. It waters down the concept of who is a friend, and what a friend is to you. That definition is getting shallower by the day with the advent of the internet.

I guess my plea to my friends is to try and make Facebook work for us, to bring us closer together, not to agitate and piss the shit out of others, and waste our time and resources over inane stuff. Use Facebook as a tool, if you let Facebook take over your life, then you are the tool. Enjoy and maintain relations with family, friends and relatives ... in person as much as you can.


 THIS IS WHAT I REALLY WANT ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE

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On the Edge: What Your Facebook Page is Missing

Guest post from Kelly Joffe of Cliff Ross Design

The Facebook news feed is customized and constantly updated to show information that is most meaningful to the user. It includes likes, status updates, app activity, photos, videos, and links. The news feed is there to make the most out of the time we spend on Facebook. On average, 40% of the time people spend on Facebook is spent browsing their news feed.

Did you know that only about 10% of the people who like your page actually see your posts in their news feed? It’s true. In Facebook’s effort to improve the quality of user experience, they only show us stories in our news feed that we find meaningful. Facebook determines this based on their algorithm called “Edge Rank.” To market yourself successfully on Facebook, the goal is to improve your edge rank so that your posts show up more frequently in your fans’ news feed. Edge Rank is based on these three scores:

Affinity: this measures how strong your relationship is with a fan based on interaction. The people who are frequently commenting, liking, or sharing your posts are going to have a stronger affinity score – and they will be the people who are more likely to see your posts in their news feed.

Weight: this refers to the weight of the interaction your posts gets. For example, a share is the best type of interaction you can get on a post, the next is a comment, and the last is a like. So if your post is getting a lot of comments and/or shares it will be shown to more people in their news feeds.

Time Decay: the older a post gets, the less relevant it becomes, which means that it will appear less and less in the news feeds of fans over time. However, if you posted something yesterday and it is still getting a lot of comments and likes, it will stay fresh in the news feeds of your fans.

Producing quality posts is what it really comes down to. If you are sharing content that your fans care about, information that is relevant to them, and things they find interesting – they are more likely to engage by sharing, commenting, or liking. The more people who that interact with you, the more you show up in news feeds, and the more exposure you get! You really have to pay attention to who your audience is and what they care about. Remember, social brands just don’t share – they deliver value.

The problem that many business owners face is that they just don’t have the time to create this quality content that will boost their edge rank. What good is having 1,000 likes if only 100 people see your posts? Here at Cliff Ross, we specialize in social media marketing – especially for Facebook. We know exactly what it takes to produce quality posts with engaging content. If you are ready to take your Facebook page to the next level and increase your visibility, contact us for more information about how we can help.

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Richard Stallman intervistato su Snowden, Assange, Prism e la privacy

Nuova intervista al nostro caro Richard Stallman pubblicata sul canale Youtube di Russia Today. Stallman, intervistato dalla giornalista Sophie Shevardnadze, parla di Snowden, Assange e in generale del caso Prism.
Nel video Stallman approfondisce parla della privacy, del perché non ha un telefonino.
Secondo Stallman le prove che Snowden ha fornito circa la raccolta dei dati operata dai Governi non fanno che confermare quello di cui lui ci ha da sempre messo in guardia nel corso degli anni.

Il video è in inglese ma non è difficile da capire per i non anglofoni.

Ringrazio +Nicola Liguori  per aver condiviso il video su Google+.

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#Hashtag - You're It!

Guest post from Kelly Joffe of Cliff Ross Design

Hashtags: we know that you have seen them all over the place, and maybe you use them yourself. They have played a significant role on Twitter and now they are starting to pop up all over Facebook. But what does it really mean to use a hashtag – what purpose does it serve? Far beyond #BeiberFever, hashtags are now playing an important role in online branding  for companies.

Hashtags originated as a conversation creator for specific topics on Twitter. Lets say someone was at the beach, enjoying the day with their family and posted a Tweet about it. If they used the hashtag #family or #BeachDay, it would start or join a conversation that has already been created about those topics. So when the hashtag is clicked on, you can view all the other “tweets” about that subject. Maybe other people in your area are enjoying a day at the beach with their families. Hashtags are just another way to connect people who are doing or talking about similar things. Now Facebook is utilizing hashtags as an additional way for people to connect and share information.

Recently we’ve been seeing how hashtags can play a key role in promoting a brand online. Similar to the way people use hashtags to connect with one another, hashtags can be used as a way to connect people to a brand. Lets use Red Lobster as an example. If someone is out to eat at Red Lobster and they post a status or Tweet about being there, they could use #RedLobster in their post. Now anytime #RedLobster is searched, everyone who has made a post about it will show up. This starts to create a buzz around a brand, and becomes a way for people to connect to the brand and help share the brand’s message.

Brands can also develop their own hashtags that are specific to their business. For example, McDonalds uses the hashtag #ImLovinIt – this is their brand slogan, which they have also developed into a hashtag. Now anytime that hasgtag is used, it’s associated with the McDonalds brand.

Social Media is a landscape that is constantly changing and evolving. If you are going to take part in this social environment – it’s important to stay current with the trends. Social Media will play a crucial role in business marketing in the future, just as it’s starting to do now. Hashtags aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, but how we use them will certainly evolve over time.

Here at Cliff Ross, our job is to keep up with the changing landscape that is Social Media. We are happy to answer any questions and help guide your business through the world of social media marketing. Give us a call at 610-829-1333.

Guest post from Kelly Joffe of Cliff Ross Design

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Growing Your Business in 2012 - FACE IT

Guest blog from Carol Ritter of CarolTalks.com

What’s around the corner for 2013?  Is it the traditional pork and sauerkraut, looking for the good luck charm, or maybe the 2013 diet that will work, or maybe you might consider  “growing ur biz” for sure.  I recently took a “FACEBOOK” class and learned how to utilize this magnificent tool to benefit your business.  You know, they always say if you want to learn about social media ask a young person.  Well, I decided to jump off the non-fiscal cliff and learn how to do it myself.  Some really fascinating tips for the new year:

1.                     Pictures are viewed the most, take pictures of your staff in action, take pictures of your customers, your events, yourself and post with captions

2.                     Thursdays are the best day to post, folks are starting to get in the mind set of the weekend - you know, Thursday is the new Friday!

3.                     There are many changes coming in 2013 to Facebook, especially for small businesses-expect those changes to be especially focused on driving new customers to your business

4.                     Experts say that within 5 years Facebook will be the first place folks look to find your business, service or product

5.                     Don’t forget media - second to looking at pictures your customers are viewing You Tube

6.                     The most important piece of your Facebook business page is the BIG picture at the top, leave it blank and customers will assume you don’t know what you are doing.

Face it, social media is a mystery to some baby boomers.  So you have a choice, keep doing business as usual, cash flow as usual, same old customers as usual or really take on 2013.  Embrace change, challenge yourself and take on the social media and let go of the same old same old.

When someone asks you, “Is your business on FACEBOOK?”  In 2013, how about you say, “I’ve Faced it,  I’m growing my business with social media as we speak.” 

 Carol serves as a featured writer for the Home News and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Blog

Carol is an accomplished professional speaker, coach and educational consultant specializing in innovative leadership, outrageous fundraising, million dollar marketing, and building organizational alliances throughout the country.  Carol’s creative  leadership with bullet proof ideas for recruiting MORE MEMBERS, MORE MONEY AND BETTER LEADERS. www.caroltalks.com 610-442-4545 tellkids@aol.com  Like my Biz on  Facebook at Caroltalks and CarolCoaches!

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Daily Briefing. 10/4/12

Good morning and happy Thursday. Today is the 278th day of the year, and there are 88 days remaining in 2012.

In case you missed last night's Presidential debate, you can catch up on what happened here.

In local news, UGI Utilities and the city of Allentown reached a settlement over the 2011 natural gas explosion in Allentown that killed five people. UGI will speed up the replacement of the cast iron pipes and pay a fine of $386,000. "Bodies Revealed" opens this weekend at the Da Vinci Science Center, expected to attract more than 100,000 visitors during its run through February 10.

Facebook has exceeded one billion users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday. The social networking site now reaches one out of every 7 people in the world.

Happy birthday to our Member Relations and Major Events Coordinator, Kara Johnson!

That's all for now, have a great and productive day!
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The "I Used This" Button

I frequent-flyered off to San Francisco this weekend to surprise my Ph. D. Advisor, Jim Harris, for his 70th Birthday. I was the first of his students to graduate, and he's up to 105. On thing I learned helping to start his group was the immense value of being thrown together with a group of smart people with a variety of experience. I met members of Jim's current group, which includes a student from Gunn High School, visiting scholars from around the world, and Ph. D. students bursting with ideas.

I manufactured some business-related meetings for the trip, some of which I'll relate in a to-be-written post, but I also lucked into a hackathon for Open-Access hosted by PLoS. I spent the day with a group of smart people with a wide range of experience, including software developers, product managers, film-makers and a librarian or three.

The group I ended up working with included Greg Grossmeier from Creative Commons, Cameron Neylon from PLoS, and Ana Nelson, the developer-entrepreneur behind dexy. We were interested in counting open-access things. Counting things can be harder than you think, because you have to define the things and identify them; you need to be able to tell whether a thing is the same thing as another thing, or perhaps it's three things. Counting bananas is one thing, but have you ever tried counting ideas?

Creative Commons (CC) is interested in knowing how much its licenses are used. When an Unglue.it ebook edition is released (of course under Creative Commons!), how often is it used? Does a single license apply to the entire book, or can we apply different licenses to the different resources inside the book? For example, an author may want to use a CC-BY license for the text of a book, which might contain figures that are used under CC BY-ND. And the metadata should be CC0. How should these licenses be expressed?

After some discussion, we settled down to work on some specific projects. My project turned out not to be code at all, but rather a description of a scheme for measuring Creative Commons usage, i.e. the rest of this blog post.

Creative Commons has thought about ways to measure the usage of its licenses. For example, it can track the display of its license "badges", such as the one right here. Web browsers will send a referrer header that tells the image server the web page and user IP address. But there are problems. Many web sites use their own copy of the badge. In an ebook, the badge would be embedded in the ebook file. If the page is served over a secure socket, the referrer won't be set. And do you really want to tell Creative Commons about everything you're reading?

Speaking of which, have you clicked on a Facebook "Like" button this week? Was it good for you too?

Suppose there was a button on Creative Commons licensed documents that allowed the user to express their delight at the creator's enlightened choice of license. Would you click it? I call it the "I Used This" (IUT) button, but maybe you can think of a better name.

• The IUT button would send a signal to a Creative Commons server about usage of the resource. These signals would be compiled and reported.
• IUT button would also send attribution url.
• Pressing the button would display an amusing animation to the user. Perhaps every button would have a different animation to avoid button fatigue.
• The button would be at the center of an advocacy campaign for open licenses.
• Unlike the Facebook Like button, the IUT button would respect a user's privacy. A signal would be sent only when initiated by the user, and would be optional.
• An IUT button packaged as a javascript would work in epub, html, etc.
• IUT signals would be evidence of the resource's status as a CC licensed work. A licensor attempting to revoke a CC license (you can't do that!) would have to overcome a verifiable usage trail.
• Users could create accounts at CC to provide a retrospective record of the user's Use.
• Clicking the IUT Button would put the attribution url on clipboard to ease correct citations.
• Usage information for each resource would be public- creators could easily track the usage signals for their works.
• We might need anti-ballot-stuffing measures if CC usage rankings become commercially important.

If efforts like Unglue.it are to succeed, people who appreciate the benefits of Creative Commons licensing need to stand up and be counted. We need to make it a mass movement in the minds of every lover of books, everywhere.

Sometimes you need to do more than just consume. Sometimes you need to do some SHOUTING.

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How to deal with Facebook criticism

If you have a business page on Facebook, you've probably been there: someone says something negative about you or your business on your own business page.  Frustrating, right?  There are absolutely best practices when it comes to handling Facebook criticism, but the pressure is on here, since it's in a public arena - a wrong step can really wind up hurting your brand, your image, and your business.  That being said, handling this right can turn a negative into a positive and help you gain customers.  Here are some thoughts about how to deal with these types of situations.

First, ask yourself an important question: is the customer's complaint legit, and does it seem like they are looking for a resolution?  The answer to these two questions is what should determine the response.

If yes to both
Apologize, publicly, and ask the person to explain what happened (whether or not you do this part publicly is a judgement call about how bad the situation was, but if possible, do so publicly, and you'll see why in a second).  Whatever the situation, offer to remedy it however possible (refund, new product, exchange, etc) and apologize, just as you would in any other situation.  If the person was truly looking for a resolution and not just to whine, they'll likely be very appreciative of your generous offer.  This will be seen publicly and give the impression that you are a company that truly cares about your customers and customer satisfaction; this, of course, can only help your business!

If the complaint is legitimate, but they just wanted to complain and not get their issue resolved
The same as above, but with a slightly different tact.  Instead of trying to resolve the issue publicly, ask the person to send your brand page a message and respond in kind.  Otherwise, handle identically.  This way, when the person keeps complaining (since they aren't looking for a resolution and just want to complain), its being handled privately, not publicly.

If no to both
Delete the post and block the user.  This is particularly true if the user is cursing, making things up, etc.

Anything to add to our recommended approach?  Let us know in the comments!
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No, you cannot see who viewed your Facebook profile. Not now. Not ever.

We all want to see who is looking at our Facebook profile - after all, wouldn't it be neat to see who is "Facebook stalking" you?  At the same time, I think its safe to say that no one ever wants the world - or anyone else, for that matter - to be able to see whose profiles they have been checking out.  Every one of us is "guilty" of looking at someone's Facebook profile that they probably shouldn't have (exes, that girl in high school that you totally had a crush on, etc).


There are also plenty of apps out there that claim to be allow you to see who had viewed your Facebook profile.  Wow!  That's awesome!  All you have to do is click on a few buttons, like an App or two, and WHAM, you can see who has viewed your profile.  Great!

Yeah, it's totally a lie.  According to Facebook themselves, you cannot see who has viewed your profile.  No app can allow you to do that - not now, not ever.  There is no way anyone can ever see whose profiles you have viewed, and you can never see who has viewed your profile.


So, what are those links?  Spam or viruses.  Approving an App likely gives the App creator access to information that you probably didn't want to give away to them - contact information, your friend list, etc.  


Make your life easier - don't click on these links!

That being said, some social networks are different.  On LinkedIn, for example, you can see who has looked for your profile - just go to your profile, scroll down and look at the "Who's viewed your profile" sidebar.
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Facebook in decline?

Yeah, it is way, way to soon to believe a question like the title of this blog entry is actually true...but, there are some uncomfortable warning signs for Facebook as a business.  Consider the following information:

• Facebook's IPO has, without a doubt, been a failure.  First came the delay in the stock actually being available on the day of its IPO, followed by news that revenue estimates had been cut for Facebook - and that only certain prospective investors were given that information.  Oh, and as if the initial glitches weren't bad enough, Facebook is currently trading at $26 (as I write this) - a full 25% off of its initial offering of $38.  Ouch.
• Facebook brands engagement with customers is down 22% in the past year.  That's a serious drop from a core of Facebook's business model - businesses being able to successfully use Facebook to make more money.
• Another recent survey found that 34% of users were spending less time on the site - and only 20% were spending more time on it - during the past six months.
• Facebook ad revenues declined over the last quarter.

Is this a blip for Facebook or the start of a more serious trend for the organization?  Impossible to say, of course.  Still, Facebook has DOMINATED the Social Media marketplace over the past few years, but they may be becoming a victim of their own inability to capitalize on the latest trends: mobile.  Facebook users are spending more time accessing the site via a mobile device - and Facebook has yet to monetize this trend.  Before the company went public, this wasn't as big of a deal, as long as they were still turning a profit - but with the company now having an obligation to tens of thousands of shareholders, they have a fiduciary responsibility to generate more and more revenue.  If Facebook cannot fully capitalize and monetize the mobile device - look for other Social Networks that can.

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Martin Lewis Sells Website

Martin Lewis, the owner of moneysavingexpert.com, has sold the website to Moneysupermarket.com for £87M.

A deal that one suspects will be less fraught with controversy and bitterness than the recent Faecesbook IPO.Any source

Facebook Shares Continue To Fall

Shares in Faecesbook, the IPO that just keeps giving, are now under $28 each.Any source

Have a kid in college? Here are some tips for how they can avoid being a moron on Facebook

It seems like every day, you read someone doing something stupid on Facebook. The most recent example of astounding stupidity that I have heard of were these morons in Columbia, who committed a robbery but were caught shortly afterwards...because one of them used a computer to log into Facebook.

Wow.

Unfortunately, Facebook mistakes can be much more serious and have a significantly detrimental affect on High School and College students.  According to recent surveys, 56% of employers search for interviewees on Social Media before making a hiring decision, while over 80% of colleges use Facebook to connect with potential students.  As such, its incredibly important that students not be morons when using Social Media.  Sadly, that is not always the case.

So, if you are of that age or know others who are, here are some big fat DON'TS when it comes to high school/college kids using Social Media.

• Anything that involves alcohol or partying - even if you are of legal age.  It gives off the impression of someone immature.
• Drugs or illegal activity.  I can't believe I have to type this out, but yes, that happens all the time.  It's like common sense goes out the window sometimes.  
• Big financial purchases...that can result in you getting robbed.
• Your phone number.  Bad idea for potential stalkers.
• Anything insulting or whiny, be it insulting a friend as a joke, a business or another school.  Bad form.
• Anything in poor taste - good rule of thumb - would you be comfortable with something you post being on the front page of the Morning Call?

Make sure you have your privacy settings set to the max when it comes to Social Media and don't allow anyone who isn't your friend to see your content.  This should not be viewed as a catch-all, but it can certainly slow down some embarrassment.  Also - make it so that items you are tagged in only appear AFTER your approval - this can prevent embarrassing picture tags, check-ins or mentions.  

Have any good tips to share?  Let us know in the comments!

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Facebook Timeline - Cover Suggestions

As you may know, Facebook Timeline for brand/business pages will officially launch tomorrow (we actually just launched ours).  In other words, ready or not, your business page will have a Timeline.  Really, this is probably great news; initial studies show that the Timeline can significantly boost engagement with your brand.

One of the coolest new features is the Cover Picture.  This picture is wider, taller and thus far more visible than your standard Profile Picture.  It is likely the first thing that anyone will see when they first check out your page; as such, of course, you want to make a great first impression.

First, some specifics.  The picture must be 850 x 315 pixels and is right at the top of the page.  You can change the photo as often as you like, but you cannot have any direct sales message or call to action in it (doing so will violate Facebook's Terms of Service for pages).  That being said, those are about the only restrictions that you have on the picture.  As a result, you have plenty of options for a page.  Here are some thoughts on specific content:

• Show who you are: Show pictures of your staff or your store, looking as welcoming and friendly as possible.  It's always good to show that you are more than just a business - you are real people, ready to serve your customers.
• Customize the picture:  It may not be enough to just upload a picture - putting a specific welcome message on it may help.  Check out our picture:

You'll notice that it has a little welcome message, and our slogan on it.  You'll also notice is appears to be off-center.  That's because the bottom-right hand corner of the picture is covered by the profile picture, so you have to adjust your text accordingly.

• Be colorful or eye-catching:  This is the absolute first thing that someone will see when they arrive on your page - so do it right.  Make sure you have a picture that is visual enough that it will absolutely grab someone's attention.  

What are you planning on doing for the Timeline roll-out?  Let us know in the comments.

• 
  

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Facebook Passwords: Do you have to give it to your employer?

Intern Mauri is back and addressing this recent controversy - the practice that has some employers asking for employees/prospective employees Facebook passwords.  Yipes.
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The latest Facebook controversy – is it ethical for prospective employers to ask for an applicant’s
password?

News sites have been buzzing during the past few days about a new privacy issue facing social
media users.

The issue came to light after the Associated Press reported on one particular job applicant
named Justin Bassett, a New York-based statistician who was asked for his Facebook password during a
job interview. Apparently the interviewer had done a quick search for Justin’s personal Facebook page;
upon finding it private, she then asked him to provide his information so that she could log in to his page
herself. According to the AP story, this isn’t just a one-time thing: some employers have made it part of
their hiring practice to request an applicant’s passwords to social media sites.

Since its inception, social media has brought up numerous questions about privacy. How much
should be made public? How careful should people be about what they post? Will I be judged by my
employers by what I post on my private page? Many of us already know that social media sites are
valuable tools when trying to determine a job applicant’s skills, experience and especially their ability to
fit into a company’s internal culture. Those of us searching for jobs are well aware that our sites are
going to be browsed for a glimpse into our value as an employee.

But does asking for personal passwords, when a social media page is intentionally made private,
go too far?

One side of the debate says yes, asking for someone else’s password is an invasion of one’s
personal privacy. Some on the side of this argument say they’re happy to “friend,” “connect with,”
or “follow” a prospective employer, but they don’t want to give out their own personal password.
Others say absolutely not: what they post, say or do on social media is private and part of their personal
lives, and should not reflect their worth as a job candidate.

The other side of the debate states that employers need to know they are making the best
choice when selecting a new employee. The more they know about a person, the better informed they
are about how that person will perform. Companies may also want to know if a job applicant will project
the right image for their company. The abundance of information one shares on his or her social media
page, from photos to posts to one’s personal interests and likes, serves as an additional tool for
companies when selecting from a vast pool of job candidates.

A corresponding argument says that no one should have an expectation of privacy on the
Internet: anything anyone posts can be accessed in a variety of ways, and may be accessible forever.

How this latest social media privacy issue plays out remains to be seen, but it makes one thing
clear now more than ever: the Internet has transformed our lives, not just in the way we access
information but also in the way others access information about us.

What do you think? If you’re an employer, do you check the social media sites of prospective
employees and, if so, do you agree or disagree that asking for passwords is an invasion of privacy? If
you’re an employee, do you feel this is an invasion of your privacy? Let us know.

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Guest Blog Post: Facebook is Upgrading its Pages -- What Should You Expect?

Hello everyone!  We have another Guest Blog Post today, this one from our friends at Liquid Interactive Media.  We actually dealt with a similar topic a few days ago, but these folks go much more in-depth on the issue and give a great look at it, along with some powerful examples.  As always, if you are a Chamber member and would like to write a Guest Blog Post, E-mail me at mikes@lehighvalleychamber.org.  Enjoy!
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Facebook is Upgrading its Pages -- What Should You Expect?

Steve Luvender for Liquid Interactive

March 6, 2012

By now, it seems everyone is on Facebook. Not only people; brands, political figures, events, sports stars-- and their facialhair, in the case of NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon -- have Facebook Pages. But just as sure as there’s a Facebook page for anything with a name, there’s a guarantee that Facebook will change to the layout or format of the site just as the company’s 37 million Page owners are starting to get comfortable.

Facebook recently announced changes to its wildly popular Pages for businesses, moving brand changes to a variation of the social giant’s new “Timeline” layout currently used on some personal profiles.

What does that mean for Pages for businesses and brands?

For starters, brand pages will now include a cover photo -- a large graphic displayed on the page to add a bit more flair and personality. Some companies that have already upgraded, such as Nikeand Macy’s, display the company’s slogan over a heavily branded graphic. Others -- The New York Times, for example -- show a photo of their staff and offices in the horizontal space at the top of their Facebook page.

Cover photos allow for almost unlimited creativity -- almost. The new Pages guidelines state that invitations for users to Like the page, or even web address text on the cover photo, aren’t allowed on cover photos. That doesn’t mean business owners can’t be a little unique. Take Butterfinger’s pageas an example, which cleverly incorporates its profile photo into the cover photo.

In addition to the cover photo, Page administrators can now “pin” posts to the top of the page. It only takes a simple click to make one post featured prominently on the page for up to a week. That means no matter what else is posted, the pinned post will always display first. Energy drink company Red Bull utilizes this feature by “pinning” a daily contest or game, in addition to its usual postings that are then displayed beneath the highlighted article.

One of the most useful features of the Pages redesign adds the ability for Page owners to directly communicate with individual users. This adds a whole new way to stay in contact with customers and users -- in terms of usability and functionality, it’s light years ahead of email. This new feature is ideal for answering potential customers’ questions as well as supporting current users. This also puts Facebook on the same level as Twitter when it comes to contests and giveaways -- fans can now directly communicate personal information and the business can send an official reply as a traditional Facebook message.

A challenge the new timeline layout presents is bringing users to Like the page. Currently, Pages can set specific Apps to be displayed by default -- effectively forcing users to Like the page to see what’s hidden inside, such as a coupon, giveaway, or free sample. Now, the Timeline is the forced default landing page; every user sees the same content whether or not they’re fans. This presents a challenge to businesses who rely on “Like gates” to bring additional eyes to potential customers -- interesting content is now more important than ever. One strategy to combat this limitation is to “pin” a link to the top of the Page that grabs users attention and links to an App on the page that’s only accessible to fans of the Page.

Timeline for Pages is available now for testing and initial set-up by simply visiting the Page as the Page Owners. For brands who want to cling to the current format for every last minute, they have until the end of March to upgrade -- Facebook will upgrade all remaining pages to Timeline on March 30th.

It’s important to stay on top of the changes that all Pages will undergo -- Facebook is one of the most powerful ways to stay in touch with customers or attract new customers. Timeline upgrades -- including cover photos, pinned posts, and direct messages -- should provide even more effective ways to socially spread messages online.

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Incoming: Changes to your Facebook Business page

If you haven't seen it yet, you'll notice it soon: Facebook Business pages are changing to match the recent changes to the Facebook timeline.  This means that what you do and how you use your Facebook page will change dramatically.

What are some of the changes?

• Cover photo:  Just like your Timeline, you can now add a massive, cover photo on the top of your page.  This gives you an opportunity to put up a picture or design that reflects your company.  It's a change to be creative and visual - don't just go with a logo here.  Do something fun and exciting.  As an aside, the entire new page seems to be built to be more visually appealing.  
• Pinning:  You can now pin items to the top of the report.  This will allow you to bring the most important items to the top.  
• Highlight important items:  The format puts items in two columns - but, if something is particularly important, you can star it, bringing it across both columns and giving it even greater exposure.  
• Tab no more:  The tabs that are currently on your page are gone, and replaced by boxes that are just below your cover photo.  You have the option of choosing which tabs are most important, but if you have customized tabs, you better pick carefully.  
• Private messages:  This is a brand new one and very cool - you can send one-on-one, private messages, from your business page (not your personal one) to other users.  This is a great opportunity to build individual relationships - and potentially settle matters that you'd prefer to keep private.

You actually do have the option to launch the page now, and make sure to check out some of the new uses of this page by viewing some examples.

I know I'm gonna play around with this over the weekend - are you excited about this?  Let us know in the comments!

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How To Use Social Media To Promote Your Small Business

You have a small business and you haven’t bought into the social media craze? Guess what? Silence is no longer an option. People are online talking about your company as you read this, whether you like or not. If you don’t engage in the conversation, you risk losing your customers. But maybe you don’t have a choice as many small airports do in the State of California and across the United States. Many are owned by cities who don’t give them a dime and yet take money whenever they please. Those city managers force their airport managers to jump through hoops and political red tape to be able to promote their facilities. These airport managers have their hands tied in dealing with counties which just recently decided to launch a website, let alone a social media marketing strategy. So, I was asked by Michael McCarron, Public Information Office for San Francisco International Airport, to speak to the managers of small airports through California about the benefits of having a social media presence, so that they can convince their ‘bosses’ to allow them to open Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts, as well as to create blogs. 

Here’s part of my presentation. I hope it helps you with your online social media strategy. If You have more ideas, please share them in the comments section at the bottom of the post. The more ideas, the better.
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1. ASSESS YOUR ASSETS: The first action you should take before engaging in online marketing or social media marketing and engagement is to look at what are you’re trying to promote. What are your assets? Who are your target customers? It may seem obvious. But, A Bay Area airport had small planes for rent. But business was slow because they were simply targeting pilots trying to rack-up hours. Turns out there was a larger audience they could target through social media, tourists looking for aerial Bay Area tours. Business took-off.
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SIGN-UP FOR SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn. Facebook allows you to create a business page. Make sure you read the rules for businesses first. You can even ‘create a page’ through your personal account, if your business allows you to do so. That makes it easy for small business owners to manage it. On LinkedIn, every employee becomes your best advocate.
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FIND A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER: Managing multiple social networks is daunting. So, before you start posting content, requesting friends and adding followers, sign-up for a social media manager such as Ping.fm and HootSuite. It allows you to manage all of your accounts on one site and schedule your messages to deploy so you don’t have to sit over it all day. It also allows you to review the success of the tweets real-time with click-through statistics. And you can gather all the mentions of your brand, industry or search terms on Twitter through it as well. That’s for the free version. I suggest trying that first. As you get more involved in social media, I prefer SproutSocial.com. You have a choice on plans for nine-dollars to $49. There’s a 30-day free trial to make sure it works for you. What I like is that it allows you to take all of those you follow and the followers and create contacts out of them which you can manage in the system and track engagement. It also has one inbox for all of your messages from all the networks. Plus, it allows you to track check-ins at FourSquare and Gowalla.
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POST UPDATES: It’s important to have content on your social media pages before you start adding friends and followers. When you try to find friends, they’re going to look at the page to see if they want to follow you. So you need to give them a reason to follow you first. Provide valuable information about the industry. Post pictures of your business or people enjoying your business. On YouTube, post videos of your business, customer experiences, and encourage customers to make their own. You can also ‘favorite’ other YouTube users’ videos and they will end up on your page. If you’re a small airport, posting cool aerobatic videos of the Patriots’ Jet Team is a possibility that would add value to those who ‘subscribe’ to your page. Also, share those videos on your other accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and even LinkedIn.
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FIND FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS: Twitter and Google+ are easiest. Search keywords to find followers. On Twitter, If you’re a small airport, for example, search ‘pilot. You can also search ‘flying.’ Searching your town and surrounding areas as well to find key influencers, news outlets, bloggers and city officials. Also, search for large players in your market. For airports, try Boeing, Virgin America, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. If they share your posts, you have the potential to reach thousands. I suggest adding just a few people at a time. On Google+, comment on one of their posts immediately. On Twitter, mention them in a post immediately. You can also comment on one of their posts or simply say that you look forward to following their great content. If it’s a reporter or blogger, give them story ideas and leads that have nothing to do with your business. Get them to trust you. To find fans on Facebook, it’s best to start with real friends and family. You can also pay as little as $100 to have an ad for your Facebook page syndicate across the network for a designated period of time.
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7. ENGAGE FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS:
Cory Colligan who used to be head of marketing for California Bouquet friended me on Facebook. When she asked to be my friend, she typed a personal message, saying how impressed she was with my work and how she’s enjoyed watching my work evolve. I couldn’t remember where I knew her from. Was it a television station, radio station, or was it from school? I wasn’t sure. I was too embarrassed to ask. And she seemed harmless. So, I confirmed her friend request and wrote her a note back thanking her for her feedback and saying that I look forward to connecting. She proceeded over the next few months to follow my videos and stories. She engaged in great debates and conversation with me as well as my friends. I knew just days after I added her that I didn’t know her personally. But I was so impressed with her and the relationship we’d developed over the months, that when I was traveling to her town, Fresno, I suggested we have lunch. When I arrived she had a full basket of goodies from her shop, including the best dark chocolate covered strawberries I’ve ever tasted, waiting for me. Since then, I have been a regular customer and am quick to share her products on my page. 

So, your first priority should be building that relationship with people, not pitching your service or product.
Give them story ideas and leads that have nothing to do with your business. 

On Facebook:
Share their links on your wall and/or comment on them. Wish them a Happy Birthday. Birthdays are big on Facebook. Always acknowledge them. Maybe even offer them a discount coupon for a birthday treat via Facebook. 

On Twitter:
Retweet their stories and comment on them! Reply to each and every message. Keep the conversation going. Get them to trust you. For example, one of my favorite Twitter followers is @heykim. She is an amazing example of how to do it right. She has thousands of followers. But she has even more friends. She friended thousands of people little by little and engaged with them, retweeting their tweets, commenting on their tweets, checking in on topics those folks had tweeted on days before. Now, she’s constantly in conversation with folks like Morgan Fairchild, Alyssa Milano and Kathy Ireland. Alyssa Milano even just shared a linked @heykim posted tonight about how Twitter has transformed over the last five years. Who would’ve thought? She’s not famous. The key is she knows how to engage. And she never misses a #FF (Follow Friday). On Friday’s many people share with their friends, their favorite people to follow, encouraging others to follow them as well. 

Google+: It’s a cross between Facebook and Twitter. It’s great because you can create circles of certain people you want to target for different reasons. It makes it easier to post certain promotions to one group vs. another. 

LinkedIn: The best way to engage with potential customers is by joining industry groups and starting group discussions.
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Very important: Do not ask for help/favors from people until you’re friends or at least warm acquaintances with them. And the #1 way to become friends is to offer tons of help/favors without expecting anything in return. In the words of Michael Ellsberg, Forbes Contributor and Author of “Self-Educated Millionaires: The Seven Skills You’ll Never Learn in College, “Networking is a *long term* activity – it CANNOT be done for short-term results. Follow these basic concepts, and you’ll be ahead of 99.99% of the knuckleheads out there who are botching their networking attempts online!” Also, a great book to read is by Brian Solis, Principal at Altimeter Group, “Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web.”
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8. STAY CURRENT: Get alerts sent to your phone when folks engage with you via your social networking sites – at least in the beginning – that way you respond quickly.

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Liking Library Data

If you had told me ten years ago that teenagers would be spending free time "curating their social graphs", I would have looked at you kinda funny. Of course, ten years ago, they were learning about metadata from Pokemon cards, so maybe I should have seen it coming.

Social networking websites have made us all aware of the value of modeling aspects of our daily lives in graph databases, even if we don't realize that's what we're doing. Since the "semantic web" is predicated on the idea that ALL knowledge can be usefully represented as a giant, global graph, it's perhaps not so surprising that the most familiar, and most widely implemented application of semantic web technologies has been Facebook's "Like" button.

When you click a Like button, an arc is added to Facebook's representation of your social graph. The arc links a node that represents you and another node that represents the thing you liked. As you interact with your social graph via Facebook, the added Like arc may introduce new interactions.

Google must think this is really important. They want you to start clicking "+1" buttons, which presumably will help them deliver better search. (You can try following me+, but I'm not sure what I'll do with it.)

The technology that Facebook has favored for building new objects to but in the social graph is derived from RDFa, which adds structured data into ordinary web pages. It's quite similar to "microdata", a competing technology that was recently endorsed by Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Facebook's vocabulary for the things it's interested in is called Open Graph Protocol (OGP), which could be considered a competitor for Schema.org.

My previous post described how a library might use microdata to help users of search engines find things in the library. While I think that eventually this will be an necessity for every library offering digital services, the are a bunch of caveats that limit the short-term utility of doing so. Some of these were neatly described in a post by Ed Chamberlain:

• the library website needs to implement a site-map that search engine's crawlers can use to find all the items in the Library's catalog
• the library's catalog needs to be efficient enough to not be burdened by the crawlers. Many library catalog systems are disgracefully inefficient.
• the library's catalog needs to support persistent URLs. (Most systems do this, but it was only ten years ago that I caused Harvard's catalog to crash by trying to get it to persist links. Sorry.)

But the clincher is that web search engines are still suspicious of metadata. Spammers are constantly trying to deceive search engines. So search engines have white-lists, and unless your website is on the white-list, the search engines won't trust your structured metadata. The data might be of great use to a specialized crawler designed to aggregate metadata from libraries, but there's a chicken and egg problem: these crawlers won't be built before libraries start publishing their data.

Facebook's OGP may have more immediate benefits. Libraries are inextricably linked to their communities; what is a community if not a web of relationships? Libraries are uniquely positioned to insert books into real world social networks. A phrase I heard at ALA was "Libraries are about connections, not collections".

Libraries don't need to implement OGP to put a like button on a web page, but without OGP Facebook would understand the "Like" to be about the web page, rather than about the book or other library item.

To show what OGP might look like on a library catalog page, using the same example I used in my post on "spoonfeeding library data to search engines":

<html> 
<head> 
<title>Avatar (Mysteries of Septagram, #2)</title>
</head> 
<body> 
<h1>Avatar (Mysteries of Septagram, #2)</h1>
 <span>Author: Paul Bryers (born 1945)</span> 
 <span>Science fiction</span>
 <img src="http://coverart.oclc.org/ImageWebSvc/oclc/+-+703315758_140.jpg">
</div>

Open Graph Protocol wants the web page to be the digital surrogate for the thing to be inserted into the social graph, and so it wants to see metadata about the thing in the web page's meta tags. Most library catalog systems already put metadata in metatags, so this part shouldn't be horribly impossible.

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
      xmlns:og="http://ogp.me/ns#"
      xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml"> 
<head> 
<title>Avatar (Mysteries of Septagram, #2)</title>
<meta property="og:title" content="Avatar - Mysteries of Septagram #2"/>
<meta property="og:type" content="book"/>
<meta property="og:isbn" content="9780340930762"/>
<meta property="og:url"   
      content="http://library.example.edu/isbn/9780340930762"/>
<meta property="og:image" 
      content="http://coverart.oclc.org/ImageWebSvc/oclc/+-+703315758_140.jpg"/>
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Example Library"/>
<meta property="fb:admins" content="USER_ID"/>
</head> 
<body> 
<h1>Avatar (Mysteries of Septagram, #2)</h1>
 <span>Author: Paul Bryers (born 1945)</span> 
 <span>Science fiction</span>
 <img src="http://coverart.oclc.org/ImageWebSvc/oclc/+-+703315758_140.jpg">
</div>

The first thing that OGP does is to call out xml namespaces- one for xhtml, a second for Open Graph Protocol, and a third for some specific-to-Facebook properties. A brief look at OGP reveals that it's even more bare bones than schema.org; you can't even express the fact that "Paul Bryers" is the author of "Avatar".

This is less of an issue than you might imagine, because OGP uses a syntax that's a subset of RDFa, so you can add namespaces and structured data to your heart's desire, though Facebook will probably ignore it.

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
      xmlns:og="http://ogp.me/ns#"
      xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml"
      xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
      xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"> 
<head> 
<title>Avatar (Mysteries of Septagram, #2)</title>
<meta property="og:title" 
      content="Avatar - Mysteries of Septagram #2"/>
<meta property="og:type" 
      content="book"/>
<meta property="og:isbn" 
      content="9780340930762"/>
<meta property="og:url"   
      content="http://library.example.edu/isbn/9780340930762"/>
<meta property="og:image" 
      content="http://coverart.oclc.org/ImageWebSvc/oclc/+-+703315758_140.jpg"/>
<meta property="og:site_name" 
      content="Example Library"/>
<meta property="fb:app_id" 
      content="183518461711560"/>
</head> 
<body> 
<h1>Avatar (Mysteries of Septagram, #2)</h1>
 <span rel="dc:creator">Author: 
    <span typeof="foaf:Person" 
        property="foaf:name">Paul Bryers
    </span> (born 1945)
 </span>
 <span rel="dc:subject">Science fiction</span>
 <img src="http://coverart.oclc.org/ImageWebSvc/oclc/+-+703315758_140.jpg">
</div>

The next step is to add the actual like button by embedding a javascript from Facebook:

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script   src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#appId=183518461711560&xfbml=1"></script>
<fb:like href="http://library.example.edu/isbn/9780340930762/" 
       send="false" width="450" show_faces="false" font=""></fb:like>

The "og:url" property tells facebook the "canonical" url for this page- the url that Facebook should scrape the metadata from.

Now here's a big problem. Once you put the like button javascript on a web page, Facebook can track all the users that visit that page. This goes against the traditional privacy expectations that users have of libraries. In some jurisdictions, it may even be against the law for a public library to allow a third party to track users in this way. I expect it shouldn't be hard to modify the implementation so that the script is executed only if the user clicks the "Like" button, but I've not been able to find a case anyone has done this.

It seems to me that injecting library resources into social networks is important. The libraries and the social networks that figure out how to do that will enrich our communities and the great global graph that is humanity.

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Global Warming of Linked Data in Libraries

Libraries are unusual social institutions in many respects; perhaps the most bizarre is their reverence for metadata and its evangelism. What other institution considers the production, protection and promulgation of metadata to be part of its public purpose?

The W3C's Linked Data activity shares this unusual mission. For the past decade, W3C has been developing a technology stack and methodology designed to support the publication and reuse of metadata; adoption of these technologies has been slow and steady, but the impact of this work has fallen short of its stated ambitions.

I've been at the American Library Association's Annual Meeting this weekend. Given the common purpose of libraries and Linked Data, you would think that Linked Data would be a hot topic of discussion. The weather here has been much hotter than Linked Data, which I would describe as "globally warming". I've attended two sessions covering Linked Data, each attended by between 50 and 100 delegates. These followed a day long, sold-out  preconference. John Phipps, one of the leaders in the effort to make library metadata compatible with the semantic web, remarked to me that these meeting would not have been possible even a year ago. Still, this attendance reflects only a tiny fraction of metadata workers at the conference; Linked Data has quite a ways to come. It's only a few months ago that the W3C formed a Library Linked Data Incubator Group.

On Friday morning, there was an "un-conference" organized by Corey Harper from NYU and Karen Coyle, a well-known consultant. I participated in a subgroup looking at use cases for library Linked Data. It took a while for us to get around to use cases though, as participants described that usage was occurring, but they weren't sure what for. Reports from OCLC (VIAF) and Library of Congress (id.loc.gov) both indicated significant usage but little feedback. The VIVO project was described as one with a solid use case (giving faculty members a public web presence), but no one from VIVO was in attendance.

On Sunday morning, a meeting of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), Rebecca Guenther, Library of Congress, discussed id.loc.gov, a service that enables both humans and machines to programatically access authority data at the Library of Congress. Perhaps the most significant thing about id.loc.gov is not what it does but who is doing it. The Library of Congress provides leadership for the world of library cataloguing; what LC does is often slavishly imitated in libraries throughout the US and the rest of the world.  id.loc.gov started out as a research project but is now officually supported.

Sara Russell-Gonzalez of the University of Florida then presented the VIVO which has won a big chunk of funding from the National Center for Research Resources, a branch of NIH. The goal of VIVO is to build an "interdisciplinary national network enabling collaboration and discovery between scientists across all disciplines." VIVO started at Cornell and has garnered strong institutional support there, as evidenced by an impressive web site. If VIVO is able to gain similar support nationally and internationally, it could become an important component of an international research infrastructure. This is a big "if". I asked if VIVO had figured out how to handle cases where researchers change institutional affiliations; the answer was "No". My question was intentionally difficult; Ian Davis has written cogently about the difficulties RDF has in treating time-dependent relationships. It turns out that there are political issues as well. Cornell has had to deal with a case where an academic department wanted to expunge affiliation data for a researcher who left under cloudy circumstances.

At the un-conference, I urged my breakout group to consider linked data as a way to expose library resources outside of the library world as well as a model for use inside libraries. It's striking to me that libraries seem so focused on efforts such as RDA, which aim to move library data models into Semantic Web compatible formats. What they aren't doing is to make library data easily available in models understandable outside the library.

The two most significant applications of Linked Data technologies so far are Google's Rich Snippets and Facebook's Open Graph Protocol (whose user interface, the "Like" button, is perhaps the semantic webs most elegant and intuitive). Why aren't libraries paying more attention to making their OPAC results compatable with these application by embedding RDFa annotations in their web-facing systems? It seems to me that the entire point of metadata in libraries is to make collections accessible. How better to do this than to weave this metadata into peoples lives via Facebook and Google? Doing this will require the dumbing-down of library metadata and some hard swallowing, but it's access, not metadata quality, that's core to the reason that libraries exist.

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