We all know that you shouldn’t drink and drive and around the world different government have laws that vary from a slap on the wrist to being sent to jail for repeat offenders.

Our use of technology has some do’s and don’ts and that are not laws but common sense.

One of those is “do not send text messages while drunk” or you may find you don’t have a relationship the next day or you may be looking for  a job the next week.

This approach also applies to social media updates whether that be on Facebook, Twitter or MySpace where the activity can be done quickly and spontaneously with potentially disastrous results.

• So don’t inhale and Tweet or
• Don’t drink and Facebook update

Here are 10 social media mistakes.

1. Second Wife

Second Life is a virtual world where users can play out real-life fantasies. Little surprise, real love has resulted from virtual courtships. In the case of Amy Taylor in Newquay, England, it spawned heartbreak too. Taylor told the Western Morning News that she filed for divorce after walking in on her husband having a virtual affair on the service. The two met in a chat room and had held a marriage ceremony in Second Life.

2.  Facecrook

The draw of social media is compelling–even when you’re burglarizing a home. The Journal, a West Virginia newspaper, tells the story of how Jonathan Parker, a 19-year-old, was busted for felony daytime burglary after leaving his Facebook account logged into his victim’s computer. He had apparently used the computer to check his Facebook status.

3. Indecent Proposal

Cheryl Smith’s husband found a “hot singles” ad on his Facebook page that he’ll never forget–the “hot single” was Smith herself. Facebook rushed to note the ad was from an outside advertiser, not the company, but the incident underscored what could happen if you keep loose privacy settings around the net.

Note: Facebook settings can allow you to be placed without you knowledge or consent into an ad.. to fix this setting and read instructions on how to prevent this happening click here

4. Twittering Moran

President Obama knows first hand the consequences of loose lips and social media. In an off-the-record chat with the press, he told reporters that he thought a recent stunt by rapper Kanye West’s was “inappropriate” and made him look like a “jackass.” Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran tweeted the comment, then deleted the comment, but the presidential gossip spread like wildfire.

5.  Relationship Status: Public

Neil Brady made his relationship frustration public–very public–after he asked his wife for a divorce on Facebook and the U.K.’s Daily Mailgot wind of it. “Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady,” the status update read. Although the publication called the incident the world’s first divorce by Facebook, it likely won’t be the last.

6. You Tweet, You Lose

Graduate student Connor Riley was pondering whether to take a high-paying internship at networking giant Cisco and tweeted herself out of a job opportunity: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” A Cisco employee spotted the post and informed Riley that she’d pass it along to her hiring manager. Riley told MSNBC that she had already turned down the opportunity.

7. Interested In You

People looking at your social network accounts can surmise a lot about you. A pair of MIT students showed that it’s possible to guess sexual orientation based on their online friends. They call the project “MIT Gaydar.”

8. Shooting Guns

Cody Redenius’ ex-girlfriend saw him posing with a shotgun in a Facebook profile and reported it to local police in Dane County, Wis. Redenius was under a domestic abuse injunction that prohibited him from being in possession of a firearm. The photo was enough to get him arrested.

9. Fairy Tales

Banking intern Kevin Colvin told his bosses at Anglo Irish Bank that “something came up at home” and that he had to immediately return to New York. Major family emergency, right? Nope. Someone had tagged a Facebook photo of Colvin at a Halloween party wearing a fairy outfit and holding a can of beer.

10. Root Beer Bust

Police officers find out about under-age drinking parties from kids’ event postings on Facebook. Dustin Zebro, an 18-year-old Wisconsin high school student, decided two can play that game: He threw a root beer kegger, and cops took the bait. Ninety breath tests later, all the party goers were cleared, but the “bust” was videotaped and uploaded to YouTube.

What are your social media blunders or that you have heard of that are noteworthy?

Source: Forbes.com

Digg has recently had a major makeover and I have started using it again after being invited to participate in the Beta version prior to it going live a couple of weeks ago.

Digg was one of the first generation social media sites (it started 5 years ago) where you could post an online article or post that you have found interesting to share with others. You can also vote or Digg an article if you like it.

Due to the rise of  Twitter and other social media channels Digg.com has suffered over the last couple of years and it has added a new social focused “My News” section (as well as other new features) which provides curated news feeds based on the activity of your friends and the people you choose to follow.

Mashable, the top social media  blog in the world has recently added an additional feature where you vote via a “Digg” button on its articles as well as the usual and now well known and accepted Facebook share or ReTweet buttons

So what are some of the top social media articles that are being “Dugg” on Digg.com (one of these includes an article on the revolt within the Digg community against the new platform)

1. Facebook Now Worth $33 Billion (410 Diggs)

The Financial Times has said that the implied valuation means that Facebook is now has a higher valuation than technology giants such as eBay and Yahoo!, which have capped market values of $30.1 billion and $18.3 billion respectively.

David Gelles, a reporter for The Financial Times wrote: “Common stock in Facebook is trading as high as $76 a share as investors scramble to get a piece of the company before it files for an initial public offering, which analysts say could be the biggest technology IPO since Google’s $1.67bn flotation in 2004…read more

2. Kanye West And How Twitter Has Changed The Way We Communicate (174 Diggs)

If you needed any more proof that Twitter has transformed how we absorb information and communicate, look no further than Kanye West.

The superstar rapper let loose a barrage of 70+ tweets, starting with a declaration of his love for Twitter and ending with an apology to Taylor Swift.

His apology refers to last year’s VMA incident, where West rushed onto the stage and interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech for best female music video. More importantly, the 33-year-old rapper was vilified by music fans, the media and even President Obama.

He used his brand new Twitter account to do it. Whether you think his “stream of consciousness” is the rambling of a broken man or his most heartfelt attempt yet to put the incident behind him, you can’t help but appreciate the rawness of each tweet. There is no filter or middle man between his thoughts and the rest of the world.

Here are some of  his tweets (check out his Twitter stream if you want the whole thing), that encapsulate the raw nature of his barrage of tweets:

- “Had to let employees go… for the first time I felt the impact of my brash actions … I felt the recession from an ownership side”

- “How deep is the scar… I bled hard.. cancelled tour with the number one pop star in the world … closed the doors of my clothing office”

- “That’s when you realize perception is reality. I’ve been straying from this subject on twitter but I have to give it to you guys raw now.”.. read more

3. The Future Of Digg (76 Diggs)

An interview with Digg’s VP of product, Kevin Desai, about where Digg is now and where its going.

“Short of you hiding for the last week, you must know that Digg is undergoing massive change and turmoil. The company launched their much anticipated redesign into a maelstrom of controversy. Ever since the new site went live last week, Digg has been the subject of talk in the world of tech”…. read more

Reddit has taken over the front page of Digg. If Kevin Rose and the rest of the Digg team thought that a long weekend would be enough to calm the furor over the latest changes to the popular site, they were clearly mistaken. Not only did Digg’s users declare today “quit Digg day,” but in order to protest Digg’s new auto-submission system, users are now upvoting every Reddit story on the site. These stories are being submitted to Digg by Reddit itself through the new auto-submission system that is a core part of Digg v4…read more

5. Top Ten Google Street View Photobombs (PICS) (1,609 Diggs)

In honor of yesterday’s epic “Dead Girl” Google Street Bomb, as reported by Gawker, we’ve put together a list of the top ten Google Street View Photobombs. See them here

I don’t know if you remember the time when social media channels such as  instant messaging and MySpace were for teenagers. The evolution of social media is now producing a demographic spread of users that puts Gen Y with Baby Boomers and retirees with teenagers on the same page. It is not uncommon for grandparents on Facebook to be friends with their grandchildren.

It is also challenging our social norms as adults are starting to receive and view updates on Facebook from teenagers that they normally wouldn’t know about or even want to know about. There are things about parents that our children don’t want to hear of such as the sexual habits of their parents. ( As we know, once parents have children they never have sex ever again or that’s what our children like to think)

Also as parents you wouldn’t hang out at your older teenagers or young adults parties  as it would just look like stalking and just isn’t right but Facebook is providing insights into teenagers lives that is just like turning up to the party in person.

As parents it is our God given right to annoy and embarrass our teenage children… hey, it is written in the job description!

So how can you use Facebook to annoy and embarrass your kids.

1. Posting images of your children with blue faces after practicing Photoshop on your children photos. Hey the kids don’t thinks it funny but the parents do!

2. Writing judgmental comments and updates on your teenagers choice of  fashion is sure to bring on a family discussion that will not be pleasant. Remember fashion was invented so that parents cannot wear the latest latest styles for fear of looking like a fashion tragic.

3. Constantly updating your status with references to your kids. I know you want me to come home this weekend, Mom, but the rest of the Internet doesn’t care!

4. Commenting on your children’s relationship status. If I go from “In a Relationship” to “Single,” I do not need an online pity-party from my mom. Talk about pathetic!

5. Sexy profile pics. I know you looked good in the ’70s, Mom–and you still look great now. But keep your curves under wraps online. The last thing I need is my guy friends calling you babe!

6. Posting baby/childhood photos. No, Mom, no one needs to see me in my childhood bathing suit. And no one needs to know how old I am!

7. Friending your children’s new boyfriend or girlfriend–and you haven’t even met them yet! Same goes for exes: Mom, if I’m not dating them anymore, they are NOT your friend.

8. Mom, just because I’m friends with them doesn’t mean you have to be! And just because you knew them when they were little doesn’t mean you know them now!

9. Do not talk about your sex life in any way, shape, or form. Do not talk about your child’s sex life in any way, shape, or form. Mom, you don’t even know what sex is, OK?

Anyway, I am sure there are many more ways to annoy your teenagers online. How have you embarrassed your children on Facebook?

Source: Forbes.com Image By orangeacid

Facebook has become the social media channel everyone loves and loves to hate. It is a powerful platform to share your content as well as being a soapbox to post your feelings and thoughts whether they are appropriate or not.

Social media seems to have hit such a nerve with people sharing anything and everything online with such gay abandon.

It continues to provide great online fodder that keeps us amused and entertained in an almost voyeuristic fashion.

The reaction to a post that I wrote titled “30 Things You Shouldn’t share on Social Media”  revealed to me the high interest in other people’s online Faux pas with 69 comments so far.

Many people seem to have their common sense gene removed when they leap on a computer in the quiet of their home and think that no one is listening (only the entire planet). It does seem that this thing we call “the social web” is so new that that our evolutionary development hasn’t caught up with the technology and we are still thinking analog when it should be digital!

It seems that sharing online is still so very novel and so early in humans social digital development stage, that we are like young children before we had all our brain cells lined up in the correct sequence that provided logical thought capabilities.

It is like when a child covers their eyes and says “you can’t see me” because they cannot see you.

So when I came across an article from Forbes.com that displays the world’s best examples at the genius level of non thinking on Facebook, I just had to share it.

Here are 10 real world examples of  how people lost their jobs and even careers due to Facebook Faux Pas.

1. The Absent Minded Professor

Gloria Gadsden, an associate professor of sociology at Pennsylvania’s East Stroudsburg University, enjoyed cracking wise on her Facebook account. In January she wrote, “Does anyone know where I can find a very discreet hit man? Yes, it’s been that kind of day.” In February: “Had a good day today. DIDN’T want to kill even one student.” Gadsden’s University, made aware of the posts, found reason to be alarmed given the tragic events at colleges in recent years. The school put Gadsden on indefinite paid leave that lasted a month before she was allowed to return in late March.

2.An Undercover Cop With Loose Lips

An Atlanta police officer was terminated in December after posting sensitive information about his job on Facebook. Among his alleged leaks: his current cooperation with the FBI on a drug case; explicit times when he would be working as a plain-clothes cop; and the fact that he was frustrated at work. The officer’s Facebook account was private, but that didn’t stop the department from booting him.

3. A Loving Supportive Daughter

In December, after General Motors’ chief executive Fritz Henderson left the company and was replaced by Ed Whitacre, Henderson’s daughter, Sarah Henderson, logged on to the automaker’s Facebook page. What she said: “HE F—— GOT ASKED TO STEP DOWN ALL OF YOU F—— IDIOTS. IM FRITZ’S F—— DAUGHTER, AND HE DID NOT F—— RESIGN. WHITACRE IS A SELFISH PIECE OF S—, WHO CARES ABOUT HIMSELF AND NOT THE F—— COMPANY. HAVE FUN WITH GM, I HOPE TO NEVER BUY FROM THIS GOD FORESAKEN COMPANY EVERY AGAIN. F— ALL OF YOU.” Dad must have been proud.

4. A Prison Guard Who Likes Sharing but Not Caring

A Nebraska prison guard allegedly bragged on Facebook in February about smashing an inmate’s face to the ground. Soon thereafter, two more Nebraska prison guards jumped in to voice their support. The state was decidedly unimpressed. All three guards lost their jobs in March.

5. Dead Wrong

The public typically isn’t allowed to see murder victims. So it would seem a bad idea to broadcast photos of dead victims on the Web. But that’s what an emergency medical technician in New York City did last spring, when he allegedly posted Facebook photos of a victim who had been strangled with a hair-dryer cord. He lost his job.

6. A Football Fans Fanatical Support Gets Him Fired

Dan Leone, a Philadelphia Eagles stadium operations worker, was unhappy with the NFL team’s decision to let Brian Dawkins, a safety, sign with the Denver Broncos. So Leone vented to his pals on Facebook, declaring: “Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver … Dam Eagles R Retarted!!” He later deleted the post, but the Eagles fired him over the phone a few days later.

7. Naughty Nurses

Thirteen emergency room nurses and other staffers at Harrisburg Hospital in Pennsylvania were fired after a rousing–and racist–group chat on Facebook. Several of the nurses sued for unemployment compensation; that suit is still pending. They also plan to sue for wrongful termination.

8. Time Off  For Bad Behaviour

When 16-year-old Kimberley Swann decided to chronicle her new job as an office administrator at Ivell Marketing and Logistics in Essex, U.K. on Facebook, she didn’t waste any time. Her first post read: “First day at work. Omg (oh my God)!! So dull!!” Two days later, she complained, “All I do is shred holepunch n scan paper!!!” Her boss discovered the posts three weeks later–and fired her.

9. Flying The Unfriendly Skies

Virgin Atlantic fired 13 of its cabin crew members after they aired nasty thoughts about the airline’s safety standards and calling passengers “chavs”–English slang for poorly educated young people. The critics also claimed that the planes were full of cockroaches and that the airline replaced its engines four times in one year.

10. Teacher Sets A Bad Example

Ashley Payne, a teacher at Apalachee High in Winder, Ga., posted some off-color language along with photos of herself traveling, and drinking, throughout Europe. That’s not exactly the kind of example the school principal thought she should be setting, and asked Payne to resign. Payne later sued the school district; the suit is pending.

11. A Pervy Boss Gets His Revenge

In the U.K. a Facebook user named Lindsay told her friends: “My boss is a total ‘pervvy wanker.’” Too bad her “wanker” boss was also a friend on Facebook. His reply, on Facebook: “Don’t bother coming in tomorrow.”

So have you heard of anyone losing their job from what they shared on Facebook?

Image by frippy

In 2009 Facebook launched in Indonesia and with that arrival according to “The Economist”  a “vast field of dead blogs were discovered” numbering several thousand as people deserted their blogging platforms and moved to Facebook.

Facebook is a phenomenon and its ease of use and spread has enabled tens of millions of people to have a publishing platform and printing press that allows them to share their thoughts,content and passions with ease.

Facebook’s constant experimentation has brought innovations, such as comment threads, and the ability to mix thoughts, pictures and links in a stream, with the most recent on top, so it provides that ease of use that we all love.

I also received a public Tweet the other day and it said

“Yes! Facebook is killing the blog. My FB page IS my blog.”

This was in response to a recent post titled “Is Facebook Killing the Blog?”

For some strange reason this Tweet and the discovery of the vast field of dead blogs worries me and I want to tell you why you should not just have a Facebook page instead of a blog.

If you are wanting to be taken seriously as a blogger in a niche as opposed to just blurting out your thoughts and photos in a random fashion then using Facebook as your blog is dangerous.

Why?…well here are some reasons.

1. Facebook own your page not you ..think of it as renting or cyber squatting if you don’t comply with their terms and conditions your Facebook page can be terminated with the push of one button. If you have a blog on your own domain and self hosted then you own it and have total control.

2. Facebook is not forever. As with all trends it will fade away (eg AOL) or morph into something else as the Web continues to evolve.

3. On Facebook it is extremely difficult to backup and maintain your content to save for the future

4. Facebook keeps changing its look and feel and features without your consent (Your blog is totally under your control)

5. You cannot optimize your Facebook page for search engines but you can with your blog

6.  With Facebook you are constantly at the mercy of what they will allow and don’t allow you to edit or change or customize. You can add almost unlimited customized features to your blog.

These are just some reasons why, if you are wanting to publish online and maintain control over your content now and into the future that your blog should be your primary web presence and your homebase and not a Facebook page.

By all means have a Facebook page to allow you to share your content on social media but remember, you don’t own your Facebook page, Mark Zuckerberg does!

What does impress me with Facebook is that it is willing to constantly try new things and its evolution is a moving feast that sometimes annoys and teases with changes to features and functions.

On August 13, Facebook launched a Facebook “live” video channel which is run from its Headquarters in Palo Alto, California.  It certainly isn’t YouTube ..yet!!  but it does seem to be a pilot to gauge reaction and to test technology.

On viewing the live channel what I noticed was that the quality of the live video was patchy but if you look at the site you can see where Facebook might take this in making online video more social.

In this screen shot below you will see that while the Facebook ‘Live’ video is playing that you can

1. Invite friends to watch
2. Chat with Facebook friends while you are watching the online video
3. Post it to Facebook and share with your Friends

This of course makes watching a video a much more social event that can be shared and commented about while viewing.

There are rumors that  some media companies are looking to embed their video content and channels on Facebook such as the UK’s Channel 5 as reported on webtvwire.com.

The potential for broadcasters to get access to Facebook’s 500 million users is huge and would leverage Channel 5′s audience far beyond its current viewing audience.

For its part, Facebook will have more people staying on the site for longer as they watch full episodes of recent shows. While Channel Five will likely increase its on-demand audience, all of which will be seeing ads managed by the broadcaster.

The opportunity for social online video  is enormous, just imagine if you were able to watch the recent World cup on Facebook and be able to comment and share with friends live.

So watch this space, social online video is coming to a Facebook channel near you… so YouTube watch out!

So would you watch and share with your friends Facebook online video channels?

]]> http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/08/19/is-facebook-about-to-make-online-video-more-social/feed/ 3 http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/08/13/is-facebook-changing-the-way-we-read-our-news/ http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/08/13/is-facebook-changing-the-way-we-read-our-news/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:23:49 +0000 jeffbullas http://www.jeffbullas.com/?p=6899

How we continue to receive and consume our news continues to evolve and adapt to our changing technology habits and use of social media. I certainly have experienced this first hand when I heard the breaking news about the dumping of our Prime Minister via Twitter.

A recent survey of  Facebook users was conducted in July that reveals some fascinating trends and facts about how we hear about and consume our news online.

The survey was conducted by National Public Radio which is a significant player in the US in news and radio including online and delivers breaking national and world news. The survey is certainly significant as National Public Radio

• Receives nearly 12 million visits to its website every month
• Has over 1 million Facebook users
• Boasts more than 2 million Twitter followers

This survey was responded to by more than 40,000 Facebook users.

So what did the survey reveal about our changing habits and the trend to hear about and receive more of our news through Facebook and social media

• Almost all 40,000 respondents (96%) access Facebook at least once per day,
• Fewer than 1 in 10 (8.4%) follow NPR on Twitter, which was somewhat unexpected, given how NPR actually has more than twice as many fans on Twitter than on Facebook. This suggests that these communities are more mutually exclusive than expected.
• Fans are more inclined to consume NPR content on Facebook than other news sources. About three of every five respondents (60.7%) said they get most or all of their news online.
• Almost three-quarters (74.6%) agree that Facebook is a major way in which they receive news and information from NPR.
• Half of them (51%) agree that Facebook is a major way for them to receive information from news organizations in general.
• Your friends are your personal news wire. Nearly three out of four (72.3%) expect their friends to share links to interesting information and news stories with them online.
• More than four in five respondents (84%) indicated that they click through to NPR stories that are posted on Facebook. (NPR receives anywhere from 1.5 to 2 million pageviews per month directly from links posted to our Facebook page.)
• Our Facebook fans share our content with their friends, though at different levels depending on the platform.Three in four respondents (74%) shared an NPR story with friends via Facebook in the last five months. This isn’t a huge surprise, given how sharing is standard operating procedure on Facebook.
• Interestingly, though, nearly half of them (49%) also said they’ve shared an NPR story via email in the last five months.
• Users don’t think the number of “likes” on a Facebook post will make them more likely to click it, only 11.8% say that a story with lots of Likes makes it more likely they’ll read it.
  • Note: A story with lots of likes will still appear in many more users’ feeds, simply based on how Facebook works, exposing more potential readers to it.
• Just over seven in ten respondents (72.6%) said NPR publishes just the right amount of posts to their page each day – around 8-10 posts on average. About one in five (21.6%) said NPR should post even more stories each day. In contrast, only 6% of respondents stated NPR posted too often per day.
  • Note: For example, when researchers analyzed the UNICEF-USA Facebook page, they found that its sweet spot was just three items per day – and unsubscribe rates “rose dramatically” with more than three posts per day. On the NPR page they post links to breaking news, analysis, interviews, reviews, concerts, etc. links with some meat to them, which seems to indicate .
• They’re interested in a wide range of topics – except sports and rich people.

The major takeaway for me from this survey is that breaking news seems to be extremely well received via Facebook updates and that the role of Facebook and social media as an important distributor of news should not be taken lightly.

Also this survey potentially bodes well for services such as Paper.li, the Flipboard iPad app and TwitterTim.es, which create personalized news reading experiences based on the links your friends share. These services are popping up quickly on Twitter, and it probably won’t take very long for them to integrate links shared by your Facebook friends as well.

What social media channel do you hear about breaking news?

I recently attended a marketing event entitled “The Rules  of Online Engagement” where Michael Watkins of Mudo Media was a member of the panel. Michael and his company are Facebook specialists and are behind a very successful fashion Facebook page for the major brand Supre.

What was evident at the event was the high level of interest in Facebook by the audience in its continuing growth, issues and challenges and how to use it  for marketing your brand.

I have also found on this blog that posts about Facebook generate a lot of  reader interest so here are my top 5 Facebook posts in one spot.

1. 30 Fascinating Facebook Facts To Tell Your Friends

2. The 8 Keys To Success For Facebook Marketing

3. Will These Competitors Slow Facebook’s Growth?

4. 30 Things You Should Not Share On Social Media (Facebook)

5. Is Facebook Killing The Blog?

1. 30 Fascinating Facebook Facts To Tell Your Friends

Facebook’s mindshare of popular culture and it’s goal of world domination is now becoming apparent …don’t laugh, I am sure that a Facebook TV channel is not far away, a movie about Facebook is about to be released and I am sure that branded pens and cups are also around the corner!!

Farmville is the maybe the  most loved and hated game on Facebook but that is another story. Most of you who read this will be on Facebook and may want to bore your friends and colleagues at your next dinner party or water cooler meeting with some trivia.. here is your chance.

1. Al Pacino’s face was on the original Facebook homepage
2. One early Facebook function was a file sharing service
3. The first “Work Networks” as well as the original educational networks  included Apple and Microsoft
4. The meaning of the term poke has never been defined
5. The average Facebook user has 130 friends..

Read More

2. The 8 Keys To Success For Facebook Marketing

Facebook has now passed 500 million users and it is a social media platform that cannot be ignored. Many companies are struggling with their efforts to use it effectively. There is also a lack of research on  how to best useFacebook for brand marketing.  So when I came across this Facebook research report conducted by the Altimeter group I thought it was worth sharing.

As 70% of  brands indicated that they planned to increase spending on offsite social media involvement in 2010 (including Facebook) so it is imperative that companies have the right guidelines so they save time and money in their efforts for Facebook marketing success.

The “8 Keys To Success for Facebook Marketing“ as indicated by Altimeter

1. Set Community Expectations

This includes what fans expect from brands such as deals, tips, support or just news and information.

2. Provide Cohesive Branding

Create a familiar experience for fans and differentiate  a brand’s page from other brands. Brands must complete their profile information, upload branded logos and maximize profile pictures. Create custom features and applications that resonate with your brands theme..

Read More

3. Will These Competitors Slow Facebook’s Growth?

Facebook is battling with an awareness that it takes it’s users for granted as it makes changes that both infuriate and frustrate its subscriber base.

There are user groups springing up such as

• QuitFacebookDay(23,000 members) asking members to close their account on May 3
• FacebookProtest(3,000 supporters) that is requesting a one day boycott on June 6
• Facebook Group with 2.2 million members protesting recent changes to privacy and layout

These movements are an indication of  the level of discontent especially on its privacy controls. There are also people inceasingly having their accounts hacked and hijacked with spam messages and links being sent to users friends (that happened to me only this week).

Will this stop Facebook’s inexorable march to global social media domination?…

Read More

4. 30 Things You Should Not Share On Social Media (Facebook)

I don’t know whether you have started to  notice that a lot of people are wanting help with their cows and ducks on Facebook (and I am finding it a touch annoying as I am not fond of cows) and is due to a very popular online game called Farmville. What prompted me to write this list germinated when the few Farmville updates turned into a stream and then into a raging torrent. On Facebook you can actually turn this stream off in the settings section which is a good thing as I have stopped counting sheep when trying to go to sleep and started counting bovines… by the way Mashable have a post that shows you how to block those fascinating Farmville updates.

For those of you who are statistically minded… the Facebook-platform game FarmVille has

So what have the settings for controlling Farmville streams have to do with not sharing certain things on Facebook. Well there are settings on Facebook that allow your updates to be made very public or private  and Facebook’s latest privacy changes in the last few months have actually made more information and photos public in its bid to open up the previously very private walled garden of Facebook (unless you go back to your settings and reset the privacy controls) in its bid to compete with Twitters real time open stream of information in this increasingly competitive social media world as more marketers start implementing social media marketing campaigns likeFord, General Motors and Tourism Queensland (Best Job In The World).

So  to protect your reputation, personal brand, your bank account and your privacy you need to be very careful what you write and post on social media channels.

30 Things You Should  Not Share on Social Media

1. What chicken you are plucking or cow you’re milking on Farmville on Facebook
2. How many you have killed on Mafia wars or where they are buried.. again on Facebook
3. Party photos showing you inebriated or a hand placed where it shouldn’t be ..

Read more

5. Is Facebook Killing The Blog?

People love to publish. They publish photos, images and videos… it could be on Facebook or it could be on their blog.

Twitter allows you to write very short stories (140 characters) and MySpace is forpublishing music and music videos.  LinkedIn is for publishing information about yourself and to encourge networking. The Web has become the largest publishing and photocopying machine the world has ever seen.

To put togther an article or a book 20 years ago was arduous and very few people got to see it as the web was not on public display but buried in University research labs and offices and the software tools did not exist to easily and quickly create anything much more than a text document.

When blogs emerged in the 1990′s they were very much text based but have evolved into multimedia platforms where can embed your YouTube Videos as well Slideshare and paste in your Flickr images to embelish your text and story.

Facebook the social media giant has since arrived on the scene and developed into a multi-media rich social networking portal where you can invite all your friends and share your story with minimal friction. To publish and share in 2010 is ‘dead easy’ and that is what most people want, they just want to be given a tool that doesn’t require plugins or widgets and just ‘do it’.

Creating, maintaining and developing a blog takes a lot of  research, time and  effort with determining what plugins to use, what widgets to embed or what email and RSS subscription platforms to use rather than just signing into Facebook.

Nielsen research is showing that traffic to to WordPress and Blogger the two major blogging sites is stagnating, while Facebook’s traffic grew by 66% last year and Twitters by 47%.  Morningside Analytics, an analytics market research firm has discovered a ‘vast field of dead blogs’ in Indonesia that have not been updated since May 2009 which directly corresponds with the arrival of the Indonesian version of Facebook.

So is Facebook killing the blogs?…

Read more

Facebook’s mindshare of popular culture and it’s goal of world domination is now becoming apparent …don’t laugh, I am sure that a Facebook TV channel is not far away, a movie about Facebook is about to be released and I am sure that branded pens and cups are also around the corner!!

Farmville is the maybe the  most loved and hated game on Facebook but that is another story. Most of you who read this will be on Facebook and may want to bore your friends and colleagues at your next dinner party or water cooler meeting with some trivia.. here is your chance.

1. Al Pacino’s face was on the original Facebook homepage
2. One early Facebook function was a file sharing service
3. The first “Work Networks” as well as the original educational networks  included Apple and Microsoft
4. The meaning of the term poke has never been defined
5. The average Facebook user has 130 friends
6. There is an ‘App’ to see what’s on the Facebook cafe menu
7. Mark Zuckerburg (CEO of Facebook) calls himself a “Harvard Graduate” when in fact he didn’t graduate (apparently his reply is that “there isn’t a setting for dropout”)
8. California is huge on Facebook with over 15 million users (41% of the population)
9. Australian’s spend more time per month on Facebook than any other country at over 7 hours on average
10. A Facebook employee hoodie sold for $4,000 on eBay
11. Facebook has over 500 million users
12. Facebook has added over 400 million users in less than 2 years
13. If  Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest
14. Facebook was initially bank-rolled by Peter Thiel the co-founder of PayPal for $500,000
15. Facebook was almost shut down by a lawsuit by ConnectU who claimed that Zuckerburg stole the idea and Technology for Facebook (the issue was settled out of court)
16. 50% of users are on the site every day
17. 70% of users live outside the USA
18. Facebook is available in 70 different languages
19. It is the second biggest website by traffic behind Google
20. Yahoo offered Facebook $1 billion which Mark Zuckerburg refused
21. Facebook is now valued between $7.9 – $11 billion
22. Most Popular Facebook page is Michael Jackson (Simpsons is second)
23. Monthly time spent on Facebook is 8.3 billion hours
24. Total number of  of active applications: 550,000 plus and growing daily
25. Women aged 55 and up are the fastest growing Facebook demographic in the USA
26. Facebook makes money through advertising  and virtual products
27. This year Facebook is  on track to generate sales of over $1 billion
28. In Australia court notices can be served through Facebook
29. A Facebook court summons in Australia is considered legally binding
30. Facebook has become so popular psychologists identified a new mental health disorder “Facebook Addiction Disorder”

Sources: Mashable Image: Eric Delcroix

Facebook has now passed 500 million users and it is a social media platform that cannot be ignored. Many companies are struggling with their efforts to use it effectively. There is also a lack of research on  how to best useFacebook for brand marketing.  So when I came across this Facebook research report conducted by the Altimeter group I thought it was worth sharing.

As 70% of  brands indicated that they planned to increase spending on offsite social media involvement in 2010 (including Facebook) so it is imperative that companies have the right guidelines so they save time and money in their efforts for Facebook marketing success.

The “8 Keys To Success for Facebook Marketing“ as indicated by Altimeter

1. Set Community Expectations

This includes what fans expect from brands such as deals, tips, support or just news and information.

2. Provide Cohesive Branding

Create a familiar experience for fans and differentiate  a brand’s page from other brands. Brands must complete their profile information, upload branded logos and maximize profile pictures. Create custom features and applications that resonate with your brands theme

3. Be Up To Date

Keep interaction high with with fresh timely content. Suggestions are things like ensuring that you have the right mix of of conversational  and promotional posts and updates. Post content using the 80/20 rule: 80% should be informational, educational or have entertainment value. Only 20% of content should be specifically about the brands product or services.

4. Live Authenticity

Build trust by personalizing interactions with a human touch. Post should be written in first person, using a conversational tone. This will enable deeper relationships and brand loyalty. Administrators should have their names and photos displayed.

5. Participate in Dialog

Connect with customers by fostering 2 way dialog. Two way dialog spurs interaction, trust and the spread of information. When fans comment, acknowledge them and reward the individual for participation and publicly thank them for being a fan.. Direct conversations with consumers cascades to their network. Each time a fan comments on a Brand’s Facebook page, that interaction is shared with an average of 130 friends.

6. Enable Peer to Peer Interactions

Be efficient and enable the crowds help. Customers are already talking to each other and brands should enable this natural behavior. Harnessing the crowd’s energy helps reduce costs and improves the experience for fans. Ask fans to respond to each other, showcase fan contributions and recognize top contributors on Facebook’s wall. Take this engagement to the next level by enabling Facebook’s discussion board features. Participate in these discussions and feature”customers” top questions and answers.

7. Foster Advocacy

Foster word of mouth – the holy grail of marketing. Prospects trust customers more than they trust brands, so promoting advocacy is an essential strategy. Start by simply asking existing fans to suggest the page to others or “like” a wall post. Take it to the next level by encouraging fans to do something on the page that is worth sharing with their Facebook , eg “voting on something” or “sounding off” or even sharing videos or photos. Create polls  and contests.

8. Solicit a Call to Action

Bring it back to business and provide a succinct next step. A “call to action”. Many brands fail to deliver  simple calls to action that lead from fans from engagement to purchase. The idea is is to eventually sell more of one’s product! Start with simple, yet immediate call to actions on your landing page and wall page. Ask fans to “Like” your page, sign up for emails or newsletters. Lead new visitors and existing fans to custom tabs where they can view exclusive deals, browse products and make a transaction.