Archives for July 2010

Facebook Pisses Off Users. Again.

For all its cool connectivity features and business tools, Facebook can still manage to piss users off even when it’s trying to be helpful.

Whether it’s new privacy features gone mad, or redesigns to the site itself, Facebook always seems to divide its userbase between happy, non-chalant and hate. Now a new feature for Facebook Page admins – Getting Started – seems to be getting more criticism than praise.

I only noticed it when I jumped on to design the new Bonsai Interactive Facebook Page. Instead of the normal tabs along the menu like Wall, Info and Photos, there was also a new tab called Getting Started.

As it suggests, it offered some tips on how to set your Facebook Page up. Great – anything that helps new Page users get the best from their Page has to be great, right?

Hey, it’s Facebook – so, no, is the short answer.

Since I already know how to set a Page up, I went to hide the tab. And found that I couldn’t. There was no way for me to drag it into non-displayed tabs, nor was there an option for me to delete the tab either.

In fact, the only way I could get rid of the damn thing was to link my Twitter account to the Page, as well as my mobile phone.

Riiiiiight…

The social side of me wants to think that this is just a way to connect your accounts together and make it easy to populate your Facebook Page from either Twitter or your mobile phone.

The cynical side of me sees it as another way for Facebook to have more information about you, and then possibly open up that information (purposely or not) to mobile ad companies and Twitter spammers.

I opened up a Help Ticket on Facebook last Thursday, asking how to remove. As of writing this post, no-one from Facebook has actually answered.

But there are plenty of other frustrated users complaining about this “helpful” addition.

Like I say, I can see the benefit of having a Getting Started tab, especially for new Page users. But not having a way to delete or remove it manually, while it takes up a tab that could be used for something more beneficial to the Page, seems kinda lame to me (I had to link my Twitter and mobile accounts and then remove access to get rid of the tab).

What’s your take on it? Have you seen this new feature yet, and is it useful or just another Facebook faux pas?

Gen Y Isn’t Leaving Social Media – Are You Ready For Them?

A new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project makes for interesting reading on Gen Y and their presence in social media/social networking.

Using the responses from a cross-section of 895 technology stakeholders and experts, including the likes of?Clay Shirky and?Jeff Jarvis, the survey shows their belief that Gen Y won’t be leaving social media anytime soon. This is in contrast to various opinions on why Gen Y isn’t using social media.

According to the Pewter survey, 67% of respondents agreed that Gen Y will still be using social media and be active on networks by 2020. Not only that, but their connectivity will have grown and, even in parenthood, they’ll be active and open members of various social networks.

29% disagreed, saying Gen Y will have outgrown their current online use (including gaming) as new commitments take up their time.

The reasoning for those 67% believing Gen Y will continue to grow their connectivity is the very reason many detractors use against social networking – its openness and ability to share information. Couple that with the benefits of growing brand reputation and it makes sense for Gen Y to continue being active users in the space (and continuing to grow in uptake).

So what does this mean for you, as a business owner?

The obvious answer is that you need to take a look at your current approach and see if you’re ready for this huge potential audience (for example, half of YouTube’s users are under 20).

Does your company have Gen Y employees on your social media team?
Can you employ a Gen Y community manager to communicate your message?
Are you social mapping to find out where your Gen Y customers are?
Is your sales message adapting to also include Gen Y tastes and needs?
Are you taking part in dedicated chats like?#u30pro to understand what Gen Y feels about business, careers and more?
Are you reading blogs from the likes of Matt Chevy, Lauren Fernandez, David Spinks and Teresa Basich (amongst others) to understand this audience better?

While you might not be targeting Gen Y at the minute, they will be your customers of the future. Maybe it’s time to make sure you’re ready for that future now.

You can download the full Pew Internet report here.

Ucubd Offers Cool Mashup Options for Bloggers

I love hearing about cool new start-ups, and Ucubd might be one of my favourites, at least as much as fun factor goes.

Standing for “you cubed”, Ucubd is (in their own words) “a mashup platform that allows bloggers and other web publishers to combine popular social media content from YouTube, Twitter, Amazon and others and embed these mashups on their sites or link to them on our site.”

So, basically, Ucubd creates a fun info box based on the information you give it.

How It Works

Ucubd is based around embed codes (like those found on YouTube and Hulu), which you would normally use to embed your favourite video on your blog, website or anywhere that accepts HTML code.

The platform then looks at the video and produces relevant content to it. This could be tweets based around a keyword, or products on Amazon using the same formula.

Ucubd then places a box next to the video with that information. So, for example, you get the latest trailer for The Expendables movie, and you’ll have tweets about all the buzz surrounding this cool-looking guy flick.

Or, you get a video about the World Cup winners history, and you see products like books, tee shirts, footballs and more on sale at Amazon.

There are also templates for Hulu and Flickr, and the option to use Flash and Silverlight in your mash-ups (depending on the template used).

Once you create your mash-up, you can then customize the theme to suit your blog or site; get embed codes or links for blogs, websites or forums; and share via your social networks.

Ucubd and the Semantic Web

One of the cool features about Ucubd is its tie-in to the semantic web.

By tying relevant products and platforms together, Ucubd is part of the growing number of technologies that doesn’t just want to rely on simple keyword searches, but how these keywords are being used by communities and socially connected profiles.

So, in essence, you could make a mash-up, and if you’re logged in via the upcoming Facebook Connect option, similar mash-ups by your friends might pop up on your radar.

You could then feasibly find partners to work with on a collaborated project; or find like-minded people that you could exchange ideas with; or simply find new mash-ups and use them to expand your own.

The technology isn’t perfect. When I tried to make some mash-ups, Ucubd simply used the first word of the YouTube video I selected, and as you can imagine, the results were pretty funky! But, you can define what keywords are used, so this isn’t too much of an issue.

Additionally, the website embed code seems to open up your mash-up on the Ucubd website – it’d be much better to keep on your own site, for obvious reasons (the HTML-only code is ideal for blog sidebars).

The templates are also a little limited at the minute, being restricted to tweets and Amazon products that tie-in with your embed code.

However, these are minor quibbles on a new platform. The idea behind it is fun and solid, and as much as you could make countless fun mash-ups, there could also be a great business use for something like Ucubd (think presentations or after-show events).

Here’s a mash-up of my TEDx talk. What do you think – something that bloggers could find useful?

How to Use Blog Lists for Your Social Media Strategy

My recent post 52 Cool Facts About Social Media seems to have been a bit popular.

Hopefully it helped show some of the reasons why social media is a platform that all businesses should take seriously, and at the very least investigate whether they should be active or not.

One of the things I saw as a result of the post were a few emails that said, “Great stats, but how would you use information like that for your business?”

Now, it’d be tempting to say, “Easy – hire my company!” but instead here are a few ways on how you could use a stat from each platform.

Facebook

– Stat: The average Facebook user is connected to 60 Pages, Groups and Events.

– Strategy: It’s clear that Facebook Pages or Groups offer a great opportunity for your business, either by having one or targeting those where you could both benefit. So build a Page and then offer a clear call-to-action on why folks should connect with your page.

Or use Facebook Search to find Groups or Events that your business can help, and get to know the folks involved. Can you sponsor an event and give special offers to attendees? Can you offer your expertise to groups that have questions about your industry, and then offer free or discounted samples/reports/service to Group members?

Think of what you can offer to receive.

Twitter

– Stat: Over 60% of Twitter use is outside of the U.S.

– Strategy: Where are your customers from? Have you carried out an audit recently to see where your main market is today? If it’s outside the U.S., how are you using Twitter to be more specific to that audience?

thank you note for every language

Consider hiring a multi-lingual team to connect in the native language of your audience on Twitter. Look at cultural holidays in these countries and see if you can offer a promotion that ties in with it. Have dedicated landing pages on your website for your different audience, and tweet direct links to it in the language needed. Once there, have a call-to-action purely for that nationality.

– Stat: Recruiters account for 1-in-20 LinkedIn profiles.

– Strategy: How does your business recruit? Does HR use an outside agency or is it via newspaper ads? What’s the cost involved here? Think of how much you’re spending on recruitment and then check on the recruiters that are on LinkedIn.

Taking away heavy ad costs or agency costs when you can utilize a recruiter connection (paid, of course) could save you tons in the long run.

They’re also better-suited to your recruitment needs as they’re monitoring folks themselves on LinkedIn, saving you potential employee searches. And the savings made can be re-invested in other parts of your business.

YouTube

– Stat: Over half of YouTube’s users are under 20 years old.

– Strategy: When you consider that could equate to around 1 billion Gen Y views per day, that’s a shitload of potential eyeballs. So why not utilize them? If your business is for Gen Y’s and you’ve got a product to launch, what better way than actually being able to see it and get the lowdown from trusted sources?

Use a social search platform to find who the key Gen Y users are on YouTube and then approach them to see if they’d be interested in taking part. Note the “taking part” description – don’t try and force them to be who they’re not. Keep it honest and real.

Offer a vanity URL that viewers of a particular YouTube channel can click through on to buy the product at a special launch rate. You could then give that YouTube channel owner an extra thank you “reward”, as well as make them part of your trusted promotional team for future launches.

Blogging

– Stat: More than half of all bloggers are married and/or parents.

– Strategy: Ever carried out a blogger outreach program? If not, you might want to start considering it. If you take the stats that there are more than 133 million blogs out there, then it’s more than likely your audience is reading some of them.

If you don’t have a blog yourself (and if not, why not?) then use the existing bloggers in your industry. If you provide diapers, search for the parent bloggers and offer free samples to try and give their readers too. Same goes with kiddie toys or books.

Or if you’re in the wedding industry, offer tickets to an upcoming wedding show in a blogger’s city and have the “winners” as guests of honour. All the blogger has to do is write about the experience – you use it to improve for the next show.

There are a ton of things you can do with statistics and information like the 52 cool social media stats list I put together. All you have to do is think how they affect your business.

How about you? How are you using statistics for your social media strategies, and what successes are you seeing?

photo credit: Eric Fischer
photo credit: woodleywonderworks