Inside Facebook on BBC2: A quick review

Facebook and you - If you're not paying for it you're not the customer, you're the productThe must watch TV tonight for me was BBC2's documentary "Inside Facebook", a Money Programme look at what makes Facebook tick.

With the inevitable challenge of trying to make it suitable for all audiences, it often swung too far to the basics at times. However, it did provide some interesting insights and anecdotes on life at Facebook, from how it all started, to how it's grown from a "geek idea" into a multi billion dollar business while Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated his commitment to Facebook by his continued turning down of increasingly large offers to buy the company.

Facebook & Privacy
One of the most telling moments in the programme was when the question as put to the VP of Public Policy at Facebook about the use of users' pictures in advertising for pages they had "liked". There was a long pause, after which he tried to defend sponsored stories as "ranking mechanism" not advertising, a very wooly answer, and hitting at the heart of Facebook's reality. That, in reality, the product they are selling is you - the user - if you're not paying for something it's very unlikely that you are the customer. The cartoon featured with this post, tells that story perfectly. Thanks to Mike Ashworth for sharing with me, sourced from Very Demotivational.

Is Google Plus a challenge?
This question was put to Mark, and the pause and slight smirk that passed across his face gave the real answer, while his lips gave a polite response.

Paying for poop
The other, sightly disturbing, highlight was when one user told how he paid one pound (real money!) to buy a virtual display case to display his virtual pet poop! This demonstrates one of the other ways, in addition to advertising, that Facebook is monetising its site, by allowing users in games to pay real money to buy virtual elements and advantages within Facebook games.

Advertising models
There was some good coverage of the advertising model and business promotion methods within the Facebook platform, from how to target particular audience groups, testing adverts for effectiveness, to making effective use of business pages. Very useful if you're investigating how to promote your business on Facebook.

In summary, I would highly recommend viewing of this programme for anyone learning about using Facebook for their business. It would also make great viewing for those who are trying to understand just what all the fuss is about or are starting to have concerns about their online privacy. But for those of us who work and live our lives highly engaged in the various social media platforms, there was little new to learn. And the most interesting discussion about it was happening on  . . . . Twitter!

December 4, 2011 at 10:43 pm | Design, Social Media | No comment

Guide to setting up a Facebook Page Vanity Address

Real Point facebook pageIf you have a Facebook page for your business, have you got a "Vanity" address for it? Up until recently you had to have 25 fans before you could apply but now you can select one at setup, though it would seem that for existing pages you still require 25 fans.

What is it?

Instead of the default address which looks like this:

www.facebook.com/pages/realpointgroup/1234567890

you get to choose the bit that goes after Facebook.com so it can look like this:

www.facebook.com/realpointgroup

Why get one?

  • Easy to remember
  • Easy to add to electronic or printed literature
  • More difficult to mistype

Things to think about

Once you select your new address you can't change it, so:

  • Make sure you type carefully and triple check it before clicking OK!
  • That it is suitable for long term use; you can't change your mind tomorrow.
  • That from hearing it to typing it will be straightforward; no clever or unexpected spellings

In effect it is very like choosing a domain name. Many of the same issues apply, so think through the selection in the same way.

How to get one

If you are setting a new page up from scratch you can now select an address as part of the creation process. If you're looking to update an existing page then just go to:

http://www.facebook.com/username

Select the page you wish to create your vanity address for and then enter the name you want to use, click 'check availability' and all being well you're good to go! You can also create a vanity address for your personal profile there.

Problems you can face

  • Someone is already using your ideal address
  • Your name contains a well know brand name, which can be on a protected list and is therefore prevented from being used in a vanity URL
  • Your ideal username is a "generic" word which is on Facebook's denied list.

If this is the case and you feel that you have a valid case for the address you've chosen then you can contact Facebook, more information is available in Facebook's help section or file a username infringement complaint.

Of course if you want any help with this or need to know more about how to make best use of Facebook for your business then you know who to call. We also run Social Media training courses, which include Facebook, if you would like to know more about how to use Facebook more effectively for marketing your business.

November 21, 2011 at 1:59 pm | Design, Social Media | No comment

How to improve your social media presence – Article 1

Social media logosLast week, I attended a workshop at Birmingham City Football Club (not representative of my football team – I don’t have one!). Entitled ‘The Secrets of Social Media Success’, I felt I should go along and see if I could pick up any new tips to improve how we use social media both within our own company and for what we offer our clients.

The biggest problem with social media is that it’s still quite new and constantly evolving, and so it’s likely that you’re in one of two camps: you’ve either jumped onto the bandwagon and are using at least some of social media’s features, or you’re aware of social media’s existence but you’re not sure quite where to start or how it can help your business.

In this series of articles, I hope to give an overview of some of the biggest social networks, as well as present some tips to help streamline the process of using social media; making it more manageable, productive and effective for your business – if you’re currently on Facebook, you know just how easy it is to lose an entire evening!

I have chosen to focus on the three main social networks for businesses and business people in the UK – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – and is targeted towards people who have some (if even just very basic) knowledge of one or more of these.

Facebook

As Facebook is by far the largest and most well-known social network, this is where I shall start.

If you currently have a Facebook account, you’ll be familiar with your personal profile, where your Wall provides a place for you and for friends to add comments, links and other media; the Photos section where you can upload your own images or where others’ images of you appear if you’ve been ‘tagged’ in them; and status updates, where you can tell the world ‘What’s on your mind?’. Quite literally.

Fan Pages

Obviously telling the world you’re eating Frosties for breakfast isn’t necessarily what your customers want to know – or what you want to tell them – and this is why Facebook offers Fan Pages. These are separate from your personal profile – and although you do need an account to create a page – fan pages are to be used solely for promoting businesses, brands or products. Other Facebook users are able to ‘Like’ your page, and this then gives them access to statuses, comments, photos etc.

There are 6 different page types which you can create. Once you’ve logged in to your personal account, visit Facebook's page creation page http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php to select the type of page, fill in your details and click ‘Get Started’.

Once the page is online, you need to make it as effective and useful as possible. Upload your company logo as a profile picture, making sure that the image is square (on search results the thumbnail is square so making sure it fits is a must).

Complete all your company details, including an address if you’re location based. Facebook has paired up with Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, to provide map services, so if a user clicks your address, it’ll jump straight to a map.

Content

With the basics complete, the most important thing is generating new content, keeping it fresh and keeping it frequent. Make a plan with upcoming events and important dates, and then write posts that relate to the event that you can use when the time comes. Try not to bombard your followers with messages all the time, 2 or 3 items a week is enough to keep people interested, but not posting at all will leave your page forgotten.

Content Tips

  • Keep posts short (no more than a few sentences) or people will simply lose interest
  • Use numbers (eg. countdowns – “5 days to go!”) to increase interactivity
  • Include links to feed visitors through to your main website
  • Add photos to help publicise an event or show what’s going on. Images are more likely to get ‘Liked’, and with more and more people using social networks on mobiles – especially smartphones – visitors want content that’s easy to see on a small display, yet memorable– so slightly unusual, quirky pictures will get noticed)
  • Use videos from YouTube and other services – either related interesting videos from other people, or create your own (an article on this will be included in our next e-newsletter), to help emphasise a point or show what you can offer

Interactivity

Facebook is an ideal place to interact and discuss with your customers, and with 30 million users in the UK (and growing!), you can target people from all age ranges...though users should supposedly be 13 to sign up to the service, of course.

Essentially, interactivity is generated through people ‘Liking’ and commenting on your posts, images, status, links and videos or posting their own to your Wall. Asking questions, having Facebook-only competitions and posting statuses like “Only 20 to go till we have 500 fans!” will all encourage users to comment and react to your content.

One way to keep interactions between Facebook and your website is to include ‘Like’ buttons on your website. If people visit your site and have their own Facebook account, clicking ‘Like’ will post what they have liked on their own Wall, expanding your reach. Resources for these can be found here.

Of course, I could go into a lot more detail, but I initially wanted to just cover the basics in this article. If you would like any information about anything more specific, do let us know and we’ll see if we can add something to the blog.

Join us next time for an overview of Twitter. If anything that’s been said has been of interest, or if you’d like help in setting up, planning and implementing a social media campaign, give us a call.

April 21, 2011 at 3:48 pm | Business Thinking, Social Media | 2 comments

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