Posted by Carole Mahoney on Mon, Sep 06, 2010
What is Facebook Places?
Facebook has recently launched a new Application called Facebook Places, a location based app that utilizes your cell phone to allow you to let your friends know where you are based on your GPS location.
Rather than try to replace the other big name location-based social networks, Places will allow Gowalla, Foursquare, Booyah and Yelp to integrate with Facebook Places.
Places application is available to users in the United States with mobile access to the Facebook application for iPhone or HTML5 Mobile Site (for non-iPhone users).
How to Use Facebook Places:
You can use Places by allowing Facebook to know your location. Once you have “Checked in,” you can share your location, find other friends using Places, find places that are already listed, add new places, and tag your friends (provided they have not turned off Places).
Your check-in will create a story in your friends' News Feeds and show up in the Recent Activity section on the page for that place. When a friend tags you through Places, you will receive notifications on your phone and on Facebook.
If you have allowed your friends to check you in, when they tag you at a place, they will also check you in. If you do not allow friends to check you in, then you will appear as you would in any tagged status.
You can remove a places tag the same way that you would remove yourself from a tagged photo, by clicking the “remove” button.
Why Would You Use Places?
If you are a business owner, this can make getting found a lot easier. You can add the location of your business to Facebook Places, and then claim it as your business. Once you have verified that you are an official representative of the business, Facebook creates a business page for you. When Places users check in with their friends, they can spread the word that your business is the place to be.
On a personal level, Places can help you connect with your friends in chance meetings that may not otherwise have happened. Perhaps at a local business that used Places to set up their business page. Or you can use it to plan your vacations.
Privacy Concerns
Many people are still uncomfortable with Facebook’s habit of automatically opting them into any new app that they create.
The default settings are: “Places I check in” are viewable by friends only, “Include me in the ‘People Here Now’ after I check in” is enabled by default; “Friends can check me in to Places” is also enabled by default.
If you wish to Disable Places, here is a Step by Step guide:
- Log in to Facebook. Under your Account menu, choose Privacy Settings. Click the Customize option, then click the "Customize settings" link.
- Under the "Things I Share" heading, at the bottom of that section, you can change your visiblity on places and if you are included on the people listed at the location. By default "Places I check in" is set to only be visible by your friends. If you want to limit it more or less, use the drop down menu to do so. Below that is "Include me in 'People Here Now' after I check in." It is enabled by default. This will let people know you're at a particular location via the location's page or in a search for people near you. Uncheck "Enable" if you want to disable this option.
- If you don't want your friends to check you into Places, go to the section called "Things Others Share" and find "Friends can check me in to Places." Set this to "Disabled." Keep in mind that unless you disable this option, any friend could potentially check you in anywhere. You don't actually have to be there.
- To block your location from being shared with friends' applications click the "Applications and Websites" link, then go to the "Info accessible through your friends" section. Click "Edit Settings" and you'll see a bunch of boxes. Anything checked is available to Facebook apps that your friends are using. The last checkbox in this section is "Places I've visited," uncheck that if you don't want your friends' apps grabbing your location information as well.
It is important to note that even if minors place their settings as viewable by everyone, only their Friends will be able to see their Places locations.
You also have the ability to report Places for incorrect data, abusive behavior, and the permanent closure of a business or duplication of other content. Reported Places are flagged but removal may not occur immediately.
And remember your manners, always ask first before you tag your friends with you! And make sure that your account privacy settings are only sharing with those you know. Be stallker safe.
What do you think? Is Places a little too much info or just a great way to connect and market? Will you use it?
Posted by Carole Mahoney on Mon, Jul 12, 2010
The Tweet Factor – A Must Have for Businesses?
Nearly three out of four Internet users belong to some sort of social media website, including Twitter. Twitter is not a fad. With 100 million users, if you’re not using Twitter to connect with your customers you are losing a grand opportunity to increase sales.
What is ReTweet, Please?
A ReTweet is when someone takes your Twitter message and links to their Twitter feed. This allows your Twitter link to be seen by their Twitter followers. It’s like paying for local airplay and having someone playing that ad in front of a microphone at ALL radio stations around the world.
Should I Tweet?
When people ReTweet your content, your marketing message spreads throughout the ReTweeter’s network. This allows you reach hundreds, if not thousands, of potential customers to find out about you. These are not just random folk either. We’re a nation of tribes and people who like the same things tend to have the same social media groups. So chances are, when your marketing message is ReTweeted it’s going to someone who may be interested in your product.
The SEO Factor of Twittter
The ReTweet me factor creates more in-bound links to your online content. In-bound links are essential to your search and page rankings and having more people link to your website or blog through ReTweets can only help. So let’s review why ReTweet me important.
Just Saying ReTweet Me Isn’t Enough
You need a ReTweet me strategy. Like anything else on the web, popularity rules, people link to GREAT Web content. So let’s look at the king of the ReTweet me strategy – Rev. Run.
Rev Run’s brand is positivity and love. So his tweets all have common elements. They are:
- Inspirational.
- Profound.
- Uplifting.
- Hardly ever self-promoting.
- And he nearly always uses the word that has the highest ReTweet me factor: YOU!
You can delve deep into the science of ReTweet me with HubSpot’s excellent webinar, The Science of ReTweets by researcher Dan Zarrella. There is a science to being ReTweeted , including best time for ReTweets (around 5 p.m.), best day (Friday) and best type (news). Check out the webinar to get scientific proof, but here are some tips on how to up your ReTweet me factor.
- Address the royal “you.” According to Zarrella, “you,” is the most ReTweeted word. (Doesn’t surprise me at all since everyone’s most favorite word is the sound of their own name.) Address your tweets about others not about yourself.
- Don’t self-promote! (Just had to repeat that.)
- Give good offer. Another popular ReTweet word is “free,” so offer free stuff – a free consultation, phone call, iPad, whatever you can.
- Be polite and ask for ReTweets. Zarrella says “please,” is the third most popular ReTweeted word as in “Please, ReTweet me.”
- Upgrade level of your content. This may sound counterintuitive but ReTweets are “smarter,” than most Twitter feeds.
- Tweet Urgency – Twitter is an on demand service. Make your tweets unique and add urgency, something like” ReTweet this and win a chance to get an iPad TODAY.”
- Tweet Links using URL-shorteners. Remember you only have 140 characters so use your tweets to attach links to other content using URL shorteners such as bit.ly or ow.ly.
- Be inspiring. You’re a business owner. You’re inspiring; Share the inspirational messages that have gotten you through. The first Twitter feed I followed was Zappos.com’s CEO Tony Hsieh. I love his quirky, sometimes profound missives from his mind.
- Be real. Let’s face it people don’t follow companies on Twitter for ads. They want to be real with you. Be real with them.
- Be responsive. A new survey found that 75% of consumers trust companies who use social media like Twitter to respond to questions and complaints etc. So if someone Tweets you a question, be responsive to consumer requests.
By Guest Blogger Ovetta Sampson, Write Way Writing
Posted by Carole Mahoney on Fri, Jan 22, 2010
Yesterday a report published by Nielsen stated that even though people 65 and older still make up less than 10 percent of the active Internet universe, their numbers are on the rise. In the last five years, the number of seniors actively using the Internet has increased by more than 55 percent, from 11.3 million active users in November 2004 to 17.5 million in November 2009. Go Nana!
Not only are the number of seniors on the rise, so is the amount of time they are spending online. According to Nielsen, they spent just over 58 hours per month online in 2009, up from 52 hours per month in November 2004.
Even more interesting is how Nana (or Grandpa!) are spending their online time. You guessed it- they are checking e-mail, sharing photos- just like the rest of us. Not surprisingly, they are also researching health issues, planning travel and checking the weather.
So where might Nana be spending her time you ask? Again- the same place as you are! Google, Facebook...
So while this may not be a surprise to most, we felt it necessary to point out for a few reasons. When considering your web designs and internet marketing campaigns, if Nana or Grandpa are part of your target audience, remember these few tips:
1- Nana has a hard time seeing small type. Keep your font large enough for her to easily read. Black type, white background, no sans-serf typefaces.
2-Nana is not impressed with flashy logos, spinning imagery. She is especially not impressed when it makes the page load even longer (and neither is Google by the way). In fact, she is likely to keep clicking the refresh button because she thinks maybe the computer is not working right.
3-Nana might be impatient. She wants you to get to the point, and get to it quickly. Again, make sure your calls to action are easy for her to find in bold bright colors and clear language.
4- Nana hates long forms. We all do. Enough said.
5-Nana likes assurances and guarantees. She really likes an evident phone number to call if she runs into problems. To delight her, make sure the phone is answered by a person. (Who speaks very clear English and has a lot of patience.)
As we always say, it is not enough to know WHO your audience is. Know what perspective they are operating from, and plan your marketing to delight them.
What suggestions do you have to make the web more Nana friendly?