Facebook Places Is Here!
August 24, 2010 by Laura Angermeier
Filed under All, Featured, social media
What were you doing last Wednesday night? Well, if you’re a social media geek like the folks at Step Ahead Inc., you may have been watching the Facebook Places announcement on Facebook Live.
That’s right, the long awaited geo-location tool from Facebook is now live throughout the United States. Facebook will roll out Places to the rest of the world soon.
So, what is Places? It’s a geo-location tool that’s similar to Foursquare and Gowalla. Places allows Facebook users to update their status and tag friends via their smart phone while updating their location as well.
Facebook released an updated version of the Facebook iPhone app with the Places feature prominently placed in the center of the screen on Wednesday, as well. But if you don’t have an iPhone, don’t worry, you can just use the Facebook touch mobile site (http://touch.facebook.com/). Once you have the Places interface open, you can add places, check into places that already exist, and tag people who are with you.
Now the big question is privacy. Facebook doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to privacy, so during the live announcement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this feature isn’t about sharing your location with the world; it’s about finding places and sharing them with your friends.
Be aware that your check-ins will appear by default on your profile, in the news feed and in the activity stream for that place, and that your friends can check you in without your permission, unless you’ve updated your privacy settings.
Places offers a huge new geo-location audience to businesses. Businesses can claim their Places page, which will allow the owner to post updates to people who like the page and update business information. Claiming a Places page requires some work by business owner, including submitting the business name, URL, address of the business, Federal EIN (Employee Identification Number), and an upload of an official document (articles of certificate of incorporation, certificate of formation, local business license or Better Business Bureau accreditation).
So now that Facebook has introduced geo-location to its 500+ million users, is this the end of Foursquare, which is nearing just three million users? In our minds, no, but that’s a whole other blog post.
August Social Media Star: Ryan Johnson
August 18, 2010 by Laura Angermeier
Filed under All, Featured, Social Media Star, social media
Say goodbye to the days of wondering what your local government is up to and hello to a more social and Internet-savvy group of officials.
Ryan Johnson, the public information assistant to the mayor of North Charleston, Keith Summey, is using social media to not only provide information to residents, but to also quickly and easily receive and respond to questions or input from the citizens of North Charleston. Johnson credits social media with helping him to provide a more open and accessible government.
The City of North Charleston is a rare municipality that is truly up to date with social media, currently offering residents information through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, BlogSpot, Flickr and of course, their own website.
Here’s what Ryan had to say about social media:
What was the first social media technology you used?
My first experience with social media was with Facebook when it was exclusive to college students. I was completely unaware of the professional scope in which I would later be using social media. As many still believe, I thought it was an incredibly convenient path to information overloading on your pals’ lives.
What is your favorite social media tool?
If you take a peek at my internet browser (Chrome), you’ll always find Hootsuite in one of the tabs. The Hootsuite social media dashboard aggregates your various social media accounts into a single destination, no clicking or browsing necessary. The features I most utilize include the keyword filter (keywords of choice: North Charleston, N. Charleston, #nchs), allowing for brand monitoring, scheduled posts, integrated Twitter lists and, of course, the link shortener.
How have you used social media for your job and how has it benefited?
Social media has opened up a new realm of public information for the City of North Charleston, allowing instant access with no boundaries to anyone with an internet connection. The once standard forms of communication were pushing information out. Through social media, we are able to turn a former one-way street into a two-way street, providing information, yet receiving input from the citizens of North Charleston. Social media has provided a more open and accessible government.
The City’s Social Media efforts culminated with the launch of our redesigned website (http://www.northcharleston.org). Most of our information placed on the web is pulled back to a central location, turning the City’s website into a destination instead of an occasional reference source.
How much time would you say you spend a day engaging social media?
Time spent varies from day to day, but typically I am engaged 30 minutes to an hour. However, I’ll monitor various feeds throughout the day for news, events and other information pertaining to North Charleston. If you call me on my office phone, I will probably be hitting CTRL+R with my other hand.
How do you incorporate it into your day so it’s not a time waster?
Multitasking, keyword searches, lists and aggregators cannot be underestimated as time savers. Centralizing incoming and outgoing information is a necessity for me. I also schedule posts throughout the day so as not to inundate users or followers, inputting most information at once. While on the go, utilizing your smart phone is a great way to maximize your time.
Social media can bring your productivity to quick halt. You must learn to manage your time and filter your information.
Is there a social media tool/technique that you think is underutilized that you would like people to know about?
I feel that companies, entities and individuals place their website and their social media accounts in two separate realms. Websites remain static while updating social media accounts frequently. North Charleston has woven its social media into the City’s website and homepage. Our goal is to make NorthCharleston.org a launching pad and destination for all North Charleston information. Integrating all of your online efforts has powerful potentials.
Where can people find you online and via social media?
http://www.northcharleston.org
http://twitter.com/northcharleston
http://cityofnorthcharleston.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/northcharlestonsc
http://www.facebook.com/northcharleston
http://www.flickr.com/northcharleston
http://www.ustream.tv/northcharleston
Orwell vs Social Media
August 3, 2010 by Simon Ashton
Filed under All, Featured, social media
“Modern writing at its worst does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images in order to make the meaning clearer. It consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug.”
George Orwell – Politics and the English Language
(Opening a blog post with an Orwell quote? Pretentious, moi?! Well, I suppose, perhaps, but stick with me, there’s some swearing coming up.)
I’m not a great writer. I understand that. The vast majority of people writing blogs are not great writers, and that’s perfectly fine. But what really irks me are those blog writers who, rather than attempt to write clearly, deliberately write in that buzzword-heavy, cliche-ridden, business speak that is so prevalent on corporate blogs.
And especially on social media blogs.
In the essay quoted above, Orwell rewrites a well know verse from Ecclesiastes in modern English, so that:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
becomes
Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
The point being that bad writing is not only uglier, but also more vague.
If Steve Rubel writes in AdAge that people “engage with a unit of media” he hasn’t done anything to help clarify what he is trying to say. It has a ring of scientific evaluation, but in fact it divorces the meaning from the words in order to suggest that there is a Great Big Idea hidden behind them. But he actually just means “read a book or watch a movie”.
Language like this doesn’t express new ideas. It can’t. The use of stock-phrases keeps us locked into patterns of thinking like a train unable to move from its tracks. I had someone DM me on Twitter that they were following me “because they found my content compelling”. That wasn’t a phrase they conjured up themselves, it was a phrase they had learned. A bad habit. A cliche designed to suggest a more rigourous thought than simply saying “I like what you say”. The irony* is, it has the opposite effect.
Nothing makes your content less compelling than using words like ‘compelling content’.
(*that is irony, right? Since I learned that Alanis Morissette was all wrong about what irony is I get so confused)
Now I understand that this isn’t a new thought either, but it has been on my mind lately. And then I came across this site yesterday - What the F#&* is My Social Media “Strategy”? (See? I told you there was going to be swearing).
Inspired by ‘What the F#&* Should I Make for Dinner?‘, WTFIMSMS parodies the social media world’s art of saying nothing in as complicated a way as possible, by giving you a random nonsense sentence to sum up your goals. For instance, I just clicked and got:
Activate audience by giving them compelling social experiences, encouraging advocacy
Great stuff! So I thought we could play a wee game here. Which of the following are from WTFIMSMS, and which are from actual Social Media/Marketing professionals. Ready?
“Humanise the brand by driving the audience conversations”
“(Help) to humanize the interaction with our community while maintaining brand identity and growing a centralized community.”
“Convert every one of your store associates into well-informed product experts by providing an interactive, course-based social platform/community that educates, engages, and rewards them, while showing them how they stack up against their co-workers.”
“(create) user-centric approach to social media design, implementation, and strategy that accounts for how different kinds of users engage with social media, and how sites and application design and execution lead to emergent social practices.”
OK, you get the idea. Obviously (?) the first is from WTFIMSMS, while the others are real. You get the point.
I’m sure there is plenty of hypocricy in me writing this. I’m sure there have been times when I’ve been as guilty as the worst offender. I honestly don’t mean to attack anyone in particular here. I just think it’s about time that we all slowed down a little and thought about what we are really trying to say, and how we can best do that.
And if that means quoting Orwell and getting all pretentious up in here, well, then that’s just what I’ll have to do.
July Social Media Star: Misty Lackie
July 29, 2010 by Laura Angermeier
Filed under Featured, Social Media Star
These days, companies of all sizes are diving into the world of social media, and Misty Lackie, CEO of Go Smart Solutions, LLC, is making it easier and more affordable than ever for small businesses and individuals to create and customize their social media “brand”. Misty started Twitbacks.com, a tool that helps create free and affordable custom Twitter backgrounds. Twitbacks.com is a huge success and has been featured in BusinessWeek, CNET and PCWorld.
Misty has been involved with social media for years, and learned early on how valuable social media can be. Currently she sees how powerful and valuable Facebook is for businesses and has created FaceItPages, a do-it-yourself system that allows businesses to create a professional Facebook business page without the designer price.
Here’s what Misty had to say about social media:
What is your job/company/profession/title?
I am the CEO of Go Smart Solutions, LLC. We develop self-serve online marketing solutions for businesses.
What was the first social media technology you used?
Back in the day, I would use discussion forums. I lived and learned in forums. I know there are some who may not consider this as a type of social media, but my belief is that forums were – and still are – an aspect of social media. The technology has been around for a while; it just wasn’t always in the form we’re familiar with today. Forums, social bookmarking, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are all forms of social media technology, in my opinion.
What is your favorite social media tool?
I use a lot of them, and some more than others, but my favorite social media tool at this time is Facebook. I feel like with Facebook I can engage on a deeper level with not only our members, but my family and my friends as well.
How have you used social media for your business/company and how has it benefited?
We mainly use social media to connect with our customers. We actually end up doing a fair amount of support through social media. In fact, our customers will sometimes contact us directly through Twitter or Facebook rather than by email or phone. We see these platforms as another way to be able to provide quality support to our customers in a setting they are comfortable with. We also use many social media platforms to monitor our brands and what’s being said about them. We have received some new business through social media, but it has mostly benefited us by keeping us visible with our existing customer base.
How much time would you say you spend a day engaging social media?
I normally spend about an hour per day unless we are releasing something new or dropping a press release. In these cases, I will spend more time managing the messaging for the new release.
How do you incorporate it into your day so it’s not a time waster?
Great question! It is easy to get caught up and spend hours in the different social media platforms, which can cause you to become less productive in other business operations. I have been guilty of this. I set my schedule to check the major platforms in the morning and in late afternoon. I also have alerts set up that I monitor at least once per day. I don’t allow myself to spend more than 1/2 hour in the morning and 1/2 hour in the afternoon on these platforms (collectively). I have also trained myself not to get distracted throughout the day while working on other things. This same type of discipline can also apply to things like email or phone calls. As a small business owner, it is important to manage your time; if you are spending all of it in the social media platforms, on the phone or answering emails, you may be loosing valuable time growing your business. I have set times throughout the day where I will answer emails, take or return calls, monitor social media, and do anything else that may need my attention.
Is there a social media tool/technique that you think is underutilized that you would like people to know about?
I think Facebook business pages are underutilized. Our company uses various Facebook business pages and each send a decent amount of traffic to our sites. I also think many companies are not using social media as a support channel. Being able to support our customers through these channels has been invaluable to us.
How did you come up with TwitBacks?
TwitBacks started out as an office conversation. We were discussing how there was a new business trend with Twitter backgrounds and how designers were charging hundreds of dollars for these. I mentioned that I could create an app that would allow people to create their own Twitter backgrounds using templates and have the output save as an image. It was statement that I wasn’t really even serious about but Candis, our marketing communications rep, thought it was a great idea and hounded me for weeks about it. So I registered the domain and decided to make it a weekend side project. The very first release was very minimal, but it went totally viral. CNET and some other big sources picked us up. From there we built onto it and have just been adding more features over time.
Do you have any new services coming out?
Our latest service is FaceItPages. It is a DIY system that allows businesses to create a professional Facebook business page with your branding, links, etc. Following are a few pages that have been created through the service.
Lauren Mcmullen – Your Social Media Marketing
Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland
We are also working on a video advertising platform, VidShout, which will allow business to create video ads (commercials) with landing pages and have those video ads published online to video portals, shopping comparison sites, directories, etc.
Where can people find you online and via social media?
