Archive for December, 2009

Social Media Marketing Blog: Facebook Memology for 2009!

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Facebook is introducing the world to Memology.  And what's memology again? Defined by Facebook "Memology" refers to the study of how "memes," or new ideas and trends, are spreading on Facebook."
 
So Facebook took all the status updates and trending words to come up with its 2009 list. The graph below shows the Top 15 Facebook status trends for 2009

Facebook Applications: If you are on Facebook, you would know that this one is no surprise. Lots of people love Facebook applications like Farmville, Farmtown, etc.

Hmmm FML, enough said! Since people want to share so much about their personal lives, that one is also no surprise.
 
Twitter is number 10 which I guess is a surprise. Why would that be a top trending word is beyond me.

The others I understand except for perhaps FB. I'm trying to think what possible statuses would include the word FB on Facebook? Weird!

Anyway, we learned a new word today, or at least I did. Memology! Kinda has a nice ring to it.

FB Memology

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Posted in facebook, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

Social Media Marketing Blog: Privacy on Social Networks!

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

A friend recently remarked, "I'm a stalker on Facebook because I am too, too, too much of a private person". That pronouncement got a lot of comments from other friends who attempted to defend their own actions and postings on Facebook and other Social web sites. It also led to a loud discussion about netiquette and what should and should not be posted online. But the thing that got everyone stumped was when a friend who had been pretty low-key through the whole discussion asked "ok, so how would you manage your privacy when someone else posts your pictures online on their own Facebook page"?

The look of horror on the "so, so, so private" friend would have been funny if none of us felt the same horror about not having control over content that would get posted online.

Most of us are more than happy to let people take our pictures at social events and work events. But what if someone takes photos of  you and places them on their page but that person has a list of friends whom you don't want to have access to your photos?
 
Complicated? No kidding! Solution? None that we could come up with after lots of debate and dialog about how to monitor and control online content publishing that is done by others over whom you  have no control over.

Thoughts???

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Posted in Branding | 2 Comments »

Social Networking Blog: Toyota’s on Social Networking Sites Now!

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Toyota has joined the ranks of automotive giants like GM, Ford, and others who are already on social platforms and are getting a lot of good visibility from them.

Toyota announced the launch of their Social Media Program where Toyota will be engaging with customers, suppliers, dealers, and other stakeholders and facilitating communication through these online channels.

How much money they plan on spending online is unclear but if there's one thing that we can learn from the Japanese, it's that they may start slow but they'll catch up speed pretty quickly and race past the early adopters. So GM and Ford, I'd say should beware of Toyota's online presence. They have a way of "taking over" fast and furious.

Oh but I forgot to mention the whole purpose of my discussing Toyota's online foray. Here it is!

If larger brands can do it and they have plenty of money to spend on their marketing initiatives, smaller brands can do it too. When larger brands move to online media for marketing, they end up saving money by not paying for those expensive TV, billboard, and other campaigns. Smaller brands can move online and capture the market that they never had access to in the past. So what's stopping you smaller brands? Get online and if you need help,  you know who to call! (NET of course!)

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Social Media Marketing Blog: Three Great Ways to use Linkedin.com

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Linkedin is one of the top business networking sites and everyone who's anyone is on Linkedin.com. I found the following three great uses of linkedin:

Searching for contacts: I use linkedin more for research than any other function. Whether I'm seeking people who are seeking jobs, or whether I'm looking to connect with the head-honcho of a company; linkedin offers a tremendous value with its search functions.
 
Answers: The answers section is good if you want to begin creating some relationships with people who are actively networking on Linkedin. Every topic under the sun is available for discussion in the Linkedin Answers section. You can learn about pets, and business plans; mentoring and international laws; Writing and publishing; you get the point! When you respond to answers, you can post a link to your site and information about your company or business. Or you can post a question yourself and get live answers from the various people who have insight into the topic you posted a question in.

Job Search: There are lots of jobs posted on linkedin but the ones that I want to highlight are the jobs that are "exclusive" to linkedin. That means that you get access to a job posting that's not already made the rounds on craigslist, monster, and other job sites.

And you know what? These are all functions that are free to use. That's right, you don't have to sign up for any of their expensive subscription options. Free is good, right? Of all the sites out there, I would say that Linkedin is perhaps the BEST value and the Price is Right at "Free".

Posted in Linkedin, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

Facebook says “Think Privacy”

Friday, December 11th, 2009

I logged into Facebook and found a screen asking me to review my old settings and decide whether I wanted to keep them as is or change them. The first time I got that pop-up screen, I chose 'skip for now" but the next time I decided to just take care of it and review all my settings to determine who could see what.

This new Facebook privacy policy made me think, even if for a couple minutes, as to whether or not I had the correct settings. We all post pictures and comments and information on our Facebook pages without thinking about all the new "friends" we've added since we first set up our privacy settings. I know that each time I get a new friend request and add someone, I don't go back and check my settings to see whether the new "friend" should be able to see everything that the old "friends" could. And for most of us since the term "friend" on Facebook includes anyone and everyone including kids, business colleagues, employees, "real friends", etc. I know that it makes sense to be more vigilante about what is being read or viewed by whom.

The new Facebook Privay policy review is mandatory for all 350M plus users of Facebook and I think it is really great that they are forcing their users to review and think about their privacy settings. I mean although it is my responsibility to read the TOS (Terms of Service) of every website, sometimes its just easy to accept the TOS thinking "what could POSSIBLY go wrong"!

So when you encounter the Facebook privacy review screen, take a few minutes to really review your settings instead of just going through the motions. In the long-run you may end up thanking Facebook for making you more aware about the privacy settings on your Facebook page.

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Social Media Marketing Scams – Are you in this Video? What’s your IQ? Send me money through Western Union now!

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

If you are a Twitter user, you've come across direct messages that ask you such questions like "Are you in this video?" or "What's your IQ?" These are malicious viruses that are being spread across the social media networks causing quite a bit of guilt and embarrassment to unsuspecting users.

Another scam that is quite popular on Facebook is the "Western Union scam" wherein friends of users whose accounts have been hacked are approached with long-soppy stories about the user being stuck somewhere and requesting money through Western Union.

So what to do to prevent yourself from falling victim to such viruses and scams?

  • First and foremost don't have passwords that are easy to guess. admin123; 12345678; 87654321; and password are just some of the very very very commonly used passwords. Why allow yourself to be vulnerable with a password that can easily be identified by spammers who have use of sophisticated password guessing software? Also, try not to use birth dates, names, and easy to decipher passwords. Create a combination of letters, numbers, and characters that is unique.
     
  • Change your password every 30-45 days. It will only take a minute to do so, so make the effort to protect yourself.
     
  • Try not to click on any links from anyone whom you don't know. Any information that looks suspicious should be ignored and only trust links that come to you with real information.
     
  • Trust no one with your passwords.
     
  • Keep an eye on news items that may report on what's happening in the social networks with new viruses or scams so that you can be one step ahead of the scammers and spammers.

Social networks are MORE and MORE susceptible to crooks than any other media to-date. Stay vigilante!

Posted in Branding | 1 Comment »

What’s in a name? Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt can answer this question

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Well, Eric Schmidt, Google CEO found out pretty soon when he got dissed with a tweet that said “someone tell Eric Schmidt that he didn’t have to use his AIM as his twitter handle”. A few hours later, he changed his handle and Google’s CEO now has a Verified account with the twitter handle @erikschmidt. Obviously he had the ability to pull some strings to get the twitter handle that was more suited to his name.

Oh and in five hours or less, he had 5000 followers. Sigh; life’s just not fair to non-name branders like us, eh?

By the way, Eric Schmidt jumping on the Twitter Bandwagon was news since he had dissed Twitter calling it “the poor-man’s email”.

So what’s in a name? Obviously a lot if you are a name brand. But even if you aren’t a name brand yet, use a twitter handle that is as close to your name so that people know you. I also don’t recommend using a company name as your twitter handle; I find it’s less personal and more prone to spam from people who want to sell things to you. A company name is perfectly fine to use if it is being manned by a customer service or sales representative and should be in addition to your personal twitter profile.

 

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Posted in Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »

Quo Vadis (Where are you headed?) on Facebook?

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Many people claim “lack of privacy” the reason they don’t use social networks. A friend of mine states that he doesn’t use it because he doesn’t want the government spying on him.

But then there are others, and quite a few of them for that matter, who don’t mind giving out details like birth dates, email addresses, and other information on Facebook, without a second thought!

In a study conducted by Sophos, an Australian Security Team, up to 46% of users blindly accepted friend requests from fake Facebook accounts created by the Sophos team. Once the friend requests were accepted, personal information was more than readily available.

Now think about the implications of this in general for pretty much all of us but especially so for those groups (elderly, youths, etc.) who are more susceptible to predators online.

Mack Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, stresses the importance of using privacy tools. Facebook has also recently formed a safety advisory board to improve online safety for its users.

So! Here’s the bottom-line. Even if you are smart and don’t think you will ever fall prey to crooks online, think twice before adding friends arbitrarily. Privacy or lack there of is nothing to take lightly.

Don't go where others are going. Protect your privacy, protect your information on social networks. Forewarned is forearmed, right?

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Posted in Branding | 4 Comments »

Social Media Marketing Blog: Twitter joins Geo-location bandwagon

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Congratulations – your twitter is being updated! Yep, you will soon be able to share your location and organize your tweets based on where they originate. Geo-location will be an exciting addition to Twitter and will be great for keeping Tweeps organized. Users will be able to ‘Geo Code’ their posts and the information will be available not only on Twitter but also through external applications. I think that Twitter just keeps on getting interesting. I am fascinated by what it is right now as well! Just imagine ‘tweets’ being rightly geo-tagged and us being able to read all tweets for a particular city, neighborhood or a particular event or concert. The geo-tagging feature is supposed to be strictly an opt-in feature. I guess it would be so that users can choose to remain untrackable? There is no specific date set yet for the official release of the geo-location API however, I am sure that once released, it is going to add a whole new dimension of how we use twitter and information on it. I’m looking forward to it and will of course pontificate on how it has brought value, once I’ve had a chance to use it.

Posted in Social Media Marketing | No Comments »