Archive for January, 2011

Facebook removes the “Suggest to Friends” button

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Bad move, Facebook. Last week, Facebook decided do disable the "Suggest to Friends" button from all pages and profiles except admin accounts. According to AllFacebook.com, "… the most likely reason for this change was that page administrators were typically the only people likely to use the tool. This also prevents page administrators from encouraging fans to share their page with others."

Picture 2Our Brandcasters used this tool quite frequently, and we often pushed our fans to use it in order to spread awareness of our clients' fanpages. It was a very useful feature that will, hopefully, return soon.

What do you guys think about Facebook's removal of the "Suggest to Friends" button?

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Posted in facebook, Social Media Marketing | 2 Comments »

Even the Pope’s on Facebook!

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Last year, Pope Benedict XVI, in his message for the 44th World Day of Communications told his priests to become more web and social network savvy. He said "The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts…." The theme of the upcoming May 16th event is "The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word".

Doesn't that sound totally like a business conference that you may have attended?

His Holiness goes on to say ""Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word."

Man! Not only that, the Vatican recently launched the "Pope2you" portal, offering a Facebook app, iPhone app, YouTube channel (click here), and Papal videos.

youtube-pope2you

So your boss not quite on the Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blogging bandwagon? Ask him or her to read what THE POPE has to say. Listen to the Pope, not just for world peace messages but also for increasing your reach and spreading your message using social networks!

Posted in facebook, Mobile Phones, New Media, Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Where do you go to search for content?

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Last year, social platforms surpassed the number of visits by Internet users when compared to the search giant Google. Google is the most popular search engine in town, if not the only search engine that really remains "standing". Top visited sites remain Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and then the rest.

Facebook-YouTube-Twitter

Facebook and other social platforms have "user-generated" content. So from a user reach perspective, they are great tools for businesses. But individuals and companies will continue to use Google as a search engine to find relevant information. Hence the need for search engine optimization and top rankings. But since top rankings can benefit from links from social networks, businesses benefit from incorporating search engine optimization and social networking together.

Google's got competition in Facebook for sure from a simple "user" number perspective which I can see why. Grandmas who'd never go to Google to search for anything would definitely go to Facebook to see pictures of their grandkids. Right?
 
So is it really surprising then that Facebook will continue to lead the "number of users" statistics? But when it comes to finding anything at all; from cooking tips to products to vacation spots, Google's still on top… FOR NOW.

Posted in BING, facebook, Google, Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »