Tag Archives: Facebook

Mixed Feelings on the New Facebook Graph Search

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Facebook has revealed its latest attempt to stay ahead of the game with what it calls its “Graph Search” feature. After much criticism regarding its current search engine, the company has finally decided to improve its strategy. Although the initial news of the development came with much excitement, there are always skeptics who will have something to say.


The new search method comes with many benefits for big brands, small businesses, and the average Facebook user. Very specific searches like “Friends that live in New York” will produce answers. You can even submit multiple searches at once. For example “Friends that live in NY” followed by “that like Sushi” will narrow it down even further. This provides Facebook users with more tailored results based on their needs.

While media and marketing analysts commend Facebook on their innovation, they predict that the hype will not last long enough to provide the company with significant results, monetarily or otherwise. Many critique the new search method by saying that Facebook is too late in the game with this improvement. Users are already too comfortable with their current search tactics, like Google, and they will continue to go about their regular ways even after the Facebook Graph Search is implemented.

It will be interesting to see how Facebook rolls out this advancement and more so how the social media world reacts to the change. There are always those critics who say the company has lost its “mojo” and is trying anything and everything to stay relevant. What many skeptics may fail to remember is that Facebook is one of biggest pioneers in the social media movement and if they want to innovate their search methods, they most definitely have that right.

Personally, were all very excited here at our social media agency for this latest Facebook development and eager to test it out!

photo credit: AJC1 via photopin cc

Twitter vs. Instagram: A War on Pictures

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By now most of you have heard of the ongoing feud between Instagram and Twitter, but incase you haven’t been keeping up I’ll break it down for you. It all started this spring:

April 
Facebook makes offer to purchase Instagram for $1 billion.

August
On the 14th the Office of Fair Trading approves the deal, while the Federal Trade Commission closes their investigation concerning the deal on the 22nd.

September
The deal between Instagram and Facebook officially closes on the 6th and Instagram surpasses Twitter in daily active mobile users.

November
Twitter, who attempted to purchase Instagram, announces they will be releasing their own range of photo filters in the coming months.

Now, just last week Instagram photos on Twitter were appearing oddly cropped and yesterday Instagram photos have completely disappeared, though, they can still be viewed through the URL of the original tweet. Obviously many social media users are starting to express their frustration, but it will be interesting to see how users respond in the coming months after Twitter releases their photo filters. Will people begin to choose one network over the other and how will the digital agency respond to the change?

Facebook’s New Privacy Policy

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The night before Thanksgiving at around midnight Eastern Standard Time, Facebook sent out a notice regarding changes to its privacy policy, or as they like to call it, “Data Use Policy”. There are three main changes to the policy that are important to understand if you are going to be using the site:

  1. You are not going to be allowed to vote on policy changes anymore.
  2. Now, Facebook is allowed to share “information with affiliates”. Basically, Facebook will now be able to build unified profiles of users with information from all companies that it owns, like Instgram. Those drunken Thanksgiving Eve photos that you Instagrammed? Facebook can now use them to build a more complete profile of you and use that information to create an external ad network. 
  3. Additionally, Facebook is altering the way private messages function. They are in the process of changing your ability to block users from sending you private messages. Facebook wants to have filters for managing messages as opposed to the “Who can send you Facebook message” setting. Some are concerned that this will leave users with unwanted spam-like messages. 

You may have noticed a lengthy status update written in legalese cluttering your Facebook news feed for the past few days. As a response to these new privacy changes, many users have been posting a “copyright protection notice” as their Facebook status updates. This is not the first time a status like this has gone viral. However, nobody seems to realize that this is not effective on Facebook. The user agreement is the only binding legal contract between Facebook and user. If you are concerned about copyright, the best way to protect your work is to not post anything that you would not be willing to share with Facebook and its affiliate companies. If you are a business present on the social networking site, be sure to consult with a reputable social media agency for best practices. 

Be Approved & Be Known Online

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Due to social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter. Users feel more comfortable to get free everything from free music, news, and communication with celebrities. Well what is also a plus about social media sites is you can get approval by your followers and friends, even if it is not in real time. Sometimes telling a joke does not get the laughs you want when you are hanging out with friends, but when you post it online it creates an uproar. Jeff Bercovici of Forbes Magazine calls this ‘virtuebragging’. People lately have been doing it with Hurricane Sandy and the Presidential Election, but you can do it about anything from a funny joke to a silly picture to share information you think is interesting and simultaneously get approval. This is a great positive about social media sites since you can influence others to see your ideas.

Social media agencies can definitely use this tactic to get the word about their clients in creative ways. ‘Virtuebragging’ definitely can go viral and get a message out, which is great tool personally and professionally. It can engage friends and it can engage one’s clients.

Social Media Creates Buzz About Sandy

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People all over the world are learning about the Category 1 Hurricane that hit the East Coast on Monday, October 29th, largely through social media sites. On Twitter, within 24 hours after the storm hit 3.5 million tweets were hashtagged: #sandy.  Also, a Twitter account was specially made for Hurricane Sandy called Sandy; it has all reports from government to news related to it. And on Facebook during the climax of the storm, the top words that were most frequently used were related to this Category 1 storm. YouTube accumulated videos to show people the path of destruction of Sandy on the account, Citizen Tube. YouTube offered, those that had no access to other news outlets, information about the storm as it was happening.  Not only were people made aware of Sandy’s destruction and where its path was going, but the government of New York and the fire department utilized social media to make residents aware of fires and safety issues.

It is interesting how social media is being used during Sandy for a purpose of making different people aware of different news about the storm. For those stuck in the East Coast, social media sites are helping these people stay safe. And people in other parts of the U.S. and world are getting informed about effects of the storm and how their loved ones who may be stuck in Sandy’s path are doing.  It makes me wonder how social media agencies are reacting to Hurricane Sandy.

 

Peter Gabriel Remakes “Sledgehammer”… via Facebook

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Peter Gabriel’s video for his hit song “Sledgehammer” came out in 1986, but to this date, MTV says it is the most-played video on the station, and was awarded the #4 slot in their list of “100 Greatest Music Videos of All Time”, in addition to winning tons of other awards and accolades.

Now, Peter Gabriel is remaking it – this time, with the help of Facebook. A tab on Gabriel’s Facebook fan page allows users to choose a scene, upload a video, or vote on existing entries. The idea is rather fascinating, especially given how big this video was (and is, I suppose!).

The contest is called “Grab Your Sledgehammer”, and is being done to celebrate the release of the 25th anniversary edition of Gabriel’s So album.

Personally, I love when artists allow for this kind of fan engagement, much with Ellie Goulding’s G+ Hangout album signing. This not only allows for artists to interact with fans easily, but will also introduce a younger generation of fans to artists like Peter Gabriel (and Genesis, by extension). Plus, it’s fun! It allows your fans to show their creativity and encourages them to interact with an entity or brand. These are the kind of campaigns that social media marketing companies should be striving to build! They’re interactive and fun to do, and people seem to get a lot out of the ability to be creative.

 

Facebook and your job search.

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Would you ever use a Facebook job search platform? For a while now its been rumored that Facebook is considering starting their own job search platform, but I doubt many people would use it. Especially when a professional networking site already exists, LinkedIn, and you can already search for jobs on there. Most people should keep their Facebook profile completely separated from their job search; unless, of course, you’re applying for a job at social media agency or digital marketing firm. If this is the case, keep it appropriate because many employers use Facebook to look up job candidates for reasons why they shouldn’t hire them.

If you think your Facebook profile is hurting your chances of being hired for a job you have two options. First option, you can censor what pictures you allow yourself to be tagged in and what friends can post on your wall through your privacy settings. On top of that, make sure you’re not posting anything inappropriate or too political; if you’re friends with your grandma on Facebook then you’re probably good. Second option, you can leave your profile the same and make it completely private. In your privacy settings profiles can be made searchable and unable to view by anyone who is not a “friend”.

LinkedIn is your best bet for professional networking, but take the precautions stated above. If a potential employer decides to search you online you don’t want them to see or read anything that could hinder your chances of being hired.

Sick of your friends’ political posts on Facebook? Hide them with noppl!

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The 2012 Presidential Election is now less than one month away. Tonight is the Vice Presidential Debate between Republican Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan and the nominee of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden. Social networking has been a huge part of both the Obama and Romney campaign. Political updates from the candidates and qualified individuals are valuable. Random opinions from your friends, typically, are not. If you’re active in the social sphere, you most likely have friends that post their political opinions to various social networking sites. Sometimes, this can be frustrating. Political discussion on social networking sites, such as Facebook, do not typically change anyone’s views. All they seem to do is pit friends against each other.

Enter: noppl. Noppl, “no politics please”, is a extension for the Google Chrome browser. The extension allows you to hide unwanted posts from your Facebook news feed. You hide the unwanted posts by typing in specific keywords you want to block. Noppl gives some pre-filled examples: Romney, Paul Ryan, Obama, Biden, Election. If you’re not a Chrome user, noppl is available as a bookmarklet for other browsers. So, if you’re not interested in your friends political opinions clogging your news feed, or if you’re going to DVR the debate and watch it later, I suggest looking into installing noppl.

Facebook Now: 1 Billion Users & Counting

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As of September 14th, Facebook, Inc.  got its one-billionth user, which makes one- seventh of the world’s population being active users of Facebook. There is no doubt that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, has his hands quite full these days. With Facebook going public this past summer, Zuckerberg is working hard to boost confidence among investors and the public and now with this latest accomplishment he has new goals of reaching the next billion and counting users.

Zuckerberg has learned how to reach users by taking useful knowledge from one of the best leaders, the late Steve Jobs,  whose focus was the “user experience”. The users are key, and building a service that caters to them is what the Facebook team’s focus is. Having majority of their active users outside of the U.S and Canada, it will definitely be interesting to see how Zuckerberg will try to draw in the next billion users.

To say that if Facebook were its own country, it would be the third largest is quite a feat, but Zuckerberg is only getting his feet wet in the social media world. It will definitely be interesting to see how the company will draw in more users and how the company will do in Internet marketing against its biggest competitor, Google.

Social Media, Politics, and You

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Many researchers and journalists, such as Matthew Fraser and David Carr, believe that social media was the factor that pushed President Obama past John McCain in the 2008 election. But this presidential election is a little bit different: social media has been around longer, everyone is more used to it, and more people are using it.  So how exactly has social media changed the game of politics and the 2012 presidential election?

Must Have a Presence
Candidates, local and national, have to have a social media presence in order to win an election. This is how today’s society connects with each other, and is the easiest and most effective way for a candidate to build a relationship with voters. Right now Romney and Obama are both using Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and blogs to connect with the public.

Long Term Memory
Not only will comments made by the candidates through social networks never really disappear from the Internet, every comment they make through any medium, good or bad, will never completely go away. They will always be able to be found through social media; the Internet never forgets.

Instantaneous Reactions
Also, because of our ability to tweet, retweet, share, and post content all over social networks, everything moves much faster. Campaigns can respond to negative advertisements and comments made by opposition immediately through their networks. On the other side of that, if a candidate or someone within their party makes an offensive comment that can also go viral in a matter of moments.

As the campaign has already shown social media can both help and hinder candidates. Who do you think is winning the digital campaign?