Facebook Places, to use or not to use?

August 30, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | 12 comments

Wow, Yelp, FourSquare, Gowalla and now Facebook gets involved in location-based services (lbs).

I don’t like it and do not think that I will use it (outside of my initial test). Why you ask? Well here goes.

I am a member of numerous Social Networks for a reason. Facebook for my friends and to keep in touch with others acquaintances, LinkedIn for my professional relationships, Twitter to keep up with industry information…the list goes on. Now there may be overlap between my friends, my co-workers and my business friends among these channels, but in general, there are distinct reasons why I keep them separate.

FourSquare is my tightest network, meaning that I do not friend people who I do not know, or have never met. I have only “friended” 57 people. While I have 600 “friends” on Facebook, some that I have not seen since grammar school/high school, I do not see the need to allow them to see my each and every move. I have ignored requests from people who I am connected with on Facebook and on LinkedIn when they request to be friends on FourSquare.

I really wonder what the adoption rate will be on Facebook. Now if I could put specific people within my Facebook Network into a group, and only share my “Place” with those people………What do you think, Will you use Facebook Places? Which way will you go?

What would you pay for more Visibility?

August 10, 2010 in Uncategorized | 5 comments

Over the past weeks, months and years (12 actually) I have had the benefit of being involved in Social Media and online community building. I love my job and I love the potential that many businesses have recognized during that time – brand awareness, loyalty, relationships building, research & development, competitive analysis…..the list goes on and on. But there is one continued theme that I hear from people who I communicate with because of my daily observations about the companyies that I have and currently work(ed) for:

Thanks for the heads-up
Appreciate the follow-up
Thanks for letting me know
Great feedback, appreciate you sending this on

….and different versions of all of the above.

My question is what is this position worth to a business, and how long do you think that your business can continue with this position? 

Maybe it is just me, but I have seen so much confusion when people talk “Social Media” with others who are not too sure about it actually is, or even immediately pause and discredit Social Media as “online nonsense.”

 

* Image courtesy of www.webadvantage.net

If we were to position Community Managers as “Brand Visibility Managers” would that put things into a little more perspective? Would we then be able to get past the initial stereotypes (valid or not) that comes with the Social Media and Community Management positions? By interacting with your community and on behalf of the brand, you are increasing your brand’s visibility, and by consolidating feedback and forwarding that information to the right people, at the right time, you are also providing visibility internally that may not currently be happening.

What do you think?

Social Media Gurus, Mavens, Ninjas……

July 29, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | 3 comments

Last night I attended the #NashuaTweetup and sat down with @SteveMurthey at the bar. We were talking about Social Media experts and how there seems to be so many “self-appointed” individuals out there, as this seems to be the latest and greatest employment opportunity for many. During our discussion, I came up with this comparison. It is like in the movie Aladdin. You had the Genie, who was obviously good at what he did. He knew the rules and was able to guide Aladdin into making some good decisions, and had “thousands” of years of experience in his back pocket.

* namecartoons.blogspot.com

But on the other hand you had Jaffar, and his snake staff. The staff was an incredible tool which mesmerized people and forced them to make decisions that they would not have if they had a better understanding of the situation and were guided properly. He also made promises that he could not keep, and there was always a “hidden agenda.”

 

* disneyvillains.net

Next time you sit down with some who is assisting you in anything, it does not have to be strictly a Social Media campaign or strategy session, make sure that you are not being promised things that seem unreachable, and make sure that you partner with someone who has proven their worth and has the experience to back it up. Don’t forget, you generally get what you pay for. What are your thoughts?

Bye Bye Blackberry

July 20, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 7 comments

HTC-Droid-Incredible

HTC-Droid-Incredible

I have been waiting and waiting for the Verizon/Apple relationship to come together so that I could get an iPhone. Over the past few years I know many people who have one and love it. Unfortunately, AT&T’s coverage in “South-Central” New Hampshire is not great, as I get little to no coverage at my house.
So here is my new phone. Just received it last night. I am currently charging it up and am waiting to actually transfer my contacts over, but I am a little intimidated by it. As with something that it new comes a hesitation. I am so used to my Blackberry curve that I am intimidated by this new device. I know that it will support all of my needs, but how steep is the learning curve for this device? This evening I am planning to actually activate the device and put my Blackberry to rest. It will be a sad day, but one that is needed. If you have made it through this transition, please share your experiences here. Was it painful? Painless? What are some of your tips/tricks? Which apps do you find impossible to live without?   Please help me :)

Customer Engagement and Feedback, the Caffeine to your Business

July 14, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | 2 comments

Back in the day, you could run your business the way that you wanted to with little to no interruption from anything or anyone. Everyday you could get up, go to work, and status quo would rule your day. Or at least that seems to be the perception from what I have heard and observed from the “Walk-both-ways-uphill-in-driving-snow-to-school” generation.

As we all know, times have changed, and that way of running your business gets you into serious trouble. Customer’s now have the ability to voice their opinion in open forums where millions and millions of people can read their thoughts. The playing field has been leveled and businesses no longer have the control that they have held on to for many, many years. Those that have adopted new communication strategies and have engaged with their audience are surviving the current storm, while those who have rejected this communication change as a passing fad have come to pass.

Customers have the ability to really jump-start your business and get it back on track. If your employees seem to be struggling with what they should be doing, or where their next project to come from, they should look no further than what is happening online – both what is being said about your business as well as what is being said about your competition. There is so much information at your immediate disposal; so many great ideas that you can harness….it really is a great resource. I have also heard of some businesses offering their employees “free-time” during their work week in order to think of new ideas and ways to improve the current state of their company. What a great idea.

The Fountain of Success

Please drink up!

What is your Twitter story?

June 21, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ok, I had to share this. I tweeted a couple of times over the last week referring to this story, but wanted to go into more depth here.

Twitter is a great tool for people and businesses; I think that everyone will agree with that. It is also a great tool for local businesses, if used effectively, and I wanted to share this story with you.

Early last week I was traveling to Calgary, Canada from Boston via Dallas,( please don’t ask, it’s a long story). While in flight from Dallas to Calgary American Airlines offered Gogo in-flight wireless internet service so I decided to pay the $10 to have it for the 3+ hour flight. For those of you that have not traveled with internet access on your flight, I compare it to JetBlue and having TV at your seat, yes, it is that good and I don’t know how I could have ever lived without either, anyway…..

On my way North, while traveling over Yellowstone I sent the following tweets:

What was really cool was that within a half hour, the account @Morningglorycof replied to my tweet:

I replied with “ I wish that they delivered” with a smile and then that was that, or so I thought.

Or Friday, I ran across this tweet:

It was really nice of them to do this, as I have never met this person and we had only exchanged a handful of tweets. I also decided to follow them back just in case I was ever in Montana. But the story does not end there.

On Friday we had friends that were going to Canobie Lake Park  up here in Salem NH. It is basically 6 Flags (www.sixflags.com), but on a much smaller scale (maybe 10% of 6 Flags). Anyway, we let our kids go during the day with our friends and met then at 5:30. Upon arrival at Canobie, I checked in on FourSquare and posted it to my Twitter account. Within a few minutes I received this tweet:

Is that a small world or what? Talk about chance encounters. I am sure that they also had a flood of memories outside of the one that they posted.

So with this post I wanted to bring about your Twitter stories. What are the “chance encounters” that you have heard of or actually been a part of? Please share.

How do you choose to follow people?

June 11, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 9 comments

Follow me

This seems to be a pretty important step in making sure that you can weed through the noise in the space. Some people follow too many people too quickly and become overwhelmed, while others take it slow and easy their way into Twitter, which I highly recommend.

Let me tell you what I do, and see if it is also what you do.

I seem to pick up a couple of followers. I go into Twitter’s website, rather than use Tweetdeck for this, and see who has most recently followed me. There are a few things that I key on when I click on their profile to see who they are:

Where are they located?

While being able to located current and accurate information concerning my profession on Twitter, as well as with former colleagues, I also like to keep up with people who live in my area, so I tend to follow them as well

What does their Bio say?

No bio, no follow, it is pretty cut and dry. If you can’t give me additional information about yourself, then how and why do you expect me to follow you? Come on, seriously?

How many followers do they have?

I am not talking about focusing on the numbers. If someone follows me, I tend to take a look at who they are pretty quick, within 24 hours I would say, unless it is the weekend. I tend to look at the box of avatars. There are 36 avatars within that area. If I am located within that area, odds are that you are not a spammer and are not just trying to friend anyone and everyone.

Maybe the last one is just me, but I feel that if you are following 36 people within a 24 hour period then you are just trying to get friends and not really caring who they are?

Too harsh? Thoughts? What do you look at?

Community Management matters

May 26, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 3 comments

The more and more discussions that I have around Social Media and Online Community building and strategies the more the discussions are had around the concept of “Social” having a presence within each and every department. While I totally agree with this concept and think that every department should have individuals that understand Social, I don’t think that the concept of spreading Community positions within each department is the appropriate way to go and believe that Community and Social Media teams deserve their own department.

Seat at the Table

What are your thoughts here? Do we, as Social evangelists within our respective businesses, have the right to our own departments, with a “seat at the table”? Has the time come?

The Power of Social Media

May 14, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

On May 11th, Bill Simmons (@sportsguy33), Boston Sports writer and ESPN page 2 ‘The Sports Guys World creator, created a new Twitter account, @celticschants. The account was set up for sports fans (mostly Boston Celtics fans or anyone that was against Cleveland) to discuss potential chants for when players were fouled and stepping up to the free throw line. If you have watched basketball before, you know how fans can be with chants, and waving things. And as much as I hate to give credit to Duke, their fans are the most obnoxious.

Last night, while I was watching TV, I heard the chant of “New York Knicks” when Labron James stepped to the free throw line. Each and every time. It was loud. Even the announcers were talking about it. Now he did not miss all of his free-throws, and he did have a triple-double, he did go 9-12 from the line, missing 3 attempts. Being a .742 career shooter from the free-throw line, he was right on par. But who is to say that he would have missed those if the fans were not chanting?

Anyway, I like that this “grass-roots” idea came about, was promoted and discussed and took flight. It really goes to show how Social Media can be taken off-line. What are your thoughts? Did you watch the game, or have you seen this type of execution recently?

What is the Next Facebook?

May 10, 2010 in Uncategorized | 4 comments

p.s. – Don’t skip to the bottom ;)

As my prior post stated – sorry for the rant – I really did not understand why we are so transfixed on the next this and that. Then I got to thinking (please no funny comments here). Before you read this let me just say that I understand that evolution is good, and pushing the barriers is also good, but there comes a time and a place where you need to just sit back and let things happen.

Given all of the changes that Facebook has made recently, and over time for that matter, as outlined on The Huffington Post Blog  (Very interesting 2005 – present overview of how Facebook’s privacy policy has evolved), why would we not begin to look elsewhere? Yes we can set access levels to specific groups or people, and I have taken full advantage of those tools, but should we have to? Should we really be forced to control our data and be “opt’d-in” to the changes that they are making? While I understand that opting everyone in to a change will increase adoption, it can also, and many times will, have a negative effect on your community.

I have heard of people closing their account (and others that who thinking about it), while others are refusing to even open a Facebook account. Closing your account because of the changes can be seen as a knee-jerk reaction.  While I agree with many of the concerns, I am not ready to close down yet. While these are both extreme cases, it just really shows that there are many people out there that are unhappy with all these changes.

Time and time again, when things begin to spiral out of control, I generally try to sit down and let things settle for a little while. After the dust settles, you can then truly review the situation holistically and without emotion getting in the way.

What do I want out of Facebook? What happened to the tool that allowed me to create online relationships with my friends and keep in touch with them? Post photos with my networks, see what my friends were doing, and create events and groups…. They grew and grew and made some minor changes over time, some were good and others were not so much. People flocked to use the service and once they became the “3rd largest country in the world” they began to try to take over the Web. While I understand that may be a direction to go, I don’t think that it will happen.

Can you think of another Social Networking site that was similar to Facebook? One that has taken a back-seat to all of these changes? One that may just simply benefit from all of these changes? Now I may be stretching a little bit here, but would it not be ironic that the answer to “What is the next Facebook” questions turns out to be who Facebook beat out years ago?

My Space

My Space