facebook

Let’s take back the word “Friend”!

Facebook has done an amazing thing – they now own the word “friend”!  The problem is that they have devalued the word while adding value to their brand. Let’s take back the word “friend” and fill it with value again!

How many of you use “air quotes” when you say so-and-so is your Facebook “friend”?  That’s exactly my point.  The word now, more often than not, just means that you exchanged a keystroke with someone.

To be clear — I am not saying that connecting through Facebook is a bad thing; I’m saying that few of us actually take the time to connect in the ways that a real friend would.  We are missing the chance to use social media as a tool that facilitates real relationships and instead using “friends” as points in a popularity contest.

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New Facebook Ticker is Invasion of Privacy

Facebook launched their newest update this week with lots of fanfare. Not ready to comment yet on functionality and changes made, but want to address the apparent glaring invasion of privacy issue with their new Ticker broadcast function and ability of users to Opt out of it.

Since the update, just about every action you make on Facebook is streamed in Ticker form on the upper right portion of other users screens. Haven’t been able to confirm yet if this is only limited to Friends etc or goes beyond this. However to be honest, there is a difference between simply sharing the content you post to broadcasting your every activity streaming in real time.

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14 Best Practices for Brands to Grow their Audiences in Social Media

As a consumer, you are blasted with the same request over and over, “Follow Us on Twitter, Like Us on Facebook” As a consumer however it is more than natural to ask why should I or what’s in it for me? These are questions of which a significant number of businesses cannot genuinely answer.

Businesses are realizing the importance of establishing a presence on Twitter and other vibrant social networks. In many ways, hosting a branded account is now common practice, a required extension to the push channels created through email, traditional marketing and web sites. What businesses are still learning however is that creating a channel, hosting a channel worth following, and building a loyal audience is a far greater challenge and overall investment than initially anticipated. At the same time, the realization that a shift from a push mentality to that of two-way interaction is nothing less than disruptive to the operation of business as usual.

Today a notable number of businesses are approaching branded social channels from a ready, fire, aim approach. This method conjures a façade of achievement when in fact, any progress, if at all recognized, is short term and shoddy at best. Many focus on numbers without first analyzing who they’re trying to reach and why and more importantly how engagement satisfies the needs of their customers. To build vibrant communities in social networks, businesses must develop a remarkable and diversified channel strategy that reinforces the brand and communicates tangible business value and exudes customer-centricity. Without a mature content and engagement strategy, a great unfollow and unlike movement is inevitable.

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Research shows Facebook emotional boost is like marriage

Do social media technologies isolate people and promote false relationships? Or are there important benefits associated with being connected to others in this way?

The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project decided to examine these questions in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement.

Among the many interesting findings, Pew reports that the social relationship “boost” received by Facebook users is equivalent to about half the total support that the average American receives as a result of being married.

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Facebook: The Social Accelerator?

image by ericaglasier.com @EricaGlasier 

We live in a world of accelerating change. As our communication technologies evolve, it becomes easier to connect more and more of us around the planet to each other. The web collapses space and time, dissolves geographic boundaries, and gives us windows into each other’s worlds.This is causing shifts in the way individuals perceive themselves, their immediate relationships with friends and communities, and the context of how they relate to society at large. 

David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect, prognosticates, “Just by increasing the efficiency of communication and reducing friction in relationships between people, particularly on a global basis, it will lead to a more integrated sense of humanity.”

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Social Media, Sleeping, and my Daughters

Social media truly never does sleep but what I find is that social media is very reactive. You have to put out to get back so at some point, usually late at night, you simply have to put a hard stop in place. That is hard for me since I am a content producer on Twitter and since I think in 140 characters naturally I am always spitting out content. Since I have come to realize that I can survive on 4 hours sleep for many nights in a row, but anything less than that does not work, I know I cannot carve anymore time out of the day, so 2am is usually my hard stop when I find myself going overboard.

Order and consistency is all in how you perceive what you are doing and how you maintain your connection to what is important. My personal brand, and who I am, is all about being responsive and creating trust and relationships. So I find the social media world, and all the connectivity it affords, a perfect medium for maintaining connection and consistency.

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Brands Setting Up Shop on Facebook… no big deal

Not sure why the media, and some “pundits,” are so ga-ga over this. Seems to me to simply be another place to sell stuff and nothing unique about it… think “click to buy here” or about shops offered in the past from Yahoo, etc. Shoppers tend to buy most in dedicated ecommerce environments where they are comfortable and in a buying frame of mind.

This is nothing more than an additional storefront in a place that someone is less likely to make a purchase. IMHO will not add significant sales to a retailer, but worth trying if available and cost effective. Even Facebook is not expecting much in sales or they would be asking for a rev share/affiliate fee… instead they want to simply sell more ads which they know will be profitable for them.

Ted Rubin

2011 Social Marketing Predictions

I think 2011 is going to be a very interesting year in the social media world. Generally speaking I believe the marketing world is going to start understanding better the value of, and how better to assign value to, deep consumer relationships.

Right now everyone is trying to assign a dollar value to a Facebook fan or Twitter follower instead of addressing the fact that the engagement and interaction that takes place in these mediums are incredibly important to a brand.

Building a relationship with existing and future customers is the true value and strength of social media/marketing and what will and has allowed brands to survive and flourish for the long-term.

ROI (return on investment) is incredibly important whenever investing, but companies will start looking to ROR: Return on Relationship, when planning, strategizing and most importantly evaluating social marketing … especially smaller competitors who can more easily drive and control Relationship Marketing.

As far as specific predictions go I have a couple… Google will acquire Twitter, and pay whatever it takes to grab a valuable piece of the social marketing landscape. FourSquare, et al will disappear as geotargeting will become more of a proactive medium controlled by those who really know where you are and what you are doing… the credit card companies and others who you tell where you are and what you are doing simple by being there and not having to make a notification.

Ted Rubin

Feeling Both Fear and Excitement about Facebook

On Thursday afternoon I was sitting in  Zoé’s Lounge waiting to meet another interesting tweep when all of a sudden Twitter began to erupt with tweets about Facebook being down. It was not dissimilar to the online reaction when a major natural disaster occurs, but of course this was only a virtual disaster. No doubt there was panic among those heavily invested and addicted to Facebook (see graphic below)  of which I am not one, but I thought this was a timely opportunity to share with you @JefftheSensei ‘s  post on his perceptions of Facebook which follows…

A rather smart chap I recently met by the name of Tommy ( @tommyismyname ) asked me for my opinion on a recent blog post of his regarding whether you love or hate facebook. This does require a name and email to download his FB report so be forewarned, but it is worth the read as Tommy is a very sharp knife in a drawer full of dull cutlery!

So do I hate or love Facebook? Neither answer works for me really. For what originally started out as a way to meet chicks for a couple horny college kids, its a smashing success. Whatever you believe, you absolutely have to respect what Facebook is – A Social Media Leviathan.

Personally I don’t use it, but I’m fascinated by its current power and future potential.

Why? Well, contrary to many other social platforms, Facebook has found one of the keys to success in B2C relationships – create an addictive positive experience. The constant flow of human drama from friends and friends of friends is reality TV served up in ADD fashion about your favorite people, your friends. It has taken gossip to a whole new level.  Add to this social games like Farmville and its ilk with the ability to compete and work with your friends delivers you addictive content of the highest order.

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“Google’s Groupon Bid Rejected” BIG mistake?

Groupon is getting way ahead of themselves and I think their rejection of Google’s bid is a Big mistake. My 2011 prediction… Google buys Twitter!

Richard Bashara says: Ted I’m going to agree with a “but,” look at Facebook. Zuck’s had how many chances to sell FB? You can’t deny that Groupon has set a trend. Perhaps trying to stay on top of the wave could pay off.

And if Google doesn’t buy Twitter, I’d be quite surprised. Who knows, maybe Twitter will try to stay independent though. As a publishing tool, it’s clearly becoming more active than Digg or Reddit.

Ted Rubin replies: Twitter is incredibly concerned, as they should be, about how to sustain and monetize what they have. Google is incredibly worried about Facebook and how to penetrate and participate in Social Media/Marketing. Solves a critical problem for both.

As far as comparing Groupon to Facebook, I think the projectory of their growth is where it ends. Facebook competitors have many more barriers to entry than competitors to Groupon, and they control the hearts and minds of their members. Groupon exists only as long as they can provide such unsustainable discounts. With Google… the value of their local search and local relationships/workforce came in to play and made them much more valuable than as a stand-alone. IMHO

Ted Rubin