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Facebook Confusion - friends, fans, subscribers, groups, and lists
Are you as confused by Facebook as me? I’m not entirely sure on their usability and strategy for the recent changes, but I thought it’d be a good time to break down some of the changes.
Groups
Before fan pages, Facebook had personal profiles and later introduced groups. Groups were not to be on behalf of a business, but rather a few peoples coming together to discuss specific topics. Initially, people had to join a group. Of course, these could be public or private. The best features of this allowed the group to show off who the administrators or any other title you wanted to add for staff of the group. Additionally, email from the group landed in the inbox.
Then, Facebook changed how groups operate. Groups can be created by anyone, and they can add anyone to the group. No longer did people have to join a group, but they were added by someone else, without any permission granted, and notified of all sorts of things. Group messages don’t reach inbox, but now a massive group chat is a part of the experience. Messages can automatically pop up as an instant message. There is no identification of staff members.
If you are an administrator of an old style group, you’ll need to convert it over soon to the new groups format, or risk it being archived.
Once you’ve joined or been added to groups, you have the ability to silence those pesky notifications.
Friend Lists
Friends have been the focal point of Facebook from the beginning. In the earlier days, Facebook had a game of guessing which friend matched the information. Then came the ability for people to organize their friends into lists. According to Mark Zuckerberg, few people took advantage of this feature and didn’t enjoy the experience. Oddly – this is what is helping Google+ take off.
I am one of the few users that love lists and used them often. I miss having them as a shortcut on the left side of my all news main page. I still switch to view the updates based upon the lists I’ve organized.
To draw some attention to lists, Facebook then rolled out featured lists. It is a way for users to show off on their personal profile some special people to them. That list may be be seen publicly, and notify users that are added to the list. I use my featured lists to show off those I look up to in the industry, as well as members in an online WordPress and Social Mobile Local Marketing training program I facilitate.
Most recently, Facebook announced new list suggestions. I’m still unable to access this, but am hopeful that the lists bookmarks will make their way back to the left side of my main page. I’ve curated my lists long before Twitter enabled the feature. I’ll stick to the lists I’ve made, but want others to do likewise and access or interact based upon this. To aim for some support, please see Facebook’s Friend List page.
Subscribers
If you’d rather not be friends with people but want to allow them to view anything you post publicly, you can enable Subscriptions. The only content subscribers can see is what is posted publicly. I’d image too that this information may start showing up as results in search engines, rather than Facebook being still a walled garden.
Also see your privacy to control the older things you want to keep private if you enable the subscribe feature. “Limit the Audience for Past Posts”
When subscribing to other’s pages, you can choose what you want to see from them. I usually disable seeing games. Also, you cannot subscribe to someone that you are friends with.
Fan Pages
Facebook Fan Pages have long been the method to use for a brand. The addition of a custom tab is proven to increase people opting to like your page, join your newsletter, or in some other way become part of the communityyou are creating. However, many public figures are averse to having a “Fan Page” so Facebook just began referring to them as “Pages” and the people who follow them “People Who Like”.
So now that a personal profile can have subscribers that exceed the 5,000 friend limit, what is the significance of a Fan Page for a public figure? I still believe Pages are needed for individuals that want to build their newsletter, text messaging, or other subscription lists off site. In addition, personal profiles don’t provide data on who is viewing your profile and any engagement on it.
Which should you choose if your brand is you as a person? Facebook has a page to help answer that.
If you choose to migrate, at this time it only works to go from personal profile –> page, not the other way around. This can’t be undone, so think through this carefully.
Conclusion
Facebook is becoming more and more complicated. The legacy architecture is lacking, and users have too many options. Without proper information, they may not know what the best option is for them.
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Thursday, September 15, 2011
You Never Know - Social Media Marketing Trends
You never know what social media site might be the big thing. What is popular today may soon be a thing of the past, and what currently exists may take it’s place.
In the early days of social networking everyone I knew was in Myspace but I opted to join Facebook in the private days. I even reopened my Bloomsburg University alumni email account to gain early access, as only college students were allowed in.
Among the public education circles, Furl was the best social bookmarking service. They were acquired by Diigo. For some time, internet marketers did all they could to be bookmarked on all the platforms. Some services helped syndicate to all bookmarking services.
When Digg launched, I was elated to have made page 1 of stories dugg. Now – the site has been overhauled several times and can’t even find the 1 story it shows made the front page. The cool kids have moved over to Reddit, which has been around since 2005 like Digg. A few interesting ways of using Reddit have cropped up, most notably the show submissions for a daily podcast Tech News Today.
Do you remember when Youtube only allowed 10 minute increments? My account has allowed unlimited time length for over a year now, but before then I posted long clips to Viddler. Among them is a great video by Christopher S. Penn from PodCamp Philly 2009. He’s presenting about Social Media ROI in the clip, and is recorded saying that StumbleUpon’s traffic is like people stumbling around the web drunk. Now, StumbleUpon has gained considerable traction since launching the iPhone and iPad app.
So – what can you do about all the changes? I recommend claiming your accounts on every platform imaginable. Even if you have no plans to use it now, fill out the basic information and claim your username to protect your brand. Drive traffic to those accounts one when you actively participate. If you need further help in claiming these accounts, contact me.
In the meantime, I recommend Chris’s post on focusing on one social media home base, in addition to your own website as the foundation of your online presence. In addition, don’t forget to check for further connections once per month on your accounts.
Related articles
- StumbleUpon Drives More Than 50% of Social Media Traffic [STATS] (mashable.com)
- Facebook Falters While StumbleUpon Races By (marketingpilgrim.com)
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
Public Opinion, Newspaper Paywall, and what not to do in Customer Service
Just a day after the east coast earthquake and a few days before Hurricane Irene lands, I was highly interested today in reading local news coverage. I turned to my go-to local news service, the Public Opinion of Chambersburg. I was shocked to find they had switched to a paywall approach, as no notice was given. When the New York Times made the switch, a letter from the editor was posted explaining the changes. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/opinion/l28times.html. In this instance, the Public Opinion has not communicated with their readers about the upcoming changes. The change took effect in the surge of interest about the earthquake and hurricane. I can’t help but wonder if they took advantage of natural disasters to gain the momentum for this unannounced change.
I don’t believe this funding method has been tested long enough to decide if it’s a beneficial strategy. Just a month after the NY Times change, the verdict on it’s effectiveness was still unclear. I haven’t found any more current information on the matter than this: http://mashable.com/2011/04/11/new-york-times-paywall-stats/. So – is this method of funding the local news going to pay for the expense? I’m not sure that it will.
Rather than a paywall approach, I’d prefer they improve their other means of revenue. Television and radio have existed for free for the public. Even with the cable, satellite, or internet based stations, there is still an interest in the public access media that cover the costs without charging consumers. The reporters and administrative staff do need to be compensated well for their work. I just don’t think the paywall model will save the revenue.
Customer Service – What Not To Do:
The Public Opinion has a rather active fan page. I’ve watched the community interaction increase considerably on the page as they’ve made all comments on their site Facebook comments.
To express my displeasure of the unannounced changes, I took to my own fan page. I did this as any connections made I prefer go through my business brand, not to my personal account. Rather than reaching out to me or posting any announcement changes on their site and fan page, they directly targeted me in their reply.
“Courtney, you’re going to see more and more news organizations charging a minimal fee for online news. Others in our area are already doing it or plan to. Costs of online publication are increasing, as online users demand more. We have to adapt to the changing economic realities.
Remember when TV used to be “free?” That was nice but is not possible today as the demands of TV viewers and costs of programming have increased exponentially.”
While I can understand the need for alternate funding beyond the subscription service, I’m happy to report that I do not subscribe for tv or radio. I watch television via Hulu for free. I only pay a subscription to Comcast for cable internet and Netflix for movies. I also purchase the Sunday papers for coupons, but know that I can print those from the companies supplying the circulars.
What become more snarky and unprofessional though followed the replies of several others.
Coffee should be free. Dang that greedy Starbucks for charging just because McDonalds is charging…trying to follow the logic here.
The logic to this is baffling. It seems fueled as a reply to the commenters, but this is still a representative of the news agency. While Facebook may be informal, the public relations representatives still have basic goals to build community engagement and foster customer relations. What implications does the Public Opinion’s snarky reply have on their relation to the local Starbucks? Is the joke understood?
A better option:
From the start, the Public Opinion should have announced to their online community in particular that changes were coming. Additionally, creating membership could work. Offer readers something to entice them to buy. Give them access to exclusive content – audio or video coverage or special interviews, access to archived content, or even access to breaking news and push the rest of the readers to only view day old content. Create more in value than you get in payment.
- Communicate with the community.
- Gain support for the changes
- Interact with respect for the current and potential customers
A few thoughts on customer service from the book – The Go-Giver by Bob Burg:
I don’t believe that the Public Opinion has posted these updates with the intention to serve people. It feels as if they were rather defensive about the changes. I also don’t believe they are giving value now to the community they’ve created online, but rather much more overtly putting their own needs first.Related articles
- Paywall Free-for-All (newspaperdeathwatch.com)
- On Porous Paywalls (businessinsider.com)
- U.K. Times Web Site Paywall Kills Two Thirds of Visitor Traffic (fastcompany.com)
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Wednesday, August 10, 2011
How to tweak your Google Plus Hovercard : Courtney Engle – Helping Business Owners Unlock Hidden Profits by Streamlining Social Media, Local SEO, and Mobile Marketing – Chambersburg, PA
Google Plus, like Facebook, shows hovercards as a snapshot of the user’s information. In Google’s case, it is showcasing employment history by default.
If you want to change that hovercard information into something else, such as your website address and slogan, it is possible. Watch to learn how:
Also see this image to edit the correct field:
Related articles
- Writing Exercise: use Hovercards for passive #promo Writer Wednesday (theaatkinson.wordpress.com)
- WordPress: 3 More Hidden Gems In The Jetpack Plugin Suite, & The WordPress App Is Updated! (makeuseof.com)
Want to connect further? Find me online: Google Profile & Online Activity
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Want WordPress training? GFYD Member - Go For Your Dream
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Tuesday, August 9, 2011
LinkedIn Profiles have been updated
Have you checked your LinkedIn Profile recently? They’ve made a few updates to the way the profile page looks. Here’s a quick peak at the changes:
A few highlights to the changes include:
- PDF Download link
- Checklist of action items to further improve your profile
- Summary adjustments
Related articles
- Linkedin profiles get a revamp, adds PDF downloading and more (thenextweb.com)
- LinkedIn Profiles – New Look and Added Features (blogworld.com)
Want to connect further? Find me online: Google Profile & Online Activity
Want Social Media, Local SEO, and Mobile Marketing training? Social Mobile Local Marketing Pros - SMLMP
Want WordPress training? GFYD Member - Go For Your Dream
Have a tech question? (hardware, software, & web) Ask Courtney for help
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Monday, August 8, 2011
Foursquare for brands serving a region :
Foursquare as given businesses serving a region without a specific physical address or brands the ability to create pages and interact on check-in locations by offering tips. Learn how to create a page as a brand:
Want to connect further? Find me online: Google Profile & Online Activity
Want Social Media, Local SEO, and Mobile Marketing training? Social Mobile Local Marketing Pros - SMLMP
Want WordPress training? GFYD Member - Go For Your Dream
Have a tech question? (hardware, software, & web) Ask Courtney for help
Need official work done? Contact Courtney
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