Facebook: Where Have All the Cool Kids Gone?

I had the great pleasure of listening to an interesting Facebook talk by Julie Hall last night at the Social Media London meetup. She did a great job in spite of not having a big screen to show the audience what she was talking about – no mean feat!

Toward the end of the session we had questions and answers going and one thing that I picked up on is the backlash against Facebook from early adopters. The big F has been around since 2004 and the novelty has worn off with most people in the west by now (not so in other parts of the world).

Cool kids quitting Facebook

We all know people that for one reason or another have quit Facebook. Most of them are back on the grid within a couple of weeks time. Why is this? Probably because Facebook does offer a good infrastructure for messaging, sharing pictures and videos, helping us stay abreast of people's lives and all of this one place.

Nevertheless, the fact that people are trying to jump ship is interesting in itself. These are typically the early adopters who joined up first and they are not onto new places to hang out online. Twitter is probably the biggest contender, it is the simplest platform of them all and this is the appeal of it.

Confession time: I have toyed with the idea of quitting Facebook myself as I don't use it anywhere near as much as Twitter or LinkedIn. I prefer to do one or two platforms really well than to be everywhere with not enough interaction. But for a number of reasons (me being a social media consultant for one) that's just not going to happen so I plod along.

Sticky conversations stick to your shoes

One benefit of Facebook is that if a status update, be it from a Page or person, gets comments and Likes it tends to be bumped up in everyone's home feeds. This means popular posts typically containing video or a photo get even more attention and everyone wants to join in on the fun and interact. The results it that the update gets sticky, for better or worse.

The trouble here is that whenever you click Like or enter a comment, you will be notified whenever someone else does as well. Depending on your settings, you'll get an email, a text message or just a red notification when you sign in to Facebook. These constant updates from very popular posts have me refraining from actually reacting to updates on Facebook. If I really like the post I'll just tweet it instead and mention whom it came from, again Twitter is much simpler.

The MySpace scenario

Not long after Rupert Murdoch and News International bought MySpace in 2005 it ceased being cool and the platform slowly but surely plummeted into oblivion. Facebook recently announced that they are being advised by Goldman Sachs and taking on new investors, gearing up for an IPO and in doing this possibly losing that cool status they enjoyed in the early days.

Will Facebook follow MySpace's lead and slowly disappear? Unlikely, as they have so many users already (half a billion) that spend more time on the site than anywhere else on the internet. As long as Facebook can keep developing their service they will stay relevant. The new Facebook Credits are tipped to become the next PayPal or Western Union for instance.

Bottom line

Facebook ain't going anywhere and Mark Zuckerberg doesn't have to worry much. Just like Microsoft hasn't been cool since 1987, it still provides most of our operative systems and makes chunky profits every quarter. As long as Facebook keeps innovating they will ward off the threat of The Others.

Do you still use Facebook as much as you did? Please share your thoughts!

Filed Under: Monthly Tagged With:

10 Useful Tips to Personal Branding Success on Facebook

Facebook is a place to interact with friends and family online. It's great for sharing sharing holiday snaps and video clips from your iPhone with your social circle. But there is more to Facebook, everyone from Goldman Sachs to Aaron Sorkin have realized this already.

Why use Facebook for Personal Branding?

Facebook has grown rapidly and now boasts some 600 million users globally. It has become a perfect platform for B2C (business to consumer) marketing, providing very targeted advertising opportunities based on user's likes and associations. 

Facebook is slowly moving towards a more professional and more career oriented service. They have recently introduced changes to personal profiles, giving more space to work and education information. Employers have checked applicants on Facebook for years, and most people Google you before meetings and your Facebook profile is likely to come up in searches.

The way people use Facebook is different to that of two years ago. As you get friend requests from colleagues, customers and managers it's no longer strictly that social network. This means there is a case for branding oneself on Facebook just like we have always been doing on LinkedIn.

So let's cut to the chase, how do you brand yourself on Facebook?

1. Set your vanity URL

This is the first thing you will want to do to brand yourself, a vanity URL is basically your customized domain on Facebook. Instead of facebook.com/e2434h394oij you can get facebook.com/joeshmoe. Note that this new vanity URL will double as your Facebook email address, it will become joeshmoe (at) facebook.com. For the full details, check out How to set Your Facebook Vanity URL.

2. Check your privacy settings

You will inevitably get friend requests from people you know professionally. Do you want these to see all your pictures and videos? If not, you can either choose to hide them from all users but a list that you set up. Or you can create different groups of friends which will have different access to your full profile.

3. Get a professional picture

Will your Facebook picture pass the granny test? If not, upload the same one you use on LinkedIn. Some people will disagree with me on this and say that you should give visitors a unique Facebook experience – this is fine, just as long as it's not harmful to your brand.

As a rule I would say the picture should be related to what type of person you are, being an authentic representation of your personal brand. If you are on the summit of Kilimanjaro in your profile picture, you had better be into your mountaineering in other words.

4. Fill in professional details

You may have noticed that Facebook have 'promoted' professional information on personal profiles. The first text after your name is now about what you do for a living, perhaps because Facebook is gearing up to lock horns with its smaller professional rival LinkedIn.

Put your company's name in the box and also try to state what you do (and not what you are). This means don't use a title like 'consultant' when you could say "managing large scale IT projects in the public sector" – which is a great deal clearer. And don't forget to put your schools and university on there as well as you can be found through these by old class mates (and that's hopefully a good thing).

5. Use BranchOut as the LinkedIn of Facebook

Just to confuse you further, Facebook has a decent third part application called BranchOut which is all about professional networking on the Facebook platform. The benefit of BranchOut is that it allows you to search your contacts and their contacts based on company. Let's say you want to apply for a job at IBM, if you search for people in your network working for IBM they might be able to introduce you to the hiring manager. You can also recommend people on BranchOut and it's really like a Mini-Me version of LinkedIn.

It's easy to get set up on BranchOut, all you do is importing your LinkedIn profile via the API and job's a good'n as they say. BranchOut hasn't really taken off yet but I notice more and more of my Facebook friends joining up. 

6. Add your Blog RSS

Nowadays every man and his dog have are blogging so I will assume you have a blog somewhere on the interwebs. This could be your own blog or one that you contribute to. To ensure that your friends and network see your updates you can plug in the Social RSS feed straight to your profile wall. This saves time having to share things manually and most people really enjoy reading your blog posts.

7. Useful status updates please

Instead of sharing pictures of lol-cats, try to update your status with something useful and informative. This could be an article about your industry or business in general or a quote from someone like Richard Branson. You are really then showcasing what you read and where your interests lie; exactly what a potential customer or employer wants to see. Yes it could possibly bore your friends but they will forgive you for wanting to be a personal brand success.

8. Time to quit the games

I would advise you drop Farmville, Mafia Wars and any other games you are active in on Facebook. The fact that you have time to play games every day on Facebook reflects poorly on your brand, you don't want a potential customer, employer, investor or partner to see this. Keep your games off Facebook to be safe.

9. Look into Groups and Pages

Facebook Groups have fewer commercial features than Facebook Pages, but they are still very useful especially for online communities. Use a Facebook group to bring people together in your field, become a valuable contributor to that community and promote yourself and your company. Facebook Groups let you share pictures, video and links just like a normal account but it's all within the group. Another benefit of groups is that they allow you to email all group members very easily (this is not the case for Pages).

Facebook Pages are for brands, ranging from Coca Cola to Rolls-Royce and even Brand You. These pages are similar to your normal profile but slightly less personal and better suited for a public persona and indeed a job seeker. You get full access to analytics tools on your Page, allowing you to see what people click on and how they interact. Another benefit is that your page will rank high for your name in search engines like Bing and Google and you can use it for your professional career, keeping your personal profile locked down. 

10. Use Facebook events

Just like LinkedIn, Facebook has a good events engine allowing you to write up and invite people. This means you can put on an industry event, how about a networking evening relevant to your field? Open it up to the public and you will find that new people join up and help out with the organization of things. By running events you will be positioned as a leader in your field which is obviously handy for your personal brand success. 

Your turn

What is your best Facebook personal branding tip? Please share your experience!

Have you seen the new Facebook messaging system? Check out How to Use the New Facebook Emails and Messages here.

Filed Under: Monthly, Personal Branding Tagged With: ,

7 Ways To Use the New Facebook Emails and Messaging System

The much anticipated change of Facebook's messaging system was finally launched a few weeks ago. They are rolling out the new features to users in phases, I got the new system on my profile recently and I got around to testing it the other day. I am happy to report that it ain't too shabby!

The reason I was using was to send a few invites to people around Europe and North America. These are good friends but I don't keep in regular contact with them apart from on Facebook. Needless to say I had a number of email addresses for each person but thought it would be easier to just message them over Facebook – I know they will check their inboxes there.

I sent off three messages last night and got three replies by the morning, a 100% success rate. The new messaging center on Facebook was very useful, much quicker than I expected and giving a great overview of all messages.

Here are a few tips from me:

1. Claim your email address

The first thing you want to do is to claim the email of your Facebook vanity URL, or customzied domain name. (What, you don't have a vanity URL? Check out How to Personalize Your Facebook URL).

My vanity URL is facebook.com/jorgensundberg meaning my email address will now be jorgensundberg (@) facebook.com. Get in there early and claim this would be my advice (as early as you get it from Facebook that is).

2. One inbox for instant messages, texts and emails

This is Facebook's attempt at a social inbox. They allow you to send and receive text messages, instant messages and the regular messages all in one place. They could easily allow you to get your LinkedIn and Twitter messages here as well but I don't think that'll happen anytime soon. Make the most of this and set up your dashboard according to your normal communications, the only difference is that it is mainly from within Facebook.

3. Use Facebook as external email

Some say Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and the likes will be phased out in favor of Facebook's new emails. I'm not sure of this but the big F do have 600 million users on their books so it definitly could happen. All you do is type in the emal address of anyone in the To: field and Facebook will deliver it like a normal email. If you don't have a web mail already, consider using the Facebook email instead. And if you are using anything but Gmail, consider the new Facebook email as well as it's the only one that has the same promise.

4. The need for speed

Do you like sending quick messages? Sick of having to click that send button with the mouse? With the new messaging system you will notice that it's almost like instant messaging, when you hit Enter you send the message straight away. I think this is brilliant, it saves time and encourages everyone to send shorter and more to the point messages. This faster system was apparently a result of school kids telling Mark Zuckerberg they prefer texting as Facebook's messages were "too slow".

5. Send attachments

You are now able to attach files to your messages on Facebook. This means you can send a document, picture or zip file to friends. Again, this is part of Facebook's push to become a 'real' email provider. Let's see if they can offer 8 gb of storage as well like Gmail one day!

6. Use the threads and search function

Every message that you send back and forth to you friends will be threaded (just like Disqus comments on some blogs or Gmail messages). This means you can keep track of conversation over time; useful when you are not replying to messages on a daily basis. Within the Facebook Messages system you can search for people, keywords and topics. This is similar to Gmail where you can find most things from the Inbox toolbar without having to trawl through old emails.

7. Add your phone details

I added my mobile phone to Facebook the other day. Not sure if it was a great thing to do as every message sent over Facebook sends a text ping to my BlackBerry. This can of course be useful for some folks who need realtime updates. By adding your phone details you let friends send you free text messages straight from Facebook, which can be handy when you are out of WiFi or mobile internet coverage.

Conclusion

Much to my surprise, I have found myself using the new messaging functions on Facebook. It's been very useful and reminds me a great deal of Gmail in its heyday. The great benefit of Facebook messaging is the fact that most our friends are already on here, I predict this to take off over the next 12 months – watch this space (especially if your name is Google).

What do you think of the new Facebook messaging system?

If you prefer Google's version of emails, see How To Declutter Your Emails with Gmail.

Filed Under: Monthly, Social Media Tagged With:

How to Set Up a Facebook Page for Your Business

With the half billion user reach of Facebook, most companies have realized they need to have a presence for their brand. This is especially true for any company operating in the business-to-consumer (B2C) space, like consumer brands, local shops and restaurants.

There are plenty of great benefits to setting up a Facebook Page and in this post I will assume that you have been converted so let’s get cracking with this Page business.

As opposed to a LinkedIn group, setting up a Facebook Page is very simple and it can be done in very few clicks of the mouse.

First off, you will need to have a normal (non-Page) Facebook account; your personal profile will do just fine. The Page you set up will be managed from within the personal account and login. You can actually set up as many Pages as you like from the personal profile.

Find the Pages application

The quickest way to navigate to the Pages section is to search for the word ‘pages’ and click on the application in the menu. That takes you to the Pages home, listing the most popular ones out there. For inspiration, we will note that Lady Gaga's Page has 22 million fans on Facebook.

Click on Create Page at the top right hand corner and a new screen appears.

Create your new Page

This is where you choose what type of Page you are setting up. I will assume that you are setting up a Page for your business and therefore we should tick Local business. If you are doing it for a large corporation or brand, go for that instead. And if you are setting up a Page for a cause, there is another type called Community Page.

You will be prompted to type in the name of the Page and this is where you have to be careful as Facebook don’t allow you to change the name once it’s up and running. If you want the Page to have a different name, you have to delete everything and start from scratch. So it’s best to have a think about the name a bit before you complete this step.

Upload an image

Now that your Page is up and running, go ahead and upload a picture or logo that represents your brand. Just like a personal profile needs to have a relevant image to get any traction, your Page needs one that your followers can identify with.

Some people recommend adding your website address at the bottom of the image, I wouldn’t do that myself as I don't think it looks either neat nor professional.

Fill in the description box

This box is similar to that of your personal profile, just a free text field that you can put your pitch into. Try to keep it simple, bullet points work fairly well here.

A tip here is to include your website address and make sure you include the http:/ as it will make it into a hyperlink (only www. won’t be clickable for some reason).

Fill in the information tab

This is a comprehensive tab and similar to the About page on your site or blog. Take some time to fill in a proper mission statement, value proposition and history for interested folks to learn more. Be sure to enter your website address as well for readers to click back to your homebase.

Create a landing page with FBML

This is slightly more advanced stuff that you can do with Facebook’s HTML version aptly called FBML. This allows you to redirect first time visitors to a designed page that could encourage them to sign up for a newsletter, hit ‘Like’ or even click back to your site.

Red Bull have gone down the not-so-subtle route which is absolutely fine and very much in line with their brand.

FBML can be useful for large brands that have special promotions or campaigns running, for a small business I wouldn’t worry about it for now as it can look a bit spammy unless you know what you are doing.

Add some extras

To give your target audience a reason to ‘Like’ your Page, you will want to make something special with it. This could be adding videos, images, your blog’s RSS feed or your company Twitter feed. Whatever it takes to make the Page come alive and look dynamic – this will get people joining up.

Domino's Pizza take it one step further and allow you to order pizza straight from the Page, a nifty feature which has boosted their sales quite considerably in the UK and Ireland.

Be your first fan

Once you have set the Page up, go ahead and click ‘Like’ so that your new Page has its first fan. Without the first fan you can’t actually search for the Page so it’s worth Liking it straight away.

Final steps

Although not a part of setting the Page up, promoting it is vital for its success. You will want to remind your target audience to ‘Like’ your new Page whenever you communicate with them. Add a Facebook icon to your site, blog, newsletter and email signature so people can click their way through to it.

Finally, you will want to customize the URL/domain name of your Page but this is only doable once you have attracted 25 people to join up.

Still unsure about why you should set up a Facebook Page? Check out the 15 Killer Reasons to Set Up Yours Today.

Any other bits that I have missed? Please let the world know!
 

Filed Under: Marketing, Monthly, Social Media Tagged With:

15 Killer Reasons To Set Up Your Facebook Page Today

Guess what? Facebook Pages (formerly known as Fan Pages) aren’t just for likes of Lady Gaga or Starbucks. Everyone’s doing it and you shouldn’t be left behind. Whether you are running a small business, a charity or promoting yourself; there are plenty of benefits to using a Facebook Page. Here are my top fifteen killer reasons to get you started:

1. It’s free

You can’t beat the price here, it’s free to set up a Page that comes complete with advanced features and that can reach out to over 500 million users. So whatever your marketing spend is, you can’t really afford not to set up a Page.

2. It’s easy

Given that most people know how Facebook works, it’s very easy for them to click a ‘Like’ button to join the Page. There is no sign-up or registration, everything is automated and simple.

3. There are no limits

Whereas a normal Facebook profile is limited to 5,000 friends, your Page allows you to have as many fans as you could possibly attract. The 5k limit may sound high to some people but you have to aim for the stars and 5k is only half way up the tree tops for some success stories.

There are no limits on photos, videos and other media you want to add to the Page. Stuff as much information as you like in here without any worries (apart from a Facebook server crash of course).

4. Your competitors are doing it

Chances are one or more of your competitors have set up a business Page, some of them have attracted lots of fans, some haven’t. Whatever the case may be, you have jump on the bandwagon and let your current and potential customers associate themselves with your brand by clicking that “Like” button.

5. It will generate website traffic

By posting your latest news, videos and blog posts you’ll get fans clicking back to your site. Once they are at your site you are more likely to capture their full attention and convert a visitor into a prospect or even customer.

6. Advanced analytics tools

Facebook provides you with decent tools (called Page Insights) to see your fans demographics, location, level of engagement and so on. This is valuable information that enables you to keep testing new approaches and stir up more interaction with the Page members.

7. Search engine love

It’s no secret that Facebook is a very popular and high ranking site; in fact it’s the number 2 site on the internet after Google. We don’t know exactly how the search engine algorithms of Google, Bing, Yahoo and the others work, but we can expect a Facebook Page for your business to rub off some of that link juice.

What we do know is that you don’t need a password to view the Page, you don’t even have to be a Facebook user. This means search engines can index the Page using their bots.

8. A fantastic reach

There are actually 500 million reasons (and counting) to set up your Page, and by the time you read this the number of Facebook users has probably climbed considerably. Facebook offers an unrivalled outreach that dwarfs that of LinkedIn, Twitter and the other minnows like Xing and Viadeo.

Whilst the reach of Facebook may not be a compelling reason for your business, it simply can’t be dismissed as a factor to consider.

9. Things can go viral

Get the Page right and it could go viral. Whenever someone clicks the ‘Like’ button, their friends are made aware of this in their home feeds. The more people that join, the more this will appear on feeds and the snowball effect kicks in.

10. It’s customizable

Unlike a Linked group, with the Facebook Page you are able to customize the look and feel of the layout. Apart from the obvious filling in the blanks, dragging and dropping boxes, you can actually program the design using Facebook’s own HTML which is called FBML.

You can either do this customization yourself on the Static FBML application, or get professional help which won’t cost too much on sites like Elance or PeoplePerHour. Don't forget that you also set the vanity URL for your Facebook Page.

11. Easy to promote

Facebook are keen on selling you adverts that promote the Page. The advantage of these ads is that they are very targeted, you can pick your demographics, location, interests etc to ensure you only pay to display that ad to the right Facebook users.

If you don’t want to pay for it, simply promote the Page on your site, blog, newsletter, Twitter feed and any other place your target audience are likely to see it.

12. You build a community

By attracting members to your Page, you are effectively building up a community of customers, prospects and anyone else who wants to be associated with your brand. You give these people a platform to interact and share ideas, while you soak up all the information.

13. Voice of your business

The Page is the obvious place to broadcast blog posts, videos, articles that are relevant to your business. Just like an email newsletter, the Page will act as the voice of your business – with the difference being that people can reply in public.

Further to building a community and listening to what’s going on, you should be engaging with the Page members on a daily basis. This means answering any questions they might have, just like most big companies try to do on Twitter.

14. It’s the future

Half a billion users of Facebook today, more tomorrow. I don’t see how Facebook Pages are going to be a novelty or a fad. In my opinion this marketing channel will be increasingly important over time so it’s critical to get stuck in there now and be well positioned for the future.

15. It’s still free & easy

Yes I know I mentioned it first but it’s free and simple to set up a page so what the heck are you waiting for?

Do let me know if you have any questions about Facebook Pages and I will do my best to reply as soon as possible. And while we're at it, why don't you connect with me on Facebook as well!

Filed Under: Monthly, Social Media Tagged With:
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