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Wednesday 31 October 2012

Free Promoted Tweets Offered To Charities During Hurricane Sandy




Twitter are offering free promoted tweets to a number of charities and organizations as Hurricane Sandy sweeps across the East Coast of North America.
The companies involved in the campaign are the Red Cross, FEMA, the New York City’s Mayor’s Office and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.

Free promoted crisis tweets are one example of a number of charitable initiatives Twitter have provided over the last few years, including #hopeforjapan and the International Literacy Day, both parts of Twitter’s Hope140 movement.

The service is accessible in areas where the power or internet has gone down, even to people without Twitter accounts, thanks to Twitter’s SMS service providing support. All someone has to do is text ‘follow [username]’ to 40404.

The Twitter initiative is one of a number that companies are providing online to support those during the ‘Frankenstorm’, as the Halloween Hurricane has come to be known. For example, Google have set up an interactive map which allows users to follow Hurricane Sandy’s progress.

Hopefully the service will provide support to those in need.

Monday 29 October 2012

Blogger Buys 1.1 Million Facebook User Emails for $5


Facebook Data


Bulgarian blogger Bogomil Shopov wrote Tuesday that he had purchased a spreadsheet containing 1.1 million Facebook user IDs and email addresses for $5. The data was allegedly scraped by third-party applications and offered for sale on a website called Gigbucks by a user named “mertem.” Shopov verified that the emails did correspond to the Facebook user IDs, most of them private. He had even identified people he knew in the list. The next day, he was contacted by Facebook’s Platform Policy Team.
“Hi Bogomil,
We’d like to set up a call with you to discuss a recent blog post of yours. Could you please provide a time and a phone number that works with your schedule?
Thanks,
Platform Policy Team
Facebook”
According to Shopov, Facebook wanted to reclaim the data and investigate the leak and sale (clear violations of the network’s terms of service), but their discussion was somewhat cloak and dagger. He summarized the exchange in a subsequent blog post — the exact thing Facebook asked him not to do.
“Now we would like you to send us this file, delete it, tell us if you have given a copy of it to someone, give us the website from which you bought it including all transactions with it and the payment system and remove a couple of things from your blog. Oh and by the way, you are not allowed to disclose any part of this conversation; it is a secret that we are even having this conversation.”
Shopov confirmed these events to Mashable, and elaborated on his dealings with Facebook. He has spoken to them again since his latest post.
Facebook data confirmation

“I had a call with them last night [about] why I am writing those things on my blog,” Shopov tells Mashable in an email. “They didn’t mean to leave this impression on me, and we agreed on how to transfer the data to them. I gave them the data today via their secure system. I promised to delete the data, and I did.” Shopov shared this screenshot of the secure data transfer back to Facebook.

“[The seller] said the data came from a Facebook app, and I can believe that, because we checked a couple of profiles and there was no e-mail address present. This info cannot be scraped from the Facebook website,” Shopov explains.
While the seller’s listing for the data has been removed by Gigbucks, you can view a Google cached version here.


Gigbucks Facebook Users for Sale


Shopov also forwarded the text of an email he received from “Josef” at Gigbucks, explaining that this listing was in clear violation of their terms.
“Hi,
I am the admin of Gigbucks and wanted to let you know that we have
deleted the Facebook profiles from our server as well as banned the
user account “mertem” for violating our terms and conditions that
clearly state that such thins may not be offered on Gigbucks.
 
We manually approve each gig and I don’t know how this one slipped
through the crack. I apologize and we will take steps to improve our
gig reviewing process to make sure such things will never be posted on
Gigbucks again.
Please let me know if there is anything else that we can do.”
At the time of this writing, Facebook has not responded to our request for comment.
UPDATE: A Facebook representative has responded to our request for comment: “Facebook is vigilant about protecting our users from those who would try to expose any form of user information. In this case, it appears someone has attempted to scrape information from our site. We have dedicated security engineers and teams that look into and take aggressive action on reports just like these. We continue to investigate this specific individual.”

Protecting Yourself

This issue obviously raises privacy concerns for Facebook users. It’s about the privileges third-party apps have when connected to your account. Most have access to private data in your profile (email address, user behavior) and some allow your friends’ apps to access this data as well. It’s mostly used to make the experiences around apps and games more social. But it would be relatively easy for a malicious app developer to scrape the information into a database and sell it to marketers and spammers — the likely intention in this case.
How can you protect yourself?
  • Be mindful of the apps you connect to your Facebook account. Only use apps you trust from established publishers, and even then, don’t connect many of them.
  • Check your apps often and remove unwanted or unknown applications. Go to your Privacy Settings, click Ads, Apps and Websites and remove apps that you’re not using or that may have been connected to your account unintentionally.
  • Control what your friends’ apps can see about you. Even if you don’t have apps connected to your account, the private information you only share with friends might be accessible to the apps they are using. Turn this data off by editing the settings in How people bring your info into apps they use.
  • Turn off the Facebook Platform. If you never use any apps or games, you can completely disable the Facebook Platform, which will cut your private data off from third party developers completely. Click Turn off your ability to use apps… in the first section.




Screenshots courtesy of Bogomil Shopov.

Friday 26 October 2012

Social Media Marketing Strategies for Bloggers: Five Tips to Improve Your Facebook Engagement


Having trouble engaging your blogging community and your Facebook community?
If your fans are not interacting with your online brand, sharing your content, commenting and liking your post; you are missing out on a valuable free marketing strategy.

In this post I am going to teach you some social media marketing strategies on how to get more likes, comments, and shares to your blog or Facebook fan page. I am going to teach you five tips to improve your Facebook engagement.

#1 Keep your updates short
Studies show us that the shorter your post, the more engaging your post will be. We are living in a "microwave" society; everyone wants it quick, easy, and fast. Shorter posts will also make it easier to cross promote on sites such as Twitter which only allows a 140 character limit.

#2 Post engaging content
Post engaging and sharing content. Post content that Facebook users will get excited about and will immediately want to share with their friends. Such content includes but is not limited to images with quotes and motivational speeches, Post things that are pleasing to the eye and that will go viral. According to research images gets a higher edge rank than written statues updates. Most people are visual and they want pictures along with their book.

#3 Post at Ideal Times
Getting your Facebook post to the top of your fans newsfeed is essential for Facebook engagement. In order to do this you must post your content at the right time.

According to multiple studies you should post your content at the time where the traffic peaks. This time is usually around 1pm to 3pm.

You also want to make sure you post enough content in order to stay visible in your friend's newsfeed. You need to make sure your friends are seeing your content. Facebook tends to show your posts to the people who engage the most with your content and they may hide your content from others.

#4 Ask Questions
One sure way to improve your Facebook engagement to your social media marketing blog is to ask questions. Your audience will relate better to you if they feel you are "talking with" them and not "taking at" them. Your readers will respect you more if you ask for their perspective. A question is always followed by an answer, which simply means more comments!

#5 Coupons and discounts
Who doesn't like bargains and deals? Offer your blogging and Facebook community discounts and coupons that go hand in hand with your online brand. Offer $5.00 off coupons, offer special promotions, offering holiday discounts, etc.

Now it's your turn.
What do you think? Did you find these tips helpful? How do you keep your fans engaged? Please share your questions and comments in the box below.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7151750

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Apple iPad Mini is a One-Handed Wonder


As much as I love my new iPad — and it is the device I gravitate towards during non-work hours — there’s always been one nagging problem. Whether reading iBooks at a cafe or watching videos on the couch, you just can’t hold the 10-inch tablet in one hand.
Well, you can, but you’re going to notice the weight of it. Keep holding it that way, and you’ll either develop a pretty muscular forearm or a serious case of RSI. But you probably won’t ever be comfortable.
That’s the main reason why the iPad Mini, launched Tuesday in San Jose, is a big deal. Hold it in one hand, as I did, and your forearm relaxes. It may not simply be a large smartphone, but it certainly feels as light as one. It’s 53% lighter than its new cousin, the 4th generation iPad.

And the trade-off is a smaller screen than the regular iPad, right? True, but Apple really has done everything in its power to increase the screen size. The screen extends so far width-ways that there’s very little daylight between it and the edge of the device.
That may potentially result in a few accidental thumb-to-touchscreen moments. It didn’t in my case. Apple’s expectation is that you’ll hold the iPad Mini around the back or by its “chin” — the name for the strip of black with the home button at the bottom of the device. This does in fact feel quite natural.

Small Can be Beautiful

So the screen has roughly a third more real-estate than comparable 7-inch tablets. Is it enough?
Not for me, personally. I’ll stick with the larger 10-inch iPad size, even at the cost of two-handed discomfort. As I’ve often said, there’s just something magical in that screen size, where it fills just enough of your field of vision to take it over entirely.
But I knew that going in.

After spending some time with the iPad mini, I was impressed with just how much of your field of vision the 7.9-inch tablet can fill. For those looking for a lighter, cheaper tablet, this will be the right device.
My first impression of the screen, visually speaking, was that I was holding an iPad 2 — just holding it a little further away than usual.
It turns out that’s an apt comparison. The iPad mini has exactly the same number of pixels as the iPad 2. That means it isn’t technically a retina display — but when you squeeze that many pixels into a smaller space, it comes damn close.

You have to wonder if Apple could have gone the extra mile and made the iPad mini a full-on Retina device. It wouldn’t have taken that many more pixels to push it over the edge. But that’s a common behavior for this company — leave the next level just out of reach, ready for the upgrade (likely next year, around the same time as the fifth-generation iPad).

In all other respects, the iPad mini beats the iPad 2 hands down. Browsing, loading apps, playing games, all seemed significantly faster with the Mini’s chip and “twice as fast” (according to the Apple boast) Wifi. And those apps and sites don’t suffer from being on a small width screen, as they do on an Android tablet; they’re simply scaled down.

About That Price


Is it worth $329 for the basic 16GB model? That’s going to depend entirely on your budget. It’s certainly not a price tag to wow the average consumer, considering its Android competitors are heading in the $100 to $200 range.

But it does give you an entree into the iPad world. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time with your tablet, then to my mind, it’s worth paying a $129 premium for significantly more real estate. You will feel the difference on just about every website.

If you chose the iPad mini over the regular iPad and get the iPad mini’s special smart cover, you’ll have something over regular iPad owners. The smaller smart cover is a thing of beauty, with no annoying hinges or metal strap that twists the wrong way as it does in the regular model. The magnets are built straight into the cover.
And of course, you’ll be able to tote your iPad mini around in one hand, with nary a twinge in your forearm.

Will you be opting for the iPad mini when it arrives later this month? Let us know in the comments.

Monday 22 October 2012

Xbox 360 Cuts Facebook and Twitter Apps, Adds Internet Explorer


Microsoft added a new Internet Explorer 9 app to its Xbox 360 interface earlier this week but killed off its Facebook and Twitter apps in the process.

Xbox 360 users who recently updated the system’s software may notice Facebook and Twitter are no longer available in the Xbox Marketplace.

The good news, however, is users who already downloaded the apps can still use them, but those looking to add them to their lineup can no longer do so.

“We are retiring the Facebook and Twitter apps. Xbox LIVE subscribers will have the ability to access these sites through Internet Explorer on Xbox, available through the Web Hub located on the new dashboard,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Neowin.



Although the company didn’t give a reason behind the move, it’s likely Microsoft wants to call attention to Internet Explorer and encourage users to access the social networks directly via the browser.
The Facebook and Twitter apps have been a part of Xbox Marketplace since 2009.

Microsoft also added a new music-streaming service as a part of its software update. First announced in June, Xbox Music — a platform similar to Spotify — allows users stream more than 30 million tracks across its ecosystem of Windows 8 mobile devices, PCs and the Xbox.

What do you think about this, Xbox 360 users? Let us know in the comments if you’ll miss the Facebook and Twitter apps on the console. Will Internet Explorer 9 suffice?

Friday 19 October 2012

Twitter Blocks Neo-Nazis Following German Police Request


Twitter has banned a neo-Nazi account in Germany on the request of local law enforcement. It’s the first time Twitter’s ever done so: The micro-blog has had the ability to block accounts in single countries since January, but has not used the capability until this week.

The account in question, @hannoverticker, belongs to a neo-Nazi group operating in Germany called Besseres Hannover. The group has been watched for criminal behavior by local authorities since 2008, because Nazi imagery and propaganda is banned in German law.

Basseres Hannover was formally banned by law enforcement in late September. That’s when local authorities asked Twitter to block the groups’ account in Germany as part of a wider effort to disrupt the group’s online organization (the group’s website is also apparently down).

“It is disbanded, its assets are seized and all its accounts in social networks have to be closed immediately,” reads a letter sent to Twitter.
Late Wednesday night, Twitter General Counsel Alex Macgillivray tweeted that the account had been blocked in Germany:


Twitter came under fire by free speech advocates when it introduced the content withholding feature earlier this year. However, the company maintains it’s necessary to comply with local law, and Twitter puts all account blocking requests received by governments and law enforcement agencies on a web portal called Chilling Effects. The company also began issuing Transparency Reports this year.

Should Twitter block accounts on the request of local police or governments? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Social Media Marketing: Take Richard Branson’s Word for It


Earlier in 2012, IBM released its 2012 Global CEO Study, a work born from interviews with over 1700 CEOs worldwide. One of the study’s findings revealed that only 16% of CEOs currently participate in social media. That’s not all. For many CEOs, social media is also one of the least-utilized methods of customer engagement. CEOs listed face-to-face interactions as number one, followed by websites, channel partners, call centers, traditional media, advisory groups, and finally, social media.

Even those CEOs who are using social aren’t in any danger of redefining consumer engagement as we know it. As one CEO interviewee put it, “We use social media less as a marketing or distribution channel and more as a knowledge platform to obtain information about customers.”

Huh…

On the bright side, the Study found that social media will slog ahead to become the number two way to engage customers (57%) “within the next five years.”
No need to rush into anything, after all...

THE TOP CEOs' APPROACH TO SOCIAL
Given this data, it should come as no shocker that CEOs are not exactly moving the needle on individual participation on social platforms. Check out the usage numbers of Fortune 500 CEOS with active  accounts on some of the top social platforms, taken from the 2012 Fortune 500 CEO Index:
  • LinkedIn- 25.9%
  • Facebook- 7.6%
  • Twitter-3.8%
  • Google+ -.08%
  • Corporate Blog Contributor-1.2%
  • Personal Blog-0.2% (one person)
  • Pinterest- 0% (come on, no pinning? I find that hard to believe. They must be using pseudonyms)
I won’t even bore you with actual CEO social engagement numbers- suffice it to say, they’re abysmal. Amazingly, this data spits in the face of other data showing that 94% of employees believe a social CEO will enhance their brand.

It’s a crazy world.

SIR RICHARD’S APPROACH TO SOCIAL
Into the social breach steps Sir Richard Branson, the clear exception to the CEO social despondency narrative. Branson embraces social. He loves social. In fact, he owns social, using it as a platform to expand his personal and corporate brand influence and reach, honestly engage with his audience, and shape events within and without his industry space.

When it comes to social media, Branson figured out one important thing very early on: social is power.

Here’s a brief rundown of Sir Richard’s social following:
  • 2.4 million followers on Twitter,
  • 250,000 on Facebook,
  • 2.9 million on G+                                                                      
  • Each month, 500,000 people check out his blog
Any way you spell it, that’s some real online clout.
So why does Branson bother to maintain such a robust social profile? Here’s an exerpt from the man himself, taken from a blog he published for Entrepreneur:

“Many of our businesses have their own blogs and Twitter feeds as well, multiplying the number of people we can reach directly. If we need to talk to our customers, we no longer need to limit ourselves to placing ads with established media companies — we can just tell them directly.”

I can only imagine the response from one of the CEOs in the IBM Study, “wait a minute-use social to engage directly with your customers? Hmm, yes, we’ve thought of doing that, but not now. Perhaps sometime over the next 5 years…”

In fact, much of Sir Richard’s advice to CEOs regarding how to use social would make any Legal or PR team blanch:
“Above all, remember to be authentic and organic, answering questions in a straightforward manner — there's no need to check with your PR team first. You know your products and services, and people will see through any effort to parrot slogans or broadcast a marketing message.”

Sir Richard understands the power of social media for customer relations and brand management:
“…social media accounts gave us a real-time view of how we could improve. Through customers' comments, we started learning about issues with our products and services more quickly than ever before. In response, we set up systems so that a customer who has a question or a problem can get a quick answer from our team.”

Branson also implores CEOs to show their company’s human side:
“We've been using our social media channels to spread the message that we are just as interested in making a difference as making a profit…like everything, if you're having fun rather than just doing a job, you're more likely to find success”

Interestingly, Sir Richard’s insights run pretty much straight parallel to the latest thinking in inbound marketing in general and social media marketing in particular:
  • Establish closer, more direct engagement with prospects and consumers- check
  • Provide simple ways to facilitate real-time interactions with customers- check
  • Be authentic; use transparent messaging and fresh and original content- check
  • Show your company’s human side to foster deeper connections with your audience- check
It all sounds good to me. Alternatively, you could wait five years to do all of this, but…
So what’s the bottom line? According to Branson, “Whether you are launching a start-up or leading an established company, you should start establishing your social media presence if you haven’t already.”

Thank you, Sir Richard; you took the words right out of my mouth.

Monday 15 October 2012

Klash App is Truth or Dare Meets Foursquare



For every time your best friend has challenged you to offer free hugs to strangers, pretend to be a celebrity or just eat something gross, have you wished more was at stake than just your ego? Now, there’s an app for that.

Klash, a social-rewards network, is the digital intersection of truth or dare and Foursquare. Launched two weeks ago, Klash allows users to log in to the app via Facebook or Twitter, and begin challenging friends in their networks in exchange for user-set rewards. It’s available for iOS or the Web.

The idea behind Klash came about when three then-students at Spain’s ESADE Business School took a surfing trip in Barcelona, and challenged a friend who had never surfed to catch a wave. His reward? One cold beer. At the end of trip, the friends began brainstorming ways to share their actions on a larger scale, and decided to develop a mobile application.

There are now five members on the Klash team, which operates out of Berlin. Klash users can limit their dares to other friends within their networks, or make public challenges to other subscribers on the site.
“With Klash, we try to connect people through their competitive instinct,” co-Founder Alessandro Petrucciani says. “We have seen a lot of people engaging in various klashes with each other. It’s a platform that is not only used in your friend circle, but also helps connecting like-minded people with same interests.”
Petrucciani, who pitched Klash on “This Week in Startups” in a mankini, would not comment on how many users the app has attracted so far.

Users can view the public page and pledge support for specific klashes, or just send challenges to friends within their own networks, and share through social media. But Petrucciani says there is no way to guarantee a klash will result in a reward, much like in real life.

Many of the current challenges, such as “Do 30 pushups in the morning in exchange for compliment”, are harmless. Others, such as “Moonwalk through every crosswalk” could get interesting.
Eventually, Petrucciani envisions Klash as a platform that includes sponsored challenges with certain brands in exchange for perks.

“Thanks to mobile, it’s very easy to create content, and thanks to the social networks, it’s even easier to distribute it online,” he says. “Our vision is to bring the digital world closer to the real world. Soundcloud has music, Amen has opinions, Klash has actions.”

Check out the promo for Klash below.


Friday 12 October 2012

Unfollowed on Twitter? Here’s Why


Have you ever wondered why there’s a decrease in the number of your Twitter followers? You might feel that you’re doing everything right, only to find that some of your precious Twitterers are leaving you. Before you hit the panic button (oh no, I’m a Twitter fiasco waiting to happen! Sound the drums and alert the guards!), read these first.

Reason 1: It’s not your fault
First off, let me say that the more followers you have, the higher the possibility there is that you will be experiencing some fluctuations in your follower count. You’ve probably unfollowed some people yourself, because you want to “clean up” your Twitter account.  For example, you may have decided that you want to keep your Twitter account strictly personal, and you only want to get Tweets from your friends.  Or you may have changed interests; you may have dumped the New York Knicks for the Houston Rockets when former Knicks star Jeremy Lin was traded for Houston. The point is, don’t kill yourself over some unfollows.  Believe me, it’s not worth it.

Reason 2: You’re an Irritating Twitter User
On the other hand, you may have also had a hand in your Twitter demise.  While some of your tweets can be interesting, a lot of them may annoy the hell out of people. There are posts that just don’t get read. Answer these simple questions with a yes or no:
  • Do you always post cryptic or weird tweets?  E.g.  The aliens aren’t coming, but I am.  Maybe it’s just me, but honestly, it’s not even remotely funny.  You may be doing this to heighten interest, but if there’s no follow-up tweet that would explain why your tweet is valuable to your audience, then you’ll most likely get the ax.
  • Do you use too many hashtags and @. You might be overloading your tweets with too many symbols.
  • You tweet the same thing for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and siesta.
  • Your tweets are a big bore. It’s been said before, so what makes your tweet valuable?   DIY
Themes says that you should add your own commentary if you’re sharing links in your tweets.  You can also give a succinct explanation about the most interesting aspects of the article.

Reason 3: You over-self-promote
You know that guy who only talks about me, myself, and I? Yeah.  You’d want to stay clear of his Amorphallus ego.  Twitter is a social network, not just a personal venting place for everything about @me.  People expect you to share something that benefits them. It’s also good if you “pay it forward” by mentioning or appreciating other Twitter users as well.

Reason 4: You have horrible manners
A social network is like a gathering of like-minded individuals. You follow the same people and they follow you back because of a common interest.  Like all social gatherings, some etiquette is expected.  On Twitter, acknowledge authors if you’re linking to their blog. You can add via @twitter_handle to your tweets.  Also, learn how to distinguish between tweets that should be sent through private message and those that can be announced to the public.  Too much information can make some people feel queasy.  Additionally, avoid being negative or aggressive. You can give a dissenting opinion without being a troll. And lastly, if someone asks you a question or addresses you on Twitter, it would be nice for you to respond. If you’re a business, expect customers to use your Twitter name like they would with your toll free numbers.

Reason 5: There’s no one there
How often do you tweet?  Once a week? Once a month?  Once a year?  On Twitter, news goes around pretty fast and tweets come in every microsecond. You shouldn’t spam people’s news feeds, but you should speak up once in a while too.
Unfollowed on Twitter? You can do something about it.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Twitter Considers Building Own Video Service

After removing third-party image-hosting services from its apps, Twitter is now looking to do the same with video, according to a report.

 According to AllThingsD, the San Francisco-based startup is thinking of building its own video-hosting technology. Video clips that users uploaded to Twitter through its apps would be hosted by Twitter, not third-party providers like yFrog and TwitVid. Twitter reps could not be reached.

As our own Christina Warren wrote when Twitter removed third-party image hosts last month, “Twitter doesn’t have a video-uploading option now, but there’s no reason to think that the company won’t have that option at some point.”

 It’s all part of Twitter’s stated mission to deliver a consistent end-to-end experience for consumers. As AllThingsD points out, if a third-party video provider has a technical glitch, there’s no way for Twitter to address the problem.

 Having its own video-hosting service could also open up new advertising opportunities: Advertisers might be incentivized to buy Promoted Tweets and Trends if they were able to display a video ad in-line, rather than having to link to a third-party site like YouTube. Potentially, Twitter could also run ads in front of videos users uploaded to the network.

 Should Twitter go ahead with the service, it’s bad news for the likes of yFrog and TwitVid — but they’ve had plenty of warning by this point, one could argue.

Monday 8 October 2012

The (Business) Case for Google+


A little more than a year after the launch of Google+, usership of Google’s “social layer” remains anemic. Brands, many of which jumped on board in the early days of Google+, have yet to enthusiastically embrace the platform. This is either because of simple platform fatigue, or – and most likely – because Google+ still looks like a ghost town.

But consider the long tail for a moment. There might not be as many users on Google+ as there are on Facebook or Twitter, but Google+ does have users – passionate, creative, enthusiastic users – who might love to follow your brand, if only you were active on their preferred channel.
Now, consider that many Google+ brand pages are mere shells – they exist, but they’re not active. These are brands you might compete with (either directly, or for attention) on other channels, but that just haven’t bought into Google+ yet.

And in that, is opportunity.
The business case for Google+, as it stands today, is not the various sharing options and ways to connect with your audience – those will always be there. The best reason to come on board right now is that your competitors are likely not active in the channel. And as long as brands stay away from Google+, the easier it is to get the attention of its users.

Like many opportunities, this one won’t last forever.
This year, Google has made several moves aimed at increasing adoption. This includes integrating Google+ into a user’s overall search experience (SPYW), converting Google Places listings into Google+ Local pages, and merging Google+ Business pages with Google+ Local pages.
Given this, brands will either come on board whole-heartedly or be left behind. The brass ring will go to the brands that do it sooner, rather than later.

Friday 5 October 2012

Deciphering Facebook’s One Billion Member Mark


There was a time when Facebook was synonymous with social media, when it was the only credible competitor Google had and when it seemed that its growth would be, well, unstoppable. That time has now passed.

If that statement sounds strange on the day that Facebook, quietly, announces it’s passed the one billion members mark it’s because of that announcement. Let me explain. Facebook has taken a beating of late. Its IPO was disastrous, its customer service reputation is in tatters and, it seems from the supposed leaked private messages debacle, even its very image is suffering.

It badly needs a win and in terms of winning nothing makes a statement bolder than size. When it comes to social networks Facebook is big. So big as a matter of fact that if it was a country its population would be 3.1 times bigger than the USA’s and 12.2 times that of Germany’s. As a matter of fact its population would be 1.33 times that of Europe’s with only India and China being larger than it by a fraction.
While that is an achievement for a company that’s just eight years old the superlatives have to stop here because what really counts in social media is not size but quality. Having gone past the point where fan numbers and Likes were sufficient to impress we are now at the stage of social business where we need to have some real ROI. And that can only be supplied by engagement.

From ads that fail to perform to moments where content is pushed without authorization Facebook has patently failed to engage its audience in a way which generates real cash. The reason why lies deep in the company’s psychosynthesis. Facebook, as its tagline, says “… helps you connect and share with the people in your life,” and I will be the first to admit that it does that brilliantly well, in a manner which generates stickiness for the site and virality in terms of attracting others. But here’s the problem: Facebook has succeeded so well in being the world’s favorite hangout place that it cannot be anything else.
Having got its huge membership base by convincing us to connect to friends and family it now finds that we resist when it asks us to become the Facebook equivalent of Amway reps charged with selling products to our closest contacts.

As a matter of fact that resistance is such that over the course of the last twelve months Facebook membership barely moved in Europe and Australia and fell in the United States, areas which most companies aim to market to.

The bulk of the Facebook rise which took the company past the one billion members mark came from Central America, the Middle East and Africa. While this has some obvious long term advantages when it comes to reaching an audience based in those countries at a low cost, in the short term it is of questionable marketing value.

The conundrum Facebook faces is that its growth model is now out of step with the profit requirements being placed upon it by its shareholders. How it will actually handle this may well determine the company’s fate.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

The iPad Mini Will Be Less of Everything


Most pundits believe Apple’s 7-inch tablet, the iPad Mini, will see light of day on Oct 17. Now with the date fast approaching, they’ve switched gears to guessing when the event invites will go out (most think Oct. 10th).
I have some iPad Mini predictions of my own, but not the ones you may think.
The tiny tablet — which Apple has never officially acknowledged — will be less of everything. It will be the iPad Retina’s stunted little brother.
It will offer less screen real estate than the 9.7-inch iPad and fewer overall pixels (though it is sure to be another retina-resolution display).
It will be a consumption device. The full-sized iPad has always been both consumption and creation. People write stories, build presentations, make music, and create artwork on the big iPad (along with reading, browsing the web and watching movies).
The iPad Mini will be about reading books, browsing the Web, listening to music, watching movies. It will support many, but not all, of the iPad’s apps, but will not have the same horsepower.
I fully expect the iPad Mini to run the Apple A5 chip (instead of the more powerful A6) chip and top out 32GB of storage. It’ll probably feature a half gigabyte of memory (RAM).
It’ll have an accelerometer and gyroscope, but probably not a magnetometer. More importantly, it won’t have GPS or 3G.
7-inch devices are usually for the home and its ever-present wi-fi, or used where there’s Wi-Fi available (maybe even tethered to a device such as the iPhone 5).
Many people download and consume books, movies and music while the 7-inch devices are offline (airplane use is a good example, though more people are starting to GoGo those devices, too).

Less = More

Despite all this, the iPad Mini will be a perfect example of “less is more.” By managing all the parts and capabilities, Apple will finally be able to offer a $199 tablet. As I’ve said before, the Cupertino tech giant has to offer a sub $200 tablet to remain competitive — at least in the 7-inch tablet space.
That space is now crammed full of worthy competing devices from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Google. The Kindle Fire HD, Barnes & Noble Nook HD and Google Nexus 7 are strong entrants that benefit from solid, growing and, in the case of Amazon, well-established ecosystems.
This is the competitive landscape I thought the iPad would face in early 2011, but has finally arrived in 2012, albeit in a form factor I thought consumers didn’t want.
Steve Jobs thought the same thing; he was adamantly against a mid-sized iPad. Current Apple CEO Tim Cook venerates Job’s memory, but that doesn’t mean he won’t go his own way: “Steve taught us to not focus on the past,” said Cook earlier this year, “Be future-focused.”
I think it’s now safe to say the future of tablets includes 7-inch devices.

A Nice Museum

So, now that we all agree that the iPad Mini is coming, that it will likely launch this month and that it will truly be a subset of the full-sized iPad, let’s talk about how Apple will unveil it.
Apple will launch the iPad in New York City … at the Guggenheim museum.
Now bear with me here: There is some logic to this odd idea.
At the beginning of 2012, Apple launched iBooks 2 and textbooks (and other digital tomes) built with the brand new iBooks Author. It was an unusual event, focused almost solely on software and content, though Apple demonstrated the new digital books on the iPad 2 and the authoring software on some large-screen iMacs.

I liked the ease of use and how beautiful the finished books looked on the iPad. It reminded me of what I sometimes miss when I read books and magazines on an e-ink-based Kindle.
Wouldn’t it make sense for Apple to unveil the device so perfectly designed for consuming those digital books in the very same venue? Indeed it would. There’s also the fact that Apple has almost never done two major hardware product roll-outs with two full-scale events in less than two months.
Part of the reason Apple might not do two large-scale West Coast events in less than 60 days: it is somewhat sensitive to what media outlets have to shell out to fly staffers to these events. A lot of tech media happens to reside in NY.

There’s also the simple fact that having a big event for a product that is a lesser version of its big brother will seem somewhat anticlimactic.
I just don’t see Apple gearing up for another major event so soon after the iPhone 5 and iPod update rollouts. Apple is also busy dealing the largest PR kerfuffle of Tim Cook’s administration: AppleMapsGate. Celebrating while the company licks its wounds just doesn’t seem right.
A smaller event run by content guy Eddie Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, will likely focus more on the special content ecosystem designed just for the iPad Mini — with less oohing and aahing about the hardware.
That could avoid the impression that Cook and his key lieutenants are not focused on resolving the iPhone 5′s biggest issue.

I could be wrong, of course. There might not even be an iPad Mini. But all the signs tell me there is, and that this launch will be fundamentally different from its predecessors.

Monday 1 October 2012

4 Secret Ways of Using Facebook for Business


There is no easy way to determine the correct Facebook marketing strategy. Here are some points that will help you out in figuring out a good marketing plan.

1. How many employees do you have?
Though there are pages and groups, and recently Facebook has also introduced a subscribe button, still nothing works like fan pages. Why fan pages are better than groups and subscribe buttons? Let's see...
First, fan pages give a branded image. They have your company logo and you can use them creatively using the timeline feature. Also, you can join other pages and comment on them to increase the visibility of your page. And second, you are able to advertise a fan page. You can't advertise a subscribe button.

2. Do you want to make a brand image?
If you want to create a brand image, you should open up a Subscribe button for your profile. This is a new feature of Facebook. This way, people will connect to you personally. Whatever updates you make on your profile will be visible to others. But keep in mind, that it will make your personal profile visible to people outside your friend's list.

3. Are you a solopreneur?
If you are running your business alone, it might get more difficult to decide a Facebook strategy. Since posts from subscribe button show up more in news feeds, you might get more subscribers than fans. So should you leave out the fan page altogether? Not really. Fan pages have many advantages that the subscribe button does not provide, as already discussed.

4. Do you manage a group of people?
We have already discussed fan pages and subscribe buttons. Now let's move on to groups. Groups are just perfect for businesses that form groups of some type. For example, a networking group, a group of schools, a social group, or a group that is focused on a specific niche.
Actually groups don't work best in promotion of a company, but if your business is all about bringing people together, then a group would be perfect for you. However, if your business is not like a group, you shouldn't use a Facebook group as your main marketing tool. Here is why:
Anyone can add people to a group. You might add some people who don't wish to be added. And this can irritate people. They might want to opt out. If you are running a group, you don't want to irritate people like that.

However, groups aren't all bad. If your business is indeed about bringing people together, then a group can be a great addition. You can use groups to schedule events, communicate, and share documents etc.
By answering these four questions, you can have a clearer Facebook marketing strategy, and you can decide what works best for your company. And if you have any questions, contact us and we'll help you out.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7296445