It happens every time.
Every time I upload a profile photo to Facebook, and their system mangles it into a pixellated, colourless abomination. I take a moment and summon enough energy to hate Facebook.
Because, when I do it for a client’s Facebook page, it costs me money. I have to explain why the picture quality is terrible, and why their logo is getting mangled. That it’s not me, it’s Facebook.
Then I think, “What’s the point of sharing my photos? They just look like crap.”
And then, I think to myself, “But, Facebook knows that their photo uploader is crappy. They know that photos are getting mangled – and because it wasn’t always this way, they did something to make it this way.”
And then I wonder why they would do that.
And then I wonder why they wouldn’t tell us how to do it properly.
And it’s then that I think Facebook is playing checkers, not chess, and they have little hope of winning the long-game of internet domination. I used to think that it would be Apple and Google, but that was with Jobs at the helm. Now, I’m not so sure.
What do you think? How do you feel about Facebook mangling your photos?
This entry was written by Sean Enns, posted on November 1, 2011 at 10:28 am, filed under Marketing, Social Media and tagged Facebook. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
I’m in a bit of a quandary.
When Klout hit the market, I admit the idea of measuring influence piqued my interest. Building one’s influence for the sake of free perks seemed like a great idea, and if Klout could become (as they claimed) the “Standard for online influence”, then finally we’d all have something to work toward. A way to counteract the million-a-day marketing messages we’re exposed to and place more power in the hands of the consumer.
Of course, I assumed that they were using a complicated algorithm to measure true reach. That they had subtle methods of measuring the relevance and value of conversations.
When you assume though, well, you know.
I just read this post on gaming klout, and this follow up that includes more examples of gaming klout. And my heart sank.
I’ll show you the most nefarious examples. Mi has a Klout score of 72. The Borg Collective has a Klout Score of 57.
In the first case, user Mi has 2 tweets, no fans and no followers. The Borg Collective, conversely, has thousands of tweets – but all of them are the same, they read @someusername: YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED (apparently they can’t even be bothered to add “resistance is futile” every now and then).
So, for everything I’ve added, my tweets and my Facebook pages and my blogs and my Google+ profile, it seems I’ve been wasting my time. I should really have just set up a bot to tweet the same thing over and over again.
This is my quandary, I really do think Klout is a good idea. I think measuring online influence is a big part of the future of social media and social signals in SEO. But not when the scores come from a system that’s so obviously broken.
This entry was written by Sean Enns, posted on October 3, 2011 at 9:44 am, filed under Social Media and tagged Facebook, Google, klout, Twitter. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Facebook recently announced some massive changes in their user interface. It’s making some big waves in social circles, every journalist worth their salt is taking the time to comment on the new sharing tools and overhaul to Facebook’s infrastructure.
Not such a freak for the technical discussions, which are occurring elsewhere, I’m interested in the philosophical discussion. What does Facebook want from us? What do they think we want? Can Facebook and Google+ share the same mindspace?
My initial thought is, yes, and no – there’s currently room for both – but eventually people will leave one for the other, depending on how much they want to share and how they want to share it.
Facebook wants your whole life. They want your recipes, your running routes, your work information and your personal and professional history. They want your hobbies, your musical and movie interests, all for the sake of helping categorize you and helping others similar to you discover new things. (They also want to sell you more relevant ads, but that’s another topic)
It’s a good plan, and it fits with Facebook’s mission which is to “Make the world a more open and candid place.” I’m just not sure I’m comfortable sharing that much (or using a system where I have to opt-out of sharing).
Google+, on the other hand, has a different approach to sharing and discovery. I believe that Google, like Facebook, wants all the world’s information. But while Facebook wants to use that information to provide answers to questions we haven’t asked yet and open the books of our lives for all to read, I think Google will stay on path to “organize all the world’s information” and ultimately, wait until we ask the question.
I like Facebook, but I’m concerned that the new changes are based almost entirely in sharing and discovery and not enough in conversation, which Google+ has a definite advantage with. Facebook’s take on personal privacy is equally off-putting, and it seems as though if you have something to hide, then Facebook doesn’t want you in their sandbox.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.
This entry was written by Sean Enns, posted on September 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm, filed under Social Media and tagged Facebook, Google. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
It seems every major corporation and conglomerate has grokked on to social media as a broadcasting tool. As a result, there’s a drive for businesses of all types and sizes to make the leap from ‘broadcasting at’ to ‘communicating with’.
It’s a great idea for businesses and entrepreneurs to get inside the minds of their followers and fans. You have access to a wealth of feedback and inside information about your services through the eyes of your actual clients.
Having said that, if you operate in a town like Nanaimo with only 80,000 people you’ll be facing some challenges before a social media campaign starts working for you. Here are my ten tips for making social media work in a smaller market.
1) Tweeting is a luxury that you probably can’t afford.
Twitter is cool, but there isn’t much to be gained beyond the glory of tweeting. Realistically, you just won’t get a huge amount of followers, those followers won’t convert to business and unless you’re really active, most of what you say will get lost in the crowd. If you have a small hotel or restaurant you may see some success by posting ‘web only’ specials. I really only recommend it for businesses with 50 employees or more, or those who are already spending a lot of time marketing their business online.
2) Blogging is still awesome.
Blogging is still a great way to generate content, build links and boost your search rankings. Most hosting accounts come free with WordPress or some other blogging CMS and support text, images and videos.
3) Lifestreaming is the new blogging.
I could dedicate a whole post to this. Lifestreaming is a new way of documenting the activities surrounding your life using a chronologically-ordered collection of information. For instance, I have everything connected to my WordPress Blog including my twitter feed, my deviantART account, my Facebook fan page and my LinkedIn profile. I get good, link rich content and a free post every week with links to my activity around the web. Watch out for more like this in 2010, as the trend will be to invent new ways to aggregate everything for me in one place. It takes a bit to wrap your mind around it, but a good place to start is here.
4) Facebook fan pages.
Don’t link to your personal Facebook profile for business use unless they’re inseparable. Creating a fan page allows you to have the same posting and communicating ability, but limits customers to only seeing business related content, not your cousin Judd’s halava recipe.
5) Social media is the tortoise, not the hare.
Slow and steady wins the race. A new friend here, a new connection there. Unless you’re Gary Vaynerchuk, you should just be content to spend no more than an hour a day on social media marketing campaigns.
6) Examine your goals before diving in.
Different social media campaigns can get different results. Blogging will increase rankings and SEO, but isn’t always a great sales tool. Twitter may give a temporary boost of traffic, but the effects aren’t long lasting. Flickr is a great way to share photos, but won’t generate much for new business. You can increase chances of conversion with custom landing pages and links, but these strategies are usually beyond the purveyance (and budget) of most small business entrepreneurs.
7) Maybe you don’t need it at all.
Ignore all of the networks, TV shows, superstars, pundits and adverts and examine what your actual market is. Are there any other general contractors on Twitter? Are there any CGAs with Facebook pages? What % of people in Nanaimo do you think are on Twitter? What’s the dialogue like for the average entrepreneur? If you don’t see anyone doing it in your industry, don’t look at it as an opportunity to reach an untapped market, because it probably isn’t.
8) Try before you buy.
Organization and timing are very important and it will take you several hours to set up the social channels so before you commit to branded social media pages, launch a test campaign and see how you feel about the results. A simple one or two week campaign in the beginning is a great way to gauge the response of your customers to this type of marketing
9) How will you inform people?
If you build it, it will sit there. That’s my new motto for 2010, because it’s not enough anymore to just build a site and profile. Conventional SEO (page titles and content) are just a foundation these days and unless you are alone in the market, are probably not sufficient to build up decent rankings. Having a twitter page and a Facebook page will not entice people to communicate with you, you have to work it and continually provide value. Asking people to join is a great way, if you have a newsletter list. Advertise on your web site, and incentivize people who join and follow you with exclusive promotions.
10) Who dares, wins.
It’s not that the internet is dominated by 17 year old’s with a penchant for lolcats, it’s that the internet is dominated by 17 year old’s with a penchant for lolcats. Edgy content wins every time, so you’re better off having a video of a car driving through your front widow or a faux haunting than you are having walkthrough tours of your custom built character home. I’ve often said that a great social media campaign is one that gets people who would never use your product or service to talk about it.
That about sums it up, of course it’s up to you to decide if social media marketing is right for your clients. Be organized, be daring and you could be the next willitblend. You never know!
This entry was written by Sean Enns, posted on March 8, 2010 at 1:51 pm, filed under Marketing, Social Media and tagged Blog, Facebook, Tips, Twitter. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.