January 18, 2011 at 2:21 pm | Posted in Facebook | Leave a comment
One day on my daily feeds, I came across an article by Talyor Ellwood, a social media coach and owner of the website Imagine Your Reality.
This article had a seemingly inconspicuous title: Being Personal on Facebook as a Marketing Strategy.
I read on particularly because I was partial to that kind of thinking. At least, I was prior to reading the actual article.
A disclaimer: This is not a response to the article or her opinions; these are simply my own thoughts on the subject.
Company + Personality + Facebook = ???
This is an age old question that I dare not even answer. Not only do I not have the expertise or experience required to even fathom making a judgment call on that, but there are also countless case studies that both support and disprove the theory that personality on Facebook is an ideal corporate strategy. What I am saying is the reason why this question does not have an answer – it’s different for everyone and will/won’t work on a case-by-case basis.
Facebook, fundamentally, allows for the creation and interaction of and between your own social network. That’s all it does. The content and context of that interaction differs as much as there are different types of people in your friend’s list. Sometimes, your personality shines and on others, it severely backfires on you. That’s simply how ANY relationship works.
I think that this is the curse of any business-minded individual or corporation. We are so desensitized to formulaic models and tried-and-true theories that we expect the same to apply in social media. But, I hope we remember that social media is just that – SOCIAL. Motivation, personality, communication – these social factors and elements in our daily interactions never had any scientific reasoning behind them and probably never will.
But, between you and me, that’s exactly why I like waking out of bed every morning.
December 7, 2010 at 1:37 pm | Posted in Facebook | Leave a comment
If it’s anything like the public hesitation to jump onto Twitter’s new design, I daresay that a good number of you out there are displaying the same hesitation to jump to Facebook’s new profile page.
Well, I decided one day to just say “what the hey” and take the plunge on the latter. After using it exhaustively (Proof? Three words: Birthday and Wall Posts 😉 ), I proudly present the Top 3 Reasons to Like AND Hate the new Facebook Profile Page!
1. One-Stop wall post list. By far, this is the -one- big problem they almost (more on this later) solved. It’s always a pain to have to go through the bajillion ways to finally get to a wall comment of a random friend. Now, it pops up to your wall page SMS-style for easy, one-click response.
2. Which photos are in your five? Taking a page out of T-Mobile’s “five” book, the new profile page now allows you to pick 5 photos to prominently display for your friends/visitors. This is particularly cool because it allows you to set a theme for the pictures to put your best foot forward for your new friends, critical employers and hopefully future spouses.
3. Show me your badge. Inconspicuously located at the bottom left of the new profile page is the new badge system. I could be wrong if this is actually new: it may have been even more inconspicuously hidden somewhere else before, but I digress. This allows you to create a widget-like badge to handily display your profile on your website, blog, etc. Definitely handy if you prefer your Facebook image rather than your blogger image, for example.
BTW: You can currently check out what a badge looks like at the top right of this blog. Like it? Hate it? Let me know at the comments!
1. Where’s Wall-post? True story: My mother (bless her heart, but she’s honestly part Facebook stalker) made it a point to tell me that I failed to respond to one of the people who greeted me a happy birthday on my wall. This was easily remedied, but then I noticed I missed a bunch of others as well because it did not show up on my profile page. Particularly annoying, especially if you have no other way to easily check wall posts (Yay for smartphones!).
2. What? I have to click TWICE to update my status? In an attempt to increase usability, Facebook decided to segment all update activity into separate clicks (video, photo, links). But by doing so, they also decided to add a new status button as a 4th option, scrapping the previous update text box. This means, you guessed it, you have to choose an option before being able to type anything, even if it’s a three-word status. Call me picky, but there’s a distinct decrease in usability between 1 click updates and 2+ clicks. I blame Amazon for spoiling us with it’s 1-click shopping model.
3. Photo Stream Malfunction. Scandalous moments can happen at a single moment, and having the wrong photo pop up in your Facebook profile front and center can spell immediate disaster for your personal and professional life. It’s completely static right now (as far as I can tell), but depending on how Facebook programs this in the future, you could end up having to constantly monitor your profile page just to make sure of your photo stream. You and Facebook have to be EXTREMELY careful your wild party last night doesn’t end up on your parent’s/boss’ screens.
And there you have it! Depending on what side of the fence you’re on, I hope I encouraged you to either jump in or stay away from the new profile page. Since it’s still undergoing tests and changes, it’s not mandatory to change yet. But, Facebook has said that this will become a permanent change later on.
So, before this post becomes moot, I hope you keep enjoying Facebook your way and pray that Facebook ultimately delivers on its promise of user experience and simplicity.
tweetforaliving 