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Michelle Ton

Facebook’s Big Announcement? Graph Search is here.

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graphsearchAs I’m sure many of you have heard by now, Facebook made a pretty big announcement yesterday – users will now be able to perform searches throughout the social networking site on people, places and things.  Graph search is going to allow users to do more than just search for “Suzie Smith.”  It’s going to let user ask questions like “what other friends of mine like the city of Dayton?”

Graph search also lets users search for things nearby – which can prove pretty useful when you’re in an unfamiliar city.  That feature specifically puts Facebook more in line to start moving towards a “Yelp” like app – allowing it to serve a greater purpose than just status updates and photo sharing.  Is that really the best use of  Facebook though? I’m not sure.

Unfortunately, this new feature is still in the beta stage.  The good news about that, is that it gives YOU the opportunity to clean up your online profile a bit before graph search hits a bigger audience.  Venture Beat recently put out a good article about some things a user should consider and take action on.

Here are my takeaways.

Take a look at all the pages you like and groups you’re in.  As VB states, saying that you like a band named something maybe inappropriate, might not be a major deal on a lower level – but when you aggregate that search using graph search – it could turn into something really inappropriate pretty quickly.  If anything you think is questionable, it’s best just to delete, unlike, and leave.

Make sure you delete using your activity log.  Deleting items from the news feed that you posted, or from your timeline profile – doesn’t really delete them.  More or less, all that really does is hide them in Facebookland.  You’ll want to go to the activity log on your profile and delete out of there and then it will no longer show up in search.  EVER.

Check your privacy settings. It should be a no brainer by now that whenever Facebook updates something site-wide, that you should check your privacy settings to make sure nothing has changed.  Luckily, with their last update, the privacy settings are easier than ever to find.  Whatever your privacy settings are set as will be honored by graph search.  So you if you only allow certain people to see your birthdate of February 2 – only those individuals will be able to see that you are included on a graph search for people born on February 2.

And again – this is still sitting in beta testing stage – so only a handful of users will have access to it at this point, which means you have plenty of time to start sifting through and prep yourself for what’s to come.

Social media for natural disasters

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In the aftermath of Hurrican Sandy – aka Frankenstorm – I’ve affirmed a couple different things.  First, east coast superstorms are real and no state or city is ever really “safe” from having a natural disaster come their way.  Second, social media is king when it comes to getting the most information in a state of emergency.

 

I think when it comes down to it,  nothing beats major news networks like feet on the street reporters.  Like our local WHIO eye witness reports, each one of us has the power when it comes to sharing information that is most relevant to those in our local areas.  Many of us are already active on social channels – such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.  We’re already sharing photos and status updates with our friends and family, and often its the only way to communicate when power lines are down.

 

As one tweeter says:

 

Social media often times also helps speed up recovery efforts.  It puts those in charge in contact with those on the scene.  Probably the most powerful of all communication tools, in my opinion, social sharing is the most valuable and most effective because it allows us to share and take information from those whom we are familiar with – those whose opinions matter the most.

Here are some tips when engaging with others during a natural disaster:

  •  On Twitter, make sure you find out and use what the hashtag is.  For example, #Sandy – so that others can easily follow.  You may also want to add a hashtag to your location – #Dayton – so people who are monitoring what happens in a particular area know exactly where you’re tweeting from
  • On all social channels, be smart about what information you’re sharing.  Fact check it.  Nothing is worse than sharing false information when it can spread so quickly through social.
  • No one likes photoshopped photos.  Be authentic and transparent
  • Don’t be selfish.  Put more information up than what directly affects you.  In times of crisis, people want to help and need you to tell them how to best do that.

What are some ways you’ve used social media during a natural disaster?

Watch out tweeters, the new Twitter is here.

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Looks like Twitter is upping it’s ante – in user customization and user interface that is.  With all the changes we’ve seen over the past year with Facebook, it was only a matter of time before we see some major updates from Twitter.

The most obvious change is the new header image.  Similar to Facebook’s timeline cover photo, this is a customizable image that sits behind your logo and bio.  What it really does is bring the attention and focus to you, instead of to your tweets – but that’s a good thing!  I’ve heard a lot of complaints from clients in the past because their logo or photo might have been too small or unreadable.  With this change, it allows you to make a legible logo photo and allows you to brand behind it.

To customize:  you have up to 1252×626 to design this space.  You could certainly upload any photo you already have and scale it size.  I would recommend playing around with this and finding something that’s not too busy in the background to get the most of the attention focused on your bio.

 


Another major update which you’ll notice when you tweet from your mobile device, is an enhanced photo viewing capability.  You can now see the photos inline with the tweets, instead of having to click through.  They’ve also optimized the app so that it moves much more quickly for the user – so no more waiting for photos to load!

What do you think of the new twitter?

Social Cheat Sheets for Social Newbies

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If you are new to social media networking, you know how overwhelming it can be.  Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+ – the list goes on and on!

Fear no more, Mashable has assembled a list of 12 Essential Social Media Cheat Sheets that covers everything from Facebook timeline to Twitter etiquette.

 

Here are a couple of my favorites.

Facebook Sizes and Dimensions – this one is seriously awesome for any web developers out there.  I know there have been many times when I’ve been asked to create photos for a client and I have to search through multiple sites to get all the info I need on pixel sizes.  This cheat sheet sums it all up.  And for non developers, this can help you make sure you always have perfectly sized or cropped photos.

Twitter Newbies need to have this one bookmarked.  It contains the absolute essential twit-terms for new tweeters.  There is nothing more frustrating to a seasoned user than seeing hashtags (#) in a Facebook post.  This cheat sheet tells you what it’s used for, which hopefully will make those of you who do that understand why it makes no sense on Facebook – unless you have your two accounts linked (then in which case you can’t help it).

 

 

And when confused about what each social network’s purpose is, please view this fun infographic of social media explained in donuts.

Apps for Productivity

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Smartphones are meant to help make our busy lives, a little less busy.  However, if you’ve just joined the ranks as a smart phone user, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the new features newly available to your mobile device.  Or perhaps you’re an avid smart phone user but you may be feeling a bit bogged down with all the apps you already have.  Lucky for you, at last Friday’s New Media Dayton meetup, the discussion was all about what apps are worth the investment – both time and money.

For iOS users (iPhone, iTouch, iPad), the options are endless.  To get an app, you have to go through the Apple App Store.  Android users on the other hand, don’t have quite the scale in their app store (called Google Play).  They do however, have a variety of places where they can get apps – one of which being the Amazon App Store.  Amazon offers one free app each day (and sometimes quite the bargain!).  In order to access, you’ll need to have the Google Marketplace app installed on your device.

One thing both OS users need to know is that it’s important to thoroughly read the review on an app – both good and bad – before downloading.  You may find some surprising things about the app, such as updates that break it, or that it’s actually a phony app.  Another piece of advice – if there’s a free version, download that before you make the plunge to plunk down some money.  It’s always better to try before you buy, even if the free one doesn’t give you everything you’re looking for right off the bat.

Now here’s the list of must try apps:

  • Evernote -Freemium –  great for capturing notes, voice, images – and then syncing them across platforms
  • Penultimate – $0.99 (iOS only) – great for handwritten notes
  • Dropbox – Freemium (pay for space) – great for sharing files with colleagues
  • iAnnotate – $9.99 – use this if you need to make notes on PDFs or sign forms
  • Square – fee based – if you want to accept mobile payments – turn your phone or iPad into a cash register!
  • Instagram – free – photoshop filters on your phone in a flash
  • Dark Sky – $3.99 – a cool new way to view the weather
  • Quick Office Pro – $14.99 – unofficial Microsoft Office’s mobile version; allows you to connect your other web docs accounts
  • SeekDroid – Freemium (Droid only) – similar to iOS’ Find my iPhone app, allows you to find your phone or remote wipe your phone from your PC

Facebook Timeline – it’s coming and here’s what to do about it

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March 30 marks the official launch of Facebook Timeline for businesses and pages.  Why does this matter to you? Well, for starters, if you’re a business owner, you’ll need to revisit your page design and make any changes necessary.  And if you’re just a person, this means Facebook is one step closer to launching timeline to your personal profile page.

If you haven’t yet launched timeline or want to know a little bit more about what it offers you – check out my blog post from the beta launch.

The biggest design change is the cover photo.  This is a photo that you can upload into Facebook or you can use an existing photo from your Facebook albums.  The cover photo can be about 720 pixels wide by 265 pixels high.  Your profile photo is now 180 pixels square.   One rule you must follow is there should never be a “call-to-action” in the cover photo – that means no “like this page!” or “enter this contest”.  Facebook will find you and call you out and may even shut your page down.  What this top area is great for is as a place to showcase YOU (whether that’s you or your business).  (the upper left image is an example of what my company, Teradata, has done)

Business owners – one of the new features I love about the new timeline for pages is that it allows you to contact your fans as the page.  This is great because it protects your privacy as the administrator and doesn’t require you to use your personal account to interact with the page.

Of course, with any Facebook changes, it’s a good idea to always take a time-out and check your privacy options.   I would check:

1) the default privacy settings dropdown in the upper right corner and

2) the privacy settings in the profile edit screen.   These areas give you pretty much full control over who sees what.


To double-check that you aren’t showing the world your most intimate details, I would advise to use the “View As” feature on your profile page (under your cover photo in the gear dropdown).  This allows you to see how a friend, non-friend, certain friends view your profile.
Please comment below and let me know of any other questions/concerns you may have and I will be do my best to answer!

The power of social media

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By now, most of the general pubic has jumped onto the social media train. You have a Facebook account. You follow people on Twitter. You make connections on LinkedIn. You watch videos on YouTube. So on and so forth. How many times while using these social networks have you ever thought you would get something out of it? Probably it that much, am I right?

What most people don’t realize is that socially connected brands want you to talk to them. They want you to tell the work about your likes and dislikes. Research shows that 85% of marketers believe that consumer insight is a top reason to be socially active. Businesses both large and small are monitoring their industries and brand to find their brand advocates (both positive and negative). By using the feedback they receive in social media, they are able to make improvements to their business and learn how to crisis manage in a faster timeframe. They can also use the information to solicit their fans to help create buzz around product launches and other events.

How do I get noticed by these companies? Start talking about them! For me, it’s easiest to do @mention shout outs and use hash tags on Twitter. See my two examples below:

Facebook is a little more difficult to get the attention of a company when you just post a status message. To really get the attention, comment on the fan page or checkin through Facebook Places. One local place that does this well is Junebug’s Cupcakes. I recently posted a brief review of some cupcake bakeries in Dayton and my sister shared my blog post on their wall. My blog post probably sent a good amount of traffic over to their website and by sharing, we let them know that we like their food. In return, I get some referrals back from fans on their page and an increased chance that next time I visit their bakery, they might recognize me which may result in some fantastic cupcake deals.

The important thing to remember is not every company will respond to your shout outs – and that’s okay. I would never encourage anyone to start talking about certain brands just because they give freebies. I would encourage others to talk about or endorse certain brands because of their responses on social media. I think that shows that a company understands its audience and really listens to them. It allows customer service to be at a whole new personal level. And in the end – isn’t that what we all really want – to be known as a face with a name and not just a number?

 

Say what – Scrapbooking is cool, again?

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When I was growing up, scrapbooking was what mothers and grandmothers did to preserve the memories in a family.  It was a crafty way to enhance a photo, or relive a moment in their loved ones life.  I remember having scrapbooking parties at my friend’s house – decked out with the latest in polka-dot stationary, crazy corner hole punches, and cheesy stickers.

Since those days, the scrapbook era has long faded.  That is until a few months ago when a new social networking site popped up and spurred the interest of scrapbookers and vision board makers across the globe.  Pinterest has become Scrapbooking 2.0 – and it’s reign has just begun.

What is this site all about anyways? Pinterest offers users the joy of “pinning” photos found on the web or other users boards to a plethora of personal boards (board = online scrapbook category).  These boards can contain anything from recipe ideas, clothing ideas, DIY projects, places you want to travel to, and more.

The social aspect comes in as you pin items and other people can comment on your photos or “repin” your photo to their boards.  You can even follow other users to get instantly inspired each time you log on.

To get started, you will have to get an invite to join.  Here are some tips on how to get an invite quicker, in case you don’t want to wait the several days it usually takes to get one.  Once you get an invite, decide what boards you want to start collecting, and start pinning!

 

You can find items to pin by looking through the Pinterest web site, or by surfing the web.  They offer a browser toolbar “Pin it” button that makes it quick and easy to add something to a board.  There is even an iPhone app that allows you to take photos and pin them to your boards.

I will forewarn all you eager to get started with using Pinterest.  It is a bit of a time sucker and is very easy to get addicted to.  But that’s not always a terrible thing, right? 🙂

SoMoLo is here, are you ready?

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If you thought 2011 was the year for social, you were (partly) wrong.  2012 has barely begun and already boasts to top last year’s record with social media engagement and take it to the next level.  This year, it’s about what some may know as
With tablet sales majorly increasing over the holiday season with the launch of Kindle Fire, more people than ever have access to the internet and applications than ever before.  Marketers and retailers are trying to get our attention at every click of the mouse.  And we’re willing to engage – as long as we come out with the benefits.SoMoLo – social, mobile, local.  2012 means social needs to be accessible from anywhere and anytime and remain relevant to the user.

How do you make sure you’re receiving what you want? That takes a bit of planning.  For starters, check what email lists you’re subscribed to, what apps have access to your accounts, and what information you’re putting on the world wide web.  This will help make sure that advertisers see only what you want them to see, and in return, you see what you want to see.

Next, seek out local businesses that you frequent – or wish to frequent – and see what specials or offers they may have.  The best app to use is something like Yelp or Foursquare.  Both apps give you a chance to explore your area and see what specials are available through your tablet or smartphone.

Finally, if you don’t have a smartphone yet, fear not.  You can still use the search option on any social media site to find out about your local area.  Follow them on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.  You’ll be surprised at the abundance of information (and deals!) you can get – and it’s all right at the touch of your fingertips.

Have Yourself a Very Social Christmas.

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Christmas music is in the air, the stores are run amuck with frantic last minute shoppers, and there’s an awful lot of melted wanna-be snow falling from the sky.  There’s no doubt that we’re coming close to the biggest holiday of the year.  What makes this time of year better than the rest is that just about everyone is overcome with the spirit of giving – which is where social, and social good can come into play.

 

Here are some ideas for integrating social good into your holiday strategy:

  1. Use social media to give shout-outs to your favorite people or places.  Word-of-mouth is best compliment one can receive, and putting that on social makes it publicized word-of-mouth.
  2. Send a social holiday greeting.  Use sites like JibJab to send fun cards that you can personalize and then share through social media sites.
  3. Give a social media gift.  Retweet someone’s tweet, comment or like a Facebook post, give a LinkedIn recommendation – all FREE ideas.  Or if you want to spend some cash:  buy a personal domain for someone’s blog, buy a smartphone or tablet, or get your unemployed friend a premium LinkedIn Job Seeker account.
With just over a week until Santa comes to town, there isn’t much time left to prepare for Christmas.  But what you can do, is try one of my tips above, and help to  spread some holiday cheer.
Happy Holidays Dayton!

Facebook the Money-Maker?

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There’s been a lot of talk this week about Facebook going public in 2012.  The social networking company is going to valued around $100 billion dollars, according to The Wall Street Journal.  In a time when some mainstream Internet companies are filing their IPOs (LinkedIn and Groupon most recently, it seems almost fate that Facebook would follow suit.

So what does this mean for you as a potential investor?

If you’ve got the funds to throw down for a piece of the action, I’d consider it.  Facebook doesn’t appear to be coming down anytime soon in its reign as one of the top web entities to exist.  On the other hand, it’s possible that the Facebook IPO could suffer from “Groupon Syndrome” – where the highly anticipated value experienced a down fall as stock prices dropped for multiple days.

As a user of the site, it could mean good things as far as user experience and privacy goes because of the increase in stakeholders for the company.  I’m betting that the average user won’t notice any changes.  But, as Facebook continues to find more ways to make money, we may end up paying the biggest price of all.

Do you think Facebook should IPO?

Learn something new about.me

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With the constant explosion of social media sites and networks launching left and right, the last thing anyone is thinking about is trying to learn a new one, right?  Well, I’m going to prove you wrong.  There is a new (sort of) category of social sites out there that actually help you to kind of manage your social media interactions.  They serve as personal home page for either you or your business.  These sites are about.me and flavors.me.

Why should you use one of these sites? For me, it all comes back to personal branding.  The page serves as another spot for you to put your “brand keywords” into that ultimately get indexed by Google and bring your PageRank up – AND because it’s linked to your social accounts, that almost guarantees that if you use it correctly, there is no doubt that it will help bump you up higher on the list when you Google yourself.

Here’s a nice article from TechZulu about the differences between the two sites.  The net is, one has a cleaner look while the other makes a bit of money off of your quest for complete customization.  Setting up your personal page is pretty straightforward.  Sign up for an account, then walk your way through each step to customize.  Each site offers you a place to include a biography, connect to your social media accounts, and add a background (custom or stock).  It does take some playing around to get the perfect look.

 

So what are you waiting for?  Get started building your page now, then post it here in the comments for everyone to see!

Follow the chatter

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In preparation for an upcoming New Media Dayton meeting next week, where Keri Jaehnig (Idea Girl Media) and I will be speaking to small business owners and individuals alike about social media tools, I wanted to give the readers here at Dayton Most Metro a little preview of what can be expected and get some feedback about what you would like to hear about.

I don’t care about social, so why should I learn about the tools? For starters, social media is about more than just logging into Facebook or Twitter and checking out what your friends have to say.  For the individual, social is about helping you find new interests through your peers and reconnecting with old friends.  For the business owner, it’s about discovering new insights about your customers and ways in which you can provide the best service to them.

One tool that I would like to share ahead of the meeting is called TweetChat.  This site allows Twitter users to track and follow hashtags.  By following a hashtag, you can see all the activity produced by a particular event.  Tweetchat lets you respond and contribute to the conversation in an easier way than using Twitter.com.

I would encourage all of you to follow along next Friday (11/11) at 9:30am to the #NMDayton meeting and see what other tools we are going to share, and if you can stop by the meeting, we’d love to meet you!

Facebook Privacy 101

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Facebook has notoriety in messing with privacy options.  Through the past few years, there have been numerous changes and additions that have most people wondering, “Who is looking at my information?”  With so many options, it’s difficult to know which ones are the right ones to change.  One wrong click can be the difference between having a “locked-down” profile and one that is open for the world (literally!) to see.  Here are my top 3 tips to ensuring security and peace of mind for your Facebook account.

First, get friendly with the official privacy settings. In this area, you will see a list to set your privacy as one of 3 things: public (everyone), friends only, or custom.  By choosing one of the options at the top, it will make a blanket change to all the areas listed below (how you connect, how tags work, apps and websites, audience for past posts, and blocked people and apps).  Each of those sub areas also have their own set of settings, so be sure to look in there as well.

Next, check out your profile privacy settings. When you go to edit your profile, you will see a little dropdown that allows you to choose how you want to share each piece of information.  It used to be that there was one setting for each option (education, interests, etc.) but now, Facebook offers you pretty much complete control on each item.  The settings in here will affect not only how your friends view your profile, but also how you show up in Facebook search.  Another new feature, noted at the top of the edit page, is the ability to “view profile as” a specific friend or the public – so you can see the changes you make along the way.

Finally, your status update is the last place where there are settings to be aware of. The default setting for who sees your updates are what you set in the “Official” privacy settings.  However, you do have the option to change this to broadcast an update to a particular group of people (a Facebook list or group) or to make it public to the world.

After reading this post, I suggest you go back, take a look at what your personal settings are and adjust them as needed.  With all the security issues that happen beyond our control, this is one thing you can do to prevent any information from getting out that you might not want published.

Twitter Tweeter

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A nice handful of people who are currently using Twitter today, actually have no idea how to use or why.  That probably is one of the main reasons that only 5% of users create 75% of the content that is curated on the microblogging platform.  Though I wouldn’t necessarily brand myself as an expert or guru on this social network, I do know that using Twitter is about 2 things and only 2 things: branding and engagement.

When you use Twitter, you give yourself a searchable online presence (unless your account is set to private).  This makes it extremely important that when first starting out, you think carefully about your username, background, and bio.  Like making a first impression, these are vital to letting your followers discover who you are and what you are about.  Whether you’re a job seeker, student, working professional or wandering nomad, you have control over what perception you want others to have of you.  Use those areas to your advantage!  Every time you tweet, you’re making a mark on your personal brand.

Twitter is great because it lets people connect in a way that could never happen in real life organically.  I’ve had some engagements with social media “rock stars” like Amber Naslund (@AmberCadabra) and her employer Radian6 (@Radian6).  In traditional business, I would never be able to get an email through to the VP of Social Strategy unless I was in upper management, but in social media, I can have a conversation with Amber and it’s no big deal.  For Radian6 and other companies who use Twitter, it really humanizes the brand and allows them to be reachable to the everyday person.  Aside from the 140 character limit (or as I say the 120 character limit to allow for retweeting), those bit.ly links, hashtags (#), and mentions (@) in your tweets are just as important as the message you share.

To boil it down, if you’re going to start using Twitter, some things to remember: use a profile photo, put a bio in – and don’t be afraid to be personal, change the background to something other than the default, and when posting – use tweets to talk with others at the very least.