One Social Ton

Facebook’s Big Announcement? Graph Search is here.

January 17, 2013 By Michelle Ton Leave a Comment

As 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

November 1, 2012 By Michelle Ton Leave a Comment

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?

Apps for Productivity

June 12, 2012 By Michelle Ton Leave a Comment

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

March 29, 2012 By Michelle Ton Leave a Comment

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

February 28, 2012 By Michelle Ton Leave a Comment

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?

February 9, 2012 By Michelle Ton Leave a Comment

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? 🙂

Facebook Privacy 101

October 18, 2011 By Michelle Ton Leave a Comment

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

September 22, 2011 By Michelle Ton 3 Comments

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.