Archive for Facebook
Facebook Friday: Can’t We Just Be Subscribers?
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The “subscribe” button is a new feature introduced this week by Facebook. Intended for those in the public eye who want to continue posting updates intended for their friends, the button allows them to share certain “public” content to a broader audience, soon to be known as subscribers.
It’s ideal for journalists, actors and other public figures who aren’t in a position to accept every friend request, but who still want to connect on Facebook. If you’re a member of the media, the “Facebook + Journalists” page has all the details, including a “Subscribe for Journalists Guide” PDF they posted today.
Facebook Friday: Try Occupational Targeting
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Although little has been written about it, Facebook allows you to target specific occupations when setting up an ad program. That’s right, if you want to reach marketing managers (or orthodontists or architects) with your message, there’s a way to do that using the “Precise Interests” selection. This Search Engine Watch blog post offers step-by-step instructions.
Facebook Friday: How to Combine Facebook Pages
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For today’s edition of Facebook Friday, we’re sharing a technique we came across via the LinkedIn “Facebook Users” group explaining how to combine Facebook pages. Based on the LinkedIn comments and the many thanks and re-tweets we received yesterday, this solves a big problem that many page admins seem to be facing.
To change the name of your Facebook page and merge it with another one someone started, this tip from creative digital firm Hathway, of San Luis Obispo, Calif. should help! Let us know if it works or if you have other tips to go along with this topic and we’ll be sure to share. Thanks, Hathway.
Merry Christmas, Hon
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Laura Vozzella’s column in the Baltimore Sun does a great job of capturing the PR firestorm over a local restaurateur’s decision to trademark “Hon.”
Rather than debate the merits of the decision to claim rights to the word and the way the restaurateur went about defending her point of view, look at how PR missteps and social media are intensifying this storm.
Many people continue to say “any publicity is good publicity.” BP doesn’t think so, and the owner of this restaurant (and gift shop and festival) surely won’t believe it when this fiasco eventually fizzles out.
The mishandling of the news led to a spoof Twitter account, boycott the restaurant Facebook page, blog posts, newspaper comment section posts, a protest and a string of critical Yelp “reviews,” all within hours of this firestorm. Fanning the flames even more, the restaurant’s graphic design (and presumably not PR) consultant weighed in with a profanity-laced post (click on comments to find the one from “springray“) that went viral, while a rejected Yelp review found a new life and many more eyeballs on countless blogs.
In the meantime, Buzz is dying to hear what counsel the unidentified “publicist” referenced in The Sun‘s column offered when the the idea to trademark “Hon” was discussed!
Facebook Friday: Is Facebook Email Headed Our Way?
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It’s Facebook Friday here at Sawmill, so isn’t it convenient that we’re hearing rumors today about a big Facebook announcement coming Monday.
If the investigative bloggers and re-tweeters are correct, we’ll soon have access to Facebook email addresses. What impact will a Facebook email service have on Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL? We’ll soon find out. For me, buzz@facebook.com has a nice ring to it!
Update: On Monday, Nov. 15, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg announced details of what he called a “modern messaging system” that combines all of your messages (text, SMS, email) into a single conversation history and “social in-box” that filters and presents only the messages you want to see from the people you want to hear from. You can read all the details on the Facebook blog.
Crisis Communications Tip #15: It’s Rarely Straightforward
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The incredible coverage in the traditional media, posts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other online venues of the recent Jet Blue flight attendant’s bizarre reaction to a less than civil passenger brings home the point that a crisis is rarely, if ever, straightforward in the facts surrounding what happened.
IMO, what’s getting lost in the accolades for the flight attendant’s way that he quit his job are the bigger, more serious issues of the safety risk he put the passengers in when he deployed the evacuation chute and the complicated state of today’s customer service.
It will be interesting to watch how Jet Blue moves forward and how it incorporates the incident into its customer service training. It should make for an important case study.
Facebook Friday: Answering the ‘Facebook Page?’ or ‘Group?’ Question
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It’s one of the first questions we hear when a client is considering its Facebook presence. Do we set up a Facebook Group? Or is a Facebook Page (aka “Fan Page”) more appropriate?
For most companies, the answer is likely going to be “Facebook Page,” as it enables public figures, businesses, organizations and other entities to create an authentic and public presence, according to Facebook. Groups, according to Facebook, “are the place for small group communication and for people to share their common interests and express their opinion.”
If you want to decide for yourself, the reporter in me says go straight to the source. So follow this link to the Facebook blog and their post, “What’s the Difference between a Facebook Page and Group?” And then you make the call!
Facebook Friday: Dealing with Trademark Issues
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Some companies new to the Facebook scene are finding that an overzealous employee or well-meaning fan has already established a Page for a brand or business. (Kind of like the mid-90s when the IT Department and others were claiming URLs well before the C-suite started to realize that a presence on the Wide World Web might be a good idea.)
Fortunately, Facebook has a process for dealing with that pesky issue of trademark infringement. If you – or your client – believe that Facebook is indeed catching on but discover that someone already established a Page, there’s somewhere you can turn to claim your rightfully trademarked name. Go to Facebook’s “Report an Infringing Username” section to “request removal of an unauthorized Page” and you should be on your way to claiming what’s rightfully yours.
Sawmill Introduces ‘Facebook Friday’
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On Twitter, today is “Follow Friday,” when people recommend their favorite users to follow each week.
Here on the PR Buzzsaw, we’re introducing “Facebook Friday,” when on certain Fridays we’ll share a favorite tip for making your Facebook experience (from a PR standpoint) just a little bit better. We’re all about being practical and simple here, so it’ll be just one tip at a time.
This first “Facebook Friday” tip comes via R2integrated’s Page Sands, who delivered an outstanding presentation at a Greater Baltimore Tech Council event this week. Here goes:
When naming your (or your client’s) Facebook page, don’t be tempted to simply call it “XYZ Corporation.” Think about the search implications and use a name that is more likely to deliver search results. As Page explained it, analyze your top keyword search results and name your page using that intelligence. Your friends and fans already know you, but the people you want to reach are more likely to search for a broader term. So instead of “Anthony, Davis & Miller Realty Associates” (which really doesn’t say much), try something more specific, such as “New York City Apartments.”
Social Media: Personal vs. Professional
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At a recent social media seminar covering the basics and featuring a panel of corporate users and SM “experts,” a fascinating and spontaneous discussion of personal vs. professional uses of social media resulted when one of the corporate panelists told of rescinding a job offer when photos of the candidate, deemed “inappropriate” by the CPA firm, were discovered on Facebook.
Surprisingly, one of the “expert” panelists was passionate about her insistence that the candidate had the “right to post photos of herself with a drink in her hand” on Facebook without any spillover to her professional standing! Further, this is the same counsel that she offers her clients: professional uses of social media tools are separate from those for personal uses and should not be connected.
She is indeed correct that she has the “right” to post anything about herself that she cares to on any social media tool she wishes. However, she is incorrect (and perhaps also naive) to expect the viewer/reader of this information to categorize it as exclusively personal with no correlation to her professional reputation.
The history of traditional mass media and now social media is replete with examples of people’s professional lives being played out in the public limelight – because they chose to or because they didn’t realize the line separating personal vs. professional is blurred at best.
I urge this panelist as well as those in the seminar audience to use the power of social media tools to their utmost advantage but to do so with the full and complete understanding that there is no “vs.” separating “personal” and “professional” in social or traditional media. Ever.
