Jun 24
Love0

WTF? Friday: Four Facebook Mistakes Businesses Make

By Communications

WTF FridayFacebook has some pretty stringent guidelines for promotions. Lots of businesses, however, pretend these guidelines don’t exist. I think this is tantamount to sticking your tongue out at Facebook and going “nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, NAH!”

One of these days, Zuckerberg is gonna get pissed and y’all are going to wake up to banned accounts and disabled “official” pages. Frankly, I don’t blame Facebook one whit if they decide to enforce the rules on the platform they built, own and LET YOU USE FOR FREE.

There are five actions businesses take on a regular basis that are in direct violation of the rules. They are today’s WTF? Friday feature . . .

  1. Making a user “like” a page to get something in return, such as a promotional item, contest entry, etc. Seattle’s Best Coffee is a major brand doing just that right now:   “Like us! Do it! You’ll get $1.50 off a four-pack now!” Uh, no.
  2. Having a profile instead of a page, as this business, Fine Living Lancaster has done. Don’t “friend” a business and if you have a business and have created a second profile (your own, as a person and one for the business) you have violated Facebook’s Terms of Service. Whoops.
  3. Here’s a dental practice telling you that you’ll have a chance to win an iPad if you like their Facebook page. That’s TOTALLY against the rules, but not only that, has only earned them a little over 200 fans. Worth it? Especially since they run the risk of having their page shut down? Probably not.
  4. Another really common no-no – the photo contest run without a third party. You can’t ask users to upload photos for a photo contest that takes place within Facebook. See #4 of the Promotions Guidelines.

If you’re a marketer, what do you think? Should businesses with a marketing presence know better? If Facebook does crack down and disable accounts like the ones above, who should be held accountable for that?

Jun 23
Love0

Job Seekers, Do or Don’t: Should you Follow and/or Friend Future Employers?

By Communications

A question from the field . . .  “Should you engage with potential employers on social platforms?”

It’s a bit complicated, but here’s my take:

  • DO follow them on Twitter if they are clearly a Twitter user (as a person, not a corporate account). If they’re following many and being followed, as well as contributing to the conversation, then they are engaged and will welcome an additional follower.
  • DON’T follow them on Twitter if they don’t tweet or have few or no followers. I’m not sure why they’re there and neither are they.
  • DO follow them if it’s a corporate account designed to be a news stream about the company and/or its industry. That’s why it’s there.
  • DO connect with them on LinkedIn if you know one another and have worked together or been connected by a business network. Chances are, if you’re to the interview stage, this is someone already in your network.
  • DON’T send them a LinkedIn invitation if they’re not on LinkedIn. (Why do you want this job, again?)
  • DON’T friend them on Facebook. That’s a little weird if you don’t know each other. It is, of course, fine, if you’re already friends in another way.
  • DO “like” the organization’s page.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with any of these?

Jun 22
Love0

Roger Ebert Faces the Wrath of Facebook and Jackasses Everywhere

By Communications
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/ebertchicago/status/82872136712192000″]

Facebook put the smackdown on Roger Ebert this week, deleting his page after Ebert alleged that drinking and driving may have caused the death of Jackass star Ryan Dunn.

The next day, Facebook restored Ebert’s page, saying the deletion was in error. But was it?

Facebook has on every page the option to report it (see image at left). When commenters are uncensored and post what could be construed as hate messages or other inappropriate content, users can report the violation. ANYONE can report a page and Facebook may disable a page until they can resolve the matter.

It’s a good policy, I think and in the Ebert scenario, where comments were getting pretty heated, may have been appropriate. I don’t think Ebert was at fault — what he said was his opinion and in MY opinion, not at all out of line.

What do you think? Should Facebook be able to censor, based on the categories in the page report feature?

Read Roger Ebert’s response.

 

Jun 21
Love0

Social Content, Allergies and the Parents who Diagnose Them

By Social Media

Photo credit: Muffet

I was allergic to dairy products until I was about 12 years old. Recent health issues led to surgery (I’m fine, now) and for the last month my diet has subsisted primarily of fruits, vegetables and lean proteins. I’ve been adding dairy back in gradually and it’s the weirdest thing — it all tastes off to me. In the last couple of weeks I’ve poured out a couple of glasses of milk that were fine, but for some reason just tasted really sour.

I’m fascinated by this new study that suggests food allergies may be more common than originally thought and that about 8% of American children likely have them.

The Booster Shots blog of the LA Times reports this:

KidsHealth, from the Nemours Foundation, has this to say about “growing out” of allergies:

“Most kids who are allergic to milk, eggs, wheat, or soy outgrow their allergies by the time they’re 5 years old. But only about 20% of people with peanut allergy and about 10% of kids with tree nut allergy outgrow their allergy. Fish and shellfish allergies usually develop later in life, and people are unlikely to outgrow them.”

Now, I hope that information like this study doesn’t result in a slew of parents downsizing kids’ diets. If anything, I hope that more parents seek allergy testing for their kids when they suspect sensitivities. The results of these studies are often inflammatory, whether that’s the intent or not.

I’m glad I outgrew my allergy to dairy early and suspect that this current aversion will work its way through my system as well. Studies like these and the wealth of health information available online may contribute to parents over-diagnosing allergies. Leave the diagnosing to the professionals, and read online social content such as blogs and warnings via social networks with a grain of salt.

Jun 20
Love0

Color me Doubtful: Barack Obama to Tweet “Personally”

By Public Relations

Barack ObamaAfter what already seems like a long summer of mis-tweeting politicians and executives, the news of our most senior executive composing his own tweets seems out of place. Obama for America has been managing the president’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, but now, going into the 2012 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama will contribute to the Twitter timeline signing his personally authored tweets with a “– BO.”

Now, I may be a jaded, cynical public relations person but my gut tells me this is not so. Would the leader of the free world really be allowed to update Twitter personally? Will Barack Obama be allowed to DM? To use hashtags, to Twitpic and @reply? Will he get to add new users to follow — or, better yet, choose who to unfollow? What if he makes a mistake? What then?

What do you think? Is there anyway the Twitter account @BarackObama would ever be tweets straight from the man himself?

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/BarackObama/status/82505176849711104″]