Facebook Blocks Page Admins from Posting Legit Links

I've blogged before about why Facebook will never replace your website, but in case you're still thinking I'm full of it and using Facebook as your corporate website is a good idea, allow me to share yet another reason giving a third party control over what/how you post online is a bad idea.

This afternoon I went to post something on the Facebook Page I manage. It was a link to a totally legit mainstream news piece about a kid with selective mutism and how he communicates using music. Actually, I don't have to bother describing it to you--here's the link. Nothing shady about the story or the site, just a nice video about a kid who uses a guitar when he can't use his voice.

Well, Big Brother Facebook apparently didn't like it, because when I tried to post a the link, this is what I got:

Huh?

I clicked "let us know" and stated that the post was NOT spam, and of course got the "we'll look into it" response. So there went that post--I tried again several times and each time got the same message.

The worst part? I tried to post the link in a private group on Facebook, just to see if it would work...and it posted! So much for it being flagged as spam--why does Facebook let me post it in a group but not on the page I admin or my own profile?

So what's to keep someone from flagging your company's website or sites you want to share on your company's Facebook Page, therefore preventing you from directing Facebook fans to those links? What's their process for determining what's spam and what's not? How many people have to report something as spam before they block it? How long does it take to get a site unblocked once it's blocked?

Maybe you're ok with having this little control over what you share on a page that's ostensibly controlled by your company, but I hate the fact that I was unable to share a totally legitimate news item that I know the Page's fans would have appreciated because Facebook decided it was spam.

Still think using Facebook as your company's website is a good idea?

Why Businesses Should Think Twice Before Investing Money or Time in a Facebook Page

Not to be all "what if"--but the more integral to companies' social media efforts Facebook becomes, the more leery I am about the idea of putting business eggs in a basket over which one has no control. Twitter has already announced that it's testing some business features; Facebook pages, however, while clearly a business offering, are still dependent on individual profiles. This is a HUGE liability which is virtually never discussed--I've literally seen one blog post addressing the issue.

Ok, so say you're the individual who initially set up a huge brand's Facebook page. First of all, congratulations to you--you've basically made yourself indispensable to your company or agency because if you go, the brand's page goes. Seriously. The ability to transfer ownership of that page to anyone flat-out does not exist. So you set that up, pour tons of money into having the page customized because of course you need that (not really--but of course your social media guru charging a metric shit ton per hour will tell you you need that.) So you pour thousands--or tens of thousands--of dollars into customizing your page. You add fan page widgets to your web site, add your Facebook url to all your print collateral and pay your social media guru even more to analyze the ROI of every fan, interaction, page view and what-have-you.

Then one day--poof!--Big Brother Facebook decides that the admin for your page has been bad in some way and banishes him/her forever. Apparently this is happening (hat tip to Carri Bugbee for tweeting about this) . No warning, no explanation--just you go to log into Facebook one day and can't because your profile has been deleted. Your profile and all Pages and/or ad campaigns gone too. Yes, really.

"Not only was my profile disabled, but a facebook ad campaign I was runnig [sic] disappeared, as did the 'Page' I use to promote a business." (comment by C.J.)

How come with all the billions of social media experts out there nobody is talking about this? If companies are investing real money in Facebook, why is Facebook not offering businesses a REAL business option--e.g. pages not tied to individual accounts that can be disabled with no warning or explanation at Facebook's whim? What recourse does a business have if Facebook decides to delete the page they've invested tens of thousands of dollars into? If anyone has answers to any of these questions, please share.

Your Social Media Failure is Not Because Social Networks Are Too Crowded

I read this article yesterday and am still shaking my head about it today. The article's premise--"Governments Tweet, Few Care"--is based in part on one guy's opinion that government is boring and people only seek excitement and entertainment on social networks. The article goes on to state that this guy "does not use social-networking sites." Why are they interviewing him, then, about using social media for government?

Then they tell how the guy from a local ad/PR agency explains that Twitter and Facebook aren't great online networking sites for business and government because people are there for entertainment, not work. Oh, really? Or could it possibly be that his agency doesn't know how to design an effective, engaging social media strategy?

THEN they quote another local public information officer who declares matter-of-factly that social sites really only reach niche markets and staff time is "best invested in traditional media." Yeah, Facebook clearly only reaches niche markets with its 350 million active monthly users. That's some niche.

I don't mean to sound like a hater, but let's call a spade a spade: many businesses are having a lot of success using Facebook and Twitter for business. Don't assume that it's not even worth trying based on articles like this one. Yes, it's crowded out there--but that just means there are that many more people you can potentially reach with a well thought-out and orchestrated social media strategy.

The Facebook Free Ride is Over

Remember Facebook--the free platform you can use to post whatever you want, in whatever format you want, for free? Remember all the limitless possibilities for engagement it promised brands? Yeah, well stick a fork in that memory because it's done; Big Brother Facebook just announced some new rules that require you to get their approval before doing any kind of contest or promotion.

Huh?

I'm still wondering if I'm reading the post on Inside Facebook wrong because there seems to be almost no reaction anywhere to what I find to be absolutely intrusive and ridiculous rules. Since when do users have to ask Facebook permission to do anything? Since when do they get to stipulate where you will or will not post a certain type of content? And most importantly, since when do they get to tell people that the only way they can post certain content is to pay a third-party?

In case you don't feel like clicking any of the links above, here's an excerpt from the new guidelines:

You may not administer any promotion through Facebook, except that you may administer a promotion through the Facebook Platform with our prior written approval. Such written approval may be obtained only through an account representative at Facebook. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the approval process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative. If we provide you such approval, you agree to the following:

3.1 You will only administer the promotion through an application on the Facebook Platform, as directed by us.

3.2 You will only allow users to enter the promotion in the following locations on Facebook:

3.2.1 On the canvas Page of an application on the Facebook Platform.

3.2.2 On an application box in a tab on a Facebook Page.

3.6 You must submit materials for any promotion you plan on administering through the Facebook Platform to your account representative for our review and approval at least 7 days prior to the start date of such promotion. Promotions not approved in writing within such time period will be deemed unapproved.

Here's the thing: this is no big deal to big brands with big budgets for stuff like this, or to people who are already paying an agency to administer their Facebook pages and/or to develop applications. But to nonprofits who don't have money to spend on third-party applications, I personally think it's a significant loss.

Maybe I'm naive or just flat-out mistaken, but as far as I know this is the first time that Facebook seems to be saying, in so many words, "if we're not going to make money off this, you can't do it." Yes, I realize that they're requiring you to pay not them but the third party app developers, but please--tell me that they're not getting a cut of that money somehow. Why else would they be doing it? I just don't buy the "we're just trying to keep the News Feed cleaner" thing.

So that contest you were planning on running by having people leave a comment about such-and-such then picking a winner from there, or posting photos or other content? Forget it. Now you have to pay to play.

Eff it Off Friday Post

You thought I forgot, didn't you?

Ok, I did...but it's still Friday so here some links for you in lieu of a real post.

• More data about how Facebook is officially becoming an oldsters club--over a third of users are 35+ and the 55+ age group is the fastest-growing group.


• Great, thorough notes from yesterday's awesome Buzz2009 Association Social Media conferfence by Lynn Morton.


• Great example of engagmement on an association Facebook page--ASHA's. This evening I posted a link to a press release on ASHA's website and within an hour 30 people had "liked" it and 16 people had commented. I love it that out members are so passionate about the issues surrounding their professions, and how eager they are to share their thoughts. Would they be hanging around the ASHA website on a Friday night, though? Maybe not...which just proves the addage that associations need to meet their members where they are--even if that means Facebook.

Mystery of the Missing Public Profile Page Updates Solved

When Facebook changed its Terms of Service in February, you would have thought the sky had fallen--angry rants and news reports about Facebook stealing the rights to people's data were all over the place. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg quickly rescinded the new terms and made a big to-do about how Facebook is a democracy and everyone should have a say about how their data is used, etc.

Well, everyone, that is, except for companies. On March 11, Facebook rolled out a new design--again, to much public chagrin. One feature of the new look--in fact, what seemed to be one of the main driving forces behind changes--was the fact that businesses who formerly had "Pages" would now have "Public Profiles", making it easier for them to keep in touch with their fans. News items posted on companies' profiles would show up in fans' news feeds just as any other individual's profile updates would.

Awesome news for businesses--Facebook really pushed the greatness of the new design to companies, including tips for marketing, advice for optimizing pages and more.

I am the admin for my company's page and was really psyched about the new capability to communicate with our fans via their news feeds--something the previous version of Pages couldn't do. Two weeks after the public roll out of the new look and features later, I am still waiting. I have yet to see a Public Profile update appear in my news stream--except one from the Red Cross.

Then today I see a post on Inside Facebook alluding to the fact that Facebook has automatically turned updates from some Pages off by default - presumably to keep fans' news feeds from becoming "too spammy." Huh?

Turns out Facebook added another feature during the re-design; something they're not hyping like the rest of the updates: "Hidden Friends." Facebook took it upon itself to decide which pages should be "hidden" and which were worthy of appearing in fans' news streams. Then didn't mention to fans that they had to go in and manually choose which public profiles they wanted to receive updates from.

Why all the secrecy, Facebook? What's the big deal?

Well, now you know: scroll down to the bottom of your home page and click "Hidden Friends" to manage which public profiles you want to receive updates from.

How Much Authority Can $9.99 Buy?

A few days ago, on the heels of reading a post about the concept of authority in the world of social media--basically how popularity equals authority--I read another post about Facebook NetworkedBlogs. It launched in June of 2008 but this was the first time I'd read about it.

It seemed like a good way to increase blog traffic--after all, there are 175 million users on Facebook, right? Not to mention NetworkedBlogs claims to attract over 450,000 unique users a month. I went to check it out and added my blog.

I then noticed there is a feature where you can buy a "premium listing"--your blog featured in the "Top 50 Blogs" slot--which was sold out--or listed as one of five featured blogs at the top of a category page. $9.99 ($19.95/month after the first month) to have my blog in the spotlight at the top of a page? My curiosity got the best of me and I got out the credit card; now you can find Mizz Information at the top of the Web 2.0 page on NetworkedBlogs.

Bring on my tons of new followers, right?

Apparently buying followers isn't as easy as it sounds. It's three days later and how many do you think I've attracted? Six. And those six are all friends who saw my status update asking people to follow. Oh, and my mom.

Changes to Facebook Pages: Good or Bad for Associations?

You've probably heard it's coming: on March 11, Facebook will roll out a new look for pages. Rather than trying to summarize the changes and either bore those of you who already know about them or lose those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll let you go read these posts about the changes.

Or, better yet, if your association or company has a page on Facebook, go take a look at it--chances are Facebook has already re-configured it so you can preview the new look. You can also start digesting this summary of the changes and, as Facebook puts it, opportunities the new layout will offer.

Once you've done all that, I'd really appreciate it if you'd come back and leave a comment telling what you think of the changes and how you see it affecting--negatively or positively--your association's presence on Facebook. Pretty Please?

The Power of Social Media: Are Companies Overreacting?

Yesterday the world seemed to be a-buzz—and a-twitter—with reactions to Facebook’s announcement that they were changing their Terms of Service (TOS). I’m not just talking cyber world either; I’m talking the Washington Post, WTOP radio, NBC TV news—“real” news outlets.

The first thing that came to my mind when I read about the TOS changes was “so what?” I’m not a risk-averse person and as far as I’m concerned, if Facebook wants to find a way to use one of my status updates or Lil’ Green Patch requests at any point in the future they can have at it. The second thought I had was wow, Facebook has really gone mainstream if WTOP is featuring the story every 10 minutes.

Then, just as my coworker and I were talking about it this morning, he read online that Facebook has recanted the changes to the TOS. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, announced this decision early today on Facebook’s blog, and told users that they will play an integral role in developing new terms that “reflect the principles and values of the people using the service.”

This reversal brought to mind a handful of recent similar situations in which a company puts something out there then takes it back after the public slams it. It happened when a Motrin campaign ignited the wrath of millions of parents who were offended by an ad that basically poked fun at moms who carry their babies in body slings. After a public outcry on blogs, Twitter and Facebook, Johnson & Johnson pulled the ad both online and in print and published an apology on their website. It happened when Molson Coors Brewing Company pulled a photo contest on Facebook after a flurry of negative comments that the contest encouraged irresponsible and underage drinking. And it happened when Site Meter, a service that provides website tracking tools, launched a new version and within a day rolled back to the previous version after users (including me) went ballistic about the new version. (note: even though the post from the Site Meter blog is dated 2006, it actually was written in September 2008; I'm not sure why the date is wrong.)

Being in the association frame of mind I’m in right now since I’m leaving for ASAE’s Great Ideas conference in a few days and will be live blogging the event, I couldn’t help but think back to a post on Acronym that posed the question Do associations overreact to criticism? At that time, I commented that associations shouldn’t put too much stock into negative blog comments and shouldn’t rush to action as a result of member feedback. However, after this Facebook reversal and the others I just cited, should I be rethinking my stance about associations reacting to criticism? If the ways of the word are evolving towards a “power to the people” dynamic, does that mean that the same will be true for associations?

MySpace Is Going Down

The signs are there: Facebook is slowly but surely overtaking MySpace and it's only a matter of time until MySpace goes the way of Friendster. While some claim that Friendster isn't dead yet and shouldn't be written off, the signs seem pretty clear to me that, at least in the US, Friendster isn't even on the social networking map. Just click on "share this" at the bottom of that post I just linked to--the one claiming Friendster is still a viable competitor to Facebook and MySpace. Do you see icons for Facebook and MySpace? Yes. Now how about Friendster? I rest my case.

I will give you that he's talking about global and I'm talking about domestic, so he makes a good case for Friendster's viability in a world-wide sense. However, I maintain that it's a no-contest here in the US, especially among the newly minted social media users--any mention of Friendster would most likely elicit a "huh?"

Rather than me taking the time to summarize the current demographics of Facebook, MySpace and Friendster, you can check out the results page for each in Quantcast. Quantcast is a site that allows you to look up demographic information for basically any site. (or maybe not every site--I guess you can try it and see.)

Actually, I take that back about the summaries and making you do it yourself: here are the total monthly US users (at the time of this post) for each of these sites:

• MySpace: 68.2M


• Facebook: 56.2M


• Friendster: 2.2M

Yes, MySpace is still ahead of Facebook, but refer back to the first link in this post; the time is fast approaching when Facebook will overtake MySpace. Then read Danny Brown's post about job cuts at Fox Interactive Media, MySpace's parent company. Then place your bets about when MySpace will be swallowed by Facebook.

Why Every Stay-Home Mom Needs to Be On Facebook

A few weeks ago I went to a bingo night at school, arranged by the PTA. PTA isn’t really my thing, but any form of gambling is, so I went. After bingo (I didn’t win once in 21 games—go figure why I love gambling) I went out for drinks with a group of moms.

When we were leaving the restaurant, somehow the conversation turned to Facebook. I had recently made Facebook converts of a few of them and they were raving about it.

Then one woman said “My husband says if I have time to waste on Facebook I need to get a job.”

Ok, so Facebook might be a time toilet and of debatable merit in many ways—what with the poking, smile invitations, Lil’ Green Patch requests and all the rest of it. But the larger truth is that Facebook is a social media tool, and being familiar with social media tools is far from a waste of time--especially for women who have given up or postponed their careers to be home with kids.

I'll spare you the rant about how hard it is for women to re-enter the workforce after taking time off to raise kids; suffice it to say that clawing your way back up the career ladder is a LOT harder than climbing down. Chances are, while you're home raising kids, the world and the workforce are marching on, leaving a thick layer of dust on your resume.

Think about it, though: what if there was a career you could actually build from scratch, for free and in your spare time at home? Guess what? There is one.

While the title varies, the occupation I'm talking about is social media or community manager (for our purposes I'll call it social media manager). I was prepared to write a whole treatise about how social media careers are on the rise, but found this great post that sums it up better than I could.

Want to be a social media manager? Here's what you do:

• Start a blog. Not only will you familiarize yourself with blogging platforms, terminology and applications (widget, tags, comments, Digg, Technorati, etc, etc...) but you'll build a portfolio of writing samples.


• Get on Facebook and Twitter and every other social network you can. Granted, you'll probably only be able to (or want to) keep up with a few, but it's a good way to familiarize yourself with social networks--what they are, which ones are useful for what and what all the crazy little icons mean.


• Read. Read blogs, articles, books, magazines, newspapers--anything about social media. The beauty of social media as a career is that it's basically a brand new field; therefore the only things separating you from the "experts" are a few thousand blog posts. Everything you need to know about social media is out there; this is one area where grad school is not only not necessary but actually detrimental. The world of social media is evolving so rapidly that it requires constant, ongoing learning, not classwork. Think of it as a never ending learning experience--but in a good way.


• Network. Social media offers the unique opportunity to actively network without ever having to have so much as one face-to-face conversation with anyone. Not that there's anything wrong with actual personal interaction, but when it's not an option because of time constraints, social networks can help you connect with people who will be able to help you get a job when the time comes.

I could have included much more detail--told you which blogs to read, which people to follow on Twitter, which social networks to familiarize yourself with, but figuring out the answers to these questions is part of your social media self-education so I'll leave the details to you.

So next time your husband accuses you of wasting time on Facebook, tell him that you're actually laying the foundation for your social media career and to leave you alone.

Association Social Media Roadshow Reflections Part 1: Twitter

*Disclaimer: I work for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA); however, this is my personal blog in which I express my own thoughts and opinions.*

*When I sat down to write this post I intended it to be a wrap up of all my thoughts about our social media explorations at ASHA's Annual Convention. Once I started I realized that there is so much to tell about I'll have to break it up into more than one post; stay tuned for the next installment about Facebook*

Last week was ASHA's Annual Convention--my first. It was great to be able to meet some of the members--12,500 of whom were there--and to see their enthusiasm for their professions in action.

I work in ASHA's web department, and we had a booth at Convention, as did most of the other departments. We used the experience of being among so many members as an opportunity to get some feedback about their level of interest in social media.

Prior to Convention we announced in several places (newsletters, tweets, convention information page on website) that we'd be using Twitter at convention, and encouraged members to sign up so they could follow our updates. For the most part, our members aren't really there yet as far as Twitter, but we do have a handful of dedicated followers. Using Twitter this time around was more of an experiment than anything; we didn't have any real expectation that many would follow.

Prior to convention we tracked a fair number of tweets about it, both from exhibitors who were using Twitter to promote their booths and from members enthusiastic about the upcoming event. Some examples of tweets were:

• "If you're in Chicago for the ASHA conference, please stop by our booth - #1906"


• "First session attended at #ASHA08 was presented by my grad school advisor, great to see her again! Fun start to ASHA Convention 2008."


• "Getting ready for 2 more days solo at the hospital. Becoming very sad that I don't get to go to ASHA convention. I want to go!"


• "2008 ASHA convention in Boston hosted 13,000 speech-language pathologists & audiologists..what is your prediction for attendance in Chicago"


• "Have you signed up for a job interview at the ASHA convention?"

Plus plenty more. Not too bad for an association whose members are predominantly in the 35-55 year group.

That said, this was a surprising tweet:

"Refining my ASHA presentation for Saturday 8-10 session 2501. I will talk about twitter and the future"

This from a member of 34 years doing a session on academic leadership! I DMd him asking about his presentation and he later came looking for me and we had a great conversation about social media. He spent about 15 minutes telling me his thoughts about using social media to engage students and showed me his slides and even his MySpace page. He was very cool!

Twitter turned out to be a great tool for interacting with members and exhibitors in several ways:

• A member tweeted asking if anyone had tickets to a sold-out function; I tweeted her back that I was able to find some for her. It was a great opportunity to offer one-on-one customer service to a member--something she undoubtedly would not have otherwise been able to get at such a large meeting


• When exhibitors tweeted about convention, I DMd them telling them to stop by and say hi. They did, and several expressed interest in ASHA's social networks--this generated one solid lead for our advertising department, as well as a few others who said they wanted to explore future opportunities with us. One major exhibitor even videotaped an interview with me and my web coworker for their blog!


• I was able to make a few announcements that otherwise wouldn't have been possible, since we didn't have a message center and the convention daily had been pre-printed


• A member DMd ASHA saying she'd lost her wallet and asking if we could help find it. Again, it was nice that she thought of using Twitter to connect with ASHA staff.

All in all, Twitter turned out to be much more of a success than we'd anticipated.

Stay tuned for part 2: Facebook.

We Built it. They Came. Now What?

Facebook for business--you're kidding, right? Everyone knows Facebook is for teenagers sharing drunken or suggestive photos of themselves--what possible use could it possibly have with regard to business? The answer: plenty.

But I work for a non-profit--do these "business solutions" still apply? Definitely.

Not sure if Facebook is a good fit for your business or non-profit? The best way to find out may be to just jump in, set up a page (as opposed to a group) and see where it takes you.

That's just what we did at the association I work for. We created a page--if for no other reason than out of curiosity and with no particular agenda. Within a few days we had 50 fans, then 100, then 500...and so on. As of today, the page has been up for about three and a half weeks and we have 1,191 fans (and counting). I don't think any of us imagined we'd get this kind of response.

I guess this is what you might call a happy accident. We did what you're not supposed to do: start randomly using social media without pre-defined goals and a set strategy. However, there's definitely something to be said for being able to use the figure "over 1,100 fans in three weeks" to convince skeptics that yes, it is time to start solidifying a social media strategy.

Of course I realize that Facebook is one of many social media tools; I'm just using it a an example. And, yes, I know--jumping in without a set strategy=bad. The thing is--with social media, maybe taking more of a ready, fire, aim approach isn't the worst idea in the world.

Hey--Don't I Know You? Social Networking Makes the Leap From Online to Real Time

Picture this: you're in a restaurant, all cozied up with your secret honey, holding hands in the safety of your favorite "safe" meeting spot far away from the prying eyes of people you know. Suddenly a guy who looks vaguely familiar approaches your table and greets you warmly. "Hey--it's great to actually 'see' you in real life! Remember me from high school? We're friends on Facebook. Loved the photos of your recent family vacation." Turning to your "wife": "Hey--I thought you were pregnant? You looked like you were about to pop in the pictures and that was only last weekend. And your hair was shorter--way shorter--and blonde." Suddenly his face turns bright red in embarassment and he mumbles something, then turns and hurries away from your table.

Busted, courtesy of social media.

I've blogged before about how social media is becoming a little too social, putting many people in daily contact--albeit cyber contact--with just about everyone they've ever known. And those status updates you casually throw out there? Those, too, are now fair game for not only "friends" but whoever cares to track what you're doing or even thinking.

Starting to feel a little claustrophobic? Welcome to the future of social media. Not only will you have nowhere to hide online, but "friends" and other contacts will be able to pick you out of a crowd and walk right up to you. Forget having to think twice about posting those embarassing party pictures; you might just be in plain sight of someone you don't even know you know and he or she can observe your antics in real-time.

This technology is actually available now, courtesy of a German company, aka-aki. Apparently they think people are spending too much time on the computer and need to convert their Secondlives to Firstlives; e.g take social networking to the streets. You can download aka-aki to your cell phone and, if your phone has Bluetooth, it will vibrate when another member of aka-aki comes within 20 meters of you (meter-to-feet conversion=very close to you). You can then view that person's profile and walk right up to them to say hi, therefore dispensing with the need for those pesky "What are you doing right now?" questions--you'll be able to see what they're doing with your own eyes.

Another application, Commandro, offers similar capability, allowing you to track friends' location and proximity to you via GPS.

Something to think about next time you get a friend request, I guess.

How Much Time Does It Take To Do Social Media? More Than You Think.

Beth Kanter had a great post today about how much time it takes to do social media. I started to post a comment but ended up typing WAY too much, so I figured I'd just blog about it.

Beth suggests five modules for implementing a social media plan: listening, participating, generating buzz, sharing your story and community building/social networking.

I'd like to throw out a few more time-consuming activities/categories:

1. Learning. In addition to the time it takes to do the activities she lists, there is the time it takes to have acquired the knowledge to be able to do them in the first place. You have to know what tools are out there and not only how to use them, but how to use them for business--what you can and can't do, and how to do it most effectively. This alone takes a huge amount of time—finding the blogs or books or webinars that will give you the information you need, then taking the time each and every day to stay on top of them. Every little thing needs to be researched before it can be implemented, and the whole thing keeps evolving so the learning curve never stops.


2. Selling. Once you’ve acquired the knowledge—an ongoing and time-consuming activity in itself—you’ll be responsible for teaching others inside and outside your organization not only how they work, but why they’re necessary components of the social media strategy. This is even more time-consuming if you work for an association; not only do you have to convince and educate senior management and staff; you also have to convince members that social media is a benefit and worth investing their time in. It’s one thing if your staff and membership are predominantly young and already engaged in social networking; it’s another if none of them have even heard of Twitter or think Facebook is just for teenagers—that can be an uphill, time-consuming battle. After all, if your members aren’t engaged in a blog or social network, what’s the point? Depending on how large your staff and membership are, this can take a lot of time.


3. Coordinating. You also have to factor in the reality that many associations are all about silos—membership does membership, PR does PR, marketing does marketing, etc. Social media is about all these things, yet if these departments don’t even communicate or work together internally, how are you going to present a united message about your organization’s programs or campaigns? And furthermore, who is heading up the social media efforts—is it one person? A team? Whether it’s either of those, it takes time to coordinate internally about messages, methods, goals, etc., not to mention decide who should and shouldn’t be out there sharing the story and what’s ok and not ok as far as doing it. Already have lots of meetings eating up your time? Prepare to lose even more time to meetings to decide about all this stuff.

The bottom line is that, as much time as you think it will take to integrate social media into your organization’s overall communications efforts, prepare for it to end up taking a lot more time than you thought it would. I equate it to reading blogs—you go to read one thing, then click on a link to another, then another, and so on until you realize you’ve eaten up half your day. And don’t forget—once you build it, they will come—and that will lead to even more time investment managing those relationships, press inquiries, etc.

Think Nobody's Reading Your Facebook Status Updates? Think Again.

Nothing like reading an article like this one to make you realize that Big Brother is, indeed, watching your every move online.

News correspondent Olivier Knox was researching a piece about the economic rescue package and paused to update his status on Facebook: "Olivier just counted, and President Bush has pushed the bailout in 12 of the past 13 days." Apparently Mr. Knox has "friends" in high places; deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel among them; Stanzel noticed the comment and left a (tongue apparently in cheek) comment on Knox's personal page, taking him to task for his use of the word "bailout."

Like I blogged before: it's getting awful crowded on Facebook. And that cleanup crew application that I fantasized about? Stay tuned for a post about that, because it apparently does exist.

Social Media for Old People

I remember being 16 (um, I mean 21) going to shows in DC and smirking at the “old” people lurking like they had any business hanging with a bunch of teenagers. How pathetic, my friends and I would say—don’t they realize they are OLD and don’t belong here? It just seemed so depressing that they had no life other than trying to blend in with a bunch of kids half their age.

Ok, so yes, I have since been that pathetic grown up at a club trying to act like I belonged there…but I digress.

Today it seems like the world—including the business world—is being led by the “younger set” (30 and under), putting “old” people like me (older than 30…to put it mildly) in a weird place. You don’t want to be the wannabe “cool” parent who’s “down” with the times and all that, but in this day and age, it appears that not doing just that could ultimately cripple your career.

For example, I was writing a news item at work this morning and linking to a story on a well-known website. There, below the title was the now-requisite row of icons: little leaf, “f” in a blue box, little cartoon baby face, little orange square—you know, the ones that appear somewhere on more and more web pages of all kinds. Some of these things I already know—the orange square means RSS (although the reader part is still a little sketchy to me), the “f” stands for Facebook, and I know the terms Digg and technorati even if I can’t describe to you exactly what they mean. In fact, I use them in my blog and STILL can’t really tell you what they mean.

Newsvine, Del.icio.us, Reddit, Flock, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Skype…the list seems to grow every day. List, that is, of applications/technologies/whatever you want to call them that are second nature to kids and 20-somethings yet are mysteries to almost anyone who isn’t hip to that particular lingo, so to speak. These things are not just fads like Tamagotchi or something; they are being used more and more in the marketing and business worlds. In fact, if you subscribe to the theory that social marketing is the wave of the future that will crush traditional marketing as we know it, you know that if you don’t start learning about this stuff and fast, you stand a good chance of becoming a dinosaur in the work world.

I’m taking my own advice here and diligently teaching myself about all things social media and web 2.0 and beyond. Yes, it’s interesting and yes, I do like feeling that I’m witnessing first-hand the changing of the guards from Boomers to Millennials. However, it’s hard to not feel a little like the grown up who’s trying too hard to be a kid—what with my Facebook page and Twitter posts. It’s like playing Webkinz—ok, here I am, in my pet’s room and I’ve made the bed, bought some food and some new clothes—now what?