If you’re a casual Facebook user and not too concerned about who sees your friends or what groups or pages you’re a fan of, you probably accepted the default settings presented to you when you logged in some time this week. In fact, Facebook said in one of their announcement that only 15-20% of people even change their settings – amazing.

I’ve been reading quite a few articles I’ll post links to, that suggest that Facebook isn’t really giving us that much more control over our privacy. If you check out the official Facebook Blog, you’ll see quite a bit of feedback people have given. The main objection is to the fact that now, all of our ‘friends’ are publicly available for viewing. This was not the case before.

Five Settings You Should Know On Facebook – San Francisco Chronicle

Facebook’s New Privacy Changes: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly – Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Facebook Privacy Fiasco Begins – TechCrunch

How to Fix Facebook Settings – Webware

I was going to make a list of What Users Gained vs. What Users Lost for this article, but you can read that in my links. Since Facebook quickly makes changes in response to feedback, information here could fast become obsolete.

Instead, I’ll point out where you can go to check and change your settings to increase/decrease your privacy.

• Do you want your Facebook profile to be found if you are ‘googled’ or ‘binged’? You can choose to be ‘indexed’ or not. This is found in the privacy settings – then click on ‘Search’. Here you’ll find a place to uncheck a box to clear you from being indexed by search engines. I tried this and found I was removed right away, so that’s reassuring.

• Ability for others to view your friends. In the past, Facebook had a control to allow or not allow others to view who your friends are. Now this control is gone. A workaround for this can be found – but it’s not in your Privacy settings. Instead, you’ll need to click ‘Profile’ and go to your profile page. Along the left, you’ll see the box containing your friends. Click the pencil icon to open up the choices here. You can choose which friends to show up, a grouping of 6 or more friends, or to keep it completely private, uncheck the box ‘Show my friends on my profile’. You can also choose to not show your gender or home city in your profile settings. So it seems if you remove yourself from being indexed and remove the option to have your friends to be viewable on your page, then no one would be able to see that information. That’s the way it worked for me, although I’ve read others had different results.

If you use the options above, it seems you can pretty much remain as invisible as you can be without deactivating your account. The casual user probably has little concern over these things, but folks who want their private lives separate from their work lives have reason to be concerned. We’ve all heard the stories of how potential employers search out publicly available information on social networks on job candidates and these candidates were not given offers because of the poor choices they’ve made in publishing their activities.

One other area of concern is in the ‘Third-party Apps’ that I see many of my friends using—you know the ‘What Harry Potter character are you’, and the ‘Farmville’, etc. apps that so many people use and scatter invites to get the rest of us to join. Here’s an article from TechWorld that succinctly points out that we no longer have the ability to decline access to our profiles and information that these app developers get. Who are these people? We just don’t know. I participate in very few of these – so sorry friends – but this is why I decline or ignore these kinds of requests! You can remove apps you’re not using in the ‘Applications and Website settings’ from within your privacy settings, but I think they probably have your information unless developers purge this information at set intervals.

I hope this article will prompt everyone to check out their privacy settings and adjust them to your needs. If anyone has tips or suggestions, please leave them here.

Looking at the graphic below, when you want to share ‘what’s on your mind?’, you’ll see a drop down menu with some default settings, Everyone, Friends & Networks, etc. Below that, you can choose the ‘edit’ button and choose a specific friend list(s). Maybe there’s something you want to pass along just to family members or a group of business friends you have. Simply select the appropriate friend list and it’s done!

It’s almost like sending out an email to a group – and depending on how people have their settings configured, they’ll be notified via email when they get a new FB message. In addition to your message, you can attach a link, video or picture. If you’ve set up your ‘NetworkedBlogs’ from within Facebook, you can attach one of your blog postings. Now your friends don’t need to worry about opening attachments in their email, or having to download pictures. This is really great! I wonder if Twitter will come up with something similar? Right now, it’s post to all or completely private with Twitter.

Set Up A Friend List

So, now you want to get some friend lists set up so you’re ready. Here’s how:

1. From any page in Facebook, click on ‘Friends’ at the top of the page and look at the column on your left
2. You’ll see ‘Lists’ in bold and at the end of the column you’ll see ‘create’. Click on it.
3. A box pops up and you name your list.
4. At this point, you can scroll through all of your friends (could be a daunting task), and click on the ones you want, or you can start typing someone’s name and it’ll appear quickly.
5. When you’re finished, click ‘Create List’, and you’ve got it.  Feel free to go back and edit any list you’ve created.

For myself, I’ve felt a bit conflicted on trying to use Facebook for personal and business, so I’ve used it mainly for personal use.  I know I get tired of seeing everyone’s game status, who they are most like, etc. I also tire of seeing constant business updates. So I hope you know who you are and will take appropriate steps!

I liked this recent article by Tina Jacobson, owner of a media, publicity and consulting firm. She humorously takes us through some of the do’s and dont’s of Facebook Faux Pas. It is so true that when we get together with our friends and talk about Facebook, we usually complain about the things that irritate us about it first – human nature, I suppose.

Since then, Facebook has made some enhancements and changes so I wanted to pass along a few more thoughts on the advantages of having a page:

• It’s like having a free and mini-webpage that you have complete content control over. It’s pretty easy to add video, pictures and even your logo to this page
• Your Facebook page is public—meaning no one has to have a Facebook account to view your page. It can be ‘googled’ and instantly viewed. This also means it can be indexed by search engines.
• When folks become ‘fans’ of your page, you can send them updates when you have something new to announce.
• When your updates go out to your fans, it will appear in their newsfeed. This gives you extra exposure because as people casually scroll through their friends news, they will see the update and may decide to become a ‘fan’ of your page as well!

New Changes Coming to Facebook Pages??

While doing the research for this article, I came across a posting from February 26th by one of the blogs I follow, TechCrunch. According to ‘a source’, there will be some major redesign changes coming next week (March 2, 2009). It seems that Facebook likes to make these major changes with little or no warning. According to TechCrunch, they may be implementing this new redesign as MySpace is starting a business application very soon.

Make a note to check out the Facebook Pages next week to see if it happened!

Post from June of 2008

Last week, we looked at inserting your blog as a note and adding a screenshot of your web page right on your Facebook page.

Those are tasks you can do that show up in the ‘casual’ part of Facebook. BUT – did you know you can also set up a Business Page, or section of your Facebook and from there, there are many viral things you can do to promote your business.

Log in and page down to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Advertising’. That will bring up a form you can start filling out to create and customize your business page. Put some time and thought into this. You want it to be engaging and inviting–you want people to read it!

After you create your page, Facebook will automatically adds the ‘Page Manager’ application to the top of your application list (right at the top and left side of your log in page). Click this to enter your business page to manage, edit and create more content.

What can you do with a Business Page?

• Advertise any events or accomplishments
• Post pictures relevant to your business
• Start and be a host of a Discussion Forum from within your page. Get it started by posting a thoughtful question or comment regarding your business or industry that will generate discussion
• Post a Video. It doesn’t even have to be one you made. Find something of general interest to your audience…for example a video on time management (who doesn’t need that). Just make sure it’s worthy
• Reviews – this is a default application that allows people to comment on yours or someone else’s page or business. Each user can write only one review (although they can come back and edit it). Also, anyone can write a review on your business page, not just a ‘fan’, or someone who has subscribed to your page.
• Wall – a feature of every user’s profile, it appears here as well. Only your fans can write on your wall

If you have a small OR large business, set up your Facebook Business page, it’s free! More information can be found here.

Evidently, Facebook has a way to monitor activity in people’s accounts and if it looks too ‘spammy’, you’ll get whacked.

Facebook has two apps that can be used to make a backup of all your friends. One is called Friend CSV.

I used this program and it downloaded it and emailed a .csv file to me. I figured it was a good thing to do and probably good to run every few months to keep it updated. I’ll also run the program for my clients who are on Facebook.

You will notice that there is no checkbox for email or phone numbers. This is a source of consternation and concern for many Facebook users. There are ‘underground’ apps out there that you can install and run to capture the missing data, but from what I’m reading, you do so at your own risk. Take a look at this blog post from January, 2009  by Eric Eldon where he talks about blogger, Robert Scobler’s account being disabled  The program in question is My FB Contacts 1.0 I’ve been reading stories about how some people are hesitating to use it, thinking they could get kicked off abruptly.

The other app from Facebook, is called Fonebook. I’m not even linking to it as the feedback was abysmal for this app.

Evidently, Robert Scobler didn’t hold any hard feelings after his account was disabled (I believe it was reinstated), as you can read his article from a couple of weeks ago where he spent some time with Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg at the recent World Economic Forum. He spoke to him about his feelings on Facebook’s policies. So we’ll see where that goes.

Happy Facebooking!

When I started my weekly blog almost two years ago now, I had two reasons: 1. I just like technology. The commitment I made to post weekly keeps me always on the lookout for helpful tools or tips that I think the small businessperson will benefit from. It also keeps me ‘sharp’ (well, that’s debatable), by trying to be current on the new tools. 2. I was told it would drive traffic to my website, and I wanted that to help me in establishing my VA business.

So here’s a definition of Social Media from the Ebook: Let’s Talk Social Media For Small Business by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing.

Social media is the use of technology combined with social interaction to create or co-create value.

John was sponsored by Microsoft Small Business Live in the writing of this book, and is free for the downloading. It’s a great basic book for those of us getting started with blogging for business, and trying to understand how this ‘social media’ revolution works.

He begins by contrasting how we might find in our dusty Marketing textbooks the four P’s of Marketing vs. today’s four C’s of Marketing:

When most of us hear all these new terms about social networking and what services we should be signing up for, our heads spin. So he presents this graphic to guide us in our progression down the social media highway beginning with blogging and ending up with the micro, i.e. edgier tools like Twitter.

The book has several case studies where he makes the point that any business can distinguish themselves from their competition with their blogs, interactions with their community and the resulting establishment of trust among that community.

It’s a good read for those of us who see others talking about the above buzz words and wondering, “what does that mean”.

Below are links to some of the various social media sites as well as the sites that help manage our social media. Some are from the book (and a few of my own), along with their definitions you might find helpful:

Social & Business Networking:

LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com

Plurk – http://www.plurk.com

Tools to Manage your Social Networks & Other Sharing Sites

Delicious http://www.delicious.com this is a bookmarking service that allows you to tag any page with a category and then share it publicly

PingFm: http://www.ping.fm This is a tool that will broadcast your blog, doings, etc. across multiple platforms

StumbleUpon - http://stumbleupon.com/
Flickr – http://www.flickr.com
YouTube – http://youtube.com
Slideshare – http://www.slideshare.net
Digg – http://digg.com
Friend Feed – http://friendfeed.com

Twitter and Twitter tools:

Twitter – http://www.twitter.com

Twellow, http://www.twellow.com/, is like a Twitter phone directory that sorts people by industry. This can be a great way to find people in your industry.

Twitterrific: http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific/

Twitter Search: http://search.twitter.com/

Twhirl: http://www.twhirl.org/

Twitterfeed: http://twitterfeed.com/

The book by Jantsch is a great starting place if you’ve just begun experimenting with social media marketing. His Duct Tape Marketing Website could be helpful to you. Another site I subscribe to is the ProBlogger.

I know following these suggestions work because after I set up my Facebook and LinkedIn pages and took advantage of the tools from within these apps to publicize my blog, my readership increased by five to six times. It does take time and effort and the content you publish definitely matters.

If any of you want to share your blogging stories or have tips, please leave a comment!

I blogged a couple of weeks ago on how Facebook added a chat feature where you can see how many of your friends are on-line from within Facebook and initiate a chat with them.

Just recently, I saw that Digsby (a chat aggregator, along the lines of Meebo), has a feature where you can chat with your Facebook friends without being logged into Facebook! Check out the screenshot below. Not only can you use Digsby as a chat aggregator, you can also add Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to Digsby to consolidate and manage most of your social networking sites in one place! They say other social networking sites are coming soon.

Here are the social networking features Digsby offers:

• Stay up to date with everything happening on your Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace account (other network support coming soon).
• Receive alerts of events such as new friend requests, messages, group invites, etc.
• The social network InfoBox gives you a real time NewsFeed of what your friends are up to. Everything from new photos, to status updates, to upcoming birthdays is just a click away.
• Set your Facebook and Twitter status right from Digsby.

Go to the web site and and download to your desktop. Digsby also has some other cool features that we will explore at a later time. Enjoy!

Those are tasks you can do that show up in the ‘casual’ part of Facebook. BUT – did you know you can also set up a Business Page, or section of your Facebook and from there, there are many viral things you can do to promote your business.

Log in and page down to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Advertising’. That will bring up a form you can start filling out to create and customize your business page. Put some time and thought into this. You want it to be engaging and inviting–you want people to read it!

After you create your page, Facebook will automatically adds the ‘Page Manager’ application to the top of your application list (right at the top and left side of your log in page). Click this to enter your business page to manage, edit and create more content.

What can you do with a Business Page?

• Advertise any events or accomplishments
• Post pictures relevant to your business
• Start and be a host of a Discussion Forum from within your page. Get it started by posting a thoughtful question or comment regarding your business or industry that will generate discussion
• Post a Video. It doesn’t even have to be one you made. Find something of general interest to your audience…for example a video on time management (who doesn’t need that). Just make sure it’s worthy
• Reviews – this is a default application that allows people to comment on yours or someone else’s page or business. Each user can write only one review (although they can come back and edit it). Also, anyone can write a review on your business page, not just a ‘fan’, or someone who has subscribed to your page.
• Wall – a feature of every user’s profile, it appears here as well. Only your fans can write on your wall

If you have a small OR large business, set up your Facebook Business page, it’s free! More information can be found here.

I reluctantly started using Facebook last fall, (just another thing to keep up with), as I was trying to build a business clientele. I say reluctantly, because I thought it was for college kids. However, I’ve been discovering business applications to add to my Facebook page that are seen by my Facebook friends and business contacts.

Today, let’s look at two apps that are easy to add. First, if you have a blog (if you don’t have one, why not??), it’s easy to get your blog postings imported into Facebook. Look here for easy step-by-step instructions from Facebook. A real benefit to adding this feature is that whenever you make a change in your Facebook – add an application, note, etc. all your friends are notified and they will see that update when they log in to their account (depending on their settings). So it’s like getting noticed twice – once for making a change and once for the actual blog. Your friend doesn’t have to leave Facebook to view/read it either.

The second app has to do with highlighting your web site. You have a web site, don’t you? Why don’t you spotlight your web site from within your Facebook account! Instructions are here on how to do this. This app will put a small screenshot of your web site right in your Facebook.

So if you are a business owner, set up a Facebook account if you don’t have one, it’s just not for kids any more! Social networking is fun – so have fun with it, feel free to post about things unrelated to your business. It’s OK to talk about what you’re going to do for fun this weekend or what book you’re reading.

In addition to the multitudes of things Facebook does, another one popped up this week that is really cool–a chat feature! I saw it the other day and did a little background reading about it. Seems that they were slated to launch this new app in March of 2008, but it just launched this week.

Using it is super easy. Log in to your Facebook account and then you’ll see the below. Mine is in the lower right hand portion of my screen. It also shows you who of your friends are currently on-line. As is common with other chat programs, you can make yourself unavailable if you’re feeling a bit unsociable, or you’re working. Happy Chatting everyone!

Welcome to Facebook Chat

Start instant conversations with all of your friends.

Check the Online Friends menu to see who is online now.

A green dot means your friend is available to chat.

Don’t want to chat? Make yourself unavailable.

close