A Tip for Facebook Creepers

If you’re a Facebook “creeper” (and I know many of you are out there!) be aware that you’re News Feed probably isn’t as interesting as it could be these days. (I remember laughing about this term a few years ago when I heard it for the first time from my nieces -- mothers and aunts are notorious creepers!) 

If you’re a business owner, know that your content may be getting fewer views than it should and could!

The biggest social media network on the planet is continuously changing its algorithms and over the last few months these modifications have definitely prevented some posts from appearing on users’ pages if the user hasn’t liked or commented on what that poster has put up recently. How recently, I’m not exactly sure.

When you look it up on the Facebook’s official site they say “The News Feed algorithm uses several factors to determine top stories, including the number of comments, who posted the story, and what type of post it is (ex: photo, video, status update, etc.).”

I manage a few different Facebook pages for clients and local organizations and encountered this issue myself recently when I realized that the posts I was placing on behalf of my kids’ sports organization, weren’t showing up on my own News Feed!
I couldn’t figure out the problem until I realized I almost never “liked” the posts or commented on them. (I felt like doing so would be like giving myself a virtual high-five or pat on the back). 

Once I went through and “liked” old posts, I’ve noticed that I’m back in the loop and the Club’s posts are appearing on my personal News Feed again.

Obviously if you’re posting for your business, there’s no reason to be modest! Be sure you’re liking your own posts and you’ve requested that your employees do so as well (commenting would be even better!). Every time they do so it helps generate more visibility for your organization.

If you feel you're missing stories you'd like to see or seeing stories in your News Feed that you don't want to see, something else try besides interacting, is to go to News Feed controls and check out your settings.

To adjust the updates you see from your friends in News Feed:
1.      Go to a friend’s Timeline.
2.      In the top right, click Friends.
3.      If you want to see that friend’s stories in News Feed, make sure Show in News Feed is checked. Uncheck it if you don’t want to see their stories.

To choose what types of stories you want to see from that friend, click Settings. From there, you can:

•  Choose to see All Updates, Most Updates or Only Important stories from that friend.
•  Check stories that you want to see, like Life Events, Status Updates or Photos. Uncheck any story that you don’t want to see in News Feed.

If you’re a Facebook “creeper” and you “like it” that way, I get it. But know your creeping could be much more fulfilling if you hit that little “like” button more often.

10 Social Media Commandments for Tweens

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I wrote yesterday about my eleven-year-old son joining a social media network, in particular Instagram. I mentioned I'd post family rules I created to set boundaries regarding just how much he shares and who he's sharing it with.

In our house, humor rules. So you'll see I've written our rules with a bit of light-heartedness and have entitled it as "Commandments." I shared them with C. last night and actually got a few chuckles out of him. But he understands these rules are serious.

I fully understand kids and social media can be a dangerous mix. There are cyber-bullies, hurt feelings among friends and of course there's the chance that a child's photos or information could be accessed by unseemly people or unauthorized entities. The website www.sociallyactive.com is a great resource to check out regarding children and internet safety. Their specific article about Instagram is very thorough.

If your child is on Instagram, check their profile. Be sure they haven't listed their last name, phone number or any location information. Also ensure that the button that says "Photos are Private" is listed as "ON" so they have to manually accept new followers and their photos aren't mapped geographically.

That being said, here are the 10 Commandments I put together this week.

K. Household Social Media Commandments for Tweens:

1.) Thou art only allowed to be a member of one social media network. You are not a marketer or journalist; you do not need votes as a “Dancing with the Stars” cast member, nor are you publishing a book anytime soon you must promote. I only have time to monitor one account for you, therefore, that is all ye shall have.
 

2.) I have the name and login for your current social media account and thou shall not change it. The penalty for breaking this rule will be swift and severe.

3.) I shall access and peruse your account from any device of my choosing, any time.

4.) I will delete or un-follow whomever I deem inappropriate. I’ll tell ye about it afterwards, but it shall be done at my discretion.

5.)Thou shall not follow or friend anyone you do not know. This means if you haven’t met them in person, i.e., you couldn't greet each other by name at Dairy Queen; they are not in your network. No friends’ cousins who just seem so very cool. No need for it right now. Learn to be clever and digitally socialize with people ye actually know.

6.) Thou shall present yourself online knowing your mother is monitoring your account, your friends’ mothers are monitoring theirs and with the understanding that what you put out there shall be out there forever. This means your future guidance counselor, babysitting employer or the sweet choir director from church should be able to look at what you post and not think one bit differently about the great kid you are.

7.) Thou shall not swear (excessively) and absolutely not at or against anyone. Friends or followers who do will be un-followed.

8.) No inappropriate photos shall be posted. In all photos of you that are posted you WILL be fully dressed. If you even think you should not post a photo, do not post it. (And if I think ye shouldn't have posted it, it’s gone in one swift click by me.)

9.) No sexual commentary or photos. Enough said. (I just can’t use any old-timey language here-- need to be straight and to the point.)

10.) Thou shall only check thy social media network very few times per day. Life is happening in real time with real people, places and events all around you. Thou shall not get sucked into a social world that is strictly virtual.

Let the Tween Social Media Monitoring Begin!

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It’s hard for me to fathom, but I’ve reached the stage of parenting where I have to monitor my “tween’s” social media account. Social Media monitoring is a pretty new parenting task. It's like the modern version of reading your child’s diary or regularly finding and reading the kooky notes he or she passes back and forth to friends in class. Right around his eleventh birthday, our son asked if he could get an Instagram account.

About Instagram
For those not totally familiar with the site, Instagram is a photo-based social media network that allows members to creatively edit and share their own pictures and other visual content. It’s wildly popular-- it only launched in 2010 now boasts a 100 million user base.Their terms of use include an age requirement of 13 years or older, restrictions against posting violent, nude, partially nude or sexually suggestive photographs plus responsibility for one's account and all activity conducted with it.  

When my son asked if he could have an account, I hedged and said I’d think about it. A few weeks later he basically took over the account I had set up for myself on my phone while we were hanging out in-between his hockey games. This is how he was able to get around the minimum age requirement, which I wasn’t aware of until I started researching for this post.

Why Allow a Tween to Have an Instagram Account?
For the last year, I've used Instagram myself and I've also actually monitored my friend's daughter's account. I think I knew what we were getting in to.

I determined that I didn’t want to stop progress and hinder my son from exploring social media, when obviously it will be a viable force during his teenage years and adulthood. I feel like allowing him to have a well-monitored account now gives me the chance to influence how he virtually behaves and what he posts, i.e. how he presents himself in the future to the forever-after digital world.

I allowed him to start using Instagram after laying down some basic ground rules. Over the last few weeks I’ve had a chance to view what my son and his friends are posting and I have to say that the process has brought up a lot emotions for me.  

The Rollercoaster Ride

• First, I’ve felt frustrated. What a time suck it is scrolling through his account to look at the goofy things these tweens post!
• Second, I’ve felt intrigued and even delighted to see how creative my son and cronies can be with what they choose to post and how they comment.
• This morning I felt a little ill. Most of what his friends are posting include pictures of Spongebob, Chicago Blackhawks tributes, animals playing soccer and close ups of their faces displaying various emotions ranging from elation to fierceness. But a few of the posts have included swear words, gangster-type slang and this morning—one of his friends posted a very pointed, sexual joke in the form of an old-fashioned looking cartoon (compliments of someecards.com).

This led me to a specific discussion with my son about why I had “un-followed” this friend on his behalf and spurred me to write my own ground rules for his social media activity. I think every parent should set social media rules that give them some level of comfort. Of course that means everyone's will be a bit different. 

By setting some boundaries (and by him pushing them) my hope is that my son and I will have on-going discussions about what's happening on social media and in his real social life as he ventures forth into junior high and high school.

I’m flying by the seat of my pants here, but tomorrow I'll post the Tween Social Media Rules I've drafted for my family. I'm sure they'll evolve over the next few months (weeks?) and years but I figured I'd have a go at it. Check back tomorrow and let me know...what have I left out? What should I modify? I'll be very interested in your feedback!

Riding The Social Media Wave - Business Blogging

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I certainly can’t call myself one of the first surfers, but I've been riding the wave of social media for a few years now. I have a funny memory from 2008 of sitting in on a “Facebook 101” conference call with my colleagues and afterwards asking my college-aged nanny, “Why in the world would anyone want to be on this Facebook-thing?  Checking something else besides email? Who has the time?”

Obviously, at that point I didn't understand the phenomenon social media was becoming, nor the idea that businesses and nearly a billion people worldwide would become regular users and content creators. (Granted some of that “creation” is horrible—people, please stop with the “bet you can’t name a movie that doesn't have the letter e in it” posts!)

Not on Board Yet?
But there are still many business owners who are not yet on board with social media. Maybe they don’t believe it will bring in a return on their investment, they don’t have time to manage the effort themselves and perhaps they’re overwhelmed by the sheer number of channels and changes. I’m in the marketing and media business and I’m overwhelmed sometimes.

Another reason why business owners may not believe in the power of social is because they aren't active participants themselves. Business owners are human and have their own feelings about how public or private they want their world to be. But just because one doesn't personally Tweet, Link-in, blog or post doesn't mean these things shouldn't be happening on behalf of your business.

First Step – A Business Blog
Where to begin?  A first great step is with a business blog. I know the word “blog” makes some people smirk not just because the word is a little funny but because many people associate it with journaling. But a business blog can generate leads, eventual sales and is a key building block to your company’s social strategy. It’s like a newsletter on steroids-- wider circulation, more flexibility, huge sharing potential and less cost. Note I say less cost, not NO cost because it does take someone’s on-going time and effort to create a strong editorial calendar and compelling content. Need more convincing?

Blogging Brings Focus
When you create a 6-month or annual blogging calendar, it automatically gives you the opportunity to focus in on issues that are vitally important to your business. These blog entries will be of interest to potential customers and allow you to showcase your thought leadership with employees, business partners and hiring prospects.

Blogging Helps Search Engine Marketing Ranking
Google and other search engines use complex algorithms to serve up what they deem the most relevant content to their users. Every time you add an entry you’re adding new ideas and stories that were not on your site previously. Fresh content has become even more important because Google recently modified their algorithm to push new content to the top of rankings for many searches. Better search rankings, better chance your potential customer contacts your business instead of your competitor.
Blogging Shows You Are the Authority
Customers and potential customers want to buy from a company that is the authority in the field.  By posting regular blogs, you show them that you are up to date, innovative and thoughtful.

Blogging Helps Showcase Partnerships
Blogging allows you to link internally within your own website and externally to other sites. Links are a major way to increase your ranking on search engines. Linking to partner companies is also a great way to build business relationships and loyalty plus it provides you with the chance to ask that company/partner to reciprocate.

Now You Have Something to Put “Out There”
Once you have built a library of blogs you have created that magic marketing buzzword, “content.” And as long as you keep on blogging, you will always have content to put out there on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Asking potential customers to subscribe to your blog also gives you the opportunity to have an on-going contact with your customers.

If you’re a business owner ready to get started and need some guidance, contact me and let’s make a plan. Also, for some great marketing tips for small business owners, follow this blog "The Boss" at the NYTimes.