My Views on Twitter

Prompted by the article “The Twuth About Twitter” written by Bob Bly, I thought I take the time share my views about Twitter.

Until a few weeks ago, I was on the Twitter bandwagon.  For several months I followed the advice of those who are more Twitter-savvy than I and maintained a Twitter presence (in addition to my Facebook and LinkedIn presences).

There is so much talk about connecting and conversing with your Twitter followers, but I just don’t see that.  I hear things like “join in the conversation” all the time.  With Twitter, I just don’t see how that’s possible.  First, there is the 140 character limit; it’s hard to say something of value in a short amount of real estate.  And when you do reply to something, the recipient may have no idea what you are tweet you are referring to.  So where’s the conversation???

In my opinion, Twitter is the internet version of radio/TV commercials, or so it has become in the marketing world.  Tweet a link to your product.  Tweet a special promotion.  Tweet a blog post.  This is all advertising—ONE WAY COMMUNICATION.  It is not a conversation, which requires more than one person (unless of course, you are talking to yourself).  So when the experts say “Twitter’s all about the conversation,” I just don’t buy it.  It’s free advertising, plain and simple.

So is Twitter an effective marketing tool?  It could be.  My thought is this:  tweet your products, promotions, articles, etc., but don’t waste your time trying to create a dialogue with followers.  Twitter is too cumbersome to use as a communication tool.  Instead, use a Facebook Fan Page to converse with current and potential customers.  The interface is designed for conversations and is easy to use—this tool is worth the time investment.

Friday Finds – 07/31/09

A weekly collection of things I’ve run across that may be of interest to you.

Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work via Lateral Action

10 Ways To Give Yourself A Procrastination Inoculation via ZenHabits

9 Rules of Facebook Promotion Every Small Business Should Know via All Facebook

Do You Have These 11 Traits of Highly Creative People? via Copyblogger

HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn via Mashable

Pondering Social Media in 25 Words

Liz Strauss has created a new 25 word challenge at her blog, Successful & Outstanding Blog(gers).  This one is writing 25 words about social media.

My contribution relates to how I have been feeling about social media lately:

So many blog posts; so many tweets; so many friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and followers; so little time to spare.  How ever do we keep up?

To contribute your own 25 words, head over to Liz’s blog post, Writing Project: 25 Words of Social Media Wisdom.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29223627@N04/ / CC BY 2.0

Strategies for Working More Efficiently

There are many strategies for working more efficiently, but I have found that the areas below are where people struggle the most.  So here are some ideas to help you use your time more effectively and work more efficiently.

Make A List

You’ve heard it before, but I’ll say it again:  a “to do” list is your friend.  Here are some task list strategies:

• Carve out ten minutes at the end of the day to create a new list for the following day.  This will help you wind down at the end of the day and help you jump in the next day.
• Break larger tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks.
• Prioritize your list.
• Do a few easy tasks at the beginning of the day.  Most people advise knocking off the hardest tasks first, but I find that I am more energized when I complete a few simple tasks and cross them off the list.  Sometimes you need that sense of accomplishment to be more driven to attack those harder tasks.

Organize Your Email

Many email programs and clients allow you to create folders.  Take advantage of this feature!  Following is how I manage my email:

• I have several different folders arranged by project.  Some projects may have additional subfolders depending on the situation.  Organize your email in a way that makes sense to you and allows you to easily retrieve old messages.
• Messages stay in my inbox until I act on it.  Once I’ve acted on it, I either delete it or place it into the applicable folder for future reference.  Consider this method as it keeps your inbox relatively clean and at a glance, you know what needs action.
• For certain types of email, such as newsletters, I create a folder and set my filtering options to place new message that fit a certain criteria into this folder.  These are typically emails that do not require action (other than to read them).  When I have some downtime, I go to this folder and start reading them.
• I use Outlook, so for messages that require action and are time-sensitive, I use the Flag option to set a reminder so I act on it on-time.

Organize Your Computer Files

I can’t tell you how many times I see hundreds of documents just thrown into the My Documents folder on my client's’ computers.  Computer files should be organized just like paper files.  I organize my business files by client., which may further be broken down by project folders.  I also have folders for my website, marketing collateral, and templates.  Find a systems that works for you and allows you to easily find documents.

Maintain a Calendar

Nothing is more frustrating than waiting for someone to show up for a meeting.  Don’t be that person who is always late, or worse, forgot.  Keep a calendar, whether it’s Outlook, Google Calendar, or a good old daily planner.

Unplug

Distractions can impair workflow and creativity.  When you are working on something that demands your full attention, consider the following:

• Close your email program.
• Turn off your cell phone.
• Let calls to your landline go to voicemail.
• Disconnect from your instant messaging program (or “appear offline”).
• Close your social networking tools.

I’m an organizational freak.  I’d love to hear about how you manage your schedule and workload.  Drop me a line in the comments.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tbisaacs/ / CC BY 2.0

Friday Finds – 07/17/09

A weekly collection of things I’ve run across that may be of interest to you.

Article  10 Tips for Taking Notes, by Maeve Maddox – Great suggestions for taking notes and meeting minutes.

Article  12 Tips for Making Small Talk, from CareerBuilder – According to a study of Stanford University School of Business MBAs ten years after graduation, their success did not correlate to their GPAs.  Instead, the ability to connect and converse with others had an impact on their success.  This article shares some great tips from Debra Fine, author of The Fine Art of Small Talk.

Organization Development Network Conference 2009

The Organization Development Network a professional organization for those who practice organization development.  Members from all over the world come together to share their knowledge and learn from others.

The 2009 conference will be held October 18-21 in Seattle, Washington.  If you register by August 15, you will receive a $200 discount.

Featured keynote speakers include:

• Peter Block
• Denise Caruso
• Leng Lim
• Carolyn Lukensmeyer
• Juliette Powell

The conference is a great opportunity to learn from others, build your skillset and toolbox, and meet others who are passionate about organization development.  What can you expect to get out of the conference?  Here are a few nuggets taken from the conference website:

• Learn from emerging and respected thought leaders; select from more than 100 offerings.
• Get tools, approaches, and solutions you can put to use right away.
• Use program tracks and content threads to tailor the conference experience to meet your personal and professional needs.

Interested?  Head over to the conference website to learn more.  And don’t forget, register by August 15 and receive a $200 discount!

Friday Finds – 07/10/09

A weekly collection of things I’ve run across that may be of interest to you.

Article  Why Doing It Yourself Can Cost More, by Cathy Stucker – Some great considerations to think about when debating whether to hire someone to do the work for you as opposed to doing it yourself.

Article  Empowering Your Communication Methods, by Carrie Wilkerson – Find face-to-face communications to be uncomfortable?  Read this article for ideas to make communication easier and more enjoyable.

Article  How to Write an Attention-Grabbing Professional Bio, Alyssa Gregory – A must-read for all professionals.  Great tips and ideas for creating a stand-out bio.

Article  So you want to be a Change Agent?, by Eric D. Brown – A great look at what it takes to lead change in your organization.

A Look at Google Wave

I just finished watching the demo of Google Wave that was presented at Google I/O back in May.  Google Wave is a communication and collaboration tool that works in your web browser.  It’s planned to be released later this year.

 

In the simplest of terms, Google Wave is about merging the various communication tools into one tool that maximizes communication and collaboration. 

• Convergence of email and instant messaging.
• Threaded messages, beyond what you find in today’s message board and group forums.
• Real-time updates (literally to the nanosecond!).
• Capabilities to use it in conjunction with social media sites.
• And so many more possibilities to come, I’m sure.

The demo is 1 hour and 20 minutes long.  Most everyone will be interested in the first hour’s worth of content, while developers will want to stick around until the end.  I encourage you to view the demo, as it’s pretty difficult to explain how Wave works in a short blog post.  Plus, it really just helps to see it.  I had read other articles about it and thought I had a pretty good idea about how it worked.  But when I saw the demo, I was surprised at the tool’s capability, above and beyond my initial thoughts formed by reading other material.  It’s worth the look, plus they’re kind of entertaining.

I’d love to hear your reactions to Google Wave.  Do you have any ideas about how you could implement it in your organization?  Do you think it’s just another wave (no pun intended) that will be big for awhile and then fade away?  Drop me a line!

Photo Credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/23209605@N00/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Friday Finds – July 3, 2009

A weekly collection of things I’ve run across that may be of interest to you.

Article  19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day, by Chris Brogan – Great suggestions for anyone using social media tools to establish an online presence.

Video  Innovative Uses for Twitter for Small Business, Ralph Wilson interview Avinash Kaushik – Some great insights on using Twitter for business.  Avinash also shares some of the analytical tools he uses.

Article  HOW TO: Use Social Media for Enterprise Business, by Ben Parr – A look at some ideas to leverage social media for B2B companies.

Article  5 Uncommon Ways Your Business Can Use Twitter, by Darren Rowse – Some interesting ways you can utilize Twitter for business.

Tutorial  How To Send Personalized Mass Emails in Outlook, by Saikat Basu – A very good tutorial for using mail merge in Outlook.

Article  Will Your Small Business Use Google Wave? – A quick preview of Google’s collaboration tool Google Wave.

Quick Tip for LinkedIn: Websites & Feeds

On Tuesday I posted a quick tip for customizing your website listing in LinkedIn.  This tip is a follow-on about making the most of the website you list.

BlogLink is a LinkedIn application that pulls in feeds from your connection automatically, so you get to see what they are up to in one spot.  And, if you set up your website listing properly, your data will filter into your connections BlogLink feeds.  So, how does this all work?  It’s quite simple, just follow the steps below.

Stay On Top of Your Connections

To keep up with what your connections are doing, simply navigate the the BlogLink application and add it.  Once you’ve added it, you then have the option to display it on your profile and/or your homepage.  When you add it to your profile, it will display the four most recent items of your feed in your LI profile.  Adding BlogLink to your homepage, you have the ability to see your connections feeds (as well as your own) right from your homepage.

What’s nice about this is that your connections do not have to be using BlogLink in order for you to get their feeds.  As long as they have a blog in their list of websites, they will show up in your feed.

Setting Up Your Feeds

The really neat thing about this is that all you have to do is make sure your blog is listed in your profile’s website listing.  What even cooler is that BlogLink, although primarily focused on blogs, will also pull other feeds such as Twitter.  As you can see below, I have this blog and my Twitter profile listed as websites.  BlogLink pulls both of these feeds automatically, which will appear on your LI profile as well as the feed of any of your connections using the application.

How Does All of This Look?

This first image below show what the BlogLink feed looks like on your profile.  This is what people would see when they visit your LI profile, if you choose to have it displayed.

This image shows you how the feed looks from your homepage.  Here you can view your connections’ feeds, or click on the By Me tab to see your own feeds.  Conversely, when a connection adds BlogLink you will appear in their feeds.

 

 

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For more information about BlogLink, including FAQs, visit their website.

Don’t forget to read my related post Quick Tip for LinkedIn: Customizing Your Website Listing if you haven’t already.  It provides information on setting up your website listing for your LI profile.

Quick Tip for LinkedIn: Customizing Your Website Listing

I just found a neat little trick in LinkedIn that I thought I’d share with you.

When you add your website(s) to your profile, you have the option to “customize” the title of the link.  I’m not sure if this was available from the beginning, as I don’t remember seeing it before.  But when I went to add this blog to my list, I saw the option for “other” and learned what you can do with it.

When you list your website(s), you have the option to choose from the following:

• My Website
• My Company
• My Blog
• My RSS Feed
• My Portfolio
• Other

Using any of the first five options, displays it on your profile page with that title.

But, if you choose “Other” you have the option to put in a title, therefore customizing it to suit your needs.

Now it will display the title you chose instead of the default (e.g., “My Website”).

Pretty neat!  Now head over to LinkedIn and update your profile.

P.S. I have another tip to go along with this one.  Stay tuned!

Using the RSS Reader, Bloglines

Bloglines is a great tool for following your favorite blogs.  This article shows you basic features that make it such a powerful reader.

There are many tools you can use to follow blogs.  I personally like Bloglines, which is a service provided by Ask.com.  It has a simple interface and is easy to use.

I admit, I was originally a Google Reader fan, simply because it was the only reader I knew of.  But I was never fond of the interface so I began to seek out other options.  After experimenting with some other readers, I came across Bloglines and fell in love.

Interface

The interface is similar to Windows Explorer.  The left panel contains your feed list, while the right column displays the chosen feed.  Feeds can be displayed in an expandable format, meaning you can easily browse through the titles and then expand the ones you want to read (as shown below; other options are available, see Settings below).

 

Categories

With Bloglines, you can categorize your feeds by creating separate folders.  When you subscribe to a feed using Bloglines, you have the option of creating a folder or you can simply store it at the top level.

Clippings

Another great feature is Clippings.  Clippings allows you to “clip” a blog post, which is then saved under the Clippings tab.  You also have the ability to categorize your clippings.  So for example, let’s say you find a great post, but don’t have time to finish reading it.  Simply clip it and save it for later.  Or let’s say you want to track the comments of a particular post and don’t want to subscribe to the blog’s comments.  Simply clip it and return to it periodically.

 

Settings

You also have control over other options, such as how items are displayed.  For example, you can choose the “posting length”  to either display the entire post, a summary, or just the title (I display only the title as shown under Interface, above).  Below is a screenshot the shows the options that are available.

There you have it, the basic, yet powerful features of Bloglines. 

While I’m certainly a fan of Bloglines, I’d love to hear from you about other readers out there that you use and why.  Drop me a line in the comments.

Friday Finds

A weekly collection of things I’ve run across that may be of interest to you.

This week’s finds all have a Twitter focus.  Enjoy!

Article  Twitter becomes latest forum for job adverts, by Aislinn Simpson – This article discusses how businesses are using Twitter for recruitment.

Article  8 Useful Tips To Become Successful With Twitter, by Paul Boag – Spot-on tips!  This is a must-read.

Article  The Ultimate List of Twitter Tools, by Matthew Tommasi – An extensive list of tools for everything Twitter.

Article  Twitter 101: Clarifying The Rules For Newbies, by Corvida – Great tips, even for the “seasoned” tweeter.

Article  The Top 10 Twitter SEO Tips, by Mike Dobbs – With talk about Google’s real-time searching and indexing of Twitter tweets, this article presents SEO strategies for maximizing the power of your tweets.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Resources

Depending on your business, you may be having a hard time rising to the top of the search engine ranks.  The best way to rise to the top is through a process known as search engine optimization or SEO.  There are many different views and opinions of the best way to attack this process, as well as a variety of strategies.  Below is a list of helpful resources to help guide you through the process of SEO.

 
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High Rankings® Advisor – This is a newsletter brought to you by the SEO consulting firm, High Rankings®.  It is written by Jill Whalen, who is considered a pioneer of SEO.  Jill also accepts questions, which are then answered via the newsletter.

SEOmozBlog – This blog is maintained by the consulting firm SEOmoz.  Be sure to subscribe to the blog for your daily dish of news and tips relevant to SEO.

SEO Fast Start - Dan Thies, who has be involved with SEO for over 10 years, maintains this blog and offers a free downloadable book of the same name.  Dan believes the process is quite simple and offers his book and blog to help others achieve SEO success.

To me, these are the best SEO resources I’ve come across.  But I’m a learner, so if you know of some other great resources, drop me a line and let me know.

Friday Finds

A weekly collection of things I’ve run across that may be of interest to you.

Book  The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Tim Ferriss – Tackles a new approach to the work/life balance issue.

eBook  BloggingBlueprint: Your Free Guide to Blogging Success, by Glen Allsopp – Glen shares his story and his secrets to his blogging success.  Free PDF download.

Article  Publishing Your Ezine the Pros and Cons, by Carrie Wilkerson – Great article that looks at the reasons why you should create an eZine and solutions for overcoming the two biggest obstacles of time and content.

Article  Marketing Your Website Without Search Engines, by Maki – Check out Maki’s practical advice on driving traffic to your site without relying on search engines.

Article  38 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started In Marketing, by Ian Lurie – A witty take on marketing, entrepreneurship, and business in general.

Article  Five Ideas I’ve Implemented to Get More Done, by Glen Allsopp – Need some productivity boosting ideas?  Read Glen’s article for some practical advice.

A Change is Coming: Do You Know What’s Involved?

Change is inevitable; we all know this.  But managing change in your organization is vital to a successful outcome.  Throwing caution to the wind and letting the pieces fall where they may is really no way to “change” an organization.  The result is usually unhappy employees, low morale, reduced productivity, and essentially, no effective change has taken place.

So how do you prevent this adverse outcome?  By understanding the change process so you can effectively implement interventions that are critical to ensuring a successful change outcome.

Following are the basic principles involved in organizational change.  This is not intended to be step-by-step guide.  Instead it is a primer for understanding at a high-level what’s involved the change process.

Plan.  First understand that most everyone needs to know something.  Most organizations assume that only the people directly affected by the change need to know what’s going on.  What many don’t realize is that others in the organization (and even outside the organization) may be impacted for any number of reasons.  This is why a lot of attention needs to be given to planning the change.  Following is a basic view of what’s involved in the planning stage.  Realize that each of them carry within it their own set of principles, tasks, and best practices.  You need to:

• identify groups of people who will be impacted in any way (big or small),
  
• determine how they are impacted and to what degree,
  
• assess their varying needs and resistances,
  
• identify strategies to help each group through the change, and
  
• devise an action plan outlining the various communications and educational interventions necessary at all levels.   (Note:  Interventions are any tactic used during a change for anything such as gaining buy-in, mentally preparing individuals, and training individuals on new processes.)

 
nicubunu

Implement.  Using your action plan, implement your interventions to coincide with the change events.  Throughout the implementation, be sure to take periodic pulses to ensure the change is in fact happening and that your people are being taken care of.

Sustain.  Remember that it is natural to fall back into old habits.  That said, it is important to monitor the change even after the implementation.  Take care in providing messages and showing actions that continue to support the change that took place.  I personally believe that a truly successful change is one where behaviors are not only changed, but sustained over a long period of time.  That period of time depends on the change, but when the “new way” becomes accepted as the “current way,” that’s a pretty good indication that the change is being sustained.

While this might seem manageable, there is a lot of work to be done even for seemingly small changes and it can be very overwhelming.  To overcome this, and to ensure a successful change, you might consider hiring a consultant who is experience in organizational change.  Consultants who do this for a living can bring an “outsider” perspective to better assist in the change.  They have an arsenal of proven strategies and tools that will get your organization through the change.

Email Etiquette: A Refresher

The advent of instant messaging, texting, and Twittering, has brought with it some horribly informal communication habits.  More and more, these bad habits are creeping into our emails.  It seems that "how r u" is acceptable in today's emails.  But is it truly acceptable?  Perhaps on a personal level, but professionally speaking, no, it's not acceptable.  Let's remind ourselves of some dos and don'ts when it comes to business-related email.

DO write professionally, even when conversing with an intimate colleague.  You never know who might see it!

DO keep it short and simple.  Enough said!

DO respond promptly to questions and requests, even if it's to say that you don't know or that you need more time.  It's common courtesy.

DO use the Bcc field for mass-mailings.  This respects everyone's privacy.

DO be cautious with your tone.  Without the non-verbal cues you get in face-to-face conversations, people might be offended if you come off sounding snippy or disrespectful even if you didn’t intent to.

DO send attachments only when appropriate.  Consider compressing or "zipping" files to reduce download time.

DO craft a subject line that quickly states the purpose of your email.  Simply saying "Hi" might not get your email answered right away.

DON'T continue to reply to conversations that have ended.  For example, when someone thanks you leave it at that; you don't need to reply with "no problem" or the like.

DON'T send/forward chain letters, spam, or other inappropriate material.

DON'T write your entire email in ALL-CAPS.  It's the Internet-way of shouting.

DON'T use "High Importance," "Urgent," etc. unless absolutely necessary.

DO however, use "Low Importance" when appropriate.  This lets the recipient know they can pass it over and review it at a more convenient time.

DO use a greeting and signature.  This keeps your email a little more personable than just simply starting your message.

DON'T format your messages with "stationary" backgrounds.  Depending on the email client, the recipient may have difficulty opening, reading, or replying.

DON'T use delivery notifications or "Read Receipts," except on the rare occasion it's necessary.

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Do you have some additional dos and don’ts?  Post a comment and let me know!

7 Fortune 500 Companies Using Social Media Effectively

Learn how some Fortune 500 companies are leveraging social media for marketing and customer service.

Businesses big and small are taking to social media as another means of reaching their customers and prospects.  For many, it’s about two-way communication.  With social media, they are not only able to push news and information, but have the opportunity to interact with their customers and even provide a different level of customer service. 

Following are seven Fortune 500 companies that are effectively using social media to inform and interact with their customers.  Follow and study them to generate your own ideas for using social media in your overall marketing and customer service plans.

1.  Home Depot  Home Depot is using Twitter to inform its followers about products and events.  In addition, they have in many cases, helped customers resolve issues.  Home Depot currently has 8,300+ followers.

2.  Pepsi  Pepsi is all over the social media world.  They are on Twitter with a current following of 3,500+.  Here they offer news about products and events.  They also converse with customers and followers, even on the day-to-day things.  You can also find Pepsi on Facebook.  With nearly 200,000 fans, they communicate news about products and events.  Pepsi even has their own YouTube channel, where they share a variety of videos.

3.  Allstate  Allstate currently has 1,100+ followers on Twitter.  They are using Twitter to interact with their customers, as well as help customers resolve issues.

4.  Target  With 7,200+ followers on Twitter, Target is interacting with their customers, as well as helping customer resolve issues.

5.  Kohl’s  Kohl’s is very new to the social media scene.  Even though they just joined Twitter in late April 2009, they have 382 followers and are conversing with their customers, even on the day-to-day things.  Kohl’s is also on Facebook.  Although it appears they have had a presence there for awhile, they are just now beginning to use it to interact with their 5,900 fans.  They are also using Facebook to share information about products, sales, and events.

6.  Southwest Airlines  SWA uses Twitter to interact with its 31,900+ followers, even sharing restaurant suggestions for travelers.  On Facebook, SWA shares news about services and events with its 68,000+ fans.

7.  Starbucks  Starbucks has 206,000+ followers on Twitter.  They use Twitter to interact with customers, as well as help their customers resolve issues.  On Facebook, they probably have one of the biggest group of followers totaling 1.7 million.  Starbucks uses Facebook to share news about products and events and provide relevant information of interests to its fans.

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Further Reading

•  How To Create and Promote Your Facebook Fan Page.
• 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners
• Twitter Is My Help Desk

A Generation of Social Media

Facebook demographics and what it means to your business.

I came across an interesting article in the May 2009 issue of  Intercom.  The article, “The Generational Effect on Social Media,” discusses how the difference in age is an indication as to the likelihood of using social media applications.  Author, Rich Maggiani, brings up some very good points.  Among them is the communication preference of each generation: Baby Boomers prefer face-to-face, Gen Yers were born “plugged-in,” and Gen Xers hover somewhere in the middle.

It is no surprise that the conclusions drawn in the article point to the Gen Yers as being the social media gurus, “while the rest of us struggle to engage.”  At first read, I agreed with the article.  But the more I thought about it, I did not agree 100%.

Truth be told, I am a Gen Xer and not too far from the Gen Y border.  But unlike those a few years my junior, I found no real use for social media.  That is until about a year ago.  In that time, I have seen a proliferation in the number of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers getting involved in social media.  This got me thinking:  Are the conclusions in that article accurate?   In a way, they are.  And when it comes down to all faces of social media, it is probably pretty darn accurate.  But in one little corner of the social media world, I believe it to be somewhat inaccurate.

Facebook is one of the most popular social media applications available.  It’s pretty simple to use and offers a myriad of ways to connect with other people.  From status updates, to group discussions, to cute little “game” applications, a lot is available to suit most anyone’s interests.

Friends and family use Facebook to keep in touch and share photos.  Groups of people are coming together to share their passions with other like-minded people.  Businesses are using Facebook to connect and interact with their customers and prospects.  It is a truly powerful social media tool and it is no wonder people are flocking to it.

Turning back to the generational aspect of social media, I dug up some information to support my theory about Facebook.  According to the 2009 Facebook Demographics & Statistics Report, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are getting on board with social media and at an astonishing rate.  Currently, there are over 200 million active users on Facebook.  Among those, nearly 7 million fall into the 35-54 age range (up 276% from six months earlier) and nearly 955,000 are 55 and older (up 194%).  Combined, these folks make up roughly 20% of all Facebook users.  According to the report, the 35-54 demographic has been doubling every two months.  That said, it’s likely that both demographics will continue to increase for some time.

It’s quite possible, as I’ve witnessed over the last several months, that Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are joining Facebook because it is one of the easier tools to use and helps them stay in touch with family and friends.  Regardless of why, the point is they are using it.  More importantly, they are joining groups, participating in discussions, and becoming “fans” of products and services. 

So if you are a business targeting people in these demographics, a Facebook Fan Page may be something you want to consider in your overall marketing strategy.  It will give you an opportunity to connect with your customers, and more importantly, interact with them.  Remember, Baby Boomers like face-to-face communication, and it’s nearly impossible for them to do that with big businesses.  Finding alternative ways to interact with them is key and providing a virtual face-to-face opportunity through a medium such as Facebook may be the answer.

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*Data from the Facebook Demographics & Statistics Report, as of 4 January 2009.
*Intercom is a publication of the Society of Technical Communication.

5 Social Media Gurus You Should Be Following on Twitter

These five gurus are a must-follow for social media insight.

• Mari Smith – Social media consultant and Facebook expert.
• Denise Wakeman – Blogging expert.
• Jason Alba – Author of I’m on LinkedIn, Now What???.
• Mike Stelzner – Social media enthusiast and creator of the Social Media Success Summit.
• Ann Handley – Social media and Twitter expert.

Facebook: Friend or Associate?

More and more, people are beginning to realize the benefit of using Facebook as a networking and marketing tool for their business.  But many people also want to use this social media tool to be, well, social with family and friends.  So how can you effectively utilize Facebook for both personal and professional use?  The answer is quite simple:  filters.

When Facebook redesigned the look and feel of the site in March 2009, more user-control over various elements came with it.  The ability to granularly decide who sees what was finally possible. 

So how can you take advantage of this?  To start, you must first have your friends arranged into lists.  Then, to control the content those groups see, you need to change the privacy setting for each Facebook application.  Likewise, you can filter whose statuses you see.

Friend Lists

I have six different lists:  Following, Friends, Family, Professional, Genealogy, and Writing.  Three of these categorize my friends by type, while two are reserved for friends that share special interests; the “Following” list I will explain later.  You might start out with the basic three (friends, family, and professional) as you can always add more lists later.

To create a Friend list:

1. Click on the Friends button in the top navigation bar.
2. Click the Create New List button.
3. Enter a name for the list.
4. Choose the friends to include in that list.

Tip:  When adding a friend or accepting a request, place them in the appropriate lists.

Application Privacy Settings

Privacy settings for applications differ from that of your overall account.  Essentially, you can dictate per application who can see what.  For example, let’s say you use Notes to share personal information that perhaps you wouldn’t want your professional contacts to see.  In this case, you would set the Notes settings to allow only friends and family to view your notes.

To change application settings:

1. Go to the Applications menu in the bottom toolbar.
2. Choose Edit Applications.
   
3. Change the Privacy Settings for each of the applications you want to control.
1. Click the Edit Settings link.
2. Under the Profile tab, change Privacy Settings to Customize.
3. Choose Some Friends.
4. Enter the list name(s) of those you want to give permission to.

Filter Who You See

When you have a lot of Facebook friends, it can be cumbersome to keep up on everything.  This is where the friend lists become even more invaluable.

As I mentioned earlier, I have a list called Following.  In that list, I place the people that I really want to keep track of.  It’s a mixture of family, friends, and professional contacts.  Instead of the default News Feed, I choose this list to display when I come to my Facebook home page.  Now when I come to Facebook, it only shows me statuses for the people in that list particular list.  I can check out the statuses of other friends by clicking on another list in the menu on the left.

You can change your home page to display a list of your choosing by placing the desired list at the top.

 

Tip:  You can also filter out certain applications.  If you don’t want to see who’s Superpokin’ who, hover over the top-right corner of the status and chose the appropriate action from the Hide menu that appears.

There you have it.  A way to keep your personal and professional life separate on Facebook and to see only what you want to see when you want to see it.

SnagIt: Using File Properties

Want to know where you got a screen capture from, or perhaps when you created it?  In SnagIT, it’s a simple as “right-click.”

Simply locate the thumbnail in either the Library or the Capture Tray, right-click on it, and select Properties.

The Details window shows you the application of where the capture originated, the file name, and file type.  But the neat thing is that it displays when it was created and modified, the website you obtained it from, and where you stored it.  Clicking on the Websites link will take you directly to the source, while clicking on the Location link will open the folder of where it’s stored locally.

Mediabistro Circus

“Extraordinary Impact:  Where Media Meets Technology”

Mediabistro Circus: Extraordinary Impact explores the convergence of digital and traditional media, why it matters, and how it affects the work you do. It’s two days of inspired programming designed to bring together hundreds of top-level professionals from across the media disciplines.

The Mediabistro Circus will be held on June 2-3 at the Times Center in New York.  Early-bird registration ends today (5/13), but you can still register.  In between jobs?  There’s an unemployment rate.  A student?  There’s a student rate.

Anyone who is in the following fields should plan to attend this event:

• Journalism
• Publishing
• Graphic design
• Writing/editing
• Marketing/advertising
• Public relations
• New media

Head on over and sign up today!

Last Chance for Early-Bird Rate

The Social Media Success Summit 2009 will be held from May 25th to June 17th. Thursday is your last chance to save 40% on the registration fee.

If you want to learn more about using social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, to complement your marketing strategy, this conference is for you. And the best part, it’s a virtual conference so no travel is involved.

From the comfort of your own computer, you can discover new and exciting ways to market yourself and/or your business using social media. You’ll hear from Mari Smith, an expert on using Facebook for business; Jason Alba, who knows the ins and outs of LinkedIn; and several other authorities on social media and marketing.

You can’t miss this event! Remember, sign up by Thursday (5/14) to receive 40% off the registration fee.

Hope to see you there!