Google indexes non-private Facebook content

What does that mean for your brand?  It means that there is a high likelihood that in addition to everywhere else on the web where you had to protect your brand from negative comments, you now have to be even more aware of what's happening in the worlds largest social network.

This actually isn't that new. Google has been able to index a lot of stuff for a while, but it's now been made clear that over 53 million pages on Facebook have been indexed for search, and that means a pretty vast array of content. Since a page, a note, a discussion within a page or group, a group wall, a photo caption or video caption or title are all index-able, there's a lot more real estate to deal with.

Can Twitter Lists improve your credibility?

Short Answer-- Yes.   Lists are one of those things that people are going to use to get an unbiased opinion of a user/brand/account.  If someone adds me to a list (which is somewhat manual) they're assigning me some amount of credibility to exist, and they are also categorizing my relationship.

For example, I may have a list for friends, one for family, and then a few work related like Brands, Loyalty, Cooking.  If someone looks at Sobeys twitter page and sees that it's listed on a bunch of random peoples lists, and the things that people have named their lists are keywords like Canada, Cooking, Shopping, Brand, or whatever--- that's essentially a public opinion poll and keyword research about the account in question.  Credibility.

Speaking Engagements

Lately I've been asked more and more to speak with individuals, small groups and leadership teams about social media. Many of these people understand the big picture, and know that they need to make more of an investment in their customers real lives instead of simply 'talking at them' with a billboard or radio spot. My approach is simple: I assume that you've made the decision to invest, and just need to know what things cost, where to spend the money and when.

I'm going to talk to you about authenticity, making sure that you understand that agencies and consultants are great, but your organization needs to be invested both financially and culturally.

I'm going to talk about why certain tactics are worth more or worth doing first, because I'm a nerd, and I read all the things that your agency doesn't take the time to read, let alone share with you.

Know who you're selling

I just had a terrible conversation with an agency person (who I secretly hope will read this) about various advertising products available on Facebook, and re-sold by this company. (I won't name names).

The problem is that this person didn't prepare. The deck they emailed was mostly stock, highlighting everything we had already covered in the first meeting. They felt the need to walk through it again, just in case there were questions, even though I fully understood everything, and let them know this fact. Don't waste my time.

Then the kicker: They proceeded to sell me on some Facebook page creation and management services that they offer for multi-thousands of dollars. This is my job. This would be like selling a plumber a pipe-fixing service. Do your research. You know you're talking to the Social Media guy-- why not find out if this is something that is needed before you try to pitch. This person was also clearly non-technical, as any even remotely 'tough' question was met with awesome word combinations (which I know because I've used them)like strategic management. You're going to 'strategically manage' my needs directly to the nearest nerd, who won't know anything about what I need.

Awesomest movie ever.

This movie has 'splosions, pew pew, and basically every old action hero except JCVD and the Governator. It's called "The Expendables" (ha. Yep.) and who knows how long this russian site will be able to host the trailer. Check it out.

Twitter Lists: About time.

Not everyone is able to use Lists yet.  (They opened up the beta to the mad tweeps such as myself today). Why are lists good?  You can now do all the following you like, and then when you're ready to read just the junk you actually care about (like Facebook's hide feature in their newsfeed) you can now just see those peoples tweets.  It's a filter for the fire hose.

Now here's the kicker.  You can share lists, and if you're IN a list, that number will now appear with your other popularity stats like followers and updates.  Congratulations popular people, you will now have another number by which to measure your awesomeness.

We'll have to see how this plays out.

Movember: Toronto Crumb Dusters

As I think about Blog Action Day today, I've started a team for Movember to raise both awareness and funds for Prostate Cancer Canada.  If you're a Mo Bro or a Mo Sis, and would like to participate with me, join my team.

It's not rocket science, and unlike all those other Cancers where you have to walk really far, we just have to grow a Mo'.  It's brilliant.  With each Mo sported in Movember, we become walking billboards for the cause.  (Make sure you tell your boss so they don't think you're a slacker)

To check out the cause, and join my team, click here

Corporate Social Media Policies: My Opinion

First let me disclaim that the views on this blog are my own, not those of the companies for whom I consult.  I think that social networking is becoming so entrenched into the fabric of our lives and so important to how we stay in touch with our families and friends that we are moving towards inevitable ubiquity.

There was a time, before I was starting companies or getting jobs, where companies would selectively give people computers based on the work they had to do. Then later, is was "Does this person need email? or Internet access?".  That was back before we googled for everything.  Productivity actually went up, and more and more people got internet access and computers until they were ubiquitous.  Now when you start a job (depending on the work) it's assumed that there's a computer provided, and that there will be internet access from that computer.

Facebook Family Search

Until today, I had no idea that Facebook has a search feature designed to help find family members (or at least those with the same last name).  Available at http://facebook.com/family the search gives you some letters to start off with, or simply start typing in your (or any) name.

Not sure how useful this is, but I think it's neat.  Could this be a legacy feature that just isn't linked to anywhere in the current Facebook design?  Who knows.

50 Business Thinkers share

I really liked the Bruce Tulgan interview about how to be a leader for Generation Y.

It's interesting to me how my generation sees certain things very differently from Gen Y.   They look at an organization like "How is this company or organization going to fit in my life's story."  "What is this company going to do for me?"
Rewards and recognition are also extremely important to this group because of an early sense of entitlement, and other different motivators that what I grew up with.  Does anyone work in an environment where they have to lead a large cohort of Gen Y'ers-- comment with any thoughts or advice.  See for yourself.

If you knew, what would it be worth? Street View Placement

If you knew the exact moment that the Google Streetview car would be rolling by a certain billboard, what would that be worth to your brand? Would you put up something special? Would you make it more generic or put a special offer? Would you change anything at all?

Probably the reason the cars go incognito as much as they can (with a giant roof mounted camera).

Google launched the Street View in their Google Maps application today for Canada. I think street view is the most useful of all the maps features when you are trying to find a specific place. Knowing even generally what neighbourhood and specifically what a building looks like is immensely helpful. What do you think?

Chinese little people capitalize on size

How cool is this:  Little people, Dwarves, (or whatever they call them in China), sick of being bullyed by us Normals have bandied together and created their own community.  They have a police force and fire brigade, and nobody is over 4'3" tall.  Then they did something AWESOME.  They made their houses look like toadstools and put on costumes and started charging people to visit their community.  Doesn't sound very communist to me.  Go team.  [via Telegraph.co.uk]

What I saw at Casecamp 2009

I was at Casecamp 2009 recently, at the CARLU, a benefit for SickKids Hospital. I didn't win my silent auction bid, so technically I didn't donate anything extra to SickKids Hospital, but there were a lot of people there, so I'm sure the Auction raised some money, along with the ticket and drinks revenue.

So-- what I saw (and in some cases learned) at Casecamp. Honestly-- not a lot I didn't know already, but it was reassuring to hear others speak it aloud to a group of people. What I enjoyed most was the personal stories of Jason Scott and his experiences with @sockington or Sam Reich and the stuff he works on at College Humor Originals.

Here's the run down with my thoughts, and some key points:



Keynote: Jason Scott, creator of the hugely popular Sockington the Cat. @Sockington has over a million followers, and Jason thinks about 350k of these are real people, interested in reading what he writes. He also revealed (not a secret) that he pre-writes a lot of the content that Socks tweets to the world, so that he can have a life. It lives on a server and randomly, about three times a day @sockington will share something with his army of loyal followers. Cool guy. The big idea from Jason (for me) was that a) simple ideas can be popular and b)some people can't be bought.

NASA Dangerously close to the 'Star trek Replicator'

NASA has been able to use electron-beams to create specialized parts in a manner that is cheaper and more energy efficient that traditional 3D manufacturing process.

We are getting very close to the Star Trek universe where using raw materials, a computer controlled device called a Replicator can create almost anything, in any configuration.  Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.

[Via NASA]

Expense-a-Steak

How great is it when a classy steakhouse understands their customer SO well, that they go to the trouble of creating an easy-to-use website that generates receipts for their customers so they can avoid getting the evil eye when they submit their expense report?

It's pretty simple: You enter the total of your bill from the restaurant (or anywhere really) and the site generates a single sheet PDF image that you can print out that has real looking crumpled receipts that you could submit with an expense report.  They're not saying "Defraud your company".  They're more saying "We understand how it looks when you submit restaurant receipts for $300 lunches".