Well, maybe. There were reports on Sunday that the data which Facebook provides directly to advertisers were showing a drop in “active monthly users” of almost 6 million, over the month of May. Now, Facebook provides these numbers to advertisers with strong caveats. Facebook says the the information “provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn’t designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook.” However, they do line up with several other reputable third party indicators, as reported by Insidefacebook.com. Other indicators however, report the opposite. Of course. What is certain is that Facebook’s growth in the US has been slowing. And another Insidefacebook.com article discusses how once a country’s Facebook usage reaches about 50% of their population, growth seems to taper off.
The reasons for this are all speculation at this point. But when I heard about it I immediately thought of two people I know who recently deleted their Facebook accounts. (The one who tweeted about it humorously above I don’t know personally – he’s a web cartoonist.) I didn’t see any numbers for account deletion, only active monthly user decline, but I think they must correlate. And I think some of this is tied to an inevitable Facebook backlash by those who feel compelled to use something that they resent for whatever reason (privacy, security, wasting time, etc). Not that I think Facebook is going anywhere anytime soon. Nor do I think it’s going to go the way of Friendster or Myspace. Although I’m not sure I would wager money on that either.
You may have heard the buzz as of late, but the myth that ‘journalism is a dying industry’ is being directly challenged by The New Yorker magazine – on a platform that is partially blamed for thwarting the long-form journalistic style. The platform: Facebook.
For a limited period of time, The New Yorker Facebook fan page is featuring a “Fans Only” reading section that will feature a full-text version of “Farther Away”, a story by acclaimed author Jonathan Franzen. As of right now, the text is only available to magazine subscribers in print and through The New Yorker website. The hitch - to access the “Fans Only” section you have to be a Fan – or in Facebook lingo – “Like” the page.
The New Yorker is a of the publication that primarily keeps its content behind a pay wall whereas most sites provide content for free. This is an interesting move on their part. An article on the site Poynter.org revealed that there isn’t a technical plan about increasing engagement on the company’s Facebook page via an interview with spokeswoman Alexa Cassanos. However the goal was to increase Facebook fans who are actually fans of long-form journalism. I like The New Yorker’s take on the balance of quality vs. quantity…in this case it’s a mixture of both.
This feature came on just after Facebook created a page just for journalists, to promote the industry becoming more active on Facebook. As of now the page has almost 40,000 fans and receives a decent amount of engagement. The comments however surrounding the announcement of The New Yorker’s efforts were received pretty negatively from a page that is supposed to be close to the target that The New Yorker is reaching for:
We will see what The New Yorker plans next as they seemed quite vague on the subject. Until then, if you excuse me, I have some reading to do.
It’s finally happened! For those of you who have a Facebook fan page but are regularly frustrated with the inability to take the page outside of itself…well wait no more! Yesterday Facebook revamped its fan page layout and settings. Fan pages now are treated very similarly to a Facebook profile, a move that may have been made to try to steer those away from creating profiles for companies versus fan pages.
The changes will take place across all pages in early March, however you have the option to update now (we just got so excited we had to do it ASAP!). If you are as impatient as us and wish wish to peruse Facebook in the new fan page type of way, here are a few things you should be aware of when updating your Facebook page.
You’ll notice a few additions/changes to your page’s Settings section. One that I was extremely excited about was the opportunity to comment and post as yourself or as your page (and not just on your page).
See how we did it!
Another change is a more prominent display of fan page photos – they are displayed in a featured horizontal slide show on the top of the page. A great way for marketing the media that Facebook users interact with the most! As of now there aren’t any display changes with video.
Finally, a use for adding pages to your pages’ Favorites! They are much more prominently displayed – perhaps one day you can see some of the shared content between the pages to showcase their compatibility, but one step at a time. The new pages also display the page Administrators’ profiles on the top corner of the page.
Take note that when you use Facebook as your fan page, you can always go back to your profile with an easy drop down option located in the top right corner of your Facebook screen.
So there you have it! Facebook has made so many changes over the past year, but I have to say, this is the one that I’m the most excited about. Have you switched over to the new page set-up yet? Let us know what you think!
Until recently, if you had been browsing Facebook in a Starbucks, using their wifi, anyone else on that network could have stolen your Facebook identity using free and easy to use tools. For instance, the Firefox plugin Firesheep listens on unsecured wifi networks for the cookies that sites like Facebook use to keep you from having to login after each click. When it finds one it allows the user to start browsing Facebook as if they were you – with one click! Someone with bad intentions could then change your password AND set the email address associated with your account to their own.
Firesheep isn’t meant to be used for nefarious purposes, although it could and probably is being used that way. It was meant to shed light on the problem of browsing sites like Facebook over unsecured networks. And it seems like Facebook has directly responded to the recent fervor about that. You can now set Facebook to automatically encrypt all communication between your computer and their servers. I would recommend anyone to do that immediately. Turn it on by clicking “Account” in the upper right hand corner in Facebook, then “Account Settings”, and then “Account Security”. Make sure the box under “Secure Browsing” is checked, and then click “Save”:
This will keep anyone from hijacking your Facebook account over an unsecured wifi network. Other websites you visit may still leave you vulnerable. If you’re unsure, don’t use it – especially if any sensitive information is involved. Look for the padlock icon in your browser – it varies between browsers but is usually near one of the corners. That means a site is secure. For complete security you would need to set up an encrypted proxy for all traffic on your computer, which is too involved and situation-dependent to get into here. If you’re curious check out this Lifehacker article about it, or email us at info@astekweb.com.
Mobile marketing has changed a lot in the past couple of years. Geo-targeting uses your smart phone’s GPS to find out where you are, allows you to “check in” to a location, and deliver targeted messages to you based on that information.
Leaders in the geo-targeting space include Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt (plus LooptStar). They are similar in many ways, but each offers a different twist on an increasingly familiar theme. They enable local businesses to find and attract consumers in new ways, such as offering coupons or special offers to regulars based on how many times they’ve come in. Like many start-ups, none have mastered the monetization aspect of mobile marketing, but there are clearly endless opportunities here.
In order to give people incentive to use the apps, various forms of social “rewards” are used that essentially turn exploring your city into a game. We are social creatures, and while some of these rewards may seem meaningless or frivolous, there is an attraction to them as they create an element of social status within communities. A large part of the appeal to people in large cities with lots of friends is to make sure you never miss the action, but I believe the jury is still out as to the real social value of this once the initial allure wears off a bit.
While this isn’t intended to be an in-depth review, I’ll discuss some interesting distinctions of each:
Foursquare – I’ve been on Foursquare for about a year now. It’s been amazing to watch the database of local places grow since it depended on the community to enter locations. Now it’s rare that I go somewhere that isn’t already there. The person who frequents a location the most becomes the “mayor” and some establishments give benefits for that position. You collect virtual badges for achieving certain things, like being in a place with at least 50 other people (Swarm) or hitting 4 clubs in one night (Crunked). You get the idea. Foursquare made a gamble by creating a new database of locations and friends, but it seems to have paid off. The most compelling thing about this is the special offers that are based on your location. When you check in somewhere, the app will tell you if there is a nearby special, or one at the place you are (a free drink for 10 check-ins for example). While Foursquare has exploded in the past year, I haven’t seen a congruent explosion of the specials offered by businesses.
LooptStar is a spinoff of Loopt, which was historically a more informational type of app. Their new entry enters the “rewards” space more heavily. The thing that LooptStar does that I believe will give it an advantage is use Facebook Connect to leverage the largest existing social network rather than wait for everyone to find their friends on yet another new one. They were later to the game, but I believe this will give them an edge in the long run. In LooptStar you become a “boss” rather than a “mayor.” But the rewards look to be more tangible than FourSquare.
Gowalla benefits from being on all major mobile smart platforms, including Blackberry and Palm. They also rely on partnerships with existing travel-related services to offer “trips” and share those with your friends. While Foursquare provides community tips based on your location, Gowalla focuses more on directly exploring your friends’ favorite locations to learn more about what they like rather than the community at large.
All of these apps feature basic sharing with your Twitter and Facebook feeds to let people know what you’re up to. Yelp has entered the space by adding check-in to its feature set and you can bet that Google is going to be all over this with its massive business database and Android mobile platform. The problem these sites have is that they have established brand and culture that make it harder to break into new areas.
While this space is fascinating to watch, it still has a long way to go. The apps depend largely upon smart phones such as iPhone and Android, which represent the minority of the mobile market. Also, I feel that any app that requires you to actively check in to a location rather than simply knowing where you are is going to appeal more to geeks and early adopters than the majority of people. It can be very distracting to interrupt your social experience. “Wait guys… I have to check in here first…”
What’s the alternative? Remember Minority Report, when Tom Cruise’s retinas were scanned everywhere he went? In that version of the future, you didn’t even need a device to tell the network where you were. Cameras were so ubiquitous that they knew anyway. Scary? A bit. Possible? You bet.
How do you Google? Chances are you start most of your Internet research at Google.com. You might also have a Gmail account or use Google Calendar to manage your life. And it’s a safe bet you’ve used Google maps and have your own opinion about the street view trucks making sure everyone can see your house. But there is much more to Google than meets the eye.
Google is many things to millions of people. What started as an innovative way to search the Web back in 1998 has grown into one of the world’s largest and most successful companies, now delivering results for more than one billion searches every day using its highly guarded secret sauce. Put simply, Google is what makes the Web usable.
Recently Google has taken great strides to integrate its numerous products and services into a suite of business applications called Google Apps, which can help you with corporate email, shared calendars and documents, groups, websites, and video.
The services are all Web-based, which means you don’t have to worry about servers, maintenance, etc. Just make sure you have a Web connection, get through the basic set-up, and you’re good to go. All the services are seamlessly integrated with each other at a fixed low per-user cost. Google even provides a handy cost savings calculator if you’re using Lotus or Exchange.
As much value as the Business Apps give you, Google’s free apps can deliver even more value. I encourage you to look into:
Google Analytics to see how your Web site traffic is doing to improve marketing strategy
Google Alerts to have industry or brand-related articles and comments delivered right to your inbox
No, I’m not talking about Google being talked up in the news, blogosphere, or twittersphere. Although I do think Google’s new Buzz concept is newsworthy. I haven’t really caught any “little b“ buzz about it except within ”big B“ Buzz itself (although there are some news articles to be found about it). Buzz is Google’s answer to Twitter and Facebook’s news feed. I’m a longtime GMail user, so I saw it when it rolled out to most users yesterday. I guess I did see one tweet and one GChat status about it when it apparently soft launched on Tuesday, which had me investigating in advance.
It was interesting yesterday to see people experimenting and wondering what it was all about, through the Buzz interface itself. It’s apparently not totally intuitive for everyone. I generally like it and get it though, and I’m not the only one. There was a lot of people posing questions or concerns through Buzz status updates, and other folk responding back about how they thought things worked and made sense.
Last week I was attempting to surprise my girlfriend by taking her to see Leonard Cohen in concert. At some point I must have RSVP’ed to the event on Facebook, as you can see from the screenshot she saw on her Facebook page the day before the show. Facebook invited her to the show by telling her that I was attending! Since I had told her to block off the night, it wasn’t too hard to put it together. (Well, that and the fact that I made her listen to Leonard Cohen songs all week.
Starting Saturday at 12:01 a.m. Eastern, Facebook will allow users to personalize their Page URL’s (the web link people use to access profiles and fan pages). Not only is it a nice touch for Web users and brand promoters, it will help with search engine optimization for your brand since Facebook gets so much traffic. Though chances are Facebook is a top hit for your page already. Telling someone how to find you on Facebook will be easier, since you can provide an easy URL rather than telling him or her to search for you.
You must have had 1,000 fans on your page prior to June 1 to be eligible. Be sure to secure your name or brand before someone else does!
Wondering what the deal is with these “apps” on Facebook or LinkedIn? Or perhaps like me up until recently, Facebook apps are old hat while LinkedIn’s offerings are more unknown. Well, firstly, app is short for application. An application in the social networking context is an extra, optional element to include in your profile. It adds functionality beyond the core information displayed about you and your activity on a particular site. Apps often bring external information into your profile, and this is where they are arguably most useful. For instance, if you or your company has a blog, you can display its feed on your Facebook or LinkedIn profile.
Is Facebook Seeing a Decline is US Traffic? 
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