On the business side, it’s great to set up a check-in spot for your headquarters on Foursquare and Gowalla. There is little risk involved, and trends indicate that being present on these location-based services (LBS) will be beneficial to companies as proximity marketing gains momentum. (Proximity marketing: marketing that targets an audience based on their GPS location. Specifically in this case, through your mobile phone. We think this will be big.)

As a personal user, it can be fun to collect badges or prizes, to compete for mayorships, and just see where your friends have checked-in. There are risks, though. The tips below are helpful hints for minimizing risk on Foursquare and Gowalla, but they are by no means guarantees. The very nature of these platforms is to let people know precisely where you are, and there’s no absolute promise that only your friends will ever see that information.

If you accept those risks though, the tips below can help keep your information under your control.

1. Don’t become Foursquare or Gowalla friends with anyone you do not know. You might receive many requests from acquaintances, local figures, even from the newspaper or a nearby restaurant. You might know the owner of the restaurant, but do you know for a fact they are the ones reading the updates? When we suggest you only friend people you know on Foursquare, we mean a person (not a group) whom you literally do not mind knowing exactly where you are at any given moment. Just stop and think before you hit accept. This may mean you have 3 Foursquare friends, but truly, that’s better than total strangers knowing where you are.
2. Don’t “tell Twitter.” The second you push a check-in to Twitter, it’s public to the entire world. Hesitate even to let your friends on Facebook see that update. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Foursquare still has some pretty solid bricks in its “walled garden,” but the second that information gets to other platforms, it is way more likely to become public.
3. Before you check-in, ask yourself this question, “If all the walled gardens fell and everyone could see everything, would anything really bad happen because of this check-in?” If not (and the cards usually seem to fall that way), go for it!

We hope you will sign up for Foursquare or Gowalla, because they’re wicked fun and they’re catching on. Leave comments with more tips to help people practice safe checking-in!

Now this isn’t the end-all-be-all list of Facebook Post Categories, but after some consideration, we think posts from businesses fall into one of the following ilks:

1. Horn-toots for the company.
2. Horn-toots for an employee or employees.
3. Horn-toots for clients, partners, or causes.
4. Links to information.
5. Requests for response.
6. Idle chatter.

Now, there is a time and place for horn-tooting. And there’s even more time and place for horn-tooting the merits of others, like local business, your clients, or the latest fundraising campaign. But how much is too much? Dominating your customers walls is not the goal, and certainly being absent is not good either. What is the right ratio of types of posts to frequency that will leave you with lots of impressions, but few hiders?

Unfortunately, there’s no way of knowing. Even assuming you are putting out a great ratio of self-promotion to outside-promotion and being an engager instead of yacker, it still depends on your audience. The number of times you appear on their wall varies by how much you post, of course, but also how many friends they have, how often they post, and whether or not they are set to “Top News” or “Most Recent.”

Then, of course, there is your content. How much meaty content can you reasonably expect to have in a given period of time? Is it better to only post good content, or post frequently enough to be a presence in the news feed?

Here’s the good news: you can ask. Ask your customers what they think of your content and your frequency. Ask them in person. Ask them on Facebook. Not only is this a great way to engage your clients, but it’s a great way to show that you care about their opinions. The fact of the matter is that everyone is constantly trying to adjust and update their social media presence. By it’s very nature, social media is ever-fluctuating, and so are the expectations. No one will hold it against you or think less of you for asking for advice on your strategy, because they’re probably in the same boat.

We’ll start. What do you think of our social media life?

“They’ve pulled the carpet out from under your feet. They gave you an expectation of privacy. And they have reneged on that deal. They are in for some hot water. They are being viewed as a utility.”

If you Google “define utility,” the first result is a definition from Princeton: “a company that performs a public service; subject to government regulation.”

The Memphis-based Facebook Free Friday movement wasn’t the only backlash Facebook faced this weekend – QuitFacebookDay.com had 34,000 users committed to quit the social media site on Memorial Day, May 31. However, that’s 34,000 of 400 million users, a mere .0085%, and there’s no word yet on how many of them actually went through with it. The QuitFacebookDay fan page still has more than 7,000 members that evidently did not really intend to delete their accounts.

Like water, gas and electricity, people are finding they simply cannot walk away from Facebook. Many have tried to abandon their accounts only to return. Many more don’t even kid themselves by trying. Sure, we can survive without Facebook. We can survive without electricity, too, but do we want to? No. But the costs, distribution and regulations that allow us to enjoy electricity, and now  Facebook too, must be government regulated.

The new Facebook privacy controls are better, but still not totally comprehensive. For instance, the controversial “Pilot Program” is still opt-in, the opt-out check box is still buried in layers of settings, and it’s still unclear to the average user what in the world the Pilot Program even is.

Amid the din of users’ outcries, both Facebook and Google received letters from Representative John Conyers of Michigan demanding an explanation of their recent privacy violations. As the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Conyers is positioned to bring forth a hearing against the two groups and introduce legislation to regulate online privacy. It would appear that Facebook’s reluctance to operate under its members’ expectations will almost certainly result in legislative measures for controlling the utility of social media.

facebook-privacy

Last week’s announcement that four NYU students were developing  a Facebook alternative suggests that they want its global dominance to shift: in the name of freedom. The students have more than raised their needed-for-development goal of $10,000 in 27 fewer days than scheduled.

But before the project, Diaspora*, is launched, we’ve found some articles that can be used in the meantime:

1) A timely article entitled “Facebook’s Gone Rogue; It’s Time for an Open Alternative” which discusses the viral, yet ambiguous, nature of its privacy laws, or lack thereof.

2) ReclaimPrivacy’s tool that allows users to scan their profiles for privacy intrusion.

3) Consumer Report’s Facebook rule of thumb: “7 Things to Stop Doing Now on Facebook”

4) SaveFace: A tool that allows users to reset most user settings back to “Friends Only.”

We aren’t against Facebook; we just want our privacy back.

We’re calling that rule Step Zero.

Step Zero: If businesses become operative within social media without regard to their community, they become irresponsible and oppressive.

"Laptop Megaphone" by jj_pappas423 on Flickr

We’re aware of these boundaries in the real world: an overzealous sales associate who stalks each new customer with nonstop pleas for service:  “May I help you?” “Would you like to try that on?” “What are you looking for today?” A customer is likely to walk out of the store every time. But in terms of the web, it takes a different form: countless fan page requests, despite denial time and time again.  And then there’s the megaphone effect, when businesses use social profiles as a megaphone to broadcast their message, without actually participating in the community.

All other subsequent “laws” hinge upon this idea. We often forget that real world rules and courtesies apply within the web. Bombarding social profiles with requests and suggestions is no way to earn business. Once this intangible, invisible line is crossed, marketing efforts become oppressive.

People are generous to extend some level of accepting interruptions. By connecting with businesses online, customers are granting permission for marketing purposes, but don’t take advantage of this generosity. If business exceeds this level, the community will regard it as being socially irresponsible and insulting.

If you’re like many tweeters, it’s the latter. The trending topic that started back in January of last year with a single tweet by @Micah has grown into a well-known weekly tradition since its inception. But has it run its course? While the original idea seemed to be to mention or promote a specific tweeter based on quality content or common interest, now many of the tweets resemble endless strings of @ signs and Twitter handles with no information or discernible reason for following any of them.

It’s become something that you do because, well, it’s Friday and that’s what you’re supposed to do. Right? We sent out a quick poll to some tweeters last Friday to find out what they thought about the whole affair.

Of the 17 respondents we had, the vote was fairly equally split between those who follow the suggestions with some scrutiny and those who are tired of the trend or ignore the tweets altogether. Not surprisingly, no one said that they follow the suggestions blindly.

As early as a few months in to the trend, bloggers were already questioning its relevance, and some have suggested other ways to go about promoting quality content on Twitter.

We’re wondering if the value of the idea hasn’t been lost in the strings of Twitter handles with no explanation of who the person is or what type of content they typically bring to the stream. #FollowFriday is losing its steam and its relevance. What do you think?

Capturing Light

Presented at TribeCamp by Justin McGregor
When the shot matters, you don’t want to miss it because you’re fiddling with your camera’s exposure settings. It’s just got to come naturally, says Justin McGregor, and step one is learning about aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. Then, go play with your camera until adjusting these elements is like second nature.
“Capturing Light” was an exposure 101 course for photography beginners. Justin went over the definitions and basic principles of aperture, ISO, and shutter speed, and then tossed out a few great photography websites and blogs to check out!

• Digital Photography School
• Photofocus
• Strobist
• Within a Click
• Nerboo’s Flickr Photostream

Introduction.

Whether you are selling tickets, toys, or shoes, your overall goal is to use social media to gain recognition, incite curiosity, and then build trust in your brand – trust that will lead a customer to buy the product, and then do it again.

So you go to the websites that people are already on: Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, to name just a few, to build that recognition. When your contacts are curious enough, they may be drawn to your website. Hopefully, the trust you’ve laid the groundwork for on social media platforms will be solidified by your website, and you’ll land a sale.

Social media marketing can be time consuming, though, and it would be a comfort to know that your valuable time and effort is paying off in that desired trust. Only, you can’t measure trust. So how will you know you’re not wasting your time?

We hope this blog will give you some ideas for “finding your social yardstick,” which is to say, gauging your social media impact and how you might improve it. We’ve outlined four “layers” of building a social presence. They are “layers” and not “steps” since you never really move past any of the processes, but you build upon it, like floors in a building. Each of the lower levels must be maintained and adjusted to make sure the upper floors are still stable.

Layer 1: Optimize. Learning Pre-Social Networking Tools.

The goal of social marketing is to get the potential customer to your website. So, before you expend time and energy into Facebook, Twitter, or a blog, you’ll want to Optimize your website. Which is to say, you want the site to be everything it can be: eye-catching, professional, and easily navigable. Once a person has found your page, you want the layout that provides the greatest chance of a sale.

There are two very important tools for optimizing your site. One is Google Analytics. This is a free service, which can take some time to install on your website, depending on how it is built. Once your site is synced to Google Analytics, though, you can easily access more information about your website that you thought possible to track.

Learn how people find your site. Are they coming from Facebook by clicking on a successful ad? Are they running a search on Google? Analytics will even tell you what keywords in the a visitor typed in the search bar before they clicked the link to your site. Then, you can maximize on those keywords by using them as “Tags” on any photos, videos, or blogposts you publish to the internet.

Analytics will also give you a picture of how people are navigating through your site. One key statistic is your bounce rate: percentage of initial visitors who “bounce” away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site. Knowing the bounce rate for each of your pages will let you know which ones are immediately disengaging. Analytics can also tell you which page most often leads to the goal (or purchase) page, which will let you know where you may already be doing something right.

Click here for the official tour of Google Analytics.

http://www.google.com/analytics/tour.html

With the information from Google Analytics in hand, you will be prepared to begin optimizing, using the aptly named Google Website Optimizer.

This tool combines website editing with a middle school science experiment. Say you have a home page for your website. On it, you show a banner, some text, and a menu for navigation, and you want to decrease your bounce rate for that page. You would like to try adding a photo, tweaking the text, and changing the color of the banner, but, as we all learned in our middle school science class, adding too many variables at once and not having a “control” will make it impossible to know which variable led to the change.

Enter the Optimizer’s Multivariate Test. Once it is synced to your website, you can submit multiple variables to the program. It will then mix and match the new variables with your existing components and provide comprehensive feedback on which combination led to the highest conversion rate: the number of site visitors who complete the desired action (clicking to the “Checkout” page, for instance) divided by the total visits.

How long you want to run Google Optimizer before you commit to a certain combination will probably depend on how much traffic you receive. More traffic means you’ll get faster statistics, but, ultimately, it’s up to you and your company.

Once your site is optimized, and even while it is optimizing, you’ll want to Push Traffic. Get people there. Keep in mind, though, that even once you’ve run Optimizer and found the best possible combination of photos and text, the internet is an ever-changing entity. Websites must be updated, and people’s expectations vary over time. Keep optimizing, and definitely keep getting feedback from Analytics.

Layer 2: Push Traffic. Getting Started with Social Media.

If you have no experience with social media, it is more than okay to start small. There are five steps to establishing your online presence, so it’s best to make a schedule. Decide how long you will spend on step one, lurking. Perhaps you’ll lurk on Facebook for two weeks to see what it’s about. Then break down that period of time further. Set aside the time to spend two hours on three days of the week lurking. Then do it.

1. Lurk. Sign-up for your social platform of choice. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, your first step is to explore. Watch what others are doing until you feel comfortable enough to jump in.

2. Presence. Create your profile, upload a video, post a picture or your first blogpost. Don’t be afraid to start very small. A blogpost does not need to be a five paragraph essay, and it doesn’t need to take you all day to write. Become a fan of some pages on Facebook and start following people on Twitter.

3. Consumption/ Conversation. This is the step at which you can begin to measure your effectiveness. Gain Facebook fans or Twitter followers. Get views on your YouTube video by posting links on other sites. Ask people questions at the end of your blogpost so you get comments. You want to get people talking to you.

4. Engagement. To keep those people talking to you, you’ll need to talk to them. Reach out into the online community. Set a numeric goal. For instance, “I will post great content often enough on my blog to get 10 comments this month!” Or maybe, “I will comment on two Facebook pages other than my company’s every day.” This is the time to step up your game to really produce great content, which will lead to…

5. Virality. This is the goal, in which other people start sharing your content. Maybe they’ve subscribed to your blog through an RSS feed (more on this later), or they are posting links to your YouTube videos on their Facebook profiles. Congratulations, you are viral.

You’ll find yourself cycling through steps 3 to 5 again and again as you upload new content, engage contacts to gain feedback, and push the video or picture to virality. Now, pick another social media platform and make a new schedule.

If you’ve got ten minutes right now, take a step forward in your social media presence, even if it’s a small one. Watch the tutorial for Analytics or Optimizer, or maybe just create a username on a social website you’re unfamiliar with and spend a few minutes exploring. If you’re well-established on a social network, try spending ten minutes posting on fans’ walls. Later this week, we’ll post Layers 3 and 4, which will feature more numeric tools for measuring your success!

Google Fiber promises Internet speed up to a one gigabit per second – that’s three hundred times faster than typical home broadband service. The real coup of winning a bid for Fiber, though, would be that Google plans to take this service to every home and business in the chosen communities, regardless of the neighborhood’s commercial potential. An investment of that magnitude could transform an entire city.

So where do you come in? If Memphis wants to be a real contender, then Google needs to hear from members of our community. Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton wrote in his blog ways that we, as Memphians, can help the cause. The first step and one of the easiest (but most important) things you can do is to fill out Google’s web questionnaire for community members, stating your support for Memphis, Tennessee.

Filing the questionnaire is simple. If you don’t have a Google account, then just click here to sign up. If you do, then go ahead and Nominate Your Community. When you are finished, press “submit.”

And if you’re looking to get more involved, there are other ways to help. The city is gathering video testimonials, written letters of support, web content and links to Memphis supporters’ Web sites this week only. You can help by making a one to two minute video of you or your friends talking about why you believe Memphis is the best city for Google Fiber. It doesn’t have to be anything over the top or expensive — even a cell phones video stating the case would make a difference.

E-mail the video file once it’s done and it will be posted to the city’s YouTube channel for Google to review.

Let’s not let this opportunity pass us by, Memphis — we want Google Fiber and we can be the ones to help make it happen.