A big problem for Pages is that in order to allow open discussion and increase engagement, admins have to allow those who Like the Page to post to its wall. However, this gives spammers the opportunity to damage the perception of a Page by filling it with malicious or profiteering links or objectionable content. This can cause users to Unlike the Page or stop engaging in conversation there.

If you go under “edit page” then “manage permissions” there is a setting for it! Now when you see a post that you want to delete you can mark it as spam~ Just another new Facebook option…

What is your opinion of this newest option?

Jenn Sterger and Brett Favre

Brett Favre sexting? Why since these allegations arose has there been very little media coverage as to situation. The voice sounds like Brett, the pictures who knows and what about the fact the Brett has not come out and say that he did not do it.

When Ben Roethlisberger had his allegations against him immediately the media was on it. You would think the media would be unbiased but is it because Brett Favre may be considered a diva that this is not mentioned? hmmmm.. I noticed that within the league and media coverage they seem to have certain people that may be untouchable. I’m not sure if that is really the case but by face value it looks that way.

So my next question is if this plays out to be true the league step up to the situation and suspend Brett Favre? There will be pictures and proof and there are also other women who have been sexually harassed that may be coming forward. To massage therapists is what has been said.

If everything turns out to be true then Brett Favre should be suspended for 6 games (if he does the counseling and meets all the requirements then and only then should it be dropped down to 4).

By the way has Terry Bradshaw said any thing on this Brett Favre sexting situation? Has anyone heard anything? Terry can’t shut his mouth about Ben Roethlisberger even though Ben has done is time and it is over. He is with the media now so why haven’t we heard anything about Brett?

Anyway what are your thoughts on this situation?

Facebook statement:

“As a business, Places provides a presence on Facebook for your business’ physical location – encouraging your customers to share that they’ve visited your business by “checking in” to your Place. When your customer checks into your Place on Facebook, it generates powerful, organic impressions in friends’ News Feeds, extending your brand’s reach to new customers. Best of all, it’s free.” View the official Facebook Places video.

So far Facebook places is only available in the US, but is already speculated that it will be the platform on which ALL other “check in” type apps will be built. If Facebook’s check-in functionality catches on as the world’s default check-in engine, there’s a good chance that the mobile application world will incorporate its API.

Here are some quick facts to get you started:

The Look:

A Place page shows you a map of where the Place is located, a list of friends who are currently checked in at the Place (if any), and a Friend Activity stream of other friends who have visited the Place in the past. The Place page will contain additional relevant information about the Place if it’s available. You can post a story about the Place page to your profile by clicking the “Share” button on the bottom left of the page.

Find It:

Facebook Places is still in development and does not yet include all business locations. If you cannot find your Place by searching for it on Facebook, you can create your Place yourself.

To create a new place, follow these steps:

1. Access the Places application on your supported device.
2. Click “Check In.”
3. Click the “Add” button to the left of the Places Names search box.
4. Enter a name for the new Place as well as an optional description of it. Then, click the “Add” button at the bottom right of the page.
5. Click the “Check In” button to share your visit.

Keep in mind that any Place that you create is public. This means that other people may see your created Place while browsing Facebook or the Places application.

Once you create your Place, search for it again on Facebook, follow the “Is this your business?” link, and begin the process to claim your Place. Please note that more Places will be added over time.

Claim It:

To claim your Place, search for your business name on Facebook via the normal Search bar. If your business’s Place already exists on Facebook, click on it to visit its page. At the bottom left side of your Place there will be a link that says “Is this your business?” Click on the link and you will be directed to a claiming flow.

We will ask you to verify that you are the owner through a phone verification process, or you may be asked for document verification. Once your claim is confirmed, you will own your Place on Facebook. You may also be prompted to merge your Place with your existing Facebook Page.

iphone Instructions:

You will need the most recent version of the Facebook application for iPhone. You also can access FB Places from touch.facebook.com if your mobile browser supports HTML 5 and geolocation.

Go to Places on the iPhone application or touch.facebook.com site and then you can tap the “Check In” button. You’ll see a list of places near you. Choose the place that matches where you are. If it’s not on the list, search for it or add it. After checking in, your check-in will create a story in your friends’ News Feeds and show up in the Recent Activity section on the page for that place.

*For help with Facebook Places for your business, contact social media training specialists Higher Images at 412-203-1996 or visit their site.

What does a blog do for a franchise?

• Relationship Builder
• Projects news
• Educates
• Instructs
• It’s a “call to action”
• a lead generator
• a talent showcase
• and has great link and seo benefits

The franchise community is becoming more and more open to using the many “social” tools available to them via social media. A blog is a great place to start. A benefit to both SEO (search engine optimization) and social media; a blog is a perfect middle ground. Traditional marketing efforts may not be enough, without social media. The main question is will your competition gain that edge if you drag your feet?

The good news is that you can start now and still be in the game. Though you may have to hire a reputable online marketing company to fast track you into the world of social speaking, it’s still an option. If you’re an avid do it yourself type, consider having a professional company start and design the blog for you (along with seo links and benefits) and then you can update your blog from there.

“With a franchise, a first social media impression is key to the future success of this business type,” says Bryan Thornberg of Higher Images. “Time and time again we’ve seen this mistake- companies dive into social media without proper training and guidance, and fail miserably.”

Sadly many business owners say, “I already have 1,000 friends and I didn’t even try”. My response? Just think of how many you would have if you did it correctly, with stats and monitoring. Some industries are easier to gain a following than others, but that is no real measure of success. What have you accomplished by your social media campaign?

Bryan Thornberg is a franchise marketing veteran with offices all over the country. For a private consultation concerning your franchise marketing efforts, contact Mr. Thornberg at 412-203-1996. -Online Marketing Pittsburgh

The questions and their answers, will be visible to  anyone on the Internet, making Facebook Questions look like Twitter. But it will be easier to use because questions and answers will be grouped together. Companies that have Facebook accounts could ask questions, too, using the site as a free focus group. The fact that the feature is completely open is yet another step away from Facebook’s private social network and is sure to stir up more privacy talk.

Questions and answers have been a fast growing stop while surfing the web. E-How, ChaCha, and Ask.com have been improving their q & a options! Quora, a start-up founded by Facebook’s former chief technology officer, collects questions and answers from their users, and Hunch aims to answer questions based on the questioner’s personality.

Facebook Questions is available to some people now and will eventually roll out to everyone in the immediate future. People will see an “Ask Question” button on their homepage, and can ask questions to all of Facebook. The queries can be phrased as open-ended questions or as polls (“Should I paint my room blue, pink, or yellow?”) and even include photos.

People can even tag questions — “decorating” or “business,” for instance — and Facebook will show those questions to people who have expressed interest in the topics (much like how Facebook ads work). People will browse questions by topic, or sign up to follow specific topics, similar to the Quora system.

“We’re already getting approached by businesses asking us to organize these “focus group” type questions to benefit their online marketing efforts”, said Bryan Thornberg CEO of Higher Images a marketing firm in Pittsburgh- specializing in social media marketing.

Mr. Thornberg explains how this will effect marketing efforts online:

“Marketing on Facebook has been difficult because of privacy issues and the separation between profile and fan pages. Facebook Questions will provide new ways for businesses to communicate and discover each other in relevant ways. It will be essential for people to understand that Facebook Questions is not designed for advertisements. However, this new feature will provide an exciting place for contributing valuable information to potential customers and establishing a trusting relationship between your business and your audience. Keep a lookout for questions and tags that are relevant to your business and then provide great answers to questions that you have the expertise to answer!”

Facebook was once a students-only site created from a Harvard dorm room. Now it’s the most visited site on the Internet and a multibillion-dollar empire.

Putting the half-billion-member-mark in perspective, The Washington Post reports that “the population inhabiting Facebook now equals that of the United States, Japan and Germany combined. Or, two Mexicos and a Brazil.”

Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook’s marketing director, said that the site plans to celebrate its milestone with “Facebook Stories,” a collection of real-life blurbs from Facebook users about how the social networking site has impacted their lives.

“As we anticipated our 500-million milestone, and we wanted to find a different way to announce and celebrate it. In the past, it’s been all about the numbers and milestones, and we realized we had never taken the opportunity to celebrate users,” Zuckerberg said.

To celebrate, FB will launch “Facebook Stories,” a visual memorial to all the ways the social network has changed people’s lives. Users are encouraged to visit the User Stories page to submit their yarn in 420 characters or less. The stories will then be organized by geographical location and by themes such as “finding love,” “coping with grief” and “natural disasters.” If you choose to tell Facebook something about yourself, keep in mind that Facebook reserves the right to publish it any way it chooses — so no privacy complaints excepted, okay?

Furthermore, Facebook users can “like” individual stories using the ubiquitous “like” button, and the most popular will be featured.

• What Type of Customer Do I want to Attract? – Are you looking for a price shopping buyer or someone who is interested in quality?
• How Long Should My Video Be? – No more than 90 seconds.  You want to get a reaction from the video that causes a viewer to either pick up the phone and call you, or go to a particular website, or perform a certain pre-defined action.   Maybe you want to attract people to a certain page of your site or just to pick up the phone and schedule an appointment.  Either way, you have to TELL people what you want them to do.
• Where Should I Put My Video? – Most people think that You Tube is the only place to upload your video…  With new video sites popping up daily, it a great idea to put your video in as many places as possible.
• How do I Measure the Effectiveness of My Video and Video Optimization? – This is one of the most overlooked parts of Video Optimization and marketing.  Just as with any other form of internet marketing and optimization, there are great metrics and tools that you can use to track.
• What Should I name My Video? – Always use something that is keyword rich.  If you want to attract people who type in “horse boarding in Maryland”  or “horse boarders Annapolis”  then you need to have some of those elements in th name (title) of the video.

These are by no means all of the tips and tricks that I would recommend in Video Marketing and Video Optimization, but it’s a good start.  With iPads, Mobile Media and Smart-phones taking the world by Storm, Video Marketing and Optimization is the way to go.

Chris Reidenbaugh – Sales & Marketing Manager Higher Images.

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There are many social media outlets available such as blogging, bookmarking, and networking. One big mistake social media beginners are often guilty of – creating profiles all over the internet and jumping head first into the blogging world.

A business must optimize the way they communicate their brands message through social media, even for the very first time. This message must be communicated and integrated consistently with the current brand image and it’s positioning. Social media has multiple  mediums in which to communicate; small businesses need to be aware of how they should communicate consistently along each of these mediums.

Bryan Thornberg CEO of Higher Images Inc. describes the blogging practice as the doorway to these social media. “All businesses should start here and use blogging to build a strong social media pyramid like a forever expanding chain.”

Blogs when used correctly can provide the essential need of a small business by creating content in context. This produces solid connections with other niche parties that are looking for what you provide or let you know what they are saying about competitors. In turn this creates a valuable community of relationships around the business in which it can utilize or products/services you plan to provide in the future.

Blogs need to be very rich in content and in the context of the particular businesses interests. Businesses need to start off by visiting, subscribing, and monitoring many other blogs, comment on them, then start by posting blogs often. This should be used as a scheduled cycle.

Many other social medias will can help you facilitate this process. The use of RSS technologies and social bookmarking (Digg, Mixx, Stumble) can put your blogs in the view of many others looking for the material, content, and new information that you may showcasing. Blogs are useless unless they are seen by potential clients and this will help to get them in direct contact with the right audience. This creates a following for your blog and creates connections that will be administered on best social network platforms

Social networking sites are imperative, but need to be chosen carefully. There is never a reason to use a random and huge range of sites. If you are short on time select a few to optimize. Social networking sites need to be regularly updated, that can mean posting links to your blogs, articles, and press releases on the businesses social network profiles. Social networks are extremely important mediums in which businesses need to use to interact with its new connections, update old connections, and build meaningful business relationships.

Just like SEO, the use of social media by small businesses needs to focus on quality content and relevant context to create connections to build a community of business opportunity and relationships. Businesses have to use their social media as a relationship management tool and not just a short term direct means increasing sales. Only then will businesses reap the rewards of social media marketing.

Content + Context + Community + Connections + = Winning Social Media

What Should My Employees Say on Facebook?

The year is 2010 and just about everyone has embraced at least some form of Social Media at this point.  Let’s face it, even your grandparents are probably on Facebook.  If you are a business owner then you have probably thought or heard about the implications of social media and how it can affect your business.  At times it is very hard to see your employees “waste time” on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but rather than looking at it from that angle…  why not look at how the social media habits of your employees can actually HELP your business.   If you haven’t thought about a social media policy at your place of work… now just might be the right time.  There are some great advantages to having a social media policy at your office and believe it or not, they can be beneficial to business.  Many Pittsburgh businesses just don’t have a social media policy, but trust me when I say that ALL businesses should have one.

1. Make sure that your employees are not saying bad things about your company: There are ways to perform post searches on Facebook and Twitter to see what employees and other people are saying about your company.
2. Give Everyone a Clear Goal:  If people are going to be on Facebook/Twitter at work, at least make sure that they are posting something positive about the company.  It could be something about how great it is to work there or how excited that are to be involved in a new project, etc…
3. Get People Excited About Your Business: Get people excited about what you do!  Don’t just post coupon after coupon or deal after deal.  People will get tired from that and they just don’t want to see specials and promotions in every single post.
4. Don’t De-Value Your Social Media Marketing-   Getting instant sales from your social media marketing is usually not the end result.  Social Media creates a buzz, makes people aware, and hopefully gets people to come back to your site more than just once.  There are times when you will have people that buy directly from a promotion or discount that you mention  from your social media marketings, but you should look at it as more than just creating an instant ROI.

In the end, social media should be what it already is… the act of being social.  Just think of it as one big giant cocktail party with a whole bunch of people that don’t necessarily all have the same interests and likes.  Many people may get along, but others may not.  Just make sure that you are courteous and polite because let’s face it- no one wants to be pitched all the time.  Relax and carry on a conversation so that people can actually understand what you are talking about.  Industry jargon is good for people in your industry, but not always people who buy your products or services.