Social Enchilada

Aug05

facebook, fan page, impressions

What are you doing with your Facebook fan page?

Imagine this for a second.

You visit a website and there’s some really good information on the homepage. It’s about a subject matter that interests you. Now imagine there are “photos”, “discussions” and “videos” links in the top nav. And when you click on them, the page that comes up has no content. What would you think? What would be your first impression? If it were me, I’d think that the site’s creator had abandoned the project and published anyways.

Doesn’t sound like a great experience right? Well, that’s the experience provided by a large majority of Facebook fan pages. The title of this blog post asks, “What are you doing with your Facebook fan page?“. On second thought, I think the question should be, ‘What are you not doing with your Facebook fan page?“.

Take a minute and evaluate your fan page. Are there tabs that serve no purpose? Is there a tab (think blue sky here) that would serve a purpose?

Why waste real estate?

If you’re not using the default fan page tabs, why not just remove them? Did you know that you could? Or, better yet, use the Static FBML feature of Facebook to create a custom tab! This forum thread shows you exactly how to achieve this feat.

So what am I really saying?

Apply the same critical eye to your fan page as you would to your main website. In fact, do this with all your social media outlets. As your social presence grows, these outlets will be the first impression your brand makes to new visitors. Make it a good one.

Aug04

twitter, support

Get your S**T together Twitter!

Twitter announced on July 23rd that they were purging spam accounts from the platform. Given the recent homepage changes that are intended to position Twitter as a “conversation search engine”, this move makes sense.

However, I fear that legitimate users are getting caught in the crossfire. My friend over at doterati, Tara Lamberson recently found that her Twitter account had been suspended. The suspension date, according to Twitter Grader, happened on July 24th, one day after Twitter’s announcement. She’s not a spammer and, as far as I know, has always used the platform within the stated terms of service. To compound what is an extremely frustrating issue for her, she can’t get anyone at Twitter support to respond to her request concerning the matter—what a surprise.

Frankly, I am getting sick and tired of writing posts about Twitter not acting grown-up. I’m sick of writing about a platform that doesn’t seem to respect it’s users. Twitter, get your shit together. Offer timely support, especially to those users who were shafted by your mass-suspension! Many people have come to depend on your service, especially those who use it in a professional capacity. If the lack of a monetization strategy is the barrier for your attention, how letting me pay for your service? I’d happily give you $10 a month if it meant you’d lend an ear when I had a problem.

By the way Twitter, if you’re listening, reinstate @taralamberson

MindComet

Jeremy Hilton