How Absurd, Facebook! Part 1

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We all love seeing what’s new with friends, catching up to “the news” and laughing at the latest cute kitten photos (have you noticed less of those lately?). And all this happens while at the same time Facebook frustrates us. 

And it doesn’t matter if you’re a page owner, a group owner, or using a personal profile. Much of the absurdity crosses over. Let’s start with these:

#1. Pokes from non-friends. Okay, this one only applies to personal profiles. Bringing this up because I just got one. Didn’t think it was possible and posted my plight on my wall. A friend kindly looked in the “help area” and found this: You can only poke a confirmed friend, someone that is in a shared network, or a friend of a friend. That explains my poke from a friend of a friend. 

However, the question to Facebook is: Why allow it? Is it encouraging engagement or is it just simply annoying? Unfortunately, I’ve since received another one. Fellas, you don’t even know me!

#2. Sponsored ads that list an ex-friend liking the product or service. Seriously now! If I see a product ad with the smiling mug of “David” who unfriended me a year ago do you really think I want to buy that product? Heck no! Fix this Facebook; you are not giving the advertisers a fair shake for their money here.

#3 The most obvious one: Facebook controlling what you see and electing to show you posts from who they think your friends are. Beyond absurd! Google+ doesn’t do this and they make it simple for YOU to control what you see and what others see. 

One friend of mine on Facebook shared his remedy: Declare all his friends as “close friends”. Note: Do check off the notifications for close friends if you decide to take this route. 

Another idea is to create a list with all your friends and pages on it (thus having the ability to "see all"). Do you have the time though? Better yet, Facebook, why not make it easier for users and have lists work more like Google+ circles where you can drag and drop people in? 

#4 Posts that disappear then reappear later: Applies to pages, groups and personal profiles; Hello, Houdini! This one has happened to me more often on my Groovy Reflections page. Initially, I thought the post didn’t exist and I’d post another one (and eventually have two!). 

Ah, but I’m now conditioned and know better. On a page, the notification lines at the top will show who liked and who commented and the missing post is available by clicking on one of those notifications. Give it time, say 15 to 30 minutes, and presto chango, the post appears on your wall; like magic. 

Whew. That’s a lot to absorb. Hold those thoughts, enjoy the tune below because "It's Magic" and click here for part 2. Oh, and do visit the website, or on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. 

You Don’t Know Me…

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Last time I checked I was still a nice person: If you fall, I’ll pick you up, heck, and I’ll bend over backwards to help my friends. However, there are limitations, especially when it comes to social media. I view the word friend in a more traditional sense; one definition states: 

a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

Now, when it comes to Twitter, I’ve got an open attitude and will follow most folks back. I believe in giving tweeps an opportunity to get to know me. 

Seems that lately though newbies immediately start asking me to:

• Listen to their new song

• Retweet something that I know nothing about or have no interest in

• Tweet at me to follow them back 

These communications arrived via both Direct Messages and Tweets. Now, I’m all for retweeting and sharing worthwhile things IF I know you. Think about it; do you retweet “just anything” without knowing something about the person? 

An example. A new follower (let’s call her Annie) claims she has “Bon Jovi” tapes and would I Retweet the message to get to the fans? I don’t know what she has! Her icon is a picture of a cassette with a CD behind it. There is no URL on her profile. Who ARE you, Annie?

Here’s another example; it's a bit more on the bizarre side.  Received this tweet:

hello.i'm checking u out..U ever talk about ancient knowledge or conspiracies? Whats your thing

I tweeted back, suggesting they read my bio. Then this tweet came back:

I'm selective.Would U tweet some humanity videos i send u that should go viral time to time? I'm on a mission

A mission, huh? A mission to target people you don’t know to spread the word of who-knows-what? What ever happened to credibility? And trust? Did we skip that part? This would be similar to someone coming up to you at a huge party and saying “Would you mind telling those people over there about my theories of ancient knowledge and conspiracies?

Before I had time to reply because the next tweet blew in:

since i'm a pain lol..i'll unfollow and if you say yes i'll follow back.. hehe my humanity mission..either way i wish u well

Now, what would YOU do in a situation like this? To be “investigatively” fair, I followed the link on this tweep’s profile page. And there, I found a YouTube channel with titles such as “Parasites Inside You”, “Congressman Ron Paul’s Farewell Speech” and “US, Europe complicit in Israeli Crimes”. Uh, not my cup of tea.

Lessons Learned: While it’s generally okay to follow someone on Twitter, do you really know who they are? Sure there are lots of fake profiles however they’re not the ones that are going to spew strong opinions and wackiness at you! And, would you be willing to be Facebook friends with this person without the blink of an eye too? Sure, some people wouldn’t give it a second thought. 

Food for thought: You want to meet me? Tweet me! Get to know me and I'll be happy to support you. 

Swedish singer Lykke Li sang about following in this recent tune (see below). And of course, you are more than welcome to follow me on Twitter, like my Facebook page, circle my page on Google+ or visit the website. 

Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day.

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No; it wasn't. And your social media success won't happen in a day either. Warning: It’s a lot of work; hard work. If you’re not willing to put in the time and/or if you’re not willing to hire someone to help you, your limited efforts are unlikely to produce results so don’t waste your time. 


Ouch.


Sorry, but that’s reality folks.


Don’t expect to be an overnight success. As in any business, you need to establish trust and earn a reputation.  Just like when you’re building a physical structure; it’s one brick or concrete block at a time. If you don’t have patience and think that after a month that it’s time to give up, don’t . This is the part where I say …get a professional to help you; and no not someone who just posts and calls themselves a "social media expert" but a seasoned marketer who will understand your brand. 


I almost gave up at the beginning of March. Yes, I almost shut down one of my pages, Groovy Reflections, that at the time had over 4,000 fans. Perhaps it was something that a fan said or the lack of response to a post that I thought was amazing but no one else did. Doesn’t matter what the specific reason was now. 


All I can tell you is that two incredible people, who serve as admins for the page, stepped in and saved the day. They didn’t question my behavior. They didn’t judge me. They just jumped in and fixed it.


And I am grateful.


Since then, I’ve thrown my heart and soul even harder into building that page. As of this moment there are over 9,000 fans on that site and moving towards 10,000 at warp speed.  But it isn’t just the hard work that we do. It’s the fans.


The fans of your page are your ambassadors. If your message is appealing to them, they will tell others. Can you predict how far any given message will travel? No. What you can do is make sure that the content you provide is of the best quality. And no, I can’t let you in on what that is because I’d need to know what the message is that you want to deliver in order to strategize on that! 


What do you need as the corner foundation? Three things that are of utmost importance:

• Time
• A plan
• Patience

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Rome ne s'est pas faite en un jour. Morcheeba sang about that fact in the year 2000. Oh, and Stop by, say Hi! On the website, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ ...thanks!  

Don’t Just “Like” My Page.

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Watch out folks, I’m going to rant a little. Some of you know that I have several pages. When I initially started those pages I didn't start plugging them relentlessly on my personal profile nor did I invite all my friends. I DID invite friends, however, ONLY the ones that I thought would be interested in the subject matter.

Pages aren’t about your friends.

They’re all about the folks who have an interest in what’s being presented to them. The point is to make it so darn interesting to them that they comment on the posts. That’s engagement; it’s key to survival for a page.  And yes, its lots of hard work, so if you’re not ready to put in the time, don’t start a page until you’re ready to commit to it.

I work my butt off coming up with original, interesting articles to please the good fans on one of my pages, MODern Marketing 4 U(ModlandUSA). Don't worry; I enjoy the writing! Very few respond and/or comment. For now; that’s okay. Facebook is not the main source of traffic for my blog readership and may never be. Despite that fact, I continue to work hard to keep my audience on Facebook captivated.

And lately I’ve had a flood of folks from Twitter say “like my page and I’ll like yours.” Truth is I’d rather see you display an actual interest in my page and talk to me than just merely “like” it! Honestly, I felt funny liking a B to B biz recently that offered office management services to landscapers, plumbers, and the like. There’s nothing I need there. Sigh.

But back to the friends. I probably get four or five requests a week to join a page and most of them are concerned with products or services that I’m not interested in. Do you please your friend and like their page or blow them off? There have been a few instances when I’ve felt comfortable enough to write to the page owner to tell them WHY I won’t like it.

Does having me there as a number and not as a participant really add any value?

Personally, I’d rather have fewer fans and a higher engagement “talking about this”. Currently, my Groovy Reflections page is at 36%, ModlandUSA is at 10% and Gizmo and His Groovy Friends is at 12%. These are great numbers since the average is 3 to 4%. Thank you fans!

In closing, I just have one request: Talk to me...on my website, Twitter, Facebook, or Google+! I love to yack. 

The Byrds sang about pages long before Facebook had them:

Stripping on Facebook: Do You "Like"?

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The 4th photo in the series

Like.


Sounds simple enough. Yeah, I like sushi. It tastes good. I like Peace. It’s a big wish! 


Of course, we all like Facebook pages, right? 


And have you ever liked one because a woman is undressing on the page? Welcome to a new marketing campaign from a clothing company that I've never heard of, but is headquartered about 15 minutes from where I’m sitting right now, writing to you.


The premise is simple. The page likes go up, the model takes off another garment (okay, the backpack wasn't exactly an article of clothing). Nice that she has plenty on to start with!


Yesterday, 30 photos were there and the likes were under 9,000. 24 hours later, 8 more photos and over 11,000 likes. Something is working.


However, it’s not for everyone. Some comments from the gals include:


"Maybe I would "like" it if there were a male stripper too, but alas, there is none! I guess you only want men to buy your clothes!"


"Why would we as women want to watch her strip?? Are they selling clothes or the bimbo???"


And from the guys:


"if i want to see girls strip, i go to a strip bar, not facebook. kinda makes me feel like i'm watching porn on the disney channel."


"LAME . Keep your shit on. Make your parents proud"


"This IS how you do #greatmarketing - but you could add more .... marketing angles rather than clothing layers ;) (apols couldnt help myself)"


Great Marketing? Actually, yes, despite it being highly offensive to some. And it appears to fit the personality of the brand. Here’s what is happening:

• Curious folks, like it or not, are showing up at the page.
• The “likes” ARE going up. Quickly.
• Bloggers (like me) and journalists are writing about it. Free advertising!
• The photos from the Facebook page are likely all over Pinterest by now.
• Awareness of the brand has shot up almost overnight.

Not bad.

#31 in the series.

How far will it go? Seriously doubt she’ll take all her clothes off on Facebook. Is it worth it to have your page shut down? Nah. It will be interesting to see how they’ll end it. At any rate, the people are stopping by to see the “show”.


Perhaps the model needs a little music to accompany the action? For a “tease” click here. For the page I’ve been telling you about, click here. Do you “like”?


This is L for the Blogging A to Z Challenge. Here’s J and K.


No freebies, no gifts, no stripping, just good reading and conversation, can be found by clicking here.