Archive for the ‘Facebook’ Category

The MyMic Facebook application lets you post audio updates to your Facebook profile or onto your friend’s Wall. You can post up to five seconds for free and there are paid options to post longer messages.

I ran into the application’s creator, LeaAnna Hernandez (@MyMicApp on Twitter), during a #LATISM Twitter chat. I had asked the Twittersphere if there were any Latino/Latina startup techies out there and LeaAnna “raised her hand.”

The application caught my eye because:

1. It is super easy to use. There’s a tutorial at the end of this post just in case you have questions.
   
2. Your friends don’t have to install anything to listen to your messages.
   
3. My Facebook friends started asking about it once I posted my first message. I love attention.
   

I also liked the recent press release where LeaAnna says,

“Sometimes we don’t want to be on camera. Maybe we’re having a bad hair day or the lighting isn’t the most flattering. With MyMic, none of that matters. Users, musicians, celebrities can easily record updates in their pajamas and no one would know the difference”.

I caught up with LeaAnna for an interview

JPL: Why did you select audio?

LH: I come from the radio industry…specializing in advertising. So i wanted to build an app that could marry radio with social. Businesses run commercials on radio stations. So I built the app for businesses to be able to run “social commercials” on Facebook.

JPL: I think I saw some stats that only one in a thousand YouTube users actually records and uploads a video. What do you think that ratio will look like for audio?

LH: I think that there are a lot of people that are camera shy and don’t want to be on camera. It literally is a production, having to get the right angle from the camera…nice lighting….good backdrop maybe.

With audio, it’s much easier and faster so I am inclined to think that it would be better but it’s still so new that only time will tell.

JPL: I tested the application and was able to post to my profile and to a friend’s Wall. Is there a way to post MyMic messages to the Facebook pages that I administer?

LH: In 2 weeks we are adding the feature to post recordings on Fan pages. I “like” your thinking.

JPL: Do you see businesses using MyMic the same way they use radio? Will they even start off using the same on air commercials?

LH: I think some brands will initially use their same radio ads. But others will get more creative.
For example, one advertiser I know is looking to create a promotion where they ask their friends to come up with a new slogan for the brand and record with MyMic. (This is another reason why the post on fan page functionality is important ). And they have an incentive attached to the promotion.

How does MyMic work?

MyMic is extremely easy to use. All you have to do is:

1) Go to the MyMic Application page on Facebook.

2) Click on the “Start Recording” button.

3) The little Adobe Flash Player Settings alert box will appear. Click on “Allow” to give the application permission to access your microphone.

4) Now you’re ready to record. To post a five second audio message for free, just click on the little red record button and leave your message.

5) Click on the “Publish” button and you’ll have the option to set a post Title and add a Message.

6) Decide if you want to post to your Facebook Profile by clicking on the “Save and Publish” button or post on a friend’s Wall by clicking on the “Send To A Friend” button.

Once you click on the “Save and Publish” button, you’ll get the “Post To Your Wall” dialog box.

From the “Post to Your Wall” dialog box you can decide who can see this post. You can choose to make it visible to Everyone, Friends and Networks, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or Customize things.

Your Facebook friends can now listen to your recording without having to install any kind of application.

If you’d like to send the audio message to specific friend, you can select the “Send to a Friend” option when you publish. When you do this, you’ll be able to search and click to select the message recipient. This will post the message to their Wall. (The application does not allow you to post private messages at this time.)

I like the way the application allows you to filter then select friends. As you type in letters, the little picture list below filters your friends. This is especially useful for people who have a ton of friends.

At this time, you’re only allowed to post to the Wall of one friend and there’s no option for tagging other people.

Final Thoughts

I like the simplicity of the MyMic app and already have a lot of ideas on how to use it for Facebook promotions. I think this will be a nice utility for companies, Facebook page admins, and heavy duty content creators. It will be interesting to see if removing the “bad hair day” factor, as it exists with video, will encourage “regular” Facebook users to take on a new medium. As LeaAnna says, “only time will tell.”

Ok, it’s time to test out MyMic Application then report back here to leave your feedback. Will MyMic catch on? Was it easy to use? Did your Facebook friends like it and ask about it? Come on back and share with the other readers!

I love sharing information, including technology trends, social media How To’s, breaking and local business news, and information on advocacy groups. On Twitter, I’ll share 5-10 items per day, sometimes in a rapid fire method. On Facebook I’ll “Like” or “Share” several posts a day. Multiply these activities by the number of Twitter and Facebook users and you have an unprecedented amount of sharing and re-sharing.

So why limit the scope of your message? Let it run wild!

Here are five tips to help you set your message free.

Give Your Email Legs

Ok, so you spent two weeks working with a team to create the perfect email message. Maybe you’re about to launch a new product, announce a new conference, drive donors to your non-profit site, or share your latest video creation.

There are three important items to add to your email deployment checklist:

1. Do you have an online version of your email with a link to that page on the email? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received a juicy email that I want to share with the world and struggled or have been unable to find the online version. If I don’t have a link, I can can’t share it with my online network. What a missed opportunity.
   
   If you do have an online version, please think clearly before deciding to host that content on the email management tool’s site. Do you want to drive content to Constant Contact’s site or to your site, for example?
2. Do you have a Twitter or Facebook share feature on your email? This makes sharing one step easier. With the click of a button, your message can flow to two of the most supercharged sharing sites in the world.
3. Is it easy to forward the email to a friend? Some email messages have nifty “Forward to a Friend” features that make it easy to share content. I rarely use this feature but there are some people who like it, especially if it is from an authority site like a news agency or major publication. If the email is breaking news or highly relevant to your personal or business contacts then this could help your message take off.

This Kodak email has an online version and ways for users to subscribe to Facebook and Twitter. The email could be enhanced with actual tweet buttons that automatically format the Twitter and Facebook messages, so posting is only one click away.

Let’s look at this from a numbers perspective. If you send out your email message to your permission-based list of 10,000 contacts and you don’t add any sharing features, then your message is limited to the number of recipients plus the number of times your email is forwarded to other contacts. Let’s be generous and say that 100 of the emails were forwarded to contacts. That’s a reach of 10,100.

If you add a link to your online content and have a Facebook and Twitter share then the numbers shift. Your initial contacts receive the message and can then re-post the message to their followers via Twitter or Friends on Facebook. If I tweet about an item, the message is instantly available to over 8,400 followers! That’s almost double the reach from ONE contact. Factor in retweets and other people sharing and the reach can get to 100,000 very quickly.

From your Website to the World

1. Add a Tweet button and Facebook Share and/or Like feature to your Web pages and blog posts. Yes, this is the same tip as for your email messaging but it’s important to give your site/blog readers a way to share content with their networks Clear a path.
2. Do you have a compelling image on your web page or blog post? A good photo or graphic will catch a persons attention and make it more share worthy. On Facebook, the image will show up as a thumbnail picture. Your Facebook friends will be much more likely to Like the post and to re-share it.
   
   Note: if you don’t select a photo to go with your page/post and someone “Facebooks it” then they will either get a selection of random image options (icons from your sidebar or unrelated content) or they won’t have any option.

(Link to The Spice Spoon blog.)

Review

We just reviewed how to clear a path for your important messages. If your message is clear, relevant, and timely then these tips can help your message spread like wildfire.

Do you have any other design tips to help your messages spread?

Photo Credit: Vestman on Flickr – License

Google recently closed off Facebook’s access to import Gmail contacts. Google felt that if Facebook was able to import its Gmail contacts that Google should be able to import from Facebook. Since that wasn’t going to happen, Google pulled the plug on its Facebook integration.

To counter this Google move, Facebook added instructions to its site on how to do a workaround.

This is what I did:

1. Noticed the “Find More Friends” section on my Facebook profile

2. Clicked on the “Find Friends” button.

3. Facebook brings up a mini window which churns then redirects me to a “Find Your Friends” page which has instructions on how to download my Gmail contacts then re-upload them to be processed. SNEAKY!

This is the Find Your Friends page view:

It will be interesting to see if Facebook experiences a dip in new users after the Google move despite Facebooks workaround. What do you think, will it have an effect on Facebook numbers?

Photo credit: Ludovico Cera on Flickr – license

Facebook has a myriad ways to receive notifications but not from your own Facebook Page.

In order to get notifications you have to do a workaround and “Like” your own Page post. After doing this for a while, this can get old for your regular Facebook profile friends.

Enter NutshellMail, an site that allows you to manage portions of your social network via email. My favorite feature – NutshellMail allows you to receive Facebook page notifications!

When I first heard about NutshellMail back in 2009, I didn’t get it. Why would people want to manage their social network activities via email? In fact, I chatted with Mark Schmulen (one of the co-founders) over brunch about the application for half and hour and still didn’t get it. I get it now and it’s a great patch for the missing Facebook Page notification feature.

Key NutshellMail Features

Easy to set up accounts
You can configure Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Myspace accounts. On Facebook you can pick your profile and any of your Pages.

Easy to schedule
You can schedule up to three notifications per day. This isn’t the same as regular Facebook profile notifications that can be sent as they happen but it’s the next best thing. If you really need to see the latest updates, you can click on the “Get Latest Notifications” button on the notification email and it will send you the latest and greatest information.

Nice looking emails
After doing email marketing for over 7 years, it drives me crazy when companies send out emails that look like poo on key devices. NutshellMail is made for email so I’m glad they took the time to make things render properly on different clients.

Review

I’m still playing with NutshellMail and learning how to configure all of the notification options but it’s solved a major problem for me. Until Facebook rolls out a way to receive notifications from Facebook pages without a hack, I’ll keep using NutshellMail.

Do you have an other way of managing your Facebook pages, I’d love to hear about it.

I was pleased to finally receive the “Suggestions For You” feature since I’ve been hearing about it all week. My initial impressions were:

1. Dang, I thought I was following some of those people already
2. Um, I recently unfollowed some of those folks
3. I don’t engage much with some of the referral sources
4. There are a lot of celebrities on this list
5. These are real people, not feeds

Let’s look at these impressions individually and I’ll share some suggestions that will help Twitter’s suggestion algorithm.

1) Already following these people

No really, I thought I was already following some of the people that showed up. Is it possible people have been getting “disconnected” over the past few days? I saw the same reaction from others in my Twitter timeline. If Twitter “caught” the oversight then they did something right.

2) I recently unfollowed some of the suggested users

It happens. We unfollow people for one reason or another. Maybe they don’t engage with you, they say something that irks you, or you’re tired of following a particular celebrity. Many of the people who I had already followed and unfollowed were celebrities. I’ve already been to the show, I don’t need to go back.

Algorithm Improvement: De-prioritize accounts that one has already followed and unfollowed and especially those that have been blocked.

3) Don’t engage much with “Followed By” followers

Each Suggested User has several bits of information associated with her account – Name, Twitter handle, location, bio, and Followed By. All suggested users have two or more accounts in the “Followed By” field and I assume these are my main “connections” to the suggested user. But many of the people that appeared in the “Followed By” field where people who I don’t engage with on a consistent basis.

Algorithm Improvement: Follow Klout’s lead and make suggestions based on key connectors. Klout analyzes a user’s statistical influence and also lists users that are influential. These influencers should be the top “connectors” used in the Suggested User formula.

4) Lots of celebrities

This is where the asymmetrical nature of Twitter is a drawback to making equitable connections on the social graph. By asymmetrical, I mean that one can follow an account but the account doesn’t need to follow back. In contrast, Facebook requires people to follow each other to be “Friends” so that relationship is symmetrical. Extremely asymmetrical “nodes” in a network cause a warping in the fabric of the graph. If a celebrity (that doesn’t follow me or only a few others) suggests another celebrity that they follow then that’s a low probability match.

Algorithm Improvement:Turn down the volume on celebrity suggestions. These accounts will be easy to spot by the ratio of followers to people being followed.

5) These are real people

Every person on the Who to Follow list appear to be engaged Twitter users, not just piped in “feeds” from other social networking tools. Twitter got this right.

I follow 7,740 people on Twitter and am followed by 8,157 accounts and have new followers every day. I don’t use auto-followback tools so I have to manually go through my email messages and “vet” followers. Unless the account is extremely relevant to my interests, I don’t follow feed accounts. (This also means I’m way behind in reviewing new followers.) By filtering out feed-only accounts, this tremendously increases the chances of my following them. Good job Twitter.

Review

Twitter still has some work to do on making the Suggestions more relevant. I made suggestions but also gave Twitter kudos on some things it is doing right. This is much better than the old Suggested Users celebfest hyper-monetization list it had before.

What do you think? Did you see any other obvious algorithm improvements? What was your overall impression of the Suggestions For You feature?

Related Post:
TechCrunch – Twitter’s Social Graph Is About To Get Pumped Up. “Who To Follow” Is Social Steroids

Facebook Pages allow businesses and individuals to create rich branded pages within Facebook. Every major brand in the world is running to build engaging and “sticky” pages on Facebook, because that’s where the people are.

Are your customers, non-profit supporters, constituents, and neighbors on Facebook? You betcha. So why not give them an opportunity to connect with you and your brand?

This tutorial will show you how to get started on building your own Facebook Page (I refer to them as “Fan Pages” in the video). This is Part One of the Facebook Fan Page project so make sure you bookmark this page, subscribe to the email blog posts, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed to keep track of further developments.

Your feedback is golden. I love Comments like a fat kid loves cake.

And don’t forget to view the full Transcript below.

Transcript