Is Facebook Going The Way Of Westbourne Park Grove?
May 20, 2010 at 3:03 pm
I used to live in Notting Hill, London – back in the day before ‘that movie’ was made… when you’d easily see Rastafarians and 4 wheel drive merchants living side by side. It was a great place and I really enjoyed my time there. I left in 1997 and only came back in 2001 on my way back through Europe. I was dying to see Westbourne Park Grove again, all the little funky boutiques and art shops, organic food places and local kitschy cafes. I was so disappointed because in the time that I had left, that magical little area had changed. The big stores had moved in, rents had gone up, and the small shop and cafe owners who had made the place what it was were pushed out. If you walk down Westbourne Park Grove today you’ll see the Guess Jeans shop, Pepe, Starbucks… which sucks.
Now I’m afraid that the latest change in Facebook-land will see the same thing happen.
On Monday, Facebook changed it so that page owners can no longer default landing tabs to anything other than wall or info tabs… well you can… but you’ve got to have more than 10,000 fans or an account manager (ie. you’re spending more than $10,000 on ads). This effectively blocks the little guys from promoting their competitions or apps. Read more detail on the change here.
Whatever about the changes made late last year that blocked little guys from running competitions without use of an app – I can see the logic in that from a legal point of view. Now this latest change will hit smaller brands and businesses hard… you’ve invested in an app that you’re hoping will drive substantial likes, and now you can’t directly promote it. You can refer people to it on your wall, but it’s 1 more click away and we all know about the attention span of the good citizens of Facebookland. I do hope this doesn’t push out the funky boutiques of Facebook and leave us with a generic environment with the usual suspects: Pepsi, Coke, Levis, etc. {yawn}
Tags: facebook changes, facebook fan page
More Wheel Spinning on Facebook
April 7, 2010 at 7:21 pm
This time from Yellowtail Shiraz. While we ran our very successful ’spin the wheel’ app on Facebook for St Patricks Day, less than a month later (about the time it took us to develop our app), Yellowtail have their own spin the wheel app on Facebook. I guess imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery. I will be interested to see if they manage to up their fans from the current 425 to 18,950 (like what we did!)
Here’s our Spin The Wheel app:
And here’s the other one:
Design wise they are not the same (our brief was to be ever so slightly tacky – and we achieved that!) – but conceptually it’s one and the same. I wonder is this an example of collective consciousness? Where certain motifs, images, and things just enter into the public consciousness without us knowing where from? Or maybe I’m just being generous and it’s more like imitation? Who knows.
Tags: imitation is flattery?, tourism ireland facebook app, yellowtail shiraz facebook app
Tips For Facebook Fan Pages
March 5, 2010 at 9:48 am
A friend asked me recently for some advice on how to make her new Facebook fan page for her business go with a bang and not be crap. I thought it might be helpful to share my thoughts – if you have anything to add, please comment below:
Start off by getting the vanity URL: http://www.facebook.com/username/.
Click on that and choose your name. It’s better to have a name, eg. facebook.com/successcoaching than a numbered URL that’s hard to remember.
Then use this url when you’re promoting the page. Don’t forget to add it to your email signature, skype thought bubble, Twitter biog if you’ve got one, everywhere. Make it accessible to all.
Make a content plan for your page – decide on a frequency you’re going to give people stuff (eg 2 or 3 times a week) and make a plan of what you’re going to give them. Create a spreadsheet with months in it and fill in the slots based on seasonality and what’s going on in the business. Eg. In July you’re coming home – so you may want to write a piece on top tips to prepare for a long vacation in June.
Tone: be personal and individual not corporate.
Back to the content plan – it might seem laborious to try and fill 3 times a week with content. But images and video work really well. So spend a pleasant Friday afternoon scouring Youtube for inspirational videos that would be relevant for your page. Then all you have to do it post the video. **If you’re being really whizzy you can set up your Wordpress blog to automatically update your FB page whenever a post is made. Then you can pre-load all your vids setting them to go live at dates in the future which means even less effort on your part!
People are more likely to comment on videos and images than just text. And, just like with a blog, it’s important that you acknowledge each and every one of them. Check the page daily and if someone has made a comment on your wall, in a discussion, or elsewhere, acknowledge it.
How to make your content interesting? Well the golden rule is to always write about me me me. Spin the tone of your text so it’s about the user and not the business. Keep it short – short sentences, short words, no multi-syllabic ones as our brains find it hard to process these online. Use bullets, but no more than 5 in a list. Don’t be afraid of headings, sub headings, bolding, and other formatting devices to make your text easy to read.
The big news is that no-one actually reads online: they scan. So you’ve got to present your text in easily scannable chunks. “How to…” , “The top 10 reasons for…”, “Do’s and Don’t’s..” are all good styles to use to grab people’s attention. I think they work because they imply that they’re short, so people don’t mind giving you a piece of their attention.
Go off now and enjoy the insights that Facebook will give you about your business, it’s fans, and what kind of things interest them.
Tags: tips for facebook pages
Insider Dublin on 4FM
March 2, 2010 at 10:58 am
I was on the Gareth O’Callaghan show this morning on 4FM talking about the Insider Dublin group on Facebook, user generated content, and ratings sites in general.
Tags: 4fm, facebook group secret dublin, whoseview. ratemyarea
Give It Up For Mary Of O’Connell Street
March 1, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I remember a Dublin that was populated with individuals. Anyone who knew Dublin ‘back in the day’ would remember the lady who used to dance on O’Connell Street. She’d always be there, dancing away to her own tune, smiling, being herself. Her name is Mary and I came across a Facebook Fan Page for Mary at the weekend.
Who Remembers The Woman That Dances On O’Connell Street Beside The Anna Livia
It’s got 13,661 fans and growing. It seems lots of other people remember dancing Mary of O’Connell Street. The wall is full of tributes to this lady (who is alive and well) and is 83:
New York has the naked cowboy and we have Mary
She was part of my childhood memories going into town with my parents … never failed to make me smile.
We can all learn something from her approach to life…. she has and is living hers to the max…while not hurting or taking away from anyone, in fact she has given so much to so many people. Thank you Mary.
Used to see her all the time when I worked in Town . . . she always looked so happy . . . Fair play to her!!!
If you remember Mary and you’d like to take part in a Facebook organised get together, turn up this Sunday at Mary’s old dancing stop at midday. There’s going to be a tribute to the lady who danced her way into so many people’s hearts and minds. Rumour has it she’s going to be there. Here’s hoping it’s a really fine sunny day.
Tags: facebook fan page, mary of o'connell street
Irish Facebook Developers
January 20, 2010 at 1:12 pm
I started a discussion on LinkedIn last week to ask the people about who they rate as good Irish Facebook developers. I haven’t checked out any of the people listed below, but here are a list of their names, which hopefully will be of help to you if you’re looking. Hopefully I’ll meet these folks over the course of my travels and will be able to update on them in later posts:
- BetaPond (Conor) – http://www.betapond.com/facebook.php
- Nightblue (Gareth McDaid) – http://www.nightbluefruit.com/
Others who were nominated but who do not fully fit the Irish criteria:
- Chris McCabe (seems to be based in UK?) - http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/chris-mccabe/16/85b/176
