Facebook chooses "Likes" over "Fans"

Facebook last week took another step toward redefining the relationship between its users and brands with the introduction of "community pages." The initiative will encourage users to start community pages for brands, entertainers, and politicians rather than unofficial fan pages, which have been a source of some confusion on the site.

Big brands that have seen their official Facebook fan numbers hindered by third-party fan pages will likely welcome the move. For instance, even Coca-Cola - with its Facebook-leading 5.3 million fans - stands to benefit. A Facebook search query for Coca-Cola produces more than 500 fan page results, and some have been started by individuals who have accrued thousands of fans of the beverage company. There's the five-month-old fan page, "Coca-Cola In A Glass Bottle Is Way Better Than Plastic," which has built up a following of nearly 400,000.

To read the rest of this intresting article written by Christopher Heine at ClickZ click HERE.

How SlateV Ran an Ad on Fox News for as little as $100

SlateV recently ran a little test to see just how easily they could get their made-up website on national TV.  They managed to run ads on a late-night rerun of the Glenn Beck Show (with the help of Google TV) for only $100.

They made this video documenting their fascinating experiment.

Facebook, give our client their page back!

My employer, Fat Atom Internet Marketing, recent built a very successful Facebook fan page (that I ran).  Facebook removed without telling us, so we made a video.  Here's the quote from our website.
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So here is what happened. We, Fat Atom Internet Marketing (fatatom.com), did a Facebook fan page for one of our clients. The site took off like a rocket, hit almost 50,000 fans, and then we wake up one day to find Facebook had taken the page down. They sent no warning, had already validated our page, and offered no explanation later. We sent support requests to Facebook for almost 2 weeks, everyday, afterward, and they have yet to get back with us. Thousands of dollars were spent on this campaign, and now they are all gone.

We think it is very irresponsible of Facebook, who is still young in the professional world, to treat paying customers like this. Facebook is a great place to grow your business online, but behavior like this is downright terrifying. Business need to have confidence that they are safe investing money in Facebook.

We created this video to express our frustration and confusion.

If you have had this happen to you, please leave a comment and help us spread this video around the web!

Fat Atom Internet Marketing
http://fatatom.com

Using Facebook and Twitter safely

By Elinor Mills of cnet.com

You and just about everyone else, it seems, are spending more and more time on Facebook and Twitter, updating statuses and checking friends' tweets. That's all well and good, of course, but the amount of personal information that all of you share in real time, and the level of trust implicit with the social networking sites, do pose particular security and privacy problems.

A recent study from Sophos found that Facebook users reveal a lot of personal information to new friends, including ones they really don't even know or have never met. Using fake profiles, Sophos sent out friend requests to 100 random Facebook users, and more than 40 percent blindly accepted, giving the company access to birth dates, e-mail addresses, phone number and addresses--private information strangers shouldn't have.

The openness of Twitter--anyone can follow anyone else, and posts are indexed in search engines--makes it a nirvana for spammers. Kaspersky says there are nearly 500,000 new unique URLs that appear in Twitter posts daily, and of those, anywhere between 100 and 1,000 are malware attacks.

Here's a look at some of the specific threats users of the sites face and what they can do about it.

Check out the rest of this great article here.

Social Media Marketing 101 (Top Five Reasons for having a Facebook Fan Page)

From Todd "The Brawn" Muffley at Fat Atom Internet Marketing.

Let's all decide right now that we should not just jump on the social media bandwagon because we can, but because we have a plan. An easy and effective plan, i.e., one that you will actually implement and upkeep, is usually a good place to start. Let's discuss Facebook Fan Pages and how this can help you grow your business.

Facebook, for those of you stuck in 2003, is a place where you can go online, set up a profile (put stuff in about you) and then find friends with whom you went to elementary school and show them pictures of your pets, kids, trophy spouse, etc.

The Fan Page on Facebook allows, let's say, business owners, to set up a page about their business and then invite people to "become a fan" of that business. Usually at this point, some people are saying to themselves, "Why?". So let me tell you my...

Top Five Reasons for having a Facebook Fan Page:

1. A Facebook Fan Page allows the approximately 175 million Facebook users to learn about your products and/ or services - free of charge.

2. A Facebook Fan Page allows you to control the conversation about your business. It allows you to push relevant content to people who want to see it, even ask for it, free of charge.

3. It is estimated for every Fan you have, 10 more people will be exposed to your messaging. 1=10, 10=100, 250=2500 - and yes, it is still free of charge.

4. Facebook allows you to leverage your clients to help you get new clients by running clever promotions, giveaways or specials.

5. When people "Fan" your Facebook Page, and your Facebook Page has a link to your site, you are building the incoming link traffic to your website. That helps your rankings with Google and other search engines.

Remember, before you run and start a Facebook Fan Page for your business, think about a plan first. Creating a marketing calendar that helps you plan events, set goals and manage to-do's is your first priority. No marketing, even when it is free, is good if you don't execute properly and Facebook is no different. Next month, read about how to advertise your Fan Page.

Original Post

The Rise of Creative Philanthropy

Special thanks to the writer of this article, Scott Henderson for his permission to let me post this.  Read more on his site Rally the Cause.


#1 Thing You Need to Learn from this Post:
With the proliferation of easy-to-use media tools, new people are entering the cause arena and launching innovative ways to raise money and awareness for the issues they care about. These creative philanthropists will continue to play a role in shaping the charitable sector.

A More Detailed Exploration:
Thankfully, it doesn’t take a special certification to do something for a cause. It just takes a desire to make a difference and the willingness to act.

While many non-profit leaders and fundraisers deliberate how to integrate online and social media into their operations, a new group of people are showing them how it can be done. The only question in my mind is: Are they even watching?

Click here to read the rest.

How Kiva.org is Improving The World By Using Social Media

I am a big fan of the Stuff You Should Know podcast from HowStuffWorks.com and first came to hear of Kiva.org through their episode on micro-lending.  For those unfamiliar, micro-lending is the loaning of very small amounts of money at low interest, especially to start-up companies or self-employed people.  During the episode, the topic of Kiva came up.  I was extremely intrigued by the idea and signed up.  In the time it has existed Kiva has had such an effect on the world not only in what they accomplish, but how they accomplish it that I wanted to share.

Kiva.org is a non-profit organization that supplies micro-loans to entrepreneurs around the world (mostly under-developed countries in South America, Asia and Africa) to help them get a leg up and find success.  Kiva achieves this by finding people like you and me to fund these loans. 

Once you become a Kiva member you look through lists of entrepreneurs that are in need of a loan and find a person you want to help support.  You can then provide as little as $25 to the person or people running the business.  Together with funds from other Kiva.org members a group micro-loan is created to send to the entrepreneurs.  As the business you support grows and profits the loan is repaid.  Now you have the choice of taking back the money you originally funded OR immediately reinvesting it in another business!

Ok now here is where the awesome social media side of Kiva comes in.

Kiva has what are called "Lending Teams".  Whenever you loan money you can contribute it towards a total loan score for the Kiva Lending Team of your choice!  This creates an air of friendly competition between lenders to fund more money than rival teams.  This element makes loaning absolutely addictive.

Members can post messages to lending team message boards, talk with other members, get lending banners to put on other websites (like the one on the left of this page), create a customizable Lender Page and read updates from the field agencies that have direct contact with the entrepreneurs.  There is definitely a sense of joy when you read how these loans have immensely helped these hard working individuals.

Head over to Kiva.org to sign up and start loaning!  You will love it.

Note worthy links.
Kiva's Twitter page
The How Stuff Works Twitter page
The Stuff You Should Know Lending Team