My Le Bui's Social Media Adventure

Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

I am the marketing and social media coordinator for the Facebook fan page for, Kenneth Bentley Photography. I decided it was best to use the advertising money for this page. Here is the step by step process of how to create an ad on Facebook.

Step 1: Visit www.facebook.com/advertising , this page will just give you the overview of what Facebook ads is all about. At the top right hand corner you will see the tap, “create an ad” click on that. Tip: Read Case Studies tap at the main page of Facebook Ads page.

Step 2: Design Your Ad: you will land on the designing page section of the Facebook ads. It will ask you the destination, type, url, title, body message, image and preview. If you don’t understand what each section mean, there is a question mark icon next to each, simply click on it to have further instruction. You will create the overall image of your Facebook ads in this part. Then click continue.

Step 3: After you click to the next part, it goes to the targeting section of the ad. You can narrow down who you want to target through country, demographic, interests, and connection on Facebook. There is also an option of advance target which goes into birthday, work, education, and relationship status. Depending on how wide or narrow you want your target audience to be, you edit this section accordingly. After each selection, there is an estimate reach info provided at the right. Then click continue.

Step 4: The next section focus on campaigns, pricing, and scheduling. You will enter account currency, time zone, campaign and budget, schedule and pricing. You also have an option for advance pricing which ask whether you want pay for impression or pay for clicks. It’s basically asking for a bid price you’re willing to pay for the amount of impression or click you get for your ad.

I have selected

• Bid Type: CPM in Ad Space
• Bid: $0.45 USD per thousand impressions
• Lifetime Budget: $20 USD
• Duration: 04/26/2010 – 05/15/2011

Step 5: After you preview your ad you will either place the order or go back and edit the ad. Once you place the order, you must enter your credit card information.

Step 6: After submitting your order, Facebook will bring you to the campaign page which is where you will keep track of the results of your ad campaign.

This is a slide I have put together to recommend some social media website. We all know the popular one such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to name a few but htere are so many out there. It’s good to explore and try it out to see if you can implement into your social media strategy. Enjoy.

Well-Known Brand

 I have decided to pick Victoria’s Secret as the brand I will be investing on their social media effort. There is no doubt that Victoria’s Secret is a powerhouse fashion and retail brand. The brand has focused its social media efforts on where its fans already are accessible: Facebook and to a lesser magnitude because of the limitations of the platform, Twitter in addition to YouTube. An immediate verification to the brand’s social media activity is the noticeable 12 million plus of Facebook fans. If judging from that number alone, Victoria’s Secret social media efforts could be confirmed an accomplishment. However, the brand has done much more. Utilizing all the means offered to commercial Facebook users, including, most staggeringly, customizable page tabs. The page encourages comments and it gets them probably over on average of about16,000 comments per status update.

Something on a Smaller Scale

For something more local which is also my favorite childhood memories is the Philadelphia Zoo.  What truly capture my attention is on their homepage a section of links to their social media outlets. Their social media outlets include: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Each link is in a form of an image icon with animal attached to each one. The Philadelphia Zoo social media effort focus on connecting followers with fun and interesting information relating to the zoo such as photo of the week that consists of various animal from the zoo itself. There are uploading of videos that capture all the wonderful events and animals. Followers do engage in conversations by sharing their thoughts and ideas when asked.

Evaluation

I believe both Victoria’s Secret and the Philadelphia Zoo did a remarkable job on their social media communities. Especially Philadelphia Zoo for incorporating their social media into their website so visibly while Victoria’s Secret social media links on their website is not really out there (it’s all the way at the bottom of the page). On top of that, Victoria’s Secret only promotes Facebook and not Twitter or YouTube which they do have presence on. Both have dedicated followers who interact within these various social media communities. The right balance is maintained through engaging their target audiences with information, encouraging dialogue rather than just having them at the receiving end.

The purpose for these companies to have social media presence is to involve their customers with their brand. Social media obsession is sweeping the world and has taken over traditional media to a large degree, due to its immediateness, influence, knowledge sharing and networking. I believe the key to measure the success of your social media effort have many factors. Traffic is the more obvious ways of measuring social media, but you must remember that quality often beats quantity. Participant is a valuable indication for success. Engaging followers is a highly valuable one. It’s key to improving satisfaction and loyalty rates and revenues.

A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization. It’s individual, and it’s based on emotions and not driven by marketing messages. So by having an official and strong presence on social media channels is vital to businesses nowadays.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/15650991[/vimeo]

Play the video above for the basic overview of what’s Flavors.me is all about.

Check my FLAVORS.ME page out: click here

If have multiple online presences distributed across various social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, and so much more then you should definitely consider creating a Flavors.me account. Flavors.me makes creating a single spot for all of these social media outlet simple and easy.

The service is fairly simple. After completing a basic sign up form, you link your Flavors.me page to any of the online services they allow you to link. It’s self-explanatory in how you would customize your Flavors.me’s page. What I really love about this service is their minimalist approach in term of style.

Flavors.me is free for its basic feature and produces revenue through its premium subscriptions, which is $20 per year. The premium features include the capability to use your own custom domain name, real time statistics, and to include a contact form in your page. I strongly recommended that you check this out. You can use this flavor.me link to add in your e-mail signature in order to promote your online presences.

Check out the directory of flavor.me for examples of what others are making.

What do you think, is it viable to launch a Facebook-only news portal? What are some major advantages and disadvantages? If you were going to create an online news organization, what would it look like?

I don’t have confidence that a facebook-only news portal business model would be sustainable. Facebook can be used for data collecting and identifying potential news with its massive audience base. But I don’t think moving to facebook the way it is presently will be a sensible decision. With the traditional outlet of receiving our news – newspaper (actual print version) are declining in recent years, it’s appear to be a frantic move to protect the business. We are starting to see news companies creating a huge presence on facebook to engage users and help facilitate this conception of trusted referral to support the viral spread of content.

The concept of “trusted referral” is fundamental to the success of content sharing on facebook. It is exceptionally more influential to get a piece of content whether it is an article, a news clip, or a video from a friend. You’re most likely going to watch, read, and engage with the content from a friend’s recommendation.  However, people will want to consume content from a professional and they will search for trusted news sources for current events. But the market has become so oversaturated that it is just as important to rely on friends to help sort out the news.

Advantages

1. Massive audience base for a much wider reach
2. Success of content sharing on facebook
3. Used for data collecting and identifying potential news source

Disadvantages

1. Facebook is a host site, it maybe or maybe not be around forever (uncertainty)
2. Lack of revenue model, can’t make advertising income
3. Depend in target market, not everyone use facebook
4. Lack of professional image

If I were to create a news company, I would focus primarily on online content and user experience within the website. Subscribers would have more added benefits, such as a login account for more access to news. Non-subscriber would still be able to access the content however, it would be limited. In this way, I can obtain advertising revenues through the website. News company’s presence on facebook is valuable. My news company would definitely have a social media channels for subscribers to connect with. When someone “like” your facebook page they’re making a choice to connect with you and are receptive of your message. This communication channel becomes a positive feature for my news company to cultivate loyalty, relationships, and most notably, influence.

Social media, like other information outlets, can undoubtedly influence public opinion. What ethical considerations do you think governments and corporations should have when attempting to influence others? Does a creating fake online persona go too far? Does it matter if the government or a corporate does it? Does it matter if the target is US citizens or “foreign foes”?

It’s not a big surprise that the governments and corporations want to use social media to their benefit. Social media is an enormous information network to spread false propaganda through fake online identities. Although the government declares it doesn’t favor online censorship, when their secrets come out to the lime light, it appears to be fine with approving devious tactics. While the government can talk a decent talk, what it does and what it says often doesn’t seem to blend. It’s unethical for government to use fake accounts in order to deceive the general public about policies or ideas. However, if it’s a military strategy to win in warfare then they can get away with it. National securities will be top priority on the agenda.

As for corporation, I know they do hire people to have phony online accounts to give inaccurate rating for their product or service in order to enhance their image. Credibility is critical, without it, no one cares what you have to say. For both government and corporation, once trust is broken – it will be tough to recuperate. It doesn’t matter who you target, whether if they’re US citizens or foreigner because using social media (or any medium for that matter) to deceive the public is unethical.

This reminds me of recent speech Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered called, “Internet Rights and Wrongs: Choices and Challenges in a Networked World.”  The Sectary said:

“The internet has become the public space of the 21st century — the world’s town square, classroom, marketplace, coffeehouse, and nightclub. We all shape and are shaped by what happens there, all 2 billion of us and counting. And that presents a challenge. To maintain an internet that delivers the greatest possible benefits to the world, we need to have a serious conversation about the principles that will guide us, what rules exist and should not exist and why, what behaviors should be encouraged or discouraged and how.”

Yet, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reported, “For every strong statement about preserving liberty, freedom of expression, and privacy on the global Internet, there exists a countervailing example of the United States attempting to undermine those same values.”

Image Courtesy of toons.optimum7.com

What role do you think social media should play in emergency response? If you were in a natural disaster or some other type of emergency situation, in what ways would you turn to social media?

Could a simple tweet help save a life? Perhaps. Although many people come to know social media as a place fill with regular carefree tweets and status updates. It’s gradually growing as a routine use in emergencies. One thing is for sure, the public’s use of social media in time of crises is rising. I strongly believe in the transformative power of the Internet, and how it could be used in catastrophe situations.

Years since the Hurricane Katrina occurred, social media has exploded, and its potential for use in crises was clear after the Haiti earthquake. Until recently, the political revolution in Egypt further demonstrates the usage of online communication. These online platforms is educating the public and letting them know how they can help out.

Social Media can be used as an information hub, where interested parties needed updates on critical condition. The involvement of social media in the response to emergencies is supportive, and there is no doubt that today’s modern approach to communication is a significant component in effective emergency attentiveness. This technology is evolving, and as a community we should be conscious of the opportunities that this dynamic new set of tools offers.

If I was in a natural disaster, my first reaction is to call for help. Communicating with people through mobile would increase my chance of reaching someone for rescue immediately. However, using social media when I’m stuck somewhere during a disaster would most likely come second. It’s all a matter of timing. A simple phone call will get immediate response while tweeting or status updates may not reach my intended audience in time.

Image Courtesy of interactyx.com

Facebook banned from the workplace!

Do you agree or disagree that “Facebook should be banned in the workplace”? Would you work for a company that banned the use of Facebook?

Whether it be facebook, twitter, youtube, tumblr, reddit or any other social media outlets of your preference, it is a fact that most of the tools, sites, and channels are time-consuming nature. Normally, if you are to waste your own private time working around those communities, sharing information, watching video clips, meeting new people, then it would be acceptable. However, it’s when your usage of these social media gets out of your home and steps into your working hours that may stir up some troubles.

From personal experience, how I see it is that unless your job description include you utilizing facebook for public relations, marketing, promotion, online communities, customer engagement and interaction, if not it will cause serve damage to the quality of your work. For professional in the industry, it’s their job. They don’t go on facebook to view their friend’s profile or to chat. These workers’ job is to analyze the facebook’s communities for their company. It’s part of the job.

The majority of the problem lies in people abusing the system and using it for personal enjoyment. It can get quite addictive. A mere ten minutes can easily become one hour if not more.  Which lead to an unproductive work and a decrease in the quality of work you will provided. When people take mini break to log into facebook it’s acceptable. The line is cross when it goes beyond that to more than a hour. If it’s necessary, then facebook should be banned from the workplace.

Since my interest is online communities and marketing, I want to work for a companies that allow facebook access.