Blue Helm

When your friends speak out on Facebook, do you answer?

We all know about the ‘Like’ button on Facebook, and most of us probably use it from time to time. And we may or may not comment on a buddy’s post that particularly interests us. But did you know that you help increase your friends’ content value and prominence by ‘liking’ their posts or commenting more often?

For instance, let’s say you have a close friend that posts a funny YouTube video on Facebook. You watch it and laugh until you pee yourself. But you don’t comment on the video or use the ‘Like’ button to show your interest. And why should you? You’re a busy person with lots of other YouTube videos to watch. Here’s your friend’s problem: Her hilarious update will quickly fall victim to the massive amounts of other Facebook content constantly being generated. As the minutes pass, her post will fall lower and lower on News Feeds everywhere.

But if her video happened to have a lot of comments or ‘likes’, Facebook sees it as more valuable content and keeps it higher on News Feeds, even as other content comes in. Thus, your friend’s video is seen by far more friends and has more potential to become viral. And her self-esteem dramatically improves.

Some Facebook users avoid commenting or ‘liking’ posts because they get annoying notifications every time somebody else comments on the same update. This site on Mashable explains how to solve that pesky problem.

But in the end, why should you care if your friends’ posts get more exposure? Why should you take the time to comment or ‘like’ a status update or link. Well, because you’re a human being and social networking is, at its core, a conversation. You’re free to harvest the benefits of Facebook without participating, but that makes you lame.

So don’t be lame. Take the time to ‘like’ or leave a comment on a Facebook post that genuinely interests or entertains or inspires. Doing so cultivates more good content, and I think we all can agree that our Facebook News Feeds would greatly benefit from better content.

Bill O'Reilly

I was watching The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News last week and heard the controversial host say something unusually distressing. One of his guests mentioned Facebook and Bill immediately rolled his eyes said something to the extent of: “I don’t even know what Facebook and Twitter are, and I don’t care.” (I have searched tirelessly on the Internet for a video or written transcript of the segment, but couldn’t find anything. I’ll keep searching.)

This sounds very bad coming from the highest-rated cable news host. Bill O’Reilly, a seasoned reporter known for his opinions and analyses of current events, doesn’t know or care about social media? Bill, if you’re reading, please accept my humble advice and change your mind about the biggest phenomenon to change the way we communicate since the mobile phone. Here’s why you should think twice about your ambivalence toward social media:

1. Social media changes the world every day, for better or worse. Barack Obama’s campaign arguably won the 2008 presidential election through its consistent participation and interaction with younger voters on social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube. Sarah Palin and other potential candidates currently drive their grassroots political movements through social media. And perhaps most stunningly, the recent protests in Iran over alleged election fraud was largely organized and broadcast through Twitter.

2. Social media is changing the dynamics of our modern media. Once-powerful newspapers are succumbing to bankruptcy at alarming rates. Why? The emergence of cable news is one possible explanation. But blogs and citizen journalists are attracting more and more Americans, undermining traditional media outlets and forcing them to evolve. No one could have envisioned such drastic times for newspapers and the mainstream media. Who’s to say social media won’t dramatically change the potency of Fox News or other cable news outlets within the next decade in a similarly unpredictable way?

3. Social media isn’t going away. It may change over time, but like other communication megatrends of the past few decades (the internet, personal computers, cell phones, etc.), social media is a powerful networking and conversation tool that unites friends, strangers, businesses and families. It won’t be abandoned any time soon.

4. Hundreds of millions of people use social media every day. As a news anchor, someone who reports on the prevailing trends of our society, shouldn’t you care? You alienate your viewers and listeners by saying you don’t know what Facebook is. Roughly one third of Americans actively use Facebook. This is an astonishing statistic. Many of these Facebook users undoubtedly listen to you and trust your judgement of what’s important news. How should they interpret your utter lack of interest or knowledge concerning something so revolutionary, so innovative, so vital?

Facebook leaves us with...questions.

Facebook’s newly unveiled contest rules are, well, confusing. At least that’s the only determination I can come to today. That might change in the future as more information becomes available. But Facebook hasn’t released a lot of helpful instruction as of yet, so I’m left to ponder on the meaning and significance of the new guidelines.

In case you missed the announcement, administrators of Facebook fan pages can no longer host contests through their pages without written permission from Facebook. You can still use third party applications to host contests, but you can’t do anything now that requires users to become a fan, interact with a feed story or do anything else outside an application tab or canvas page in order to enter or win a contest.

So…what does all that mean? Facebook gives some examples of what you can and cannot do under the new guidelines, but many questions still remain unanswered:

• How are you supposed to contact Facebook to receive “written approval” to run a contest on your fan page? Facebook reveals very little, if any, legitimate contact information on its site. And even if you do contact Facebook through a message option, the company rarely replies.
• Can a business still give away products, promotions or coupons to customers that become fans of its page, even if no contest is involved? I think so, but Facebook doesn’t specify.
• Are there separate rules for contests on personal profiles? For instance, a blogger running a contest through her own profile page (as opposed to a fan page). Probably not, since a personal profile is part of the larger “Facebook Platform”. But the rules are still sketchy and open to interpretation.
• Why has Facebook changed the rules? Is it to protect itself from potential legal disputes arising from contest malpractice? Or does it just want more control over fan interaction with businesses on its site? Has a promotion gone wrong in the past?
• How will Facebook enforce these new rules?
• Doesn’t this just hurt small businesses? They can’t afford to hire large social marketing firms that specialize in creating third-party applications. Many small businesses rely on Facebook for promotions and contests that drive customers to their products.

Social media is like the weather–it’s always changing. So as always, Blue Helm will stay on top of Facebook’s new developments and rules. We live and breathe this stuff (so you don’t have to).

The economy is down. Jobless rates are still climbing. New college graduates are struggling to find work. Times are tough, but tough times provide opportunities for innovators, entrepreneurs and hard workers to thrive.

Today I want to write to those of you who are struggling to find a job. Maybe you’ve just graduated, maybe you’ve just been laid off or maybe you need to go back to work to pay the ever-rising bills. Regardless of why you’re looking for a job, the fact remains that there are a lot of people who are vying for the jobs you want.

So what do you do to separate yourself from the competition? What do you do to get the job you want? The answer: social networking.

Social networking is an extremely powerful tool and I’ll list a few suggestions that will get you well on your way to the job of your choosing, but you must understand that it will take time and effort.

Businesses spend a lot of time and money developing and improving their brand. You are no different than a business. You are responsible for your personal brand. What do people think of when they see your name? What do they think of you when you walk into the room?

Here are a few tips you can use that will help you develop your personal brand. I’ve linked to multiple articles written by Dan Shawbel, an expert in developing an online personal brand. So be sure to read Dan’s posts too; they provide additional in-depth, how-to instruction.

Get online

The first step to building your personal brand is to pick the most appropriate networks to join. The biggest social networking tools to consider are Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and blogging.

Twitter – You’ve probably heard a lot about Twitter, but you still aren’t clear on what it is or how to use it. Stop being confused and get started! Twitter is more than just a place to tell people what you’re doing. It’s a place to share links to relevant news, blogs and stories. Twitter is a great place to connect with important people in your industry and to become one of those important people as you further develop your personal brand.

LinkedIn – LinkedIn is the social network for professionals. Many people think LinkedIn is just an online resume, but there is much more to it. You can drastically improve your personal brand as you join and participate in groups, as you utilize the Q&A tool and as you build a larger and more interactive network.

Facebook – Facebook is more personal that Twitter or LinkedIn. LinkedIn is like taking people to your office and Twitter is like going to a networking lunch or talking at the water cooler. Facebook is like bringing people to your home. As you connect with people on Facebook, they will begin to see more of who you are as an individual. The more they like you, the more they’ll be willing to work with you.

Blogging – Building a blog is a great way to show off to potential employers. I would recommend starting a professional blog as opposed to a personal blog. Your professional blog should talk only about things in your industry. You should absolutely inject your personality into the blog, but have the focus of the blog be in your field of choice.

Become an expert

What are you interested in? What did you go to school for? What job do you want? Answer these questions and become an expert in your field of interest. Find the most popular blogs in your industry and start reading them regularly. Study books and other resources that will help increase your knowledge. Follow industry leaders on Twitter and read the updates and links they’ve posted. You can find a wealth of information online, just be careful that you don’t overload.

Voice your opinion

After you’ve studied and feel like you can carry on a relevant conversation in your field, start voicing your opinion.  Re-tweet posts that are interesting to you. Comment and have conversations on great blog posts. Answer questions in the Q&A section of LinkedIn or start discussions in the groups you’re a part of. Share relevant links on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Write blog posts that others will value. The more you study and share with others, the more you will be perceived as an expert.

Connect with the right people

The business world runs on connections. The more people you’re connected to, the more powerful you become. If you go into a job interview already knowing someone of influence in the company, your chances of landing the job are much better than someone who doesn’t have a connection. Connect with people at companies you would like to work for. Choose a few companies and look up people in the departments you would like to work in. See if they’re on Twitter, LinkedIn or if they have a blog. Connect and interact with them. Once you’ve developed a relationship with them, you can approach them about employment.

Don’t stop

If you don’t get results right away, don’t give up! And once you’ve gotten the job, keep networking on your own time. Effective social networking takes a while to develop. But the ball is now rolling, and it’s much easier to keep it going than having to start over again later when you may need social networking again. So never stop.

Curse you Facebook! Curse youuuuuuuu!

I suspect those denizens at Twitter are shaking their fists and cursing the Facebook gods right about now. Twitter’s new niche in the social media world is rapidly losing its novelty thanks to the cool features Facebook ‘borrows’ from the little blue bird.

The newest Twitteresque highlight (by the way, I’m obsessed with making up words that have ‘Twitter’ in them) on Facebook is that you can now use the @ symbol to imprint a link on your status update to another friend’s profile.

For instance, instead of merely typing Chad Mustard is a goober in my status update box, I should now include an @ symbol just before I type his name and Facebook will allow me to choose his profile from a dropdown box. A link to his wall is then automatically included in my update and he is notified via email. So if one of my other Facebook friends wonders who Chad Mustard is and why he’s a goober, this person can click on his name within my status update and visit his profile. His gooberness will be perceptible almost immediately.

But it’s not just individual profiles you can now link up to your status updates. You can do the same with pages, events and groups. Just include the @ symbol before any name you type and a box will appear allowing you to choose who or what you want to link to.

So take that Twitterites! Your puny Twittersphere is losing power each day. Why would Facebook users want to switch to the Twitterverse if they can find all its features on a site they’re already familiar with? It’s a Twittastrophe!

Wow. I’ll stop now.