How to: Social Media in Business – Facebook (Part 1)

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October 6, 2010

Part 1 >> Part 2 >> Part 3

A week ago we looked at what social media means to businesses, why social media is the way forward for businesses and also ways on how social media can be integrated into your business. Having read all that, you may begin to have a little something for social media, wanting to get started but know nothing about it? This post explores one of the many tools of Social Media that you could very well apply in your business / brand – the infamous Facebook.

Why Facebook?

Most people today have a personal Facebook account and spend loads of time on it, be it on games or merely page / profile hopping, engaging with other users online. Millions of users access Facebook on a daily basis and this also means that Facebook has a potential ready market of millions to be accessed by your brand and you just need to be a part of this huge global network. What you need to do is to merely find ways to tap into it.

The good news? Facebook is nowhere near in pulling their brakes. They are here to stay, continually innovating their services and recently seen wanting to integrate deeper into the mobile devices, tying in with Android operating systems. Just so you know, Facebook’s actual value is reported to be a whooping $23 billion (Forbes) and $33 billion by The Financial Times!
The bad news? Having a Facebook page alone isn’t going to get you anywhere – it is only the beginning.

To start things off, take a look at the video below:

1. You’ll need a plan.

Yes, social media IS business thus requiring a strategy to truly succeed. Start by setting goals for your Facebook page followed by specific tasks on how to achieve them. You may want to look at:

1. How many ‘likes’ to gain by end of the year?
2. How often will you be able to contribute to the page? (e.g. at least 3 days a week / videos / images)
3. How would you want your followers to interact with you? (e.g. share your contents / provide feedback)
4. What is the final outcome for your page? (e.g. to drive traffic to your site / to receive suggestions)
5. Do you need a team to manage the page or an individual?
6. What do you need to do to achieve your goals?

2. Command attention.

Like it or not, in most situations, even the most valuable content you can ever provide will be ignored – yes, despite the traffic. How so? Simple: they are NOT paying attention to you. There are so many things happening on the screen: instant messaging, emails, Skype, daily news and if that’s nothing, do not forget the various happenings inside Facebook itself (e.g. wall posts, photos, videos, games and etc)!

Already sounding impossible? Not quite.

You’ll need a PULL, something that draws their attention to you. No, definitely not advertising because consumers today are immune to advertising. They know when to turn away when an ad starts playing and even the most annoying popups can deliberately be ignored without being seen! It has to be something that RELATES to them. This PULL can be exclusive contents, benefits, giveaways, outrageous offers and more!

Think of ways that will excite them. Some marketeers cleverly pack information into video presentations and aesthetically pleasing images – why? They know what relates and excites their followers: Videos and images definitely captures attention better than text. When it excites them, consumers are likely to share it across the social media. Once again, this is Co-Promotion through WORLD-of-mouth.

“Know what your customers are looking for. In social media, your followers comes first! Forget about getting new prospects – you’ll get stronger conversions with your followers on your side”

3. Stick to it!

Consistency is the key and this is perhaps the difficult part and determines the initial make or break. Most brand pages fail because they are unable to stick with what they have in mind. Either the management team is too bogged up with other work or they’ve given up after weeks of trying to no avail.

“Pages fail due to lack of commitment. Lack of commitment to the page is simply telling your customers – We don’t care“

Social media takes time, just like traditional businesses. You may hear stories of people making big money with social media over night but the truth is, most businesses can’t. This is where you may want to utilize your contacts, publicize your page on your official site, name cards, pamphlets, brochures, ads and etc to make use of your Facebook presence. You can hold discussions, get feedback, throw special promotions, contests and more to drive interest, traffic and participation to your page.

What’s in Part 2?

Real life implementation and integration examples of Facebook in businesses worldwide! You do not want to miss this! Stay tuned!

[UPDATE: Click here for Part 2]

My Google Story

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October 1, 2010

| Jan Wong

In case you’re wondering – yes, this site also reveals part of my happenings in life, injecting a little bit more flavour to the site as a whole; something lighter than the usual information dosage, especially for the weekend :)

“Did you know that Google originally ran under Stanford University’s website – google.stanford.edu?”

On the faithful day of 27th September, a dear friend of mine celebrated his 12th birthday – Google

Google's 12th Birthday

I must confess that I didn’t really like Google when we first met. I was closer to Yahoo! back then. Yahoo! was cooler as he offered various online games, games that allowed me to meet people from other countries through ‘chat’ and the opportunity to beat them in checkers, chess and pool.. all the way back in 1997, when I was 10. I had a mail account with Yahoo! at that time and I thought it was the coolest thing on earth, although I also had accounts with Hotmail, ICQ, Excite, Lycos and the likes. Yahoo! remained my favourite.

“Did you know that the domain Google.com was officially registered on the 15th September 1997, and only launched on 27th September 1998?”

At that time, Google looked like this:

And Yahoo! like this:

I pretty much stuck with Yahoo! all the way till 2004, where my life was turned around with the introduction of Gmail. Really. At that point of time, Gmail offered 1GB worth of mailbox size in which I needed and what made Google cooler is that Gmail was only available on special invitation. Wow! At that time, most mailboxes were only 100MB ~~big~~ small!

Because of that, I started hanging out with Google more and found that he is able to search more efficiently than my previous buddy! He gives me the results I require and does not take a long time to load up as he really is a simple dude, with his name on a white background.

Since then, Google became my answer to everything and has yet to fail me ever since. He became a buddy throughout college, university and life. Today, I can still be found on Gmail and have also furthered my commitment, being attached to Gchat, Gcalendars, Gdocs, Gmaps, Gbuzz and his cousin, YouTube. He is so nice that he has even taught me the secret to be ranked #1 on him and managed to do it for a number of my sites (this site soon, too)!

Sure, he has his pitfalls once in awhile, but I’ve never regretted getting know Google. Happy 12th Birthday, friend!

How did you get to know Google? Do YOU have a Google story? It’ll be great to hear them,too ;)

iPhone Brought Sight to the Blind

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September 21, 2010

| Jan Wong

I don’t know how many of you are like me – often skeptical of the usefulness of many accessibility options out there with screen readers and what not that is supposed to help those with disabilities such as the blind. I was also very skeptical with the accessibility functions on the iPhone for the blind as I find it difficult to see how a blind user is able to navigate with a touch screen device.. and that was where I was totally wrong.

After stumbling upon this article on Gizmodo, I must say that I’m truly impressed with the iPhone for the very first time – not because of it’s sleek exterior, the AppStore or the brand, but of it’s amazing accessibility features.

“When I first heard that Apple would release a touchpad cell phone with VoiceOver, the screen reading software used by Macs, I scoffed. The blind have gotten so used to lofty promises of a dream platform, only to receive some slapped together set of software with a minimally functional screen reader running on overpriced hardware which can’t take a beating. I figured that Apple just wanted to get some good PR – after all, how could a blind person even use a touchpad? I laughed at the trendies, both sighted and blind, buying iPhones and enthusing about them.”

Austin Seraphin got his iPhone on the 9th June 2010 and his life was changed forever. A doubter of this overpriced gadget soon granted him access to a world like never before allowing him to read tweets, look up stock prices, surf the web and more!

When Austin’s mom was told by the salesman that VoiceOver does not read text messages, her heart sank but Austin simply said “Well, let’s see, try it.”. His mom pulled out her phone, and sent him a text message. Within seconds, the phone alerted him, and said her name. Followed by a simple finger swipe and it read her message: Hi Austin. She almost cried – and that was the beginning of a changed life for Austin.

If that isn’t enough, wait till you see what happened after he recently downloaded the Color ID app from the AppStore. It granted him sight to a world he has never been able to see before.

“The next day, I went outside. I looked at the sky. I heard colors such as “Horizon,” “Outer Space,” and many shades of blue and gray. I used color cues to find my pumpkin plants, by looking for the green among the brown and stone. I spent ten minutes looking at my pumpkin plants, with their leaves of green and lemon-ginger. I then roamed my yard, and saw a blue flower. I then found the brown shed, and returned to the gray house. My mind felt blown. I watched the sun set, listening to the colors change as the sky darkened.”

You know, all these are only possible when proper software development guidelines are followed and Apple’s stringent rules that caused inconvenience to developers really pays off to the blind! Austin’s experience gave me a whole new meaning in developing accessible websites and not leaving those options out for convenience sake. Imagine: your website or software being able to change and bring sight to one’s life – it is beyond hit counts, impressions and profit. It is priceless. Believe it or not, simple gestures such as properly naming the links and images and with proper usage of tags including page titles, meta tags, link titles, form fields, etc will go a long way in helping the blind read your content.

“I love my iPhone. It changed my universe as soon as it entered it.” – Austin Seraphin

Those words may be words of every Apple fan but for Austin’s case, it brought a whole new perspective to me. It’s amazing to see the how technology today has evolved into and packed into a mobile device. After all, what’s good of technology if it does not improve the quality of life especially for those who really needs it?

I’m glad that the iPhone is not just an overpriced gadget to shout about but a device that can bring change – or in this case, SIGHT into one’s life.

You have to check out the full story told by Austin himself

p.s. if this story touched you as it did to me, do also share it with your friends :)

The Next Generation of Cards: Credit Card 2.0

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September 19, 2010

| Jan Wong

You’ve heard about Web 2.0. How about a Credit Card 2.0? That’s the evolution of credit cards – really cool features, secured, water and scratch proof. Imagine a card that can tie in multiple accounts into one card, password protected, hide certain digits of your card number with a push of a button (yes, a button), but yet retain it’s card-like plastic features and remains just as thin!

All in all, it is definitely what credit cards should be like right now!

According to the creators of Card 2.0 (Dynamics Inc.), several banks in the States are already undergoing stealth testing with prototype cards and may be launching soon, although an exact date is still unavailable at this moment.

My description of Card 2.0 does not do justice to this awesome innovation. Hear it from them directly in the video below, thanks to Mashable (note: it is pretty noisy so you may want to jack up your volume a little lot!

So, what do you think? I can so imagine myself carrying one of these right away!

“However, the video does not tell us where the battery will come from and it may be really costly for them to produce these in the mass. Plus, security may still be a problem since passwords aren’t exactly safe as well. Let’s see how far this innovation will be able to travel as Cards may not be THE next generation for payment! For all we know, Google may just come up with a Google Bank that allows you to use your Google Account sign-in at banks and transactions… scary much”

There’s A New Bird in Town! #NewTwitter

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September 15, 2010

| Jan Wong

Just hours ago, Twitter introduced a new design for Twitter.com to provide a better user experience. I think most of us can testify that the older version lacked luster, causing many to use 3rd party apps / sites to make tweeting a simpler thing to do.

This new version now runs on a dynamic two-paned format and to me, it feels like browsing on an iPad.. with a mouse, that is. The first pane contains the Twitter timeline, basically what you’re already seeing today. The second pane is what makes things different as users will now be able to see additional details related to the author or the tweet, the user profile, @replies and you’ll also be able to view images, maps and videos directly from Twitter itself without leaving the page, giving less reason for users to leave the site, going into YouTube, TwitPic and the likes!

To me, this is definitely a smart yet long delayed implementation since almost everyone shares media over Twitter although 1 of my favourite function still hasn’t been implemented yet – ‘conversations’ i.e. grouping @replies together under 1 conversation for easier reading, just like how Gmail does it. Nevertheless, it is interesting though, to see how mere 140 characters can evolve to how it is today.

And oh, the promotional video for the #NewTwitter is also pretty cool! I like how they did it – illustrating the concept of sharing through Twitter AND the new design of Twtter.com. Very well done!

So here it is, the #NewTwitter! Simply head over to Twitter.com and log in to see the newly updated changes! If you do not see it, don’t worry as it will eventually come as they’ll be doing a progressive update worldwide. If you’re wondering what the changes actually are, you can also check out the new specs over here!

Since you’ll be heading there anyway,

Google Does It Again!

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September 10, 2010

| Jan Wong

If you’ve been using Google lately, you’ve most likely came across a couple of things (or differences) just within this couple of days!

First up, the Google logo doodle was seen to be in balls on www.google.co.uk (not anymore)!

What’s so special about this, you ask? Seen cooler doodles than this? Check out what happens when you ‘touch’ the doodle with your mouse cursor:

How cool is that? What’s even cooler is that when you move your browser window around, the balls actually move accordingly!

Now, if you managed to catch a glimpse at the subsequent update to the Google doodle, it looked something like this:

When you first load up Google.com, the doodle will be in grey and it colours up as you enter a search query. Nothing great compared to the earlier doodle? This update actually launched Google Instant – a real-time search overhaul to the existing search features.

What does it do? It is capable of predicting results AS YOU TYPE! And, the results are predicted and displayed real-time based on the popularity of the sites so you’ll probably get “Amazon” when you type “A”, “Facebook” for “F” and so on, without having to press ‘enter’! Don’t believe me? Try it out right now at Google.com as it is already up and running!

Searching is now more convenient and much quicker with Google Instant :)