Anyone can post a review of a restaurant or product online, and the anonymity of the web makes for ample opportunity for those reviews to be less than truthful, whether to surreptitiously promote the subject of the review, or to maliciously attack it.
Facebook’s new homepage ticker is proving very unpopular with lots of users — and that’s no exaggeration.
Facebook’s new subscribe button appears to produce more traffic than either Twitter or Google Plus, even when you have more Twitter followers than Facebook subscribers.
What if there were a way to post to Facebook that would reduce your interactions with fans by up to 70 percent? You’d want to avoid that, wouldn’t you?
It’s almost like a combination of Amway and the pyramid scheme has come to Facebook in the form of IncentiVine, the difference being that the platform is risk-free, so there is no need to fear losing money, Bernie Madoff-style.
Two different apps have come to our attention that can consolidate news feeds from Facebook and Google Plus, among other social media.
An Internet startup called eDealya is trying to help brands monetize their social media investments with personalized messages and deals delivered to individual fans.
Sarah Belfer, director of public relations at eDealya, told us in an email:
All fans following a brand receive the same information through posts, updates, etc. Our goal is to provide software that helps personalize the information so that fans receive information that is relevant to their interests and context. On Facebook, we deliver our messages through hidden wall posts and on Twitter, we deliver them directly to the follower’s inbox.
The software uses the applicable likes and statuses of a Facebook fan to create targeted messages.
For example, let’s say someone named Cindy is a Facebook fan of the fictional company Social Airlines. If she posts a status like, “Anybody have fun plans for spring break,” the company would send her a message saying, “Hey Cindy! Here’s a spring break idea for you: We have great rates on flights to Mexico.”
Direct messages like these have above-average clickthrough and conversion rates, 23 percent and seven percent, boasts eDealya’s website.
Right now eDealya is offering new customers a six-week free trial period. After that, the results of the trial are reviewed and customers are charged $1 per click on average with no set-up or maintenance fees.
The company, which recently expanded to the U.S. from Israel, currently has three brands as paying customers and many more in a free trial period, serving more than 1.4 million brand fans already according to the website.
When I first heard about this, I was put off by the sheer notion that a company would contact me and try to sell me something based on my Facebook status. But it makes sense if you’re a fan of that company’s Facebook page and their message is delivered to you in private.
Readers, are you sold on eDealya’s concept or do you think there is a privacy issue here?
College coaches are adjusting to this generation of high school athletes by using Facebook for recruiting purposes. This is a multimillion-dollar business that social media is playing a stronger role in than ever before.
According to The New York Times, coaches use Facebook for half of their recruiting interactions. Coaches are realizing that teenagers prefer the bite-size communication of online messages instead of contact by telephone.
One example is Nerlens Noel, a 6-foot-11 high school junior and one of the top five basketball recruits nationally in his class. He has dozens of offers from schools like Connecticut, Duke, Florida, Kansas and Kentucky. June 15 was the first day coaches were allowed to contact high school juniors and Noel got 15 to 20 Facebook friend requests from coaches.
He prefers Facebook because he is allowed only an hour of free time at his prep school in New Hampshire and doesn’t want to spend it all talking to coaches on the phone. Noel has more than 4,200 friends on Facebook. He said he gets seven or eight friend requests per day and most are from fans trying to persuade him to play at their colleges.
Facebook also offers a window into a player’s life with the pictures they post, their opinions on colleges and what other coaches they are friends with (who are probably also recruiting them).
Coaches who don’t adapt to new technology could fall behind, like Southern California defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, who refers to Facebook as Facemask.
Recruiting has evolved from email and phone conversations to social media partly because the NCAA banned coaches from texting athletes in 2007, citing the recruits’ expensive cellphone bills as one reason.
Restrictions on Facebook and Twitter communications have been added to the NCAA rulebook. Coaches may not contact prospects until just before their junior year of high school. They can contact athletes by Facebook message but are prohibited from contacting them through Facebook chat or writing directly on their public wall. On Twitter, coaches can send direct messages to possible recruits but not public messages.
The coaches’ phone calls are limited to once a month for juniors and twice a week for seniors, but the above mentioned social media direct messaging is unlimited during contact periods. However, there is some confusion because Facebook and Twitter messages can be received on cellphones and look just like text messages.
Readers, what do you think of college coaches using Facebook to contact high school prospects?
The NCAA Leadership Council is hoping to deregulate electronic communications between coaches and athletes and will bring its proposal to the board of directors in October.
Advertising on Facebook continues to beat back challenges from other social networking sites.
June 28-29, 2012 | San Francisco
Your how-to guide for Facebook marketing.
