Do you have a Facebook “problem”?
Putting aside the purists’ argument that addiction can only really exist in the physical addiction to a chemical sense (I gave up arguing with him), the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale has been developed to see if you are hooked to Facebook.
According to the report by the University of Bergen there are six signs you need to look out for:
- You spend a lot of time thinking about Facebook or plan use of Facebook.
- You feel an urge to use Facebook more and more.
- You use Facebook in order to forget about personal problems.
- You have tried to cut down on the use of Facebook without success.
- You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using Facebook.
- You use Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies.
For each of the above signs, consider if you experience that sign very rarely, rarely, sometimes, often, and very often. If you answer “often” or “very often” for at least 4 of the signs, then you could have a Facebook addiction.
Personally, I refuse to take the test until there is a Facebook app for it.
In the meantime, if you think you can handle it, please go and like any or all of these Facebook pages…
http://www.facebook.com/hdgnet
http://www.facebook.com/fairlymarvellous
http://www.facebook.com/deargeek
…dare you like all 3?
Playing with Facebook’s Timeline Cover Picture
I saw this great post “How to Hack Your Facebook Profile Photo with Timeline” over on Gizmodo and had to have a go myself. The idea is, by playing around with your Profile and Cover pictures on Facebook, you can get a pretty nifty effect. I didn’t have the greatest of source pictures, but if you have a look at my Facebook profile you’ll get the gist.
I made this!
If you’ve got Photoshop, head over to Nico’s Facebook Timeline Hack Template post to download the template.
Increase social media conversions to website visitors by putting your URL in the right place
Ok, I should be preaching to the converted here – using social media is a great way to attract more visitors (and therefore potential clients) to your website. So today’s top tips are 3 very simple fixes to increase the chances of those ‘listeners’ converting to visitors. And it’s all about where you put your website address.
Pages tip – Use Facebook as
If you’re using Facebook pages (why not?) then here’s my little tip of the day…
In the top, right-hand corner of your Facebook screen there is a drop-down arrow.
When you click it, you are given a list of page(s) that you can “Use Facebook as:”
Select the page of your choice and, once it has loaded, click the Home link (top, right-hand corner again).
Now you are seeing your news feed as if your page was a normal person. All the news stories from the pages that your page likes will be listed.
Ok, that will probably make more sense when you see it for yourself!
This is a great way to find things to interact with – Like or Comment on other pages using your page’s identity and get your name seen by more people.
Just click that magic arrow again to find your way back to using Facebook as yourself.
Remember though – don’t spam those pages!
Tagging pages in Facebook photos – why are things never easy?
Page tagging - it's real life product placement!
Back in May, Facebook added a great feature to “Pages” – the ability to tag a page in a photo. This is great for business – imagine this scenario…
- You are a hairdresser with a Facebook Page for your business.
- When clients have a new hair style you can encourage them to post a picture on their Facebook so their friends can see.
- You also ask them to tag your Page in that photo – if they do you’ll give them a special offer next time they visit.
Doesn’t really cost you anything but, as well as encouraging loyalty, every client who tags is marketing your salon to all their friends – and on average, each Facebook user has 130 friends.
So, how brilliant is that? Except for one snag.
At the moment, this feature is only available for Pages in the category “Brands & Products” or “People”…
We’re looking to expand this functionality to more Page categories over time.
…of course, no indication of how long “over time” is. Considering non-SSL pages were supposed to be blocked last October, and the new Timeline rolled out before the end of 2011, I won’t hold my breath!
In the meantime, if you want to change your Page category to encourage tagging, from http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=222732947737668 :
To change the category of your Page:
- Go to the Page you admin.
- Click the Edit Page button in the upper-right corner.
- Select Basic Information from the left sidebar.
- Select the Page grouping and the appropriate category for your Page. There is no limit to the number of times you can change the category of your Page.
- Click Save Changes.
Enjoy!
New Year, new Facebook? No – 7 days, are you ready?
Impressive new front-end for facebook
Expect it all to kick off in 7 days.
Facebook is changing, dramatically. The new Timelines feature is available for you to preview now, to give you time to prepare… or censor.
At first glance, it looks very impressive and, personally, I really like it.
But what is causing uproar is that magic timeline bit.
I’m not sure what all the fuss is about – lots of people up in arms over a loss of privacy.
The thing is, facebook stores everything. Forever. So everything you have posted since you joined is still there.
Watch your step on the timeline...
Up until now though, it’s been out of sight, out of mind. But the new timeline makes it very easy to jump back in time to see what you’ve been up to.
I haven’t spotted anything in my timeline that I’d rather not be there – yet – but then I’ve always been aware of just how public the internet is.
It will be very interesting to see how Pages look in the new world, especially as yours truly is presenting on how to use facebook for business at the first First Friday of 2012.
If you’d like a preview of what facebook will be like, and a chance to censor any items you’d rather not be there, you need to go and get the new facebook now.
The secret is out – GCHQ sponsored blogs :)
Secret Squirrel work going on
It’s on the Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Mail websites, even the BBC have given the game away – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15968878 – so I will too…
Yes, our cryptic sponsored post – Can you crack it? – was sponsored by GCHQ as part of a recruitment drive – crack the code and you’re invited to apply for a a job.
No such thing as a small twitter campaign – big numbers from small intentions
We had a very simple idea to make a little splash for World Backup Day – offer a year’s backup for a very low price. Almost a loss leader, this would benefit us long term if people renewed at the full price plus boost our profile.
A couple of little tweets and a facebook post made sure that lots of people around Whitstable would know more about the service we offer plus hopefully they would benefit from a bargain offer. A nice little twitter campaign.
Why I won’t follow you on twitter rule 1: you use twitterfeed
Twitterfeed is a (potentially) useful service that allows you to easily convert RSS feeds into tweets or facebook updates. A great way to notify your social networks if your main outlet is your blog – every blog entry gets tweeted and walled.
So why don’t I like it?
Because 99% of twitterfeed users (ok, that may be an exaggeration, but it feels like it) do not use it to convert their own feed. They use it to convert someone else’s feed so that it looks like they are generating lots of useful content.
This is a typical ploy of the so-called social media guru. You need lots of followers, so you follow lots of people. Some people will just automatically follow back (fools), others will look at your tweets first. If they see lots of interesting news they may be tempted. Until they realise that you are just tweeting the same as everyone else because you’ve hooked twitter feed up to mashable.
At least 3 times a week I am followed by such people. Scrolling through their tweets, I have to go back days before I can find a genuine, self-made tweet. And I’m counting retweets and 4square updates as self-made! All their other tweets look like they are real, until you see the “via twitterfeed” and search for the same text. Sure enough, the same tweet has been made by hundreds of others.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love to see a good RT or a link, if it has been hand-picked as something the tweeter genuinely thinks their followers may be interested in.
So, there you go, rant over.
P.S. I would pay for a twitter account that allowed me to filter out tweet sources or particular people direct from my feed. That’s how much I hate them!