The Social 7 – My top reads in social media this week

This week we’ve seen the Measureit.ie conference in Dublin & the Timeline for Facebook pages rumour has gained traction.  I’ve also discovered some great blog posts on Facebook, Linkedin and more here’s my pick.

Facebook Timeline for Business Pages?

The end of this week seems to be all a buzz with Timeline for Facebook pages.  For some time we have suspected that Facebook will be launching Timeline for business pages on 9th of February.  The rumour gained more traction this week when several influencial blogs started talking about it.  Inevitably Facebook will have to convert pages at some stage, I dont’ see the future of Facebook including completely differnt profiles for business and people.  However it wasn’t until I saw this image shared on Mari Smith’s Facebook page wall that I was convinced:

As many of the articles were predicting it will be rolled out to big brands first, and it looks like Coca-Cola are going to be one of those brands.  Could it be a bit soon?  With so many users still not switched to the new Facebook profiles, and many of them pretty unenthusiastic about the prospect, I suspect that we will see a drop off in page views as our Likers get used to the new layout.

For those of us who offer Facebook customisation it puts us in limbo.  At Spiderworking.com we have temporarly stopped developing customised Facebook pages until we know how they will work in Timeline.  Here’s AdAge’s take on what Timeline could mean for business.

Twitter & Privacy

Last week we talked about how niche network Path had been in trouble for storing users contact lists.  They reacted really well, admitting their mistake and rectifying it immediately.  Since then it has emerged that lots of iPhone apps, including Twitter were storing personal details on their own servers too.

Again the response from Twitter has been good but I think it’s a shame that the revelation about Path last week resulted in lots of people unsubscribing from the service something that is unlikely to happen on Twitter.  Also Path have taken the brunt of this scandal, now we know everyone is doing it we seem less concerned.

The real bad guy in this story seems to be Apple who are allowing apps to use information this way. You can read more on the reactions from both Twitter and Apple here.

Measureit Dublin

The place to be this Wednesday was the Measurement.ie conference in NCI Dublin (aka #donedealsocial).  Organised by Damien Mulley it was a fantastic day for social media practitioners, commnunity managers and business owners alike. My keyboard was smoking all day as I attempted to take down all the top tips from the speakers.  It would be really hard to single out one or two speakers that inspired me the most… but I’m going to do it anyway!  Both Dena Walker (@CurlyDena to the tweeters out there) and Georgina Bowes (@GinaBo) gave energetic and compelling presentations.

I’ll be writing more about what I learnt at the conference next week but for now here’s Dena’s presentation as recommended as a great read by Zwartbles Ireland.

In other Irish social news word of the massive #SMEcommunity Tweetup in Birr made it into the traditional press. I was lucky enough to meet some of the people involved at Measureit and they were full of enthusiasm and support.  Congratulations to all involved.

Using Facebook In Business Mode

A few weeks ago I shared some basic tactics on using Facebook B2B.  There are lots of compelling reasons to use Facebook in business mode and although not all businesses are on Facebook it can be a great way to build relationships between businessses that are much the same way that you can on Twitter.

This excellent article from the Impactiv8 blog gives you 8 more compelling reasons to use Facebook in business mode.

Linkedin Marketing Gems You May Have Missed

Whenever I share Linkedin articles on Twitter I always get a great reaction.  In fact Linkedin is one of the networks I get asked about a lot.  Most people get as far as setting up an account and completing their details and then stop.  Linkedin can be a hugely effective network for finding new leads and attracting new customers.  So if you want to put a bit of polish on what you are doing on Linkedin have a look at this article from Hubspot that takes you through some of the features you may have been neglecting.

5 Facebook Changes

Facebook changes so fast it can be hard to keep up with it.  Luckily Mari Smith is always on hand just in case you missed any of these recent changes, this guide is no exception.

I’m looking forward to seeing her take on Timeline for business pages and I’m sure I’ll be referring to it constantly as I try to navigate my way around.

When Is The Best Time To Post On Social Media?

This is a question that gets asked a lot and of course there is no one catch all answer.  However this is a pretty interesting infographic from Dan Zarella that suggests that you are likely to get the most ReTweets on a Friday afternoon and the most Facebook likes on a Saturday.

Of course results will vary for every user but it’s inspired me to run a totally unscientific mini-study amongst my Facebook Likers.  More info on that here soon.

And From Spiderworking.com this week

This week’s videocast was a tutorial on how to add a sign up form to your Facebook page using Google Docs and WooBox.

On the blog this week I interviewed Beatrice Whelan from Sage Ireland about their recent cloud computing launch and the use of ‘Flogos’ – floating sage logos that became fantastic social shareable objects.  What is a social shareable object? What is a Flogo?  You’ll have to read the article in full to find out!

Do keep me up to date with your news.  Have you written or read a great social media article?  Leave your links below.