loudhail » Facebook

Funny, but not.

loudhail — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:13:50 +0000

My friend Dagmar sent me this link a couple of weeks ago. Below is what’s on the page. The top line is especially spot on I find.

I am not on f***ing Facebook

loudhail — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:31:28 +0000

Nah, of course I am! Occupational hazard. But I saw this T-Shirt in a street near Covent Garden the other day, and I had to take a photo. Anybody want one? I can get one for you – I’ll be around a lot.

Facebook revamped

loudhail — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:12:31 +0000

Have you seen the new Facebook interface? Do you like it?

I kinda do, but I am not sure that it is as useful as it can be… it is certainly cleaner.

What do you think? Curious to know if you are gonna stick with the new one or return to the old one (while you still can)… Share your thoughts in the comments!

Facebook growing (still, and in new places)

loudhail — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:30:33 +0000

Facebook is still growing. Numbers show that though the growth has slowed down in North America, South America is growing like crazy: 34.9 % in the last 4 weeks!

I wanna know if this growth is happening in a Spanish / Portuguese version or in the English version of the network. Anybody got more info on that?

What I find interesting is that the use of applications seems to be declining. Facebook is more about the socializing, which is the real value of a Social Network… the networking. Funny that!

Facebook politics

loudhail — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:08:13 +0000

Everybody’s favourite Social Network (well, at least mine) is a useful channel if you want to spread the word during an election. US movement Rock the Vote (are you old enough to remember Madonna posing for Rock the Vote in the early 90ies?? I am… had that picture on my teenage bedroom wall) just built an application to harness the power of a network.

By adding the application to your profile you can actively ask your personal network to vote in this US election. If you have lots of friends in the US who are eligible to vote, you might wanna check it out… if you care about US politics that is, and music (Rock the Vote has been aiming at the MTV-generation since its inception, by telling them it is cool to vote).

I will be watching this application – curious to see its uptake.

Facebook taking over China

loudhail — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:35:08 +0000

…possibly. Facebook is finally trying to break into the Chinese market, almost a year after their big rival MySpace. And so it should – Facebook has around 2/3 of its users outside the US – it is quite an international Social Network.

The question that I would like some answers (or speculations) to is: how is Chinese censorship going to affect the use of Facebook? Will Facebook have to impose their censorship regulations, and if so, how? Haven’t found any further info about this, so if you have, share it in the comments!

Facebook advertising: the good, the bad.

loudhail — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:55:24 +0000

The jury is still out on whether or not Facebook advertising actually works well or not. From what I have seen so far it is as I suspected: it works for some (the ones who comprehend HOW to ENGAGE people) and not for others (the ones who are NOT ENGAGING).
This post on Technobabble has a couple of good examples on the above: Coke and Fox. Coke does an abysmal job of utilizing Facebook. Just have a look at their page and see for yourself: it is stale, stuffy, and worst of all: not engaging whatsoever. As one Ms Flaitz writes on Coke’s wall: “So, If coca-cola really wants to pretend that it’gets’ facebook….the lame company overview has to go”. Coke doesn’t give their fans any rich content. It’s not like they don’t have any videos, or competitions, or creative Marketing/Advertising people (at least this is what I assume, it being Coca-Cola and all), but they don’t seem to use them.
Also, they are not involving their fans: Facebook allows you for example to record and post videos INSIDE the platform. How about a user-generated video contest? Or a Facebook application?
Fox is doing a bit better. Have a look here.
I really liked this one though: jobsearch-website Seek‘s Facebook sponsored group. Not only does it give their fans a rich site with videos (their TV ads), it actually gets them involved with a survey, an application they can add to their profile which tells them about new jobs coming up, some advice ressources on how to put together a good CV, and more. This is reflected in the use of this group (e.g. active fans having discussions) and the number of members (3700+ members – over 2000 more than just a week ago).
All this is pointing to the underlying principle of utilizing Social Media as a Marketing/Communications tool: you need to ENGAGE (with) PEOPLE. That is the only thing that works. The rules of traditional advertising do not apply here. I will keep monitoring advertising on Facebook closely and keep you up-to-date.

P.S.: I am not a fan of any of the above companies (neither online nor offline)… but I am not averse to the idea of declaring myself a fan of an organization at all. Are you a fan of a sponsored group (company or individual) on Facebook?