Social Media — 7 Veils

Now Everyone will have the Facebook Timeline

January 30, 2012 By 7veils Leave a Comment

The Facebook timeline has been rolling out since November to the general public. Until recently people have been given the option of it they want to upgrade their profile. If they did upgrade and didn’t like it, they could return it to the old style within 7 days. Facebook has announced that there will be no more of these shenanigans and that everyone will be upgraded automatically to the new timeline profile.

Like most updates this has Facebook users up in arms. Many people don’t like the new timeline. Though graphically it is very beautiful, it is harder to find information on it. Plus if you post a lot it is easier to get information buried.

Lets be real. No one is actually leaving Facebook. They know that they can make these changes, completely ignore feedback, and people will continue to use the network. It has become too ingrained in our online and social culture. Where Facebook will make changes is when it starts to hit their bottom line, ie. affecting businesses.

Of course many of the changes they have made over the past year have greatly affected business on Facebook for the negative but individually they were so small that we couldn’t make a fuss over it. One change that did raise everyone heckles was when FB was deciding what posts should appear on your pages timeline. It resulted in a huge outcry from the business community and prevented the change from ever making it out of the trial phase.

So despite the new roll out, people will yell and complain. You will likely see posts in all caps complaining about how horrible it all it. You will likely hear that you can revert back to the old style (which you can’t), there will be scams that supposedly let you revert your profile (don’t click those links), or apps created claiming the same thing (they are bogus). Like it or don’t like it, the timeline is here to stay.

Filed Under: Facebook & Twitter Tagged With: facebook, profiles, social media, the facebook, timeline, timeline profile, timelines

SOPA is not your friend

January 13, 2012 By 7veils Leave a Comment

Have you heard of SOPA? It is the acronym for the Stop Online Piracy Act. The act is designed to protect all of us from online piracy. Sounds great right? Sure, but in reality it is not protecting us it is hurting the small business. Let me explain why.

Have you ever used an image from online in one of your blogs? How about a logo? Most likely you have. Did you pay royalties on that image or request permission to use the logo? What about that video of your mom singing “Oops I did it Again” or even you singing “Happy Birthday”. All of that is considered a copy right infringement and SOPA can come after you!

Who SOPA is benefiting are the big companies, ie. music and entertainment. Much like we saw with Napster, the big companies don’t want people to use their material in any form. Except with Napster where it was taking money from their pocket by illegally downloading music a person would otherwise be buying, they are punishing people for increasing brand recognition.

What can they do?

Well for starters they can shut down your site. They can shut down your domain or even your paypal account. Their reach is broad and deep. They can also do this whether or not you actually infringed on copyright. Say someone posted a link in a comment that was copyright, you are now responsible. If you do get flagged for infringement, you can’t fight it until they actually shut you down. And even then it might not matter.

Of course SOPA is powerless when it comes to going after the real pirates. They can only block domains not IP addresses. The real pirates who are downloading illegal activity do that via an IP address not a single domain name. So for them a blocked domain means nothing. For you it can mean that you lose all your traffic and therefore your business.

The long reach of SOPA can actually give the every day user a 5 year prison penalty for infringement. Yes 5 years in jail for that video of your 5 year old singing “Can’t touch this”.

As you can imagine sites like Facebook and Youtube are fighting against SOPA. You can help stop SOPA by contacting your state senator or going to this site to help file your opinion on SOPA to your senator.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: copyright, copyright infringement, file sharing networks, intellectual property law, napster, online piracy, sopa, united states copyright law

How to Change Your Twitter Username

January 9, 2012 By 7veils Leave a Comment

Changing your Twitter name is a big decision. It is more than just a name on an social network. It is one of the primary ways in which people identify you online. If you are a celebrity, then your Twitter handle is extremely important to your branding.

But how do you change your Twitter handle? Thankfully it is not like Facebook where once you have your personal URL you are stuck with it. Twitter allows you to change your name on a whim…though that is not recommended. Before you change your name, make sure you look closely at the risks and the reasons.

How to Change Your Twitter Name

Log in to your Twitter account
Click on the picture of your avatar in the top right hand corner of the screen
Click Settings, the first menu option
You will see the Username right underneath your name. This is where you will enter in your new username.
When you enter your new username it will let you know if the name is available or not.
Once you get a name that is available, just click save and your Twitter handle will be changed.

Filed Under: Facebook & Twitter Tagged With: change, change your name, step guides, twitter, username

Reasons and Risks with Changing Your Twitter Username

January 6, 2012 By 7veils 1 Comment

Is your Twitter name representing you or your business?

Changing your Twitter name is a risky proposition. A lot of people come to know you by that handle. It is part of your online identity. But a change can be necessary if your business demands it. It is not uncommon to lose followers when you change your name, because when you tweet people won’t necessarily recognize your new handle.

Reasons to Change:

Too Casual – the handle you are using does not convey a professional demeanor
Too Niche – Your business has expanded beyond the niche you started with and you need something that encompass that and does not limit you.
Inappropriate – This can overlap with too casual. It is not uncommon for people to use their personal Twitter for their business. Sometimes this means that your handle is not just too casual but it actually inappropriate to be representing you professionally.
Not Branded – Often times when we create our Twitter names our branding is not forefront in our mind, or our branding changes over time.

Once you decide to change your name make sure you pick your name carefully.

Tips for a Good Name:

Keep it Professional – make sure your name is a good representation of how you want to present yourself online
Keep it Simple – If your name is too complicated it will be hard for people to remember. You want to make sure you name is easily remembered.
Keep it Short – You are limited to 140 characters on Twitter. You want to make sure that you name is not so long that it becomes prohibitive to retweeting and mentions.
Keep it Goal Oriented – If you are trying to corner the market on a niche, then having a niche name is inline with your overall goals. But if you want to expand beyond that then maybe being less specific would be beneficial. Make sure you name works to support your business goals.

Tips to Manage a Change:

Let People Know – Make sure you tell people about your new Twitter name. Tell them in your email, on Facebook (yes, really), and of course on Twitter. On Twitter make sure to tell them more than once.
Don’t Change your Avatar – Changing your Twitter name is a huge online identity change. To make it easier, do not change your avatar as well. A lot of people will still recognize you because of your avatar and that can help them adjust to the new handle.
Understand the risk – You will very likely lose followers. Do not take it personally. It is because they don’t realize it is you. Some will come back and some won’t. But if your name is more inline with the needs of your business, the change will ultimately be positive and you will gain back those followers in spades.

Filed Under: Facebook & Twitter Tagged With: change your name, handles, reasons, risks, twitter, username

Google+ on Hootsuite? Yes, if you have the money!

December 7, 2011 By 7veils 1 Comment

If you weren’t sure if you should get started with Google+, here is another reason to give it a good thought. Hootsuite has announced that they will be supporting Google+ through their platform. This means that Google+ Pages will be able to be monitored much like you monitor your Twitter accounts. However, this is only available to their Enterprise level clients. So the average Josephina will not be able to use this function yet.

The integration will likely be a big cross over point for Google+. This will allow people to increase their engagement and use Google+ more like they use Twitter. They will be able to have columns with their different circles, and will be able to interact with the posts, much like you interact with peoples tweets.

For adult entertainment you can easily categorize people in your circles by fans, pornstars, fetishes, adult sites…or however you want. But it will make interacting with other industry people much easier than it is on Facebook. Of course that is not hard to do, it is almost impossible to do it on Facebook.

This will accomplish 2 things.

1. Circles: It will encourage people to put people and pages into appropriate and topic relevant circles, as opposed to lumping them all into the “friends” circle. The increase in functionality will make browsing the content of the circles much easier to manage. Plus you will have the benefit of having the different columns to show all your circles posts simultaneously, but still categorized in easy to swallow bites.

2. Engagement: It will encourage engagement. The reason why Twitter has the highest level of engagement is because of how the information is presented. The platform is conducive to a high level of conversation. By applying the twitter platform to Google+ Pages, they are encouraging a higher level of engagement with people’s posts. This could actually be a breakthrough for Google+ Pages. Facebook pages have always been limited in the level of potential engagement, but this opens things up for the new social network.

The Hootsuite integration is a big development for Google+ Pages in the social network popularity race. Unfortunately it is only available to the “Enterprise” level clients. Those are the people paying $1500/month to use the platform. Yes, you read that right. Basically if you are a big brand or manage a large number of social media accounts, you are this level user. Maybe we will hear how playboy likes it because right now, not many other people will be using it.

The reason it is being reserved for these high level users is because it is in the beta testing period. They are running it through their power users to vet the new integration for any functionality issues. Hopefully in the near future they will open it up to the rest of us. In the mean time, we can get use to Google+ Pages and get ready for it to be more user friendly on Hootsuite!

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: circles, google, google plus, hootsuite, social media, twitter

Shop for Porn! Harnessing Social Media for Black Friday

November 21, 2011 By 7veils Leave a Comment

Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. But does that mean that people are only shopping for their kids or parents? No. People are shopping for everything and that includes porn!

Though these tactics are mainly used in mainstream business, they are still highly relevant. On Black Friday people want to shop and you need to know how to harness that.

Here are two ways you can use social media to drive some extra sales over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Facebook

Custom Landing Page
Create a custom landing page that shows some great graphics and text to feature your Black Friday special. This is a lot easier than it sounds. You can use easy to use landing page design programs, like Lujure to do a simple drag and drop to create your page. You can also add trackable links using Google Analytics, which you can automatically add to the page, or by using link shortners like Bit.ly to track clicks back to your site.Here are what some other major retailers are doing with their landing pagesto help give you some ideas.Just like with anything adult on Facebook you have to be careful. They don’t like anything too provocative, but that does not mean you can’t have some fun. Take a look the Victorias Secret landing page. Sexy and still pushing the sale.
Promote on Facebook
If you did create a custom landing page then promote your sale by using the link to the tab. That way you can direct people to your new beautiful page to promote you sale. You can also link back to your website or anything else that will give information about your upcoming event.
Facebook Ad
Thought Facebook ads have a low click through rate they are incredibly easy to target and for even specific promotions they are perfect. If you have a physical location you can easily geo-target your ads, making sure the ads will only appear to people in your geographic location. If you are solely online, you can also target via age, gender, education and interest. Again, if you have a custom landing page, make sure that new people will automatically go there by setting it as your default place to land for new users (you can do that by going into edit info on your page, manage permissions, and then chose where you want new users to land).