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The Reluctant Pornstar

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Elli Nude

Friday Feature Photo: The Sexy Canadian Red-Head, Elli from Ellinude.com

I recently came across an interesting blog, The Reluctant Pornstar. As you can imagine, I was immediately intrigued.  I wondered if it was a blog by a pornstar chronicling her journey through porn, or maybe someone who did erotic photography and was being stigmatized. Perhaps it was a feminist blog about the objectification of women?  What I immediately loved was that I did not know what to expect. What the blog does demonstrate is the power of a good title.

Branding is everything. You can make or break your business and career through it. What this brand made me do was dive into her site so I could learn more.

I discovered that Elli, the Reluctant Pornstar herself, is an adult star. Though, as she will be the first to tell you, she does not identify as one. She has a website that features photos, videos, and webcam of her engaging in sexual acts. Though they mirror a lot of the traditional amateur porn sites, Elli has set herself apart by her non-porn activity.  Besides blogging, she also posts photo essays about everyday life, gardening tips and cooking videos (well, there are also erotic stories).

I have spoken about the importance of being yourself in your branding. Your personality is your biggest asset, and Elli has created a great franchise based around hers.  She is sexy and flirty, a little geeky, witty and generally playful.

Elli NudeSome examples of her reluctant pornstar side, and some of my favorite parts of her website, are her playful videos, like “Flip and Squish Eggs” or “Morning Bum”. I think I like that one because it is so distinctly Canadian.

Elli’s blogs range from everyday life in Vancouver to sexy videos and some of her more salacious exploits. Regardless of the content, they are all distinctly her.

She became the Friday Feature because I wanted to give you an example of how being yourself can be integral to the creation of your personal branding. Elli is able to attract a wide audience because her branding is so unique. The blog allows her to capture both an Adult, and non-adult audience.  Why would you want to capture an audience not looking for Adult content?  Well, if someone likes your blog, and they know that you produce adult content, there is a chance that they will be curious about it. You are more likely to get a longer term subscriber if you capture them with more than just a sexy vid or provocative picture.  If they like YOU then you become the substance behind your product.

Make sure you check out Ellinude.com and follow Eli on Twitter @ElliGirl

Facebook lets you evict your fans!

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Sexy fans

Are your fans enthusiastic or crazy spammers?

Facebook has added a great new feature for Fan Pages, the ability to unlike a page or person.  Are spammers plaguing your Fan Page? Do you have fans who post inappropriate content? Now you can do something about it besides just deleting the post.

In February, Facebook made some big changes. One of them was allowing Fan Pages the ability to like other Fan Pages.

Well, some pages started Liking pages and then posting inappropriate content on their wall. The page could remove the content, but they could not do anything about the page that Liked them. So they were being left open to more spam, plus they were also getting associated with these pages by being listed on their Likes. So, for example, if a hate group Liked your page, you would be listed on their page among the pages they Liked. With the Fan Page’s ability to set their featured page, you might even be a featured Like, displayed prominently on their sidebar.

Facebook now allows Fan Pages to remove a Like from their page. You can “unlike” them, even ban someone so they will not be able to post or otherwise interact with your page.

This new feature doesn’t just let you kick people off your page, it will also help you engage better. You can now sort your fans by people and pages, so you can see everyone who Liked your page. This gives you more opportunity to interact with other pages and deepen your Facebook relationships.

Keep in mind, if you are posting content on other people’s pages, you can now be removed. If you get banned by pages, you might also risk catching the attention of Facebook and getting deleted from Facebook for spam. So when you post on another Fan Page wall, make sure it is quality engagement and not spam.

Facebook: censoring your wall, not your porn

Woman with her breasts covered by a bandeau top that says censored

This photo was taken at the 2004 Adult Expo, and featured in Life Magazine!

Since the release of the new Facebook Fan Page updates the glamour of the cool changes are wearing off and some of the problems are starting to come to light.  The biggest problem is the wall, which is no longer showing all your posts.  Facebook has added an algorithm to the wall that prioritizes posts by popularity.  Beyond that, it chooses which ones to show and which ones to hide.  Interestingly enough, this has nothing to do with content.  Porn on your wall? Sure, it is a problem for Facebook but not for the algorithm.

Page owners and fans are noticing that not all posts are showing up on the wall. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done about it.

There are 2 setting for viewing posts on your wall:

1. Everyone

Posts by everyone means that posts by you and by your fans will be displayed on the wall.

2. Fan Page

Post by Fan Page means that only posts made by the Fan Page admins will appear on the wall.  If your settings allow comments, fans will still be able to comment on your posts, they just won’t be able to make their own posts on your wall.

I generally encourage pages to show posts by everyone. Allowing your fans to participate on your page gives you more chances for engagement.  I’m not changing this recommendation. Although the new algorithm is affecting the effectiveness of this setting, it is not negating its effectiveness entirely.

The other problem with the algorithm is that your most recent posts may not be showing up on the wall. This means that timely updates are not as successful.  When you make a post it will still show up in the newsfeed as usual, but its presence on the wall is up to the algorithm.  This is a big source of frustration for pages that specialize in time sensitive updates.

The good news for the adult industry is that the algorithm does not seem to discriminate based on content.  So if your posts are not appearing on your wall, it is not because of the content.  Essentially you can post as much adult content as you want and the algorithm won’t care. Of course if your content is rated higher than PG-13 you are at risk of violating Facebook’s terms of service and having your account deleted.

So Facebook still has its own forms censorship, but they are not related to the shift in its algorithm.

New Fan Page; Good for the Adult Industry!

The Facebook logo on top of a diamond engagement ring

Facebook is getting engaged. Now you can interact as your brand! Will the adult fan page become useful?

Facebook is getting engaged! On Friday the new Fan Page design was released. The biggest news from the announcement is the ability to use Facebook as your Fan Page. For the adult industry, getting the full benefit out of the Fan Page has been a challenge.  However, things just got a little easier.

Adult industry Facebook sites have been relegated to posting only on their Fan Pages, and even then they tend to get deleted because of these posts.  Often times, people’s admin profiles get deleted as well, if they have used their admin profiles to network on Facebook on behalf of their Fan Page.

The rule of thumb for having an adult site on Facebook is: keep it rated PG. Other people are posting PG-13 and R rated content, but if you are in the adult industry you are going to be scrutinized more heavily. So tread lightly and you will be fine.  The real purpose of your Fan Page is to get people off Facebook and onto your site, so use it to transition platforms and as a way to engage with your fans.

The new engagement ability makes this last part much easier to do. You no longer have to network with your personal profile; you can focus all your engagement efforts onto your Fan Page.

What this means

When you go to your Fan Page, in the right hand menu bar, at the very top, there is a line that says “Admins”. This shows you who the administrators are for your site, and is only visible to them. Fans do not see this. Directly under that line is a list of Fan Page operating options:

The menu to help you use Facebook as your Fan PageThe first line says “Use Facebook as…”. This allows you to operate Facebook as your Fan Page. You can post comments on people’s posts, “Like” other pages and post on walls as your Fan Page name. You can do nearly everything you would do as a profile.

This means you can use Facebook as your business or brand, while keeping all your brand activity tied to your Fan Page.

Previously, if you wanted to comment on pages or posts as your brand you couldn’t do it. Many people would create additional profiles for their businesses just so they could talk to people on Facebook in a location other than their Fan Page. There are many businesses who opted to only have a profile instead of a Fan Page because of this limitation. However, this limited them to a fixed number of friends. They also risked being deleted, because you are not supposed to use personal profiles for business purposes. That is why Fan Pages were created .

How it affects engagement

The simple Facebook rule for business is this:

If you want to have an effective Fan Page, you need to talk to your fans.

If you talk to your fans you will increase your reach. You will be passively networking through your interactions with people. This was easy to do with a profile and hard to accomplish with a Fan Page. Now you can post everywhere! You can put your business page in front of as many folks as you are willing to talk to! You just increased your capacity to network infinitely.

Where Adult has to be careful

The new engagement puts you at a higher risk for being flagged for spam.  Just because you can now post anywhere, it does not necessarily mean you should. You can still be marked as spam if you are not using your new communication channels with care.

Remember, engagement is about talking to people, not about putting your link out there as much as you can. If you join conversations, and have something interesting to say, you will get people to your page and your website.

Adult Fan Pages cannot have profile images that are too provocative or sexy.  Make sure your comments are not just limited to posting links or photos – in fact I would avoid this. Join conversations and try to encourage people to visit your Fan Page, then make it easy for them to find your website.

The Facebook Reveal

A woman slowly revealing herself naked from behind drapes, vinage 1920's photo

We have been using the slow reveal as a way to intrigue and tantalize people forever. Now you can use it on Facebook.

The landing page on your Fan Page is your first impression on Facebook. What if you could have a slow reveal on your page?  What if you could use your page to tantalize potential new fans and give them a little thrill right from their first encounter with you?  The Facebook reveal allows you to do this. Be mysterious. Be seductive. Be intriguing. And be effective at converting lurkers into fans and clients.

Most of us have seen the landing pages on Facebook Fan Pages. They look like a mini website inside a fan page that you usually only see when someone comes to your page for the first time. Once  they have “liked” you, they are directed to your wall.

For a one time show, Facebook landing pages are highly influential in getting people to like your page. If you have a really good one, you might get someone to like your page; then they may be more inclined to go to your website, sign up on your mailing list, or just start engaging with you right off the bat.

The landing pages are what make Fan Pages so influential.

There are a lot of great examples of strong landing pages: Red Bull and Gap.

There is a code that you can use to keep a portion of your landing page blurred out to non-followers.  Then when someone clicks “Like” it is revealed to them and the image/text is no longer blurry.

The Big Reveal

Here is an example of the reveal:

Facebook Reveal

Can you imagine what you could put on your landing page that is hidden behind a blur? You can be highly provocative and use the desire to see what is there to convert people into fans.

“Like” me and I reveal a little more…

Now you can offer the promise of even more on your page with special links and content just for fans.

How do I do it?

Well if you are the one creating your landing page then you are familiar with FBML and how to code for Facebook.  Click here and you will find the code to make your page a reveal.

If you are not a FBML wiz kid, (really, how many of us are) then you can talk to a FBML designer who can create this for you. Click here to talk to a designer.