Facebook have launched a new update for their Android application. This new update brings a much needed overhaul in graphics along with a host of new features including a new photo reel, support for events, friend requests, video playback in the app, a draggable notifications drawer and more. Unfortunately there are still a few features missing including Facebook Chat but with 2 icon spaces left on the interface it should be along fairly soon. Here’s hoping Facebook will continue to update their Android app until it’s perfect! If you are a user of Android and you haven’t yet had a notification that an update is available, this is due to the Facebook app being an inbuilt app in the phone – so update your Facebook app in this situation simply go to the Android Market, then Downloads and scroll down to Facebook to manually update.Here are the main terms while using Twitter:
– Twitter Handle: Also called Username
– To-Follow: To subscribe to someone’s updates on Twitter. You do this by clicking the “Follow” button on that specific person’s Twitter page, which can be found at http://twitter.com/USERNAME. (Insert the specific person’s username into the URL, like (http://twitter.com/tugsearch). When you follow someone, their updates will be displayed on your Twitter page so you know what they are doing.
– Follower: A person who has subscribed to receive your updates. You can see your total number of followers on your Twitter profile page
– Update: Also known as a tweet. They can be no longer than 140?characters. You post your update in the white text box under “What are you doing?”
– @Reply: A public message sent from one Twitter user to another by putting @USERNAME at the beginning of the tweet
– Direct Message (or DM): A private message sent from one Twitter user to another by either clicking the “message” link on their profile or typing D USERNAME
– Twitter Stream: A list of a person’s real?time updates. Every time you post an update, it goes into your Twitter stream, which is found on your account page also at http://twitter.com/USERNAME
– Hashtag(#): A tool to aggregate the conversation surrounding an event or theme. Created by combining# as a prefix to the word, acronym or phrase (#WORD).
– Retweet(or RT): To repeat what someone else has already tweeted. People do this if someone has said something especially valuable and they want their own network to see the information too. (Example: Retweet @USERNAME: Check out this cool resource).
Read more about our Social Media Optimisation services.
Facebook has announced that it is currently in the process of testing a new feature that allows automatic recognition of faces; and therefore makes the whole photo-tagging process much quicker. This apparently “new” technology has been developed by Facebook’s most recent acquisition – Divvyshot.
To me this sounds like nothing new, afterall photo recognition software has been around for years. However, if Facebook get this software right and manage to make the most of the 100 million plus daily photo inputs of its 400 plus active users, it could potentially become the leader of photo search overnight…..Watch this space
The search advertising deal with MySpace and Google is going to be finishing next month and MySpace will be free to move their search to a new supplier. The Wall Street Journal report that MySpace is in talks with Yahoo and Bing for a new search deal. See below for a quote from the WSJ:
“News Corp. is in discussions with Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. about replacing MySpace’s crucial search-advertising partnership with Google, which expires next month, according to people familiar with the matter.
Under the existing deal, Google agreed to make up to $900 million in guaranteed payments for the right to sell small ads as users surf and tap out searches on News Corp.’s My Space.com and on a handful of smaller News Corp. websites.”
It will be difficult for MySpace to find a new deal worth any more than Google’s offer with their decreasing number of users. We’ll let you know if we hear anything!
The people running Facebook are an ambitious crew; they see Facebook as a successor to Google in many respects. In fact many of the executives used to work at Google, including CTO Bret Taylor, COO Sheryl Sandberg, Advertising VP David Fischer and Communications VP Elliot Schrage, among others.
However as a search property Facebook has, in the past, been almost unusable and no threat to Google or any other search engine. In fact, it has been (so far) a missed opportunity for Facebook partner and investor Microsoft. But Microsoft’s Bing is becoming more prominent on Facebook and the site itself has tried to improve search. Read more
A recent study by Omnicom found that 75% of the people they surveyed said they put more trust in companies that microblog – sending short messages and updates via Facebook status or Tweets.
When it comes to crisis management and engagement, faced lately by BP, Toyota and Johnson & Johnson to name a few, it’s proved that companies need to be well set up in the digital world before any potential problems arise, in order to build relationships with their customers so that trust can help them manage a crisis.
The lesson most have learnt is not to overreact, but at least provide factual information, in minute-to-minute monitoring.
TechCrunch have reported that AOL are to Sell Bebo for around $10 million to an investor group. That’s a massive drop from the $850 million that AOL first forked out for the social networking website back in 2008. See below for a quote from TechCrunch:
“AOL is close to selling Bebo to an investor group, we’ve confirmed from a source close to the company. The price? $10 million or less. Rumors of the acquisition first surfaced this morning, and the buyer may be Criterion Capital Partners.
That’s just a bit less than the $850 million AOL paid for the social network in 2008. And as decimated as Bebo is, it’s almost certainly worth more than $10 million.
But the deal will also give AOL the ability to write off the full purchase price of Bebo for tax purposes…”
So you’ve created a facebook fan page and you’ve got a few fans, but to really know how many people are viewing your page and where they are coming from you need to see the facts and figures. This tutorial will show you how to add Google Analytics tracking to your Facebook Fan Page.
Step 1. Google Analytics setup
First of all, if you haven’t already create yourself a Google analytics account at www.google.com/analytics/ and create a new Website profile specifically for the fan page. Call it something like facebook.com or facebook.com/page_name and click finish. You will be given a unique analytics tracking code, all we need from this code is the UA number e.g. UA-1456736-8
Step 2. Make your tracking code Facebook friendly
Now there’s a handy tool from webdigi that will turn your analytics code into an image that you can add to facebook – http://ga.webdigi.co.uk/
Fill out the form with the following:
- 1. Your unique analytics code “UA-1456736-8”
- 2. The Domain name that you entered into Google analytics e.g. facebook.com
- Page link is to identify the fan page when you see it analytics e.g. home_page
- This is a short description of the page e.g. Home Page
Then click on generate code
The generated code should look like this:
<img src=’http://ga.webdigi.co.uk/fbga.php?googlecode=UA-1456736-8&googledomain=facebook.com&pagelink=home_page&pagetitle=Home%20Page’></img>
Now keep the code safe for step 3
Step 3. Add the code to your Facebook fan page
Go to your Fan page and Click “edit page”
Scroll down to “more applications” and click to add the application called “static FBML” also know as: Static Facebook Markup language
Then click add to my page
Go back to your fan page and click on “boxes” and then Click the icon to edit the FBML and click move to wall which will move the static FBML box to a tab on your fan home page
Go back to your Fan page and again click onto “edit page” and scroll down to the FBML section and click “edit”. Now this is where you paste the image code created in step 2 and click save changes.
Voila! Now all you have to do is wait about 24hours and Google will start tracking traffic to your page
The offerings from Google, Yahoo and MSN in terms of demographic targeting have always been a bit of a shambles. I mean, how accurate can they be? Well, they’ve all been a bit rubbish really. Google Content network can target demographically but targeting is based on data provided by website owners describing their target audience & not data from the visitors themselves.
Microsoft uses Windows Passport data to determine who’s searching, so searchers have to be logged in to their Passport in order for advertisers to target them. Plus this is only age and gender!
But wait…………here comes facebook with its nosey questions & personal details requests which we are all to quick to handover. It must have been like Christmas for our good old friends the Identity thieves. Nevertheless we handed over everything from our date of birth to our inside leg measurement & Hey presto we now have ourselves some pretty accurate demographic targeting! Plus being the most visited site on the web, looks like they are onto something doesn’t it? Yes it does!
Related Links; http://searchenginewatch.com/3640604
Twitter have added a new section to its site for the World Cup featuring the Teams, Fixtures and related Tweets. There is also an added bonus of a new flag feature designed especially for the World Cup, simply use the hash tag with a country afterwards (e.g. #eng) and you’ll be greeted with a flag image! There is also a world cup ball image if you use the #worldcup tag. See below for a quote from the Twitter blog or go straight to the World Cup Section on Twitter.
“Using live widgets, real-time search, and Top Tweets (updates that are currently catching the attention of many Twitter users) we’ve put together a special site to capture the spirit of the World Cup and it’s already pulsing with activity. Fans have a unique opportunity to connect with players, teams, and brands using Twitter to join the matches in a new way. We also are providing a list of suggested accounts to follow during the tournament and a World Cup theme for your profile page. We’ll leave it up to you to learn how to do the neat little trick we’re calling hashflags.“
