A few weeks ago I attend a SEMPO AZ event where Phillip Rather from Facebook presented. Phillip is Facebooks agency partner. His presentation had some interesting nuggets from both a social engagement and media presence perspective:

Many brands are now well into the social media world. It’s no longer a new thing for them and for some social media is an integral part of their overall marketing strategy.  Brands in the restaurant industry seem to be of the latter category and are  making some great strides in leveraging social media to impact the bottom line.

According to the National Restaurant News the nations largest restaurant brands are using social media very effectively. Their social media strategy is to engage prospects on social media as means to driving traffic to their local restaurants. Traffic in this sense is foot traffic and for a restaurant that is critical. The article also discusses the 25 most social restaurant brands. This ranking of brands is provided by a company called Virtue. It uses social media mentions, check-in’s, photo-sharing and inclusion on blogs to determine the most prominent brands on social media.

The main takeaway from this article is not that brands are active on social media but that they are using it to drive foot traffic and subsequently have a direct impact on their bottom-line (ROI anyone). And here is how they are doing it:

“These guys are figuring out how to harness this platform and drive content and communications consistent with what their fans are looking for,” he said. “In that news feed on Facebook and Twitter, brands need to ask their followers questions, create poll questions and basically give them an opportunity to give the restaurant relevant feedback.”

Vitrue has worked with several restaurant brands like McDonald’s, Buffalo Wild Wings and Chick-fil-A to create plug-ins for their Facebook pages and offers that show up in followers’ news feeds through its Wall Apps and Social Relationship Management platforms.

Bradford said the next social-media move for major brands and their software providers is to increase the chains’ local-advertising capabilities with features meant to connect Facebook and Twitter followers to the nearest individual location of a restaurant brand.

Read more.

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• Why Your Social Media Isn’t Working: You Need a Social Media Strategist (oneforty.com)
• Small Business News: Social Media Brand (businessinsider.com)
• Do You Know Your Reach On Social Media Or Are You Out Of Touch With Reality? (prinyourpajamas.com)
• How Social Media Marketing Works for E-Commerce Business (progressivemediaconcepts.com)

I finally got around to seeing the movie The Social Network. I had heard a lot of good things about it but hadn’t had a chance to see it yet.  After watching it last night I must say it was relatively a well made movie. The acting is good and the story is told at a brisk pace. However, there are apparently quite a lot of dramatizations which are flat out not true. In fact many characters said they wished their lives were as dramatic and exciting as portrayed in the movie. Even with all these embellishments there are some interesting true facts. For instance, I was surprised to learn of the influence Sean Parker, the founder of Napster, had on the direction of the company in the early days.

I’m not sure how accurate the portrayal of the main character Mark Zuckerberg is, but if he’s really that nerdy and that anti-social it would be tough to be around him. So, when he almost back stabs Eduardo Saverin, the only person in the world that cared about him, I was about to go home and rally friends to get off Facebook. However, the end notes pointed out that he reconciled with him and things have been made right. It was also good to see that things with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Harvard Connection (later ConnectU), founders were patched up as well.

While I would recommend the movie, I will say I was very disappointed in the way young women were portrayed in the movie. It was disturbing to me to see how the two Asian girls were shown as simply throwing themselves at the young entrepreneurs. I guess this kind of sexism is to be expected in a Hollywood movie, but it was not needed in this particular movie. It added no value to the story and it was all exaggerated anyways! It left a bad taste in my mouth even though the main course was decent.

Related articles

• Sean Parker says he enjoyed Social Network film, but “it’s fiction” (venturebeat.com)
• Sean Parker says ‘The Social Network’ is fiction (cnn.com)
• The Social Network: Where Are They Now? (thoughtpick.com)
• The Social Network Receives 8 Academy Award Nominations (webpronews.com)
• MovieMantz Review: ‘The Social Network’ (omg.yahoo.com)

As a passionate fan of world cup soccer I’m pretty excited that the World Cup is finally here. The fact that it is being hosted in South Africa makes it an extra special event in my mind. While winning the cup is the main goal, there are many ways in which you can measure the success of your team in the World Cup.  Facebook recently launched a Goal Leaderboard to track the top teams in the competition.

The Goal Leaderboard doesn’t rank teams based on their performance in a game, that would be pretty boring. Instead it ranks teams by the most passionate fans. So, here is your chance to put your team over the top. Check it out and get y our team up there.

Here is a snapshot as of the writing of this post (Chile is on top):

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• Facebook Launches Goal Leaderboard For World Cup (allfacebook.com)
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Facebook is becoming a scary place. It used to be fun place to share photos, links, ideas etc. and connect with long lost friends. Now, as the social networking giant seeks to monetize their platform they’re using your data to do it. And while I can understand the business side, it doesn’t mean I don’t have a choice. I could choose to just shut down my profile on Facebook and move on.

If you’re not familiar with the changes on Facebook and how it impacts your privacy, take a look at this article on Wired magazine.  Below is an excerpt:

This spring Facebook took that even further. All the items you list as things you like must become public and linked to public profile pages. If you don’t want them linked and made public, then you don’t get them — though Facebook nicely hangs onto them in its database in order to let advertisers target you.

This includes your music preferences, employment information, reading preferences, schools, etc. All the things that make up your profile. They all must be public — and linked to public pages for each of those bits of info — or you don’t get them at all. That’s hardly a choice, and the whole system is maddeningly complex.

Simultaneously, the company began shipping your profile information off pre-emptively to Yelp, Pandora and Microsoft — so that if you show up there while already logged into Facebook, the sites can “personalize” your experience when you show up. You can try to opt out after the fact, but you’ll need a master’s in Facebook bureaucracy to stop it permanently.

Care to write a status update to your friends? Facebook sets the default for those messages to be published to the entire internet through direct funnels to the net’s top search engines. You can use a dropdown field to restrict your publishing, but it’s seemingly too hard for Facebook to actually remember that’s what you do. (Google Buzz, for all the criticism it has taken, remembers your setting from your last post and uses that as the new default.)

Now, say you you write a public update, saying, “My boss had a crazy great idea for a new product!” Now, you might not know it, but there is a Facebook page for “My Crazy Boss” and because your post had all the right words, your post now shows up on that page. Include the words “FBI” or “CIA,” and you show up on the FBI or CIA page.

Read More

Now if this doesn’t get your attention, here is a visual chart that helps you understand how much of your private information is being shared across the Internet. Things you thought were just between friends is now in the open. Photos and networks you thought only your college buddies could see are now in plain sight of your employer, your associates and your business partners.

What do you think? Take the poll below:

photo credit: Zawezome

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• Facebook Users’ Names, Email, Location, And Photos Exposed On Yelp (businessinsider.com)
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So you think you’re clever to check the young applicants Facebook page to get the real scoop. Well you may not find them on Facebook because they may have changed their name. Check this out (from CNN):

(CNN) — Justin Gawel says there’s nothing too incriminating on his Facebook page.

“There are a lot of pictures of drinking [but] nothing naked or anything — at least I don’t think so,” he said jokingly.

Even so, the Michigan State University junior recently changed his Facebook display name to “Dustin Jawel” to keep his personal life from potential employers while applying for summer internships.

Although Gawel ditched his rhyming alias after two weeks when he realized Facebook users also can be searched by e-mail address, school and network, he is not alone in his efforts to scrub his online résumé. Many students and recent graduates say they are changing their names on Facebook or tightening privacy settings to hide photos and wall posts from potential employers.

What do you think?

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• Young job-seekers hiding their Facebook pages (cnn.com)
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• Looking at Friends on Facebook Increases Pleasantness (psychcentral.com)
• Q&A: Dumping a Facebook Friend (gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com)

Some of us are a little more addicted to social networks than others. But then again our addiction hasn’t necessarily been a bad thing – at least I’m hoping.  Now for this burglar, well it’s a different story.

MARTINSBURG – The popular online social networking site Facebook helped lead to an alleged burglar’s arrest after he stopped check his account on the victim’s computer, but forgot to log out before leaving the home with two diamond rings.

Jonathan G. Parker, 19, of Fort Loudoun, Pa., was arraigned Tuesday one count of felony daytime burglary.

According to court records, Deputy P.D. Ware of the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department responded on Aug. 28 to the victim’s home after she reported the burglary.

She told police that someone had broken into her home through a bedroom window.

There were open cabinets in her garage, and other signs of a burglar.

The victim later noticed that the intruder also used her computer to check his Facebook status, and his account was still open when she checked the computer.

The victim later noticed that she was missing two diamond rings from her dresser in the same room as her computer.

Facebook fights crime and saves another innocent victim! Yay.

A few months ago I wrote about my concerns regarding Web 2.0 companies. I was thinking out out about how many would make it financially – considering that many were not making money. Well, now it looks like Facebook has turned the corner and is starting to return a profit.

Key to Facebook’s profitability has been its ability to keep its headcount low. Mr. Zuckerberg points out in his blog post the company employs one engineer for every million users. The company has only 1,000 employees serving a user base that is quickly surpassing the population of the United States.

Revenue is also accelerating, growing from $150 million in 2007 to about $350 million in 2008 and a predicted $500 million in 2009, according to Facebook board member Marc Andreesen.

Oh, now the number of users on Facebook  has surprassed the US population.