Put Your Best Face Forward

The Face of the Year – Is YOU!

Mark Zuckerberg must be proud showing off his face to the world as the Person of the Year for 2010 in the new Time magazine cover. At the end of the day, people young and old want to be recognized, express themselves, be acknowledged for their ideas and thoughts, connect with friends, or ask others their opinions. Each appeases to one’s emotions, concerns, and make us feel welcomed by the crowd. In the beginning, as depicted in the movie The Social Network, the growth of Facebook was due to college students that craved a connection to be part of an exclusive community. Who’s the face of the year? It would have to be YOU and how advertisers and brands increased their tactics this past year to appeal to you and your connections on Facebook.

For many brands and advertisers trying to appeal to Generation Y using Facebook, a recent study concludes they are failing in their approach. The Nielsen Norman Group put together a research report to address College Students on the Web focused on Generation Y’s interests and uses of social media. As quoted in MediaPost’s article Social Networks No Place For Marketing To College Crowd, “While it’s no surprise that organizations targeting college students try to reach them on the web, they’re mistaken if they think the best path is through social networking sites,” noted Jakob Nielsen, principal of Nielsen Norman. Students find it easier to accomplish what they seek using search-engines, rather than turning to social media sites for the answers. “Sites like Facebook are simply not the first place that college students think to visit to get information about organizations,” states Nielsen.

College students enjoy chatting with friends and family on social sites sharing new discoveries and/or pictures, but the results of the research suggests that Gen Y is not keen with clicking on certain links from advertisers, or brands to Share This, without a clear understanding what he/she will gain from making a specific connection. The belief by most marketers is if college students are using Facebook, then they want to seek out our brand to connect. Right? Is that really the case for Gen Y, or for others? Many people fear they will be “taken advantage” by marketers. Some complain that it doesn’t make sense to pay attention to the information being shared, or perhaps others may ‘Like,’ ‘Follow,’ or ‘Share This’ for a short-lived promotional offer. A good marketer, or community manager should ask if the information is relevant to the audience, and what drives the audience to take action in the long-term to share his/her interests or thoughts with others?

Every Breath You Take,
Every Move You Make,
I’ll Be Watching You!

As consumers become more savvy with the web and the popularity of smartphones expands, there is also an increase in how personal identifiable information is collected and shared with connections, companies and/or advertisers. Is it to improve the user experience and offer better customer service? Or, do some customers think the information tracking their every move online and now off-line, could be threatening his/her privacy, security, or could create some other potential risk? Recently, the government intervened a Do Not Track proposal directed to advertisers. Additionally, companies such as Facebook have created outrage with new innovations to their products that turned off audiences for fear his/her information was shared with strangers or advertisers for financial gain.

MediaPost’s article, Dramatic Rise In College Students Tweaking Facebook Privacy Settings, highlights a study by social media researchers Danah Boyd and Eszter Hargittai suggesting, “virtually all of the respondents (98%) had changed their privacy settings at least once, while more than half had done so at least four times.” The aspect of controlling one’s privacy and the amount of information made public on social sites and mobile applications continues to be raised.

Scan This, Share This, Facebook Us, Tweet Me – Is it Too Much?

As people mature from one stage of life into another, marketers and technical developers must keep in mind with new product offerings and promotions issues around tracking, consumer rights, as well as privacy a concern to customers and new government regulations. People may want to change information that was once made public in college to being private. This could have implications for one to have immediate access to these control measures, as well as it could impact a shift in one’s business model to earn money. As changes continue to occur with social media tools and other mobile applications evolve in the marketplace, the check-in could potentially check-out, unless the proper education and long-term value is brought to the attention of the audience.

Nielsen’s findings elaborated on ways for marketers to adjust their approach to ‘Share This’ or ‘Like’ that when connecting with college students:

1. “Feedback from my friends is always close.” Give an opportunity for others to receive feedback from friends on areas such as purchasing decisions. Instead of ‘Share This’ explicitly say, “What do your friends think?” Look at what the audiences continues to bring up in their conversations using social media and provide them with the answers. Or, create a larger forum for people to come together on a particular topic.
2. “If I can’t find what I am looking for fast, look somewhere else.” Gen Y like others are fickle when finding something online fast. Ease-of-navigation, limit the amount of clicks to get where one needs to go, and implement clean design that helps to make the discovery process more efficient and enjoyable to find what one seeks.
3. “There are companies that are honest, and those that will try to trick you.” People want valuable information, good resources, and ways to connect with others. However, one doesn’t want to provide his/her information at the expense that it could later turn into an open invitation for marketers to be bothersome. This could make one feel threatened that he/she maybe held captive to future promotional campaigns that offer too much clutter of content. People realize that some marketers require too much information that isn’t necessary at the initial stage of interaction with a product or service offering.

Social media will continue to thrive, change and be a cool place for the college crowd, as well as others to connect. Stay away from surprising the audience, as Zuckerberg learned quickly from the people and the media backlash against Facebook with its new product launches, privacy controls and speculation on new tactics used to monetize the site. Be sure to follow digital best practices to examine the design and provide useful content and resources. It’s important to be upfront with audiences that helps to build trust and empower them to take action to building more valuable connections.

Are You Going Places? LinkedIN? What’s On Your Mind?

Today it’s Twitter.
“See You on the Face”
Where You Checking In?
How About A Handshake?

Each day I learn of something new with the changes online and uses of mobile technology through various means. I agree it’s very important to be out there communicating and connecting with people in more ways than one. This new social media phenomenon is causing some people to forget the balance between one’s personal life and professional.

I hate to think the number of followers you have on Twitter, the number of friends you have on Facebook, and the number of professionals you have on LinkedIN, qualifies you as any type of expert. Not everyone adopts many new technologies and decides to immediately incorporate it into his/her daily life. Some may not have the desire at all, prefer his/her privacy, or actually too busy at work to be bothered. For some it’s an escape from reality, an opportunity to learn, promote a story, or connect with someone on a similar topic. As Shiv Singh, social media expert at Razorfish and author of Social Media Marketing for Dummies states on Twitter, “Of all my friends on FB, only the ones who work in digital have used FB Places. Is that a sign for how well it will do? If so, not good.”-11:28 AM Aug 20th via web.

A good professional must understand how to reach people through various mediums to best connect with others using both traditional and new ways of communication. It’s more about quality and not quantity. People are calling themselves social media experts and they are being valued by prospective employers by the number of tweets on Twitter and number of friends. That’s crazy!

I wish to impact the world, make a profit, or help someone out there question the way we live and make a bigger difference. How many people can actually say they know each person they are connected with online, done business with them, grew companies that were sold, or it’s just others trying to increase their followers and connections in this new popularity contest.

How many of these people understand the adoption curve of companies, instituted real change to educate executives and engage audiences, understands how to be a leader and collaborate with others to build a real strategy that makes sense to the business and doesn’t just follow the crowd. I want to be influenced by true educators and make decisions by having quality people in my network whether online or creating deeper relations off-line.

We’re starting to see the public turned off by some of the tactics and new “Places” on Facebook as an invasion of one’s privacy. Soon people will follow suit looking for the next best place in technology to communicate.

It’s important to be out there as I do blog, contribute on occasion to social media sites, as well as I enjoy learning and experimenting with different mediums. Some days I’m more active than others. Yet, I’m selective who I link with and what I want to say. I’ve been on these sites longer than most. I see the value for certain companies and connecting with the audience, but I’m careful how much I really want to say in the online world that can remain permanent about my private lives.

I consider myself a very talented and a qualified professional who enjoys probing the right questions, as well as taking a step back to understand the concerns, interests and opportunities with many of these new advancements to make a business case, as well as building trust and listening to the audiences. I’m not just one to jump on the bandwagon of the next best location-based technology, or social media innovation to promote myself. I don’t need FourSquare in my private life to share my every action and tell the world I’m going “Places” on Facebook. In my opinion, employers are misguided if what they are looking for in a good marketing person, or value a candidate based on the number of followers, friends, or tweets he/she has online.

I prefer my privacy in my personal life and wish to connect with people in a genuine manner. As far as using the new social media tools for business, I understand the importance to rely on these resources to listen, learn and share feedback with others to make improvements to a product, or perhaps offer better customer service and create loyalty programs. I plan to continue to go places far and wide to finding a rewarding career and fulfilling life with wonderful friends and professionals that have personally come together.

Make Me Over. Helping to Create Your Virtual Presence & Profiles.

Did you lose your job?

Do you need to increase sales for your business?

Do you want to impress someone in hopes to date?

Do you just want to send out the right message to others about you and don’t know where to start?

Start taking control of your virtual presence and making a serious commitment as you have with your personal relations.

People are watching, reading or learning about you whether you like it or not. Thanks to the web and search engines, otherwise known as “Googling someone.” It’s as important to define who you are in person, as much as you define yourself online. Put your best foot forward as to how individuals come into contact with your background to learn more about you in cyberspace. Today it’s important to be accessible online if you want to get noticed.  Whether it’s for your career development, meeting that special someone to enhance your life, or to just network with others showcasing your personality and talents to build stronger relationships. It’s difficult to climb an uphill battle to gain back one’s reputation, integrity and build respect among others than anything else. We must consider our interactions in the real-world and how it may impact our presence in the virtual world. Of course, we can’t worry what others think about us all the time because there are all sorts of people with different motives. But, it’s important for everyone to take the necessary steps to manage both one’s online and off-line reputation. Let me help you create your profile in the virtual world to lead you on the path to success. Every environment online can be different and keeping track of all the tools can be overwhelming. Take my advice to assess your personality and perfect your profiles across the web.

Give yourself a virtual make-over. Craft the right message, to the right audience to attract others professionally, or enhance your relationships with others. Gain the proper exposure about you, or your business to make a positive impact with others. Whether it’s Match.com, LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter, your personal blog, or providing guidance for a face-lift to your website, let me assist you in the areas where you virtual presence will help you get noticed. CIO.com offers some advice on Managing Your Reputation Online