Earlier this week something interesting happened in the world of social networking: Verizon, which this week became America's largest mobile carrier after moving to acquire Alltel, moved its branded social network to Facebook. The company announced a plan to shut down its Verizon Community site -- a moderately popular corporate social network -- in favor of its 18,000 member strong Facebook fan page. Right now, Facebook Pages can't be considered full social networks, but could they ever be the best place to center your social media strategy?
Verizon said the move was part of an "ongoing effort to provide our users with the most dynamic and feature rich community experience," and invited users to copy over blogs, photos, friends list, and posts to the Facebook group -- which won't be easy since Facebook's Pages don't support all of those things. Justin Smith of Inside Facebook says that social networking company is planning a major upgrade to Pages to make them "more compelling for businesses to build a deep presence on Facebook."
Right now, Facebook Pages can't be considered a complete social networking solution like Ning -- the feature set is just too limited and constricting, plus only businesses, brands/products, and artists can have them. But it is easy to see why Facebook Pages could be attractive to social media marketers. They're easy to set up and manage, and they come with access to a built in audience.
However, even if the coming changes noted by Smith add features to make Pages more complete mini-social networks, there are a lot of reasons why Facebook should not be looked at by companies as a Ning-alternative (or an alternative to any full branded social network provider). First and foremost, even though Facebook has shown some indications recently of being more open, they're still a very closed platform. Verizon may be making a mistake by putting all its eggs in one basket.
Facebook Pages should certainly be part of a social media strategy for businesses, brands, and artists, but it certainly shouldn't be the only part. Facebook's most popular Page, that of US presidential candidate Barack Obama, provides a good example of a complete social media strategy done right. In addition to his 900,000 strong Facebook Page, Obama has a presence on more than 10 other top social media sites including MySpace, Digg, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. He also runs his own branded social network My.BarackObama.com. Obama's complete strategy has helped him to raise record amounts of money online during this campaign cycle and build awareness among the younger, Internet-centric demographic.
Unless Facebook transforms Pages into a Ning-like platform for hosting external branded social networks that hook into the Facebook social graph (which seems unlikely given Facebook's clear reluctance to open its walled garden, though it would be a very interesting twist -- and might actually be a Ning-killer), there's really no reason to follow Verizon's lead and use the site in place of a branded social network.
Could Facebook Be the New Ning?
IPL T20: Delhi Daredevils won against Hyderabad Deccan Chargers
Wordpress 2.5
I’ve been upgrading my plentiful WordPress blogs in fits and starts over recent weeks (I use WordPress for a lot of my projects) :p and today I reached the final batch - which included FA.com.
I put it off not because I’m one of those annoying people who never upgrades (FA.com is almost always running on the latest version even when my other sites are not - I love my angel too much to neglect her) but I was waiting for many of my plugins to release 2.5 compatible versions before I jumped onto the 2.5 wagon. I didn’t anticipate problems because, like I said, I’m always up to date, and I’ve had precisely zero problems everywhere else but - as is always the way - FA is the only one of twelve installations I have that’s fucked up. Joyo.
Aw, I’m being unfair. It hasn’t fucked up completely - you’re reading this, right? Presumably you can comment (someone check?!) but there are a few little problems with my plugins, the main one being the issue I have with my reading library which, at the time of writing, is just not displaying. It was one of the plugins that I hacked to death and modified within an inch of its life, and I didn’t upgrade for ages because I didn’t want to have to re-model it all over again. :p Now I’m forced into doing so, so bear with me whilst I sort it out and it goes through some tidying up. ETA: It’s working now - yay! Also think my LJ-Crossposter is okay too . . . maybe?!
Other than that, after a cursory look round it looks as though everything’s rocking and rolling. Have a poke around - go on, when was the last time you checked out my content anyway? Reacquaint yourself! - and let me know if anything’s looking a little wonky. Meanwhile, I’m going back to bed with hot lemon, cough sweets and feel sorry for myself some more - I have a chest infection. Poor me. :(
Do you Believe in Magic?
It is no surprise that Ben Stein, a former speech writer for Richard Nixon, is willing to make patently false statements in order to attempt to win an argument. Stein was able to state, with a straight face, that the famous "Deep Throat" who gave inside information that led to the revelations of the gross misconduct of the Nixon Administration, was in fact a "fabrication of Bob Woodward". Of course Ben Stein has only one expression, so his ability to lie easily should come as no surprise. The Nixon insider whose conscience led him to choose his country over his political loyalties was later revealed to be a very real person, much to Stein's embarrassment.
Ben Stein continued, unabashed, following the motto of Lucy Van Pelt whom he resembles in more than one way..."If you can't be right...Be Wrong at the top of your Voice!"
With that in mind, Stein has decided to shill for Creationism and the Intelligent Design advocates, and he has done very well financially as a result. Does he believe that stuff? I doubt it very much...It's just another good gig for Stein in his role as a lobbyist for the Right Wing Christian movement, an oddity in and of itself since Ben Stein is a Jew.
Stein is an accomplished writer of propaganda and is very good at making things seem like something other than they are by presenting opinion and hyperbole as fact. After seeing the financial success of Michael Moore's movies, he came up with the idea of making a "documentary" attacking Darwinism, which he calls a brilliant theory with huge flaws. Just so you know, Darwinism is not a theory, it is a label given to people who understand the scientific framework of Darwin's theory, "On the Origin of Species" by those who do not understand a damned thing.
Stein equates Darwinism with eugenics and Nazism in a tortured ruse of blather: "Darwinism was very popular with Hitler's Nazi party, who explicitly said life is about the survival of the fittest. [That] led to horrible consequences." (Newsweek interview April 14, 2008)
Hitler also claimed to be a devout Christian and follower of Jesus Christ. Stein censored that information from his movie, which although he claims it is a "documentary" is nothing of the sort. It is simply another propaganda piece that censors factual information and presents wishful thinking and exaggerated claims in its place. By Stein's reasoning, Christianity would be evil.
Ben Stein's movie, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" will be released on April 18, 2008. Several of the people interviewed have already come forward and claimed to have been misquoted, after seeing screenings of the movie. Several scientists who are attacked in Stein's movie have been forcibly ejected from screenings even though they had tickets.
The premise of the movie is that the Scientific and academic communities refuse to allow creationists and ID'ers to be heard because they want to suppress a valid scientific theory. This has been debunked by every single court case and every single peer review panel that has ever considered either one. Academians who present any of the forms of creationism as science are not dismissed because of their religious beliefs...They are dismissed because they are simply lousy scientists and cannot reason fact from fiction nor evidence from belief.
The absurdity that Ben Stein is trying to make a case for is no more valid than trying to make people believe that Presbyterianism, for instance, is a science just like Mathematics. Science and Belief are simply two different things. "Science" is how we know that magic is an illusion...an obvious conclusion unreachable through any system of "Belief".
All Magicians know that there is no such thing as "Magic"...Stein wants to present magic as a valid science and is willing to lie in order to create this illusion. Just remember...Magicians don't really saw people in half. If you fall for the illusion and the "Belief" that it can be done, somebody will get hurt.
Peace,
Steve
Search Engine Optimization
Online marketing strategies and practical examples.
POPULAR BUSINESS FOR WEB DESIGNERS
SEO is a sticky phrase in the internet business world since a few years and the market has exploded with thousands of small marketing masters where services like optimizing of websites are mentioned as a secret while it is in general terms only standard development guide lines and common sense in how to make a website following the world wide web consortium organization.
ONLINE MARKETING
Online marketing is only a result of a good developed website where also the developer or the owner of the website knows what he is doing. Marketing is the oldest trick to tell people how good their products are and make reasons for all possible people to buy it. Online marketing is something else and one has to be very careful who to trust and work with. It is a risky SCAM business where many people are paying for absolutely nothing.
This new SEO fever has calm down the last year but still is a hot business to start and try making money and sell your time.
There are many hooks to open your eyes for and the list of them listed below.
10 reasons to optimize or not optimize your website
- Be aware of companies that offer search engine optimization and #1 ranking in Google as it is not possible to decide the position where you will land.
- Offered to be added in thousands of search engines? Well there are 3 major search engines and they are Google, Msn and Yahoo.
- Ever offered to buy PR-links to get a higher ranking in Google? The ranking has nothing to do with the position and keyword optimization.
- Search engine optimization is never a One time job and then it?s done, serious companies make an agreement with your company and follow the development and statistics in the time, normally minimal a period of 6 months.
- SEO is a analyzing procedure that takes a while to understand, analyze the pattern and stabilization of the website positioning in the search engines.
- To search engine optimize your website is not always possible to do. A website with a newer domain shall not be in a SEO program as it is like throwing your money in the sea and a waste of time.
- Is your website ready for the best possible results yet? I optimize websites that I have developed from scratch as they need specific components in order to have a possibility to get the best possible results in the search engines.
- XHTML and semantic mark-up. I develop sites in the optimized language XHTML as it is supposed to follow the best guidelines of website publishing and standards of today. A XHTML developed website is better for SEO as it is developed with a semantic method which is correct for web publishing and also SEO.
- Semantic mark-up means that the layout and design of the website is separated from the content and the important information. We separate the styling and layout from the content because we have a better appearance and the design is a global setting that will decrease the size of the website and loading time with up to 80%.
- Finally, It is possible to search engine optimize table technology made websites but it is not recommended for the absolute best result.
Clementine
Several years ago, can't exactly remember how long, I went to an Arts & Crafts Festival at the Santa Monica Civic. I go regularly to check out the old and up and coming artists, their work and to just get inspired. This one time while wandering in and out of the aisles, I was stopped in my tracks when I came upon a booth with hand made dolls by artist Denise Bledsoe. As I gazed at each of her amazing works of art and marveled at the articulation, craftmanship and whimsey of them, I immediately tried to figure out how I could have one of her incredible creations for my very own.
As an artist, I'm always on a budget and am very selective when buying art. I have to absolutely love it and can't live without it. Well, in this case, I absolutely fell in love with Denise's little creations and had to have one for my very own. The only problem was that on the majority of them there was a sold sign. Oh my was my thought, what to do now. Over by herself was standing an incredible ballerina with my name on it. I was in love...and she has resided with me ever since.
I have been collecting Denise's creations and now have 10 of them to date. My latest adoption is Clementine, Clemy for short. Being her biggest fan, I try to attend the show Denise does at Universal every year around January, but I somehow missed it this year. When I realized that I was missing something, namely a new little DB creation, I immediately emailed Denise to see what she had made that would interest my taste. Well, to my absolutely delight, Clemy stole my heart.
I love each and every one of my creations by Denise, will continue to collect her wonderful works of art and will treasure them always.