Never give any Facebook app permission to make posts on your behalf and access your contacts.  This includes seemingly benign and reputable apps such as Birthday Calendar, iPhone for Facebook and Spotify.  When installing an app for Facebook, it will ask expressly for these permissions.  THEY ARE OPTIONAL.  You may have to first accept them in order to install the app (if it won’t allow you to push SKIP and still install), but it is possible to go right back in and recall those specific permissions.  Here’s an example of my own permissions for Instagram, which I’m guessing 90% of you use.:

See the red arrow?  I have not only given Instagram permission to post on my behalf, I’m allowing them access to my data (including all of my contact info, YOUR email address, photos, likes, etc.  Yep, in one click of a button, I have sold both myself and my friends out.  And I bet 100% of you who use Instagram have, too.

I’m not picking on Instagram, which I happen to love.  This is done by almost every major app — both free and paid –today.  Their monetary success depends largely on social sharing, which is much easier to do when they control your account.  What that means is that by giving them these permissions, YOU and I perpetuate their ability not only to access our data and post on our behalf, but to dig deeper into the data of our friends and theirs.  Of course, some apps won’t post to Facebook without these permissions, such as Instagram, HootSuite and Buffer. So you if you want to share everything in your apps on Facebook, then skip this process with those apps. However, if  your account gets “hacked,” know that you have no one to blame but yourself.

Want to redeem yourself?  Here’s how:

• Go to HOME and find the arrow next to it
• Click PRIVACY SETTINGS
• Find ADS/APPS/WEBSITES
• Click EDIT SETTINGS
• Find Apps You Use
• Click EDIT SETTINGS

Now, the box should look like this, with the THIS APP CAN field empty. You’ll want to go through each and every app you have attached to Facebook and make these changes.

Lastly, you’ll want to delete any email information you have unintentionally synced with Facebook.  This will prevent your Facebook friends from getting annoying emails about Viagra and the likes. Yes, you will no longer be notified if one of these people joins Facebook.  But I assume if you want to, you will be be able to find them without Facebook’s help.

Log into your profile and click here.  Click REMOVE (ALL IMPORTED CONTACTS), and follow any instructions on the next screen to select and remove imported contacts.

Don’t worry-this doesn’t delete your Facebook friends.  It simply deletes the database of email imports hanging out like a sitting duck in your Facebook account.  Your final screen should look like this:

Ta Da! You’ve now protected yourself  and your friends temporarily from being embarrassed by your own Facebook account.  You can’t rest easy-be sure to go through the app permission process every time you install an app, especially from your mobile phone or tablet.  And be sure to check all the app settings about once a month, because they seem to like to change on their own (kind of like Facebook…). Your friends will thank you, I promise.

UPDATE: 5/15/12: Ironically (or maybe not), right after this post was made, my e-mail account was “hacked” from Japan.  I had just uploaded an app as well as UNLINKED my sbcglobal.net contacts from Facebook.  I immediately took measures to prevent this from “mushrooming” by changing both my Facebook and email passwords. 

Yet I wasn’t quite ready yesterday when I signed on to the new organ donor app to tell my entire network that “Lisa became an organ donor.” I started getting quips from the usual suspects. “Not quite yet,” read one. “Glad to know you’ll live on in others.  I’ll miss you.” Whaaa….???

Turns out Facebook had a little grammatical error that they’ve apparently now fixed.  Instead of listing the date I registered to be an organ donor, they listed–and shared– that I had actually become an organ donor.

Unfortunately for my teens, I am still alive and kicking.  When it’s my time, I do hope to share the gift of life with others.  Until then, thanks for the laugh, Facebook. And everyone, be sure to follow the guide below to let all of your friends know that you will join me.

True to form, Facebook is doing away with what they call “canvas apps” or “tabs” as it did away with FBML when it introduced iframes.  What does this mean for your business page? According to Facebook:

1.         Canvas apps and tabs (commonly known as default landing pages or welcome pages) will NOT be automatically transferred into Timeline apps

2.         Pages will no longer be able to use canvas apps as the default landing tab that users first see when they visit

3.         Timeline “covers” may not display calls to action or references to Facebook features such as “Like this Page”, purchase or pricing info such as “40% off” or “Download at our website”, or contact information such as web address.”

4.         Yes, you will need to have your canvas apps redesigned for the new Timeline format.

There is some good news about the change.   You will still be able to add tab applications to Facebook pages, four of which can be displayed directly under your cover photo to showcase your best content, including contests and likes. (Well, the “Photos” tab is stationery, so you actually only have 3 editable tab positions). And, there’s a drop down menu on the fourth tab that allows you to edit what tabs people see. To rearrange them, click the drop down button on the far right tab. Anything available in the drop down menu can be pulled to the front.

The boxes used to promote apps are improved as well; instead of a few words on the left of your page, you can now create images up to 111px x 74px to promote your tab app.

Even better, there is now more real estate on tabs. Page tabs used to be 520px wide, and now have been updated to 810px.

So while there are no more custom landing pages with interactive content, there are many features that make Timeline a better experience for your users.  And isn’t that the key?

1. On the bottom right of your profile HOME page, under the online chat bar, find the grey arrow notated in the photo above.  Click on it, and the ticker (and also your online chat status bar) is removed from your sidebar.  Note that these two functions are intertwined.  You remove both when making this change.

2. On the HOME page of your profile, just under your name, you’ll find that same grey arrow as we point out in the photo above.  Click it, and the ticker  is also removed from your newsfeed. Ta dah!

This is great news for those who dont want to be constantly bombarded with seemingly mundane items.  However, should you decide you miss it, or find the ticker an easier method to interact directly with friends, then all you have to do is reverse this process.  Happy Facebooking to all!

]]> http://counterintuity.com/blog/2012/02/08/how-to-disable-facebooks-ticker-for-good/feed/ 0 http://counterintuity.com/blog/2011/12/22/does-your-little-one-have-a-digital-trust-fund/ http://counterintuity.com/blog/2011/12/22/does-your-little-one-have-a-digital-trust-fund/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:25:14 +0000 Emily http://counterintuity.com/blog/?p=1361 Hmmm. A digital trust fund. Is that like Monopoly money? Didn’t we get better checks and balances on our financial systems recently, you ask?

A digital trust fund is not monetary. To the contrary, it takes little more than your time to set up. It’s a way to claim and safeguard certain accounts for your child; for instance their name as a Gmail address, domain, Twitter handle and personalized Facebook url.

I first heard this idea from Tess Vigeland on Marketplace Money. Here’s a link to the podcast if you’re interested.

When I mentioned the idea to our very own Amy Kramer, she confirmed that she had her childrens’ names as urls. Being the president of a digital marketing company, this came as no surprise. But then I started thinking about all the ways this made sense. It would be helpful to have these digital addresses in place to:

• beat out any other kids who could possibly have the same name as your child
• prevent anyone from posing as your child and ruining their reputation – especially if they want to be a politician when they grow up
• could potentially boost their SEO rankings due to their longstanding accounts

Will all this really matter in 12-15 years when your little bundle of joy is taking their first steps into the digital world? Here is where I start to think this could be a time waster. I love Facebook, but will it really be around for that long? I’m dubious. But I’ve also been wrong before. What do you think?

Courtesy of blog.madarco.net

We have been diligently researching the Facebook switch on Friday from FBML to iframes.  Our advice?  Don’t panic. Static FBML will be around for awhile.

All this move changes is that developers and designers now need to know HTML and have access to a hosted site in order to make custom applications and graphics for your Facebook page. Most page owners don’t realize that this is simply a change in how the coding of a Facebook app (i.e. a custom page) works.  It’s a slow phasing out of Static FBML, Facebook’s proprietary application that allows users with little coding experience create custom tabs Facebook Pages.

With an iframe application, the main difference is that content must now be located within an HTML document that is hosted outside of Facebook’s servers—usually, your own website (although they can and should be hidden). An iframe is simply HTML code or “inline frame.”  Basically, customs apps will now be a hosted “web page” layered on top of your Facebook Page.  And your designer will need to know HTML.

There is already a lot of hype surrounding this change, and a lot of companies are trying to make money off of it, such as Wildfire and Involver, to name a few.  Don’t buy into the propaganda.  Remember that “Free for 3 months” is not ultimately free.

In fact, there’s even a possible SEO downside to switching to iframes. At present, search engines do not crawl content within iframes, so anchor text links on your existing FBML tabs will not be crawlable.  Unless something changes, iframes have absolutely no search engine value, and FBML does.

Your existing Static FBML tabs (like welcome pages and contests) will be fully supported by Facebook for a while. They can still be edited or replaced with new FBML code. No page owner with FBML-based apps needs to panic.  When your current FBML apps no longer serve your audience, that’s the time to look into iframes.  Right now, the cost of recoding into HTML and adding monthly hosting fees are too high to justify a switch.

For the near future, there is no reason we can see to upgrade existing static FBML tabs to iframes. Rest easy for now, Facebook  friends.

With the advent of services such as Yelp, Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms, customers no longer have to wait to get out the door to write a letter of complaint or praise via snail mail.  They can–and will– do it right there under your nose.  Anyone at any time can generate a social media post that describes you inaccurately or criticizes your performance, service or product. Social media sites make it easy to to trash everything from bad food to slow service, and that is not what you want potential clients to find online. If you’ve spent any time making a good name for yourself, keeping it so online is a priority.

We recommend you track what people are saying about you online at least once a week.  Here are our favorite free tools (there are many good paid services, as well):

Social Mention This real-time Internet tracking aggregates mentions about your brand from across the web (and the universe, they proclaim) to give you a snapshot of who is talking about you and what they are saying.  While it’s not 100% accurate (we find it sometimes pulls in other accounts if you have a common Twitter or Facebook name), it does a great job of finding blog forum and Twitter mentions.  While it dishes out some questionable metrics (Passion? Sentiment?), the lists of top keywords, top hastags and top users it returns is invaluable information for your social media monitoring.

MonitorThis is another easy search tool that  feeds mentions from 26 various search engines like Google Blogsearch, delicious, MSN, Yahoo News, Flickr and many others.  What’s particularly nice here is that it features a ‘Get as RSS’ button that lets you directly subscribe to a list of feeds it pulls up.

Board Tracker watches conversation in discussion forums and keeps you up to speed on mentions. Just set alerts based on your specific keywords and you’ll be notified any time your brand’s name is mentioned in a forum.

TweetBeep is a Twitter tracker that keeps track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company, your brand–and gives you frequent e-mailed updates.

Google Alerts are regular email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of keyword or topic.

The real answer to online reputation lies in constantly building, updating  and maintaining your online brand. This way, any negative commentary is automatically countered by positive news and information you’ve already put out.

We’ve encountered many firms that boast about their “genius” nineteen year-old social media hires. “They get this Facebook stuff,” we’ve heard. “They understand how to network through the Internet.” True. My older teen has hundreds of friends on social networks. He can easily find out the questions on the history test and where the best Saturday night party will be. He can connect girls to boys, not unlike traditional networking.

But what he can’t do—because he doesn’t have business training—is strategize, monitor and analyze a social media campaign. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and other social media platform use is a skill most teens and college grads have. But putting a tech-savvy teen in charge of your $30,000 website redesign and social media campaign is like asking my husband to do the laundry. He’ll gladly wash clothes, but they won’t be sorted, he’ll forget the fabric softener, and assuming they get folded, they’ll end up in the wrong person’s drawer.

A social media expert is much more than someone who knows how to use Facebook. We are like custom builders, creating a blueprint for your entire campaign. From audience analysis and content goals to editorial calendars and professional monitoring with ROI tracking, firms that specialize in social media have both the knowledge and expertise to make your online campaign successful.

Anyone can get your business pages followers and likes. The question is: Do they know how to attract the right people, and do they know what to do with them? Can they track real-time and trending results—and do they even know what that is?

Nothing against teens. I have a few myself.  And they are experts at socializing. But please, for the sake of your online reputation and your hard-earned dollars, leave your all-important social media marketing to the experts.

A report was released today from Nielsen and Facebook that confirms that social impressions are more than fabulous, they increase someone’s intent to purchase.

“The Value of Social Media Ad Impressions” study measured the impact of 3 types of Facebook ads and how their coordinated usage affects ad recall, awareness and purchase intent. They “analyzed survey data from more than 800,000 Facebook users in response to more than 125 Facebook ad campaigns from 70 brand advertisers.”

Here are the three Facebook ads they looked at:

The study results showed how the combination of paid media (ads) and earned media (wall posts, likes, shares) significantly increased all three measurements (ad recall, awareness and purchase intent) than paid ads alone.

Combining paid media with earned media created:

• 9% increase in awareness
• 6% increase in purchase intent

These numbers are compelling. But what does it mean for your business?

People are influenced much more by their friends than our ads alone. Engaging in social media is your way to bridge the gap to share directly with your customers and, in turn, your customers’ network will grow your business.

Use ads in the right places to reach the right audience but be sure to engage with your customers where they are already (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Create conversations and share relevant information that makes it impossible for your customers to not talk about you, like you and share your links.

Are you taking advantage of social media impressions?