On the Web with Kim Vallee » facebook

Facebook as an Efficient Support Group

Kim Vallee — Sat, 07 May 2011 05:25:54 +0000

Even though my husband and I are very active on social media, we always take steps to preserve our private life. Having said that, they are some happy moments that we wish to share online. One was my pregnancy. I made no secret that I was pregnant on my blog, Facebook or Twitter. We discovered later that our son had a heart defect that might require surgery. In fact, he had an open heart surgery a few days after birth. The question became “How will we handle that publicly”. I opted for a wait and see position during my pregnancy.

We shared the news of my son’s birth since people wanted to know. The news was so popular that I became the #1 trend on Twitter for Montreal. As more comments refer to my role as a new mom, my husband and I discussed how we would handle these comments. We decided that we could not hide the fact that our son would stay at the hospital for a few weeks. Therefore, we made a small announcement to our friends on Facebook. What we didn’t expect was the amazing response we got from our Facebook friends day after day. We both feel that the support of our Facebook friends helped us during these difficult times. Having people inquiring every day about the progress of our son comforted us and gave us strength. During his 24-day stay at the hospital, we made an habit to give a brief report on his condition. Our comments left out the details. As I said, we like to keep our life private. People told me how graciously we handled the entire situation. I am proud of that.

Facebook also allowed us to inform everyone without losing time. We welcomed the time-saving aspect since we did not have a lot of time on our hands. For all these reasons, we are glad that we made this announcement. Detractors of social media and the Internet often comment that it is impersonal. I can vouch that it can be very personal.

Social Netiquette: I won’t become a fan of every Facebook page

Kim Vallee — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:09:22 +0000

More and more brands ask you every day to become a fan of their Facebook page. As a blogger, we often get requests from brands that we never heard of. In light of this fact, I share here how I decide to become a fan or not of a brand on Facebook. I feel my social netetiquette guide could be useful to marketers who wish to pitch bloggers.

The first thing I suggest to any marketer is to know the blogger first. Chances are that if we never connected on social media and that I never talked about your brand on my blog, I do not know you. Second, know what are the values and the scope of interests of the bloggers you targeted. Third, read my editorial policy as it applies to all the content I produce. [Update: If after that it still seems like a good fit, maybe you can inquire if I know your brand or if I tried your products/services before?] Four, do not insist.

My brand At Home with Kim Vallee is based on providing a curated experience for my readers. My profile on Facebook is an extension of my brand. Using kimvallee.com as the domain name excludes the idea of separating the two identities.

On Facebook each brand is subject to the same principles I apply when I write a post, that is I feature only things and stores that I like. For me, being a fan symbolizes that you like a lot. Therefore, I may even go a step further with fan pages. Plus, if I become a fan of everything it will lose its purpose. But more importantly, if I become a fan of everything that is pitched to me I would betray the trust that my fans, my readers, my Facebook friends and my Twitter followers put on me as a curator.

Beyond the Stats: 77 percent of Facebook pages have less than 1,000 fans

Kim Vallee — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:02:09 +0000

If you follow social media, you probably read the headlines about the numbers of Facebook fans. (November 30th, 2009 Update: On average, Facebook pages have 4, 596 fans). The highlight of the latest survey by Sysomos is that 77 percent of Facebook fan pages have less than 1,000 fans. I read different theories about why or how to fix this. So here is my two cents.

First of all, let’s not forget that many small businesses, local designers and blogs have Facebook pages. Many of them has embraced Facebook as an affordable way to promote their brand. The owner or their marketing people typically passes a few hours a week or a month managing their social media presence.

Second, except for a small group, big names have not fully take advantage of Facebook pages. Many large corporations or organizations do not have a community manager or social media spokesperson on their payroll. Some people blamed the lack of a proper social strategy for the small numbers of fans. Yes, Facebook is not the answer for every business but I would tell you that getting the manpower to realize the strategy is more than often the biggest obstacle, besides misconceptions about social media. One thing is certain: If you do not engage with your fans, you cannot expect to get millions of fans just like that.

Lastly, Techcrunch noted that Facebook pages are typically updated every 16 days. They argue that Facebook users become a fan to show their support of affinity while people follow a brand on Twitter to hear what they have to say. There made some valid points. In fact, this is why I do not say or show the same things on my Facebook pages than on Twitter. The level of conversation is different. And maybe the problem is that brands have more trouble figuring out what to say on Facebook.

+ via Techcrunch where you can find more statistics about the survey by Sysomos

IKEA Showroom Facebook Campaign

Kim Vallee — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:43:15 +0000

When it comes to social media, you can do a lot if you take the time to think about how to use what already exists? A good example of using a feature that people are familiar with is the IKEA Showroom Facebook campaign. The beauty is that any business with a small marketing budget can do this.

For the opening a new IKEA store in Malmo, Sweden, their agency Forsman & Bodenfors devised a simple Facebook contest. The store manager uploaded showroom pictures to his profile. Participants won a product by being the first to tag their name to a product that appeared on the showroom pictures. Clever! They used the tagging function of Facebook, one of the most powerful features in Facebook to spread the word about their campaign. The nice thing is that anyone can do this.

This is what Guy Kasawaki refers as $0 marketing. It is not totally zero since you need influencers to market it, a person to run the campaign and in this case, the prizes. But now that I shared the key elements with you, assuming that you already built a good network online, you could bypass the agency and forget the ads in the newspapers. View like that, it is a very affordable advertising method.

Profile versus Fan Page

The IKEA Showroom Facebook campaign was built on a Facebook profile for the manager of the new store, Gordon Gustavsson. They opted for a profile instead of a fan page because a profile feels more personal. Nobody can deny that. You can set the photo permissions on your profile to be visible by everyone so that people do not need to become your friend before starting to tag themselves. Know that Facebook automatically asks the owner of a photo to approve the tagging requests from people with whom they are not friend.

If you opt for a fan page, you could still communicate with the voice of the store manager on a fan page. Things to consider is the amount of time you can put on campaign management and your long term objectives. Creating a profile requires you to accept the friend requests. Fans are accepted automatically. Fan page has more promotional values. You may want to use the contest to build your fan base and not just a one time buzz.

Some people may argue that activities from a profile are more likely to show up on the news feeds. With the recent changes in the news feeds, Peter Deng of Facebook told in an interview that pages with many comments and likes should come up at a good rate in the news feeds. It is up to you to trigger the buzz. As you can see both methods have values. Consider all elements before making your choice.

Watch the video for more details.

What to Consider Before Creating a Facebook Business Page

Kim Vallee — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:57:26 +0000

With more and more businesses jumping into social media, it is important that you read this to avoid mistakes. There are some subtleties that a beginner may not easy grasp when comes the time to create a Facebook page.

First of all, businesses must create a page. Profiles are exclusively reserved for humans. You go against the terms of use of Facebook and many people, including me, will refuse your friend invitations. Think about it. Someone does not want to become friend with a brand, but they might be a fan.

How to Proceed?

You first need to sign in with the profile you want to use as the creator/owner of the page and then, create the Facebook page of the business. One fact that you need to know is that, contrary to group, people do not see who is the creator of a business page.

This is where it may be confusing to beginners. A Facebook page must be created by a person with a Facebook profile. The creator cannot be changed. If you are the sole owner of a small business, it is simple. The owner of the business creates his/her profile and then, the page for the business. What happens if you are a corporation or have multiple owners?

Choose wisely who creates the page

I repeat, the creator of a page have administrative power over the page forever. Therefore, if you ask a consultant or an employee to create a page your business make sure they do it right. Otherwise, they will always have access and control your page forever. It is easy to forget that important detail in the middle of the action.

I got the last piece of the puzzle (the ownership of the page) after a discussion with Jerome Paradis of Paradivision over dinner earlier this week. And we both discussed it with other social media experts. One may be inclined to create a profile that the business will control. One idea is a profile for a top position at the corporation, like the president or even the communications director where it is seen as the position, not the person who holds the title. Notice that it is against the terms of use of Facebook to create a profile for a person who does not exist and that a person cannot have 2 profiles. Facebook may imagine a better way to deal with the business page ownership in the future. Until then, you do not really have a feasible option.

Before you create your page, I invite you to read those texts written by Facebook about their Business Fan pages:

+ Who Owns Your Facebook Business Fan Page? – Talked more about the problematic than the solution
+ Facebook Pages: What are Facebook Pages? Should I create one?

Disclaimer: Jerome Paradis is my husband and I own shares of Paradivision.

Social Media Changed Our Daily Life

Kim Vallee — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:25:58 +0000

Talking about social media feels so apropos since social media was central to my husband’s birthday party. Yahoo has its Big Idea chair photo shoot. We hosted our Favorite Social Media Couch photo booth. The concept was to hold the pillow(s) of the social media that is more important for us between Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

No need to say that I am a part of the social media revolution. If you read this post, you probably are. Social media is not a fad. I recalled last January when we traveled to the United States and my husband told me to turn down the data roaming on your iPhone. What!!! A week without Twitter and my RSS reader on the go. Luckily for me, Rogers added a US data roaming plan the week before so I was able to tweet after all.

We stay connected and share photos with our friends through Facebook and Twitter. You probably noticed that you use less the phone. It is more efficient to send a tweet or a text message. Social media has changed the way we communicate. And I feel it is for the good. And due to social media, I met online and offline new like-minded people; some of which have become good friends.

I want to know which is your favorite social media site or tool?

Social Media Revolution Statistics

If you need data to convince the unconverted ones, look at this video. It highlights key statistics about the growth and the impacts of social media in our everyday life. No need to write them down, Geek in Disguise did it for us.

Thanks to Liberty Post for reminding me about this video this morning. Thanks to Pierre Bellerose for noticing Craftsquatch, the seller of the pillows on etsy and for initiating the photo session. Vive the Social Media Revolution!

Café World on Facebook

Kim Vallee — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:57:12 +0000

Lately, I have been running my own restaurant on Facebook. Café World is another game by Zynga. You are the chef. Your friends/neighbors can be your waiters. As you advance in the game, you will be able to add stoves, service counters and preparing more recipes.

Organizing your room (kitchen and tables) is part of your success as the game determined the maximum resources (number of waiters, stoves and counters) that you can have. You can expand your restaurant at will, if you accumulated enough coins.

You can play at Café World the way you like but here are things that you should know:

Quicker to make recipe spoils more quickly. (1) Plus, look at the clock and your agenda before deciding what to cook. You do not wish to wake up at 3 am to serve the cheesecake that took 12 hours before being ready to serve.
Customers that were served in a timely fashion will add .1 to your buzz factor. Customers who cannot be served due to lack of available seats (3) or that are not served fast enough will reduce your buzz factor by .1
The buzz factor (thumb up) determines how many customers you will get. Keeping a window (from your browser) opens with the game playing speeds up the buzz factor. But make you have enough food on the counters because you will lose pretty quickly your advantage when the food ran out. (2)
You can close your restaurant to not run out of food while you are not in front of your computer. I close mine at night. Simply remove the door(s), that is put the door back in your inventory.
One server can serve 8 tables easily. Better to have more tables than risk that waiting customers leave unhappy.
Each table is for one person. No need to put two chairs. (4)
Visit your neighbors every day to earn extra cash and leave them a tip

Give me versatile decor elements

Unfortunately Café World is weak on the decor options. A part of the fun is to infuse your own style into your restaurant. There are many choices but nothing that will enable to create a restaurant style that you can brag about. For that reason, I will probably get bored of Café World quicker than usual. If I can not decorate my space to my satisfaction with the extra coins I accumulated, what is the point?

Why can game developers are too cheap (no excuse here, since Zynga makes lots of money) to hire a with interior design consultant to help them create amazing and versatile decor elements. Zynga assumes that you will go for a kit; so boring and passé! Clearly, the video game industry did not evolve on that topic since the first video games in 1980s. Maybe, we need more girls as lead game developers to change that.

+ Café World by Zynga on Facebook

US Women Are More Present in Social Networking Sites

Kim Vallee — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:02:19 +0000

It is not really a surprising news if you ask me. First of all, I told you about the female Internet in autumn 2008. At the time, I reported that Women’s community was the most visited and fastest growing Internet category, tied with politics according to ComScore Media Metrix’s year-end report.

I attributed these statistics to the fact that women are the ones who typically lead conversations, share information amongst themselves and create relationships with their peers. This is basically what social media is all about. What surprised me is what age groups haves the most users. As you can see, it is either 35 to 44 years old or 45 to 55 years old.

I added the more popular age group on the graph produced by Information is Beautiful. The data were compiled by Brian Solis.

+ via a tweet by Miss Rogue

Defining Social Media Etiquette One Step at a Time

Kim Vallee — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:43:19 +0000

The New Times published an article today about the fact that party hosts and some bars are starting to request no twittering, no blogging, and no photos. I agree with their concerns.

With the capability of uploading our pictures, updating our status and to publish all the time on social network sites, we need to use judgment about what is appropriate to put online or not. As adults, we must consider others’ view on privacy; not just our own.

I love and live in social media. But I also believe that we must keep a line between our private life and our public life. It is not just for you that you must censor what you put online; it is mostly for my friends and family. Not everyone wishes to participate in social networks.

Different Events, Different Venues, Different Rules

This is a lot to take into consideration. The proper code of etiquette is still in the making. Obeying a few basic rules keeps it simple.

Social media conferences encourage video recordings of the entire session, blogging and twittering. It is a given that you can publish your content without asking. But what about when you are in a restaurant, in a bar or when you are invited at a party at a friend’s house?

It is rare to get great shots in a dark bar with a phone camera. Asking your friends if they are OK with you posting the pictures with your phone in the middle of the party is not enough. Your friends may regret it the next morning. It may just be because they may not like the idea that we see them in a bar drinking and dancing. How many of you, have friends requesting that you untag them?

When you go to a party, upload the pictures the next day. You can better judge sitting at home than in the middle of a party. My rule of thumb is to take pictures at the start of the party. Then, forget about your camera.

Family affairs and parties at a friend’s house is generally off-limits. Even a quiet brunch party can be a problem. First, the host may not want to show off their house publicly. I always keep these pictures off the grid. The same is true for a wedding or a birthday celebration, even if they are happening on a public space.

As we continue to use social network sites, the etiquette will mature, will become more universal and will evolve with what we, as a society, feel comfortable with.

The Need for Fresh Content on Your Facebook Fan Page vs. Your Blog

Kim Vallee — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:05:56 +0000

I see my two fan pages (one per blog) as an extension of my brand. But it is not purely my property as my blog is. I wish to reinforce the difference between your fan page and your blog. They complement each other but they are 2 different things. Your readers must get something by become a fan. Therefore, your fan page should provide additional content that is not on your blog.

Look at your fan page as a destination for your fans to connect with your brand and amongst themselves. If you accept the fact that the content of your fan page does not have to be just about your brand, it reduces the amount of original content you will need to produce. Here are two ways to make it easy:

allow your fans to post their content
put content produced by others that is relevant to your readers.

By letting your fans posting their content, you will learn more about them. It gives you a chance to discover:

what they care about,
what they do,
what they like about your blog or your products/services,
what they want to know.

Their content can inspire new blog stories. If you are a business, letting your fans speak freely enables you to discover how people really use your products in their daily life and what are their expectations. It is also a good tool to discover influencers.

Fans are not necessary Your Blog Readers

One thing I noticed as a blogger active in my local community is that not all my fans read my blog. My case may be special. While these non reader fans are a minority, I welcome them.

I noticed that the gender split of At Home with Kim Vallee‘s fans is different from my readership. The reason is that many business bloggers that I am friend with and often met at conferences decided to show their support by becoming fans of At Home with Kim Vallee.

These social media and tech bloggers do not read At Home with Kim Vallee. Reading my tweets, seeing my post links on Facebook and knowing me personally enabled them to determine that my blog was worthy of their support. Although they are a minority, having their support gives my blog (and my brand) exposure outside my targeted circle. Having their trust adds to my credibility. This is one thing a fan page can do to support the growth of your blog.

Properly Setting the Fan Permissions on Facebook Pages

Kim Vallee — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:55:42 +0000

A reader asked me to tell him how he can post text on a fan page. The same way that you can decide if your Facebook friends are allowed to post comments on your wall, the owner of a fan page can define their wall settings. In short, a fan can post text, photos, videos and links on a fan page if the page owner has granted permissions to their fans.

To not allow your fans to write or post content on the fan wall is a big no-no on my book. I will go as far as saying that if this is your philosophy, your brand is not ready to be on Facebook. I encourage your brand to go over its fear since you are missing out a big opportunity.

Encourage Participation with the right Wall Settings on your Fan Page

Web 2.0 is based on interactions. The value of a fan page is to have a true dialogue with your fans. For that to happen, they need the power to express themselves. I advise any brand or blogger to use the above settings for their fan page.

There are two elements that you can customize. The first are the View Settings. To not miss any intervention by your fans, set the Default view for wall at “Post by Page and Fans”. For the Fan Permissions, I allow my fans to post anything on my page fans. As the fan page administrator, know that you can always delete inappropriate or unsolicited marketing (spam) material.

Farm Town Unavailability Causes Torments to its Users

Kim Vallee — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:36:21 +0000

If you play Farm Town on Facebook, you noticed that the game is not available. I received many comments where players express their fear of losing everything. Rest assured that your crops and farm possessions are still there. I did some digging and I found out that information from the maker of Farm Town.

Update: The issue seems to be caused by a glitch in the communication between FarmTown servers and Facebook.
FarmTown access will be restored as soon as these issues are solved.
We will be extending the ‘Ready to Harvest’ period so that crops do not go to waste due to this downtime.

Update – 12:50 AM EDT: ETA for FT to be back online is at 1 hour. (Not there yet)

There is no news when Farm Town will be back online. But it appears that the maker are working to restore it as soon as possible. Let’s hope it would be soon.

September 27th, 2009 Update: This blog is NOT produced by the maker of Farm Town, and I do NOT work for Farm Town. Therefore, it is not the right place to ask about support or why you cannot access the game.

On the Web with Kim Vallee » facebook

Facebook as an Efficient Support Group

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How to Proceed?

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Social Media Changed Our Daily Life

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Café World on Facebook

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US Women Are More Present in Social Networking Sites

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