On the Web with Kim Vallee » SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitter is Most Popular with the 18-44

Kim Vallee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:50:44 +0000

Over the last 9 months in the United States, the percentage of Twitter users doubled in every age group except the 25-34 group. Therefore, the media age of a Twitter user remains stable at 31 years old.

The Pew Internet Project’s September 2009 survey data shows that internet users who use social network sites are more likely to use Twitter or another status updating service. The more devices you own, the more likely you are to tweet.

More Interesting Data

More women (21%) than men (17%) tweet in the United States. Overall 19% of American adults tweet. One fact is is interesting is that household income is not a factor. You get 20-22% of participation in every income bracket.

+ Pew Internet Project’s September 2009 survey report

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

Simplify Your Image Use Policy

Kim Vallee — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:34:57 +0000

I am always amazed to see how many brands and organizations have not adapted to the new reality of Web communication. Brands and organizations spent a lot of money on marketing and advertising. Yet they fail at the cheapest and probably the most efficient promotion tool: the words of their fans.

If a blogger decided, on their own initiative, to write about one of your products or your event, chances are that they give you free publicity that their readers will trust because it is their honest opinion. People prefer to write about what they like than what they do not like. So why are you making it difficult for bloggers to write about your stuff?

I go through my checklist before writing a story. The first thing on that list is the availability of great pictures. If they are none, I moved to the next story. This is because pictures sell a story.

Asking people to fill a form and wait for your staff to send me a password to access your media kit is so passé. Blogging is about what is hot today. What is hot today is what caught my attention at that instant. If I cannot find the material right away to write my story, I will pass to the next story. They are no shortage of good topics when you know how to research and have imagination.

As a blogger, I want direct access to promotional pictures that are at least 500 pixels in width (80% jpg or png-24). Simply protect your content under a non-commercial Creative Commons license and request that bloggers clearly give you credit and put a link to you (the source). If more people knows about what you are doing, you will be more successful. At the end, we all win.

By the way, the free Trend Briefings produced by Trendwatching.com is a must read. I am one of their 160,000+ business professionals in more than 180 countries who is looking for it every month.

Encouraging Women to Attend and Speak at Tech Conferences

Kim Vallee — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:02:46 +0000

If you follow the social media crowd, you probably have noticed the current campaign against the lack of women speakers and presenters at big Tech conferences. Allyson Kapin summed it up on Fast Company when she wrote Where are Women in Tech and Social Media? yesterday.

There was an improvised discussion on that topic at PodCamp Boston 4. There were good comments. I agree that we are missing the input of women at conferences. Now that women are very active on social media, it makes sense that things change. It is also up to us to take our place. The heart of the problem does not necessarily start at the big events.

Participation Outside the Usual Crowd

I always try to encourage women, for most part women bloggers that are not social media consultants, to attend tech and social media conferences and unconferences. Sadly, many women do not attend conferences that are work related. I guess it is either by lack of time or because they are unsure that they fit in.

Last year, I spoke at PodCamp Toronto and PodCamp Montreal about how women are shaping the Web. I felt it was important to show how the non-tech women blogging universe is diverse, creative and bring innovative ideas. At WordCamp Montreal last June, we were only three women speakers. I wonder why no more women – in fact, I could say the same about the design crowd – spoke at WordCamp Montreal.

One Step at a Time

Before we get invited to speak at big events, we have to learn public speaking. More women should take the opportunity to be known and get public speaking experience by attending and presenting at smaller conferences. It is one simple way to invade the boys’ club.

Therefore, I invite women, and men, to come to the upcoming PodCamp Montreal on September 19-20, 2009. I already selected my topic. I will be sending my conference proposal shortly. If you want to, this is your chance to present. Take it!

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.

Quickly Share How to Get to a Place on Twitter with TwitArea

Kim Vallee — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:45:05 +0000

Many people use Twitter to meet their friends at restaurants, shops, museums and other public places. Launched last week by Praized, TwitArea enables to quickly lead them to a place’s address, phone number and locate the place on a map. If you have a smart phone, you will find that having a direct link on tweets saves you time while you are on the run.

Another good use is to clearly identify a place. A couple of weeks ago, I tweeted about a hotel in Toronto. But the Toronto hotel has almost the same name as a trademark hotel in Chicago. Linking to the place on my tweet would have avoided the confusion.

How to Use TwitArea

No need to register. All you need to post a tweet with TwitArea is to use Firefox and be on the Twitter.com site. Simply install the Firefox add-on for TwitArea. The Firefox add-on will add an Insert Place button under the text box on Twitter.com. Click on the button whenever you wish to add the information of a place. Find the place you are referring to and click on the Tweet this! button. Voilà!

Your tweet will look like this. Anyone on a computer or using a smart phone will be able to click on the short URL to know the address, phone and locate on a map the place. I like it because TwitArea simplifies my life.

About Praized Media, the maker of TwitArea

TwitArea is related to Praized community database containing the location of 16 million businesses in Canada and in the United States. The Praized application is what is powering my Places community on At Home with Kim Vallee. Located in Montreal, Praized enables publishers with an easy way for their readers to recommend local businesses to each other.

+ TwitArea

Reviewing Hellmann’s Eat Real, Eat Local Social Media Initiatives

Kim Vallee — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:57:19 +0000

I happened to fall on Hellmann’s Real Food Movement Web site this morning. Hellmann is using social media (blog, Twitter and Facebook Connect) to raise awareness about the need of eating local food. Using a higher social motive to raise the profile of a brand is nothing new. What is new is how brands tap into our social networks to achieve their goal.

I wish to talk about is the execution of the campaign. It is an opportunity to learn the good and the bad. There are lessons that any brand or blogger can learn from.

What They Did Right

The #RealFood hashtag campaign linked to a $25,000 donation to Evergreen is a good start. They are raising the bar today (July 29, 2009) by quadrupling all day how much they donate per tweet showing the #realfood hashtag. But it is not enough to raise a movement.

On their blog what I assumed to be their blog section (Real Food Conversations), they are not only talking about themselves. They are linking to other blogs. This is one thing that I always tried to emphasis with brands that try to build a community. You have to talk your movement in a larger spectrum. It cannot be just about what you do. Update: the principle that I wish to convey is what you have to remember here.

The same is true for the Twitter account of a blogger; you have to promote stories and content done by others on the topic you cover. As the blogger and promoter of the movement, you must act as an inspiring figure, be a leader.

Where There is Room for Improvements

It is ironic that their blog section is called Real Food Conversations but that we cannot comment on their posts. Many brands made this mistake. It is Blogging 101: you MUST allow comments.

All their posts are written by Admin. Ideally, you should put the name of the spokesperson. A first name can be sufficient but the full name is better. At least, display a username more engaging than Admin. Naming a person humanizes the process; it increases your chances to connect with them. Remember that we are more comfortable talking to a person than an organization.

Finally, the tweets are not engaging. It seems that all actions stopped at “I am supporting Eat Real, Eat Local”. It is missing passion, commitment on both sides. It is up to the brand to seed the passion. I suggest them to expand more about their movement on the Bio message. The same as with the blog, naming the person who is writing the tweets will enable you to build stronger relationships with your customers.

On a marketing side, I see too many angles. The URL site and twitter account are EatRealEatLocal but the movement is call the Real Food Movement. And then, they is a Choose Canadian ad campaign. I am not a marketer but it seems confusing.

MORE:
+ Eat Real, Eat Local on Twitter
+ Real Food Movement’s Web site

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.

IDEO’s Innovative Ideas on the Future of Journalism

Kim Vallee — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:26:21 +0000

Newspapers are endangered species. Like many industries, it must adapt to its time. Although it is easier to read a print media, the hyperlinks, the velocity of the news and the multimedia power of the Internet clearly highlighted the weakness of the print media. Look at how this article I read on the San Francisco magazine is enriched by simply putting the hyperlinks.

Journalism is not dead but to survive these professionals must adapt. San Francisco is known for being a bed of fresh ideas. San Francisco magazine produced two excellent articles this July on how journalism could adapt to better serve their communities.

IDEO explores how we might someday experience the news

I particularly like the conclusions from an IDEO retreat on the future of journalism. If you do know them, IDEO is a consulting firm renowned for its creative problem solving. They take a design approach to create human-centered innovation and how to experience products and services.

The Power of Being Hyperlocal

People care about what happen in their communities. Readers said over and over that they want hyperlocal information and coverage on niche topics. They care about what affects their daily life. The Web enables anyone, including news media, to deliver specific choices to people. But the local newspapers cannot afford anymore to properly cover the news by neighborhoods. Many blogs have filled that gap and gained the trust of their readers.

Blogs are an affordable way to cater to a specific crowd. By establishing partnerships with residents, passionate bloggers and citizen journalists who concentrate on niches, local newspapers could aggregate these local stories. Then, the local newspapers could concentrate on more global stories. This is one way they can modernize their process.

Social media offers great ways to deliver the news. Anyone in the community could report and comments on facts and events. Non-profit news agency could provide fact-checking services that even citizen journalists could afford.

Multimedia Storytelling

Some journalism schools are starting to recognize the current challenge and the need to prepare their students for the new reality of journalism.

Berkeley provides a Digital News Project where 60 students participated so far. Thanks to a $500,000 grant from Ford Foundation, they produced 7 hyperlocal news Websites where they put in practice multimedia storytelling.

The content is excellent and well researched. In fact, Mission Local, on the most popular site, repeatedly scooped the San Francisco Chronicle on breaking news stories in 2008. There is a bright future for journalism. And I wish that citizens and bloggers could collaborate in this adventure.

MORE:
+ Ignore the clutter by Caroline Lea
+ Newspapers are dead. Long live journalism! by Nina Martin
+ News Flash from the Future produced by IDEO
+ Credits: Shown Illustrations by Tom Manning for IDEO

On the Web with Kim Vallee » SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitter is Most Popular with the 18-44

More Interesting Data

You might also like these posts

What to Consider Before Creating a Facebook Business Page

How to Proceed?

Choose wisely who creates the page

You might also like these posts

Social Media Changed Our Daily Life

Social Media Revolution Statistics

You might also like these posts

Café World on Facebook

Give me versatile decor elements

You might also like these posts

US Women Are More Present in Social Networking Sites

You might also like these posts

Simplify Your Image Use Policy

You might also like these posts

Encouraging Women to Attend and Speak at Tech Conferences

Participation Outside the Usual Crowd

One Step at a Time

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Defining Social Media Etiquette One Step at a Time

You might also like these posts

Quickly Share How to Get to a Place on Twitter with TwitArea

How to Use TwitArea

About Praized Media, the maker of TwitArea

You might also like these posts

Reviewing Hellmann’s Eat Real, Eat Local Social Media Initiatives

What They Did Right

Where There is Room for Improvements

You might also like these posts

Properly Setting the Fan Permissions on Facebook Pages

Encourage Participation with the right Wall Settings on your Fan Page

You might also like these posts

IDEO’s Innovative Ideas on the Future of Journalism

IDEO explores how we might someday experience the news

The Power of Being Hyperlocal

Multimedia Storytelling

You might also like these posts