Beyond Folders : Facebook

To Tag or Not: Etiquette for Facebook Photos

Community Manager — Thu, 31 May 2012 13:39:00 GMT

Smartphone cameras, Instagram and Hipstamatic: the ease of capturing digital photos is creating a nation of paparazzi-like photogs, snapping away every minute of the day. But while celebrities court cameras and the white-hot spotlight, not everyone appreciates being photographed, or tagged in images online.

To Tag or Not?

When is it okay to tag people on Facebook, or other photo sharing sites, and when should you hold back? Ask two different people and you're likely to get two different answers. Some people believe you should always ask for permission before you take or post photos. Ditto for tagging people. Others think posting photos (as long as they are flattering) is always fine. Still others have different rules for posting photos of young children then they do adults.

Since no hard-and-fast rules exist, use commonsense. Our past post, Photo Finish: What to Keep Off of Facebook, helps spell out what images to avoid posting online.

To avoid further pitfalls, check out the advice in these useful resources:

Finally, if you are concerned about what photos of you may be popping up on Facebook, check out our newest productivity tool: the Pendaflex Tag Tamer. This free, user-friendly app easily finds and removes unwanted photos. Never be embarrassed by a Facebook photo again.

How do you decide what photos to post and tag on Facebook? Has anyone ever tagged you in an embarrassing photo? Share your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook page.

Photo Finish: What to Keep Off of Facebook

Community Manager — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:59:00 GMT

We've all heard the horror stories of unwanted or embarrassing photos popping up on Facebook. Witness the case of a Florida fireman who was recently investigated after his boss saw pictures of his minor children on Facebook posing with alcoholic beverages. Puts your own recent "bad hair day" photo into perspective doesn't it?

Knowing that the new Facebook Timeline format makes photos more visible and discoverable than ever, we recently launched the Pendaflex Tag Tamer, a free, user-friendly app for finding and removing unwanted photos.

The Tag Tamer streamlines the search process, letting users search for photos by month and year as well as by others tagged in the same photo. So say good-bye to manually scrolling through countless photos and hello to a one-click search that gathers photos in one easy-to-see window.

Once you have your photos neatly corralled, review them for suitability. While individuals may differ on what constitutes an acceptable photo, experts offer these useful guidelines.

No nudity or scantily clad images
Think twice about posting pictures of alcohol consumption, even if you're of legal age. Ditto for tobacco use.
No illegal activities
Think twice about images with apparel showcasing political or religious slogans.
Keep intimate shots intimate (birth pictures, children in bathtubs, couples kissing, etc. fall into this category)
Delete image that make you uncomfortable with your appearance (bad hair day, eyes closed, goofy facial expression.)

Use commonsense when reviewing pictures, asking yourself the "New York Times" question: how would I feel if this image was on the front page of the New York Times? Then, delete or keep accordingly.

How do you manage your images on Facebook? Has anyone ever tagged you in an embarrassing photo? Share your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook page.

Tame Unwanted Facebook Photos

Community Manager — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:57:00 GMT

Smartphones, with their built-in digital cameras, have made for a snap-happy world. Last New Year's Eve alone an estimated 750 million pictures were posted to Facebook. Odds are not every photo was flattering: too much "Auld Lang Syne" can look pretty embarrassing in the light of day.

Given how easy it is to be tagged in Facebook photos for the world to see, it's critical to manage how your image is presented on the social media giant. Putting your best face forward on Facebook is more than just mere vanity; it's as critical to your professional reputation as impeccable references and a polished resume. Consider the following:

Recruiters and hiring managers are increasingly using Facebook to screen prospective hires.
Ninety percent of hiring managers check out potential candidates' social media accounts.
Seventy percent of hiring managers have rejected a candidate because of inappropriate Facebook content.
Facebook's new Timeline format makes photos more visible and discoverable than ever.

So how to keep all those "bad hair day" photos off Facebook once and for all? Try the Pendaflex Tag Tamer, a free, user-friendly app for finding and removing unwanted photos.

The Tag Tamer streamlines the search process, letting users search for photos by month and year as well as by others tagged in the same photo. The Pendaflex Tag tamer is faster, and more efficient, than the Facebook default method for removing pictures.

Job hunters, college grads with an active "virtual" life and anyone with friends and family who are always snapping digital pictures will want to visit the Pendaflex Facebook page to download the free app. Get ready to say good-bye to unwanted or embarrassing photos for good.

How do you manage your images on Facebook? Has anyone ever tagged you in an embarrassing photo? Share your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook page.

Boost Your Social Media Smarts

Community Manager — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:22:00 GMT

Have you jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon yet? The social networking site is exploding in popularity and "pinning" is now giving "tweeting" a run for its money.

If you've only vaguely heard of Pinterest, its time to upgrade your social media smarts. Facebook isn't the only game in town you know.

Pinterest: An online "pin board," Pinterest lets users "pin" images from across the web to virtual bulletin boards on its site. Pinterest now has 11 million users, and unlike many other social networking sites, is most popular among women ages 18-34. For users, the site makes aggregating images, recipes and other content simple to collect and search. Businesses, particularly retailers, need to be paying attention; Pinterest is now driving more traffic to retail sites than Google+. This post provides a succinct overview of the site, why it's useful and describes its business model. See what Pendaflex is doing on our Pinterest boards here.

Google+: If you're a Gmail or Chrome user, you may be wondering what's the deal with Google's latest initiative Google+? Google's foray into social networking was strong out of the gate last June but is now languishing behind the big three: Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. The Wall Street Journal goes so far as to call it a "ghost town" in a recent article. Still, the site offers options that others don't such as "Hangouts" which allow for video conferencing for up to 10 people at a time. Google says it's in for the long haul, so the site may get a chance to become more relevant. For more, read Time Spent on Google+ Dwindles While Pinterest Draws Growing User Interest.

Instagram: In a little over a year and a half, Instagram has grown to be the most popular mobile image sharing application available. Translation: if you took a cell phone picture in the last year and a half, odds are good you shared it via Instagram. For users, Instagram offers users the ability to experiment with the high quality images and filters that mobile devices now offer, in a simple, easy to use interface. For businesses, Instagram offers more than just a chance to showcase product pictures, the platform provides opportunities to deepen brand building, so go ahead and post photos of products on the assembly line, provide a sneak peek behind the scenes of a fashion show, or share images of celebrities or regular customers interacting with products. For more read, Instagram: 10 Tips to Tell Your Brand's Story 1,000 Words at a Time.

Foursquare: Never again wonder where everyone is hanging out without you: geo-location social networking site Foursquare lets you track the people in your life. The site provides more than a virtual peek at where everyone is at any given moment, it offers user generated recommendations, coupons and other freebies from nearby businesses. For more, read Foursquare CEO: Not Just Check-ins and Badges.

So consider upping your social media ante by giving some of these up-and-comers a try. And if you aren't yet a regular user of the major players-Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn- it's time to jump in and see just what Facebook's other 800 million plus users are up to.

What is your favorite social networking site? Are there some sites that make you think "no way, not for me" or "heck yea, sign me up." Share your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook page.

Professional Networking on Facebook: Branching Out from Just Friends

Community Manager — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:09:00 GMT

Facebook, the go-to social networking site of a staggering 750 million users, now has an increasing number of third-party apps that allow for professional networking. BranchOut is perhaps the best known; others include the newer BeKnown, as well as Identified and Work4Labs.

Companies are increasingly using social networking to source high-quality candidates due to its ease and cheapness. Given that many top-tier companies are shifting from traditional hiring methods such as job boards and third-party recruiters, professional networking through social media channels is becoming ever more critical.

Here's an overview of some of the players:

BranchOut: BranchOut is an app that allows Facebook users to unlock massive amounts of career data on Facebook friends (and even friends of friends). Users can search on a company name and see which of your Facebook friends work there (or used to).

BranchOut also allows users to import their existing data from LinkedIn, making profiles a snap to create. The app also allows companies to post job listings.

For more, read:

BranchOut=Facebook Plus LinkedIn Divided by Job Search

BeKnown: Job search behemoth Monster.com launched BeKnown, allowing job hunters to search for and apply for jobs without leaving Facebook. The app is fully integrated with Facebook, but lets users keep their personal Facebook information private, a major plus.

Job seekers can not only view and apply for jobs, they can see company information, get endorsed, and apply for jobs directly from the app.

For more, read:

Monster.com Launches BeKnown: Professional Social Networking for Facebook

Identified: A professional network that builds candidate profiles using relevant Facebook biographical data; allows recruiters to search all candidates by a variety of requirements such as GPA or school attended; the service also keeps sensitive social data out of the hands of recruiters.

For more, read:

Identified to Challenge LinkedIn by Building Job Candidate Profiles from Facebook Data

Work 4 Labs: An app for recruiters and candidates. Companies can post jobs to their Facebook Page and advertise via Facebook Ads. The app also offers referral features. Work4 Labs also develops Jobs for Me, one of the largest networks of university career centers and vertical job boards on Facebook. According to the company, users include blue-chip names such as Citibank, Accenture, Oracle, Microsoft, KPMG and Intel to name a few.

For more, read:

Tools of the Trade - Work4Labs: Work 4 Us App

Finally, we leave you with a useful read for optimizing social media to land coveted gigs: 5 Clever Ways to Get a Job Using Social Media.

Good luck with the job search!

Optimizing Facebook: What-Not-To-Do

Community Manager — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:44:00 GMT

Facebook recently overhauled its brand, or business, pages, adding increased functionality and an updated design. Now, more than ever brands and businesses should be staking their claim on the social media platform. In a three-part series of posts about optimizing Facebook for business, we've looked at how to get a business page up and running and steps to drive traffic and engage your user base. Today's post takes a look at what-not-not-to-do as a brand.

Don't Let This Be You

Page, Not Profile: Experts agree that a classic mistake many businesses, particularly small businesses, make is to launch a Facebook profile rather than a business page. Doing so limits the ability to attract users (profiles are capped at 5,000 friends, pages are unlimited), offers limited functionality and analytics and prevents your Facebook identity from benefiting from search engine optimization. Facebook has designed individual user profiles to offer a modicum of privacy, in contrast, brands and businesses want to be found on Facebook during online searches so should opt for a "page" identity which can be found through search.

Engage Users, Don't Spam Them: Too many businesses fail to establish a plan for consistent, compelling communication or neglect to be responsive to their users. Facebook is a social media platform, anyone on it, including businesses, should be prepared to interact regularly and be responsive to posts from users. Establishing a consistent communication schedule helps prevent a page from withering from inattention. Likewise, be sensitive to spamming your users with a barrage of marketing materials or a hard sell. Do you enjoy cocktail party interactions where people entertain you with interesting or funny stories and offer wonderful advice and unsolicited treats? Or do you prefer interactions where people spend the entire party yammering about their interests, failing to ask you questions and trying to persuade you to buy their used car? Enough said.

Boring? Argumentative? No Thanks: Facebook is a conversation and smart communicators know that boring or arguing with people generally reaps negative outcomes. Keep your Facebook page fresh with engaging, relevant content, contests and giveaways. Posting the same-old, same-old will turn users off. The more people stop interacting with your page, the lower you will sink in Facebook measurement metrics, thus your own postings will rank lower on your users feeds. And take a lesson from mega brand Nestle, which got into a postings spat with some Facebook users. Remember, Facebook is about making friends, not enemies.

For more ideas of errors worth avoiding, read 6 Things NOT to Do On Facebook As a Brand. And to close, we leave you with more inspiration of businesses doing it right: 20 Awesome Facebook Fan Pages.

Have you had any bumps along the road with your Facebook efforts? Have any what-not-to-do advice to share? Post your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook page.

by Candie Harris

Optimizing Facebook: Getting “Liked” Online

Community Manager — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:39:00 GMT

Remember Sally Fields famous "You like me, you really like me!" Oscar acceptance speech? The speech lives on as one of Oscar's most endearing because we all could relate: who doesn't want to be liked? In today's global economy being "likeable" is now a crucial business proposition.

In our most recent post, we provided resources to get a Facebook business page up and running. Now we've assembled a list of resources to drive fans and traffic to your Facebook page again and again.

5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand's Facebook Presence. Includes information on creating the perfect profile picture and why establishing a publication schedule for Facebook content keeps users engaged and coming back for more.

Optimizing Facebook's News Feed to Get More "Likes." Tips from a social media marketing expert including posting early in the morning for increased views and stragetgies for capitalizing on Facebook's new product launches which are more likely to crop up in user news feeds.

Optimizing Facebook Status Updates for Local Marketing. Terrific post about "tagging" status updates with links to related Facebook content to increase traffic exponentially.

How we Got to 40,301 Fans in 4 Days. Who wouldn't want to go from zero to more than 40,000 in less than a week? Great piece on strategies such as why running ads asking fans to "like you" pays huge dividends and why creating an incentivized "like" page is an absolute must.

Finally, don't overlook easy steps such as adding a Facebook icon to your web site and any emails you send. Keep in mind, it's possible to connect your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts so posts are shared across the three platforms simultaneously. Of course, this only makes sense if you have a separation of church and state between your personal and business accounts. You won't want to be sharing personal posts across business platforms.

Before signing off, we leave you with an article on Facebook fan pages doing it right, assembled by well-regarded social media and marketing consultant Chris Brogan. Check out the post for ideas of what works.

Have you helped your business create a Facebook page? Do you have any tips for driving Facebook traffic? Share your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook page.

by Candie Harris

Optimizing Facebook: Business vs. Personal Profiles

Community Manager — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:35:00 GMT

Does your business have a Facebook page? If not, it's time to get one up and running. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder, didn't land the coveted Time Magazine Person of the Year just because he has a lot of "friends." Zuckerberg achieved global acclaim because he launched the best, most innovative social networking platform on the planet. Don't let your business be left out of the party.

In this post, the first of a three-part series on optimizing Facebook for business, we'll examine the difference between business pages and personal profiles and provide tips on getting your business page, also sometimes referred to as a "fan" page or a "brand" page, up and running. Future posts will focus on to building a user base and a primer on what-not-to-do.

The Business of Friends

So why create a business Facebook page? Business pages provide companies (or organizations and causes) a low-cost platform for distributing information and marketing materials to a global audience in a wide-variety of formats (i.e. text, images, video, interactive games and giveaways and more.)

Business pages have a similar look and feel to a personal profile, with a name and thumbnail picture as well as a "wall" that publishes a news feed and user comments.
Unlike personal profiles, business pages cannot "friend" users but rather must invite individuals to "like" them.
Personal pages have a cap of 5,000 friends; however business pages have no limit on the number of "fans" they can attract.
Business pages also have features which allows page administrators to analyze page views, the demographics of their fans, and the number of people who view (or stop viewing) news feed posts.
Personal profiles are closed off to the rest of the web, business pages are open, media-rich and can be seen (and most importantly!) liked by anyone.

First Steps

The first step is the most crucial: securing your company name on Facebook. Get started by visiting the Facebook link. Next, assign administrator rights to others in your organization that will need to add content or modify the page from time to time. Add content to the site such as a profile thumbnail, photos and information and be sure to generate a few wall postings before you begin to "invite" fans to like your page.

For more details to consider, we like the excellent Creating A Facebook Business Page from Forbes.com. Also, keep in mind that it's possible to outsource your Facebook presence to third-party vendors with an expertise in leveraging social media such as Buddy Media which works for such major brands as Johnson & Johnson and Target. Buddy Media is not alone; a quick Google search will turn up numerous other companies who make the business of friends their day-to-day work.

Finally, remember while getting a page up and running is relatively simple, making it a valuable marketing and analytics tool takes extra effort. Check back later in the week for our post "Optimizing Facebook: Getting "Liked" Online."

Have you helped your business create a Facebook page? Do you have any tips for driving Facebook traffic? Share your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook page.

by Bradley Eggers