So I’ve had several people text, tweet, email and FB me about my thoughts on the iPhone 4s and if I’m disappointed or not. Here’s my response -

Considering I still have a 3Gs, I’m more than ready for the upgrade and happy to get the 4s. So, YES, I’ll be getting the iPhone 4s. I wasn’t eligible for the discounted upgrade when the iPhone 4 came out.  I can understand people’s disappointment who already have a iPhone 4, but being in the technology industry and working with developers…if people only knew how long it takes to create, develop, test and deploy new features and technology, they wouldn’t be so disappointed.  Plus, there’s always lots of red tape and paperwork that holds things up. I would prefer to celebrate the innovation that is apparent in the new device vs. complain about what’s not there.  If you have an iPhone 4, you may be considering waiting for the 5…but who knows exactly when that will be available.

I have a feeling Apple has tons up their sleeve that will blow our minds when it’s good and ready.  I bet the 5 will blow away the 4, but they just aren’t there yet and you know Apple…they aren’t going to put it out unless it’s READY.

Below is list of the new features that I’m excited about…in case you missed it =)

• New model is called iPhone 4s.
• It’ll be available for Pre-order on October 7, 2011 and then to general public on October 14, 2011.
• Siri is the new smart assistant (only on 4s) that will interact with you verbally to search, schedule, remind and follow up with your network.
• It has a dual-core chip called the A5 that is faster for processing
• Improved camera with improved optics – 8 MP camera and 1080p HD recording (hard to believe that’s built into a phone)
• Loaded with iOS 5 that includes over 200 new software features
• iCloud “Your content on all your devices”

There’s plenty more that’s not included in this list and you can view the features here – http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/

There have been many times where I am logged in as myself and since I follow tons of social media resources I see something that I want to share on the weedott wall.  In order to do so, I would have to go to my business page, click on “use Facebook as weedott”, then go back and find the content I wanted to share in order to share it with my weedott fans.   Thankfully, Facebook has made this process even easier!  Below are step-by-step instructions on how to share content on your page wall (no matter how many pages you admin) without having to leave your personal Facebook profile.

Step 1: When you see content worth sharing with your page fans click the share button as shown below.

Step 2: Before, the only option was to share on your own wall but now you can click “on your own wall” as seen below for more options.

Step 3: Choose to share the content on your page rather than on your wall or with a friend.

Step 4: A list of all of the pages that you admin appears and you can pick which page you want to share the content on.

It’s that simple and you have saved the time and frustration of having to go back and forth between your business page and your personal page!  Thankfully, Facebook is always making changes that make it easier for us to use our business pages to increase awareness, interaction, and success for our brands.  Stay tuned as we continue to keep you abreast of the latest and greatest updates in the social media industry.

Facebook recently changed the way their groups look, feel and function.  In my opinion, they function a lot more like traditional discussion forums online.  In this post I’ll outline some ideas for both business AND personal ways you might want to use a group.  I’ll also outline the steps you’ll take so set the group up and some of the features of the groups.  Keep in mind you can open and close groups when needed, so they don’t have to be a permanent fixture forever.  Let me know if you’ve found some really creative ways to use a group that I didn’t list here.

Have an older group on Facebook?  You’ll want to visit the Facebook Help Section here for FAQs on how those groups will be migrated.  Click here for help –>  http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18966

Who would benefit….

• Businesses and Organizations Uses:
  • Businesses wanting a discussion forum for their clients
  • Business launching a new product that needs a space for testing and debugging discussion
  • Non-Profits needing a planning space for upcoming fundraiser
• Non-Business Uses:
  • Students working on a school project
  • Large Families planning to travel/reunion
  • Clubs/Organizations/Associations planning events
  • Have a private way of sharing photos and ideas in a closed setting
  • Similar interest groups for food, travel and hobbies

Setting up your group…

• Decide on the type (don’t worry you can change this later if needed)
  • Open – Anyone can see the group, who’s in it, and what members post.
  • Closed – Anyone can see the group and who’s in it. Only members see posts.
  • Secret – Only members see the group, who’s in it, and what members post.
• Get familiar with the group landscape
  • The Right-hand navigation
  • Members – See the number of members in the group
  • Add Friends to Group
  • Go Online to Chat – This is a cool “group chat” feature similar to a chat room
  • Create Doc – Great place to collaborate on a document. Only one person can edit at a time, but the document is edited live and there’s not uploading or downloading.
  • Create Event – Great way to create events that are specific to your group
  • View Photos – You can upload photos and create albums that only your group can see
  • Edit Group – If you are an admin you’ll have the option to edit group settings and features
  • Leave Group – You can leave your own group =)
  • Docs – This is where your docs are listed
• What can you accomplish in a group?
  • Create events to coordinate meet ups
  • Collaborate on group documents
  • Share links, pics and video
  • Poll the group/take a vote

Have an older group on Facebook?  You’ll want to visit the Facebook Help Section here for FAQs on how those groups will be migrated.  Click here for help –>  http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18966

How to make it all tie together…

Gather Up All Your Social Media Links (URLs)

When you secure a profile on most social media networks, you will usually have a direct link that directs you to your exact profile.  You’ll want to gather up these links so that you can use them to “spoon feed” people to the exact place that you want them.  For example, on Twitter, we have the Twitter ID of weedott or more commonly shown as @weedott to indicate a Twitter ID.  However, if someone wasn’t on Twitter, they may not know how to actually get to your or better yet, they go to Twitter’s homepage and are sure how to “search” for you .  So, the best solution is to provide the direct link (URL) for people to click on or type in so that they get to you directly.  The direct link to our Twitter profile is then http://twitter.com/weedott and this takes people exactly where we want them with no fussing and no extra steps.

On a side note for Facebook, you can secure a “vanity URL”.  When we first set up our Facebook Page, we were assigned the default URL that was super long and messy.  However, you can change your Facebook URL by going to http://facebook.com/username and selecting a vanity URL for your page.  CAUTION:  You’ll see this warning on Facebook as well, but I have to stress the fact that once you set it, that username/URL combo is locked FOREVER.  There’s no turning back.  So be very careful about what you select!!

Update Your Digital Assets

Once you have your links all rounded up, chances are, your digital assets will be the easiest to update first.  Make sure to do the rounds on your website, email signature, email newsletter and of course your other social media profiles.

Update Your PRINT Marketing

Now that your have your digital assets updated, you can review your print marketing and add your social media links where it makes sense.  This would include business cards, letter head, brochures, flyers, menus and so on.  It’s important when your print marketing is making contact with your audience that they have the option to connect with you on social media.  You don’t have to add them all, so be selective based on space and relevancy.

Update Your Signage

Digital assets can sometimes be the easiest and least expensive updates you’ll want to make.  However, it is importnat to address your signs, billboards, window displays, posters and table top signs when you can.

It all seem simple enough, but it’s just easy to forget with all the hustle and bustle of the crazy work day.

So you’ve probably heard of Groupon, Living Social, Daily Deals and the list goes on. These services provide you with local daily deals based on personal criteria you’ve entered such as location and interests. There’s also check-in services out there like foursquare and Yelp which allow you to access deals based on your immediate location. What do these services have in common? They are NOT Facebook.

Facebook recently announced they will be offering a daily deals program that will surely rival the above mentioned services. The advantage Facebook has is not only it’s captive audience of 500+ Million users but also the ability to have these deals show up right in users’ newsfeed. If you are Groupon or Yelp and you want to push a deal out on Facebook you are stuck either posting it on your Business Facebook Page wall or purchasing Facebook Ad space. Here’s the problem….more than half of the users that access Facebook access it through their mobile phone and will never even see those ads. HUGE advantage for Facebook…and a smart move.

Here’s a link to the Facebook Deals Page where you can sign up to receive notification when the program goes live. http://www.facebook.com/deals Right now it’s only available in 5 cities: San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, Atlanta and Dallas. If you’re not in one of those cites, then sign up so you’ll be notified when it goes live in your city. Expect to see locations based deals and deals based on how many of your friends are taking part in the deal.

Our local Fox channel did a segment on the upcoming deals and one of weedott’s partners, Echo, was featured in the video. Take a look and tell us what your thoughts are! Carlos thinks Facebook is taking over the world….your thoughts?

Facebook getting into daily deals game: MyFoxORLANDO.com

Step 1:  Log into your Facebook profile and click on the “Account” in the upper right corner as seen below.  From there you can click on “Privacy Settings”.

Step 2:  Click on the “Custom Settings” in the lower left of your screen.

Step 3:  Click on the button to the right of “Posts by Me” section and a drop down menu will appear.  From the drop down, click on “Customize”.

Step 4:  From this pop-up window, you can edit who you WANT to see your Facebook posts and who you DON”T WANT to see them.  There’s a drop down menu for selecting who you WANT to see your posts.  For the people you’d like to HIDE your updates from, you’ll click in the text box and start typing their name.  Facebook should pull in their full name as you start typing and you’ll want to click on the them when they pop up.  Once you click on their name, Facebook will add them to your list of people you want to HIDE your updates from.  You can always come back and edit this later if you need.  For this example I added myself so you can see my name in the box for hiding.  To finish click “Save Setting” and you’re all set!

I’m more of an “on the fly” kind of girl and have instead armed myself with an arsenal of apps on my phone to save me money. The trick is remembering to use them! This post is about 3 simple types of apps you can use to make sure you’re getting a good deal and taking advantage of specials out there. I’m including for sure the iPhone and Android platforms and will add others if they are available.  There are WAY more apps out there than I’m going to list here…in fact feel free to add a comment with your favorites…but these are the ones I find myself using over and over again.

The 3 apps below are FREE to download, FREE to use, require NO registration and I have personally used them and they WORK! Enjoy!

Gassing Up the Car?

So one of my favorite apps to find the cheapest and closest gas to me is called Gas Buddy. It’s available on multiple mobile operating systems and if you don’t see your phone OS listed on the site, they have a mobile version of their site! Genius =)  You can sort the gas by price or by location.  The app also give you the option to update the price if it’s listed incorrectly (I’ve only had to do this once) and get a map to the location of your choice.

To download the app for your phone –>  http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_mobile_instructions.aspx

To go to the mobile site is –> http://m.GasBuddy.com

Eating Food?

There are actually hundreds of food apps out there…and there are billions of people out there looking for deals on food.  The problem is that few restaurants and food establishments have jumped on board to get the info out there about their deals and specials.  My suggestion is to use location based check-in apps that allow you to look and see what’s around you and who is offering specials.  The problem is not all businesses are up to speed and “on board” with these services…so they may have a special going on and you’d never know.  I tend to use FourSquare and Yelp the most.  However, Facebook Places and Google Places will be more active participants as time goes on.   For this post I’m going to refer you to Yelp for a few reasons: they have been around for years and have established millions of reviews on restaurants, they have detailed info about the restaurant and lastly, you can use the app to sort nearby restaurants by who has specials and who doesn’t.  The other services I listed here fall short in all those features.

To download the app for your phone –>  http://www.yelp.com/yelpmobile

To go to the mobile site –> http://mobile.yelp.com/

Frequenting the Same Shops?

Ever been in line behind someone who pulls out a key ring full of 50+ frequent buyer/loyalty cards…or maybe you ARE that person.  Well if you are that person, you are one step closer to a better price or a free gift than everyone else who’s reading this.  Key Ring is another FREE app that allows you to get rid of all those cards on your key ring and get all that info organized on your phone! This will ensure that you ALWAYS have your frequent buyer card/number with you at ALL times.  Added bonus…you can add that frequent buyer card to all your family’s mobile phones…so no matter who’s picking up the groceries or getting office supplies, the loyalty points never get missed!

To download the app to your phone –>  http://keyringapp.com/download

I hope you find yourself saving lots of time, paper and MONEY with these tools! Please let me know what other favorites you have out there that save you money daily!

Learn more at:  http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=upgradedpage

OK, here we go with a walk through…You should be greeted by the following screen.  If you weren’t it’s most likely because another admin already upgraded your page.

1 -Photos

Showcase Your Latest Photos

• The most recent photos that you post to your Wall or photos that you tag your Page in will appear here. This area will not include any photos posted by your fans.
• To hide a photo, roll over it and click X.

2 – Navigation

Showcase Your Latest Photos

• The most recent photos that you post to your Wall or photos that you tag your Page in will appear here. This area will not include any photos posted by your fans.
• To hide a photo, roll over it and click X.

3 – Wall Filters

Show the Top Posts on Your Wall

• You now have two Wall filters. You can show posts by your page and top posts from Everyone, a new way for people to see the most interesting stories first. As an admin, you’ll have additional filters for viewing posts on your page.
• To set a default filter for your Wall, go to Edit Page

4 – Admin View

Use Facebook as Your Page

• You now have the flexibility to interact with the other areas of Facebook as a page.
  • Get notifications when fans interact with your page or posts
  • See activity from the pages you like in your news feed
  • Like other pages and feature them on your page
  • Make comments as your page on other pages
  • To try this new feature, you can click the link here or go to Account above and select Use Facebook as Page.

5 – Settings

New settings

• You can set defaults for your email notifications and how you post to your page – as yourself or your page. You can also select which featured pages appear in the left column.
• To manage your settings for email and posting preferences, go to Edit Page and Your Settings. To select which pages appear in Favorite Pages, go to Edit Page and Featured.

Learn more at:  http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=upgradedpages

Some facts about Facebook…

There are currently over 500 million active users on Facebook and over 50% of them log in on any given day. The average active Facebook user has over 130 friends, so if your Fan Page has only 100 fans, you are only one degree away from 13,000 people on Facebook. (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics)

Some facts about Twitter…

There are currently over 175 registered users who stream a total of over 95 million tweets a day.  There are over 600 search queries typed in to Twitter’s search engine daily.  (https://twitter.com/about)

Some facts about LinkedIn…

LinkedIn has over 90 million users and more than one million LinkedIn Company Pages.  As of January 2011, LinkedIn counts executives from all 2010 Fortune 500 companies as members; its hiring solutions were used by 69 of the Fortune 100 companies as of December 31, 2010. (http://press.linkedin.com/about )

Some facts about Craig’s List…

Craig’s list has over 50 million users in the United State alone but is available in 70 countries.  It is ranked #7 in the world for English-language website page views and there are over 1 million job listings posted each month.  (http://www.craigslist.org/about/factsheet)

Below is a list of ways you can control some of the comments and wall settings on Facebook.  Keep in mind, when you limit the ability for the nay-sayers to comment, you are usually shutting the door for the positive ones as well.  These are options for “Total Lock Down” or “Keep it Flowing”.  Keep in mind that anything written on YOUR wall by SOMEONE ELSE can ALWAYS be removed.

Total Lock Down…

Whether you have a Personal Profile or a Business Fan Page, you have the ability to turn off the option to allow anyone to comment on your wall.  You can’t control what others say on their own walls, but you can prevent them from writing on your wall.

For a Personal Profile you will find this setting under Account –> Privacy Settings –> Customize Settings.  From there, you can go through all the different ways people can interact with you and you can adjust the settings to what makes you comfortable.  The ability for you to “turn off” or disable the ability for people to be able to write your wall is about half way down the page under a section called “Things Others Share”.  See the images below for screen shots.

Customize your privacy settings from inside your account menu

Disabling the ability for people to post on you wall

For a Business Fan Page, you’ll need to first be an admin of the page, then you can go to the page.  Once you’re on the page, you’ll need to hit the “Edit Page” link.  Depending on whether you have an older page layout or a newer layout will determine where that link is.  For older pages, it’s under the profile picture.  For newer page layouts, its in the top right corner.  (See below)

Edit Facebook Page on older layout

Edit Facebook Page on newer layout

Regardless of the page layout you have, the back-end administrative settings page looks the same.  You’ll want to click on the Manage Permissions link in the left column and disable the ability for anyone to post to the wall under “Posting Ability.”

Managing Permissions for Facebook Fan Page

Keep it Flowing…

So, if total lock down isn’t appealing to you and you crave a little more engagement and interaction from your fans/friends, then you’ll want to leave the options above alone.  The defaults for both profiles and pages allows people to be able to post on your wall.  Again, anything written on YOUR wall by SOMEONE ELSE can ALWAYS be removed.  Depending on the comment, you’ll want to either remove it or address it.  If you want to just remove it, you get to decide if you want to just remove the post, mark it as spam, report abuse or block that person entirely.  If you decide to address the comment, you can reply in public via a comment or privately via a private message to that person (if they allow that option).  To reply in private, click on the name of the person that left the comment and you will be directed to their personal profile where you can leave them a message.  Below is a screen shot of where the “X” is located on a comment for you to remove that comment.  (NOTE: The “X” is NOT visible unless you hover your mouse over the top right corner of the comment, hence the reason a lot of people don’t realize you can remove a comment.)

How do you decide if it’s Spam or Abuse?  Spam is mostly just annoying content such as competitors pitching their product on your wall, useless information not relevant to you or your page or maybe a link to go somewhere not complementary to you or your fans.  Abusive is malicious in nature and should be reported.  Examples would be comments with  links to sites containing viruses, offensive content, threats made to you or your company or discriminating comments about race, religion sexual orientation and such.  Different industries and companies will have different levels of tolerance, so you may need to discuss this with your team to set a few standards on which comments you mark for abuse.  In my experience, having consulted on over 100 Facebook Fan Pages, I’ve only had one company had to remove only one comment from a page for abuse.  So, it’s not as common with a typical business to have to worry about this…now government agencies and politician pages…different story.

Removing Comments on a Facebook Wall

So, what option is right for you?

99 percent of our clients have their wall setting turned on and monitor the wall for negativity.  In several cases, they have addressed the comments in public and been able to turn sour situations into a positive ones.  In many cases, your loudest negative commenter can be turned into your biggest advocate if you address their concerns.   I highly recommend addressing negative comments verses deleting them.  Most people just want to be heard and have genuine issues that need to be resolved.  For the rest, well you have a DELETE button!