Firecat Studio

Facebook Pages for Business - Resources Discussed

Great session at Firecat Studio on Friday on Facebook Pages for Business. I've gathered some links about the topics we discussed. Feel free to add more!

• Facebook's Pages how-to - you can find this by searching for Facebook Pages 
• Business Facebook pages for inspiration.
• Info about the new Facebook Timeline that changes the layout of your own page. 
• NorthSocial is the $20/month service that includes a lot of Facebook on-page apps.

I want to thank Jennifer Navarrete again for sharing her expertise. She'll be back on Friday, March 2, with a whole session on SoLoMo - Social Local Mobile.

SOPA PIPA Protest - An Infographic

As a society, we Americans let a lot of upsetting stuff slide. I'm really glad that so many who value the free exchange of ideas on the Internet came together to defeat these potentially damaging bills.

Here's a celebratory infographic from Frugal Dad, which also serves to show what we - corporations and citizens - can do when we come together to express our input on an issue. 

Source: frugaldad.com

Video Blogging: Quick Tips for Video Lighting

Whether you're adding videos to Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr or your own website, just a little thought and experimentation with the lighting can make all the difference. I learned this from my husband Greg, a theatre director, who makes his own lightboxes from scary-looking instruments. I've also watched Todd O'Neill and Alan Weinkrantz take a few seconds to light even a quickie social media video well.

Vlogging can be done with inexpensive equipment, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't put forth a little effort to make the video attractive. This segment uses three light sources and a diffuser, and we get to see the immediate impact for the better. Via Cameron Moll's excellent blog. 

DSLR Lighting Techniques from Eve Hazelton from Realm Pictures on Vimeo.

Jason Fried on Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work - (TEDxMidwest)

Just found this TEDxMidwest talk by 37Signals founder Jason Fried, where he makes a great case that the typical office isn't the best place to get real work done. He touches on something I find fascinating, the serial, phased nature of dreaming and how it relates to ideation and creativity.

Jason is a fan of coworking as well. If you haven't tried working from someplace different, join us on a First Friday for just a little while, and try it.

The M&Ms

He makes an eloquent case about home having fewer, less damaging distractions than the average workplace. And M&Ms - Managers and Meetings - as the worst involuntary interrupters, are PAID to interrupt.

My favorite quote: "Meetings are terrible, toxic, poisonous things." Expensive to the organization, talking about stuff that should happen, rather than doing actual productive work, too many people attending, and usually scheduled for much too long a period.

His 3 Productivity-Enhancing Suggestions

• No-Talk Thursdays. Just the first Thursday, just in the afternoon. Just silence. An uninterrupted period to allow people to focus. Four hours of quiet time is the best gift you can give.
• Encourage assymmetrical communications. Instead of face-to-face or phone, which interrupt, encourage the use of eMail and collaboration products like Basecamp that allow people to consume information when they're ready for it.
• Cancel one recurring meeting. And find that those meetings you think are indispensable, aren't.

Unique Selling Proposition Workshop, Customer Empathy Map

At last Friday's Firecat coworking and brownbag session, Kate Hayward led a quick but deep excursion into creating a unique selling proposition (USP). Several expert marketers were in attendance, so the insights were flying.

Kate posted her empathy map (below) that she had posted on the writeboard, and shares her own answers to the leading questions in her workshop here in her blog, Eggsactamundo. 

I'm still working on the Firecat Studio USP. Have you made progress on yours?

I also ordered the Business Model book Kate recommended, Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers, by Alexander Osterwalder. Let me know if you read it (and what you thought), or other books you find relevant to this work.

One Steve Jobs Treatment Post on Quora Nearly Tubes Career

Like a lot of smart, connected people, Ramzi Amri, a cancer researcher at Harvard Medical, participates in Quora. Quora is a social networking site with a question and answer format. Because it was adopted early on by lots of tech industry leading lights and bright minds, the site is full of high-quality content.

Much of the content is, however, speculation. It's a place where we feel free to share opinions. But because these posts are publicly available to anyone through search, Amri's post ended up being misquoted and misused on a high-visibility, top-keyword-laden news item: Steve Jobs' death. And it nearly cost Amri his career. Here's Ramzi Amri's Quora post describing the nightmare.

Note that Amri was careful in his post. He says, "In my Quora piece, I clearly state in my first line that "I do not pretend to know anything about the case on a personal level and I never participated in the care of Mr. Jobs" and I conclude with a full paragraph on the importance of respecting people's treatment choices, no matter how much we may disagree with them."

Amri's debrief on the situation is worth a read. Be sure to scroll to the bulleted reasons he suggests the piece went viral. 

Takeaways

1. If you type it, you own it. It's hard to overstate how "permanent" and "findable" our online musings are, so we all need to be aware and careful of what we say. 
2. Continue to monitor threads you participate in. And when something you said gets attention - pay even MORE attention. Amri's post got additional juice from a Gawker article, which inaccurately described Amri's credentials. Then the Daily Mail picked that up and distorted them even more. 
3. Defend yourself. Amri was able to get his employer, Harvard, to see what had really happened and take the correct action. Going public correcting any misconceptions at once, repeatedly, may help. I certainly appreciate reading about his experience.
4. Consider the source. I hope most of us have learned to check rumors before spreading them, and check facts before publishing.

You'd think what he wrote, and what he did afterward would be enough. But it nearly wasn't. I want this to be a world where we can feel free to share - but we need to be careful out here in cyberspace with our indelible, distortable words.

Lowe's Gives Itself a Social Media Black Eye

Home improvement giant Lowe's pulled its television advertising from the show American Muslim due to some pressure from an ill-informed email campaign conducted by Florida Family Association, reports Ben Popken in AdWeek. 

In bowing to pressure, they fanned a small fire. By not moderating the bigoted comments on their Facebook page, they threw gasoline on it - allowing the discourse to degenerate.

So What Should Lowe's Have Done?

• Announce why they were pulling the ads - and point out the underlying corporate principles under which the decision was made
• Respond quickly to the outcry following in the channels where the debate was happening (Twitter, Facebook)
• Use its available online presence points - web, Twitter stream, Facebook page - to clarify its commitment to its principles and values.
• Moderate comments on the Lowe's Facebook page according to its principles, and be transparent about that moderation.

Here's an example of what they could say:

While we support the right of all customers and visitors to voice their opinions, we require all posts to adhere to [Lowe's Facebook page posting policies].  

Have you faced a social media backlash? How'd that work out for you, and what advice would you give businesses who want to engage in social media, but fear events like these?

Update: Here's another article on the Lowe's/American Muslim situation from E.D. Kain in Forbes.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), in Infographic Form

We're Against SOPA

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) could seriously impair your ability to promote your business or organization online. Mashable today posted a great infographic that walks us through complexity with grace - provided by Business Insurance Quotes.

I Greatly Admire This Infographic

I love this about it:

• Very complex idea, walked through a step at a time
• Suitable for printing on a plotter and making into a poster
• The organizational elements of "folders" with different slants on the issue
• The use of icons. Often these are overused, but here they are adding good value.
• The "guideline" to show the user which elements to read in which order.

I'd love to dedicate a coworking brownbag session to designing an infographic. The exercise is a good one for any team to really understand a process, service or system. Creating one together creates a deep level of shared understanding.

Do you have great examples of infographics to share?

What's your take on SOPA?

Cat Videos are the Future of Online Advertising

OK, they're a gimmick. But gimmicks work well too. Think about how you felt the first time you saw a customized JibJab movie?

Principles for Responsible Online Data Gathering

Effective online business means gathering data; consumers are understandably reluctant to share data, fearing it will be used against them. A great way for digital advertisers and marketers to avoid regulation is for the industry to proactively regulate itself, and to empower consumers and users with control over their own data. And that's happening.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a data privacy report with recommendations in December 2010 with specific recommendations. The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) responded with self-regulation principles and a recommended accountability mechanism.

Who is the DAA?

The DAA comprises these heavyweight digital advertising/marketing organizations:

• the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s)
• the American Advertising Federation (AAF)
• the Association of National Advertisers (ANA)
• the Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
• the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
• the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI)  

Online Behavioral Advertising Principles

The Education Principle calls for organizations to participate in efforts to educate individuals and businesses about online behavioral advertising and the Principles. Example: This blog post.

The Transparency Principle calls for clearer and easily accessible disclosures to consumers about data collection and use practices associated with online behavioral advertising. It will result in new, enhanced notice on the page where data is collected through links embedded in or around advertisements, or on the Web page itself. Example: Privacy policy links located on data gathering forms.

The Consumer Control Principle to provide consumers with expanded ability to choose whether data is collected and used for online behavioral advertising purposes. This choice will be available through a link from the notice provided on the Web page where data is collected. Internet Service providers (including Internet access service providers and providers of desktop applications software such as Web browser toolbars) must obtain the consent of users before engaging in online behavioral advertising, and take steps to de-identify the data used for such purposes.

The Data Security Principle calls for organizations to provide appropriate security for, and limited retention of data, collected and used for online behavioral advertising purposes. Example: Processes to control access to and expunge consumer data.

The Material Changes Principle calls for obtaining consumer consent before a Material Change is made to an entity's Online Behavioral Advertising data collection and use policies unless that change will result in less collection or use of data. Example: Pushing notifications of privacy policies or terms of use - rather than simply posting updates passively.

The Sensitive Data Principle recognizes that data collected from children and used for online behavioral advertising merits heightened protection, and requires parental consent for behavioral advertising to consumers known to be under 13 on child-directed Web sites. This Principle also provides heightened protections to certain health and financial data when attributable to a specific individual.

The Accountability Principle calls for development of programs to further advance these Principles, including programs to monitor and report instances of uncorrected non-compliance with these Principles to appropriate government agencies. The CBBB and DMA have been asked and agreed to work cooperatively to establish accountability mechanisms under the Principles.

Multi-Site Data Principles

Last week, the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) announced “Principles for Multi-Site Data” - specifically governing data gathered on one site used by another site or organization.

The Multi-Site Principles call for self-regulation and accuntability codify existing industry practices prohibiting the collection or use of Multi-Site Data for the purpose of any adverse determination concerning employment, credit, health treatment or insurance eligibility. Like the OBA Principles, the Multi-Site Data Principles provide specific protections for sensitive data concerning children, health and financial data.    

Transparency and consumer control for purposes other than OBA. The Multi-Site Data Principles call for organizations that collect Multi-Site Data for purposes other than OBA to provide transparency and control regarding Internet surfing across unrelated Websites.Collection / use of data for eligibility determination – The Multi-Site Data Principles prohibit the collection, use or transfer of Internet surfing data across Websites for determination of a consumer’s eligibility for employment, credit standing, healthcare treatment and insurance.

Collection / use of children’s data. The Multi-Site Data Principles state that organizations must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Meaningful accountability. The Multi-Site Data Principles are subject to enforcement through strong accountability mechanisms.

See the full Multi-Site Data Principles document for more info.