I recently got a Facebook friend request from an ex-boyfriend and this made me wonder…

Things didn’t end well, I hadn’t spoken to him for about 6 years and we both avoid attending events if we know the other person will be there. I think, it is pretty safe to say that we are not friends. Where does this phenomenon come from that people feel that, although they would not like to spend any time with someone face to face, it would be perfectly normal to follow their every day activities through Facebook, MySpace and Bebo?

I’ve also heard of incidences where bosses or HR managers were questioning employees as to why they didn’t accept their Facebook invitations or dared to put them only on a limited profile. Does this really mean that we now live in a society where nothing can be “private” anymore? I am very aware of this, as I carefully think of what I tweet about on my Twitter account http://twitter.com/felicitasbetzl , which is public. I am also on LinkedIn and Xing and both profiles are public. Is that not enough for my professional network to be satisfied with?

I also hate company Flickr accounts, where all of a sudden pictures of yourself appear from a Christmas party, which you would have never even shared with your friends. Businesses make certainly good use of social media platforms but I think they should also take into account that some people may not be as “open” to sharing everything, even if it is just a picture of yourself with a doublechin. Those pictures should reflect a company’s image and those accounts should be looked after carefully.

The bottom line here is really that I think there is a great need to define where the line requires to be drawn. Especially young web companies should look “fun” but the wrong pictures can put maybe some serious clients off right from the start.

written by Feli \\ tags: facebook, flickr, Social Media, twitter

I came across an interesting article on the German newspaper website “Die Welt” explaining an incredible social media success. But not the marketing kind.. the social kind.

The social networking site Facebook managed to save a French company from complete collapse.  After the suicide of the French shipyard owner Joel Gamelin in La Rochelle, his company faces a collapse and salaries were unlikely to be paid. In his suicide note the father leaves a note for his daughter Fanny Gamelin saying he’s sorry for having been unable to save the company from bankrupcy.

His daughter took the opportunity and published with the help of the family lawyer a press release on Facebook on the 23rd February 2009, pleading for people to donate 1 Euro each, in order to be able to pay for the salaries. Within days alone they managed to collect 201,000 Euros from 6,795 generous people via Paypal.  The workers of the shipyard have already been paid and the rest of the money will also be set aside for the employees. This is the first time (at least as far as I know) that a social network has been able to help a cause, whereby actually banks and the government have been replaced.

This only shows how powerful social networks can be, something which should not only be exploited for marketing purposes but the greater good.

That was a bit deep

written by Feli \\ tags: facebook, french company, gamelin shipyard, Social Media, social networks

This post about how to promote an Etsy shop online,  is inspired by my friend Mairead, who decided after 10 years working in the financial sector to pack it all in and dedicate all her precious time to her real passion – making handbags!! I really admire her dedication and guts to leave her job and just go and be her own boss at Breagha – Handmade bags.

Now Mairead doesn’t have her own e-commerce site and sells her bags on Etsy, a website, which allows anyone to create their own shop within the site and sell their handmade goods, like handbags, jewlery etc. It pretty much works like Ebay, where it’s possible to create a shop and Etsy will take a cut of any sold item, with two significant differences:

1) Etsy takes a smaller percentage of the sold goods

2) There is no auction-style selling.

My friend has not the option of having her own website at the moment, now, how could she still utilise the web to promote her Etsy shop with other means?

The site offers the option to sign up for an RSS feed, so it’s possible to keep up to date with any new products a certain seller puts up, but Mairead at this point wants to spread the word.

Mairead shared the link to her Etsy shop on Facebook. Another option to show this link at all times is to add it to the information, which appears on the right-hand side on below the profile picture.

These are all valid ways of reaching a very small group, only direct friends. If looking at the Facebook Advertiser tool, the following statistics are pretty interesting. In the UK alone, there are 6,860 females interested in handbags, in the US 5,720 and these are just two examples, as Etsy is used world-wide.

Further options are:

• Creating a shop page on Facebook, this can reach more people who are interested in handbags
• Stumble the Etsy shop page (which I have already done)
• Create a Twitter account and keep it public, updating people on new products posted. I’ve undertaken a handbag search and already quite a few other people utilise Twitter for this purpose
• Become a member of various handbag fan pages and leave comments, directing people to your shop

During my brief research for this, I’ve also seen that there are many shop and fan pages on Facebook for people who are interested in handbags. Mairead could also be cheeky and invite these people with her Facebook shop page, however, this could be seen as “unethical”, as it could be perceived as spam or unwanted contact by Facebook users. I’d be intersted to hear your comments on this.

Anyhow, I hope that Mairead’s business succeeds and as I can see she’s already been making a few sales, which is great! Good luck, Mairead!

There is now a second part to this “How to promote an Etsy shop online” series called How to promote an Etsy shop online – Part 2.

written by Feli \\ tags: E-commerce, facebook, SEO, Social Media, twitter

To be honest I was never really that much into social networking sites. I’ve boycotted them for years, when there was the big MySpace hype and only started a Bebo account, because my friend opened one for me.

Now that I have moved to Barcelona and live away from most of my friends I see the real value in Facebook and Twitter. It’s an easy way of telling your friends what you are up to and be able to take part in your life from the distance. Now when I start up my PC, I generally check my email, then open Google Reader and check my feeds. After that I normally check Facebook and Twitter. But it becomes quite tedious and time consuming opening all these applications in different tabs. I came across this really interesting post on the Softonic blog Top 5 Firefox add-ons for social networks and found Twitter, Facebook and YouTube add-ons, which are a real time saver.

The Facebook toolbar is really handy, as it enables you to sign into your account straight from there, update your status and customise the toolbar to your specific needs. Also any new updates from your friends appear automatically, just the way you see who signs in when you are signed into MSN messenger or Skype, which enables you to react quickly to your friends status updates, if you like.

Twitterfox is really neat as well, as once you download it, you can sign in straight from your status bar. By clicking on the Twitter “t”, a little window opens and shows you the lastest updates since the last time you logged in. Additionally there is a small window, which allows you to type in your updates easily.

The YouTube “YouPlayer” is also really handy. It is basically a video player where you can enable playlists, very similar to Winamp. It allows you to drag a video link into a playlist and then either just play it or watch it or even download it. Very nice!

Here are a few more, which I didn’t talk about in detail:

1) Flickrfox

2) MySpace Toolbar

3) Bookmarker – opens a sidebar, where you can easily access sites, such as del.icio.us, digg.com, diigo.com, ma.gnolia.com, google.com, mister-wong.de, netvouz.com, linkarena.com, alltagz.de, bobrdobr.ru

Happy networking!

Related posts: Social media posts

written by Feli \\ tags: del.ici.ous, digg, facebook, firefox add-ons, firefox extensions, myspace, Social Media, social networking, toolbars, tools, twitter, youtube