Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Facebook bugs and why they annoy me

Business News, Client News | Posted by Katie
Mar 16 2012

This week I have spent a significant amount of time setting up new cover images and sorting timelines, apps and other admin sections of customers Facebook business pages.  Whilst I love the majority of the new options the sheer obstructive nature of Facebook has annoyed me more and more.  Oh and did I mention bugs in the title?  Riddled with them!

At one point after trying to upload a profile image 6 times I gave up… went away and made a cup of coffee, came back and there it was as if nothing weird had been happening at all.  Also with all these new and improved features why oh why does Facebook still not realise that there are people outside the USA using it, and therefore don’t want to put their price in as $’s or have full stops put in their telephone numbers.  But the most annoying of all, when did Facebook decide that the about us section of a business page will not actually be about us unless we change the category to something innocuous like ‘company’ rather than the reality which is many of our customers are hotels.  Just sheer frustration all week.

However, I do like to end on a positive note – the ability to change the images on the apps is a welcome addition, as is the ability to pin and highlight posts but why do I get the impression Facebook are giving with one hand and taking away with the other?

Anyone else feel a rant coming on that they would like to share?

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So you have your social media in place – what now?

Business News | Posted by Katie
Feb 09 2012

So, you’ve got your Twitter account, your regularly posting on Facebook, you’ve uploaded all your photos to Flickr – what now?

Well there is nothing more frustrating for us going to see a customer we have been working with who doesn’t let their customer know that they are on all of these social media platforms.  As we all know, we are now living in an instant gratification world these days thanks to the nearly immediate actions you can take online, so for example if I am sitting in your hotel room with my smart phone and I am loving the tea and coffee making facilities, I may be tempted to talk about you on Facebook with my friends….. now what was your hotel called again?  I put the search in my Facebook on the phone and it gives me 10 different options based on your hotel name and I have no idea which one you are…. right, won’t bother then.  The same applies to Foursquare and to Twitter.

We know that you don’t want to cheapen your look by being on a constant sales drive, but we also know that customers rarely open bedroom folders, or look on the back of menus, or look at your company brochure for this type of information.  You need a simple, cost effective way of getting that kind of information across.  So our ideas are as follows:

  • Tent cards with small icons and your profile name next to them on every table in your business
  • A proper email signature that goes out on absolutely every email you send that includes the icons and your profile name
  • Business cards with all of your contact details, social media icons and profile names rather than a picture of your business logo, scattered about the place or put in an envelope with every mailout you send
  • Anything that electronically leaves your business, i.e your newsletter – make sure you always include the social media icon with your profile name

We used to find ourselves saying all the time, what is the point of having a lovely website if no one finds you on Google?  These days we find ourselves saying, what is the point in setting up all of this social media and making sure you use it if no one knows you are on it?

If you want to find us you can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, view screenshots of our work on Flickr, view our website, and we don’t have a YouTube chanel because us talking about SEO will send you to sleep!

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do you have a moderation switch?

SEO Scotland | Posted by Katie
Feb 07 2012

Listening to Radio5 this morning the call in of the day was entitled something like ‘the Internet ruined by life’… actually what they were focusing on was social media and how people have lost jobs because the photos of the big night out were posted on their profile the day that they called in sick, or pictures on their profiles including pictures of items stolen from the work place – well quite honestly these people are stupid and should know better.  There were of course the extreme examples of lives really ruined by social media and the practices of some horrid people targeting and using social media to bully, however, the upshot of the phone in was basically – think about what you post on the Internet.

We have all read the stories and heard the horrors of privacy on Facebook and of stalking on Twitter but as ever I would like to take a balanced view of social media.  Without social media we would struggle to do our job, businesses would lose that direct contact with customers and on a personal level I would miss being in touch with friends and family across the globe.   However, I would also like to think I have a ‘moderation switch’.

So what is my switch moto ‘if I walked into a room with friends, acquaintances and a smattering of people I don’t know, would I say out loud my status update’?  And as far as privacy and people finding out about you and your personal information, bear in mind – its not just Facebook and Twitter where you are actively sharing your information, think about Google – they know your shopping preferences, your health scares, your celebrity stalking tendencies and don’t forget Tesco and that clubcard you use, oh and your bank account with linked debit and credit cards…. you know that argument of identity cards or not – they already know all that information and it is all accessible for the right price.

In my opinion, and it is just my opinion, use social media with some basic moderation rules and you should be just fine… and if things get out of control or you are being bullied report the people that are doing the bullying, there are so many in built tools especially on Facebook and Twitter so use them!  And my last comment on the subject, if you don’t want people to know anything about you then don’t use the Internet and work on a cash only basis.

Comments gratefully received on our business Facebook page :)

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Facebook – a love hate relationship?

SEO Scotland | Posted by Katie
Sep 12 2011

My ‘love’ of Facebook is well noted and I regularly use on a business level but use daily on a personal level – keeping in touch with friends and family that I don’t see regularly is by far the highest point and in all honesty you can keep your games I am just not interested.

However, it seems recently that there have been so many glitches with Facebook that it is starting to drive me slightly mad!  Having watched The Social Network over the weekend for the second time (we even went to the pictures to see this one) there was one scene in the film where the founder of Facebook was making the point that it must and will never go offline.  He’s quite right, I cant remember the site ever being offline, but he neglected to say ‘but it might go wrong now and again’.

I have found one helpful hint to stop Facebook messing with your head is to insert the word beta into the url i.e. http://www.beta.facebook.com as this seems to make the majority of issues resolve themselves, however, just recently I am struggling on a daily basis with making apps work with my pages.  This is not an issue I have with my personal profile it is just business pages, and due to the nature of our work, I am admin on an ever growing list of pages and when I find something new, useful and just damn good obviously I want to add this new service to all pages applicable.  So why does Facebook make it so difficult?!   I am kind of thinking it is because Facebook was never meant to be for business use and so has not upgraded this side of their business as well as the personal side of it.

As ever, interested to hear other people’s experiences – answers on a Facebook post please :)

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Is spelling important any more?

SEO Scotland | Posted by Katie
Jul 27 2011

Growing up in the 70s / 80s and the constant words on my school reports were ‘bad spelling, poor concentration’…. luckily the introduction of spell checker solved one issue, the poor concentration I would like to think has improved with age!

So, what is my moan about today?  Well it’s about the lack of care people/businesses take to spelling these days.  I received a request today asking if we would be interested in linking to a blog – I am all for link building where appropriate but to be honest the subject of this blog probably wouldn’t have been appropriate for our website, however, the thing that put me off was that there were 6, yes I said 6, spelling mistakes within the first paragraph of the most recent blog post! (since writing this post I have contacted Skippy the blog writer and he has very graciously allowed me to link to his blog – I am sure the mistakes will be corrected by now though!)

I am aware that we all shorten words on Twitter, Facebook and other similar forms of quick communication – to see texts from my 60+ dad that don’t include any vowels is a joy in itself – but surely if you are creating web copy or blog posts then you have the freedom to revert back to normality and structure sentences properly and use correct spelling.  Or am I alone in this thinking?

Now before you trawl through our web copy or previous blog posts to find a glaring error, I am not for a minute saying we are perfect in any way, but I do use spell check and I do proof read things and I would suggest that the likelihood of finding 6 spelling mistakes within 2 sentences is minimal but I am, as ever, curious to hear people’s opinions on this because I would hate to think I have become old fashioned in my views!

Comments in the Queen’s English gladly received…… that’s i before e except after c, just in case you were wondering!

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