Facebook Bings It

Building off the social sidebar that Bing introduced last year, as of last friday, you can comment on Facebook posts straight from Bing. Based on what you search, Bing will display relevant information from Facebook on your sidebar. From that sidebar, you can directly like or comment on a friend's post. In addition to viewing these posts, Bing will also allow you to add your own, straight from the search page. As you can see below, when searching a term like "Shake Shack NYC", Bing displays relevant posts from social media platforms.

For truly customized results, one must log in to Facebook through Bing, then all of your friend's opinions on your searched topic will show up. This seems like it could be quite convenient if you were doing something like researching a new restaurant. Not only will you get the standard information a search engine provides, you will also see what your friends think of the place. If you were looking for someone to go to this new restaurant with, it may also make it much easier to find that someone if you already know who likes that specific restaurant, plus you can ask them via Facebook right from the search screen.

Is this new social service going to help Bing reach the mammoth that is Google? Probably not, but we think this will certainly add value to Bing's service and will help drive more traffic their way.

-Mike

Google+ Getting Closer

Google+ has been gaining ground on Facebook as of late. Although the numbers are still heavily in Facebook's favor, when looking at percentage increase, Google+ is showing some encouraging signs. According to Nielsen, the average Google+ visitor spent 6 minutes and 47 seconds on the social network in March. Now when you compare that to Facebook's average time spent for March at 6 hours and 44 minutes, there doesn't seem to be any competition. However, when you look at the change from February to March, Google+ rose from 3.3 minutes, while Facebook fell from 7 hours and 9 minutes.

Other statistics worth noting are the 20 million unique Google+ views via mobile apps, which is a 238% increase over the previous month. Desktop unique views also jumped 63% to 28 million, compared to last year. While these are great stats for Google+, one must keep in mind how far they have to go to reach Facebook. Over the same time period, Facebook had 142.1 million unique desktop visits and 99 million unique mobile visits. It will be interesting to see if Google+ can continue this upward trend. We believe Google+ has a lot of potential, especially as Facebook has been seeing declining numbers recently, but only time will tell.

-Mike

LinkedIn for Graduates

One of the most exciting events in a young adults life, is graduating from college. The culmination of years and years of studying and hard work, everyone can remember that tremendous feeling of accomplishment. What one may not remember, however, is the immediate feeling of intense anxiety that the fun is over, and it is time to find that first real job. It may be hard to even know where to start, but why not start with something you already know like the back of your hand, social media. Here are some tips on using LinkedIn to help land that career you have been dreaming of. 1. Use an appropriate headline - Try and stay away from saying things like you are unemployed, a new graduate, or beer pong champion 2 years straight. Be straightforward and to the point, "Aspiring Engineer" or "Digital Marketer" would be great.

2. Post a professional photo - Your Facebook photo and LinkedIn photo should NOT be the same. Unless of course your Facebook photo is a professional head-shot of you in a suit, but who does that anyway? A senior picture may work, but spending the money on a professional photo is likely to pay off in the long run. Whether we like to admit it or not, looks still play a large part in first impressions, so why not start off on the right foot?

3. Get someone to proofread your profile - Nothing can sink your chances faster tham grammar or spelling mistakes. With all the resources available today, there is n reason your profile and resume shouldn't be perfect. Don't be lazy, spend the time going over everything, and when you think it is perfect, get someone else to do it all over.

4. Join alumni groups - "Its not what you know but who you know" We have all heard it before and although this is not a fact, there is some truth in that statement. Alumni are always eager to help out a fellow graduate, this can often be the quickest and easiest way to get your resume on top of the pile.

5. Include your college classes - Chances are you do not have much work experience yet. Instead of listing your summer job as the ice-cream truck driver, include the classes you took in college that are relevant to the field you are trying to enter.  This will help fill out your profile and give potential employers a view into what skills you may posses.

6. Use the search by tool - LinkedIn makes it easy to search by fields such as college or industry. This goes along with tip #4, if you can find fellow alumni in the field you are interested in, reach out to them. You are much more likely to get a response and help from an alumni than a complete stranger.

-Mike

What is EdgeRank?

You may have never heard of EdgeRank before, but chances are you interact with it every day. EdgeRank is the algorithm used by Facebook to determine what shows up on your News Feed and when. With 2,835,000,000 minutes spent on Facebook News Feed PER DAY, it is quite important for brands to understand how to get in front of their fans. Considering 96% of users never return to a brand's page after the initial visit, taking advantage of the News Feed is crucial. The infographic below shows how EdgeRank works and how important it really is.  

-Mike

Common Facebook Mistakes for Graduates

It is that time of the year again, spring is officially here and a new bath of eager youths are about to enter the workforce. The transition from student to adulthood can be a challenging one. Behavior that was once acceptable, and even encouraged, can now get you into hot water fast. It can be hard learning and adjusting to these new, unwritten rules of maturity, especially when it comes to social media. McAfee Internet Security Expert, Robert Siciliano, shared his top 10 list of mistakes that graduates make on Facebook:

1. Don’t deny this fact: You are being judged every second of the day by people who are in a position to hire and fire you.
2. Don’t do that! Learn from other people’s mistakes. When you see someone get in trouble, fired or arrested, don’t do that.
3. Don’t friend people you don’t know.
4. Don’t take or allow others to photograph/video you with alcohol in your hands, drinking, smoking, doing anything illegal, scantily clad (or less), or making those stupid faces. You are an adult now.
5. Don’t like, share, or retweet racist, homophobic or off-color media or comments that make you look like a jerk.
6. Don’t swear. Ever. It’s OK to say flippin’, freakin’, heck, maybe even effing, and shite. But once you start dropping F-bombs, you look like an angry, uncouth juvenile delinquent. And seriously, I swear like a cage match fighter — but not online.
7. Don’t log on while amorous or inebriated. Nothing good can come of that.
8. Don’t ever talk about anyone in authority — your boss, coworkers, teachers, students, the president, or anyone, for that matter — in a negative tone. Seriously. Unless the person is a serial killer or oppressive dictator, play nice.
9. Don’t be so public. Lock down your settings. Most social networks have privacy settings that need to be administered at the highest level. Default settings generally leave your networks wide open to attack.
10. As Howard Stern’s dad used to say to him: “I told you not to be stupid, you moron.” You have been warned.

We have all heard the story of how a friend of a friend was fired because of a Facebook faux pas, but no one ever thinks it is going to happen to them. With so much personal information online today, one can never be too safe. Be sensible online and save yourself potential headaches in the future.

-Mike

Facebook Graph Search Brings New Privacy Concerns

Are you one of the 13 million Facebook users who have not touched their privacy settings? Many people may not be concerned over their privacy settings on Facebook, but with Graph Search rolling out to the masses soon, your personal information security will be at an all time low. If allowing strangers to see your personal information online doesn't scare you, the fact that 91% of employers admit to using social network sites to screen potential employees might. With everything from your vacation pictures to banking information being stored online these days, security is becoming more and more crucial. Be smart and take the time to understand the security settings, not only on Facebook, but all of your other online accounts. The hassle of reading the fine print now is nothing compared to something like identity fraud later. Check out this infographic to learn a little more about the privacy trends on Facebook:

-Mike

The NFL Hits Social Media Hard

With draft day come and gone, the NFL has been all over the headlines the last couple of days. Taking advantage of all this media attention, the NFL has made a huge push into leveraging social media. If you watched the draft,  you may have noticed how on Thursday night, all the potential draftees were ushered in front of an iPad to have their picture taken, which was then sent straight on out Twitter so fans could see what everyone was wearing in what the NFL was calling the #DraftRedCarpet. The NFL also tried to make the behind-the-scenes action much more visible for fans by tweeting all the action.

With over 12 million follower (Twitter - 4.5M, Facebook - 7.1M) the NFL has quite a substantial fan base. With such a huge following, you would probably assume the NFL has a large team managing their social accounts -- but you would be wrong. Duane Munn is the one-man show responsible for managing all the NFL social accounts. Managing account for such a huge entity with so many followers is a titanic undertaking for one man. Duane was quoted saying:

"I tell my Mom that I never wanted to be a doctor, but with the amount of time I spend on my job, I imagine this is what it is like to be one,"

Not only is Duane the sole manager of these accounts, but he tends to stay away from things like scheduling tweets, opting to engage followers on a real-time basis. This allows Duane to stay on top of trending topics and make each post get optimal engagement. Using platfoms like Adobe Social, Duane is able to track online trends and buzz words so he can make relevant posts that really impact his followers. Also, since Duane is posting this content real-time, he is able to coordinate effectively with news and articles the NFL is releasing throughout the day, creating a streamlined and influential presence on social media. Without scheduling tweets, Duane is also able to avoid backlash by limiting the amount of inappropriate posts that go out during times of breaking news. Many large companies were criticized for this in lieu of recent events, like the Boston Marathon bombing.

It seems like the NFL really hit a home run by finding a person who can effectively manage all their social accounts solo. Although community management is not always a 1 man team, it certainly does help cut down on communication errors, while streamlining the whole process exponentially.

- Mike