Steven Rothenberg of CollegeRecruiter.com on Facebook for Recruiters

August 4th, 2008

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Steven Rothberg is giving a no-cost webinar on how to use Facebook for recruiting.  Not a recruiter?  It doesn’t matter!  If you have any interest in learning how companies or businesses are using Facebook, I’d jump on the webinar… I can’t think of any professional who needs to know the ins-and-outs of Facebook like Steven does.

You should be able to easily translate his tips and tricks into your business needs - finding people, developing relationships, reaching out to people, etc.

You can find registration information at Dave Mendoza’s Six Degrees from Dave blog post, or more info on Steven Rothberg here.

What Happened to the “Businesses” Link on Facebook?

July 30th, 2008

We mentioned a few times in the book, and on this blog, that the way to get in and access Polls, Beacon (which I am unsure if Facebook is even supporting any more), and other business features is to click on a link down in the footer that says, “businesses”. However, you may have noticed in the last month or two that link is no longer there. Facebook has provided no notice as to why they removed the link, but one thing is for sure it is now definitely a lot harder to find and create a Facebook Poll.

I shared recently on a guest post I did for InsideFacebook (which I highly recommend you read, btw) how to do it. From the post:

in the last month, Facebook removed the “Businesses” link from the footer of the Page. Now, to access Polls, Insights, or Beacon, you have to search really hard to find it - to do so, click on “Advertisers” in the footer of Facebook, then look at the bottom of that page and you’ll see a link to “More Business Solutions”. Click on that and you’ll be at the same page as the previous “Businesses” link as before.

Here’s the link you need to look for after you click “Advertisers”:

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My hope is that Facebook will at least move the Polls to a more noticeable area such as “Advertisers”. Until then, now you know…

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See All the Updates at F8 Live!

July 23rd, 2008

I’ll be streaming all the activities at Facebook’s F8 conference live today from my cell phone. You can stay tuned at my blog, StayNAlive.com, or my Qik stream at http://qik.com/jessestay. Stay tuned here, or on StayNAlive.com for more news and updates!

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Looking to Learn a Little About Facebook Development? Check out Jesse’s new Book!

July 20th, 2008

fbml_essentials_comp.pngMy new book with O’Reilly on Facebook development using FBML, entitled “FBML Essentials” goes to print this week. This is a technical book, but I have written it so that even the most beginning web developers, to the most experienced Facebook developers should be able to understand it. Simple understanding of HTML and Javascript is all you should need to not be lost in this book. This should be a good read if you are looking to learn more about Facebook development for your organization. Check out my post on StayNAlive.com for more information!

http://staynalive.com/articles/2008/07/21/just-in-time-for-f8-oreillys-first-book-on-facebook-development-released/

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Breaking: Facebook Adds “Add New Tab” to New Design

June 6th, 2008

Picture 4-2.pngFacebook appears to have just launched a previously announced feature to their new design staging area. If you go there you’ll notice a new little “+” sign next to the tabs at the top. Click on this, and now you can choose to add “Posted Items” to the tabs at the top, as well as “Find more applications”. The “Find more applications” feature does not seem to be working yet.

This new feature allowing you to add applications to the tabs menu in the new design was announced previously by Facebook, and is said to allow your application, through just a simple “tab url” in your application settings to appear in the drop-down you can see there now when you click on the “+” sign next to the tabs. This is also consistent with the removal of “adding” an application by Facebook. Instead, you will be able to add “components” of your application to different areas of a user’s profile, which includes the tabs. Your application can have only one tab and works passively by default, meaning you have to click on something for javascript or Flash to auto-play. Nothing has been confirmed on whether Advertisements will be allowed to run within the Tabs on the new design. The tab also defaults to your Application name and cuts off at 15 characters.

See below for some more examples of the new “+” sign, and adding the Posted Items application to the tabs menu in the new design:

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Experimenting with Facebook Pages for Companies

May 20th, 2008

I am now experimenting with a Page in Facebook for my company, JibberJobber.  Why?

Because one of my favorite people in the world, Sudha Jamthe, created it for me and more-than-nudged me to get it moving!

I’ve wanted to do this for a while, and it’s slowly creeping up my to do list, but when Sudha put the Page together and invited me to be an admin, I knew it was time to make this happen.

Why?

Because I’ve missed plenty of opportunities this last year because I haven’t had the right strategy in place.

Seriously… I have missed a ton of opportunities to grow my business because I haven’t used Facebook correctly.

But as we move forward, I’ll write about it, and hopefully this will provide a good basis for you to develop your own Facebook Page strategy.

Oh yeah, and if you want to see it as it develops, simply become a fan at our official JibberJobber Facebook Page!

Facebook Announces Developer Integration Points to New Design, New “Publisher” Feature

May 7th, 2008

n21073243776_369793_836.pngWhile still vague in regards to details, Facebook today released some important information regarding their new design that is sure to excite those users that are considering leaving for other networks. The first of such features seems to be a slap in the Face (and maybe a token from former Google Execs) to Google Employee-founded FriendFeed. Facebook is calling the feature, “Publisher”, and from the Developer Wiki,

“The Publisher will be a central focus of communication and sharing in the new profile. It sits right on top of a user’s Feed inviting the user or others to add content. Applications can integrate into the Publisher to provide rich experiences for creating or finding content to post into their own and their friends’ Feeds…

This has replaced the old Wall Attachments feature. Now, Wall is just one type of application for creating content (text content), on par with posting links, or uploading photos or videos. For example, to add a video with the Video application, the user no longer creates a Wall attachment and adds the video. Instead, the user posts a video to a friend’s Feed just as if she were writing a Wall post.”

From the screenshots (to the left), it appears as though you can also comment on each posted item, further encouraging a “conversation” amongst members of the Facebook community. What’s most interesting is the integration with the Facebook Platform API and ability for developers to present items for discussion within a particular user’s Feed. It appears as though your applications will be able to actually utilize the text box within the publisher to present information on a user’s feed in different ways. More information regarding the new combined Feed/Wall can be found here.

Also very interesting is it seems as though Facebook will soon allow, via the publisher, the automatic playing of Flash, and onload events within FBJS. It seems this is Facebook’s answer to the demand from users migrating from Myspace and the competition from Bebo who allows such onload events.

In addition to the publisher, Facebook has released more information via their developers wiki about the Tabs that will be available, and how applications will be displayed via those tabs. It appears as though at first, all applications will be rendered in their current form in a tab called “boxes” (they mentioned earlier today that name may be temporary). What’s new though is it seems as though your application will be able to give the user options to render other forms of profile boxes to an “Info” tab on the user’s profile. It’s unclear, but this could mean your application will be able to have multiple forms of displaying itself within the user experience beyond just Canvas pages, profile boxes, and feeds. A new FBML tag has been created for this purpose called “<fb:add-section-button/>” which appears to give your application the ability to have the user add a “section” to their profile. (I now need to update FBML Essentials!) Such section will have the ability to display image objects or text that the user can type and provide to your application.

Facebook is also allowing your applications to register an “Application Tab URL” which will have your Application appear in a list of applications next to a “+” (plus) sign in the list of tabs. The user will then have the option to add your Application as a tab, offering an alternate canvas view of your application for the user’s friends to see.

Beyond the Info and Boxes tabs, it’s a bit unclear as to what the other tabs will be called. The most recent screenshot by them includes a “Photos”, “Wall”, and “Feed” tab, but it seems as though the Wall and Feed may be combined to produce the “Publisher”. It could be that the current “News Feed” will be under the Feed tab, while the combined Mini-Feed and Wall will be under the Wall tab. I’m sure we’ll see more screenshots soon. Also of note is that the Action items, the links below your profile image currently, will be no more. Instead you’ll be able to offer your users interactivity via the publisher and other integration points throughout the user’s profile.

It also seems as though the separate News Feed/profile is no more when you log in. It seems they are bringing the focus on the profile and including what is now the “News Feed” to become what will be the “Feed” tab. I like this new concept and hope it catches on - I think it will be a win-win for both Facebook, users, and developers in that it will bring a more fluid experience to users, and encourage discussion and people more than anything else.

With the release of this information to the developers wiki it seems Facebook is on the verge of releasing the new design very soon. I would expect to see such features in the next week or two, considering it was originally supposed to launch last month.

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“The Smart Start Coach” Gives I’m on Facebook–Now What??? a Raving Review!

May 6th, 2008

linda_lopeke.thumbnail.pngProfessor Linda M. Lopeke, the “Smart Start Coach“, e-mailed me recently to notify Jason and I about the great review she gave us in her recent newsletter to her subscribers. Linda knows her stuff in the Career Counseling and Coaching field, so it’s quite a compliment to get such a great review. With her permission, here is her review:

The Prof Recommends
I’m on Facebook, Now What?
by Jason Alba and Jesse Stay

“At the end of 2007, there were some 60 million Facebook users.
Predictions are the numbers will hit 200 million by the end of 2008.
Why is this important to you? Because it means eventually careers
and businesses are not just going to grow by word-of-mouth but more
likely by word-of-mouse.

We’ve already talked about the importance of building your presence
on the internet and of making sure it speaks for and not against you
professionally. So clearly, your investment in learning more about
Facebook and social networking by reading this cool new book will
provide you with one of your best returns ever because it’s simply an
amazing resource for making sure you get it right. Remember, what
goes on the net, stays on the net!

You may recall last year we featured Jason’s book I’m on LinkedIn,
Now What? because it was such an excellent resource for figuring out
how you could derive major personal and professional benefits from
that tool. And his new book is no different in that respect. But this
time he’s teamed up with another author, Jesse Stay, who brings
strong technical, marketing and user experience to the mix.

Understanding what Facebook can do for you is a requirement in
today’s business world. And it should be an integral part of your plans
for building your success brand. It’s features fall somewhere between
what LinkedIn and MySpace provide. Jason and Jesse tell you how to
navigate through it. Their book is the definitive guide to making it part
of your social and professional networking strategy. So hold onto your
highlighters because pretty much every line in the book is a gem.

I’m on Facebook, Now What? gets you started off on the right foot,
demystifies connecting with others and using Facebook applications,
helps you hone your strategy, answers commonly asked questions,
peeks into privacy and moral issues and steers you away from social
no-nos plus it offers a host of additional resources for hard-core
addicts who want to explore even more possibilities.

In addition to helping you understand what Facebook is and is not,
Jason and Jesse provide examples, advice and action items to help
you develop and execute an effective Facebook strategy for yourself
and/or your company. They deliberately reached out to literally
dozens of social networking experts so you can feel confident you’re
getting advice from the best of the best.

A successful career is all about timing and delivery to the highest
standards of professional excellence. But it’s also about using tools
effectively to further your professional and personal goals. That’s both
common sense and good business.”

If you like her advice, I highly recommend subscribing to her newsletter on her blog!

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Facebook Launches Chat to the World #web20expo

April 23rd, 2008

I’m in the middle of Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s talk right now but wanted to do a quick blog on Facebook Chat. I was just talking with Dave Morin in the hall and he confirmed that late last night they launched Facebook Chat to the world. You may now notice a little chat box in the bottom with all your online friends. I’m a believer now - I think I could use this more than google chat! What do you think about it? Send me a message (I’ll try to answer as I have time)!

Follow my live blogging of Web 2.0 Expo on http://staynalive.com.

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What You Get From Facebook Pages: Default Information

April 21st, 2008

This is the second in a series of articles I will be posting on Facebook Pages and how they can benefit you and your organization. Facebook Pages are the “Profile” for your business on Facebook.

In the last of this series I went over the Applications that get installed by default for each Facebook Page type you add. This time, I’m going to go over the different types of information that get shown by default.

When you create a new Facebook Page, you might notice a link that says, “Add Information to this Page”. When you click on that, depending on what type of Page you are creating, there will be different types of information you can fill out. Some Pages have “About Me” sections, others have hours of opening, others have places for a mission statement. Depending on the type of business you are creating a Page for, you’ll get different options to fill out so it is important to be sure you’re selecting the right type of Page. Again, you cannot change the Page type after your Page has been created!

Each Page has one or multiple of 3 different categories of information - “Basic Info”, “Detailed Info”, and “Contact Info”. The following Pages have a Basic Info section with “Affiliation, “Address”, “Phone”, and “Birthday”. They also all have a Detailed Info section with “Website”, “Personal Information”, and “Personal Interests”, and a Contact Info section with an “Email” field:

  • Actor
  • Athlete
  • Comedian
  • Critic
  • Model
  • Visual Artist
  • Writer

The “Auto” Page type just has a Basic Info section with “Website”, “Company Overview”, “Mission”, “Built”, “Features”, and “MPG”.

The following Page types have a Basic Info section with “Address”, “Phone”, and “Hours” (Monday through Sunday):

  • Auto Dealer
  • Bank
  • Bar
  • Cafe
  • Club
  • Convention Center
  • Education
  • Event Planning
  • Government
  • Grocery
  • Health and Beauty
  • Home Service
  • Hotel
  • Library
  • Medical
  • Museum
  • Park
  • Pets
  • Professional Service
  • Religious Organization
  • Store

All of the above, with the exception of Library, Religious Organization, Professional Service, Bar, Cafe, Club, and Restaurant, have a Detailed Information section with “Website”, “Parking”, and “Public Transit”.

Bar, Cafe, Club, and Restaurant have a Detailed Information section with “Website”, “Attire”, “Payment Options”, “Culinary Team”, “General Manager”, “Parking”, “Public Transit”, “Price Range”, “Services”, and “Specialties”.

Library, Religious Organization, and Professional Service have a Detailed Information section with “Website” and “General Information”.

“Band”, and “Musician” Page Types have a Basic Info section with “Members”, “Genre”, “Home Town”, and “Record Label”. They also have a Detailed Info section with “Website”, “Current Location”, “General Manager”, “Booking Agent”, “Press Contact”, “Artists We Also Like”, “Influences”, “Band Interests”, and “Biography”.

The following Page Types have a Basic Info section of “Founded”, and a Detailed Info section with “Website”, “Company Overview”, “Mission”, and “Products”:

  • Communications
  • Consumer Products
  • Financial Service
  • Food and Beverage
  • Game
  • Home Living
  • Hotels/Lodging
  • Non-Profit
  • Online Store
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Rental Cars
  • Retail
  • Sports/Athletics
  • Technology Product/Service
  • Travel
  • Website

The “Film” Page Type has a Basic Info section with “Release Date”, “Genre”, and “Studio”. It also has a Detailed Info section with “Website”, “Starring”, “Screenplay by”, “Directed by”, “Produced by”, “Awards”, and “Plot Outline”.

The “Politician” Page Type is an interesting one. Fans of a “Politician” are called “Supporters”. It has a Basic Info section with “Country”, “Currently Running for Office”, “State”, “District”, “Party”, “Current Office Office”, “Current Office State”, “Current Office District”, and “Current Office Party”. It has a Detailed Info section with “Website”, “Gender”, “Relationship Status”, “Birthday”, “Hometown”, “Political Views”, “Religious Views”, “Activities”, “Interests”, “Favorite Music”, “Favorite Movies”, “Favorite Books”, “Favorite TV Shows”, “Favorite Quotes”, “About Me”, “Employer”, “Position”, “Description”, “City/Town”, “Time Period” (Multiple employers are allowed), “College/University”, “Class Year”, “Years Attended”, “Concentration(s)” (Multiple schools are allowed), “High School”, and “High School Class Year” (Multiple schools are allowed). Politicians also have a Contact Info section with “Email”, “Phone”, “Cell”, “Screen Name”, and “Address”.

The “Sports Team” Page Type has a Basic Info section with “Members”, “Affiliation”, “Address”, and “Phone”. It has a Detailed Info section with “Website”, and a Contact Info section with “Email”.

The “TV Show” Page Type has a Basic Info section with “Network”, “Season”, and “Genre”. It also has a Detailed Info section with “Website”, “Schedule”, “Starring”, “Written by”, “Directed by”, “Awards”, and “Plot Outline”.

As you can see, each Page type can provide you different ways of showing info about your business or brand. You can choose any Page type you want, but remember first of all that again, Page types cannot be edited once you choose one, and secondly, the Page type you select categorizes your Page with other Pages in that category. So if you’re an Auto Dealer and categorize yourself in the Film type to get the additional Film info, your dealership will display amongst a bunch of other Films in the Pages directory.

It has been a pleasure putting this together - I only hope it can be useful to you as well as you’re trying to set up your next Facebook Page! I’ll be posting a few more of these over the coming week or two - stay tuned!

Need some help getting a Facebook Page set up for your Organization? I do consulting! Contact me at jesse at staynalive dot com and I’ll get you setup with a plan on how you can utilize Facebook to bring your company more customers.

Add yourself as a fan on our Facebook Page at http://page.facebookadvice.com!

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