Do you want to let people know where you are?

Facebook is just starting to use Facebook Places. If you know about FourSquare.com, you’ll find some similarities and differences.

With Facebook Places you can -

• Checkin to a location and have that information posted to Facebook
• Add locations
• Tag other people you are with (or they can tag you)

Currently, Facebook places is only in the iPhone. It will be added to other smartphones soon. Also, even though Facebook places is on my phone, my location isn’t quite there yet. The message says that it will be added to my region soon.

What about privacy? As a FourSquare user, I’m not uncomfortable letting people know that I’m at a store or a restaurant. However, in both FourSquare and Facebook, 95% of the people I’m friends with are people that I know personally. The other small percentage are people that are friends of my husband or other friends, or a select few that I’ve gotten to know well though social media. So the people who will see where I am are people that I trust. Privacy settings can be set be seen by only your friends, friends of friends, and so on.

The biggest issue I see with Facebook places is the fact that other people can tag you as being somewhere. With FourSquare, you are the only one who can checkin to a location, letting people know where you are. With Facebook places your friends can add you to a place if you are there. Similar to photos, if someone tags you, you can remove the tag, thereby not showing where you are. However, you’ll have to know that they tagged you first, and either ask them to remove the tag or untag yourself (right away if you have a smartphone, later at home if you don’t). If you plan to add other people to a location that you are at, be respectful and ask them first.

The second issue that I see is that some people will be adding their homes. Personally, I don’t think that is a great idea. Even though my friends are people I know, not all of them have been to my house. I don’t want to be adding my own address to Facebook.

Used properly, this can be fun. The next time you are at the mall, checkin to see who else is there. Going out to dinner with friends? Take a picture, tag the location and tag your friends in the photo. Have fun with it. Will you be using Facebook places?

Too old to learn social media?

I hear that quite a bit. Just like everything else, it’s all in the attitude. People say that technology changes too fast and they can’t keep up. As soon as one thing is accomplished, there is something else new to learn. But wait, doesn’t learning keep us young?

My Dad, who passed away a number of years ago, was born in 1911. He grew up on a farm and did all his chores without the aid of anything motorized to help. When the Model T came out, their family bought one! They did not complain about having to learn how to drive. When I was growing up, he was putting in lawns for new homes and owned a tractor. No complaints about having to learn how to use that, either. That age group had other new technology to deal with such as phones and electricity. My Grandmother, who never learned how to read or write, did learn how to use a phone with the aid of her grown children. One of them made a set of cards she could flip thru to see what number to dial for each of the children. Rather than complaining about this “newfangled” way of doing things, she learned how to use a phone.

We really have the same choices today. Do we want to learn something new, or would we rather just sit and complain that there is too much to learn? I don’t give away my age often, but yes, I’m in my mid-fifties. So, I’m in the generation that could easily complain. One person my age told me she grew up when phones where connected to the wall as a reason that social media was way past her learning curve! Yes, phones were connected to the wall when I grew up too! I’ve made my choice – I want to always learn new things. Ok, I can hear the grumbles – yes, computers are easy for me to learn – but I also try to learn new things that are not easy for me.

So make a choice to stay young. Don’t use age as an excuse! Learn something new every day. It doesn’t all have to be social media, there is so much to learn. Just don’t close yourself off from learning and trying new things.

It doesn’t matter which social media platform you are discussing if the person you’re talking to doesn’t know about that particular platform. The same response will be said about blogging, Twitter, Facebook and any other social platform around. The standard comment is “Why would I want to post what I had for breakfast?” or “Why would I want to read that someone just went to the bathroom?”

The truth is that social media is conversation. We talk about the things that we are doing and the things that we would say to people when we saw them in person. I’m not a foodie, so I don’t talk about food much. However, there are lots of foodies who do and lots of people who love to read about what they made for dinner. It’s interesting if you write about it in an interesting way. Instead of saying “We had chicken for dinner” talk about how the chicken was cooked, what spices were used, and so forth.

If you have a question about anything, post it on a social media platform and you’ll get an answer from someone. Post any questions on Twitter and Facebook to get all kind of responses. “What type of dog should I get?” or “How do I crop an image?” will get all kinds of answers from the people who are knowledgable in those areas.

This is the new and improved information age. In addition to searching for information, we can post a question and get multiple answers. Through social media, we’re now connected to people who are knowledgable on a variety of subjects. On the other side of that, what are you knowledgable about? Use a blog, Twitter, Facebook, or a variety of other platforms to let people know what you know. Share your knowledge.

Does sharing your knowledge help you? Some will argue that we give out too much information when we do this. That’s not necessarily true. I may be able to help one person by showing them how to setup their own Facebook page, but for the one that does it on their own, there are ten others who want help with it.

So, post on your blog, write something on Twitter or Facebook. Ask questions and learn.

Ok, this goes into the advances in technology category (which I’m setting up now!)

Here’s the definition from Wikipedia -

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is derived from “Quick Response”, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

If you really want all the details, this is the Wikipedia link – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

Basically, QR Codes are barcodes for anyone and everyone. How about a business card that someone can not only “scan” in, but taking a photo of that barcode will send them to the link specified in the code? Sounds pretty cool and maybe way ahead of it’s time. Cool, yes. Ahead of it’s time – no. The technology is here today.

On the i-nigma website, you can put in a link and they’ll make a QR code image for you. This is one that I made that will take you to my photography website.

So now what, you ask. The next thing you’ll need is an app to read this. On my iPhone, I have an app called i-nigma, made by the same people who made this image for me. I tested this out by taking a photo of this from the app on my phone. It worked perfectly! It took me straight to the Kristina’s Photos website, which is what I programmed this particular image for.

These codes are now starting to show up in ads and even on billboards. This is currently much more common in Japan than in the US.

So how is the practical? Well, my next business card will have an image that will go to an online business card with all of my info. This will include my websites and my social media sites. There are sites online where you can do this, such as card.ly, but I’ll be making my own page with all of the information. When that page is complete, I’ll be adding it here and posting links on Facebook and Twitter.

We are all finding out that we need to have many places for people to find us on the web. A website alone is not enough. So, we have our personal profile on LinkedIn, a personal page and/or business page on Facebook and maybe a Twitter or YouTube account. There are pros and cons to both ways of doing things.

The remainder of this post can be found at AndyNathan.net, where it was written as a guest post.

When our business changed, we needed to make changes in the social media accounts also. This involved a name change to some accounts. This involves different procedures on different sites.

The first site to change was Facebook. Unfortunately, Facebook does not allow you to change a username once you have one. So, for Facebook, I needed to start a new business page.  I was consolidating two Facebook pages into one. I did notify everyone that was a fan on either of the old pages, but not all have moved over to the new page. That is to be expected, but it would certainly be nice if more people clicked the like button on http://Facebook.com/MediaByKristina. Also, to have a Facebook username, you need to have 25 fans on your page.

Now for YouTube. That is another site where they don’t let you change the name of the account once you have it. Fortunately, I don’t have a ton of videos or people who were subscribed to my channel so it was easier for me to start fresh there.

On Twitter, you can change the name of your account at any time. I had recently opened @KrisSchCom1 for my social media updates, but I also had @KristinasPhotos for my photography updates. Since the business was consolidating both of those discussions into one business, I wanted to do the same with my two Twitter accounts. The account for @KristinasPhotos was the older account with more followers so it made sense to change that name to the new @MediaByKristina. I also wanted to follow anyone who had started following the @KrisSchCom1 account.

In doing that, I did something wrong according to Twitter, so they suspended my new @MediaByKristina account. Unfortunately, they did not send me an email with an explanation on why they were suspending the account. I’ve contacted them with my complaint, and we’ll see how soon the account is back to normal. I’ll be updating this with a link to my twitter account as soon as they remove the suspension on the account.

All  of this is a reason to choose a good name when you are setting up your social media accounts. It’s also a good idea to have the same name on all the sites, and one that is the same or similar to your domain name. One of my clients changed his domain name since the name we came up with for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube was easier to remember and shorter than his domain name. Your own name can also be used if it’s not being used already. Of course, if you are using your own name, changing companies won’t create a problem. A woman getting married would have a choice of wether or not to change her name.

If you’re not using social media yet, but plan to in the future, it’s a good idea to get your name on the various sites now.

Is there a difference? Personally, I don’t think so. Social networking is talking to people. Sometimes we’re answering questions about our industry or our business, sometimes we’re giving tips and sometimes we’re just chatting with friends and associates. Other than the fact that one is in person and one is online, we should treat them the same.

Picture this – It’s a warm summer day and you decide to go out for ice cream with your family. You’re wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals. As soon as you’ve gotten the ice cream cone and start eating it – your new client comes in. Even though you’re in casual clothes, you can talk about the job you’re doing, something new in the industry and/or the ice cream and your family.  All of that is networking. That client may be with a friend that also could use your services. You want to be sure to have some business cards with you to hand out.

Compare this scenario with Facebook.  If you are connected to more people than just family and close friends, which is usually the case, you’re networking here also. What if you post a link to an interesting article in your industry? By doing that, you’re showing that you are a trusted advisor in your field. Another one of those business associates or a client that you’re connected to may ask you a question on your industry. Here again, you are showing your knowledge. Any of the other people you are connected to may see this and tell someone else about it that might need your services.

Another item to keep in mind is that many times the conversation flows from the social environment to having coffee with someone and vice versa. Neither of these types of networking should exclude the other. We are now doing both all the time.

Whether it’s getting ice cream with the family, or Facebook or an other social environment, remember that you are always networking and act accordingly.

Wow, I’ve been the proud owner of an iPad for less than a week.

They are hard to find, since as soon as the stores get them in, they’re sold. If you want to buy one, either go to your local Apple store and put you’re name on a list, or order one directly from Apple. Otherwise you’ll be calling around and/or running around only to find out the stores are out of them.

Screen

The screen is stunning. Everything is very clear and easy to read. One of the reasons that I wanted an iPad was to be able to easily carry my entire nature photography portfolio around with me. That was easily accomplished by syncing the iPad to the right folders in my computer. The photos are very clear with great color and detail. It’s also very easy to setup the iPad to play a screen show of photos.

The downside of the screen is fingerprints. Carry cleaner and a good cloth with you all the time, you’ll need it.

Apps

All of the apps I have on my iPhone are now on the iPad. We also did a sync of my husband’s iPhone to my computer and all of his apps are on the iPad and on my iPhone! All of the apps I’ve tried so far work fine. The difference in some apps is that they have not been made larger for the iPad screen. You can make those apps two times larger, but they won’t look as good or be as easy to read.

Accessories

The only accessory I’ve bought so far is an extension to plug the iPad into a projector. To be able to use that for presentations, I also needed to buy the Keynote app for $9.99. I’m still figuring out how to sync my presentations between the iPad and my Mac. Being able to use the iPad for the presentations will be great. There’s even a way to tap and hold in Keynote which will work the same as a laser pointer.

The other item I’ve ordered is the apple case. They run out of those at the Apple store just as quickly as the iPads themselves. Incase is making a case similar to the Apple one which will be available shortly. The good thing about these cases is that you can fold them in a variety of positions to hold the iPad for carrying, typing and watching videos, etc.

Keyboard

Currently, I’m using the keyboard built into the iPad, mainly in the landscape position. I would call this comfortable two finger typing. I could probably get used to using all my fingers if I worked with it.

Books

I’m not a person that needs the feel of a book or newspaper in my hands to enjoy it. Actually, I’d rather save the trees. So, I’ve tried both the Kindle app and the iBook app. Both have the nice page turning features, the ability to adjust the brightness and the ability to change the font size. The Kindle app has a choice of a dark screen with light print for reading in the dark. My choice for a book reader would depend on the availability and price of books.

Movies

Withe the great screen the iPad has, the iPad works well for movies. The exception is a good stand which we are looking for. Without a stand, it is rather cumbersome to find the best way to setup the iPad to watch the movies. Netflix subscribers can watch the “Watch Instantly” movies and TV shows on the iPad.

In short, I think this new device is great. I’ll be using it all the time. This blog post has been written entirely on the iPad.

Which cloud is all this information on?

Have you heard of cloud computing? More and more of what we do online is somewhere in a “cloud” which is a server somewhere on the internet. So the question is – where is the information that you’re putting on Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Flickr, Gmail, and other sites? We are putting tons of information on some cloud or other, but do you have a backup of any of that?

Twitter Backup – There are a number of Twitter backup services, like TweetBackup, BackupMyTweets, TwitterSafe and many others. Many of these are free and don’t ask for your Twitter password. What you’ll have to do is authorize that program to work with Twitter. It’s better to not put your Twitter password on another website. Are your tweets important to you?

Facebook Backup – There is an app called SocialSafe that will backup your Facebook profile and photos. Currently, this will not work for Facebook fan pages. The cost is very low – $2.99 – and it pulls a backup of your Facebook account to your computer.

WordPress Backup – The first place to check on this is the company that is hosting your blog. They should be doing an automatic regular backup of your blog. If the site goes down for some reason, they can install the backup. Whether or not there is a fee for this depends on the host and what caused the problem. WordPress has a codex with instructions on backing up your blog. There are also many WordPress extensions for backing up your blog. There are two things you need to backup. One is the site itself, and the other is the database. The database is where all of your posts and comments are stored. Also remember that this backup should be at another location to be an effective backup.

YouTube Backup - I’ve seen a Windows app for a YouTube backup – but not one for Mac. Some people on YouTube make a backup account and upload everything to two accounts. If the first account is gone, the second one is still there. You can also download all of your videos from YouTube as an MP4. That option is on your YouTube account page.

Flickr Backup - One of the options available for backing up your Flickr account is an open source program called FlickrBackup. This will download all of the photos you have in your Flickr account in case they get lost on your computer. There are other options available, depending on your system.

Multi- Account Backup – Backupify.com - This is a new service that can be set to backup many Social Media sites. Right now they have 2g of storage free. With this service, you can backup Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and WordPress in addition to Google Docs, Delicious and others. They are working on adding YouTube to the set of services also. I’m currently using this service.

Some of these services backup everything to your computer, while some backup the information to a different cloud. Even if it’s another cloud, it is better to have a backup. If you download a lot of information from social media sites to your computer, remember that it can take up a lot of space. You’ll either need lots of room on your hard drive or an external hard drive.

Hopefully you’re already backing up your computer on a regular basis. My Resources page has a listing for a cloud backup service that is affordable. It’s better to have a good backup plan. Don’t loose all of your important information!!

Which one should you use??

I’ve been hearing lots of confusion lately about Facebook. Many people use their profile as a business page, others make groups instead of pages or vice-versa. Here is a short rundown of when to use each.

Facebook Profile

Facebook profiles are for you, as an individual. Connect with friends, talk about what you’re doing, find friends you haven’t seen for years. Post photos of everything, old to current. Discuss the state of the universe – you get the idea. This is for fun. You can talk about work here too, but work would be mixed in with the fun.

Facebook Fan Page

Fan pages are similar to profile pages, but they are for a business. There are a couple of main differences.

• Fan pages are made for business, artists, musicians… and the pages have a place to put different information based on your type of business.
• Fan pages don’t have a limit of the number of fans you can have.
• There is a discussion tab where a business can answer questions from their fans. There’s a tab for news, so you can easily add business news.
• Fans of a page are just fans, not friends. Because of this, people don’t have to worry about their privacy when they become a fan of a page. It’s a one-way connection.
• Updates can be sent to fans, with no limit on the number of people the update goes to.
• If you have more than one business, you can have more than one fan page.
• Facebook Fan Pages are indexed by the search engines.

Facebook Group

Facbook groups are made for groups. They are setup for graduating class groups, networking groups, knitting or reading groups and so on. They aren’t meant to grow the way fan pages can, although people can join the group.

From Facebook help – “Groups are meant to foster group discussion around a particular topic area while Pages allow entities such as public figures and organizations to broadcast information to their fans.”

• Groups are not indexed by the search engines! This is very important if you’re using Facebook to increase your business ranking in search engines.
• When you post something as a group administrator, it comes from you the person. When you post something on your fan page, it comes from the business and is not tied to your profile.

Hopefully this will help clear up some of the confusion surrounding the different things you can do with Facebook. Let me know if you have other questions.