Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

Yep, you heard it! The Los Angeles Times published the article Facebook sues start-up for using ‘book’ in its name. The small site Teachbook.com is the target of being sued. This site helps give teachers a leg up with their job by providing valuable resources to manage classes.

Personally I think Facebook just picked the wrong fight. It is not an infringement of their idea as there are sites that have been up far longer than Facebook with ‘book’ in it. Is ‘book’ trademarked? Who knows. I am not about to go through the search to find out. ‘Facebook’ is though… so why waste money suing over something that has no grounds. Makes me want to ask – “Who was smoking the peyote before this decision came up?”

If Facebook has all this time to look after small websites that focus on a niche, particularly on teachers, wonder what sites might be sued for having ‘face’ in it? Would have been better to spend that money on something worthwhile.

Regardless of money involved, trademarking ‘book’ should never be one of them and frankly, in my opinion may have been illegal. If it is too common, it should not be used. I am still a bit iffy on the whole trademark issues and wonder – do all countries have a similar process of trademark?

Who dictates what can be trademarked and how it should be enforced – or does a company just report that they think someone is purposely trying to make money off of them.

I looked into Wikipedia to just get a brief overview of what trademark really is.

Short definition-wise, Wikipedia states:

A trademark or trade mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities.

According to what I read at Wikipedia, there are policies in place that if a company wrongfully accuses another or even threatens another company over trademark issues. Hopefully something can be resolved. In this situation, Facebook needs to just grow up and let it go. If there are 500 million teachers out there, then that is when it might be a problem.

What do you think about this? Do you think Facebook is in the right or just wasting money and time?

During my studies, it was clear that companies that basically took over a whole market of products were considered a monopoly. In the United States, it has been a law against companies becoming monopolies since the early 1900s.

However, does that also include companies that conduct business online, and more so… how far can the old Sherman Anti-Trust Act extend?

Yahoo!, Google, and now Facebook are all big kahunas in acquiring smaller internet companies.

Yahoo! has been known to acquire companies and eventually burn them to the ground – like GeoCities. Google just likes to buy and play their name in front of the product, like Google Feedburner. Facebook… well… they just like to buy and shut out competition. Facebook bought FriendFeed and recently it acquired NextStop. Facebook is looking to have its own version of FourSquare.

Sorry, but even though I am not as active on FourSquare… why in the heck would I use Facebook to check in anywhere considering they do not have the best privacy for users?

Facebook is the #2 site online in Alexa and and is one of the most powerful tools for social media marketing. However… are all these acquisitions profitable ventures for Facebook? Or will they crash and burn like some of the programs both Yahoo! and Google have let die in the past 15 years?

What do you think?

Sometimes when you get an outside service and apply it to your site, you are unsatisfied on how it looks and perhaps want to alter it – like the Facebook fan box. It really is not too much of a big deal, but for those who like to put a little more effort and get rid of outside branding on their site, this tutorial should help.

Really, all it is is copying the code, replacing areas of the code for your fan page, and then copying the css to your layout’s style sheet.

This is a short tutorial on how to make your Facebook fan box go from this:

To This:

However, the code here is a bit different from my stylesheet, so if you have a site with similar colors like mine, you are welcome to take a look at my site’s stylesheet for reference.

1. you need the Facebook fan box code. It does matter which code as well… whether it is the older code without the iframe, or the new one that includes the iframe


<script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.ak.connect.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/FeatureLoader.js.php/en_US"></script><script type="text/javascript">FB.init("b9786c0131cf453efe57a93566925d73");</script>
<fb:fan profile_id="95262735892" stream="0" connections="10" logobar="1" width="300" height="200":></fb:fan>
<div style="font-size:8px; padding-left:10px">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nile-Flores/95262735892">Nile Flores</a> on Facebook</div>

2. Replace the fan profile_id=”95262735892″ with your own page’s number. In the case you have a username for your page, you can get that id from your page’s settings. When you click “Edit Page” the URL will have your site’s ID at the end in your browser.

Example:

3. In your code, you will see logobar=”1″. Change the number to 0.

4. In your Facebook code on the same line as the height and width, add css=”YOURSTYLESHEETURLHERE?1″ .
In the YOURSTYLESHEETURLHERE, put the URL to either your stylesheet of your theme or layout.

5. Apply the following CSS to your stylesheet, no matter if you are using WordPress, another CMS, or straight HTML. You can alter the code to fit your site’s colors.


/* Start Facebook Fan Box CSS */

.fan_box .connect_widget td.connect_widget_vertical_center {
padding: 0 !important;
}


It really not much of a customization, but with some alterations to the CSS, you could probably do quite a lot.

Facebook: Profiles, Groups & Pages

Getting started as a business on Facebook can be confusing!

For an individual to get started on Facebook is really pretty straightforward, but businesses are often left scratching their heads at what solutions are available to them.

Facebook has three basic functional units: Profiles (for individuals), Groups (for community and interest groups) and Pages (for businesses and intellectual property)

Facebook Profiles

For a “personal”, non-business entity Profiles are the simple easy answer. They are the default method of operation on Facebook and it is just short of impossible to do anything without a profile. Many things that you can create or do (such as these Pages and Groups) are tied to and linked to your profile as well. (You can create a Page without a Profile but be prepared to jump through many hoops.) While it may be tempting to do business from here that is a huge no-no in Facebook’s eyes (and a violation of the Terms of Service (TOS)).

Creating a profile for a business, creating more than one profile for an individual, posting any direct advertising on a profile page, running a contest from a profile, as well as anything that can be even SLIGHTLY considered spammish such as adding too many friends in one day or replying in the same way too too many invites at once… are all grounds for your profile to be banned (which then takes associated Groups/Page access with it).

This does not mean however that Profiles are not an ideal way to network, make friends and connect with other like minded individuals and further business relationships. Because a Page or Group can not have a “friend”, a profile is your only ticket to getting access to another individuals profile wall and thus current status updates. For an example of these you can find my & Nile’s profiles here, however keep reading to understand why we both make more use of our pages than our profiles for early networking.

Facebook Groups

Groups used to be the primary point for interaction among like minded communities on Facebook. They also used to be the most likely opportunity to build some buzz around your area of expertise. While groups based just on a brand did not often fair too well without preexisting name recognition, groups built around areas of interest such as “social media” could often allow a small business to develop a loyal community that they could serve with value and carefully use as a market.

All of that said, you note the “used to” expressions here I’m sure. That’s because Groups have been on (non-official) non-development status for a long time now. They have received no love and do not have access to many of the resources, utilities, features (including no access to Facebook Applications) that they should have. Messages posted on a Group wall do NOT post in the members News Feeds and because of this members will usually join Groups and never return.

So why do I mention them? Because they are the only way on Facebook to form an interest community that you then have access to directly EMAIL (okay, Facebook Inbox email) the individuals “blast style” all at once time. While there is no scheduling of email messages, the ability to send emails directly to the Facebook Inbox of members can be a critical part of some marketing campaigns. However, it must be noted that all marketing done in Groups has traditionally been soft sell, attraction-marketing style because the TOS is incredibly vague as to whether doing business from a Group is permissible. Big businesses shied away from Groups for this reason, and Facebook sought to appease the needs of these businesses by creating….

Facebook Pages

The late-coming to the Facebook Game, Facebook “Fan Pages” were designed with businesses in mind. Their policies are permissive on advertising, marketing, member engagement (except contests which is a sticky problem) and more. Fan Pages are the sexy, younger, high-maintenance sibling with all the neat toys!

This is where a business can get in and develop both their brand and an interactive fan base. The best pages are those that foster brand involvement are are open for members to post on and interact with the business, however businesses can chose to keep all of the postings on the wall as strictly their own too.

Facebook Applications help take a rather sterile looking Facebook platform and bring it to life with color, HTML (technically FBML), javascript, video and social media integration (such as RSS Feeds).  Since Nile (her page) and I (my page) both appear to currently have our FBML Welcome/Landing tabs under development again (to comply with some upcoming changes), I’d like to point you to have a look at Mari Smith’s fan page. Now if you are not already a fan of Mari, when you clicked that link you were redirected to Mari’s Welcome/Landing tab and you can see the high rate of customization as well as the call to action to “Like” the page. In case you were already a fan but wanted to look again at what I’m talking about, here is the direct link. Applications like “Static FBML”, “NetworkedBlogs” and “RSSGraffiti” let you bring pages to life.

There are some downsides though and that is that Pages can not have “friends” and so can not access a individual’s profile directly (although their status updates do appear in the fan’s News Feed), can not post replies off of their own wall (on another Page for example) as the business (only as their own personal profile), and can only send “Updates” to the members which do not go to the members actual Inbox. Also because of the inability to (ever) change a page’s name, it is highly suggested to have a personally branded page even if you chose to make a second business branded one. Think with the end in mind and realize that if your business name ever changes you can not rename the page.

Regardless of the limitations, Pages are essential to building businesses today on Facebook. They are the cornerstone of presenting your business in a professional light, have good SEO, are inviting to the public and their ability to be customized is helpful.

Hopefully this helps you understand the opportunities and tools available to a business on Facebook. While initially it can all feel confusing, once you get used to it there is some method to the madness! Likely over time, as Pages continue to be actively developed on, the few downsides that they presently present will be eliminated. Questions? Thoughts? I look forward to seeing them here and also getting to know you on my page. Drop by and tell me a about you and feel free to share a link to your own Page!

Kimberly

Recently Mashable published Facebook CEO: “We’ve Made a Bunch of Mistakes” and as much as I hope Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg means that those new things include revamping the privacy policy, I would have to wonder how much would they compromise in changing it.

There ARE people still washing their hands of Facebook… so this kind of makes me believe that there either was enough account deletions for Facebook to care, or perhaps a light of common sense finally shined. I like to use Facebook. I will keep using it unless there is something extremely wrong ethically with their system that I cannot agree with.

Despite the fact Facebook is one of the largest websites, it is like when Yahoo! used to be top dog over ten years ago – you do something to piss off people that were loyal users, and you lose it. For those who want to jump the ship, fine, but for those who are not as rash – wait a bit.

This little tidbit of hope for redefining a user’s experience might actually happen. However, is it too late? I mean, hey, Facebook found the time to put in Leet Speak and English Pirate in their language options. I mean, if it was really important to focus on that rather than important user policies, I am not sure what kind of direction Facebook wants to go.

What are your thoughts?

Facebook users are pissed off after Facebook’s privacy issues. This is nothing new, as they have been pushing their plan of taking over the Internet, users are getting pissed off enough to delete their own Facebook accounts.

Frankly, it is not surprising. I am not sure about other countries, but if anyone remembers Pinky and the Brain… I am just about relating that to Facebook’s mentality on how they dominate the Internet. I like to use Facebook, but I am concerned if it comes to my information being carelessly shared with people who have no business knowing it.

Of course, I am pretty lax about my own information, going as far as even sharing my birth name here on Blondish.net because I have nothing to hide and because I kind of agree with Tony Bradley’s article on PC Word called Facebook Privacy: Mea Culpa Reality Check, let me add:

- Did you share your Social Security Number or equivalent?
- Did you share how you go to the restroom?
- Did you share that embarrassing college moment?

My advice in this matter is that if you are not comfortable sharing your information with others online, then do not fill all those blanks out in your Facebook profile (or any of your social network profiles.) I know my own father is hesitant to join Facebook because he already has an issue with his patients (he is a Physician Assistant) trying to get his home and cell number. How do I know? – people have called me to try to get it!

The problem is that when you go online and fill out anything with your own information, the search engines WILL pick it up. So, if you are not comfortable, do not fill out all of the user profile information.

Unless Facebook requested you to put driver’s license, country residence, your exact home address, or social security number (or equivalent in another country), then it is pointless to delete. Be responsible for your information first.

It has been known that Facebook has been inching toward some kind of plan to let everything be open. I do have to put my own foot down as I do believe that even though Facebook offers a great and free service, the company should make sure the users feel like they can use it and not fear for their lives. It is bad enough that employers are looking online to check a person’s background by merely conducting a search through Google. That and the fact Facebook brings in a lot of money from its users – (point of view change) come on Facebook – give your users some love!

What are your thoughts on Facebook and its privacy

Is Facebook becoming the place to go to even when it is not a rainy day? Aaron Wong wrote Facebook: The Leaky Faucet of Time in response to Mashable‘s article Facebook Is the Web’s Ultimate Timesink. He put to the fact that the Mashable article said that according to Nielsen Ratings that Facebook users are spending an average of 7 plus hours online – per month.

Why is this happening? Well, there are several things:

• Social Game Applications
• Discussion forums
• Facebook can be used by a lot of mobile phones
• Easy access to news
• Unobtrusive advertising

I have to admit I use Facebook more than 7 hours a month… and probably more than 7 hours a week. Why? Well, most of it has to do with all of what I listed above. I am a social gamer and have a separate site called Game App Geek where so far, my boyfriend and I rate and review game apps from several places, including Facebook. Another, I connect with people over business and make new connections. Some of these connections are even from Twitter. I am a fan of several news places. Because I have a busy live stream, sometimes it is easier for me to catch the news in Facebook. I can also bookmark these places.

From Aaron’s article, he asks:

Is 7 hours per month too much? How much is too much time spent on Facebook? It seems that the trend is for increased time spent. Can Facebook replace television as family entertainment?

My response to Aaron’s article was that I did not think 7 hours a month was too much. I do however recommend that anyone who almost lives in front of the computer to make sure they have an exercise schedule in between all the internet surfing. Just typing and moving a mouse does not get calories burning.

As for family entertainment, the computer is not a place for the family to have quality time, not even Facebook, unless the household had a network. It is probably better to break out the Wii. At least with that, 4 family members can play at the same time.

What are your thoughts? Are People Spending Too Much Time On Facebook?

A lot of website owners are making fan pages for their websites. For me, because I have several sites, I just have one here on Blondish.net to myself in general. However, I found after I put the fan page widget on my site, people were emailing me or sending direct messages to ask how I did it. So, here is a tutorial on how to place a Facebook fan box widget on your site.

1. Look for the link “Edit Page” link under your fan page image in the top left corner. This will take you to the administrative page for your site.

2. To the right of the general options, there are a few sections. One is called “Promote Your Page”. Click on the link that says “Promote with a Fan Box.”

This will lead you to a page that you can select the page you want to promote and Facebook will generate a code.

3. Select the code best suited for your blog. For those with WordPress, choose the button “Other.” Copy the code.

4. In WordPress, you can place the code into a widget. (This is located in the sidebar of the WordPress admin under the section “Appearance.”)

5. You can adjust the code to show how many or how few avatars on your fan box. You can also adjust the size. To adjust the number of people to show, look in the code for : connections=”10″

Ten is the default number. You can change this to any number, but do remember that you may have to adjust the size of the fan box.

Sound easy?