Social Brio

How to Set Your Facebook News Feed to Display Updates from All of Your Friends

If you read my blog regularly, you already know that I "Like" Facebook a lot, but the social network recently made a quiet little change which, as far as I can tell, wasn't really announced to its +500 Million users.

Have you noticed lately that you seem to see updates on your Facebook News Feed from a handful of the same people all the time, while you almost never see updates from other friends?  I noticed this before reading about the change and a few times thought, "Did this person unfriend me?  I haven't seen anything from them in a long time!"- at least now I know that there's a reason for it.

If you scroll down to the bottom of your News Feed- it will take you a few scrolls, since as you probably know it auto-loads more content as you read through updates- you'll see this option at the bottom:

When you click on Edit Options, a screen and dropdown with these options will come up:

 

Was yours defaulted to the "Friends and pages you interact with most" option? Yep, Facebook pulled a sneaky one on us and defaulted to that setting.  If you want to see all of your friend's and pages' updates, you might want to switch to "All of your friends and pages."

I'm not sure why Facebook would implement this option and not publicize it- maybe it's because they wanted users to experience a more "virtually localized" News Feed- but regardless, the setting is now there for you to choose the option that best suits your Facebook perusing style.  And, now you actually know about it!  It might even help cure your exhaustion from seeing every.single.update. from your super nice, but not so spelling or grammatically savvy, Facebook friend (it's they're, not their!!!)... but that's never happened to me :)

Social Goodies: Twitter Lists, Social Media Sobriety Test & LinkedIn Social Graph

My Social Goodies list is back!  For those of you who missed my first one, Social Goodies are new tools, tips, tricks and websites I've recently discovered (and probably have tried).  I hope these help you, your business and/or your understanding of Web 2.0!

Formulists

A few months ago I noticed that I was added to a Twitter List, so I clicked to check it out; in the description, it mentioned that @formulists generated and auto-updated it.  Curiousity lead me to their website, which lead me to sign in with Twitter; in a few minutes, I had a self-updating List linked to my account.  There are several options for how to generate yours; for example, here are mine:

 

Now, every new person I follow on Twitter and every person with whom I've recently interacted is added to one of these Lists.  Cool and time saving?  I think so!  One thing to be aware of: Formulists wants you to sign into their website every so often (every 30 days I think?), so if you notice something is wrong with your lists, just login and they should auto-update.

 

Social Media Sobriety Test

This one is partially hilarious, partially seemingly silly but somehow completely necessary in certain situations.  If you're a serial Under-The-Influence Facebooker, Twitterer or any other -er online, you probably want to try out this tool.  Webroot, the makers of various computer software, created the Social Media Sobriety Test to help protect intoxicated individuals from themselves in the wee hours.

Here's how it works:

1. Install the program on your computer from their website
2. Specify the hours of the day/night and the social networks you want it to monitor
3. When you go to a social network you've selected, during the hours you've specified, the program will require you to take the Sobriety Test: a moving finger that you follow with your mouse, and the key is to keep the cursor on the finger.
   
4. If you pass, access is granted.  If not, no access for you, but no embarrasing posts, either!
   

Like I said, it seems funny at first look, but after recognizing the reality of today's blended social networks (friends+family+co-workers+bosses etc), it's a pretty good way to preserve your own personal brand.  (By the way, has anyone tried this one? I've often thought that I might not be able to pass a real sobriety test, even sober, so I'm wondering if this is also more difficult than it looks!)

 

LinkedIn InMaps

LinkedIn Labs recently released a tool called InMaps, which graphs your current LinkedIn network by color.  For the visual learners/readers out there, this tool is especially helpful; the color-coded web of connections allows you to see all of your connections and how they're related  to each other.  It also allows you to label all of your connections by color; for example, all of your co-workers from your last job might be blue, and a cluster of prospective clients you know from the local Chamber of Commerce could be red.

Visualizing your LinkedIn network could help you discover, for example, that you aren't connected to enough co-workers at your current company.  Those resources could be very valuable in the future, in the form of recommendations, introductions to their connections and more.

Side note: if you're not on LinkedIn yet, click on over today and sign up.  It's the biggest professional social network on Planet Earth.  Enough said.  Oh, and your company can have a profile, too.

Have fun browsing these tools!

Twitter For Business: Is It Worth My Company's Time?

Lately I've come across a handful of business professionals who still aren't Twitter believers.  They see it as sphere of noise where teeny-bopper Bieber lovers, Ocho Cinco's groupies and Ashton's cyber entourage go to mingle. To them, it's a waste of time and resources.  It's just another new media which will become obsolete once the next big thing comes along.  Respectfully, I disagree.

While there is a lot of noise floating around the Twittersphere- right now, the phrase "BIEBER ALERT" is trending- there are also a lot of productive interactions occurring every day (like, now).  In my own experience, there are three big reasons why Twitter matters:

• For its ability to form new relationships that otherwise probably would not have occurred
• For its one-of-a-kind, global capability to allow users to listen in real-time
• For its powerful ability to drive traffic

While Twitter may not be "it" forever, it has laid the groundwork for the new ways in which we interact. In my opinion, businesses can't afford not to be part of the online conversation, whether it be on Twitter or another network. While simply telling you to trust me probably won't make you a believer, here's how I- meaning my following, others awareness of me as a consultant, and my blog traffic- have benefited from Twitter in just a few short months via my newest Twitter feed:

Networking: I've made invaluable connections with other marketing professionals; by engaging in my industry's conversation on Twitter (there's a lot of marketing chatter!), I've had brief but intelligent discussions with my marketing tweeps.  These interactions have led me to discover many new tools (like paper.li) and tips (like how to secure your Facebook connection while on a public network), which I can use and also pass on to my clients.

Expert Visibility: Part of having an online presence involves finding a way to market yourself as an expert in the field.  Currently, I'm listed on 15 Twitter Lists with names such as "social-media-tweeps," "marketing-resources" and maybe most importantly, one by social media enthusiast Dave Evans named "industry".  If a Twitter user is friends with a person who created one of these lists and needs a marketing resource, they may just find my name and end up hiring me for work.  Skeptics: if you're wondering, no, that hasn't happened to me yet, but without Twitter there would be 0% chance of this opportunity.

News Source: I seem to discover breaking tech and social media news faster now, since I'm more likely to see a breaking tweet from a company like Mashable before I go to their website or read the latest RSS updates in my inbox.  Which means I can update my networks earlier than before, likely getting information to my current and potential consumers before they find it themselves.  Result: I'm a valuable resource worth "listening" to on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Traffic Driver: In a 30 day period, my Twitter account drives anywhere from 6% to 22% of my total blog traffic.  The more I blog (which I haven't been enough lately, hence the 6%), the more traffic I get from Twitter.

I realize that I may not have convinced you yet- it takes some patience, good content and time to listen in order to see positive results- but I really think it's worth it for businesses to try.  I'm sure the day will come when Twitter is out and _________ is in, but I think that having a good working knowledge of Twitter will likely make it easier for individuals and businesses alike to transition to the next big thing.