New on Facebook:

Like button -  A newer more compact like button similar to Twitter’s tweet button.  According to the report, unliking is a bit more complicated.

Status autosuggest – Now Facebook will autocomplete your status with friend’s names and pages you like.

Places – Facebook made it’s announcements that it would partner with Gowalla, Foursquare, yelp and mytown for its new location based service.

Live – Facebook now has live streaming webcams set up at its offices. Web cams at a web company.. very 1990s.

New in Search Market Share:

Not Much – Market share held steady last month.  I haven’t seen a bing tv ad in a while… is that campaign over?

New on Twitter:

Tweeting is not just spam – Similar to Facebook’s Stories, Twitter launched a microsite featuring personal stories of how people have used Twitter in meaningful ways.

Read the stories below:

• Facebook Partnering With Gowalla And Foursquare For Places
• Search Engine Market Share Steady In July: Hitwise
• You Like? Facebook Makes Updates To Its “Like” Button
• Facebook Status Gets Auto-Suggest
• Twitter Jumps On User Stories Bandwagon; Debuts ‘Tales’
• As Facebook Location Looms, Has Foursquare Entered The Pantheon Of Services?

Wave features heralded by Google include character-by-character live typing within the web browser and the ability to share images and other media in real time.

Despite the initial excitement surrounding the product when it launched last year, Wave was slow to catch on, probably due to its complexity.

“Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product,” Google Senior Vice President of Operations Urs Hölzle said in the post.

Even Wave development team leader Lars Rasmussen admitted in May that the product was “a little daunting” for new users, and that Google had “failed to answer the question of what can I actually use Wave for, right now, right here.”

Mr. Hölzle said Google will extend Wave’s technology for use in other projects and that the company will work on creating tools to allow users to easily “liberate” their content from Wave.

Wave joins the long list of Google’s failed social media attempts, including Orkut and Google Lively. 

Maybe the company will have more luck with its rumored new social network, Google Me.

The social media site has posted the following statement on its blog:

Rumors claiming that Facebook’s Phonebook feature exposes phone numbers are false. The Phonebook allows you to find your friends’ phone numbers if they’ve posted them to Facebook and made them available for their friends. Learn and share the facts in this blog post.

The Phonebook allows Facebook users to see their friends’ phone numbers in one simple list. It also displays contacts imported from a user’s phone.

A report on All Facebook debunks the rumor, explaining that the feature is meant to give users an easy way to locate their friends’ contact info. The post gives step-by-step graphic instructions on how you can your hide phone number from your friends, if you choose to keep that information private.

Essentially, there are two ways to remove your phone number from appearing on other peoples’ Phonebooks: (1) adjust your privacy settings or (2) remove your phone number from your Facebook profile. The better bet seems to be modifying your privacy settings, since Facebook uses your phone number to verify your account even if you didn’t add it to your profile. The mobile Phonebook feature can be disabled with one click.

While it appears that the Phonebook does not permit the sharing of phone numbers with third party non-users and with friends of users who have hidden their numbers, the security glitch rumor is just another headache for the social media site in its neverending battle over privacy concerns.

Facebook will roll out changes today that will make it easier for our users to understand and control their privacy settings. As this change will have an impact on our users, we wanted to let you, a valued advertising partner, know about it. Please note that this change will not affect your advertising campaigns and there is no action required on your part.



Facebook is a company that moves quickly, constantly innovating and launching new products to improve the user experience. The feedback we heard from users was that in our efforts to innovate, some of our privacy settings h ad become confusing.
 


We believe in listening to our users and taking their feedback into account whenever possible. We think the following changes address these concerns by providing users with more control over their privacy settings and making them more simple to use.



Starting today, Facebook will: 

* Provide an easy-to-use “master” control that enables users to set who can see the content they share through Facebook.  This enables users to choose, with just one click, the overall privacy level they’re comfortable with for the content they share on Facebook. Of course, users can still use all of the granular controls we’ve always offered, if they wish.

* Significantly reduce the amount of information that must be visible to everyone on Facebook. Facebook will no longer require that users’ friends and connections are visible to everyone. Only Name, Profile Picture, Networks and Gender must be publicly available. Users can opt to make all other connections private.


* Make it simple to control whether other applications and websites access any user information. While a majority of our users love Facebook apps and Facebook-enhanced websites, some may prefer not to share their information outside of Facebook. Users can now opt out with just one click.


I encourage you to take a moment to read our CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post and check out the new Facebook Privacy Page.

Thanks,
The Facebook Ads Team

In his blog post, Zuckerberg claimed that the changes would make the site’s information controls much simpler.  Zuckerberg said “[w]e’ve focused on three things: a single control for your content, more powerful controls for your basic information and an easy control to turn off all applications.”

The new changes are to be rolled out over the next few weeks and can be reviewed on Facebook’s new privacy page.

In a Washington Post op-ed piece published today, Zuckerberg attempted an apology to its more than 400 million users in response to mounting criticism over issues with Facebook’s privacy settings. 

Facebook has come under fire recently for privacy settings that exposed personal user data, including users’ private chats, to the public due to confusing settings and technical glitches.  Zuckerberg’s statement attributed the errors to a quickly-growing community, but admitted that the privacy controls were too complex.

“We have heard the feedback,” said Zuckerberg. “There needs to be a simpler way to control your information. In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use. We will also give you an easy way to turn off all third-party services. We are working hard to make these changes available as soon as possible.”

Coca-Cola recently unveiled a 3-page document (below) to govern and encourage the use of social media by all of its employees. The company understands that its employees may be representing themselves not only personally, but also as employees of the company, through social media. Coca-Cola sees the value in building its brand through social media but must realize how much harder it is to monitor social media than company e-mail. Through the implementation of its ”Social Media Principles,” Coca-Cola can help ensure that its brand is helped – not harmed – by its employees’ use of social media.

How can lessons from a multinational corporation like Coca-Cola be implemented by small- to medium-sized businesses? Here are five things every business, large or small, can take away from Coca-Cola’s social media policy:

1. Train all employees in social media. Coca-Cola requires that “Certified Online Spokespeople” complete a certification program prior to representing the company online in an official capacity. Because your business is likely smaller than Coca-Cola, it’s good practice to train all of your employees in social media policy. In connection with the roll-out of your social media policy, implement a training program for all employees, teaching them the basics of social media, which social media outlets to participate in, and best practices for using social media to promote your company.
2. Everyone is a watchdog, but designate representatives to deal with negative comments. Coca-Cola encourages its employees to engage in social media and expects all employees to serve as “scouts,” reporting both positive and negative comments to the company. However, only Certified Online Spokespersons or “subject matter experts” may respond to negative posts. Like Coca-Cola, make sure all employees are on the lookout and are reporting comments about the company, but appoint certain individuals, such as department heads, to collect reported comments and respond to negative remarks.
3. Have your employees promote your brand, but keep them honest. Coca-Cola calls it “Transparency in every social media engagement.” You want your employees engaging in social media to promote your company, but make sure they disclose to other social media users that they are representing the company.
4. Stick to your company policies. Your company’s social media principles should uphold your existing policies and procedures, while providing a way for your employees to freely market your brand and engage with others who are speaking about your brand on the web.
5. Ask your employees to participate in social media, but for goodness sake, make sure they utilize sound judgment and common sense. Your employees should be helping out by engaging in social media to promote your company, but inform them that they will be held responsible if they tarnish the company’s image in the process. Train your employees on confidentiality, IP rights, and privacy. Even better, have employees keep records of all communications, a practice followed by Coca-Cola’s Certified Online Spokespeople.

Coca Cola’s Online Social Media Principles

Techcrunch reported today on Quantcast’s 2009 tracking of mobile web usage.

My take: Even though mobile web usage increased by 110% since 2008, the numbers are still pretty weak, with mobile browsers accounting for only around 1% of all browser usage.  In fact, according to the W3C, even the ancient Internet Explorer 6 browser is still getting around 11 times more usage than mobile web browsers.

But, will 2010 be the year of mobile?

Google is betting their homepage on it.  They have given key homepage real estate to an ad for their brand new Nexus One phone.

Google's homepage on 1/6/2010

The link for Nexus one points to the very cool URL www.google.com/phone.

www.google.com/phone

The Nexus One brings the latest generation of touch screen smart phones to the T-Mobile network at about $20 less a month than the iPhone, according to billshrink.com.

Now that touch screen, iPhone-style smart phones are available for all four major U.S. cell phone networks,  I think it’s fair to say that the playing field is set for an upsurge in mobile web usage.   Your thoughts?

Here’s a funny story to kick off the New Year.  One of the big trending topics on Twitter today is “Whore Members.”  This seemingly “craigslist-esque” trending topic is nothing more than a misreading of the hash tag #WhoRemembers – a harmless topic where people reminisce on things remembered.

In my searching, I couldn’t find a proper name for an anagram created by transposing only the spaces in the words of a phrase.  If anyone knows or would care to coin the phrase, please leave a comment below.

All kidding aside, there is lesson to be learned here.  If you market online, people will read your copy quickly.  So make sure it’s clear and free of double entendres.

I didn’t have a simple answer for her as to how much in terms of dollars a mention or link on, let’s say, CNN.com, is worth. Instead, I offered a detailed explanation of how she could guage the value of the link.

A mention on CNN.com can help in a few ways:

1. Direct traffic – Your website will see a spike in traffic, because a high profile site has linked to you.
2. Authority – A link from CNN can cause the search engines to view your site as more authoritative and thus rank it better in their results pages.
3. Trust – An “As seen on CNN” badge on your website can help to build trust with your visitors, thus generating more conversions.
4. Social Interaction – Others may pick up on the story and spread it to friends and colleagues.

What does this mean in terms of monetization?

Let’s take the following example:

The link on CNN generates a total of 3000 visitors to your site

• 1 in every 500 new visitors to your website produces a qualified lead
• You close 50% of the qualified leads as new business
• 3000 visitors / 500 visitors per lead = 6 qualified leads * 50% close rate = 3 new customers
• Each new customer is worth $10,000 in net income
• 3 new customers * $10,000 net per customer = $30,000 net
• The mention in this example was worth $30,000 net

The important things to note are:

• The current number of weekly new visitors to your website (from Google Analytics)
• The number of referrals from CNN.com to your website (from Google Analytics)
• The number of qualified leads you get per week from the web (tally of emails and calls – I use salesforce.com for this)
• The percentage of web leads you close as new business (from salesforce.com)
• The amount of business closed from web leads (from salesforce.com)

As a word of caution, if you are to be mentioned on a high profile site, notify your hosting company and seek the advice of your web developer. A high profile link may bring your web server to a screeching halt due to too much traffic.  This is known as the Digg or Slashdot Effect.

In conclusion, leveraging the metrics from a web analytics and CRM package is one of the critical aspects of effective marketing online.  Ultimately, one high profile link may not be worth millions of dollars.  But getting consistent recognition on high profile sites will certainly be worth its weight in gold.

Please share any success stories that you have had with high profile links.

The complaint, filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and nine other advocacy groups, addresses changes rolled out by Facebook earlier this month that make certain information publicly available outside the Facebook network.  Among the modifications were setting defaults for certain categories of information to the public setting, including name, profile photo, friend and page lists. Facebook users may adjust these privacy settings to limit the accessibility of this information.

The EPIC alleged in its complaint that these changes

“violate user expectations, diminish user privacy, and contradict Facebook’s own representations.”

Moreover, the complaint urges the FTC to

“investigate Facebook, determine the extent of the harm to consumer privacy and safety, require Facebook to restore privacy settings that were previously available…require Facebook to give users meaningful control over personal information, and seek appropriate injunctive and compensatory relief.”

The EPIC is not alone in its concerns.  Thousands have swarmed Facebook to post their criticisms, forming protest groups within Facebook such as “Petition: Facebook, stop invading my privacy!”

While Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stated in an open letter that the goal of the new privacy settings was to create a simpler method of privacy control for Facebook’s 350 million users, it sounds like Facebook is getting more than it bargained for.

As we wrote earlier this month, Facebook has been under pressure to clean up the mess from its Beacon advertising program.

What are your thoughts?  Are the new, simpler privacy settings an improvement?  Are they suited to help Facebook’s users and advertisers or is this just another mess Facebook has created?