So is mixing messages ever a good idea? I’ve had my Foursquare and Twitter access off and on – I still can’t figure that one out, even after I wrote this post, “Foursquare or Stalkersquare?”. What do you think? Do you use sites like ping.fm to update all of your networks or use them all differently? Which go together like chocolate and peanut butter?

Now I really appreciate honest, no BS feedback, but one more thing that is also interesting. Aside from impacting business relationships, when does this stuff impact personal or family relationships? Because unfortunately, the message didn’t start out with, “How’s the family” or “Seen any good music lately?”

So what do you think, mix your updates or keep them separate?

Yesterday, Samuelson’s Diamonds wrote a blog post about the fan page changes that Facebook made:

“… Facebook recently made a change requiring that Pages be authenticated before enabling the ability to set a landing tab beyond Wall or Info. To be eligible for authentication, a Page must have greater than 10k fans or the Page admin must work with their ads account manager…”

I thought about this change and although I understood why the change was being made, it upset me. It upset me because I have put a lot of time and money into our pages, most notably our “Diamonds” Page, which now boasts almost 350,000 fans. Not just Facebook ad money (we have spent a little) but actual jewelry prizes and a lot of TIME, which we paid our employees.  And although we have way more than 10K fans, I do not have an account manager.

On top of that, our Samuelson’s Diamonds Fan Page, for our local retail store, is hovering around 1000 fans. And, although the Diamonds Fan Page has almost 350k fans, we consider our smaller page to be of great significance to our business. We’ve invested a great deal of time and effort in building its content and appeal. Facebook’s determination that a fan count should decide how user friendly the fan page could be just seemed wrong.

How about all of the marketers, big and small, who are building fan pages for other companies? In fact, we are about to launch a new service for the jewelry industry, giving independent retailers and manufacturers the ability to create a dynamic Facebook presence for under $500.

Well not long after this change a message popped up on the developer site:

Hello,

As of last night, we’ve removed the recently-added authentication requirement for setting custom landing tabs on Pages. The requirement was instituted as part of a Pages quality initiative, and we apologize for the inconvenience this caused to our developer and business community. We are re-investigating the situation, and will not make any further changes without first giving our community standard notice and lead-time.

Thanks for all your feedback,

Matt Trainer

You can follow this topic by clicking here.

I say it’s great and thank you Facebook for taking the first step in caring about your customers.

I firmly believe that your website is still very important, but don’t forget to use your Facebook page to increase your database and talk to your customers. Both can and should work together to make your brand a stronger one.

From the CNN article that I “liked”:

The announcement puts Facebook in further competition with other web companies like Google and Twitter, who are also trying to organize and make use of users’ preferences.

Facebook, which has more than 400 million members, says the Open Graph will make it easier for people to share information about their likes and dislikes all over the internet.

The social network will pull information about the websites a person visits, the news stories he or she likes and the music or athletes the person favors — and share all of that information with a person’s Facebook friends. That data will show up on Facebook.com and on other sites.

At Facebook’s f8 developers conference, WSJ’s Jessica Vascellaro gives Stacey Delo a post-game analysis of the social-networking company’s announcements, including news on its “like” button and what that means for ad targeting.

Of course, their big plan is to take over the web, and change the way people connect with one another. So far they are succeeding. Most experts that I have spoken to think it’s a smart move. What do you think? How is this going to affect the way you build your online presence/brand?

Now doesn't this look like FACEBOOK BEFORE THERE WAS FACEBOOK?

Way before the internet, facebook, twitter, blogs, and the idea of “sharing content” across your network , The Grateful Dead were sharing their music with fans across the world through tapes, not computers. They were one of the first bands to allow and actually encourage taping of their live shows. How often did you go to a concert and see “No Cameras” on the ticket? Or even asked to stop recording or taping? Never at a Dead Show, where there was always a “Tapers Section” with tapers even receiving special tickets and passes to do their thing. I recently read an article titled “Management Secrets of The Grateful Dead” which discussed,

the Dead were visionary geniuses in the way they created “customer value,” promoted social networking, and did strategic business planning…Much of the talk about “Internet business models” presupposes that they are blindingly new and different. But the connection between the Internet and the Dead’s business model was made 15 years ago by the band’s lyricist, John Perry Barlow, who became an Internet guru. Writing in Wired in 1994, Barlow posited that in the information economy, “the best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away.” As Barlow explained to me: “What people today are beginning to realize is what became obvious to us back then—the important correlation is the one between familiarity and value, not scarcity and value. Adam Smith taught that the scarcer you make something, the more valuable it becomes. In the physical world, that works beautifully. But we couldn’t regulate [taping at] our shows, and you can’t online. The Internet doesn’t behave that way. But here’s the thing: if I give my song away to 20 people, and they give it to 20 people, pretty soon everybody knows me, and my value as a creator is dramatically enhanced. That was the value proposition with the Dead.” The Dead thrived for decades, in good times and bad. In a recession, Barnes says, strategic improvisation is more important then ever. “If you’re going to survive this economic downturn, you better be able to turn on a dime,” he says. “The Dead were exemplars.”

John Perry Barlow, lyricist for the Dead has a quote that really nails it and I’ll say it again, “the best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away.”

Now you can take a look on YouTube and see pretty much any band’s live show, and of course live concerts are taped on a regular basis. So next time you’re “Sharing With Your Network” you can thank the Grateful Dead for pioneering this idea!

So that’s my tip of the day.  Make another person outside your organization (like a spouse) an admin on your events.  Facebook does some very quirky things and this is one of them.  Another tip – I made my wife an admin from the get go so she could send emails and not me.  Why?  Because people respond to women better than guys like me sending emails about diamonds and parties!  Trust me, it works…

“I am a fan. I will say pre FB, who would have thought I would be a fan of a jewelry store I have not even been to. Or even just a jewelry store for that matter..Yet I know the history of the store, and watched the footage. Prince on the big screen etc..Even Ron’s Strat…
PS..Ron, go for a Gretch Nashville next…Heaven on Earth!”

There you go.  It’s not about shoving product down people’s throats.  It’s not about selling yourself all the time.  It’s about being yourself and showing everyone your brand and what YOU are all about.  Whether it’s next week or in 10 years, if this guy is ever in the market for a diamond, I think I’ll be on his list.  And even better, maybe we’ll have a jam session!

Brother Mark, I love your site and it’s helped me out a ton, but do the right thing.  After all, we’re fraternity brothers.  You were in AEPi (a Jewish fraternity) just like me.  You grew up in in New York just like my wife, all of my AEPi friends and everyone else I know.  You went to Harvard and created Facebook with Dustin Moskovitz.  Facebook kicks ass and you did it.  Don’t let the lawyers, advisors and investors persuade you…

Here are a few rules that Facebook set for Fan Page URLs:

1) You must have at least 1,000 fans.  So for our Diamonds and Gold pages I was good to go.  My Samuelson’s store page is not ready yet.  Truth be told, all I have to do is cross promote the Samuelson’s page with my Diamonds page and I’ll get to 1,000 easily.  But it’s not all about numbers.  It’s about QUALITY of fans too – especially for a local business.

2) Generic names like “pizza” and “flowers” may not be used.  Well, that was a big one because my original thought was to get facebook.com/diamonds – so that idea went out the window.

There were some other trademark rules, etc that didn’t apply to me, so at 12:01 I went right for our fan pages.  I will say that Facebook did a great job and made it very easy and user friendly just like the rest of their site. The first name I chose was “Diamonds” even though I knew it was not possible.  I had to do it.  Of course that failed and I went to Plan B.   We got facebook.com/diamondfans.  We also own the URL diamondfans.net so it’s perfect.  The Diamonds Fan Page and our website (in development) will match.  Then I went to our “Gold” page and got www.facebook.com/goldfans.  So that was taken care of.

The next URL to grab was my personal account.  I thought about that one for a while.  Twitter name (for now) is diamondbuyer – how about that?  No good – Facebook is personal – I’ve always thought diamondbuyer was a little cheesy anyway, and Twitter URL’s can be changed (unlike Facebook).  I tried just ronnie, but that was not available – I’m sure a Facebook employee grabbed that one.  So I saw rsamuelson – that seemed ok.  But I just couldn’t pull the trigger, and then, poof, rsamuelson was gone.  So I just went for, what else, my name!  God forbid the other Ron Samuelson, Huntington Beach Realtor, (who owns ronsamuelson.com) should get it.  I crush him anyway and I already knocked him off first page google results.  So I got facebook.com/ronsamuelson and I’m happy with it and done!

So that’s my Facebook Vanity URL story – what did you get?

So there’s your tip if your iPhone Facebook app is not working. Go your iTunes and upgrade to the newest version. Hope it helps.

New store is Monday!! Check out our sign that went up today, a cool pic of Santana from the Hard Rock 5/31/09, and good times with friends at Tao in Vegas.

Here it is!

Santana Live Vegas 5/31/09

A motley crew