Your facebook profile page is now being called your “timeline”.   This recent update seems to be moving in the direction of prior updates, which is towards more sharing and less privacy.

Users continue to express their concern about what facebook is trying to accomplish, with every new update released.  But do users even have a voice?  After all, the service is still free to use and users still control what they post and who gets to see it.  If they don’t like the new features, users can still quit using facebook, can’t they?

It will be interesting to see what happens with this new release.  But my guess is that it is out of the users hands and has been for some time now.  What do you think is behind this new profile design?  Is there any benefit to the users?  Or is this the next step towards facebook becoming a public portal which transcends deep into our private lives?

MS Multipoint Server 2010

Multipoint Server 2010 reminds me of the old O/S we called MPM way back in the 80′s. It was based on the single user pc o/s called CPM, and allowed mutiple users to run apps independently off a single pc.

Of course MSFT’s new Multiuser O/S will be a great deal more advanced, starting with a Windows user interface on each client terminal, and the ability to run Windows apps like MS Office. MS 2010 is based on MSFT’s latest release of Win Server 2008 R2.

The C-net article says this is a new computing category.   But as I pointed out,  it really has been around for almost 3

SMM means a whale of engagement

A Managing Editor at BE (BoomersEdge) Media asked me a couple weeks ago how her husband might go about drumming up some new prospects and customers for his small business using Twitter.  I  believe that Twitter can be a very powerful communication tool for reaching potential customers of almost any business and market.  However early market research (and surveys done) on Twitter usage show  that the vast majority of Twitter users are currently just seeking entertainment from this rapidly growing social media communications platform.   Twitter itself is a micro blogging syndication tool, and it does possess power and speed for getting a message out, as well as being able to give indications of what your potential customers and markets are interested in.

Your  Social Media Market Strategy might be greatly enhanced by incorporating Twitter, so we will be doing more research and reporting about our how’s and why’s of it’s use in the coming  months.  But since Twitter is just one of many core SMM (Social Media Marketing) tools which your business may want to deploy, we feel it is important to first understand the amount and kind of change which your business needs to be prepared for, before you start Tweeting away.  So before making specific suggestions, I first warned my friends that there can also be a  down side to using social media tools, including Facebook and others, if you are not willing or ready to engage with prospects AND customers, who may be happy to see your business is reaching out to them using this form of media.

Specifically, are you ready to answer all questions that any prospect for your product(s) or service(s) may have?  Do you have a web site that can answer most of those questions for a prospect, including packaging and pricing of same?  Do you have samples or references of your product/service benefits and value to current customers?  Is your value proposition clear, and without marketing smoke?

But perhaps most importantly, are you ready to be accountable for your business reputation?  Social media is all about building trust and reputation.  You may be able to delete an errant post, but you can’t delete a negative impression, or knock to your business reputation.  Those issues will have to be addressed, one by one, if you plan on getting up close and personal with your market(s) using social media.

Here’s a link I posted on Twitter last month to an article about the engagement factor of using social media to market your business.  There is no question about whether social media can get you closer to your customers, help find new prospects, and improve your revenues and bottom line profitability.   But you’ll need to be prepared to engage.

Social Media Engagement and Your Bottom Line http://su.pr/2F6hde