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?

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

Here is an example of Social Media Mktg. done customer style.  Since I have been dealing with technology suppliers in every which way for 25 years, this anger doesn’t surprise me and I am about to adopt my first Apple product since the Apple II, released back some time in the 80′s.

I don’t own an iPhone personally, but I am smitten with the soon to be released iTablet (although I have no idea what Apple will call it) which is just my temp name for the iPhone’s, or iPod Touch’s perhaps, bigger sibling to come.  But there are some very important lessons to be learned about PDA’s here.  I have used them all it seems, except the magical iPhone.

The main reason I didn’t opt for an iPhone is that my eyes are too old to read cell phone/pda sized text.  But also because the pda is a communication tool, cell phone, text, email and all.  I had no need to switch to AT&T service just to get a shiny new iPhone to download crap onto.  So who knows what this guys beef with the iPhone policies are.  But the production of his customer media piece is pirty darn effective in my eyes.  The music is my favorite part, but the whole production is solid.  Here’s the video (in middle of article)…

Social Media Customer Feedback on Apple’s Policies w/iPhone http://su.pr/19TyHL Gun/Lighter Fluid not recommended, but make a good point posted 6 hours ago.

I want to repeat what I said in the microblog that using a gun and lighter fluid to make a point is not a good thing (imho).  But we will be taking a look at the reasons iPhone customers might feel like shooting their beloved iPhones in upcoming articles, as I personally await the iPhone/iPod’s larger, yet younger peer to come