Since the company went public, there have been more changes, beta tests and improvements made on the platform in the past few months, than in the entire time before the IPO.

Some quick new changes they have made.

The App Center

More closely related to Google Chrome’s Web Store, than Apple’s App Store, the Facebook App Center is the place to find all the apps and games for your web and mobile that you know truly annoy your friends (me included!).

and

Official Facebook Plugin for WordPress

The planet’s number one blogging platform, WordPress, is now receiving some “official” love from the planet’s number one social media platform, Facebook. Domination at its finest. Though it doesn’t really do anything more than other non-official WordPress/Facebook plugins, because it’s “O FISH EEE AL” you know it’s guaranteed to work, especially if they (Facebook) make another change. Which no betting man would put their house against.

Now, this is just a quick reminder. Social Media should be FOR your business and not BE your business. At one stage I (amongst others) regarded Facebook as the hub of your social activity, encouraging you to drive as many people to your Fan Page as you can. Whilst you should continue to build your fan base in all platforms that you’re active, you should never forget to drive people to your Website. This is pretty much my firm belief. Your website is the core of your online presence and Social Media is just the conduit with which you tell people about your great website that has your great products or great services. This doesn’t mean to neglect social all together. It’s essential to have. An average website with some great social media will always trump a terrific website with no social media.

At the end of the day, you actually own your website and its content. You don’t own Facebook (at least not all of it) or twitter or Google+ or (insert social network here) and in the unlikely event of these platforms not wanting to service Small Business, you always have your Website to come back to.

In short, “Your Business’s Website > Your Business’s Social Media”

If you have specific questions about how social media can help your business, please drop me an email or leave a comment below.

Also, if you want a free social media checklist and be informed of the latest posts and news about social media, please join my email group with big bright pink box in the top right hand side.

dEx  -  gossip ink social media

Something that has been around for ages (at least in the tech space) yet seems to get a new lease on life every couple of years with the most recent players being Skype, Facetime, Google+ Hangouts and now Airtime.

Recently announced, Airtime is a video chat start up brought to you by big hitters Sean Parker (first President of Facebook) and Shawn Fanning (founder of Napster) and has the ability to allow you to video chat to friends, family and total random people with the same interests as you all using Facebook’s Connect authentication.

Now here’s the thing.

Why the hell would you want to chat to a random person about the Yankees, modified Japanese cars or PS3 games?  Heck why would you want to chat to a random person to begin with?  I don’t pick up my mobile, punch in some non sequential numbers in a hope that someone picks up so I can say “hey, you picked up, great!  So, you’ve got a mobile phone, so do I, let’s chat!”  I just don’t get it.

Even with Skype and Facetime (both great technologies which I’ve used quite a number of times), I don’t feel the need to video chat to someone.  Shit, I’d have to get all “made up” for the experience if I’ve just got out of bed or feeling “extra fat looking”.

Also a video chat means that you most likely have to communicate from the one spot.  You cant be walking around doing stuff during a video chat! And even if it does go to a mobile platform…you think we have problems with people making calls whilst they’re driving now…well wait till this catches on.

Which I think for the most part, it won’t.  At least from a social perspective.  Sure they’ll be times when you want to video chat to your cousins overseas, or show off your new baby to your folks back in the mother country, but rarely will I want to sit down in front of my laptop and think, “You know what.  I feel like talking to some strangers today.”

In the business world however, video chat is the way of the future.

But Airtime was never created for the business world.

And neither was Facebook.

But look at it now.

They may be onto something here…..

Since the IPO, Facebook has gone on a “change spree” which I recently blogged about. Most of the changes are aimed at the business side of things, which of course, is where the money’s at. Some are practical and obvious (multiple Admin roles) while some are just a take on what the world will eventually use mainstream 2-5 years from now (video chat). However changes such as the “Facebook Offers” and “Promoted Updates” I think could be the first signs of a huge disconnect. Basically, The Death of Facebook.

Facebook Offers is a feature that was to be expected. As more and more companies stake their claim in the Facebook landscape, it was only a matter of time before it was used for more than just company news, photos and customer engagement. Now you can sell on it, which for me is a problem. I don’t go to Facebook to shop or look for bargains. There are whole websites dedicated to this (excellent ones mind you) and if Facebook Offers becomes mainstream and every time I log in all I see are “offers” filling up my news feed, I won’t be happy.

And the same goes for Promoted Updates, another expected feature. With the average Facebook News Feed almost twitter like (the top update, could be at the bottom in minutes, seconds for heavy users) the need to have your update in front of more people for more of the time was pretty evident. So Facebook are looking to do this, but will charge you for the privilege.

So where does this all lead?

If these 2 changes are adopted, I would say that:

1. most of my news feed content would be Offers from Business Pages that are either a result of me “liking” a page or someone taking up an offer and sharing it. Boo.
2. If not 1) then most of my news content will be Businesses wanting their “update” displayed as a result of paying. Sigh.
3. If 1) and 2) is true then News feeds from “actual” friends will be at the bottom of the list or not displayed at all. Shit I might as well email my friends or dare I say it, “call them”?

Should it go down this path, then for me Facebook would just be another MySpace.

They may as well rename it to BusinessDirectoryBook. J

]]> http://www.gossipism.com.au/death-facebook/feed/ 0 http://www.gossipism.com.au/5-facebook-small-business-owners/ http://www.gossipism.com.au/5-facebook-small-business-owners/#comments Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:33:03 +0000 gossipism http://www.gossipism.com.au/?p=855 [click to read entire post]]]> As most of you may know, Facebook has just a “multi-billion” dollar shot in the arm.  With this new found status (pardon the pun) Facebook has introduced a whole heap of changes that either in effect now, or are about to take effect.  Some of the more exotic changes may not see the light of day but they have been listed as “testing”.

Of the changes that have been mentioned, the 5 below are the ones that all small business owners should know about!