Gregory Maciag

Facebook Graph Search

What is Facebook up to today? Well, among other things, it's challenging for leadership in data searching. Which we all thought Google had tied up.

Harpreet at Tools Journal reports on Facebook's Graph Search, a tool Facebook is developing iteratively with a select band of testers. Graph Search lets users search Facebook data with natural language queries. So, instead of typing a bunch of disconnected words, you type something like “My friends who like beer and Apple”.

First thoughts: It's not exactly natural language. That would be: “Uh, my friends who like beer and Apple?” Joking aside, it's not really natural because it's a thinly disguised structured database query.

Second thoughts: What does Facebook have, datawise, that Google doesn't? It's that initial screening level of the query: “My friends who...” Google doesn't have a graph of human relationships overlaying its data.

Facebook's data is more like the must-have data marketers want than Google's. Facebook must already be able to slice and dice data in any way they want. Enabling Graph Search facilities for the whole user population would provide additional valuable information. Facebook will be able to pinpoint and track people's developing concerns and priorities by the ways in which they search. Mash this up with “trending on Twitter” and the real-time marketer's dream is complete. Tools Journal

On Twitter

I find that adults (i.e. business people) on Twitter often use it as an extension to a blast email on something.  Whether it's a special product price or a recent announcement and sometimes it gets whimsical.  It's very much unlike the "What are you doing now" crowd. Oh yes... I am working in Fort Lauderdale... the beach is outside my window... and I am drinking a bottle of water.  Do you really care?  Some people look to get as many Followers as possible. It could be an ego thing but it comes with some responsibility, especially if you Tweet professionally.  Yes, Twitter can be useful and we hear lots of stories about crowd sourcing and disaster support for sure. While my daughter and her friends use Instant Messaging all the time, I seldom see them use Twitter. So I was glad to hear our panel at ITC 2012 reflect on it among other things.

Mark Chapman of Global Aerospace, commenting at ITC 2012: “Twitter is great – you can connect with your customers... until you realize you've got nothing to say.”

It's like those We've-got-a-website pages you used to see in, oh, 1998. Joining Twitter is a real commitment. You don't just need a steady stream of (interesting) things to say. You also need a voice: this is going to be a corporate mouthpiece, and a mouthpiece that might get slapped.

I meet people who've “come out the other side” of Twitter – been there, done that. Many corporates are going to reach the same conclusion. Just as you find default corporate websites that are little more than brochures, so we're finding default corporate Twitter streams that just rebroadcast press release headlines. And that's okay.

Philip Proost of Caitlin, on the same panel, mentioned they are encouraging people on to specialised apps and away from general social media platforms. Elsewhere, contributors mentioned the problem of emailed attachments. The goal for business must be to provide the usability associated with commercial, all-purpose apps, grafted on to specialised applications serving business processes.

Facebook Tips

Here is an article courtesy of ACT about using Facebook.

Download Facebook Engagement Oct2012

At Facebook’s first-ever Marketing Conference in February 2012, the company released a startling number that quickly found its way into social media consultants’ Twitter streams and new business pitch decks: 84 percent of business page fans do not see the page’s posts in their Facebook news feeds.

For agencies that are exploring social media’s potential (and asking tough questions about ROI), this number is alarming. Why should resource-strapped agents put energy into creating Facebook content when so few of their hard-earned fans are seeing the final product?

It’s a fair question, but before you shutter your Facebook page, you should understand what’s behind this number, and what you can do about it. With a few simple changes to your posts, you’ll be reaching more fans and building more engagement with minimal effort. Read more....

Changing the Game Before the Game Changes You

Geoff Hollingworth and Jason Hoffman look at what a company needs to succeed in the evolving networked society and how important it is to understand what its core business is and then to understand how the core business can move into the next generation of competition by leveraging new technology capability.  Download Changing the Game

Texting for Agencies

Clients are increasingly texting their agents and preferring to receive texts from their agents, creating the challenge as to how agencies manage this form of communication. In this article, the author discusses the challenges agencies face with texting, how agents can send texts to their email to document the conversation and how agents can use their email to send texts to their clients who prefer this method of communication. We are hopeful that more efficient ways to attach texts to agency management systems and to send texts from these systems will be developed in the future.   Download Texting For Insurance Agencies

Social Media: Cover the Risks

Social media seems to have taken over the world.  This statement is not hyperbole. Think Facebook. Read our OpEd from Insurance Day.  Download ID2012-03SocialMedia

 

A New Agency Social Media Survey

Jason Hoeppner from B.H. Burke &Co, said that when he speaks with an agency owner, COO, or marketing manager about social media, I get asked about the results other agencies are seeing, in particular their return on investment (ROI). (I’m sure for the most part they’re seeking this information to help them make an informed decision on whether to invest in these new marketing methods, but I sometimes suspect it may also be a defensive question to justify not delving into the topic further.)

As a result of lacking good solid data to provide an answer, I decided to put together this survey to learn what industry people were doing in online marketing with social media. I’m not making any recommendations in this report, just presenting the results for you to use as you see fit. With that being said, the following three findings were the most eye-opening to me... READ MORE in Social Media Survey - B.H.Burke & Co. Feb 2012

Tweet Insurance

Insurance products aimed at covering reputational damage are gaining attention. Here's a snippet from a report on how Canadian brokers are approaching the market:

" 'My boss is a big fat cow,' is a very common tweet," he said. "But people often stupidly then say where they work and who their boss is in the tweet." The legal ramifications can hurt both the finances and reputation of a business. "We've seen people, in their personal capacities — the 'big-fat-cow boss' bringing a lawsuit against the individual," said Dolden. "And we've also seen the company have to take action because, from a reputational point of view, their brand is now suddenly gone viral, negatively."

Meanwhile Swiss Life has launched a product that helps people defend their reputations online - for 9.90 euros per month.

 Tweet Insurance

 eReputation Insurance

 

Facebook for Insurance Professionals

In this live, free webinar presented by IIABA’s Agents Council for Technology, Cindy Donaldson, Director of Marketing & Personal Lines Sales at Founders Insurance Group and consultant Rick Morgan will help independent agents and other industry participants learn the ins and outs of using Facebook effectively. The session will cover how to set up a Fan Page, utilize Facebook to increase your brand awareness and market share, understand how Facebook Ads work, and connect with clients and prospects. The webinar will be tailored to the needs of independent agencies and show how this tool can be used to increase customer communications, strengthen client relationships and ultimately grow business. LIVE WEBINAR: AUGUST 9 at 2PM EDT  REGISTER

Rethinking Social Media for Business

Can Google brew a successful social media offering in a sealed container? That's what the company is trying to do with its restricted Google+ field trial. Google briefly opened the door to new trail participants - for about two and one half hours - and doubled the population.

Ford, a notable early adopter of Twitter, has been experimenting with the service. But mention of Twitter reminds us of why social media is even a category of interest to businesses. Companies want to be on Twitter because that's where (some of) their customers are.

Will Google+ be a better Twitter, or a better facebook? It would be crazy to rate Google's chances as low, because it's the original party crasher who stole the party - turning up late to the search engine space and then rapidly dominating it.

From the experience reports I've seen, Google+ is a comprehensive means of putting your entire life online: "life sharing, rethought for the web". Will we want to keep on sharing our lives - via comments, pictures and videos - or is it a fad that will pass? Social media might just be the CB radio of our time. But if there's anyone who can rethink a web business – and make it profitable –  it's got to be Google.

Information Week

Social Media in the Management Loop

There's an excellent piece by Tom Wetzel on measuring the effects of social media in the March 2011 issue of Rough Notes. I think his advice about monitoring and analysing conversations is sound, and I note that it adds up to quite a weighty obligation.

Companies who are serious about using social media to drive business, keep their customers engaged and support their reputations need to monitor the environment closely. But they also need clear and unambiguous ideas about what they're going to do with the results of their analysis. Otherwise, we're going to find a lot of great social media analysis falling into the “so what?” trap.  Are you in a position to turn social media analysis into action on product design and service quality? Do you know how to contribute to the ongoing conversations in social media? And do your social media activities align with the rest of your strategy?  RoughNotes