Now that Tweetdeck is integrating more social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Buzz, Foursquare, MySpace), I’m guessing there will be a name change soon. Ideas? Take this poll!

Click here for the results so far.

If you haven’t heard, the past few weeks have not been good for Facebook.  They’ve made a number of changes in how the privacy settings work, and have not been completely clear in explaining the changes. They’re not respecting people’s privacy.  “Facebook changed the rules and this information was unexpectedly shared with perfect strangers. That is, simply stated, a profound invasion of privacy.” (Gizmodo, 5/10/10). Rather than reshashing all of the issues, I’ll direct you to a few articles:

Facebook: The ‘Evil Interface?’
10 Reasons To Delete Your Facebook Account
Facebook keeps crossing lines and the last one may be a line too far
(Thanks to Derek Peplau for the list of great articles)

People are in an uproar about this. There’s even a formal revolt for people to quit Facebook on May 31st.  I understand why people are mad.  Facebook hasn’t been clear about what they’re changing, and people don’t trust them to keep their data safe.  I agree that Facebook should have some backlash for this, as they are not keeping promises made to consumers, and are playing around with potentially sensitive information.

So What?

On Facebook, I do protect my privacy (unlike on Twitter).  I only friend people I know, I put people I don’t know very well into lists so they don’t see certain things (status updates, photos of my nieces) and I don’t use my real birth year or high school graduation year to protect against identity theft.

But as someone who is also VERY public with my online life through my blog, Twitter and LinkedIn, my question is, what should I be worried about? (note that I’m NOT asking why is it wrong that Facebook is doing what they’re doing.  I get that they are wrong). What are the risks to me? In the worst case scenario that ALL of my data is exposed, what’s the problem?  I see a few possibilities, none of which concern me enough to quit Facebook:

• Facebook’s advertisers have more information to target me with –> I don’t really care about that, if I get ads that are more appropriate for me
• People will see photos of my nieces –> OK, not great (and my brother-in-law would not be happy), but not the end of the world
• People see information about my work history –> It’s all very public on LinkedIn and my website anyway
• People will see my private status updates –> I’ve probably posted something similar on Twitter anyway!

So, is it just me being naive, or are there other security risks I”m not seeing?  Identity theft?  Using my information in a way that could harm me?  I’m really trying to understand this, so comments, as always, are encouraged!

(Photo credit: Facebook Trash)

You may have noticed that Facebook made a change this week from calling the action of joining a Facebook page “Fan” to “Like.” What does this mean, really?  Nothing!  It’s really just a name change.  Instead of clicking “Become a Fan”, you now click “Like.”  In Facebook’s words, “We believe this change offers you a more light-weight and standard way to connect with people, things and topics in which you are interested.” (from their FAQ).  As an example, here’s how it looks:

So, why don’t I like “Like”?  There are a few reasons:
 

It’s Confusing

“Like” is being used here in a very different way from what people are used to.  I feel that Facebook is taking a very common word that means something specific to people, and already has a common way it’s used on the internet, and they’re changing it.

For example, on YouTube, to show that you like a video, you click on the “Like” button.  That doesn’t mean you’re “joining” that person’s YouTube channel, you’re just saying you like the video.  VERY different from how Facebook is using Like.

Even within Facebook, “Like” is used in different ways.  For example, you click “Like” on a status update or on something someone has done on Facebook.  But you’re not “joining” anything, you’re just indicating you like it.

Here’s another example… see the ad to the left.  What is the “Like” button there?  I would assume it means I like the ad, but it actually means that I’m joining their Fan page.  VERY unclear.

And, I saw this at the bottom of a ReadWriteWeb article:

What do you suppose that “Like” button does?  I clicked it, and I’m still not sure if I became a fan of their page (because I already was) or if it’s just showing my support of the article.

Call To Action

The “call to action” for getting someone to join your Fan page used to be ”Fan us on Facebook” or “Become our Fan on Facebook.”  What is it now?  ”Like us on Facebook!” “Become a liker on Facebook!”  That really sounds silly.  And, while this is just semantics, it’s important, as this language is used EVERYWHERE!

Research

I really wonder if Facebook did any research on this. Their rationale for the change says “We believe…” — did they really make that change on what THEY believed?  Or did they ask consumers?  The old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” keeps coming to mind.. were people really complaining about “Fan”?  Do people feel that “Like” is more lightweight?  Will it change their actions?  I’d like to see that research, if they actually did it.

What do you think of this change?  Is it confusing to you?  Do you “like” it?

Most people who know me, follow my blog or talk to me on Twitter know that I’m not a big fan of cross-posting, where people post updates in one social network and have it automatically post to other social networks. If you missed my post, check it out “To Cross-Post or Not to Cross-Post.”  So you won’t be surprised to know my opinion is the same when it comes to Foursquare,  a location-based service where people “check-in” at places they go to.

With Foursquare, you can set your preferences in a few ways: so it automatically tweets or posts an update to Facebook (called “updates” throughout this post), so it updates when you become a Mayor/earn a badge (doesn’t update very frequently) or so all your activity stays solely on Foursquare.  For people who are out and about a lot, they may check-in up to 10-20 times a day. So that means if they have their settings set such that each Foursquare check-in updates, 10-20 tweets and Facebook updates per day appear!

My hypothesis was that the majority of people on Twitter and Facebook do NOT like seeing Foursquare updates on Twitter/Facebook.  I don’t.  If I wanted to know where someone is, I would probably connect with them on Foursquare, so I can see where they are in that application, and I don’t need to clutter twitter with constant messages such as “I’m at Starbucks” or “I’m at Trader Joe’s.”  I occasionally like seeing if people are at a special location (i.e. Fenway) or become a mayor or earn a badge, but not for every check-in. To prove or disprove my hypothesis, I ran a poll — results are below:

As you can see, the poll doesn’t exactly support my hypothesis.  But, when looking at the comments, I could easily reclassify 5 (or even more) of the Other votes based on the comments to be “Dislikes”, which brings Dislikes up to 58%.  It makes the point I was trying to make, but not by as much of a landslide as I was expecting.

So, the question is… as someone who posts ALL (or close to all) of you check-ins to Facebook/Twitter,  why do you do it?  What do you get out of it?  Do you not get the same benefit from just checking in on Foursquare and letting your connections know your status there? Knowing that 25% of people dislike it, will that change actions?  And, for people who like seem the stream of check-ins, why do you like it?  Do you not find it to clutter your Twitter and Facebook stream?

I’m pleased to announce, that in addition to my Marketing and Social Media consulting business, I have now launched a new venture called WebinarListings.  Through hosting a few of my own Webinars (online seminars), I noticed that there was no central website for hosts to promote their webinars, or for people to find out about them.  So, I created one!  Today is the beta launch of my site, and it will eventually be FULL of a variety of Webinars for all interest areas (business, health, technology, etc), in any part of the world. Right now it happens to be focused on marketing, social media, technology because that is where my connections are, but that will soon change. Webinars are a great way to learn new things right from your computer AND are free most of the time.

So, if you’re interested, I invite you to check out the site, and connect with me in any way you choose (many options below!), especially by signing up for the weekly newsletter.  During the beta period, the more traffic and registrations/followers I build, the more interest hosts will have to list their webinars with me… so I’m counting on you! If you hear of any Webinars being put on, please pass them my way so I can contact the host. And feel free to tweet, blog, facebook update, talk, or spread the word in any way.

I’m also running an introduction promotion for this week only (through the 14th) — use promo code “intro50″ for your Featured Webinar listing and get 50% off your Webinar.

I’m really excited about this, as it is really putting to use the skills I have in social media, marketing and Webinars. I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes me!

WebinarListings contact info:

Let me know what you think!  I’ll take all the feedback I can get.

Are you wondering why I’m writing a post about how to cross-post, when I JUST wrote one about how I’m not a fan of cross-posting? Well, for starters, some of these tactics are temporary, meaning you turn them on and off for each update, so it’s not just a flow of ALL of your updates.  And, second, I thought it would be helpful to have all of this in one place to keep track of it! And third, to me, even some of the “permanent” cross-post tactics (such as Blog to LinkedIn) can be useful. So, if you do decide to cross-post after reading my post here’s how:

Twitter to Facebook Profile

• Individual updates
  • Tweetdeck Desktop – Add your profile to your Tweetdeck account by clicking on the plus at the top of the screen.  Once your account has been added, you can toggle each account on and off by clicking on the account name.
  • Tweetdeck for iPhone – Go to the settings page and add your Facebook account.  When updating  your status, select your Facebook account.
  • Selective Tweets – Install the Selective Twitter application in your Facebook account.  Once you’ve done that, any Twitter update you make with #fb, will also update your Facebook status.
  • There are many other mobile and desktop applications that do this, such as Seesmic Desktop, Hootsuite, and many more.
• Permanent
  • Install this Twitter application in your Facebook account.  Once you’ve done that, EVERY Twitter update you make, will also update your Facebook status.  CAUTION, this can be annoying to your Facebook friends.

Twitter to Facebook Fan Page

• Tweetdeck Desktop – see above.  Hootsuite and Seesmic also do this.

Facebook Fan Page to Twitter

• Individual updates- There is currently no way to update Twitter from your Facebook Fan Page on an individual update basis.
• Permanent 
  • Install this Twitter application in your Facebook account.  Once you’ve done that, EVERY update you make on your Facebook Fan Page, will also post to Twitter.

Twitter to LinkedIn

• Tweetdeck Desktop – see above.  Hootsuite also does this.
• Adjust your settings in LinkedIn.  Once you’ve added your Twitter account, you can choose to have all or some of your updates flow to LinkedIn.  Again, I CAUTION  the use of permanent update cross-posting.  For individual updates to flow to LinkedIn, simply use #in or #li when you update your Twitter status.

LinkedIn to Twitter

• This functionality is built right into LinkedIn now, so each update you make on LinkedIn, you can select if you want it to also post to Twitter, by checking the check box below your update.

Twitter to Blog

• Add a widget to your blog that displays your recent tweets by installing the “Twitter for WordPress” plugin on your blog. Your tweets will stream into a widget on the side of your blog, similar to mine on the bottom right.
• You can also install the Wibya toolbar (see mine at the bottom of this page) which shows your Twitter updates.  If you want to know more about the Wibya toolbar, take a look at my post on the topic.  Another similar toolbar is the Meebo Bar.

Facebook Fan Page to Blog

• This is possible using the Wibya toolbar or the Meebo Bar.  See above.

Facebook Profile to Blog

• This is possible using the Wibya toolbar or the Meebo Bar.  See above.

Blog to Twitter

• Twitterfeed - You can easily automate the posting of your blog to Twitter by setting up a feed on Twitterfeed.
• Ping.fm – Newly added feature allows you to add your feeds to be automatically sent to a variety of social networks.

Blog to Facebook Profile

• Create a Facebook note for each of your blog posts by following these instructions: In the “Applications” menu (in the bottom bar), choose “Notes.”, under “Notes Settings,” click on “Import a blog” and enter your feed address.  For more detailed instructions and screen shots, see this post.
• Wordbooker – This is a WordPress plugin that imports your blog posts to Facebook.  The difference in this versus using Notes, is that your posts get a separate area on your profile, and any comments are imported back into your blog.  (Thanks to @tpapi for the suggestion!)
• Ping.fm – See above

Blog to Facebook Fan Page

• Wordbooker – see above
• Social RSS – Install this application on Facebook, and your blog posts will feed directly as updates to your Wall.  You can also create a box that will show your posts in a box on your Fan Page.  See WebinarListing fan page for an example.
• Ping.fm - See above

Blog to LinkedIn

• Install the WordPress application on LinkedIn or BlogLink onto your LinkedIn profile and have all your blog posts flow to your profile.
• Ping.fm - See above

Not possible at this time (if you know of a way to do these, please let me know in the comments!):

• Facebook Profile to LinkedIn
• Facebook Profile to Twitter
• Facebook Profile to Facebook Fan Page
• Facebook Fan Page to Facebook Profile
• Facebook Fan Page to LinkedIn
• LinkedIn to Facebook Profile
• LinkedIn to Facebook Fan Page
• LinkedIn to Blog

You may also be familiar with Ping.fm, which allows you to update 50 social media sites at once.  You just post it once, and it updates the sites you choose.  So, obviously this is a great way to cross-post.  A few weeks ago, Seesmic acquired Ping.fm, so the Ping.fm functionaility will be incorporated into Seesmic in a few weeks, making it a great option to cross-post.  Ping.fm is currently incorporated into Hootsuite as well.

Did I leave anything out?  I plan on keeping this updated over time, so please let me know if I have missed anything!