Beware the "Who has visited my profile the most?" FB Application

Last night I noticed I was tagged in a photo on Facebook, and that this photo was commented on by the poster. I checked who had tagged this photo and it turned out to be someone I went to highschool with, that I haven't talk to in over 10 years, and didn't even know we were Facebook friends. Turns out it was a Facebook application virus. There are many of these new viruses surfacing on Facebook. The one I am now a victum of is called, "Who has visited my profile the most". This application must randomly select people from your friends list and portrays them as viewing your profile more than others. My situation is pretty funny, but applications like these could potentially harm or protect you. The Toronto Sun posted a short mention of these applications today saying, "Unlike companies like Apple, Facebook doesn't have an approval policy for third-party applications," and therefore, "...can cause viruses and malicious software to be installed on your computer." Today in class we discussed how the relationship with a consumer can be affected from offline to online channels, and vise versa. Here the offline channel is possibly negatively affecting my offline social network by creating awkwarde situations, or hilarious ones to me for that matter. But this experience has shifted my notion of Facebook being somewhat more contained and not as contaminated as other social networking sites. Here is The Toronto Sun post ( http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/03/16/13245056.html)

The "New" or "Natural" Conversation

On Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010, Rick Spence wrote an article called, "Are you ready for the new conversation?", for the Financial Post. This "conversation" is referring to Seth Godin's book Permission Marketing, written over 10 years ago. So the conversation isn't "new" per say, but it has surfaced within the last few years and has really pick up momentum since. The conversation is, as Spence discusses, companies building lasting relationships with consumers by providing meaningful incentives. Spence refers to Pepsi's Refresh campaign, where people can apply for grants from Pepsi for projects that will aid their communities or society in general. This philanthropic approach is intriguing. It’s interesting to note that with the growth of globalization and the expansion of social networking sites, there is this “new” approach or reverting back to investing in close communities and social incentives. Is it because the community that globalization, social networking sites, and corporate e-marketing have created is so huge that it’s getting irritably impersonal? It seems that consumers really are responding more so to grassroots marketing and more personable approaches to advertising. Maybe this is Godin’s genius or a natural progression. My friend Jocelyn Soares showed me a great example of this more meaningful approach to marketing shown in this clip below provided by Volkswagen.

Social Marketing and Flannel...

What does Social Marketing and a Flannel shirt have in common?

My birthday. This February, I'm throwing a huge bash and what better way to party than incorporating an awesome theme. This year the theme is Lumberjack, and consequently a sea of flannel, raccoon-tailed hats, and suspenders will be washing up on the dance floor this Saturday. Naturally, Facebook first comes to mind when thinking, "How am I going to invite all the people I want to be partying at my birthday?" However, rarely do I think about the entire package that comes with creating an events page on Facebook.

A few years ago, I would post an event on the social networking site and almost everyone would have responded by clicking the "Attending", "Maybe Attending", or "Not Attending" buttons provided or they would have emailed, texted, or phoned to RSVP. Now I'm not surprised to see that a quarter of my Facebook friends who are invited to my birthday have not responded in anyway. Who would have thought that I would really feel like I have to do e-marketing for my own birthday? Should I send the "Not Respondees" a message saying I haven't heard from them and to update their RSVP status or is that the new e-nagging? And is sending out the message a week prior to the party date to the "Attending" group to update them on the party details too early? Basically, I want to avoid becoming "e-nnoying" and find the ultimate balance of fully informing guests, as well as, keep attracting them to the event. While being a bit overwhelmed with who to invite and who I've forgotten to invite, I came across this interesting article in regards to the notion that people cannot handle having more than 150 friends, which is also known as "Dunbar's number". This is an interesting concept that is put into question with the arrival of social networking sites where friends lists can reach up into the thousands. Check it out here! http://bit.ly/56fzPE