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Social Media Strategist
arnoldi:mcpherson ~ the conversation starts here
p. 905-684-9393
e. robin@arnoldimcpherson.com

Posted via email from arnoldi : mcpherson – out & about

Facebook under the gun about its new Instant Personalization

Facebook’s launch last week of Instant Personalization has caused another backlash from users and most certainly from Canada’s privacy commission along with U.S. Senators.  The complaint is that Facebook is forcing people to opt out rather than opt in to share their profile information with partner websites, currently Microsoft Docs.com, Pandora, and Yelp.

Here’s a simple example of what happened when I went to Yelp:  Hi Janice. Yelp is using Facebook to personalize your experience. Learn More – No Thanks. 

Facebook says its had a great response this week with sites rolling out the new open graph, a.k.a.  social plugins. I highly recommend reading Facebook’s detailed description of what this all means to help you weigh the social network benefits vs. privacy.  If you decide to opt out here’s how you do it:

Go to - Account - Privacy Settings - Applications and Websites - Instant Personalization Pilot Program - Uncheck “Allow”

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Apple’s Steve Jobs and Adobe are at it again over Flash, the multimedia software used to create much of the animation, online games and to view a large percentage of video on the internet.  The fight’s been going on for some time but yesterday Job’s released a 1,700 word letter on the Apple website attacking Flash. 

Jobs has been critizing Adobe saying Flash does not work on iphones or the new ipad because it is proprietary software and closed to outside developers of iphone apps.  Jobs pointed out that other companies like YouTube developed an iphone specific app which comes loaded on the phone. Adobe says it is Apple that is being over controlling.

 As it stands, Flash runs on every mobile phone except the biggest player in the mobile multimedia market – the iphone.

Big changes from Facebook

There was a bunch of confusion among Facebookers last week when they started the week looking for their Fan pages which seemed to be lost.  Facebook replaced “Become a Fan” with “Like” and sort of forgot to tell everyone.  It seems changes are weekly and it’s starting to bug users.

But the reason for the change became clear at the company’s F8 conference on Wednesday when it announced a “Like” button plug in for websites which takes web surfing to a new personal level by linking back to Facebook.  For example, it means that if my friends visit an online store that I’ve been to they could call up what products I liked on that site.  Venture Beat has a couple of good articles and if you want the nitty-gritty details, check out Robert Scoble’s post -  Facebook’s ambition.

It also means that Facebook added Instant Personalization which it says “helps you connect more easily with your friends on select partner sites.”.  This has some people upset because it’s another privacy setting that defaults to ”allow” and has to be changed if you don’t want to share information.  If you want to change it go to:  Account – Privacy Settings - Applications and Websites – Instant Personalization.

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We’re really excited to announce the launch of Social Media Club Niagara.  SMC Niagara’s goal is to bring together everyone who is interested in social media, whether you’re using it for work, personal or just want to know what it’s about.  There’s no membership fee just come and join us.  Our first meeting is on Thursday, May 27 at 5:00pm at Doms Pasta and Grill at the corner of King St. and Academy in St. Catharines

SMC Niagara is part of the international Social Media Club organization, founded in 2006, which has 92 active chapters in nine (9) countries, and 65 in the process of forming.

Follow us on Twitter @smcniagara,  on our Facebook page or joing on our LinkedIn group.

Happy 4square day and Twitter Power

Some big news out of Twitter this week with it’s announcement of Promoted Tweets.  Companies can buy a place at the top of searches, quite like Google’s AdWords.  The tweets will be clearly labeled as promoted and Twitter says it will measure how the valuable the tweets are to users and will remove the ones that aren’t popular.

Promoted Tweets are being rolled out with companies like Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America.

For now this may be for of big business but be sure this will be a great opportunity for smaller business to connect.

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From the twittersphere and into the U.S. Library of Congress which announced it is going to catalogue everything tweeted since 2006.  I’m big on social media etiquette but this is even more reason to think before you tweet.

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Not to make it all about Twitter, but Google also announced this week that it’s beefing up its real-time search which includes Facebook, My Space Google buzz and Twitter.  You’ll now be able to search tweets by year, month and day.  Here’s an example provided by Google:

Click to see larger image

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On a fun note, today is Foursquare Day, chosen because it’s the date of the fourth month squared.  The location-based mobile marketing tool has taken the world by storm, out doing its competitors Yelp and Gowalla in popularity.  It’s not an official Foursquare event but businesses are taking advantage and offering specials (get a special rate for checking into Arnoldi Mcpherson and requesting a quote).  Swarms – 50 or more people checking into a venue – are planned around the world.  Swarmers can earn a Foursquare Swarm badge.  If it’s successful, expect foursquare day to com around every April 16.