My latest Talent Zoo Column looks at Facebook Fan Pages and how to make the most of them. Here’s an excerpt:

Several people have told me recently they don’t think their Facebook pages have as many fans as their brand seems to call for. They asked me what they were doing “wrong” and how to improve their pages. One executive compared the “coolness” of his brand to a larger, boring brand that drew many more fans to its Facebook page, and said, “I don’t get it.”

I think one of the issues here is the inflation of language so pervasive in social networking. There’s a big difference between a real fan (short for fanatic) of your company, and someone who decides to “Become a Fan,” which takes the single click of a mouse and may never again involve engagement between the “fan” and the company.

Still, big business is creating fan pages and a study released in January 2009, commissioned by Princeton, N.J.-based interactive marketer Rosetta, found that 59% of the 100 leading retailers, including Best Buy, Kohl’s and Wal-Mart, are using Facebook. In fact, when I made informal inquiries into what companies had the best Facebook pages, large retail brands were most often cited. Victoria’s Secret’s Pink and Whole Foods were both mentioned.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Tags: Facebook, Fan Pages

Randy Cohen, “the Ethicist” for the New York Times, responding to an educator’s inquiry about Facebook ethics, wrote:

“…when these students gave her access to their Facebook pages, they waived their right to privacy. But that’s not how many kids see it. To them, Facebook and the like occupy some weird twilight zone between public and private information, rather like a diary left on the kitchen table.”

I’m not sure about the diary analogy. My daughter keeps a diary, but she’s at an age where I would not be shocked by its contents (and in fact, I wouldn’t look at it any way.) I believe we should get to know our children directly, and not by “hanging around with their friends” which might be a better Facebook analogy for parents.

And that’s the crux of it. Facebook updates (this varies with prvacy settings) are easily seen by friends, parents, educators and perhaps more importantly, law enforcement and potential employers. So no analogy other than “sending a full written report to the agency of your choice” really works here. Any other is clever, and perhaps stimulates conversation, but can lead to some serious online faux pas.

Tags: Facebook, privacy

When you have over 200 million subscribers, just letting people pick their own vanity URL is apparently a (highly successful) viral marketing campaign. Why is everyone so excited about the great Facebook URL land rush? Has Friday night nothing more to offer? Why am I home writing this post instead of listening to music or going to the movies?

The Facebook vanity URL, available tonight at 9:00 p.m. PST, has somehow captured the imagination of social networking congonscenti the world over. Why? If you’re not in the Pacific Time Zone, did you stay up late do get your own vanity URL? What URL did you want? Which one did you get? Is there any way to speculate in Facebook URLs?

Update 10:15 P.M. PST

I was very impressed by how flawlessly Facebook handled the requests for vanity URLs. I first tried “joel” but names have to be at least five characters in length. I ended up with postman, which is inconsistent with every other social network ID I have.

Leave a comment here about your experience, and add a link to your Facebook profile if you want. Thanks!

Tags: facebook, vanity url

I was quoted in today’s Launch magazine in Do’s and Don’ts of Using Social Internet Sites for Business. In the article, I offer the following advice on adding and interacting with contacts on various social networks:

“Don’t forget your manners.

While nearly all social networks have rules for participation (don’t post obscenities or copyrighted material, for example), the etiquette for adding people to each network is defined by the mores of those on the network, Postman says. He offers a few guidelines:

• Users should be particularly careful to avoid the appearance of flirtation and inappropriate comments and messages. Use the same rules as you would in the workplace.
• Don’t send blatantly commercial messages. Business networking is OK. Shameless promotion and cold calling is not.
• If the network allows, give the person you are inviting some context for the invitation.
• Do not take it badly if someone declines or ignores your invitation to connect. That’s their option.”

The full article can be found here.

Tags: Launch, Grow Utah Ventures, social network etiquette, Facebook, Twitter

I’ve been trying to get a handle on the demographics for Facebook and MySpace to help a client decide which best fits his target audience. This has not been easy.

This chart from iStrategyLabs, was published October 22, 2007, and, according to the company, comes directly from Facebook Ads.

This chart indicates that the largest demographic is 18 to 24 with nearly 62%, and the 35+ segment commands less than 5% or less than 1 million users. (I believe the three categories at the bottom of the chart are supposed to read “Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll.”)

The following chart from comScore indicates the largest Facebook segment is 35+, with 10,412 million “visitors.”

While the chart is for May 2007, it is the most recent I can find on their site for this particular statistic.

The difference between the two charts may be terminology, but I’m not sure that can account for the disparity. The comScore chart says “visitors,” which could mean multiple visits by the same member, whereas iStrategy/Facebook says “users” which sounds like registered users. Also, the iStrategy chart is U.S. only and the comScore appears to be worldwide.

I contacted Facebook and asked them to explain the difference, and they responded “As you select your targeting criteria for your ads, we will display the approximate number of users that your targeting encompasses. Please keep in mind that this estimate is not exact and that your ad may not be shown to every one of these users depending on what other ads are available to show.”

I have yet to try this, but will be curious to see how it tracks to either of these sets of figures.

Tags: Facebook, iStrategy Labs, Facebook Ads, comScore, demographics