Facebook change de 'look'

J'ai eu droit à un avant-goût de la nouvelle interface Facebook aujourd'hui.

Premières impressions?

- Look blogue, 2 colonnes
- La pub prend sa place - beaucoup plus en évidence
- Possibilité de commenter le statut Facebook des utilisateurs
- La navigation est un peu plus longue - on ne retrouve plus tout (ou presque) sur une seule page

Ma modification préférée? L'ajout d'un engin de recherche à la section Messages. On se retrouve beaucoup plus facilement maintenant, avec la possibilité de recherche par nom de correspondant et par mot clé. Un gros irritant maintant chose passée.

C'est certain que toute refonte nécessite une période d'adaptation, mais dans l'ensemble, on s'y habituera.

Facebook app marketing done right

Am breaking into my holiday break with a quick link to a happy discovery : a Facebook app that actually understands the importance of proper marketing.

Too many Facebook application developers expect you to add their app just because your friends are doing it. They're relying 100% on the power of influencers.

For those of us who think for ourselves, it's nice to see a Facebook app that actually gives us a taste of what we're in for, before we sign our lives (ie. privacy) away.

Check out MouseHunt. Succinct summary, discussion board, teaser video. Finally. Someone who knows how to speak to me.

Bravo, HitGrab. Now excuse me. I'm off to hunt for mice.

Social media lessons learned while humming the Hockey Night in Canada theme song

I like the Hockey Night in Canada theme song as much as the next Canadian. It brings me back to a late-70s living room on Fallingdale Crescent in Bramalea Ontario, where an Irish immigrant father and his three young kids cheered for the Leafs while the true born-and-bred hockey fan was in the kitchen probably wishing the Canadiens played more often on CBC. Like a lot of people, for me the song is sweetly nostalgic.

So when news came through Bob LeDrew's blog that CBC had decided not to renew the song's licence, I thought : Oh. That's a shame. Then a split second later my social media instincts kicked in. Within a few minutes, by about 10:30 Thursday morning, I'd posted an online petition and a Facebook group. I decided to experiment a little to see if the page would grow without my network and it slowly did thanks to the popularity of the sport, of the Hockey Night in Canada brand, and to the media attention the story was receiving. Growth happened much more quickly when I recruited my Facebook 'friends' to the cause, of course.

I stopped monitoring growth and reading comments on Monday, when, as promised, I forwarded the petition to CBC's president. I threw in the Ombudsman and a few media outlets in for good measure. Then I posted the following stats on the Facebook group page :

Closing stats (11pm ET June 9):
5087 members in this Facebook group
9033 total signatures on the petition

That's all in about 3.5 days.

That same day, Peter Cheney of The Globe & Mail called for an interview. I didn't make the cut : CTV stole my thunder by announcing it had secured the rights to the song. I'm consoled by the mention of online petitions at the article's halfway point.

All in all an interesting experience.

At time of writing, we're at 5791 Facebook group members and 9518 petition signatures.

Lessons learned (or confirmed):

• Social media is a potentially powerful communications tool that not only helped this particular campaign take off but builds community. I started to realize that when I read in the petition I'd made available that I was a 'Canadian hero' for my initiative and when the daughter of the song's composer Dolores Claman wrote to thank me on behalf of her mother. I knew it by the time I'd posted those closing stats and taken a last look at the conversations happening on the group wall.
  
  
• Facebook works well for popular movements. Particularly those with strong brands and media attention.
  
  
• Since I'd limited myself to a Facebook group page, after a few thousand people had joined my group I lost my ability to 'message all' - Facebook caps this feature at 5000 members.
  
  
• If I were an unscrupulous marketer, I'd have made my Facebook group a Fan page and would now hold the profiles of close to 6,000 hockey fans in my sweaty little hands. I could start to target within my fanbase according to demographic. If I were an unscrupulous marketer who was banging my head against the wall because I'd mistakenly started a group instead of a Fan page, Facebook could help me with migration.
  
  
  
• Social media lets the 'little guy' get his story out there, for the record. Dolores' Claman's daughter opened a blog to share her family's point of view of how events unfolded after CBC started pointing fingers at Ms. Claman for the breakdown in negotiations. Madeleine Morris also used Facebook to promote her position in various related groups, including mine.
  
  
  
• Canadian hockey fans are a passionate bunch.

Facebook contest pages

One potentially interesting use for Facebook is for contest promotion ... and one interesting use for contests is buzz creation. Everyone loves a good contest. The combination of the two can give an interesting result.

One such example is the Frank Sinatra - The Chairman of the Board contest:

Frank Sinatra passed away 10 years ago on May 14th 1998. To honor Frank Sinatra, we are having a World-Wide contest. Enter now! You Can WIN!... no matter where you live! WIN *** all 6 BRAND NEW *** Frank Sinatra collections.5 DVD collections and the release of a CD with 22 remastered and remixed Reprise hits. Enter before May 14th 2008 - and if you win, you'll get a bonus prize of the Best-selling book "The Way You Wear Your Hat"

Admittedly, not a huge budget here. There are no million dollar prizes or trips to Vegas. But there's definitely enough to attract true blue Sinatra fans, which is the point.

Who's behind the contest? Fan pages make that challenging, as, contrary to Group pages, site creators aren't listed.

My guess? All you have to do is ask the eternal crime fighting question : Who benefits?

Dave Domenicano.

Toyota sales manager by day, crooner by night, Dave does a pretty mean Sinatra impression, if his tribute videos are any indication. And his video is front and center in the Sinatra fan page.

Not a bad way to get your name circulating among true Sinatra fans. Better yet, as a Fan page administrator, Dave now has access to a great marketing combination : Sinatra fans living in the Montreal area.

Now I like Sinatra as much as the next chick, but I really joined this Fan page to see how long it's going to take for an invitation to Dave's next show to pop up in my Facebook inbox or in the advertising bar.

Meanwhile, Dave's probably going quite nicely with the Amazon and Google ads on his contest registration page.

Pas fou le gars. Bada bing.

Blogging : Making the world a small place

Ironic, really, that it would be Facebook that would put me in touch with Minter Dial, Managing Director, International Professional Development & Communication at L'Oreal Coiffure. Particularly, since the first post which caught my eye in his blog's archives is entitled Human Touch and the anti-Facebook trend.

Minter found my blog through a degree of separation, appropriately named Mitch Joel (of Six Pixels of Separation fame). He sent me a quick note through Facebook, remarking on the fact that we were two of a rare breed of blogger to pass from French to English and back again. I agree with him that it can be challenging for some of our readers, and can only hope that you find it more intriguing than frustrating.

In his March 9th post, Minter writes about the backlash to our heightened connectivity through platforms like Facebook and the accompanying cry for the 'human touch'. I can certainly empathize. As in many things, I am of two minds. On one hand, I'm thrilled to be able to communicate with people around the world, and draw knowledge from an exponentially larger number of sources than was possible even two or three years ago. On the other hand, like some of the people Minter describes in his post, I dread globalization, with its impact on culture and small-market economies.

This is probably why I try to walk the thin line that separates the two worlds. 3e mardi Third Tuesday Montreal is probably the best example of this. I was drawn to the concept of Third Tuesday and sought to introduce it to Montreal because of the very fact that it drew professionals interested in social media out from behind their keyboards and into a relaxed, convivial ambiance that encourages exchange, debate and face-to-face communication. It essentially does what Minter suggests in his post :

Create or participate in old-fashioned “Salons” (in the 18th century sense) to discuss and debate face-to-face on topics other than your children's school, or your work trials and tribulations...

Who knows what's next for me. A Lettres d'amour fragranced pen, perhaps.

Facebook au Québec : Sondage Branchez-vous

Branchez-vous nous offre ce matin un premier article d'une série de 5 sur son sondage exclusif concernant les habitudes de consommation des Québécois sur Facebook.

Quelques statistiques à faire réfléchir:

• plus d'un Québécois francophone sur quatre est abonné au site de réseautage social Facebook;
  


• Au Québec, il y aurait 947 540 personnes d'inscrites, selon Facebook, sur une population estimée de 7 719 993, selon Statistiques Canada;
  


• 37 % des Montréalais francophones disent être membres de Facebook contre 21% des Québécois francophones à l'extérieur de Montréal;
  


• 54 % des 18 à 24 ans sont membres de Facebook;
  


• Chez les 25-34 ans : 47 %;
  


• La tranche des 45 à 64 ans ne sont représentés que par 18,5 % des leurs sur le site de réseautage.;
  


• Facebook aurait frappé le Québec en septembre dernier;

Ce sondage a été effectué en ligne auprès de 1257 répondants du 11 au 15 février 2008. Sa marge d'erreur est de 2,8%.

Demain : quelle utilisation les Québécois font de Facebook?

Blog post of the day : Tech PR Gems 2007

Today's blog post of the day is actually a year old. It's fascinating in that it's a snapshot of the pre-Facebook era, back when MySpace commanded the spotlight. Ok, maybe fascinating to me and a few other social media freaks with a sense of the historical. But fascinating nonetheless.

I feel like I've opened a time capsule.

In her post, the blogger gives some visibility to Tretorn/Puma, whose PR rep (Karl) set up a MySpace page, invited tons of 'hot chicks' as a means to to lure in men to his MySpace page (kinda like a Ladies' night at the local club), then proceeded to give free Tretorn running shoes away to his 'friends'.

Here's what the blogger wrote in her post:

All I was told I had to do was wear them and tell everyone what I thought of them. So I decided, a blog post would work. I LOVE the shoes. They are fun, snazzy, colorful and comfortable and everyone constantly asks where I got them when I wear them out.

Blog post here

Be sure to read the comment thread. Karl contributes actively, and is transparent about his strategy. I've added a comment of my own, hoping for a where-are-they-now kind of update on the campaign. I see a Facebook group (not started by Karl) but it's not going anywhere fast, from the looks of things.

As for the MySpace page, it seems to have been taken down. Campaign over, I guess.

So there it is. A new PR blog for the blogroll and a 'new' case study on my social media radar. Here's hoping Karl gets back to me.

Tech PR Gems blog : Thoughts and insights at the intersection of technology and public relations in the 21st century from the folks at Topaz Partners.

Panel SQPRP : Partage dynamique, propos intéressants

Je viens de passer l'avant midi en tant que panéliste au forum de discussion sur les médias sociaux de la SQPRP. Je ne sais pas si les participants se sont amusés autant que moi, mais je me suis honnêtement réjouie d'avoir enfin l'opportunité d'échanger avec mes pairs à ce sujet. Nous avons eu droit à des prises de position et interrogations pertinentes de la part des membres. Les interventions de Carl Charest, blogueur et Directeur des contenus et rédacteur en chef de Branchez-vous ont été bien appréciées.

Quel plaisir d'écouter Johanna Raynaud (Massy Forget) qui nous a présenté en détail ce fameux dossier Dyson qui a tant intéressé Le Soleil hier. Pour avoir une petite idée de ses propos et connaître son point de vue, je vous inviterais à vous déplacer vers le blogue de Massy-Forget et lire le billet de Johanna à ce sujet.

Plaisir aussi d'avoir accès à la vaste expérience de Serge Leclerc, qui a vécu, lui, l'engouement pour le Web 1.0. Comme certains d'entre nous, il a dû affronter les objections montées il y a de ça maintenant 10 à 15 ans. Comme lui, j'ai connu les babillards électroniques de l'époque pré-Mosaic et trouve fascinant le potentiel pour la démocratisation de l'information que nous présente le Web 2.0. Il a raison de nous mettre en garde tout en nous encourageant à explorer les pistes qui s'ouvrent à nous. Nous sommes un public averti mais, je l'espère, enthousiaste face à ce monde qui est en train de se créer autour de nous.

Nous nous devons, en tant que stratèges, et nous devons à nos clients, d'aller y jeter un bon coup d'oeil afin de bien comprendre tous les enjeux.

Comme l'ont souligné tous les panélistes, la transparence et le souci ethique sont de mise. Quand le blogosphère prendra un peu plus de maturité, les blogueurs comprendront que l'entente implicite qui existe présentement entre relationnistes et journalistes au niveau de l'impartialité s'applique tout à fait à eux. Pour l'instant, nous devons continuer à élaborer nos campagnes avec franchise et dans le respect total.

J'inviterais ceux qui désirent obtenir les hyperliens vers les sites Web qui ont servi d'appui à ma présentation (ainsi qu'à ceux qui auraient été présentés si le wifi du Club St James avait réussi à nous alimenter convenablement) de prendre un premier pas avec moi. Le visuel de ma présentation est disponible sur del.icio.us, un site fonctionnant selon le principe de signets et permettant le partage de sites Internet.

Vous me trouverez en tapant 'michellesullivan' dans Your Network après avoir ouvert votre compte (gratuit). Pour sortir les 35 hyperliens de la présentation, choisir 'SQPRP' dans la section 'Tags', à droite. Amusez-vous : del.icio.us peut s'avérer un outil très intéressant pour les réseaux et entreprises.

On m'indique que les présentations powerpoint des panélistes seront mises à la disposition des participants via le site Internet de la SQPRP plus tard cette semaine ou en début de semaine prochaine. J'ajouterai l'hyperlien dans les commentaires de ce billet le moment venu. Vous y trouverez non seulement un exemple de mon premier bon coup, mais également une analyse des erreurs que j'ai commises avec Facebook. Matériel supplémentaire en prime, alors : ayant perdu un peu de temps suite à des problèmes techniques, nous n'avons malheureusment pas vraiment eu le temps d'aborder les médias sociaux outre les blogues. Et dieu sait qu'il y en a.

Mais ça sera pour une autre fois.

Un grand merci à tous ceux qui ont assuré le succès de cette activité : Abdellah, Manon, Marie-Claude, Mylène, Johanna, Serge et, surtout, aux membres de notre profession qui étaient sur place ce matin. Au plaisir d'une prochaine rencontre!

C'est dans l'air : Facebook dans l'actualité

Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. Tout le monde en parle. Autant dans la rue que sur les ondes. Je me demande si les recherchistes de Guy A. ont lancé une invitation à Mark Zuckerberg. Ça ne me surprendrait pas.

À suivre dans l'actualité:

- 60 minutes - à ne pas manquer dimanche - Lesley Stahl s'entretient avec le jeune fondateur de Facebook par rapport aux questions de vie privée. Beacon passe sous la loupe.

- La Presse se penche sur des questions de cyberintimiation via Facebook

- CBC parle de l'utilisation faite de Facebook par des groupes aussi diverses que les médias et les arnaqueurs

- Les français se sont amusés avec une campagne farfelue prétendant qu'un Français avait été nommé président de Facebook. Certains médias ont pris au sérieux.

L'engouement pour Facebook deviendra-t-il planétaire? Facebook a récemment proposé à ses membres d’effectuer eux-mêmes la traduction du site par le biais de l'application Translations. Ça ne coûte pas cher, la traduction, quand on peut compter sur des membres bénévoles.

Et pendant ce temps, du haut de ses 23 ans, M. Zuckerberg s'obstinne pour ne pas afficher Facebook à la bourse de NY. J'espère pour lui que son produit maintiendra sa valeur actuelle.

On verra si Facebook deviendra effectivement le prochain Google, comme certains le prédisent, ou si un nouveau réseau social viendra l'usurper. Selon moi, on peut miser sur l'évolution. La prochaine vedette du monde des affaires sur Internet aura quel âge, pensez-vous?

Facebook app of the day : BC Hydro's Green Gifts

Have you noticed that zombie, vampire and werewolf attacks are on the decline in Facebook? As the platform gains maturity, and users begin to tire of useless applications or become suspect as the result of increased awareness of privacy issues, usage takes a nosedive. I suspect that users are becoming more discriminating and that, shortly, the applications they add will be a truer reflection of theirs values and concerns.

If that happens, it's good news for apps like Rob Cottingham's Green Gifts. Working with its client, BC Hydro, Cottingham's Social Signal has come up with a free Facebook app that comes with a message : you can send a friend an energy-saving 'Power Smart' tip every 48 hours, along with a personalized note.

And, if you're a BC resident, you're even eligible for a prize.

Factoid of the day : According to Green Gifts, BC Hydro is working towards electricity self-sufficiency in B.C. by 2016.

Mia Farrow in Second Life

Mia Farrow's avatar looks remarkably like her. Someone did a pretty good job. Ms Farrow, actor and UN goodwill ambassador has become one of the most vocal activists condemning the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region. She joined the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience in taking the cause into Second Life.

Video here

The event took place at a virtual replica of Our Walls Bear Witness - Darfur: Who Will Survive Today? the powerful, outdoor photography exhibition highlighting images of the Darfur crisis by leading photojournalists as projected onto the exterior of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, around this time last year.

It's interesting to see not only how Second Life is being used to hold seminars, press conferences, album launches and other meetings between people from around the world, but how it's being used as a tool within a communications strategy aimed at mobilizing the global community around a cause that seems easy for most of us to ignore. I'll have to delve into Second Life a little more to understand how these events are promoted, but even sitting on the outside and looking in, it's easy to see the potential.

I've brought the question of an Olympic boycott in support of Darfur to Facebook. French and English groups are now open to the global Facebook community, with links to online petitions, resources and first-hand testimonials. Promotion has begun within my own network, but I'll soon be taking steps to bring the group to the attention of others I feel might be moved to increase its visibility and get the viral effect going.

À l'horizon

Mais où est passé le mois d'octobre! Le 25 déjà.

Je suis impliquée dans l'organisation de FacebookCamp Montréal, qui aura lieu à la SAT le 7 novembre prochain (entre 18h et 22h, plus ou moins) et participerai également à BarCampMontreal qui se tiendra le 3 novembre prochain.

Podcamp Boston aura lieu en fin de semaine, mais, par hasard, je serai à Boston pour d'autres raisons. Les activités se dérouleront donc sans moi cette fois-ci.

Finalement, le 1 novembre, je réunis des professionnels intéressés à lancer le concept Third Tuesdays à Montréal. Le guru du mouvement, Joe Thornley, sera parmi nous. Infos à suivre.

Comme vous voyez, on en mange du Web 2.0 à Montréal!