“With the advent of blogs and micro-blogs, there’s a constant online conversation about breaking news, people and places — some famous and some local. Tweets and other short-form updates create a history of commentary that can provide valuable insights into what’s happened and how people have reacted. We want to give you a way to search across this information and make it useful.

[...]

Starting today, you can zoom to any point in time and “replay” what people were saying publicly about a topic on Twitter. To try it out, click “Show options” on the search results page, then select “Updates.” The first page will show you the familiar latest and greatest short-form updates from a comprehensive set of sources, but now there’s a new chart at the top. In that chart, you can select the year, month or day, or click any point to view the tweets from that specific time period.”

As of right now you can search for tweets going back to February 11th, 2010, but Google tells us that pretty soon you’ll be able to search for anything all the way back to March 21st, 2006 when the first tweet went out.  My first search? Let’s replay the excitement from when Steven Stamkos scored his 50th goal for the Lightning .

Facebook announced on their developers site that early 2010 would bring about a major change for applications to the popular social media site. All facebook applications will be excluded from pages, profile boxes, application info sections, and the Boxes tab leaving tabs as the only way to integrate. This means saying bye bye to annoying notifications from applications, posts on your profile wall from friends taking social quizzes, and that top friends box sitting on the left of Jane’s profile page. For many this will come as a relief; the popularity of facebook applications has grown so rapidly that it’s hard to weed out the trash and find the real information you’re looking for.

Of course, some applications you may have become very fond of such as the memorable web address or dogbook (yea, you know you love it – or at least some people do – they have 957,410 monthly active users). In order to keep those applications on your profile you’ll need to add a tab to your profile for that app. Memorable web address sent out a notification with a diagram on how to do this as well as a request to email you notifications from now on as all contact with users through facebook will be cut off.

What do you think of the new change to facebook applications?

What I found best about the commercial was how nicely it integrated social media. The boy in the commercial states that he created a group on facebook for people who dunk their Oreo Cakesters and the father’s rebuttle is that he will create his own non-dunking “face space group”.  While I can’t locate the TV commercial online, you can watch the shortened version of it presented on their facebook page (you can also watch it here).

The facebook page engages visitors to interact by answering the question: “Do you dunk oreo cakesters in milk”? You then can choose to side with the boy and be on team “Dunkers” or on the father’s side, team “Non-Dunkers”. No matter what side you choose, all that talk about Oreo Cakesters really makes you want to go out and grab some to try them out!

Do you know where your friends are?

…in the new facebook homepage? If you answered “yea, in the News Feed, duh” you’re only partially correct.Where is Joe X you know from college or Tiffany X that you met at a networking event last week? If they’re not being active and publishing that activity to the News Feed, you’re not going to find them there.

Previously, facebook had a handy little “Friends” link at the top navigation that you could click to view all of your friends regardless of whether or not they were being active on facebook. The new homepage design got rid of that link and replaced it with a “Friends” link on the left navigation which is quite deceiving. Clicking on the new friends link won’t display all of your friends, it will display all of your friends that are active. That’s why numbers pop up next to the new friends link to notify you when there is new activity. Click on that link and you’ll discover “oh wow, Nina X changed her relationship status” along with much more useless information that you weren’t bargaining for…that is, if facebook decides to work at the time you click. Be ware of the ever present “Oops! Something went wrong. We’re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can. You may be able to try again.” Hey, thanks facebook!

So, if you are intent on adding a friend to a list you previously created (let’s say you forgot to add your boss to your “work” list which only allows people to view your photo and info but not wall) – good luck with that. You’re not going to figure it out unless you do a little digging like I did.

You are accountable for your friends

That’s right, a full list of your friends are now located under the account tab in the top right corner of your browser. A drop down list appears which displays a link for “edit friends”. Clicking that link will have you sighing with relief as the recognizable friends list reappears.

What do you think of the new change on facebook?

While many have been talking about the “new, simplified” homepage layout on facebook, I had yet to experience it for myself until today. I’m still not clear on the process by which profiles get switched over from the old to new layout as some of my co-workers were switched last week, yet my account didn’t make the change until today. Anyone know how that works?

The most prominent change in the layout is the moving of the notification bar from the bottom of the screen to the top left navigation. Now only the chat box appears at the bottom of the browser. The new left nav begins immediately after the facebook logo and places your friend requests, messages and notifications right before the new, larger search bar.  Although I think the placement of the links is a bit unnecessary (why not just keep it where it was instead of confusing people?), I do like the drop down feature when you scroll over the messages tab. You no longer have to click on the messages tab to get a quick view of your latest messages, convenient.

Following down the left side of the page you’ll find navigation links for your News Feed, Messages, Events, Photos, and Friends and then by a new feature: Friends Online. This is basically a snippet from your chat box in the bottom right corner, however it is a nice way to engage users to use the chat feature more often…thus keeping users on facebook.com for longer.

The middle of the page remains mostly unchanged except for the lack of the “View Live Feed”…well, actually it’s still there but now it’s called “Most Recent”. I guess facebook received enough feedback about the confusion between the News Feed vs. Live Feed and decided to change it.  Now what you’ll see is just a “News Feed” with two link  options on the right: “Top News” (the old news feed) and “Most Recent” (the old live feed).

Overall, I like the new homepage layout on facebook. It’s always good to continually evaluate the usability of your website and it’s clear that facebook is concerned about this. Although their frequent changes to their homepage layout may be frustrating for users at first, they ultimately introduce useful additions and changes that make for a better site experience. So, what are your thoughts on the new facebook homepage?

A report by IDC pointed to a survey of workers that showed 57% of them used social media at least once per week for business purposes. It only makes sense that these tools, which have been optimized for usability and customization, are the tools of choice for business purposes. Workers find sites such as Facebook and Twitter much more user-friendly when it comes to communicating both internally and externally than some systems implemented by the companies themselves.

Workers are doing more promotion as well, regardless of whether they work in marketing, accounting, IT, or any other department. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to argue against allowing workers to use social networking sites while on the job (see Farmville) but the benefits can potentially outweigh the risks if the company takes the right stance on social media. Creating a Fan page and Twitter account for your company and then giving permission to employees to post to those social media portals periodically throughout the week can bring invaluable brand recognition, improved customer relationships, and can make consumers more likely to view your brand as a person rather than as a corporation. By connecting with people on a more personal level company’s can more successfully use their social media portals to promote sales, new products, and events without seeming like a robotic spam machine.

Some companies still see social media as a fad, but they will be playing catch-up with those companies which are “socially aware” – a term used by ChannelInsider.com to describe businesses who use social media to their advantage. Choosing to ignore social media can be a death sentence to companies, especially if they are part of an industry full of socially aware competition.

Creativity and ingenuity usually lead to success in Social Media campaigns, but sometimes you can be creative and successful by going old school. Volkswagen is doing just that by bringing back the old “Punch Buggy” game. Remember it? Every time you passed a VW Beetle on those long family road trips you and your little brother would exchange punches. It’s a game that pretty much everybody can remember being a part of at some point, which is why it makes for a great social media campaign. People can relate to it and get a tingly feeling of reminiscence.

So, starting with an ad during the 3rd quarter of this year’s Super Bowl, VW is reinventing the game and calling it “Punch Dub”, referring to their nickname “Vee Dub”. The new game allows punches whenever any VW is spotted, not just a Beetle. The modern version of the classic game will feature celebrity comedian Tracy Morgan (from SNL and 30 Rock). Fans of Volkswagen will be able to share their excitement over the reemergence of the game by going to VW’s Facebook page where they can become “Punch Dubbers” and dole out punches of their own and also get a chance to win a new VW CC.

The combination of bringing back a classic game with a chance to win a car and a popular comedian is something that will almost surely turn into a successful campaign. While most companies can’t afford Tracy Morgan, or a Super Bowl ad, the formula can still be followed by small businesses. Connect with your fans on a personal level by inviting them to get involved with a fun and quirky activity and offer them incentives to do so. Chances are, if you remind people of something from their past that they enjoyed, even something small like the “Punch Buggy” game, they will see your brand as more human and more fun. While it might not last long, such a campaign can leave a lasting impression on people and can leave them seeing your company as more Social Media-friendly.

We saw a huge shift in 2009 from portals like MySpace to Twitter and Facebook. Blogs became increasingly important in any social media marketing campaign as did social bookmarking and a presence on YouTube or other video sharing sites.

What is your prediction for 2010?

According to B2B Social Media Benchmarking, a report from BtoBonline.com, the five most popular resources people turn to at work to get the information they need for their day-to-day jobs are:

• Webinars and podcasts
• Online ratings and reviews of business products or services
• Company pages on social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn
• Company blogs
• Searches of business-related information on social media sites

Company size, job role, and industry all play roles in how much each of these resources is used. Larger companies are more likely to see success from social media marketing when reaching out to other businesses, but smaller companies can benefit as well, especially from online ratings sites. While Twitter is used less than podcasts and webinars it is still used for B2B by 41% of those businesses that use social media. Companies in industries such as marketing and advertising, computers and software, and the internet all are more likely to use and see results from social media than other industries such as legal or accounting.

A good rule to get the best results out of a B2B social media marketing campaign is to continually test different channels and keep an eye on what other competing companies are doing with social media and with what effect. Also, don’t spread yourself too thin. Focus on the most important channels for your company and maximize your results in that channel. This will be the year that more companies use social media for B2B but it will take some time and research before a solid formula can be developed for any company.

General Social Networking Terms

RSS

A group of related feed formats used to publish frequently updated works including blog posts, facebook profile activity, twitter “tweets”, and audio and video clips in a standardized text format. It aggregates content so it’s easily organized by mobile devices and web pages.

Example: Click on the RSS link in the navigation of this blog and you’ll get a text feed of every post we add – sent anywhere you want it – your iGoogle, Google reader, mobile phone are just a few of the options!

Tag

Marking a photo, video, blog post, facebook post or twitter tweet with text that identifies it.

Example: I’ve tagged this blog post with social media, facebook, twitter, rss, and social media glossary. These tags let the user know what the blog post focuses on and helps with SEO.

Cyber campaigning

Using web sites like Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for election or promotional strategy.

Leveraging

Using a social media site to a company or candidate’s full advantage to add personality and pull in users.

Facebook

Group

A page on facebook created by bands, companies and other organizations to promote their activities and interests.

News feed

Highlights what’s happening in your social circles on Facebook.

Live Feed

A real-time display of posts and other actions taken by the groups and friends you’re connected with on Facebook.

Social ads

A way to drive traffic to a web page by connecting with their Facebook page.

Fan

A person who has “become a fan” of a page because he or she likes what it represents.

Friend

A person that has requested to become a friend of your profile on Facebook to connect and share information. This allows them access to your Facebook wall, info and photo tabs and anything else you choose to share.

Twitter

Hashtags

A way to unite global Tweets around a particular topic or community. For example, when you search #LNK in Twitter, it links you to people posting in Lincoln.

TweetDeck

A personal browser to connect a person with his or her contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more to show everything a person wants to see at once, so he or she can stay organized and up to date.