I have been complaining for a while now about how Facebook’s iPhone application really sucks. You can’t update pages with it, can’t upload video, can’t change profile picture, can’t become a fan on a page, can’t upload camera photos to an album other than mobile uploads, and the list goes on. Well, Facebook has listened to the criticism of their crappy iPhone app, and if what they say is true, it’s going to blow away its previous verions. Here is a laundry list of new features from their Facebook page:

- See your upcoming Events and RSVP
- See your friends’ birthdays
- See Pages and post updates and photos to Pages you administer
- Write Notes and read your friends’ Notes
- Upload videos from an iPhone 3GS
- Upload photos to any album
- Complete photo management (create albums, delete albums, delete photos, delete photo tags)
- Change your Profile Picture
- Zoom into photos
- Like posts and photos
- See the same News Feed as the Facebook website
- Visit links in a built-in web browser
- See all of your friends’ friends and Pages
- See mutual friends
- Easily search for people and Pages
- Make friend requests
- Become a fan of Pages
- Quickly call or text your friends
- Create shortcuts to your favorite friends and Pages
- Friends sorted by first or last name according to your settings
- Chat friends sorted alphabeticaly

Will it include all of this stuff? And the better question, will it all work seamlessly at launch of the new application? Only time will tell. You’d think that a company with 250 million users would have enough personnel to churn out an application like this like a YEAR ago, but beggars can’t be choosers.

The social media news wire was on fire today, as Facebook and Google both announced big news today. Facebook acquired Friendfeed for $50 million dollars, announced a real-time search engine feature, and Google announced that a new version of their search engine will be rolled out soon, and my guess is that it will include faster indexing, so it feels like real-time searches of content.

Facebook acquires Friendfeed

I had a Friendfeed account, but I never used it. It was mostly a tricked-out status updater, but the one nice thing it had was a real-time search engine that far surpassed Twitter’s search engine in terms of functionality and features. However, it wasn’t near as valuable, because it didn’t have the content volume of Twitter. Add Facebook’s 250 million users and all of their content, now you’ve got something. So, it was only natural for Facebook to immediately announce a real-time search engine, because they will take Friendfeeds and make it their own with a few modifications to integrate with better with the Facebook infrastructure. I think this will be a good acquisition for Facebook, and it will position them as more of a leader in the social media world of heavyweights.

Google’s New Search Engine

It’s not a coincidence that Google announces their new and improved search engine the same day that Facebook announces their real-time search engine and acquisition of Friendfeed. According to the Mashable article, they believe it is faster, more reliable, and finds performs more real-time searches.

To test the new versions: GO HERE

Here’s another article from Mashable comparing the new Facebook search engine to the new Google search engine.

They call it the new “search war”, but I really don’t think anyone can go to war with Google on searching. Facebook has been behind in terms of technology in the past, so for them to hit a homerun this quickly makes me a little skeptical. Only time will tell.

After experimenting heavily with Facebook and Twitter marketing, I now have pinpointed which social media outlets to use based on the product/service and the situation. This is what I have found out so far.

Starting and Holding Meaningful Conversations

Winner: Facebook

Are you looking to get feedback about your business? Do you want to interact and start discussions with prior and current customers? Facebook is the best medium. No matter how many platforms there are to organize Twitter, I have such a hard time keeping up with all of it, plus I am not constantly staring at my @replies the entire day, so it’s tough to go back and forth with conversation. Facebook’s commenting features that work like a comment thread on a blog are great for holding conversations, because it’s easy to keep track of, you don’t want to make your statement with only 140 characters, and Facebook is good about alerting you when someone replies to you.

News And Information About Your Industry

Winner: Twitter

Twitter does a great job at giving you real-time information and news regarding any subject matter you want to keep up with. All you need to do is identify the quality twitter accounts that can deliver this information to you. Then, you can choose what to read, when to read it, and so on. Facebook’s platform is not good for consuming massive amounts of information and finding new article recommendations from trusted sources.

Reaching Out To Young People

Winner: Facebook

The Guardian and others have written about why teens aren’t on Twitter. It’s true, the majority of them haven’t embraced Twitter. They are more into Facebook, because they feel more like a community, they can choose who they are friends with, and they can control who sees their updates and photos. With Twitter, anyone can follow you and start reading your stuff. Sure, you can block them, but that’s Twitter suicide if you block everyone.

Building Brand Awareness:

Winner: Facebook And Twitter

This is why both should be part of your social media marketing campaign. Both allow you to tap into a different market segment and demographic. Both give your brand more exposure and allow people to learn more about your company and recognize the logo. Both require interaction on your part. You can’t be one-sided and pump out marketing information. The strategy I like when using Twitter is to send Tweets that could be valuable to your followers. Send out valuable links from blogs and news sources other than your own. Give out a tip or trick pertaining to the industry you are in. Ask questions that don’t require long answers. Think of Twitter as a sophisticated information stream. Then, use Facebook to connect more intimately with your customers or potential customers.

I have been so pissed off at social media lately. Every social media outlet eventually becomes a cesspool of advertisements and get-rich-quick schemes. Why do humans always make an effort to destroy good things? Twitter needs help, or it will die quickly. Tomorrow, I will post my grievances toward Facebook and Twitter. But for those of you who actually care about social media and don’t intend on abusing it, here are some tips to help bring value to your social media contributions.

Post Relevant Content

Whether it’s your blog, facebook stream, twitter stream, friendfeed, youtube, or social bookmarking account, make sure that what you post is relevant and interesting to others. People follow you for four different reasons: they are your friend, family member, co-worker, or because you are an expert in your field. Ask yourself this questions before you post a link, video, or article: “Will my audience find this interesting and/or entertaining?” Post content that you are passionate about, because you most likely have a group of friends who are passionate about that, too.

Stop Updating So Much

Honestly, put Tweet Deck away. I follow hundreds of people that I follow, and I must use user lists to filter the people that I want to read on Twitter, because there are a handful of people that I follow that post every 2 minutes, literally. And it’s not even a batch of automated tweets. These are real tweets from ADDICTS. Maybe I am just jealous because you somehow find a way to update social media more often than me, but just take a minute to realize that Twitter and Facebook are not a stream of consciousness.

Engage In Conversation

It’s called SOCIAL media, but the social part is often forgotten by people who just want to advertise themselves and their products. I think that social media is a great way to market a brand or product, but it’s not effective if it’s annoying and one-sided. Use social media to meet new people and engage in meaningful conversations. Large corporations are finding that outlets such as Facebook and Twitter far better marketing tools for existing customers rather than attracting new customers. This is because social media gives corporations a quick, easy, and free way to communicate with customers and get their feedback about a product or service.

Go through your last 100 tweets and count how many were @replies. It might surprise you.

Don’t Be a Jerk

I still can’t believe that many people haven’t realized that your social media presence directly correlates with your reputation in the “real world”. Before you write anything, remember that anyone and everyone has the ability to find it and read it. I love discussions and debates on Facebook about political and social issues, but I don’t ever write anything that would make me sound like a 10 year old. I also don’t bully people or blatantly make fun of them (other than old buddies that know I am joking around). It’s so much easier to be bolder on the internet than it is face-to-face with someone. Make sure you choose your words carefully and no one likes a jerk on social media.

Are You A Giver?

With social media, we tend to fall into the mentality that everyone should want to comment on our blog or status updates. Everyone should want to re-tweet our tweets or post a link of my article to their Twitter stream. But what have you done for them lately? Are you participating in their social media lives? Remember, you must always give in order to receive.

Do all of these things, and you won’t have to read a 100 different articles about how to increase your following on Twitter or Facebook. You’ll naturally gain a following that is interested in your life and what you are passionate about. You’ll also build your personal brand, build contacts for potential job offers, and gain leads to clients for your small business. Social media is like anything else in life, use it the way it was intended to be used, and you’ll be the most benefit out of it.

photo credit: szlea

My most recent job that I found was on Craigslist, but I met several people in the Orlando area connected in the social media marketing industry through Twitter beforehand. They helped me navigate through my decision to take the position. I spend hours upon hours tryig to convince people like my wife, friends, and family that Twitter isn’t just an application to check out what Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton are doing. It has endless ways to be utilized, and finding a job or networking with people to help you find a job are just a few of Twitter’s capabilities.

Sign up for a Twitter account if you don’t already have one.

Use your full name or first initial and last name if possible. If you have a really common name, get creative, but try to incorporate as much of your full name as possible. Just make sure it’s a semi-professional username. Remember, potential employers might be looking at your profile. You don’t want to be @xboxstud or @barbiedoll69.

Download a free Twitter management desktop application.

There are a lot of great applications out there to manage your Twitter account, but I like Tweet Deck and Seesmic the most. You can use whatever you want, but I have found that these two have the most features. Also, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, download a Twitter mobile application. Tweet Deck for iPhone is currently free, and most people use Twitter Berry for the Blackberry.

Start tweeting about your job hunt.

Be very specific, because recruiters and employers could be searching for certain keywords. Don’t just tweet, “looking for a new job”. Say something like, “just got done revising my resume in social media and internet marketing”. Describe your skills, and tweet about anything you are currently doing that has to do with your desired profession.

Start Searching For Keywords and Hash Tags

Use your desktop application to run searches for certain keywords and hash tags related to the industry you are looking to land a job. You can look up pre-defined hash tags at Hashtags.org. You can run real-time searches with Tweet Deck and Seesmic or at Search Twitter. Start following anyone that is tweeting something interesting about the keywords you are following.

Be Interactive

If you are only creating new tweets and reading other tweets, you are being one-dimensional. Social media is called “social” because it encourages conversation and community. People that only view facebook profiles and read twitter profiles are not engaging in social media. They are just reading conversations. Participation is key. Make friends, and reply to tweets. Re-tweet something really interesting from someone you are following. Use a direct message only after you have already struck up a conversation with someone.

You may not find your next job on Twitter, but you could meet the person who helps you get your next job. The job market is tough right now, so stop wasting time on Twitter, and start putting it to good use.

In the world of social networking, we are bombarded with hundreds of links to interesting articles around the web from various different sources. Twitter and Facebook have become extremely popular for posting links that bring value to one’s fans and followers. I am a total sucker for clicking on a link and getting wrapped up in an interesting article or website. Before I know it, I’ve spent a half an hour reading web articles when I should have been doing other stuff during the middle of the day. I’ve known about Instapaper for quite a while now, but I never gave it a chance until my best friend explained to me how he uses it. Instapaper is a simple, yet effective bookmarking tool that is used best for bookmarking web articles to read later. What I like about it is that it doesn’t require a tagging system or anything else that takes too much time to set up. You just tap on its bookmarklet, it saves the link to the article, and keeps the links stored on the web for you to check out later.

For Web Surfers

If you are a blogger, freelancer, or anyone else that spends a lot of time in front of a computer throughout the day, you know how easy it is to get caught up in an interesting article. Here’s what you need to do to set it up:

1. Visit Instapaper’s website, and sign up for an account. You don’t even need to use a password if you are sick of remembering passwords, and who cares if someone hacks into it. It’s just virtual paper!



2. Drag the “Read Later” icon into your Firefox or Safari bookmark bar.
3. When you follow a link to an article but realize that it’s a lengthy article and you don’t have time for it, click on the “Read Later” bookmark and Instapaper will save

For iPhone Users

1. Follow Step 1 Above
2. Download and install the Instapaper iPhone App from iTunes. Search, “instapaper” from your iPhone while in the “App Store” app on your iPhone.
3. Save the Instapaper bookmarklet in your Safari or Firefox bookmarks, then sync your iPhone bookmarks with your browser bookmarks.

How I Use Instapaper

When I stumble across an article from a link on my Twitter or Facebook stream, I bookmark it using Instapaper. When I have some free time later in the day or week, I open up my Instapaper iPhone app, and I have dozens of articles to read at my leisure. Here are some good times to get reading done without invading in your work time:

• While you are on the toilet
• While you are waiting in a long line
• While you are waiting in the doctor’s office
• While you are at the gym doing a cardio workout
• While you are walking your dog
• While you are eating lunch by yourself

Don’t let social media be a distraction in your life. It should complement your life, not consume it. Being efficient with social media is an effective and efficient way to utilize its benefits.