In fact, using a Facebook profile for anything other than an individual person is a direct violation of Facebook’s terms of service, and can result in it being deleted without warning from the system.

Unfortunately many businesses in the [...]]]> As most people are now aware,  Facebook profiles are meant for individuals, and Pages for organisations, brands, businesses etc.

In fact, using a Facebook profile for anything other than an individual person is a direct violation of Facebook’s terms of service, and can result in it being deleted without warning from the system.

Unfortunately many businesses in the past have ignored this, setting up profiles rather than pages. And until recently, Facebook did not provide a mechanism to convert from one to the other and move a network of followers.

However help is now at hand as Facebook has opened up a migration path (see Facebook Help) which will transfer the profile pictures and add all profile friends and subscribers as people who like your page.

No other content is transferred, so any other important content within the FB profile e.g. messages, photo albums should be downloaded from the profile before the migration process is started, and then manually added in to the page.

If you are one of those businesses still using a profile on Facebook, then now’s the time to plan the move to a FB Page. The benefits of using a Page are huge as it offers a wide range of features and facilities to help you promote your brand.

A Facebook Page is an important internet marketing asset for many businesses. Give Andy at WSI Chester a call on 01928 787026 to learn more about how Facebook could help your business.

When originally launched in the summer, Google quickly asked businesses not to implement personal profiles for their brands, but to wait for branded pages.

The new Google+ brand pages look similar to regular Google+ personal Profiles. Users [...]]]> Google+ has finally launched brand pages, which finally allow brands and businesses generally to join the rapidly growing Google social network.

When originally launched in the summer, Google quickly asked businesses not to implement personal profiles for their brands, but to wait for branded pages.

The new Google+ brand pages look similar to regular Google+ personal Profiles. Users can connect to brands by adding them to their circles, which in turn increases the brand’s count of followers.

However there is little research on how much this is actually taking place in the jobs market, and importantly what are the things in social profiles which can make or break an application.

Recently, the social media [...]]]> There are many stories about candidates winning jobs or being rejected based upon what the recruiting company found on the internet.

However there is little research on how much this is actually taking place in the jobs market, and importantly what are the things in social profiles which can make or break an application.

Recently, the social media monitoring company Reppler surveyed 300 professionals involved in recruitment to understand how they used social media when screening candidates. The results were elegantly summarised in the infographic below:

There were three very important action points to take away from this work for anyone in the jobs market:

1.  Recruiters will look at your social media profiles as part of their screening. So it is vital to manage your online image.

2. Recruiters are trying to use social media to get a view of the personality of a candidate, and so Twitter and Facebook profiles and activity are probably more important for this than LinkedIn.

3. Use of social media is happening very early in the screening process, so candidate should get control of their online presence before applying for jobs.

However this also underlines how important it is for everyone to build up and manage their online personal reputation using the social media.

If you would like assistance and guidance on using the social media to build and maintain your online reputation, why not call Andy at WSI Chester today.

This spotlights highlight the area of potential conflict between businesses encouraging employees to use public social networking websites for work [...]]]> There was an interesting case in the High Court this week (article link) where a former employee of Hays, a recruitment company, was ordered to ‘hand over’ his LinkedIn business contacts built up while employed by them.

This spotlights highlight the area of potential conflict between businesses encouraging employees to use public social networking websites for work but then claiming that those contacts should remain confidential information at the end of their employment.

It also perhaps illustrates the challenges of deciding who you ought to connect with. For most LinkedIn users who only link to personally known contacts, then the impact of this ruling is likely to be minimal. But where companies use LinkedIn as a prospecting and client management tool, then there is the potential for this conflict to arise.

As a spokesperson for LinkedIn stated, “It is important that customers abide by their current employment contract and ensure that they have the right to use the information provided.”

The onus is therefore on employers to ensure that their employment contracts clearly cover social network use and ownership of data obtained during employment, and that their employees understand their obligations.

There is nothing new in this High Court ruling, they have just confirmed that existing confidentiality legislation extends to data held in social network accounts as well as internal databases.

For further help and guidance on how to use LinkedIn within your business, contact Andy at WSI Chester, 01928 787026.

Facebook Edgerank is the answer. It is the algorithm that Facebook uses to decide what appears in each users’ news [...]]]> Do you wonder why updates from some of your friends are always in your Facebook news feed and yet others never appear? What about news from those Facebook business pages you are following? Why doesn’t that show?

Facebook Edgerank is the answer. It is the algorithm that Facebook uses to decide what appears in each users’ news feed. Its objective is to determine which of your connections is most important to you, and what type of content you prefer.

Firstly, why is it called Edgerank? In ‘Facebook-speak’, every piece of content is known as an ‘Edge’. So all the following are ‘Edges’ – status updates, likes, photo uploads, relationship change. Anything interaction you have with Facebook that creates some content is an Edge.

Your news feed therefore lists the most important Edges according to the Edgerank rules. And this is largely governed by three factors – Affinity, Edge Weight and Recency. Once we look at each of these in turn, then it will become clear why some Facebook friends are always ‘in the news’ and others strangely absent.

Affinity – as the name implies, this is a measure of how friendly you are with someone within Facebook. For example if you comment on a photo or leave a message, then Facebook will start to detect that ‘affinity’ and begin to re-order the results. ‘Stalk’ a distant friend for a few days and you’ll find them appearing regularly in your news feed.

Edge Weight – this means all Edges are not treated equally, some will have a greater impact. Its understood photos, videos and links currently carry the most Edge Weight. However this will be modified by an individual user’s preference e.g. if you regularly watch videos then these are more likely to appear in your feed.

Recency – the Edge Rank of any element will reduce or decay over time, so that your news feed will always tend to show the most recent content and updates.

Hopefully that sheds a bit more light on how Facebook decides what you see, and why you are influencing what you see every time you do something in Facebook.

And for businesses interested in marketing on Facebook, then the messages are clear. Your marketing must encourage your followers to interact with your Page on a regular basis to gain that Affinity, and choose the timing and content of your posts carefully to maximise Edgerank.

If you’d like to learn more about Facebook Edgerank, the video below goes in to a lot more detail.