How Facebook Tagged Me as a Copyright Violator

Pete Pachal 

I am a copyright violator, and Facebook knows it. At least, I was up until early this morning, when Facebook took action to enforce the copyright on the cover photo I had uploaded the day before.As a fan of the UK show Doctor Who, I was excited to see BBC America release a couple of preview photos from the program’s Christmas special, including a compelling picture of a couple of scary-looking snowmen — very Nightmare Before Christmas stuff. As with other notable pop culture events, I wanted to share my excitement on Facebook.The thing that provoked the strongest reaction was the photo itself, and it happened to be the perfect dimensions as my cover photo, I chose to use it there. What better way to share my enthusiasm for the show, and maybe convince a few Facebook users to check it out?The photo stayed put for the rest of the day I uploaded it. But when I woke up the next morning, it was gone.

I looked in the album of my cover photos. It was still there. I began to upload another photo and saw this message:

Pick a unique photo from your life to feature at the top of your timeline. Note: This space is not meant for banner ads or other promotions. Please don’t use content that is commercial, promotional, copyright-infringing or already in use on other people’s covers.

That message is the boilerplate that you see whenever your cover pic is empty. I don’t believe I saw this when Facebook first introduced Timeline. Indeed, Facebook’s Help page on cover photos doesn’t mention copyright at all.

It’s unlikely the BBC would take issue with the fact that I wanted to express my excitement about one of their shows to all my friends and followers. After all, this was a press photo — one that the channel distributes for the express purpose of getting in front of as many potential viewers as possible.

I also manage a Facebook Page, the one for Mashable Tech. When the Page has no cover photo, and you try to add one, you see a slightly different message:

Pick a unique photo to feature at the top of your Page timeline. Note: This space is not meant for promotions, coupons, or advertisements. Your cover photo should not be primarily text-based or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. Learn More about choosing a cover photo.

The difference in wording is subtle, but important. For any brand Page, it’s hard to imagine the a cover photo that isn’t at least a little bit “commercial” or “promotional.” But brands are given some leeway — a good thing for Mashable’s Tech page since we often upload photos of gadgets we recommend.

Individuals, apparently, aren’t granted such latitude.

I’m not taking serious issue with what Facebook is trying to do here, just the way in which they did it. Though the notion of a copyright violation in this case is ridiculous, I appreciate the spirit of what the policy upholds. If everyone were allowed to upload album covers or movie posters, Facebook cover photos (which are public and visible by anyone, whether they’re on Facebook or not) would become a massive, tacky catalog of pop culture, the digital equivalent of the Las Vegas Strip. Or worse, MySpace.

Still, I never got so much as a note from Facebook about what they did. The only clue as to what happened came after the fact. The company also took the unusual liberty of deleting the caption I wrote for the pic. Clearly, the process has room for improvement.

Has Facebook ever removed your cover photo? What did you upload, and how did you feel about the removal? Share your experiences in the comments.

courtesy of mashable.com

nikkivanwinkle.com

Looking For Tips On Social Media Marketing? Try These Great Ideas!

As a new business owner, managing your marketing budget can be a challenge. New business owners need to rely on novel techniques to reach their target audience like social media marketing. This approach offers high success rates combined with an affordable, attractive format. You can use these abilities and make them a part of your marketing plan.

Take advantage of the services that are available for managing your Twitter account. They offer a number of services. One typical service is automatic follow-back of people who choose to follow you. Another is automatic unfollow of users you have chosen to follow who do not return the compliment in a timely manner. Use these services to help manage lists and to help find the right people to interact with.

TIPS! Look for blogs that are related to the content that you put up. This helps you build an image of being an informed expert in your given topic.

Convert your email subscribers into Facebook friends. Most online marketers already possess a mailing list or they at least know where to get one. Use this resource by sending out a message to your email list with the link to your Facebook page. This way, your customers can easily find you online.

Social Media Marketing

Before you begin using social media marketing, develop a strategy. Consider page management, the layout of the page and the amount of time to be invested into it. Create a timeline that lays out when you expect to meet certain milestones in your campaign. Stick to your plan as firmly as you can, and you will find success in social media marketing.

TIPS! Always be wary of the things you say on your social media sites. It is possible to use social media blurbs in a legal arena, and if you say the wrong thing those words can turn into evidence against you.

When you place advertising on your social media pages, pay attention to the location of the ads on the page. You need to experiment with this to see which areas work best, but it’s worth the time spent!

Create a new blog entry as often as you can as well at regular intervals. If your content is updated frequently, the reader will know when you’re about to put up new content to check out when they return later. This is illustrated by the subscriptions that are made to newspapers and magazines. Being consistent is the best thing you can do to get visitors to return to your page.

Whenever anyone follows your Twitter profile, you be sure to follow theirs right back! Most Twitter users expect this courtesy. It will show that you have respect for your visitor and they are equal to you. Therefore, always make sure that any new followers are promptly acknowledged, and then follow them back. This increases the odds that they will stick with you.

TIPS! Add your website to your existing social media profiles. With the right kind of link buttons, visitors to your website can easily share interesting content with friends and family on social media profiles.

There are many popular social media sites, but there are smaller ones that were designed for a target audience. Learn about your target niche and learn what networks they follow.

Social Media

Read up on social media marketing. You may have a profile on Facebook already, but keep in mind that professional use of social media differs from personal use of these sites. Also, look on the Internet for pertinent advice from professionals in this field.

TIPS! Organize a Twitter party. This means you need to set a date and time where your audience will be using Twitter to chat about a specific topic using hashtags.

Before creating a Facebook page for your business, look at what similar businesses are doing. Through their page, you can get ideas about how to better approach and converse with people that could end up spending a lot of money on your products. After you have researched how others are doing, incorporate these ideas into your page along with a few new things to make your page interesting and unique.

If you show a username after the @ symbol, you can make sure that updates from important Twitter posters are shared. Alternatively you can also use this symbol to include their usernames in your tweets. Users are notified of your post; many will re-tweet the message and respond soon thereafter.

When you use Facebook or similar sites, you have to keep your profile updated frequently. Having a profile that is full of outdated content is likely to result in you losing a big chunk of your followers. This is why you should ensure you keep the content frequently updated.

TIPS! Different social media sites have different features, and you should take advantage of them all. A good way to do this is to use a postage time on Twitter to give them a permalink.

Measure your plan’s success. It is important to generate statistics of the activity produced and the number of followers gained on a weekly basis. Use the figures to identify what actions caused them to help you along the way. You are not going to know whether social media makes sense for you if you fail to track results.

With SMM, you do not have to spend time worrying about whether you will lose your last dime. You can focus your efforts on quality content, pictures and videos. By taking advantage of the many social media sites that are now available, you should be able to expand your customer base and grow your business.

Make sure to check us out often learn more about social media marketing tips Boynton Beach, South Florida area.
Here is some more explanations of aspects of internet marketing, seo aka search engine optimization, website design, etc that may help you! Thanks for visiting Targeted Internet Marketing! If it gets too technical just come on back.

5 TIPS ON HOW TO GET SOCIAL MEDIA SALES

The buzz for years in social media marketing was “do not sell” online using social media platforms. I think the people who advocate that philosophy simply do not want the competition! I have been successful in getting new clients through Facebook and Twitter. I have not gotten rich. But, it is a great source for leads, building relationships, and getting your foot in the door.

If you are a start-up business, you will have to bootstrap and/or keep your day job.  Building relationships takes time.   This is true for established businesses new to social media marketing as well.  As the late, great DC go-go musician Chuck Brown said:

“keep what you got, until you get want you want…keep what you got, until you get what you need.”

The key is to focus on people and not on dollars. The dollars will come eventually. Here are 5 tips:

1. Don’t bombard folks with sales pitches and discounts.

These posts are annoying!  I drop people from my network when they do this.  I am in a national women’s group and one of the members sent a slew of twitter and facebook posts about her business toolkit product.  It was the only thing she posted.   Her products were always discounted.  Each day, there was a special – how bizarre?

She did not converse with anyone.   She did not care about them.  She said she just wanted sales.  Well, she eventually closed her business.  She got no where with that approach.  She alienated people.  Later, she sent an email to all of the group’s members asking for their help to find a job.

2. Share helpful motivational and inspiring content.

I share:

• famous quotes that motivate and inspire
• articles I have “truly” read and enjoyed
• events I support
• daily affirmations that motivate and inspire
• success stories

The goal is to help others.  Be helpful!  Helping others needs to be at the forefront of your marketing strategy.  I have a business mentor – an 80 year old sales guy who is still in the game and doing well.  He told me years ago, “Clovia, to be successful, you have to truly, spiritually want to help others.”

All too often, folks open businesses for the wrong reason.  There #1 reason is to make money – to get rich.  Your #1 reason has to be to help others.  The money will come.  The money may come and go.  For example, the down economy resulted in a sales slump for many of us.  But, things will improve.  That’s been historically proven.

3. If you want deals, you have to ask.

Prospects aren’t likely to approach you.  You have to make clear, concise, relevant offers to help them.  The offers have to clearly articulate a problem they are likely facing; and that you have a solution.  You have to give them a visual of the pain; and a visual of what their life will be like when the pain is alleviated.

Painful situations include lack of income; lack of support staff; clutter; feeling overwhelmed; incompetence; non-compliance; lack of time to tackle projects; lack of action plans; and so forth!

Solutions include ways to increase sales; affordable ways to increase office support; ways to get things organized; training; compliance solutions; strategic plans; etc.

Make your sales pitches, but do so sparingly.  The general rule is that about 10% of your posts can be devoted to your “ask” – - without annoying the heck out of folks!  Most folks cannot calculate this because they are not tracking their posts.  You can use tools like Hootsuite to schedule your posts.  If you schedule 200 in a week, then 20 can be your offers and spread the 20 over 5 platforms.

4. Be discrete.

Photo via google images by freelanceswitch

Make offers using direct messaging.  Not every thought or idea needs to be public.  You can ask to meet or chat offline.  Again, the goal is to build relationships.

Another reason to be discrete is that your competition is lying in wait.  They want to read about who you are trying to win over – and what new customers you get.  Then they move in on you!  Don’t give them the satisfaction.

5. Reward your followers.

Offer discounts and reciprocate favors as rewards to folks that like your Facebook page; who follow you on Twitter and Pinterest; who join your Linkedin Group; or give you a Linkedin recommendation or endorsement.  Take care of the folks that engage with you.

Successful online marketing is measured by engagement.  You can see how you measure up by using tools like Edgerank Score and Klout.

Since engagement matters, reward folks that converse with you online.  Ask questions, and ask favors.  In return, reciprocate, and answer questions and do favors for them!

By Clovia Hamilton, President

Lemongrass Consulting, Inc.

15 Photo Blogging Tips From the Pros

nikki van winkle 

Aug 09, 2012

The web is teeming with beautiful photo blogs — it's not uncommon to find yourself scrolling for hours on Tumblr. But for photo bloggers, it can be hard to get your work to stand out or build an audience. Whether it's a DIY, fashion, bucket list or travel blog, excellent photos and a sharp interface are crucial if you want your blog to become a bookmarked destination.

Last week, we rounded up some stunning photo blogs. Now we've ask a few bloggers and photogs to sound off on tricks of the trade, what aspiring photo bloggers should know, and what makes a good photo.

Do you have a photo blog? What's your secret sauce? Tell us know in the comments below and be sure to link to your site.

What Makes for a Good Picture?

A photo from Bolivia by Tom Robinson Photography

"Something that evokes an emotion."
- Jamie Beck, From Me to You

"What makes for a good picture is really pretty simple: Keep your subject interesting, your technique sound and good pictures will follow. Great pictures however are a little more elusive and complex. For me, what makes a great picture is mood and surprise. I think great pictures teach people something new: about a person they thought they knew, a trend they thought they hated, a political movement they were once ambivalent about. Great photos do more than inspire, they can create real, tangible change. It's the hardest, most rewarding thing in the world when you can capture an idea in a photograph."
- James Nord, jamesnord.com

"The most important thing is light. Photography is all about capturing lightand beautiful photos are usually taken when the light is just right. Second to that I'd say composition is really important. As a photographer you should be very aware of what to leave in and out of the frame."
- Tom Robinson, Tom Robinson Photography

"For outfit posts or pictures of humans, the best time of day is what is called the "golden Hour," which is the last hour or two of sunlight in the day. You can pose with the sun slightly behind or to one side of you to make you "glow," which flatters every skin tone. For outfit shots, have the photographer bend their knees a bit so that the camera lens focuses on the center of the body, which won't make the head look too large. Conversely if they bend down too far, your feet will look huge and your head tiny! Lastly, think about composition. Every photographer's best friend is the rule of thirds. This applies less to outfit photos, but for landscapes, products, food etc. Divide your viewfinder into thirds (or ninths) and focus the main part of the image along the crosshairs that divide your thirds. Most cameras already have this feature, as it makes all photography more visually pleasing (and less generic!) to the eye."
- Stefanie Schoen, The Style Safari

"There are, of course, some technical aspects of good photos — good lighting, proper exposure, correct framing, etc., But good photos are the ones that are interesting, that go beyond the technical excellence of the photographer. Great photos make us stop in awe, make us forget for a second who we are and just connect with them, dissolve in the moment captured."
- Oleg Gutsol, 500px

"I don't know if I do it on purpose or not, but color tends to play a big role in my photography. I think it can help make a photo really strong, so I'd encourage budding photographers to think about that."
- Tom Robinson, Tom Robinson Photography

What Aspiring Shutterbugs Should Keep in Mind

A From Me to You cinemagraph created by Jamie Beck

"One of the most important things I learned after several seasons is to not be too analytical. The more you question whether a subject is photo-worthy, your moment will be lost, and you'll be kicking yourself for not taking the photo. That's kind of how I developed my style of photography, and I just click away. You're not going to stand out if you replicate what others are doing. You have to organically find your way, and that's how you challenge yourself and train your eye. Following your gut instinct is very important as well. Blogging will not bring you fame. Do it because you truly love to express yourself and use it as an outlet. Your voice will be genuinely heard if you dedicate passion into your blog."
- Tommy Ton, Jak and Jil

"Taking good photos takes dedication. On some of the trips, we had to get up at 4 a.m. to be on location at sunrise, and we did this for a couple of weeks. It's exhausting, but so rewarding once you go back and go through the photos."
- Oleg Gutsol, 500px

A photo by Tommy Ton of Jak & Jil

"Shoot what you love. Shoot what you most want to shoot that way you'll be hired later to do what you love. For blogging, do it as much as you possibly can and know that it will be the hardest work you will ever do. Know how to edit so that you understand all the possibilities available to you so that you can explore your own vision. Taking the image is the first step, editing is a very important second."
- Jamie Beck, From Me to You

SEE ALSO: Which DSLR Camera Is Right for You?

"I fully believe that if you want to have a successful blog with powerful pictures, you need to invest in a DSLR camera and one or two great lenses. Yes, an iPhone camera is good, but it will never get you the lighting and depth of focus that you really need to be successful. I use a Nikon D5100. Nikon's produce slightly sharper images than Canons, which means you can see pores and wrinkles in portraits. But, if you're blogging about food, travel or anything else, you may want a Nikon. For outfit photos and close up shots of food and products, all the big bloggers use 50mm or 30mm fixed lenses to give the depth of focus that makes everything look that much better!"
- Stefanie Schoen, The Style Safari

"Try pairing unusual things — like Alaia sandals and a can of Spam."
- Leandra Medine, The Man Repeller

A Few Tricks of the Trade

A photo by James Nord

"I use Adobe Lightroom to edit my photos, which is absolutely brilliant — can't recommend it enough. Remember though that it's easy to go overboard with the editing — the photo should still look natural. It's also really important to be extremely critical of your own work. It's much better to only post a few great photos, rather than a lot of average photos. Even if the great photos are in there, the lesser shots will drag them down. When designing your site, you should also make sure your images appear quite large, so they have good impact on the page. If you're using thumbnails, don't make them too small."
- Tom Robinson, Tom Robinson Photography

"I have used iPhoto to edit my photos, but I find that nothing truly competes with having Photoshop. However, lots of bloggers use Photoshop Elements, which is significantly cheaper, or Flickr or Picasa to edit their photos. When you're editing photos, you must make your images smaller. Otherwise your photos will take a very long time to upload to your blog, and an even longer time for your readers to load the page."
- Stefanie Schoen, The Style Safari

"When it comes to blogging, consistency, good photos and the ability to tell interesting stories is key, so describe your photos and help your readers understand what the story behind the photograph is. Get good at photo editing, and know the software and techniques. Constantly improve your skill as a photographer. In general, the more photos you take, the better you become."
- Oleg Gutsol, 500px

"My tips to anyone looking to try and curate their own little room of the Internet are simple: Brand your work. Create something original and unique so that no matter where people see your work be it a picture, poem, piece of prose or painting they will know it's yours. Do that and then just keep at it, great content will eventually get noticed. The Internet is more egalitarian than we give it credit for."
- James Nord, jamesnord.com

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, AleksandarNakic

courtesy of mashable.com

The Most Powerful Facebook Mobile Ad Feature Most Marketers Don’t Know About Yet

Rob Leathern, CEO of Optimal, Inc

In September 2012 Facebook announced a new targeting option called “Custom Audiences,” which it mentioned in its earnings release but which not enough marketers and very few Wall Street analysts appear to understand. It lets marketers target their existing customers by doing a match with hashed versions of their opt-in email addresses. “Hashing” allows one to provide an encoded version of the email address that’s easy to match against when someone else is using the same hashing function, but it’s difficult to unencode to get the initial email address. To get started, one simply uploads the hashed list(s) via a Facebook Ads API partner or Facebook’s Power Editor.

The Opportunity: As most marketers know, emailing customers or prospects has a high opportunity cost — a non-relevant email will either get consigned to the spam bin or worse, the user clicks the ‘unsubscribe’ button. Custom Audiences instead allows marketers to show a more relevant Facebook ad to a customer, in a spot they would have seen another ad anyway. And just as with email, creating multiple sub-segments of the user base allows targeted offer delivery to specific groups instead of a “one size fits all” message.

The Confusion: Facebook launched a lot of new ad products in 2012, and with it came the usual confusion that comes from groundbreaking new advances. Custom Audiences launched around the same time as the Facebook Exchange (FBX), with much less press and fanfare, and it is thus unsurprising that many advertisers might have missed this product or are confused about how it works. In the earnings transcript, Sheryl Sandberg said ”We frequently see a match rate over 50 percent and sometimes as high as 95 percent, which we believe to be much higher than industry norms.” No serious marketer should enter 2013 without knowing about Custom Audiences.

Facebook Exchange (FBX) vs. Custom Audiences: FBX is cookie-based retargeting — the advertiser places a pixel from one of Facebook’s FBX partners on a website, Facebook alerts the partner that a cookied user is about to see an ad. The partner then bids for that impression. If they win the impression, they track the amount paid for the ad. Not that different from Google’s AdX exchange (except for more price transparency since it is visible in the marketer’s own Facebook ad account) — but there’s no ability to combine this targeting with any of Facebook’s targeting, nor the ability to access anything other than desktop “right-rail” Facebook marketplace ad inventory.

Custom Audiences, however, creates a segment in the marketer’s Facebook ads account that works like “Broad Category” targeting: a target “bucket” that can be combined with other targeting to hone in on a specific defined group. What’s powerful about Custom Audiences (that is currently unavailable with FBX) is that (1) the marketer can combine its first-party targeting with any other Facebook targeting and (2) the marketer can harness any and all of Facebook’s native ad types! They could, for example, show ads to only their female customers, or those that are not yet fans of their Facebook page, etc. And they can therefore enable…

Instant mobile ads to existing customers: The advertiser can upload their hashed email list and create an ad campaign to show to Facebook’s mobile newsfeed only, likely in less than an hour. Mobile newsfeed ads have very high response rates, and no longer need to be Sponsored Stories only, as they were initially. Marketers can now promote a page post ad that includes a large photo, text and a link that could take up the full screen on a mobile device on a cost per click basis. Mobile advertising on Facebook has scale, high response rates and very importantly, instant relevance for marketers since they can microtarget existing customers instantly. Of course Facebook ad creation is simple too — no weirdly-sized image banners to have a designer create.

For retailers reactivating past purchasers, financial services companies trying to turn (actual) customers into fans (like this case study for a large financial services company), or publishers getting high-value users to install their branded iOS or Android apps (and also combining device- or mobile OS-specific targeting), the Facebook Custom Audiences plus mobile combination will no doubt be a very important way for many marketers to start communicating their their existing customers on mobile in 2013.

 courtesy of huffingtonpost.com

Follow Rob Leathern on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robleathern

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nikki van winkle