SpongeBob SquarePants on Facebook!!!

One of the brightest faces on TV tonight debuts on Facebook. The beloved and absorbent marine creature that is SpongeBob SquarePants will premiere a new episode on Facebook - a day before it airs on Nickelodeon.

The show has a new five-episode series that the network has dubbed "The Legends of Bikini Bottom." The first episode, titled "Trenchbillies," will be shown tonight on the blue-eyed sponge's Facebook page -- www.facebook.com/spongebob -- where the show has more than 16-million "fans."

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Facebook is Really Ticking Me Off

Earlier today I received the following notification from a friend on Facebook:

TAKE HEED: A new FB privacy setting called "Instant Personalization just went into effect. The new setting shares your data with non-FB sites and it is automatically set to "Enabled". Go to Account>Privacy Settings>Apps & Websites>Instant Personalization>edit settings & uncheck "Enable". If your friends don't do this, they will be sharing info about you as well. Please copy and repost.

Although I wasn't sure whether this warning was legitimate or not, I did check the settings and, sure enough, Facebook had enabled the setting that freely shares my personal information.

Of course, my next step was to disable it.

I am well aware that by signing up for Facebook I was required to accept the diatribe of legalese fineprint that allows them to, amongst other things, whore my personal information to anyone willing to pay.

BUT, if they're going to share my personal information (or that of my friends) Facebook should at least have the decency to be upfront about it, and not use stealth ambush tactics to weasel this info to others for a fee.

Of course, it's not difficult to figure out why Facebook is doing this. It's ultimately about money and increasing the parabolic curve of their revenue stream to boost the perceived value of their upcoming IPO. Mark Zuckerberg has ambitions of turning Facebook into a trillion dollar company , and the only way he can do this is by using any means possible to ramp up cash flow as quickly as possible so that the algorithms can hit their predetermined targets. Selling personal information of subscribers is an integral part of this strategy.

Facebook has very little in the way of tangible assets. It's only real asset is something it doesn't even own - namely an intangible called hype. It's this hype that gets people excited and willing to sign up.

For now I, like many others, will continue to use Facebook because despite how much it ticks us off it's still a relatively useful tool for things like networking. However I am also certain that once a better alternative appears Facebook accounts will be abandoned in droves - in much the same way that Myspace got obliterated once Facebook gained traction.

The right circumstances can and will vaporize Facebook - literally overnight.

But before that happens Zuckerberg and his handlers at Goldman Sachs will be savvy enough to cash in their chips, leaving investor chumps holding the bag. In layman terms it's called the pump and dump.

Disclosure: It's not the fall that's going to hurt you - just the sudden stop at the end.

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Using Social Media to Save Mary Lake

In yesterday's post entitled "Social Media is Just a Tool" I contented that services such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are merely helpful tools in terms of sales and marketing. In my opinion the marketing of high quality custom furniture requires more from the craftsperson to instill confidence in a potential client .

However, this is not to say that social media can't be powerfully effective in certain applications. Here's an excellent example of someone using these tools to effectively deliver a message by suggesting simple "things you can do" to help.




In British Columbia there's an 86-year-old man by the name of Bob McMinn who, despite his age, has gone to great lengths to learn and master social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube in an effort to save a piece of endangered forest around an area known as Mary Lake.



Bob's website is Save Mary Lake and the following Youtube video will explain what he's trying to do.




By simply donating $10 you can symbolically "adopt" a square metre of endangered forest (from a digital map provided on the website) to help Bob achieve his goal.

Without question what Bob McMinn is doing is inspirational beyond words, and his tireless efforts have not only convinced me to support what he's doing but also share his story with others.

At the end of the day it won't be Facebook, Twitter or Youtube that saves Mary Lake.

Bob McMinn will do that, and the social media sites will be his tools.

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Social Media is Just a Tool

Three days ago violent mobs overthrew the government of Tunisia. While many are quick to credit social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube for this sudden turn of events, the fact is that it was the people who overthrew the government - not social media. As far as I'm concerned Facebook, Twitter and Youtube were merely tools that helped mobilize disgruntled Tunisians to facilitate the outcome.

In my own little world of custom furniture making I have come to similar conclusions regarding the effectiveness of social media sites for marketing and sales. Over the past few years I have undertaken a number of digital initiatives including starting this blog, setting up a Facebook page, and signing on to Linkedin, Twitter and Youtube - in addition to maintaining a website that was started well over 10 years ago.

Given the considerable amount of time that's been invested in these efforts I've come to realize that, in the grand scheme of things, all of this marketing via social media is really little more than a means to an end. While this blog , or my Facebook page, or my Linkedin profile, or a clever tweet made on Twitter might catch someone's attention - at the end of the day it's going to take more than a digital presence for me to successfully sell my work to a potentially interested customer.

In this regard I feel that doing business today is in many ways no different than it was back in the days before Internet. Namely, somewhere along the way a potential client has to feel confident that I will deliver on my promises at a level that's going to meet or exceed their expectations.



This is something I've been trying to stress to my son Kevin as he prepares to participate in next week's Interior Design Show (IDS11). So far he's done an admirable job of creating his own Facebook page, Youtube site and Twitter feed . While these tools will help him tell others about who he is and what he can do, his success at this show will ultimately be determined by how he presents himself and instills in others the confidence of wanting to do business with him.



Nevertheless, I can be counted on to use social media tools in the coming week as I shamelessly promote Kevin and his abilities as a custom furniture maker.

Would you expect anything less from a Dad?

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It's New Year's Eve

It's New Year's Eve which means that today is the day of making resolutions a.k.a. lists of promises to ourselves for 2011.

For most people New Year's resolutions revolve around things like quitting smoking, exercising more, losing weight etc. Since I am not a smoker (aside from the occasional cigar) you can forget about that being on my list. More exercise? Yes, that will be there because I realize I need to be in better shape if I plan to be around a long time - which I do. Losing weight? Well, by default that's on my list as well, and now that Christmas is over I know that Teresa will be facilitating this (whether I like it or not) by not having snacks such as cookies around the house.

Beyond that I have a few other resolutions in mind. In my earlier post I talked about the book "Six Pixels of Separation" and how I intend to implement suggestions from that book into the marketing of my custom furniture work in the coming year. This will involve things like blogging more proficiently, and expanding my digital network further in areas such as Facebook, Linkedin, Zecozi, CustomMade, etc.

Part of the purpose for broading my network is, naturally, to help market what I do for a living - namely designing and making high quality custom furniture. But this is not my sole motivator.

Back in February 2007 a serendipitous chain of events brought me to the tiny village of Kykotsmovi on the Hopi reservation in northern Arizona. While there I was invited into the home of the eldest elder of the Hopi - a man by the name of Grandfather Martin Gashweseoma.

During this visit I was told many things, including how now is the time for all of us to be speaking our Truth. While I do feel I've been speaking my truth, I've also come to realize that I haven't been doing enough of it. And, so, as part of my resolutions for the upcoming year I vow to broaden my discussions to include more of this as well.

Best wishes to everyone for 2011 !

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MySpace - Facebook Link-Up.

The once dominant MySpace has turned to the company that stole its crown, Facebook, for help to drive users to its ailing site. The two launched Mashup with Facebook, to let MySpace users log in to their Facebook accounts through their MySpace page. This means users can port over their likes and interests listed on Facebook.

In turn users will get a stream of entertainment content based on these preferences. "We feel this is a complementary service to Facebook," said Mike Jones, MySpace chief executive. "This new feature is a great illustration of our strategy around social entertainment and enabling the real-time stream." MySpace is among more than a million websites letting Facebook members extend their social graph on the world's biggest social network to other parts of the web.

Facebook's vice-president of partnerships Dan Rose said the sharing of information was a strategy that "makes a lot of sense." "Sharing entertainment and music interests is part of many of our friendships, online and off. "MySpace is giving people an easy way to bring their favourite bands, celebrities and movies from Facebook to create a personalised experience on MySpace from the start," added Mr Rose.

Is this partnership an illustration that MySpace has conceded supremacy to Facebook?

Industry analyst Augie Ray of Forrester Research told BBC News there were gains for both companies with this deal. "People have come to think of MySpace in a certain way and while I don't think this deal will help them attract a lot of users it is necessary that those people on the site enjoy the MySpace experience and I think this helps. "This is also a good opportunity for Facebook to demonstrate that the information you have about yourself and about your friends belongs to you. In many respects this is about Facebook changing attitudes over ownership of data than anything else."

Adam Ostrow of social media news site Mashable.com said he believed the arrangement underlined who ruled this world. "It's official acknowledgement on the part of MySpace that Facebook has indeed become top dog in the social networking space, and its better to be with them than against them at this point." MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has an estimated 130 million users while Facebook has over 500 million.

Facebook's demise ?

And what of Facebook's future?

According to one internet expert, the world's biggest social network only has five years left before it starts to see users drift off the way they did with MySpace and rival social site Bebo.

At a marketing conference in Sydney, Australia, this week, Dr Jeffrey Cole claimed that Facebook would not fare any better at holding on to its audience than these sites have in recent years. Appearing at the same Ninemsn Digital Marketing Summit four years earlier, Dr Cole predicted the demise of MySpace. "The same thing will happen to Facebook but it's going to take a lot longer," said Dr Cole, a director of the World Internet project which tracks how the internet affects media consumption. "And it's not going to be replaced by one big social networking community but it's going to fragment."

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The Social Network Movie Opens at #01!!!!!

The most buzzed-about launch of the fall season, The Social Network met (but did not exceed) expectations with a $23-million start, while hard-R vampire thriller Let Me In proved to be a classic tweener: too bloody violent for upscale smart-house crowds and too European for mainstream gore-hounds.

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