In order to save you some time and effort today, here are some quick hits from around the world of social media…

Facebook has just announced that it will be rolling out a location-based feature called Places, which is similar to Foursquare and Gowalla.

Frank Ryan, former celebrity plastic surgeon, was tweeting from his cell phone when he accidentally ran his car over a cliff in Malibu, CA.

In an increasingly technological society, it’s important to make sure that your name is available when you need it.

An eMarketer project estimates that advertisers will spend over a billion dollars on social media advertising before the end of the year.

If you’re a social media manager, there are a few things that you should probably be eating for breakfast.

Sometimes businesses launch social media campaigns and need to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

The illusion that social media measurement is too “out there” is spreading like wildfire. Check out these three free tools to use.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by Jan Willem Geertsma

We all want it–the opportunity to give less to a task or progress and to see results that can only come if we give 110%. No one would mind giving less sweat or hard work every now and then and still seeing the results unchanged.

What you think might be a delusional fantasy can actually be a reality, including when you’re working on your various social media marketing tactics. Yes, you can give less effort with the results, and profit, remaining unchanged.

It’s easy–get a team.

“Teamwork can make the dream work.” – John Maxwell

How many times have you thought that doing your job, and the job of everyone else, was too tough. In reality it probably is but that doesn’t mean you need to shoulder all of the burden.

When it comes to producing high quality results, the efforts of individuals are futile. The real action comes with teams of cohesive and highly functional people who are set on achieving a goal.

Charles Lindbergh didn’t fly across the Atlantic on his own; he had countless hours of consulting and navigators who showed him the way. Michael Jordan could never have been the greatest basketball player to set foot on an NBA court if he didn’t surround himself with team players like Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and Phil Jackson.

Believe it or not, your success as the social media manager of a big business or Twitter account manager of a mom-and-pop grocery store hinges on working with a team of people who are dedicated to striving for success.

Your dreams and the goals of the company depend on teamwork.

Dissecting the Fundamentals of Teamwork

When working on a team, there are a few things that need to happen in order to spark success. Two, three, or eight people can’t just wear shirts with the same logo and call themselves a team. Critical changes need to take place before success starts pouring in.

Ego Adjustment – All members of the team must adjust their egos in order to work well with one another. A humble approach to every situation is a great quality of a team. If a member of a team feels more entitled than the other members, nothing good can come of working together. You can’t expect to hand off a Twitter or Facebook task and think that the person needs to do it your way. That’s not how it works. Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about the team and the end goal.

Free Thinking Environment – One of the best aspects of working on a team is the fact that nothing is off limits. No idea is stupid and everyone goes. Some of the best ideas come when nothing is ruled out. When working on a team, you must be open to new ideas and ideas that might now sound good at first. Have you written off SEO or Google Analytics? Don’t. Not a big fan of Twitter? Don’t exclude it from your ideas. No member of the team can judge another based on an idea because the ultimate purpose of the team is to achieve success, not cut others down.

Shared Workload – One of the primary reasons teams don’t work is because of an unequal distribution of work. In a team environment, one person cannot do more than the others. This will generate feelings of bitterness and resentment, which will poison the team. Don’t overburden others when you’re reaching out to them for help with social media management. If you’re the team lead, make sure that you shoulder most of the tasks.

Higher Desire – The most critical aspect of working in a team is the mentality of every individual. Each person needs to know that they are working toward a greater good or goal and not for personal gain. Yes, personal gain may be a result of working well in a team environment, such as a promotion, but it isn’t the sole reason for joining together with others. Everyone must be clear on your goals and dreams for your social media campaign and they must work toward that each day or you’ll be coming up empty.

Dispelling Your Doubts

Working with teams can create a lot of doubt. Heck, even setting up teams can cause tension, fear, and anxiety for everyone involved. You might even be thinking to yourself, “Eric, my company doesn’t have the resources to put more than one person on the social media team. We’re just not that big.” Sure, your company may not be able to assign anyone else the duty of managing Twitter and Facebook but that shouldn’t stop you from forming a team.

People fear teams because people fear open communication. With teams you need to be honest and you need to work together in a timely manner to produce a desired product or achieve a goal. This requires good communication and people fear communicating. Although communication can be scary, the end result is worth the effort. Remember, think big picture, not “me” picture.

If your company is like most, they don’t have the resources to have a big social media marketing team. They don’t need one. Instead, pull from the resources and connections you have already established. Do you maintain a blog? Could someone else write a post every other week to free you up to do something else? Do you schedule tweets in HootSuite or TweetDeck? Could someone else create the document of all the tweet you’ll send and you can put them in the application? Simple, little tasks can help facilitate a team. Not every member needs a title. If someone else can do something for you, they are part of your team.

Today’s Action Steps

Teamwork is the only way to success. History shows us that nothing great is ever accomplished by one person; instead, a team is needed to pull everything together and produce excellent results. To get you started on forming or managing your social media team, here are some action steps:

- Brainstorm at least 10 ways that other people in your business can help you manage your social media profiles more effectively? Start by thinking of their talents and areas or interest and then move to the skills they want to develop.
- Reach out to one person on your list and see if they’d be willing to partner with you in your efforts. Stay excited and see where the conversation goes.
- Pick up a copy of John Maxwell’s Teamwork 101. It’s a powerful read for anyone who is on a team or leading a team.
- Share this article with other people who can begin to produce the same results, or even better, with less effort.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on teamwork and hear any success stories or tips you may have. Feel free to leave a comment below or email me.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by lumaxart

A lot of things happened in the social media world this week and here are a few of the highlights:

Twitter Debuts its own Twitter Button – The ability to tweet and article or follow a business directly from the web isn’t a new concept but Twitter has finally released its official version of the tweet/follow button. Before Twitter was on the scene, most tweeting and following happened via TweetMeMe, a service that came to dominate the niche market. With the development of the official Twitter button, TweetMeMe is taking on a different role. Instead of directly competing with Twitter, they are striking up a partnership. TweetMeMe will offer technical support for Twitter and will link their tool to the official Twitter button.

I think the release of the official Twitter button is interesting to say the least. Although I think its good that Twitter is becoming more involved with user decision making, I have a few concerns. First, is this one of many moves to attempt dominating all things Twitter? What’s next? Also, the partnership between Twitter and TweetMeMe doesn’t seem right to me. I don’t know what is going on in the executive offices but I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this.

Delta Airlines Launches Ticket Sales Through Facebook – Delta has launched a ticket window for users of its Facebook application, allowing fans to purchase flights and share the information with friends. Delta is the first in the industry to have a booking application that keeps its users on Facebook and does not route them to a secure website. The ticket window has become popular since its debut and is even having trouble handling the load of people experimenting with booking flights. Its unclear as to how popular the tool will become in the distant future but for now, Delta is the king of airlines on Facebook.

This is a major step in innovation for the airline industry and any other online retailer. Since businesses can see that its possible to keep Facebook fans on the site while ordering, look for more retailers to move in the same direction. Its won’t be long before business giants Barnes and Noble or Wal-Mart give users access to check inventory and order via a Facebook application. This innovation only makes it easier for the customer to get things done efficiently and in a timely manner.

MySpace Relaunches User Homepage – Earlier this week MySpace redesigned its user homepage, the page where users are directed once they sign in. The once-so-popular social media company is hoping that the redesign will allow users to experience more with greater ease. The new site consists of a stream of information and gives users application and displays things like birthdays and recommendations.

Basically, MySpace just developed its page to look exactly like the Facebook homepage. Although I think its time for MySpace to join the rest of the world again, I think that this was a bad move. This doesn’t show anyone that MySpace is innovative or catering towards its users. They simply wanted to create a site that looked similar to Facebook to attract more people. MySpace better be careful because if they keep trying to play catch up and don’t show up, they won’t be around for much longer.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by spanishwor

Facebook hasn’t always been good about letting users know of coming changes. But they have been talking about the resizing of custom landing tabs in October 2009.

Well now it’s time to get your stuff together because the changes are coming August 23. Here is Facebook’s official announcement.

Facebook is saying that they will launch a new 520 pixel canvas size for all applications hosted as custom tabs.

What is changing

In essence you will have 31% less space to work with on your your custom pages. The most common custom landing tabs are FBML (Facebook Markup Language) pages that have been customized for your fan page. These have allowed companies to display full graphics, videos and links to their fans and visitors.

Until now all Facebook fan page custom tabs had have been 760 pixels wide. The vertical dimensions of the custom tabs has been unlimited.  This total area is referred to as the canvas size.

Remember – this change will only affect custom landing tabs in Facebook. It does not effect applications which are not hosted as custom tabs. Starting August 23, any customizations will have to fit within a width of 520 pixels. Canvas space is shrinking and depending on the complexity of your design, this may require time to redevelop your applications code.

How to fix your customer FBML landing tab

While Facebook is automatically resizing the canvas area – don’t expect them to automatically resize your content.  Your graphics, text and other elements will look like they are running off the page unless you update the code.

To resize your Facebook custom landing tab you’ll need to update the source code.  If you had a company create the custom page for you, be certain that they update the width of your tab to 520 pixels wide.

Here’s a quick strategy for updating a custom fan page on a budget. If you don’t have time to entirely redesign your custom page or application but want to try resizing it on your own, don’t panic. John Haydon has an excellent video on his site showing you how to re-size images in your custom tab application in about 90 seconds.

Today’s Action Steps

Your goal today is to get any custom landing pages fixed on your Facebook site. I’ve broken down three options for you…

• Fix it yourself. If you are handy with HTML or FBML code, try to resize the canvas area to 520 pixels wide yourself. The vertical dimensions don’t matter right now and are unlimited.
• Get your designer to fix this. If you hired a design company or are currently paying a social media consultant, be sure to ask them if they’ve re-sized this for you. Point them to this Facebook post if needed.
• You can Ask us to help you. Contact our team if you have a Facebook application which might require a redesign. Our team can provide a quote on the cost to take your existing page and shrink your design to the proper size. Send us an email to info@folkmedia.org and simply ask for a quote. Be sure to give us the URL or name of your current page so we can give you an accurate estimate.

Now pick one of these options and go take action.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

*Photo by The Shopping Sherpa

Grasping the basics of marketing is very simple. In fact, you probably don’t even need a degree to be successful at marketing your business or yourself. The secret to successful marketing is to have a customer oriented mindset. If you think about he customer’s needs before the your needs, chances are that you will be able to market well.

Just like marketing your business, when you market your online content, you need to focus on the people who matter: your visitors.

Staying in Tune with Your Audience

Lessons in Content Creation 101 tell us that your website and its information need to revolve around what your visitors are looking to find. Truthfully, this sounds very easy but it’s a tough concept to grasp. In a perfect world, an online copy writer would know exactly what his customers need and would deliver but we don’t live in a perfect world. Instead, we succumb to ideas, advice, and urges that stray from our overall mission: meet the customer where they are.

This website, for example, exists to help businesses and entrepreneurs get a jumpstart on all things social media, including marketing, email lists, current events, and hard-to-understand concepts. It’s not easy to create content, though…especially content that is written to solve your problems and answer your questions.

In order to create as much targeted content as possible, we take a “tell it to your mom” approach. This helps us walk through tutorials, break down concepts, and fully explain what is happening in the realm of social media.

Develop a method or line of thought that will help you create content that is useful to your audience and that answers their questions before they need to ask.

Understanding the Behaviors of Your Visitors

Let me tell you a little secret…

The best ways to stay in tune with your audience is to talk to them and to retrace their steps.

A simple question or survey can go a long way. If you’re feeling up to it, send out an email survey to your list and gauge their need for content. How many people want to know about the eating habits of sloths compared to koala bears? How many readers are interested in high school education compared to middle school and elementary school? There is A LOT you can learn from your visitors if you simply ask.

Beware: asking questions makes you vulnerable to skeptics. Some people will spin your questions as revelations that you don’t know you topic. Before you dive into a survey or panel interview with clients, be prepared for those who aren’t on your same wavelength.

Retracing your visitors steps is probably the best way you can get to know them. Finding out where they have been can have a huge impact on your future publication calendar.

If you haven’t signed up, you should begin using an analytics tool, such as Google Analytics. These types of tools will allow for you to see what content is most popular amongst your visitors and what content they aren’t touching. This will allow for you to create material suited for your visitor’s needs. Want to gather more interesting data? Analytical tools can tell you:

- How much time the average visitor spends on your site; thus, you can figure out how to keep readers for longer
- How many pages a person visits each time they come to your site, allowing you to integrate more pages to your site to keep your visitors reading your useful content
- What keywords your visitors are using to find your site, which can help you with search engine optimization (SEO) and content creation

There is a ton of information you can learn from an analytical tool. If you’d like to learn how to set up Google Analytics for your site, stay tuned for a multi-part series that will begin next week on using Google Analytics.

Today’s Action Steps

With a ton of new knowledge in your brain, I’d like to challenge you to do a few things today:

First, think of a way to keep your mind centered on useful and beneficial content creation. Is it a note on your computer? Is it an accountability partner? Is it locking yourself in a room with a laptop and desk lamp for 12 hours a day? (Not recommended by the management team.) Find your focus agent and use it.

Next, ask five visitors to your site or members on your email list why they come to your site and what content they find useful. Pick their brains and see if they will open up to you. If it’s a success and you get good feedback, implement it. If not, see if you can engage with others. Know thy visitors.

Finally, research Google Analytics. As I said, I’ll begin diving into Google Analytics a bit more starting next week. Trust me – Google Analytics has become one of my best friends as I strive toward online marketing excellence.

As always, please use the resources below to share this article on your favorite social media site. Also, did you know that Folk Media is on Facebook? Become a fan and you could win a free website consultation! If you became a fan because you read this article, email me and let me know.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by nkzs

There have been quite a few interesting developments in the social media world this past week. Let’s recap a few of them:

Citizen Use Facebook for Justice – According to the New York Times, citizens in Delhi, India are using Facebook to submit images of drivers who break the rules. The Delhi Traffic Police Facebook page is being used as a bulletin board for unlawful drivers and the low staffed department is taking advantage of the shared images.

Is this type of justice “right?” To an extent, yes. It’s nice for citizens to know that they can count on justice when they do their part and report reckless driving. However, what’s to say that some of the images aren’t authentic? What if someone isn’t committing a traffic crime and they get fined anyway?

There are still kinks in the system but I think that this is a good starting point for a more accountable justice department. If small to medium sized towns in America would adopt a similar system, the rate of traffic violations in the United States might slow. It’s time that social media applications and systems proved that they’re useful for something other than hookups and games; taking justice to a new level might be a new focus.

Video Blogger Hands His Life Over for a Year – Dan Brown, a 20-year-old video blogger from Lincoln, Nebraska, is launching a project called Dan 3.0. during this project, he will upload a vlog (video blog) of himself each day doing different user-submitted tasks. Basically, Dan’s life will be controlled by his community for the next 365 days.

Personally, I think this project is great and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. Although it’s not the first time that something like this has been done, it seems like this project is going to be a success. Dan already has a YouTube subscriber list that is near 250,000 so ideas for daily tasks won’t be scarce. Also, Dan’s energy is great. He is passionate about this project and if he didn’t have that passion, it wouldn’t be a success.

It’s somewhat scary to think that he has basically turned into a puppet of the Internet community. However, Dan has said that he won’t do anything too drastic, like dump his girlfriend, or a task that breaks the law. He also holds veto power but hopes he won’t have to use it.

We should all be passionate about what we do. Dan is a great example of someone who loves his job and is willing to do anything (literally) to foster community and connection.

Twitter’s “Planned Maintenance” Proves to be a Burden – Early Sunday morning, the hosting company for Twitter, NTT America, planned to do some server maintenance and was expected to have the site down for close to five hours. Although I didn’t personally see any tweets about the down time, I’m sure that some users, especially those outside of the U.S., were not happy.

Has Twitter become too active in our lives? I’m just as much a Twitter fan as the next guy but I think that the site, and the concept of sharing every move we make, is beginning to get the best of some people. Some people can’t function without tweeting where they are, what they’re doing, or who they are with. It’s good to create community but when emotions change because of routine maintenance to a website, something might be wrong.

I think that as an Internet community, we should take a step back every now and then to appreciate the non-technological parts of our lives. If you don’t unplug every now and then, what makes you any different than the next guy or a robot?

Our lives should not be controlled by Twitter or a lack thereof. We should control them.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by dleafy

Ford breaks the mold and debuts its new Explorer via Facebook, not an auto show.

Do you think that Twitter will be around forever? After reading about its flaws, you may not be so sure of its stability.

Some would say that social media addiction is a disease. Well, some stats will help you prove that.

If you’re looking for a social media expert, you might want to make sure that they meet a few qualifications before you commit to them.

Checking your social media strategy is something that companies often neglect to do. Make sure that you don’t fall off the self check-up wagon.

Twitter could be stepping up their game by including photos and videos directly in the Twitter stream.

Interested in sending some voice text via Twitter? Check out Mashable’s article on sending voice tweets to satisfy your need to tweet speak.

YouTube Viral Video Alert: Guy Walks Across America

Tip: If you have an iPhone and you have Bump, now you can connect with others on Facebook and Twitter just by fist pounding.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by CDJensen

It’s a new week and it’s time for a new set of social media one-liners.

As always, these one-liners are created to give you the scoop on what is happening and tending in social media this week.

Here goes…

Are you a Facebook junkie? If so, you should learn how to do some pretty sweet things with your profile.

If you have a social media plan for your business, it may be time to evaluate your status and progress.

With Facebook approaching 500 million users this week, it will be celebrating by allowing users to share their own Facebook stories.

Some businesses see angry customers as a sign of weakness or flaws but they can actually be quite valuable.

It’s no secret that a social media catch-22 exists in many companies. How can you avoid it and deal with it if it happens?

Gearing up to begin a social media campaign? Check out one approach to creating a social media press release.

Giving props and saying thanks via social media is still very underrated. How can you show love for your fellow online users?

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by sue_r_b

Yesterday was the first day of summer and it’s already been a hot one. It was only five months ago that the East Coast was covered in 20+ inches of snow and now some people are craving the white stuff again. Summer heat can be relentless. Even simple tasks, like going to the grocery store, can make you sweat.

As you find relief from the heat in your comfortably air conditioned home or office, you should seriously consider taking part in a few of these activities. The five tasks I’ve highlighted below will keep you cool and productive while everyone else manages to get through another scorching day.

1. Upgrade to WordPress 3.0 – The newest version of the WordPress blogging platform is finally available and word on the street says that it’s awesome. We haven’t had the chance to upgrade our Folk Media backend yet but we’ll get there. Check out more information about WordPress 3.0 from the official WordPress site. If you’re new to the WordPress world and want an all-in-one guide for your learning pleasure, check out Aaron Brazell’s WordPress Bible.

2. Track BP and their failures – I feel bad for always knocking BP but they really aren’t doing anything to help themselves. Well, their lack of action is your gain. Using hashtags and Twitter keywords, you can track their ineptitude real-time. How awesome is that? Some things to look for on Twitter would be #BP #oilspill #GulfCoast or (my favorite) #BPFail. Honestly, there is a lot to learn from the oil spill and BP’s lack of response.

3. Create a Facebook fan page – Everyone is on Facebook now and even with the new privacy controversies, Facebook is still growing. If you haven’t considered making a Facebook fan page, I would seriously recommend making it one of your top priorities. Having a fan page on Facebook can increase your business exposure and it can re-educate current clients and customers.

4. Keep tabs on your favorite sports stars – Since summer is a time where baseball is in full swing and football is gearing up, you might want to follow a few of your favorite sports stars on Twitter. WeFollow has a comprehensive list of players who use Twitter. Check them out if you want to cool off with your favorite players this summer.

5. Update your LinkedIn profile – Even though it’s nice to often update you LinkedIn profile, we forget. Since it’s summer time and you likely have some vacation planned or are shipping the kids off for a weekend at grandma and grandpa’s, you might have some little extra time to sit down and update your qualifications. Don’t forget to recommend a few people; those are critical in the eyes of potential employers.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by bodgie

You’ve heard everyone talking about Facebook fan pages.  Now, it’s time for you to create your own.  But how?  In this screencast, I’ll answer that question and show you how to modify the settings to fit your needs.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by tolife.com