The Hard Life of an Internet troll (click to Download)

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an  forums, chat room,  blog, Facebook, Twitter, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

While the word troll and its associated verb trolling are associated with Internet discourse, media attention in recent years has made such labels subjective, with trolling describing intentionally provocative actions outside of an online context. For example, mass media uses troll to describe “a person who defaces Internet tribute sites with the aim of causing grief to families.

Trolling is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the players.

The trollface

The troll attempts to pass as a legitimate participant, sharing the group’s common interests and concerns; the newsgroups members, if they are cognisant of trolls and other identity deceptions, attempt to both distinguish real from trolling postings, and upon judging a poster a troll, make the offending poster leave the group.

Their success at the former depends on how well they — and the troll — understand identity cues; their success at the latter depends on whether the troll’s enjoyment is sufficiently diminished or outweighed by the costs imposed by the group.

Trolls are an online cancer. Masked commentators that can ruin communities, business and damage reputations.

The continuous ingenuity of promoting anonymous comments as a sparking ignition for creativity is stupidity and shallow argument.

Things like “…permitting anonymity opens the discussion to people who would otherwise not feel free to be frank and therefore it feeds creativity – Link here“  is usually created by those with no real experience and no real impacted by trolling.

Online trolls can be costly in several ways. A troll can disrupt the discussion on a newsgroup, disseminate bad advice, and damage the feeling of trust in the newsgroup community. Furthermore, in a group that has become sensitized to trolling — where the rate of deception is high — many honestly naïve questions may be quickly rejected as trollings. This can be quite off-putting to the new user who upon venturing a first posting is immediately bombarded with angry accusations. Even if the accusation is unfounded, being branded a troll is quite damaging to one’s online reputation.

Not to talk about the reputation damage it can be caused by their hit-and-run attitude.

As Seth Godin said once, “It’s ironic that we’ve set up two very different standards for our trust. In the real world, we’re skeptical of strangers. At the supermarket the other day, someone picked up my favorite brand of olive oil. I waxed on about how great it was, and of course, the shopper put it back and bought something else instead. Online, however, we’re happy to believe whatever image someone sends along, or buy something from a spammer or to consider a fake opinion.”

Lucio

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This will impact over 5.4 billion fans of multiple pages.

The new look for business pages is currently available for voluntary upgrade. However, it will be rolled out to all business pages on March 10.

In summary the revamp brings Fan Pages functionality and design much closer to normal (non business) Facebook user profiles:

• With the March 10 changes Facebook is giving Pages much of the same functionality available to normal users — you can browse Facebook as if you were the Page.
• Pages can also ‘Like’ other pages.
• The algorithm used for News Feed management has changed. From March 10, if you are friends with someone leaving a comment on a page, that comment will now show on your NewsFeed higher than more generic posts. Previously, they’d just be shown in reverse chronological order
• The main implication of this for businesses is that healthy relationships between you, your fans, and their friends will be the best way to ensure broad dissemination if relevant posts.
• Status updates from pages appears in the page News Feed (Pages now have a News Feed as well)
• Addition of multiple images at the top of the page.
• The application tabs have been moved from the top of the profile down to a sidebar just beneath the profile image.
• A widget that shows what ‘Likes’ you have in common with the Page.

The bad news is there are no longer the facilities of FBML and every tab is potentially an application.

The good news is that greatly increases the ability to build better applications using iFrames (more flexible and better performance).

Below is a map of the new features created by Involver (a Facebook app maker)

1. Photo strip above the Wall (with most recent photos you posted or tagged)
2. Tabs move to the left panel, in the form of a list (maximum of 6 above the fold). Instead of the horizontal tabs on the top of the page that used to accommodate the “Wall” and “Info” tabs and all outside applications, users will now navigate between views using a vertical panel of links to the left of the wall.
3. Profile picture reduced from 200 x 600 pixels to 180 x 540
4. Blurb box that was below the Page picture moved to info tab
5. Pages can Like other Pages
6. Featured Pages and Admins (Admin block is visible to admins only).
7. Page category
8. Choice for Wall posts between “Everyone” and Page posts only
9. Mutual Friends and Interests section

Facebook Changes from March 2011

Note, very important: You can preview the new layout but once you upgrade, there is no way to revert back to the old design.

Pages can also display Featured Page Owners on the left hand column, just below the Liked Pages.

The most important change that Facebook made to pages was to give them similar posting privileges as profiles. This is a game changer.

Every Facebook marketing strategy in existence SHOULD be re-written to include this major change.

Why? Because the walls that were holding you back have now been torn down. You can be your page.

To understand where we are, we have to understand where we were.

Your brand message was restricted to the follies of the Facebook algorithm before. Your message appeared on News Feeds of those who liked you, their friends if they were engaging with you, and your own wall itself. That’s it.

Now, you can spread the wings of your brand just about anywhere you want. While you still can’t post to profile walls, you can post as your page to any walls of pages that you like (as long as they don’t block you). We’ve tried this week for a promotion for one of The Online Circle’s client and worked well, if you want to know more call Lucio +61 3 9813 2141.

Properly used, the applications and implications are tremendous.

But with great power comes great responsibility. There is a drawback. Spam.

You know it will happen. With pages given this new power, you will need to constantly monitor your own walls to make sure that spam isn’t proliferated across them.

Facebook will (if they haven’t already) put in countermeasures to this and start banning pages that are reported or blocked often, just as they do with profiles.

However, the ease of creating pages will open doors to spammers like never before on Facebook.

This is enough if you want to know about overall changes, but for those willing to get more details, there you go:

• Photo Strip Instead of Tabs Above the Wall

The replacement of tabs with the photo strip at the top adds a dynamic, colourful element that will significantly improve the look of the average Facebook Page. The photos are drawn from the most recent ones you posted to your Wall and those you tagged, but does not include photos posted by fans. Users can hide undesirable photos. The new left nav placement of tabs also allows for longer tab names.

• Expanded Functionality For Fan Page Admins

Interact as a Page: A completely new feature, Facebook has added the ability to interact with items around the social network as the brand page. In this way, you can “Like” other brand pages, interact on their Walls, and have those interactions be from your brand page, instead of your personal profile. We think this will be a great way to increase your brand awareness, by tactfully interacting with other pages and people who are influencers.

Enhanced 2-way communications: To enhance responsiveness or just to keep admins more in the loop, you will be able to set up notifications of page activity that go to your email, such as any new Wall posts made by fans. There are also enhanced moderation/spam settings so that you can specify lists of words or terms you want blocked from showing up from your Facebook Page wall if written in a comment by a misbehaved fan. In addition, the admin’s News Feed will contain streaming content of activity going on from the brand page.

The Online Circle Clients

Overall, the changes announced represent a huge advance in the ability for brands to create rich, individualized experiences for their audiences.

We are reviewing the new policies. While many applications like Flash will now function better on your Page, Facebook’s restrictions require you to limit their functionality until a user interacts with it. As always, should you have any concerns about these changes, please do not hesitate to contact your Account Manager at The Online Circle.

More details and information available here and here

Facebook ads

Inspired by Smart Company website

1) Sponsored Stories

You can target two groups of people by using this feature:

Friends of those who are connected to your page by clicking the Like story box. This means your potential reach is far smaller but it also means it will be more powerful. When people see their friend already Likes the page they are more likely to.

People who are connected to the page through clicking the page post story box. This can be used to promote the posts you put on the page wall to people who like your page but may not have seen the posts. This could be good because a recent article said that only 5% of page posts appear in likers newsfeeds – scary!  Particularly relevant if you are posting a hot topic you want people to see.

2) Destination Tab

If you are advertising your Facebook page through the ads you can now specify where you want people to land on the page when they click on the ad. This is great if you have a special offer or want to create a landing tab that is a sales page. This means your ad can be very specific and the landing position can match that.

3) Ad layout

If you have switched your page over to the new look, ads will be appearing horizontally rather than vertically as previously.

It is now more important than ever that your image fills up the space on the left. You need to use the space to make your ad really eye-catching in order to grab your readers’ attention.

Facebook ads are also now seen in more places apart from the right hand side of the page.

If your page photo’s tab has been upgraded to the new light box version (if you click on a photo in an album you can tell if the photo pops up on a black background) there is now an ad that appears at bottom right.

Post written by Lucio Ribeiro, Liam Marco (Social Media CManager The Online Circle ) and Fernando Tinoco (Lead Developer The Online Circle)

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Webmaster tools is far the most underutilised tool on your web marketing arsenal.

Webmaster tools is not just essential for your SEO strategy but it can also be very very handy for your Web analysis and pre-strategy plan.  A smart strategist can use this data to improve how search engines crawl and index your site’s content but it also can understand and explore opportunities looking through SEO eyes.

Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead at Google released an excellent video about usage of Webmaster tools, enjoy.

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If you are talking about Facebook yes it can. Welcome Facebook ads.

But how much is the cost of a friend for Facebook brands?

A study by social marketing and analytics firm Webtrends found that the cost of advertising on Facebook that encourages a user to become a “fan” on the brand’s Facebook page is $1.07  (1.05 AUD).

“There are a lot of studies trying to say how much is a fan worth,” Justin Kistner, Webtrends’ senior manager of product marketing for social, “but the answer depends on the kinds of campaigns you are driving at that fan base.”

Many brands get too focused on the absolute number of their social media audience and don’t put enough value on target group relevance & engagement.

What my Social Media Team sees in the vertical industry is that a lot of them build a fan base on Facebook through discount offers and quick giveaways – but then they don’t get any brand amplification because their fan base is not looking for engagement therefore not LTV (Life Time Value). However, that’s where the real value lies, particularly when comparing CPMs for traditional online advertising with the cost efficiency of social media when done right.

With this on mind, are fans worth $1.07 each for brands?

The Wall Street Journal (Digits blog) sat down on camera with Michael Lazerow, the CEO of Buddy Media, a firm that sells software for brands that want to market on Facebook. Lazerow argued they’re worth far more. See highlights below.

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Through an application, the brand fans on Facebook could choose up to ten friends and the time desired to be printed.

The action was limited to 1000 books, which sold out in just one hour.

Created by DDB Paris, This action has the same proposal TweetNotebook. Entering your profile and paying 12 euros, the site prints a notebook using the nonsense that you’ve talked to Twitter.

I did a while ago, and works well.

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3. A movie for anyone who is on Facebook

Published on August 1 , the video mind-blowing was discovered this week, and most of its nearly 1.2 million views were recorded in the last four days .

What happens in the video? Exactly what is written in the title. A bulldog watching television. Sat. Somebody get him a VB, please.

2. Acapella Cover

This guy, Mike Tompkins, does  a cover of two songs: “Teenage Dream ” Kate Perry ” Just The Way You Are ” Bruno Mars.

That was cool, however cooler is to know that he simulates all the instruments with his mouth.

Published August 19 , the video has reached nearly 800,000 views.

3. Stinson Beach Giant Bubbles

This is for those who like to spend time in discussing “real or fake? “. However, Sterling Johnson, the guy who created it in Stinson Beach , California, is an expert in soap bubbles.

Published August 14 , the video has reached nearly 700,000 views.

4. Roger Federer Gillette trickshot

The ” viral ” form Gillette(Nike or EA Sports’ style), continues to maintain a position in the ranking of the most watched of the week.

Also within the discussion of  “real or fake? ” and, of course , the presence of Roger Federer.

Published August 16 , the video has already reached 5.9 million views.

5. Scott Pilgrim Vs Matrix
Entering the rankings this mashup uses scenes from the trilogy “Matrix” with the audio in full, the trailer “Scott Pilgrim Vs The World “.

The detail is that it is not just something thrown on top of each other, but with lip sync  perfectly executed.

There are almost 200,000 views since August 17 .

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He did, in February, this excellent short on Chatroulette that became the official explanation of what is the site.

Casey has now published his new video in the same style as the previous video sums up the controversy about Facebook’s privacy.

The very title says: a movie for anyone who is the “blue social network” – Facebook.

A Movie for Anyone On FaceBook from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

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