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Facebook Ads Suggest Slurs

In a recent update to the Facebook ad system, Facebook started suggesting other key terms that were related to the ones you entered. This was designed to help you get more bang for you buck when setting up ads. However, this seems to be back firing on them. The ads are suggesting racial and gay slurs.

So if you targeted “gay” they will also suggested faggot and sissy. Oh yes, seriously. Now Facebook made a very quick fix on this issue. But if you target “faggot” you get suggestions like sissy and cunt. But the terms are now being categorized as slang and only come up when you are targeting other slang terms.

Interestingly enough if you tag “gay” or “lesbian” you get a suggestion for the tag “white people”. Not a racial slur, but an interesting social commentary on the part of Facebook ads.

The Facebook prejudice does not stop here. You might be able to use the tag “gay” but if you say gay in your ad, it will very likely not be approved. So target your ad, jut don’t talk about it.

Facebook (Insights) Fails…Again!

I am a geek. So I spend a lot of time pouring through data and looking at analytics. Its just what I do. If you have a Facebook page for your business or brand, you should be doing this too. Thankfully this is easily done through Facebook Insights. Insights is the reporting system for all you Facebook data. It tells you how many page views you had, who is clicking, liking, sharing. You can get age and gender demographics. How many times your story appeared in the newsfeed. How viral your content is. And a lot more. There is so much information in the downloaded excel spreadsheet that you go well into the double alphabet column. You can also view a synopsis of your Insights right on Facebook from you page. The link is on the left side menu, under your profile pic.

Normally insights is behind real time by 2 days. This is not a big deal. 2 days still gives you an accurate picture of what is happening with your page. However, for the past 2 weeks insights has pretty much been down. It has provided some spotty information, but for the most part it is not actually reporting anything useful. For a data geek like me, this has been enormously frustrating.

Thankfully, despite being quiet about it for the past few weeks, Facebook has finally admitted that they are aware of the problem and are considering it high priority.

Now, usually when their is a big FAIL on Facebook it is because they are making some changes to the site. Of course, they don’t let anyone know of any potential changes so when they drop and then the site is working again, we all get to have an “A-Ha” moment.

There is a marketing conference at the end of the month, so maybe they will be announcing some big new changes coming to the site.

Google Plus for 13 Plus

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Is Google Plus no longer for adults?

Welcome the 13 year olds! Google Plus is trying to make themselves more competitive with Facebook. Though the social network is turning out to be more like a Twitter/Facebook hybrid, Facebook is still it’s #1 competitor and Twitter will likely remain a complimentary social network.

Until recently Google+ has been for 18 years and older. But staying and “adult” network was never in their long term plans. They recognize that teenagers are the biggest demographic, especially when it comes to new technology. But it does leave open the question of security.  Right now there is a lot of adult content on Google+…and we are happier for it. The tight laced nature of Facebook gets all of our panties in a bundle. But Google+ has been pleasantly more lenient. Will opening up the network to teenieboppers make them stricter parents? Well, time will tell

They are taking stricter precautions when it comes to who the teens will be able to circle. They are planning to limit it to teenagers only being able to circle other teenagers. Seems like a good start. Now what keeps someone from putting up a fake profile (ahem..remember Myspace)? Well, nothing that we can tell. But it is likely that they will have learned from their irrelevant social network pal (Myspace), that you do need some safeguards.

Opening up the social network will be beneficial as it will bring a wider audience to the network. Many people adopt a network after their kid have played around on it, look at Facebook. So hopefully this will be a boon for the network and not a big hit for all of us who like to keep the kiddies in the kiddie pool.

Now Everyone will have the Facebook Timeline

The Facebook timeline has been rolling out since November to the general public. Until recently people have been given the option of it they want to upgrade their profile. If they did upgrade and didn’t like it, they could return it to the old style within 7 days. Facebook has announced that there will be no more of these shenanigans and that everyone will be upgraded automatically to the new timeline profile.

Like most updates this has Facebook users up in arms. Many people don’t like the new timeline. Though graphically it is very beautiful, it is harder to find information on it. Plus if you post a lot it is easier to get information buried.

Lets be real. No one is actually leaving Facebook. They know that they can make these changes, completely ignore feedback, and people will continue to use the network. It has become too ingrained in our online and social culture. Where Facebook will make changes is when it starts to hit their bottom line, ie. affecting businesses.

Of course many of the changes they have made over the past year have greatly affected business on Facebook for the negative but individually they were so small that we couldn’t make a fuss over it. One change that did raise everyone heckles was when FB was deciding what posts should appear on your pages timeline. It resulted in a huge outcry from the business community and prevented the change from ever making it out of the trial phase.

So despite the new roll out, people will yell and complain. You will likely see posts in all caps complaining about how horrible it all it. You will likely hear that you can revert back to the old style (which you can’t), there will be scams that supposedly let you revert your profile (don’t click those links), or apps created claiming the same thing (they are bogus). Like it or don’t like it, the timeline is here to stay.

 

Facebook Releases New Timeline Profile

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Facebook Timeline Profile
The Facebook timeline profile is coming out! The new profile is being released right now and will be available for all profiles within the next few weeks.

I have had the new profile since it was released to developers in September. At first I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. But since using it, I have come to really like the new design. It is much more graphically oriented and fells more comprehensive, like it is giving you a more robust snapshot of the person.

The new profile is simply beautiful. It is a chronicling of your life, even before your started on Facebook. The timeline features photos and life events starting at birth. You can add information, photos, videos and posts into any time period. Have a prom photo from 20 years ago, add it in to the year 1976.

The beautiful layout, featuring photos and comments from your friends, has a deep emotional resonance. You are able to go throw the years and see your pictures. The things your friends wrote on your wall. The posts you shared and were shared with you. You not only get a glimpse of your history on Facebook, but a glimpse of your life history. It is like watching an old home movie on an old reel-to-reel.

Reminiscing has always been a social activity. Facebook has found a way to harness that.

For people using their profile to promote their business this will give additional opportunity for branding. You can have a banner photo at the top and still have your head shot for the profile pic.  It will give a way to create a more graphically beautiful display for your business.

Read more about the new Facebook Timeline. To get yours you just have to wait. When it is available to you there will be a notice at the top of your old profile.

Shop for Porn! Harnessing Social Media for Black Friday

Sexy shopping bagBlack Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. But does that mean that people are only shopping for their kids or parents? No. People are shopping for everything and that includes porn!

Though these tactics are mainly used in mainstream business, they are still highly relevant. On Black Friday people want to shop and you need to know how to harness that.

Here are two ways you can use social media to drive some extra sales over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Facebook

  1. Custom Landing Page
    Create a custom landing page that shows some great graphics and text to feature your Black Friday special. This is a lot easier than it sounds. You can use easy to use landing page design programs, like Lujure to do a simple drag and drop to create your page. You can also add trackable links using Google Analytics, which you can automatically add to the page, or by using link shortners like Bit.ly to track clicks back to your site.Here are what some other major retailers are doing with their landing pagesto help give you some ideas.Just like with anything adult on Facebook you have to be careful. They don’t like anything too provocative, but that does not mean you can’t have some fun. Take a look the Victorias Secret landing page. Sexy and still pushing the sale.
  2. Promote on Facebook
    If you did create a custom landing page then promote your sale by using the link to the tab. That way you can direct people to your new beautiful page to promote you sale. You can also link back to your website or anything else that will give information about your upcoming event.
  3. Facebook Ad
    Thought Facebook ads have a low click through rate they are incredibly easy to target and for even specific promotions they are perfect. If you have a physical location you can easily geo-target your ads, making sure the ads will only appear to people in your geographic location. If you are solely online, you can also target via age, gender, education and interest. Again, if you have a custom landing page, make sure that new people will automatically go there by setting it as your default place to land for new users (you can do that by going into edit info on your page, manage permissions, and then chose where you want new users to land).

Twitter

  1. Marketing Tweets
    Set up tweets that talk about your sale. Make sure to use hashtags to target your specific niche.
  2. Twitter Promo
    Even if you already have a sale event going on, you can still add a little extra to help your Twitter peeps. The tweeps love to know they are special. Give them their own promo code to use to get an extra bonus when they shop with you.
  3. Retweet Promo
    Retweets are a great tool in viral marketing. You can ask people to tweet your link out and let them know that they will receive a special discount by tweeting the link. There are a couple ways you can do that. You can either specifically ask for retweets and then DM anyone who RTs you a promo code or you can create a special trackable link to your website that will give people a special discount. The second way is easier and will need less involvement from you. Plus it is more conducive to the viral marketing process. People can promote your link, go to the page and get the promo. Plus by using a trackable link, or a specially designed page for your “twitter promo” you can track exactly how many people came to the page and get a gauge for your promo ROI.
  4. DMs
    We all hate those auto DMs that welcome people to their twitter. But DMs can be useful. If you are doing a big sale you can send DMs to your followers and let them know about the sale. If there is a a promo code, give them that as a special “twitter” gift. Though many people ignore DMs that are obviously ads, if you write it in a personable fashion you are likely to get a few bites.

Everyone is talking about everything, you just need to make sure you are harnessing the conversation to give your business a boost.

Will Google be more uptight than Facebook?

Now that Google+ Pages has been launched, more people are joining the land rush to get their page. Understandably, a lot of people in adult entertainment are feeling a little reluctant to join up.  Well that might not be for a bad reason, though there are some questions that remain.

So porn, and any adult content, on Google+ is right out. It absolutely forbidden.  In their policy, under their User Content and Conduct Policy, it states:

10. Sexually Explicit Material

Do not distribute content that contains nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material. Do not drive traffic to commercial pornography sites.

Your Profile Picture cannot include mature or offensive content. For example, do not use a photo that is a close-up of a person’s buttocks or cleavage.

So even PG13 content might be pushing the limits. And yes, they are making it just as easy to report TOS abuse as Facebook does.

However, adult is not the only place they are cracking the whip. They are not allowing promotions, contests, sweepstakes or coupons on the site. This means that businesses might really have to use Google+ just to be social!

The biggest danger is if you do get your page deleted you risk getting everything deleted. Yes, even your gmail. So if you do decide to get a page, I recommend having it associated with a gmail account that is not your primary.

Google+ Pages launched…still not for porn

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Today Google+ announced that they have officially launched their business Pages. This is almost exactly like Pages on Facebook except it is on Google+.  Some key differences are in SEO. These pages will be immediately indexed on Google. Meaning you will get an immediate search engine boost for you page, and therefore your website, if you have a page. You will also be able to do a search specifically for pages by adding a + sign before the company name. So 7 Veils would be + 7 Veils to search for my page (which does not exists yet).

Though some big questions about the functionality of the pages still exist, we do know that profiles will be able to add pages to profiles.  Of course if the networking is anything like Facebook, it means you will need to have a profile in order to start spreading the word about your page.

Of course, just like Facebook, the pages are not adult friendly. The big question is will they be active evangelists against porn pages. That is yet to be seen.

You might be tempted to run out and start your own page right now, and definitely give this a try. But the registration is not yet open for everyone, and that has nothing to do with porn. They are doing roll outs, but we don’t know how long it is going to take them to roll them out to everyone.

Because of the huge SEO boost, I would recommend putting up a page on Google+. Maybe it gets deleted, maybe not. You will get a nice SEO boost, at least for a while. Work your options while they are still options!

 

Why Google+ is Bad for Porn

So how is Google+ different than Facebook?  Well, its not really.  Google+ (or Google Plus) is just as stringent on porn as Facebook. They forbid the content. They do not allow links to adult sites or explicit photos. Will they be as bad as Facebook when it comes to deleting accounts? Well time will tell.

Essentially Google+ is the new kid on the block of social networks. They are trying to compete with Facebook and not doing a terribly great job, despite endorsements from some pretty big people. Most of the activity is still happening on Facebook. Why? Because that is where everyone is! and by everyone I mean the 800+ million people around the world.  In many ways people are tied of learning new social networks. How many profiles have we created? Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumbler…and there are more. Unless it has something that is completely new and unthought of, and circles hardly counts, then it is not likely to be terribly sticky.

But beyond that Google+ is not great for businesses, much less porn. Currently they do not have a business profile option. There is no business page. So the only way you can be on there is as an individual. Then on top of that they won’t let you use a stage name. So forget privacy. Forget anonymity.

Though they are reporting that Google+ Pages for business is being released. However they will not be terribly different than Facebook Pages. Meaning, you will not be able to post adult content, links or anything. So is it a duplicate to Facebook? Not quite, but not far off.