It's not Facebook's fault you got robbed...(The Pros and Cons of Geo-tagging)

 There've been a few stories in the media this week about a rash of burglaries. Apparently, the burglar was able to learn what houses would be empty because of Facebook statuses and geo-tagging.

 For those who don't know, geo-tagging is a way to include actual geographic metadata location information to your websites or photos. Say you own a restaurant and on your website is a photo of the restaurant. I get a glimpse of your fantastic looking food and must drop everything and eat their immediately (melodramatic I know, sorry its lunch time). Geotagging allows me to find out where you are and get to you easier. We both win. Its also a great for those times when you are like "I'm really in the mood for some coffee, where's a coffee shop around here?" By plugging in your address into a maps site or phone or your car's GPS its gonna pull up the closest coffee shops. It will often times even show you how to get there.

 There are definite business benefits to geo-tagging. Used carefully and creatively they can be a fantastic addition to business digital media network. Contact us at Online Media Interactive (shameless plug) and we can show you how to make them work for your particular business. 

 Personally speaking though, the technology scares me a little. It's available in many of the new cell phones and Twitter and 4square are among the social media networks that utilize the technology. I'm not sure I want everyone knowing where I am all the time. For safety's sake, you have to be careful not to give too much of your personal comings and goings away.

 Here are a few tips for safely using social media:

1. Be careful friending people you don't know. If someone you don't know and have no mutual friends in common with sends you a friend request exercise caution when accepting it.

    2.   Don't  announce you are going away on vacation in status updates and tweets. If you absolutely must brag    about the killer two week vacation you're taking, use your privacy settings to ensure that only the people you trust and know will see it.

    3.  Wait until after you are back home to post those great vacation photos. Taking photos and instantly uploading them to Facebook or Twitter can alert potential thieves that you away.

    4.  Twitter gives you the option to include your location in the tweets you send out. Depending on the Twitter application you use this may be a default setting or something that you have to disable. For safety's sake consider disabling this location setting.

   5.   If you are making plans with people for the evening over Twitter or Facebook use the inbox and direct messaging features. Don't make these plans on your profile walls. Direct messages and inboxes are private. Walls can be seen. The great thing about doing this on Facebook is that as long as everyone you are messaging is on Facebook too you can write one message that includes them all.

Do you all have any additional suggestions on how to use social media safely? Or have you had any horror stories about someone who was victimized? Let us know.

What Viral Video Can Do For Your Business (The Phil Davison Lesson)

Surely you've seen this...



 We here at Online Media Interactive, spent a good fifteen minutes of our staff meetings last week laughing at it. Once we were finished making fun of it we had to acknowledge what a video like that actually says about the world we live in. This video is an excellent (and pretty hilarious) example of the impact social media has. Ten years ago, Phil Davision would have given that speech and only the 100 or so people in that room would have seen it and been talking about it.

 In today's Web 2.0 world, almost a million viewers have seen that speech. Many of them far removed from Stark County. Davison has made the rounds at Good Morning America, the speech has been all over cable and late night television.

 Viral video is a fantastic Web 2.0 and social media marketing tool for your business to consider. Depending on how creative and resourceful you are, videos can be produced relatively cheaply. Sites like YouTube, Google Video open your business to global marketing opportunities. Viewers are also allowed to comment on videos which offer you a way to gauge customer feedback and to engage them if you'd like.

 Davison didn't win the treasurer nomination, but to paraphrase his speech he turned difficulty into opportunity. The possibilities are endless for him and they can be for your business too.

Tell your friends and tell your neighbors.

10 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips: Today's Tip - FaceBook

Late last year, the website Mashable.com offered up "10 small Business Social Media Marketing Tips", which we're going to be sharing with you over the next several days!

Facebook is by far the largest social network. Nearly 500 million people actively use Facebook, including nearly 1/3 of all American adults. This has huge implications for businesses who want to reach the people FaceBook has attracted to its vast network.



Facebook () offers exceptional, low cost marketing opportunities for small business. Facebook now has over 300 million users, and while that seems like an outrageous number for small businesses to be targeting, Facebook offers a very powerful platform on which to build a presence. If you’re not already active on Facebook; you should get started right away.

Basic Strategy: If you haven’t signed up for Facebook yet, you absolutely should as soon as possible. Once you’ve signed up, you should also consider securing your company’s username. Be aware, however, that if you reserve your company name for your personal account, you won’t be able to use it for your Business Fan Page (more on those in the Advanced Strategy), so you may want to create a Page before registering your company’s name. Fan Pages have special rules regarding usernames, which you can read here.

You should do one other thing: search for your competitors and evaluate their Facebook presence. What types of Pages () have they built? How many fans or “friends” do they have? Spend 15 minutes (per competitor) looking at their posts, photos and/or videos to understand how they’re using Facebook.

Advanced Strategy: You may already have a personal Facebook account, but how do you extend that presence for your business? You have several options. You can register a Business Account – which is designed for a very simple presence on Facebook. There are many limitations on such accounts (read the FAQ here), however, so you’ll most likely prefer to have a Business Fan Page. A Business Fan Page lets you create a page where customers or fans of your business can register as a “fan” — expanding the presence of your business (because your updates will also flow to their pages). You might also want to consider running hyper-local ads on Facebook.

Online Media Interactive can help you manage all of your social networking accounts. For more information on what we offer, visit us at http://www.onlinemediainteractive.com/plans.asp.