Changes on Facebook

After watching the Webinar in class, I learned the importance of businesses staying current with the latest social networking websites. I did not know that companies had software or programs to help them monitor what people are saying about them to keep effective 2 way communication. It was interesting that they recommended searching your company's name followed by sucks or hates.

In the social media world - Facebook took away advertisement from Microsoft. Bing is the search provider. Facebook gets more page views than Microsoft or Yahoo now. AIM is also integrated with Facebook Chat. There have been several changes to the popular social networking site as of recently!

The most interesting article from this week is about a Yale University graduate and Warren Buffett. She was unknown and young, but received an invitation to dinner and receive more exposure because of it. She posted a picture of them together on her Facebook.

Facebook is NOT face to face - relationships can be formed or reunited, but some messages may be lost in translation over the world wide web. It is important to focus other IR campaigns on other non-electronic outlets, and not solely the internet to reach consumers or investors. However, Facebook has a huge potential to reach members of the online audience and should be used by businesses.

Need for Speed - This blogger, IRWebReport, is tracking over 600 companies via Twitter and noticed that these companies do not integrate their tweets with website postings. One media outlet can be neglected for minutes or hours. By doing so, they are not being effective or consistent in reaching their followers or fans. This was an interesting blog post to me because I had not thought of consistently and simultaneously releasing information across all outlets to keep investors and IR professionals in the loop.

To sum it up, social media will not be going away anytime soon. It will keep becoming more popular and expanding around the world as greater technology is developed. Companies not taking advantage of these outlets and missing reaching potential consumers and investors. When integrating your company on a Facebook page it is important to keep the information fresh and fun to keep those interested informed including links to your website, articles, and resources. Especially with older generations joining the Facebook bandwagon.