As part of the 2013 BNZ Literary Awards, sponsor BNZ have come up with a novel way to promote the short story competition they’ve been running for a few years now. The competition, in which writers create tiny 150 word masterpieces, lends itself perfectly to social media platforms...

Are you a social media/community manager who struggles to determine what a “good” Facebook page metric is? It seems that the only number people are really looking at is “likes” – as if that means something really important in this day and age of Facebook...

Today I got my Facebook account upgraded to include the new Open Graph Search – a function that allows you to use information which you and your friends have uploaded to Facebook, as well as info supplied by Bing, to find what you’re looking for. This is what the start screen looks...

So many people and brands are now gaming for Facebook “engagement” that it’s ruining the platform for a lot of people. Luckily, not too many of my friends fall for this stuff, but plenty of people have friends who do, so here’s a selection of the more desperate attempts...

Last night I was using Facebook when the platform automatically logged me out. When I logged back in, I  got a message that this was my second warning for posting material that violated Facebook’s policies – namely that I or someone who co-admins a page I manage had left a comment...

This video has just been released, and is a must-watch. Yes. A parody. But the beauty with most parodies is that they don’t stray too far from the truth… Sorry if you had a heart...

Recently popular burger company Velvet Burger had their Facebook page deleted without warning.   Facebook have quietly updated their page terms, and if you have a brand page, you’re bound by them. Here’s some of the more unexpected ones, or ones we know people have had pages,...

Facebook have changed the way you load apps into your Facebook pages, and I spent a long time trying to figure out how to get tabs to display in Timeline. Thanks to Nick McCabe, now I know. And it’s only fair you know, too. Create the webpage to be iframed the same way you always would...

Facebook pages. So easy, anyone could do it, right? Yes. But here’s the rub: There’s actually best practise for pages, and it seems like a lot of people don’t think about them. It’s as if the humans behind the business stop thinking like a Facebook user, and start...

Facebook have recently released revised best practice documents. It gives us a glimpse into how they see the social space, as well as some good tips for both Facebook and general social media strategy. Ranging from tips to organisational structure to audience participation, Facebook have...

If there’s one thing that’s marked about New Zealand’s online activity, is the sheer dominance of Facebook over other platforms. Facebook’s estimated New Zealand reach today was “2,100,220 people who live in New Zealand”, according to Facebook. The data also...

Facebook have release a list of the top 40 articles shared on their platform this year. Thes stories range from strange to heartbreaking, and in terms of content providers, CNN and the NYT come out looking quite good. So here’s the list: Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the...

Facebook page owners are starting to learn the real value of Facebook page insights – and it’s become even more important to know and understand your users now that Facebook’s new metrics are public. But there’s a little-known analytics package in Facebook called...

Although no two Facebook pages are the same, there are some similarities that appear across multiple pages. There are four main stages your page goes though, and once you identify the stage your page is in, you can use some standard tips and tricks to get it to the next level. Sometimes pages...

Writing a great Facebook status update for a brand is so much more than a simple formula. If it were that easy, we’d have a whole bunch of amazing pages and a lot of happy brand managers. You can’t just pick up a marketing plan and implement it, word-for-word, into a Facebook...

Facebook have released a best practice guide to Facebook marketing. It’s in-depth and useful, but also involved, so I thought I’d summerise for you. Here’s the key points. Facebook say there are five guiding principles to great social marketing: Build a strategy that is first and...

There’s a lot of talk online about the strategy behind brands using social media outlets, but not a lot of leadership. In fact, many of the companies who are charging the earth for social strategy don’t seem to have that great of a strategy themselves – you know, the smoke...

I have always said using Facebook successfully is not about the size of your community – anyone can pay for Facebook ads and rent a crowd – but it is first and foremost about engaging your community and providing a platform for conversations. Facebook insights are a really valuable tool,...