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A lot of folks are hating on the new Facebook Timeline. Personally, I love it. Got my cover image up and am aiming to be a little more creative with the cover image when I get a few minutes.

But now the new thing is, as reported by Inside Facebook, is Timeline-related scams develop on Facebook:

“A number of scammers are taking advantage of Timeline backlash by developing pages that include deceptive instructions on how to revert to the old profile. These fraudulent Facebook pages prompt users to click a number of Like buttons, invite friends, watch YouTube videos and download files. Timeline, however, is permanent once a user opts in to try it, and will be mandatory across the site within weeks.”

Another post I saw today covers the “Hover Over My Name” scam detailed by Jon Loomer, which unveils a similar scam with a twist on an old scam.

Facebook has always had a problem with the general user being able to keep up with the changes and trends. A lot of people just don’t pay attention. A lot of people just want things to stay the same. But things changes, folks.

I think the most damaging issue here as noted by the Inside Facebook article is:

As of this writing, the Facebook Security page has not warned users of claims to deactivate Timeline. There is also nothing in the Help Center explicitly telling people that the feature cannot be removed.

I think one’s perspective on the educational portion of sites like this changing is how much time you spend researching or reading about the change. If you did, you feel like the site did a good job. If you didn’t, then you feel like they abandoned you. YouTube did a nice job of education folks about the new profile pages when it made its changes. While there are still complaints, I don’t feel that get as much press.

Either way, these services are controlled by the owners of the sites, not you. So we’re at their mercy for now. Don’t like it? Disengage or roll with it. Just be careful and think for a second before you a) blindly do something you think will “secure” you or b) ask others to pass it on.

Recently I made a career change and left my position at Fleishman-Hillard. Many factors contributed, including a lengthy commute, work load/type, travel and being too far from my growing family for too many hours a day. If you’ve ever driven in Cleveland during the winter you’ll understand exactly what I’m saying. Add another 60 miles to that and you’ll wonder how I managed for 3.5 years. I sometimes do.

I enjoyed my time at FH, learned a lot, made some friends in house and on the client side, and have many fond memories. But it was time to move on.

In the short term, I am conducting some freelance work as a marketing and communications consultant. I have my eggs in a basket or two for the time being. I’m closer to home (read: in home). I’m pretty happy.

So, with my reduced commute and fiery new take on life, I expect to be making this blog a more productive and interactive venue…again.

Thanks for your patience and hope to see you around. Feel free to connect with me here, on Twitter or on LinkedIn.

Privacy
Facebook changed its privacy policy AGAIN. You may want to check to see how much of your information is shared on Facebook to people who aren’t your friends. And I mean friends in the Facebookian sense, not, you know, real friends. Visit your profile while you are NOT logged in and see how much of your information you can see. My guess is, you’ll see a whole lot more than you thought. You can change this in the privacy settings. You should all do this. Facebook makes it a point not to widely announce these changes to the average user, so people who want to protect their info should regularly check to see what the privacy settings are. When the Internet nerd herd raises alarm bells about this, I’ll try to keep you in the loop.

Like
Facebook recently ditched the “Fan” in Fan Pages. You no longer become a Fan of something, you “Like” it. Do you have a “Fan us on Facebook” button that you’ve placed on your site? It’s obsolete already. Sorry. Facebook is aiming to add this “like” button across the web so you can become a fan…I mean “like” a brand or page from that brand’s own website. 

It’s an interesting move that continues to place Facebook at the center of social web.

Confusingly, this is different than the little “like” option that exists in your mini-feed that indicates you appreciated someone’s news item or post. The formal “Like” is the same as the old “Fan,” which adds you to the page as a Fan, er, Liker?, and gives the page admins your demographic (supposedly anonymous) data and makes it possible for the page admins to contact you with updates or have their news show up in your mini-feed. 

On top of all of this, Facebook is now sharing data with applications in a new way. I don’t have all the data yet, but I can tell you that when I go to Pandora now,  it shows me which of my Facebook friends has bookmarked this artist or song and other information. It would be interesting if it didn’t make me so nervous.

Community Pages
Facebook has added what are now called “community pages.” So instead of being a “Fan of Sleeping” or “Fan of cooking” you now “Like cooking” and it takes you to a community page. These community pages are often pulled right from Wikipedia or other sites. There is a place where people who “like” the activity (again, Likers?) can share their thoughts. The word is that Facebook will eventually ask its members to contribute to the project. For example: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cooking/113970468613229

The reason this is important is that Facebook is now rolling out “Community Pages” for brands who already don’t have a presence on Facebook, essentially forcing brands to play in the sandbox. If suddenly your brand has a Facebook page, this is why. Some examples are:

• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aetna/105515602814384
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Medtronic/105443739489637
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oxycodone/108675439157176

Likes and Interests
This change will more likely affect everyday users. Moving forward, Facebook is going to link the data you provided in your profile – such as hometown, schools, interests, movies, books and other interests – to Facebook Pages.

 A pop up will appear (if it hasn’t already) asking you which keywords in your profile you want linked to their corresponding Pages. The first time this happens you get an “ask me later” option. The second time it happens you don’t have that option. There is never a “Don’t link anything” option.

Once you accept the links, those keywords in your profile are now linked to those Facebook Pages and you are added to the list of Likers (that’s dumb) for that page. Again, now you will show up on those pages and the admins of those pages can contact you via Updates and that news will show up in your mini-feed. There is an option in privacy settings called “Friends, Tags, and Connections” that will let you specify who can see what connections. There is now also the option to hide your friends’ list on your profile.

So there you have it. Remember, check your privacy settings and, if you have non-techy friends or relatives, please educate them as well. A parting thought, the Terms of Service of Facebook basically say they can do anything they want with anything you post to Facebook, photos, video, etc. There’s not much we can do about that, but we can control who is seeing our info.

I was pleased, while in Toronto last week for a vacation with my wife, when she agreed to join me for such a meet up with some of Toronto’s PR and marketing best, Donna Papacosta, Dave Fleet, Martin Waxman, Ed Lee, and fellow FHers David Bradfield and Eden Spodek. It was a blast to meet some of my coworkers face-to-face finally and shake hands with some of my inspirations and corporate rivals. Bonus, my wife even enjoyed it, so she says.

Donna, in addition to organizing the whole thing, tipped me off to this hilarious gem from College Humor that turns West Side Story into…well, I imagine what a Geek Dinner Musical would sound like. Thanks to all for making the trip downtown for the meet up.

more about “Friday Frivolity – Web Site Story“, posted with vodpod

Episode 4 of The Rundown Podcast features part two of my discussion of podcasting with communication and podcast rockstars – Shel Holtz (@shel) and Neville Hobson (@jangles) from the For Immediate Release series of podcasts. They recently released the results of their listener survey, which spurred a detailed discussion of podcasting past, present and future…

I also welcome back Ashley Mead in a new segment I’ve dubbed: Calling You – at a Moment’s Notice! Ashley’s got an interesting new hobby that really gives you the perspective from 15,000 feet.

The Rundown with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson – Part II

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Join the show and send audio or text comments, suggestions and complaints to:

• 
• Audio comment line: +1 206.337.3731
• Skype: lukearmour
• Twitter: lukearmour
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Show Notes

• 00:00 Music by Me
• 00:40 Welcome
• 01:19 Calling You – at a Moment’s Notice! Starring Ashley Mead
• 04:50 Segue into the podcast discussion with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson
• 04:56 Podcasting as niche vs widespread adoption for podcasts
• 05:55 Podcast Community Catalyst
• 08:00 Global podcast perspective
• 08:55 Podcast education
• 10:41 Podcast technology vs. podcast disinterest
• 11:44 Audio Blogging
• 13:57 Rise of Video Blogging
• 14:20 Big Media – independent podcasters vs. mainstream media
• 17:24 What is podcasting really vs. what is podcasting ideally
• 18:21 State of podcasting
• 19:50 Podcasting is dead
• 21:51 Where can we find them?
• 22:22 Break
• 22:29 Farewell
• 22:51 Mr. Media rolls us out.

Don’t hesitate to send in audio or text comments, questions, feedback and anything else that suits your fancy. I reserve the right, of course, to play or read any and all of your comments as well as delete them without a second thought. But don’t let that stop you from giving it a shot!

Please let me know what you think via email or leave an audio comment at: +1 206.337.3731.

So, what else will Google continue to provide to us – and at what cost? Check out ROOMMATES – Episode 1 from the boys at The Big Honkin, a hilarious adventure when Google becomes their roommate.

I’m looking forward to more, because as Google continues to roll out new services, Google Roommate may not be far behind. Hat tip agian to my colleauge and Internet bloodhound (in the nicest way) JayVee for pointing this out to me.

On the web, transparency and trust matter. Reputation management is increasingly important since, every day, the control of the message slips further out of the corporate grasp. Think about what messages you and your company are broadcasting. Then think about what you and your company are actually doing. Then think about what people actually say about you. Do any of them match up?

The netizens of the Interwebs have a funny way of sniffing out the truth of the matter and reporting it, which can seriously damage your reputation and ultimately consumer trust. Not that you work for or run Dilbert’s company. Nor would you do those sorts of things, right? Right?!

But more importantly, do you even know what people online are saying about you? Perception becomes reality – right or wrong. And while the control of your brand is fundamentally out of your hands, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be monitoring and engaging with people who do have that control. That’s why it’s called reputation management, not control.

Now, go have a good weekend, but keep the Google Alerts coming.

Episode 3 of The Rundown Podcast features part one of a discussion of podcasting with two of my favorite podcasters – Shel Holtz (@shel) and Neville Hobson (@jangles) from the For Immediate Release series of podcasts. They recently released the results of their listener survey, which spurred a detailed discussion of podcasting past, present and future…

The Rundown with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson – Part I

	Subscribe using iTunes
	Use your own podcatcher (RSS)

Join the show and send audio or text comments, suggestions and complaints to:

• 
• Audio comment line: +1 206.337.3731
• Skype: lukearmour
• Twitter: lukearmour
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Show Notes

• 00:00 Face off
• 00:41 Welcome
• 01:33 Comments? Suggestions?
• 01:50 Segue
• 02:00 Welcome, again
• 02:20 Introduction of Neville and Shel
• 05:00 The FIR Listener Survey – why release the survey results?
• 07:29 Changes to The Hobson & Holtz Report?
• 08:20 Length
• 09:05 Podsafe Music – Really?
• 11:40 RSS vs. iTunes
• 13:49 iPod vs. iPhone
• 16:02 Conversation Rules
• 17:03 Podcast Stats – Downloads vs. Listeners
• 18:37 Is content still king? (eMarketer study Podcasting Into the Mainstream, March 2009)
• 21:07 Diversity in audience – why and how?
• 22:57 Podcast listenership
• 25:21 Break
• 25:30 Luke pimps these other podcasts:
  • Grizzly’s Growls Episode 100 focused on podcasters benefitting from PR featuring Shel, Nevill and the Inside PR team of Jones, Fallis and Waxman.
  • Also, a great discussion on SEO in PR with Eric Schwartzman’s On The Record Online with Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan.

Don’t hesitate to send in audio or text comments, questions, feedback and anything else that suits your fancy. I reserve the right, of course, to play or read any and all of your comments as well as delete them without a second thought. But don’t let that stop you from giving it a shot!

Please let me know what you think via email or leave an audio comment at: +1 206.337.3731.

Which character are YOU in this interpretive animated sketch? The Celebrity? The Skeptic? The Pusher? The Flock of Sheep?

Even more important, which group does your audience, client, customer, vendor, or potential customer belong to? How will you reach them? Is this even a way to reach them? Before latching on to the next shiny new thing, let’s stop, look and listen to make sure we’re on target, on strategy, and on message.

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Hat tip to JayVee for flagging this video for me.

And no wonder, imagine Twitter in real life…
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This is what happens when you actually say the things you would normally just tweet, out loud and in public.

Very reminiscent of my Friday Frivolity – Facebook in Real Life post from last year.

I harp on this a lot, but you’ve always got to see how your audience is going to see a new tool, a new tactic or a new strategy. So remember this when talking to clients – put on your newbie glasses and try as hard as you can to see what they’re seeing. Whether it’s a new digital approach to an old problem or an exciting new step in unchartered territory; always view it from the audience’s perspective first. Then explain it. Then execute with the client’s blessing.

Because if you don’t explain in properly, your just showing people pictures of your cat.*

*not meant to slight cat people, cat bloggers or cats who blog. Please don’t email hate mail to me, it’s a reference to the video. Watch it again. I love cats, actually. I’m a cat guy myself. If I had a cat, I’ll bet he would blog. I had cats before blogs or at least before most cats blogged. It’s the keyboard she didn’t like. Now, if they come up with some meow-recognition software that actually WORKS, then we’re talking…