Guy is also an early adopter of Twitter, and has openly stated that he repeats his tweets over and over (4 to 8 times each) in order to try to get additional attention to his messages.

He even has a blog post pointing to click through statistics where he defends his re-tweet strategy as a way to cut through the chatter of social media with… more… repetitive… automated… chatter.

Over the past few days, we noticed that we were getting multiple identical status updates from Guy via his new book’s Fan Page.

Seems that Guy’s Twitter approach is now being applied to his Facebook fan page via an application called Post Planner.

We’re not the only ones who openly question this approach to repeat postings using an automated status updating tool.

After the 10^th identical post over the last 5 days… one of his fans posted a comment saying that seeing the same post five days in a row was “not enchanting” (which happens to be the name of Guy’s latest book).

Guy replied to the comment, “That’s what it takes to truly spread the word, and this is a free offer…”

While Guy is clearly an engaging personality and a perceived leader in social media, we’re probably not alone in thinking that this type of automated scheduled posting of identical posts isn’t one of the strategies we’d like to see more brands follow.

While Guy’s defense of this tactic is focused on clicks, what he doesn’t mention is that he’s using up brand credibility every time he hits his fans with multiple copies of clearly automated posts.

Do you think hitting the news feed over and over again with automated identical posts will strain the relationship between a brand and its fans?

Fortunately for Guy’s he’s still got some credibility to spare, but for a small brand to adopt his fully automatic machine gun auto status update approach for their Fan Page it seems like they’d be shooting themselves in the foot.

Full timetable of the repeated posts below:

If social media (and all of the hype and noise that surrounds it) has taught us anything, there’s a huge difference between being active and productive. So quit spending the majority of your workday frantically responding to tweets, wall posts, and reading about the social media tools, techniques, and trends of tomorrow.
The only thing stopping you from launching an amazing Facebook page today is you.

(Cue inspiring soundtrack here…) North Social was created with the corporate underdog in mind; we created tools that enable businesses of all sizes to build, launch, and grow a powerful custom Facebook page without writing a single line of code.

We put 18 apps into an affordable app buffet and started helping brands get more out of their presence on Facebook. Today over 80,000 installed North Social apps are helping thousands of small businesses grow their fanbase, push out promotions, distribute exclusive content, showcase their products and services, and of course, antagonize Goliath.

So, if you’re a David-sized brand looking for insanely affordable, flexible, and easy-to-use tools to give your Facebook Page a head-turning makeover, visit North Social. Browse through more than 150 user examples across 20+ industry categories to see some of our slingshots currently in use. (Note: our Fan Page apps do not actually throw rocks at your larger competition.)

Well, in true North Social fashion, we decided to actually show you how to maximize your resources and get more out of social media by shooting this helpful video demo titled, Facebook Page Makeover. How To Create A Custom Page On Any Budget.

We’ve always prided ourselves on being a champion of the underdogs. We’re constantly offering up tips, tricks, and tools that empower brands of all sizes to be able to do more with less (Yep, we’re a little like those masked magicians that revealed the secrets of magic on television. Except we don’t wear a mask or distort our voice when we tell you how to create a fan-worthy page…or saw the woman in half).

After all, social media is about being honest and authentic. That’s why we give our users access to all our powerfully simple applications for one low price. Unlike many of our competitors (who wear masks…) you won’t find a “contact us for pricing” button on our website. It’s this transparency that has helped make North Social the most popular provider of Facebook apps for Pages on the planet.

Okay, enough of a preview. Butter the popcorn. Press play. Sit back. And discover how North Social can help you create a powerful Facebook page to excite and motivate your fan base. Enjoy the show.

SHOUT OUTS & SPECIAL THANKS TO: Our Los Angeles friends and neighbors at Safe Camp for putting this production together, TEMPTU for agreeing to be apart of this video case study (and teaching our team what flawless makeup is all about), and lastly, the musicologists over at Hello Music for hooking us up with the Strange Vine track for our intro piece. Lovin’ it.

According to a survey done last week by Lightspeed Research, nearly two-thirds of 18-34 year olds that are planning to watch Super Bowl XLV have smartphones – and they intend to use them. Over 59% of those surveyed would use their Smartphone on to send e-mails or text messages about the game in the middle of the action and around 32% will be posting status updates to social networks Facebook and Twitter.

So before they kick it off in the Big D, let’s first break down the social scoreboard by grading the official Facebook pages of the Steelers and Packers on the following criteria:

1. First Impression: Do they have a memorable team intro? Does their profile pic (and thumbnail image) need to spend more time in the weight room? Do they bring visitors to a default welcome tab?

2. Likability: Are they asking us to click the thumb? If so, is the incentive motivating enough for fans to get out the bucket of face paint and initiate a wave of momentum?

3. Engaging Content: While nothing can rival the live action on game day, both teams have no shortage of exclusive content they can make available to their Facebook fanbase. Do they score or barely move the chains?

4. Fan Count: Which team has a stronger 12th man on Facebook? You knew we’d go here, but the fan metric matters. A Page Owner is no different than a Team Owner. Without active participants in the seats or on the page, one really has no home field advantage at all.

First Impression Analysis

Okay let’s start with the Steel Curtain’s Facebook page. While they direct their visitors to a default landing tab, they get a penalty flag for having too many men on the field. At North Social, we believe in keeping it simple to be effective and the AFC champs immediately hit you with, count them, SEVEN calls-to-action on one custom tab. Sloppy play indeed.

However, they do get an E for effort and have made decent use of their profile pic (even though the thumbnail could be cleaner).

Moving over to Green Bay’s Facebook page, they have you land on a screened back image of the packers.com homepage. The worst part, if you go to packers.com, they tell you to “Join The Packers Online Community” with a linkable Facebook icon. Huddle up folks, you’re in the Super Bowl. Create meaningful experiences and two-way way conversations with your fans, don’t ping-pong them between your FB page and your website with no ultimate payoff.

While the Pack feature a tiny photo of All Pro Linebacker Clay Matthews Jr. on their profile pic, they fumble the snap on their thumbnail crop. Green Bay should clean this up and feature their signature G or a “Beat The Steelers” message; something straightforward and memorable like their easily recognizable Lambeau Leap.

First Impression: Advantage Steelers

Likability Analysis

It blows us away that neither of these teams has put anything of significance up on their page to get fans to “Like” their pages. You’ve made it all the way to the Jerry Dome, don’t drop the ball now. It’s time to reward your loyal fanatics for sticking by you all season long.

Here’s a thought, by using any of the North Social applications that enable “fan gating”, both squads could be offering up collectible memorabilia (terrible towels or bobbleheads anyone?), a shot at winning a pimped out viewing party for you and your friends, an autographed playoff jersey, or even VIP passes to next year’s training camp.

This is not a broken play. This is a blown play by both squads. But at least the Steelers don’t tease you into thinking if you “Like” their page (like the Pack) that there will be an impressive reveal.

Likability: Advantage Steelers

Engaging Content Analysis

When it comes to content, the Steelers win handily. While we’re not so enthused about their busy and inefficient Swiss Army knife-like tab, there is no shortage of content on their page (videos, shopping, tweets, and some decent “insider” wall posts).

One thing the Steelers got right is the Players tab – which allows fans to visit their favorite player pages on Facebook and follow their Tweets. Want to see what NFL Defensive Player of the year Troy Polamalu is up to? Just click on his link to find him promoting Steeler merch, his sponsors, and engaging his fans with ticket giveaways. In addition to his big hair, he evidently has a big heart too. Well done Troy.

Both teams could benefit by adding more custom tabs to offer up entertaining, informative, and valuable fan experiences. With so many people being on Facebook during the game, this is the time to call your most noteworthy social play. It will be interesting to see if both teams go for it or just decide to do the expected (give out their own version of play-by-play). Hint: everyone on earth is already watching and listening to the game, present us with something else besides your social simulcast.

Engaging Content: Advantage Steelers

Fan Count Analysis

Lastly, let’s look at the stats. The Steelers come in strong with over 1.7 million Facebook fans, nearly doubling up the Packer fan total of 930,000. For those keeping score at home, Troy Polamalu has a bigger fanbase than the Packers online. How is this even possible? Step it up Cheeseheads, you’re in jeopardy of losing some of your fan cred.

Fan Count: Advantage Steelers

Bottom line: If the overall strength of these Facebook pages is any indication on how well the teams will perform on the field this Sunday, this game is setting up to be yawner. Let’s hope not.

Bring on the coin flip, some cold beer, and a couple of “0” and “7” squares. We’re ready for some football.

Whether your job involves throwing on a jersey and competing or selling every seat for every home game, don’t just provide your fanbase with content they can get by tuning in to Sportscenter. With North Social’s powerfully simple suite of Facebook apps, you now have the ability to involve your fans like never before. Distribute viral videos, run a sweepstakes, serve up exclusive downloads (digital VIP invites, coupon codes, screensavers, tailgating recipes), link to your e-commerce destinations, and more.

They measured this statistic by looking at product spending, loyalty, chance of recommendation, brand affinity, media value and acquisition cost.

Syncapse also found that the average Facebook Fan spent $72 more per year than non-fans on that product. To make that even more compelling, 68% of Facebook Fans are likely to recommend the products they “Like” on Facebook! (citation)

Holy shit.

That means that every day billions of dollars of social capital transactions are taking place on Facebook every time someone clicks “like”.  Insane, right?

Before you run out and start to “cash in” on this free money for your brand, read the fine print.

Yes, because your fans are monetarily loyal to you AND willing to spread your company virally to their social graph the number crunchers can apply an actual cash value to that little tiny “like” button.

But (there’s always a but), while they are human beings (predictable), and with some fancy math (not that fancy) you can’t just put a price tag on Facebook Fans, these aren’t shiny little coins you can stick in a piggy bank…. it’s not that easy.

The social capital you are spending so freely is actually a “loan”.

By asking someone to “Like” your page, you are asking them to lend you (virtually) $137 dollars. You are asking them to share your brand with their friends, family and coworkers, which will ultimately reflect on them and their identity.

Sounds great, where’s the catch?

Well first off….You have to earn it! You need to give them something that delivers an immediate value to them. It can come in the form of good, exclusive content- videos, photos, blogs. It can be coupons. It can be an exclusive product.

These are the “pick up lines” of social media.  Yep, the right pick up line can get you a social media one night stand if you play your cards right, but if you think you are going to get out of there without some consequences in the morning, you’re delusional.

Consumers don’t “give” you their social capital, they have the right to take it back (plus interest) any time they feel like it.

You might be thinking that they can always “write off” their loan to you and simply unlike your page.  Why not right? Since they’ve got an unlimited supply of social capital to lend out, why would they care if you don’t live up to the terms of their $137 loan?

That’s getting off easy.  Like the bank calling and telling you to forget about your car payment. (not gonna happen)

When you borrow $137 in social capital from consumers, and don’t meet their expectations, you run a serious risk that they’ll come calling one day looking for more than you bargained for.

Treat your fans wrong and you will surely get a rogue fan that goes bananas and starts posting all sorts of sordid troll like things on every single website that has a submit button.

Yep, the scary part is that consumers can not only demand immediate re-payment of that $137, but the negative impressions they can leave might end up costing you more than the original amount.

That’s one calculation we’d like to see the pocket protector crowd cook up.

How much does it cost a brand when someone takes a chunk of social capital out of your brand by posting negative stuff across Facebook or Twitter?  We could start with the $137, but I’ve got a feeling that a negative impression carries far more weight than a positive one.  I’ve heard numbers like 10 or 20 times more awareness.

If the risk tied to these social capital loans is $1,370 per fan, how does that impact your strategy for growing (and maintaining) your social presence?

Next time you start to drop pick up lines, don’t forget to plan on cooking breakfast in the morning, and sending flowers every once in a while.

You don’t want to find out how fast a consumer can go from fan to foe when you come up short on your loan payment.

Well, it doesn’t wear a tutu, but they’re still a lot alike.

With each step, a ballerina anticipates the next move. They’re able to see what is ahead of them and prepare accordingly. This type of thinking/preparation requires quick responses and precise flexibility.

The problem is that too many people utilizing social media are actually “Stumble-inas”, meaning they stumble to-and-fro, with no clue where they’re going next. Their reflexes are sluggish like most preteens. They respond poorly, if they respond at all.

Social media is a world of real time.  If you can’t manage your promotions in real time, you’re probably going to step on your customers toes.

Social media is a world where quick responses are necessary. On the other edge of the sword, if your social marketing strategy is a tad off, it happens quickly! If this is the case, you need to act in real time, just like social media, to fix the situation and get back on the right path.

There’s a common fallacy that custom, deeply involve tabs created by big, slow, and expensive agencies are better than flexible, white-label applications.

Well, you can go ahead and put that idea to rest.

Most of the time and energy spent developing these custom tabs is spent on designing the tab itself, neglecting the fact that CONTENT matters most. When you neglect to give your fans the content they need, your design doesn’t matter anymore. (especially when your promotion is late and way over budget)

Smart brand marketers work towards efficiency in their efforts.  Spending weeks or even months designing and planning a custom promotion is a gigantic waste of time and money when you look at the conversion rates compared to a quick hitting promotion that can be launched in minutes (and quickly updated) at a fraction of the cost. (psst, conversion rates are all that really matters anyway)

What is more important than making sure every single pixel is in perfect place at launch is the ability to change things quickly when necessary (after the promo is live).  You have  to offer the right content at the right moment, and the target is a moving so if you can’t adjust your sights in real time, you’re setting yourself up to miss.

That is why a Content Management System is so pivotal in improving your social media management.  Don’t fall into the trap of creating the “perfect” promotion only to realize that the cost of making changes ends up costing you more than you’re making from the promo in the first place.

We’ve created the North Social platform of Facebook apps with this idea in mind. The notion that you should be in charge. That you are in control of your own destiny on social media marketing. The concept that smart social media marketing is built around testing, measuring, and making FAST modifications until you get it right.

That’s why every single app comes with a content management system that gives brands a simple, quick and powerful way to engage your fans in the most relevant way possible. It allows you to change your design quickly and effectively when your strategy needs some tidying up.   It’s worth noting that not all off the shelf apps are the same.  Apps that  allow for extremely limited customization just aren’t gonna cut it.

Make sure your Facebook apps allow you just enough room to bring your idea to life, but not enough freedom to wander off the path and waste time designing every pixel so your promotion launches a month late.

Make sure you’re a Facebook ballerina.

It will help you enhance your personal social media experience as well as those with which you engage. No one enjoys watching “Stumble-ina,” fall flat on her face.

So, prepare readily.   Make sure you are ready to launch, and even more ready to make changes on the fly.

Respond quickly and appropriately. Utilize your mental flexibility and show your Ballet-esque poise in the process.

Be more flexible.  Be more social.

There have been rumblings that Facebook would roll out a new fan page layout for some time now, and at last, they’ve finally made it official. Custom profile tabs are being re-sized from 760 pixels to 520 pixels beginning the week of August 23, 2010.

More importantly, what does this mean to you?

Here’s the scoop:

1) This change will affect EVERY organization that has created a custom tab with a width greater than 520 pixels. Yep, it’s time to get out your app development utensils, cause you’ll have to go in and perform surgery on your FBML/HTML code to be compliant with the new width;

2) If you have yet to resize your custom tabs to be 520 pixels wide, they will unfortunately look like half-made sandwiches (with cut off or missing images and messaging). Hint: the impression you will be making on your current or prospective customers will most definitely be memorable, but not in a good way…;

In addition, much of the functionality on your custom FBML tabs will no longer be active because the page’s clickable buttons, interactive features, and links will no longer be accessible;

3) Individual page owners have a very strategic decision to make, as you don’t want the extra headache (and expense) that comes with re-building design assets and re-writing lengthy code;

4) If you’re one of the many graphic designers, interactive agencies, and social media consultants that manage multiple pages for a roster of clients, you’re most likely staring at an intimidating wave of work right now.

Take a deep breath, collect your thoughts, and then try to quickly figure out the most efficient and effective way to service your clients and get their pages corrected without having to overnight yourself a weeks worth of 5-Hour ENERGY shots (psst…we have some ideas here);

5) Lastly, the tighter width forces us all to re-think our page layout. Should you have more white space around your profile pic so it doesn’t take away from your tab designs? Does the compressed real estate allow you to better direct visitor eyeballs to engage with your custom tabs?

The opportunities to bring your brand to life with innovative Facebook page design are a plenty. Use this announced change to push yourself and your design team to think in new directions.

Here’s a solution:

ALL North Social Apps are ‘520 Friendly’.

Unlike other application development shops that have to re-build and re-size all of their applications, the entire suite of North Social apps were built to the 520 pixel spec from day one in anticipation of this change.

So if you currently use North Social apps to power your page, you have nothing to worry about. In fact, you probably haven’t even noticed this change in preview mode, because our apps already fit nice and snug into the new tab dimension.

But if you are sitting on the fence and still evaluating which social marketing platform is best for you, North Social is here to help. We already have the biggest and best-priced selection of ‘520 Friendly’ apps on the planet and will be dropping four additional apps in the coming weeks.

Still have questions? Just go to North Social, click on our support tab that is hanging out on the left side of our site and someone from our team will get back to you in a flash.

Cheers,

The Team at North Social

PS – If you care to read more about the change to 520 as well as the announcement regarding the elimination of the Boxes Tab, visit the Facebook Developer Blog

This just in, consumers are now spending more time on social networks than any other form of website, including porn.

The time is now to make the most of this newly emerging opportunity to connect with your consumer, to shape your brand, and develop long-term customer relationships at a fraction of ‘above the line’ media costs.

In 9 Ways Your Business Could Be Using Social Media, But Probably Isn’t, the team at North Social outlines all of the ways that you can leverage social media to achieve your branding and business goals.

Happy Reading.

Okay, we talk about this a lot but it bears repeating. No company or brand can be successful if the product or service offered isn’t first attractive to the target consumer. Then we look at four key questions for a winning product to answer; 1) Does it have the ability to scale to a large consumer market?; 2) Does it solve a significant consumer pain?; 3) Does it create the opportunity for additional sales revenues for follow on transactions (ongoing consumer relationship)?; and 4) Is it within the consumer’s comparative threshold for pricing?

Well, in the case of this new venture called Pneu Power Cues, we’d like to add a fifth question; 5) Does it scare the hell out of your competition (inside and outside of the pool hall). This website has quickly become a North team favorite. I’m pretty sure it’s limited productivity in the office for the past two days. Be sure to check out (and listen) to the Avatar Demo.

Walk into a pool hall packing this heat and they’re libel to call the cops or the writer’s at Saturday Night Live…