Facebook ads were never that really hard to create in the first place, but now they’ve taken most of the brain work out of it for you.  Now, when you go to create a facebook ad and input your destination URL (the place where the user will go when the click on the ad) it will auto suggest an ad title, 135 characters of copy, and a corresponding image.  It pulls this information from the meta description, page title and available images on the corresponding page.

The only problem I see with this is that if a user is going this route to create their ads, they’ve probably not put much time into naming their pages or doing any SEO work behind the scenes in terms of adding meta descriptions, ALT tags, etc.

Also, don’t forget to add your call-to-action!

Have you tried this?  Did  you even make it this far in the article?  If so, click the like button below.

via Marketing Pilgrim

Instantly Create Facebook Ads Without Burning Those Brain Cells is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

If you had to choose just one, would you rather give up Facebook or Twitter?  Which one has more value in your life? Which one has more staying power? Discuss.

Question Of The Day is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

ReclaimPrivacy.org has a handy bookmarklet that shows which potentially insecure and privacy-invading settings are enabled on your Facebook account when you click it.

ReclaimPrivacy’s bookmarklet focuses on just a few key areas where Facebook can share information with the public—having your contacts, connections, and tagged photos exposed to the public, as well as allowing your friends to accidentally expose that information themselves. It also looks at your relationship with Facebook’s personalization, applications, and other aspects to see what Facebook and independent developers can find out about you, then rates your exposure level in simple Good, Caution, or Insecure levels, along with offering links to change those settings.

ReclaimPrivacy Bookmarklet Rates Your Facebook Exposure Levels.

Threat Level Orange. Find Out How Much of Your Life is Exposed on Facebook. is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

This ragtag group of dudes below may look like the WB’s version of Entourage, but actually they’ve set out to take down facebook and return privacy controls back to the users.  Their idea is simple, but they need your help.

How it works and their vision -  Instead of you posting an update to facebook and then facebook pushing that status to all of your friends (centralized solution), they believe social networks should act more like real people do. They believe you should be able to send out a status and directly interact with your friends on your own, without having to give facebook access to all your personal information.  They call it Diaspora and it’s essentially a decentralized hub that gives you full control over your identity online.  They believe offering this service will be helpful to non-technical users who are worried about their data and privacy online.

How you can help – Go check out their page at Kickstarter and make a pledge.  You’ll only be charged if the project actually gets fully-funded, but as a backer you actually get a piece of the project as well.  A pledge of $5 gets you a version of the software that you can run as your own server.  Of course, bigger donations get you greater access to the project and more freebies.  Signup is simple and donations work with your existing Amazon account.  You’ve really got nothing to lose…except your privacy. Support Diaspora.

Diaspora: Personally Controlled, Do-It-All, Distributed Open-Source Social Network from daniel grippi on Vimeo.

Take Back Your Data. Be A Backer For Diaspora. is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

• Facebook “likes” are starting to show up in searches.  Before you know it, Facebook will unleash it’s search engine and “likes” will be the new pagerank.
• Cleaver ways to use Dropbox.  Even use it to host your website.
• Pepsi is launching a location-based loyalty program in mid-May called Pepsi Loot.  Check-in at a restaurant or establishment that serves Pepsi through their mobile app and earn rewards towards free music, behind-the-scenes content and special offers.
• How to add a retweet anywhere button to your WordPress site. *See an example of this below this post.
• RUMOR:  Google could reveal details about their TV project during their I/O conference on May 18.

I Read These Articles, You Should Too is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Howdy, it’s Bob.  Remember me? I used to be pretty active on this blog, but then lots of things in life started making things crazy.  I’m not complaining, because I’m happy to announce that I’m getting married this August and I’ve also taken a new job.  The job part is what brings me to the topic of this post – getting your foot in the door at companies which may otherwise not give you the time of day.

Working and doing a lot of online marketing, you find some loopholes, but there are also some drawbacks.  The bad thing is that its hard to actually openly search for a job while you have an active blog and social profile.  The things you rely on heavily to communicate with and get the word out, can’t be used as they should when lots of ‘different’ people could potentially be reading it.  You almost have to do it ninja style, sending cryptic DM’s and communicating under the dark of night.

Thinking to myself, I wondered how could I show off my skills to those few ‘dream job’ type of companies. I didn’t really expect I’d get the job or even take it if I did, but it was more an experiment on my own to see if it would work.  So here’s how I got interviews with 2 of the most influential web companies in the country.*

You’ll kick yourself for not thinking of this yourself and come to find out, I’m not even one of the first.  But all I did was buy a couple of Facebook ads and directly target folks that worked at those few companies I was interested in. In the ad, I mentioned who I was, my specialties and if they could introduce me to a hiring manager.  The ad featured my picture which led the user to my resume** located on my site. Boom, I had 2 calls within 4 days for a grand total of $12 spent and less than a hours worth of time.

If you’re new to buying Facebook ads, check out my 101 presentation from Social Camp

That’s it. I wish there was some magic formula to it.  Have you seen creative resumes or ways that people are getting interviews? If so, share them in the comments below.  I promise I’ll work on posting more often too.
______________________________________________________________________________________

*I’ll keep their names a secret, but the first interview came from a company whose name combines a utility that a man shaves his face with and an aquatic animal and the second interview came from a company which combines a word that defines a market consisting of a street lined with shops common in the Middle East with the the distinctive quality or pitch/condition of a person’s speech.

**Much love for all the time and hard work that Jay put in on my comic.  He took my vision and blew the doors off of it.  With his help and a little time with Comic Life, my resume really stood out in a crowd.

Hack Your Next Job Interview is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

PHP, Web and IT Stuff has a great tutorial on tracking Facebook Fan Page activity with Google Analytics.   Yes, Facebook does have Insights tracking that any page administrator can access, but it only shows you data for fans and sometimes you’ll see a couple days delay in getting that information.

In short, here’s how they did it.  Facebook pages will limit the amount of javascript that can be run on a page.  Google Analytics requires javascript to work correctly.  As a workaround, they’ve created a tool that allows you to embed your Google Analytics code in an image instead of using the standard javascript.  You’ll have to create an image for each page you’d like to track.  For example, if you have separate custom tabs set up on Facebook to display your products,  talk about your services and give users an option to contact you, you’ll need 3 different image tag codes.

To get started, set up a Google Analytics account or add a new website profile if you already have one.  Find your account number within the tracking code they provide.  It will look something like UA-1234567-74. Finally, use their tool to create a custom image tag and then place it at the bottom of each page you need to track. FBML is a great tool to add HTML to your Facebook page.

If you’re super-cool, you can even host the code yourself.  Hosting it yourself gives you the ability to see traffic to and from your site to your Facebook page.

The biggest benefits to using Google Analytics over the package that Facebook provides is the ability to track all users, not just the few that have become fans.  Google also gives you all of the other functions like time on site, keyword tracking and map overlays.

Google Analytics For Your Facebook Fan Page is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Everyone and their brother seem to be doing online marketing and social media predictions for 2010 so I thought I’d dust off my crystal ball and take a deep look into what I think the new year will hold. In the spirit of your sanity I kept each prediction to 140 characters or less (I thought this was a novel idea, but it looks like TrendSpotting beat me to it). Let’s hope these are better than last year.

My predictions

• Everybody gets their own iPhone and mobile app.  Sites like MotherApp, GameSalad and Swebapps make it too easy.
• Apple, Facebook or Google will open up and allow publishers to do micro transactions across web with ID & buy digital content everywhere.
• Google Nexus One phone = game changer.  Google will disrupt wireless industry, create new business model for cell phones.
• Buzzword of the year will be “experience.” Companies figure how to create engaging touches  &  inject customer love in every level/dept.
• ^^ above companies forced to create small hybrid groups of PR, Mkting, HR & Cust Service focused on set of clients rather than specific duty
• Adwords gets a 2010 upgrade – smarter, better customer choice, maybe even image ads in results…gasp.  Advertisers forced to get better.
• Advertisers & Marketers will put QR codes everywhere – ads, websites, physical products. Objects will all be connected & enhance experience.
• SEO gets disrupted because of personalized search and Google Caffeine.  Folks who dominated will whine as they lose position.

Predictions from friends

• @clayhebert - Consolidation, mainstream adoption, snake oil exposed, budgets shift from trad to digital, real experts valued & rewarded
• @buckdaddy – Whrrl beat FourSqaure in location based social network. FTC rules will hurt 1 person badly like w music piracy. Available SM jobs will grow
• @jtrigsby – Multiple feeds will converge and enable filtering to produce a more usable life stream of information. Some are doing it now, look for more
• @skippytpe – Social games continue further into meat-space. Mobile media consumption continues to outstrip capacity. Revolution: there’s an app for that.
• @jtrigsby – Number of followers will become less important than quality of friends. Numbers will still be important though, so maybe friend tiers?

Give me your thoughts/predictions/wishes in the comments below.

2010 Digital Marketing Predictions in 140 Characters is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

According to a recent report by ViTrue, the best time to get a response from your fans is on Tuesday.  Click through rates peaked at nearly 10% on Tuesday and actually hovered around the same percentage on both Monday and Wednesday as well.

The worst time?  Their study suggests that click-through-rates plummet on Friday and Saturday with less than a 3% CTR.

The Best Time To Post To Your Facebook Fan Page is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Facebook let it all hang out to a select group of members to test their new search interface.  The system would allow members to search their news feed for recent updates, photos, links, videos and notes being shared on friends’ profiles and fan Pages. Users who have made their profile and content available to anyone will also be searchable.

SEOMoz yammers it up during Whiteboard Friday to talk about visualization.  I think visualization is one of those new and sexy fields that you’ll hear more and more about in the near future.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Visualization from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

12seconds is updating their iPhone app to take advantage of the new OS 3.0.  The app, which should be available soon, will allow you to send short video messages directly to your friends via twitter.

Back ‘dat thing up and pick up some great tips about landing page design through CopyBlogger’s Landing Page Makeover.  Their most recent tutorial covers CarsHelpingAmerica.org.

If you’re a fan of Indie Rock, I highly recommend The Veils – Sun Gangs. Rock out this weekend.

Facebook Universal Search, Visualization, 12Seconds and Landing Page Design is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Facebook Updates Payment Terms In Preparation For Payment Platform Launch.

Facebook has decided to post its payment terms to the Facbeook Governance page and is open for user feedback for the next 3 days.

While the initial payment system on Facebook will only be a beta test, the company is expected to finalize testing and roll out an official payment API in the coming months.

Could this finally signal the payment system that Facebook promised us back 2007?  I can already see developers salivating.

Facebook Payment Platform Coming? is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Just a thought.  Ads in social networks have such poor response because they target users when they’re not in the right frame of mind.  While tagging photos and making wall posts in facebook they’re in the socializing frame of mind, not in a browsing/shopping mindset.

Today’s smart marketers should be focusing on who saw their ad and how they engaged with it instead of simply the number of people that saw it.  I believe this change in attitude represents a huge challenge for social networks.  Instead of falling back on the same (old) standard advertising model, how can social networks better capitalize on their huge base of user data and interactions to deliver greater value to their advertisers? That is, if you think social networks can be monetized.

Advertising on Social Networks Needs Work is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Come out to Social Camp Memphis on Saturday, March 7th at the Memphis College of Art.  Social Camp is all about social media, social networking and the community of people behind it.  Learn about Twitter, Facebook, using new media in business and much more.  For more information or to register, check out the official Social Camp Memphis site.

Can’t get enough of Tommy?  Check out the Tommy the Toilet outtakes.

Tommy the Toilet Invites You To Social Camp Memphis is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Originally posted Jan 10, 2009

Another brilliant online marketing campaign courtesy of Burger King.  Burger King Sacrifice wants you to ‘unfriend’ 10 people on facebook in exchange for a Whopper. (http://www.whoppersacrifice.com/)

When you usually remove someone from your friends on facebook they are not typically notified. Unfriend them via Burger King’s application and it notifies your ex-friends that they have been delisted. To add insult to injury, it also reveals that it only took a free Whopper coupon to persuade you to make that decision. I’m lovin’ it….err, is that McDonalds?

Courtesy of @rachiley

Burger King Sacrifice Wants You to Unfriend 10 People in Exchange for Whopper is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Last week, I read an article from Inside Facebook describing the most popular facebook applications in terms of active users and user engagement.  This got me thinking; what are those elements that makeup a successful facebook or social media application? What should someone consider and incorporate into their application to really engage and encourage repeat visitors? Here are my thoughts.

A successful Facebook application should:

• Complement and build on features already based in the site – SuperPoke, FunWall and the like do a great job of filling in the gaps and adding features to facebook’s existing functionality.
• Solve a problem – It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but successful applications do a good job of solving small problems.  Good examples of this are BigPhoto, Birthday Calendar and Social Profiles (TagK).
  
• Simple/Low learning curve – Users should have a sense of what the application does without much thought.
• Allow users to create, build and shape the content to fit their desired environment – Animoto Videos does an excellent job of this.  They simply give the user the tools to create and build off of the content the user already has.
• Requires a second person to be successful – Facebook already does a good job of this in general, but applications like Scrabulous that almost require a 2nd person to play can really help to exponentially grow an application.
• Competitive element - Bragging rights are what its all about.  Users want their achievements blasted across their network.  They want to be the best and be recognized for it. See Bowling Buddies.
  
• Provides value to user – Work to answer what’s in it for them?

What do you think a successful facebook application should have?  What are the applications that you think do a good job of it?  Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Creating a Successful Facebook Application is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!