Facebook Replies Feature Introduced: Here Is the Buzz

Facebook Replies Feature Introduced: Here Is the Buzz
Twitter Tweet Leads to Two Firings, DDoS Attack, Copious Criticism
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): Comply If You Don’t Have To?
5 Tools to Research the Demographics of Your Twitter Followers
How Much Will the Sequester Cost Small Business Contractors?

Posted: 02 Apr 2013 02:00 AM PDT

Last week, Facebook introduced a new feature called Facebook Replies via an announcement on the company’s Facebook + Journalists page.

Facebook Replies allows your followers or customers to respond directly to specific comments on your page, creating individual conversation threads rather than a single chain of comments. What’s more, the feature will move the most interesting and engaging conversations to the top of your page for all future visitors to see.

In the official announcement, Vadim Lavrusik, Facebook’s journalism program manager wrote:

After months of testing, we have seen how the new feature can improve conversations and be used to start open dialogues with the community.

So far, Facebook Replies is being greeted with almost unanimous good will in the small business and marketing community.

However, like previous changes at Facebook, you won’t have any choice in the matter once Replies is completely implemented.

For now, you can switch on the Replies feature and switch it back off again, if you like, by simply going to the page administration panel, entering the Manage Permissions section and selecting the Replies prompt.

Facebook pages with 10,000 followers or more have already been given the Replies feature, and after July 10, 2013 when the feature is fully enabled, it will no longer be possible to opt out.

Responses to Facebook Replies

Responses to the new Facebook Replies have been positive.

An editorial on Venture Village, a news outlet covering digital innovation in Europe, said the new feature would allow brands in particular to hold more engaged conversations and also help limit the influence of posters who refuse to stay on topic or have shown themselves to be deliberate spammers.

Cynthia Boris at Marketing Pilgrim explained more specifically how this will work.

Boris said the new feature will improve the rank of conversation threads that are judged to include positive feedback based on the number of likes and replies. It will also improve the rank of threads in which friends of your Facebook page participate.

On the other hand, Boris explained, the Replies feature will down-rank conversations based on the number of spam reports in the thread or based on the involvement by participants who have been identified as frequent spammers.

Meanwhile, Charlie Warzel, deputy editor at BuzzFeed, speculates that the new Replies feature could be the beginning of a whole new Q & A service for the social media network, similar to Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything,” and would give brands and businesses a new opportunity to answer users’, customers’ and fans’ questions in a very different format.

Conclusion

In his post, Facebook’s Lavrusik offered examples of the new Replies feature now being used by brands like The Huffington Post and SportsCenter, to create everything from reader commentary about a recent photo of U.S. President Barack Obama and his family to an open Q&A for former NFL coach and player Herm Edwards.

Of course, adding more features means more complexity. Complexity requires more time and a bigger learning curve. As I pointed out recently, some small businesses are getting Facebook fatigue and rethinking how much effort they devote to the social network.

Think about how you might use Facebook Replies to build engagement and conversations around your brand.

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Twitter Tweet Leads to Two Firings, DDoS Attack, Copious Criticism

Posted: 01 Apr 2013 01:30 PM PDT

Imagine being in the same situation as Jim Franklin, the CEO of SendGrid Inc. One of your employees tweets a photograph along with a critical comment at a large software developer's conference known as PyCon, in California, where she was attending on behalf of the company. In the tweet she took issue with what she interpreted as sexually offensive comments.

What ensued was nothing short of a public battle on the Internet. Caught in the crossfire were two companies and at least two employees.

The Sequence of Events

The Send Grid employee, Adria Richards, was a “developer evangelist” tasked with creating goodwill for the company among the developer community. She snapped a photograph of attendees she overheard making comments she found offensive. She published it to the world on Twitter. Here’s the tweet that started the firestorm:

As a result of her tweet, one of the people in the photograph was fired by his employer, PlayHaven.

The technical community soon squared off into sides. What happens next is like something out of a movie — or perhaps a nightmare.

People begin making threats on Twitter and elsewhere against Richards (some of them vile, inexcusable threats of bodily harm). Soon SendGrid is facing a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, according to a report from The Denver Post. For a company like SendGrid, in the business of sending email on behalf of its customers, having your Internet capabilities disrupted is a business-threatening situation. It’s not just YOUR company that is affected, but your customers.

Based on Tweets posted by @SendGrid prior to the firing of Richards, the company's email servers were experiencing errors. At 9:10 a.m. local time, the company posted to Twitter that it had fired Richards, even including her handle in the Tweet.

Effective immediately, @adriarichards has been terminated from @sendgrid. For more details, please see ow.ly/jhW0y

— SendGrid (@SendGrid) March 21, 2013

At 3:10 p.m. local time, the company acknowledged the DDoS attack on its Twitter feed. One suggestion from The Denver Post report that hasn't been confirmed is that SendGrid customers, upset with Richards' reaction to the comments at the conference and subsequent blog post, had hacked the company's email system.

Either way, based on the replies to the Tweets that it had fired Richards and the 820 retweets of that one post, SendGrid got the kind of publicity that no CEO ever wants to get.

While some support SendGrid's decision, many took issue with SendGrid’s decision and the way it was announced, via Twitter. Some who decided to reply to the company's Tweet were extremely critical, such as this example:

@sendgridWow, I’d never want to work for you. Way to set back women in tech empowerment! (@adriarichards)

— Corey Leigh Latislaw (@corey_latislaw) March 21, 2013

SendGrid's CEO explained the decision to fire Richards on the company's website, in a post titled “A Difficult Situation”:

"To be clear, SendGrid supports the right to report inappropriate behavior, whenever and wherever it occurs. What we do not support was how she reported the conduct. Her decision to tweet the comments and photographs of the people who made the comments crossed the line. Publicly shaming the offenders — and bystanders — was not the appropriate way to handle the situation.

A SendGrid developer evangelist's responsibility is to build and strengthen our Developer Community across the globe. In light of the events over the last 48+ hours, it has become obvious that her actions have strongly divided the same community she was supposed to unite. As a result, she can no longer be effective in her role at SendGrid."

According to a post on the blog ButYoureaGirl.com, Richards — three days before she was fired — explained her side. She said that two male employees of another PyCon sponsor were sitting behind her near the end of the conference and while a speaker was on stage, they were making jokes about "forking" and "dongles".

These terms may be common to programmers, but were interpreted as offensive by Richards. That’s when she took the picture and tweeted it with a plea for staff at PyCon to intercede. According to tweets from the conference handle, Richards was thanked for notifying PyCon conference staff of the situation and told that it had been addressed.

Of course, as we now know, that was only the beginning….

As a CEO, What Can You Learn?

The situation that Franklin found himself in, and what has happened since, is enough to give any startup CEO or small business owner pause.

(1) Consider the personality of who represents your company in evangelist roles and on social media. While it’s clear Richards knew how to use social media, and definitely should not have to suffer sexually suggestive comments — a key issue was whether she exercised good judgment in how she handled the situation.

Do your employees think before they tweet? Someone who is outspoken may develop a following on social media easily, but that very outspoken nature may lead to communications that are not completely thought through. Most companies simply don’t want employees making statements that put them in the middle of ANY controversy.

(2) In the midst of a business-threatening crisis, like a DDoS attack, will you keep your head? One of the criticisms of SendGrid is that it publicly tweeted an announcement that it had fired someone. Most likely that was done to alleviate the DDoS attack and defuse the situation — or, as AllThingsD described it, SendGrid caved in and “sided with the mob.”

But even if you agree with SendGrid firing Richards, in hindsight was it handled the best way?

(3) Keep in mind that no matter what you do, chances are that once a situation has blown up into a major incident, you’ll likely be criticized. Are you prepared for that criticism?

On Twitter there were those who ran the gamut, from being supportive of SendGrid, to being critical of each party's decision to take each of their actions public: Richards for publicly shaming those she took issue with at the conference, and SendGrid for tweeting the firing of an employee.

@sendgrid @adriarichards Thank you for doing the right thing.

— Mike Beasley (@MikeBeas) March 21, 2013

@sendgrid I STRONGLY disagree w/ what @adriarichards did, this is ridiculous. If I ever mistakenly apply for a job at SendGrid, shoot me.

— Lukas Blakk (@lsblakk) March 21, 2013

What would you have done in the SendGrid CEO’s position? What would you have done in Richards’ situation?

The post Twitter Tweet Leads to Two Firings, DDoS Attack, Copious Criticism appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): Comply If You Don’t Have To?

Posted: 01 Apr 2013 11:00 AM PDT

newborn

Recently I was talking to a small business owner who was complaining about a client she works with. The client had been slow to respond and more difficult to work with because one of their employees was on medical leave, thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

The FMLA requires companies to allow workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to bond with a newborn, newly adopted or newly placed child; care for a seriously ill child, spouse or parent; or care for their own serious health condition without fear of losing their jobs.

Since it was signed into law in 1993, there have been amendments to allow workers with family in the military to take time away from work to deal with situations arising from an immediate family member's foreign deployment, and up to 26 weeks of leave to care for a seriously ill or injured family member who is in military service.

Ironically, the client my friend was complaining about was a big company, which is why it was affected by the FMLA. Although many small businesses complain about the FMLA, in reality, not many small businesses are affected, since the law doesn’t apply to companies that have 50 or fewer employees.

But even if the FMLA doesn't apply to your business, should you follow it – or something like it?

I would argue yes. A Department of Labor survey released earlier this year, Family and Medical Leave Act in 2012: Final Report, found that the law has had a positive effect on employees and their families without imposing an undue burden on employers.

Overall, the poll found, employers generally find it easy to comply with the FMLA and employees rarely abuse it. A whopping 91 percent of employers say complying with the FMLA has either no noticeable effect or a positive effect on business operations such as employee absenteeism, turnover and morale. And 90 percent of workers return to their jobs after FMLA leave—so the worry that employees will go on leave, then leave their jobs, is largely unfounded.

A Washington Post article pointed out that The United States is one of just three out of 177 nations that doesn't require paid parental leave, and spotlighted some small businesses that go above and beyond to offer medical leave to employees in need, even though they aren't required to under FMLA.

If you want to offer your employees unpaid leave, here are some suggestions:

Cross-train your employees so they can cover each other's jobs. Doing this has a lot of benefits even if no one at your business ever needs to take medical leave. It makes handling minor sick days and vacations easier. It also helps your company deal with unexpected surges in demand without having to hire new workers or temps.
Consider alternatives. If employees don't need total medical leave, think about whether an alternative such as working part-time or working from home could meet both your business and your employees’ needs.
Get legal advice. When you offer leave to one person, make sure you aren't setting a precedent that will cause problems later on. Check with an attorney to set a policy you can live with.

It's my belief that if you meet your employees halfway, they'll meet you halfway – and that if you can help an employee out during a trying time in their life, you'll have their eternal gratitude and loyalty.

It's simply the human thing to do.

Newborn Photo via Shutterstock

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5 Tools to Research the Demographics of Your Twitter Followers

Posted: 01 Apr 2013 08:00 AM PDT

Many of us find ourselves with a bit of a problem. We have plenty of followers on our Twitter accounts, and yet we are getting next to no retweets, mentions or overall benefits from those followers.

Because of that, many people think that the whole Twitter marketing thing is all hype. After all, they seem to be doing everything right but they have nothing to show for it except for a lot of wasted time, and more aggravation than it was worth.

Of course, interaction is not easy to build. Many people give up earlier than achieving it. One of the first steps to take: Learn more about your followers.

For those who are experiencing the same problem as I described above, below are some great apps that will let you get the proper stats to start engaging your followers in a real and dynamic way.

Research Your Twitter Followers’ Demographics

1. SalesForce Marketing Cloud

This is a full marketing service aimed at professionals who need something a little more extensive than the average analytics app. It has a full social listening feature that will help to break down your overall Twitter follower use, as well as all data coming from your profiles.

Find out the conversation going on surrounding your brand, then find context within those conversations for better targeting of your marketing campaign. Additionally, SalesForce Marketing Cloud also has social content, engagement, social ads, workflow and automation, measurement, and packages for basic, professional, corporate and enterprise use.

2. SoDash

Another large social monitoring app, you can find out who is following you and how to engage them, all while looking after the competition and generating leads. Their brand management tool is incredibly easy to use, and everything is put within a single dashboard for you to view at any time.

It is all based on machine learning and smart tagging, which gives it a unique format that has been boosting its popularity over the last couple of months.

3. Birdsong

Do a quick analytics search of any social media profile and find out exactly what conversations your brand is generating. That includes through followers, who you can target more efficiently while still improving your visibility for reaching out to new demographics.

This tool will connect with third parties to get a more complete picture of your social media use and reach. Then, it will tell you what you need to do to be more effective and efficient, all through an easy to read pie chart. There are four different tool options: agencies, brands, journalists and small businesses.

4. KnowYourFollowers

Break down your followers into just the information you need to know. Get stats on country, U.S. state, gender, interests, who else they follow, their jobs and more. All of these demographics are broken down by both numbers and percentages, so you can see how to better customize your content to appeal to those segments.

You can even find out their marital status, number of children, income levels, education…everything you could possibly need. There is a small map showing the city locations of followers, though it isn’t that extensive in that regard.

5. Ad.ly

Target your ads by follower using celebrity endorsement as the driving force. This advertising service works by leveraging the content that your followers share or read in order to optimize results. It will use ads designed specifically around their chosen celebrities to create a conversation between the celeb and the user.

Your brand’s visibility will be the end result. Very cool idea, and very effective. They have the largest digital celebrity network, as well.

Do you have a tool that should be on this list?

Image Credit: 1

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How Much Will the Sequester Cost Small Business Contractors?

Posted: 01 Apr 2013 05:00 AM PDT

sequester

The sequester is here.

Over the next seven months, federal agencies need to trim their budgets by $85 billion. How much will this budget cutting exercise cost small business contractors?

Coming up with a precise estimate isn't easy. Only some of the federal budget cuts will come from spending on outside contractors. And the cuts to contracts will be borne mostly by big businesses since that's who gets most of the federal contracting dollars. More importantly, only some of these budget cuts will affect cash disbursements.

My first thought was to look at the numbers coming out of Washington. But after examining several of them, I am convinced that they aren't plausible, perhaps because they are politically motivated. For example, the Democrats on the House Small Business Committee released a report estimating that small companies will lose $7.6 billion worth of federal contracts because of the sequester. That's a whopping 18 percent of what the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates will be the decline in total federal cash disbursements this year.

My calculations – imprecise as they are – suggest that the effect on small business revenues will be much smaller for three reasons.

First, the federal government will only cut this year's cash disbursements by half of the amount that budgets will be trimmed. As the CBO explains:

The $85 billion represents the reduction in budgetary resources available to government agencies this year as a result of the sequestration. But not all of that money would have been spent in this fiscal year in the absence of the sequestration: Some would have been used to enter into contracts to buy goods or services to be provided and paid for next year or in subsequent years.

Second, contracting accounts for only about 15 percent of federal spending, numbers from a recent CNBC report suggest. Slicing 15 percent from the $42 billion in cash disbursements amounts to only $6.3 billion cut from federal contractors.

While agency directors might prefer to cut contracting by more, their hands are tied. Not only do federal officials lack discretion when it comes to making cuts under the sequester, but also much of what is being spent this year was contractually agreed upon in previous years.

Third, most federal contracting dollars go to big companies. In 2011 – the latest year data are available – only about 22 percent of the money Washington paid to contractors went to small businesses, the Small Business Administration reports. Assuming small and big business contractors take a proportional hit to their revenues, small business contractors will take in about $1.4 billion less in revenue this year.

That's not a lot. It's approximately 0.1 percent of the small business sector's annual revenues, given the latest Census Bureau revenue estimates.

If you are a small business owner whose business relies heavily on small business contracting, the sequester will hurt your revenues. But for the small business sector overall, the sequester's impact on revenues will be slight.

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