Live Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg

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Today, Mark Zuckerberg hosted the second live community Q&A at Facebook Headquarters. You could tell from the start, Mark is a great leader that seeks the input and open communication of the community Facebook serves and his employees. Mark described that every Friday at Facebook HQ, there is a town hall where employees are able to voice their own questions and opinions. He saw such a value in these town halls, that he wanted to open this type of forum to the broader audience of the whole Facebook community to gain deeper insight. During the Q&A session, there was input from his employees throughout. Mark made sure to point out the importance of this dynamic at Facebook. He stated that he wanted his employees to stand up and interrupt if he misspoke and that he nurtured a culture of openness.

What was also clear is that Facebook's mission to share and make the world more open and connected is very much at the heart of every product and initiative they are building. Mark answered questions about the role Facebook plays in cultural and social issues, news, diversity, privacy, and economic disparity. So basically, this Q&A session was a cake walk.

Here are some of the points Mark made that show all the possibilities social media gives us:

  • Diversity of opinion: News channels and newspapers only provide a few kinds of voices. Social media offers every single person a channel to broadcast their voice and share what is important to them. "On Facebook you are listening to a broader set of opinions than from any other type of media that you would have consumed."- Mark Zuckerberg
  • Elections: Gives elected officials the ability to voice their position and interact with the community in a way that can't be twisted by intermediaries. It was recently used as the primary platform in the political elections in India and Indonesia for this very reason.
  • Safety Check: This is one of Facebook's newer products. It was recently activated in the Philippines. During a natural disaster, it gives people the ability to notify their loved ones that they are safe.
  • Connecting to others: Steve Jobs has famously called computers bicycles for minds. Just as computers expand the capacity for thought, social media extends the capacity for maintaining relationships.

I was also really impressed with the many philanthropy efforts of Facebook. Mark said that he wants his employees to feel a sense of mission, "We want to be good citizens in the community." Every employee at Facebook is empowered to help non-profits and small businesses with programs such as FBStart and Non-Profits on Facebook. These options provide many free tools and ads to help these businesses become successful. Each Facebook office around the world has efforts to help their local communities.

Fitting right in with Computer Science Education Week, Mark shares his view on coding: "Coding is one of the few disciplines in the world where you can sit down, write some code for a few hours and come away with something real that real people can use and you've actually produced something concrete and valuable for the world." "If you can code, you have the power to just sit down and make something and no one can stop you from doing that. That is very different from a lot of other disciplines that other people train in. I think it's massively empowering."- Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook has truly become ubiquitous in our daily lives. Thank you Mark Zuckerberg for the fantastic Q&A session today! I believe you are helping shape the world for the better.

Watch the entire Live Q&A here 

You Can Now Facebook Search To Your Heart's Content

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How many times have you wished you could quickly search for that one thing your friend posted months ago, but instead you had to scroll and scroll through your timeline to find it? Scroll no more! Today VP of Search at Facebook, Tom Stocky posted some awesome news. Facebook has taken the feedback from the graph search beta and launched updated search capabilities.

That's right! You can now search for past posts in all the land (well.. Facebook land). Also, when you keyword search, you will be able to see up your friend's posts first.

Click here to check out all the new search features and functionality!

Why YOU Should Be On Twitter

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If there is one thing I am super excited about on social media, it is Twitter. However, I didn't always feel this way. I'll admit, I was far from an early adopter of this platform.  I didn't get it, I didn't see the value of keeping up with another form of social media. The true value didn't hit me until I began really actively using it during Infusionsoft's InfusionCon 2013. My magical moment hit me when Mari Smith replied to one of my tweets:

Mari is someone I am a fan of and have a deep respect for in the social business space. I felt like jumping up and down on my bed like a three year old when I saw this. It was then I realized that Twitter was a very unique platform when it came to building relationships with others. It allows people to engage with others without even needing a "friend request." Just think of what your brand can do for your followers through truly engaging with them on Twitter. You can give them all that feeling!  Twitter done right is a two way conversation. The magic happens when engagement happens.

During this InfusionCon 2013, I was part of the social media team that was responsible for reporting the events of the conference as well as engaging with attendees over Instagram, Tout and Twitter through the brand handles. I got the feeling that the more we engaged with the event attendees, the better experience they had with the event as a whole. Twitter was the main platform attendees used to interact. They were able to share their experience with those that weren't there and help them experience the event as well. All with a hashtag, you could re-live an entire event! How awesome is that!!!

From a brand standpoint, Twitter affords you the opportunity to extend your influence. If you have a presence on Twitter, it allows you to jump into conversations so that you can position yourself as the expert to those who might not know who your brand is yet. It gives customers the chance to share the things they are excited about, their needs and yes, their grievances with you. From talking to hundreds of small business owners, this seems to be one of the biggest fears with social media. They believe that social profiles can potentially open up complaints. Believe me, they will tweet about you anyways. You want it to be on your turf and you will want to know about it. Plus, there is such an amazing feeling that comes from being able to turn someone's bad experience into a good one or at the very least make sure no one else has the same experience.

I hope I have convinced you that you should be on Twitter. Here are some quick getting started tips:

  • If you haven't already, sign up for Twitter here: https://twitter.com/signup and choose your handle
  • Make sure you edit your bio section. Add details that explain why someone would want to follow you and what your tweets will likely be about.
  • Don't be an egg, add a profile photo. Profile photos put a more personal touch and help your tweets stand out in the timeline. They also build more confidence that you are not just a SPAM account.
  • You have 140 characters to share your ideas with.
    • #Hashtags= Categories. Use hashtags to help other Twitter users find your content and to search for content that might be interesting to you.
      • Don't be a hashtag abuser. 2-3 hashtags per tweet is plenty!
      • Use hashtags that make sense with the content you tweet about
  • Start following people! I suggest searching for those who are in your industry, your customers, and those who share your common interests. This way, each time you access Twitter, your timeline is filled with interesting content.