I moved my blog!!

Check me out now at http://www.marissasweazy.com - the new site will have all the old content along with all the new content too! You’ll be getting your daily dose of me in a much better place!

LinkedIn Interfacing with Twitter

Yesterday LinkedIn announced their partnership with Twitter via a blog post. The blog was super informative. At first, I was a little skeptical. Do I really want to mix my linkedin and Twitter accounts?? I was a little unsure. I am not a fan of the linking of Facebook and Twitter accounts because I find it confusing. Folks that are on FB but not twitter will see my status update as, “Hitting up Legal’s with @asweazy” and might be confused as to what I’m talking about. This might also throw FB users, like my mom, for a real loop,”RT @asweazy did you enter the #riovegas contest?” So, I’ve never been a fan of linking per say. I do have the Twitter box on my Facebook..but it is not linked to my status.

As I was reading through the blog post, something caught my eye that I liked a lot!

2. On Twitter

As a professional online and in the real world, you’ll often find articles or think of ideas that would be useful to share with your Twitter followers and your LinkedIn connections. It’s about sparking interesting conversations. Now you can share from anywhere. As part of the setup process, you can choose to either send all your tweets or select tweets from Twitter back to LinkedIn as a status update.

Share tweets as your LinkedIn status

If you pick the latter, don’t forget to add the #li or #in hashtag to every relevant tweet you’d like to send back to LinkedIn. Here’s a good example:

Include #in with any tweet to post as your LinkedIn status

You can tell LinkedIn/Twitter to just pull certain tweets. I thought this was awesome! Now, if I actually remember to include the hashtag #in it will be a miracle but I like having the option and will I link my accounts now, yes! Now, some social media expert or facebook guru could be reading this post going, “hey idiot, you can do the same thing with Facebook/Twitter..” this maybe the case but I’m not aware of it. Feel free to leave a comment correcting me if I’ve got the facts wrong somewhere along the line. I always like hearing from people.  And if you have thoughts on the new relationship with Twitter and LinkedIn feel free to post those as well!

Facebook – why do you have to make things difficult??

So last week, Facebook unveiled their new terms in regards to contests, promotions, and sweepstakes. To sum up the changes in a few words — the little guys are screwed. While I strongly suggest that everyone read over the new rules carefully, Facebook is basically saying unless you have a huge marketing budget don’t even think of using facebook for your contest.

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Direct from the new terms:

“Below we have provided a few examples to help you understand how to apply Section 3 of the Promotion Guidelines.

You cannot: Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload.

You can: Use a third party application to condition entry to the promotion upon a user providing content. For example, you may administer a photo contest whereby a user uploads a photo through a third-party application to enter the contest.

You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.

You can: Only allow fans of your Page to access the tab that contains the third-party application for the promotion.

You cannot: Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.

You can: Collect an address or email through the third-party application for the promotion in order to contact the winner by email or standard mail.

You cannot: Instruct people (in the rules or elsewhere) to sign up for a Facebook account before they enter the promotion.

You can: Instruct users to visit the third-party application to enter the promotion (as described in Section 3.4(i)). Since users must have a Facebook account in order to access an application on the Facebook Platform, if you give this instruction, they will be prompted to sign up for a Facebook account if they do not already have one.”

Also from the terms, here is more on the approval:

“You may not administer any promotion through Facebook, except that you may administer a promotion through the Facebook Platform with our prior written approval. Such written approval may be obtained only through an account representative at Facebook. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the approval process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative. If we provide you such approval, you agree to the following:

3.4 You will not mention “Facebook” in the promotion’s rules except in the following ways: (i) “You can enter the Promotion through the [application name] application on the Facebook Platform. You can also find the application on the [tab name] tab on the [Page name] Page on Facebook.”; (ii) to fulfill your obligations under Section 3.7.

3.6 You must submit materials for any promotion you plan on administering through the Facebook Platform to your account representative for our review and approval at least 7 days prior to the start date of such promotion. Promotions not approved in writing within such time period will be deemed unapproved.”

 

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To break this down even further, there are a few additional points I would like to make.

First, if you click through to the “contact us” form in the new terms it takes you to the advertising page. Once there if you select that you will be spending less than $10,000 it basically says you are better off to do it yourself. Which means you aren’t getting an account rep. So in the occurance that a small biz or non-profit can write their own application for the contest you will never be able to use it because you’ll never be able to get approval. What are you going to pick up the phone, “hello, Facebook, I’d like to get approval for a contest. Um, no, I don’t plan on advertising. hello? hello??”

Second, I’ve heard that certain third-party application companies like Wildfire and Votigo are pre-approved. Meaning any contest they run for a client is pre-approved. Now, if you take a look at either of these businesses websites you will see they have clients such as Pepsi, Sony, At&T, Victoria’s Secret, Kohls, etc. These big box businesses are spending millions of dollars on their marketing budgets. Small businesses, mom & pop’s, non-profits don’t have these resources. What is going to be done to help the little guy? and what cut of the profits is Facebook making from Votigo and Wildfire. I know that promotions with these application companies start at $5,000. Who wants to spend $5,000 to giveaway a $100 gift card??

While I understand that the free ride had to come to end sometime, it just sucks. I’ll just have to find another way to get around this.

My first lap-band fill

I went for my weigh-in today at the Brigham with the good Dr. Robinson. I lost 7 more lbs…but in 2 months. That brings my grand total to 56 lbs in just under 6 months. I knew it was time for my first fill. I’ve been able to tell over the last couple of weeks that I am able to eat much much more than I first was. While, I’m not necessarily eating bad food, I’m just eating larger quantities. Dr. Robinson wasn’t convinced I needed a fill since I did loose another 7 lbs..but I felt that it really was time. I mean who gets lap-band surgery and never gets a fill?? So, I got it AND I have the video to show just how easy it really was…see below.