This means that over 300,000,000(!) people must cast a vote for the changes to be binding.

Additionally; YOU ONLY HAVE 5 DAYS TO VOTE! (As of 12/5/12. Voting will end on December 10 at 12:00PM (PST) / December 10 at 8:00PM  (GMT).).

300,000,000 people in 5 Days!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE: 

I have serious reservations about this process and find it significantly flawed. Reaching the required 300,000,000 votes in 5 days (and making sure people understand what they’re voting for) is not realistic and probably not possible. After all, two years of nearly continuous campaigning resulted in less than half that number voting in the U.S. Presidential Election and what was/is at stake in that election absolutely dwarfs what you’re voting for on Facebook.

However…

I absolutely encourage you to understand the issues (see links below) AND VOTE!

Why?

While I do not believe that Facebook will honor the results (Facebook has a long history of deceiving their users and there is no reason to believe that this will change), I could be wrong (and hope I am).

So, please click on the links below. Learn about the issues, AND VOTE!

And Good Luck to us all (PLEASE Share).

LINKS:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-site-governance/responding-to-your-feedback/10152321231735301 (Be sure to click on “Explanation of Changes” so you understand what Facebook claims to be up to.)

VOTE HERE: https://apps.facebook.com/fbsitegovernance

btw; In an earlier post I mentioned that a new version of this website is coming. I just wanted to let you know that it’s still in the works, but it is on its way. The delays are simply due to my workload. Clients come first.

I’ve invested in new tools, such as the new MacBook Pro I’m writing this post on, and I’ve realigned my personal and professional strategies to allow me to work faster and more efficiently than ever before. I’ve got a new website coming (it’s almost done!) and I’m launching several new initiatives that I’ll be very excited to share with you in the very near future.

While I’ll be discussing things in greater detail in future posts, I will also be posting much more frequently this year on a variety of topics including the following:

• Social Media &Interactive Marketing
• Tools (app reviews and “How To” posts)
• eBooks (I’ve got several coming out soon)
• Events (speaking and training seminars)
• Writing (both screenwriting and fiction that I’ll be sharing)
• And much more!

I hope you will join me this year, both here and via my social media outlets; Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ (which will be a major focus for me in 2012). If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing, sharing and helping you in 2012 and beyond!

And Happy New Year!

The Class

On November 10, 2011, I had the pleasure of presenting “Create & Deploy Your Own QR Codes” to a small class for the Center City Proprietor’s Association in Philadelphia. It was a really fun giving this presentation. If you’d like to see it, can download it from Slideshare.com (for some reason, embedding isn’t working – sorry about that).

I may repeat this class in a few weeks as a webinar. Please let me know if you’re interested by commenting on this post.

Also, I added a QR Code Campaign Worksheet at the end of the presentation which should help you organize you campaigns when using QR Codes. If you have any questions about QR Codes, the presentation or the services I offer, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks to the CCPA, Audrey Julienne and the attendees.

Enjoy!

Scan (or click) on this Code to Register

You’ve heard about them. You’ve seen them around. They’re popping up everywhere. QR Codes are the latest rage, but what are they? How do you create them? How do you use them? What are they good for? Join me on Thursday, November 10, 2011 (12:00 – 1:30 PM) at the law firm of Caesar, Rivise, Bernstein, Cohen & Pokotilow, Ltd. (1635 Market Street, 7 Penn Center, 11th Floor, Philadelphia) and you’ll learn everything you need to know about QR Codes, including:

• What are QR Codes?
• History of QR Codes
• QR Anatomy
• Types of QR Codes
• How to Make a QR Code
• How to Read a QR Code
• How to Use QR Codes
• Measuring Success
• Examples & Best Practices
• How NOT to use
• Security Risks
• The Future

So, come join me. It’ll be a great time.

Click here to register (or scan the QR Code in this post).

See you there!

In this post, I interviewed Jonathan Maberry, author of such zombie brain-feasts as Patient Zero, Rot & Ruin, Dust & Decay, Dead of Night and Wanted Undead or Alive. Note that there are two versions. Tweeting with Zombies is a short version that focuses on Twitter and was posted to twitip.com. The longer, extended post, Of Zombies & Social Media, is on Addicted to Social Media.

Enjoy!

It's all good. I promise.

Hi there! I’m not a fan of announcing that I’m going to be making an announcement, but since you’re here anyway, I will.  BIG changes are coming very shortly. Please keep an eye out for them. I’ll let you know soon.

Thanks,

Neal

Neal Wiser Presenting to Villanova MBA Class

On Monday, April 4^th, I was invited to present to the marketing MBA class at Villanova University’s School of Business. The presentation entitled “Social Media and Marketing” included the following topics:

• Defining Social Media
• The Structure of Social Media
• The State of Social Media
• Why Social Media is Important for Marketing
• Strategic Planning
• Social Media for Marketers (Monitor, Manage Measure)
• Where are we Going?

If you would like to see my presentation or would like me to present to your organization, please don’t hesitate to contact me through any of the channels listed here.

Following my presentation, Professor Dr. Ralf Terlutter, Vice Dean of the School of Management and Economics at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria, gave an enlightening presentation about advertising in Europe. Dr. Terlutter’s presentation included an analysis of various, long running print campaigns and an analysis demonstrating how the advertisements both succeeded and failed.

After their presentations, Dr. Aronte Bennett, Ph.D. of Villanova’s Department of Marketing and Business Law presented both Dr. Terlutter and myself with plaques commemorating our presentations to the class.

Professor Dr. Ralf Terlutter, Dr. Aronte Bennett, ODM’s Neal Wiser and Villanova Alumni Carmine Berardi

Last week, it was announced that Goldman Sachs will invest $450 million in Facebook in addition to helping the company raise an additional $1.5 billion. This is a massive amount of money that will allow Facebook to do practically anything it wants (as if it couldn’t already). But while the pundits debate what Facebook will do with that money and whether or not it should, will or won’t go public, Facebook could become even more massive and powerful, ultimately evolving into FaceBank.

Could Facebook become FaceBank?

Facebook would certainly need much more than the few billions it’s raising in order to transform itself into a bank. However, if Mark Zuckerberg can successfully compete against companies such as Google (something he’s clearly positioning Facebook to do in both search and advertising) then Facebook would be able to generate the billions in additional revenue per quarter that it would need to back transactions from its 500+ million members.

Indeed, Facebook already has much of the critical infrastructure it needs in order to enable such transactions. Aside from the robust server infrastructure Facebook uses just to run the site, it has Credits, its virtual currency product, and Facebook social plugins such as the Like Button, Like Box and Login Button that are currently being used by at least 2 million websites. With these components already in place, Facebook is very close to being able to offer its users the ability to purchase products and conduct other financial transactions amongst each other using Facebook as the intermediary.

Would Facebook become FaceBank?

Of course, to do this Facebook would have to open itself up to an incredible degree of scrutiny, perhaps in many countries. This is something that Facebook will have to do anyway if it is going to go public, but this is also something that Zuckerberg doesn’t seem interested in doing.

However, in a FaceBank world, Facebook’s current $50 Billion valuation would merely be a drop in the bucket. If Zuckerberg and company could transform Facebook into a FaceBank, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine Facebook surpassing Apple’s $300 Billion valuation, especially if Zuckerberg achieves his goal of having 1 billion members. If this were to happen, in our bubble-based global economy, could a trillion-dollar valuation be far behind? And what would a company that commands such wealth and that knows so much about a significant percentage of the world’s population’s interests, likes and desires ultimately do then?

Let me know what you think in the comments.

What it Does

Image Source: Inside Facebook

The change is actually very simple. If an ad directs you to a destination outside Facebook, it will display the ad’s destination URL by placing that URL in a prominent location just below the headline and above the ad’s image (see picture). The idea is that you will now know exactly where you will be sent if you click on that ad. It’s a new layer of protection, right?

Wrong!

What’s the Risk?

The risk is that it’s ridiculously easy to dupe the user. How? Because while you may indeed be sent to the URL being displayed, Facebook has not indicated that they are doing anything to validate that the destination itself is safe.

But how could the destination not be safe if Facebook is showing me where I’m going?

Here are two likely scenarios that someone with malicious intent could set up in minutes. In both scenarios, you see an ad on Facebook with the URL http://www.ThisSiteIsSafe.com. You click on it. This is what could happen:

1)      The site you arrive at injects malware into your computer or does other evil things.

2)      The site you arrive at immediately redirects you to yet another website that could inject malware into your computer or do other evil things.

Certainly Facebook could, and should, add some sort of ongoing validation service to investigate these destinations. I say ongoing because it would be simple for the “advertiser” to set up a benign site that could revert into a malicious site as soon as validation is completed.

While I applaud Facebook for their attempt to protect users, they certainly have not thought things through. Until then, Clickers Beware!

What do you think? Let me know in the Comments.