We naturally think of social media as the province of the young and hip. Our stereotypical image of a new-media-savvy person is young, spectacled, and nerdy, clad in sneakers and T-shirt, with a tattoo or three and an occasional piercing, slurping Red Bulls and munching junk snacks while hiding his lingering acne. Older people, we assume, lack the technological awareness and sophistication necessary to use social media and, their neural circuits having fossilized in the electronic Stone Age, and their ability to learn new tricks suffering from the drawbacks proverbially applying to old dogs. According to an article in MediaBadger, we would in many cases and ways be wrong, and those wanting to market to seniors should not ignore social media.

Here are some of the findings from the study:

• The first users of the Internet back in the 1990s were in their 40s and older. That’s primarily because the cost of computers in those days was much higher than it is today, and there were no portable options, so older people with higher and more stable incomes were the ones likely to be using it. Those same early Internet users have graduated to social media as they have emerged into being.
• The reasons why seniors (or “silver surfers” as the study quaintly terms them) engage in social media may be slightly different than for younger users. The biggest single reason is to stay in touch with friends and family, followed by pursuit of hobbies, with services, vacationing, and shopping filling the next three categories. Seniors still tend to be less trusting than younger people of online shopping and banking.
• A study of which social media outlets are used by age group shows that seniors are more likely to use Facebook, on-line forums, and photo sharing services than they are other outlets. Seniors are less likely than younger people to post videos on YouTube and similar outlets, but quite likely to view on-line videos.
• Seniors are late adopters of changing social media and less likely than younger people to learn new media that are difficult or complex. They quickly develop habits of use (or already have them by now) and are resistant to change. They love to comment online about current events, politics, or most other subjects and tend to have strong opinions. Then tend to prefer simple and easy to learn tools that interface easily with services and methods they are already used to using.

There are, in short, many differences between older social media users and younger ones. Just the same, this is not a demographic that Facebook marketers should ignore, nor are social media something that should be ignored by companies that routinely serve an older clientele.

While seniors are becoming more internet savvy, they are still at risk for online scams.  If you are a senior citizen or have a family member who is, a background check for all new friend requests may be a good idea.

Many people have heard that Betty White was recently on Saturday Night Live, the popular evening variety and comedy show. While she may not seem like the typical comedian or performer for this venue, it is in part the success of Facebook and other social media networks that has helped her to do so well. The fact is that social media is changing the way that people interact with each other, even as far as who is put onto television.

While the Saturday Night Live gig was a big one for Betty White, there is now a new push for the actress and comedienne. Now, a new Facebook page has sprung up with the goal of helping to put the comedienne at the Oscars. Further, another Facebook campaign is hoping to get her onto the new season of Glee, the fabulously popular show on Fox Network. The page is called Betty White on Glee.

A similar campaign was successful at landing White on Saturday Night Live just a few months ago. The first campaign was on a page called Betty White to Host SNL (please?). That Facebook page was started in February and throughout the following months managed to build a fan base of more than half of a million fans. After seeing the popularity that White had, through the use of this Facebook page, NBC decided to provide White with the offer to host the program, which she did on May 8th, 2010. And, the Betty White hosting of SNL did well with both online fans and offline fans able to enjoy it.

There is no doubt that if this new campaign is going to need a good deal of momentum behind it to gain the same amount of attention with Glee producers, but many are confident that White will be seen in numerous new programs. Within 24 hours of the posting of the Glee page, it had over 500 “likes” on it.

How is it possible for veteran actress to have just a following through Facebook? Many people believe that the underlying tool that is working in her favor is social media. In other words, while Facebook is a significant part of this, there are also other methods of promotion being used by the founders of these pages. Not only are they working to get their friends on Facebook to promote the page on Facebook, but they are using social media bloggers, blogs as well as Twitter and other forms of social media to help get even more attention.

Why is this Betty White Facebook page so important? It shows the strength of social media in many ways. Imagine the simple fact that through someone’s idea to have Betty White on SNL to that actually happening is an example of how individuals can control what they watch on television. The influence of social media on the movies you see, the television programs and even the actors and actresses used in those mediums is something that every day people can control through social media, at least to some level.

What are your thoughts? Can we use social media to “change th world”?

The constant challenge of freelancing lies in continually creating ways to market oneself and drum up repeat and new business. This is rarely, if ever, an easy thing to accomplish. The good news is, with the explosion in social media, this has become a slight bit easier.

We all know social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are fun networking and socializing platforms, but they, along with other social media tools, can also be used to enhance your job search and help you to land more clients. Don’t underestimate the usefulness of social media, you never know what you might find beyond the regular job boards.

Facebook holds the same networking and socializing benefits as those on Twitter and offers increased ability to build your social network through Facebook groups and fan pages. Many of the uses for these groups is job sharing so be sure you look beyond the obvious “freelancing” groups and fan pages.

So how should you use Facebook to find that next freelance job? First, you’ll need to know who to follow by simply searching your interests. If you’re a web designer, by all means, visit the various design groups but also branch out to the niches that interest you most like Flash design, CSS, etc.

Align Yourself with People Who:

• Hire freelancers
• Know people who hire freelancers
• Outsource to other freelancers
• Share the same ideas and interests
• Have the potential to collaborate on ideas
• Inspire you

Tips for Facebook Networking:

• Look for opportunities to share job opportunities: Have you ever come across a good freelance opportunity that wasn’t a good fit for your skill set? Find other freelancers in that niche and share the opportunity. You never know when the favor will be reciprocated.
• Share useful links: Every day yields new links to blog pots, news items, videos and cool tools for freelancers. How does this benefit freelancers? The constant opportunity to learn and become inspired by the world around us, so share those useful links!
• Offer support: Fellow freelancers are very supportive and are often willing to offer tips and advice. You’ll also find collaborators, conversationalists and fans by being one of those ‘friendly freelancers’.
• Offer camaraderie: Working from home can be a lonely existence. Facebook offers a means of escaping the solitude of a day spent alone in the home office.
• Linked In: provide a link to your Linkedin profile showcasing your work history and accomplishments. Most importantly, be sure to keep your Linkedin resume up to date
• Use your blog: Consider integrating your blog feed into your page or profile. Your content and ideas can help set you apart as an expert in your respective field.

Lastly, Be Careful What You Put Out There

We’ve all heard the horror stories. Remember that while using Facebook to find work, potential clients will also be using Facebook to check up on you. Build a professional profile and act appropriately so they feel as if can trust you with their brand. Create a separate profile if you tend to get a little crazy on the weekends.

What other tips do you have? Have you found jobs through your Facebook connections?

In December, Facebook implemented yet another round of controversial privacy updates and changes in an effort to compete more widely with the more open social networks like Twitter.

As part of this update, Facebook implemented a “transition tool” which appeared at the top of Facebook homepages this past month with its own selection of recommended settings. If you were one of the users who opted for the recommended settings, you may now be surprised to find that you have given Facebook the right to publicize your status updates, photos, and shared links.

There are definitely valid concerns behind privacy so should you want to change these settings back, read on to find out how.

1. Who Can See The Things You Share (Status Updates, Photo, Videos, etc.)

If you accepted the new recommended settings then you have given Facebook full rights to any information included in your status updates. Depending on your applied search settings, you may have also given Facebook the right to share that information with search engines, too.

To change this setting simply take the following steps:

1. From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu in the top right hand corner and click “Privacy Settings” from the list that appears.
2. Select “Profile Information”
3. Scroll down to the setting “Posts by Me.” which includes status updates, links, notes, photos, and videos.
4. Choose your desired setting using the drop-down box on the right.

2. Who Can Access Your Personal Info

After last month’s changes, “personal info,” now includes other information such as your birthday, your religious and political views, and your relationship status. Facebook set the new defaults for this other information to viewable by either “Everyone” (for family and relationships, aka relationship status) or to “Friends of Friends” (birthday, religious and political views). To change this setting back to “Only Friends” complete the following steps:

1. From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click “Privacy Settings”.
2. Click “Profile Information” from the list of choices on the next page.
3. The third, fourth, and fifth item listed on this page are as follows: “birthday,” “religious and political views,” and “family and relationship.” Perhaps the most important is updating birthday to “Only Friends” as this information is often used in identity theft.
4. Depending on your own personal preferences, you may or may not feel comfortable sharing your relationship status and/or religious and political views with complete strangers. Keep in mind, while “Friends of Friends” sounds simple enough, it actually refers to everyone your friends have added as friends. This can still represent a large group of users you may not know.

3. What Google Can See – Keep Your Data Off the Search Engines

When you visit Facebook’s Search Settings page, a warning message pops up that reads:

There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and see a link to your Facebook profile. They will still only see a basic set of information.

The second setting listed on this Search Settings page refers to exactly what you’re allowing Google and the other search engines to index. If the box next to “Allow” is checked, you’re giving search engines the ability to access and index any information you’ve marked as visible by “Everyone.” As discussed above, there is definitely some information worth keeping to yourself. Keep your data out of search engines index by completing the following steps:

1. From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click “Privacy Settings” from the list that appears.
2. Click “Search” from the list of choices on the next page.
3. Click “Close” on the pop-up message that appears.
4. On this page, uncheck the box labeled “Allow” next to the second setting “Public Search Results.” That keeps all your publicly shared information (items set to viewable by “Everyone”) out of the search engines. If you want to see what the end result looks like, click the “see preview” link in blue underneath this setting.

There are obviously other privacy settings to be aware of as well, in our opinion however, these are the most critical. That said, it is important to review all of your privacy settings to be sure you are creating the privacy you feel most comfortable with.

About a month ago, we’ve heard reports that MySpace and Facebook aren’t quite the archenemies they once were. In fact,  MySpace was to reportedly going to implement Facebook Connect which would allow users to log into MySpace with their  Facebook credentials.

MySpace has indeed implemented Facebook Connect on its very own Fan Video service. This is a very important step considering MySpace was once the undisputed king of social networking and this arguably signifies the end of the “MySpace era”.

It has become glaringly obvious to MySpace that Facebook has taken over when it comes to growth and overall number of users. As a result, MySpace has chosen to focus itself on a couple of specific niches -  music, video and entertainment; all areas which Facebook never fully developed. Considering this recent partnership, I expect more implementations of Facebook Connect on MySpace in 2010.

What are your thoughts? Is this a good move by MySpace / Facebook?

It’s been a long time coming, but according to the Facebook Developers’ page, Facebook users can expect larger photo sizes beginning tomorrow with a complete roll out finalized over the next three weeks. While its not a huge increase in size (604 pixels to 720 pixels) any increase in size is better than not!

For those of you with Facebook applications that query the photo FQL table or uses photo.get, make sure you update your code to accommodate these new increased sizes.

One of the interesting things, however, is the size of the profile picture will be getting smaller! Profile pictures will move from 200×600 to 180×540 pixels. Again, for you developers, be sure to adjust your applications accordingly.

As one of the largest photo-sharing sites on the web, it’s nice to see Facebook increasing it’s pixel space, even if the increase isn’t as large as we would all like it.

What do you think about Facebook’s photo changes?

Facebook Connect was first announced in May 2008, and currently boasts over 80,000 websites have added the feature with over  60 million Facebook users engaging with Facebook connect on third party websites each month. According to multiple sources, Twitter is now preparing to launch its own set of tools that will let third party websites easily integrate Twitter features  directly into their web sites and services. This is essentially a direct response to the massively popular Facebook Connect feature.

The new Twitter “connect” product will reportedly allow websites to authenticate users, pull data and then publish back to Twitter.  While all of these features currently exist via the Twitter API, the Facebook Connect-like packaging and easy-to-use
widgets don’t exist yet.

We’ll update this development as soon as we have more details but our understanding is that Twitter has been working with  a handful of publishers and will likely make an announcement about the new product shortly.

It’s been a long time coming – Facebook launching its own version of Twitter’s retweet feature. Facebook has rolled out a “via” feature that allows you to repost another friend or user’s shared items, with a “via” link attached for attribution.

With most new features, Facebook institutes a progressive rollout, however, it appears the ‘via’ feature is live for everyone. To try it out, head over to a friend’s posted item in your news feed and click on the “share” link. You’ll now see a “via [your friend’s name]” and also an option to remove [your friends name]. Once the item is shared, it will appear on your profile with a via link that also points to your friend’s profile. Your friends will also see the item in their News Feeds which now creates the viral loop that folks on Twitter benefit from with the retweet.

As of right now, the feature only works for posted links. It is not yet possible to “via” status updates or photos. Nonetheless, this is yet another big move by Facebook to bring  its social network more inline with one of its biggest competitors – Twitter.

With the biggest buzz word in the industry being “real time search” this is clearly another effort to improve Facebook’s search tool and to become more relevant in the world of real-time news, search, and information. It will be interesting to see how quickly users respond to this new feature and start sharing “via” links in their own feeds.

What are your thoughts? Will you use this new feature? Why or why not?