What’s the differences between a Facebook Group and a Fan Page?

Image via Wikipedia

I was looking for the answer to this question for both myself and the many people who ask me about the differences. I know a few of the differences, but it is nice to have it all laid out in a concise fashion. Thanks to Chuck Reynolds and Jacob Burke of the PodCampAZ organizing group for pointing me in the right direction for this info.

How are Pages different than Facebook Groups?

Pages can only be created to represent a real public figure, artist, brand or organization, and may only be created by an official representative of that entity. Groups can be created by any user and about any topic, as a space for users to share their opinions and interest in that subject. Pages can be customized with rich media and interactive applications to engage Page visitors. Applications can’t be added to groups.

Pages are designed to allow Page admins to maintain a personal/professional distinction on Facebook, while groups are a part of your personal Facebook experience. If you’re a group admin, your name will appear on that group, while Pages will never display their admins’ names. Additionally, when you take actions on your group, such as posting on your group’s wall, these actions will appear to come from you as an individual. However, if you post or take other actions on a Page you own, it will appear to come from the Page.

As long as a group is under 5000 members, group admins can send messages to the group members that will appear in their inboxes. If the group exceeds 5000, admins can’t send messages to all members. Page admins can send updates to fans through the Page, and these updates will appear in the “Updates” section of fans’ inboxes. There is no limit on how many fans you may send an update to, or how many total fans a Page can have. It’s also possible to restrict access to a group, so that new members have to be approved, but access to a Page can only be restricted by certain ages and locations.

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Filed under: Elsewhere, News, Social, Facebook, Online Communities, Social network

Can New Media Save A Gardening Club?

(Reposted from A Gardener’s Notebook with Douglas E. Welch)

Image by imagebysp via Flickr

Reading today’s LA Times, I came across this article, “Malibu Garden Club Trowels for New Members.” This is a story being repeated all over the world, for all sorts of clubs. This is yet another example of multiple aspects of my life coming together. In this case, gardening and New Media.

Reading about their difficulties in attracting new members, I immediately saw where New Media could assist them greatly in improving the visibility of the group and reaching out to new, younger, more digital members. Under the auspices of my group, New Media Interchange, I sent them a note offering to help them expand their New Media reach and pointed out a few ways to get started. I think this will be a great case study to cover for New Media Interchange that can show the methods and benefits New Media can offer any group.

I am waiting for a reply from the club, but I hope they are interested in working with me to expand the reach of their group and help it survive for many more decades.

Filed under: Case Study, Community, New Media, News

Social Media Triage: Not enough time for social media?

Evo Terra, social media consultant and co-author of Podcasting for Dummies, addresses a common issue among business people who are looking to use social media — how do you find the time?

This 51 minute video is a recording of his LIVE Show, Social Media Triage, airing each Saturday morning. You can watch more past shows (and join in LIVE) on Evo’s uStream.tv channel.

Filed under: Events, New Media, Opinion, Tips, Video

Audio: You don’t know who your audience is

(Reposted from Careers in New Media)

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One of the most important lessons for New Media creators is the fact that when you start, you often have absolutely no idea who your audience might be. You can survey, you can review, you can correlate, but until you put something out there, you will never truly know. More importantly, this uncertainty is often what stops people from creating New Media at all.

Today over lunch I was watching some podcasts on my televison (There are a bunch of ways to do that) and I caught a TedTalk with Malcom Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce — “Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry’s pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce — and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.” Gladwell tells the story of Dr. Howard R. Moskowitz who revolutionized the food industry with his concept that there is no one, perfect item, but rather a horizontal continuum of perfect products based on what groups of people desire. More importantly, he discovered that asking people what they want was often the worst way of discovering their preference.

The same applies to New Media. If you asked someone what they want in New Media, most will tell you they want it to look and feel like mainstream television. In fact, though, tens of thousands of people are already enjoying New Media shows that look nothing like television. Witness “Fred”, Make Magazine’s podcasts and shows, Diggnation, Ask a Ninja and more. Even more, television these days is starting to look more and more like New Media, not the other way round. Shows like “Destroyed in Seconds”, “How It’s Made” and others owe much to the success of YouTube. It seems mad, but the audience doesn’t honestly know how to indicate what they really want in media except by voting with their eyeballs.

This fact is why it is so important to start producing content — whether individual episodes or complete series of shows — and then see what attracts the most attention. This may seem madness after all these years of focus groups, private screenings, in-depth analysis and such, but I think it is the only true way to discover your audience.

Of course, “throwing something against the wall” is so much easier in New Media, even it is a bit scary. You can start producing shows on a shoestring and then increase the time and budget as you start to discover your core audience. Unlike mainstream television, you aren’t spending millions of dollars on a pilot, only to have the show be cancelled after one episode.

New Media gives you the freedom to try many things, in many mays, and pick the best. You should take this freedom and run with it as this is the first time in the history of modern media where, not only can you create something, you can easily distribute it directly to your audience. Don’t squander this great advantage.

You may have some idea who your audience is, but I can guarantee you that there will always be surprises. There will be a demographic that you had no idea you would reach. You could be successful in a far flung country. You could end up with a huge following across the globe, but you won’t know until you do it! You have no idea who your audience is, but it is very likely they will find you anyway.

Filed under: Audio, New Media, Opinion, podcast, Show

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Filed under: Community

Welcome Method Fest Attendees!

If you learned about New Media Interchange from The Method Fest Film Festival, let me offer a very special welcome.

New Media Interchange is dedicated to bringing the power of New Media to everyone. This means that we reach out to creative artists, technology workers, small business owners, independent freelancers and more.

New Media has so much to offer each of us and embracing it can help to improve your work and your life.

If you have questions, feel free to post them to the Forums on the New Media Interchange Community site and we will all chime in with our best practices, advice and opinions. The power of New Media is in ‘the doing” and New Media Interchange is designed to encourage and assist you in creating, and distributing, your own New Media.

Filed under: Community, Events, New Media

New Media Tip 20090319 – Audio

Improving your audio recording can be a great way to boost the overall quality of your new media productions.

iPod Ready Video

Filed under: New Media, New Media Tips, Tips, Video

News: What RAJAR’s Recent Podcasting Data Means for Podcasters

Image via Wikipedia

More recent podcasting info, with commentary from the Association for Downloadable Media

What RAJAR’s Recent Podcasting Data Means for Podcasters

from Association for Downloadable Media by Tom Webster

The UK’s radio ratings service, RAJAR, recently released the findings of its latest study of Internet-delivered audio services, including a healthy section on podcast consumption. Here are some of the principal findings, and a few thoughts on what they mean for podcast content producers:

1. The overall podcast audience continues to show significant growth: the overall UK figures rose from 6 million persons indicating they had ever downloaded a podcast in May 2008, to 7.2 million today. Also in that same period, the number of persons indicating that they listen to a podcast each week rose from 3.7 million to 4.1 million.

Two things strike me about these numbers–first, of course, podcast consumption continues to grow at a very healthy rate. More significant to me is the fact that 57% of the total podcast audience listens to a podcast each week. That, combined with the fact that the number of podcasts subscribed to increased from 3.6 to 4.4 is clear evidence that listening to podcasts is becoming more of a habit, and less of a novelty, for the majority of this ever-growing body.

Read the entire article

Filed under: Elsewhere, New Media, News, Opinion, Tips, Video

New Podcasting Study – “Podcasting Goes Mainstream”

eMarketer.com has anew podcasting study out and has placed a summary of the complete study, Podcasting Goes Mainstream ($700!?!?) on their web site. Below are some interesting estimates of podcasting growth through 2013.

…The podcast audience has grown, too, and eMarketer projects that growth will continue at least through 2013, when there will be 37.6 million people downloading podcasts on a monthly basis, more than double the 2008 figure of 17.4 million.-

As a percentage of Internet users, podcast downloaders will grow from 9% in 2008 to 17% in 2013…

I have said that podcasting would break through some day and always reminded folks it is only 5 years old. Hopefully this marks the turning of the tide.

Filed under: New Media, News, eMarketer, podcast

Real World Example: Coffee Shop Video

My favorite coffee place, M Street Coffee, (where I am sitting as I write) is starting to use New Media to raise their visibility. This video went live on their site last night and was also placed on their Facebook page. It is well-produced and really helps to give a feeling for the shop and the folks that work there. Check it out as a Real World Example for how to use New Media in your business.

M Street Coffee users video to raise their visibility

Click the image to visit the web site and view the video.

Filed under: Real World Example, Tips, Video

Video: SteadyStick CamCorder Stabilizer Demo

I came across a link to this video in my Twitter stream today from Guy Cochran. This could be a relatively inexpensive addition to your new media toolkit and boost the overall quality of your videos.

Filed under: Hardware, New Media, Technology, Tips, Video