Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world with over 350m users and counting. With every person (and some animals) in my family having an account it seems the social media revolution is as mainstream as it could be. With that in mind you would be silly not to have a Facebook presence right?

Before you dash off and put some pack shots and a link to your micro-site on your Facebook take a step back and consider some of the following:

1. Who is your Facebook page aimed at?

Notice I asked who your Facebook page is aimed at, not who is your product aimed at. A product can have many target audiences so making a one size fits all page may end up not appealing strongly enough to anyone but making it too specific may alienate too many. Make sure you know who you want to target so you can tailor the page to best meet their needs.

2. What interests that audience?

Knowing who you are targeting is just the first step, different audiences require different communication strategies. Some audiences will want facts about the product (how much is it, when is it out etc) others may be interested in a behind the scenes look at how it was created and others will be more interested in engaging conversations around the product and its subject matter. For example Wii Fit users may want to talk about their progress and other fitness tips and Lost fans may want to talk about their show theories and ideas.

3. Do you need to create content?

Creating content, such as videos, is a great way to get people talking about your Facebook presence and while it may not cost the earth you may find that time spent creating content could be better spent engaging. As just discussed different audiences have different needs and you may find that putting all your time and effort into responding to every question that needs answering and stimulating conversations is a much better use of your resources. If you do decide to create content make sure you still keep involved with the community or at the very least continue to make great content.

4. Is this community for your product or your brand?

It seems a fundamental question to the creation of your Facebook page but one that frequently isn’t answered. Successful products these days are often turned into a franchise, iterated on or spun out into other products. If this is the plan for your product why try to create a community from scratch with every release? Creating a brand community can spread the news of more than just one product and build a fan base over many years not months. That said creating a umbrella community for your brand can lead to the page being too broad and you may want each product to have its own bespoke page.

5. How will people find out about your page?

We all want to believe the things we do are so good that everyone will just turn up to get involved, but that isn’t how the world works. You may want to create great content that people will share with their friends, word of mouth may be free but the cost is in the content. You may decide that driving people through targeted advertising is your best bet. Leading people to your Facebook page instead of your micro-site may be a better method for your traditional advertising also. You could also use traditional outlets and influencers to spread the word but as before make sure people have a good reason to do this.

Simply put, know your audience, know what they want and then give it to them. It seems so obvious yet so many people overlook it. Facebook is just another platform and not the be all and end all, you may decide you are better off creating your own community, or using another social network. Do what is best for your product or brand and not just what everyone else is doing.

5 of the best social media stories of the week as chosen by the Qubite’s. Also 5 of the rest aka “ Stuff we thought woz interestin’ ”.

5 of the best

Data.gov.uk

Probably the biggest news of the last week was the government launching data.gov an online platform for all its publicly available data. On a basic level this means you could search the site rather than submit a request under the Freedom of Information Act. On a more exciting level it means developers can use this data to create interesting applications and websites. Check out a couple of websites that have already been built Safer Streets and Where Does My Money Go.

Test Tube

Just like Google uses its Labs to show off new ideas and experiments Youtube is doing the same with Test Tube. Insights for Audience and Comments search are really useful for finding out what the Youtube audience is interested  in and talking about.

Preparing for the Launch of the Games and Applications Dashboards

Prepare for another change to how you use Facebook. The current Facebook interface for applications and games has always felt a little makeshift. Now Facebook have created a special dashboard for users to get all of their information in one place. Hopefully this will mean I stop getting ugly duckling gifts on my wall, thanks mum.

Does your company really want to hang out with me?

A succinct and spot on observation of how some businesses still use Social Media. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard Social Media referred to as “A marketing channel” or “promotional tool”. Stop trying to push your message for just one minute and actually listen to what the people you are shouting at want to say.

Your State of the Union

Even with data.gov it looks as though our government is still playing catchup with America. Not only will this years Citizens address be streamed live on Youtube, but users will be able to submit questions to President Obama! Users can then vote on their favourite questions and some of the highest rated will be asked to him the following week. Now that is Social Media!

5 of the rest

Charlie Simpson -  Just Giving

This young man wanted to raise some money for the people of Haiti with a sponsored bike ride. He set himself a target of £500, a whopping target for any one child to raise (I think the most I managed was £50 for a junior fun run.) He has now raised over £160k not bad…not bad at all Charlie. An amazing achievement, but I wouldn’t hire him as my financial forecaster.

Music spies a Spotify sunrise

We are big fans of Spotify here in the Qube office, but have often wondered whether or not it is financially viable. Well it seems the answer is yes and no. Other than the UK and Spain subscription levels are good, but us Brits don’t mind persevering through adverts to get ourselves a bargain. Personally I would like to see more features for my £10 a month. What would get you to upgrade to a Spotify premium account?

Billy Moyers interviews David Simon (creator of the Wire)

If you are a big fan of The Wire this is a must watch. If you haven’t seen it yet this video does contain spoilers…so don’t watch it, just go buy the complete box set here (Do we get commission for this?). You can thank me later .

Functional – why simple, small and cheap appeals to all

Some great examples of why cheap and simple works! Sometimes the best solution is the simplest.

TV shows on Youtube

Not sure how new this is but I just found that Channel 4 and 5 have put all their on demand shows on Youtube. Seems like a smart idea to me. It is a shame that they have disabled comments on the videos though, would be a great way to create conversations and get feedback on episodes.

5 of the best social media stories of the week as chosen by the Qubite’s. Also 5 of the rest aka “The Home of amazing”.

5 of the best

Old people talking about Facebook Exodus

Apparently teenagers are leaving Facebook as it is too full of adults, who wants their mum checking their Facebook wall after all. Anecdotally I don’t see much evidence to back this up, most teenagers I know cant seem to get enough Facebook! There are also a bunch of Youtube opinion videos from teenagers for some interesting insight. One thing I would say to many of those complaints against Facebook is that it is just a tool. A tool that is only as good as what you do with it, so if someones status updates annoy you just un-friend them. (more insightful Facebook advice is available on request )

The Whuffie Bank

A virtual bank, but not for your money. The Whuffie Bank is building a new currency based on our reputations. Twitter and Facebook are making our online reputation really important, we all excerpt our own influence over groups of people in different ways. This site offers you a way of turning your reputation into a currency that can be traded and used for … well whatever someone is willing to give you for it. I first scoffed at this site and thought “It will never take off”, but then I tried to be a bit more open minded about it. The money we use today is just a system we all believe in and use, what is to say a new virtual currency couldn’t exist and do the same? Food for thought.

YouTube to introduce live sports coverage

Youtube will start showing live sports shows, only Cricket for now but this marks an interesting move for the video sharing site. Obviously this means you can watch it anywhere without a TV licence, but what does it mean for the product? One of Youtube’s main features is the ability to rate and comment. This could be the beginning of live sport becoming social in a big way.

Virtual game purchases benefit Haiti Relief Fund

The recent events in Haiti have been tragic and is something we all need to help with. Whenever such atrocities happen companies often donate large sums of money, but more importantly those companies use their influence to encourage others to help. Hugely popular Facebook game Farmville has recently added some virtual items that can be purchased to support the Haiti Relief Fund. I think this is a great idea and something all people and businesses of influence should be encouraged to do. Think about how you can use your influence to help others when they need it most.

Manchester United bans players from using Twitter

After some high profile Twitter gaffs from professional footballers Man Utd have banned their players from having a presence on social networking sites. It is a shame that the club feels the need to control the PR of their players so heavily. The nice thing about footballers being allowed to use these networks is it actually made them appear as real people, with real faults. It also gave them direct contact with the fans who help pay their wages, something that is surprisingly lacking in the modern game.

5 of the rest

Silicone ‘clay’ lets consumers modify troublesome products

If the product you bought doesn’t quite fit the bill, maybe you can customise it? This stuff looks a bit like silly putty to me, but hey maybe it is just what I need to fix my action mans broken arm.

Crayola Color Chart, 1903-2010

How Crayola’s colours have evolved over the year. I like cool looking diagrams .

Crappy Taxidermy

This is a weird and slightly creepy site. Probably not for everyone and the title pretty much says it all.

Love Money

I have been whining about lack of really good online banking tools for a while, it looks like the banks aren’t listening but at least someone is! Love Money requires you put in your account name and password (which is a little scary) but in return offers you a financial breakdown of your spending in a really useful way. You can even set personal savings goals for it to track. Definitely one to watch.

Irrational Behaviour

For anyone interesting in videogames especially those create by Ken Levine (System Shock, Bioshock, X-com) should go check out Irrational games new website and should definatly check out their new podcast. A great example of how to do a company podcast and how to make it interesting.

My mum is an addict. It isn’t drugs or drink or anything taboo no this is much worse. My Mum is addicted to Farmville.

For those of you that live in caves without internet (how did you get to this blog!) Farmville is a hugely popular game on the even huger social networking site Facebook. How huge? Last month Farmville had over 26m users, and that was a slow Christmas month! Last I checked Facebook had around 300m users, meaning that Farmville is being played by around 10% of those people!

Players of Farmville spend most of their time Farming. Ok you’re not asked to get up at 4am to clean the pigs out, but you must look after your crops and animals and try to sell them to make more money. If Farmville was just that though it wouldn’t have trounced Harvest Moon for the Wii, a better and more involved farming game (although it does cost a few quid more).

What has made Farmville such a storming success is the social basis it is built from. Before you have even planted your first crop you are encouraged to gift a farming item to a friend, whether or not they play the game. The more friends you have playing the more likely you are to get daily gifts in return for your farm.

The game is designed to be played in short bursts over a long period of time. With some tasks requiring you to return on a daily basis.

So how did my mum end up playing this game? The age old water cooler talk. Unless you work in a particularly geeky office video games are not really a hot button issue around the water cooler, but since Facebook has gone mainstream so has its games.

The water-cooler talk once reserved for celeb gossip and soap news has now been taken over by a game. As a gamer this makes me very happy (even if the game in question isn’t that good.)

My mum is addicted not so much to the game but to the social experience it offers. She speaks to her work friends online and at work and while sometimes the conversations are about virtual farming they are often about other things. Farmville has given my mum a way in to the office conversations and also an excuse for her to be connected to her friends.

Social networks and social gaming have gone mainstream people. My mum says so!

I am running out of collective commons images of the number 5! Might have to start making some myself. Here are this week’s 5 best social media stories and 5 other things of interest.

5 of the best

SMEs are smarter than you think

It is great to see so many SMEs using social media! In this day and age I think you would be a fool not too and it is an area that can really define you as a company. Social media isn’t free and doing it right will cost time, but the benefits are there for all to see.

November Data on Facebook’s US Growth by Age and Gender: Young Men Following the Women

A huge increase in the amount of males signing up to Facebook last month. Any ideas why? Tom in the office thinks it is because of Movember (being that girls cant enter and all) but it still seems a bit much to me! Please tell me if you know why

No Comment

I love this article (Kudos Hellogames). A really interesting perspective on what it is like for a company see their product talked about online and all the range of emotions. I went to the Eurogamer Expo mentioned and played the game with a lovely Hellogames man, and I thought Joe Danger was amazing! So put me down for a copy and here is some more positive word of mouth for you.

GiffGaff

People powered mobile phone network. Interesting. At the moment they also have free internet browsing, might drop a couple of these sim cards into some Christmas stockings .

Online portal gathers wedding photos from guests

Really interesting idea. You can already do this sort of thing with Facebook, Flickr or even Google Wave, but those services usually require a bit of tech savvy and an account! A good social service to bring all the memories from one of the most important days of your life together.

5 of the rest

My real name is David Jones

I believe we have posted about “Letters of Note” before. This one is well worth checking out .

Watson urges action on “UK Games Council”

I think it is about time Government took the UK Games Industry a bit more seriously. There is a lot more to the industry than warping our kids minds with guns and violence .

Google Me

This is like an American Dave Gorman. I have only watched a short amount of it, so will someone please let me know if it is worth watching all the way though .

Cute Overload

This is CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!

The Infinite Monkey Cage

A new podcast from the BBC that is somewhere between comedy and science. I have enjoyed the first 2 episodes so far and I have learnt some really interesting things, there is a jurrasic revalation on the first epsiode that shocked me to the core!

Here are Qube’s favourite tweets from the last week.

@Glennw’s favourite tweets

@Kerb: The Gap’s agency is completely on bland with this toe-curling vanilla #viral campaign http://bit.ly/2OSe7E (threw up in my mouth)

@gazo69: Jenson and Hamilton team mates http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport… FANTASTIC

@misterwallace: I suppose what I love most about Trisha, is that we can all relate to the problems discussed. http://yf

@Nijay’s favourite tweets

@carlhodler: Great Facebook campaign from IKEA – if a bit naughty, encourages users to wrongly tag pics. http://bit.ly/3c4kTY

@brightonargus: Has The Sun swung it for Mr Brown? http://bit.ly/316OFR

@kaysexton Dear BBC Radio 4 website, it is an historic week not a historic one. Got that? Good grief.

@MrTomasz’s favourite tweets

@sophiehenson: excited about my crayon allowance. CRAYON ALLOWANCE???!!! brilliant. you are the man @mrtomasz

@FionaJane’s favourite tweets

@nijay @fionajane you’ll like this…http://bit.ly/2JvcL2 (via @andyheadworth)

5 of the best

3 Social Media Lessons From the Restaurant World

Some good advice for restauranteurs on how to make the most of Social Media.

250,000 strong Facebook group finds owner of lost camera

The power of online social networks. A great example of how powerful a tool Social Media can be. While impressive this could have all been avoided by just putting your address on the memory card

Social Media is not your marketing strategy

Using social media and taking part is a whole new way of running your business and shouldn’t just be defined by your marketing team and advertising budgets.

The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing

So much truth! There are no shortcuts in Social Media.

Tweetlevel

A great tool for establishing who the influencers are on twitter…it is also really useful for trying to one up your friends and colleagues.

5 of the rest

Diary: Malcolm Gladwell

This made me giggle

Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell

This story has been causing a bit of an online stir over the last few weeks. Some really shady abuse of a social network.

Here’s how the web will look in five years according to Google

Interesting thoughts and if anyone knows what is going down online it’s Google! Just think 5 years ago most of us weren’t using Youtube or Facebook…and twitter didn’t exist! Think how much they have transformed how you use your computer and prepare for that all to get turned upside down again.

Tom likes graffiti, he tells me there should be more stories about graffiti on our blog. I tell him “go find me some then!!” and he did. I hope that was an exciting story for you and gives you some insite into how this blog gets put together…..insite

Baby Badger

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww gimme!

Our 5 favourite Social Media stories from the past week and  5 other random things that may or may not be interesting.

5 of the best

Facebook cracks down on ads, developers left out in the cold

Facebook has been cracking down on adverts that are against its policy, this has unfortunately led to some developers having their Facebook apps shut down. There will always be a conflict between having an open platform and keeping everyone happy, where does the balance lie?

Uk Tribes

Youth culture is big, always has been and always will be. As an outsider understanding the different tribes is really important especially if you want to engage with them. This is a really interesting site to help you understand exactly what the kids are into.

The History and Evolution of Social Media

It is really amazing to see how far we have come in such a short space of time! Just over five years ago there wasn’t even a Facebook.

Advertising moving online – but where?

@brightonargusjo gives her two pence on online advertising, there are some interesting comments worth reading as well!

New Look on youtube

Stumbled across New Look’s Youtube channel the other day. It is great to see big name brands creating branded communities that aren’t just about pushing their own agenda. Users are invited to be a part of the channel and will be rewarded with vouchers for there involvement. Well done New Look!

5 of the rest

Faces in Places

I love playing this game when I’m out and about. Might find some of my own to submit (I don’t think the colon right bracket counts)

Dead Flies Art

I’m not sure if this is cool….or just plain creepy

Farmers using vending machines to sell produce

Possibly the coolest vending machines in the world, that said I wouldn’t want my eggs dropped from the top shelf for me to collect!

Toy Story 3 Trailer

If you have a heart you should be VERY excited to see the trailer for Toy Story 3 is up! I can’t wait!!

World of Goo pay what you like

If you even vaguely like games…go buy world of goo for your PC/Mac/Linux! It is a pay what you like promotion so you can spend as little as a penny, I happily spent into the pounds on this Full of charm and hours of fun! The offer is only available until the 19th of October, so go buy it! What have you got to lose?

Here are some of the Qubites favourite tweets from the past week

@Mrtomasz’s favourite tweets

@Econsultancy: Is Nielsen overhyping Facebook? http://bit.ly/1TPn3n

@abigvictory Playing new Left 4 Dead course before the boyfriend gets to and I feel like I’m cheating on him with someone he wanted to have sex with.

@Nijay’s favourite tweets

@MarkClayson: ‘Ardi,’ Oldest Human Ancestor, Unveiled http://bit.ly/2p11P

@chrismcdougall: Any carers of special needs children could you complete this survey? Need stats for business plan http://bit.ly/3jXaW8

@Seelpod’s favourite tweets

@SiConroy Run a Business Like Making a Movie: Films are successful only if everyone, from key grip to leading actor.. http://bit.ly/15cXP

@Glennw’s favourite tweets

@divydovy: Ha ha Real IE6 usage reasons: http://bit.ly/yXolB

@tomkiss haha RT @richard4481: Found it , most shocking goal on FIFA 10 demo ever!! http://bit.ly/1MfI5Z @EARom @Ruttski

@gwarek: Glenn Beck as David Brent from “The Office”: http://bit.ly/4SY0g (via @erikrobson)

Our 5 favourite social media stories from the past week and  5 other random things that may or may not be interesting. Also if you like it, Retweet now there’s a good boy/girl (delete as applicable).

5 of the best

Let’s Kill The CPM

A really great article that you should go and read now!

Done that? Good. my only slight problem is Shelby doesn’t offer enough solutions, but I will! Obviously I am talking about social media, passive advertising might generate big numbers but is it really creating advocates and giving you value for money? As people become more immune to the banners are your impression numbers even reflective of how many people are paying attention?

Gov 2.0 in action

I think government at large has been slow to keep up with the internet age. We need more information now with better levels of access. Movements like rewired state are giving us some really interesting projects, but we need more involvement from the top. Britain will get there, we just might need to follow America’s lead.

Fifa 10 and the smart media partnership

Games are starting to converge more with our social media and Fifa is using the game itself as way of building awareness and engagement. Users are sharing their experiences away from the game in social spaces, the videos just help to facilitate and create the conversations. On that note, what do you think about my sweet goal with Frank Lampard?

Sport England teams with Facebook to get people playing sport

I think this could be a great way to reach people and get involved with them about sport. Sport is such an important part of our society and it is nice that the powers that be realise that just because we like to spend time on the computer does not mean we don’t want to go out and play!

AskPeopleYouKnow.com

An interesting idea currently in its beta phase. I think it is worth keeping an eye on but for now I get my knowledge and recommendations from asking my connections on Twitter or Facebook.

5 of the rest

Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe

Whether you are an avid gamer or not I think you will find some entertainment value in Charlie Brooker’s latest installment of his Wipe format. More of you than not should be interested as a recent survey says that 73% of the country are gamers!

Today Now! / Facebook, Twitter Revolutionizing How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

Fantastic satire from the Onion with a creepy underlying truth.

MacLane’s photostream

A really cool collection of geeky Lego models! I heart Wall-E and Optimus Prime. Also who doesn’t love Boba Fett?

A periodic table of visualization methods

If you ever need something visual to help you explain a concept or make some data more interesting check out this table! It is a little dry at face value but full of really great ideas.

People of Walmart

Oh internet you do seem to revel in finding the quirkiest and weirdest people in life. Check out this collection of Walmart shoppers and be glad you are not one of them (hopefully)