Matt Mckeon, a developer at the Visual Communication Lab at IBM research, created an impressive infographic that lays out the default privacy settings for Facebook from 2005 to April of this year. In the images the Facebook blue colored areas indicate what information is available and to whom if your settings are set at default.

As you can see in 2005 very little information was shared with anyone outside of your friends or networks:

The information that was shared was innocuous information like your picture and name, but only to other Facebook users. As time flew by, as shown in the graphics, you can see more and more of your personal data being made available to people outside of your friends and networks and onto the web. Then in April of this year, nearly everything became available:

Again, these stats are based on the default Facebook settings. All of this information can be hidden if you go through your privacy settings and make the changes. The new simplified Facebook settings do in fact make it easier to hide your personal information, so they’re worth a look.

You can also check out ReclaimPrivacy.org. Follow their steps to see what information you’re already sharing.

Check out McKeon’s infographic on his site and tell me what you think about Facebook’s privacy history. Did the settings simplification satisfy your concerns?

Allfacebook.com created a modified version of McKeon’s infographic that shows a slightly different take on the information. I included it after the jump.

Social media is our conduit to the global conversation. For businesses, the inclusion of a social media strategy into a company’s marketing strategy is essential but setting up a company Facebook Fan Page or getting Twitter followers can be daunting in the beginning, especially if your company doesn’t already possess a strong online brand.

So how do you get your name out there? How do you get other people to follow what you’re saying and join in the conversation? How do you get people in the door?

There isn’t a simple solution but there is an often-overlooked weapon in every business’ arsenal: your employees. Hopefully your employees have friends. If they don’t, well, that’s a whole other blog.

There are many companies that don’t allow their employees to have personal social media accounts. The obvious benefit for the company is the protection of their online brand. I give credit to these businesses for understanding the importance of what is being said about them online, however, that same company is damaging it’s image with it’s employees by limiting an employee’s action outside of the office.

An employee is your ambassador to the world. They represent you beyond the walls of your business. The main concern for a business should not be what your employees are saying but why they say what they say. Deciding the outlet for their frustration is not the best way to manage their opinions.

If your employee is unhappy and they aren’t able to tweet about it, you can be sure they are talking about it to everyone they know. Which is just as detrimental to your business.

Your company’s social media strategy is a great way to include your employees. Inclusion is a great way to build employer/employee relationships:

• Simply ask your employees for help building your networks. If an employee feels needed they will respond positively.
• Build a team through competition. Encourage employees to complete a task, whether it be refer a hundred fans or participate in a weight loss competition within the office. Showcase the winners on your networks.
• Offer rewards for referrals. If an employee brings in a new customer, reward them. Give gift certificates, cash bonuses, or anything else that will encourage referrals.

If you follow these simple ideas you’ll be able to show the world and your employees their value to your business’ success. Consumers are more likely to respond to companies with happy employees.

What are some other ways of including employees?

According to SheSpeaks Second Annual Media Study the number of U.S. women with at least one profile on a social networking site grew from 58% in 2008 to 86% in 2009. Of the 86% of women on a social networking 72% log in daily. In 2008 only 53% of women logged in daily.

The biggest number is that half of those active in social media say that social networking sites influence their shopping habits and 40% have used a coupon code.

Here are more of the studies findings:

Site Popularity:

• Facebook saw an increase in popularity from 42% in 2008 to 87% in 2009. With 95% of all those active in social media claiming a profile on Facebook. That’s an increase from 65% in 2008.
• MySpace dropped by 33% to 42% of women active in social networking. However, the site remains popular with women between 18-24.
  Twitter was added to the study just this year with 38% of particpants active on Twitter.
  LinkedIn also saw an increase from 17% in 2008 to 22% in 2009.

Results Based on Age:

• Women under 30 saw an increase of social networking participation from 86% in 2008 to 95% in 2009.
• The largest increase was with women over 50, which saw a 126% increase in usage from 31% in 2008 to 70% in 2009.

Popularity of Online Activities:

• Watching Videos Online
• Commenting on blogs
• Posting product reviews
  

Effectiveness of Social Networking Ads:

The percent of women that click on advertising on social networking pages increased from 2% in 2008 to 9% in 2009 and the percent of women that ignore ads on their pages decreased from 26% to 21%.

Purchasing Influence:

The study found that the leading influence in whether a women buys a product is and email from a friend or family member, however, this method saw a decrease of 7% from 2008. The only two methods to increase from 2008 were:

• “A blog post I read,” which increased from 27% to 53%
• “Information obtained on a social networking site,” which increased from 27% to 43%.

The study was compiled based on responses from 1,500 SheSpeaks members.

On Wednesday, Facebook Page’s Notes laid out how to use a new targeted update feature for fan pages. The update is best for pages with fans in multiple locations or who speak multiple languages, not your average Joe, because so far fan admins can only target fans by location and language.

The examples from Facebook:

• Global brands: Starbucks, who has over 5MM Fans across the world, may want to talk about a new drink currently only available in the U.K.
• Musicians & Celebrities: The Foo Fighters may want to announce to fans in California that new tour dates have been added across the state.
• Local: Red Mango may want to let fans in Palo Alto, California know that a new frozen yogurt shop is opening locally.
• Celebrities: Roger Federer may want to separately thank his English-speaking and French-speaking fans in their respective languages.
• Automotive: Car dealers with multiple dealerships. There is a sale on hybrids in the Oklahoma City dealership but not at the Tulsa dealership.

*I added the last one.*

It’s an interesting update that will no doubt become very handy to everyone with a fan page. People have been asking for this feature for a while. It seems Facebook has been listening.

GOSO President, Adam Boalt, is at Realtime CrunchUp asking poignant questions to key players in the social media industry.

Twitter COO Dick Costolo opened up the CrunchUp event. As we all know, Twitter is one of the hottest social networks and the site has fallen under a bit of controversy of late due to its $1 billion valuation.

Adam started the first Q&A session of the event by asking Dick Costolo about Twitter revenue. First he asked, is the current revenue $4 million? And, of equal importance, where does this revenue come from?

Costolo vaguely responded by stating, “It’s not $4 million, it’s higher. From a variety of sources.” He did not continue to list any specific areas as to where the money may come from.

The suggested users list that appears when a new account is created has been said to generate revenue for Twitter. But, when Adam asked if the suggested users feature generates dollars, Costolo explicitly said no. He said, “The suggested user list is totally non-financial. It’s a super-primitive mechanism.”

In another session, “Filtering The Stream Roundtable,” Adam was able to speak with key players such as, Facebook, VP of Product, Chris Cox, Microsoft, GM of FUSE Labs, Lili Cheng, Facebook, VP of Platform, Bret Taylor, Google, Google Fellow, Amit Singhal, Seesmic, CEO Loic Le Meur, and MySpace, Chief Product Officer, Jason Hirschhorn.

As GOSO works with the APIs of these networks, Adam’s interest was in how the networks will work together. So, he inquired about the terms of use. He asked, how do the networks plan on having a consolidated real-time data stream if all of the terms of use are different.

He went on to ask, “How do the social networks align in that respect? A standardization of rules? Like Facebook’s new rules. What if something on Twitter goes over to Facebook and it’s against terms of service?”

Bret Taylor spoke for Facebook by saying that over time, specifically the next year, that there will be a big effort in simplifying terms of use. He stated, “I expect simplification to be huge for all of us.” He went on to explain that the networks will not have the same terms, but they will be better. He contended that Facebook’s terms are in place to stop automated spam.

Other panelists did not seem to pose finite answers to the question. Simple shrugs and “I don’t knows” were vaguely offered.

A study was released in early October by MH Group Communications and Forum Strategies that focuses on the success of social media for the nine leading luxury auto brands.

They ranked them in the following in terms of their ability to engage the social media audience:

1. BMW
2. Porsche
3. Audi
4. Mercedes
5. Cadillac
6. Lexus
7. Acura
8. Infiniti
9. Lincoln

According to the study, BMW and Porsche are the clear leaders with some significant challenges coming from Audi and Mercedes while the last five are simply falling behind.

The study found that most engagement took place on Facebook, and YouTube with an impressive 90% of discussion and commentary being successful. This is a truly impressive number given social media’s high tendency to go negative in terms of product discussion.

Major Findings:
• German automakers Porsche and BMW outperform Japanese, Cadillac, Lincoln in social media
• No brand has successfully created a well-rounded social media plan
• Facebook and YouTube are the sites most used by the luxury brands
• Brand identity is being diluted by the overabundance of unofficial brand pages on social media networks

“Social media programs can no longer be considered a nice add-on to traditional marketing efforts, but rather should be viewed as a foundational element that drives interaction with luxury auto brand consumers,” from a blog post by Mark Hass of MH Group Communications

Study Advice:
• Lead the conversation about your brand with Twitter
• Link from Facebook to existing e-commerce infrastructure
• Turn YouTube into a brand TV network
• Don’t forget about Flickr
• Integrate all platforms to create a global brand