Ryan Shell, Author at RyanShell.com

Facebook Marketplace Scam: Update

“Facebook Marketplace Scam: A Scam to Watch out For (1st Hand Experience)” was the name of a post I did on May 13, and I think it’s worth highlighting for three reasons:

I think you might find it educational and could potentially share it with people you know.
A representative from the company that supposedly runs Facebook Marketplace has now left a comment providing instructions on what to do to help catch the scammer.
[Learning opportunity] If the company that runs Facebook Marketplace used a listening service, something as simple as Google Alerts, they would have seen this post a long time ago.

Do take a moment and read the previous post about this scam; I think you’ll enjoy reading my exchange with the scammer (also take note of the comments).

When Marketing Hurts Success

By Ryan Shell

There’s a small pizza restaurant near the corner of Park Avenue South and 17 St (Union Square) that I pass two or three times a day as I’m heading to/from work or out to lunch.

Typically, when I walk pass the storefront of the pizza restaurant there’s a guy (not well presented… at all) standing out front handing out flyers (I guess that’s what they are) and he typically says something like “Hot pizza” or something of that nature when you walk by.

It’s annoying and the marketing tactic has never made me think, “I’d love to stop in and grab a slice of pizza.” And that’s a big deal, because I love pizza.

That being said, something did happen recently that made me think, “I should stop in there and try a slice of pizza sometime.”

So what happened?

I was making my way down Park to the subway station and a guy walked out of the pizza restaurant holding a plate with a slice of pizza on top. He was just a few steps ahead of me and after walking for a moment he folded the pizza in half and took a huge bite. I instantly thought to myself, “Man that looks good!”

If you have a product it’s important to remember that you not get caught up in marketing tactics that do more harm than good. Had this restaurant hired someone to stand out front handing out small ¼ of a slice sized samples they’d have hooked me a long time ago.

And yes, I’ve now eaten the pizza – it’s quite tasty.

Don’t Believe Everything You Read

By Ryan Shell

Warning: Stepping on soapbox.

Here’s the problem. There’s all of these websites with “experts” posting their “expert opinion” and people read this stuff like it’s the gospel.

Yes, there are some very credible websites that publish great content, but even some of those end up publishing (let me be nice here) questionable material.

You’d love an example right? Great! I’d love to give you one.

Someone I would consider to be an “influencer” sent out a RT highlighting an article titled, “Top 5 Most Indispensible Tools for Marketers.”

Out of curiosity I clicked the link and it took me to a respectable site, Social Media Today. After reading the intro I made my way to item number one on the list and was a bit shocked to read,

#1: Blast Follow

Blast follow? As in… the blast follow that many consider to be Twitter following spam? Sure enough, that’ was exactly one of the tools being highlighted. This practice is bad. Don’t do it, that is, unless you just want to appear to be “popular.”

In all fairness I continued reading thinking the writer might redeem himself. Here’s item number 2 on the list,

#2: Tweepi

The writer continues by saying,

“The overall strategy for using Blast Follow and Tweepi is to blast follow 100-200 people today and give them a week or so to follow back. If they don’t reciprocate, clean them out with Tweepi. Then repeat.”

At this point my blood pressure was either rising due to what I was reading or from the falafel I’d just eaten… I’d say it was due to the article.

What’s worse is that I think if you asked a lot of marketers about a social media tools list almost all would highlight something that has to do with “search / listening.” Those two words weren’t even mentioned in the article.

By all means, read various sites and learn about the tools at hand, but please use your own judgment and don’t share everything as if you just pulled it straight from the good book. At the very least, this should be a prime example that not everything you read is on point.

Lastly, click over to the post and notice how many people (quite a few at the time of this writing) think it’s good advice. That, my friends, is the problem.

Facebook Places: Page Merges & Advertising Opportunities

By Ryan Shell

Shortly after Facebook Places launched last week I started tooling around with the new location based service in an effort to have a better understanding of how it works.

My first thought was, “this is going to be a big deal.”

And today, that’s still my thought about Facebook Places.

There is one question that that came to mind last week that I couldn’t find an answer for, until now, and I’d like to share it with you. The question had to do with the process of businesses claiming their Facebook Places page.

Facebook - Claim Place_1282575778612 — Click to enlarge.

The image above if of the form that businesses have to fill out in order to claim their Places page.

Facebook Places pages are set up for a business after someone checks in at the businesses location for the first time. Take note of the second line, “Place URL.”

When I saw that I instantly thought to myself, “I wonder what would happen if you put the businesses actual Facebook page URL in instead of the Places URL?”

I never tried it, primarily because I learned that doing so wasn’t needed. After a business claims their Places page they can then merge it with their current Facebook page.

One item to note is the fact that businesses will have the chance to use targeted Facebook advertising to reach individuals that have “Liked” a businesses Places page.

In my opinion, this may fall a touch short – primarily because I’ve not “liked” any of the locations that I’ve checked in at using Places. It would seem more effective to somehow have the chance to use advertising to target anyone that has previously checked in at a location.

[Note: If this was confusing, remember that going forth there are two types of pages on Facebook: the standard page (referred to here as a Facebook page) and the Places page.]