Facebook has made the long awaited-leap allowing any personal Profile to convert to a Page. The primary difference between a Page and Profile is that anyone can “like” a Page, but a user must accept a friend request for a Profile.

There are some additional limitations with Pages that you will want to read-up on fully before making the switch. You can read more about the pros and cons at Inside Facebook.

Pages are most commonly used for businesses, organizations and public figures. This change will be helpful to those businesses that initially created a Profile instead of a Page, but this can also be of great relevance to business people.

As an example, I have a friend who has become quite well known in his line of work and through television appearances, networking events, etc., he receives numerous friend requests and now has more than 2,500 “friends.” He recently created a public figure Page; not because he likens himself to a celebrity, but because he needed to create a line between the personal and the private. 

He can now use his Page to discuss relevant issues, post calls–to-action and detail upcoming events that are relevant to professional contacts who probably don’t care much about where he is going to dinner.

This new option however, would allow him to convert his current Profile where he already has a strong base of individuals following what he is doing, to a Page. He can then create a separate personal Profile (with strong security settings) to communicate with just family and friends.

Recently I’ve encountered several clients who have been concerned about interacting with social media for the above reason. They desire to maintain some separation in their personal and professional lives. This new option with Facebook will allow them to have a public-facing Page for client and business interaction as well as a personal Profile for family and friends.

As a reminder when going this route, it doesn’t mean you can post anything and everything to your personal Profile without any repercussions. No matter the privacy settings, once something is online it has the potential to reach people you may not want it to.  You should always take caution when you post anything online, but now can probably feel more comfortable posting about your reality TV addiction or love of McDonalds to those who you don’t interface with in a business setting. Vice versa, my family and friends will appreciate hearing less about the latest in public relations and marketing.
-Lacy Ogan

UPDATE: Christina Warren at Mashable tried to convert her Profile to a Page with bad results.  While I still recommend the public facing Page and more personal Profile, starting a Page from scratch sounds like the best course of action. However if you have a business set up as a Profile, going through the process to convert to a Page is much less challenging and overall recommended.

That’s right, Google is rolling out a new social product.  It’s called +1 and is designed similarly to Facebook’s “Like” button.

The idea here is that when someone searches for something on the web, that person has the option to +1 any of the search results.  Once someone has clicked on the +1 button, the whole world can see that you have given the particular link your stamp of approval.

For example, once I have signed into my Google account and enabled the +1 feature, I can leave my mark on search results that I like and recommend.

Already, tons of questions have been posed by the social media community…

-Will this be another way SEO companies “game” search results?

-Given Google’s history of launching other social media products (Buzz, Wave, etc.), will +1 even take off?

-What are the potential privacy issues?

Given that Google just announced the news today, I’m sure there will be a deluge of opinions both for and against the long-term viability and usefulness of the new feature.

Me?  I think the idea is cool and has great potential.  We will follow the news and provide detailed analysis as more people jump in and try the product for themselves.

Matt Smedley

In an era where everything is social and shared, more and more concerns are being raised about what exactly is legal.  Not surprisingly, there is a lot of gray area.  When social media hit the mainstream several years ago, most big companies had no idea whether or not to embrace the new way of communicating and sharing.

Now that we have ventured into 2010, many companies and organizations have accepted that a social media program should be one of the options to consider when building a marketing and communications plan.  But, as more and more people and organizations start sharing their photos, videos, links and thoughts, even more questions come in to play about the implications.

When platforms like YouTube and Facebook were still young, investors demanded revenue models.  Over time, YouTube started placing ads within its user-uploaded videos in addition to the ads directly on the pages within its site.  Facebook has developed an entire advertising network centered around targeting its base of users.  Twitter is still going through its growing pains and will likely be introducing several revenue-generating models in the near future.

But, what happens when a tourist visits Disneyland, takes a video of his or her experience and uploads it to YouTube?  Many would argue that Disney benefits because this particular YouTube user is helping to promote its brand.  But what happens when an advertisement is placed on that same YouTube video?  As you can see, Disney is put in a tough spot.  To read in more detail about this issue, check out the full article at WalletPop.

The real question here is how do companies balance protecting their intellectual property with the potential benefits of fostering and maintaining a great social media presence?  This is definitely a sticky subject with no universally correct answer.  Right now Disney says that “each situation is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”  However, it should be interesting to see what happens when and if the tactics that generate revenue through these social networks starts to become more prolific and aggressive.  I doubt Disney would be too pleased if Six Flags started placing ads in these types of home videos.

Matt Smedley