Social @ Blogging Tracker » Social Networking

15 Twitter Tools to Boost Your Online Presence and Productivity

Ching Ya — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:23:32 +0000

Twitter is a valuable source of news updates. Without proper management, it can be a real time suck! There’s only so much time in a day, you need to make each tweet, each following count for something. Why not utilize some free Twitter tools to lighten your load so you can focus more on building relationship with your tweeps?

Twitter News Aggregators:

These apps summarize the most relevant and popular updates from your Twitter stream with very simple setup procedures. Best of all, you can subscribe to your friends’ to find out what is hot in their Twitter network too.

#1 The Tweeted Times

Tweeted Times creates real-time personalized newspaper from your Twitter stream and arranges them by popularity based on total mentions from your Twitter friends and theirs. You can then subscribe to the newspaper via RSS reader or promote it to your network.

Special Tip:

Customize your newspaper digests from public Twitter lists or search results. A great way to filter your stream if you are following a wide range of Twitter users.

#2 Summify

I was going to skip Summify because it had stopped receiving new registrations after acquired by Twitter. However, I can’t deny the fact that it helped tremendously in gathering social news feeds from various social networks: Twitter, Facebook and Google+, presenting them in one-page summary so one can catch up on daily news updates via web or mobile. Normally it takes 1-2 hours to collect the stories.

Special Tip:

Summify is visually appealing comparing to Tweeted Times and both give me slightly different results in their daily news updates. I love how I can easily share individual story without having to leave Summify.

#3 Paper.li

Paper.li offers more configurations when collecting trending news: optional to add photos, videos and to order the news by priority via drag and drop. You can add anything you read from the web to your paper and share it with your Twitter network. Being a publisher is all about providing content, which makes it all the more important to follow the right people in gaining valuable resources that interest you.

Special Tip:

Besides Twitter stream, you may import stories from other websites via RSS Feed and Google plus account as well. You can feature, hide or delete an article; block a user or website from your newspaper.

Declutter Your Twitter Stream:

#4 Slipstream

Slipstream works perfectly in Twitter web to eliminate irrelevant tweets without having to block or unfollow anyone. You can hide tweets containing a specific keyword, tag, either from a user or everyone in your Timeline, @replies or twitter lists.

Special Tip:

A huge time-saver if you don’t wish to get caught up by a trendy topic or hashtags you’re not interested in. My only problem with Slipstream is that it only supports limited browsers at the mean time: Chrome and Safari. We need more browser choices.

#5 StrawberryJam

StrawberryJam pulls in popular links shared by your friends and gives a clear overview of what’s trending in your Twitter network. You get to see the results ranging from last 8, 16 and 24 hours. Did I mention you can even see real time results too? Turn on the Preview and you can read the post excerpts, giving you some idea what is the story about.

Special Tip:

Enter specific keyword, tag or twitter list to find out most shared links in the mentioned category. Great app if you’re looking for popular links to share.

Twitter Following/Followers Management:

#6 ManageFlitter

It has been awhile since I cleaned up my Twitter account. Thanks to ManageFlitter, I was able to clear a few inactive accounts while discovering contacts I should communicate more. It allows Google+ integration so your public posts can be imported to your Twitter stream after configured.

Special Tip:

Free version of ManageFlitter only lets you ‘unfollow’. If you’re interested to know which of your followers you didn’t follow back, another free app you can use is ‘Friend or Follow’.

#7 FollowFriday Helper

I was able to jump on the FollowFriday bandwagon easily thanks to FollowFriday Helper which displays a filtered list of those we interacted most recently. You can choose to write personalized or multi-user recommendation tweets from within the app.

Special Tip:

Various hashtag suggestions are given other than #FF. Add multi-user recommendations by clicking at their Twitter username; navigating from one page to another won’t affect your pending recommendations in the text box. Thoughtful.

I was meant to add Formulists and Conversationalist in this category but unfortunately their sites are shutting down soon. Still yet to find a Twitter app that supports smart lists updating. For other Listing options, you can refer to 6 Twitter Lists Applications to Expand Your Network.

Twitter Account Management:

#8 Tweetbackup

Tweetbackup allows you to run daily backup of your twitter posts which you can then export to be downloaded. Tweetbackup is the subsidiary of Backupify, a well known backup app for social media accounts.

Special Tip:

Although it says to backup people you followed but neither can I locate the backup file nor the setting for that purpose.

Brand Monitoring on Twitter:

#9 Topsy

Tracking your brand mentions on Twitter can be done easily with Topsy. Get real time search results over the social web from the past 1 hour to 30 days, sort them by date or relevance. Use advanced search to filter your results if need to.

Special Tip:

Topsy adds Google+ in their real time results too. A good method to track who shared or mentioned your brand on Google Plus.

#10 Twubs

Twubs makes hashtags useful as it enables tracking for certain conversations, information, shared movements and memes. With Twubs, you’re able to view latest tweets of your preferred topics.

Special Tip:

There is no official claiming of hashtags so anyone can edit the hashtag descriptions. This could be a risk if someone deliberately sabotages a brand by altering their hashtag content. Therefore, commitment is required to monitor twitter chats and events closely.

Smart Scheduling of Tweets:

Tweet-scheduling can be a hassle. Often times I wonder do those scheduled tweets earned a spot in followers’ streams or simply dropped off their radar? Here are the solutions to the problem:

#11 Timely

Timely analyzes your past tweets and schedules them at suggested time slots for your optimum exposures. The timing will adjust itself after you added more tweets. Later, find out how your tweets performed in stats (number of clicks, reach and reactions). You can also skip or limit weekend posting as well.

Special Tip:

You can reply to those who mentioned you within the Timely app. Add a bookmarklet to your browser for quick and effective scheduling. No edit can be done on suggested time slots except deleting them.

#12 Buffer

Buffer is often compared to Timely but if you want to have control over your scheduling time then Buffer is your go-to app. Set your time slots and add up to 10 tweets for one Twitter account (Free version). Personally, I love how Buffer is integrated with other awesome apps like StrawberryJam and SocialBro. As a bookmarklet or browser add-on, you can add content easily to buffer!

Special Tip:

Buffer button is also available for websites to encourage readers to buffer your content. Adjust your time slots not only in hours but on different days by ‘Change days’ option. Ability to post less on certain days is available for paid accounts.

Innovative Use of Twitter Stream:

#13 TweetWally

TweetWally is great for both personal and brand promoting purposes. I’m a Facebook addict so thanks for TweetWally’s embedding feature, I can gather all my Facebook-related tweets and share it with my blog readers. You can claim a vanity URL for your account and customize its appearance to fit your brand. Here’s my TweetWally if you wish to take a look.

Special Tip:

No edit can be done on displayed tweets. Require constant monitoring so no irrelevant tweets are included.

Twitter Analytics:

#14 Twitsprout

After hearing so many good things about Twitsprout I decided to give it a go. It takes about 7 days to collect data for a new account but it’s worth the wait. Twitsprout transforms your historical data into a beautiful infographic, showcasing the stats for your new followers hourly, number of people retweeting you and number of mentions received.

Special Tip:

TwitSprout works best in Chrome; upgraded Firefox and Safari browsers (both version 4 and up).

#15 SocialBro

SocialBro is a Twitter community management tool but I must highlight its real-time analytical feature: you can find out who are the most active users in your stream in the last 5 minutes (twitter timeline, public Twitter lists or any search terms). Although free version only provides monitoring up to 100 active users every 10 seconds but that’s good enough for me.

SocialBro’s very own Insights is equally impressive where you get to track languages, timezones etc for your followers/following. You can export then save your data in PDF.

Special Tip:

Always synchronize your account to get the most updated results. SocialBro can do a lot more than analytics alone, including managing following/followers, discovering best time to tweet (integrated with Buffer) and so much more.

Don’t just take my words for it, try them out. Not all Twitter apps are suitable for everyone. Find out what is your biggest Twitter challenge and incorporate some of these tools to boost your online presence and productivity. You’ll be surprised how well these apps could work!

Now Is Your Turn…

Are you currently using any of these Twitter tools? Do you have more apps to add to this list? Feel free to share in your comment. Or you can always share with me on Twitter: Follow @wchingya

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How to Track (Manage) Your Pending Friend Requests on Facebook

Ching Ya — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:46:32 +0000

If you’re on Facebook then you are well aware of this problem. Remember how we used to be able to check pending friend requests in our friends list as indicated below?

Not anymore with the new personal profile.

If you think there may be a hidden feature for this then sorry to disappoint you again. Here’s how Facebook responded about tracking pending friend requests:

Unable to check pending friend requests is a huge disadvantage for Facebook users, especially if you are warned for overusing the feature (sent too many requests in a short period of time), reducing the request quantity may be the way to go. Currently the only known way to track pending friend requests is by visiting the person’s profile with a ‘Friend Request Sent’ icon at the upper right corner:

Imagine we have to memorize ALL friend requests we ever sent then return to each profile, EVERYTIME? Obviously this isn’t effective enough. Now wouldn’t it be great if there’s a list for that… that’s right, a LIST!

Recently, I was inspired by how useful a Facebook list can get, including tracking our liked pages in News Feed. So I thought why not utilize Facebook lists to track our pending friend requests as well? Of course there may be plugins or apps for the same purpose but if you are skeptical towards third party apps, Facebook Lists is a much safer method to use. Here’s how:

Step 1: Build Your ‘Pending Friend Requests’ List

1. After logged in your personal profile, go to this link: https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/lists

2. Click ‘Create a List’ and name it ‘Pending Friend Requests’.

3. You won’t need to add anybody to the list yet but whenever you sent a friend request, be sure to add him/her to your ‘Pending Friend Requests’ list.

4. From Home -> ‘Pending Friend Requests’, you can see profiles that had been added to your list. In order to follow up the list regularly, add it to your ‘Favorites’.

Step 2: Manage Your ‘Pending Friend Requests’ List

Unlike any Facebook applications, you need to update this list manually whenever a friend request is accepted. You can easily aware who just accepted your friend requests via Facebook Notifications or email alerts. After that, remove your new friend from the ‘Pending Friend Requests’ list.

Now, what if you missed the notifications and forgot all about the list after sometimes? Fear not, there are ways you can modify the list after several accepted friend requests.

Bear in mind, the news feed of your custom list will be consisting of updates from both your new (accepted) friends and non-friends (their public stories). Therefore you need to make sure the correct profile been removed from your ‘pending friend requests’ list, but how do you determine that?

Method #1 – Update ‘Pending Friend Requests’ List in News Feed

a. Open your ‘Pending Friend Requests’ list and scroll through your news feed. Hover over the profile to reveal his connection with you: If he/she had accepted your friend request, the ‘Friend’ button will appear. Remove everyone who established the ‘Friend’ connection with you, leaving the actual pending requests remained.

Method #2 – Check if Someone Had Accepted Your Friend Request

Instead of visiting the person’s facebook profile, you can check this within your custom list:

a. In your ‘Pending Friend Requests’ list -> ‘See All’ (upper right corner) to load the popup menu.

b. From ‘On This List’ you can have an overview of the people you sent friend requests to on Facebook. The unanswered/unaccepted friend requests will not appear in your ‘Friends’ list. For example, if Ron had yet to accept my friend request, his name won’t appear in my ‘Friends’ list. That’s how you know if a particular friend request is still pending or accepted.

These methods can only assist you this far in monitoring current and future sent requests but not previous ones. If anybody knows how to track back old (unlisted) friend requests, be sure to drop me a message!

Now Is Your Turn…

How do you manage pending friend requests before this? Do you think it’s necessary to have a checklist for it on Facebook? Kindly share your thoughts.

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How to Add Pages You Like in Your (Updated) Facebook News Feed?

Ching Ya — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:46:30 +0000

Recently a lot of Facebook users are asking the same question:

“I can no longer view page updates in my newsfeed. How do I add pages I like into my Newsfeed? ”

Technically, the page updates are still there in your news feed, just not as easily spotted comparing to before. We all know Facebook has their very own algorithm in deciding which updates to appear in our news feed based on our recent activities and how popular is the post/page according to our interests. Even so, we still might miss out a whole lot more information from the pages we love even Facebook thinks they had it all sorted out for us.

5 Simple Steps to Organize Your Pages News Feed in Facebook

Facebook agrees that ‘Lists’ is the optional way to organize what you wish to see in your news feed. Therefore, why not utilize it now to monitor on pages you really care about? Here is how you can make that happen.

1. In your ‘Home’ section, refer to your sidebar and locate ‘Lists’ -> ‘More’. Or, go to your custom lists here.

2. At the upper section of ‘Lists’, look for ‘Create a List’ button to bring up a pop-up menu. Name your list and click ‘Create List’.

3. Now you can start adding Pages (instead of ‘Friends’) to your list: look for ‘Manage List’ at your upper right corner. In the dropdown menu, select ‘Add/Remove Friends’.

4. Another pop up box will appear and at its upper left corner, select ‘Pages’ in the dropdown menu – all pages you liked are displayed in alphabetical order. Start selecting the pages to be included in your list.

Tips: It is overwhelming to go through the entire list if you have over thousands of pages. Therefore, use (partial or full) keywords to find the pages you might be interested. When you’re satisfied with your choices, click ‘Done’.

5. Now you can manage your list by deciding the type of updates you wish to see in your Page news feed.

Voila! Here is your very own customized News Feed for Pages:

Extra Tips 1: Create several lists instead of One-List-For-All

I would recommend you to create several lists for Pages You Like instead of just one that covers ALL. It would be difficult to see ALL page updates even in real time mode. Besides, you can merge the lists into one whenever you feel like it. However, the process is irreversible and the chosen list will be deleted after the merge.

Don’t worry if you do not have all the pages you want in one-go. Customize your list as time progresses, follow up on your current news feed to locate the missed-out pages and add them to your list anytime.

Extra Tips 2: Add your Facebook Page Lists to Your Favorites

All those important lists should go to a more visible area, say, your ‘Favorites’? Click at the pencil icon next to your Page list -> Add to Favorites:

Add as many lists as you prefer. When you’re done, you can rearrange them according to your preference (drag and drop):

Time Consuming if over Hundreds of Pages?

This is the pitfall of ALL list-making, but even if you have 5000 friends, I believe you would go through the entire list just to make sure your status update is going to the right group of people, right? This could be a great opportunity to better-arrange the pages you like instead of getting them all piled up for nothing. While a better alternative is on the way, this is the least we can do to organize the information we NEED, not depending solely on Facebook algorithm.

Oh, and while we’re at it, can Social @ Blogging Tracker Page be included in your privileged list too?

Now Is Your Turn…

Do you like the new changes to our Facebook news feed (excluding Top Stories and Most Recent options)? Would you prefer to have a better control over what information to read on? Do you have a better method in following up on the Pages you like? Kindly share your thoughts in the comment.

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7 Free iFrame Applications to Create Welcome Tab (Custom Tabs) for Your Facebook Page

Ching Ya — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:36:29 +0000

[UPDATED 05/01/2012]Note: You don’t have to worry if FBML tags are not working in some of these iframe apps because starting from 1st, Jan 2012, FBML will no longer be supported as described by Facebook here.

Recently I received emails asking about facebook iFrame applications. Most readers enjoyed the guide on how to create an iFrame tab from scratch but some are requesting for a simpler route with ready-made iFrame apps that could save time and effort, even without owning a web page!

I realized there’s a need to update my previous post about adding a Welcome tab (or custom tab) to a facebook page. Therefore, I would like to share some of my after-use experiences with these handy iFrame applications. Kindly take note these opinions are strictly my own and have nothing to do with app sponsorship whatsoever.

7 Free iFrame Apps to Create Welcome/Custom Tabs for Facebook Pages

iFrame Applications with No Banner/Footer Ad:

1. Static HTML: iframe tabs

Requirement of Coding Knowledge: Yes

Fans-Only and Non-Fans Content: Available

Static HTML is suitable for those who are sensitive with footer or banner ads. You can copy and paste your HTML code, CSS or JavaScript to the empty fields as shown. It enables scrollbars and FBML options which you can tweak for both fans and non-fans content.

In My Opinion…

The editor section is pretty straight forward. To preview your iframe tab just click ‘Save and View tab’. However there is one minor issue when I tried to insert FBML code for ‘Fans-only content’ box with ‘Enable FBML’ turned on: somehow my Facebook Share icon would not show. Unsure if it’s a bug issue on my part but in case you faced the same problem, try inserting the codes below manually in ‘Enter your content here’ box without having to ‘enable FBML’:

Put Your Fans-Only Content Here

Put Your Non-Fans Content Here

iFrame Applications with Banner/Footer Ad (may be eliminated with minor fee):

2. TabPress

Requirement of Coding Knowledge: Yes

Fans-Only and Non-Fans Content: Available

Tabpress is similar to Static HTML in terms of copying and pasting the codes in the content boxes. Comparing to static HTML, Tabpress offers a more user-friendly preview bar that you may tweak between Non-Fan and Fan Content.

In My Opinion…

Tabpress kinda solved my bug issue with Static HTML as it allows FBML tags to show up effectively. Hurray to that!

3. Wildfire’s iFrames for Pages

Requirement of Coding Knowledge: Yes

Fans-Only and Non-Fans Content: Available

Wildfire iFrame application is convenient to use but best of all, page admin can upload image files straight from its editor. This differs from Tabpress and Static HTML as both apps require user to pre-upload the images (if have) to a self-hosting or photo-hosting site, for example, a coding below is needed if you are to showcase a Welcome image:

By using Wildfire iFrames, you may eliminate this coding procedure.

In My Opinion…

Unfortunately, FBML tags are not supported in Wildfire app. Wildfire’s iFrames for Pages is currently FREE but in future they might start charging. So if you’re a fan of the app, better install it now.

4. Hosted iFrame

Requirement of Coding Knowledge: Yes

Fans-Only and Non-Fans Content: Available

What I love about Hosted iFrame is that it lets you add up till 5 iframe tabs to your facebook page (can be found at bottom page ‘Install Additional Tabs’). It gives you both Source and Visual preview of your content. Hosted iFrame allows Google Analytics so you may trace your page traffic. Also, it provides a special ‘Main Content’ editor box that you can create content for EVERYONE, besides the Fans-Only and Non-Fans content.

In My Opinion…

The ‘Main Content’ editor is a catchy feature. For now, Hosted iFrame is free for up to 25,000 fans but do watch out as once your page exceeded 25,000 fans, your tab will show a blank screen until you purchase their paid plans. Do take note that the total fan count is determined as a total of all your managed pages that are using Hosted iFrame, so it is important to monitor your tab consistently.

For Non-Coders: Allowing Subtabs

5. Iwipa

Requirement of Coding Knowledge: No (with Media boxes)

Fans-Only and Non-Fans Content: Yes

I introduced Iwipa previously in 5 Ways to Create Welcome Tab (Custom & Sub-tabs) for Facebook Page http://www.wchingya.com/2010/11/welcome-sub-tabs-facebook-page.html. Iwipa provides advanced editing that benefits both coders (Source view) and non-coders (Visual). You can customize your content easily with the editor, from bolding texts to adding bullet points, pictures, video or links. Most of all, it adds sub-tabs and multiple media boxes to your iframe tab as shown below:

In My Opinion…

Facebook users may get a little frustrated learning their way through Iwipa’s control panels, but once you had mastered it, you may enjoy some fascinating features. For example, you can customize a special note to your fans with catchy title or even a welcome video. (Paid version provides more customization and even embedding your Google Analytics code)

Note: Iwipa has a special media box that can showcase your page fans but that’s optional. If you would like to keep your fan list private, make sure this media box is not activated.

6. TabSite

Requirement of Coding Knowledge: No (Drag N Build)

Fans-Only and Non-Fans Content: No

Same as Iwipa, Tabsite had also upgraded to iFrame compliant. Its ‘Drag N Build’ feature had been recently added so special media widgets such as Google Map and email form integration (MailChimp, Constant Contact and Delivra) can be added to your custom iframe tab.

In My Opinion…

You will have to customize everything in Tabsite’s own main site (login required). Tabsite gives you two free main tabs: Welcome and Drag N Build (each with subtabs). Therefore, remember to ‘Save & Publish’ every time you made corrections to your tab content. Paid account offers more widgets but it all depends on your facebook page requirement.

For Non-Coders: Easy Custom Tab with Ready Template

7. Pagemodo Pagebuilder

Requirement of Coding Knowledge: No

Fans-Only and Non-Fans Content: for Paid Account only

Pagemodo is not affected at all by the FBML to iFrames transition as it provides drag and drop template for page admin. You can enjoy quite a number of free, sophisticated templates with easy image-uploading and text insertion.

In My Opinion…

Pagemodo is great to give fans a professional-feel of your page without having to worry much about image arrangement. Great for facebook page beginners to explore before advancing to more professional iframe tab customizations.

Bonus Tip ~

Some of these iFrame applications are using ‘Welcome’ as their tab name. You can re-name these tabs easily if you are to create a different custom tab. Just go to Edit Page -> Apps -> look for the iFrame application and click ‘Edit Settings’ -> Custom Tab Name -> change ‘Welcome’ to any custom name and ‘Save’.

Now Is Your Turn…

Bottom line, there is never a ‘best’ application but only the one that suits your facebook page the most. Make sure to test the iFrame applications yourself and understand their privacy options before using. Do you happen to know any other useful Facebook iFrame applications? Do share in the comments below.

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The Scary Side Of Social Media: 6 Ways It Could Ruin Your Business

Ching Ya — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:05:19 +0000

This is a guest post by David Murton, a professional writer and webmaster.

Image by: Lee

Social media sites can be a great asset to any company, helping them to connect with customers and build relationships with new clients. They are also great for introducing new products and posting advertisements such as slide shows and commercials. However, social media can also be damaging to a business that doesn’t handle their accounts properly or accidentally posts personal information to a public account. Safety is also a concern because social media accounts are vulnerable to hacking. Here are six ways that a social media blunder could ruin your business.

1. Hackers

Hackers don’t usually wear Halloween costumes (although some of them do), but they can be scarier to a business than any ghoulish trick-or-treater. Hackers can use programs to gain access to a company’s social media account and post information that is damaging to the company’s reputation, or use personal or financial data to commit further crimes. It’s a good practice to never login to a business Facebook or Twitter account using a public WiFi connection, because this unsecured connection makes it much easier for hackers to compromise your company’s information. It’s also important to use quality passwords and to log out of any session when using a public computer.

2. Mixing Business and Personal

Most people who handle the Facebook or Twitter accounts for their companies also have personal accounts. It is essential to make sure that business and personal accounts are kept separate, and that only business appropriate comments are made on the business’ account. It’s a good idea to only log in to the business account while at work and only your personal account at home. This will help you to keep the accounts separate and avoid accidentally posting embarrassing personal posts to a very public account. The messages spread quickly, even if they are promptly deleted. Another reason to avoid mixing personal and business social media accounts is time management. Many people who are in charge of their company’s social media accounts allow themselves ten minutes per work hour to make sure that their page hasn’t been hacked and their customers receive a timely response to any questions or comments they post.

3. Ignoring Comments

Twitter has been in use by the public for five years, and at least 106 million Twitter accounts have been created by users from all around the world. Many people follow businesses on social media websites because they want to be able to interact with owners or employees of that business. It is very discouraging to customers when they post comments or ask questions and receive no response, which in turn could lead them away from your page. Businesspeople who are in charge of social media should check each site at least once per day to make sure that there are no questions or comments that are going unanswered. Providing contact information to the customer is a great way to handle questions that you’d rather not respond to publicly.

4. Plagiarism

There is so much information on the Internet that it’s very possible for a business owner to unknowingly post copied content. Some narrow topics should be avoided because the lack of available information makes plagiarism more likely. Several online plagiarism detectors such as Copyscape are available to business owners who want to make sure that they don’t post content that has been plagiarized. Online plagiarism is a crime and it also makes the company look unethical, even if they are unaware that the content is copied.

5. Posting Too Often

Several companies have been ridiculed on Twitter because they repeatedly tweeted sales information using their company’s slogan. While it’s important not to ignore customer comments, it is equally important not to post sales advertisements several times a day. Most users get tired of seeing ads everyday and will stop reading information posted by companies who don’t post interesting or useful information. eMarketer, an advertising research company, estimates that about 88.2 million Americans will redeem at least one coupon code or coupon they found online. Targeting these online shoppers is important, but posting multiple ads per day may deter them from buying products or services from your company.

6. Think Twice, Or Three Times, Before Posting

Thousands of people read online posts at all hours of the day or night. Even if an erroneous posting is deleted quickly, it is likely that some people will have read it and may even have copied what was posted. Posts should be carefully proofread to ensure that they are error free. It’s a good idea to read the post aloud or ask someone else to read it before it is sent into cyberspace. Spell check is a good tool, but it doesn’t catch words that are used incorrectly or punctuation errors. Companies look foolish and unprofessional if their posts are incorrect or misleading, and they may lose potential customers because of a posting error. Customers love to point out any mistakes that companies have made, and, if the mistake is particularly embarrassing, they might re-post it on their own Facebook wall.

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How to Create and Add Custom iFrame Tab to Facebook Page

Ching Ya — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:51:40 +0000

[UPDATED 25/12/2011] If you want to Insert your external Web Page as one of your Page tabs, now this can be done easily with ready–made custom iframe apps. This will also solve the Secure Hosting requirement for your custom apps to display properly in ‘secure browsing’ on Facebook.

Below method is ONLY useful for those who wish to create iframe application for other Facebook users to add to their Facebook Pages:

It has been almost two weeks since the official launch of iframe app, replacing the good old static FBML tabs on our facebook pages. For those who aren’t sure what is an iframe, basically it is a standard HTML tag to enable a HTML document to be inserted into another HTML page. The benefit of iframes over FBML is that it accepts a wide range of web coding (Javascript, CSS etc) that used to be non-compatible in static FBML to create dynamic content for our custom tabs. Best of all, you can even import your custom made web page to be included in your fan page! Imagine how convenient that would be for your promotional effort!

Since no more NEW static fbml applications can be added to our managed pages, it’s important to know exactly how to work from creating the app to adding it to your facebook page successfully. I will try to be as thorough as I manage:

How to Create and Add Custom iFrame Tab to Facebook Page

Firstly, you need to prepare a html page to be inserted into your facebook page. You may use Dreamweaver for the job and upload the html file to your web server so to be pulled into your fan page later. Or, we can do this the easy way with less complication via a wordpress plugin named Facebook Tab Manager. What I love about this tab editor is that it saves time and keeps the custom tab size limit of 520px wide so no resizing is needed afterward.

Add Facebook Tab Manager to your WordPress Blog

1. Login to your blog and add Facebook Tab Manager to your plugins.

2. Activate it and look for ‘Facebook Tabs’ at your sidebar -> click ‘Add New’. Notice that to create the iframe tab content is as easy as how you normally write a new post.

3. When done, hit ‘publish’. New instructions will appear at the bottom of the post on configurations to register your content on facebook:

Customize Facebook Tab with iframe App

4. Go to Facebook Developer and start setting up your new iframe app.

[UPDATED Image: 25/12/2011]

[END]

Note:

Some of you who are creating your facebook application for the first time, verification process may be required. If you had already verified your facebook account before this, you can bypass this step. Otherwise, you need to go ahead and select to verify your account with mobile phone or credit card. Or, if you are not comfortable with this step, add an admin who is already done the verification to work on the new iframe application.

5. ~~The ‘About’ section consists of some necessary fields besides filling in your app name. Add image to your icon and logo so it’s recognizable.~~

[UPDATED Image 25/12/2011]

Edit your app icon: Settings -> Basic -> Edit icon:

[END]

Tips: Why icon/logo image is important?

‘Icon’ image will show up next to your app name when added as a new tab to your facebook page. ‘Logo’ image will appear in app directory, for example: you can have a look at your ‘Edit Page -> App after you added it to your page :

6. At ‘Facebook Integration’ section is where all the hard work landed. Here are some important fields that required to be filled correctly:

In Canvas Section:

Canvas Page – the base URL of your application on facebook.
Canvas URL – this is the URL where facebook pulls in your iframe content.
Secure Canvas URL – the secure version of Canvas URL with ‘https’. Basically the same info you entered in your ‘Canvas URL’.

Complicated? No worries. Refer back to step #3 above and locate the ‘Facebook Integration Tab’ in your blog and copy/paste the links given to you, for example:

[UPDATED Image/Instructions 25/12/2011]

Go to Settings -> Basic -> Select how your app integrates with Facebook -> Save Changes:

To create and associate a new (community) page with your app, go to Settings ->Advanced ->Contact Info ->App Page (Create Facebook Page) (optional) :

[END]

~~Below is the example of how Canvas section is filled:~~

*Caution*:

If you are unable to see the iframe app after installed to your page (regardless if you’re in ‘http’ or ‘https’), leave the ‘Secure Canvas URL’ field BLANK. Your iframe tab should be able to work in ‘http’ (non-secured browsing) and in order to view that, you need to go to Account -> Account Settings -> Account Security -> UNCHECK Secure Browsing. This is believed to be caused by a known issue on how our custom app is not visible when viewed in secured browser (https) as described in this bug report.

The bug occurred in February and was said to be fixed in mid March, however it seems that the bug is back again recently and affecting some of my pages. Will follow up on this issue and if you know how to fix this, do share.

In Page Tabs Section:

The important parts are ‘Tab URL’ and ‘Secure Tab URL’. Both links are referring to the html file location including its file name -> Save Changes:

*Caution*:

Again, if your app tab is not viewable, leave the ‘Secure Canvas URL’ field BLANK until the bug issue for secured browsing (‘https’) is fixed.

So now, your new iframe app is created!

Add Your iFrame App to your Facebook Page

[UPDATED 25/12/2011]

Refer to the documentation on how you can add a page tab dialog, or the one near to the end of this post. Clearly there is no longer a view app profile page link available in Developers apps section. No idea why though. [END]

~~7. Now go back to your ‘My Apps’ page and select ‘Application Profile Page’.~~

8. Then as how you normally add application to your page, click ‘Add to My Page’ -> then Add to the page you want:

9. See that a new tab is added at your page sidebar. Rearrange the tab [#2(c)] to a preferred location or set it as your landing tab.

Caution:

For some web developers who intends to import their external web pages to facebook pages, be sure to check if your page consists of any disallowed ad providers. Thanks to Kim for providing this info so not to violate facebook Terms of Use (refer to the part about ’9. Special Provisions Applicable to Developers/Operators of Applications and Websites’).

10. You can rename your custom tab by going to Edit Page -> App -> your app name -> Custom Tab Name -> after edit, click Save:

So whenever you wish to create a new custom tab, you need to go through all the steps again to get it done. Time consuming isn’t it?

To make things easier, if I could I will try to find other alternatives or ready-apps so even facebook beginners could enjoy as much privilege without having to go through the lengthy steps. Be sure to follow close and don’t miss upcoming posts!

Updated Post to check out:
7 Free iFrame Applications to Create Welcome Tab (Custom Tabs) for Your Facebook Page.

Now Is Your Turn…

How is your experience with iframe app so far? Has it been more useful for your page or not? Do you have any special tips to add? Feel free to do so in the comments.

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How to Manage Photos On Top of Your New Profile & Facebook Pages

Ching Ya — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:37:46 +0000

I’m really grateful to Are for he had posted a great question here. I haven’t actually wrote a detailed post about photo arrangements for either New Profile or the upgraded facebook page.

This week would be a great opportunity to go more in depth with both platforms! Truth is, we do need all the visibility we can get in facebook these days. Not to mention the ability to control which photos to show or hide from public eye.

Section #1 : How to Manage Your Photos in New Profile

It’s always important to check your privacy settings before applying any changes to your personal profile. For your new profile, all the photos appearing on top of your wall are photos been tagged by you or your friends. Make sure you are clear of the privacy setting that controls who can view your tagged photos at #2 of this post.

Now, let’s proceed with our photos arrangement in a new profile:

Creating a Profile Banner

In a profile banner, photo sequence is everything! There are many ways you can create a banner, some suggested to use app like Profile Banner but personally I prefer self-customization. I simply created a banner with the size of 485px x 68px and divided them into 5 photo strips. More about the photo size at Section #2 later, but once you got your photos ready:

1. First of all, upload your photos to your selected or newly created photo album in new profile:

2. When the photos are uploaded, you may choose to whether ‘Publish Now‘ or ‘Skip‘ it for later. I would go for ‘Skip’ as the news feed about your tagged photos will be updated anyway when we apply the tagging later.

3. Now in your album, identify your photo sequence and rearrange them if need to.

4. Before applying the photo tagging, do take note that the last photo you tagged will always show up at the farthest left on top of your profile. So if your photos are telling a story or been arranged to form a banner, make sure they are displayed so photo #1 is the first to be tagged, followed by #2, #3, #4 and #5 as shown below:

5. To tag a photo is easy, simply go to your album and tag your photos in proper sequence. Select the photo -> Tag this Photo ->Type or Choose your own name in the box -> click ‘Tag’ -> Done Tagging:

Solution: Unwanted Photos due to photo tagging by friends

Your profile banner can be easily disrupted once your friend had tagged you in another photo. Since there is no way to prevent people from tagging you, you can manage the unwanted tagged photos by:

i) Hiding tagged photo by ‘x’ (mouseover)

ii) Remove and untag photo from Wall

Section #2 : How to Manage Your Photos in (Upgraded) New Facebook Page

In the most recent post about enhancing your upgraded facebook page (some new tips were added at ‘Extra Tips‘ section in that post, do check them out!), the #1 advice is to make use of the photo row to attract fans attention effectively. Unlike personal profile, these photos are not only tagged photos of your facebook page but also:

Your most recent uploaded photos
Randomly arranged

Obviously a page banner is not possible for now since we cannot control the photo sequence. Even so, there are some easy, exciting ways you can use the spot for publicity. See how my friend, Nancy is smart on making sure her business messages are sent through via the photos on her page:

From what I see, this is by far the best way to present the photos until other methods come around. Without further ado, let’s see how we can learn from Nancy in controlling our photos on top of our fan pages:

1. Create and optimize your photo size to approximately: 97px (height) ×68px (width). (Photo sequence is not an issue here.)

2. Use photo editor such as Pixlr or Photoshop, even your very own Paint (Windows 7 version) to create the photos (more image editing app suggestions refer to section (b) of this post). Make sure the photos are striking enough to capture attention, better with a call to action like ‘Click Here’.

3. When you’re done designing your photos, upload them to your facebook page. Notice you can see them on top of your facebook page as soon as they are uploaded:

4. When your fan clicks at the photo, it will appear as a slideshow. Add image caption or URL that explains your promotion in details:

5. If you had added other photos after this, you can still grab the first spot on the left via tagging. Go to your album and select the photo you want to place #1 -> click ‘Tag this Photo’ ->Type or select your page name in the drop down menu -> click ‘Done Tagging’ :

6. Look! The tagged photo will appear just where you wanted it to be (so far only works on #1 photo from the left):

You can add as many photos you like to your facebook page and apply tagging whenever necessary. Of course, you can always ‘hide’ other photos you uploaded so only the default ones are showing on top of your facebook page. Most importantly, use your creativity and make sure each click-through is worth it for your fans.

Now Is Your Turn…

Have you discovered any smart ways to control photo arrangement on both your new profile and facebook page? What other ways you can suggest so page admin can make full use of their photos? Be sure to share your brilliant ideas in the comment below.

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7+ Major Tips in Enhancing Your Upgraded Facebook Page

Ching Ya — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:58:18 +0000

Three days ago, facebook announced an exciting news about Page Upgrade! Some of the most desired features are finally included such as page notification, ability to comment as the page profile and many more! I can’t wait to share with you what I love about the new facebook page:

#1 Latest Photos Arrangement to Grab Attention

Clearly, the new profile launch was preparing us for this evolutionary change for facebook pages. Now your page is also featuring 5 photos on top of your page, displaying the most recent photos or the ones you’ve tagged your own page in. Fans photos are excluded here.

Notice that the photos are randomly arranged after each click-through. It is difficult to maintain the photo sequence to create a large banner as how we normally do in new profile. However, since the removal of the ‘information’ box and latest status update on top of the facebook page, admin will need all the visibility he/she can get to grab fans’ attention. You should work out a method on how these photos can better assist in promoting your business without having to worry about photo sequence. This is something I intend to look further into.

Updated & Recommended to Read: How to Manage Photos On Top of Your New Profile & Facebook Pages

#2 Extra Length in Naming and Tab Descriptions

A lot of people see the new tab arrangement at the sidebar as a bad thing due to less visibility and click-through rates comparing to older design. After exploring them, I found there are hidden blessings within. Here are a few important tips about tab control:

a) Default Landing Tab STAYS
This could be the biggest concern of all, but good for facebook, this option stays for good.

b) Extra Spaces in Naming your Customized Tabs
Remember how we used to complain not having enough space in naming our tabs? Now you can have at least two rows of eye-catching description for your customized tab! That’s a welcoming improvement in tab visibility at the left column.

c) Edit and Hide Excessive Tabs
Unlike Merged pages, you can edit and hide your app tabs at will! Just click ‘Edit’ -> drag and drop the app tabs to arrange their order:

To have a less distracting sidebar, it’s advisable to keep only the important tabs in sight. Remove the unwanted tabs by clicking ‘Edit’ -> click ‘x’ next to the app to hide it:

Remember, sometimes less is more.

#3 Improve Page Interaction with Page Notification & Admin View

Wall Posts are no longer arranged in chronological order, instead two new filters are given for viewing: ‘Everyone’ or ‘your page name’ (posts by admin only). By default, ‘Everyone’ will show fans the most engaging posts on your page. The good side is fans are encouraged to participate often for visibility. The downside, new posts are struggling to reach the top. Even popular posts may lapse over time. For example, Christmas or new year wishes may stay on top of your page due to >100 comments by fans, but it doesn’t give much significance in value or info-sharing. This is another concern we need to work on in page engagement.

Page Notification:

This is remedied by the new page notification:

a) Email notification: Go to Edit Page -> Your Settings -> Tick the box for ‘Email Notification’ -> Save Changes. You can also change email settings for individual pages here :

b) Red on-site alert: You will have to ‘Use Facebook as Page’ (Logged in as Page Profile) in order to see them:

Then you can see page notification updates:

And it works for photo comments too! Hurray!

Admin View:
Page admin can easily view the ‘Most Recent’ posts and ‘Hidden Posts’ (Spam filter) via Wall -> Admin View option at the sidebar.

#4 Separate Business Interactions from Personal Profile

The upgraded page solves the biggest concern in separating personal life from business contacts. You can now do the following via identity switch between a personal and a page profile:

What you can do OUTSIDE managed pages:

Post comment as your business page without status-tagging feature.

A whole new section of news feed for your liked pages (or once known as ‘favorited pages’):

What you can do INSIDE managed pages:

Page activities (‘recent activity’) are showing up on your page Wall

Find out mutual connections (mutual fans count) between other pages and yours in Recommended Pages:

You can even choose to post as your personal profile by Edit Page -> Your Settings -> Untick ‘Always comment and post on your page as Your Page Name‘:

#5 Effectively Build Relationship with Other Pages via ‘Like’ & ‘Feature’

A page can finally ‘like’ as a page itself. There are two ways you can do this:

a) When logged in as your personal profile: click ‘Add to my Page’s Favorite’, OR

b) When logged in as your page profile: click ‘Use Facebook as Page’-> go to another page -> click their ‘Like’ button on top.

Best of all, you can decide which of your favorited/liked pages are showcased at your page’s sidebar: Edit Page -> Featured -> Select the number of pages to be rotated randomly:

You can feature your own page admins too if like (but DON’T if you are separating business from personal life):

#6 Limitless Counts to Change Page Category

It used to be troublesome to request for a page category review from facebook. Now you can manually select the accurate group and category for your facebook page from Edit page -> Basic Information -> Category -> and see the immediate change after that:

And there is no limit of how many times you can change page category.

#7 Better Moderation to Reduce Spam via Moderation Blacklist

You can now add keywords in the ‘Moderation Blacklist’ to prevent spams from appearing on your wall or comments: Edit page -> Manage Permissions -> Moderation Blacklist:

It’s great to see facebook is learning from their lessons with New Profile and merged facebook places/fan page by allowing ‘Preview’ before forced implementation. Page admin can switch back to public mode anytime if not satisfied, but NEVER after confirming the page upgrade. All facebook pages will be auto-updated starting March, 2011. Might as well get adapt and be ready for it.

Extra Tip:

Not sure if you noticed but Managed Pages is gone from our profile account. You can still reach your managed pages via this direct link or via Discover Facebook Pages -> Pages I admin.

Updated 01/03/2011:

We can now change ANY app tabs to our desired names. Go to Edit Page -> App -> select the app you wish to rename, click Edit Settings -> notice a new option ‘Custom Tab Name‘ is given! Key in the name and ‘Save’.

Some page comments may appear in GREY, which means they had been marked as spam by facebook and visible to page admin only. Release the legitimate comment by clicking ‘x’ -> Unmark as Spam so it is visible to all.

Updated 02/03/2011:

You’re gonna love this! Facebook is giving us back the ‘Most Recent’ posts option on our pages! Hurray! The previous ‘Admin View’ is now switched to ‘Hidden Posts’ (also known as Spam filter).

NOW IS YOUR TURN…

So I’m eager to hear what you think about the new upgraded page? What is the biggest gain for you and what previous options you’d like to keep unchanged? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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2 Excellent Facebook Page Apps to Get Email Notifications (2011)

Ching Ya — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:51:01 +0000

It has been four months since we talked about how to receive email notification for facebook page updates. Up till today, this feature remains unavailable on facebook. Apart from regular checking, page admin can only rely on third party applications to monitor upcoming posts and comments from fans.

I had previously introduced Page Notifier and Fan Page Notifier to monitor page activity (read this post to learn more about them). Page Notifier’s free version provides one-time-scan per 24 hours. As much I’m satisfied with its results, I longed for more scans in a day. As for Fan Page Notifier, the last time I got an email notification from it was end of December 2010. Not sure why it stopped. I went back in and updated my subscription recently, we’ll see how it performs few days later.

It’s absolutely fair to have limitations when using a free application, I understand that. In fact, I appreciate the app developers for trying to make our lives easier with these nifty facebook applications. Still, it never stops me to source for better alternatives, which is why I’m thrilled to introduce you these two new, free facebook applications that made my page monitoring a lot easier starting 2011:

#1 Hyper Alerts

Hyper Alerts won me over with its tag line ‘The Feature Facebook Forgot’ (how true is that!). It’s currently in public BETA (FREE) so definitely worth a try. The setup is almost instantaneous, start by registering yourself with an email:

Then, decide how you wish to add your facebook page to be monitored:

Option (1): Add Alert by URL
- All you need is to type in your facebook page URL -> Add, and you’re set. You don’t need to add this app to your facebook page at all! Plus, you can even monitor other fan pages you like but not under your administration.

Option (2): Add Alert from your Facebook User
- This option, on the other hand, requires authorization to access your facebook account. The purpose is to retrieve all facebook pages you are currently managing with your profile so you can select multiple facebook pages at once.

Normally I would go for option (1) since no strings attached (less privacy concern). But in order to receive instant email notification for new posts and comments, I was requested to connect my facebook page with the app anyway with option (1) :

So bottom line, you have two choices based on your alert frequencies:

If you refuse to allow Hyper Alerts to access your facebook account, you need to settle with either one of these alert frequencies: Hourly, Daily, Weekly or Monthly.
If you prefer to receive email notification ‘as soon as possible’ for new posts and comments, it’s a must to add Hyper Alerts to your facebook page (authorization required).

For now, I don’t think HyperAlerts is capable of notifying new photo comments (within photo albums) but only updates from the page wall:

What I love about Hyper Alerts:
It’s always a courtesy to ask if user wants to add the application to their facebook account. Even if we are not ready to allow access for Hyper Alerts, it still gives us other options – that’s thoughtful. I love how a user can opt-out of ‘Own Content’ so only fans posts or comments are notified, reducing the noise in our inbox. Not to mention, the ability to monitor other pages we like is a bonus!

#2 MediaFeedia

MediaFeedia is actually a facebook management tool and ‘fan page notifications’ just happens to be one of the offered features. Similar to most web applications, you need to register (either via facebook connect or email address). Then, you will be asked to import your facebook account to select the pages:

Once confirmed your page selections, go to Fan Page Notifications -> Start Monitoring -> type in your email address to receive page alerts. The maximum number of email addresses you can enter is three:

This is how mediafeedia email notification looks like in your email:

Mediafeedia includes updates from the page admin him/herself. By clicking at ‘Comment’ you will be redirected to your facebook page to reply and view the complete conversation:

What I love about MediaFeedia:
I have started using MediaFeedia since early January, I must say this application is exactly what I was looking for to improve my page monitoring with Page Notifier. The scan results are very similar to Hyper Alerts’ but with extra features such as post scheduling and email invitation to other admins.

Hyper Alerts and MediaFeedia are both showing profile thumbnail in their email alerts. I find that a significant ‘visual’ improvement for page notification apps, also a good way to get familiarized with who our fans are via their profile image.

Now Is Your Turn…

How do you monitor your page updates? If you have been using other facebook page notification apps, how would you compare them with Hyper Alerts and MediaFeedia? Kindly share your thoughts in the comment.

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3 Ways to Add Google Map (Business Location) to Your Facebook Page

Ching Ya — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 05:42:20 +0000

The incident with merged facebook page and Places has temporarily subsided, thanks to the much-requested ‘unmerge’ button. I didn’t get to explore how the Places page work but as much the Bing map looks attractive on the merged pages, there are numerous reasons why a business owner should think twice before merging.

Last Saturday, I had a light bulb moment when one of the page members wrote:

Although this has nothing to do with a Places page, but undeniably the idea of inserting a Google map into a facebook page is a great alternative! That way page admin can still use an interactive map to guide fans to their business premise without having to worry about page layout and losing landing tab setting due to the merge.

There are several ways to do this but personally I prefer facebook applications over manual HTML embed. I am anticipating for iframe app facebook promised to release in 2011 which will make dynamic content (like Google Maps) to be embedded a lot easier. Until then, here are some facebook applications you can use without having to worry about manual coding at all:

3 FACEBOOK APPS TO EMBED A GOOGLE MAP

#1 BlockWild Map

BlockWild Map lets you add a ‘Map’ tab indicating your business location within a facebook page. No HTML code required. All you need is to fill up your business name and address, the map tab will be up and running:

Notice that you can even announce local events for your business with details such as description, duration, image gallery etc. Fans can interact with you about the event via facebook comment box, or share it with their Twitter or Facebook friends (social buttons available). Since there won’t be any notifications you should check on new comments regularly. To access the complete map, fans can close the event box anytime by clicking at the purple-circled ‘x’:

I love how the tab is named ‘Map’ to suit perfectly for its purpose. However, if I have a customized Google map to highlight special routes or places nearby, I will need more control over the map and how it is displayed. That’s when Contact Tab comes in:

#2 Contact Tab

We first heard about Contact tab from my introductory about facebook page engagement tools (app #13). Back then I didn’t go deep with the Map feature but today, you will see how easy it is to embed a customized Google map to your Contact tab. I’m using First World Hotel, Genting Highlands as an example:

1. Learn how you can customize your Google map here:

2. Once your map is ready, look for the option ‘Link’ at the upper right corner and click at it for the HTML code:

3. Next, locate the ‘Contact’ tab on your page wall -> Edit Application:

4. Paste the HTML code you copied from the map and paste into the iframe box at the lower part of the Contact Tab -> Save Application:

5. After been asked to ‘click to view map’, your fans can use the tools (red-circled) to move around the map, or zoom in/out at will:

I love how Contact Tab is capable of adding a customized Google map, but if only other mandatory fields such as email, website and address can be opted out. The word ‘Contact‘ may not be obvious for fans in finding the map so you may like to mention/add a link to it from your Welcome tab or Info.

#3 Placewidget

Placewidget is also using Google map so if you had claimed your business on Foursquare, you can add this application to showcase the map. But unlike Foursquare main site, the map is non-interactive, merely an image file. A click at it will bring you to Foursquare where you can then explore the map thoroughly.

We don’t know how long we get to stay in the old page format, but until facebook team improvises the Facebook Places for merging, page admins will have some options to show their offices via Google Maps for now.

Now Is Your Turn…

Is adding a Google map or Bing map essential for your business page? Shall the settings for default landing tab and tab-positioning be maintained in the new facebook page layout? Love to hear your thoughts in the comment.

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