Do you remember your first bike?  I don’t.  It was probably a tricycle of sorts.  Then I moved up to a something with a coaster brake.  That too was quickly forgotten. 

But BOY do I remember my first 10 speed.  I was in 4th Grade.  It had a fancy French name (Gitane) with metallic green paint with those multi colored Tour de France stripes, double butted alloy tubing and Simplex Derailers.  I’m sure it didn’t cost much – but to a 4th grader it meant the world to me.  I stop and think, “What if my Parents couldn’t afford to buy me that bike – or any of the bikes that came before it?”

That’s why I’m very excited to showcase the first Non Profit Facebook Business Page.

The Mark Reynolds Bike Fund provides bicycles to underprivileged kids in need.

Simple as that.  Kids need bikes and they provide them to those that can't.

In 2004 Mark Jeffery Reynolds, a native of St. Joseph, Missouri, lost his life in a tragic event while mountain biking near his home in California.

Mark, an avid cyclist, would often hit up fellow cyclists for a couple bucks here and there in order to help young people whose families couldn’t afford a bicycle. He would work with the local churches to find the children in need, and deliver the bikes himself.

During the holiday season, Mark would personally purchase bikes to give to less fortunate children for no better reason than to see their faces upon receiving one of the most coveted gifts as a child. After Mark’s passing, his family created a memorial fund to continue the tradition that he so passionately believed in.

To bring this closer to home – Mark’s Mother is popular ActiveRain Real Estate Agent, Dona Reynolds.

Please join this Fan Page, then use the “Suggest to Friends” and if you can please..

 

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Disclosure: I create custom designed Facebook Business Pages.  Each is different and represents the flavor of the business it represents.  As I find interesting pages or tabs I’ll highlight them in this series even if it’s not my own work.  This page is my personal Facebook Business Page of the Week.

Need a Custom Designed Facebook Business Page?  START HERE

 

Lawrence Louis Gibson

Sept. 21, 1956 – Aug. 12, 2009

 

Larry, we’ll all miss you!

Obituary

Funeral services will be at 10:00am at the Oak Park Hills Chapel on 3111 N. Main St. Walnut Creek, CA 94597
Gathering of Friends at Postino Restaurant in Lafayette after.

NOTE: I’ll be offline today in honor of my friend

Straight from my email Inbox

Q. “Mike, if I am in business (let’s just say I’m a real estate agent) do I set up a Facebook profile for my business or do I setup a Business Page?

A. Looking just at the Facebook Terms of Service (TOS) Section 3, Point 1:

3.  We do our best to keep Facebook safe, but we cannot guarantee it. We need your help in order to do that, which includes the following commitments:

1. You will not send or otherwise post unauthorized commercial communications to users (such as spam).

“Mike, that’s easy!  I NEVER send out Spam!  NEVER!”

Hold on there Buttercup…   Do you ever

• Update your FB status or post listings on your Wall?
• Have your Twitter Stream show up on your Wall.  Do you tweet links to listings?
• FriendFeed blog posts to your Wall or Notes?

My guess is you answered Yes to at least one of them (I even did).  Is your stream as clean of Commercial Communications as the pure driven snow?  (not sure what driven snow has to do with it).  Yeah, mine isn’t either.  In fact this very blog post which is commercial in nature will soon be tweeted, which will be FriendFeeded to my very own Facebook Wall.  Some grumpy old guy in across the country who haphazardly added me as a “friend” might just very well interpret that as spam.  I’m Guilty as Charged!

Technically speaking that’s a violation to Facebook TOS and your profile could be wiped away in a heart beat with no prior notice.  All your “Friends” gone!  Could it happen? Would it happen?  Maybe, maybe not – but then again, why risk it?

Breaking News:

Facebook Site Governance: Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (updated 8/11/09)

Section 4, Point 2 states “You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain.“

“But Mike, I see everyone else is doing it.  Facebook wouldn’t start deleteing profiles”.

While Facebook isn’t Flickr and isn’t Vimeo  (both are actively deleting accounts that have commercial content)

Ask Matt Stigliano about his Flickr Account.
See: http://www.rerockstar.com/2009/technology/an-answer-to-where-did-the-photos-and-slideshows-go/

and http://www.socialphototalk.com/flickr-permanently-deletes-yet-another-user-without-warning/

Ask Tim Ayers about his Vimeo Account.
See: http://642blog.ca/2008/07/08/vimeo-online-video-sharing-sucks-video/

There’s nothing stopping Facebook from doing the same thing in the future.

As a matter of fact - Meet Jim Calabrese who left this comment on my blog

 

Consider the alternative.  The Facebook Business Page.  It’s easy to start, free to setup.  And on Facebook’s site (http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages) they even encourage page owners to

STEP 4: MAKE IT RICH AND ENGAGING

The more rich content you add, the more ways users can interact with it and spread that connection to their friends. Post photos of products, employees, and customers. Add video clips of your bar or restaurant in action. ‘Behind the scenes’ content often works well. List an event for your grand opening or in-store sale. Write a note about upcoming promotions. The choices are yours and all these features are free and unlimited.

and

STEP 6: UPDATE REGULARLY

Updating your Page regularly with fresh photos, upcoming events, and thelatest promotions means your Page won’t just look like a profile, it will feel like one, and that will keep users coming back. Facebook users are used to getting information sorted by what happened most recently. If you keep your Page active, which you can do through mobile integrations and applications, you’ll find that your fans are more engaged and more interactive.

You can also send some or all of them messages by clicking “Send an Update to Fans” in the upper-left of your Page (under the profile picture). Updates are useful for sending out announcements like promotions, sales or events.

What’s the difference?

A Fan Page (Facebook Business Page) has Fans.  Those “Fans” have “authorized” you to send them commercial communications – a “Friend”  has not.  There’s so much more reason to have a Page than just this single legal technicality.  However it’s vital as Facebook, and doing business on Facebook grows that marketers understand what is legal and what is not.  So the real answer is that you need to start with a Profile. That profile should be for you, your true friends, and your family.  That Profile then can create a Business Page to promote you the “Professional” side of you.

PS: ActiveRain has it's own TOS - when was the last time you read that?

RELATED ARTICLES BY ZEMANTA

• Import Facebook Friends To Twitter (techie-buzz.com)
• 7 reasons you need a Facebook Business Page (AreWeConnected.com)
• Facebook Profile, Group or Page? (AreWeConnected.com)

 

Congratulations to Real Estate Client Referrals (RECR) for absolutely rocking their Facebook Business Page!

Disclosure: I create custom designed Facebook Business Pages.  Each is different and represents the flavor of the business it represents.  As I find interesting pages or tabs I’ll highlight them in this series even if it’s not my own work.  This page is my personal Facebook Business Page of the Week.

How Real Estate Client Referrals Rocks their page

It’s very simple really.  Clint Miller ( their Internet Marketing / Sales Manager)  is the workhorse behind the page and the head contact at the website.  Clint regularly puts out engaging content on it’s wall.  He’s answering questions, he’s posing questions, he’s offering "Facebook Only" specials.  He checks in a couple times a day.  Check out the wall and you may find an interesting video, personal (yet professional) notes about the daily happenings, a blog post or who knows what.

In short you can quickly tell that there is a real person behind this site that is actively engaging others.   Think about that.  How warm and fuzzy do you feel about a corporation website.  Not very. Yet this approach yields plenty of warm and fuzzy.  Maybe that’s why their Fan numbers literally zoomed this last month.

Real Estate Client Referrals - Needed 3 tabs to best illustrate what it is they do and how they do it. Each page starts with the same banner image as their website. The Landing Page is set to the “How it Works” Tab. After a number of clickable bullet points we’ve added a clickable map to see if the Agent’s area is available. Tab 2 (”Does it Work?”) has various client testimonials and the FAQ has immediate answers to the top 14 questions an agent might have.  Become a Fan if you haven’t already!

Need a Custom Designed Facebook Business Page?  START HERE

 

Relax….

It’s just down for the developers who need to access Facebook Pages.

I noticed it last night and confirmed with a few people on Twitter.

The Page is still up and functions like it did – the only problem is that we can’t get in and do anything on the backend. In the meantime, while we’re waiting for the CTRL / ALT / DEL from Facebook, here’s something cute to look at…

24 Hr Update: Still down an down for everyone.  (http://twitter.com/#search?q=facebook%20page%20edit)

• http://twitter.com/allnick/statuses/3406776968
• http://twitter.com/sidneyeve/statuses/3408178601
• http://twitter.com/mwangbickler/status/3414938111
• http://twitter.com/TinaCook/status/3414792094
• http://twitter.com/fivepi/statuses/3408253102
• http://twitter.com/marcpelland/statuses/3407334797
• http://twitter.com/zeeshanhasan/statuses/3402364937
• http://twitter.com/Sprout/statuses/3397699429
• http://twitter.com/realbird/statuses/3415216251
• http://twitter.com/mwangbickler/statuses/3414938111
• http://twitter.com/attaweej/statuses/3399207215

And then my favorite find… http://twitter.com/dnzPHP/statuses/3397059628 : )

Facebook is aware of the issue – here’s the Bug Ticket (thanks to @giberti )  No resolution yet.

I remember when SkyNet became self aware… 

I normally have to take an extra step to add this:

    

To the bottom of my post.  Thanks now to AR, I can set it up to add that automatically!

Wish I could be there.

I can't but maybe you can!

Please pass the word.

    

DON'T !!

Plain and simple, just don’t do it. In California it’s illegal and has been since January 1, 2009.

Illegal, yet every single day I see numerous drivers willingly breaking the law. Yesterday it was a middle aged woman who had both arms thru the steering wheel, blackberry against the speedo, on the freeway!

The following video is part of an half hour long program being shown to new drivers in the U.K. It's graphic in nature and worth every single moment of it's 4 minutes and 15 seconds.

It’s a professionally made short movie using actors but that doesn’t diminish the message. If I had my way I’d make every teen driver and their texting parents watch this before they signed that contract for their new smartphone!

Watch the video then go hug your kid.

What do you think... too harsh?

    

 

 

Related articles by Zemanta

• Text drive film to 'shock' pupils (news.bbc.co.uk)

I just finished the Facebook Page for the Radio Show and thought it would also make a great blog post.
Custom Facebook Business Pages are created using a combination of HTML and FBML.

The Facebook Page is at a http://facebook.com/socialmediaedge and we would love to have you as a fan. Who knows - you might just wins something (like a Custom Facebook Page)

If you haven't heard the show before - here's the "Bootleg Tapes" (All the Old Deadheads will understand what that means!)

 

 Each week, we have a handful of online friends who ask if our weekly radio show "Social Media Edge" (formerly Twitter Tuesday) is recorded, so that they can listen anytime. The essence of Web 2.0 is being able to access information on your own terms, right?

In an effort to make it easier to find and check out all of our previous episodes, this page will serve as the definitive spot to locate any past shows, going back to our original shows in early December 2008. We'll do our best to keep it updated each week from this point forward.

If you haven't heard our program at all, this would be a good opportunity to pick one that looks interesting to you. :)

Without further ado, here is the entire list to date:

 

August 2009

 

Social Media Edge - Special Guest Cathy Browne - August 11th - Cathy talked about her PR business and living in Canada. You can follow Cathy on Twitter at @CathyBrowne Mikes topic was on the newest version of Seesmic Desktop (download). Jeremy discussed large corporation social media campaigns.

Social Media Edge - Special Guest Danny Brown - August 4th - Danny talked about his 12for12k.org site. His goal is to raise a minimum of $144,000 for 12 charities over the course of 2009 using social media! Mike was going to try to call in but duties at REBarcamp/SanFrancisco kept him away.

 

July 2009

 

Social Media Edge - Welcome to the show @TS_Elliot! - July 28th - Once a guest, now a regular fixture on the show!

Social Media Edge - Special Guest Irene Koehler - July 21th - who wrote one of our favorite recent posts, "11 Sure-Fire Ways to Get Me to Unfollow You on Twitter..." at her site, AlmostSavvy.com.

Social Media Edge - Special Guest Steve Rosenbaum of GetRatedNow.com - July 14th - The switchboard was messed up this time around, so we have about 3 minutes of intro music, rather than our normal theme song. We discovered that the song includes a piccolo!

Social Media Edge - Special Guests Reggie and Nicole "Nik Nik" Nicolay - July 7th - We broke our live listener record with this star-studded episode!

 

June 2009

 

Social Media Edge - Tips, Tricks, Tweets and More - June 2nd - Jeremy Blanton also joined us for a new regular feature about blogging/ActiveRain.

Social Media Tips Tricks and Tools for SEO and More - June 9th

Social Media Edge - June 16th - Mike shared Evernote with us, and we discussed new Facebook custom URLs.

Social Media Edge - June 23rd - This was my first and only sick day to date.

Social Media Edge - June 30th - More talk about Facebook pages. I also had to kick Jeremy out of the chat room. :)

 

May 2009

 

Social Media Edge - Blogging Policies? Friend Feed - May 5th

Hyperlocal and the 2 Pound Doughnut - We All Win - May 12th

More Hyperlocal and Five Tips for Success - May 19th

Amazing Tips Tools and Tricks for Social Media - May 26th

 

April 2009

 

Twitter Tuesday w/ Jason Crouch & Ken Cook (JCKC Radio) - April 7th - Guest was Andrew Stone, developer of Twittelator and many other iPhone applications

Twitter Tuesday Radio - Guest Guy Hagen, Founder of Twinfluence - April 14th

Twitter Tuesday Radio - Now "Social Media Edge" - April 21st - After 3.5 months with guests, we decided to take a break for awhile.

Bloggers Sued for Product Endorsement? - April 28th

 

March 2009

 

Twitter Tuesday - Guest @CathyBrowne - March 3rd

Humanizing Business Through Social Media - March 10th - Guest was Erin Hurry, founder of Girls with Goals

Very Special Guest Steve McGranahan - "World's Strongest Redneck"! - March 17th - yes, you read the title correctly

Twitter Tuesday - Guest James Shiner @TweeplePages - March 24th - James is also the founder of Zipvo, which is a terrific real estate video platform

Twitter Tuesday Radio Brad Nix, Matt Fagioli REtechSouth - March 31st

 

February 2009

 

Twitter Tuesday Guest Rick Abbott @theDigitalLife - February 3rd

Twitter Tuesday - Guest @BillCrosby Social Media Evangelist - February 10th

Twitter Tuesday - Guest @MikeMueller Vid/LinkedIn - February 17th - This was our first show with Mike Mueller, who has now become a regular part of the show as our roving tech reporter.

@shelisrael (Naked Conversations) - February 24th - Shel Israel is the co-author of "Naked Conversations", which is considered to be one of the seminal books on the topic of business blogging.

 

January 2009

 

Twitter Tuesday - Guests TS Elliott & Chicke Fitzgerald - January 6th - This was our first show with guests.

Twitter Tuesday - Guests Julie Roads, Walter Charnoff and Erika Napoletano - January 13th

Twitter Tuesday - Guests Brian Carter and Ed Bisquera - January 20th

Twitter Tuesday - Guest Tamara Dorris - January 27th - We shifted to one guest instead of two at that point.

 

December 2008

 

That was the first month that I (Jason) hesitantly dipped my feet into the radio pool, as it were. Listening back to those early attempts, I was struck by how serious I sound. The first couple of shows were 30 minutes, but we later expanded to a full hour.

Jason Crouch and Ken Cook Twitter Tuesday! (30 minutes) - December 9th

Jason Crouch and Ken Cook Twitter Tuesday! (30 minutes) - December 16th

Twitter Tuesday Christmas Show (30 minutes) - December 23rd - includes a visit from a very hungover Santa Claus!

Twitter Tuesday New Year's Resolution Special ONE HOUR! - December 30th - our first one hour show

  

 

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Sometimes you really hate to say

"I told you so" but in this case - I can and I did!

Good for your RECR!