Why?

I got a message from an old buddy of mine who hasn’t done any activity at Facebook for the last 4 months or so (that’s what kids do, mind you).
It naturally raised my suspicions and yes, it’s a phishing site designed to look like Facebook’s login page.

Don’t go there.

Anyway, being a little snot for statistics I went through my user stats today and found out that most people during last days came here looking for above mentioned scam.  Nice SEO, not nice for Facebook users to always try these things.

(My original Google result was this blog.)

Related posts:

1. links for 2009-05-25
2. On Posting Photos
3. On Google AdSense Ads on GMail

I don’t know if the quizzes in Finnish are more annoying than the ones in English, still annoying.

And know what?

I take those quizzes. I don’t know why. I hate them.

The Finnish ones are full of spelling mistakes (yhdys sana for example).
Results all either fucked up or just plain stupid.

And know what?

I still take them.

Because it’s so thrilling to see if I’m “a True Finn” or wheter my co-worker does the same things I do this summer. Or is my political view what I believe it to be?

Or the quizz about my military rank? What’s with it? My rank is what my rank is – and I certainly know what it is.

Be Your Own Annoyance

And you know what? I won’t complain more, I’ll just do a quiz of my own.

It seems, according to small empirical test, that the hip app for quizz -making is “Make Your Own Quizz” (link leads to Inside Facebook’s app-page). According to app itself:

“Making a Quiz has never been easier! Making a Facebook app has never been so fast! Make your own quizzes and turn them into your own real Facebook applications!”

Jolly good.

Ok, Iäll just go to app  at FB and make a quiz.

Above is a screenshot about the first page, fugly highlights by me. First highlight is the language – I want my quizz to be in Finnish. Second one is picture, it actually says “This is very important! It will make your quiz more popular!“.

So, I have to have a picture.

I chose one about stairs at Pispala and named my quiz to “Kuinka korkealle pääset Pispalan portaissa” (how high can you reach?).

Next page was about the results, screen grab below:

Make A Quiz on Facebook, results page.

Typed some results, put on some images.

My images, however, were too big. The “useful” error message stated “2MThe uploaded file exceeds the maximum file size of %1 bytes.“. Perhaps someone should’ve told about the file size limit earlier?

Anyhoo, downsized the pics manually, tried to upload them.

Kaboom!

Everything gone.

Oh well, another try, luckily not from scratch.

Then the actual questions!

I just basically make something up as everyone does.

Make A Quiz On Facebook - questions page

After setting up the questions, a new app for the quiz:

Setting up the application for my Quiz

And voila, there it is (after just one step – I won’t paste that here).

My own little quiz, whee. (Find it out for yourselves if you fancy).

Conclusions and pondering

• Making ones own quiz isn’t that hard. That’s certainly the reason for all the annoying quizzes!
• Result (of the quiz) can be something totally different than the maker intended as the answers and outcomes are connected in my opinion in somehow awkward way.
• Quizzes can be used to influence people and their opinions
• Quizzes can be used as part of marketing

All in all, quizzes are here to stay (although really, really annoying), so why not use them?

Related posts:

1. My Comparative Study about Facebook Ads (weeklies, part 1)
2. Facebook ads, part n.
3. So I Took the Survey.

Personally I like photography, like taking pictures, love the feeling when some of my shots turns out to be exactly as I wanted it to be.

And yes, I’d also like someone else than yours truly to see my best photos.

And as I’m all for Web and digital solutions, I’d like to share my photos online.

Simple google search with “share photos online” returns over 31 million results. Obviously no good for me, eh? Just simple clicking on first 20 results would take days if I really wanted to get to know the services offered. Not my way.

Then there’s this blog. WordPress offers some decent tools for image uploading and galleries. Well, why not?

• First: they’d be at my own server taking up my space and my bandwidth.
• Second: as the space and bandwidth are not free, I’d be the guy doing the paying part
• Third: This blog is located at joint server at a finnish ISP. I strongly doubt if it’ll take any serious amounts of load (which I don’t think my “fancy photos” would create, but anyway).
• Fourth: Licenses. Should perhaps get a CC-license or something as some persons roaming the internet tend to think anything without a clear license is free to take and use (which is not the case). Well yes, I think I have to do this, sometime. Not now.

In stead of those first two alternatives I’ve tried Flickr, Picasa (Google Photos?) and lately Facebook for sharing my photos. My impressions?

Flickr (wikipedia article):

• owned by Yahoo, perhaps the biggest web2.0 photo sharing tool on web.
• free account with 100 MB monthly limit (which is really decent)
• up-to-date licensing systems (cc, mainly)
• Somehow this just isn’t my cup of tea, don’t know why.

Picasa (wikipedia article)

• owned by Google, perhaps more for private photo galleries than Flickr (imho).
• free account with 1024 MB limit
• TOS permits Google to “to use the uploaded photos to display on the website or via RSS feeds, and also for promoting Google services royalty-free”
• I’ve used Picasa for years. For some reason don’t like it.

Facebook (wikipedia article)

• well. not exactly a photosharing tool but a social networking website. Has some sharing tools and your buddies are already there, aren’t they?
• free account, “unlimited amount of albums” – though in each album can only be certain amount of photos
• TOS permits Facebook to do just about anything with your photos (highlights by yours truly):
  “By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide licence (with the right to sublicence) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorise sublicences of the foregoing”
• Used this one, too. Somehow the abovementioned gives me the shivers, though.

So, no decent shots to Facebook. Picasa web is not for me. Perhaps should (again!) try to use Flickr and then use some plugin with my blog.

Or then I’ll just post the photos here.

Any suggestions?

No related posts.

“Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses.”

Now, the Finnish Air Force has been quite active a marketer in the past.

Some of you may remember the FAF’s pilot recruite campaign at Irc-galleria. They created a community page for recruiting (fighter) pilots, pr and so on. Nowadays the community page is not as glittery as it used to be…

Viral marketing – or using the so called new media (web 2.0?).

Anyway, reason for this posting can yet again be found from Facebook.

As you can (might?) see to right, there’s a targeted Facebook ad from the so called “New Facebook” – or Facebook after the recent facelift.

It says “The Finnish Air Force needs your help now!” in the text. Title is “Finnish Air Force”, picture somehow makes one wonder, ’cause we don’t have planes like that here…

What is it then? I thought, at first, that FAF advertises now at Facebook. Curious as I am, clicked the link.

No, they’re not advertising at Facebook – or at least this is not FAF’s ad. It’s an ad for application, a game at FB.

Pretty good ad, in my opinion.

Now, if I worked at FAF atm, I’d do pretty much the same thing as the application developers did. I’d set up a page at FB and buy some targeted ads. Target group: all members of the Finland-network between, let’s say, 18-29. Both men and women. Replace the plane pictured with a classy pic of Hornet flying high and there we (would) go!.

Now, the interaction. I’d probably contact the developers of that particular appilication and try to work something out with them… As the game should be quite good;)

Well, as I don’t work at FAF, I don’t do any of these things.

Just thinking aloud.

Related posts:

1. Budget Sport viral marketing
2. What’s Wrong With Finnish Theatre (Or My Short Trip to Tampereen teatterikesä)

So, should I find my position?

This targeted ad at Facebook tells all the ICT-professionals (Information & Communication Technology) to find their positions at the field.

Surprisingly this ad is perhaps the most relevant Facebook ad to me I’ve seen. I think I won’t act on it, though.

Related posts:

1. My Comparative Study about Facebook Ads (weeklies, part 2)
2. My Comparative Study about Facebook Ads (weeklies, part 1)
3. Be Your Own Annoyance (on Facebook Quizzes)

Ten random clicks at Facebook and ten times Facebook “contextual ads”, here we go!

1. Title:
   Voita XXXX-lahjakortti (win a gift certificate to XXXX ) (Name of a swedish furniture company censored)
   Content:
   Company’s logo, background is a cloudy sky. Text tells that one can win a gift certificate byt the sum of 2000 e to this particular company. (Click here!)
   Relevance (to me):
   Well, everyone needs furniture sometimes. Quite relevant.
   Origin:
   Finnish (Swedish?)
2. Title:
   Omega Seamaster (Same ad as last week.)
   Content:
   Picture of a watch. Ad for 1 cent auction.
   Relevance (to me):
   Watch looks ok. Don’t do auctions online (or otherwise)
   Origin:
   Have no idea. Probably translated.
3. Title:
   Linssejä halvalla hinnalla … (Lenses at low prices …)
   Content:
   Animated gif. Apparently sells glasses (or lenses for glasses). Annoying animated gif.
   Relevance (to me):
   Relevant, as I wear glasses (while working). Just bought a new pair, actually.
   Origin:
   Finnish.
4. Title:
   World Vision -kummiksi (Sponsor a child)
   Content:
   Picture of a young boy’s face. Text urges you to sponsor a child with under 1 eur/day.
   Relevance (to me):
   Hmm. Don’t know. Relevantish.
   Origin:
   Finnish. (Or international, but the given web address points to finnish partner).
5. Title:
   Lainaa 1000 – 4000e (Get a loan of 1000-4000e)
   Content:
   Company’s logo. Loan ad.
   Relevance (to me):
   Not relevant. Don’t do online loans.
   Origin:
   Finnish.
6. (Facebook crashed)
7. Title:
   Upea rusketus (Great tan)
   Content:
   Picture of naked (man’s) chest. No bodily hair. Has a hand over left nipple. Text says something about a perfect tan.
   Relevance (to me):
   Not relevant. I get my tan outdoors, plus that pictures of naked men aren’t just my cup of tea.
   Origin:
   Probably Finnish.
8. Title:
   Subway xxxxxxxxkatu
   Content:
   Some daily discount prices at Subway (just opened a new outlet quite near me).
   Relevance (to me):
   Quite relevant. The outlet in question is neareast to me and on my way to work. Go to Subway sometimes.
   Origin:
   Finnish.
9. Title:
   KUN ARKI ON JUHLAA – et elämääsi tuhlaa (When every day is a party – you won’t waste your life. Actually sorft of a word play, can be translated but just don’t feel like it.)
   Content:
   Huge animated gif stating that one’s life can be a party/celebration/whatever every day. Quick online loan.
   Relevance (to me):
   Not relevant. Annoying picture, don’t do online loans.
   Origin:
   Finnish.
10. Title:
    Voita luksusmatka (Win a luxury trip)
    Content:
    Pic of a girl sipping some beverage from a huge glass. Arrow pointing to her head. Minuscle text about location (St. Tropez). Text says that you can win a luxury trip to St. Tropez for two!
    Relevance (to me):
    Not that relevant.
    Origin:
    International? (translated).

Not that funny results this time.

Some random remarks:

• same ads keep repeating most of the time (tried to spot different ones)
• most of the ads are about 1 cent auctions, loans or stuff like that (which is not suprising)
• quality of translation depends, a lot. Some are better than others.
• some of the ads were perhaps more relevant this week?

Till next week!

Related posts:

1. My Comparative Study about Facebook Ads (weeklies, part 1)
2. Facebook ads, part n.
3. Be Your Own Annoyance (on Facebook Quizzes)

Erm, what?

Facebook is a well-known social platform. Or as they put it: “(Facebook) is a social utility that connects you with the people around you.” I’ve been playing with FB last few years, not that early adopter world wide but quite early here in Finland (as it has gained popularity during past year).

Anyway, Facebook’s business model is quite interesting, altogether. Ads, targeted marketing, applications etc! (If you’re interested: Facebook Case Study: Offline behavior drives online usage, Facebook’s uncertain Business Model, Facebook Platform Developers’ Guide (with business model warnings) and so on).

Business model is a whole different matter – perhaps I’ll post something about that later. This posting will focus on Facebook’s (targeted small) ads. FB promises “advanced targeting“, where ads can be targeted by “age, gender, location, interests and more”.

As a Finn living in Finland this is quite interesting as Finland is a small country with a low populage, only 5,1 million or so. Language spoken is finnish - not that common elsewhere;) Now, why is it interesting?

First things first, finns in Facebook are quite neat a target group. The Finland Network at Facebook has at the moment (25th June) about 410 000 members. Supposing these are mainly Finns we can say that 10 % of Finns is moderatly active at FB. Now, if you want to target all Finns you can pick that group as target or all the members who give their location as Finland (this probably would include all the foreigners in Finland, too, excluding Finns abroad).

Anyway, the ads. I actually wanted to write about the targeted and localized ads as they become more common sighting at FB. I’ll do this by listing here 10 ads I see during this afternoon (perhaps later, too) and commenting on them. (Most of the translations (from english) to finnish are quite hilarious. Too bad they don’t translate that well back to english.)

Here we go!

1. Title:
   Laihduta kuten Hollywood  (In english something like “lose weight like Hollywood”)
   Content:
   Picture of a young (skinny) lady in a smallish swimsuit on a beach. Some kind of weight loss dingy.
   Relevance (to me):
   Not relevant at all. I don’t a) need to lose weight b) want to lose weight.
   Origin:
   Translated from some other language.
2. Title:
   Uudet Arabian Muumi-mukit (new Moomin cups by Arabia)
   Content:
   Picture of cups with Moomins. Web address with a promise of quick shipping.
   Relevance (to me):
   Well, I have two of those cups, so quite relevant.
   Origin:
   Finnish
3. Title:
   Mitä tekisit 60 tonnilla? (What would you do with 60 grand?)
   Content:
   Picture of some guy with huge glasses wearing a lot of bling. Some half-naked ladies behind him. Text tells me to pimp my life (“tuunaa elämäsi”) and a web address.
   Relevance (to me):
   Not relevant at all. I don’t want to pimp my life.
   Origin:
   Finnish
4. Title:
   Omega Seamaster
   Content:
   Picture of a watch. Ad for 1 cent auction.
   Relevance (to me):
   Watch looks ok. Don’t do auctions online (or otherwise)
   Origin:
   Have no idea. Probably translated.
5. Title:
   Voita uusi MacBook Air (Win a new MacBook Air)
   Content:
   Picture of a MacBook Air.  Ad for some online auction.
   Relevance (to me):
   MacBook Air is always ok (would like to have one if I just had too much money). Don’t do auctions online (or otherwise)
   Origin:
   Finnish?
6. Title:
   (network addess for a “finnish online pharmacy” – censored)
   Content:
   No pictures. Some generic ad fro health products online.
   Relevance (to me):
   Not relevant. Side note: selling pharmacy related stuff online is illegal in Finland. This ad is actually for natural remedies.
   Origin:
   Finnish
7. Title:
   Kämppiksen kanssa menoja? (Going out with your room mate? — or something. Very bad translation to finnish)
   Content:
   Logo of a web site. Text tells us about this wonderful service which you can use online or with a Handy.
   Relevance (to me):
   Not relevant. I have no “room mates”
   Origin:
   Translated
8. Title:
   1 year MBA in Boston.
   Content:
   Picture is obscure – don’t actually know what the hell is in it. Golf clubs? Ad for some MBA in Boston.
   Relevance (to me):
   Not relevant. I think my M.Sc (tech) is enough.
   Origin:
   US. Not translated (in english)
9. Title:
   Lainaa rahaa – (name censored) (Loan money – (name of the company))
   Content:
   Logo of the company. Text says that they’ll help me to get a loan online.
   Relevance (to me):
   Not relevant. I don’t want a loan (from Internet)
   Origin:
   Finnish
10. Title:
    Lemmenlaiva (Love Boat)
    Content:
    Logo of the company. Text tells us that there’s a high quality online shop for couples (you get the point?)
    Relevance (to me):
    Hmm. Hard to say, perhaps relevant.
    Origin:
    Finnish

Bonus:

1. Title:
   Says my cousin added this one particular Facebook application.
   Content:
   Logo of the application. says the above plus that I can use this application for what it was meant.
   Relevance (to me):
   Hmm. I actually do have this application installed. Don’t like it (nor use it), though.
   Origin:
   Not translated. International.

Well, not that many hilarious results this time. Conclusions? Those ads weren’t very relevant for me. Online auctions are not my thing, nor is weight loss or diets. I have plenty of applications installed (too many!), but I don’t add them usually from an ad. At my case the targeting was quite bad. Some other time perhaps better!

(Perhaps I’ll do this weekly. Could be nice – yeah, I’ll do that if I have the time and energy)

Related posts:

1. My Comparative Study about Facebook Ads (weeklies, part 2)
2. Facebook ads, part n.
3. Be Your Own Annoyance (on Facebook Quizzes)