We’re sure you have heard; it’s a big week for Facebook. Even past 24 hours have been a rollercoaster for this mindboggling business model, so how does it affect small business and local advertising? It did seem almost even a week ago, that buying a locally targeted ad on Facebook was a Godsend to small business advertising budgets.  It really should be perfect; cheap, targeted by very specific markets and it comes with a constant stream of eyeballs. So what is happening?

We need to go way back to 2011, when privacy issues first plagued Facebook resulting in many lawsuits exposing a troublesome scenario that has user questioning who owns, but more specifically who is making money off your data?  A symptom of this problem seems to manifest in the targeted Facebook ads that work a little too well. The uber-targeted Ads have “creeped out” users by instantly appearing on their Facebook pages based on past web activity on other websites.  If you Google a website for “Boxing Gloves” don’t be surprised when you revisit your Facebook page there is an Ad for the local gym. It’s eerily like being watched.

So when an AP Poll discovered that over 60% of Facebook users do not trust Facebook with their personal information to be kept securely, is it really a surprise when  we find out only 17% of users actually click on Facebook sponsored Ads?

Another blow to the Facebook Advertising model came today with the announcement that GM pulling its Advertising from Facebook; citing the return just isn’t there. GM reported that its ROI for Facebook Ads just didn’t justify the paltry $10 million a year. General Motors is the 3rd largest advertiser in the U.S., and while $10mil is a sneeze compared to their 3 billion spent per year on media buys, but it does bring up some questions.

How can Facebook continue its 80% growth rate, and is the past quarter 7% dip in advertising revenue really a “seasonal” expectation?  The over-blown IPO stock prices seem to have many wondering about the bubble burst that seems inevitable.  What is Facebook going to do; to win back trust and who or what is to be the collateral damage in all of this?

Unfortunately there’s more to mull over. The multiple App specifications Facebook continually rolls out does one thing for certain. It keeps agencies, programmers and designers from creating any sort of productive means of creating Facebook Pages, Ads and Apps effectively. The constant changes have many frustrated trying to keeping up with the technical aspects of creating new “Fan Pages”; the key in generating the coveted Business Page “Likes”.  Sure advertising is cheap on Facebook, but with the constant battle of these technical specs, no way a programmer or agency can keep prices down.

So what does work through all the insanity of online marketing and pre-IPO Facebook?  It seems that content is still King, and seems to attract the social chatter that is generated by Facebook, something worth its weight in gold.  Anyway – it’s going to be an interesting week in Facebookland.

Joomla 2.5

If you are running a Joomla website, chances are you are not currently running the most up-to-date version. Not to worry, but it is something your company needs to put in the “to-do” calendar for the next 6 months.

Why? Because in 18 months, Joomla is going to upgrade, and  at that point, doing any type of upgrade from a Joomla 1.5, 1.6 or 1.7  website is going to become a real hassle.

Like most open-source, blogging or CMS software, upgrades are becoming easier and less complicated. Much like WordPress  3.1, Joomla 2.5 updates are just a click of a button, but remember to ALWAYS run a back up.

Most of the plug ins, modules and components are 2.5 ready, but some are not. Especially when it comes to the 1.5  versions. This is why it’s so important to update now, because when 3.v of Joomla is released, the upgrade from 2.5 will be seamless, so they say.

If you are running a Joomla 1.5 website, please take caution with upgrading. This is not an easy task. We suggest doing 2 rounds of upgrades, from 1.5 to 1.7, and then 1.7 to 2.5.3.

If you have any concerns, just give us a call or shoot us an email.

H1 Design is in the preliminary stages of redesign. It’s obvious to us that we need  more than a prettier wrapper, we need to reconstruct, reorganize and revisit our content.

We have strayed. We are not doing our job. The “Cobbler’s Kids Have No Shoes.” excuse isn’t working anymore. It’s time to invest in our own infrastructure.

It’s time for us to do some Content Marketing.

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