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5 Must-Have Social Plug-Ins for Your Blog

April 30th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

I love tools that make my busy blogging schedule easier, don’t you? If you are looking for simple plug-ins that encourage readers to share your blog content, look no further. These five social plug-ins will make your blog more share-worthy in no time.

1. and 2. Google-pleasing plug-ins

Pleasing Google should be at the top of every blogger’s to-do list because if you don’t appear in Google search results, new readers will have a harder time finding you.

The All in One SEO Pack lets you create your own custom title, description and keywords for each of your blog posts. Entering this information into the plug-in, which is located in your WordPress dashboard at the bottom of each post, helps search engines to index your content.

Inbound Writer is another useful plug-in that recommends keywords for you to focus on in your blog posts. The app analyzes your copy against websites you’ve pre-selected to determine which keywords are most relevant and will make your content more pleasing to Google. Inbound Writer even provides real-time analysis, showing you suggestions and an SEO score as you write.

2. Make Friends With Facebook

With 500 million users worldwide, it’s wise to make your blog as Facebook-friendly as possible. Since Facebook changes constantly, I recommend using Facebook’s own plug-ins to integrate with the social giant.

Try Facebook Social Plug-ins to allow your blog readers to Like and comment on your posts. These plug-ins require HTML to use, but Facebook provides step-by-step instructions for the less technical among us.

3. Be Pinterest-ing

Since Pinterest has become huge over the past year, it’s important to make your blog as visually appealing as possible, especially if you feature products in your posts. PhotoDropper lets you find creative commons images without the hassle of searching Flickr or Google Images.

PhotoDropper aggregates images and delivers them directly into your WordPress dashboard. Best of all, there’s no need to worry about licensing and attribution because the app makes sure you use and credit images correctly.

4. The Best All Around

If you want a plug-in that wrangles all your social sharing buttons into a tidy package, then you’ll want to try Digg Digg. You can decide which buttons to display as well as whether you want a top sidebar or a floating one. Digg Digg will display your buttons on each of your posts for easy sharing, along with the share count for each.

***

What other social plug-ins help make your blog more share-worthy? Why not share them with us, in the comments section below?

Image courtesy of clker.com

Tags: All in One SEO Pack, blogging, Digg Digg, Facebook, Facebook Social Plug-Ins, Google, Inbound Writer, Marketing, PhotoDropper, Pinterest, social plug-ins, wordpress
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

3 Steps to Results-Oriented Content Marketing Programs

April 27th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

Those of us who call ourselves “wordsmiths” may be tempted to ignore or shy away from numbers. We believe in the power of the word and see the potential of well-written copy to get results in our marketing and communications efforts.

But, according to Chris Sietsema, even content marketing has a numeric formula for writing copy that is sure to get powerful results. In this article, I will share his formula for producing winning content marketing programs, based on lessons learned from the movie Moneyball.

Just as Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane used statistical analysis to put together a winning team on a limited budget, marketers can put together a winning editorial schedule based on three primary numbers:

1. Revenue

When brainstorming content ideas for your editorial schedule, the first step is to determine the concepts that relate to your company’s money makers – the products and services that actually bring in the bucks. Which topics offer the most potential for generating revenue? Focus on the questions customers and clients ask you about your products and services, as well as on how you provide them with value and enhance their lives. Create a robust list to refine in the next steps.

2. Search

Once you have created a list of revenue-generating content ideas, determine their search potential. Using a tool like Google’s Keyword Tool, validate which content elements will be searched for by your target customers or clients. As you use the tool, watch for additional content ideas you may not have thought of initially. What you are evaluating are the search volume numbers, broken down into daily, weekly and monthly metrics.

3. Social

Finally, you’ll want to hone in on the social potential of your content ideas because great content encourages interaction on your blog and social networking communities. Using social monitoring tools, such as Sysomos and SM2, will help you discover what content elements are generating conversations online. Metrics like tweets, blog post hits, and Likes, will help you track these conversations around your keywords. To get an overview of your social potential, add up the metrics from each media channel you are tracking.

Now let’s put these numbers to work. To help analyze your data, create a scale of varying degrees of revenue, search and social volume. A simple scale, such as 1=low and 5=high, will work just fine. This scale system will help you find the content that has the best chance of performing according to the three variables above. For example, a content idea may have a revenue rating of 5, but a search rating of 2. How might you tweak this idea so that it is search-worthy? Or, do you have other ideas that yield high ratings across the board?

After assigning ratings to all of your content ideas, it’s time to determine which ones made the cut and which ones to toss. The goal is to find content that is 1) relatable to a revenue-generating product or service you offer, 2) highly searched for by your target audience, and 3) discussed and commented on in the blogosphere and on social networks. The content gems will have all three elements, and some of your other content ideas may just need some tweaking to live up to their marketing potential. Fill your editorial schedule with only the best content ideas that are proven to give you a winning content marketing program.

How about you? Do you have a numeric system for finding the best ideas for your content marketing strategy?

Image courtesy of watch-moneyball-movie.blogpost.com

Tags: analytics, content marketing, editorial schedule, Google Keyword Tool, keywords, Marketing, search, social media
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

3 Reasons Listening Is Critical to Social Media Success – and How to Get Better at It

April 26th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

Marketers are getting pretty good at joining conversations on social media, interacting with customers, and communicating information about their products and services. But just like all effective communication, listening is as important as talking, even on places like Facebook and Twitter. In this article, I’ll show you why listening is so important for social media campaign success, along with ways you can become a better listener.

3 reasons why listening is critical to social media success

1. Listening makes customers feel important

Don’t you feel better when someone listens to you? Your customers do, too. Listening helps customers feel valued and strengthens your relationships with them. Feeling heard usually leads to feeling happier, so make your customers and clients happy by taking the time to listen.

2. Listening provides valuable insight about your products and services

Listening in on social networks can reveal how customers are using, or not using, your products. You can use this information to improve products based on what customers would like to see. Also, you can glean insight into how to market your products and services by presenting how they fulfill a need your previous campaigns may not have addressed.

3. Listening helps you plan future marketing communications

Instead of launching right into an expensive campaign, you can listen first to determine which offers and promotions might drive more sales. And, you can learn which types of communications strategies build buzz online. Use social media as an inexpensive “focus group” to inform your communications planning.

How to be a better listener

While there are numerous paid options for social media listening, you may want to start with the free tools that are available to you. Popular choices include Google Alerts, Twitter Search, Technorati Blog Search, YouTube Search, Facebook Search, Monitter and TweetBeep. You can search keywords on any social network to see what people are discussing around that topic. You can also do a simple web search, filtering by geographical location if you are a local or regional business. Think of terms your target audience might use, such as “need to hire a financial planner” or “want to build a sundeck.”

If you’ve got the cash to spend, consider a paid listening solution such as Vocus or Radian 6. These platforms can handle large volumes of conversations and present you with reports on mentions, sentiment and more.

What to do with what you’ve “heard”

Once you’ve been listening for a while, you’ll notice that the information generally falls into three categories. Sometimes you may hear complaints or negative comments about your products – and you’ll want to respond and fix the situation as quickly as possible, of course!

Often, people talk about features they’d like to see in the next version of your product. This is your cue to see if the features are realistic and act accordingly.

The best conversations to hear are those singing your praises. Customers may talk about their favorite features or new ways they are using your products that you haven’t thought of before. As I mentioned above, take notes and include these valuable assets in your future marketing promotions.

Since listening is so easy, and can even be totally free, there’s no reason not to include it in your social media strategy. If you don’t listen to your customers online, you could be missing opportunities for connecting with your customers and smoothing over bad customer experiences. After all, if you don’t listen to your customers, your competitors might!

Image courtesy of jamesnathan.com

Tags: conversations, customer engagement, Facebook, listening, Marketing, marketing communications, product features, social media, Twitter
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments »

10 Marketing Insights From Today’s Top Thought Leaders

April 24th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

I often find it helpful to glean insight from other marketers on current trends and new developments in our field. Recently, HubSpot gathered marketing observations, ideas and analysis from some of today’s best-known thought leaders. As I read through the collection, I was inspired by what they had to say. Here are my favorites:

Social Media Now

Social media changes at warp speed, as new technologies and best practices emerge almost daily. Here are a couple of observations that stood out:

Our ideas about privacy are changing. As noted by Seth Godin, a minority of people are concerned about what is known about them online, while the majority of us are redefining what is normal, as it relates to privacy.
Kyle Lacy observed that split seconds are becoming more important than ever. In fact, the split second capturing of a memory is often more important than the time it takes to write a post.

Smart Planning for Mobile

The emergence of mobile has caught many marketers off guard, so what do the experts have to say about preparing for it now?

Roland Smart suggests learning HTML5 as soon as possible to capture opportunities to integrate mobile into your marketing strategy on Facebook.
Scott Fox recommends getting away from your desk and stepping out into the real world to really see how mobile is being used by a growing number of people who are not desk-bound.

Online Content and Social Media

Social media has taken online content off the static webpage and infused it with the goal to generate conversation and to engage audiences more than ever.

Michael Lazerow says that content has the added duty of being sharable as well as interesting. It’s not enough to create excellent content; marketers must ask themselves if audiences will share it before they can publish it.
Cameron Chapman emphasizes the importance of verifying everything you write about, since content is being shared more than ever before. Misinformation can spread like wildfire on social media, so be sure you get your message right.

Divvying Up Resources for Social Media

Just when marketers thought they had enough social networks to balance, Google+ and Pinterest emerged, showing us there is still room for more online communities. How do we divide limited resources among all the social media channels?

Maria Ogneva suggests letting your customers be your guide. Wherever your clients, prospects, existing customers, and partners are, those are the networks you should concentrate on most.
Tom Pick takes it a step further by testing to find the platform yielding the best results. Study your analytics to find out which networks are driving the most traffic to your website, and make those networks your top priority.

Building an Online Community

Some of the best advice offered by the experts is to understand that social media is here to stay and is a powerful component of your marketing strategy.

Linda Bustos encourages marketers to think of social media as a marathon and not a sprint. Building a vibrant online community is hard work, and results might not come right away.
Priit Kallas believes that building for the long-term can help businesses stand out from the competition. He suggests focusing on creating customer relationships that can stand the test of time.

To read the entire list of marketing ideas, suggestions and insights, check out Hubspot’s 54 Pearls of Marketing Wisdom. What other ideas have inspired you recently, as it relates to mobile, social or content marketing?

Image courtesy of theorangeinkblog.wordpress.com

Tags: Cameron Chapman, content marketing, Hubspot, Kyle Lacy, Linda Bustos, Maria Ogneva, Marketing, Michael Lazerow, mobile marketing, online community, Priit Kallas, Roland Smart, Scott Fox, Seth Godin, social media, Thought Leadership, Tom Pick
Posted in Marketing, Thought Leadership | No Comments »

Marketing on Google+ Part 3: Top 3 Reasons You Should Use Google+

April 20th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Marketing With Google+

Even though Google+ has gotten plenty of media attention since its 2011 launch, you may not be convinced that adding yet another social network to your company’s online strategy is worth the effort. After all, another social network means added work on top of an already busy schedule.

I know what you mean. I thought the last thing I needed was another task on my marketing to-do list, but after reading a recent interview with Guy Kawasaki, I am convinced that Google+ is well worth the effort. In this third article in our Google+ series, I will share three reasons every marketer should be on Google+.

1. It’s the Wild West

Kawasaki likens the uncharted territory of Google+ to the Wild West because there’s still so much to discover about this robust platform. Smart marketers are staking their claim by getting on this network as soon as possible to jumpstart their Google+ communities. Right now Google+ has the advantage of being a wide open space, so it’s easier for marketers to get noticed there instead of trying to break through the noise of more crowded spaces like Facebook and Twitter.

2. It has enormous SEO value

Let’s face it – Google is the most powerful, groundbreaking search engine in the world, and it seriously shook up search when it introduced the concept of “social search.” Now when users search on Google, they see their friends’ interactions on Google+, right alongside their search results. No other social network is so intimately integrated with Google’s search engine, so everything you do on Google+ has enormous SEO value for your company. Kawasaki recommends posting the type of content you want to be known for. Since Google basically controls search, it just makes sense to use its rapidly-growing social network to shape your own SEO strategy.

3. Because Guy says so

I don’t know about you, but when someone as successful as Guy Kawasaki goes out of his way to promote a marketing tool, I take notes! Kawasaki admits that 99 percent of his social media efforts are now focused on Google+. That’s a serious endorsement. He says he loves the network, and he obviously sees great potential in its use for marketing, so I would suggest tuning in to anything this former Macintosh marketer has to say.

And how do you learn everything there is to know about marketing on Google+? Kawasaki recently published his new book, What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us, to help you launch and perfect your Google+ marketing strategy. Kawasaki’s self-published book boasts a low price point so everyone can get their hands on it, and since it’s an ebook, he can continuously update it as Google+ rolls out new features. You can check it out and get your copy here.

How about you? Has your company made the leap to Google+? What do you find to be its advantages/disadvantages, compared to other social networks?

Image courtesy of frombogotawithlove.com

Tags: Google, Marketing, social media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Marketing on Google+ Part 2: How to Use Ripples

April 19th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Marketing With Google+

In Part 2 of our Google+ series, I’ll show you how the Ripples feature makes identifying influencers and nurturing those important customer relationships easy.

While Google+ Circles seem to get the most attention, the fast-growing social network’s Ripples feature is an overlooked marketing gem. Ripples is an analytics tool that shows you who has shared each of your posts. Using interactive graphs, Ripples provides clear analysis of everyone who has passed along your content, as well as what they had to say about it.

What’s unique about Ripples is that it requires no configuration to get it working on your Google+ business page. While the most helpful tools on other platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, are often third-party apps, Ripples is built directly into the Google+ platform. To keep privacy concerns at bay, all posts analyzed by Ripples must have been sent out to “Public,” and the tool only displays those posts that were shared publicly as well.

How to Use Ripples

On every Public post that has been shared, you will find an arrow in the top right corner. Click the arrow to get to a drop-down containing “View Ripples.” When you click on this, you are presented with a graph of bubbles representing all the users who have shared that post.

Users who have contributed to the most shares will appear as larger bubbles in the graph, and you can find out what each user said about your content by scrolling over a bubble.

How to Find Influencers

Because users contributing to the most shares are displayed as larger bubbles, you can clearly see who is talking about your brand and sharing your content the most. These people are your influencers – those customers who help promote your brand the most online.

The tidy Ripples feature gives you an instant overview and identification of your influencers on Google+. Instead of sifting through text and browsing countless profiles, you can instantly see who is sharing and driving interaction for your business.

How to Group Influencers

After studying interaction on your social media pages, you begin to learn who your influencers are. With Facebook pages, businesses have no way to group these influencers using the Lists feature because it is only available on personal profiles. However, Google+ allows both individuals and businesses to create circles.

You can easily group your Google+ influencers into their own circle to further nurture these important customer relationships. Try sending out exclusive content, gathering feedback, and interacting individually with your influencers. Just be sure not to neglect the rest of your Google+ community.

Ripples gives marketers an easy-to-decipher visual representation of how well your content is performing on Google+. This information can help guide future marketing campaigns and assist you in conveying important data to management.

Have you unearthed this marketing analytics gem? How are you using Ripples to inform your marketing strategies?

Image courtesy of frombogotawithlove.com

Tags: Google, Marketing, Ripples, social media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Marketing on Google+ Part 1: 8 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Site

April 17th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Marketing With Google+

Since its launch last year, Google+ has rocketed to social media stardom among marketing pros, but not everyone has closely examined what it can do for their own business’s bottom line. In this three-part series, I will show you how to leverage Google+ to boost your company’s online marketing performance.

This first article focuses on how to drive traffic to your website using Google+. Recently Google changed the SEO game by introducing “Search, plus Your World.” This new search concept revolves around Google’s idea that people want to see search results that are related to their personal history and their social profile. So, the +1 and Google+ posts are heavily integrated into the search results Google returns because it is factoring in your social profile in its search strategy.

What this means is that marketers have a world of new opportunities to leverage Google+ to build their SEO strategy and drive traffic to their site. Here are eight ways to do just that.

1. Use Web links.

Web links help Google know how to categorize you, so try including links between your business’s website or blog and your brand page. These links help Google recognize authorship and remind it of what you’re all about. Google has its own badge creator to easily create links between your content.

2. Grow your following.

In social media, usually quality trumps quantity, but it pays to have a larger following on Google+ because more followers means a higher search rank on Google. To grow your following, try getting the word out about your Google+ page. Use a badge, and mention it in print and online communications – even on Facebook and Twitter. Also, try leveraging your personal profile (and the personal profiles of your employees) to push out your brand page’s content. Since brand pages are only allowed to follow users who have already followed them, using your personal profile can help you attract more followers for your brand.

3. Use their keywords, too.

Just like other SEO content strategies, you should think of what your customers will actually type into Google when they look for you. They many not type the industry-specific terms you optimize for, so think like your customer when creating keywords. Now, use those keywords in the About section of your page, and include them in posts so people can easily find your Google+ content when they search.

4. Use images.

People tend to click on photos and videos more than links, so use them in your content for better engagement. Fill your page with interesting images, both across the top and throughout your posts. Also, many Google searches return images that are prominently displayed, so do your best to get your visual content in front of searchers.

5. Condition Google to work for you.

In its quest to return better search results, Google has started including people and pages on Google+ that are related to the user’s search query. Although not all searches have this feature yet, being listed in search results is excellent exposure for your company. To train Google to categorize your content, making it more likely you will be featured in search results, be sure to keep your posts on topic and use consistent keywords. As you post on the same topic, you will be conditioning Google to include you in searches related to that topic.

6. Consider authorship.

Google supports an authorship markup that lets you tag your work to show Google your writings all over the web. When people search for you, Google can pull together your tagged work and present it in a search results page. Setting up authorship is a bit more advanced, and would probably require its own post. For now, check out instructions on Google’s support blog.

7. Use the +1 button.

According to Google, the +1 button is becoming a significant ranking factor for returning search results. You’ve probably noticed that search results now include the option to +1 a result. Use the +1 button wherever appropriate for your business so you can factor into Google results, too.

8. Engage them.

As with all social media strategies, it’s important to engage your Google+ community with helpful information, exclusive content, and interesting photos. According to Google, one of the top things you can do to appear in search results is to post and to engage with other people’s posts on Google+. Be sure to +1 other people’s content, and experiment with your own to find out what is getting the best engagement. Later in this series, I’ll also introduce you to Ripples so you can see how Google+ is taking the art (and measure) of engagement to a whole new level.

So, there you have it – eight ways Google+ can drive traffic to your site that you can start using right now. Stay tuned for the rest of our three-part series on using Google+ to boost your business.

Image courtesy of frombogotawithlove.com

Tags: Google, Marketing, seo, social media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 3 Comments »

Guide to Facebook Timelines for Business

April 16th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

If your business is on Facebook, you’ve probably noticed some big changes lately. Facebook’s new layout, Timelines, has been widely adopted by business pages. Starting next week, all Facebook business pages must begin using the new format. Timelines allow companies to tell the story of their business in the order in which milestones and events occur. This layout has the potential for better community engagement and branding if leveraged correctly.

Recently Marketo published a helpful infographic on doing just that, and in this article, I’ll break down the basics of using Facebook Timelines for your business.

Key Elements in a Facebook Timelines Page

1. Cover Photo: Timeline’s large cover photos let you showcase your brand with an eye-catching, 851 x 315 pixel image. You can use this banner-like image to showcase new products, photos from events or your business, or anything else you want to share with your fans. Just be sure not to include photos with sales, offers or calls to action, as Facebook won’t allow it.

2. Milestones: These are like the “life events” on personal Timeline pages, but they feature important happenings with your business. Use this feature to tell your company’s story. You can go back as far as January 1, 1000 and display important moments from your company’s founding to major product launches. When you highlight an event as a milestone, it is automatically expanded to a widescreen view on your Timeline. Use Milestones to visually document your company’s history rather than to sell products to your community.

3. Pinned Posts: If you have an especially engaging or relevant post, now you can pin it to be featured at the top of your Timeline. If you have important news, such as a product recall or an event schedule change, pinned posts can come in very handy. When you pin a post, it remains in the top left of your Timeline for seven days. Try not to use this feature to highlight advertisements, though. You want your page to be a place for building community, not an online billboard.

4. Icons: Under your cover photo, you’ll find icons that link visitors directly to your apps, photos and Likes. Icons give you even more of a reason to cultivate a great photo collection and to show off your apps. By default, Facebook arranges your icons for you, so be sure to bring these areas up to speed since they’ll be on display.

Key Changes to Consider

Timelines introduces a new admin panel where you can view metrics and reply to messages, so be sure to learn the new system.
Unfortunately, the new Timelines format no longer allows businesses to create a custom landing page. You can still direct visitors to an app or a special page by default, but you will need to run advertising that links to them.
Now fans can contact you directly by messaging your page. Be sure to monitor your messages so you can provide prompt customer service and interact more personally with your community.
The Activity Log lets you navigate throughout your page’s history so you can easily view all the activity on your page and keep up with new comments, questions and Likes.
Now you can hide posts on Timeline rather than deleting them. This feature allows you to curate your posts by getting rid of old or irrelevant posts without making them disappear forever.

Has your business started using Facebook Timelines yet? How do you like it? What do you think the pros/cons are, as compared with the original Facebook pages?

Image courtesy of Mashable

Tags: Facebook, Facebook Timelines, Marketing, social media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments »

Does Your Google Page Rank No Longer Matter?

April 13th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

When it comes to Internet marketing, the rules can change quickly – sometimes overnight. As marketers, most of us have been meticulously developing our SEO strategies to achieve the best possible Google Page Rank for a while now. According to SEO pros, your Google Page Rank may not even matter anymore. But before you completely wipe this metric off your marketing to-do list, let’s take a closer look at why Page Rank has become irrelevant.

Page Rank cannot be tracked

Metrics are only useful if they can be tracked, and Page Rank is not one of those metrics. Even if you still check your Page Rank, Google delays that information for up to nine months. So, tracking the metric in real-time is impossible, making it useless for assessing your current performance.

Page Rank does not affect SEO

The link between Page Rank and SEO is fragile at best. Plenty of websites have a Page Rank of zero, and yet they still manage to get organic rankings and traffic for competitive search terms. Why bother with a number that does not affect your Web traffic’s “bottom line?”

Page Rank is not relevant for social media or real-time results

Social media content and real-time news are becoming increasingly relevant for search results. Page Rank really has nothing to do with either of these. A tweet may have a Page Rank of zero, but it still makes its way into search results. And, breaking news stories – which are only a few minutes old – also come out on top in search results, and yet they haven’t had time to build a Page Rank either.

Page Rank is not a results-driven metric

Marketing metrics are all about results. Businesses want to keep track of things that get real results, such as revenue and customers, or things that lead to those results, such as leads. Page Rank can’t tell you if your marketing efforts are yielding any of those results, so why should businesses worry about it?

When you examine the facts, it really doesn’t make sense to worry about your Google Page Rank anymore. So, what should you do to improve your SEO performance? Your best bet for getting found online is to create useful and interesting content, optimizing it for search and promoting it through social media. In other words, although the rules may change, you can always count on the importance of great content for getting the online marketing results you want.

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

Tags: analytics, Google, Marketing, marketing metrics, Page Rank, real-time analytics, search results, seo, social media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

5 Ways to Use Facebook Timelines for Your Brand

April 12th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

Just when you thought you’d mastered your Facebook marketing strategy, Facebook rolls out one of its biggest changes to date. Now that brands are switching over to Facebook’s new Timelines layout, marketers are scrambling to learn how to leverage Facebook’s newest face. After a bit of research, I found five ways to use Facebook Timelines to promote your brand.

1. Apps for Timeline

Now apps are helping businesses become more visible to the community. When Facebook users add an app, it will appear at the top of their page. All interactions with that app are published to their Timeline. Businesses can create their own apps for their brands to leverage this opportunity for customer interaction and increased visibility.

2. Facebook Actions

Businesses will be happy to see that Facebook is giving users more options for how they interact with brands. Now your Facebook community can go beyond the Like by expressing that they “love,” “want,” or “own” a product. This feature will also help you identify current customers vs. potential ones, based on the expression.

3. The Cover Photo

One of the most noticeable changes in Facebook’s new appearance is the prominent cover photo across the top of pages and profiles. This 840 x 310 pixel, banner-like photo amounts to a lot of free advertising space to promote new products, promotions, events, and anything else creative marketers can think of.

4. More Prominent Posted Photos

Besides the cover photo, photos in general are gaining prominence on Timeline. The new layout allows photos to take up more space than they did on walls, which makes them stand out more on your page. You can take advantage of this feature by sharing photos with your posts to attract more attention to them and to make them more engaging for users.

5. Storytelling

Perhaps the best new feature of Timeline is that it’s set up to tell a story. Since effective communicators tell stories about their brands, products and businesses, this feature fits perfectly into a marketing strategy. Think about your company’s story, and how each of your posts fits into that larger story.

As with any changes in the marketing landscape, those businesses that adapt quickly and learn new ways of leveraging changes into opportunities will come out ahead. Start adapting your Facebook marketing strategy to the new Timeline layout, and let us know about any other ideas you’ve found for using Timeline to its fullest potential.

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

Tags: apps, Facebook, Facebook Timelines, images, Likes, Loves, Marketing, Owns, photos, social media, Wants
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments »

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