Archive | Online Marketing RSS feed for this section

Facebook Timeline For Business Pages

Posted: March 12, 2012 in Facebook, Online Marketing, Social Media

We all knew it was coming, we just weren’t sure when.  Now we know: Facebook is changing the format for it’s Business Pages and the change is happening at the end of this month.


Similar to the new personal profiles, the Facebook Business page timeline format will look radically different when a visitor arrives at your page.  Facebook is giving you until March 30th to play around, tweak and design your new Business Page without actually publishing it.  But after March 30, it will go live and your Facebook Business Page will need to be converted to the new Timeline format. Here’s what you need to know to get the most out of the Facebook changes to the Business Page:

Cover photo
Now you will be able to upload a full-width image to the top of your Facebook Business Page. The cover photo is similar to the Timeline layout for personal profiles and needs to be 851 x 315 pixels. You want to choose an image that is representative of your brand and there is great opportunity for branding and imagery that wasn’t available before. You are able to change the image as often as you like, but you should also take note of Facebook’s policies regarding cover photos.

The following information may not be included in your cover photo:
-Price or purchase information such as “30% off”
-Contact information about your company.  That includes website address, email, phone numbers, etc.  All this information must now be included in the “About” section of your Facebook Business Page.
-You cannot make a reference to Liking the page or Sharing the page
-Cover photos may not contain a call-to-action such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”.

Once you set your cover photo, you can set your profile picture. This image will be shown next to each of your updates on your wall posts and also in the user’s news feeds.  It’s a good idea to use a logo for your profile picture.  Choose a picture that fits 180 x 180 pixels.  Make sure the picture’s image quality looks good when it’s in thumbnail format (32 x 32 pixels).


For Facebook’s full policies and restriction regarding cover photos, visit
www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

Thumbnail Apps
Facebook’s new design for the Business Page features things like photos, likes and apps at the top of your page under your cover photo. You can have a total number of 12 apps that can be shown here, but only three of which you can control for the first row.  All 12 apps can be viewed when page visitors click the dropdown arrow.

You can also customize your images that get shown for each app.  Manage these in the toolbar using ‘Manage’>>’Edit Page’ dropdown via the ‘Admin Panel’ (at the top right of the business page). This feature should be more effective than the old layout because you can use larger and more eye catching images.

Private Messaging
A brand new feature on Facebook now allows users to send private messages to you at your Facebook Business Page. This makes it easier for business owners to have private conversations with their fans and customers without having to make it public on the Facebook wall. You can manage your communication settings under your Admin Panel, choosing ‘Manage’>>’Edit Page’>>’Manage Permissions’.


Pining and Posting:

Facebook is also offering a great new feature that allows you to add a ‘virtual post it’ to your timeline.  You can pin/anchor a specific story to the top of your timeline for up to 7 days.  The great thing about this feature is you can highlight certain posts like content, call-to-action for marketing or other promotions or events you want to highlight.

As you can see, the new Facebook Business Page has a lot of new features and will take some getting used to.  Use the next couple of weeks to play around with and get to know your business page before it’s published.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Tips For Your Social Media Campaigns

Posted: November 16, 2011 in Google, Online Marketing, Social Media Optimization

If you are a small business or artist, read the following tips to help boost your online presence!

1.  Facebook: Try subscribing to the Facebook Marketing Bible.
There are hundreds if not thousands of helpful resources with articles, how-to guides, and case studies.

2. Twitter: Following the right people and holding authority.
The amount of followers, reviews, comments, shares, and likes the user has is a great indicator of whether or not you should be following them too.  When it comes to authority, make sure you have relationships with well-known brands/people and display information about your success through press releases, published works, or what innovative and successful business strategies you have created. This will show your audience that you are reliable and accurate.

3. LinkedIn: Advertising as an Opportunity.
With LindedIn Ads, you can target your audience by demographics such as industry, LinkedIn groups, and titles. You can also create and measure split-tests to see which ads are most successful.

4. Google+ Brand Pages: A New Opportunity.
In addition to the already well-known social media campaigns, Google just launched its own campaign for business. Google+ for business focuses on professional and industry-specific information. It also offers the ability to host live video chats called “Hangouts” where you can engage with the public on a more personal and time-valued level.

5. Social Media In General: Use Time To Your Advantage!
Choosing the right timing is key, and sometimes less is more. If you host a Q&A or something of the like, pick a limited amount of times to do this and your audience volume will increase because they know they can only reach you during this time. Under the same guidelines, putting deadlines on your offers makes it more likely for people to act on it.

 

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Google rolls out Google+ Pages for Businesses and Brands!

Posted: November 7, 2011 in Google, Online Marketing

Today Google’s Blog announced the unveiling of Google+ Pages. Until now Google+ has only been focused on the individual with the promise that in the near future they would also incorporate the ability for people to share and promote the brands and businesses they love. Today Google’s roll out Google+ Pages is accomplishing that.

Google+ Pages Icon

It seems Google’s main goal for Google+ Page is to give businesses and brands the ability to help connect with their loyal customers and fans. The Google+ Pages also allows customers or fans to promote and share their experience with the business by means of adding the Business page to their circles, promote it through +1’ing it or directly sharing the business with specific circles via a “share this page” button.

The Google+ Pages themselves include 4 tabs so far: Posts, About, Photos, and Videos. The majority of the business information is included on the “about” tab which included an introduction, hours of operations and the website for the business. Posts, Photos and Videos are all generated by the business.

Some of the businesses and brands that were involved in the beta trails and have business pages already build-out are Pepsi, Toytota and Macy’s. Several brands including, The Muppets and The Dallas Cowboys also have Google+ Pages.

Here is an example of a Google+ Business Page:

Google+ Pages

Google’s announcement happened less than an hour ago so updates and new features are bond to be released soon. We will be following and posting any updates we find to the Organik Blog, please stay tuned for more updates.


Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Google+ for Businesses

Posted: July 14, 2011 in Google, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization

Google+, Google’s effort to turn the entire search engine entity into one giant social network saw success for personal Google+ accounts. Although, Google has requested businesses to postpone creating Google+ profiles for the time being while they further develop + features for business profiles. Even so, several major brands including Ford, Mashable and Breaking News created profiles anyway.

Google Plus Icon

 

 

 

 

Google had not planned on reviling their business profiles for Google+ until later this year but due to the frenzy of businesses pressuring Google for business profiles Christian Oestlien, group product manager at Google announced on his blog they are running a test phase that businesses can apply for to be part of the testing. Be sure to apply for your business to be part of the test by going to http://goo.gl/zq95C. Applications to be part of the test phase end this Friday. We at Organik SEO have applied and so should your business.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }