Tag Archives | New Features

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.

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New Formatting in Google Places Search Results

Posted: February 15, 2012 in Google Maps, Google Places

Over the past several weeks in Google Place results there has been numerous changes. The changes have continually been modifying the map results overall layout, number of results generating and the content displaying for each listing. The first changes that we started to notice was  the number of local search results generating on the first page changing. Please reference our post from last week about the New Ranking Formats on Google’s Local Search Results.

Also mentioned in SCSD’s recent blog post “Images not displaying on Google Listing?” which talks about how there has been issues occurring within the Google Place backend for business owners.  Over the past several weeks we have noticed a significant rise in the number of bugs and glitches being reports by listing business owners in Google’s support forum for Google Places. In our experience with Google Places, when a spike in the number of issues and bugs starts to occur in Google Places it is a pretty reliable sign that Google is in the process of initiating a fairly substantially update to the Google Place algorithm.

Several of the changes that we have seen so far in Google’s local search formatting:

  1. Local results no longer display a short descriptions summarizing the business’s services.
  2. Some Local results have links to internal pages of the business’s website.
  3. When logged into a Google account the local results pull information from Google+.
  4. Google reviews have been given more real estate in the results and are easier to find under each business.
  5. The number of results that generate for local results is no longer a standard 1, 3 or 7-pack.

Below is an example of the new layout of Google’s local search results.

Local Search Update

 

We will continue to monitor the Google’s local search results to see more effects the change to the algorithm will have on Google Places.

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New Ranking Formats on Google’s Local Search Results

Posted: February 7, 2012 in Google, Google Places

Several years ago when Google’s local search was new and just a map with pin drops Google would show anywhere from 1 to 10 results on the map. About a year ago Google updated the local results to display as they are now, with the business information of the results in the main content area and a corresponding map on the right-hand side of the page. These results appeared in a standard format, display either as a 7-pack, 3-pack or 1-pack.

Recently however the standard 1, 3 and 7 pack formatting has been changing. We have been tracking multiple search phrases and from our finding we have found the typical 7-pack being replaced. The new local results for searches that normally displayed a 7-pack are now showing 4-packs, 5-packs and 6-packs. This change has been very frustrating from some because searches that were showing seven results and are now showing less are bumping the end positions off the first page. We have also tracked the several search phrases that have now started displaying an 8-pack which can be seen if one searches: PR Firms San Diego CA. Click on the link to go directly to the results (http://goo.gl/yHL96).

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New Google Maps Feature: Public Alerts

Posted: January 25, 2012 in Google Maps

Today, Google announced it is launching a new feature on Google maps. Google labeled the feature as Google Public Alerts. This new system is meant to allow users to search and find emergency alerts on Google quickly and see the current location of the issue at hand. The Internet if becoming one of the first sources people turn to when looking for information on a current crisis. Google Public Alerts is an effort evolve a tool many people use on a daily basis into a resource that users could also us to find relevant information on an emergency quickly and efficiently.

By pulling alerts from major weather and emergency services like the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Nation Weather Service and other major weather and information sources. Public Alerts will give real time public safety alerts on everything from tornado warnings, flash floods and earthquakes to high wind alerts.

Not only will Public Alerts show where the area encompassed in the alert but also provide a “Message” feed providing the latest information and updates on the mater as well as the official source the alert is coming from (i.e. weather.gov).

Google Maps Feature

To see Public Alerts live you can visit www.google.org/publicalerts

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Gmail’s new look!

Posted: November 15, 2011 in Google

 

Gmail will be switching to a new look soon, and here’s the scoop:

-Elasticity: You can now transition from any desktop to mobile screen sizes and your inbox will always display the same way.
-Improved Search:  Customize your search easier and even have the ability to create a filter with the “Advanced search options”.
-Improved Conversation View:  The content of your messages display upfront and profile images that your contacts have selected to show (or images that you’ve selected to show for them) make it easier for you to see who you are talking to.
-New Look: You can choose how many messages are displayed,  change the size of your chat window, choose from several new themes to personalize your inbox, how you use labels and gadgets, and how the calendar displays…to name a few!

Check out the tutorial to learn more about each new feature of Gmail by clicking here.

 

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