There has been a lot of confusion over the changes to Facebook Business Pages.  The new Timeline format is compulsory for all pages from the 30th of March 2012, so I suggest you start previewing your page now and make sure it’s ready for the change over.

To help page owners with the transition, Facebook has created two great learning resources for Page admins:
LearnFacebookPages.com and the Facebook Marketing Classroom.

The Learn Facebook Pages site is a narrated tutorial including quiz questions at the end of each section. It is available in five different languages.

The Marketing Classroom is a tab application on the Facebook Marketing Solutions page that includes videos and worksheets on the new pages and ad offerings.

Want a quick run down on the changes to Facebook Pages? Get my overview of the pages timeline redesign here.

Plus here are some great resource links from Facebook as well on the new Timeline for Facebook Pages:

http://www.facebook.com/about/pages

http://www.facebook.com/help/pages/new-design

http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

Make sure to spend sometime reading the last link (above) so you are confident that your new FB Business Page not only looks great but conforms to Facebook’s page guidelines (they’re pretty strict).

Questions on the new Facebook Timeline for Business Pages?
Ask them in the comments section below or over on our Facebook Page Timeline/Wall at:
http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaShortCut

As expected Facebook have just launched their new format for Facebook Pages. Similar to your new personal profiles, your business page is moving to the timeline format.

Here’s the basics on the new Timeline for Pages (but your old pages are still working fine right now):

FACEBOOK PAGE TIMELINE:

1. Timeline will automatically come to pages on March 30th.  You can publish earlier if you wish (details below).
2. Default landing tabs are going away – Timeline will be the default (what people see when they first come to your page)
3. Tab Width has been dramatically increased to 810px wide (instead of the previous 520px)
4. Ability to ‘Pin’ your top tabs – to do this hover over, then click the pencil icon to pin a specific tab to the top
5. Fan Page now have a MESSAGE FEATURE – there is a Timeline manager area on your Page to access this
6. You can add a Timeline COVER IMAGE now if desired (see *Note below)
7. There is a preview stage where you can see it but the public can’t!*NOTE:  Cover photo can be up to 850px by 315px but may NOT contain the following:
   - Price or purchase information, such as “50% off” or “Download it at our website”.
   - Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section.
   - References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features.
   - Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”.

I recommend that you investigate the new changes and get your images ready but don’t rush into the change.  I’ll be playing with the new format over the coming weeks and uploading videos here on how to maximise Timeline for Pages – especially with regard to the cover image.

Here’s the Official document from Facebook thanks to TechCrunch:

Facebook Timeline For Pages – Product Guide – from TechCrunch

Facebook have announced their new Timeline will be compulsory for all users profiles from this week.  But are you

Facebook Timeline

still confused about what the ‘Timeline’ is and how to use it?

With all the talk of Timelines coming to Business Pages, this video from Facebook, showing you what timeline is and how to optimise it is, well, timely.;-)  I took an in depth look at the facebook changes, including timeline in my recent webinar (access the full recording here) but Facebook has created a great short summary video on “Customising Your Timeline” on your profile, so I’ve included a copy below:

“How to Customise Your Facebook Timeline”

The more I use my Timeline, the more I like it.  I think most people that are complaining about the change are doing so out of a fear of their privacy and/or sharing old posts that are no longer relevant (or down right embarrassing in the light of day!).

Remember Facebook is a social network and is filled with ‘user generated’ content.  If you don’t like the posts on your timeline – change them!  The video explains how.

I think once you get more comfortable with the new layout, you will like it as much as I do.  Then you will be in a much better position to get your brand new “Timeline for Business Pages” optimised to benefit your business when Facebook rolls these out.

Help your friends out here and share this post and let me know what you think about facebook timeline in the comments below.

Have an Awesome Day – Zoe

This week, Australians will experience the biggest change to their Facebook accounts since the start of the social network – Welcome Facebook Timelines!

This change is more than a cosmetic manipulation of how the data in your profile is shown, but rather a shift to Facebook showcasing your “Life Online”.  With this change is going to come a great deal of fear, frustration and miscommunication.  I fully expect that many people are going to be ‘outraged’ at just how much data Facebook is showing to the World.

But, in a very short period, after you take the time to understand the new platform, take control of your privacy settings, and start to see the strength of the new features, you are likely to love your “NEW Facebook”!  At least that’s what the vast majority of us in the developers pre-launch (that have had timeline for several months) have experienced.

It seems change generally is something that we as humans find incredibly unsettling. Yet change is inevitable – particularly if we are ever going to grow, learn and benefit from new technologies.

2011 has been a year of massive change for Mark and me.  Not only have we been learning the changes to technology and social media platforms, but we have just also thrown a wedding into the mix   This has led to a change in Surname for me (to Wyatt) and HUGE changes to my Business Branding.  I wrote about that journey in a separate post on our www.MarkandZoe.com blog here:
http://markandzoe.com/personal-branding-on-the-internet-whats-in-a-name

So, while I was happily out of my comfort zone adapting to change, I decided now was the perfect time to examine the other areas where perhaps a change would be beneficial in the longer term.  I have been examining my technology set up, my office layout and procedures, I have re-designed our sales process and marketing funnel on the www.SocialMediaShortCut.com website (look out for the new training videos series coming in the New Year) and then I was presented with an opportunity to ‘change’ my mobile phone!!!

So what I hear you say about the phone part?  Anybody that knows me, even slightly well, knows I am ADDICTED to my iPhone.  I have been known to throw my handbag in a corner at a party, but keep the iPhone in touching distance at all times.  I schedule my day, run my business, read my emails, keep in touch with family, source recipes, organised a wedding, take photos and videos etc, etc, etc –(you get the picture) and sometimes even make calls with my iPhone.  I would list it as my number one, cannot do (live) without gadget.

Mark on the other hand, a communications technician, is anti any ‘closed source’ systems/devices. Preferring instead to compare technical specs and real World performance to get the technology that is best suited to his needs.

Apple iPhone4S vs Samsung GalaxyII

So when Telstra Store in Caloundra offered me the opportunity to run a social media test on their two latest phones, the Apple iPhone 4S and Samsung GalaxyS2(II), I think Mark may have been more excited than I was.

So here’s another opportunity for change – yeay (I think)!

Mark and I have grabbed the two phones and we will be running direct road test comparisons between the iPhone 4S VS Samsung Galaxy SII for the next month.

I will be reporting here on the social media capabilities of both including photography and video functions while Mark is focussing on reporting the technical specs and performance results over on his “Mark Wyatt’s Wanderings and Wonderings” blog at http://www.posterous.com/markwyatt

You can see he’s already been busy with a technical specifications run down and performance comparison between the iPhone4S and GalaxyS2 in these posts:
http://markwyatt.posterous.com/iphone-4s-vs-samsung-galaxy-sii

Complete disclosure here, I have just created the social media systems for 4 Telstra stores in South East Queensland, including the Telstra Store Caloundra. They are clients of mine and The Creative Collective’s.

I have not been paid to write this blog post or any of the posts that will follow but they have given me access to the two phones to trial for a month.  As a result of my experience to date I have now switched all of my telecommunications to Telstra.  The service I have received in the Caloundra  Telstra Store and the Telstra Business Centre Sunshine Coast, has been nothing short of sensational and the coverage level on my mobile is nothing short of AWESOME!  I have no idea why I persisted with sub-standard mobile coverage for as long as I did.

I encourage you to connect via their twitter and facebook pages here:
http://www.twitter.com/CaloundrTelstra
http://www.facebook.com/CaloundraTelstraStore

Let them know Zoe sent you and, if you become a customer, they’ll make a donation to charity – so it’s win-win.

So here’s to “2011 – THE YEAR OF CHANGES” and welcome to “2012 – THE YEAR OF GROWTH”.  Somehow that sounds mighty similar to me!  But then nothing is as predictable as change!

P.S. If you have questions on the new Facebook Timeline – check out my training video here (it’s long but content packed):
http://socialmediashortcut.com/social-media-marketing-training/facebook-changes-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-facebook-timeline-and-features
and/or join us in the Social Media Success Squad to ask your questions as you adapt to the new changes.  We have a SUPER SPECIAL OFFER on membership of the Social Media Success Squad but only until Midday on the 23^RD OF DECEMBER! Details here:
http://www.TheCreativeCollective.com.au/SMSS

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Facebook Timeline

WOW there are a lot of changes over on Facebook of late, with new auto generated lists, new privacy settings, subscribe feature and more.  But the biggest change is still to be implemented as your personal profile morphs into your new TIMELINE.

Find out whats new, how to navigate the new features and, importantly, how to secure your privacy settings to ensure you are only sharing what you want to (with the people you want to).

Timeline is being promoted by Facebook as allowing you to “tell your life story with a new kind of profile”.  And it really is shaping up to be not just a social posting site, but a scrapbook of your life online – both past, present and future.

Rather than try to expalin ALL of the new features, changes and updates, I recorded a webinar with the details.  This is long (it goes for just over an hour) but I encourage you to watch it all and update your Facebook settings as you go through the training.  Any questions post them here, or over on Facebook (of course) at:
www.facebook.com/SocialMediaShortCut

Facebook Changes What You Need to Know About the New Timeline Subscribe and Privacy Settings

If you are finding all the changes confusing then join the Social Media ShortCut Team at one of our live trainings:
Details: www.SocialMediaShortcut.com/events

Or come and join me in the Social Media Success Squad where I am answering everybody’s questions on social media, hosting a monthly Q & A webinar and supporting you all to maximise social media marketing to grow your businesses.

Facebook have made a HUGE update to their features which really is a game changer!

You can now SUBSCRIBE to People you would like to follow just as if you were LIKING a page, except this is to their personal profile! (Anybody thinking Google+ Circles???)

You can now subscribe to people who previously may have not accepted you as a friend or have reached the 5000 friend limit and you can get their updates in your newsfeed!

This is very exciting for people who want to use Facebook primarily for business, but not as exciting for those who really want to keep their personal profile personal.

The good news is though, that you can choose to turn it on or off!

I was about to make a video explaining the differences when this awesome training from a trusted colleague, Jo Barnes, landed in my inbox. Rather than “re-invent the wheel”  here’s Jo’s video for you explaining all…..

The links Jo refers to in the video are:

https://www.facebook.com/about/subscribe

https://www.facebook.com/publicfigures
https://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150280039742131
https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=246210718757459

For most businesses I believe a “PAGE” is still vital to your Facebook marketing, but for individuals that are their ‘brand’ then the subscribe feature may be a great way to extend your reach (beyond 5000 friends) and still have the ability to personally reach our to your subscribers.  This table explains the difference but is also in the links from Jo’s video (above).

I now have this enabled the subscribe feature in my profile so if you’re not a friend of mine yet and would like to receive all my updates in your newsfeed, then just head over to my wall and click SUBSCRIBE!

Zoe’s Facebook Profile

So what do you think of this new “Subscribe” feature?  Leave your comments here or over on our Facebook Page at:
http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaShortCut

Fantastic infographic from the Search Engine Journal team on how Social Media has grown in recent years across multiple networks.

The growth in the numbers is incredible with a “steep curve of the user growth rate in all age ranges and demographics, and the continuing pervasiveness of social networking into every facet of work, play and life in general. It’s hard to argue that social media hasn’t changed forever how we interact and connect online.” See for yourself:

Source: The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic

There have been several new changes over at Facebook that I wanted to alert everybody to. I’ve copied the blog post Facebook have just released (below) so you get the information straight from Facebook. You can view the original post and ask questions of Facebook here

FROM FACEBOOK:

Today we’re announcing a bunch of improvements that make it easier to share posts, photos, tags and other content with exactly the people you want. You have told us that “who can see this?” could be clearer across Facebook, so we have made changes to make this more visual and straightforward. The main change is moving most of your controls from a settings page to being inline, right next to the posts, photos and tags they affect. Plus there are several other updates here that will make it easier to understand who can see your stuff (or your friends’) in any context. Here’s what’s coming up, organized around two areas: what shows up on your profile, and what happens when you share something new.

On Your Profile

Your profile should feel like your home on the web – you should never feel like stuff appears there that you don’t want, and you should never wonder who sees what’s there. The profile is getting some new tools that give you clearer, more consistent controls over how photos and posts get added to it, and who can see everything that lives there.

Inline Profile Controls

Before: Most of the settings for stuff on your profile were a few clicks away on a series of settings pages.

Going Forward: Content on your profile, from your hometown to your latest photo album, will appear next to an icon and a drop-down menu. This inline menu lets you know who can see this part of your profile, and you can change it with one click.

A side benefit of moving most settings to inline controls is a much shorter and simpler Settings page.  A bunch of settings that were there previously have been moved directly inline, and a handful have been replaced or removed. (You can find more detail on the profile settings here: http://www.facebook.com/about/control)

Profile Tag Review

Before: Photos you were tagged in would show up on your profile as soon as you were tagged. One of the top requests we’ve heard is for the ability to approve these tags before they show up on your profile.

Going Forward: You can choose to use the new tool to approve or reject any photo or post you are tagged in before it’s visible to anyone else on your profile.

Content Tag Review

Before: Anyone who could see your photos or posts could add tags to them.

Going Forward: You have the option to review and approve or reject any tag someone tries to add to your photos and posts.

View Profile As…

Before: We heard you wanted to know what your profile looked like to others, but the tool for doing this was behind the scenes.

Going Forward: This tool is now on the top of your profile where it’s easier to access.

When You Share

In addition to the profile changes, it will now be more visually straightforward to understand and control who can see your posts at the time you share them. We’re also broadening the functionality of the sharing tool: now if you want to make your posts more expressive, we’ve made it simple to add location and tag the people you’re with.

Inline controls

Before: Controls for who could see your stuff on Facebook lived on a settings page a few clicks away.

Going Forward: The control for who can see each post will be right inline. For each audience, there is now an icon and label to help make it easier to understand and decide who you’re sharing with. Also, when you tag someone, the audience label will automatically update to show that the person tagged and their friends can see the post.

This dropdown menu will be expanding over time to include smaller groups of people you may want to share with, like co-workers, Friend Lists you’ve created, and Groups you’re a member of. These will make it easy to quickly select exactly the audience you want for any post.

If you’re posting to Facebook from a phone or app that does not yet support inline controls, your setting will be the same as it is today. You can change this with a new setting available on your privacy settings page. (For a guided tour of these new controls, go here: http://www.facebook.com/about/sharing)

Word Change: “Everyone” to “Public”

Before: You had the option to share a post with Everyone, which meant that anyone on the internet might be able to see it.

Going Forward: We are changing the name of this label from Everyone to Public so that the control is more descriptive of the behavior: anyone may see it, but not everyone will see it. This is just to make the setting more clear, and it’s just a language change.

Change Your Mind After You Post?

Before: Once you posted a status update, you couldn’t change who could see it.

Going Forward: Now you’ll be able to change who can see any post after the fact. If you accidentally posted something to the wrong group, or changed your mind, you can adjust it with the inline control at any time.

Tag Who You’re With, or What You Want to Talk About

Before: You could only tag someone if you were friends with them, and you could only tag a Page if you had liked it. This felt broken or awkward if you had a photo album of co-workers and had to become Facebook friends to tag them in the photos.

Going Forward: You can add tags of your friends or anyone else on Facebook. If you are ever tagged by a non-friend, it won’t appear on your profile unless you review and approve the post.

Tag Locations in Posts

Before: You could only “check in” to locations using the Places feature on a smart phone.

Going Forward: Now you can add location to anything. Lots of people use Facebook to talk about where they are, have been or want to go. Now you can add location from anywhere, regardless of what device you are using, or whether it is a status update, photo or Wall post. Of course, you can always choose not to add location at all.

As a part of this, we are phasing out the mobile-only Places feature. Settings associated with it are also being phased out or removed. (You can read more about how location works and settings affected here: http://www.facebook.com/about/location)

Remove Tags or Content from Facebook

Before: When we asked, people had different ideas of what removing a tag actually did, and different motivations for wanting to remove them.

Going Forward: Your options for removing tags or content on Facebook are presented more clearly. Your options are: removing from your profile, removing the tag itself, messaging the photo owner or tagger, and requesting the content get taken down. (More details on tagging can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/about/tagging)

These changes will start to roll out in the coming days. When they reach you, you’ll see a prompt for a tour that walks you through these new features from your homepage. In the meantime, you can read more about the upcoming changes from the links throughout this post. We’ll look forward to your feedback on all of this.

Taken together, we hope these new tools make it easier to share with exactly who you want, and that the resulting experience is a lot clearer and a lot more fun.

FROM ZOE:

What to you think of the new changes?  I’m working through them all myself right now and will be interested to get your feedback as well.  Making security and privacy clearer to me is a good thing but let’s see how this is to ‘drive’.

Make sure to share this post far and wide to keep all your friends updated on the changes – they need to know this if they are using Facebook!

Have an awesome day – Zoe

One of a parents’ major roles is to protect their children. Look before you cross the road; don’t stand too close to the fire; don’t talk to strangers. But what if the stranger is disguised as a friend?

The internet is an incredible tool and has become a daily part of our lives. Social networking sites like Facebook offer a whole new world of contact, but with it, exposure to those who may not have your child’s best interests at heart. How can we protect our children when they’re using Facebook?

It’s not as difficult as you might think – here are a few tips you can pass on to the teenage Facebook users in your household. (You might even use a few yourself)

1. Don’t reveal too much information – leave out your exact birth date. This is the single most important piece of information that identity thieves look for. Never, never, never share address or telephone information (your friends will know this anyway). You wouldn’t leave this information on the notice board at the local shopping centre – don’t leave it on the internet’s notice board – many (millions) more people will see it.

 

2. Check your security settings – make sure only your friends can see your information and posts – don’t leave the “friends of friends” box checked. Make sure you posts only go to those you want to see them.
   Go to “Account” and then down to “Privacy Settings” and customise how all of your information is shared on Facebook.

 

3. Be careful of the information contained in your posts that can reveal where you go to school, which bus you take or anything that can identify where you are going to be at any given time.

 

4. When posting photos, ask yourself the question “Would Mum and Dad let me put that up in the living room?” If the answer is no – don’t post it. Remember that once you post it, you can’t take it back. Even if you delete it, copies will exist somewhere.

 

5. Keep in mind that you are revealing PERSONAL information and unless you follow these few simple rules, the data (including pictures) could wind up somewhere you don’t want it – like on the bosses’ desk. Ask yourself, BEFORE you push the “Share” button, what information you are sharing and who you are sharing it with.

Following these five tips will allow your children to use Facebook for what it was intended – sharing news, information and conversations with their friends.

You have heard about hashtags on Twitter but don’t really understand what they are let alone how you set one up for your event or business?

I’ve had a lot of questions on hashtags recently – so have copied my video “Hashtag How to” below. This video takes you through step by step on what is a Hashtag on Twitter, where do you find out what a hashtag means, how you register your own hash tags (and where), and then how to use this hashtag to grow your community interractions at live events or in support of your business.

In the video I ‘define’ a hash tag of #SMSH for our previous Social Media Super Hero seminars. I consider the setting up of hash tags as a more advanced Twitter training, but you can get my complete Twitter training live by joining me at my “Social Media ShortCut Seminars” – look for the hashtag #SMSC on Twitter

For full details go to:
http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaShortCut

My mission is to not just teach you social media marketing to grow your business but to give you the “ShortCut path through the maze of Social Media” getting you the maximum business results from social media marketing in the minimum amount of time!

And watch for the hashtag #SMSC spreading through out Twitter – oh and we’ll use it a lot at the events but I’ll explain more in the events.

Found this video useful? Like all of our Social Media Marketing trainings, please share far and wide. After all it feels good to share