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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Have you started marketing your business on Facebook and suddenly realised that you don’t want to accept “friend” requests from people that are really clients (or potential clients)?

Are you looking for a way to separate your personal life and business on Facebook?

Did you know it’s actually against Facebook’s rules (Rights and Responsibilities) to promote your business on a Facebook profile? And if you do you could have your account suspended?

No, I am not saying don’t promote your business on Facebook.

What I am saying is:
DO NOT PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS ON A FACEBOOK PROFILE!

If you want to harness the power of the World’s largest online community to grow your business, you need to set up a Business or Brand “Page”.

What’s the difference between a ‘personal profile’ and ‘business page’ on Facebook? And why does this matter for your business?
I explain all in the video below:

Top Reasons AGAINST using a Facebook Profile to Promote Your Business:

• It is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to maintain a profile for anything other than an individual person
• Potential clients need to request to be a “Friend” and wait for you to accept
• Profiles are limited to 5000 friends maximum
• Profiles are not ‘visible’ to search engines (due to privacy constraints)
• Limited applications and personalisation possible

Top Reasons FOR using a Facebook PAGE to Promote Your Business:

• It’s within Facebook Rights and Responsibilities and Terms of Use
• Potential clients chose whether or not to “Like” your page (lower barrier to action)
• Unlimited number of people can ‘like’ your page
• Can create multiple pages for different businesses/branches/promotions etc
• Large number of apps available and extensive personalisation of page possible
• Pages are visible to the search engines and can enhance SEO
• Greater opportunity to engage your audience and interact
• Community of likers want to hear about your business as they have opted to like your page
• Opportunity to integrate page with other web properties and market/advertise these through Facebook ads
• Creates a professional image of your business

And I could go on……..

If you haven’t got the message yet then this information from a section on Facebooks official policy (on difference between profile and pages) sums it up perfectly:

Facebook profiles are meant to represent a single individual. Organizations of any type are not permitted to maintain an account under the name of their organization. We have created Facebook Pages to allow organizations to have a presence on Facebook. These Pages are distinct presences, separate from user profiles, and optimized for an organization’s needs to communicate, distribute information/content, engage their fans, and capture new audiences virally through their fan’s recommendations to their friends. Facebook Pages are designed to be a media rich, valuable presence for any artist, business or brand.

What is a Facebook Page?

Pages are for organizations, businesses, celebrities, and bands to broadcast great information in an official, public manner to people who choose to connect with them. Similar to profiles, Pages can be enhanced with applications that help the entity communicate and engage with their audiences, and capture new audiences virally through friend recommendations, News Feed stories, Facebook events, and beyond.

You can create and manage a Facebook Page for your organization from your personal account. Click here to begin.

Please note that only the official representative of an organization, business, celebrity, or band is permitted to create a Page.

If you create a profile for your business, your account may be disabled for violating our Terms of Use.
Per our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, Facebook profiles must represent an individual. Users aren’t permitted to maintain an account under the name of their organization, or use personal accounts to advertise or promote themselves professionally.

If you have questions about how to best leverage your Facebook Page, please check out our Insider’s Guide or FAQ.

Facebook’s policy in terms of how business can use their pages:

All personal site features, such as friending and messaging, are also for personal use only and may not be used for professional promotion. If you add a user as a friend, for example, this person will be invited to be a friend of your profile and not your Page. Using personal site features for professional promotion, or creating unauthorized Pages, may result in your account being warned or disabled.

So bottom line is, when it comes to marketing on Facebook friends and business don’t mix.  Give your client’s the mechanism to connect with your business through a Facebook Page and stop using your Personal Profile.

If you have made a mistake and set up a profile for your business then you need to move this across to a Facebook Page immediately!

If you want to learn how to maximise social media marketing to grow your business, and set up your Business Social Media Profiles professionally, then our SocialMediaShortCut trainings are for you.  Check out our events page here to find out when Zoe and the team will be in a city near you, or stop by our Facebook PAGE (of course) at:

http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaShortCut

Have you got a facebook page for your business? If so share it below and make sure to share this article with your business contacts – it’s important.

Have an Awesome Day – Zoe

Recently facebook have added a quick “notifications” feature to the top right hand side of the pages that you are an admin on. These notifications are for when there is a comment, like or post to your page. So when you go to your page you can immediately see if there has been “activity” or notifications. You can click on the number for detail on these notifications.

If you have several Facebook pages, or are an administrator on many pages, then you would have to be checking each of these pages for new posts or monitoring emails and other management tools to keep track of activity on all of these pages.

A new feature now allows you to see Notifications for ALL PAGES YOU ARE AN ADMIN ON – from your home page of your personal profile.  Now just log into your facbeook profile and on the left handside of your news feed, about halfway down you will see a “Pages” heading and along side it will be a number of notifications to ALL pages that you are admin on:

When you click on the number of notifications the page opens up with a list of all pages you admin and you can see the details of each page:

You can now, at a glance, see which pages have activity on them and then click on the down arrow beside each to see details of these.

A major time saver for anybody with multiple facebook pages to manage whether for yourself or clients.

Let me know if you’ve tried this feature and what you think.  How to you manage your Facebook Pages?  Are you using facebook or other management tools?