by Brian Carl on February 12, 2011
Yesterday I posted about the new Facebook pages and what they mean to you as a marketer.
UPDATE: It turns out that you can’t determine the order of the images on your business page like you can on a traditional Facebook profile. </update>
Today, I want to pull the actionable highlights from it on how to create excitement on your page.
- Use the photo boxes to do something creative now. Soon that will be old hat, if you want to try it, do it now. The header image on this post is from Brian Solis’ Facebook page promoting his book, Engage. I heard him speak yesterday at OMS 2011 and he mentioned that making this change to his Facebook page sparked a lot of conversations.
- Start engaging on other pages as your page. Now that you can do this, this is a great way to inject some personality into your brand and reach out to like minded communities and groups. Be wary of the spam factor though. I’m a huge fan of this change, however I worry about the long term effects on a noise level.
So those are 2 quick action items to integrate into your Facebook page as soon as you switch to the new pages. You have until March 10th to change your page, but you should change it as soon as possible. You’re going to have to do it soon enough, you might as well lead the way.
What do you think is the best way to use the new pages?
by Brian Carl on February 11, 2011
I’ve been reading about the new Facebook pages a lot since yesterday. There is a lot of chatter over new strategies. Your strategy shouldn’t change, however there are a few things that you need to know about the changes that you should take note of.
The most significant changes are all on the backend. If you are a page moderator, you’ve been waiting for this for a long time.
- Facebook now gives you the ability to log in as your page and use it to comment on other pages. Up until now, you could only post as your page on your own page and your admins had to post elsewhere. That is no longer the case. This is great for posting on events, interacting with other brands, and more.
- Facebook send updates for interactions. One of the frustrating things about dealing with a Facebook page is needed to check it all the time. Some of us found tools to use (like Hyper Alerts), but now Facebook is making that obsolete and sends you updates via e-mail. Your prayers have been answered.
The most obvious change is that the new pages reflect the same layout that user pages have. This means Facebook removed the tabs and moved them to the left and added the recent tagged pictures to the top of the page. This means 2 things really:
- Pay more attention to the pictures you are posting and what is shown on the top of your page. They will now be front and center. More importantly, do something creative with them. Mashable had a great article about how to use your photos to make a larger picture for the new user profiles, there is no reason you can’t do this for your brand and it’s still so early that it will stand out.
- Make sure your tabs still look right in the new format. Facebook said the size hcange some people are reporting is a glich, but it’s still good to take not and make sure your tabs still look right. Also, users will adjusting to the new format at different paces. If you use a landing tab, be mindful that some users might be confused how to get to the wall at first.
There are some portions of the page that are different than traditional user pages as well.
- The most important part is the feed. The feed is now organized by interaction. Posts aren’t shown in chronological order. This is very important because a post that has a lot of traction (maybe even a negative one) can stay high up on your page and not fade away with time. Interaction is now more important than ever , hopefully your posts are getting more interaction than what your fans are posting.
- The top right hand corner displays which of your friends also like this page. This used to be on the left hand side, but this makes it more visible, which is great for you. On a side note here, on your page it will show the admins. As the Hitchhiker Guide says, Don’t Panic. Only the admins will see this when logged in.
- Below your friends, photos are displayed from those friends. I can’t figure out if there is a rhyme or a reason to this, since they seem random. The only element that ties them together is they are from your friends who also like the page.
So that’s the top level important changes to pay attention to. There are a few other changes as well, but these are the things that will have the biggest effect.
What do you think of Facebook’s new fan pages?
by Brian Carl on June 13, 2009
With Facebook allowing user names last night (I stayed up and grabbed up facebook.com/briancarl FTW) a lot of the talk has been why didn’t Facebook do this sooner when Myspace and every other social network has been doing it for quite some time. This is true, but Facebook pwns Myspace in so many ways. There is a lot I can write here but two biggest ways are:
- Facebook Pages. Facebook does a great job in separating people from the 3 annoying B’s of the social media, businesses, bands, and brands. The pages look very similar from your user profiles, but with a few key differences. Facebook pages can’t send you friend requests or solicit to you in any way on Facebook except through a paid advertisement. So you have to actually choose to become a fan and not have your inbox spammed.
- Streamlined look on all pages. Myspace lets you customize your page in anyway you want. This sounds like a great idea and it was when it first started, but then it got out of control. There are millions of sites on the web that give codes for people who don’t know how to use code. Now anyone can have an annoying profile that they probably don’t know how to undo.
If having your inbox was enough spam, most pages spam your eyes and ears as well. I don’t want to hear the music on your page while I wait 10 minutes for everything on your page to load. Do not even get me started on pages that have multiple songs and videos all autoplaying. On more than one occasion my computer has been crashed by a poorly designed pages.
There are many other reasons Facebook is growing at such a rapid rate and myspace isn’t. Feel free to leave your comments on how you feel. Is there something else major that should be on this list?
by Brian Carl on June 11, 2009
Xbox 360 anounced at E3 that they were going to add social media to their xbox live experience. They are adding a Facebook app, a Twitter app, and Last.FM.
Every business and their mother is all about the tweeting these days, which personally don’t really care about. The best thing about Twitter is how easy it is to ignore people, which is a major plus since it has been getting so spammy these days (Thats a whole nother post for another day). I am just hoping that it is a program like you use on your phone or TweetDeck and not a program that can autopost whenever your status changes.
There is a Facebook app already that tells people what you are doing on xbox and don’t like having to ignore my friends posts for flooding my news feed. The only time I canre what you are doing on XBOX Live, is when I am on xbox live, which I can already do or if they are playing UNO, but thats just because thats a good game.
The one cool thing that I read though is that through the new Facebook app you can take a screenshot of a game and post it to your facebook page. That’s a cool idea. So now when I get a triple bogey in Tiger Woods I can let everyone know.
The last program they announces was LastFM. I am sure I could have a comment for this one, but I don’t. It is always nice to have addition places to play music. Just like everyother anouncment these are all just new places to do things that we have already been doing.
I don’t even like typing out a quick message to someone on xbox live. Hopefully they will announce why this is different than using my computer or even my phone, both of those have full Keyboards.
by Brian Carl on June 10, 2009
Facebook recently announced that they were going to allow usernames so people can actaully find their family and friends and make it easier to link to them.
Starting on Saturday, June 13th, at 12:01am, you’ll be able to choose a username for your Facebook account to easily direct friends, family, and coworkers to your profile.
Starting this Saturday, really Friday night, you are going to be able to choose your own username to be the display url for your website, kinda like Myspace did and LinkedIn kinda did quite some time ago.
Is anyone else going to be staying in on Friday night to make sure to secure their name like I am? (I say staying in, but i really mean staying up) It is times like this having a common name sucks, but atleast my last name isn’t miller like most of my family.
I feel like I should have a party and invite everyone to bring over their laptops and choose their usernames. We could countdown like it’s New Years Eve and listen to “Will2K” by Will Smith. This party could be nerdier than when I went to BotCon.
I am an online marketer in Hartford, CT. 
