Did you hear about Velvet Burger? They are one of the most recent companies to have their Facebook page deleted for breaking the rules. They waved ‘bye bye’ to almost 10,000 fans in the process. You can read their message to their customers below.

You may have also heard Hell Pizza went the same way – losing their page and 20,000 fans along with it. Hell managed to get their page back through someone-who-knew-someone who worked at Facebook, but sadly – in most cases – if this happens to you, you’ll be starting from scratch.

In case you’re thinking being in a little country (Velvet Burger and Hell are in New Zealand) or that having far fewer fans will prevent this from happening to you, think again! Don’t get all up in arms with Facebook about this either, the only person to blame is … you.

Click to view larger

When you created your Facebook page for your business you ticked a box saying you’ve read and agree to the terms and conditions. I know, I know, of course you didn’t actually read them (and I don’t blame you, there are pages and pages to read) but ignorance is definitely not bliss.

As Facebook says “We reserve the right to reject or remove Pages for any reason.” And they’re not kidding. Don’t think you’ll get a warning either! Poof! One day it could just be gone.

The bad news is claiming you didn’t know you were breaking the rules won’t cause Facebook to reverse your page deletion decision.

The good news? With a little learning you can prevent the next victim being your page.

There are Facebook rules that page admins break on a daily basis, so included in the list of what you CANNOT do that follows below are no doubt many you’ve been guilty of.

Even if you’ve been playing by the rules, you might read them and think “But everyone does that! Why can’t I?”. Well to paraphrase mothers around the world “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?”. Kidding aside, it really isn’t worth flouting the rules.

So here’s my list of the most commonly broken Facebook rules you simply cannot do with your page. Pay attention so your page is not the next in line for the chopping block!

Cover photo rules

You know that lovely big new image at the top of your page? As tempting as I know it is, you cannot use it as an ad.

What does that mean? The list includes:

You cannot…

• Include your contact details – ie: no website address, no phone number, no email and so on. That’s what your about box and info page are for. Basically if it’s a way to get in touch with you, or if there’s a field for that information on your info page, then it cannot go in your cover photo.
• Include pricing or purchase information – ie: ’40% off…’ or ‘Get yours now at our website…”
• Reference any “user interface element” – ie:  you can’t ask for, mention or even use a graphic to point to Like, Share or any other Facebook feature. Facebook even makes special mention that you cannot encourage or incentivize people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines.
• Include calls to action – ie: ‘Get yours now’ or ‘Tell your friends’.
• Use an image you do not own or have the rights to use, that is false, deceptive or misleading.

By the way, your cover image should be 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall and under 100 kbs in file size.

Want to read Facebook’s new cover photo rules for yourself? Here they are and here are some examples of cover photos from brands breaking the new rules.

Promotion Rules

Here’s where you’re going to feel guilty as these are broken all the time. It’s these rules that caused Velvet Burger to lose their page (and their 9,500 fans along with it).

You cannot…

• Run any sort of promotion, competition, sweepstakes etc on your Facebook page using Facebook’s features and functionality – ie: make sure you use an app or ‘custom page’ and not ‘like this update’ / ‘share this photo’ / ‘upload your photo to our page’ / ‘add a comment’ (and so on) to enter (a more complete list follows below).
• Hold Facebook responsible: So you must include a disclaimer that releases Facebook of any responsibility – eg: You’ve got to mention something along the lines of “This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook”. This is best put on the page/s of your app and in your terms and conditions on your website.
• Following on from above, you must also disclose who the entrant is giving their information to. The usual wording is “Participants are providing information to [your company name and the name of any other companies who see entrants information] and not to Facebook.”
• Use any Facebook features or functionality as part of the promotion or participation other than liking your page, checking in or connecting to your app.
• Use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism - ie: the act of liking your page or checking in cannot automatically register or enter the person in your promotion. Basically a condition of entry can be to like your page but the fan must then complete their entry on your Facebook app or custom page.
• Use the Like button as a way of voting (eg: most likes wins is not okay). Any other Facebook feature or functionality cannot be used for voting either (eg: The person who invites the most new fans wins …)
• Notify winners through Facebook – ie: don’t use Facebook message, chat or posting on the winner’s page, your page or another company’s page to notify winners.

These rules apply when promoting your promotion as well! So when you advertise (eg: Facebook ads) or reference a promotion (eg: in a Wall post) you need to follow the rules

These types of promotions are therefore NOT OK (often called Wall Promotions) because you’re using Facebook features and functionality to run the promotion:

Share this [update / photo / video etc] to be in to win…

Upload a photo / video …

Every 25th new fan wins…

Add a comment …

Invite your friends to like our page …

Answer this question …

Photo with the most likes wins …

Data collection

Whether promotional or not, whenever you collect content or information from a Facebook user, you have to make it clear that you (and not Facebook) are collecting it.

You’ll need to notify Facebook users and obtain their consent plus tell them (or link to your website privacy policy or terms and conditions page) how their information will be used by you.

Your page name

Your page name and your Facebook username must reflect / match your company name.

So if your company sells milk called Moo Juice then your page name should be ‘Moo Juice’ or ‘Moo Juice Milk’ but not ‘Milk’ as you can’t call your page a generic term – eg: ‘Beer’ or ‘Pizza’.

Your page name cannot be entirely in capitals unless your organisation’s name is an acronym. So the Bank of New Zealand can call their page BNZ but just because your logo has your name all in capitals, if it’s not an acronym, your page name cannot be all caps.

You also cannot use character symbols, such as bullet points or excessive punctuation or trademark symbols, in your page name.

Facebook Ads

Before you run Facebook Ads, have a careful read through the Facebook Advertising Guidelines here. There are so many that it deserves it’s own article so for now you’ll have to do your own homework ;)

I think I’ve set a new record for the number of uses of the word ‘cannot’ in one article!

Given how often these rules are broken and the fact the Facebook’s terms and conditions sprawl over multiple pages; I hope you’ve learned a lot. Please consider liking or sharing this article with your network to help other business owners, marketers and page admins avoid falling into the page deletion trap! Just pick one of the sharing options at the top of the page or below, thank you in advance :)

DISCLAIMER: Do not use this article to decide if what you’re doing is or is not okay! Other than the fact that I haven’t made a complete list of ALL the rules, Facebook updates the rules all the time! You’ll need to do your own research or check it past your Facebook Rep or agency to be sure. You can get started here: http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

PS: Get the latest Marketing Gum articles about Facebook and social media first and free: subscribe by email here for free updates

Want to republish this article? Requests are welcomed from media interested in publishing this article in print or online, however please do not do so without receiving permission in writing from the author – please contact anna@orchidwebdesign.co.nz with details about your publication / website / blog and readership. Many thanks – Anna :)

Hiding within the Facebook Insights area of your company’s Facebook page is your engagement per post data, and hiding within that is your negative feedback data.

If you had never heard about negative feedback till now, then you’re not alone, so spread the word by sharing this article with those on your team who manage your page and with other business owners and admins in your network.

Here’s how to find out what your negative feedback rating is per post, what it means and why you should be worried…

How to view your Negative Feedback data in Facebook Insights

Not only is this metric largely unknown, it’s also trickier to find than other data in the insights area of your page, hence my comment about it being secret, so bear with me here…

1 – Make sure your admin panel is showing at the top of your page first. If it isn’t, just click the ‘Admin Panel’ button top right.

2 – See the insights area bottom middle in the admin panel? Click ‘See All’ in the insights area in order to view your full insights data.

3 – You’ll be taken to the insights home page. Scroll down on that page and you’ll see the ‘Page Posts’ area which is a list of all your page posts (something like the screenshot below).

4 – The 4th column from the left is called ‘Engaged Users’. Just click on the number of engaged users for any particular post and voila! The breakdown of how many people engaged with you – including negative feedback engagement – appears.

I know, engagement sounds like a positive metric right? Sadly, not always…

Here’s how it looks:

Click to view larger image

So for the post above, 42 users engaged with the post, 2 of which gave negative feedback.

What does negative feedback measure?

This isn’t an all-inclusive measurement of negative feedback and does not measure sentiment in the way you might be used to with other measurement tools; however you should still be very worried if you’re regularly seeing negative feedback of any kind on your posts.

It’s important to check exactly which posts are attracting the negative behaviour in order to learn what’s helping and what’s harming your page.

At best that post reduced your audience, at worst it caused you to lose fans. Either way it’s bad news!

Negative feedback measures people who took the following actions from a particular post:

• hid that one post from their news feed
• hid all posts from your page from appearing in their news feed
• unliked your page
• reported your post as spam

When people make an effort to dislike something, they usually really, really dislike it.

Think about your own news feed. When you see a post that doesn’t interest you, what do you normally do? The usual action is no action, you simply ignore posts that don’t interest you.

So if your fans are hiding your posts or worse, then something serious is going wrong!

Unfortunately Facebook doesn’t break down the actions into more detail than just a total number of people who took a negative action or gave negative feedback, but given how much it takes to push fans to take one of the above actions, I’m sure you can now see why negative feedback should have you worried and no doubt keen to find out your own data.

As painful as this particular metric is, I’d certainly rather know what’s hurting my page than be in the dark. So go check out your negative feedback data now and let the learning begin!

You can also watch this short video tutorial for how to access your page insights and negative feedback data:

PS – Before you go, if you just learned something you didn’t know, please consider sharing this article using one of the sharing buttons above or below – thank you in advance :)

I don’t mean to alarm you but if you’re doing what most companies are on Facebook, then it’s quite likely only 1 in 6 of your page’s fans actually see your carefully thought out Facebook updates from your business page in their news feed. The cause? Facebook’s Edgerank.

If you don’t know what Facebook’s Edgerank is and why the time and effort you’re putting into your company’s Facebook page isn’t returning the business results you hoped for, then this article is for you; so grab a cuppa and let’s fix the 1 in 6 problem for your page right now with this easy to follow to do list (here’s the research to read later on how many fans on average see Facebook page updates by the way).

What is Edgerank?

Firstly, I thought I’d throw a bit of education your way on what Facebook’s Edgerank actually is.

You’re probably aware of Google’s algorithm that reviews in a long list of factors to decide who ranks where in search results. Well Edgerank is like Facebook’s version of that algorithm. Edgerank is the judge and jury that decides what fans will (and won’t) see in their news feed.

You’d be forgiven for thinking all your fans are seeing your updates. After all – you see them in your news feed. But once you know how Edgerank decides who sees what, you’ll realise why you are seeing your updates but your fans may not be.

Luckily there are far fewer factors Facebook’s Edgerank takes into account versus Google. The higher your Edgerank score, the more likely all of your fans will see the content you add on your company’s Facebook page.

One factor is cheating. Well, they don’t call it cheating of course, but one of the things researchers suggest will harm your Edgerank is whether you put your updates into Facebook directly (good) or you use third-party software or applications to schedule and feed your updates to your page (bad). Hence the first thing on your ‘fix the 1 in 6′ to do list:

1 – Add content to your Facebook page from within Facebook

Yep, you need to avoid using third party software, websites or applications to do it for you, sorry!

Other Facebook Edgerank factors include affinity, weight, time and possibly more. A bit like Google’s ranking algorithm, we don’t know everything Edgerank rates and what weight everything is given from an insider’s point of view, but in saying that there is quite a lot known about it that Facebook has told us and a lot of Facebook research out there that’s worked out how different factors increase or decrease your Edgerank.

Affinity means how does a particular fan and all fans relate with your page.

Weight is what the item is and what amount and types of interaction that item is getting. Things like videos and photos tends to have more weight, so when a fan views one of your photos it can be better for your Edgerank than when a fan just visits your page.

Which brings us to number 2 on our fix it list:

2 – Mix it up! Add photos, link to or upload videos, etc. Don’t focus on text-only updates all the time

Then there’s the actual engagement you’re getting.

Any engagement is a good thing but some types of engagement will increase your Edgerank more than others. A like on a photo or update helps your Edgerank less than a comment for example.

3 – Increase fan engagement

I’m not talking about impressions here, but actual genuine engagement.

Don’t go bribing offering an incentive or prize to increase engagement either or you you may break Facebook’s promotional guidelines and risk having your page deleted and losing all your fans.

You can run promotions on Facebook, just be careful how you go about it. Check with us for free advice if you’re unsure if your idea is yay or nay according to the rules.

So you want to get likes, shares, comments and more on every update, from as many fans as possible (rather than from the same fans time and time again).

4 – Use your network

To start with, get word out around your staff, colleagues and business partners – like your advertising, media, PR or digital agencies – not forgetting your friends and family, to ask them all to pretty please like every update and photo you add to help improve your Edgerank. If they feel like adding a comment or sharing your updates, all the better to see you with.

Of course you have to approach this with a bit of common sense because Edgerank is not dumb.

Pretty soon your staff and partners will be seeing your updates in their news feed like clockwork, but Facebook’s Edgerank judges not just overall fan engagement but engagement by each fan individually as well, leaving some poor fans stuck out in the cold if they aren’t engaging with your updates.

So it’s time for a bit of research, bringing us to fix it number 5:

5 – Find out the right sorts of updates

If you’re admin for your page you’ll see a link to view your page insights in the admin panel at the top of your page. Click that area to view your full insights and prepare to be amazed. Well, fascinated at least, or maybe shocked and dismayed, depending on the past performance of your updates.

Once you’ve clicked Insights, you’ll see lots of eye-opening data on every update you’ve made in chronological order. Click any one of the columns to reorder your posts by most people reached, most user engagement, most talked about and most shared. It’s those measurements that factor into your Edgerank score.

Usually the same posts that score well on one of the measures, also takes out top prize for the others. So now you can see what types of updates are the ones you want to focus your efforts on moving forwards to boost your Edgerank. Maybe funny updates do best for you, or is it breaking news that grabs your fans attention?

Then there’s the factor of time. Old news is, well, old; so Edgerank prefers to show newer items. That segways nicely into fix it number 6:

6 – Get your timing right: 8am, 6pm or weekends and 1 update every 2nd day

For those fans who do see your updates, get your timing wrong and you’re reducing the chances of being seen, let alone getting engagement.

A lot of Facebook research (like this by social media scientist Dan Zarrella) agrees the best performance is gained when you post Facebook updates no more than once every second day unless you’re a daily deals site or news organisation or similar, where daily or multiple posts a day are expected – and accepted – by your fans.

After you’ve got your frequency sorted, you need to consider what time your fans are on Facebook.

Get your update out when more of your fans are on Facebook and the chance of that update receiving engagement such as shares goes up considerably. When you consider 1  share potentially exposes you to a further 124 non-fans (based on the average New Zealander averaging 124 friends on Facebook), the right timing helps you increase your Edgerank and grow your number of fans on your Facebook page.

In our experience working with brands with fans from a few hundred to over a hundred and fifty thousand Facebook fans here in New Zealand, that means you want to publish updates before work and after work on week days. Weekend updates are also powerful for getting shares and engagement, when we tend to spend more time logged in to Facebook.

Not easily done for you? Then go for as close to 8am and 6pm as possible for week day updates.

Schedule putting your Facebook update in your calendar, just like you would a conference call or meeting, to avoid doing your best zombie impression while absorbing your morning coffee and mindlessly forgetting to do your update at the right time.

But how long does an update live?

Jeff Widman published this research on Mashable which looked at not only the right frequency but also how long a post ‘lives’ and said:

“I surveyed 20 posts across five fan pages that had 2 million+ fans, and calculated an average post lifetime of 22 hours, 51 minutes. Theoretically, this implies most fan pages shouldn’t post more than once a day. I strongly recommend keeping track of your posts in real-time because post lifetimes vary widely, even across the same fan page. In my sample of twenty posts, the shortest post lasted only 10 hours, while the longest post lasted a full 50 hours!”

So there you go: 6 fixes for your 1 in 6 problem.

Oh, and before you go, if you found this article valuable, please pick one of the share options below or at the top of this article to say thanks for content like this that we bring together in one place for you for free here on Marketing Gum :)

If your business sells products or services to other businesses – and if you hear the words ‘social media’ and all you can think is ‘Facebook’ – then I’ll start by forgiving you for assuming social media is not for you.

Now you’re feeling comfortable, I’m sorry to say that’s as much molly-coddling as you’re going to get. Social media IS relevant to your B2B business, just not in the way you might be thinking.

In the same way the word ‘molly-coddling’ has had its time, it’s your turn to move with the times and shift the way you think about social media and how it applies to your business, because the benefits are just too great to ignore.

Here are your top 4 B2B social media priorities, conveniently in order of importance, as well as how to get started with each of them…

B2B priority #1 – Company blog

If you have one already then congratulations and you can jump to priority #2

This may suprise you but yes, a blog is a social media channel. Clients and potential customers can engage with you and share links to your articles within their networks in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more. In fact in Nielsen’s 2010 Social Media Report, 73% of New Zealanders said they had sent or shared a link in social media channels.

Social media needs content and one of the best content sources is your blog. If you don’t have one yet, hold off on spending too much time in LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ till you’ve got it sorted first.

Your blog is actually way more than just a social media channel, it’s also the most powerful free way to attract new business.

How does 127% more leads sound? Not good enough?

Really?!

Okay, how about free SEO, 79% more Twitter followers, free PR, 55% more visitors, pre-qualified leads and fewer time wasters, proving you’re a better choice than your competitors… the list goes on!

Check out the 11 business benefits of having a blog to get the research and reasons behind why a blog is the most often missed yet most powerful B2B social media priority.

By the way, a blog does not have to be on its own domain like our blog is. Our company website is actually www.OrchidWebDesign.co.nz. Whether your blog should be on its own domain, integrated within your company website, on a sub-domain or sub-directory will depend on a number of factors and the good news is you don’t need to have understood any of that!

Shamelessless plug: If you need help making that decision feel free to contact me as the considerations could make up an entire article just by themselves. Alternatively chat to your website developer as providing they understand SEO they should be able to point you in the right direction. Yes, we create business blogs, so if you need inspiration, check out our blog portfolio to see the blogs of other NZ companies and to find out what you get when you choose us to design and build your blog. Okay, shameless plug over…

B2B priority #2 – Fresh, relevant content

Congratulations! You’ve got the most important step of social media for B2B out of the way – but when was the last time you updated your blog?

Content is still King, even though your marketing channels are changing.

Without fresh and relevant content it’s an uphill battle to improve your rankings in search engines and shift your LinkedIn network, Twitter followers and Facebook fans that vital one step closer to your website, persuading your social media connections to convert to clients.

The reason I’m still rabbiting on about blogging is because many businesses start a blog then never update it.

You need at least 20 articles to start seeing results and fewer than 10 articles is basically the same as having no blog at all if you want your blog to help with lead generation.

What are you writing about?

Fresh content is all very well and good but if your content is not relevant then you’re missing the point.

Avoid using your blog just for “Aren’t we great?!” content, such as ‘Look! We won this award’ or ‘Check out this great new product / service / offer we have for you, aren’t you lucky we’re letting you buy it from us?!’.

Instead, down-play the ‘me me me’ self-promotional content and focus on value-added content that is relevant to your target market.

A couple of examples:

What you do: Pillow importer and manufacturer, selling to bed retailers

What you could blog about: Insomnia, snoring, how to pick the right pillow, neck pain, sleeping habits, allergies, dust mites, bed linen…

What you do: Business mentor to executives and corporates

What you could blog about: Managing staff, starting a business, leadership, dispute resolution, employment law, changing careers, work life balance…

Think about what makes you the authority in your industry, use your blog for thought leadership, to upskill your network, to answer those FAQs you get asked day in day out, the list goes on!

Worried about who’s going to write all those articles for your blog? Here are 6 ways to get high-value content written for you for free

B2B priority #3 – LinkedIn

LinkedIn is where business professionals hang out. Business owners, sales and marketing managers, GMs, CEOs … in other words, the decision makers you want to get your products or services in front of.

The power of LinkedIn goes far beyond your profile, though step 1 is to ensure your profile has the most important areas completed, followed by step 2 which is to connect with everyone you know who’s also on LinkedIn, so get out those stacks of business cards and start connecting!

One of the most valuable places to spend your time is actually within LinkedIn Groups.

Firstly find the groups where your target market hang out. In the search bar (top right), click the arrow and select ‘Groups’ then type in one of the topics you specialise in.

Look through the stats for groups that focus on that topic (hint: try and stick to groups where members are mainly from your target country so you attract the right leads). Join the most relevant groups and off you go.

Listen and lurk for a while if you’re feeling shy, then when you’re ready, contribute to an active discussion.

When you’ve got the hang of Groups, you can also start your own discussions and generally work at being seen as the expert or thought leader on your topics within each group.

The secret to remember when contributing is don’t write a novel in LinkedIn, even though  I know the generous character count can be tempting.

Instead, remember to utilise your blog articles to expand on your answer / opinion, linking from the discussion to the article you’ve written that directly relates to the point you’re making. Always add value and avoid getting spammy with your self-promotion, so make sure any article you link to is on-topic.

That secret is how you move those business professionals and decision makers out of LinkedIn and on to your website, one step closer to becoming a customer.

To get started in LinkedIn groups, here’s a group called Social Media New Zealand you’re welcome to join (disclaimer: I am the owner and moderator of this group).

You’ll also want to set up a company page in LinkedIn. To do so, click on the companies tab then click ‘add a company’ (top right under the navigation bar). Here’s Orchid’s company profile for ideas.

Another area of opportunity is LinkedIn Answers but to get started, focus on those initial 3 tasks for now:

1) Update and complete your profile (it’s okay to skip some sections of your profile, not every section is relevant)

2) Build your network. Start by connecting with everyone you know.

3) Join and contribute to relevant groups.

B2B priority #4 – Twitter

Did you expect to see Facebook make number 4?

More than 1 quarter of New Zealanders have visited Twitter and of Twitter’s NZ user base, more than 44% have followed a company or brand.

The good news is setting up your company on Twitter is easier than Facebook. For some though, you may find getting the hang of Twitter has a bigger learning curve than Facebook or LinkedIn.

More good news is it’s a very fast learning curve and when you look back you’ll have a giggle when you realise there was nothing to worry about and will be kicking yourself for not having got into Twitter earlier.

To help you get underway, I’d highly recommend Mashable’s fantastic and very detailed Guide to Twitter or attending one of our Twitter for Business Results training courses.

If you prefer to have me come to you, to train you and your team about how to get business results using Twitter, it’s more affordable than you might think, so definitely get in touch.

Remember priority #1? Not only does having a blog means companies attract 79% more Twitter followers, but tweets with links to your content are much more likely to be retweeted which can vastly increase your audience.

For example, I have over 1,000 followers on Twitter but due to one tweet that linked to one of my articles here on Marketing Gum being retweeted, I reached an audience of over 20,000 which caused a healthy blip in traffic.

Tweets with links are also much more likely to result in an increase in leads than if you spend all your time on Twitter chatting and cross your fingers the link to your blog or website in your Twitter profile will do the job at attracting followers to your site.

So write those great articles then tweet about them!

By the way, tweets that are 120 to 130 characters in length are the sweet spot to attract more clicks, as is placing the link around a quarter of the way through your tweet (ie: not at the end) and keeping the balance around 80/20 for tweets with links (80%) versus conversation (20%).

Yes, I know what you’re probably thinking about now, and you’re right. As with most social media advice, your unique products, services, objectives and target audience will mean your social media priorities and strategy isn’t always going to fit the advice above, but you now know the right places to start.

To find out the best approach for your B2B social media strategy, get in touch or pop over to the Social Media New Zealand group in LinkedIn and start a discussion!

PS – I hope you got lots of value from this article and all the hints, tips and research included. If you did, please share the love and pick one of the sharing options at the top or below. Thank you in advance :)

Following is the quick reference guide to the major changes Facebook is rolling out in March 2012 to Facebook business pages.

Before we jump into the good, the bad and how the changes will affect page admins below; if you’re having problems upgrading or you don’t know how to change something on your upgraded page, pop over to our ‘how to’ article to find the answers: Sizes, FAQs & how to guide for upgrading to the new Facebook timeline for your business page 

Goodbye photo strip, hello cover photo :)

The 5 thumbnail images across the top of the wall – called the photo strip – have gone. These have been replaced with a gorgeous big cover photo which gives you so much scope for creating a fantastic first impression.

To get a full list of all the new measurements you need to design your cover photo and the very strict new rules your designer needs to know about, see our timeline how to article

It’s also worth bookmarking this gallery to check out later for how other brands are using their cover photos for inspiration before you design yours.

Here is one example of a very simple design for new cover photo, profile image and top navigation tabs in action on our upgraded page along with the measurements your graphic designer needs to know (sizes are in pixels):

Navigation moves to the top

Depending on how many custom page and apps you had before the upgrade, this is going to be good or bad news for you because the top nav only shows 3 of your pages or apps as the default view (see the screenshot above).

The left navigation has gone. You now have a set of 4 navigation tabs in the navigation bar under the cover photo at the top of your page. Your other pages and apps are not shown by default.

1 of the 4 tabs will always be a link to your photos page, but you can set the other 3 to be any of your pages or apps.

The rest of your pages are still there to be found, but fans have to click the arrow on the right to view them. Don’t rely on fans knowing how to do that! Make sure you set your page to show the 3 most important pages in the top row that you want fans to see. See our timeline how to article to get the full instructions.

Here’s how Subway used their navigation bar to feature mini banner ads as their tab images to entice fans and non fans to view their custom pages:

No more default pages :(

You can no longer set a custom page to be the default page that non fans see. The new design forces  the wall to be the default view for both fans and non fans.

That means you need to get creative with those four navigation tabs underneath the cover photo to convince people to view your custom pages. You can use your navigation tab images like ads to get attention by setting the tabs to show a small banner ad like Subway has above.

You can also change the order of 3 of the 4 navigation tabs so your photos and the 3 other pages of your choice show as the default tabs under your cover photo. The tab on the far left will always be your photos, but the other 3 can be selected by you. For the instructions for changing which pages show and the order they show, as well as how to set the images for custom pages, see our timeline how to article

To view your ‘hidden’ pages, click the arrow in the box on the far right of the navigation bar, shown below:

Pin an update :)

You’ll also want to use the clever new pin function when you want to feature a custom page, offer, event, article, competition or news that you want to draw attention to and that you don’t want fans to miss when they view your wall.

This is an important way to offset the down-side of custom pages no longer being able to be the default view for non fans.

Any update you’ve added can now be ‘pinned’ to the top of your page for up to 7 days so that other updates don’t push it down your wall and risk it being missed. To get the instructions for pinning and unpinning an update see our timeline how to article

Highlight an update :)

You can now ‘highlight’ chosen updates.

Highlighting an update makes it go the entire width of your wall instead of the default which is half the width.

To use this new feature to full effect, always upload a photo at the full cover photo width. That way, when you add a photo and it appears as an update, you can then click ‘highlight’ on that update and the photo will stretch the full width of your page. This can look really stunning and grabs attention when fans scroll down your wall. To get the instructions for how to highlight an update see our timeline how to article

Milestones :)

The new design includes a feature called ‘Milestones’. You can highlight selected accomplishments and achievements, such as fan growth, awards you’ve won, when your company started, product releases and so on.

Milestones take up the full width of your page so it’s worth adding images at the right size. To find out the size and how to add a milestone see our timeline how to article

Here’s an example from our Facebook page of how a full length photo can make a milestone stand out:

New about box :)

Also included in the new navigation bar across the top under your cover photo, is a featured about area. When clicked it takes fans to your info page which has also had an upgrade in the way your info page is displayed.

If your page is a local business this will show location information as the default. However for other Facebook page types you can type anything you want in this area, including your phone number, email, website or blog domains (which will become a hyperlink).

Here’s how we’ve used our about box to share our phone number, blog and remind people to like our page:

To find out the character count or if you’re having trouble editing your about copy, check out our timeline how to article

Admin panel :)

The new Admin Panel can be accessed from the link at the top right of your page. It allows you to track all of the activity on your page in one place. You can also reply to comments, edit  your settings, access your insights (ie: your pages analytics), create ads and more. To find out how to show or hide your admin panel see our timeline how to article

Private message :)

I love this new feature. If the Messages box is ticked in your page settings, your fans can now send the admin personal messages, making it much easier for you to have a private conversation with fans and reducing the chances of negative comments appearing on your wall for everyone to see, such as dealing with customer service issues.

The default when you upgrade is that Messages will be activated, but you can turn it off (which I wouldn’t recommend).  To find out how to show or hide the Messages box see our timeline how to article

New premium ad types 

This article on Mashable goes through the new advertising options for premium advertisers (those who spend $10k+ USD on a campaign) including log-out ads and offers.

Facebook Insights goes real-time :)

Live analytics will be coming soon to your Facebook page insights, here’s more from Mashable about this new feature.

Offers

Although this has been talked about in the same conversation as the new premium ads, offers is a bit different. It isn’t available to everyone ye but I’m particularly looking for to this which allows pages to offer coupons to reward fans. When fans click ‘get offer’ an email is sent to them with the coupon. Check it out.

If you don’t like change then you might not like the new timeline upgrade but I think there is more good than bad and no doubt more features and functionality yet to be released by Facebook.

This is by no means the complete list of all the new features and functionality that the timeline upgrade brings with it, rather it’s just a brief guide to the most noticeable changes that business owners and marketers need to know about. HubSpot’s upgrade guide is one of many that go through the upgrade in more detail – with screenshots – which I’d highly recommend bookmarking to read before you upgrade your page.

PS: If you found this article helpful please select one of the sharing options at the top or below. As you can probably tell, each of the free resource articles on our blog takes me hours to research and write for our readers, so sharing them with your network is a great way to show your appreciation – thank you in advance for sharing, I really appreciate it :)

On March 1st 2012 Facebook rolled out the new timeline design for Facebook business pages. There are a few bugs Facebook will hopefully address before the new Facebook design becomes compulsory on March 31st so there’s merit in waiting before you upgrade your page, especially if you have any custom pages.

If you just can’t wait, or you want to get ready in advance, then here are all the measurements you need to know for the cover photo, profile image, navigation tabs, milestone image and custom pages plus the most common problems you’re going to face and how to fix them.

If you don’t know what all the new features and changes are yet, read our timeline upgrade article first: Quick reference guide to the new Facebook timeline upgrade for business pages 

Ready? Here goes…

Facebook timeline image measurements

Firstly, here are the key measurements you and your graphic designer need to know…

Facebook cover photo size: 850 x 315 pixels - that’s 850 wide by 315 high

Facebook profile image size: 180 x 180 pixels square

Facebook navigation tab size: 110 x 74 pixels – that’s 110 wide by 74 high

Facebook custom pages - such as welcome pages and entry forms – are expected to be 810 pixels wide (they were 520 pixels) however there is talk is this may change so stay tuned

Facebook milestone image size: 843 x 403 pixels - that’s 843 wide by 403 high

Here are the cover photo, profile image and navigation tab sizes in action:

FAQs & how to for when you upgrade your Facebook page

 My cover photo or profile image has been cropped or stretched

If you load your cover photo and profile image at actual size (so they exactly match the measurements above) then they won’t be cropped, squished or stretched.

 What are the rules for what the cover photo can and cannot include?

There are very strict new rules you need to make your graphic designer aware of.

Your cover photo must not include:

• Price, offers or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website.” (ie: Don’t use it as an advert).
• Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section.
• References to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features.
• Calls-to-action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”
• Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property so be extra careful with copyright and claims.

Facebook’s preference appears to be cover photos with as little text as possible which is consistent with Facebook’s move towards becoming more visual as a whole. They do not want you to put details that should be in your about box or on your info page in your cover photo. They also don’t want you using it for free advertising and, very importantly, you must not mention or hint at any Facebook features, such as asking non fans to like your page.

My thumbnail is cropped, how do I change my thumbnail image size?

A thumbnail of your profile image will show beside every update you make and is what fans see on their news feed.

To fix this problem, upload your profile image at actual size then hover over your new profile image and click the ‘Edit Profile Image’ option. From the drop down select ‘Edit Thumbnail’. Now tick the ‘scale to fit’ option and save. Your thumbnail will now be an exact but mini version of your profile image without being cropped.

The quality of my cover photo image is poor

The cover photo is automatically optimised, so depending on the image you pick (especially if it has solid blocks of colour) you may notice it becomes a bit ‘blotchy’ and doesn’t appear at the same quality as the original image once uploaded.

The more and finer detail your cover photo image includes, the less you’ll notice the optimisation. Facebook controls this, not you, but loading images at the actual size will also help.

My reveal page no longer works after I upgraded my page!

If your Facebook custom page is a reveal page - also called a reveal tab or fan gate – and you upgrade your page, then you’ll notice the reveal functionality does not work after you upgrade :(

So when a non-fan clicks ‘like’ they won’t be automatically redirected to see the content only fans can see.

We’re hoping this isn’t intentional and that Facebook is working on getting this fixed. This is the reason we’d suggest holding off on upgrading your page for the time being. If you’d like to upgrade anyway then you can hide any reveal pages from the default nav.

7/3/12 UPDATE – Good news, Facebook has apparently confirmed this is a bug and they will be working to have it fixed so reveal / fan gate pages and apps should work again soon. UPDATE – This is now fixed :)

How much text fits in the about box?

Around the first 150 to 170 characters will show in your about box in your navigation bar.

The reason it varies is due to the length of your words and how much space they take up. Experiment with a mix of shorter and longer words (use short words when you can so more words per line will fit in) in order to get as much copy visible as possible. You can include links to your website and blog, your email address, phone number and a description of what you offer, just keep in mind links and email addresses will use up quite a bit of the available space so will reduce how many other words will show.

Here’s what our about box says:

My about box is showing my contact details and I can’t edit them

If your type of page is a ‘local business’ then instead of an editable area like the screenshot above that other page types get, your contact details from your info page will show instead. If you want your website link in this area the trade-off is you’ll have to remove your phone number.

How do I add a milestone?

You create a new (or past) milestone by clicking ‘Milestone’ which is just above the status update box under your about area. It will tell you what information to add and you can upload a photo as well.

Here’s an example of a ‘founded’ milestone from our Facebook page which shows you how adding a full length photo can really make a milestone update stand out:

Why isn’t my milestone appearing on my fans news feed?

So far it appears that past milestones (milestones with dates in the past) will not appear on fans walls. Our guess is only milestones added with a recent date will send an update to fans walls or that the functionality around milestones appearing in news feeds has a bug. Going by what we’ve seen so far you should be safe to add all your past milestones without spamming fans.  This would make sense as Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm (the reason why only 1 in 6 fans sees updates from most Facebook business pages) does factor recency into what will and will not show, ie: current content is more likely to appear.

My old custom pages are too small

Your existing 520 pixel wide custom pages are currently still able to be viewed when you upgrade your page, they just look a little odd sitting off to one side or in the middle of so much white space, so you will want to get them redesigned for the new width closer to the end of the March (just in case the size or functionality changes between now and then).

If you use a templated app or templated custom page then give the app company time to upgrade. I’d suggest contacting them directly if they haven’t upgraded or contacted you by the middle of March.

How do I change my navigation page images?

You can change the navigation tab images once you’ve upgraded your page so they grab attention to get fans and non fans to click them, or you can use them to create some neat design effects where your cover photo appears to continue in your navigation tabs (like the screenshot at the start of this article).

Here is how Subway have used their tabs as mini banner ads to get attention so fans and non fans click to view their custom pages:

To change the navigation tab images for your custom pages:

1 – If your admin panel is not showing at the top of of your page, click the ‘admin’ button top right first.

2 – Once admin is showing, click ‘Manage’ then select ‘Edit Page’ from the Manage drop-down menu top right.

3 – You’ll be taken to the area where you edit your page settings. Click ‘apps’ from the list of setting areas on the left.

4 – Find the custom page you want to change and click ‘Edit Settings’.

5 – Click ‘change’ beside Custom Tab Image, then click change again. If custom tab image isn’t visible then the page or app you’re using doesn’t have the option to change the image.

6 – An upload box will appear. Upload the new navigation image from your computer and click save, then go to your page to view the new image.

If you’re a visual learner, here’s a quick tutorial that shows you how to change your navigation bar:

How do I change the pages featured in my navigation bar?

To change your default navigation: Watch the tutorial above. Alternatively, so that the 3 pages you want to show beside your photos appear in your top row of navigation, click the arrow on the far right of the 4 tabs, then hover over any tab you want to move. A pencil icon will appear in the corner of the tab. Click the pencil and then choose which page you want to swap the position of.

How do I pin and unpin updates?

You can select an update and pin it to the top of your page for up to 7 days so that other updates you and your fans add won’t push it down your wall. This is great for featuring news, an event, a product release, competition or custom page.

How to pin an update: Hover over the update, click the pencil icon that appears in the corner, then click ‘Pin to Top’. The update will appear at the top of your wall with a bookmark icon in the top right corner.

How to unpin an update: Hover over the update and a pencil icon will appear in the corner. Click the pencil then select ‘Unpin From Top’.

How do I highlight an update?

You can select multiple updates to be highlights on your wall (you cannot both highlight and pin the same update though, it’s one or the other).

When you highlight or ‘star’ an update, it stretches the full width of your wall rather than the default width which is either the left or right hand side of your wall.

Like pinning, you can easily undo this so don’t be afraid to try it out:

How to highlight an update: Hover over the selected update and click the star icon that appears in the corner. To return a highlighted update to the normal width, just hover over it and click the star again.

How do I set a default page for non fans when they first go to my Facebook page?

Unfortunately one of the few changes I don’t like is this: You can no longer set a custom page or app to be the default page that non fans are taken to on your Facebook page. Fans and non fans default view is now the wall.

How do I access and hide the admin panel?

At the top right of your page click ‘Admin’ to show your admin panel. If you want to hide it again, click the Hide button top right.

How do I turn Messages on or off?

This new feature lets fans send you personal messages, making it much easier for you to have a private conversation with fans and reducing the chances of negative comments appearing on your wall for everyone to see, such as dealing with customer service issues.

The default when you upgrade is that Messages will be activated, but you can turn it off in your edit page area (which I wouldn’t recommend).

To turn Message on or off: In the admin panel, click ‘Manage’ top right then select ‘Edit Page’ from the drop down menu. Select ‘Manage Permissions’ from the left hand side if it’s not already showing, then find and tick the ‘Show Message button’ option. Or untick it of course if you don’t want fans to be able to message you privately.

I have another question…

I hope this guide has helped answer all your FAQs and given you easy to follow ‘how to’ solutions – but if you’ve got a question you can’t find the answer to then feel free to ask it below in the comments section, or go to our Facebook page and ask your question there to get  the fastest reply – and I’ll add the answer to this list also so everyone benefits.

PS: If you found this article helpful please select one of the sharing options at the top or below. As you can probably tell, each of the free resource articles on our blog takes me hours to research and write for our readers, so sharing them with your network is a great way to show your appreciation – thank you in advance for sharing, I really appreciate it :)

In the process of starting a Facebook page for your business or company, many get stuck when it comes to selecting the right Facebook page type, let alone choosing from the long list of page categories!

The good news is you can change your page type later if you get it wrong, but getting it right from the start will mean Facebook automatically gives your business the most relevant information page to complete.

This helps your fans find you or your business and find out what they want to know about you, and gives you the chance to share exactly what you want fans to know; plus it helps with your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to get more love from search engines like Google.

In this article you’ll find a detailed explanation of each of the Facebook page types to help you select the best match for your business…

There are 6 Facebook page types, which look like this (screenshot below). Clicking on each one on the Facebook ‘create a page’ screen will show you a drop down list of categories to select from (get to the page by going to www.facebook.com/pages then click the grey ‘+Create Page’ button):

 The Facebook business page types are:

• Local Business or Place
• Company Organization or Institution
• Brand or Product
• Artist, Band or Public Figure
• Entertainment
• Cause or Community

Following is a detailed description of each page type as well as tips to help you decide which is right for your business.

TIP: Make sure you read through all the page types before you decide as you may match more than one category or a particular page type might not seem like the best match at first glance, until you go through the category list:

The Local Business or Place Facebook page type explained

If you have a ‘bricks and mortar’ store and want people to physically visit you, click the Local Business or Place page type.

TIP: If you have an online business or store then ‘Company Organization or Institution’, or ‘Brand or Product’ will be a better match for you (more about these types of Facebook pages follow below).

Once you click the ‘Local Business or Place’ square, you’ll be able to ‘choose a category’ (shown in the screenshot above).

A long list of business categories is provided to select from, including:

• Attractions/Things To Do
• Bank
• Bar
• Book Store
• Concert Venue
• Food / Grocery
• Hotel
• Local Business
• Movie Theatre
• Musuem/Art Gallery
• Outdoor Gear/Sporting Goods
• Real Estate
• Restaurant / Café
• School
• Shopping / Retail
• Spas/Beauty/Personal Care and many more.

TIP: If you can’t find something relevant from the category list choose ‘Local Business’ instead.

The ‘Local Business or Place’ page type gives extra info page options for you to fill out, including your open hours, parking options and the ability for people to ‘check in’ using Facebook Places when they visit you in person. A count of people who have checked in will appear on your page next to your Like (fan) count.

Once you’ve selected your best match page type category, complete the boxes below:

1. Type your company name in ‘Business or Place’
2. Fill in your ‘Street Address’
3. Enter your town / city / state into the ‘City/State’ box
4. Type your post code or zip code in the ‘Zip Code’ box
5. Enter your phone number in the ‘Phone’ box
6. Tick the ‘I agree to Facebook Page Terms’
7. Click ‘Get Started’

TIP: You will be able these fields later in case you make a mistake or your address or contact details change.

The Company Organization or Institution Facebook page type explained

If your business isn’t the type that needs to attract foot traffic to your physical premises, or you have more than one location which may have a variety of addresses and open hours (such as a franchise); then Company Organization or Institution is usually the better page type to choose compared to Local Business or Place.

You can add the ability for people to check in using Facebook Places to your page after set-up (whereas the Local Business of Place page type includes Facebook Places automatically for you as part of setup which is a lot simpler and faster).

Once you’ve clicked this square, you’ll be given a list of business page categories to select from, which include:

• Automobiles and Parts
• Church
• Company
• Computers/Technology
• Consulting/Business Services
• Cause
• Food/Beverages
• Health/Beauty
• Insurance Company
• Internet/Software
• Legal/Law
• Non-Profit Organization
• Retail and Consumer Merchandise
• Media/News/Publishing
• Travel/Leisure and many more.

TIP: If you can’t find a specific category to match your business, select one of the general categories – Company, Organization or Small Business – depending on which is the best match for how your customers see you, or how you want them to see you.

Once you’ve found the best match category:

1. Enter your business name in the ‘Company Name’ box
2. Tick that you agree to the Facebook Page Terms
3. Then click the ‘Get Started’ button

TIP: If you’re a purely eCommerce business, only sell online and only through your own website (ie: your products are not sold on other people’s websites or stores); then select this category rather than Local Business or Place or Brand or Product page types. If your products are sold through multiple websites, resellers and/or retailers then the Brand or Product page type may be a better match (see below).

The Brand or Product Facebook page type explained

If your products are sold through more than one website or stocked by more than one reseller / retailer (or will be in the future), select the ‘Brand or Product’ page type.

This is the right page type for products with brand names and is where the likes of Apple, Coca Cola, Maybelline and Adidas hang out.

Start by selecting your best match page category, which includes:

• App
• Appliance
• Baby Goods/Kids Goods
• Cars
• Clothing
• Electronics
• Food/Beverages
• Furniture
• Games/Toys
• Health/Beauty
• Jewelry/Watches
• Kitchen/Cooking
• Pet Supplies
• Vitamins/Minerals and many more.

TIP: If you can’t find the right category choose Product/Service but do make sure you check out the categories under other page types first in case another page type has a closer match category for your business.

Once you’ve selected your category:

1. Enter your brand or product name
2. Tick that you agree to the Facebook Page Terms
3. Click the ‘Get Started’ button

The Artist, Band or Public Figure Facebook page type explained

If your page will be focused on and/or promoting you or if you’re an artist or a band, this is the right page type to select.

Click the ‘choose a category’ box and a long list of page categories is provided, including:

• Actor/Director
• Artist
• Athlete
• Author
• Business Person
• Chef
• Coach
• Doctor
• Entertainer
• Journalist
• Lawyer
• Musician/Band
• Politician
• Teacher
• Writer and many more.

TIP: Depending on the category you choose, different information can be completed at the next stage. For example, if you select ‘Politician’ you’ll be able to complete information such as ‘political affiliation’ and ‘views’.

Once you’ve chosen your category:

1. Fill in your name (or your band / character’s name)
2. Tick that you agree to the Facebook page terms
3. Then click the ‘Get Started’ button

TIP: If your page is intended to promote your book, the Entertainment page type (see below) is likely to offer a better match. For example, if you select the category ‘Book’ from the Entertainment category list, your info page will include the option of including your ISBN number.

The Entertainment Facebook page type

This category is for you if you’re business is classed as entertainment, such as a TV show, movie, book, radio station or magazine.

Click the ‘choose a category’ box and select from the options Facebook provides, which include:

• Album
• Book
• Concert Tour
• Library
• Magazine
• Movie
• Radio Station
• Record Label
• Sports Venue
• TV Channel
• TV Show and many more.

Once you’ve selected your best-match category for your business:

1. Type in the name of your station / book /  show etc
2. Tick the ‘I agree to Facebook Page Terms’ box
3. Then click the ‘Get Started’ button

The Cause or Community Facebook page type

The last page type is Cause or Community, but unlike the other types there is no drop down of categories to select from.

If you’re a not-for-profit or charity organisation, I’d therefore recommend you check out the options you have if you selected ‘Local Business or Place’, ‘Company Organization or Institution’ and ‘Brand or Product’ instead.

Categories like:

• Non-Profit Organization
• Cause
• Health/Medical/Pharmaceuticals

are all under Company Organization or Institution which might be a better match for you.

Also look for:

• Community/Government
• Church/Religious Organization
• Education
• Health/Medical/Pharmacy
• Hospital/Clinic

which are all under the Local Business or Place page type.

It’s worth carefully going through the list of each page type (just click on each square to view the categories) to find your perfect match, as having the right category can be more important versus the most relevant page type, as it’s your category that defines the information boxes Facebook asks you to complete after you’ve clicked ‘Get Started’.

I hope going through a more detailed explanation of each of the Facebook page types has helped you decide what’s best for your business.

Once you have your page set up make sure you avoid making these common Facebook mistakes, take advantage of the often missed free Facebook advertising and find out how to get free SEO using your Facebook page…

… and if you need any help with:

• creating or completing your Facebook page
• designing your profile image or photostrip
• running a successful Facebook advertising campaign
• design and development of custom pages and basic apps on Facebook
• advice and strategy for running legal Facebook competitions
• creating pages that you ‘lock’ under a reveal tab so visitors must like your page to reveal the content
• or pretty much anything else Facebook related!

then please feel free to get in touch with me, I’d love to hear from you.

PS – If you found this article helpful, please consider sharing it using one of the share options at the top of this page or following below. Thank you in advance :)

PPS – Got a question but don’t want to add a comment? Email me personally at: anna@orchidwebdesign.co.nz

You might have noticed the increased chat about QR codes lately in New Zealand with them starting to appear in all sorts of media here. Yes, we’re finally catching up to countries like Japan, the US and UK, with kiwi companies starting to show an interest in how to use QR codes in their marketing.

In part 2 of this article (coming soon) we’ll be taking a look at how other companies are using QR codes for ideas and inspiration for your business. Before you get started with QR codes, let’s take a look at what a QR code is, the most popular QR code reader apps for your phone, how to generate QR codes for your business and the latest QR code statistics and research.

What is a QR code?

QR stands for Quick Response as they can be read quickly by a cell phone.

A QR code is basically a 2 dimensional barcode, also called a 2D code or matrix barcode, but instead of the linear pattern in 1 dimensional barcodes, a QR code is made up of a pattern of modules, typically black squares on a white background.

That’s not to say you can’t get creative with QR codes, like the image used with this article which is a code designed for Louis Vuitton by NZ based company Set QR NZ.

The beauty of QR codes over standard barcodes is they can store and digitally present a lot more data than linear barcodes. This includes URL links, geographic locations and text. Plus, instead of requiring a hand-held scanner to read them, most modern mobile phones can scan them.

In case you’re wondering where this cool new technology came from, in fact it’s not new at all, we’re just really behind the times here in NZ. It was first designed in Japan for the car industry by a Toyota subsidiary in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process.

How does a cell phone read a QR code?

Your mobile phone needs a QR code reader app installed first (newer smartphones tend to come with an QR reader app pre-installed).

Depending on your phone and the app, for most you simply open the app then point your phone’s camera at the QR code and it’ll auto-detect it. Some apps require you to select the type of barcode you want to scan, others you can just point your camera at the QR code without having to open the app first.

Not all apps are the same. Some are faster than others, some are better suited to different phone brands and models, others offer handy sharing and storing options, so it’s well worth trying a few to find the perfect one to suit you and your phone (and the good news is many of the apps are free).

What are the most popular QR code reader apps?

There are a lot of QR reader apps on the market, most are free or under $2 USD.

Here are 3 of the best:

• Quickmark is one of the most top rated readers across all phone types. CNET voted it the top QR code reader app for iPhones. Get it here on itunes for your iPhone, or here for other phone types.
• QR Droid routinely tops the reviews for Android use and was the only QR code reader to achieve a 5 out of 5 stars rating by PC World.
• i-nigma claims to be the most widely used reader in the world and supports over 600 mobile phone models.

If you’ve got a QR reader app you love that’s not listed here, add it to the comments below for others to try. Don’t forget to let us know your phone model as well.

How do you generate a QR code?

You can easily generate a QR code for free using sites like Kaywa. Usually you select what type of content you want to create a QR code for, such as a page on your website (URL) or a section of text.

Google also has a QR generator tool but it’s got mixed reviews so far so try Kaywa for now. There are also lots of other free QR code generators you can find if you search online.

Who’s using QR codes?

QR code statistics out of the US for 2010 / 2011 found out that:

• 52% of people had heard of and/or seen a QR code.
• 28% have scanned QR codes.
• 68% of scans were done on the Apple operating system.
• 26% of scans were done using the Android operating system.
• There was a 1,200% increase in scanning of QR codes from July to Dec 2010.
• 62% scanned a QR code to go to a website.
• 30% were motivated to scan a code to get a coupon.
• 25% of people who scan QR codes are aged 35 to 44.
• 22% are aged 18 to 24.
• 22% are aged 45 to 54.
• 64% of scanners are female.
• Use of QR codes for making a payment grew 118% in the last quarter of 2010 (no doubt helped by Starbucks).
• Most QR codes are seen on product packaging (56%) followed by magazine at 46% and coupons at 45%.

A couple of larger QR code studies include Mobio’s research in 2010 and JumpScan’s research which was published as an infographic in March this year on Mashable.

QR codes are now in mainstream use in many countries.

In the first half of 2011, QR code use by country saw the US and Japan leading the way, with the UK, Canada and Russia making the top 5. Data from the second half of 2011 found the US account for 51% of global QR code use.

How are companies using QR codes?

While you eagerly await part 2 of this article, which will have lots of ideas and inspiration from the practical to the highly creative for QR code use to market your business, here is a taste of what’s to come:

• [video] Tesco created a virtual supermarket in a subway station with commuters doing their grocery shopping by scanning QR codes.
• 30 examples of business cards incorporating QR codes in their design.
• Selected Starbucks stores now accept payment by QR code. Customers register for a digital Starbucks card then simply scan their QR code at the counter to pay.
• QR codes can be beautiful. This slideshow on Mashable features 15 of the most creative designer QR codes and check out Set QR NZ’s portfolio as well.
• [video] Diesel had shoppers scanning and browsing jeans that they like in store, which then posted an update on the shoppers Facebook page.

If you’re using QR codes in your business, share your experience by adding a comment and if you’ve got a preferred app then let everyone else know using the comments below.

PS – If you found this article helpful, please consider sharing it. You’ll see share buttons for Twitter, Facebook and more above and below. Thank you :)

Welcome to the first of our ‘best of the web’ mashups. These mashups are voted by you, Orchid’s Twitter followers. Every time you clicked one of the links in our tweets, we track that click, measuring what you love and what gets ignored (just as well tweets don’t have feelings). The best of the best make it to our mashups.  So grab a cuppa and prepare for a whole lot of education, inspiration and entertainment in one place.

Twitter

Do you put links at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of your tweets? Find out where your link placement in tweets should be to get you more clicks.

Why are recent Twitter stats so hard to find?! Save time and check out the updated Twitter stats for 2011 here on Marketing Gum.

Speaking of blogs and Twitter, here are 10 ways to boost traffic to your blog using Twitter.

Still a Twitter newbie or just don’t ‘get it’ yet? These 50 must read Twitter tips are just for you.

Facebook

More than a Facebook facelift: A round-up of the recent Facebook changes.

Free Facebook advertising your company is missing out on, with some very clever examples as inspiration for how you can use it to promote your products and services.

Will you earn more from your Facebook fans or your Twitter followers? Find out who’s more likely to purchase from you.

Is your company on Facebook? Do you offer products or services to other New Zealand businesses? If you answered yes to both questions then here’s a quick and legitimate way to get more likes from NZ business owners and decision makers. Simply add your page to this list in LinkedIn

This one’s for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and more: How to optimise your profile on the most popular social media sites for SEO.

LinkedIn

7 quick ways to tweak your LinkedIn profile so it gets you new business.

Two groups worth joining on LinkedIn to connect with other local business owners:

• Social Media New Zealand and
• The Auckland Business Owners group

Both are open groups so you can check them out before you join.

Business Ideas & Inspiration

This guy went from zero to 700 million dollar turnover in just 4 years in an incredibly competitive market with a perishable product! Find out how he did it: The $700 million dollar startup 

Are deal websites like Groupon and Spreets worth it for your business? Check out the math of daily deals which raises some important points to consider before you rush in.

Conversion and User Experience (UX)

The magic button that increases eCommerce sales. What do your buttons say?

Find out which gets you more clicks: putting your buttons on the left or right?

Your website navigation should take users from learning to action. Is your website navigation in the right order?

Want to super charge your number of email subscribers? Find out the 7 highest-converting places to put your email sign-up forms.

10 simple yet powerful ways to increase your website’s conversion rate by reducing friction.

Copywriting

6 copywriting steps to selling more online, a great infographic from the team at Social Media Examiner.

3 copywriting remedies to use when your sales pages are failing you.

Design

Why you should never pair red and green together in website design (not the reason you think).

Do you know what your 404 page looks like? Here are 40 of the best 404 pages for inspiration and here’s our 404 page too.

TIP: Just type in your domain name followed by /404 – eg: www.yourdomain.co.nz/404 – to check yours is ok. You’d be surprised how many of your visitors see it so make sure yours helps them find their way back to your website content.

From the Toolbox

Tynt is a tool that ensures when someone copy and pastes content from your website or blog, a link to the original content is automatically added. To see Tynt in action, copy and paste content from this article. You can get Tynt here

Working out time zones drives me mad on a weekly basis. Not any more. Here is the best time zone site I’ve seen so far.

Find out the questions people are typing into search engines about your products and services and use this tool to get inspired for what to write your next blog article about. Simply enter one of your keywords to get started with WordTracker

Apple

In homage to Steve Jobs, the Orchid team created this infographic: Thank You Steve Jobs which follows Jobs’ achievements from the founding of Apple in 1976 to his untimely death in 2011.

For the geeks

45 years ago Star Trek first aired on NBC. 6 series and 11 movies later, have their futuristic gadgets become a reality? Here are 8 Star Trek gadgets that are no longer fiction.

QR Codes

QR code use is getting creative:

• This Boston restaurant serves edible QR codes.
• Rollout has created QR wallpaper which could have been done better in my humble opinion, what an eyesore, but at least you can’t miss it!
• There’s also QR wrapping paper which is a good starting point but again, I’d love to see more creativity.
• QR jewelry.
• The Oreo cookie QR code, yum!
• QR codes being used in art - and an NZ artist who won $15,000 with his QR code painting

Some of the designer QR codes out there are tiny works of art which would make alternative QR code applications like these really stand out.

YouTube and Video

A powerful secret to getting masses of views of your YouTube videos (written by someone who used this to get 8,500 views of their new video in a few days).

In a stunning fusion of art, fashion and technology, Ralph Lauren transforms their Madison Avenue store, watch the video.

Shameless plug

If you enjoy what I share on Marketing Gum then vote for me! (just look for my name – Anna Gervai – in each category in these Social Media Awards). Thank you in advance :)

In homage to Steve Jobs, we created this infographic that follows Jobs from the founding of Apple in 1976 to his untimely death in 2011…