With the rollout of Timeline for brands this morning, we took the opportunity to publish it on our SMC-DC page (thanks, Elliot!), and I took Facebook’s walk through tour to see how everything works. Here’s what I’ve got so far…

You can “preview” Timeline now, and then opt to either publish it, or wait. Until March 30th you can always revert to the old version. Update: Apparently that’s not true – once you officially “publish” the new format, that’s it – no going back! After March 30th all brand pages will have the new Timeline format.

1.  Cover photos – Specs appear to be 851 x 315 pixels. Facebook has released guidance for brand pages re: cover photos as follows:

     Cover images must be at least 399 pixels wide and may not contain:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends” [source: Facebook.com]

Here’s what our SMC-DC page looks like with Timeline enacted:

Click through for the live site

2.  Profile pictures must now be square, and appear to be 125 x 125 pixels. Facebook’s tour suggests using one at least 180 pixels wide.

3. The navbar (photos, apps, etc.) – Photos automatically are first, but you can change the orders of the other boxes. You can only “feature” four apps, but you can have up to twelve total live on the page. When I upgraded my page, all of my apps were changed to inactive (though all settings stay intact, of course) and I had to go into the dashboard to re-add the ones I wanted, presumably in the preferred order.

4.  Adjusting Timeline posts – you can go through to hide posts you don’t want to show (though I would only recommend that in extreme circumstances – we all know what happens when brands start deleting posts). More importantly, you can “star” posts to feature them, which means it will be take over both columns of Timeline to be twice as big. Example:

And hey, click through and read this awesome post from SMC while you're at it!

You can also click the pencil to “pin” posts to the top of the page and highlight them (interesting possibility to feature fans’ posts, perhaps?)

5.  Private messages – People can now send your page direct messages, which appear on the top right of your new admin panel (which you can choose to show or hide from the top of your page as you wish).

6.  New admin panel – lots to play with here. It has sections for Notifications, New Likes, Private Messages, and an Insights snapshot.

Clicking “Manage” up top brings a drop down menu of the options to Edit Page, Use Activity Log, See Banned Users, and Use Facebook as [Your Page]. The Activity Log looks pretty interesting – here’s a screenshot with the drop down options available:

Clicking “Build Audience” from the admin panel brings a drop down menu of Invite Email Contacts (interesting), Invite Friends, Share Page, and Create an Ad. Here’s the “Email Contacts” options:

All in all, I think there’s a lot of possibilities here. I love the direct messaging to pages – that’s been needed for a while. The cover photos look fantastic (check out any major advertiser’s page like Dove, Coke and Red Bull to see what they’re doing), and there’s bound to be some cool cover photo + profile picture integration ideas. Only featuring four apps is a bummer, and we have yet to see if brands will be able to maintain any kind of custom landing pages/fan gates. But overall Timeline is undeniably better for featuring media posts like pictures and video, and it’s also just more attractive, which is never a bad thing.

What have you discovered so far from playing around? What do you like/hate about it so far? Any brilliant ideas to capitalize on the new format yet?

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And in a turn of events surprising to no one, I’m right smack in the middle of it.

Social Media Club DC is stoked to be partnering up with our friends of the AU Social Media Club, Fleishman-Hillard DC, and It’s Just Lunch to bring you the NEED4SPEED Ultimate Networking event!!!

That’s right, y’all. Forget speed dating… we’re going speed NETWORKING. Check it:

The DC and AU Social Media Club chapters are partnering up to bring the District a networking event so hardcore, it will blow. your. MINDS. (Or at least, your wad – of business cards, that is!)

Three minutes per person, countless handshakes, and a mess of sponsored booze guarantee that you’ll leave with a handful of solid leads, a few new BFFs, and the beginnings of a healthy hangover.

So come on out and for once, don’t ever feel guilty for jumping to the “What can you do for me?” part of the conversation… this mixer’s like the ultimate crabcake: all meat, no filler, baby!

I plan on making a complete fool out of myself as host, so I promise you don’t want to miss this one. Hope to see you all there!

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As a student, recent grad, or newbie to the work force, you might be (and you SHOULD be) going out of your way to get to all kinds of events and meet people – happy hours, panels, workshops, conferences. But once you’re there, they can be a little intimidating – everyone knows everyone else, there’s the “cool kids” table at the back, and suddenly you’re back in middle school, wondering if you’re going to have to eat your lunch in the bathroom stall again.

There are a few tactics you can have up your sleeve to make sure you don’t end up without a date at the prom conference.

Have a “thing”.

Last month at BlogWorld LA, there were lots of people who had an identifiable characteristic (an exceptionally creative T shirt, a funky hat, a feather boa) that made them stand out and super recognizable. It makes it a lot easier for people if they can say “Oh, do you know Joe? He’s the guy with the pet honey badger/wearing the monocle/doing magic tricks.”

(These may be overkill, but I like to go big or go home. Feel free to rock a simple cowboy hat instead, but remember: ONE FEDORA PER CREW.)

Follow the hashtag.

Create a separate column in Tweetdeck or whatever you’re using specifically for the event’s hashtag. Then start chatting and connecting with fellow attendees, so that you can spot them IRL when there’s a coffee break or lunch, and you’ve already got an icebreaker ready to go.

Have fun/creative business cards.

Some people are anti-business card (insert Hipster Ariel quote here). I’m not one of them. You better believe I’m always stocked up – with both my professional cards, and my personal Moo cards, complete with picture so people can easily remember who I was later:

Ask questions.

One of the easiest ways to start a discussion with someone is to start up a conversation based on a question they asked one of the presenters. “Hey, I liked what you had to say about…” Or, “I’ve actually done some work related to that subject…” Likewise, if you ask a (good) question in front of the whole conference, it’s likely that someone will come talk to you – AND you’ll look like a smarty-pants and engaged, thoughtful attendee in the process. Win win!

Dress professionally.

In this day and age, jeans are usually fine (depending on your industry). But make sure they’re NICE jeans, and throw on a blazer, please and thank you. If you wouldn’t wear it to meet your significant other’s parents, don’t wear it to the conference.

Most importantly: just freaking say hi.

Pull on the big girl panties, man up, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, it can seem awkward to just walk over and say “Hi” to a stranger, but I promise, 99% of people are going to be thrilled that you did. And even if someone is a jerk, then you can talk about THAT JERK OVER THERE with the next person you say hi to.

And remember, just like in high school – you’re just starting out here. It will get easier. After a couple of these things, you’ll start to recognize faces, and after a few more, you’ll actually know people – maybe even friends - whenever you walk into the room.

Just don’t forget to keep on meeting new people, even after you’ve found your lunch table.

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With the “potential careers” landscape changing about every 2.6 seconds, it can be overwhelming to try and decide which direction you want to go in. So how do you get a taste of a potential job, industry, or type of working environment without actually taking the plunge and committing to a full-blown career change right off the bat?

1. Research and narrow it down.

You can’t just say you want to do “marketing” or “social media” or “PR”. Those are enormous, broad industries that include thousands of different types of jobs. Do your due diligence; read industry blogs, interviews, and ask people questions to figure out things like:

Would you prefer an agency setting, or in-house? Big agency or boutique shop? What kind of client(s) do you want to work with? Do you want to actually manage accounts, or work on them internally? What kind of companies and work really speak to you?

2. Pick some brains, zombie style.

I live by the ABC rule: Always Be Coffee-ing. There is practically no one on this earth I won’t agree to get coffee with. You never know what cool projects they’re involved with, the advice they may have for you, the connections they might be willing to exploit on your behalf (wink!). Find people who are doing what you think you might like to, and (in a polite and un-stalkery way) ask them to grab coffee to chat and get a feel for their day to day work, and whether it’s something you would enjoy.

3. Intern! (Like your mama said, practice makes perfect…)

While talking to a friend in college last weekend, she asked for advice on the kinds of places she should be applying for internships. In the marketing world, you have two options, the way I see it; you can go for a big house agency, where A) they’ve got every job and department under the sun, which means you’ll get to examine all the different career opportunities up close, and B) chances are you’ll get to work on some pretty cool brands and have some big names to put on your resume afterwards. (I’d love to be able to say that this doesn’t matter, but unfortunately, it often does – people can’t help but notice recognizable brands when scanning a zillion resumes). The second option is to work at a boutique agency or in-house, either of which means you’ll probably get an insane amount of varied experience and really get your hands dirty.

Both are good options, and I told my friend to go after both types, and then choose the one she was really the most excited about. Hopefully you’ll be able to do more than one internship, and can try one of each.

4. Moonlight like a mofo.

When trying to switch professions, you need to just accept that you’re going to be doubling down for a while. (I spent years working a day job I hated to pay the bills while I built my blog, online brand, and industry experience enough to be able to transition to a full time position in social media marketing. I even interned remotely for a big local non-profit, in addition to my 40 hours a week and all my extracurricular activities.)

If you aren’t willing to work twice as hard for as long as it takes, this leap may not be for you.

5. Take it from Nike: JUST DO IT.

I get asked a lot, “How do I do social media professionally?” Well, if we ignore how annoying that question is given its utter vagueness and lack of direction (help me help you!!), the answer is simple: Just DO it.

Do it for your own profiles and brands. Do it for a friend. Do it for a local business, for free if you have to at first. Just do what you have to do to get experience – something to put on your resume – because this ain’t the kind of thing they can teach you in school.

Yes, it’s hard, and a lot of work. But not nearly as soul-sucking as accepting a job that isn’t perfect for you and having to stick it out while you find the one that is.

And just remember, if you do all this, eventually? You’ll end up here.

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The past few years, the torrent of Facebook and Twitter messages that rained down on my birthday felt great. Who doesn’t enjoy being inundated with well-wishes from friends, family, and coworkers, amirite?

This girl, apparently. Because this time around, I was just annoyed.

Maybe I’m spoiled, but for some reason, each generic two-word shout out from someone I haven’t spoken to since high school or an acquaintance I shook hands with at a happy hour ONCE just irked me more and more. As my actual status updates and interactions with true friends disappeared beneath hundreds of meaningless wishes, I considered removing all the birthday notes from my timeline, but quickly realized that would have taken all day.

Instead, I ended up taking an unplanned 24 hour hiatus from social media, as it was rendered useless to me while my streams were flooded with (by and large astonishingly uncreative) birthday salutations.

Let's not and say we did, hmmm?

Sure, I could just unfriend a whole bunch of people. But in my line of work, having as many connections as possible is important. And anyway, I usually never notice them, thanks to Facebook’s news feed algorithm. This is the one time of the year they come out of the woodwork, all because a little notification in the upper right of their dashboard told them to.

In a way, this represents the way social media is today. We’re constantly inundated with worthless, boring and repetitive information from all sides, on all platforms. Our problem today is not how to find the information we seek; it’s finding a way to receive ONLY that information in a sea of data overload.

Between lists, filters and old-fashioned unfollows, most of us have found ways to manage that influx to hear only from the people we want to about the things that we’re interested in. In order to maintain that delicate balance, I’ve removed my birthday from Facebook, so that my profile doesn’t get hijacked by old sorority sisters pretending that we still have anything in common next October.

The people I care about know when it is. They don’t need Facebook to remind them to be the 147th person to say “Happy birthday, winky face!!” on my wall.

I want quality over quantity in my life… even for something as small as birthday wishes. Call me Scroogette if you want, but in a world where time has become so, so precious, wading through phony Facebook posts isn’t how I want to spend mine.

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Lately, I’ve become obsessed with commercials.

Which, in a DVR world, is probably a strange thing to say. But when you’ve been newly immersed in an ad agency for the past ten months like I have, it’s unavoidable. Suddenly each one is a project to be critiqued – I can’t help but wonder about the process and decisions along the way that led them to the final product. I analyze, I scorn, I (occasionally) give praise.

About 80% of TV commercials drive me nuts. Either they’re boring, entirely nonsensical (I’m looking at you and your ridiculous “jingle” commercials, STATE FARM) – or they’re just plain trying too hard.

The absolute worst is the ultimate cop-out, and probably one of the most expensive:

The celebrity endorsement.

Look, in the Age of Transparency, who’s buying this crap anymore? (Literally AND figuratively… see what I did there!) I just can’t think of anything more phony than this. Look, I’m sure Drew Barrymore’s a sweetheart and all, but no way am I buying hair color in a box just because someone with around-the-clock stylists says I should. Homegirl has no idea what’s in that stuff, and she’s sure as hell never used it herself.

I want value from my commercials. Tell me something I didn’t know about your pitch. Make me excited, or even better, make me LAUGH – but please, don’t insult my intelligence by assuming I’ll buy Proactiv just because Katy Perry admits to having a zit once in her life. This is the television equivalent of an US Weekly “Stars: they’re just like us!!!!!” feature.

Give me Keith Stone over Demi Moore any day of the week. Those Keystone commercials must cost a fraction of what Ann Taylor’s paying Demi, and they make me laugh every single time.

Keith Stone has got "smouldering" down.

Give me a tiny giraffe, or a kid powering up a VW with The Force. Give me a honey badger who does it bad ass, or a hilarious candid camera-esque beer advert, or a guy in a gorilla suit rocking the “In The Air Tonight” drum solo:

Companies are slowly and painfully learning that the arrival of social media means they now have to listen to us, in real time. They have no choice but to communicate, openly and honestly – or get left behind by their competitors.

This exchange of goods and services for our money is no longer a dictatorship, where brands decide what to give us and we have no choice in the matter. We have a VOICE now, and we’ve learned how to use it. If they’re smart, they’ll pay attention.

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Whether you’re a casual Twitter user, a digital networking powerhouse, or a small business looking to use Twitter for marketing, chances are you’re not opposed to gaining more Twitter followers. However aggressive (or not) your desire for followers may be, I think we can all agree that in general, we hope that those we choose to follow will at least consider returning the favor.

When I personally hit that “follow” button, it’s for one or more of a few reasons. Either I a) like what you’ve got to say, b) believe we have something or someone in common that warrants connecting, or c) would just plain like to get to know you better.

So yes, when I push that button, that’s me saying that ”I think it’d be worthwhile for us to be on each other’s radars”… and the implied second part of that is “and I hope you feel the same way.” In order to make sure the people on the receiving end of your request find you worthy, let’s audit the different areas of your profile and make sure it’s up to par.

How to Determine If Your Twitter Profile is Follow-Worthy

When someone follows me on Twitter, I first look at the email notification for any immediate red flags. (Do they follow 900 people and only have 50 followers? Is their picture an egg? Do they have zero status updates?)

If they pass those tests and move on to Part 2 of Consideration, I’ll click through and open up their profile to see what they’re all about.

Now, I’m not claiming you need to have a customized background, or even a particularly witty bio. But there are some basics you need to have in place to be taken seriously. Like:

1. Your username.

Does it contain the word “guru”, “SEOninja”, or “foxxxxxxy”? How about eighty-seven random numbers, or the phrase “4U”? God forbid, does it have more than one underscore? (Although truth be told, I can’t stand underscores at all – but I think that’s a personal quirk of mine. It’s also often unavoidable, given the popularity of Twitter-squatters on excellent username real estate.)

2. Your photo.

Pretty much the only thing that matters here (other than just having one – no eggs, please!) – is it a REAL picture? And yes, I’m sorry, but it’s points off if your profile pic is not actually you, but a cartoon avatar or a picture of something like scenery. Look, that Mexican beach is beautiful and all, but it doesn’t help me decide if I want to follow you on Twitter. (Points gained back if it’s a cat, or cat-related*.)

OK.

Not OK.

If you’re worried about anonymity, a partial shot or one that’s not up close and personal is fine. But it just seems so much more legitimate when there’s the promise of an actual human behind the account, even if all I can see is your left eye and a nostril.

(Obviously this is different for brands, but it should still be a professional, high-res logo consistent with your branding that insinuates that you are who you say you are.)

2. Your location.

This doesn’t necessarily make-or-break, but it can certainly help (or hurt). If you’re in an area of interest to me personally, like DC (where I live), I’m more likely to follow you – even if other areas of your profile are lacking. Likewise, if you don’t put a location on there (or put something vague like “USA” or something stupid like “Right behind you!” – points off. Leave the cheese for Facebook; that don’t play on Twitter.

4. Your account privacy.

Yes, there are a FEW exceptions to this rule… but in general, if you have a protected account, you’re Doing Twitter Wrong. And unless I know you in real life, there’s pretty much zero chance I’m going to “request” to follow you.

5, and this is the Big One: YOUR BIO.

This is the cornerstone of your identity on Twitter. Painting “the picture of you” in those precious 160 characters is difficult, but goshdarnit, spend a half hour on it. I can only glean so much information from that twinkle in your avatar’s eye.

Here are the guidelines that are official in my brain because I just made them up:

• None of this one sentence stuff. Unless it’s so funny it makes me snarf my coffee, you need to open up a little bit. Tell me your hopes, your dreams… or at least what gets your juices flowing.
• Don’t go on and on about what an expert you are or how many books you’ve written or how many puppies you’ve saved. Leave the smarm and the horn-tooting for LinkedIn, buddy.
• A joke or two never hurts. Unless it’s a dumb one. But hey, brownie points for trying.
• Please do not construct your entire bio out of as many generic hashtags as you can cram in there, like “#SEO #marketing #internet #business #blogging #socialmedia #tech #noonecares. Not only is this difficult to decipher, it’s entirely uncreative. USE YOUR WORDS.
• Don’t write it in third person, unless you’re famous. And I don’t mean internet-famous, I mean people-want-you-to-kiss-their-babies famous. (And even they look douchey doing it, but they’re allowed.)
• It’s nice to give me some idea about what to expect from your tweets. What kind of subjects will you talk about? Will your focus be your industry, glitter unicorns, or some combination of the two?
• Do not, under any circumstances, have any rendition of “FOLLOW BACK” in your bio. This screams of a) desperation and b) Twitter-slut-ism. If you’ll follow anyone or anything, you’ve already told me our relationship won’t be special. I thought we were trying to build something real, and here you’re just using me for stats!
• Saying you are “passionate” without specifying an actual passion. About what? Breathing? Proving Nessie’s existence? Dubstep? Help a girl out.
• Listing obvious things that don’t differentiate you from anyone else on the planet. You love to laugh! Or perhaps you enjoy eating food. Or wait – I bet you’re a big fan of sunshine! Well, whoop-de-freaking-doo. Tell me something unique, or stop wasting my precious brain space. (Kisses.)

If you embrace these recommendations and avoid the pitfalls mentioned, I think it’s safe to say you’ll end up with a Twitter bio you can be proud of. Or at least, one that won’t make you look like a big, fat, porny spambot. You’re welcome!

*Look, I don’t make up the Internet rules; this is just a fact of e-life. Deal with it, cat haters.

Learn why Facebook and Twitter can be a powerful tool in social media marketing.

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I just finished presenting at Digital East (#DEast11, if you want to follow along) on LinkedIn and Twitter Marketing Strategy for Companies and Brands.

It was a blast – the audience was hungry and looking for case studies, new tools, concrete takeaways, and advanced strategy tactics. It was great to talk to such a savvy crowd after giving so many “Social Media 101″ trainings!

If you’re interested, here are my slides:

If you’re interested in having me give this presentation to your company or at an event, definitely get in touch!

My dear friend Kevin Fawley was also nice enough to stream it on his iPhone – gotta love technology. I haven’t watched it yet, so forgive me if I’m incredibly awkward, but here you go:

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We watch a lot of HGTV in our house. Partially because we enjoy it, and partially because it’s the only thing we can agree on when he wants to watch Gangland and I want to watch Golden Girls.

This is absolutely how I picture my life when I'm 80.

{source}

One of my favorites is “The Unsellables“, in which they brutally point out the many and varied ways you’re a moron for trying to get 20% above market price… on a house that’s in no way, shape or form been readied for market.

The most common mistake is showing too much personality in your decorating. Bright colors, personal pictures and mementos, crazy artwork – all of these need to be stripped away, and replaced with generic pieces and varying shades of beige, in order for it to appeal to the widest possible audience.

In terms of selling a home, I get this. Buyers want to see a blank canvas, so that they can more easily imagine their own colors, trinkets, and wacky artwork belonging there.

But all too often, it seems people take this same route when it comes to their own personality.

General consensus says that a business won’t be successful unless there’s a brilliant point of differentiation from their competitors (even if that point of differentiation is just doing the same thing much, much better). I wholeheartedly agree with this theory, and I’m here to argue that you should apply this philosophy to yourself as well.

When deciding which face to show the world, don’t give us the beige. The vanilla. The BORING.

Give us the colors. The “out there”. The CRAZY!!!

Sure, you probably won’t please as many people along the way. But would you rather be passively “liked” by the masses, or adored by the people who truly appreciate the flavors of you?

Be weird. Be different. Be unexpected. Be nerdy. Be passionate, and unapologetic, and unabashedly curious.

Be REAL, and not just what will make everyone around you comfortable.

Bring on the crazy, I say. Because in this world of vanilla and safe and boring…

That’s the person I want to hang out with.

{source}

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Dear Netflix,

A couple months ago, you screwed up. (Note that the operative part of that sentence is not actually “you screwed up” – all brands make mistakes – it’s the “couple months ago” part that hurts.)

You announced a sizable price hike with little to no explanation, and zero community management in place to respond. Thousands of tweets, status updates, and posts of all shapes and size went up, and we heard nada-zip-zilch from you in return.

And I defended you.

I defended you because, in all honesty, the hike was not unreasonable. People talked about it in terms of percentage to make it sound ludicrous – really, it was just a few bucks, and something you probably should have done long ago. I thought separating the DVD and streaming services was a little silly, because most people only want one or the other but are willing to slide a couple extra bucks your way for both. But hey, that’s your choice – I don’t really use DVDs, so I just canceled them and went straight to streaming, which I probably should have done anyway but never would have if you hadn’t forced me to think about it. You actually saved me (and thousands of other customers) lots and lots of money, to your detriment.

While I thought you were seriously lacking in the way you handled the increase, you’ve been good to me these many years, and price-wise, you’re still worthwhile – so I was cool with it. I even argued on your behalf on Twitter and your Facebook page, because I’m loyal to my faves like that.

Then yesterday morning, I woke up to an utterly tragic, strategically-absent email from your CEO. Despite the smell of desperation already wafting up from my computer, I opened it, hoping there might be a few “make it right” nuggets inside. (And, you know, morbid curiosity.)

Netflix, I have to assume that Reed Hastings was shit-canned at 6am and accidentally hit “send” in a haze of Jim Beam-induced tears. His whiny plea was embarrassing to read, like that day in high school when the teacher makes everyone read a poem out loud in class, and you were the asshat who took it WAY. Too. Far. Everyone in class is shuffling their feet, refusing to make eye contact while the snotty girls make doodles on their trapper keepers mocking your raw and awkward sensitivity – and oh yeah, the jocks are totally going to beat you up in the parking lot after school.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, they did. The only action point in the email was to announce that you will be splitting DVDs off from streaming to an entirely separate brand. So people now have to log into two completely different sites to use the same product in separate forms! And to try and distract us, you gave it a name that would have been really cool and futuristic sounding… in 1998. QWIKSTER? Really?!

(The Oatmeal describes this better than I ever could, so don’t miss that.)

Never before have I seen such a rapid deterioration of a brand’s image – at least not without massive environmental damage. It’s impressive, really. A year ago, you were this:

Attractive, witty, and well-loved. Everyone just liked the way you operated. You were a Gosling-esque smooth criminal.

Now, you are this:

It’s like the brand opposite of a “She’s All That” transformation.

I tried to stand by you, Netflix, but I have to walk away. I’ll still use streaming, at least until Hulu can come through our Wii. But as punishment, I’m removing you as a verb from my vocabulary. You will no longer be the “Google” of streaming to me, wherein you have monopolized the industry to the point where your name becomes the action itself. No longer will I turn to a friend and drop into conversation, “Oh, you can just Netflix it!”

You’ve lost that privilege, Netflix… and with it, my heart.

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