Easier than ever – Facebook Mobile sharing!

Mobile apps for Facebook have lagged behind in features and usability for far too long.

So many of the features we love to use on the web have simply not been available from our phones and tablets.

Lucky for us the apps are constantly being updated. And it looks like the latest version, as shown on my Android phone, is finally giving us some of the options we like to use most.

With this version you can finally share posts in a meaningful way!

Any post set to public that you see in your news feed can be shared, including photos and links.

Look below the post to find the share button.

Now it starts getting interesting!

Once you click the Share button, there are more options for you. Rather than sharing everything on your Timeline, where just your friends might see it, you can make sure the people you want see the posts by sharing more strategically.

Where the screen says “On your own timeline” there is a small down arrow that lets you know you have more options.

Click the arrow to see what your choices are.

Check out all the options you have!

You can see the list of places you can share this post, including your own timeline, a friend’s timeline, a group, or one of the pages you admin.

We’re only missing one option from the web version of the Share function – we can’t share this in a private message from Facebook Mobile.

In my example, I chose a group.

Once you choose where you to share, Facebook Mobile lets you pick.

In my example, because I chose to share in a group, Facebook Mobile shows me a list of my most recently active groups.

You could also search for the group you want using the search bar at the top.

Click the group you want to share it to.

Now that you know where you’re going to put it, it’s time to personalize your post.

Add your own comments or opinions, preferably in a way that will encourage a conversation.

Finally, click share.

I’d love to know more about how you use Facebook:

How often do you access your Facebook account from your mobile device? Have you been finding the lack of mobile features frustrating or limiting? Does your mobile version have these features now? Will it make any difference to how often you use Facebook mobile compared to the web?

Hat Tip to my Facebook friend “Lovelee Dawn” on Facebook who was super happy to have found a way to share in my Butterfly Rabble group. Thank you!

When someone posts an update or photo on your Facebook page, it’s so hard to see!

It’s hiding over there in the “recent posts by others”, but how many people actually look there?

Some of the messages people and pages leave here would be great for conversations!

Someone might be asking for help, or sharing a photo of them using one of your products, or complimenting you on your fabulous services.

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone could see it easily?

Well, they can!

It’s almost hidden behind Facebook’s strange naming techniques, but it only takes 3 clicks!

Here’s how you can make that fabulous comment front and center on your Facebook page

Point your mouse to the post you want to make visible.

Point your mouse to the x in the top right corner of the post. You’ll see a popup that says “Remove”, but that’s not all this x does!

Don’t be scared, click the x!

Check it out – when you click to “Remove” the post you get a menu with 6 options. And 4 of those don’t even remove it!

Click Highlighted on Page to make this post super visible.

So far that’s 2 clicks and you’re almost done!

To see the Highlighted post you have to refresh the page, with a click in your browser or the F5 key on your PC.

Highlighted posts by others are more likely to spark conversations

Just look at how lovely and inviting that big post is now.

It practically shouts “let’s get talking!”

Highlighted posts retain their reverse chronological order, so an older post may not be quite so visible.

Because I did the highlight right away, it is the first post you see, even before that Recent Posts by Others box!

Have you tried highlighting a post by someone else on your page?

What are you waiting for?

If you liked this, I have plenty more tips, techniques and strategies for connecting with your awesome people on Facebook. For the full-on-customization-and-loads-of-coaching package try a Facebook Awakening. For 20 minutes of speed coaching, order a Fine Tune your page.

If you’re like most business people, you’re busy. You know you need to keep you Facebook Page active, and you realize it’s best to publish your posts to Facebook at times when most people are actively using Facebook.

The problem is, you’re busy running your business when most people seem to be on Facebook!

Until now, the solution was to use a third party app to schedule a post to hit the news feed at an optimum time.

But third party apps have their downsides. They can easily be hidden from a news feed, as I’ve written about before, and they don’t always have all post features, like the share button.

For best interaction, the only way to use Facebook for your business is to use Facebook for your posts.

This week, Facebook changed all that for the better.

Now you can use Facebook to schedule your posts on your Business Page!

Cue the celebration and the rousing chorus!

Here’s how it works.

When you begin to type your status update, a clock icon appears in the lower left.

Click this to choose the scheduled time.

When you choose the Year from the drop down menu, the Add Month button appears. When you choose the Month, the Add Day button appears. This extends through Hours and Minutes.

The Post button becomes a Schedule button.

Posting a photo works just the same way.

Of course, the Facebook scheduler has some rules and conditions.

The post must be at least 10 minutes in the future.

The system doesn’t warn you that it’s not far enough in advance until you click the Schedule button. That’s when the error window appears.

The future scheduler only works on pages, not on your personal timeline. The clock icon appears on your timeline, but only works for past dates so you can share milestones and past events.

You can’t schedule a photo album in the future. You can’t even schedule to add a photo to an existing album in the future.

It would be great to see this feature added in the future, but, at the moment, you’ll have to schedule the photo(s) individually and move them to the album you want after they have been published.

Facebook let’s you see what you’ve got scheduled.

You can see all of your schedule posts at the top of your screen of your Activity Log.

From the Activity Log you can change the time of a scheduled post, choose to publish the post now, or cancel the post. Unfortunately, you can’t edit the post if you notice an error.

My work around to make a minor edit in a scheduled post is to select the post text from the Activity Log view, copy it (use Ctrl-C or right click/copy), then cancel the post. In a new status update paste the copied text (Ctrl-V or right click/paste), make your corrections, and schedule the post again.

Facebook makes it clunky, but it’s still an improvement.

With having to choose the year, month, day, hour and minutes individually from drop down lists, Facebook’s scheduling process is not as fast or convenient as many of the third party apps. But I’ll take the higher chances that it won’t be hidden and the full sharing features over that convenience any day.

I think this is a big step forward for business on Facebook. Do you agree? Will you try using the new scheduling feature on your Facebook page? Do you use a third party app now? Let us know in the comments here or on my Facebook page.

I broke one of my rules today

I clicked a link on Facebook that didn’t have a thumbnail.

I’m usually not this indiscreet! I only did it because I really like the site and the guest author that was posting.

You see, I’m like most Facebook users: I respond well to pictures. And I notice them better.

Every once in awhile a link shows up naked in my Facebook news feed.
No teaser content, no image.

And I just know it’s not going to get very many clicks.

It likely won’t be noticed as anything more than odd text in a busy news feed full of pictures.

If it is noticed, the reader won’t have any clue what the post is about before clicking it. And usually, it’s true, I don’t click links if I don’t know where they go. I don’t really need to watch another two babies having a giggle fit. (on the other hand if it’s about a dog saving a kitten’s life, I’m all over that!)

But the link today was to a site I know and like, to the post of a guest writer I admire and love to read. I clicked it.

So I tried to share it.

Of course, the preview did not automatically populate.

For a lesser article written by a person I don’t know or value as highly, this would have stopped me cold. I’d think the universe didn’t really want me to share it and shrug off the detour as I got back to work.

Today I was determined that I would fix it.

And I remembered a workaround tip I read a million years ago on AnsonAlexander.com that I was surprised to see still works today!

We just need to strip away some of the techie characters from the link and the preview will be revealed.

Instead of using the share button, copy the URL from the source site. When you paste it into your status update, if all you get is the naked link, it’s time to activate the workaround. While you do have the option to edit the title and preview, it’s easier and more visual if we can get the preview to appear instead.

Remove the http:// from the beginning and the / from the end of the link text.

Delete the link preview.

You may need to copy the new link and then repaste it into your status update.

Once Facebook notices the changed link, you’ll automatically see the preview. In this case I got to choose from 29 thumbnail images, so of course, I chose the picture of the guest author, Randi Buckley.

If you happen to have notepad or another quick editing program open, you can save a couple of steps by pasting the original URL to your editor, removing the apparently extraneous characters I mentioned above, and then copying and pasting the cleaner link.

On Facebook it’s all about being seen

Well, it’s all about connecting, but if we aren’t being seen then who would connect with us?

It’s frustrating that there are sometimes these extra steps we need to take to have our message seen, but so worth it to take them!

Have you ever had your thumbnails stop working on Facebook links? Did you find any other way around it? Let us know in the comments here or over on my Facebook page if there are other tips we should know about.

In the world of Facebook, we tag pages for all sorts of reasons. To be noticed by someone we admire, to support a friend in their venture, to share our love for a product, to complain about an issue.

We count on tagging to do two things.

It gives our friends and subscribers the chance to enjoy the page and its products by including a link to the page. And it lets the page admins know what we’re saying about them.

Or does it?

It seems like sometimes the page admins don’t get the message!

This issue seems to come up again and again. Enough so that visitors to my Facebook page and my site often ask me about it. Just take a glance at all the comments to this post about tagging pages. All too often the complaint is: “Someone is tagging my page but I can’t see it on my page” or “I tagged a page but I can’t see it on their wall”

It’s not surprising that Facebook feels so frustrating for so many!

I think the number one reason this is happening is that most users don’t really have a good understanding of Facebook privacy settings.

Because in order for a page to see a status update that includes a tag of the page, it’s absolutely critical that the update is public.

Let’s start at the beginning:

You control who sees your status updates with your Facebook privacy settings.

To set your default, go to your privacy settings from the Home menu.

The first screen you see shows your default or overall privacy setting, as shown in the screenshot below.

Choose whether you will have it set to Public, Friends or a Custom setting.

Each time you post an update on Facebook it will automatically have the privacy setting you set here. When you use Facebook on the web, you can change the privacy setting of each status update when you post something new or after the fact.

When you use Facebook on your mobile device you will likely have no way to change your privacy settings, unless you edit it later. Each post will use the default privacy setting.

Tags and privacy settings need to get along.

Here’s the reason:

Anything posted on a Facebook Page has to have a privacy setting of public, because everything on a page must be public. A Facebook Page doesn’t have friends!

So, if you tag a page in a status update that is set to friends only, like in the screenshot, the page will have no way to see it.

If you want the page to see it – and if you’ve tagged a page, my guess is you want them to see it – you must be sure that the privacy setting on the post is set to public.

Simply click the down arrow at the bottom right of the status input window to get the menu to choose the right privacy setting.

That’s great for status updates, but what about photos?

Photos on Facebook have their own set of privacy rules

Because photos are organized into photo albums, there is an extra level of privacy control.

Any time you add a photo to an album, the photo has the same privacy setting as the album.

In the screen shot above you can see all the different privacy settings that my Facebook photo albums have.

A globe icon indicates the album is available for public viewing, a person icon means it is set for friends.

A lock icon means the privacy is set so tight that only you can see the photos in that album.

If there is a gear icon, the settings are custom.

If there is a gear icon with no down arrow, like on your wall photos and mobile uploads, then the privacy settings can be different for each individual photo.

To change the privacy setting on one photo, open the photo in Facebook’s photo viewer.

In the top right, beside the date and place, you will see the familiar icon indicating the current privacy setting. If the photo is in your wall photos or your mobile uploads album, you’ll see a down arrow to access other privacy options. This works the same way as it does on a status update.

If you have a photo that you’d like to make public, but it is in an album that is not, you can change the privacy setting of the whole album from the photo viewer.

Even better, though, you could move the photo from a private album to a public album.

Find the album in your photos, and decide which of your public albums to put the photo in.

Click the album that has the photo you want to move. At the top of the photo album screen, click Edit album.

In the small window that pops up, either change the privacy setting for the album, or, to move the photo to a public album, click Edit photos in the bottom left.

Locate the photo in the list of photos shown, and move it to an album that is public.

I had a different post to write today, but this comment from Yoav prompted me to write about how to find tags and posts by others on your Facebook Page.

It’s all because of Timeline for Facebook Pages

If you haven’t updated your Facebook Page to Timeline yet, it will be automatically transformed by March 30, 2012.

As with all changes on Facebook, there are loads of things I like about this new change, and a few items that I’m less than happy about.

And so I dive in to find out as much as I can about making those less-happy things more tolerable, and come back up with a gem or two to share with you.

It’s too hard to see that someone has tagged or commented on my Facebook Page!

Yes. By default, this is true.

When you look at a page, only the “Highlights” are easily visible. They are shown at full size in the left hand side.

Posts and tags by other people and pages are summarized on the right side, although only if the page has turned this feature on.

Believe it or not, there is a menu to change the view at the top middle of the Facebook Page Timeline, but it is so muted in colour that it looks like it is not an actual menu!

Surprise! You can change the view!

Click on the down-arrow beside that hard-to-see button that shows “Highlights” and choose “Posts by Others”. You’ll see everything that others have done on the page.

It’s interesting that the page itself doesn’t get to control this with an overall setting like we could before.

Now, every visitor has the option to change the view they see.

Unfortunately, few people have probably seen this yet, so we need spread the word to help everyone enjoy the Facebook experience of your Page Timeline even more!

It’s nicer when you scroll down the Page.

Once you’ve scrolled down below the cover photo you’ll see a menu bar appear at the top of the page.

This menu is a lot more visible than the other, and for most users it will be quite obvious that they can interact with it.

The view menu is on the far right, and its options are the same here as on its less visible version: Highlights, Friend Activity, Posts by Page and Posts by Others.

Okay, that’s great info and makes us all feel better that tagging pages is not broken in Facebook, but Yoav was specifically asking about photos the page is tagged in. Oops!

Why can’t we see the photos my Facebook Page is tagged in?

After I realized I’d missed this piece for Yoav, I went back and to find out.

I used a photo of my own and followed the usual tagging process. It worked flawlessly on my end, with their page popping up second on the list for me with only the first 3 letters typed.

But, after I tagged them, I couldn’t see my photo on their page!

While I hope there is a notification on their admin panel, from a viewer perspective, I wanted to see if the tag worked.

I clicked on their photos tab to see if I could find it.

Sure enough, in the second section, there it was.

The layout of the photos section of your Facebook Page Timeline has your albums up top, and photos you are tagged in below that.

I bet the fun folks from Klein Mentshelekh wish they had been at the lake with me when I took that photo last summer. It was an amazingly gorgeous day!

Have you got any questions about the new Facebook Page Timeline format? Or have you discovered any tips to share with us? Do you wish you could hang out at the lake with me in the summer? Answer or tell us anything you’d like to share in the comments below or on my Facebook Page.

This is a collaboration post, in which the luminary Limitless Megan shares her knowledge of the ancient tradition of face reading to give perspective to my own experience of people and their photos

1. Humans are wired to respond to faces

Tip: Use an image that will connect with your people.

Perhaps I’m too visually responsive. or maybe too judgemental, but I am always attracted to certain types of images, and repelled by others.

Recently I came across a site that piqued my interest. I liked the language, the delivery, the visuals that the words created for me, the tone, the content, the beautiful header, the overall design. I was nearly ready to sign up for the newsletter, even after a mind-numbing morning cleaning out my over-full inbox!

But something stopped me.

I saw her photo.

Blammo. I wanted out.

Something about the look on her face, the look in her eyes stopped me. What I presume was meant to look neutral, instead looked stern.

Like a passport photo.

Without even a slight smile, no crease of joy in the corner of an eye, not even the hint of a raised eyebrow, her expression, or lack of it, could have meant anything. To me it suggested an undercurrent of deep anger. It promised a complete lack of fun. Or of welcome. And for me feeling welcomed is an essential requirement.

Sometimes I try to puzzle through how the person chose this photo. Because I know this is the photo that they chose out of however many they had on hand. It sometimes amazes me that this is the photo they thought best represents how they look to the world.

Not knowing exactly where my reaction comes from, I’ve tried to overlook it before. I’ve tried to simply look past what my gut sees and go with my brain instead.

That never works out very well for me.

Here’s an example: Not that long ago I got a message from a potential new acquaintance. I’m always open to meeting new people so I decided to check out her online outposts and website. What I found were mixed messages.

Her content showed her views on connecting and spiritual pursuits were similar to mine, but, those eyes…. there was something in her eyes that made me feel she would be suspicious of everyone, everything. I did my best to look past it, we met and I attempted a friendship. I invested time and energy, only to discover that I was being used. I thought she looked suspicious of others and it turned out I couldn’t trust her.

I didn’t stick around for that.

I learned something there so that now, looking at the stern face on this new site my mind can rush forward and guess how this story will go: Maybe I’ll try to fit into her “tribe” but not really be welcomed, not really be heard. Or maybe she’ll deliver a snap out of nowhere that will smart. Or perhaps it will simply be a dour experience lacking in fun.

I’m not going to sign up for that, either.

I’ve decided that I’m not going to spend any more time thinking about her and her site, I’ll simply pass.

With a tiny tinge of regret.

I really wanted to like her. She came highly recommended by a trusted source. The imagery on her site is beautiful and warm. Her work looks meaningful and helpful. Perhaps her link will pop up again some time. Maybe she’ll have chosen a different photo by then.

Maybe I’ll feel welcome then.

Although in many ways it seemed like I should be her target, maybe I’m not. I assume she’s used her photo as part of her targeted branding, so clearly there is something she knows about her market that isn’t true for me. She’s trying to connect with someone else, and she probably will.

I meet a lot of people online, and really all I have to go on is the photos they use to represent themselves, and the content they share. Many of my closest friends from the online world are just that because I felt drawn to them, to their faces. Most of the time when my gut says “Talk to her” “Connect with him” they end up being awesome: a true friend, a valued resource, someone I can help or someone who can help me, and many times all of the above. All because something about their faces pulled me to them.

What face are you putting on your business? Have you chosen your photo with the same care for branding as you did your logo and tagline? Have you thought about how your people will see you when they see your photo for the first time?

I’m grateful I listen to these intuitive suggestions as much as I do. After all, it was this very same intuition that led me to my friend Megan Potter! She has introduced me to the ancient science of face reading which reveals all sorts of information about you and how you respond to others. Is it possible that my intuition about certain people has something to do with the real messages of their face?

Realistically, I have a finite amount of time and energy for connecting with people , so I need to be sure that the ones I choose are the right ones for me. My people are positive and enchanted by something bigger than us, something within us. They are real, yet lighthearted. Fun.

And your people are doing the same thing – even if they don’t recognize it. They are getting feelings, jumping to conclusions and deciding whether you are worth investing their time (and then their money) in and they are doing it by looking at your photo.

Your Magical Face: Megan’s Turn

Some people love what I do, but sometimes when I talk to people about my work as a Chinese Face Reader they pull back from me,
“Isn’t that… kind of judgemental?” (Insert snotty tone of voice.)

To begin with, I’d like to make clear that my work is not about judging a person based on a set of criteria: pretty eyes, small/large nose, etc… In the way that you might dismiss someone due to race, height, or their sloppy shoe choices. Instead, Face Reading is built on the primal belief that your soul writes itself on your face. When I read your face I’m not judging you, I’m seeing you for who you really are.

And I’m not alone in that.

While I’ve done the studying and memorizing, I’m really no different than any other person you come in contact with. I may be able to extrapolate and express what I’m seeing better than them, but we are all natural face readers. We all see and respond to the messages on people’s faces without even knowing it. So, Teresa isn’t being too visual or even judgemental – she’s just much more attuned to what we all do than most of us.

A few months ago I got a flyer in the mail asking me if I wanted to list my house – dude’s messages were all supportive and positive in feeling but I took one look at his photo and immediately threw the sheet in the garbage. I felt almost physically repelled. When I fished it back out and applied what I know about face reading I could see why; his face had all the markers of someone who likes the good life, who is self-indulgent – a glutton with low self-control. Could a man like that be trusted to work in my best interest or would he do what he thought would benefit him the most?

You know what I”m talking about. We’ve all had these moments.

As someone trying to promote your business online you absolutely need to be aware that this is happening.

Your face is talking to me.

And to everyone who lands on your site, too. It’s true that they aren’t normally aware how much your face is influencing them, but they aren’t usually aware of how much the fact that your site is white and pink instead of white and green is influencing them either. How you present yourself to the world matters.

Your face has Magic Powers – it magically talks to me – it pushes me away or draws me to you. Here’s a few tips you can use to make sure your Magic Powers are working for the good of you and your business:

Put your Best Face Forward

1. Show Yourself – Who are you? As long as you’ve picked your field and brand because you love them and they call to you, this is going to show through in your face naturally. Soul work always lines up with the messages of your face so don’t be afraid to be authentic. In fact, it’s essential.
2. Smile – If you need to look like a ball-buster to get clients, or if you work in the sex industry a different facial expression might be better suited, but for the rest of us a nice natural smile is just perfect. Seriously, I don’t know why I have to point this out. I think this fact should be taken for granted, but I see lots of people who use straight faced images as their headshot. Either they want to look professional, or they are nervous in the photo shoot, or… but whatever the reason the result is I feel like I’m being held at arm’s length from you.
   Imagine you met me at a big networking event. Teresa sees you and pulls you over and says this is Megan, she wants to meet you (aka she tweets your URL), what would you do? I’d hope that you’d look me in the eyes and SMILE – you’d shake my hand and greet me.

   Make me feel like that.



3. Think “Headshot” – Show me your gorgeous face. It’s cool if you have professional photos and you can show body + head and get a clear view of your face, but if your photo is you under a tree or in the Grand Canyon demonstrating its monstrosity save those ones for your Facebook page and make sure the one on your website let’s me make eye contact with you.
4. Get Professional Photos – This advice was given me by Danielle LaPorte and it is worth gold. Barter for it, save up, talk to a pal who wants to be a professional, check out the local photog classes – do what you have to to get at least one image done by a professional. And if you can, find one of those magical ones who want more than anything to know and then display you; you know, the ones who know how to make you laugh and light up in front of them.
5. Think About Your Message – Actually invest some time in thinking about what you want people to take from you. How do you want them to feel or think of you when they see your photo. Talk to your photograph about that message, and then hold that feeling in mind while choosing which shot to use.

Teresa is assuming that her stern faced website owner consciously chose that image – that she picked it because it conveyed a message she meant for others to read. But the truth is, more often than not, we pick our photos with fear and trembling. We lack in confidence (I know you don’t think you’re beautiful, if you need a good smack down about that send me your photo and I will happily lecture you on all the reasons you are beautiful), we’re afraid to put ourselves out there, we just want something that looks half decent and professional. It may be that Teresa is our stern faced friend’s ideal client and she’s missed her (and how many others) because she was too afraid to just relax and smile.

Don’t Do That.

There are some (insert really big number) small businesses making a go of it online and there are a hundred million things calling for my attention. Chances are that if I took the time to actually land on your website it’s because I want to like you. Help me to do what I want; go ahead, make it easy for me to like you and show me your gorgeous face.

Now, over to you:

When you first connect with someone, how much difference does their photo make to you? When choosing your own photo, have you thought about who you are trying to reach and how they will feel about what they see? Share your thoughts in the comments here or on my Facebook page. And we’ll be back next week to help you decide exactly which picture to choose.

Many thanks to Megan for her guest appearance on this series of collaborative posts:
Megan Potter is an Earthy Spirit with just enough Fire added to keep her fun and sparkly (as all things should be); she has the immense pleasure of working as Chinese Face Reader and a Lobbyist for Selfishness – empowering women to be their (already) perfect selves. Ready to find out what your face is saying to the rest of us?

Photo of Teresa by Kate Mahaits Photography. She’s amazing at revealing my inner personality, and she can do the same for you!

This is a collaboration post, in which the luminary Limitless Megan shares her knowledge of the ancient tradition of face reading to give perspective to my own experience of people and their photos

2. Humans are wired to respond to faces

Tip: Use a face as your avatar or thumbnail on all of your social networks.

Our social networking channels are busy places. They are clogged with an electrically amazing array of personas and messages flying by at an alarming speed.

And who is seeing all of these messages?

Search engines and bots; bits and bytes and strange electronic spiders who crawl through classify and prioritize us.

But, there are also people.

A lot of them. (does over 800 million users seem like a lot to you? That’s just Facebook)

People have tickers and feeds and streams loaded with possibilities, all of them an opportunity to connect.

How can you improve the odds of being noticed in all that busy-ness?

Use your face!

The first thing someone new will see of you online is likely to be your picture. Regardless of what you choose as your branding across your social media platforms and on your site, your profile photo may be the only thing that helps someone to decide whether to read more, or move on.

Because of our human nature to respond to faces, we are much more inclined to interact with a message coming from a face, not a logo or a landscape, or product.

While it is no guarantee you will be seen, having a face for them to interact with increases your chance that the people who see your posts will be more likely to read and respond to them. Why?

Well, imagine this: If you were at a networking event, you would likely seek out the friendliest looking faces to talk to. This isn’t by accident. Their basic friendly look makes you think that they will be easy to talk with. If there were a few logos walking around the room, my guess is that you wouldn’t make any special effort to talk with them. In fact, you would probably expect that they would only talk about themselves, and not even really notice you. What’s true in real life is equally true on social networks.

So your face, your photo, invites your potential new customer to click through. Once they reach your website, they’ll see your brand and your messaging, which is hopefully a good match for the photo you’ve chosen [see Part I of this series for more on that].

I know you know what we’re talking about here because, as much as you are an online business you are also an online customer and you appreciate when you can see the faces of the people you are working with/talking to. But, you may be wondering, how do I choose the right image?

It’s not that far off from my tips for connecting on social media:

Yes, your photo is part of your brand.

First you need to know who you are:

• What are your values? What are the key things that you know need to be present for you to really succeed (by whatever your definition of success is) at life and your business
• What do you bring to the world? What is your unique combination of skills, experience, education and talent that makes you, well, you?

Second you need to know who your people are:

• What are their values? What do they think is important and necessary in order to do business with someone?
• What are they looking for from you? What problem do you solve? Or what benefit do you provide for them?

Third, you want to encourage conversation:

• What feeling do you want the conversation to have? If you could have a say in the mood of the discussion, what would it be? Lighthearted? Intimate? Serious?
• What photo do you feel draws people into that conversation?

You can use all of these ideas (and any other branding tips you know) to help you determine the best image for attracting your right people.

Even without the knowledge of face reading that Megan brings, I know that I want to work with: Fun People.

Nothing about me gets excited when it comes to sticking with the “strictly professional”. One value I apply to nearly everything I do is “fun”. So I want to be sure that my branding, my images, the photos of me, all contain at least some of that fun – so that I’m drawing other fun-seeking people to me.

My hair stylist knows this. My photographer knows this. By letting my experts use their skills to release my personality, they get to contribute to the look and feeling that comes through my photos. So, now you know this too!

What do you want your people to know about you?

Sell Me Your DooDad, Show Me Your Face: Megan’s Turn

You don’t know this about me, but I LOVE people - I live to connect, to get to know and get my hands into the mess of people’s lives. For me Facebook and Twitter are just another local coffee shop. Imagine all the people I could get to know! (Wait I think I just had a little orgasm there…)

But I do have one pet peeve. I’m sure that your dog is horribly cute (mine is too, you know), and I agree, your daughter is, in fact, adorable, but frankly I’m not talking to either of them and I just really, really wish I could see the person I was talking to.

Ok, I admit, I am a Chinese Face Reader and so I have a bias towards faces; I’m not ashamed to say I’m snoopy like that. But, I’m not alone in this. Faces reveal a person’s nature to us, and being able to look someone in the eyes allows us to make a heart to heart connection.

Most entrepreneurs working the web today are trying to use methods of authenticity, connection building and long-term relationships to market. And for good reason, with so many faces and choices out there we all need a reason to drop anchor and pick you. It turns out that actually liking you is a damn powerful reason. To be able to reach a level of connection where I can honestly say I like you enough to dump a couple hundred dollars in your bank account I need to know who you are. It’s your face that helps me to know who I’m dealing with.

Something else I’ve learnt from my personal social media… obsession (btw in case you were wondering, bathrooms have crappy wireless connectivity – check your Facebook app before you pee) is that all those images of dogs and trees and cute three year olds start to run together. And I can’t even tell you how many Teresa/Theresas I know. It’s you, your fun blue hair, your blushing cheeks, your shining eyes that I remember. If you want me to be able to string all our conversations together and to connect our Starbucks jokes to your brand new class putting your actual photo up is going to increase that exponentially.

In Part I I gave you some general tips on what you should bear in mind when shooting and choosing your images, this time I’d like to give you a few particulars that will help you not only convey the message you want, but to read the messages of others.

If Eyes are the Window to Your Soul, What are Nostrils the Windows to*?

• Forehead – Want people to know exactly how smart you are? Looking for an intellectual kind of feeling? Believe it or not (I mean it makes sense, but still…) strong foreheads are a sign of an intellectual person. If you have one and that’s what you want people to know about you don’t try to cover it under your bangs!
• Eyebrows (& Strong Jaw) – The sign of a driven entrepreneur – if you want things done, need a plan or a system these are your peeps. If this is what you do for your clients don’t be afraid to let them show (yes women, this does mean you should stop plucking.)
• Eyes – These are your power point; eyes literally are the window into your heart (which is considered the home of your Spirit): Show them. Let them shine. Tell yourself jokes all the way to the shoot so when you get there your spirit is shining out bright and free for the camera. The more narrow (unless narrowed because you are laughing in the shot) or closed the eyes are the more personal they are; the more open the more available for intimacy they are.
• Cheeks – Upper cheeks are a sign of someone who can speak with authority, of natural leaders. If you’ve got them and you want people to know this about you flaunt them (Tanya Geisler’s headshot is a great example of this). ~ I never advocate being someone you aren’t, but there are other people who are leaders who may not have these cheeks, you can add a little blush or smile big to emphasize yours. ~
• Nose – Never be ashamed of your nose! If you’ve got a prominent one you are telling the world that you are a person of refinement, of taste, and of a highly sensitive nature. We know these people to be perfectionists and so do perfect detail-oriented work. Want to convey any of these feelings, then a nose like this is best seen in profile – or, more appropriately for a head shot, at three-quarter angle.
• Mouth – The sign of a connector – someone who’s community oriented and nurturing. (Amy Palko has a great mouth and also happens to run a lovely Goddess community… funny how that works, isn’t it.) If your brand is about community, family and connections then slap on some lipstick and smile.
• Round Face – If this is you then I know you really aren’t comfortable with this whole “boldly share your photo” message, but what you think of as your failing is actually your greatest strength in social media because we all know (on some level) that the round faced lovelies are the ones who really care about us. Think about how much you love your peeps, let your compassion glow through to your eyes, and smile.

Hopefully these little tidbits will be sparking some ideas and will help you to sift through all those shots to pick the one that’s emphasizing the most important thing you want your clients to know about you. Not to mention all the things you’ve just learned about the people in your own feed!

But I want to emphasize that we are all more than just the pieces that make us up, and what’s really going to matter in the end is the overall energy that comes from your image. Stand back and ask yourself: How does this make me feel? Take your short list and pass it around to some friends, share them on Facebook, or make it a contest on your blog. Let others tell you which one feels most like You to them. Then use that. (Oh, and it’s a good idea to have 2-3 that you like so you can have a variety for all the different places you hang out online. )

Sometimes we see someone’s image and we instantly dislike them; we don’t really want to talk to them and we aren’t concerned with what they think of us. There’s just something about them that doesn’t mesh for us, even though there’s nothing wrong with them. Some people are going to feel this way when they see your photo too. That’s because our nature’s aren’t in easy alignment with everyone: some people are your peeps and some people aren’t. You can trust that if this is happening, the people you lose because they don’t like your photo aren’t your ideal client anyway. Just like Teresa is naturally attracted to fun people and pushes away from boring and serious folks, the peeps who want what you have will see it in your face and will latch on to that.

You can pay for great website design, for a fabulous logo, for a sidesplitting tagline and for clever repertoire in your content. You can even pay someone else to tweet for you if you want to. But your best billboard for announcing who you are and what you are all about is free, and you carry it everywhere you go.

So, why not show us that gorgeous face?

*Just in case the curiosity is killing you, your nostrils are revealing something about you: they talk about how you spend money/energy – the more easily I can see them (and larger they are) the more readily you s-p-e-n-d. And of course, the smaller or more hidden the thriftier you are with your funds (good tip for all you sales people)!

How do you respond when you see a social network account that is using a logo or something other than a human face as their profile image? Do you use a photo of yourself on your site and on your social networks? Share your thoughts in the comments here or on my Facebook page.

Many thanks to Megan for her guest appearance on this series of collaborative posts:
Megan Potter is an Earthy Spirit with just enough Fire added to keep her fun and sparkly (as all things should be); she has the immense pleasure of working as Chinese Face Reader and a Lobbyist for Selfishness – empowering women to be their (already) perfect selves. Ready to find out what your face is saying to the rest of us?

Photo of Teresa by Kate Mahaits Photography. She’s amazing at revealing my inner personality, and she can do the same for you!

O Em Gee! They changed the Facebook again! What am I gonna do??

That’s right, this week, Facebook users started to see the newest change on Facebook, this time to the photo viewer. When I saw it the first time, I liked it, but I was curious to know what others thought, so I did a little survey.

Is it another swing-and-a-miss for Facebook, or do users actually like this change?

Surprisingly, more people had positive things to say than negative, or even neutral. (and not surprisingly, not one single person answered with they “don’t look at photos on Facebook”)

Since I think that photos are one of the best ways to encourage interaction on your page, it’s worth it to look closely at what our viewers are seeing when they view our photos.

Facebook’s photo viewer: what do you see?

When you click a photo on Facebook, it opens the new photo viewer, shading and obscuring the Facebook screen behind it.

The layout has changed a bit, but still has the overall familiarity of other Facebook screens. The photo takes up the larger portion of the window on the left, while the details and comments fill up the right.

At the top right you can see who posted the photo, when the posted it, and their original description. At first glance it looks like there isn’t much more to this screen, but there is.

Navigate the Facebook photo album with advance buttons

Point your mouse to the photo portion on the left of the window.

With your mouse over the photo you will see the advance buttons about midheight on each side.

To look at a more recent photo in the album, click the arrow on the left, to view the previous photo click right.

At the bottom left is a nice big Like button and a button to turn tagging on. On the bottom right the name of the photo album is shown.

Comment more easily in the Facebook photo viewer

To the right of the photo in the same section with the details, you can see all of the comments it has received.

This is a huge improvement in my mind. On a popular photo we no longer lose our view of the photo when we scroll through the comments or leave our own comment.

You’ll see the usual Like, Comment and Share links directly below the description of the photo. Below that you’ll see the number of people who have liked the photo and the number of times it has been shared. The comments are below that and a scroll bar will appear if you want to see all the way through.

The good news is, the empty comment field, ready for you to share your thoughts, is at the bottom of the window without scrolling. How cool is that?

Take a look in the top right corner and you’ll see there is a gear icon, similar to the one we’ve seen in other parts of Facebook. If you click the down arrow beside it you’ll see the Download function or have the opportunity to report the photo.

Please put your courteous pants on when you use these options! If you are downloading the photo to share it somewhere else, include a photo credit with a link, even if it is only back to the person you found it through. And please only report photos that are pornographic or truly offensive. No-one is really sure how many of these reports it takes to have a Facebook user’s account frozen, and that’s not really our goal. In fact, it’s possible that a friend is dealing with malicious content from a hacker, so be kind and tell them about it so they can take the steps to fix it!

Oh no! Facebook ads are here, too?

In our previous example there were a lot of comments, which changed the view somewhat. Any photo that has very few comments will also have advertising by way of Sponsored Stories.

The good news for advertisers is that their sponsored stories, which cost that much more than regular ads, now have another location to appear. More real estate for ads, in theory, means reaching more people.

The bad news for advertisers is that really popular photos – the ones with lots of comments – don’t have room for the ads anymore.

And the inverse is true for users. The good news is that really popular photos that generate interaction won’t have ads. The bad news is that photos will have ads until there is enough conversation.

For average users, I think the new Facebook photo viewer is an improvement

The slightly better user experience is offset by more advertising, but I think most Facebook users are pretty used to that.

Considering that photos generate the most interaction of all content type on Facebook, it would seem like a big win for advertisers on Facebook. But the advertisers will be penalized for the success of each photo, and that makes it a pretty weak victory for them.

What do you think of this photo viewer?

Let me know in the comments below, or join the conversation on my Facebook page.

Like it or not, the one thing we can be sure of is this: it’s Facebook. It will change again.

The first thing I’ll do when I am crowned Emperor Butterfly of all of Social Media* is ban the acronym I.R.L.

I’ll do it for my people. To save them.

By my people I mean you, dear reader. And by save I mean, well…let me explain.

Acronyms save time and sound bites seem sexy, but when we give a complex concept a short catchy label, it doesn’t always tell the whole story. Sometimes the words we choose can have a big influence on the meaning.

In this case, we refer to any interaction we have that is not using online tools as “real life”.

The very word “real” diminishes the importance of our online communications, even our friendships.

Think about the word real. If there are two things being compared and one is considered “real” the other must be something less significant. Definitely less-than. Possibly pretend, or maybe virtual. It might even be interpreted as false.

Do you think the conversations we have out here are somehow false?

Is there a reason to believe that our offline interactions are better than those we have online?
That our offline friendships are more important than our online ones?
That our online conversations are automatically less important than those we have offline?

As you read this, you are relating the words to your own real experiences. You are thinking about whether the statements I’m making are true for you. You’re answering my questions in your mind. You may even be experiencing feelings. Yes, real feelings. Some of the memories that bubble up because of what you are reading may be coloured with feelings, good or bad.

Just like in a real conversation. Because this is a real conversation. I’m presenting you with my opinion about this topic and you have the option to reply to me in the comments. Or to tell other people about my ideas so they can join the conversation, too. That is real life.

If we believe these interactions are not-real, it’s just an excuse for bad behaviour.

At least that’s what I’ve seen.

You’ve seen the obnoxious jackwagon who thinks it’s okay to belittle and mock others to back up his own opinion. This one rarely let’s his personality show when he’s looking you in the eye, but is happy to spout off when all he can see is his own computer monitor.

You’ve met the eager saleswoman who shakes your hand, tells you all about her great product then turns away to meet the next person before you have a chance to ask her a question. She soon runs out of people to talk to in the room and has to move on to the next networking function. Somehow, possibly because we don’t call the online world “real”, this behaviour is seen a lot more online than offline. It’s almost even expected. And that, as my UK friends would say, is rubbish.

All of these people who are reading and posting and sharing and having conversations online are still real people.

It’s easy enough to forget that the internet is made up of people. Let’s not make it harder by calling everything else “real life”.

If you’re a real person reading this, and you agree that we need to keep in mind that what happens out here is real, just like I do, we need to start a shift.

Social media is not “not-real”, so life away from social media can’t be called “real”.

For many people there’s an awkward transition as they move from offline communication to online communication and back again. For some, like me, it’s as smooth as walking from one office into another. So having a short catchy descriptor might be a handy way to keep things straight in our minds.

I’d love to hear your ideas of what this new word could be! A few possibilities I can think of: In person (IP), Face to face (F2F) or Physical world (PW) might work.

My personal favourite, though, is to call it the solid world, and this world that travels on light waves through space would be the ethereal world. Both are real, but one can be accessed only through the help of devices.

Let me know, dear reader, do you agree? Do you think we would all benefit by keeping the real in our ethereal conversations?

And what colour robes do you think the emperor butterfly of social media should wear? I’m looking forward to your answers!

*According to Limitless Megan my yang metal and fire energy make me uniquely qualified to be the Emperor Social Butterfly. Who am I to argue? She knows her stuff!