Within your Admin Panel, click Edit Page (previously part of the “Manage” grouping, but now a separate menu item) and you will now notice an option for Admin Roles.

The five roles are as follows (from least to most access):

• Insights Analyst: View Insights
• Advertiser: View Insights and create ads
• Moderator: All of the above, plus send messages as the Page and respond to and delete comments
• Content Creator: All of the above, plus create posts as the Page, edit the Page and add apps
• Manager: All of the Above, plus Manage Admin Roles

Here’s a handy graphic from Facebook:

You can also read more details in the Help Center.

These new role assignments will be especially helpful for teams of people or for brands that bring in consultants to analyze Insights or run advertising.

Will you be assigning admin roles? Which ones will you use?

Starting today, Facebook Page managers can now schedule posts. When writing an update in the Publisher, just click the little clock icon on the bottom left (this previously existed).

This was previously used for entering Milestones and other information in the past. You could also (strangely) make a post in the future. Now, these “future posts” are scheduled posts.

As before, you can select the date and time of your post with each individual drop-down…

When you’re done, click “Schedule” and you’ll get the following prompt:

Click on View Activity Log to view this and other scheduled posts that are pending. From here, you can Change Time, Publish Now or Cancel Post…

Really, really simple.

What This Means for You, Me and Everyone Else

In the past, I couldn’t do it. I never use other scheduling tools because posts that use third party apps are not given equal billing with EdgeRank.

So, what does this mean for us? We can now post at ideal times, get the most out of this timing, and not be punished for it. This is great!

What does it mean for third party publishers? Oh, man. They can’t be happy.

Have you given this functionality a spin yet? What do you think?

That’s three of my top 10 most visited website pages. Each one a blog post related to getting a Facebook advertising coupon. What’s the problem, you ask? Well, each blog post refers to an offer that is no longer available.

Popular, but irrelevant. That’s 621 of my 4,000+ page views (15%) in a day going to pages that provide users no value whatsoever. People were going to these pages from search engines, undoubtedly disappointed in what they found. Immediate exit. Completely wasted traffic.

I finally decided I needed to do something about it. So during the past few days, I added the following message at the top of each of these three pages, as well as a few other now irrelevant Facebook ad coupon-related blog posts…

The Result: More than 30 people in two days have subscribed to this new email list.

This is not the first time that I’ve observed hollow, wasted traffic numbers on my site. It’s a sneaky thing. It’s nice seeing numbers, but when a high percentage of your traffic is going to irrelevant pages, you know that the numbers are misleading.

In the past, I’ve just shrugged my shoulders and let it go. That was a mistake. There was an opportunity to be had.

These people were coming to my site in search of answers. In almost every case, readers who landed on these old blog posts were referred by search engines. They want to know how they could get Facebook ad coupon codes. They were perfect prospects for me. But I just couldn’t provide what they wanted.

Knowing this, I gave them the next best thing. I created a list on AWeber for Facebook Ad Alerts, allowing these readers the ability to subscribe to a notification when future coupon codes become available (and “other” Facebook marketing tips).

The Lesson: Watch your traffic numbers and find opportunities where you can funnel your readers to a conversion.

How have you creatively handled situations where your traffic is being dominated by referrals to old, irrelevant blog posts? Share your experiences below!

Quick Reminder: I need a name for this podcast! Please provide your best ideas and I’ll give you full credit!

Have a question? Submit it to me and I’ll try to answer it on my next podcast!

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Questions

What I want is pretty simple. I want my posts on my page to get pushed out to the news feed of everyone who has liked the page. I am sure this is a ridiculously stupid question I am asking, but what am I doing wrong here? Googling around it appears that posts will only push out if a sufficient number of people like them or comment on them. That makes it very difficult for small organizations to get news out to our followers.
–Harrison

One of my biggest challenges with facebook marketing is working with images and keeping them consistent in style, size and quality.

FB seems to be quite random in how it treats images, especially those posted to a wall, rather than added to an album. Sometimes they go across the full half size of the timeline space, sometimes they sit as a small shot within that space and other times they disappear off the edges. This is an issue when you are dealing with company branding.

Also some tips on actively engaging people so that you’re not just constantly posting information that is not being liked, shared or obtaining responses.
–Rebecca

Looking for feedback on custom Facebook tab…
–Patrick

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

So… What are your biggest obstacles around Facebook marketing? Are you looking to grow your fan base? Get more engagement? Drive specific business actions?

Ask your questions in the comments or by filling out the form below (if you prefer to submit it privately), and I’ll try to provide answers in my next podcast!

An “Engaged User” is anyone who clicked on a post. So that includes liking, commenting, clicking a photo, playing a video or clicking a link. “Talking About This” includes any action that would create a story for friends to see (liking, commenting, sharing, responding to a Question or Event).

Think I’m filtering by photos only? Think again. Though they make up less than 24% of the content I shared, photos are my entire top nine pieces of content when it comes to engaged users. The next item is a link before yet another photo shows up on the list.

If you’ve noticed that I’m sharing more photos to my Facebook Page lately, there’s a reason: People engage far more often with my photos than any other content. So no, I don’t think that Facebook photos engagement is overrated.

My recent influx of photo content is not by mistake. Insights tells me that photos are where engagement is at.

Dating back to March 28, I have shared 109 pieces of content that fit the following qualifications:

• Not influenced by advertising
• Targeted at all fans, not a specific location
• Nothing that would artificially influence results

Since advertising will positively influence results and targeting will negatively influence results, it was necessary to remove both from the equation. I also removed the status update that was part of my EdgeRank experiment since I don’t feel it accurately reflects how people interact with that type of content.

My remaining 109 posts are broken down as follows:

• Links: 49
• Photos: 26
• Status Updates: 26
• Videos: 8

Let’s compare each type of content in terms of Engaged Users and Talking About This for an even clearer picture. This is based on averages:

And if you want to see it in a table, here you go:

What can we decipher from this? Well, people are very willing to like and comment on status updates, but the problem is that it’s a fully contained piece of content. That’s about all they can do.

Slightly fewer people may like and comment on photos, but far more click within it. Understand that I add links to my content within the description of some of the photos I share, so engagement includes clicks on these links.

Also, the typical link share doesn’t produce much engagement. I get the fewest Engaged Users and Talking About This from links, and I still share links far more than any other type of content. It looks like this will need to change.

I did a similar study a few months back and videos were driving far more engagement (though in a small sample size) at the time. Currently, they just haven’t been that effective.

Why Photos Engagement is Not Overrated (with a caveat)

But you certainly can’t only share photos that focus on this type of behavior. Eventually you need to drive them to something that leads to fulfillment of a business goal.

That’s why it’s important to mix in photo sharing that includes links. I’m convinced that this is more effective than simply sharing links through the Publisher. To prove it, I’ll be keeping a much closer eye on it.

How about you? Do you see greater levels of engagement on photos you share than any other content? How does that impact your strategy?

This should especially be the case for me since I have kept a very strict Monday through Friday (and sometimes more) schedule for five months now. But I don’t have this problem.

Let me share a secret with you regarding how you can easily create a long, running list of blog post ideas so that you never run out. It’s an exercise that anyone can use to break through writer’s block and open up a whole new world of content that search engines will love!

I make it a four step process, starting from broad and funneling into detailed questions. But depending on how broad you start or how detailed you want to be, you can add more or fewer steps to the exercise. Just know that the more granular your topics, the better!

So here is our Blog Topic Pipeline Pyramid:

Ready to create your blog topic pipeline? Let’s go…

1. Pick a Broad Category

The broader you start, the more steps you should take to complete this exercise. So for the purpose of providing a workable example, I am going with Facebook Marketing.

2. Split That Category Into Three Parts

• Facebook Advertising
• Facebook Timeline for Pages
• Facebook Strategy (When, Why, How?)

If you were to break up the broad category of “Blogging” into three parts, it could be:

• Content Planning
• WordPress Themes, Plugins and Tools
• Search Engine Optimization

See? Piece of cake.

3. Create a List of Features Related to Those Parts

Facebook Advertising

• Page Post Ads
• Targeting at fans
• Targeting at non-fans
• Targeting strategies
• Directing ads to custom tabs
• Standard Facebook ads
• Cost Per Click
• Cost Per Thousand Impressions
• Page Like Story
• Page Post Like Story
• Advertising Budgets
• Advertising Apps and Tools
• More…

Facebook Timeline for Pages

• Cover Photo
• Profile Photo
• Custom Tabs
• Pin to Top
• Highlighting
• Milestones
• Dimensions
• About Section
• Private Messaging
• More…

Facebook Strategy (When, Why, How?)

• Facebook Insights
• Talking About This
• Status Updates
• Sharing Photos
• Sharing Videos
• Contests
• Best Practices
• Time of Day
• Content that Drives Engagement
• Likes
• Comments
• EdgeRank
• More…

These lists could go on forever. And really, the longer they go, the better for you!

4. Create a List of Questions Connected to Features

The key here is that you want to isolate as many problems and questions as possible so that you can write a blog post covering the solutions.

Let’s use Facebook Timeline as an example…

Facebook Timeline For Pages

• What are the Cover Photo rules?
• What are the dimensions of the Cover Photo?
• How do you create a Cover Photo?
• What are examples of good Cover Photos?
• Should you use a logo or head shot for a Profile Photo?
• What custom tabs should I create?
• How do I create custom tabs?
• What tools are available to create custom tabs?
• How do I edit custom tab icons, and how should I approach it?
• More…

You get the picture. Dozens of questions should immediately come to you. These should be the building blocks of your blog posts!

Why This Works

First, by keeping an active pipeline of blog posts, you keep your blog fresh. Your readers — and Google — will love that.

Second, you are forcing yourself to remain focused. The more niche, the better. By creating a focused list, you are preventing yourself from getting distracted with a blog post that acts as unrelated filler down the road.

Third, people want answers!. As I’ve said before, do not try to solve all of life’s problems in one blog post. Keep it simple. People are searching Google for an answer to a very specific question. Broad topics won’t drive them there. Provide an exhaustive blog post on the answer they are looking for.

Finally, your quality will be vastly improved. You’ll no longer have to sit down, staring at your laptop with a blank look at midnight, trying to come up with something to write. Go off of your list, and blogging suddenly becomes easy.

Your List is Dynamic

Your Turn

In this week’s episode, I cover…

Introduction to the Podcast

Website News

Your Questions!

You mentioned the two hours a day on Facebook, do you have a set schedule or agenda for using Facebook to move people to your website and how can one use a SEO to move one’s website to the first page of google?

- Bob

Pls explain more about how fb newsfeed works and how to get content pick-up in newsfeed. I want to make sure we get as much in the newsfeed as possible.

Here’s something I don’t quite get: I added content to my page and didn’t see it in our newsfeed, yet there were over 200 likes. Where did they come from?

- Linda

I am wondering the relevance between a Facebook and a blog. I post sneak peak of the photo session on facebook so that I can tag the subject. But then there is no need to re-post on the blog. Should I be driving my audience to my blog or to my facebook page.

- James

What are some guidelines businesses should keep in mind when starting an email marketing campaign?

How can you incorporate curation in your marketing campaign?

Are you looking for sponsors for the show?

- Patrick

Once again, you can submit your own questions for a future podcast by going here.

You can listen below or also access my podcast via iTunes. Enjoy!

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This is my favorite time of the year since my life is dominated by both as I coach my oldest son’s Little League team. The highlight for me this season has been keeping them motivated while they are getting beaten, only to come back in the end for a glorious victory.

This is what happens when you stay focused and aggressive!

Those times are even more challenging when the struggling player is your own son. Michael, who is as dedicated as they get, just wasn’t getting the results at the plate. For the first time, he was starting to doubt himself.

As I’ve given Michael and the other Giants advice this season, I’ve quickly realized something: there are very close parallels between what I tell my players and what I tell you and my clients as your digital marketing and social media coach.

Don’t believe me? Read on… Here are the six things that marketers can learn from Little Leaguers:

1. Be Aggressive

But that approach can backfire, and it did in the case of Michael. He started to struggle. When he put the ball in play, the defense was throwing him out. When he took the first pitch, it was always down the middle. He then started looking for walks and had a hard time pulling the trigger.

He was quickly losing confidence. I told him to forget everything I had told him before. I reminded him that he was a great hitter and to go up looking for something he could hit. “Don’t wait for another one,” I told him. “Be aggressive and hit it hard!”

Michael fought out of his slump. This can happen to marketers, too. You can be too careful and too passive. A few things don’t go your way, and suddenly you’re afraid to take risks. You don’t make changes. You sit back and make conservative moves.

It’s one of the worst things you can do. You know you’re better than that. Be a confident marketer. Do things that no one has done before. Be aggressive!

2. Always Hustle

It’s something that also prevents major slumps. An example was when one of our players, who was having a tough time at the plate, hit a grounder to the second baseman. He watched that ball go and didn’t really start running until the fielder bobbled it. Our hitter was thrown out by an eyelash.

He thought he was safe. He blamed the umpire. It’s easy to blame everything else around you when things are going wrong. It feels like the world is out to get you.

But the thing is, if he just would have hustled from start to finish, that umpire’s job would have been much easier. He would have been safe if he had hustled.

The same goes for marketing. Don’t get lazy. I had a busy night tonight and I could have easily skipped my scheduled blog post. But I didn’t. I know that if I hustle — if I keep to my routine — good things can happen.

It doesn’t mean that every time you hustle you’ll get a hit. But it means that if you always hustle, you’re increasing the likelihood of a positive result. So, marketers: Always hustle!

3. Take Care of What’s In Your Control

Some things are just outside of your control. You hit it hard but it was caught? Good hit. You played a grounder cleanly and threw late to first? Good play. You threw a pitch at the knees and the umpire called it a ball? Nice pitch.

I focus more on process than results. While the ultimate goal is to get a hit, score a run, get the other team out and win the game, the process to get there is most important. If our team did everything they were coached to do and still lost, it’s okay. The process is sound. Chances are, if they do that again they’ll win — a lot.

Same thing with marketing. There is so much that is outside of our control. I create content that I think people will love, and it gets no hits. Just as soon as I think I have Google figured out, it ignores me. Or I’ll strategically make a specific type of post on Facebook at a specific timing, expecting success and… nothing.

It happens. Some things are simply out of our control. But keep to the process. The results will not always be immediate. Keep sticking to the plan and your results will come.

4. Focus on a Spot and HIT IT!

This is all about focus. Sometimes I’ll take a kid aside who I think is unsure of the strike zone and tell him to take until the umpire calls a strike. Other times, I’ll tell him (making a small box with my hands): “Look for it in a small area. Focus on a spot. If you get it, HIT IT!”

An amazing thing happens. Once they don’t see that ball in their sweet spot, they don’t swing. When it’s there, they hit it. And they hit it hard!

It’s all about focus. The same can be said for marketers. We need to have a plan. We can’t go up there hacking at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube and every other social network.

Determine your sweet spot. For me, that sweet spot is Facebook. Maybe you dedicate most of your time somewhere else. But focus your time there. If something is outside of your sweet spot, let it go. But if it’s in your sweet spot, hit it hard!

5. Have a Plan

A few times, I hit it to various fielders, and they looked around the field frantically before deciding on a destination for their throw. They just didn’t have a plan.

The biggest mistakes in baseball are mental. Not knowing the situation. Making unnecessary throws. Running on a fly ball when there is only one out. Failing to run to first on a dropped third strike. Swinging at a ball over your head on a 3-0 pitch when the pitcher just walked the bases loaded.

Physical mistakes are going to happen — and they will happen a lot. But the main thing I want my players to understand is the mental side. Think through every scenario before it happens. Know your responsibility.

We also need to anticipate as marketers. Don’t simply react, frantically looking around the field for a base to throw the ball to. Know ahead of time the situation and what you need to do.

Just like baseball, the digital world isn’t always predictable. But there are certain scenarios that you can plan for. For me, a good example is the launch of Facebook Timeline for Pages. I knew it was coming. I was prepared for it. I knew what I was going to do when it came out. And when it did, I jumped in and pumped out 40 tutorials in a month.

Always be prepared and have a plan!

6. Stay Positive

But that doesn’t mean he can’t have value to his team. The biggest thing he can do is remain positive. A baseball player can be his own worst enemy when he gets into his own head. So I always work with these struggling players to make sure that they keep a positive outlook. It’s especially important for the leaders to do this and set a good example.

Maybe nothing is going right. But do the little things that have value. Cheer on your teammates. Talk about scenarios so that others are ready. Help warm up the pitcher when the catcher is getting his gear on. Be a good leader.

Sometimes, things never seem to go right for us marketers, too. Nothing we write is getting any hits or being shared on social media. We’re having technical issues with our sites and we’re not making enough money.

But you can’t let it get you down. Don’t get into your own head. You’ve got to remain positive and do the little things to add value. Be a good team player and encourage others in your blogging community. Help out someone who needs a hand. Keep plugging away, and things will turn around.

How About You?

Have you noticed any other tips marketers can learn from kids? Give an example below!

This is Michael!

I need to devise a social media strategy like nothing I’ve had to before. It’s one thing when it’s for a client or your own business. It’s an entirely different story when it’s this personal…

Michael’s Story

We have three boys now, but he was our only child at the time. Our baby. If you’re a parent, I’m sure you remember how protective you are of your first child. We were no different.

My wife Lisa was pregnant with our second when Michael was diagnosed. I distinctly remember every horrible detail of that day when our lives were changed. I picture where I was at work when Lisa called me, barely able to talk, as she sat in an ambulance with Michael. His breathing was poor and an x-ray showed a mass in his chest. I remember standing in the exam room when our doctor entered, clearly uneasy about the news she was about to break. I remember Lisa clutching her baby in agony, Michael wondering what’s wrong.

Sounds awful, I know. It’s an experience that my wife and I will never forget. Luckily, Michael remembers very little. All he has are some scars that he can show off to friends and a couple of very vague memories.

But he is one of the lucky ones. Michael will soon be celebrating his 11th birthday, and another year free of cancer. Eleven years that didn’t seem so certain a little over eight years ago.

I know that we parents get emotional when our kids do anything special. We’re definitely the same way. Whether it’s winning the spelling bee (again!), making a great play on his Little League team that I coach, being a thoughtful big brother or simply doing any of the typical things that kids do, the simplest accomplishments make me smile so hard that I have to choke back a tear.

So birthdays are a little different around here. To celebrate Michael’s 11th, as he has done with our support for seven consecutive years, he’ll be holding a lemonade stand to benefit Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and childhood cancer research.

This is where the story gets long, but I’ll try to provide the short version…

Alex Scott founded Alex’s Lemonade Stand as a little girl who wanted to help kids with cancer. Alex, though, also had cancer. And she had neuroblastoma, that same cancer that Michael had.

But it wasn’t the same. I actually feel guilty for ever comparing the two. Alex’s was much more advanced and difficult to control. Michael’s was removed entirely through surgery.

I still remember seeing Alex and her family on the Today Show to tell her story. She told of how she wanted to hold lemonade stands to raise $1 Million to help rid of this terrible disease.

She was weak, but strong. She inspired us and she inspired a movement. Not long after that appearance, she would succumb to the disease, but her message is louder than ever. Kids and families from across the country will again be holding lemonade stands in her name.

So as the summer rolls around, we know that it’s time to shift our focus to baseball and Michael’s upcoming lemonade stand. Michael sets a goal, and we do all we can to help him accomplish it — and then some.

We always announce the stand to our friends on Facebook and we contact local newspapers and news stations. We tend to get a decent amount of coverage, and the generous people around us always help Michael reach that goal.

But I always feel like we can — and should — be doing so much more.

I don’t want any parent to have to experience what we went through. And it breaks my heart thinking of those families that dealt with much worse.

What Would You Do?

How You Can Help

Just reading this means that you’re helping. Thank you! But there are several other things that you can do.

First, like Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation on Facebook or follow @AlexsLemonade on Twitter. It’s an amazing organization run by an amazing family and group of people. They deserve our support!

You can donate to ALSF directly or you can donate to Michael’s stand. Now, I don’t expect you to attend. But if you’re in the Colorado area on June 8, you’re more than welcome to stop by!

You can also donate online by going to Michael’s page, or you can text “LEMONADE E83187″ to 85944 to make a $10 donation directly to Michael’s stand.

Technology’s awesome, right?

Finally, I close with the video “What Do You Stand For?” that Alex’s Lemonade Stand recently put out. Michael opens it up…

If you watch closely, you’ll also see him appear later with each of his little brothers!

What do you stand for? I know I stand for Michael and the thousands of kids and families who deal with childhood cancer.

This has been a bit of a diversion from what I typically write about, but this was a post that I had to write. Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story!

Nearly five months to the day since I launched my first Facebook marketing eBook, it was time to drop another one. This Facebook thing changes way too quickly, eh?

I’m excited to announce The 6 Secrets to Facebook Marketing Success. It’s 33 pages of Facebook marketing goodness. It’s filled with all of the stuff you’ll need to turn the corner and dominate your Facebook marketing.

The eBook is completely free. All you need to do is fill out the form that is on the right hand side of every page or go here.

I gave serious thought to charging for this eBook, but I didn’t want to limit the number of people who could read it. These are “secrets” that I wish weren’t secrets at all. I want you to succeed!

So read the eBook. Keep in touch and let me know how you do.

Good luck!

That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t writing good content. In fact, I’d suggest that it was some of the best, most comprehensive content that I wrote.

But no one was reading it.

Why not? Well, it was partially because these blog posts were so long. They were hard to read. But I’d contend that this wasn’t the biggest problem.

The main issue: a lack of focus.

Over time, I’ve come to realize how important it is to be focused on one topic. Keep it simple! It’s not only better for SEO, but it’s better for the reader and better for my planning and organization of content.

How I Plan Simple Blogging Topics

My list is made up of topics that each focus on a single detail. A great example is the blogging I did when Timeline was announced for Pages.

I could have written one big blog post covering all of the main features of Timeline — Cover photo, tabs, pinning, highlighting, milestones, on and on. But instead, I wrote one blog post for each component and exhausted the hell out of it.

How Simple Helps SEO

There’s a good reason for this. Let’s consider two scenarios:

1. I write a comprehensive blog post about Timeline. In it I mention Cover Photo Rules.
2. I write a blog post called Cover Photo Rules and discuss it in great detail.

Which do you think will come up higher in the search engine results? You bet the second one will.

When someone is searching Google, they are looking for help in a very specific area. It’s rarely broad. And when it is broad, it’s also more difficult to compete in this area.

Where you can shine is in the details. Write a blog post about specific problems and cover the background and solution in exquisite detail.

How Simple Helps the Reader

I find this works extremely well for tutorials. People want to know “How to…” In this case, it’s important to provide detailed step-by-step instructions. But this may cover a very simple task instead of multiple tasks. I then provide thorough details to give the readers what they want.

Don’t think that this means you have to write short blog posts. You’ll notice that I still often write long ones (I’m a wordy guy). But it means that your focus will make it more likely that the content you write will be more relevant to the reader from start to finish.

How Simple Helps Me Blog

Now, I break that old blog post up into six separate blog posts. It seems I never run out of topics to cover, which makes my life a whole lot easier.

This also makes the process of writing much more enjoyable. When I’m focused, I find that I can plow through a topic very quickly. I know exactly what I’m going to cover. I hit the main points, exhaust the details, and I’m done.

And when there’s always something to write about, I rarely have a night when I’m struggling to piece a blog post together. You know the nights. I used to regularly write and rewrite, edit and discard. That just doesn’t happen now because it’s rare that I am forcing content. As a result, I’m confident that the consistency of quality content I write is far greater now even though I write way more often.

What Do You Think?

Then I made an appearance on MileHiRadio and I thought, Man. I could totally do this!

But still, obstacles. My biggest concern was around content and keeping it interesting. And the going trend appears to be guests. Sure, I could line up a few to get it going. But I just know that this adds more time and complexity when it comes to scheduling, organizing, putting together questions, technology for getting them on the show, etc.

And then I listened to this podcast by Marcus Sheridan, otherwise known as The Sales Lion. The guy is brilliant and has been at the top of the blogging game for a few years now. He’s also extremely helpful, always answering questions and interacting with his community. He sets a great example for how this thing needs to be done.

Anyway, his podcast lit a fire for me. I loved the format because it answered all of the concerns that I had about it being “too much.” He simply asked his readers to submit questions and he’d answer them on his podcast.

Man. That’s smart. Takes a lot of the planning and work out of the equation!

Marcus also provided all of his secrets on how he gets it done. The fear and uncertainty is gone. I know that I can do this, and I can’t wait to get started!

So that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll have my first podcast when I feel like I’ve gotten enough questions to drive a solid 30-minute podcast. That may be next week, or it may be a couple of weeks from now. And I may occasionally have guests on, but now there’s no pressure for that.

Let’s do it! What’s on your mind? I’m open to questions about just about anything: Facebook in general, Facebook marketing, other social media, blogging, SEO, digital marketing strategies, you name it.

Be the focus of my first ever podcast! We need to name this thing, by the way. So feel free to provide suggestions as well!

I don’t have time for that.

It’s a conversation I’ve had several times over. And up until recently, the response I received frustrated me to no end.

It takes time to nurture a community on Facebook. Your strategy also shouldn’t live on an island, and should integrate efforts on your website, other social networks and your email marketing. So I saw “a couple of hours per day” as being a very conservative estimate.

The problem, of course, is that many people simply don’t have the time. In those cases, I’ve been far too quick to shrug and say that it’s not worth trying.

I’ve come to the realization that there is a place for these people on Facebook. While their potential success may be limited by the time they put into it, that doesn’t mean they can’t make an impact.

No Jumping From a Plane

He’s not jumping from an airplane

It took me a second, but I got it. Up until that point, I was only giving one option. To be successful, you had to put on your parachute, fly up into the sky, and jump 10,000 feet from an airplane. All this person wanted to do was jump off of the diving board.

I have to accept that not everyone has access to the airplane. Not everyone has the time to practice how to jump. And not everyone has the desire to jump in the first place.

I was putting everyone into the same category. That was a mistake.

Let’s think of the typical entrepreneur. No staff or assistant. All of the person’s time is spent speaking, traveling, consulting and developing business. Sure, you and I may think that there’s always time for blogging and Facebook in there, but some people will never agree. How can such a person still benefit?

Here are the eight things that someone with limited time can and should do to establish a viable Facebook presence…

1. Create a Page

Go here to create your Page.

2. Fill in the Details

Make sure you fill out the following:

• Founded date
• Address
• About (this will appear under your Cover Photo)
• Description
• Mission
• Awards
• Products
• Contact info (phone, email, website)

Take your time on this! Since you will not be updating frequently, you are putting all of your efforts into how you explain your business.

3. Focus on Imagery

These things need to be consistent with your company branding, sticking to a theme and color scheme. They also need to look professional. If you need to hire a photographer and a designer to get these done, do it!

Again, since you aren’t going to spend a lot of time nurturing an audience, your focus should be on generating business based on first impressions. So how you convey your image will be critical.

4. Tell Your Story with Milestones

Tell your story!

Use Milestones to map out what you’ve done and who you are. Look at this as a visual LinkedIn profile or résumé. Choose engaging photos to complement the stories you tell with those Milestones. Make it something people will want to read!

5. Add Three Tabs

This is your chance to collect leads, display your portfolio, tell about who you are, etc. What goes in these three boxes will depend on your goals. Here are a few ideas:

• A video of you introducing yourself
• An image gallery of work that you’ve done
• A contact form or email subscription form
• A list of services and price points, with form
• Your eBook, white paper or other download

Each tab should satisfy a business goal. These three tabs should represent your three priorities for your business and your Page.

This will take some technical know-how. I personally use ShortStack to build all of my tabs. But again, feel free to spend some money to have someone do this for you.

If you don’t have the time or ability to build your own tabs, let me do it for you. Fill out the form below for a quote:

6. Update Once Per Week

Don’t skimp here. Post something interesting. Share a photo, a video, an interesting link or a story. Don’t just broadcast, but ask for your fans’ opinions on what you’re sharing. When possible, have it lead to business.

During that window, also expect that some people will reply to your post. Take the time to thank them and respond. No, this isn’t going to take hours. Assuming your audience isn’t huge, it will only take a few minutes.

7. Add Facebook to Your Business Card and Email Signature

8. Spend $50 Per Month on Facebook Ads

You need to be aggressive here. Drive potential business to your Page with Facebook advertising. Budget about $50 per month for this purpose. Send these people to one of the tabs you created earlier that describe your business and/or services, complete with a form. Skip the small talk.

While most Pages are focused on number of fans, that’s irrelevant to you. Whether or not they like your Page doesn’t matter that much. You want them to fill out a form so that they get into your potential business pipeline.

I assume you’ve never run ads before. Once again, I can do this for you. Fill out the form below for a quote:

In Conclusion

No, you don’t need to spend multiple hours per day or even per week to make an impact with Facebook. But just as you need to spend some time thinking through how you want to portray your business on a new website, you should take the same time here. You’ll need some budget to build it and possibly grow with Facebook ads. But otherwise, you can get by with limited effort… once it’s up.

Do you know of businesses that have been successful on Facebook with limited effort? Let me know below!

Pshhh… If you think this, you likely don’t have enough fans to run up a bill of more than a couple dollars in a day. I’m pretty sure you have a couple of bucks in your budget.

I tried Facebook ads once. I spent $50 and got only five new fans. What a waste of money!

First, you probably could’ve done better. Second, I’m talking about targeting your current fans. The people who would actually click your ads.

Using Facebook Page Post Ads as part of your marketing strategy is efficient, affordable, has little risk and can provide significant reward. I focused entirely on this type of advertising recently and was surprised by the results.

What are Page Post Ads?

You can target Page Post Ads at non-fans, but I am going to focus on using Page Post Ads to target your current Facebook fans only.

Why you should use Page Post Ads to target fans

A big part of this is timing: only half of your fans are on Facebook on any given day, and even when they are on the site they may not be in the window that would allow them to see your post.

A second part of this is EdgeRank: particularly when it comes to Top News (the posts that Facebook determines are important to you), your posts may not be given top billing.

The jury is out on the level of contribution of each of these two factors (I strongly believe that the first makes a much bigger impact than the second), but the cause really doesn’t matter. There is a solution: Page Post Ads.

When you use Page Post Ads, timing makes a much smaller impact on success. No matter when your fans are online, they will be shown your post in the form of an ad.

When you use Page Post Ads, EdgeRank also can’t prevent your fans from seeing your content. In fact, the more fans who see your ads in addition to your posts, the higher your EgeRank. So there are multiple benefits at play.

Why Page Post Ads targeting Facebook fans are efficient

But when you target current fans, the barrier is not there. Your profile photo catches their eye. They recognize your name. They trust you. Current fans are much more likely to click on a link, image or video in your ad.

As a result, your advertising is efficient. You need to spend very little money to generate desired actions.

Why Page Post Ads are extremely affordable

But when you run Page Post Ads that target only your current fans, your audience is greatly diminished. The typical Page that has fewer than 3,000 fans (most are far less than that), Facebook will have a hard time reaching many people in a given day.

I almost always bid on a CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) basis, particularly when getting clicks is easy. If you have 500 fans, only 250 of them will be online in one day. If you bid $.25 per CPM, it will cost a maximum of $.25 to hit those 250 fans four times each. In order to spend even $1 in a day, you’ll need to hit each fan 16 times.

See how hard it is to run up a high bill when you target your fans? It’s a slow process. But one that generates results.

My weekend with Page Post Ads

One of the ads I ran promoted a post that I made about my video Timeline: The history of Facebook in less than 90 seconds. It’s run since May 8 with a lifetime budget of $10. Five days later, I’ve only spent $6.20.

I received 19 clicks. If I had used the CPC method, Facebook recommends I bid $1.22 per click. That would have cost me $23.18. Instead, I spent just over a quarter of that.

It was nice to run a campaign that had very little risk. All I wanted was assurance that my Page’s fans were seeing this video. There’s always that concern that they don’t see a priority piece of content, and I never want to reshare it over and over and get annoying. So this was a nice option.

One surprise is that this ad only reached 1,066 people, hitting each person an average of 39.5 times. Facebook had said that my potential audience was approximately 2,200 people (which seems odd since I have almost 3,000 fans). So to reach fewer than half after five days is a bit eye opening, no?

I can tell you that the most frustrating use of Page Post Ads was trying to promote the “Most Recent Eligible Post.” Facebook generally takes about a day to approve an ad, and such an ad will need to be approved every time a new Page Post has been created (the ad isn’t approved perpetually). Since I update once or twice on a given weekday, that meant this ad was in a constant state of approval.

So while “Most Recent Eligible Post” sounds like a swell idea, there’s little reason to use it if you post on a daily basis.

On Facebook advertising success

Make sure that you have a purpose. It could be driving traffic, generating conversions or simply starting a discussion. For me, the main focus was getting views and shares of my new video, but simply generating more activity (increasing EdgeRank) was important as well.

In Conclusion

I encourage you to try out this approach instead of focusing entirely on using Facebook ads to increase your number of fans. I can also put together that strategy for you, if not run the entire campaign.

Have you used Facebook Page Post Ads to target your fans? What is your strategy, and what kind of results do you get? Let me know in the comments below!

But I realized that the data wasn’t worth much since at least some of the spike could be attributed to curiosity after the switch. So a month later, am I still seeing the benefits of Facebook Timeline?

Not really. In some cases, numbers are slightly up. In others, they are slightly down. In most cases, not a lot has changed. Even in the case of tab views, the spike has leveled out (though there is still improvement there).

Note that in each case I am comparing the data to total Likes at the time. Number of likes has increased (as it did prior to Timeline), so that needs to be factored out of the equation.

The period of time being compared is February 10 – May 9. In each chart, you’ll see a red line representing my switch to Timeline.

Talking About This

Talking About This is the the number of people sharing stories about my Page. Stories include liking my Page, posting to my Page’s Wall, liking, commenting on or sharing one of my Page posts, answering a Question I posted, etc.

As you can see, my Talking About This was actually a bit stronger prior to my switch to Timeline. I did have a spike in the beginning of May, but overall I’ve seen less engagement since I made the change.

Daily Engaged Users

Daily Engaged Users includes anyone who clicked on my posts or created a story. While I would consider engagement to be more consistent now, I did receive spikes in engagement more often prior to my switch to Timeline.

Daily Organic Reach

Daily Organic Reach is the number of people who visited my Page or saw my Page or one of its posts in the News Feed or Ticker. No obvious change here, though there is a slight improvement in organic reach since I made the switch.

Page Views

Page Views measures the number of times your actual Page has been viewed by logged in users. This is one that you would expect to go up since the entire purpose of Timeline was to make your Page a destination. Well, that hasn’t really been the case. There was a big spike when I made the switch, but then it normalized to the old range — and even below.

Page Consumptions

Page Consumptions measures any clicks on my content. Outside of a spike earlier this week, this represents a pretty clear drop from what I was seeing during the couple of months prior to Timeline.

Tab Views

This was the big one last time. It was the one measurement that seemed to show a clear boost post-Timeline. Now?

Well, it’s more consistent. There aren’t the drops that were there before. It seems to be normalizing, but still a tad better than pre-Timeline. It’s just not 309% better like it was before. It’s leveled out a bit, but tabs remain a high-trafficked area on your Page.

This shouldn’t be discounted. Remember again that before we had default landing pages, so non-fans were landing on tabs whether they wanted to or not. Now that there’s no landing page, one might expect a steep drop in views of that content. But that is certainly not the case, so this is one area where brands can and should benefit from if used properly.

Conclusions

Additionally, I have a hard time believing that Timeline has much of any effect on Reach, Engagement or Talking About This. I included them because I was curious, but much of this activity will occur in the News Feed.

Still, Timeline was supposed to make my Page a destination. If that had happened, then maybe those numbers would have risen as well.

So in the end, tabs are more effective than before. Other than that, it would seem that my fans aren’t any more excited about what I bring to the table than they were before.

And I guess that shouldn’t be all that surprising. It’s the quality of content that ultimately matters, right?

If you find yourself in a conversation with me about Facebook or social media, you can bet I’ll bring up Facebook Offers. And my eyes will light up.

I haven’t been this excited about a social media product since Facebook Timeline for Pages. Okay, well that was only two months ago. But before that, I don’t remember a comparable time.

Why? The opportunities for businesses to benefit from Facebook Offers are endless. And this isn’t just big businesses, but small businesses, too. In fact, the little guys may benefit most.

The product is still in beta and is only available to a limited number of small businesses. If you don’t yet have it, you can request access to Facebook Offers. And it’s clear that Facebook is still tweaking it since they recently announced that Offers will be available to online businesses (YES!) and not just brick and mortar, as it is now.

In other words, the full feature set of Facebook Offers is not yet entirely clear. But based on what we currently know, there are already several campaign ideas roaming through my mind.

Here are five creative ways that businesses will be able to take advantage of Facebook Offers so that their Fans will be stalking their Page and updates:

1. Limited Availability

• Unlimited
• 100,000
• 10,000
• 1,000
• Custom

Small businesses need to be careful with anything other than “Custom.” If your Offer goes viral, you may have serious issues with supply and/or resources to fulfill. But Custom provides some interesting opportunities.

Sure, you could limit it to 500, 100 or 50. But what if you released a really, really good offer? What if once per week, you announced a steep 80-90% discount on a high demand, high priced item? And what if you made that Offer available to only five people? Or two? Or one?

WHOA! That’s called supply and demand, my people. Your fans would be hysterical. And let’s also say that you don’t even make the day and time public when you will announce this deal. But you do it at some time every week.

Do you realize what this could do? Your fans would stalk your Page and your updates.

More than that, this would be a great way to attract more fans.

2. Give-aways

Suddenly, your fans have very strong motivation to follow you more closely.

With either the limited availability offer or the give-away, the latest news that redemption codes may be part of upcoming changes to Facebook Offers is critical. Otherwise, all you get is a very general email that could technically be used over and over or easily duplicated and faked.

But if you have a redemption code for a limited availability item, only you know the redemption code. And you can easily cross it off once it’s been used so that it can’t be redeemed multiple times.

I’m giddy thinking about how huge this can be for brands. It would create incredible buzz for high value items, but it could be just as successful for restaurants or small retailers as well. So many opportunities!

3. Discounted Services

Offer 50% off spa treatment or massage (Mother’s Day is coming, fellas!). Discounted Facebook consulting. Anyone in the services industry could potentially benefit.

4. EBooks and Online Products

Of course, the possibilities here are endless. Anything you sell online can now be discounted with Facebook Offers. So this opens up a large door of opportunities for the struggling online business to reach more people with exciting discounts.

5. The Old Fashioned Way

There’s nothing wrong with that. These are opportunities that didn’t previously exist on Facebook in a formal way. So this, too, will be awesome!

What Do You Think?

In what creative and amazing ways can you think of to use Facebook Offers to drive excitement for your brand?

I’m often asked how I did it. There may not be a magic bullet, but I got here strategically and intentionally. I did it ethically and with a very tight budget. The fan base that I have created is highly engaged and relevant.

Here’s how I did it and how you can grow from nothing to 3,000 Likes in six months, too…

Make an Announcement

I probably annoyed the hell out of my friends in the beginning, but it’s okay to annoy the people who care about you when the source of that annoyance is something that is important to your well-being. Be courteous and grateful.

Of course, there are limits to this. If you aren’t close to some of your Facebook friends, consider targeting only those who would want to help you (and who would have interest in what you’re doing). Even in the beginning, you want to avoid padding numbers with “fans” who are going to completely ignore what you do. This will not help you, and it will even hurt your ability to reach more people.

If you already have an established customer base, invite these people, too. I didn’t since I was starting fresh, but you should if such a list is available.

Strategic Management of Facebook

Value: Your focus should be on your fans, not on you. Almost every post I write is an attempt to answer a question, solve the problems of my target audience or provide some sort of value. It’s not to tell them to buy something. There needs to be a reason these people read your content, and it comes primarily in value.

Consistency: I post something on my Facebook Page every weekday. My fans can count on that. They also know what type of content, tone and quality they can expect.

Diversity: But don’t be so consistent that you’re boring and predictable. I make sure to share links, video, photos and status updates. I also will occasionally share the content of others or use the Facebook Questions application. Being diverse not only keeps your content interesting, but it helps you understand what your fans like.

Originality: Don’t be boring. Have some personality. Create original content that your fans can’t get anywhere else. Provide exclusive content or deals. Have contests to keep them engaged. Show a human side of your brand. I’ll occasionally share stories about my kids that are related to business, and these are often some of my most commented on pieces of content.

Facebook Ads

Unfortunately, Facebook Insights won’t go back more than 89 days to tell me just how many likes I generated with ads. But it’s likely in the neighborhood of 750.

While I’ll occasionally use Facebook ads to drive engagement with my current fans, I use them most for finding new fans. And you have to get creative here. I tried many variations of ads, images, copy and destinations to find the magic bullet that brought most of the new fans.

The main key is to provide exclusive value. The carrot I offered was free access to my Facebook Marketing eBook. It doesn’t have to be an eBook, but offer something of value for joining your community.

Website Content

I write a ton of blog content that is relevant to my Facebook community. I then share that content with them, driving them to my site. This is good for my traffic.

But it works the other way, too. Most people find me first at my website. They find me there because I write a lot of valuable content and Google now tends to dig what I write. So I have a high number of Google referrals that come to my site. These people like what they read and then like my Facebook Page.

You can’t have a static website and expect that it will drive new fans to your Facebook Page. You need to constantly update new content that attracts new readers, thereby driving new people to your Page.

Website Plugins

Yes, you need a Facebook Like button (and other social share buttons). I use the Digg Digg plugin that you see to the left.

But that drives traffic to your site more than it does new fans. You also need a Facebook Like Box like I have on the right that allows readers to seamlessly like your page without leaving your site.

I also have buttons scattered across the site to follow me on Facebook and other social networks. Finding out how to connect with me off of the website should not be buried, but it often is on websites.

During the past three months, I’ve generated 1,183 new Facebook fans. Only 38 of them came from ads (most of my advertising was in the early going). A whopping 556 of them came directly through a Facebook plugin.

Important? Absolutely.

Email Newsletter

Overall, a weekly newsletter is a great way to remind readers to return to your website or Facebook Page or whatever content you have to offer. Use it!

That’s Me

If you’re still struggling, I encourage you to like my Page and subscribe to my newsletter below!

I don’t do many radio or podcast appearances, but it’s pretty clear that when you get me going I have a hard time shutting up. Topics include:

• My new video Timeline: The History of Facebook in less than 90 seconds
• Facebook marketing strategies: How to get more Facebook Likes
• Blogging strategies: finding time, content schedules, tips and tricks
• Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube!
• Why I hate Klout
• Why I prefer to spend my time on Facebook instead of Twitter or Google+
• A whole lot more

Seriously, I practically told my autobiography. I also got into my past with the NBA, the services I provide, how I grew this website and my Facebook presence so quickly and details about the obstacles I face.

I had a great time. Maybe I should do this stuff more often. Let me know what you think. If you dug it, I’ll see what I can do!

What’s amazing about this video is that it only highlights the major changes. When I put together the research for the video, I created a six-page document that detailed Facebook changes since the social network’s humble beginnings. But for the sake of entertainment, we cut out most of it from the final product.

Now you get to see what was left on the cutting room floor. I used the Facebook Blog as my source for most of these changes, and I link to the specific blog entry where possible.

So here is the detailed history of Facebook changes. The transformation is amazing.

Are there any major changes missing? Please let me know so that I can update my list!

2004-06

2004

• February: Launched as TheFacebook.com, limited only to Harvard students
• March: Expanded to Stanford, Columbia and Yale
• No photos, wall, news feed, events or pages yet
• Reached 1M users

2005

• Purchased facebook.com domain for $200k and dropped “the”
• Introduced Photos
• September: High school version launched

2006

• January: Friend Details (how you know your friends)
• February: High School and College Facebook Merged
• March: Redesigned Groups and Events
• Spring: Expanded to include work networks
• Spring: Facebook Mobile Texts
• Spring: My Messages Page launched
• Spring: Browse launched
• Spring: Mobile Photo Uploads
• Spring: My Photos page upgraded
• Summer: Search functionality added for former classmates and coworkers
• Summer: Global Groups and Events
• August 15: Facebook Development Platform Launched
• August 22: Facebook Notes
• Late August: Mobile Web
• September 5: News Feed and Mini-Feed launched
• September 8: New privacy controls
• September: Added spam prevention systems
• September 26: Opened to all 13 and up with valid email address
• October 27: Share links to articles, photos and videos
• October 31: Share Button
• November 15: News Feed Preferences
• Fall: Privacy controls for when you poke, message and add friends
• December: Profile picture photo album, keeps history of your profile photos

2007

• January 10: Mobile Web (again) announced for mobile friendly Facebook
• January 10: Mobile Uploads
• January 10: Mobile Texts
• January 17: List screen names for IM clients in contact info of profiles
• January 24: Redesign of My Privacy page
• February 7: Give virtual gifts
• March: Group Update Information and create Events from Groups
• March 14: Photo Sorting and Organizing
• March 15: Export photos directly from iPhoto to Facebook albums
• April 11: Navigation and profile simplification
• April 11: My Messages and My Shares changed to Inbox
• April 11: Network Pages launched
• April 20: Added “[user] is…” before each status update
• April 20: Friends’ three most recent updates on the home page
• April 20: See all friends’ updates at once
• April 20: RSS feed of friends’ updates
• April 20: Subscribe to a friend’s updates via SMS
• April 20: Update status from your phone by sending an SMS to Facebook
• April 24: Gift Shop accessible to blind via screen-reader
• May 14: Marketplace completely rolled out (classifieds)
• May 24: Facebook Platform launched
• June 22: Facebook Video Launched (tagging, FB video player, video messaging, mobile integration)
• July: Post Attachments to the Wall
• July 10: 30 Million Users
• August 15: Facebook for iPhone Mobile Site
• August 20: Send Facebook Messages to Facebook User or email address
• September 5: Public Search Listings
• November 6: Facebook Pages for Businesses launched
• November 6: Social Ads launched, making advertising relevant
• November 6: Share activities taken off of Facebook (Beacon)
• November 9: Publish your activities on Facebook Pages to News Feeds
• December: Make a tagged photo your profile photo
• December 5: Beacon made opt-in
• December 19: Friend Lists launched

2008

• January: Extended Profile to declutter
• February 11: Spanish version launched, set language
• February 20: Interaction with applications curbed to block spam
• March 19: New privacy interface and options
• April 4: Ignore application invites from specific friends
• April 6: Facebook Chat Launched
• April 15: Import activities from Flickr, Picasa, Yelp and del.icio.us
• May 1: People You May Know
• May 23: Import activities from YouTube, Pandora and other sites
• June 4: Suggest Friends to other Friends
• June 19: Inbox Search
• June 23: More language translations and 55 others opened to the community
• June 25: Comment on friends’ mini-feed stories from their profile
• July 10: Facebook for iPhone Application
• July 21: The Wall
• July 21: The Publisher – publish content directly to the Wall
• July 21: New tabbed profile design (Wall, Info, Photos, Boxes)
• August 26: 100 Million Users
• September 19: Pirate Translation
• October 7: Microsoft Live Search added to Facebook Search
• October 31: Gift Shop Credits
• December 4: Facebook Connect Launched
• December 5: Higher quality video
• December 17: Seamless browsing commenting pop-up

2009

• January 7: 150 Million Users
• January 30: Birthday Reminders
• February 4: Update to Terms of Use
• February 9: Like button added to friends’ content
• February 11: Schedule a virtual gift on Valentine’s Day
• February 17: Temporary return to prior Terms of Use after uproar
• February 24: Group Administrators able to change Group Name
• March 3: New version of Facebook Marketplace (powered by Oodle)
• March 4: New profiles for public figures and organizations (formerly Pages)
• March 11: Facebook available in Arabic and Hebrew
• March 11: New Home Page design, real-time stream, new filters, improved Publisher, Highlights
• March 16: “Everyone” option available to create public posts
• April 8: 200 Million Users
• April 27: View your Facebook stream on websites and applications outside of site
• April 30: New Friends Page for organizing and filtering
• May 4: News Feed now updates in real time, no longer needing to be refreshed
• May 6: Filter friends by Recently Updated and view Only Status Updates
• May 8: Family Relationships added
• May 11: Facebook Chat updated to include Friend Lists and Offline Mode
• May 11: Notifications appear in real time above chat bar as pop-up alerts
• May 19: Increased size limit of photo albums from 60 to 200 photos
• May 20: New Application Directory
• May 22: Update to Facebook Credits, removing a Zero
• May 29: Presentation of People in search results updated
• June 2: Removing Regional Networks
• June 4: Subscribe via SMS to friends’ status updates
• June 13: Facebook Usernames
• June 18: Streamlined Inbox
• June 22: Display alternate names
• July 8: Create Events from the Publisher
• July 8: Facebook Fan Box on Websites
• July 15: 250 Million Users
• July 17: New Tools to Secure a Compromised Account
• July 22: Upload Photos or Videos via email
• August 10: Improved Facebook Search
• August 20: Publish Facebook Page content to Twitter
• August 24: Invite Friends to an Event Who Attended Prior Event
• September 14: Tag Friends in Status Updates
• September 15: 300 Million Users
• September 17: Log in with Username in addition to email address
• October 19: Revamped Groups for consistent design and publish to News Feeds
• October 21: Retooled Gift Shop, including Music
• October 23: Change to two views: News Feed and Live Feed
• October 23: Friends Suggestion Box
• October 26: Share Count added to Share Button
• November 17: Xbox Connects with Facebook
• November 17: New Privacy Policy Adopted
• December 9: Simpler Privacy Controls Launched/All Users Required to Update
• December 16: Relationship Anniversaries Added to Profile

2010

• January 12: Reply to Comments through email
• January 20: Receive Updates from Applications through Email
• February 4: New Top Menu
• February 4: New Left Menu
• February 5: 400 Million Users
• February 5: Faster, Simpler Photo Uploader
• February 10: Connect Facebook Chat with AIM
• February 17: New Privacy Controls for Applications
• March 1: New Applications and Games Dashboard
• March 1: Bookmark Applications
• March 1: Become a Fan of Application Facebook Pages
• March 2: Maximum Size of Photos Increased to 720 Pixels
• March 16: Instant Search Results while Typing
• March 26: Updates to Privacy Policy
• April 19: Community Pages
• April 19: More Connected Profiles
• April 19: Now “Like” a Facebook Page instead of “Become a Fan”
• April 21: Social Plugins (Like, Activity Feed, Recommendations)
• April 21: Open Graph Protocol
• April 21: Graph API for Developers
• May 1: Streamlined Events Creation
• May 13: New Security Features
• May 18: Mobile Site 0.facebook.com launched with focus on speed
• May 26: Simplified Privacy Controls
• June 16: Added the ability to Like a Comment
• June 30: New Application Permissions Authorization
• July 1: Improved Photos Tagging
• July 2: Interests Suggestions for New Registrants
• July 21: 500 Million Users
• July 21: Facebook Stories Launched
• July 22: Update to Left Hand Navigation
• July 28: Facebook Questions Launched
• August 1: Facebook Gift Shop Closes
• August 4: Access to Streamlined Privacy Controls from Any Device
• August 11: Dynamic Load Photo Album Browsing
• August 13: New Layout and Features for Facebook Notes
• August 18: Check in at Facebook Places
• September 15: Update to Facebook Chat
• September 21: Features that Give Control over Games Updates in News Feed
• September 24: Facebook Page Browser for Page Discovery
• September 30: Improvements to Photos: Higher Resolution, New Photo Viewer, Easier Tagging and Uploading
• October 6: New Version of Facebook Groups
• October 6: Download All of your Facebook Content to your Computer
• October 6: New Dashboard for how Applications Use Your Data
• October 12: One-Time Passwords
• October 12: Sign out of Facebook Remotely
• October 13: Partnership with Bing for Social Search
• October 14: Skype Integration
• October 28: Friendship Pages
• November 2: Facebook Deals
• November 3: Places and Groups to Android App
• November 3: Deals Integration for iPhone App
• November 3: Mobile Single Sign On
• November 15: Seamless Facebook Messaging (SMS, Chat, email or Messages)
• December 5: New Facebook Profile
• December 8: New Detailed View of What You Share with Apps from Mobile
• December 15: Face Recognition Photo Tagging

2011-12

2011

• January 5: 600 Million Users
• January 19: Facebook for Feature Phones Application
• April 25: Improvements to Facebook Groups
• April 26: Expansion of Deals to Deals on Facebook
• May 30: 700 Million Users
• July 6: Video Calling and Other Improvements to Facebook Chat
• August 11: Improvements to Games including Games Ticker
• August 23: More Controls to See Who You are Sharing With
• August 26: Bigger, Faster Photos
• September 13: Improved Friend Lists, including Smart Lists and Notifications
• September 14: Subscribe Button to Subscribe to Non-Friends’ public content, allow non-friends to subscribe to your public content, and better control what content you see from your friends
• September 20: Top Stories on News Feed
• September 20: The Ticker
• September 22: 800 Million Users
• September 22: Facebook Timeline for Profiles
• October 10: Facebook for iPad
• October 19: Facebook Messenger Mobile Application
• November 10: Recent Stories Filter
• December 7: Updated Facebook for Android Application
• December 8: Facebook Subscribe Button for Websites
• December 15: Timeline Available on Mobile

2012

• January 12: Listen to Music with your Friends
• January 18: Apps for Timeline launched, allowing frictionless sharing
• February 1: IPO Filing
• February 29: Facebook Timeline for Pages
• March 3: Facebook Interest Lists

Images

2004

(Source: Mashable)

2005

(Source: Mashable)

2006

(Source: Mashable)

2007

(Source: Mashable)

2008

(Source: Mashable)

2009

(Source: Mashable)

2010

(Source: Mashable)

2011

2012