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

Facebook says that Offers are only available to certain types of businesses, though it’s not clear specifically which businesses qualify. It would be easy to assume that brick and mortar businesses would get top priority, with a possible emphasis on restaurants and retail.

But if you don’t have Facebook Offers yet for your Page, you may be able to help speed up the process. Simply go here to request Facebook Offers for your Page.

As tends to be the case, there is no guarantee that contacting Facebook will help, but it can’t hurt!

Do you have Facebook Offers yet? Have you had success getting the feature by contacting Facebook? Let me know in the comments below!

Finally, Facebook Offers are coming to small businesses!

The big boys (and girls) have enjoyed the spoils for a while now. I’ve been looking forward to the day when I can start using it for my Page and my clients.

I first heard the news from AllFacebook that Facebook Offers are now available to small businesses through a beta test. I was disappointed to see that my Page didn’t yet have the feature, though a client does.

Facebook Offers are very easy to create. Let’s take a spin, shall we?

Write a Headline

Upload a Thumbnail

Limit the Number of Claims

Set an Expiration Date

Add Terms and Conditions

Prepare Your Staff

Here’s a video from Facebook with more general info about how Offers work:

Have you created your first Facebook Offer yet? Let me know what you did in the comments below!

I say this because I know I’m not alone. Many people would have given up. I had no choice. I had to push forward because it was my livelihood. So know that no matter how bad it may seem to you now, there is a way up.

Both September and October resulted in fewer than 4,000 total page views (admittedly, this is pretty good for some sites). Even these modest results were inflated by a single viral blog post, so the numbers felt empty. My blog was going nowhere fast.

Then I made a New Years Resolution.

I decided to make some drastic changes to the way I managed my blog. The results showed up almost immediately.

During 2012, this same website has attracted over 275,000 page views. My “bad” month was February when pages were seen “only” 40,000 times, more than 10X the months of October and November. Otherwise, I’m now averaging 2,500 per day and views have dipped below 1,000 only once since February 28.

A big part of this is Google. Search engines sent me 2,500 people today. I love Google, and Google seems to love me.

How did it happen? It’s not a secret. There’s nothing shady. And I’ve barely spent a thing.

Here are the six keys to making this website into a consistent traffic hog. It’s not rocket science. You can do it, too…

Volume

In 2012, I’ve been a blogging machine. The consistent results keep me focused. I published 112 pieces of content in 121 days, never writing fewer than 22 entries in a month.

Google loves fresh content, and it shows.

Blogging Tip: I know what you’re thinking. There’s no way that I can write 112 blog posts in 121 days! Maybe not. It’s not necessarily as difficult as it sounds either. If you are writing from strength, the words should come effortlessly. I spend some nights writing for only 15 minutes, others for a few hours. But don’t feel like you need to write 2,000 words. A few hundred will often suffice. Just keep it fresh.

Focus

I still write an occasional post about Twitter, blogging or SEO (and this is an example of that). But I only do that because I see these things as being important to your overall digital strategy. A strategy to which Facebook is central.

I wrote 41 blog posts in March; all but eight had a significant Facebook marketing slant.

This is important because bloggers need a niche. I’ve suddenly become The Facebook Marketing Guy. When your subject matter is too broad, you won’t be known for anything. I now have a specialty.

Blogging Tip: I’m of the belief that you can’t be too niche. The smaller the audience, the stronger your standing. Instead of swimming in an ocean of sharks, sit in a kiddy pool by yourself. It’s how you will be discovered.

Consistency

Having that consistent routine didn’t prevent me from publishing more. One post each day was part of the routine. If something else came up, I’d write again. And it seemed the extra posts came easily since I wrote so much. I’d spit those out in a few minutes.

The consistency is as much for me as it is my audience. It is important that my readers have an expectation. They know that each morning they can come here to read a new blog post, and it will probably be about Facebook marketing. They know that they’ll be getting an email newsletter from me every Tuesday morning.

But it’s also important for me to remain consistent because I’m a creature of habit. I need that routine. Every night, I know what I’m doing after 8:00. It keeps me going strong.

Going forward, I also plan to take this consistency a step further. I’ve been wanting to assign themes for specific days for some time now, but my fear was not having the content to keep it interesting. More to come on this soon!

Blogging Tip: Do not over commit. Don’t feel like you have to write every day. If your schedule won’t permit it, don’t set the expectations with your audience that you can. Start realistically and consistently. If it’s two times per week, do it. Write on the same two days each week and even attempt to keep a consistent time and theme. Your readers will appreciate it, but it will also make you a more productive writer.

Answers

While talking to clients or reading comments on this website and my Facebook Page, I’ll make note of common questions that people have. Document these questions. You’ll be grateful you did when you’re staring at your computer screen at midnight, trying to decide what to write.

This is the secret of SEO: When people type something into Google, they are looking for answers. They want to solve a problem. Think like them.

That’s why I try to not only craft my subject matter around these questions, but I also try to think about how they ask those questions when typing them into Google. Then I’ll use that as my title.

This also relates to Focus. One mistake I made early was that I wouldn’t know when to stop writing. I’d cover multiple topics in one blog post. But when people search Google for answers, they only want that specific answer. I’m making my life difficult by combining multiple blog posts into one.

So now I always attempt to focus a blog post on a single answer to a problem and I exhaust it. This method also makes it much easier to maintain a running list of blog topics for a later date.

Blogging Tip: Always think about your audience. Understand that many of these people have a much more basic understanding of the topic than you do. So be descriptive in your answers. Provide images and videos if you can. Make sure that you aren’t writing the way you and your contemporaries talk. Explain simply, but in detail.

Social

Of course, it’s absolutely imperative that you have prominent social buttons on your site. Make sure that if a reader loves what you write that they can easily share it to their networks.

A critical piece of my social strategy is YouTube, and to a lesser extent Vimeo. Many of my tutorials require visuals. Sometimes a picture isn’t enough. So I’ve created a YouTube channel that steps through exactly what I’m writing about. Under the video on YouTube, I’ll always say something like, For more information, read my blog post at http://jonloomer.com/… or like my Page on Facebook at Facebook.com/JonLoomerDigital.

This drives considerable traffic. But it also provides value. I then embed these videos at the top of the related blog post to add perspective. Sometimes people would simply rather watch than read.

Blogging Tip: Think about what each audience on the different social networks wants. Cater the content you share accordingly, and use the appropriate tone. Make sure you do so uniquely and don’t mass publish across multiple networks. Take the time to reach out to each audience.

Email

My first newsletter was sent in February. I don’t have an enormous subscriber base, but it is approaching 1,000. I send out a newsletter each Tuesday morning and I’ll also sprinkle in communications for special events. Execution of a newsletter guarantees a couple hundred page views each time it’s sent that I otherwise would not have received.

It’s idiotic that I wasn’t doing this before. A major missed opportunity. And it really isn’t all that hard.

I use AWeber and highly recommend the service. It’s easy to run a single broadcast, a drip campaign or target individual lists. Having an active email newsletter — or at least an email list — is an absolute must for anyone with a blog or website.

Blogging Tip: I keep my newsletters very casual. Always think about how you respond to newsletters. When I get a flashy marketing newsletter with banners and images in it, I delete it without reading. I strip all of the unnecessary stuff away and just write as if it’s an email. Tease a blog post and send them there with a link.

You Can Do It

Don’t quit. Create structure and purpose. Follow these tips. While commitment is necessary, you should see results quickly. I am evidence of that.

What’s your success story? Share it below!

My Theory

What I Wanted to Prove

The Experiment

I did this because I wanted to maximize the number of people who went to their News Feed and waited for the post as opposed to those who saw it naturally. I also wanted to make sure that people were informed on what I was doing so that I received as many accurate responses as possible.

At 9:30 AM EST, I wrote this status update:

ALERT! This is my experiment! Click Like if you see this update. Please comment if you saw it in your News Feed or if you had to come to my Page to see it. Thanks!

If you’re confused, please read here for details first:

http://www.jonloomer.com/2012/04/30/how-many-facebook-fans-see-your-posts-experiment/

The goal was to have as many people knowledgeable of the experiment ahead of time as possible. I was looking to limit the number of people who weren’t informed and may have commented inaccurately without fully understanding what I was looking for.

The Results

Experiment Weaknesses

Another weakness is the uncertainty about how EdgeRank works. Sure, we have a very general understanding. But is it real time? Was the experiment flawed because the likes and comments on my status update increased EdgeRank, thereby increasing the likelihood that Fans would see it? Since EdgeRank favors those who interact most with me, couldn’t we then assume that the vast majority (if not all) of the participants would be seeing my updates as a result of EdgeRank?

Experiment Conclusions

All or close to all of the people participating in my experiment saw my status update.

There is a concern that a positive EdgeRank (lots of people liking and commenting, among other factors) impacted this, but my assumption is that this is largely only when viewing News Feed by “Top Stories.” The point of Top Stories is for Facebook to determine “what is important” to you. This does not appear to impact a “Recent” sort much, if at all. If participants reacted immediately after my posting (and many did), I would not expect EdgeRank to have an effect on real time, immediate activity.

Was this experiment scientific? No. Are there flaws in the process and findings? Sure. But does it provide some useful data? Absolutely.

At most, one person participating in this experiment didn’t see my status update because Facebook kept it from them.

That tells me that we need to stop whining about EdgeRank and Facebook keeping our Fans from seeing our content. It tells me that we have much more control over what content Fans see than we originally thought.

The one thing we don’t have control over: Whether Fans see an update because they aren’t online. But that’s nothing to get angry over, now is it?

Constant Contact is offering a free webinar tomorrow (Wednesday, May 2) at 1 PM EDT. Why should you care? Well, they’re giving away $25 Facebook advertising coupons to those who attend.

Oh, yeah, it also looks like a decent webinar. Here is the description:

Grow Your Business on Facebook

Learn how to grow your business on Facebook from leading small business experts at Facebook and Constant Contact. This interactive webinar will cover real examples from small businesses and nonprofits that’ve been successful at driving revenue through their Facebook marketing efforts. In under an hour, you’ll discover four key steps you can use immediately to build your fan base, engage your audience, and boost your word of mouth on Facebook.

The 4 key steps to success on Facebook:

• Build your Facebook Page
• Connect to fans with ads
• Engage your fans with quality content
• Influence the friends of your fans

Every attendee of our live webinar will receive a free $25 Facebook Ad Coupon* and an invitation to run a free Social Campaign with Constant Contact, so you can make the most of your Facebook Page and Facebook Ads right away!

Presenters will be Chris Luo, the Head of Global SMB Marketing at Facebook, and Mark Schmulen, who is responsible for guiding Constant Contact’s social media product and education strategy.

Looks valuable even without the Facebook ad coupon. Sign up here!

Join me in a Facebook experiment…

I’m slightly annoyed. You see, we keep hearing stats like 16% of Facebook fans see your posts. But… What does that actually mean?

I’m skeptical. The reason I’m skeptical is that a lot of fast-reacting people make assumptions that this means Facebook is hiding your posts from 84% of your fans with their mysterious algorithm.

When I write a post, all of my fans should see it, dangit!

But, wait a minute…

About half of all users are on Facebook on any given day. So immediately, we can cut the number of fans who see your post down to 50%.

And while Facebook users are on the social network for an incredible eight hours per month, that’s only 16 minutes per day. Was your post created during those 16 minutes? Did they scroll down to find stuff they missed?

Of course, the reason that so many are quick to point to Facebook’s algorithm is that there is some truth to the complaints that Facebook picks and chooses what goes into News Feeds. We’ve been told that if you have low EdgeRank, your posts will be seen by fewer fans.

But I’m incredibly skeptical regarding just how much EdgeRank contributes to that 16%. It would seem to me that reaching 16% of your fans with a single post is actually a decent percentage when you account for all of the reasons that they could miss it.

The biggest source of confusion is that Facebook does nothing to dispel the rumors, and I think there’s a reason behind it: Revenue. Facebook is totally fine with people believing that their Page posts aren’t being seen by as many people as they should due to Evil EdgeRank because they hope it will lead you to buying more advertising.

As a result, I’m left scratching my head, not sure what exactly to believe.

This requires an experiment.

The 16% Facebook Experiment

On Wednesday, May 2 at 9:30 AM EST, I will write the following status update:

ALERT! This is my experiment! Click Like if you see this update. Please comment if you saw it in your News Feed or if you had to come to my Page to see it. Thanks!

That’s stupid, you say. How will the people who didn’t see your status update comment that they didn’t see it?

That’s why I’m writing this blog post, smart guy. I want as many people to be on the lookout as possible. So please do the following:

1. Like my Facebook Page if you don’t already
2. Go to your News Feed at a few minutes before 9:30 AM EST on Wednesday, May 2
3. Make sure that your News Feed is sorted by Most Recent instead of Top Stories
4. Wait…

If my status update appears in your News Feed, please comment as follows:

I saw this status update in my News Feed!

It doesn’t have to be word for word. But it will help to know. If you wait a few minutes past 9:30 AM (you may want to give me a few extra minutes, just in case) and you still don’t see my status update, refresh just to be sure. If it’s still not visible, go to my Facebook Page and see if the update is there. If you can confirm that the update is there but not in your News Feed, comment as follows:

This status update was not in my News Feed!

There are certainly weaknesses in this experiment. I can’t separate individuals who weren’t actually participating, but saw the update in their News Feeds. But more than anything, I just want to see if the inability of my fans to see my updates is all that widespread.

Another reason this isn’t scientific is that we don’t know what goes into the algorithm. Maybe I have great EdgeRank (I am incredibly awesome). Maybe the fact that many people will (hopefully) be commenting on the status update will actually inflate the results since so many more people will then see it in their Tickers.

So maybe this won’t tell me anything. But I guess what I want more than anything is confirmation that more than a handful of people participating could not see my status update in their News Feeds. Until then, I’m not all that angry about what Facebook chooses and doesn’t choose to show.

Are You Participating in My Experiment?

Thanks!

[View the Results of this Experiment here]

As we all know, the rules to run a Facebook contest or sweepstakes are confusing and often misunderstood. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore the rules or avoid running contests.

One rule is as follows:

Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or an app on a Page Tab.

One such third party app that provides the structure to run contests is one of my favorite tools: ShortStack. I’ve written a general review of ShortStack before, but this time I want to provide specific details on how you can use ShortStack to run a contest or sweepstakes.

Using ShortStack Templates

There are currently 63 templates to choose from. Of those, eight are templates for running contests:

• Sweepstakes
• Fan Reveal Promotion
• Photo Promotion
• Photo Vote Contest
• Video Voting Contest
• Share Your Story Promotion
• Vote to Enter Sweepstakes
• Essay Contest

All of these are rather similar in the way that they are run, but with minor variations. So if you understand one, you should understand them all. So I’ll focus this tutorial on the Photo Vote Contest template.

Photo Vote Contest ShortStack Template

When you find this template, click on it and then click Make Tab.

You are now presented with three columns:

• Add Widgets (available widgets that you can add to your tab)
• Edit Widgets (edit the widgets that are currently used in your tab)
• Live Preview (preview of your tab based on your edits)

I’ve covered the various widgets that are available in my review of ShortStack, so if you need a refresher you can read it here.

You can now edit each individual widget that was used in the template to customize the contest for your needs.

• Arrow: This is just a graphic. If you want to add a different image, replace it by clicking the edit icon.
• Like this Page: This is copy. Again, edit it to fit your needs by clicking the Edit icon.
• Image: ShortStack uses a stock photo here for a header image. Replace it with your own (778 px width) or remove it completely by clicking the Delete icon
• Promotion: This is where you can edit the form, rules and basic settings of the promotion. Make sure you look through these options.
• Vote for your favorite photo below: Again, feel free to edit this copy to fit your needs.
• Voting: Choose the layout of entries that have been submitted.

I encourage you to watch the video at the top for more information on each of these.

For additional styling, you can choose from 44 basic themes by clicking on the Theme Selector dropdown:

If you know your way around programming, you can also click on the CSS Editor button to further customize look and feel of your tab.

Install Your Tab

Next click Open Graph Developer App and it will open up a new window for Facebook Developer. ShortStack then provides some screen grabs to explain what you need to do, but you click Create New App, provide an App Name and click Continue. You then copy and paste the App ID and App Secret from that app into the text fields on ShortStack.

You will then be given a list of Pages that you manage and you’ll select which one you want this tab to appear on. Your tab is now installed!

Facebook Customizations

At the top, click Edit Icon and provide a square icon that can be used when your tabs are expanded on your Page (not the big 111×74 icon).

Scroll down and there is also an option for Page Tab Width. This may default to 520 pixels, the old width. Change this to 810 pixels. Click Save Changes.

Finally, go to your Page and expand your tabs. You can move your tab to a different location by swapping it if you choose. But you can also edit your large 111×74 icon by clicking the Edit icon and going through the steps provided there. If you aren’t able to create your own icon, I have 72 free icons available here.

Manage the Contest

From here, you can easily view all of your promotions and entries for your promotions. You can also have ShortStack randomly select a winner for you.

Further Customizations

Your Turn

I’m an unabashed “Facebook guy,” but that doesn’t mean I don’t mess around with the other social networks, and Twitter is at the top of my second tier of social attention.

A while back, it was announced that American Express was teaming up with Twitter, giving AmEx members a $100 test drive of Twitter advertising. Never one to pass up free money, I gladly signed up.

It had to be two solid months, but I finally heard back with my $100 coupon. I immediately took a spin.

It took me two days to plow through that $100, though I meant for it to take longer (more on that later). Let’s go through what I learned…

1. Twitter Ads Are Simple

This was so simple that it was almost too simple. But it felt right.

With Facebook ads, you have all kinds of targeting options based on age, location, interests, gender, job history, on and on. With Twitter, you can target by geography.

You can target to everyone, by country or by major metropolitan areas in the US.

There are only two types of Twitter ads. The first is a Promoted Account.

With Promoted Accounts, Twitter will display your account prominently in the Who to Follow section to users that are most likely to be interested in your account. You only pay for new followers that you gain.

The second option is Promoted Tweets.

With Promoted Tweets, Twitter will prominently display your most engaging Tweets to your followers and those with interests similar to your followers.

That’s it.

For each, I had options for daily spending limit and both minimum and maximum bids (nothing less than $.50).

For Promoted Tweets, Twitter then selects the five “promotable” tweets that it will make into ads automatically based on their magic algorithm. You can remove certain ads from rotation, but you can’t manually select them.

Really… There’s not a whole lot else to tell. That’s basically the extent of your options. This isn’t necessarily bad, just way different than we advertisers are used to. Not a lot of control, but no maintenance whatsoever.

2. Twitter Ads Are Controlled in Real Time

Within seconds of turning an ad on, the stats start piling in. It’s actually quite amazing. The stats aren’t at all revealing, mind you (Impressions, Click Rate, Clicks and Spent for Promoted Tweets; Impressions, Follow Rate, Follows and Spent for Promoted Account), but they are immediate.

3. Bid LOW on Twitter Ads

4. Promoted Account Brought Little Value

5. Promoted Tweets Brought a High Click Rate

6. Run Promoted Tweets SLOWLY

You are only charged for clicks, so Twitter doesn’t seem to limit the number of impressions based on your budget. They simply turn off your ad once your budget has been reached. And like I said, this is like a fire hose as soon as you turn it on. Once Twitter displays your ads, they can’t bring them back.

In other words, let’s say you turn on your ad with a $1 budget and it’s immediately displayed to 400 users. Based on my click rate, eight people would then click on those ads. After the first two clicked, my budget was used up. But since the ad was already shown to 400 people, the other six people clicked as well. That way, I essentially got six free clicks.

I found that when I promoted $1 at a time, I got much better value. When I promoted in $5 increments, Twitter seemed to do a better job of keeping me to my budget. When it was all said and done, I got 428 clicks for $125, or $.29 per click. You’ll recall that I bid $.50 (the minimum).

7. Twitter Does Play Catch Up

I no longer got something for free. Twitter got what they wanted — my $25. This is different from Facebook since if you set a limit there, you don’t exceed it. So not cool.

8. Stay On Top Of It — OR PAY

At the end of the first day, I was smart enough to turn my ads off. At the end of the second, I forgot. So once I hit my limit for the day, I didn’t think to turn them off. By the time I woke up the next morning, I had already hit the daily budget I had set for the previous day.

So if you’re going to run these ads and micromanage them the way I did, you have to be very careful to turn them off at the end of each day and restart with a fresh daily budget the next day.

9. Value of Twitter Ads Not Clear

I’m not convinced that Promoted Account advertising is all that valuable, though I can’t say that definitively due to a small sample size. And while I got a very high click through rate on my Promoted Tweets, was it worth $125 to get 428 views of my site?

Honestly, no. I get multiples of that in a day for free. A 428 swing is not noticeable or valuable.

What you are promoting also matters. For me, I was only promoting tweets that weren’t all that likely to result in conversions or revenue. So $125 for those tweets wasn’t worthwhile.

I guess if I had created five tweets about a product or newsletter that had been retweeted and replied to, Twitter might choose those as my Promoted Tweets. And in that case, I may get value if I spend $125 to drive 100 purchases or 100 new subscribers.

So I can’t say definitively that there isn’t value, but the limitations of Twitter ads make it difficult to create a campaign that has value. Just make sure that before you shell out a chunk of change that you plan this out properly and promote something that will return significant value.

How About You?

Today, a new Facebook profile photo size was rolled out for brand Pages. Formerly 125×125 pixels, Facebook has increased the size of profile photos to 160×160 pixels. In either case, the minimum size of the photo you use needs to be 180×180 pixels, but Facebook shrinks it down to the smaller size.

I know, that’s confusing. Just know that you need to pick a photo that is at least 180×180 pixels, just as before, but it will now appear as 160×160 pixels instead of 125×125 pixels.

This matters, as I discovered with a couple of my own Pages. I created a nice little montage of baseball cards on the Brewers Updates From 1982 Facebook Page, making a 1982 Topps Robin Yount card the profile photo. Sweet, right? Well, with the change, it no longer fits…

Of course, I’m not the only one with this problem. Countless other Facebook Page admins got cute with their Cover Photos and Profile Photos and now need to scramble and make adjustments.

I’m here to help. The infographic below details all of the dimensions you need to know. Which are:

• Submitted profile photo must be at least 180×180 pixels
• Facebook will shrink profile photo to 160×160 pixels (formerly 125×125)
• Including padding, profile photo area is 170×170 pixels (5 pixels all the way around)
• 23 pixels from left edge to profile photo border
• 210 pixels from top edge to profile photo border
• 658 pixels from right edge to profile photo border
• 105 pixels from bottom edge to top profile photo border

[Click the image for a close-up]

I’ve also updated the reference of all Facebook Timeline dimensions Infographic to reflect this change.

Are you having to scramble as a result of the larger profile photos? Let me know in the comments below!

I wanted to write this post to explain the changes I made because I think it may help you as you consider building a website or redesigning your current site. It wasn’t only a matter of colors and branding and format. There are some major structural changes here, and there are business reasons for that.

So let’s go through each change, highlighting the problems and what was done to solve them.

Hosting

The Solution: This website is now hosted on an Amazon Cloud Server. I’ve noticed an improvement immediately when it comes to speed. While it’s too early to make any statements about downtime, there have been no issues in that area so far. Overall, the speed alone makes this feel like a new site.

If you’re interested in moving your site to an Amazon Cloud Server, fill out the form below for more information. Secure firewalled servers, regular security and maintenance updates starting at $25/month.

Theme

Solution: I spent some time investigating this and the solution was really a no brainer. I went with the Genesis Framework. There is a long list of reasons why I went with Genesis, but here are the big ones:

• Reputation: Genesis is used by ProBlogger, CopyBlogger, Chris Brogan and many others. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.
• Speed: Genesis in general has a reputation for speed, but I also went with the Sleek child theme for a focus on efficiency.
• SEO: Genesis is built on clean code, which is always good for search engines. There is also a built-in SEO engine so I do not need to add plugins that will slow the site down.
• Flexibility: The framework itself is flexible, but there are also dozens of child themes to pick from as a head start to fit any need. I loved the home page design of Sleek since my site is focused on content.
• Extensions: There are a ton of Genesis-specific plugins that have been created to further extend the potential of the theme. I use quite a few across the site.
• Expertise: While I can get some help from the StudioPress forums, I’ve found the greatest help is Brian Gardner’s blog. He provides tips on how to extend Genesis, and I used his information to create my newsletter and Genesis boxes at the bottom of each post.

There are plenty more, but these are the main ones. Through my research, I repeatedly read lists indicating that Genesis is the best WordPress theme. I’m drinking the Kool-Aid.

Design, Consistency, Formatting

Solution: Keeping it simple. I applied the orange and gray from my new logo across the site. There are some lighter shades of gray and black, but that’s it. The new site has a much more consistent look and feel. I’ve also increased the font size of blog post content to make it more readable. I was inspired by the font used by the Likeable and Amy Porterfield websites.

Focus and Purpose

Solution: I am a consultant. I need it to be clear on the homepage that this is what I am. So the new homepage is focused on what I’ve done and can do for you first and makes content second. Before, my focus was largely on content. I refreshed my About page and also removed unnecessary items from the navigation. Every page should now drive people to perform an action consistent with the site’s purpose. That leads to…

Conversions

Solution: This was entirely my fault. I assumed that once people read my content that they would then go contact me for help if they needed it. Instead, I needed to do a much better job of using a call to action within or at the bottom of every post.

With the help of Brian Massey, the Conversion Scientist, I have placed greater emphasis on driving actions with each piece of content. In addition to the clear purpose of my home page and frequent newsletter signup and contact forms, I am in the process of creating landing pages for specific services and topics to drive additional subscriptions, contacts and conversions. This is a big chunk of what will soon be coming.

Bounce Rate

Solution: Part of this was addressed in my conversion issue above. I wanted to lead them to something, whether it be clicking a new blog post, contacting me or subscribing to my content. I didn’t want one-time visitors, but long-term relationships. If I did everything properly in the solutions above, bounce rate should have been addressed naturally.

It’s really way too early to tell here, but so far the difference is night and day. My site was switched over midway through yesterday and bounce rate dropped to 54% overall. That also considers that many boxes (including ones I was hitting) did not update until today. Through noon today, bounce rate is only 10%. That’s ridiculously low and potentially awesome. I assume much of that is people checking out the new site for the first time, but it’s certainly a good sign.

What Do You Think?

If you’re interested in building or redesigning your own website, go here to buy the Genesis Framework. If you’d rather I build the site for you, simply fill out the form below.

Thanks!