After what felt like a year of speculation, Facebook finally unveiled its new Timeline for Pages last week — much to the excitement of marketers worldwide. There are some surprises and a few disappointments (people are still mourning the end of default landing tabs), but overall, the new design is a step in the right direction for improving the Facebook experience for businesses.

Below you’ll learn what to do to your Page before March 30^th to take full advantage of all the new features. The goal is to put brands and Page Admins in the best possible position going forward.

1. Design a Cover Photo or Two. The focus of the new Timeline design is all around the 851 x 315 pixel cover photo. Facebook has very strict guidelines around what can be featured in this spot. Currently, you’re not permitted to display promotions, price points, or calls to action, so the emphasis is more on creativity than advertising. Since it is now the introduction to your Page, keep it fresh by hanging up your Cover Photo every month or so.
2. Pick a Profile Image That Scales. The 180 x 180 pixel profile image sits nicely as an inset in the lower left of the cover photo. This is the avatar image that accompanies all your posts, so be sure to choose something that clearly identifies your brand, both at its normal size and scaled down to 32 x 32 pixels for the News Feed.
3. Properly Fill Out Your “About” Section. The About section isn’t new, but it’s certainly more prominent in Timeline. Only the first three lines of text are visible before a user has to click to view more, translating into about 120 to 180 characters. Clickable URLs can also be included in your About section. I recommend putting a one-sentence summary of your business with a link to your website.
4. Design Custom Images for Your Apps. One of the best new features of the Timeline layout is the ability to showcase your apps with a custom 111 x 74 pixel image. The images help you easily display apps and are more eye-catching than the tiny thumbnails that used to identify apps. For your apps showcase, design something that stands out but also communicates the purpose of the app in a way the user can quickly see and understand.
5. Take Advantage of the Extra Space in Apps. Your Page’s app width can now be set to either Narrow at 520 pixels or Wide at 810 pixels. Why leave extra space if it’s available? Make sure all your old apps are now updated to 810 pixels, and take advantage of the extra real estate moving forward.
6. Properly Order Your Views & Apps. You can now have just 12 custom apps, and only 3 will be displayed nicely on your Page before a user has to click to see more. Since the Photos section can’t be changed, you’ll want to make the most of the other 3 spots that will be showcased. The Like total should definitely be relegated to the “View More” section.
7. Pin a Post to the Top of Your Page. While default landing Tabs are now extinct, Page admins do have the ability to pin a post to the top of the Page for up to seven days. While not as impactful as a custom Tab, you can at least control the main post you are featuring on a weekly basis. Therefore, try to always feature a post with a nice visual to really stand out. This is also a great opportunity to direct users to custom apps or promote your current contests or sweepstakes.
8. Go Back in Time to Add Milestones & Backdated Posts. Admins can now go back and add Milestones to the brand’s Timeline. These are useful for highlighting the brand’s history or accomplishments through the years. Milestones span both columns of the Timeline layout and can have an 843 x 403 pixel image to accompany the post. If you want to highlight something in the past that is less prestigious, you can also backdate posts. This will give you the freedom to post text, links, videos, single photos, or albums.
9. Review Old Posts, and Highlight, Hide, or Delete as Necessary. Since the Timeline design makes it easier for users to browse all your old posts, admins should go through and decide what posts to highlight, hide from the Timeline, or delete completely. Highlighting a post makes it take up both columns. This is especially great for successful past image posts, but make sure the picture scales right when you expand it in the highlighted view. By hovering over a post and clicking the pencil, you can reposition a photo so it fits properly in the larger, highlighted format.
10. Closely Monitor Your Competitors’ New Public Page Stats. One new rarely talked about feature allows you to see important stats on your competitors’ Pages. Now you can view their Total Likes and People Talking About This, as well as the Most Popular Week, Most Popular City, and Most Popular Age Group. You can see these by clicking on the Likes box in the Views & Apps section. Some marketers may cringe at the fact that competitors can now see these stats, but it’s nice to see where you stack up against the competition. Make it a priority to check these stats monthly to track how they change over time.
11. Evaluate Page Settings & Admins. With the new design comes a revamped Page Settings area that I recommend spending some time on before setting your Timeline live. The Post Visibility section is especially important because it determines how posts from users will show up on your Timeline (previously these were Wall posts). Page admins now have the option to review every post and approve it before it’s visible on the Timeline. Remember, this wasn’t an option before, and most Page admins were perfectly fine with that. I suggest fighting the urge to go “Big Brother” unless your industry is highly regulated and you need the extra approval. This is also a great time to reevaluate who has admin access to your Page.
12. Determine How To Handle Private Messages. Any brand using Facebook for customer service will be happy to see the ability for users to send Pages private messages. The new messages will show up in the Admin Panel. Hopefully, with this feature, users will be more likely to take some of the messy customer service problems private instead of posting directly to the Page. You can turn this feature off, but I don’t think any brand should limit users on how they can contact them. It warrants an internal discussion on which employees will handle responses to the private messages.
13. Change the Way You Think About Your Editorial Calendar. The new features create a few more things to consider as you create your Facebook editorial calendar. It should be no secret that image posts are better at generating engagement, but the visually dominated Timeline design now makes them even more important. Make sure you are including images with posts wherever you can. Also, create a new column in your calendar that shows which posts you are pinning to the top on a weekly basis and which posts you will want to highlight with the two-column view.
14. Get Acquainted with the Admin Panel and Activity Log. The Admin Panel is now your command center for managing your Page directly on Facebook. In this area you will see notifications, private messages, and a high-level look at your Page Insights. The Admin Panel also includes an Activity Log, located under the “Manage” drop-down menu. This is where you can easily see all the posts users put on your Timeline and either allow, hide, highlight, or delete them. Filtering the Activity Log to just show “Spam” will take the place of the old “Hidden Posts” in the old Page layout.

The new design layout and ability to customize the Facebook Page experience create great opportunities for marketers, but it’s still important to remember your overall Facebook strategy. The News Feed is still your main touch point with users and the place where the vast majority of brand interactions are going to take place. If you aren’t posting engaging and valuable content, users might not give your Page a chance and bypass your beautifully designed Page altogether.

What do you think will be the most important elements of the new Facebook Timeline for Pages? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

My father is truly a creature of habit. He’s stubborn when it comes to changing his ways, especially when it deals with technology. I’ve heard more times than I’d like that I spend too much time on my computer and phone – texting, tweeting, Liking, posting, etc.

Well, my dad would be happy to hear that a recent study released by COLLOQUY showed that good old fashion face-to-face conversations are still the leading form of communication among both the general population, as well as young adults – at least when the conversation is about brands.

According to the study, social networks were the forum for 56% of young adults and 35% of everyone when it came time to recommending products and services. That means that 18-25 year olds prefer face-to-face and mobile conversations over both social media interactions and even text messaging.

Let’s be honest – is anyone surprised that real life conversations and phone calls trump social media interaction when it comes to product recommendations? Sure services like Yelp, Urbanspoon and even Foursquare can help me figure out where I want to eat on a Friday night, but what about recommendations on fashion, music, good whisky, or the right wheels for my new road bike? Reading product reviews and countless Google searches can sometimes be daunting. Q&A services like Quora, Linkedin Answers and the new Facebook Questions are useful, but still far from “mainstream.”

I personally turn to my friends more than I would any digital source to make sure skinny jeans are actually “in” before I end up in a Miller Light commercial. It’s true that many of my friends are on Facebook and Twitter, but at large it seems like picking up the phone, or asking a colleague at work are still the preferred (and honestly most direct) ways to get the product recommendations we’re looking for – in a nutshell, it’s all about conversations.

That being said, let’s not count out social media as a strong influencer in this equation. It’s important to recognize that over half of all young adults and over one third of the total public are discussing products/services in a forum where brands can join in – social networks.

To me, 56% is a significant contribution (contrary to eMarketer’s headline for the study – Product recommendations remain low in social media) – so while companies are restricted from directly participating in our face-to-face conversations or tapping our phone calls with our friends, they do have the ability to influence these offline conversations through social media.

In a way, this study actually further supports the case for brands’ participation in social. Many companies have always placed a large emphasis on product reviews both on and off of their site, but according to these figures, conversations are what people trust most when it comes to recommendations. Whether it is online or offline, a two way dialog is much more useful than reading a company website or even customer reviews.

One finding to come out of this report that I found most surprising, was the fact that consumers’ likelihood of recommending a product or service has dropped 24% from 2009-2011. eMarketer suggests that the struggling economy is likely to blame for the downward shift.

If anything, this drop-off further supports the importance of using social media as a CRM tool. Brand’s strongest assets are their customers. Consumer advocacy propels the success of a brand, so whether the conversations are happening offline or online, social networks provide an amazing opportunity for brands to not only influence discussions, but create engagement as well.

Of course the issue of measurement and determining how much weight online efforts have in shaping offline conversations remains a large road block for many companies – and I believe will continue to for some time.

It will certainly be interesting to see where social media goes in terms of influencing product and service recommendations. Do you expect the % to increase? Level off? These percentages will certainly vary by vertical and industry, so it’s very important to know where your customers are talking and what they’re saying. Here’s a tip, if my father falls within your brand’s demographic, don’t look for him on social networks (or even a computer for that matter).

The best things I get from these events are what I like to call “nuggets”. What that translates into is a great quote, small idea, cool fact or interesting thought from a speaker that gets written down in my notebook and filed away in my mind somewhere.  These nuggets may or may not lead to something great one day but at least at the time I found them useful or insightful.

Conferences are made for Twitter because these nuggets I speak of are perfect for 140 characters. I hate to say it, but it terms of just the sessions, you probably could have just followed SXSW via Twitter and hashtags and got the same out of it as you would have sitting there and paying for a pass. Of course you would miss all the networking, parties and giveaways, but you’d have about $2,000 more in your pocket.

Here are 38 nuggets I got from the 2011 SXSW Interactive event.  Unfortunately most are not attributed to who said them because I didn’t write that all down but these were all from speakers at SXSW so they have to have some credibility right? I’d love to hear which ones you found useful or interesting yourself in the comments. Enjoy!

38 NUGGETS FROM SXSW 2011

1. Sports arenas are the 2nd most popular place to check-in on Facebook behind airports

2. There is no win column for the legal department when it comes to social media, only losses. It’s almost like they want social to fail sometimes so they can say ‘I told you so.’

3. You have to start somewhere with social media, why not Customer Service?

4. Don’t start with too much out of the gate – if you aren’t using social yet, 4sq promotions are probably not the place to begin

5. If you are struggling to get buy-in from execs for social media, point to your competitors to get $$$

6. Put the social media budget in terms the C-suite can understand – “one TV ad can pay for a year of social media”

7. You would never expect an exec to understand how to build your network infrastructure so why should they need to understand every detail/ participate in social media for it to work

8. Throw out made up metrics – align metrics with P&L – “I’m pretty sure I have never seen RT’s or Facebook Fans on a 10k report”

9. The myth of ‘Fail First’ really means no clear strategy and planning and gives you way out

10. Pay influencers with information, early access, help with designing and input into your process

11. When someone says “you suck” that isn’t actionable and doesn’t deserve a response

12. Keep an eye on competitors’ influencers and when you can jump in

13. Create your own Influencers – find heavy users, give them insider info, beta access or direct line to someone at the company when they have input

14. People expect instant, real time solutions on Twitter when talking to brands but when you call a help line you expect to be put on hold

15. There is You and then there is the curated story of You on the web

16. The line blurs of what is good and bad on social networks

17. Social media is about moving fast

18. Skittle wanted to employ the double rainbow guy but they waited too long to talk about it internally and Microsoft scooped him up

19. It’s like you need a fast strategy and then an overall strategy when it comes to social media

20.  Yelp is probably the most important thing that small and medium sized local businesses are ignoring. There is more to the web than Facebook and Twitter.

21. Advertising is now in perpetual beta. Always evaluate online and social campaigns and make changes on the go

22. “Every Facebook post is liking giving birth for some brands”

23. Influence is topical

24. No one has ultimate influence over everyone

25. Klout connects lazy marketers with influencers

26. Influence is qualitative, not quantitative

27. Go to influencers to optimize product, not just promote – Hashable founder

28. Influence is a lightning rod

29. The CEO and Founder of Klout never considered ego side of scoring influence

30. If he could do it all over again, the Klout founder said he wouldn’t make score 1-100 but probably do 1-1000

31. You have to know the risk of marketing to influencers – could hate your product or service

32. Giving influencers special treatment doesn’t mean giving everyone else crap service

33. Klout CEO likened his service to Google in ’97 – so much data out there right now and they are just scratching the surface

34. You can’t forecast luck and you can’t forecast virality

35. Kids are now posting their homework questions to Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers and Quora

36. “Dumb people need media too” – Darren Rovell of CNBC

37. The official NCAA guide for players in this year’s March Madness tournament told them not to post on social media about injuries because gamblers are looking for that to gain an edge

38. Social Media Coordinator for a professional sports team is the next great job in sports – Darren Rovell

Please let me know which ones you found interesting in the comments section below. Also, what in general do you think about conferences and the information you gain from going to them? Are they still worth it?

To me, gamification and mobile apps were the two big winners. There were also way too many Charlie Sheen and #winning jokes, but that has to be expected at a geek conference.

Crawl, Crawl, Walk

One thing that did became very clear to me as I sat through all the sessions was social media marketing is still in its infancy stage.  I heard a lot of contradictory advice, arguments over what the standards of measurement should be and audience members that were craving more examples of good and bad uses of social media.

While some people like to think social media has started to advance greatly, a lot of brands still find it surprising that asking questions is a good way to start engaging with users in social.

Even though sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have now been around for 4+ years, there are still no sure-fire tactics for businesses and social media. There are no industry standards or success metrics that people can agree on.

In a morning session, a presenter talked about how the myth of failing at social media being ok for marketers should no longer be acceptable. Several hours later in a session, a panelist preached how now is the time to experiment with social media and brands that aren’t afraid to fail are doing the best to leverage this new channel. You could argue both are right.

You constantly hear things like Fan and Follower counts don’t matter, yet we champion the social media efforts of brands that have 10 million Likes on Facebook but have never answered a question a Fan left on their Wall (you know who you are).

Some of the “experts” at the conference were still citing examples of @ComcastCares and the @DellOutlet on Twitter as who is “getting” social. Who hasn’t heard those two case studies a million times by now? People were practically begging for the newest and brightest examples of what works in social media marketing but no panel or presenter I saw really supplied it. And I think things like that are a telling sign of where social media currently is.

The Eye of the Beholder

Social media marketing is still very subjective.  You have to do what works and fits for your brand. You can’t try to keep up with the Joneses in social because you will just end up wasting your time chasing the newest thing you read on Mashable.

It seemed like some people go to conferences like SXSW looking for some cool new tactic or shiny object they can instantly plug into their social media efforts and reap in the success. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.

The biggest thing I got out of SXSW was realizing social media is still many different things to all types of businesses.  We don’t all need Tumblr blogs or our own Instagram hashtags. Having the CEO tweet won’t work for everyone. Not every brand needs a Facebook Page (that’s right I said it).

Figure out how social media fits into your brand and how at the end of the day it can help achieve your business goals. Evaluate your successes and failures on your own terms. And buckle up because social media marketing will hit its teenager phase one day, just not soon.

How do you think social media is progressing? Do you think it is still early in the game or social media marketing is starting to mature? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

Brand Website vs Facebook Page

The part of the Super Bowl commercials I was most looking forward to this year were the last 2-3 seconds where a brand gives a call to action and usually direct consumers to a certain place for more information. This place has evolved over the years from directing people to stores or 1-800 numbers to now sending everyone to their company website.

However, brands are now having the internal debate on whether to drive consumers to their website or their Facebook Page (or sometimes even their YouTube Channel). It’s clear why CMO’s have to make this tough decision. Big time brands are easily spending six figures to design, manage and drive people to their Facebook Pages. Instead of directing people to yourbrand.com, marketers are building a presence on Facebook because over 71% of U.S. web users are already there and spending nearly an hour a day.

While it might not be the right move for all brands to direct traffic to Facebook Pages instead of their own website, here are a few reason why it can be worth it:

1. Long Term Relationships – A quick flash of a website might lead a potential customer to visit the site once to view a quick video (hello GoDaddy) or use a store locator. Driving people to a Facebook Page and encouraging them to Like your brand through offering valuable content now opens up a line of communication. You now have the opportunity to reach them on a daily basis via the Facebook News Feed and keep them updated on promotions, sales, contest, new products, etc. Not to mention, you can also house a store locator right there within a custom Facebook tab.

2. Spread Your Message Virally – When a user Likes your Page, that action becomes visible to their friends as well. Anytime they Like or comment on your updates or post on your Wall, that also becomes an endorsement for your brand that can push their friends to discover your Page.

3. Real Connections – Once a user Likes your Page they can now post to your wall and comment on your posts. These are prime opportunities for marketers to answer customers’ questions, point them to more information or just thank them for their support. The usual visit to a company website doesn’t lead to a public conversation that can help extend the reach of your brand.

Do It the Right Way

If you are going to direct people to your Facebook Page, at least make it as easy as possible for consumers to find you. There were a few brands that just flashed the obligatory Facebook and Twitter icons at the end of the spots during the game.

With Facebook now having Community Pages and the potential for unofficial user generated Pages, it might not be as easy as you think for someone to find your official Facebook presence. Do people a favor and put your Facebook Page username on display so they know exactly where to go. Budweiser did a great job of this by displaying facebook.com/Budweiser at the very end of their “Tiny Dancer” commercial.

And if you really want to get serious about sending traffic to your Facebook Page through other media channels, display the URL and give people a reason to visit.  Brisk did this by simply putting ‘See More at Facebook.com/Brisk’ at the end of their Eminem ad. It might not have been the most compelling call to action ever but I at least know that if I wanted to see more clay made Eminem I could check out their Page.

The Super Bowl wasn’t the first time brands bypassed their own website to send users to Facebook Pages and it certainly won’t be a trend we see fading away anytime soon. The most important thing is that if you are going to make this leap, make sure your brand has an up-to- date Facebook Page to back it up. If you aren’t going to put the proper effort into your social media, why bother sending people there anyway?

The Facebook News Feed has become one of the most highly profiled areas of the web and an increasingly important piece of real estate for marketers.  Its purpose is simple – to show people relevant updates from friends and Pages they have Liked.

However, it doesn’t show every update – several factors (including how people and their extended social network interact with content on Facebook) determine which updates are displayed. Without this “dynamic filtering”, Facebook would be an overwhelming experience and certainly not a place for marketers to join the conversation.

What is the News Feed?
The News Feed is the first thing people see when logging into Facebook. There are two views – Top News and Most Recent. The Top News view shows the most relevant stories from friends and Pages based on a Facebook algorithm. Relevance trumps time, so the posts do not necessarily appear in chronological order.

The Most Recent view shows real-time stories from all friends and Pages, with one catch. If someone has more than 250 friends and Liked Pages (combined), Facebook chooses the 250 that are included in this feed. This can be changed manually to show more friends/Pages, but most people probably don’t know about the option.

Not all Updates are included in the News Feed
Between the Top News and Most Recent views, a brand still might not be included in the preferred feed view of a user consistently. While the default view for most people is the Top News Feed, more than half use the Most Recent view on a regular basis.

Even if all of the people who have Liked a Page check Facebook every day (trust us, they don’t), not all of them will see the updates. Facebook has taken some of the mystery out of the News Feed by sharing the factors that contribute to who sees what, when.

What determines which updates are shown?
There are three main elements that go into the News Feed algorithm, which Facebook internally calls EdgeRank. The equation provides an overall score for a piece of content that determines whether or not it’s shown in your Feed.

EdgeRank = Affinity Score x Weight x Time

Affinity Score – This represents the strength of the relationship between the creator of the content and the viewer. The more someone has interacted with someone else or a Page’s profile (by liking or commenting on their updates), the higher the score.
Weight – Every type of object you can post on Facebook, such as images, links, check-in, etc, has a certain weight. Some objects have a better chance of showing up than others depending on what a user tends to interact with more often. Facebook seems to favor images and video over just plain text status updates.
Time – This simply represents how long it has been since the update was created. Social media focuses on real-time interaction; the older something is, the less important it probably will be to people.

These three factors are multiplied to provide an EdgeRank score for any update created by a friend or Page. It’s a pretty intuitive approach when you consider it: Facebook members want to see recent posts from the people and Pages they care about the most and/or are currently popular within the network.

Unsubscribes and hiding updates further limits News Feed visibility
It is important to know that users can hide friend and Page updates from the News Feed at anytime with just a few clicks. If this happens, the connection – being a friend or Liking a Page – remains. Brands should consider this someone’s way of saying “your updates bore me or feel like spam.” These “unsubscribes” still count toward your “Likes” count, but they won’t be worth much to you, since they won’t see any of your content unless they visit your Page directly.  Facebook also just recently added the “Unlike Page” option right from the News Feed (pictured below) which gives brands even more reason to make sure they are posting valuable updates.

This brings up a social media best practice: you must respect and nurture your Facebook audience because just as easily as they have chosen to listen to you, they can choose to ignore you. Incidentally, this policy also applies to any form of opt-in or opt-out media, like email newsletters, mailing lists, RSS feeds, and Twitter followers.

Facebook Insights (part of the Page admin features) shows you how many people unsubscribe from your Page on a daily basis. You can learn a lot about what kind of content turns off your fanbase by cross-referencing daily unsubscribes and unlikes against your editorial calendar.

Improve the visibility of your Updates
There is no sure-fire way for everyone to see your updates, but you can and should use a posting strategy that leverages the News Feed algorithm. While different types of content will be relevant to different people depending on your brand and your fanbase, here are a few best practices to boost engagement with your posts:

1. Post about more than just promotions:

• Ask questions in your updates that make people want to share their opinion and open up a dialog with your brand and other Fans.

• Find conversation topics that engage your Fans and connect with your offerings or industry. They may link back only tangentially, but sometimes that works better!

• Get creative with your posts to differentiate from the thousands of other brand Pages that are competing for attention on Facebook.

2. Know what type of post works for your audience. A study by the social media vendor Vitrue recently found that image attachments were more effective than video attachment or plain text posts. Experiment with all of the types on your Page to see how people respond with likes and comments.

3. Know when to post to reach your audience. Depending on your brand and fanbase’s demographics, the weekend may be the best time to connect with your audience. Or they might check Facebook bright and early every morning – before 8am.

Testing is the best way to discover what truly engages a fanbase. Facebook provides useful, regularly updated metrics for Pages that help marketers evaluate what works. Testing doesn’t just happen – a good test is structured and intentional. We’ll talk more about testing in another Insight.

The News Feed will change
While we don’t know how it will change, Facebook is always trying new things. In just the last few months they have added Places, Deals and revised Groups, all of which contribute to the News Feed.  News Feed competition is constantly increasing, meaning it’s harder for a brand’s Page updates to make the cut. To stay successful, brands should continuously evaluate what, how, and when they post. After all, your goal is to build and maintain good relationships with your Fans and customers, right? At the end of the day, the number of Likes you have means nothing if people are not interacting with your Page.

Last night was the BCS National Championship game.  In case I had been living under a rock all last week and hadn’t seen any coverage leading up to the game, I would have known the game was last night because of Facebook.  Not because all my friends were discussing the game via status updates, but because a lot of the Facebook Pages I have Liked asked me if I was going to watch it.

Admittedly, I Like a ton of brand Pages on Facebook because it’s part of my job to stay on top of trends in social media and see what other brands are doing. But when over a handful of those Pages are asking their Fans if they are watching the game tonight and nothing else, I find that a little ridiculous.  Not due to the fact it’s clearly unoriginal, but because the brands are not attempting to tie the game or anything to do with it back to their brand or products.  Look at the examples below:

Why would someone care to tell Acuvue or PowerBar who they like in the game?  Why is Papa John’s, a brand that has really leveraged social media well in the past year, just asking people to “Like” their post if they think Oregon will win? Instead they should be telling us about a pizza special they are having tonight for people throwing watch parties.

Anyone that has ever managed a Facebook Page has made the obligatory happy holiday post or “what are you doing this weekend” post or lets ask something about a huge pop culture event post.  I know I have.  We all have because they are easy wins.

Who doesn’t want to “like” a post that says Happy New Year or leave a comment on who they think will win the Super Bowl? It makes even more sense when you understand Facebook News Feed optimization.

I’m here to say enough! Enough with irrelevant posts just for the sake of posting and trying to accumulate likes and comments so you can tally them up like winter snowfall.  This is the year experimental comes off of social media for brands, if it hasn’t already.

That means having a content strategy and editorial calendar.  That means not coming into work every day and searching for things to post about because you have run out of things to say.  Posting about the BCS Championship Game is not a problem.  Look at these examples of how brands tied it to their product offering:

Fast food brands talking about getting food to eat for watching the game and an airline drawing awareness to how to quickly check in for their flights if you are traveling to the game.  These brands took a major event and made it relevant to their brand because they know people didn’t Like their Page to talk sports or share their TV viewing habits. Someone probably even saw Taco Bell’s post and went out and tried that product.  What is the desired result from the not so great example posts?

Social media is growing up. Your audience deserves more and will soon start demanding it.  It’s time to get more relevant.  Don’t wait – start now!

What are some posts you hate seeing from Pages in your Facebook News Feed? I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments section.

I didn’t want to make specific resolutions like get in shape for my wedding or blog three times a week. Resolutions just don’t feel serious enough and deep down you know they will be broken in two weeks or sooner.  Who hasn’t read or seen a story on the news called something like “The 7 Reasons Your New Year’s Resolution Has No Chance.”

So as I thought about my life and things I wanted to accomplish near and long term, I realized it boiled down to one big thing.  I need to put myself out there more and attempt to do more things. I need to get into new situations outside my comfort zone and even feel a little awkward or out of place.

I really need to step outside my shell and realize that no one is perfect. I need to (gasp) put my best effort out there and fail.  Not purposely crash and burn like a sports team trying to lose games to get a #1 draft pick; but go into a situation or task knowing that I might put everything I have into it and the result might not be what I hoped for, expected or even planned.

It’s almost sickening how many self-help, business and sociology books I read. I pretty much refuse to read fiction. But, at the end of the day, I don’t even put into practice 2% of the great ideas and tips I read about.  This past year I read so many great books- Crush It, Linchpin, The Time Paradox, The Now Habit, The Power of Less, Making Ideas Happen, Trust Agents – that I should be a self-help expert appearing on Oprah by now.

My mind is armed with so many great ideas and theories to help me lead a better, more fulfilled, stress free and healthy lifestyle. Yet, I look back on 2010 and think “I could have done more this year.”  I know exactly what will make me happy and probably even what it takes to get there but the thought of me doing those things and it not turning out perfect scares the crap out of me. So here’s to failing in 2011!

Here’s to trying to blog all the time that I put out some less than perfect posts that people actually come and comment on.  Here’s to going to networking events and making a fool out of myself as I actually try to meet new people.

Here’s to trying to be so healthy this year that my body goes into shock. Here’s to trying to reconnect with old friends I haven’t spoken to in years and them telling other old friends how weird it is that Justin tried to talk to them. Here’s to trying just 10% of all the ideas and practices I fill my head with from books and blogs, and probably 98% of those not working.

Here’s to trying more this year than I ever have before, and probably falling short on some of those things. But hey I tried, and that I can live with next year at this time.

When checking out my News Feed on Facebook the last few months, I have noticed an increasing number of names I don’t recognize.  When I click through into those profiles I realize that I do in fact know these people, they have just changed their display name on Facebook.

Many use their middle names and drop their last names while some even spell out their name phonetically to throw people off that could be searching for them.  All of these friends are usually looking for jobs and don’t want potential employers to find them.  What are they hiding?  Maybe inappropriate pictures from a Halloween party in college or crazy nights out drinking or a friend posting on their wall to come over and smoke a joint.  Who knows?

For better or for worse, Facebook has become such a big part of our culture that it actually affects our everyday actions and can influence our lives well beyond just the online world.   People are getting fired, finding true love, reconnecting with long lost family and even getting hired all because of Facebook.

Facebook has truly become a staple in society that I fully expect anyone I come into contact with on a friendly or professional level, minus my grandparents, to have a profile on the world’s biggest social network.  Most people would probably admit that they are even a bit surprised when they come across someone that is not on Facebook, and why not when it boast a user base of 500 million and counting.

The New HR Department

Human resources now channel their inner Sherlock Holmes when checking out potential job candidates on the social web.  I’m not saying that is right or wrong, just a reality in today’s competitive job force.  Germany is in the process of passing legislation that makes it illegal for employers to find out information on potential employees via Facebook. Google CEO Eric Schmidt even said that in the future teenagers should be able to change their names automatically when reaching adulthood to “disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites.”

If I was a HR representative checking into prospective employees and can’t find them via any social networks, I would think they had something to hide.  Privacy is honestly not that hard to control these days on social networks with all the press and importance put on the matter.  Large social networks have no choice but to make privacy settings easy to control because it’s such a hot topic.  And if someone does find them confusing, there are so many resources on the web to make privacy settings easy to understand and set up.

You Are Your Own Privacy Settings

But frankly, users need to be their own privacy setting before they post anything, tag a friend or write on a Wall.  I cringe when I see friends make posts complaining about their job or quote an inappropriate movie line or song lyric.  Or the person that is trying to be funny and posts an inside joke on a friend’s wall that can easily be taken out of context.  Try to be rational since you are actually broadcasting your comments to millions of people and not just your friends.

You have to assume anything you post on the Internet, and especially social networks, can and will be discoverable to anyone.  No matter what you set your privacy settings to, you should take the mindset that anything has the potential to be seen by people whose eyes you are trying to avoid.   Before you hit a submit or post button ask yourself “Why am I even posting this in the first place?”

Facebook is here to stay and anyone that is pointing to past social networks like Friendster and MySpace’s fall from grace are not looking at the obvious.  Facebook has far too many users, and more importantly, way too much marketing dollars committed to it to just fade away anytime soon.

But more significant is the fact that social networks are apart of our lives now and have forever changed the way we communicate and view the people around us.  Think before you post because you are getting judged on your online presence whether you “Like” it or not.

What do you think? Do you find your friends on Facebook are posting questionable things?  Do you have any examples of people you know getting in trouble because of something they posted on a social network? Let’s hear your stories in the comment section.

A little after 8pm EST last night, Facebook announced its much anticipated location base feature dubbed Facebook Places.   The three main components of Facebook Places will be sharing where you are, finding where your friends are and discovering new places around you.

There are no gimmicks, scoreboards, games, Mayors, Lords or made up names to go along with this new feature.  Current location based services like Gowalla, Foursquare, Yelp and a few others will be able to push their check-ins through Places from the start.  It has been widely noted that Foursquare didn’t seem thrilled at the announcement of Places.

Another critical element of Places is the ability for friends to tag you as being present at venues just like as in photos.  There is also a “Here Now” feature that will show up once you check-in somewhere.  As you can imagine, Places comes with a slew of new privacy settings to control who sees what and who can tag you at venues.  Privacy groups began voicing their concerns only hours after Facebook made the announcement.

While there is plenty of coverage on the specific features and privacy controls, I want to discuss the way Facebook went about announcing Places and some potential ramifications for users and businesses.

Privacy Settings and Notification

First, for such a major addition to the platform, I would expect more information to be available for users right from the start.  On previous occasions when new features have been announced, users are greeted with a big box at the top of the page when they login explaining what’s new.   I would venture to say the average Facebook user wouldn’t come across coverage of Places today, even with decent amounts of mainstream coverage.

My initial thought was the majority of Facebook users, especially the older demographic, will be completely freaked out over the idea of telling people where they are.  On top of that, add in the fact you can tag friends at locations without them explicitly giving permission and this sounds like another huge privacy snafu.  I know all of this can be taken care of with the privacy settings but that leads me to the next issue.

Why wouldn’t Facebook make a video that explains everything? They could have walked people through exactly how Places works and the new privacy settings for these features, including a walk through of the settings page. They could have even gone over the considerations users should have when setting them up.

When I went to look at my privacy settings this morning, I saw no call out for these new options I had to consider. Has Facebook learned nothing from what happened when they rolled out the Open Graph?  It seems like they are content with letting users fend for themselves when dealing with privacy settings.  I guess the negative press doesn’t scare them one bit, and maybe it shouldn’t considering the average person spends over 7 hours on their site a month.

Initial Availability

I was also a little disappointed when I updated my iPhone app this morning and was shown a graphic that said Places wasn’t available in my region yet.  I understand the idea of a soft launch to make sure their servers can handle everything, but I didn’t get that feeling watching and reading everything last night.  They should have announced Places yesterday, done a few days of PR and education and then rolled it out to a bigger user base.

It also seems that large businesses with multiple locations (the Starbucks of the world) won’t be able to merge all their Places pages with their main business page yet.  I think that is a mistake on the business side of things because you want the big brands to be able to integrate new features quickly to spread the word about them and get users on board.   A great example of this is when they rolled out the Open Graph functionality with Pandora and its over 50 million users.

Final Thoughts

I do, at the end of the day, like this new feature and I think it is a great addition to the platform.  I have been a big fan of Foursquare and it will be interesting to see how existing location base services can quickly integrate with Places and build better experiences on top of the platform.  Or, if they try to go at it alone, they may simply cease to exist once Places can start offering rewards.

Facebook is exactly what was needed to bring location services to the masses.  There is no doubt local advertising will get a huge boost from Places and hopefully users will be able to reap the benefits as well.   I have to say the biggest initial winner is the small business that can now merge their Places page with the business page for deeper engagements with users.

I give a thumbs up for Facebook Places but a thumbs down for how Facebook is handling the rollout.   Maybe this time they will finally learn how to announce a new feature, but probably not.  In the end, Facebook is one more step closer to their goal of global domination.  Or at least occupying all of a user’s time online.

What do you think? Will you use Facebook Places? Do you think businesses will know how to leverage Places at first or will it take a lot of time? Share your thoughts and first impressions in the comments section.