I’m not saying tools are a must but if used properly, social media apps can be great enhancers to your social networking endeavors, especially one that involves images and graphics like Pinterest. You don’t have to use anything complicated, just a few that enough to meet your pinning requirements. I hereby share with you some tools I tested and how they can be helpful in your daily pinning activities:

To Add Watermarks:

#1  PicMarkr

PicMarkr lets you upload pictures (maximum 5 at once) and add custom watermark to them to protect your copyrights. You can add text, image or tiled watermark; and set 40% opacity for your texts. Not much font choices but enough to fulfill its purpose.

To Create Quotes, Covers and How-to Pictures:

#2  Quozio

You can easily create a quote from the ready templates in quozio. All you need is type in the content and author. No uploading required.

Here’s the final result:

You can choose to pin directly by using the pin button below the template but the source will be leading to Quozio. You can change the link after or save the file then upload it manually.

Tip: You can create a quote from Quozio then use PicMarkr to brand your picture with watermark.

#3  Posterpin

You can upload own picture or customize the poster with ready-made templates. You can either keep the border or remove it, or create a text-only poster with Posterpin. All these can be previewed before saving it to your PC.

Final result for the chosen quote:

#4  PinWords

Another handy tool I love to easily create a quote by uploading own picture or use the templates instead. You may reposition and change the font color. Quite sophisticated for a free tool.

#5  Share As Image

Share As Image allows you to create and customize your quotes but free version comes with limited font and background color. Go for PRO then you may customize the color, size etc.

#6  PicMonkey

Comparing to above tools, PicMonkey can do so much more than just creating quotes. Not only it allows you to touch up your picture, you can add seasonal effects, frames and create collages from your uploaded photos! Here’s one I created for an article I read before uploading it to Pinterest last year:

Another thing I love is the ability to customize your picture with various themes! I’ll let Carolyn explain it all in her post how to make full use of PicMonkey.

Professional-looking, right?

To Capture Website Screenshot:

#7  url2pin.it

Insert the web link to generate the web preview as a screenshot to be pinned to Pinterest. A great way to recommend a website of your choice for Pinterest followers to check out.

#8  Shotpin

This browser extension allows you to take a screenshot from a webpage easily and crop it. A fantastic solution for blog posts that have no images or when the blog images are too small for pinning. Plus, it also allows you to Pin a PDF file, however this is only enabled for Chrome browser.

To Create Captions, Notes and So Much More:

#9  Pinstamatic

Got to be by far, the most widely used Pinterest image-creating tool any pinners would appreciate. Not only quotes and website screenshots, you can post sticky notes, music clips, map locations, twitter profiles with latest tweets, calendar dates.. all by using Pinstamatic.

Here’s an example of a quote created by Pinstamatic:

Online Photo Editors:

#10  Pixlr

Pixlr is a free image editing software that you can use directly in your browser, no download required. You can choose to upload the pic from your PC or open image by URL. It’s like a simpler ‘Photoshop’ tool yet so equipped with most of the necessary features: filters, layers, adjustments and much more! Perfect for any intermediate to advanced image editing work before uploading it for blogs or pinterest. Did I mention you can even select preferred language for the app too?

#11  LunaPic

LunaPic is a web-based photo editor that is famous for its multifunctional photo effects: to create animation or blend photos together etc. Since we won’t be using animation in Pinterest, one thing I use it for is creating photo collages and blending the picture within a special photo effect, such as 3D cube or like the one shown below:

For each setting or effect to take place the browser needs to refresh itself.

#12  FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer is fun and easy to use. Upload your photos (even from various social networking sites) and start editing at will. You can beautify, decorate, distort and apply multiple effects to your picture. One thing I love is that you can view all the changes right within the same browser, needless to refresh much. You may adjust the size, click at an area to apply the effects easily or if you’re not into anything fancy, the ‘basic’ option is pretty much enough for any pinners.

#13  iPiccy

If you are not into complicated customization, iPiccy is the online photo editor for you. It’s easy to navigate from one setting or effect to another. You can adjust exposures, fixing colors, add frames, retouch etc.

#14  Ribbet

Ribbet is very similar to iPiccy, including some of the options but a few (such as touch up, stickers, effects, frames) are for premium members which you need to register first before using it. For now it’s free to register but for limited time only. If you’re not into registering then can always check first if iPiccy has the option you need.

For Research & Analytical References:

#15  Repinly

To get more info on most popular pins, boards and pinners, Repinly is your go-to source. I see this as a reference to discover how people normally behave around Pinterest and which types of content they are most interested in general. A quick glance at the Pinterest statistics will give you an idea how people are using Pinterest:

#16  Pinreach

A tool to study your general Pinterest activities via total pins, likes, repins, comments, boards, followers etc. You can study all these stats for your Pinterest boards and find out your most influential followers on Pinterest. Take note on other options like ‘Trending Pins’ and ‘Trending Members’ and learn from those emerging users and their popular pins.

Monitor your influence and engagement level and improve your strategies from time to time.

#17  Pinpuff

Pinpuff is another pinterest-scoring system that looks into your overall influence, popularity and reach on Pinterest. I’m not into scoring system but if you wish to get an overview of how your boards performed, Pinpuff’s ‘score profile’ will do just fine.

#18  Pinalytics

Pinalytics is both a self-analytical and keyword tracking tool. When logged in, you can integrate your Google Analytics account to pull in your blog data and analyze them to check who and what had been pinned from your website.

Or you can always use Pinalytics as a simple keyword-analytical tool by typing your selected keyword and Pinalytics will help you to find and evaluate content (pins, boards or people) on Pinterest, including social sharing results on other social media sites. A great place to find like-minded pinners and boards to follow/engage besides analyzing your pinning efforts.

Currently the results seem random and you can sort them by various social signals. Would be great if we can sort them by date though.

For Pin Scheduling:

#19  Pingraphy

Pingraphy is still the only web tool I know that allows multi-pin scheduling. This is especially useful if you are a heavy pinner and it’s important to space out the pins to not overwhelm your followers; or so your target audience will see your pins even you’re not in the same timezone with them.

To Read: How to Schedule Your Pins to Pinterest Board with Pingraphy

For Pin Notifications:

#20  PinAlerts

I absolutely adore this tool! PinAlerts is useful to inform you whenever someone pinned from your website, all you need to do is provide your email address. This is great to improve engagement and build new connections, a perfect way to use it alongside with Pinterest’s very own notification system.

If you’d like to learn more on how useful Pinalerts is, check out Shelly’s post here.

To Create Infographics:

#21  Infogr.am

Equipped with all the data and rich media resources but no idea how to present them? Infogram is your answer! How? By letting you add all those visual content into their ready-made template without much hassle at all. You can create basic chart or an infographic, save your work in the library, duplicate it (optional) and edit from there. Infogram’s free service provides quite a number of elegant designs. Great tool for anyone who’s not much into designing or image editing but just to tell your story with facts and figures.

To Read: How to Easily Create Infographics in PowerPoint

For Fun and Entertainment

#22  Someecards

With someecards you don’t have to worry about the drawings, just be creative and add a caption that goes with the image. But be cautious on the type of humor you’re spreading while representing your brand.

#23  Imgflip Chart

Another fun thing to try is to apply humor on charts. All you need to do is add in the text and adjust the portion for the chart as shown:

Here’s an example of how it will look like:

Extra Tip: I’m not a fan of memes, but if you’re into them then perhaps can check out this meme generator.

Bonus Tips

Why not integrate your pinning effort with your existing social networks? Here are some bonus tips for you guys who are active on Facebook:

#24  Pin Deal from Tabsite

I heard about Pin Deal back in September last year but haven’t tested it yet. However the concept is revolutionary: encourage your fans or visitors to ‘Pin’ your promotion on pinterest, then the discount code will be shown to them to be eligible for a special offer. A great way to extend your reach and visibility without having to force someone to be your fan (the option to ‘Like’ the page is optional and completely up to the page admin during setup).

Pin Deal isn’t free but you can take it a spin with its 14-days free trial by selecting TabSite Platinum Plan.

#25  4 Timeline Apps to Add Pinterest to Your Facebook Page

Including Pinterest apps for Facebook Page from Woobox, ShortStack, Tabfusion and Pinvolve.

And for your guys who are sharing pins on Twitter, don’t forget:

#26  Twitter card Support

Here’s an article by Kelly showing how your pin will look on Twitter upon followers clicked on ‘View Photo’, very neat! I’m still trying to figure out how to make it work, if you’re interested can refer here.

There are just too many Pinterest apps available, for example Reachli (formerly known as Pinerly) is now offering campaign-setups for image advertising, while curalate and octopin are both analytics and monitoring tools that required DEMO-request that I don’t have access to yet. Even so, I think the above apps are pretty sufficient if you just started to emphasize on growing your presence on Pinterest.

More tools? Check out 4 Pinterest Tools to Try.

Now It’s Your Turn

Any other Pinterest tools you are currently using to grow your brand presence and effectiveness? Love to hear them. If not, have you tested any apps above? How are they working out for you?

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Are you using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog?

Pinterest has the ability to drive massive amounts of traffic to websites – this includes blogs. In fact Pinterest has become the highest traffic generator for some blogs. An example is Ana White’s carpentry blog where Pinterest is the top referring site, sending 6000 visitors a day.

By implementing the right techniques to optimize your website for Pinterest and promoting yourself directly on the social network, you can also divert a lot of traffic to your blog. I have shared 5 effective techniques below that can help increase the traffic your blog receives through Pinterest…

1. Add Images to Your posts: The only way to make a post shareable on Pinterest is by adding an image or images to it. If there is no image on the post, it will not be pinnable. So add images to each and every post on your blog.

Here are a few tips on using images to optimize your blog:-

a) Image size should be a minimum of 80 X 80 Pixels: The minimum size of a pinnable image is 80 X 80 Pixels. An image can only be pinned if it is of this size or bigger. So make sure one or more images on your blog posts are of the minimum size (at least) to encourage people to share them. Of course there is a post on Kissmetrics that contradicts the minimum Pinterest image size, but just to be on the safe side make sure your images are at least 80 X 80 pixels.

b) Create Unique Images:  One way to get more people to share your images is by creating unique ones. There are tons of images being shared on Pinterest everyday and if you want your images to be pinned and repined you need to make the extra effort to get them to standout. So create images that are different. This could be taking a good photo, great screenshots or designing quality images from scratch.

c) Install the Pinterest Pin it button for Images: Pinterest Pin It button For Images is a Plugin for WordPress blogs. When you add, activate and set up the button on your blog a pin it button will appear on each and every image when you scroll over it. A similar effect can be found when you scroll over the images on a post on Brit+co. You will notice that a Pin It button will appear on the right corner of the image. This can encourage people to share the image. If you have a WordPress blog you should try out this button.

For more tips on creating Pinterest friendly images check out how to create highly shareable Pinterest pictures for your business and creating Pinterest Images people love to share.

An example of a blog using images effectively is the one I mentioned earlier – Ana White’s blog. On each and every post on the blog there are several images that liven up the post. First, there are a few images of the finished product. This is followed by step by step illustrations on how to build the product.

On one of her posts – Wall Kitchen Cabinet Basic Carcass Plan – you will notice that the post starts off with a few pictures of the cabinet and this is followed by step by step instructions and illustrations on how to build it from scratch. The post has more than ten pinnable images which makes it highly shareable on Pinterest.

In a similar way make sure your posts are filled with several unique and high quality pictures and images.

2. Add the Pin It Button: According to this study by BrightEdge Technologies, web pages with share buttons are seven times more likely to be shared, than ones without. Therefore if you add the Pin It button to your blog posts, the chances of your post being pinned increases. And the more pins you get will lead to more traffic. This button can be manually added to each and every post or you can use the Digg Digg plugin (if your blog runs on WordPress). This plugin can help you automatically add the button to each and every post you publish.

3. Invite Board Contributors: Another way to drive traffic to your blog is by adding board contributors. When you add several board contributors to your board and all of them together add a lot of content to it, it will attract a lot of board followers and fans. So when you pin an image from your blog onto the same board the board’s followers will help promote it by repining. This can help increase your blog traffic. For best results share blog posts from your blog and other sites on the same board instead of having separate boards.

So spend some time identifying your most active fans and invite them over to join your boards.

A great tool that can help you easily find your most active fans is Curalate. Using Curalate you can find out who your most active users are and see what they are sharing, both from your website and your brand page. You can also check what your most popular boards are. This information can then be used to invite Pinners who are enthusiastic about promoting your blog.

4. Verify Your Website: When you verify your website your entire URL appears on the brand page and a tick mark appears beside. These two factors will make your website address more prominent than the usual tiny globe sign it is represented by. This can help increase the click through rate of the website address on your brand page and if you add and verify your blog’s URL it will automatically result in more blog traffic. To learn how to verify your website, check out this post.

An example of a verified blog URL on a brand page is of The Next Web’s. As you can see the full URL of the blog, along with the red tick mark, gets it to standout on the brand page. This will get more people to notice it and will lead to more clicks which will increase their blog traffic. If you stick to your brand and pin images relevant to it, the traffic you receive should be quite interested in reading your blog’s content.

5. Add your blog post URL to your description: Usually when someone wants to visit the source of the pin (website where it was pinned from) they have to click on the pin first, wait for it to enlarge and then visit the source which is usually located at the top of the pin or on the pin itself. This seems a little time consuming, doesn’t it.

This process of finding the source can be simplified by adding the link to the description. This way they won’t even need to enlarge the pin, all they need to do is read the description and click on the link. As this is easier and faster, it should lead to more clicks on your pins.

For this to work, always make sure you add the full URL and not a shortened one, as shortened ones in the description are quite often rejected as spam. To have an even stronger effect have a call to action that urges the reader to click on the link and check out the blog post.

Someone who does this really well is Jo Barnes. If you visit her board, Social Media Updates, you will notice that there are several pins which have live links that lead to the source. This makes it easy to visit the blog post and can be very effective in increasing blog traffic.

Implement all the above techniques and you should see a rise in the blog traffic you receive from Pinterest.

[Editor's Note] Extra Tips: 21 Pinterest Tips to Build Your Brand Visibility

What do you think about the above tips? Did I forget to mention any important points? I would like to hear your thoughts. Please leave your comments in the comments box below.

Mitt Ray is the founder of Social Marketing Writing, where you can download his free video tutorial on “How to Use Pinterest for Business?” He is also the author of the book White Paper Marketing. Follow him on Twitter @MittRay.

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More changes in 2013?

It’s common for Facebook to undergo drastic (or silent) changes whether the users like it or not. The real question is, how ready are you when Facebook is determined to ‘make the world more open and connected’? Have you made full use of the privacy and account settings to your advantage?

Also, if you’ve been observant enough you should’ve discovered several improvements on the existing features to make them more visible and user friendly. Why not give this list a run-through and see if you missed any.

Privacy Settings:

#1  To Pre-set Your Future Posts

You can predetermine the audience selector for your next status update besides doing it right below your status box before publishing. Otherwise, this setting is fixed upon your last status update.

To Get There: Go to your Privacy Settings –> Privacy –>Who can see my stuff?

#2  To Review Tagged Posts and Photos

Your Activity Log had gone through a complete makeover. It’s now easier to scan through your tagged posts or photos and you can set so to be notified when tagged by friends, anyone or friends of friends.

To Get There: Go to your Activity Log –> Posts You’re Tagged In

Note that when you tagged someone in a post, the audience selector will immediately indicate who else is seeing it besides your audience.

#3  To Control Who Can Look You Up

It’s almost impossible to hide on Facebook. However, you can control who can look you up based on the email address or phone number you provided on Facebook.

To Get There: Go to your Privacy Settings–> Privacy –> Who Can Look Me Up?

Your timeline can be opted-out of search engine results. To do this, simply untick the checkbox. Of course, Facebook will persuade you to reconsider but the decision is yours.

If you prefer to gain followers (formerly known as ‘Subscribers’) for your personal Timeline, then I’d recommend you to keep the box ticked for extra visibility.

Mobile Settings:

#4  To Log Out from Your Missing Phone

When you lose your phone, two critical things you must do to immediately: remove your phone number from your Facebook account and click the ‘Lose your phone’ link to log out from your Facebook mobile app completely.

To Get There: Go to your Privacy Settings –> Mobile –> Lose Your Phone?

Managing Notifications:

#5  To Set Notifications for All Your Groups

You can now easily set how you’d like to receive notifications for ALL your groups – including those you’ve joined: to allow all posts, friends’ posts or turn them off completely. How convenient!

To Get There: Go to your Privacy Settings –> Notifications –> What You Get Notified About –> Group activity

There are a few other types of notifications worth exploring, especially if you wish to reduce the noise sent to your emails etc:

• Facebook notifications– you can choose to turn off follow-up alerts by clicking ‘unfollow’ in the notification bar.
  
• Email notifications- to set so all or only certain notifications reach you via email.
  
• Mobile notifications– You can choose to receive notifications when someone commented, sent you a request or even from selected friends only. Also, you can set to receive notifications via text messages at the selected time frame.
• Notifications for ‘Close Friends activity’ – to either receive them on facebook, email or none.
• Notifications for Your ‘Followers’ – people who are not your friends but you can set to be notified (or not) about their reactions to your public posts.
• Pages you manage – to set notifications for selected pages you are managing.

Facebook Apps Settings:

#6  An Overview of Your App Settings’ audience selectors

I don’t recall seeing the audience selector listed for each app without having to ‘Edit’ first, so that’s a plus for users to examine and edit the app privacy settings whenever necessary.

To Get There: Go to your Privacy Settings –> Apps

#7  To Limit Post Visibility for Old Mobile Apps

A great way to control the visibility of your older posts published by outdated Facebook mobile apps.

To Get There: Go to your Privacy Settings –> Apps –> Old version of Facebook for mobile

Other New Features:

#8  To Filter the Messages Heading Your Way

Anyone can message you on Facebook. To reduce spammy messages, you need to filter your inbox: keep a basic filtering or a strict one. Use the Spam folder wisely and also look out for your ‘Others’ folder – whatever messages coming from non-friends will most likely ended up there instead of your Inbox (unless they pay for it).

To Get There: Go to https://www.facebook.com/messages –> More–> Spam

Two ways to access the filtering options,

one is via the privacy shortcuts –>Who can contact me?

Another is from your Other Folder –> Edit Preferences:

#9  To Report a Problem or Send a Feedback:

Normally, users need to identify the feature that caused the problem here then scroll through the Q&A just to locate the bug form via ‘tell us more’. Luckily, now we have an easier option:

Go to ‘Help’ –> ‘Report a Problem’ –> ‘Report a Problem’ (again)–> select the feature from the dropdown menu then write in the text box. I’d recommend you to attach a screenshot to explain the problem further.

Easier? A long awaited feature for sure!

#10  Facebook Single Column Timeline Layout

Mari Smith did a fantastic job explaining the new layout thoroughly on her blog, do head over there and learn all about it:

And lastly,

#11  Facebook Graph Search

The most talked about feature since last week – learn all about it here. As much the concept is welcoming (and lucrative if Facebook decides to monetize it), but if users aren’t careful with what they are sharing, their names and photos could end up in search results they least hope for others to find out. So make sure you read this and go through the privacy and app settings mentioned earlier in this post. Check your ‘About’ section for places, photos, interests you shared (including pages you liked) to avoid embarrassment.

Now It’s Your Turn

Have you missed any of the Facebook changes or settings mentioned above? Any other suggestions on how to improve user experience on Facebook? Tell us in your comment.

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Are you struggling to generate LIKES, comments and shares on your Facebook page? Whether your challenge is a lack of motivation, inspiration or creativity, knowing how to organically reach fans can be frustrating.

While there is no set rule to determining what content your fans crave most, there are creative ways to figure out what they find appealing, interesting and LIKEable!

#1  Use Images to Tell a Story

Facebook Timeline gave business pages an exceptional opportunity. Not only could they use images to draw fans in, but also to eat up a considerable amount of real estate in the news feed.

Images can gain the attention of your fans in a split-second and beg them to “drop by” your page for another look around. They are an excellent motivator and a great connector to the look, feel and voice behind your brand.

When using images, don’t feel compelled to write a long, drawn out status update. Instead, allow the image to impart what words might fail to say. And if you must use words, keep it short and sweet.

Disney is one brand using images in a very compelling way. They know the power images have to draw out emotion by recalling a fond memory or moment in time. Just take a look at a recent post. It almost feels as if you just watched the movie for the first time doesn’t it?

#2  Solve a Problem

Want to know what the needs of your fans are? Take the time to listen!Listening and identifying what their main concerns, challenges or fears are will equip you to meet those in a very real and genuine way.

Use tools such as Google Alerts, SocialMention, Clicky and Hashtags to listen in on conversations, whether they are about your brand, local community or industry.

Each of the tools above will let you monitor specific keywords or phrases that will keep your ear to the ground and your Facebook topics relevant to your audience.

After all, why would any Facebook admin want to leave the conversation to chance?

#3  Be Authentic

While both authenticity and transparency get tossed around as two of the most overused words in social media, their value should not be diminished.

If your Facebook efforts are failing, ask yourself a few questions:

• Have you stripped away any preconceived notions of who you believe you should be online?
• Are you a person that others want to connect with? If not, why?
• How can you transition your offline persona to your online presence? (Let me tell you a secret. Mastering this is where the true magic begins)!

People want to connect with you, so share what matters to you both professionally as well as personally. Talking shop all of the time is just plain boring. My love of coffee is a great connector and easily opens the door to conversation whether I’m making a new friend on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Use this information in the same way on your page.

As the saying goes, people work with those they “know, like and trust.” The only way to build a bridge between you and your fans is through direct and candid communication.

Oreo knows the value behind this and works to prove to their fans that they do more than sell a cookie; they truly care about their fans.

#4  Never Forget Your Call to Action

With nearly one-half (47%) of social media users saying that they’ve taken some type of action offline because of their interaction online, it’s evident that using a call to action in your posts is a must.

A clear and concise call to action should have a single purpose; to inspire your fans to instantly act upon your post.  Whether it’s a simple status update or an eye-catching image, the key is to get your fans actively engaging with your page. Once you determine what their content sweet spot is, you bypass the angst associated with Edgerank and whether or not your content is actually showing up in your fans newsfeed.

So how can you craft your content in a persuasive way, never leaving your desired action to chance? Keep your posts short, simple, fun, interesting, relevant and easy to answer. A few examples:

• Questions:
  • We love breakfast! What’s your favorite meal of the day?
  • Coffee or tea?
  • What is your first memory of [your brand]?
  • Math or English: what was your favorite subject?
• Fill in the blank:
  • Have you ever _____?
  • We ‘LIKE’  __________. What do you think?
  • My favorite day of the week is __________?
  • Finish this sentence: I couldn’t go one day without ______!
•  Engaging:
  • Monday again? Click ‘LIKE’ if you’d rather still be home in bed!
  • Talk about a view! ‘SHARE’ if you wish you were here!
  • Hands up if you’re ready for the weekend!
  • ‘LIKE’ this post if you have Spring fever!

Pringles is a great page to follow if you’re looking high engagement and inspired posts. They definitely know who their audience is and succeed in delivering quality content in an enticing and energizing way each and every day.

#5  Give Your Fans a Platform to Be Heard

Allow your fans to offer feedback, support and insight by asking for their opinion. We all want to know that our opinion makes a difference. There is no better way to endure your brand to fans than by making their voice heard.

In my belief, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to appear omniscient. You are not. You do not possess special insight magical powers. The only way to truly know what your fans want, need or desire from you and your brand is to ask.

A page that does an exceptional job at involving their fans is the City of New York. They recently asked there over 50,000 fans how they would redesign New York City’s 11,412 pay phones. I can guarantee that if you are a resident of the City of New York; you appreciate the opportunity to share your thoughts.

#6  Use Your Analytics and Insights

If a Facebook post falls in the forest and no ones around to hear it, did it really happen? The answer is no. If you don’t pay attention to your analytics and know when your fans are online and what content they crave, there is no sense in throwing out worthless posts that fall upon deaf ears.

Review your analytics frequently to identify what content receives the highest engagement. Is it images, links, videos or a simple status update? Just because the latest Facebook engagement poll has status updates triumphing over images in the newsfeed does not make it true for your page and fans.

A perfect example of this is the Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate page where images receive an 87% higher engagement rate than any other type of post. That crowd is extremely visual and no statistic is going to tell them otherwise.

This is why it is so important for you to learn what content connects with your fans and then give it to them, along with your call to action, as often as possible.

Skittles is one page that has no doubt who their audience is and what content they desire. They’re page is fun, colorful and a real treat for any fan, just like the candy itself.

Now It’s Your Turn

So which tip will you use on your Facebook page today? Remember, the only way any of these ideas will work is if you work them consistently. Set your goals, put a plan in motion and get started today!

Rebekah is a social media strategist, content developer and trainer that has been actively involved in the Real Estate and Mortgage Industries for over 18 years. Rebekah believes that social media has transformative powers when it is used correctly and integrated in to a strategic marketing plan. Rebekah manages social media on a daily basis and is eager to help you STOP those time sucking activities and maximize, prioritize and monetize your online efforts! Follow Rebekah on Twitter @rebekahradice.

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Photo Credit: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

Have you read anything about the mobile market lately? If not, you’re really behind the curve here. The fact is that the mobile market is absolutely exploding, and 2013 is going to be the biggest year yet for mobile users and subscriptions. So if you’ve been wondering how to leverage the mobile market, now’s the time to find out.

One of the best ways to leverage any market online is through Facebook, and this certainly holds true for a mobile market. With eight hours and four minutes spent on Facebook a month per user on average, that’s nearly double the next social platform on the list (Google). And of the top 10 mobile properties in the US, 30% of users spend the most time on Facebook. Here’s an infographic explaining more stats:

Needless to say, Facebook is the medium with which to reach your market. The only question now is how. Learning how to market the right way is imperative, and the steps below will paint a more detailed picture for you to use.

A Three-Step Approach for Leveraging the Mobile Market through Facebook

Step 1: Give Your Audience Something of Value

You’re only going to be able to reach your mobile audience via their News Feed, so you have to think about providing something that really comes across as newsworthy to those you advertise to. High-quality content is always imperative in any type of social media marketing, but it takes on a new level of importance when attempting to reach the mobile market.

When you think of something of value, you should think of something your contacts, fans and/or customers can instantly use (and you can offer something different for each subsection of your target market). Think contests and promotions, coupons and insider information. Give your audience a good reason to engage with you. Below you’ll see an example of a Facebook fans exclusive promo of Sephora. This is a great way to keep your fans engaged and happy.

Editor’s Note: Use visual content to improve fans engagement and tweak a few settings to optimize your facebook page.

Step 2: Increase Your Reach Through Multiple Ad Formats

There’s only so far you’re going to be able to reach unless you implement multiple ad formats to help you specifically target narrower markets. Facebook allows you to target incredibly distinct and defined niches, so take advantage of this fact by using the ad formats available for you.

It might be a little more of an investment, but increasing your reach through the use of Sponsored Stories and Page Post ads is how you can dominate the mobile market in your respective niche. While everyone else is trying organic methods and hoping, you can advertise and increase your share significantly.

Editor’s Recommendation: An Introduction to Facebook Mobile Ads

Step 3: Practice Proper Ad Placement for Optimized Results

Placement targeting is a great method that people have been using for years with AdSense. You can make use of placement targeting via Facebook and really optimize your campaigns. Deciding which ad units will be placed where gives you the freedom to send market A an ad that tests strongly, while sending market B an equally strong ad.

You’re not simply throwing ads out to a general market. Placement targeting allows you to gain control over where your ads will be placed. It gives you more bang for your buck, to use an old cliché, and you can test where they work best: news feed, in mobile or desktop etc.

Mobile markets are going to control social media before too much longer. With so many different varieties of smartphones and tablet PCs on the market, the average person will no longer have a home computer; they’ll have a mobile device. This means more people logging onto sites like Facebook more frequently.

And if you play your cards correctly, that means more brand recognition, more customers, and more profit for your business. If you’re still not decided whether you’ll go for Facebook mobile ads, feel free to check out Qwaya’s latest case study here: ‘Benchmark: Mobile vs Desktop on Facebook’.

• Editor’s Note: Bonus Tips from Ching Ya

  Here are a few things you should know about creating a Facebook ad for mobile users.

  a. Interest Targeting (‘Broad Category’)

  Facebook had improved their broad category option for ‘Mobile’. Apart from targeting people who access Facebook from Mobile, you can narrow it down further based on their device type and operating systems. Very cool:

  

  Where to locate it?

  When creating a new Facebook ad, look for ‘Choose Your Audience’ -> ‘Broad Categories’.

  b. Power Editor

  If you have been monitoring your Facebook Ads using Power Editor, you may have discovered a similar targeting-upgrade for mobile users based on OS and device types as shown below:

  

  Where to locate it?

  Power Editor is only accessible using Chrome. Download your Chrome browser here if you don’t have it. Then go to ‘Manage Ads’ -> ‘Power Editor’ (or you can access directly via this link). Download your Facebook Ads account and select your ad. Click at ‘Placements’ -> ‘News feed only’ -> Make sure the ‘Mobile’ option is ticked to activate both OS and Device Types options.

  Extra Info: New Features to Mobile App Install Ads

This is an article written by Stanna Johnson from Qwaya. Stan is an online writer and a social media enthusiast who loves to write about the latest social media trends. Feel free to leave your questions and comments below and she’ll surely answer it.

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Social, visual, interactive – Pinterest had since developed itself into a social media phenomenon where people coming in everyday for gift ideas, sharing discoveries and inspirations. The ease of navigating the platform attracts small businesses to expand their reach by sharing visual-compelling photos and resources for followers to like and repin. If you’re into visual branding but haven’t got on the ‘Pinterest’ bandwagon, perhaps it’s time to reconsider your approach.

I hereby compiled a list of vital tips brands should know when managing their visibility on Pinterest, let’s take a look:

#1  To Allow User Generated Content

Give your audience the opportunity to be your brand advocate by adding them as a contributor (or guest-pinner) to one of your Pinterest boards, like how Etsy did with their boards. Ask other pinners to email you if they’re interested to join too. This is a great opportunity to extend your reach with indirect promotion done by your board contributors on their social networking sites.

To Read:How to Get More Pinterest Exposure With Less Work

#2  To Smartly Integrate ‘Words’ into Your Pinterest Images

This includes choosing the right:

• Board name and descriptions
• Board category
• Keywords (file name of your pin)
• Call To Action within the image, like ‘Click to Learn More’ etc.

Think ‘searchability’ when uploading your pins. Words are important especially to encourage cross-posting by followers via social sharing integrations (Twitter, Facebook).

Tip: Add hashtag to your selected keyword if necessary, for example #socialmedia. If you are promoting a campaign make sure you are using the exact same hashtag for other social platforms too.

To Read: Why Pinterest Is NOT Your SEO Miracle Worker

#3  To Make Use of Humors, Infographics and DIYs

Inspirational quotes, infographics and DIYs are extremely popular on Pinterest. Is it possible to incorporate those into your pinning strategy? Be a content curator or share your industrial researches and inspiring ideas to enrich pinner’s user experience.

Michael Stores is offering all kinds of DIY inspirations to pinners:

A decent idea to collect infographics related to your niche in one place:

#4  To Comment on Pins Regularly

Check out popular pins and learn how people react to them and comment. Contribute to the conversations by adding insightful thoughts (perhaps a little humor too if appropriate). Identify top commenters on your niche and build relationship with them. Mention them using @ and always credit the source for your pin.

Tip: Look at ‘Recent Activity’ at your Pinterest sidebar and start engaging with those who recently commented, liked or repinned from your boards.

#5  To Tell a Story on Pinterest

If you manage to share a story that resonates with your audience, people are very much willing to re-tell (repin) that story over and over again.

I love how Jan is sharing her personal story without giving out the content in the open. See how many people agreed with her after visited the link!

Tip: NEVER copy the entire article from the site. A longer text-pin may attract pinners at first-glance but it can be a turn-off as well. The character limit for Pinterest is 500. Instead to using them all, quote a small snippet from the article then add your own thoughts to it.

#6  To Monitor Your Brand Visibility via ‘Source’

Check how your brand or blog posts spread in pinterest-atmosphere by tracking how many people are pinning from your website:

http://pinterest.com/source/YourDomainHere

Replace ‘YourDomainHere’ with your own link, for example here’s mine. Watch out for the pinners’ descriptions and thank them for pinning if manage.

Tip: Make sure there is at least one image with a minimum size of 110 x 100 pixels or else people won’t be able to pin your article directly.

To Read: How to Track Your Website’s Content on Pinterest

#7  To Pin Videos, Slides other than Images

Use video to share a footage of a special event hosted by your brand (including ‘behind the scenes’). Or you can create video tutorials for technical issues your audience normally encounter:

Or showcase your slide presentations on niche topics:

#8  To Create a Social Media Résumé Board

This is particularly useful if you are all about rich media and visual branding. An interesting approach by Christopher Penn to introduce himself and the work he does ‘visually’ to his followers:

To Read: 8 Tips for a Pinterest Social Media Resume.

#9  To Describe YOU/Your Brand with Style

There’s nothing wrong to show more ‘personality’ of the brand (with core values) other than formal, industrial boards. Unless it’s forbidden by your company, why not embrace other interests, trends by curating them according to your brand’s unique tastes? One of the best examples I’ve seen so far is Hubspot (they sure know how to have fun!):

#10  A Little Shameless Self-Promo Doesn’t Hurt

It’s completely fine if you have a couple of boards to promote your work or products. Just spread out the pins and diversify the content. Don’t force feed your followers with sales catalog.

Tip: Add the price in your pin description (with the $ symbol) will create a price tag for the item, which also features it in the ‘Gifts’ section where people can browse by price range.

#11  Remember to Drive Traffic BACK to your Website

Pinterest links are now NoFollow but it shouldn’t stop you from pinning from your own website. Social signals now play a huge role in Google SEO too so think long term and pin regularly from your site whenever there’s a fresh content published.

To Read: How to Track Traffic From Pinterest in Google Analytics

#12  To Build Your Email List (and Exposures)

Create catchy sign-up forms then direct the pin source to your landing page where people can exchange the goodies with their email addresses (but ensure the quality of your gift). Another way to boost brand exposure is by hosting ‘pin to win’ contests where users can help to spread the words for your brand by repinning. Make sure your pictures are pin-worthy but not some mediocre, random snapshots. Also, the prizes should be attractive enough while adhering to Pinterest terms of service.

Tip: If you own a blog, leverage your Pinterest contest for referral traffic and persuade the contestants to stay as blog readers. Give them something to come back for.

To Read:

5 Tips for Pinterest Pin-to-Win Contests

9 Businesses Using Pinterest Contests to Drive Traffic and Exposure

#13  To Integrate Pinterest Effort into other Social Networks

Build yourself a trusted brand and packed with content that people from your niche crave for, then promote it with courtesy across your social networking sites. You can leverage your Facebook page to hold a pinning contest like GAP did via a third party app:

Before pomoting your boards in newsletters or emails, be selective and inform your subscribers upfront with what they expect to see with a couple of pin-worth images. This is a great example from Pinterest itself with ‘pins you’ll love’:

You may create something similar or use a ready-made template for your emailing campaign like how Mailchimp did by integrating Pinterest in their service.

To Read: 4 Timeline Apps to Add Pinterest to Your Facebook Page

#14  As a Research Tool to Understand Your Audience Better

That’s why it’s great to connect with your potential/current clients or customers. Not only to build relationship but to understand them better – what they like and which type of images/products they are most interested in. Will you be able to improve your service/product to meet their needs?

Tip: Stay alert with the latest trend to present your work visually. Be reminded that people are constantly looking for inspirations and ideas on Pinterest. Think simple but make your pins appealing enough to get repinned.

#15  How about ‘Milestones’ on Pinterest?

Apart from the great resources or products your brand provided, there’s nothing wrong to celebrate a few achievements, milestones and anniversaries.  A good way to motivate you and your colleagues while getting followers to cheer for your outstanding work!

Michael Korsis celebrating their big moments via a ‘Michael’s Milestones’ board.

#16  To Create Seasonal Boards for Your Brand

Be contemporary and festive with at least one of your boards. Is your brand capable of creating a few holiday greeting cards or thank you cards for users to pass around? A great way to socialize even with people who are yet aware of your brand! Even if you’re not creative, a seasonable board to share your interest might not be a bad idea as well.

Obviously I can’t say ‘No’ to Christmas DIY and Crafts. Wish I have more time to dig them out:

Or you can find another brand to co-organize a sweepstake in conjunction of the holiday:

Want to be inspired by bigger brands? IKEA created their new interactive catalog, encourage users to pin their wishlist and share with their family and friends. As for Pinterest, they even started a holiday-themed boards of 30 Days of Pinspiration for brands to inspire you:

Tip: Create coupon pins for special discounts on your products.  Or you may get some ideas from Melanie from her 3 Easy Ways to Get More Sales During the Holidays with Pinterest.

#17  Be Selective with What You’re Cross-Posting

For syndication or when promoting a particular board on Pinterest, try to use the unique board RSS Feed so your followers can easily add it to their feedreaders and not get overwhelmed with whatever you’re pinning on Pinterest. To access the RSS feed for your Pinterest board, replace the slash ‘/’ at the end of your board link with ‘.rss’ as shown below:

http://pinterest.com/wchingya/social-media-awesomeness.rss

#18  Deliver Your Survey Results via ‘Infographic’

As I mentioned earlier, Infographic is one of the hottest visual trends and a popular tactic to encourage sharing. Your news outlets will be happy you do them a favor so they can promote your story easily and visually. Want to share your survey results? Next time do it with an infographic!

#19  To Make Full Use of Your Secret Boards

For now users can only have 3 secret boards. You can keep it private or invite a few people to contribute, depending how you’d like to utilize it for your brand’s advantage:

• Brainstorm ideas for future projects/boards
• Secret board for discussions, exchanging ideas with selected community members, colleagues.
• Motivational content that are not meant for public.
• For organizing special events, occasions for a cause or someone.

Tip: You can turn ‘Off’ the secret board to make it public. However you won’t be able to make it ‘secret’ again once converted. Remember, only the board creator can make the board public without the permission from other collaborators.

#20  To Verify Your Website on Pinterest

This is extremely important if you own a site and wish to extend its reach on Pinterest. The steps are quite simple as described:

Once verified, a red checkmark can be found on your Pinterest profile next to your URL. How about the new business accounts for Pinterest? I’ll let Hubspot explain everything in A Guide to Pinterest’s New Business Accounts.

#21  To Never Stop Observing and Learning

Whether you are a newbie or veteran in social networking, make sure you stay updated with the trends and familiarize yourself with how people getting about using Pinterest. Don’t violate rules or mis-perform any kind of etiquettes that will bring disastrous consequences to your brand. And there’s nothing wrong to follow your competitors, learn what they do and why they get tons of repins, how they respond to followers; observe the good while improvise the bad. Create your own unique approach, be more interesting.

To Read: Pinterest Etiquette: 13 Tips to Pin By

By the way, are you on Pinterest too? Let’s connect:

Now Is Your Turn

How has Pinterest worked out for your brand visibility so far? Any tips you’d like to contribute? Tell us in your comment.

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For those of you who read my Facebook Page Changes earlier you will enjoy this article too! Consider this a self-review on how much you know about Facebook (Profile) Timeline. Besides the changes, I’ve included a few less-known features (and resources) that may already been on your homepage for months now! Don’t miss anything important:

Go through the list below ASAP!

#1  Name List Preview for ‘Likes’ and ‘Mutual Friends’

A minor update not long ago but great for a quick glance on who liked your post with a mouse-over.

Instead of visiting the profile, you can find out instantly (again with a mouse-over) who are the ‘mutual friends’ both you and the sender shared when checking your Friend Requests:

Extra Tip: Click here to check all your Hidden Requests and Invites from friends.

#2  To Change Primary Photo on Timeline

If you upload multiple photos at once (minimum 4 photos), one of the pictures will appear larger than the rest on your Timeline. To switch it with another photo, click at the pencil icon and select ‘Change Primary Photo’. You can then use ‘Reposition Photo’ if your selected picture doesn’t fit in properly.

Extra Tip: Wall photo will be displayed as 403×403 pixels in individual post and 960px width is optimal. Learn more about Facebook photo sizes and how you can make full use of your visual content.

#3  Privacy Settings for Profile Picture

Just a reminder that all your photos in Profile Pictures folder will be set as ‘Public’ viewable by default. Tweak the settings manually if need to.

#4  More Photo Thumbnails in News Feed

A huge surprise when I saw a total of 9 (not 6) photo thumbnails in my news feed a couple of weeks ago! You know what that means – more photos for visibility!

#5  Facebook Gifts

Soon everyone will be able to buy friends a gift directly from Facebook! This feature has already rolled out for U.S. users and will reach everyone gradually. You can look it up in your Account Settings -> Gifts tab or learn more from here.

Or better, a video to show you how it works:

Note: For Brand Pages who wish to list their products as gift options, fill and submit the form to Facebook.

#6  Discovering Pages to Like

Remember how we used to check page recommendations via this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/browser.php ? Now it’s easier for everyone to reach there without memorizing the link. Look for it at your sidebar:

#7  Turn off Notifications or Unfollow Conversations

You can easily turn off notifications from Groups or unfollow a post directly from the notification bar.

Too many Group updates coming your way? Make sure to un-tick ‘Posts or comments in one of your groups’ here to turn off the noise once and for all:

#8  To Share Files from Dropbox in Facebook Groups

Dropbox is now one of your file-sharing options in Facebook Groups. Once you link your Dropbox account to Facebook, you can search and share photos, documents and video files with your group members. Make sure you aware what information both platforms exchange during the integration.

#9  Emoticons in Chats, Comments and Facebook Inbox

You can see them basically everywhere now:

You can even create emoticons with keyboard shortcuts. Just bookmark and use this guide below:

Extra Tip: Not a fan of emoticons? You can see them less with a simple trick, but that only affects what you see but not to others.

#10  You got a Social Calendar!

Go to this link to check upcoming birthdays and events from friends. Switch between ‘List’ and ‘Calendar’ view; scroll down to load more updates. You can also export the events as shown below!

#11  App Privacy Settings on Profile Timeline

People can view your most-recent app activities on your Profile Timeline based on your audience selector. You can either hide the activities on the spot:

Or go to your ‘Activity Log’ -> Select the app name then untick the app activities you want to hide from your app page:

At the same time, review your app’s individual stories and adjust the visibility there:

Too much work, you say? Then hide everything as described at Tip #2 in this post.

#12  Clear Your Facebook Search History (optional)

Go to your ‘Activity Log’ -> look for ‘Search’ in the dropdown:

Here you can find all the search terms you’ve used in Facebook. You can either keep or delete them. To do the latter, click at ‘Clear Searches’ below the dropdown and reconfirm your choice when the pop up appears.

#13  Check for Auto-Categorized Pages

Certain pages will auto-categorize themselves in your Facebook ‘About’ section. Check your ‘Likes’ and remove the wrongly categorized ones or hide from public view, depends on your preference.

#14  Tweak Your Ad Privacy Settings

Two routes to access this setting: one is a long way through ‘Privacy Settings’ while the other can be found within ‘Account Settings’:

Note: In case you’re wondering about the recent Facebook Exchange – the retargeted ads program through real time bidding, you can’t opt out from the program completely. However if you find the ads shown to you to be irrelevant or don’t want to see them again, you can follow the link to the DSP and opt out of future FBX Ads. More info about Facebook Exchange here.

#15  Brand New Facebook Inbox

Facebook Messages has gone through a makeover. Not only you can find out if your message has been read by the receiver, an improved photo sharing and message-searching experience are guaranteed.

#16  Use Facebook Search for Engagement

Facebook-tagging doesn’t always work well for pages. For instance, I had no idea Mari tagged me when she shared my article and it wasn’t in my page’s Spam folder either. Luckily I ran a quick Facebook search and that’s how I found out who else shared my blog link. A simple yet overlooked feature to improve engagement:

Extra Tip: Switch between ‘Posts by Friends’ and ‘Public Posts’ for better results.

#17  Recommendation Bar for Content Creators

“Wow! Hundreds of ‘likes’, maybe I should read that article too?” Don’t underestimate the social signals on a Facebook Recommendation bar. If you’re a content creator, make your visitors stay longer on your site with the Recommendations Bar or use the Facebook for WordPress plugin instead.

#18  Moo Cards for Facebook Timeline

I know, I know, this is old news already but to be honest, I totally forgot about it until someone mentioned about synchronizing the cover design with their business card! This is just for your info that Facebook actually integrated such service, just in case you’re new to Timeline and wish to try it out.

But I do wonder how many people actually use this? Don’t you?

And finally, a bonus tip which I learned the hard way,

#19  ALWAYS Check Your Audience Selector

Your ‘audience selector‘ is fixed upon your last Facebook update. For security and visibility reasons, make sure you check it before posting: vital to those who had created custom lists for Facebook friends and enabled public subscription at the same time.

Extra Tip: Check how your personal Timeline appears to public with ‘View as…’ regularly. If you have too many public posts and wish to hide them from view, go to Account -> Privacy Settings -> Manage Page Post Visibility -> Limit Old Posts. There! All your old public posts will now be visible to only ‘Friends’.

BONUS: Facebook Resources for Profiles and Pages

• Facebook Badges for your Personal Profile and Pages
• ‘Report Guide’ to show you What Happens After You Click “Report” on Facebook (Infographic)
• The Power of Facebook Advertising (Infographic)
• Learn about Facebook for Business and how to connect and engage with people.
• Page Insights Guide for Pages
• Printable templates to Market Your Brand Page (Poster, Flyer)
• Pages Manager for iPhone

Related Posts You Should Read:

12 Latest Facebook Page Features You Might Have Missed

20+ Overlooked Facebook Timeline Tips You Must Know!

5 Facebook Marketing Resources You Didn’t Know About

Now It’s Your Turn

What other Facebook changes, handy tips or resources have you found useful lately? Do share in your comment.

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Keeping up with Facebook changes is no easy task. Minor changes may slip in unnoticed but some just totally caught you off guard! Why not go through these 12 most recent Facebook page updates and see if the new features can contribute to your daily Facebook management and marketing strategies.

12 Facebook Page Features You Might Have Missed!

#1  Onsite Notification

Onsite notification is perfect for page admin who doesn’t mind mixing business page management with personal profile. Once the box is ticked, you will get instant page notifications in your profile’s homepage for new posts, fan messages, comments or whenever someone liked your page posts. To manage the setting, go to your Admin Panel -> Edit Page -> Manage Notifications -> Onsite Notification.

Note: You need to tweak this setting separately for the pages you’re managing. Great idea for admins who like to respond to fans ASAP.

#2  New Insights Metrics for ‘Fans’

Track your page posts’ performances based on your fans’ reactions besides overall users. The added metrics for ‘people who liked your page’ includes:

• Lifetime Post Impressions
• Lifetime Post Reach
• Lifetime Post Paid Impressions
• Lifetime Post Paid Reach
• Lifetime People who have engaged with your post
• Lifetime Post Stories
• Lifetime People Talking About your post

To access these data, go to your page Insights -> Export Data -> (select data type) Post Level data -> Select your data range -> Download. In the downloaded file look for these metrics next to ‘Lifetime Negative feedback from users‘. I was able to retrieve fans’ stats dated back to the end of April, 2012. Pretty cool!

Note: Monitor your page activities based on numbers that matter – people who endorsed your brand, then improve your posting strategies accordingly.

#3  Rearrange and View Sorted Insights Metrics

You can arrange your best performed posts based on different metrics by clicking above the table: Reach, Engaged Users, Talking About This and Virality. Click ‘Date’ to arrange your posts back in chronological order. To view the individual story on your page, click at the post link then ‘View Post’.

Note: A post’s ‘Reach’ will only be counted if a user scrolls and loads that page update in his/her news feed. Also, ‘Reach’ has now started to include Mobile data as well.

#4  Facebook Page Subscribers

When users add your page to their interest list without liking it, they are your ‘page subscribers’.

To check who are your page subscribers: go to New Likes -> See All -> select ‘Subscribers’ in the drop down menu. Total number of subscribers can be found in your page’s Insights’ Overview.

Note: Some people worried this might affect their page ‘Likes’, but why not see this a new opportunity to convert subscribers (who never thought of liking your page in the first place but remained interested) into loyal fans?

Since you’re here, I would love to invite you for a visit at my page. Do come in and say hi:

#5  To Switch Between Page/Profile Identity via the ‘Voice’

The ‘Voice’ is a shortcut (or replacement) for ‘Posting Preference’ on pages. Page admin can switch so to comment as a page or as his/her personal profile instead.

Note: The ‘Voice’ function only works WITHIN the page itself. If you plan to network as your page identity OUTSIDE the managed page, make sure to select ‘Use Facebook as Your Page’ as shown in the drop-down:

Recommended Read: Personal Voice vs Business Voice – the Fan Page Trap

#6  Laser-Focus Your Update with Target Page Posts

Pages can now target post updates based on fans’ Gender, Relationship status, Educational status, Interested-in and Age (including language/location). Personally I haven’t tested it but I wonder if this will bring better ROI if been used with Promoted Post? What do you think?

Note: This feature is currently found on Pages with >5k fan count. The post-targeting feature will only affect fans in the News Feed. All fans will still be seeing the targeted-update when they visit your actual timeline page.

#7  Facebook Offers Now Available to All Pages

For pages with more than 400 fans, you can now create an offer for your fans to claim: In Store offer, online offer or both. Unfortunately this feature isn’t free (except for the first offer) and has to run alongside with a Facebook Ad. You can plan your budget by deciding how many people you want to reach with the offer.

Here’s a video introduction on how to use Facebook Offers:

Note: You can also schedule your Offers like how you normally do with page updates. Learn more about Facebook Offers here.

Recommended Read: 6 Holiday-Themed Ideas For Using Facebook Offers

#8  Facebook Custom Audience

Brand pages can now target their offline audiences on Facebook through relevant ads by uploading info such as email addresses, phone numbers or Facebook user IDs. This is a powerful feature for ad-targeting, opens up a whole new alternative for your collected emails/contact lists.

Note: Be aware of the info you’re giving out as a customer and receiving as a marketer. Although this is a game changer for Facebook ad-targeting, you are completely responsible for the content you’re trying to push and who you are targeting. If you are to use this feature, make sure it’s done correctly.

Recommended Read: How to Use Facebook Custom Audiences ; Custom Audiences FAQ on Facebook.

#9  The New Photo Tab Layout

Here are a few things about the new photo tab layout on pages:

• tagged photos of your page are found in the first sub-tab.
• when mouse-over a single photo, you can view the ‘Like’ and ‘Comment’ count.
• when mouse-over a photo album, the photo thumbnails alternate before your eyes.
• you can highlight a photo to enlarge it.

#10  Facebook Collections Feature

This is the one to watch especially if you’re in retailing business. Although still in a testing phase with selected brand pages but obviously Facebook is embracing ecommerce by allowing retailers to post a collection of product photos into fans’ news feed using ‘Want’ or ‘Collect’ buttons. Users can save the products to their ‘wishlist’ or purchase them on the retailer’s website.

Image from Allfacebook.

Note: You can view the live-examples by visiting Pottery Barn Facebook page with their ‘Luxe Lodge’ post. Since I’m not based in US, this collection photos are not visible to me. Hope you have better luck in this.

#11  Facebook Page Username Can Be Changed ONCE

Have a mistype in your page’s username? No more bug forms. Just change it here but limited to one-time edit only.

Some page features come and go. Just a reminder here,

#12  To Report Duplicate or Miscategorized Page

There used to be a ‘Report Duplicates’ in your Edit Page settings but now it’s no more. But you can still do it by clicking at the ‘wheel’ icon next to ‘Like’ on the page you wish to report -> ‘Report Page’ -> select ‘Duplicate or Miscategorized Page’.

Other Facebook Tips You May Find Useful:

12 Tips to Optimize Facebook Page for Maximum Reach and Visibility

12 Must-Know Tips to Improve Fan Engagement on Your Facebook Page

20 Innovative Ways to Use Visual Content to Rock Your Facebook Page

10 Tips to Power Up Your Facebook Page with ShortStack Custom Apps

9 Practical Tips to Improve Your Facebook Page Performance

Update: Don’t forget to check out 19+ Facebook Timeline Features and Resources You Should Know

Now Is Your Turn…

Are you making use of all the above features so far? Did I miss out any important changes? Love to hear from you in the comment.

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Twitter has officially joined the ‘visual’ club by allowing users to create a personalized Twitter header to boost their brand visibility. Some people (and brands) had gotten a head start with the headers and the results are pretty impressive. If you’re still unsure what to put up there, here are some twitter header examples that will blow your mind – “Now why didn’t I think of that?”

But before that, some important notes to remember:

• Twitter Header Size: 1252 x 626 pixels (<5MB), not smaller than 640 pixels in width.
• Text Color: white

Read More on How to Change Your Twitter Header Image.

A few considerations before creating YOUR Twitter Header:

• Can it express your personality?
• Can it describe your brand properly?
• Can you get creative with it?
• How does your header fit well with your Bio and Twitter background?
• How to spice up your static Twitter page with a robust image?
• Beware of the white space in your header that might affect readability of your Twitter bio.

50+ Creative Twitter Headers to Inspire You

#1  To Create Brand Awareness

Not only the picture of the crowd (fans) reminds us the excitement of the game, very smart of @49ers to include their Twitter hashtags so fans can follow their updates easily.

If you have some great products, show them on your header:

#2  To Blend in Your Profile Picture with Header Image

By far the most preferred method to get creative with your Twitter header. Here are a couple of examples for your reference:

Note: Both screenshots were taken on desktop. The headers may appear differently when viewed on mobile devices.

Recommended: How to Unite Your Avatar and Header Image (Video).

#3  To Use a Single-Colored Background

Look what Twitter did with their header to make their Bio stand out.

You may apply a gradient to the header:

Or add a little simple design like Brian Solis did:

Note: Do consider your website and logo designs when choosing your best color.

#4  To Express Your Interests and Personality

Without having to scan through her bio you’ll know instantly that Debra loves ice cream! A fun way to incorporate the things you love in the twitter header:

How smart of @socialmouths to promote his website link while admitting he’s a coffee lover.

Kiersten is supporting a great cause:

Danika Patrick makes sure you don’t forget her as a successful auto-car racer:

#5  To Use a Photo Collage

You may get creative with this method without affecting the visibility of your profile picture and twitter bio. For instance, Beth uses a black and white photo collage of her friends as the twitter header:

Can a colorful collage do the trick? According to @Shareaholic it’s possible:

Why not showcase what you love or some casual snapshots of your daily life in a collage too:

#6  To Showcase Your Portfolio

You can easily turn your Twitter header into a portfolio by including the names of well-known sites that acknowledged your brand or in which you are constantly contributing as a columnist. Here’s what I mean:

Describe your brand briefly with bullet points:

Use header to showcase some of your best work:

#7  To Show a ‘Family’ Side of You

Carrie and Dave are both using their family pictures in the twitter header. Another personal way to greet their followers.

What a perfect header image for @leaderswest to express ‘perspective’ in his bio! You’ll understand why once you’ve checked out his twitter background.

#8  To Showcase Event and Expertise

This is a complete opposite of #7 where you introduce yourself professionally to followers about your working environment: giving talks, attending a seminar or other niche-related events.

#9  To Use Personal Quotes or Slogans

Who can say this better than Jay Baer himself? The fire at the background is perfect to go with the message. Brilliant!

@alejandroreyes on the other hand, uses his website slogan on the header:

#10  To Acknowledge Others

How thoughtful of John! He is promoting friends/brands from his niche using the header. A very selfless act indeed.

Note: Maybe a new way to recommend people to follow on #FollowFriday? What do you think?

#11  To Use Scenery and Landscape

Another interesting approach by using beautiful pictures of scenery or city landscape as your header. Depends on your preference, either just for expressing how much you love nature or the city you live in.

#12  To Showcase Your Other Social Media Sites

A great method to let your audience know where they can find you besides Twitter. A big advantage if you’re using the same username on all the social networking sites.

#13  To Humanize Your Brand

Hubspot didn’t disappoint us with their twitter header:

Razoo is using the same header image as their Facebook cover. A photo of their supporters brings the organization to life.

#14  To add Customer Testimonials

Client’s testimonial can be impactful, so does adding a before/after picture. But this depends on your industry.

#15  To Showcase Your Workplace

Add behind-the-scene pictures of how your office looks like during working hours is not a bad idea:

Great color contrast by @PSFK,

How about something static, your office desk maybe?

#16  Focus, Focus, Focus

Dorien uses her brand color (orange) and the arrow to emphasize her twitter bio:

#17  More Portraits?

There are many ways you can showcase your own portrait in the twitter header, learn from these guys:

#18  To Use Illustrations

Have you thought of using illustrations to spice up your twitter header? Something to think about.

#19  Other Twitter Header Designs

a.  Simple, Clean Design

b.  Robust and Exciting

c.  Abstract, Colorful Design

d.  Just Being Creative

e.  Promote Your Product

f.  Include Welcome Message to Visitors

So there you have it! Get your creative juice running and start brainstorming for your twitter header design. If you are curious which design I applied to my Twitter header, well here it is:

Not the best design in the world but I love simplicity.

By the way, are you on Twitter? Let’s connect:

Follow @wchingya

Now Is Your Turn

Have you created your own Twitter header yet? If yes do share with us in the comment. If not, which of these designs appeal to you the most?

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People keep talking about getting ‘visual’ with Facebook page updates. Don’t know how to get started? I hereby compiled a list of major types of visual content you can experiment on your Page. Hope they will trigger your inner creativity to engage with your audience better with graphics, images and photos.

Note: I purposely excluded the amount of likes/shares/comments from the examples so you can focus on the content, not the numbers.

How to Use Visual Content to Rock Your Brand on Facebook

Express Gratitude and Appreciation:

#1  To Highlight Your Fans

Acknowledge fans for their great achievements or continuous support on your Page. For a fan to realize his/her loyal participation been addressed on your page, you can be sure they are more likely to return and even share your page with their friends in return.

If the fan is not in your friend list, you can tag their Facebook page instead:

Takeaway: Create something fun and encourage your fans to tag themselves (or even friends) to spread the word. It’s a good practice to advice fans to tag only those who might be interested in the event:

#2  To Create Something Special for Fans

It can be a reminder to claim an existing offer. Create a surprise or a contest that is exclusively for fans using third party app and notify them with an eye-catching image. Make it enticing enough for click-through. A hand-written note is a good way to humanize your brand:

Or an ebook for everyone:

Takeaway: Always remember to use third party apps when hosting giveaways or contests. The last thing you need is to violate Facebook Promotions Guidelines.

#3  To Hold a ‘Fans’ Day’!

Page events like ‘Page-Tagging’, ‘Boast About Your Blog Day’ are great methods to engage with fans and increase page visibility. I love to have ‘ShowOff Friday’ where I welcome my fans to do a little self-promotion. A fantastic way to know more about your fans and what they do. More examples:

i)  Blog Bragging Day

ii)  Fan Page Tagging Day

iii)  ShowOff Friday

Takeaway: Make sure your picture sends out a positive vibe so fans are more likely to notice and join the party!

#4  To Express Gratitude to Someone

Give thanks to a special person who contributed to your achievements. It’s always thoughtful to shine a spotlight on someone (via tagging) so your fans get to know him/her too!

Takeaway: A simple yet personal picture worth a thousand words. Authenticity counts!

Fun Stuff: Invite Fans to Participate

You may find it’s easier to get fans’ attention when posting ‘fun’ stuff, let’s see:

#5  To ‘Add a Caption’ to the Picture

Choose an interactive picture and ask fans to throw in their BEST lines. You can provide incentives for those who participated – depends on how you’d like to give back.

Seriously, who can resist a cute picture like this:

Takeaway: Share picture that depicts your brand personality. Be selective.

#6  To Share Non-Work Related Pictures

This includes cartoons, memes, inspirational quotes, jokes and anything that made people feel good and amused about. But be careful with your selection. Sometimes popular doesn’t mean suitable for your audience.

Mari chose a fun quiz for her fans. Good reminder to not disclose the answer in the comment so more people can join the fun:

You don’t picture works for ‘Fill in the blank’ too? Of course it does:

Why not some ‘people behind-the-brand’ photos?

Takeaway: Besides the fun, ask your fans to express their thoughts about the pictures, get to know where they stand, what they like/dislike.

Involvement: Request Opinions from Fans

#7  To Make a Brand-Decision

Involve your fans to pick the best visual element for your promotional flyer, ebook cover, website theme or even a Timeline cover. Give them a sense of belonging by taking part in your decision-making. You might even get amazing ideas for your next project!

#8  Seek Help? Why Not Start from Fans

Looking for some assistance? Start from your circle of trust (fans) with people who support you and what you do:

Mutual Understanding: Get to Know Your Fans First

#9  To Find out Your Fans’ Preferences

Use pictures to learn more about your fans. Keep the conversation active with relevant questions.

Takeaway: Facbeook Insights recently updated with new metrics for ‘Fans only’. You will have a better idea on fans’ perceptions of your posts in general.

#10  To Ask Fans to Pick A Side

How about an easy Yes/No question with graphic included? Ask fans to express their opinions in the comments if agree/disagree is an important call to action!

It can also be something fun,

Takeaway: While some pages prefer to go for ‘controversial’ questions, I prefer to keep things niche-related. It depends on your brand personality and how you’d like to educate your audience.

#11  To Share Something that Resonates with Your Audience

Make sure what you shared strike a chord in your fans’ heart.

Takeaway: Image can be a great communicator so try to be as relevant to your brand as possible.

#12  To Spark a Discussion among Fans

Although there are many ways you can achieve this, but I’d like to emphasize on using image/graphic for this purpose so people can tap into the conversation easily – something as simple as a screenshot:

For Brand Recognition:

#13  To Showcase Your Portfolio, Artwork, Designs

If your work is graphic or design-related, use them to express your brand for full potential and visibility! Or if you have a Facebook app for that, add the link:

Takeaway: If your client is super-satisfied with your work, ask them for a testimonial and add that to your photo description. If you’re worried about copyright infringement, add watermark to the photo. Tell a story from the design and how you achieved the end result is a great idea!

#14  To Post a Screenshot for Your Latest Blog Post

While using a main post image is one way:

Another is to capture a screenshot with blog title and post excerpt. This is great for post that do not come with a main blog image – but do make sure the Title is catchy enough to make up for the graphic-loss.

Takeaway: Social Media Examiner is smart in this – did you see the Twitter (social) sharing proof on this article?

#15  To Share Your Branded Graphics, Quotes or Photos

The advantage of a branded visual content is you can include your page name or website link within. If it goes viral, more people will know its source and where to find it, even if other pages re-use it without tagging your page.

Wise words from an influencer of your niche, you’re bound to see that go viral like Amy’s post did:

Be the Source of Information:

#16  To Provide a Niche-Related Info with Screenshots

It can either be a new found feature or a resource that your audience should be aware of. If it’s a social networking site, encourage people to connect with you:

Don’t forget to highlight your favorite tip from the resource before publishing:

Takeaway: Whether it’s something general or detailed, as you get familiar with your fans, you’ll know the types of info they crave for. Work towards educating your fans and spice up your posting with extra tips from your niche.

#17  To Introduce an Interesting Infographic

Try adding a Call to Action in your photo description: share it, pin it, comment on it. Make sure to credit the original source so in case the graphic is too large to fit properly in Facebook photo, your fans can view it before responding.

Takeaway: Try to raise a few questions from the infographic; pinpoint a few important facts to raise awareness and suspense for full view.

#18  To Disclose Surprising Stats, Results or Findings

It can be a graph, pie chart, or survey results in any form. Not only you can invite more people to share THEIR results (and thus, improve the engagement rate), people are inclined to share your findings based on real examples.

For Announcements and Notifications:

#19  To Announce Events or a Brand Makeover

Webinars, Twitter Chats, training events  – make them known! Make full use of that Timeline Page of yours.

How smart of Victoria to announce her interview with Marie Claire while adding a question for fans to participate:

#20  To Remind Fans about Your Timeline Apps

Spending all those time and effort (maybe even money) to personalize those Timeline apps below your Cover? Don’t waste them. Polish them up with updated info and highlight one (or two) per week that requires their utmost attention. Renovate and re-introduce your apps with catchy app images.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your visual content. Remember, not all images will get the same compelling results as your most popular post. People are sometimes more likely to respond to a funny joke rather than a serious research. But don’t post for the sake of ‘popularity’, always keep your major objectives in perspective. Let your fans be a part of your page instead of being marketed to. While providing value and learn from the process, have fun!

Related Post:

15 Must Know Tips for Small Businesses to Prevail in Facebook Page Posting

9 Practical Tips to Improve Your Facebook Page Performance

Now Is Your Turn

Are you all pumped up to get ‘visual’ with your Facebook Page this week? Do you have any more tips to share? Tell us in the comment.

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