As you’re working hard to improve your brand visibility with the new Timeline layout, there is often a feature or two that gone under your radar. Along with some buggy issues that may interfere your daily page engagement effort! Give this post a quick check and see if you could improve your Page with minor tweaking this week.

How to Improve Brand Visibility and Engagement on Your Page

#1 To Educate Fans to Subscribe to Page Updates

Facebook removed the RSS subscription for Page updates after launching Timeline. Since then, users are advised to use ‘Interest Lists’ to keep track of their favorite Pages. But as the custom list grow larger, active pages may dominate the news feed, overshadowing the rest.

Workaround:

Kristi suggested a method to retrieve the Facebook Page’s RSS feed via a standard URL:

• https://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?id=YOURFANPAGEID&format=rss20

Replace ‘YOURFANPAGEID’ in the URL above with the selected Page’s actual ID. For example, the RSS feed for my Page is:

https://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?id=106236190962&format=rss20

Now you should be able to subscribe to Page updates via your preferred RSS reader.

Extra Tip:

If you would like to receive email updates instead, try using RSS-to-Email app such as feedmyinbox:

or Blottrottr:

#2 To Use ‘Pin to Top’ for Maximum Visibility

Cover photo receives most buzz when Timeline was introduced. While users are worrying not getting enough space for brand-advertising, pinned post manages to regain visitors’ attention on what’s hot and requires immediate attention on the page.

Don’t worry when people say that users don’t visit to actual Page no more. Think about how new visitors may land on your page from external referrers! Isn’t it nice to be greeted with a welcoming message?

or get notified about an upcoming project/event:

Extra Tip:

Remember to ‘Highlight’ your post before Pin to top. That way after it has been replaced by upcoming Pins, it will still be visible in its own Timeline (added advantage if a bigger photo is used).

#3 To Use ‘Featured Likes’ Effectively

‘Featured Likes’ has always been a method to show support to other relevant Pages or reward visibility to loyal fans. How? More in Media has a way to feature fan’s pages while adding a little ‘suspense’ to her note – act fast while the spots still available. A good way to increase engagement.

#4 To Consider Facebook Notes for SEO Benefits

Facebook Notes do get indexed in search results. Many times I was brought back to a Facebook Note from the search term I use. Quite amazed with this as I have been neglecting Notes since… well, maybe it’s time to dig it out and test drive its performance again. Don’t forget to fill in the Tag box with keywords of your choice.

#5 To ‘Not’ Only Post During Peak Hours and Weekdays

Update your page during peak hours meaning more eyeballs, right? But don’t forget the amount of noise you need to break through (and the competition)! While you are strategically posting all the good stuff at selected time-slots, try different timings, even during weekends! But of course, find out WHEN your target audience will be online is vital.

Extra Tips:

General recommendations on ‘when you should post’ by researchers are useful, but these will remain ‘references’ until you proved them worked – hand in hand with your own posting rhythm and content strategy. Experiment!

#6 To Diversify Your Posting Types

Not merely to increase engagement, but the importance of being SEEN in news feed! People love hot topics, breaking news… but so do other pages. What posting habit/type you can adjust so your page updates stand out from the rest?

#7 To Encourage Quality Content via ‘Allowed on Page’

Timeline layout squeezes all fans posts into a square box which will only appear on your Timeline several weeks later. Good news is, now you can publish fan’s post instantly via the ‘Highlight’ or ‘Allow on Page’ option. Big plus for engagement and community-building on Page! (Thanks to Hugh from Social Identities for the heads up)

#8 To Receive Upcoming Comment Notifications for Longer Threads

Facebook Notification system seems to stop notifying users with upcoming comments for longer threads. To ensure on-going, dynamic conversations with your fans, consider third party Facebook notification tools like Hyper Alerts or MediaFeedia to track fans responses.

But don’t get over confident that this will ensure continuous engagement with your fans. Due to Facebook system error or notification settings, your fans may not even get notified about your replies to them. Luckily David informed me about this on my page. We’re still trying to figure out if this is a temporary glitch. Otherwise, this will be another serious issue interfering page managers to deal with page engagement.

#9 To Measure Page Performance with Google Analytics and Insights

In order to improve your social media effort, you need to measure! It’s now more than just numbers alone, but people’s behaviors, interests and experiences on your Page may affect your content strategy. Even for custom apps, find out which call to action gives the best click through rates; which link directed them to a specific transaction or subscription. John did a great job explaining how to use UTM tags for your custom apps below:

Not forgetting Facebook Insights as well in measuring your posting effort. Make sure you read this article about ‘5 Vital Facebook Reports Every Community Manager Should Know’.

Now Is Your Turn

Have you been implementing some of these tips for your Page? If you have more practical ideas to add, don’t be shy. I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

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For those of you who know me, I’m all about ‘details’ when it comes to step by step how-to’s. This week, I’m going to chill a bit as I’m taking a few days off to spend some quality time with my little girl –  she’s 6 months old now and learning how to crawl! So if you could bear with this new mom, I promise more quality content is on the way. Be sure to stay subscribed so you won’t miss it!

Without further ado, I’ll share with you some Facebook tips I bookmarked over the months, courtesy of Social @ Blogging Tracker Page. Hopefully they will improve your Facebook experience as much as they helped mine.

20+ Facebook Security Tips and Timeline Features

For Personal Profiles:

#1  To View Upcoming Birthdays

Facebook has been great in ‘remembering’ our friends’ birthdays. You can view upcoming birthdays via this link (visibility depends on your friends’ privacy settings) and even the option to export the info.

#2  To Hide Likes from Your Timeline

For those who have yet hidden their ‘Likes’ from Public before the launch of Timeline (but wanted to), go to this Favorites -> ‘Favorites’ -> Scroll down to locate ‘Other Pages You Like‘ -> Adjust your audience selector.

#3  To Secure Your Facebook Account

Go to your Account Settings -> General -> Password ->Edit. Make sure ‘Log me out of my apps and other browsers’ is ticked at ALL times.

#4  To Review Your Security Information

You can edit all your security info here except your security question.

#5  To Declutter Your News Feed with Acquaintances List

You can add friends to your Acquaintances List to see them less in your news feed. Go to this link –> select ‘Acquaintances’ and start configuring your list.

#6  To Find Out Who Your Friends Subscribe to

Get Suggested Subscriptions from your friends based on the people they subscribe to.

In the mean time, I’d love to connect with you on Facebook as well:

#7  To Remove All Imported Contacts

If you had previously allowed Facebook to import your contacts from your email services to find friends, you may consider removing all those info here.

#8  To Disable Tag Suggestions from Friends

Go to this link -> Timeline and Tagging -> Edit Settings ->  ‘Who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded?’ -> set to ‘No One’.

#9  To Setup Tag-Review and Manage Tagged Items

To enable review before a tag from a friend goes live, go to your Privacy Settings -> Timeline and Tagging -> Edit Settings -> Turn ‘On’ both ‘Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline‘ and ‘Review tags friends add to your own posts on Facebook’.

This privacy setting is not enough to stop friends from posting the tag on his/her own Timeline, including others whom their names had been tagged along with yours and approved it. That’s why you need to un-tag yourself sometimes. Select ‘Remove tag‘ in your Timeline and choose one of the options:

• Remove the tag,
• Request to take the post down,
• Block your friend.

#10  To Download Your Personal Info and Enhanced Archive

Besides your personal info, there’s an extra enhanced archive you should know about. Go to Account Settings -> Download a copy of your Facebook data -> Request to download archive. Secondly, click ‘expanded archive‘ as shown below and proceed with the second request.

#11  To Hide Your Chat Status

Access ‘Advanced Settings’ to adjust your online status to stay visible/invisible to a selected group of friends.

#12  To Convert New Page Back to Personal Account

Only use this form if you accidentally converted your personal account into a Page. Also, make sure you’re adhering to Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, that is, personal profile is only for individual person and not a brand name.

#13  To Follow Up Your Pending Friend Requests

I have been using this tip for quite some times now and so far, everything works great so thought I’ll give this another shout out: lists rock!

For Facebook Pages:

#14  To View All Latest Photo Comments

Do you know you can switch to ‘Comment view’ for your photos? Go to Page Photos -> select the photo album -> click ‘Comment View’.

#15  To Hide Your Page Update from News Feed

When ‘Use Facebook as your page‘, an option ‘Hide from News Feed‘ is available to adjust your posting. I ran a test with it earlier and found it to be useful if want to squeeze in past events in your page Timeline.

#16  To Highlight a Comment via Permalink

Particularly useful if you want to refer to a specific comment in a long comment thread.

#17  To Assign a Destination Tab is Possible… in Facebook Ads

You can assign a landing tab for your target audience when using Facebook Ads! Go to your page’s Build Audience -> Create an Ad to look for the option.

#18  To Add a Page to Interest List

Interest Lists are different from friend lists, they can be public viewable (unless you set them private). Encourage your fans to add you to their interest list or configure a resourceful list for your fans (with your page in it) to subscribe to.

#19  Useful, Official Facebook Links

• Newsroom: Facebook’s latest news, announcements and media resources
• Facebook Success Stories
• Facebook Guides to Success
• Facebook Glossary
• To Report abuse on Facebook
• Facebook Messenger app for Windows

#20  Practical Ways to Improve Your Facebook Page

• Enhance Your Page with Custom Apps and theseTimeline Ready Apps (not forgetting to secure your personal profile with essential Privacy Settings),
• Make Full Use of your Cover Photo,
• Improve Fans Engagement with Facebook Applications and Creative Page Updates.

Update: Don’t forget to check out 9 Practical Tips to Improve Your Facebook Page Performance too!

I hope you found the above tips useful. Most of them are extracted from my Facebook Page – a place where my supporters and I communicate and help one another to improve.  Why not join us and say hi? I’ll be thrilled to see you there:

Now Is Your Turn

Do you have more Facebook tips to add? Feel free to share in your comment.

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This is a guest post by Dominique Molina.

Image: MR LIGHTMAN / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Social media has become the centerpiece of how many people use the Internet, and how they do business. When someone needs to find a local business, they’re more likely today to ask around on Facebook than they are to dig out the Yellow Pages. Small businesses that want to get ahead and stay relevant need to tap into the power of social media.

Yet, sometimes it’s hard to know where to get started. You can spend hours on Twitter trying to promote your business, without any tangible results. That’s why you need to focus on a few key activities that are proven to bring success. Here are a few social media tactics to get you started:

9 Steps to Social Media Success for Small Business

#1  Create a Profile on Major Social Media Sites

At a minimum, you will want to create a profile for each of the major social media sites. Right now, that means LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. As we saw with MySpace a few years ago, a site can go from social media giant to washed up rather quickly, so keep an eye out for these kinds of trends. Add each new client or prospect on each of those sites. To go the extra mile, consider claiming a social media profile on all social media websites using a service such as KnowEm to ensure that no one else claims your business name there in the future.

#2  Decide on Which Site to Focus Your Efforts

Now, depending on the nature of your business, you’re going to have more traction with some sites than with others. For example, if you’re primarily in business-to-business work, you’re going to get more leads with LinkedIn than with Facebook. If you have a consumer product, Facebook or Twitter might be the best bet. Twitter is great for personal branding, and Facebook is great for community referrals. Choose one medium to start with, and work outwards from there.

#3  Start a Blog

A blog can be an integral part of your social media marketing. You don’t have to have something extensive or elaborate; a single short article each week can be enough to generate some interest in your business. Make sure that your blog updates are posted to each of your social media profiles, which you can usually do through the use of a blog plugin. You can setup a blog quickly at WordPress or Tumblr.

#4  Consider Email Tactics, too

A monthly email newsletter can do wonders in terms of generating new business. It also gives customers something that they can forward directly to their friends and associates. Post your email newsletter to your blog, and make sure it’s also linked to your social media profiles. MailChimp is probably the easiest tool to use if you’re new to email marketing, and they have a very generous free account structure.

#5  Engage with Social Media Community

Spend some time interacting with your customers and prospects via the social media sites. If a customer posts a customer service question to your Facebook page, for example, consider answering it directly there, rather than simply giving them your customer service phone number. This demonstrates to that customer – as well as the rest of your followers – that you’re truly interested in solving their concern. In addition, if someone checks in to your location using FourSquare or another service that broadcast the checkin on Twitter, reach out to them to ask them to leave a review about your business as this will boost your Google rankings.

#6  Make Good Use of Multimedia

While some sites are better for images and videos than others, you still need to be using multimedia regardless of which site you’re focusing on. Use professional pictures of your products to really draw more interest. Consider creating a “how-to” video, and sharing that with your followers. Not only does it attract viewers, it also helps to establish your authority in your field. Creating a video can be as simple as doing a screencast with Camtasia, finding a local college student that does video production, or hiring a pro video production crew.

#7  Offer Something of Value

If your Tweets only ever consist of advertisements, people aren’t going to keep following you. Offer regular advice and other types of interaction to your followers.

#8  Connect Your Offline Customers with Social Media, too

Put your Facebook page address on your business cards. List your LinkedIn profile in your email signature. Place a clipboard by your register that will allow customers to sign up for your email list. The goal should be to expand your social media circle of influence, and one of the best ways is to do that with your existing customers. If you use MailChimp for your email newsletter, you can even enable people to signup via a text message from their cell phone.

#9  Regularly Measure Your Results

Ultimately, the success of your social media endeavors should increase your business. If you’re not getting new clients or customers through your social media efforts, it’s time to make a change. Think about a new strategy, or consider focusing on a different site. Try not to focus only on your number of followers, as that can be a bit deceiving.

More and more, social media is becoming the focus of how people interact with businesses. Don’t let your competition beat you in the social media arena; spend some time developing a social media strategy, and make it an integral part of how you reach out to your customers. Here are 3 action items to do this week:

1. Create a LinkedIn page, Facebook page, Google+, and Twitter profile for your business.
2. Create a Google Reader account, which you can use to easily monitor multiple industry blogs in one place.
3. A few times per week, login to your Google Reader account and share interesting content with your readers through LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to gradually build your brand as a source of helpful industry information.

Now Is Your Turn…

Have you been using social media for your brand or businesses? What is/are your most successful strategy/strategies so far? Feel free to share in your comment.

Dominique Molina is President of the CertifiedTaxCoach.org, a professional organization that helps tax professionals deliver thousands in tax savings to their clients. Dominique has compiled many resources for members including a tax-specific engagement letter and powerful accounting marketing guides.

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I have mixed feelings when it comes to using Facebook applications: I love how effective they are to enhance my Page presence and experiences; but at the same time worry about how much personal data I’ve given out to the developers. Truth is, the more I’m exposed to Facebook applications, the more I realize the importance for everyone to know how to protect their accounts from unwanted apps.

Let’s face it, it’s hard to completely shield off from Facebook apps. We need them to some extent in connecting with our Facebook friends. Even so, there are some important tips you should know when handling Facebook apps.

5 Major Tips to Protect Your Privacy from Apps

Tip #1: Where are the Facebook Applications located?

Ever noticed the ‘Apps’ section at the sidebar of your Personal Profile? This is a list of bookmarked apps you recently accessed with your account, but NOT the complete application list you’ve authorized with your account. Here you can find both default apps by Facebook (Photos, Questions, Events, Links, Notes, Music, Apps and Games, Messages and Poke) and third party apps you recently installed to your managed Pages. Go to this link now and check which apps you had accessed recently.

This ‘Apps’ list is automated and reordered depending on your last access to those apps. You won’t be able to add any apps to the list manually, except to add apps to your ‘Favorites’ list for quick access, or remove the app completely from your account.

To access the FULL list of applications you had recently authorized with your facebook account, go to apps settings (in your Account Settings). I bet you will find one app or two that had gone under your radar or forgot they ever been there!

Tip #2: To Check Your App Privacy Settings

You may not aware that some of your basic info are already (public) available to apps (learn all about it here):

In your App settings, look for the app and click ‘Edit’ at its far right. Some apps provide options to remove posting as you or access your friends’ contact info; while some require all access to work. That’s when you need to decide if you wish to continue using the app or remove it completely. Another important note is to set the posting visibility to ‘Only Me’, in case the app auto-post your activity on Timeline.

Note: To learn more about ‘Access log’, kindly refer here.

When the app activity appears on your Timeline, it’s up to you to either keep it or remove it:

Control How Your Friends’ Apps are Accessing Your Info

Even if your account is free from all facebook applications, the apps your friends are using are capable of accessing your basic info. Why? For better user experience and allow relevant info to be recommended between friends. If for some reasons you don’t feel like sharing certain personal info with your friends’ applications, you need to manually tweak a few settings.

Go to Privacy Settings -> Apps and Websites -> Edit Settings -> How people bring your info to apps they use -> Edit Settings, now untick any info you don’t feel like sharing:

For More Info:

https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/your-info-on-other#friendsapps

Also, if you don’t want to be seen as one of the relevant information for your friends at Facebook’s partner websites, turn off Instant Personalization as well:

Control Your Default Privacy

Another overlooked feature – this setting is important to control how your status updates appear on Timeline when you shared it from a Facebook app that doesn’t come with audience selector (Facebook for Blackberry, for instance). So make sure you are aware of the setting you pre-selected before sharing anything from the device.

THE LAST RESORT: Turn Off All Apps

This is one option that I dare not to try yet because I still need certain apps to work for my Page. But if you are tired of adjusting all apps manually, or would like to COMPLETELY shield off from any third party apps available (even from the apps your friends are using), this option is the last approach for you. As a trade, you may lose information or app settings, or may even unable to use any apps or games after that. So unless you have to, it is advisable to edit each app manually.

To disconnect all apps from being connected to your friends, go to your Privacy Settings and look for ‘Apps and Websites’ -> ‘Edit Settings’ -> Apps you use -> Turn off all apps:

Tip #3: What to do When You Are Prompted to Install an App?

We all know this won’t be the last time you being prompted by an app to access your account.

Even so, you don’t have to feel upset about it. A lot of Timeline apps are created to enrich your social sharing experiences with friends. This is not a bad thing actually, but for people who wish to protect their privacy online, you could either ignore the app, or find out a few things before deciding to use it:

1.  Identify which of your personal info can be accessed by the app
2.  Identify who shall see your app activity if being posted on Timeline/Ticker

Only ‘report app’ if you find the app to be spammy or contains abusive content.

Tip #4: To Remove an Unwanted App from Facebook

If like me, you are enjoying testing out some facebook applications for your managed Pages, it is important to understand that most apps have (certain amount of) access rights to our personal data, apart from our managed Pages. Thus, it’s best to have periodic check on our app list and remove those that are no longer in use.

To Remove An App from Your Facebook Page

If the app is visible as one of your custom apps (below your cover photo) on your Facebook Page, remove it by clicking the pencil icon -> Uninstall App:

Note: ‘Remove from Favorites’ will only hide the app from view, not uninstalling it. 

If the app is not visible on your Page, go to your Admin Panel -> Manage -> Edit Settings -> Apps. Look for the app you wish to delete and click ‘x’.

The process doesn’t end here. Now head over to your personal profile:

To Remove an App in Your Profile:

Go to your application list and look for that app in your Apps list. Once you found it, click ‘x’ and ‘Remove’ it.

Part 5: To Hide/Block an App in News Feed

You can’t control how your friends are using the apps, but you can mute the noise easily by turning off updates by a particular app.

Hover over the post to reveal a drop down as indicated then ‘Hide all by (app name)’.

You can retrieve the blocked app anytime by scrolling all the way down your news feed,

look for ‘Edit Options’ -> Edit News Feed Settings -> click ‘x’ to remove the selected app from the block list.

Note: Or if you want better results, try FBPurity. It’s a firefox (browser) add-on that hides updates you’re not interested in. I’ve been using it since last year, quite impressed with the results so far (if you don’t mind a third party browser plugin, that is).

If you want to block certain apps from your account,

go to Privacy Settings -> Blocked People and Apps -> Manage Blocking  -> in Block apps box -> type the name of the app you wish to block. By doing so, the app can no longer contact you or access your private information through Facebook.

Now Is Your Turn

Do you use third party apps in your personal profile or Facebook Pages? Any other methods you know in better protecting your Facebook account from apps? Do share in your comment.

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For page managers who know how to work with Facebook apps, the new Timeline layout for Pages is a great opportunity to highlight their application tab for maximum visibility and increase click through rates. But for those who aren’t, finding those timeline ready apps can be a massive headache.

Before adding any facebook applications to your Timeline (layout) page, there are a few things you should know:

• NOT all facebook applications are suitable for your Page
• NOT all facebook applications are free
• Understand the use of each app before installing
• Understand each approved facebook app WILL HAVE access to a certain amount of your personal data on Facebook. Read how you can protect your privacy in this post.
• Facebook app is an ADDED advantage to achieve a particular purpose you have for your brand (get leads, customer contact info) but certainly NOT a compulsory
• It’s OK to NOT install any third party apps on your page if you don’t feel like it

The main purpose of this post is to offer some basic timeline app suggestions to those who need them, not to say these are a must but can help to enhance your facebook page if used properly. Most of these facebook apps are free to try before you’re ready for advanced features.

This review is based on my personal opinion and has nothing to do with affiliation or app sponsorship whatsoever.

25 Timeline Ready Apps to Enhance Your Page

To Provide Additional Info about Your Brand

The ‘About’ section below your cover photo should be enough to explain what your brand is about. However, some people think that fans are not inclined to click ‘About’ for more info while for some places pages, this section is occupied by address, operating hours etc, which is why a FAQ app may come in handy:

#1  FAQ Tab

A clickable banner or a written header with descriptions – to me, that’s great for brand visibility. If your visitors are not getting enough help, there’s a contact form they can use to reach you.

Or, you may consider FAQ page app for a much simpler layout.

#2  Google Map Tab

For local businesses who added a valid address to your Page (or Places), there should be a Bing map tab showing like below:

Let’s say if you wish to save the ‘About’ spot for other info, you can have a different tab for the map and address using Google map. This app allows you to include other relevant information about your premise as shown below. You can toggle between the preview mode and settings as you work on perfecting your tab:

Note: Removing the valid address from your Page may cause your page to no longer categorized as ‘Places’, thus, no check-in option is available.

For Further Enquiry about Your Brand

The easiest and non-techie way to allow fans feedback is to allow Messaging option on your Facebook Page. To do so, look for ‘Admin Panel’ -> Manage -> Edit Page -> Manage Permissions -> tick to show ‘Message’ button on your Page.

But, there are several reasons why a page owner prefers a contact form over Messaging:

• To obtain customer details via required fields
• To better manage users enquiries with a selected email address (non-facebook-login)
• To have a proper email branding before responding to enquiries
• Unable to export messages from Facebook inbox
• To prevent messages been sent to ‘Other’ folder or marked as spam

Therefore, unless you are using your own email marketing software such as MailChimp or Aweber, you may consider:

#3  Contact Forms

i) Contact Form

This app allows branding with a company banner and message text, including a success message after the user had submitted the form.

ii) ContactMe

What I love about this form is the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) configuration interface. It allows more visual branding from adding a company logo to social accounts. Only premium users get to customize success message or automated response.

iii) Contact Tab

This app has a richer interface along with facebook comments. You can customize your banner content using HTML, CSS and map iframe embed code (Bing or Google Map).

iv) JotForm

JotForm provides richer customization options comparing to the above forms: form size, layout, background colors. In order to use it you must install an iframe app to your page. For free account holders, you can have unlimited forms (limited to 100 submissions per month) and 100MB size of storage.

To Have In Depth Discussions Off the Timeline

While we all enjoy more engagement on the Timeline (page wall), some page admins prefer to manage lengthy discussions in a forum instead. If you’re one of them, try:

#4  Forum for Pages

A replacement for the old facebook discussion board. What I love about this app is that you can import all discussions to another Page in case you need a big page transition. You can also set moderators (not necessarily a page admin) to monitor your discussion board. One thing it lacks is the notification alert so you need to check back for new updates from time to time.

To Express Your Brand in Rich Media

#5  Videos

i) YouTube For Pages by Involver

This app can import your Youtube channel to your page, including your favorites (optional). Also, allowing fans to like, send and comment on your videos.

ii) YouTube Video Box

YouTube Video Box is for selected videos only. Users can rate the video but won’t be able to comment on it.

iii) Tabmaker Youtube

Tabmaker Youtube can either import your YouTube channel (optional to display 3 to 24 videos) or selected videos of your choice. You can also apply fan gate, autoplay, add header image and facebook plugins such as like, send and facebook comments to your app. However, it doesn’t come with video descriptions.

To Encourage Fans to Share Your Page

Although the maximum numbers of friends you can invite are 50 on facebook, NEVER invite too many friends too quickly at once. Also, some apps have too many ads displayed so I decided to go with these three with cleaner interface:

#6  Invitation to ‘Like’ Your Page

i) Smart Suggest to Friends

Add your invitation message (not more than 255 characters) before you select friends to join the page:

ii) Tabmaker Invite Friends

Tabmaker invite Friends has the ability to add message and a header image to your invitation form, great for visual branding:

iii) Invite Friends by Iwipa

If you prefer a non-customizable yet presentable image, Iwipa has one that looks just as nice:

To Share Multimedia Files with Your Fans

#7  Scribd for Pages

Scribd for Pages provide file-download; you can share various types of files from PDF, JPG, PowerPoint, Excel to plain text. Your fans can share these files across their other social accounts.

#8  Extended Info

Extended Info only allows you to include links instead of hosting your media files, so it’s advisable you pre-upload your mp3 or image files to your hosting server so you can share them with your fans via its direct link. No download option is available but you can add youtube video, add descriptions manually or even links to your recommended sites.

To Extend Social Network Connections

#9  Twitter Tab

A Twitter follow button is all that matters in a Twitter tab:

Since you’re here, why not connect with me on Twitter:

Follow @wchingya

#10  Google Plus Tab

i) Google Plus Tab for Pages

This app comes with Google+ button for each public post. Your name is displayed above the tab, when clicked will be brought to your Google+ account:

ii) Google+ Tab by Tabfusion

This app does not provide Google+ button per post but it shows your profile descriptions so others can decide whether or not to add you.

#11  Pinterest

i) Static Iframe tab by Woobox

I still find this the best method to include a Pinterest app for free. For the instructions to install this app and how to add Pinterest account to your Page, you can refer to this post (at #10 “Integrate Pinterest to Your Facebook Page“)

ii) Pinterest tab by Tabfusion

This app is not free but I had the opportunity to test drive it earlier and I love the layout displayed with a Follow Me button on top with profile description.

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

#12  RSS for Pages by Involver

For bloggers who wish to import their blog content, this app is equipped with post image, post excerpt, facebook like and send buttons. You can also publish your selected article to your Timeline via one click easily.

To Enhance Your Page with Custom Tabs

#13  Static HTML: iframe tabs

For those who are familiar with HTML, CSS, Javascript, this app is a MUST HAVE to enhance your page content! Too many creative things you could do with it, such as a custom tab about your work (and this is even a basic use of it):

BONUS: Rich Media Apps for Fans Engagement (Optional)

Below facebook applications are fun to try. Who knows? Your fans may love them:

#14  Fotobabble

Ask your fans to upload their ‘talking’ photos for a particular contest or campaign. Or, you can use this to say ‘Hi’ and greet your fans virtually on the page.

#15  ThingLink

So much you can do with thinglink to feature your content creatively: video, music, art, links of your choice. An interesting way to tell your story and encourage fans to visit those media links when hover over. Below is just an example of how a tweet is displayed:

How to Change Custom App Images on Timeline Page?

You should try to customize own app images to fit your brand. I’ve included some examples in this post (at its ‘Bonus’ section). As of the step by step tutorial, kindly refer to Kim’s article.

There are supposed to be more apps in this list but due to post length, I decided to save some for upcoming post. Also, next week I will be covering an important topic about facebook apps, so be sure to stay tuned for it.

Now It’s Your Turn

Are you using any facebook applications for your Pages? Do you have other apps to recommend? Feel free to do so in the comment.

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2. 18 More Creative Tips to Fire Up Your Facebook Page Cover Photo TweetNote: this is a sequel to ‘15 Creative Tips to...
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Note: this is a sequel to ‘15 Creative Tips to Rock Your Timeline Cover Photo for Facebook Pages’.

Everyone is busy converting their Facebook Pages into Timeline layout before the official roll out on 30^th March. Cover photo continues to be a major issue for many as inspirations are few to occupy that 851×315 pixels spot for brand visibility. Due to that, I’ve decided to write a sequel to earlier post, hopefully 18 more of these tips (with 50+ cover photos from non-big-brand pages) and a BONUS tip near the end can assist you in firing up your new Timeline page layout. Buckle up your seat belt for this is going to be another joyride.

Disclaimer: Below pages are mentioned due to their creative use of cover/app images. It has nothing to do with affiliation or promotion for the products/services they offered.

#1  To Use Cover Design that Matches Your Brand Presence

A good design can be used in various social networking platforms for brand recognition. The Agents of Change uses the cover design (and timeline app image) that matches their new business cards (leaving out the contact information, of course).

And this is how their business card looks like:

#2  To Add Watermark for Your Product Cover

A lot of artists concern about copyright infringement when displaying their artwork in the cover. Oana, the photographer published a book named ‘Aglow’ and created a page for it. She cleverly added a watermark on the cover, stating her ownership while showcasing some of her best works.

#3  To Highlight the Important Areas in Your Cover

Despite with all the taglines and short descriptions, sometimes focusing on a particular term or area will alert visitors what your brand is really about:

#4  To Use Photo that Strikes an Emotional Chord

If your cover photo can strike an emotional chord of those who viewed it, that’s bound to create engagement and impact! Not to mention evoke awareness among your fans and visitors.

I just LOVE this cover! Doesn’t it remind you of something?

Looks familiar?

Or a picture that shows how your organization serves the community:

Or an inspirational story of a public figure:

Or a continuous effort to protect what you believe in:

#5  To Have More Than One Method in Showing Appreciation

We’ve talked about how a cover photo can be used to showcase page fans as appreciation (I got one on my page too, head over there for a look). Actually there are more than one way to do it:

a. Appreciate Friends on Your Page

Beth Kanter’s Timeline page cover caught my eye in which she created a huge collage of her friends in an artistic way:

b. Manually Hand-Picked Your Loyal Fans

Oretta rewards her fans weekly via her cover image:

c.  A ‘Thank You’ Note to Supporters

Sometimes a banner and lovely smiles will do:

d. Let’s Get Festive!

I came across Mari’s page on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s hard to not include this – her innovative idea to add a festive feel to her cover inspires us to do more with ours:

#6  To Expand from the Main Tagline

I just love how a word can be stretched for more meanings. For example, Dawn clearly explains how social media can be more than just a ‘Party’:

Ever wonder what could be derived from ‘Marketing’?

#7  To Use Impressive Art with Hidden Messages

This is more than just an ice cracking picture. Can you read what Greenpeace New Zealand is trying to tell you?

#8  To Use Creative Product Sets for Your Cover

In previous post I mentioned about showcasing your products in the cover. Here I would like to stress on using a none-mediocre-way to do this. Learn from Dove Chocolate Discoveries where they display creative work made from their product,

instead of the common pictures found on their website:

Little Chipipi with their products blend in together to brighten up a kid’s bedroom:

#9  To Showcase Your Portfolio with Image Thumbnails

A lot of people misunderstood only photographers get to showcase their stunning photos from the cover. Truth is, if you would like to showcase a variety of your master pieces, why not do so by using the image thumbnails:

Or brands who are currently using your product or application:

#10  To Showcase Reliability of Your Brand

Another good use of cover is to showcase awards and recognitions from your niche authorities. That is a good way to instill trusts and reliability of your brand, not only to your fans but for first-time visitors as well.

#11  To Merge All Facebook Elements into One

Notice how below pages smartly integrate designs from all three facebook elements (cover photo, page profile and app images) into one harmonious blend?

Note: You get to see more harmonious examples like these in the ‘Bonus’ section below this post.

Too much work? How about just the cover photo and the page profile picture?

#12  To Consider Landing View before the Complete Cover Image

Only half of the cover is visible for all landing view to any Pages on Facebook. See how L’Arche USA is making sure their descriptions show up clearly and neatly when visitors land on their cover,

before viewing the complete cover image:

#13  To Evoke Curiosity

It’s more than just a picture sometimes. Lindt Gold Bunny managed to capture both my curiosity and attention with its cover:

#14  To Add Portrait even It’s NOT a Public Figure Page

You would notice in previous post I talked about how public figures are using own portraits in their pages. Now even service providers can benefit from using their own portraits too. Your fans will know who they are communicating with on the page:

#15  To Showcase Your Front-Liners in the Cover

This is similar to ‘people behind the brand’ but in a detailed manner – profile pictures and names. Let’s say you have a group of writers for your website. They are the front-liners and people (commenters, readers) are more familiar with them comparing to your brand name. Why not get them on your cover to say ‘Hi’.

#16  To Show Business Location or Offices

I know there are mixed reviews about whether or not a building image should be on a cover photo. In my opinion, it’s all about how the brand is using it. For example, Fona International uses staffs picture as the page profile pic to add more ‘life’ to the page:

Certainly a peaceful, beautiful shot of the winery doesn’t hurt:

Or a panoramic view of the office:

#17  To Brand your Timeline Layout with Your Website Design

This is quite an interesting attempt to personalize your page’s timeline layout using your website design.

#18  Animated Figures and Story Telling

It’s fun to use animated figures to bring life to your Timeline cover. Twirp Communications has a comic that is yet to complete, but I would love to find out what the ‘twirps’ are saying when done. Don’t you?

To tame an internet monster and many more:

BONUS:

Visual Branding via Timeline App Images

There are many ways you can customize your facebook page for visual branding. Apart from the attractive cover photo, make use of your facebook app images to create harmonious, recognizable brand presence for your audience.

For example, Amy designed her facebook page via three major colors: red, white and grey,

which are the main colors on her business blog:

Here are some other great facebook page designs that worth a look. Notice how their app images are neatly blend in with the cover photo and profile picture:

Who say ‘harmonious’ has to be the only way? You can always try a more ‘dynamic’ feel for your app images, for instance:

What If You Have More than 3 Apps to Show?

Another great idea I love is from AppAddictive in which a call to action image is posted to remind fans to visit other app icons by clicking the drop down menu:

How About an Explicit Call to Action to ‘Like’ your Page?

No harm in adding a ‘Like Us’ image for your facebook application:

Recommended Read:
Facebook Timeline for Fan Pages: 21 Key Points for Marketers

Graphic Design Resources for Facebook Timeline Cover Image

[Updated 21/03/2012]:Minor edits had been made to remove examples with explicit facebook logo in it until we are absolutely sure if that is allowed. Any information about this is much needed.

Now Is Your Turn…

Is your facebook page ready for the big transition to Timeline layout? Do you have any concerns? Share with us in your comment. Or, if you would like to share your stunning cover photo, kindly do so via this link.

Like what you’re reading ? Subscribe via RSS Feed or email so you won’t miss a thing:

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UPDATED 20/03/2012: Visit Part 2: 18 More Creative Tips to Fire Up Your Facebook Page Cover Photo.

Facebook Pages are going through drastic changes to embrace the Timeline layout. One of the most critical tasks is to design your cover photo (851×315 pixels). Unfortunately, Facebook had laid down strict rules to prevent all promotional links, call to actions, contact information to appear on the cover:

This made the transition even more difficult and daunting. We’ve seen the big brands with their visual compelling cover photos. Just how shall we, the (smaller brand) page owners can make full use of that visible spot for brand awareness? I’ve compiled about 60+ cover photos from non-big-brand pages below, hopefully we can be inspired by their amazing effort.

Disclaimer: Below pages are mentioned due to their creative use of cover images. It has nothing to do with affiliation or promotion for the products/services they offered.

#1  To Announce an Event or Product Launch

Kim uses the cover image to announce her exclusive webinar while the image description (after clicked) includes the link to the event registration. Smart idea.

ShortStack informs everyone that their facebook applications are now Timeline ready – a message that is hard to miss on the cover. Their custom app images are nicely designed too.

#2  To Show Appreciation to Supporters/Fans

What a wonderful gesture to showcase your loyal fans by adding them to your cover photo, Mari has done it again!

#3  Creative Design of Company Name and Logo

These brands are incorporating colorful and impressive background designs to match their company name and logo. Some of them have customized their custom app images to match their brand identity.

#4  To Capture Attention with Catchy Slogan & Images

You gotta love the name and slogan – very catchy,

Fresh Art uses a cover photo that resonates with all of us – who doesn’t have a silly moment?

Another smart use of tagline,

Yes, it’s obvious how much you love art.

All the questions will be answered within the page, I hope?

#5  “A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words”

Sometimes a clean photo represents a lot more than texts or phrases. In this case, relevancy is vital. Be smart in selecting the best image that says it all:

#6  To Add Positive Elements in Your Timeline Cover

Everyone loves to be inspired and greeted by a positive message. These Pages are using the positive elements to entice visitors wanting to learn more about their brand.

#7  ‘Behind the Scenes’ Pictures (or ‘People Behind the Brand’)

Give your Facebook Page a personal touch by showcasing your team members. It’s great to be welcomed by bright smiles and (real) people who make things happen. You can amplify your brand awareness by allowing ‘Message’ option and Admin subscription button.

#8  To Tell Your Story via Photo Collages

Sometimes you may need more than one picture to express your brand. Iexpress2explore is using texts and photos to showcase their activities.

The ‘before and after’ pictures are equally interesting,

And of course, who doesn’t love kids’ photos!

#9  To Use Own Portrait or …

These are some familiar faces we’ve seen across the social media networks. Some of them are using own portraits while some, well, you got to admire their creativity.

#10  To Include Service Information

Use short descriptions to explain the type of services your brand provided.

Take note of Brankica’s ‘Like me!’ image on the photo app – great idea!

#11 To Showcase Your Art Work

Cover photo is a great bonus facebook app for photographers. Even writers/authors can benefit from showcasing their work too.

#12  To Showcase Your Product

Let your visitors aware of the products or merchandise you offered.

#13  To Add Testimonials (from Clients or Industry Leaders)

Win your first impression from visitors by displaying testimonials from industry leaders or clients. However, don’t flood your cover photo with dozens of testimonials. Remember, less is more.

#14  To Show Positive User Experience

Use picture that shows positive user experience of your brand, but remember to not fake it. It will be ironic to have all the negative posts or comments underneath a ‘I’m-a-happy-customer’ type of cover. If you are able to find real-life customers who are willing to help out, that’s even more convincing.

#15  To Define Your Website/Blog Type

For bloggers or site owners, you may use photo that best describes your site genre. For example, Michael Aulia owns a tech blog with gadgets reviews:

Or you can explain your site with a short paragraph,

Or bullet points,

Or anything you feel matches your web design or personality.

So there you have it! Hopefully these Timeline brand Pages gave you enough inspirations to design your own. Since default landing tab is no longer available, you need to use all possible assets to entice visitors to Like your brand before all the engagements could take place on your Page.

Want more examples? You may visit here.

Don’t forget to read Part 2: 18 More Creative Tips to Fire Up Your Facebook Page Cover Photo.

Now Is Your Turn…

Have you published your Timeline Page yet? Do you think Cover photo has a great potential for brand visibility? Share your thoughts in the comment.

Like what you’re reading ? Subscribe via RSS Feed or email so you won’t miss a thing:

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Either you are new on Facebook Page or not, we are all facing a common issue to get our brand pages seen in fans’ news feeds. You may wonder if there is any secret sauce you missed; why is it so difficult to win your fans attention and affection to your Facebook Page? Could you have done anything less than you already did?

Rest assured you’re not alone in this. After managing my page for almost three years and being a fan on other pages too, I’ve seen and experienced the ups and downs of a page. Wished I knew some of these tips earlier when started. If you’re interested, here are some of my findings:

#1  Post Status Updates that Invite Massive Engagement

Make sure your page updates are interesting or important enough to earn fans’ responses. The more feedback (likes, comments, shares) you earned the higher chance for your page updates to appear in their news feed. Below posting ideas speak for themselves:

• News update from your industry/niche
• General (but relevant) discussions
• Inspirational stories or quotes that resonate with your fans
• Creative use of videos and images to capture attention
• Apply humor to your updates
• Encourage two-way communications by asking questions and ‘fill in the blanks’

Security Note:

If you are to use Polls or any Facebook applications to increase engagement, take ‘app authorization’ into consideration for some people may feel reluctant to approve an app before able to communicate with your page. Do make sure the app is legit and if need to, instruct your fans how to remove it after used.

Recommended Read:
5 Facebook Posts That Spark Massive Engagement
8 Status Ideas that will improve your Facebook EdgeRank

#2  Add Call to Actions to Your Status Updates

If you don’t bother to interact with fans on your Wall, those attractive custom tabs or links will remain static and won’t do you much good in ROI. Thus, alert your fans about those special tabs and ask them to share with their friends constantly. Please, Help, Like, Comment, Vote, Share … you’ll be amazed a simple call to actions will drive massive responses from fans.

Tip: Don’t overdo this or else fed-up fans will ignore them altogether.

#3  Respond to Fans’ Enquiries the Soonest

Not everyone can be on Facebook 24/7, but if those are enquiries about your brand (product or services), try to respond as soon as you see them. If not, then at least reply within 24 hours. A great effort I saw over at Mari Smith’s page is that she assigned ‘Team Mari’ (a community page for her official brand page) to answer on her behalf when she’s not available. Smart idea and one doesn’t even have to worry about assigning a new admin to do this.

Tip: If you wish to do the same, make sure to clarify in the community page so fans won’t get confused with the official page instead.

#4  Put Your Heart and Effort in Replies

Before complaining why no one is care enough to visit your page, check if you are responding to fans’ posts. It may be important to have attractive custom tabs but instead of putting ALL your time and effort in them, why not focus a bit more on your engagement with fans? Like welcoming a new fan by featuring his/her work (sincerity counts!):

It’s important to be real and engage in conversations. For example, if your fan gave a thoughtful answer, ‘like’ his/her comment, address the poster by profile name via tagging:

#5  Moderate Your Wall posts

As much we welcome fans’ posts, spammy links should be avoided at all costs. Delete unrecognized, affiliate links and weird promotions to give way for quality content offered by (loyal) fans. If your Wall is out of control, make clear in your page posting policy so people are aware how they can contribute properly to your wall.

#6  Promote Your Important Update with a Tease

I still have lots to learn in this but I just love Amy Porterfield’s method to create enticing post such as a tease for her blog post so her fans will want to find out more. Create suspense, invoke curiosity to improve click-through rates definitely helps in boosting your Edgerank score.

Tip: Your post will only last for a short period of time, so make sure you are posting at the right timing (when your targeted fans are online). Or else, you may consider post scheduling which leads us to #7.

#7  Auto-updating is Fine but Use It Sparingly

It is said that Facebook is now treating all third party apps the same in terms of news feed visibility. Even so, there may be some issues with the ‘Share’ option as seen in this screenshot. Take this into consideration before deciding your post type. Test your apps and see how they performed in helping you to reach fans from different time zones. Personally, I prefer to promote my new post manually then use scheduling apps to re-post the article for maximum exposure.

Recommended Apps for Pages: Buffer and Post Planner.

#8  Create Exclusives on Your Facebook Page

According to research, 58% of Facebook users expect Exclusive content from brand pages so it’s important to meet your fans’ expectations. Either special tips or exclusive offers for fans only, the idea is to convert first time visitors into returning fans. You can use fan-gating techniques for door gifts; show appreciation or create something that’s hard to resist:

Tips: You may promote your Facebook offer on other social networking sites but keep the details and activities ‘within’ your Page if you are to attract engagement.

#9  Integrate Content about Your Brand @ Expertise to Your Page

You should leverage resources you have at hand and pull in impressive content to your Facebook Page constantly. I believe content marketing could be a winning factor for most brand pages, even small businesses. Share publications and blog posts that talk about brand awareness and how your audience can benefit from those info. Help them to solve daily issues with the products they use and direct them to your database. It will portray you care about their needs and instill trust among your fans. Create quality content and make a post share-able is always #1 when getting your brand heard.

Tips: If you don’t own a site (which I highly recommend that you do), you can always guest post on prestigious sites and link back to your facebook page.

#10  Gain Subscribers for Your Blog or Newsletter

It’s vital to allow opt-in email forms for your fans to subscribe freely. The thing is, you have no control over Facebook platform whatsoever, a bug could easily drive you into panic so why not prevent this by setting up a subscription form so your fans can be reached in time of need. If something happened to your page, you can easily reach out to them and ask for continuous support and engagement.

#11  Be Personal – Feature the Page Owners or Admins

This is optional and only works for those who don’t mind to be attached to the brand with own personal profile/Timeline. If you are okay to be featured, switch on that ‘Subscribe’ button and get personal by allowing fans to subscribe to your profile’s public updates. By doing so, fans are feeling more comfortable to share and contribute, knowing who is/are behind the brand page.

If not, you can always mention your name after replied :

#12  Study and Learn from Successful Pages, even Competitors

Learn how other successful pages are posting, see what works and what’s not. Group these Facebook Pages in your custom lists and monitor how each update gain favors (or negative feedback) from others, adjust the way you post and frequency of posting.

#13  Use Facebook Ads to Promote your Page via Recent Post

One of the Ad Types for your page is the ‘Page Post Ad’, which makes your wall posting all the more important if you wish to use Facebook ads to promote your brand page. Amy did a fantastic cover about the ad setup at #3 in her post – interesting idea to regain your fans attention and return to their news feed once more.

Recommended Read: Facebook to release new premium ads

#14  There Will Be Negative Comments

No surprise that occasionally you will be greeted by negative feedback, which makes it even more vital to think twice before posting. I once told by an ex-member that she did not like a particular link I shared, which led her to unliking my page. I was surprised because I never intended to upset anyone. I respectfully apologized and explained myself in the comment, without removing her feedback as well. What I learned from this experience is to respond to negative comments as long they don’t appear offensive and harsh. It’s a good way to show others that you respect and welcome all opinions, willing to learn from mistakes and move on.

#15  In the end – It’s All About Engagement

Small businesses often think they don’t stand a chance competing with the bigger brands. To me, it’s not about those fancy tabs or big number of fans they have. As a fan to other Facebook pages myself, I endorse small business pages that value two-way communications with their supporters. Therefore, make use of this advantage and turn your page into a living portal where your fans can get informative tips and Q&A session they need about your brand. Interactions will bring your page the attention it needs and triumph in the news feed, throw away your competitors far behind. Your fans will remember to visit you for brand advice and news update.

Now Is Your Turn…

Have you had any difficulties trying to reach your fans in their news feed? What are your strategies to prevail in  Facebook page posting? Love to hear your thoughts.

Like what you’re reading ? Subscribe via RSS Feed or email so you won’t miss a thing:

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Setup a Facebook Page is easy but to maximize its potential for brand visibility requires constant updating and testing. Are you satisfied with your page presence so far or yearning for better results? You’ll be surprised how sometimes a slight change in page layout or posting habit could make a huge difference! Why not scan through these 9 tips and start optimizing your facebook page for visibility:

Recommended Read: 15 Creative Tips to Rock Your Timeline Cover Photo for Facebook Pages

#1  Create a Vanity URL for Your Facebook Page

The easiest yet vital tip is to create a vanity URL for your brand page. You will need to have at least 25 fans before you are able to claim a username for your page. I do get random results for fan count limit during username claiming but all in all, whenever your page is eligible for one, grab it asap!

#2  Add Special Announcement/Info to Profile Image and Photo Strip

Profile picture and photo strip are still by far, the most visible area in a Facebook Page. Input special messages such as visit a particular tab for promo details:

You can also add products, brand testimonials or social media contacts so your fans can spot them instantly via the photo strip:

Bottom line, all of these images are very much alive if you use them properly. Keep them updated for fresh content. Remember, the images within the photo strip are randomly arranged. Instead of creating a banner that requires proper sequence, use them for call to actions and increase click through rates for your custom tabs. Get more ideas on how you can maximize the use of photo strips here.

#3  Important Tabs Should be Visible to Fans at All Times

When people visit your Facebook Page without logging in, MOST (if not all) of your page tabs are visible to them. Once logged in, a maximum of nine tabs will be displayed while others collapsed in a ‘More’ link. Apart from the default tabs (Wall, Info, Friend Activity), move and arrange your top 6 most important tabs inside the panel of links. Always hide or remove the outdated tabs to give way to the relevant ones.

#4  Optimize Your ‘About’ Section with Clickable Links

Although each Facebook page is given 255 characters limit for its ‘About’ section, but the first 78 characters are critical because those are showing up partially at your sidebar before visitors need to click ‘More’ to read the rest. Thus, make sure the most important info or links are displayed ahead of your message.

#5  Link Preview for Facebook Comments

The new updated feature to allow link preview in comments is a bonus. One can collapse or expand the preview so to understand more about the link shared. How Facebook determines which thumbnail to show next to the post excerpt is beyond our comprehension. However, an attractive introduction can definitely encourage click-through so be sure to customize your post and comment well.

#6  Enhance Custom Tabs for Brand Visibility and Engagement

A page with clearly defined, eye-catching custom tab(s) has slight edge over those that do not. Too many ways you can customize a fancy tab with iFrame apps but often times we hear remarks such as ‘the more expensive and crowded (with info) it is, the better’. This is untrue. A sophisticated tab can be simple, as long the brand info is delivered and participation from fans is achieved. Ask yourself, what is your main objective for setting up that custom tab?

#7  Plan Your Social Media Integration Carefully in Status Updates

I’m not a big fan of importing tweets into Facebook but if you must do so, be sure to monitor their performances in Insights to see if the tweets are helping or cluttering your Page wall with zero engagements. It’s always great to leverage our social networking platforms for maximum brand visibility, but without proper planning, those @mentions and shortened URLs may seem pointless and spammy. The idea of social media integration is about reaching potential audiences with related brand info they may find interest in. Therefore, be selective with what you share and how you post to your Facebook Page.

Bonus Tips:

#8  Link Your Website to Managed Page via Likebox

Although the ultimate goal is to drive fans to your main site, you should too, utilize Likebox to direct existing facebook users to your Page for further engagement and social sharing. The more people like your page and engage via wall posts and comments, higher chance for your page updates to appear in your fans’ and their friends’ news feed or Ticker.

If you haven’t joined, it would be my greatest honor to get a ‘Like’ from you. I can’t wait to see you there:

#9  Get Social via Facebook Commenting

‘Use Facebook as (Your Page)’ whenever necessary to comment on other Pages. This is a great solution to raise brand awareness and obtain the publicity your page desires while building relationship with other pages.

You are probably aware that Google is now indexing Facebook Comments too:

The search results may not always be real time, but even for past comments those are not to be taken granted for. The thing is we don’t know which post comment search engines are indexing so always be cautious before responding to any comments. Also, for SEO purposes it’s always smart to insert relevant keywords at the beginning of your comments (but don’t overdo this).

#10 Integrate Pinterest to Your Facebook Page

Pinterest as the virtual pinboard service is definitely one of the rising social media trends to watch in 2012. If you are using Pinterest to boost your brand with visual compelling images, now is the best time to integrate it into your Facebook Page to attract more eyeballs and followers. The process is simple:

a) Add iframehost to your Page via ‘Install Page Tab’-> Select your page in the drop down -> Add Static IFrame Tab.

b) In your Tab Settings -> Page Source (select ‘URL’), enter your Pinterest account link as shown below and Save Changes.

Thanks to AGBeat for the tips. Unfortunately you won’t be able to scale down the tab width to 520px, but good thing is your Pinterest profile and pin boards are visible at all times (with scrollbars).

Note: If you don’t like the layout, try adding the mobile-view link for your Pinterest account instead, for example: http://m.pinterest.com/wchingya

Are you on Pinterest? Looking forward to connect with you:

Now Is Your Turn…

Have you found other ways to optimize your page? Kindly share your experience in the comments below.

Like what you’re reading ? Subscribe via RSS Feed or email so you won’t miss a thing:

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Twitter is a valuable source of news updates. Without proper management, it can be a real time suck! There’s only so much time in a day, you need to make each tweet, each following count for something. Why not utilize some free Twitter tools to lighten your load so you can focus more on building relationship with your tweeps?

Twitter News Aggregators:

These apps summarize the most relevant and popular updates from your Twitter stream with very simple setup procedures. Best of all, you can subscribe to your friends’ to find out what is hot in their Twitter network too.

#1  The Tweeted Times

Tweeted Times creates real-time personalized newspaper from your Twitter stream and arranges them by popularity based on total mentions from your Twitter friends and theirs. You can then subscribe to the newspaper via RSS reader or promote it to your network.

Special Tip:

Customize your newspaper digests from public Twitter lists or search results. A great way to filter your stream if you are following a wide range of Twitter users.

#2  Summify

I was going to skip Summify because it had stopped receiving new registrations after acquired by Twitter. However, I can’t deny the fact that it helped tremendously in gathering social news feeds from various social networks: Twitter, Facebook and Google+, presenting them in one-page summary so one can catch up on daily news updates via web or mobile. Normally it takes 1-2 hours to collect the stories.

Special Tip:

Summify is visually appealing comparing to Tweeted Times and both give me slightly different results in their daily news updates. I love how I can easily share individual story without having to leave Summify.

#3  Paper.li

Paper.li offers more configurations when collecting trending news: optional to add photos, videos and to order the news by priority via drag and drop. You can add anything you read from the web to your paper and share it with your Twitter network. Being a publisher is all about providing content, which makes it all the more important to follow the right people in gaining valuable resources that interest you.

Special Tip:

Besides Twitter stream, you may import stories from other websites via RSS Feed and Google plus account as well. You can feature, hide or delete an article; block a user or website from your newspaper.

Declutter Your Twitter Stream:

#4  Slipstream

Slipstream works perfectly in Twitter web to eliminate irrelevant tweets without having to block or unfollow anyone. You can hide tweets containing a specific keyword, tag, either from a user or everyone in your Timeline, @replies or twitter lists.

Special Tip:

A huge time-saver if you don’t wish to get caught up by a trendy topic or hashtags you’re not interested in. My only problem with Slipstream is that it only supports limited browsers at the mean time: Chrome and Safari. We need more browser choices.

#5  StrawberryJam

StrawberryJam pulls in popular links shared by your friends and gives a clear overview of what’s trending in your Twitter network. You get to see the results ranging from last 8, 16 and 24 hours. Did I mention you can even see real time results too? Turn on the Preview and you can read the post excerpts, giving you some idea what is the story about.

Special Tip:

Enter specific keyword, tag or twitter list to find out most shared links in the mentioned category. Great app if you’re looking for popular links to share.

Twitter Following/Followers Management:

#6  ManageFlitter

It has been awhile since I cleaned up my Twitter account. Thanks to ManageFlitter, I was able to clear a few inactive accounts while discovering contacts I should communicate more. It allows Google+ integration so your public posts can be imported to your Twitter stream after configured.

Special Tip:

Free version of ManageFlitter only lets you ‘unfollow’. If you’re interested to know which of your followers you didn’t follow back, another free app you can use is ‘Friend or Follow’.

#7  FollowFriday Helper

I was able to jump on the FollowFriday bandwagon easily thanks to FollowFriday Helper which displays a filtered list of those we interacted most recently. You can choose to write personalized or multi-user recommendation tweets from within the app.

Special Tip:

Various hashtag suggestions are given other than #FF. Add multi-user recommendations by clicking at their Twitter username; navigating from one page to another won’t affect your pending recommendations in the text box. Thoughtful.

I was meant to add Formulists and Conversationalist in this category but unfortunately their sites are shutting down soon. Still yet to find a Twitter app that supports smart lists updating. For other Listing options, you can refer to 6 Twitter Lists Applications to Expand Your Network.

Twitter Account Management:

#8  Tweetbackup

Tweetbackup allows you to run daily backup of your twitter posts which you can then export to be downloaded. Tweetbackup is the subsidiary of Backupify, a well known backup app for social media accounts.

Special Tip:

Although it says to backup people you followed but neither can I locate the backup file nor the setting for that purpose.

Brand Monitoring on Twitter:

#9  Topsy

Tracking your brand mentions on Twitter can be done easily with Topsy. Get real time search results over the social web from the past 1 hour to 30 days, sort them by date or relevance. Use advanced search to filter your results if need to.

Special Tip:

Topsy adds Google+ in their real time results too. A good method to track who shared or mentioned your brand on Google Plus.

#10  Twubs

Twubs makes hashtags useful as it enables tracking for certain conversations, information, shared movements and memes. With Twubs, you’re able to view latest tweets of your preferred topics.

Special Tip:

There is no official claiming of hashtags so anyone can edit the hashtag descriptions. This could be a risk if someone deliberately sabotages a brand by altering their hashtag content. Therefore, commitment is required to monitor twitter chats and events closely.

Smart Scheduling of Tweets:

Tweet-scheduling can be a hassle. Often times I wonder do those scheduled tweets earned a spot in followers’ streams or simply dropped off their radar? Here are the solutions to the problem:

#11  Timely

Timely analyzes your past tweets and schedules them at suggested time slots for your optimum exposures. The timing will adjust itself after you added more tweets. Later, find out how your tweets performed in stats (number of clicks, reach and reactions). You can also skip or limit weekend posting as well.

Special Tip:

You can reply to those who mentioned you within the Timely app. Add a bookmarklet to your browser for quick and effective scheduling. No edit can be done on suggested time slots except deleting them.

#12  Buffer

Buffer is often compared to Timely but if you want to have control over your scheduling time then Buffer is your go-to app. Set your time slots and add up to 10 tweets for one Twitter account (Free version). Personally, I love how Buffer is integrated with other awesome apps like StrawberryJam and SocialBro. As a bookmarklet or browser add-on, you can add content easily to buffer!

Special Tip:

Buffer button is also available for websites to encourage readers to buffer your content. Adjust your time slots not only in hours but on different days by ‘Change days’ option. Ability to post less on certain days is available for paid accounts.

Recommended Read: 6 Points To Ponder Before Using Automatic Status Updates

Innovative Use of Twitter Stream:

#13  TweetWally

TweetWally is great for both personal and brand promoting purposes. I’m a Facebook addict so thanks for TweetWally’s embedding feature, I can gather all my Facebook-related tweets and share it with my blog readers. You can claim a vanity URL for your account and customize its appearance to fit your brand.  Here’s my TweetWally if you wish to take a look.

Special Tip:

No edit can be done on displayed tweets. Require constant monitoring so no irrelevant tweets are included.

Twitter Analytics:

#14  Twitsprout

After hearing so many good things about Twitsprout I decided to give it a go. It takes about 7 days to collect data for a new account but it’s worth the wait. Twitsprout transforms your historical data into a beautiful infographic, showcasing the stats for your new followers hourly, number of people retweeting you and number of mentions received.

Special Tip:

TwitSprout works best in Chrome; upgraded Firefox and Safari browsers (both version 4 and up).

#15  SocialBro

SocialBro is a Twitter community management tool but I must highlight its real-time analytical feature: you can find out who are the most active users in your stream in the last 5 minutes (twitter timeline, public Twitter lists or any search terms). Although free version only provides monitoring up to 100 active users every 10 seconds but that’s good enough for me.

SocialBro’s very own Insights is equally impressive where you get to track languages, timezones etc for your followers/following. You can export then save your data in PDF.

Special Tip:

Always synchronize your account to get the most updated results. SocialBro can do a lot more than analytics alone, including managing following/followers, discovering best time to tweet (integrated with Buffer) and so much more.

Don’t just take my words for it, try them out. Not all Twitter apps are suitable for everyone. Find out what is your biggest Twitter challenge and incorporate some of these tools to boost your online presence and productivity. You’ll be surprised how well these apps could work!

Now Is Your Turn…

Are you currently using any of these Twitter tools? Do you have more apps to add to this list? Feel free to share in your comment. Or you can always share with me on Twitter: Follow @wchingya

 

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