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Out of the 37 million Facebook business pages, 7 million have already made the mandatory 3/30 switch to the “Timeline” format. Want to know what best practices early adopters have to share? Read on.

1. Features: Hover over any post you have made to your wall and click the “star” button top right that says “Highlight”. When you do, it will spread the post out to cover both columns of your wall and feature it. This is GREAT for photos and makes a fantastic visual impact.
2. Pins: You can pin any post or “feature” to the top of your wall, so, it is the first thing your visitors see. The result? Increased engagement with your page. Find this button by hovering over a post, and you’ll see “edit or remove” option, top right. Click the “pencil” image and choose “pin to top”.
3. Noisy Tabs:If you were using a Facebook Welcome page before, it is now a “tab” that appears under the cover photo. You have 3 “above the fold” spots to use, so, make them good with custom tabs that really engage your visitor. Making your tab “noisy” refers to the level of engagement you can get by asking people to do something on a page, like, vote or watch a video.(By the way, you don’t have to have “liked” a page to write on the wall now, so, getting people into your permission marketing stream with a “like” is something you need to focus on.) Tabs are now your only place to give visitors a “call to action”.

Take a look at the following “early Facebook timeline adopters” business pages for ideas:
http://www.facebook.com/julep
http://www.facebook.com/Nylabone
http://www.facebook.com/VEVO
http://www.facebook.com/mountaindew

What is the most exciting about these new changes is that those Facebook business pages with under 1 million fans that have been using the new timeline for 1 month now, have seen significant improvement in engagement with their page.

Try the suggestions below and post your results below.

The vast majority of Americans are actively using social media. Has your business acted on this fact?

If you looking for a way to keep pace with the quickly evolving field of social media marketing I highly recommend this webinar series for any business. As a social media professional, I always stay on top of the latest happenings with big brands and online social tools. This social media webinar series is something I attend every year and highly recommend to clients.

More than ever, it’s critical to keep up with social media changes, to stay competitive and to learn the tactics and strategies that produce the best results and the greatest return for your business.

If your business has not yet tapped the massive opportunities presented by social media marketing, read on…

Recent Statistics on Social Media Adoption
Here are a few reasons why you should invest heavily in social media:

Mass adoption of social media: Nearly 80% of all active U.S. Internet users regularly visit social media sites (Nielsen). And while consumers spend 25% of their Internet time on social sites, Facebook has become the most visited website in the world. Your customers are there.

Social media benefits businesses: Among marketers who include social media as part of their overall strategy, 97% agree that it provides benefits and value to their business (eMarketer).

Social media improves branding: In a survey of more than 700 marketers, 88% of respondents found that social media helps grow brand awareness. Social media also benefited marketers by allowing them to engage in dialogue (85%) and increase sales and partnerships (58%). An additional 41% of marketers said it helped reduce costs (Wildfire Interactive).

These stats are just a sample of the power of social media.

Are you “all in” with your social media activities? Want to fast-track your success?

Social Media Examiner Announces Social Media Success Summit 2012
“Social media has changed radically in the last 12 months,” acknowledges Michael Stelzner, (CEO and founder of Social Media Examiner). “Google+ entered the stage, Facebook introduced Timeline for pages, YouTube unveiled their new layout, Twitter got a complete revamp and then there’s Pinterest. It’s a completely different world and there’s a need to discover new strategies and new ways to market your business with these platforms.”

To equip you with the latest strategies for marketing with Google+, blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest, Michael Stelzner and the people you trust from Social Media Examiner have recruited 27 of the world’s most respected social media experts to share their newest tips and advice at Social Media Success Summit 2012.

If you’re not familiar with these events, they’re large online conferences (so you don’t need to travel).

Typically, thousands gather at Social Media Examiner Success Summits to discover new social media tactics, network with peers and discover how other successful businesses are using social media.

What People Say About Social Media Success Summit

Last year, 3,000 people attended the online summit.
Some of the organizations represented were Coca Cola, Visa, Microsoft, 3M, Honda, Kraft Foods, SAP, Wells Fargo, Disney, AutoDesk, LexisNexis, Four Seasons Hotels, Fuddruckers, EMC and thousands of small businesses.
Here’s what some of them had to say:

“Thoroughly wowed by the format and content. I will most definitely attend future summits,” Kim Kiefer

“Guaranteed to improve the way you approach social media. I’ll be back next year!” Derrick Sweet

“Phenomenal topics and knowledgeable speakers. The ability to ‘catch up’ on sessions thanks to recordings was a selling point for me due to scheduling,” Erin Caples

“This is the most comprehensive training I have yet seen on social media. The lineup of presenters was most impressive and the whole summit exceeded my expectations,” Suzanne Kiraly

Meet Your Presenters
Among the 27 social media experts who will be presenting at this summit are:

• Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group
• Chris Brogan, author of Google+ for Business
• Mari Smith, co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
•  Brian Solis, author of Engage
• Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford Motor Company
• Frank Eliason, author of @YourService
• Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and author of Launch
• Jay Baer, co-author of The Now Revolution\
•  Jason Falls, co-author No Bullshit Social Media
• Mark Schaefer, author of The Tao of Twitter
• C.C. Chapman, co-author of Content Rules
• Dave Kerpen, author of Likeable Social Media
• Jesse Stay, author of Google+ for Dummies
• Amy Porterfield, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies
• And experts from Dell, Ford, LinkedIn, Citigroup, Citrix and many others.

Why Attend Social Media Success Summit?
Here are a few reasons:

• Learn the latest and best social media business-building tactics.
• Learn about tracking and measuring social media return on investment.
• Learn how to sell with Google+, blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest.
• Learn how content marketing fits in with social media.
• You’ll have the opportunity to network via LinkedIn with thousands of people who are expected to attend.
• You’ll interact live with experts from big B2B and B2C brands such as Ford, Dell, LinkedIn, Citigroup and Citrix.
• Keep learning even after the summit is over—With the session recordings and the transcripts, you can keep studying the material for up to one year from the date of your ticket purchase.

Want to save some money? If you reserve your spot now, you’ll save 50%. Click here for details.
What do you think? Would you be interested in learning what the world’s top social media experts are doing that makes them so successful?

Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

On Leap Day February 29, Facebook announced 4 major changes to your Facebook Business Page that will occur on March 30th. These changes will dramatically affect the success of your business! Here’s what you need to know.

1. Timeline for Pages: Pages are getting those big, glossy cover photos and full-width media highlights which changes how we think about the identity of a business. “Welcome” pages / tabs will no longer be options as a landing page. You can still add the pages, but, they will reside under the cover photo as avatars (with a hotlink under it). Also, Facebook will NOT allow Pages to include “calls to action” or overtly promotional text in their cover photos. Your Page CAN include a logo or an image of your location or your staff in the cover photo, but it cannot say something like “Get 40% off today only” or “See more at our website.” The timeline cover size is: 850 pixels x 320 pixels.Here’s some new business Cover Story photos to help you get ideas:
   https://www.facebook.com/CouponMintMag
   http://www.facebook.com/cocacola
   https://www.facebook.com/mortgageconsultant
   http://www.facebook.com/Starbucks
   https://www.facebook.com/umbro
2. Getting More Customers: There will be a “friends-focused” approach to reaching and growing your audience. Instead of just seeing a wall of information or updates, you’ll first notice how many friends of yours already like the Page. You’ll also see highlighted activity from your friends that’s relevant to the Page, whether it’s a check-in or a story about the brand. It’s this type of activity that will lead to higher engagement with your business page. You can immediately connect with a brand much more personally. This will help pre-sell visitors on your company so you can get more “Likes” and turn those fans into customers!
3. New Admin Panel: The admin panel will appear at the top of any Pages you manage, and it will act as an activity snapshot for notifications, post performance and stats. Page administrators are also getting messaging capabilities so they can respond to messages from everyday users (a first for businesses on Facebook). In addition to stats and notifications, admins also now have the ability to cherry pick “pinned posts,” which will appear at the top of the Page’s Timeline for up to seven days. You can also add past “business milestones” to the page (even if they occurred before you Business Facebook page was created.)
4. Measurement: There will be an all-new dashboard for analytics where Admins can keep track of the activity on their page, respond to people who have commented on their timeline, and view page analytics. The admin panel will display any new likes, notifications, post performance statistics, and messages.

Facebook is providing a LOT of advanced notice. Admins will have ample time to craft, prune, and curate the Timelines and highlighted stories so that the organization’s message is told powerfully and visually.

One of the great things about a WordPress blog is all the Plugins easily available for use.

Plugins help add features to your WordPress site that maximize flexibility and minimize heavy HTML coding. They offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs.

Here are my top 6 favorite WordPress Plugins:

All in One SEO Pack
Automatically optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization) by allowing you to easily add keyword tags and relevant descriptions to each blog post.

Akismet
Checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s “Comments” admin screen.

Google Analytics
Enables google analytics on all pages helping you understand how someone came to your site and what keywords they used to get there.

Subscribe2
Provides a comprehensive subscription management and email notification system for WordPress blogs that sends email notifications to a list of subscribers when you publish new content to your blog.

Share This
Adds links to share posts via Email, StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, Twitter at the end of each article you write.

Yet Another Related Post
Shows a list of the last 5 other posts you’ve written on this same topic that is related to the current entry, which introduces the reader to other relevant content on your site and keeps them engaged with your site longer.

Were you shocked to see the new Facebook changes on your profile last week? If so, you are not alone. Facebook has made tremendous changes to Personal Profiles and Business Fan Pages will not be far behind.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but, here are 3 tips worth knowing so you can get a handle on the new changes to your Personal Facebook Profile:

1. Subscribe: Subscribing is really just the same as “adding a friend” or “liking a business page”. What’s new is that you have so many more options regarding the type of information you wish to see from each person or page. Just mouse over the name and the “hover” card will appear with many choices based on: “volume” – how often you get content, and “type” – what content you hear about. Learn more here: facebook.com/about/subscribe
2. Timeline: The former “wall” is now called your Timeline. You are not automatically switched over to this view just yet. But, take a look at learn more about it here: facebook.com/about/timeline You may find it fun. The new layout is nice with a large “Cover” photo at the top instead of the 5 little thumbnail images plus news is shown in a 2 column format (you can even click to “feature” a particular post that will spread across both columns). What’s new is you’re going to find many drop down boxes and icons to click on that will let you edit and update just about anything. For those with lots of free time, you can spend hours adding life events (even those in the past). Facebook wants to hold your whole life!
3. Privacy: There are many ways to select what other people see about you. You can control:
   • How you connect with friends
   • How you are “Tagged” and tag others
   • Who sees when you add new apps and websites
   • Who sees what you posted in the past
   • People and apps you have chosen to block

   Take a look at each setting individually and open or close them as you see fit.

PLUS! Facebook will be adding NEW “like” terms such as: “watch”, “read”, “listen” so that you can more accurately interact with content.

BONUS! And, if you really want to help Facebook know what you want to see on your wall, click the little blue triangle on the top left of a post to either remove it as a “top story”, or click the empty left top corner to mark it as a top news.

More questions? Just post them below.

One of my clients, Katy Goshtasbi, owner/founder of Puris Image, a personal branding company asked me to be the subject of a video series she is creating on her YouTube channel. She had a great idea to create quick 2 – 3 minute videos with her flip cam, interviewing her clients on their experience personal shopping with her at Stein Mart and posting the videos to her social media sites.

What I love about her video series approach are several things:

1. She’s uploading new videos every week with new client interviews and using her keywords with each upload.
2. She’s giving the embed code to each interviewee to get them to add it to their blog (see below), this gives “in-links” to her content.
3. She’s keeping the videos short so that she can keep the viewers interested.
4. She’s promoting the video on her blog, her Facebook site and in Twitter.
5. She’s promoting a strong brand, Stein Mart, in the videos, which is a great way to get noticed, especially if Stein Mart monitors social mentions of their brand. The goal would be that Stein Mart would reach out to her to thank her for all the kind mentions and perhaps it could turn into a great online relationship for her, if the Stein Mart web site or Facebook page links to her videos content. It could help her go viral online and get her more viewers.

If you’ve been thinking about using video to promote your business, take a look at Katy’s approach and see how you can do something like that for yourself. What do you think of her series so far? I’d love to hear your comments below.

Have you seen any Twitter hashtags on your favorite shows lately? I’ve started noticing this myself and then read a great article in TV Guide Magazine about the introduction of hashtags (#) scrolling at the bottom of your TV screen for certain shows.

Just last week, “#Glee” was shown throughout the entire episode of Glee and “#AmericanIdol” is loving their real time Twitter Tweets from devoted fans during the show itself.

Many broadcast and cable networks are now starting to add Twitter hashtags to the bottom of their shows: Fox, CBS, NBC and Comedy Central included. Fox marketing president Joe Earley says, “We thought if we provided the official hashtags, then more posts would aggregate.” Joe is right. If you want to aggregate information to view real time activity on your brand, name, product or service, hashtags are the way to go.

Monitter.com is a great online resource that lets you monitor hashtags in real-time from their website. You can even monitor up to 3 hashtags at once, which appear in three columns with the newest tweets in each column popping up at the top. It’s a powerful way to see trends and get in on the conversation that people are having, real time!

As DVR’s become more popular, social media is now helping TV networks drive people to watch their favorite shows in real time so they can be part of the conversation. In fact, NBC just launched NBC Live, a whole site devoted to promoting its shows via social media, while CBS just recently held its own “Tweet Week” devoted to its shows.

Social is starting to weave itself into the daily fabric of our lives, from the computer to our phone, to the way we search for information online and watch TV (which you can also do from your phone). So much cross over is very exciting for those of us in the social media industry. If you are not using the power of Twitter or Facebook to promote your business, you need to take a look at these results below and then ask yourself why not?

Last month, Comedy Central jump-started the hashtag trend with its Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump. The network reports that the show became it’s “most watched in history” and credited some of that success to its decision to run a “#trumproast” hashtag at the bottom of the screen throughout the special. Analysis shows that the “#trumproast” hashtag was used more than 27,000 times on Twitter during the telecast. That’s a lot of social activity for a 1 hour Television show.

Think there is no power in social media? Think again!

Can you believe it was just 5 years ago that Twitter began? What was once just a way to keep friends easily connected with real time updates like “Where you at?”, Twitter is now a tremendous tool for the business that knows how to use it properly.

Used for Branding, Customer Service, Coupon Specials, making joint venture partnerships, online networking, search engine optimization, driving traffic to your blog or web site, and more… Twitter is an online marketers dream. With keyword search, you can find someone talking about your product, service, or Brand, real time and reply back to them (whether they are following you or not.)

I caught Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter (find him @biz on Twitter), on Conan O’Brien’s Show last week. With the Tonight Show debacle and Conan being restricted on when he could appear in public and what he could say last year, he said Twitter was his saving grace. Visit @teamcoco to read his witty tweets.

Brian Solis blogged that Twitter, “has a reported 200+ million users (and bots) and a market valuation of $8 – $10 billion. It took 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to hit 1 billion Tweets. Now it only takes 1 week for Twitter to syndicate 1 billion Tweets.” If you are actively using Twitter, you understand how it works and can really see the power of it to connect instantly with someone you know, or have a common interest with. Even the mobile use of Twitter has grown 182% in the last year.

If you visit Twitter’s home page these days, their tag line reads, “The Best Way to Discover What’s New in Your World.” For the general user, you can find out what Oprah has to say, or stay up to date on the latest happenings of your favorite music artist or celebrity.

In January there was a lot of talk about how Twitter helped the people of Tunisia stay connected and avoid censorship by their government using the hashtag #sidibouzid.

Twitter is a lot of things to a lot of different users. For social media experts, having a networking tool available at your fingertips that can reach anyone (who has a Twitter account), anywhere, in any country, in seconds is phenomenal. As long as you have a business strategy in place regarding what you are saying and when, you should be seeing success with this aspect of “permission marketing”. If after reading this you thought to yourself, “I’m supposed to have a Twitter strategy for my business account”, then, you might want to give me a call.

Twitter itself reports that 460,000 new accounts were created each day on average in February 2011. Did one of those accounts belong to you or your business? Have you found connections that are a great source of referral? Are you tracking clicks and offer codes from Twitter? What do you use Twitter for? I welcome your comments.

There are now over 600 million people using Facebook. 2 million web sites are integrated with Facebook social plug ins. Facebook has their own algorithm, much like Google, which is called Edge Rank. Having good Edge Rank determines if your posts are making the “Top News” feed. Facebook has two news feeds: “top news” and “most recent”. Top News is the default feed Facebook assigns to accounts and what most people see. It is a snapshot of the “most active” Facebook people and pages you are connected to. Most Recent is the feed that shows what every person or business you are connected to has posted in their status update. As a business, the more you are “shared”, “liked” and “commented” on, the better your Edge Rank.

As a business, you must follow these tips to improve your Edge Rank and help ensure your posts are being seen by your community:

1. Post photos: they get the BEST Edge Rank
2. Post videos
3. Post URL Links out to content (Only posts with URL’s can be shared. Text only does not show the “share button”)
4. Post live, manual posts (not all auto fed)

More Tips About Facebook and Your Blog:

You may also want to consider manually posting your new blog articles into Facebook, rather than auto feeding them in via the notes tab, Networked Blogs app or other automated tool, like Twitterfeed. The reason is, a manual post allows you to choose the best “thumbnail” image to accompany the post. Sometimes, auto fed blogs don’t provide a visual thumbnail (and sometimes they do, so, check the one you are using). People like to see images along with content. Take a look at how your blog article entries look on your Facebook wall now and decide what works best for you. At least 1 post per day should be a live, manual post to improve Edge Rank.

Facebook Like Box - Social Plug In

When it comes to Facebook Social Plug Ins, use the “like box” on your blog. The “like button” is not as viral. It posts 1 line to the wall of the person who clicks it. But, the “like box” makes the post easier to share, shows up on the wall of the person who posted it and includes thumbnail images of fans.

Add This Sharing Buttons

Allowing people to share your blog while reading their Facebook wall posts is key. If someone starts on your blog and wants to share your article in Facebook or any other social tool they use, you should make sure your blog is as “sharable” as possible by adding share buttons to each and every blog article. Add them to the top and bottom of the post. For example, you may use the “TweetMeme” button at the top of the post and the “Add This” list of buttons at the bottom. Be social everywhere you can and encourage sharing.

Have you heard the buzz about Social Media Success Summit 2011—the web’s largest online social media marketing conference?

Before I tell you how this virtual summit will help your business attract great customers and prospects, gain a unique competitive advantage, and measure your social media results, let me share a story with you.

PROOF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING WORKS…

In October 2009, Michael Stelzner started Social Media Examiner, a blog for marketers and small business owners. Almost overnight, his site became one of the top business blogs in the world.

He didn’t advertise, didn’t rely on the press and almost none of his traffic came from search engines.
Slightly more than a year later, his site has more than 57,000 email subscribers, over 31,000 Facebook fans, a half-million page views a month, and has generated nearly $2 million in sales.

Everything he does focuses on delivering high-quality content coupled with intelligent social media marketing.
Michael’s story is not unique. A significant 73% of business owners and marketers plan to increase their use of social media in 2011 (2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report).

What’s the connection? Your customers (and prospects) are using social media every day. Social media is a new marketing frontier because it bypasses all the costly middlemen and allows you to engage directly with your customers and prospects! AND this presents an enormous opportunity for you.

SO WHAT’S THIS ABOUT?
Michael (and his team) have been working for months to bring the best minds in social media together in a fully online event called Social Media Success Summit 2011.

A significant 2,500 marketers and business owners from around the world attended his last Social Media Success Summit. Businesses were transformed. In fact, 96% of attendees said they’d attend again.

This summit’s focus is to empower you to implement successful social media marketing tactics, track and measure your social media ROI, and see how successful social media campaigns were executed. Twenty-two of the world’s leading social media superstars will be summit instructors.

Presenters include Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter Group), Brian Solis (author, Engage), Frank Eliason (Citigroup), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Erik Qualman (author, Socialnomics), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner), Dan Zarrella (author, The Social Media Marketing Book), and experts from Boeing, Intel, Verizon, Cisco and LinkedIn.

Plus join Andy Sernovitz (author, Word of Mouth Marketing), David Meerman Scott (author, Real-Time Marketing & PR), Jay Baer (co-author, The Now Revolution), Hollis Thomases (author, Twitter Marketing), Steve Garfield (author, Get Seen), and Ann Handley (MarketingProfs)–just to name a few.

Attendees at our two last summits included well-known organizations such as General Electric, American Express, Staples, General Mills, Microsoft, Harvard, San Francisco Giants, MetLife, Kraft Foods, Hyatt Hotels, Stanford, Ben & Jerry’s, IDG and Disney. But you don’t need to be a big business to benefit!

This is the world’s largest online social media event designed to empower marketers and business owners to master social media marketing. And the great news is it’s a live online conference you can attend from your home or office.
Go here now to learn more.

Here’s to your success!
Joann Whetstine

P.S. Twenty-two of the most successful social media pros will show you how to use social media to market and grow your business. Remember, the experts teach the sessions live (and it’s all online). So you don’t need to leave your home or office! Go here to see how this works!

P.P.S. As a way of saying “thanks” for checking out the summit, there’s a gift just for marketers called “8 Steps to Creating a Winning Social Media Strategy” by Jay Baer (valued at $59) waiting for you. Go get it here.