So what does this mean for you and your page?

• You can now directly talk to people who “like” the page with Page messages which will appear in your admin panel, as your page.
• After “liking” a person can add you to an interest list – which your current “likes” can go back and do too!
• There is no default tab, all visitors will drop immediately on your timeline page.
• Where did your tabs go? They’re now located in a left hand navigation bar called “Apps.” By default you’ll only see four Apps unless you click to view more, but you can also rearrange.
• All of your Facebook Promotions, any contest or giveaway, needs to be run solely though one of the Apps on Facebook, either a Canvas Page or a Page App.
• You now have a cover page! This means you have a HUGE list of new rules to follow when choosing this. You’re easiest; most Facebook approved option will be to use a high resolution product image with no text. More on this below.

Don’t have any high res images to fit the new width? Why not get a little help from your partner’s at Solid Cactus? Our design team can craft a custom cover image following all of Facebook.com’s guidelines, enforcing your brand and personality. Check out the details of our custom Facebook cover image here.

What are these guidelines?

Facebook is putting a large amount of attention to the Cover Image, as should you. It’s going to be a person’s first impression of your page timeline and brand. Facebook.com’s restrictions say that you CANNOT – repeat cannot or risk having your page shut down – include the following which comes directly from the help facts.

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

• Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property.
• You may not encourage or incentivize people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines. 

So what can you do with your new page?

Take a look at some great examples for inspiration for what you want, and can do, like Coca Cola or Blair Candy’s Facebook timeline , who had a custom image done by Solid Cactus.

Here’s a quick checklist of what you might want to update for the page:

• Include your cover image. It’s suggested to be at least 399 pixels, but should be 855 pixels X 350 pixels for a pixel perfect fit.
• Update your About Us to include all important information
• Re-order your Apps to show what’s most important to you.
• Go back through your Timeline and add in important events to your company history, such as how you were founded, when you first launched online, when your first sale was, when you had a redesign, etc.

How do you plan to use the new timeline? If you’ve updated your personal page, this shouldn’t be too big of a change, but for those with the old profiles, you may want to plan your changes before putting in a cover page.

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From recipes and decorating tips, to funny cat pictures and DIY projects, Pinterest is a vibrant community filled with people of all ages, brands, and businesses. While I could tell you more about what Pinterest is – an online board to share things that interest you and allows you to freely browse any other board (that means no privacy settings as of yet!) – I’m going to go straight to what Pinterest means for your business. If you want to find out more things like how to add a Pinterest button to your site (there’s a button to make it easier to pin things from ANY site and one to add to your site to let OTHER people pin and Solid Cactus can do this for you), how to start an account (you’ll need to request an invite from here or ask a friend to invite you), then take a look at Pinterest’s very simple Help section.

Instead, here’s what you need to know about Pinterest as a business:

• More so than any social network, Pinterest does not want you using it ‘purely as a tool for self-promotion.” This means you can post products from your site, but do so in a reasonable manner. When you look at brands like Real Simple, you’ll notice a lot of pins from RealSimple.com. You’ll also see Real Simple Finds boards which contain pins from other sites as well. Lesson? Be social.
• Pinterest is currently under a lot of flak for copyright issues. Namely for photographer’s rights, so be aware of any original photography you repin on the site. If you’re going to repin something, be sure to at least add your own comment below to make the pin’s content your own.
• Pinterest isn’t about getting to socialize with other pinners. It’s about sharing content and providing content that is worth sharing.
• Follow other boards. Not only will people notice your account that way, but you can get ideas for your own pins and find things you’d like to repin. If you’re selling tools, follow home decorating boards that offer home improvement ideas that can be achieved with your tools.
• If you’re pinning products that are priced competitively, include the price amount with the $ character before it. Your pin will then be displayed with an attractive price banner and included in the gifts category as well. (There are general categories that a person can sort by as well as Popular posts, and Videos.)

Once you understand the basics, ask yourself, should I be on Pinterest?

First look to see if people are already pinning from your site, then you know that your products will likely fit in naturally with other people’s ‘pins.’ You can do this by swapping out your site domain into this URL.

http://pinterest.com/source/[url]

example: http://pinterest.com/source/solidcactus.com/

Next, check Google Analytics to see if your site is already getting traffic from Pinterest.

Then see if your services or products can be classified under any of the categories that boards are listed by such as, Cars and Motorcycles, DIY & Crafts, Fitness, etc.

Do you have a blog, informational articles on site, or other valuable content? These too would be suited well for pinning. Also, do people want to share your products? I may repin a recipe, and the recipe was linked to the bakeware used for the recipe (along with the recipe of course.) If you had a picture of the car that your car part goes into on the page, that would be a great repin as well. Pinterest keeps sites from being misleading or false by only allowing for a pin to pull from the pictures on a site. So part of pinning is keeping up a site with great images as well. Which you should be doing anyways!

Finally, do you have photos on site? Pinterest is a very visual platform. It’s not just about the words; you want to be able to say your message with a photo or very brief words. The attention span on the site can be gone in a wink. I’ve scanned through twenty or more pins in a few seconds just by scrolling, and then other times stopped and pinned ten in a row.

If you’re looking for more than guidance in stepping into yet another social network, Solid Cactus offers a Pinterest management offering that may be just what you need. The best thing you can do as a business owner is start an account and test the waters, see if it’s something that you need help with and can manage under Pinterest guidelines.

How have you seen Pinterest used by businesses?

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Measure results and incorporate all that you’ve learned into your next set of goals, strategies and tactics. Early business efforts on social media were often incongruous and highly experimental. But if you approach social media from the perspective of how it relates to your corporate goals and strategies and how it harmonizes with and supports the brand of your business, you are much more likely to receive the return on this marketing investment that you desire.

In addition to sales directly attributable to social media efforts or leads, here are some other measurements you should review on a monthly or at least on a quarterly basis:

Elizabeth Kraus – small business marketing consultant and author of 365 Days of Marketing.

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Social media are comprised of communities – virtual neighborhoods linked by common interests, passions and life events – rather than geography.

• Make it your goal to connect with your customers and those individuals who represent your ideal client types on social media. Make it your strategy to bring them into your world based on what is going on in their lives –as it relates to the people, products, places and interests that are important to them.
• Make emotional connection part of your social media strategy. People want to share things (opinions, stories, photos, etc.) about themselves and giving them opportunities to do so through social media channels is the means by which your social media communities will be created.

A prime example of this is Party Pail’s late 2011 effort to increase engagement on the Partypail Facebook page. Using third party applications and some new customer engagement strategies, PartyPail was able to create emotional connections with customers, which tripled their Facebook fan base in just one month. Not only is the fan base much larger now, but the implementation of new applications allows for more engaging fan activities that keep their customers more active, entertained, and happy to share information and ideas with PartyPail as a brand.

Elizabeth Kraus – small business marketing consultant and author of 365 Days of Marketing.

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Social media posts essentially evaporate from timelines and feeds within a matter of just a few hours, so you will want to map out a formula and timeline for posting on various platforms, and you will probably post more frequently on some (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.,) than others (like your blog).

In addition to incorporating the advice of social media experts when it comes to posting frequency, find out what your competitors are or are not doing on social media that could give you a competitive edge.

Take time to learn what other businesses that serve your customers or the same types of clients are doing on social media. Find out which of their posts are effective when it comes to triggering engagement and reach.

It’s never been more important to make customer-centric, relevant, real time and valuable content creation part of your marketing strategy; and if that weren’t enough, your content must actually matter to your constituents. Plus, in our information-overload culture, you must do so in ways that grab the attention of viewers visually, within seconds, if you want them to actually review your content.

It’s the point at which your corporate messages and customer interests and passions align that you will reap the richest returns on social media (or any other marketing).

Along these same lines, use these tools not only to communicate information from your business, but also to listen to your customers and ideal client types. Find out more about their real needs, wants and interests. Ask questions. Solicit comments. Ask people to share photos, advice and how-to in some way that relates to the products or services you provide.

Elizabeth Kraus – small business marketing consultant and author of 365 Days of Marketing.

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SocialMediaExaminer.com released a 2011 Social Media Marketing study that listed Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging as the top 4 social media marketing tools for business. Not only were they the top 4 social media applications in use for business, they beat out the rest by a wide margin, so it’s likely that your social media strategy for 2012 needs to include them. The jury is still out on whether Google+ is going to develop the same type of reach as Facebook, but you can’t afford not to participate with the likelihood that it is going to affect search results and rankings.

But that is not to say that they are the only four social media tools you should be using.

• Find out which social media tools are right for your business, and prioritize them. An infographic like Brian Solis’ conversation prism illustrates that there are hundreds of tools which qualify as social media; however, not all tools are created equal.
• Choosing which social media networks to participate in will require that you know which ones your customers and ideal client types are using for networking and which they turn to for news, information and expert advice. These might not be the same; for instance, your customers may network socially on Facebook, professionally on Google+ and use LinkedIn or multi-author content-rich blogs like Open Forum, Hubpages or Squidoo to author industry or topic-specific learning resources.
  One of the ways PartyPail is leveraging content-rich networks is to use their Squidoo account to provide party planning resources and expert decorating tips. Also, visual and design-related social media platforms are on the rise at the moment, and PartyPail has found that leveraging these platforms gets them right in front of their perfect customer base. Not all businesses will find the same success on such design-oriented social networks, but PartyPail’s Pinterest account has started gaining followers, generating interactions with customers, and even led to sales.
• Your customers and prospects may also be active in online communities which are industry or specialty-specific (such as a forum for professional tax or finance professionals, marketing professionals, etc.) where you could interact by asking questions or providing expert answers.
• Work less, but achieve more. By focusing your social media efforts strategically and utilizing the platforms most likely to reach your customers and ideal client types, you can spend less time on social media but receive a higher ROI.

Elizabeth Kraus – small business marketing consultant and author of 365 Days of Marketing.

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Spring is right around the corner so make sure to add these five Spring Cleaning tips to maximize your Social Media Marketing results in 2012:

I recently read an article about social media which stated (and quite accurately so, I might add) that social media is not new. Nor was it new last year, or the year before that. Like many other innovations, social media’s popularity soared well before corporate America realized its potential.

It took a while for people to adapt the concept of social media platforms for business purposes, find out which their customers and prospects actually use and to develop an approach to social media community management in order to make it effective relative to supporting corporate goals. But now, with scores of social media experts blogging and writing books on the topic and a decade of development behind it, there is no reason to be afraid of using social media for your business – especially if you understand which social media platforms are right for your business, how best to use them, and how to gauge whether they are producing a real return on your marketing investment.

PartyPail, a baby shower and birthday party decorations supplier, is one of many businesses that is using the New Year to re-evaluate their current social media efforts, and resolving to improve them throughout the year. Read on for information about PartyPail’s primary social media resolutions for 2012.

2012 Social Media Spring Cleaning Tip #1
Stop dipping your toes in to test the social media waters; it’s time to jump in.

If you’re still sitting on the edge of the pool just dipping your toes in when it comes to social media, the time has come for you to take the plunge. Social media is a bona fide marketing tool, use it like one!

• The voice, tone, look and “feel” of your social media profiles, status updates and posts should reflect the brand of your business, no less than if it were any other corporate brochure or presentation, because that’s precisely what it ‘is.’
• Social media platforms give you the ability to customize various visual elements and corporate profile information. Take the time to fill these out completely. Use web links where appropriate to drive traffic back to your website. And make it a part of your annual marketing inventory process to review these areas, which are often pushed to the background and may need to be updated to reflect changes in and the growth of your business.
• Think of your social media updates as though you are holding a 24×7 press conference. What type of spokesperson would you want your business to have? What types of information are interesting enough to garner press attention? Not everything is press worthy, and even information which is may need to be ‘spun’ in such a way that is becomes of public interest.
• Your social media should be built around your short and long term goals. Fully integrate social media marketing strategies as a seamless, branded part of your overall marketing efforts in pursuit of specific corporate branding, marketing and sales goals. Do you know what you want to get out of your social media efforts? Determine what type of payoff will make you feel like you’re getting your social media marketing investment dollars’ worth. This might be an increase in sales, but it might also be lead generation, brand awareness, customer goodwill, customer education, referrals, public engagement or other less tangible achievements.

Elizabeth Kraus – small business marketing consultant and author of 365 Days of Marketing.

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But you knew that, right? You have a Facebook page for your eCommerce store already. That only leaves one question…

I can’t even tell you how many businesses I’ve “hidden” on Facebook because they just get too annoying. Either they post too often (or not often enough), they don’t answer questions, or they aren’t finding ways to connect with their audience. The thing you need to remember about Facebook is that it’s first and foremost a place for friends and family to connect and catch up with one another. You have to find a way to make your business fit into that model.

As a business, you’ll likely want to promote what your business does, your products, and some special offers now and then. The people that “like” your page are there because they somehow feel connected to your offerings and want to know about them. In that sense, they’re already a little engaged with you. But what should you do to keep them engaged?

Your goal should be to post in a relaxed and conversational style. Don’t post in an over-casual tone, though. Something like “Our new deal is crazy awesome, LOL” is not appropriate. On the flip side of the coin, something copied word-for-word from other marketing channels isn’t appropriate, either. Facebook needs to fall somewhere in that happy medium. Here are some tips to help you use the right voice for your Facebook page:

• Stay as timely as possible. That means monitoring your wall regularly—try to respond to people within a few business hours. Let’s face it, people are on Facebook all day long, and having to wait for your response is something that they’ll notice.
• Be as clear as possible when you post. You don’t want people to get confused and require a large amount of follow up comments.
• Being on Facebook is supposed to make people feel good. That’s why you need to make sure that you’re optimistic and upbeat. What happens if someone leaves a less-than-pleasing comment on your wall? Don’t ignore it—simply reply with polite assurance that you’ll address their issue. And make sure to express appreciation for positive comments.
• Share things that are relevant to your industry. If your fans find it useful, entertaining, and interesting, they’ll really respond to it.

When you get these ground-level things right, you’ll be able to do so much with your business Facebook page. Then you can take advantage of some other great extras (like paid Facebook advertising and Facebook Stores) to really boost your brand.

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It’s all up to the advertiser to decide where they’d like to target their efforts. Google AdWords, as a rule, opts all PPC campaigns into United States and Canada targeting by default. It’s up to the advertiser or the dedicated PPC Manager, of course, to exclude Canada from these initial campaigns. (Note: A PPC best practice is to create separate campaigns for different countries and, in some cases, states or regions, but it’s not the end of the world if Canada gets lumped in with some US campaigns from time to time).

The beauty of geo-targeted campaigns is that they usually see high click-through-rates, bring in qualified traffic and can really “speak” to the consumer, if done properly.

At Solid Cactus, we have clients who see the value in geo-targeted campaigns and those who do not. It all depends on the client’s business model, target audience and shipping setup. Geo-targeting is especially ideal for smaller clients who don’t want to waste money paying for clicks throughout the entire US, and would rather allot their $500 budget to just the few states in which they receive the most orders. By using Google Analytics or simply looking at order receipts, this information is readily available and can help a client maximize his or her ROI.

In situations such as these, it’s important to use ad copy tailored to that specific state. Wording such as “Free Shipping to Texas” and “NY Shoppers: Shop & Save Now!” can make all the difference. Think about it, wouldn’t you rather buy from a store that is specifically marketing to your part of the world as opposed to others?

As mentioned before, these campaigns generally have higher CTRs because of how specific they are, which makes for higher conversion rates as well.

Just like you can target specific states, it’s similarly as easy to exclude certain states from campaigns, too. Many online retailers complain of higher shipping costs to areas such as Hawaii and Alaska, so instead of wasting advertising dollars in those areas, clients choose to not even bother with those states and simply stick with the continental US, especially in the beginning of a PPC account. The choice, again, belongs to the advertiser.

Targeting to countries – everywhere from Indonesia to Iceland – is easy, too. If it’s worthwhile, consider targeting campaigns to other countries in which you or your clients ship. On the same note, you can target more refined areas and regions within states, so if you provide services specific to metro areas such as Pittsburgh or Denver or even smaller spots such as St. Peter, Minn. or Carbondale, Pa., then geo-targeting is for you, too.

Geo-targeting is especially helpful for advertisers during off seasons. For instance, a bathing-suit shop may not want to have ads showing to “window shoppers” in the North during the cold months of the year. If that advertiser just wants to show in southern states such as Florida and the Carolinas, they can easily select a group of states to which they can target a campaign. That way, they’re assured only shoppers searching in areas where they may currently need a bathing suit will be clicking.

So, how do you do it?

Once you create a campaign within Google AdWords, go to the “Settings” tab on the top of the interface. Under the section that says “Locations” you can easily select to add or exclude hundreds of different areas. Check it out, even if geo-targeting isn’t for you right now. It may be someday as your budget fluctuates, your shipping rates change and your target audience expands.

Remember, also, to separate geo-targeted campaigns. Reason being: certain areas have different searching patterns (like any demographic does), ad copy can be tailored, keyword costs and daily budgets may need to be adjusted differently, etc. Don’t make the mistake of lumping your campaigns together. You’ll end up with a mess on your hands – no matter what continent you’re on!

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To participate, the following criteria must be met:

1. A Facebook Page for your small business
2. Your business must be based in the US
3. Your page will need at least 50 likes

50 likes and you’re in, right?
Answer: Not quite. We provide Facebook services for a lot of small business owners like yourself, but only a few were selected by Facebook to be a part of this contest. “Facebook did not select every Facebook Business Page out there to be a part of the contest,” notes Alicia Magda, our resident social media genius. But one thing is certain, our clients who were selected to participate, their Facebook pages exemplifies “the quality of our Facebook posts, the ability to grow Facebook ‘likes’, and our experience in upholding social media best practices (aka no spam!).”

What’s next if you’ve been selected to participate in this contest? Well, step one is savor the $50 in free ads. Then, roll up your sleeves and get to work. If you can get another 100 more likes add to your Small Business page by April 1, 2012, there’s another $100 in free ads! AND, if you’re one of the top 10 pages that gains the most new likes before April 1, 2012, you could win $10,000 more in free ads!

So what are you waiting for? Your “like” buttons aren’t going to click themselves. Get out there and get “like’d”.

Still here? Not sure where to start? I’ll give you a hint, Facebook Management! Let the experts at Solid Cactus help you create, manage, and grow your Facebook Business Page.

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