We are living in a world dominated by fast moving information, real time data and social media. We are receiving higher volumes of information at a quicker rate then ever before. This new explosion has created a very unique issue for small business owners. How do you stay up to date with everything that is being tweeted, tagged, liked, blogged, G+, checked in, reviewed, reported on and pinned (whew, try saying that 3 times quick). In this post, I’m going to show you a few simple tricks. Along with 2 tools to make Online Reputation Management easier, and a little less time consuming.

So What is Online Reputation Management (ORM)?

ORM is the practice of monitoring the Internet reputation of a person, brand and business. With the goal of addressing and mitigating both positive and negative mentions. For most businesses, monitoring your Online Brand and helping to build a positive outlook is the most important function. No business is perfect and no one is ever satisfied a 100%. Your going to face situations were customers or guests aren’t happy. On the other side of the token, you will have customers that rant and rave about how perfect you are. Both of these factors need to be monitored and treated equally. With the unhappy online customers you must engage and mitigate. With happy online customers engage and be thankful. When people look across the many outlets of information they aren’t looking for you to be perfect. They are looking for how you react, and how you treat your consumer (happy or not).

Using Google Alerts to Make Your Life Easier.

Google Alerts will become one of your true allies in the ORM battle. It’s a free tool that will allow you to set up a number of different search queries that will notify you anytime your brand is mentioned. A great tip is to add not only your brand name but to also add any geographical terms for your area. For example, Sequim Washington Bed and Breakfast that way you can also start to see other business in the area that are being mentioned or covered. You then can start to measure your online reputation against others in your market.

Social Media Never Rests

Sites like Facebook and Twitter never sleep. They are moving 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So staying up with all the happenings is a tough task for those who require sleep. Luckily, there are some great tools out there that can help you to get ORM results quickly across a large number of sites. Much like Google Alerts, Social Mention will become something to lean on more and more. This program works very similar to Google Alerts, except you have the ability to reach deep into all the social network platforms.

In Conclusion:

I hope you can find a way to use these two great free tools. These tools should help keep you in the loop and speed up the rate in which you can gather information about your brand. Please contact us if you need any further details on this topic. With never ending growth of Social Media, and more advancements in technology coming. Staying on top of  your online brand reputation will become more important everyday.

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Take advantage of the growing number of people traveling with pets.

Do you allow pets at your bed and breakfast? If so, how often do you welcome guests with pets? Have you noticed the growing trend in pet travel? Do potential guests know your inn is pet friendly?

Hint: It takes more than a single sentence buried somewhere on your website declaring your property pet friendly to get the word out. It’s no use providing doggie beds and milk bones if no one realizes they can stay at your inn with their furred friend.

Let’s brainstorm. What could you do to spread the word about your accommodating pet policy?

Advertise your pet friendliness on your website

Although most pet travelers arrive with dogs, people also travel with cats and other animals.

Let’s start with the basics: make sure your website states that you are pet friendly. Add information about your pet policy, like the maximum size of the pets you accept, the closest dog walking area, and the pet-specific amenities you offer. Do you offer dog treats at check-in? Is there a grassy area across the street where Fido can get some exercise? Are certain rooms set aside for pets, while others are kept pet-free? Do you have any resident pets?

Be positive when writing your policies. Don’t scare off potential guests with a list of finger-shaking rules, which sends a message of distrust. Instead, use your policies as an opportunity to welcome responsible pet owners. For example:

• Negative: “We don’t accept pets over 50 pounds.”
  Better: “We welcome pets up to 50 pounds.”

• Negative: “Your dog must be leashed at all times.”
  Better: “We ask that your dog be leashed in our public spaces.”

• Negative: “Poop-scooping is required.”
  Better: “Please clean up after your pet. We are happy to provide plastic baggies and directions to the nearby dog park.”

• Negative: “Dogs are restricted to the Tulip Room.”
  Better: “Dogs are welcome in the Tulip Room. We also provide pet-free, allergen-free rooms for the comfort of those with allergies.”

Ideally, devote a whole page just to pets. You can optimize this page for search engines so that it shows up in searches for pet-friendly lodging in your area. Plus, a whole page is more visible to your website visitors than a bullet point hidden on your policies page.

Write blog posts about area pet-friendly activities

Blog about local attractions and activities that pets can enjoy, like dog-friendly beaches and dog parks.

Use your blog to expand on the pet-friendly qualities of your inn as well as your town. The more content people see on your site about pets, the more comfortable they’ll be with booking a getaway with Spot. The more content search engines see on your site about pets, the more likely your site will be to rank well for pet-friendly lodging.

Here are some ideas for pet-friendly blog post topics:

• Area dog parks
• Best routes for dog walks
• Pet-friendly restaurants in your area
• Pet-friendly activities and attractions in your area

Get your pet-loving Facebook fans involved

Ask your guests to post pictures of their pets at famous landmarks on your Facebook page.

Let your Facebook fans help with your marketing efforts. Social media should play an integral part in your marketing efforts, and marketing to pet travelers is no exception. Fortunately, pet lovers can make this easy. Here are some ideas for promoting your pet-friendly rooms on Facebook:

• Encourage guests to take photos of their pets and post them on your inn’s Facebook wall. People love taking pictures of their pets, and people love looking at pictures of pets.

• Hold a photo contest in which you feature the winner’s photo in your page’s cover photo. Ask for pictures of pets around your inn, at a famous area landmark, or at a local pet-friendly attraction.

Do you have any tips for ways to attract guests traveling with pets? What has worked for you in the past? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

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Are Facebook Apps Viewing Your Personal Information?

Last week, a work colleague mentioned that while using Facebook, she had been sent an event invite to something called “Facebook Goes Pink.”

She said she thought it might be something for breast cancer awareness, and wanted to respond, so she clicked on the event link. This turned out to be a spamming App that then sent the same event invitation to all her friends.

She requested some help with this, so I asked her to go to her account settings and click on “Apps” in order to investigate and remove the offender.

What we found in the list shocked her. Not only was the “Facebook Goes Pink” App in the list, but so were over 30 other Apps she didn’t recognize. She said she had no idea those were operating inside her account.

I showed her how to go through the list, remove those she didn’t want, and how to edit each of the apps she did want to keep but to remove all the non-essential info the Apps had access to in her account.

I told her that many of these Apps were granted access to her account because she had probably interacted with a friend who used the App by commenting on the friend’s status.

I think it worthwhile to offer step by step instructions on checking your account for rogue Apps, tightening up the settings for Apps you do want to use, and (very important) disabling access to your account info for the Apps your friends use.

Let’s look at an App to see what it will pull if you allow and enable it. This is only one example. Some apps require more info to be pulled. You need to analyze each App before allowing access in order to determine if you are comfortable granting access or not.

Click on the images in this post to view at full size.

Anatomy of App Access: Point of Entry:

To Access Your Account Settings:

Deleting and Editing Apps:

Go through the list and click the “X” to delete any Apps you don’t want in your account. If you want to keep an App, click “Edit” to edit the amount of access the App has, and also to see when it last accessed your info. You can also edit the “Posts on my behalf” visibility in the drop down menu.

To Block the Apps That Your Friends Use:

To block Apps that your friends use: Privacy Settings > “Blocked People and Apps”

To Add Apps To Your Block List

Click “Manage Blocking” Scroll to the bottom, and add Apps to be blocked:
(The Apps you see in this list are my own personal list, and for me, have been proven to be spammy, or I just prefer not to see any news from them show up in my Newsfeed when friends use them).

Disallow Access By Apps That Your Friends Use

Now let’s disallow the access that your friends Apps have to your account. Again Choose “Privacy Settings” and click “Edit” under “Apps and Websites.” Now under “How people bring your info to apps they use” click “Edit Settings” (You may also want to explore the settings for “Instant Personalization*” and “Public Search” as well).

The Default: Full Access to Your Account Info

It may shock you to discover that Facebook allows full access by default, so when you visit “Privacy Settings” and click “Edit” under “Apps and Websites” you will see that every box is checked:

To Remove All Access By Apps

*A note about “Instant Personalization”

This is another eye opener, because by default Facebook is allowing instant personalization for all those companies it partners with. You will have to un-check the box below to disable Instant Personalization, which I have done here:

Now that you’ve battened down the hatches with a bit more privacy and security on your personal profile, I would suggest revisiting your list of Apps periodically to see if any new ones have been installed, or to remove those you no longer want to allow access.

For More Information About How Apps Access and Use Your Info:

To learn more about sharing your info with other website and apps, please visit privacy page on Facebook.

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Success is closer than you think.

If you’ve developed a schedule and system for blog posts, and posting what you believe is great content (helpful, informative, actionable, and optimized for search), and still find the traffic and follow though by readers to be lacking, then what’s next?

Lets take a very brief moment to mention one thing that works time and again for both large and small businesses in acquiring customers: Inbound Marketing! The definition of Inbound Marketing is: “Any tactic that relies on earning people’s interest rather than buying it.” Earning people’s interest creates a kind of ripple effect both in how they share information about you (you being your business), and what effects the sharing has on your business.

So back to your blog. If we keep in the back of our minds that the goal is to earn people’s interest, then top quality content (helpful, informative, actionable, and optimized for search) should be uppermost in your mind when researching, composing editing that finally publishing your blog posts. Let’s look at what it takes to create great content.

Let’s Define “Great”

Below are 4 general themes that are usually present in great content. Your content should match up to at least one.

Great Content Takes Effort to Create:

You don’t necessarily have to pay anything for great content, but you do have to invest via time and effort through excellent research, good editing and graphics that support your writing. Your readers respect the time and effort a quality blog post took to create. By writing great content you demonstrate that you respect your readers.

Great Content Is Credible:

Years of experience in your industry, in your location, and in what you love to do will shine through in your blog posts. Never underestimate the value of your own experience, even if you think the topic or subject matter may not be interesting. If you infuse your writing with examples based upon your experience and knowledge, your content will be viewed as credible.

People Want to Share Great Content:

We all know this to be true because we ourselves feel moved to share what we find, when it is useful, moving, funny or informative. One way to tell if your own content passes the “Share-O-Meter” test is notice whether you’re excited to click the “publish” button, or just glad you got through that post.

Great Content Can Be Acted Upon:

Each and every post should contain a useful take-way, something that the reader can do, to enhance their lives. I know that sounds big, but even a tip like adding crystallized ginger to the cranberry scone recipe may be a culinary twist so profound, that a reader takes the baking prize at the next county fair! When you give readers useful information that they can put into action, they will remember your content.

Ok, now we know what defines “Great Content” so lets move on to step two, marketing!

Marketing Your Great Content:

Just because you’ve written great content, does not mean that people will find it on their own. You’ve actually got to get out there and share it. This is content marketing, and it is the second half of this bullet-proof plan to wield the primary tenant of Inbound Marketing (Oy, so many marketing terms!), namely “Earning People’s Interest.”

So we’re going to hit the virtual pavement and start peddling that blog post in three steps.

Timing Is Everything:

Plan to publish your post at a time and day when your target audience is most likely to see it. (Yes, this relies, to some extent, on understanding who your audience is, but it also involves knowing who you what your audience to be, so you’ll need to define that as well).

Reach Out:

If you’ve written a post that has you excited about clicking the “publish” button, then by all means, once you publish, send the link to friends, colleagues, in your e-newsletter, on your Facebook Wall (Fan Page and Personal Profile when appropriate), tweet it, include it in an outgoing email to a guest who’s booked a stay this weekend. Build the road that gets people to your post.

Link to a Promotion:

Could it be that your post has an incentive component you could whip up to compliment the content? Could you bring in a guest blogger to spin a post off the one you just published as a follow on piece? Remember that here we’re talking about links to links, and the way your great content can spiral outward to reach not only more people, but also new markets and demographics.

Greatness Is a Process

In a world where we often expect instant success for an earnest effort, keep in mind that even on the internet, things can take time to reveal themselves. Don’t be disheartened if your great content isn’t going viral overnight, or even in a week.
Because of one well placed link or share, (or any number of other factors) your post could go from tepid to hot if the content is truly great.
And take heart, because even in the event of a seemingly flat response to your post, it was a success because you learned from what you did, and you can build upon it for the next great piece.

Resources:

• Learn more about content marketing with “Content Marketing,The New Way of Selling.“
• Here’s a 30 minute video with beginner tips on blogging for SEO
• Find out more about optimizing your blog posts for Search Engines.

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As a small business owner, you work hard to attract visitors to your website. Your website is optimized for search engines, and your directory listings are complete and compelling. You check your Analytics statistics every month, you blog every week, you tweak your search ads every day, and you post to Facebook twice a day.

But how can you tell if any of these efforts is bearing fruit? You track visitor statistics with Google Analytics on your website, but can you tack those visitors through your booking process? If your booking engine doesn’t support Analytics tracking, you’re only getting half the story.

Why worry about tracking on your booking engine?

Tracking visits between your website and your booking pages is essential for a complete picture of how visitors are becoming booked guests.

Without Analytics tracking on your booking pages, you can’t tell whether your booked guests came to your site through search engines, through directory listings, or through social media efforts. You also can’t tell the difference between a visitor who clicks through the booking process and a visitor who leaves your site entirely — both visitors look like they simply leave.

What can Analytics tracking on your booking engine show you?

Different booking engines offer different levels of Analytics tracking. Some don’t support tracking at all, some support goal tracking, and the most comprehensive offer full ecommerce tracking.

Goal tracking can tell you:

•  How many visitors reach each stage of the booking process. This allows you to separate the browsers from the bookers.
• The conversion rate, or the percentage of your site visitors who book rooms.
• The source of each visit to your booking engine. For example, you can see the keywords your guests typed in to a search engine, and you can see which directory listing or social media profiles sent the most bookings.

Separate the browsers from the bookers. If your booking engine supports Analytics tracking, you can see how many people clicked through each stage of your booking process.

Full ecommerce tracking can tell you everything goal tracking can tell you, plus:

• The actual dollar amount of each booking.
• Revenue per day, or revenue over a specified period of time.
• Revenue per transaction.
• Time and number of visits between a visitor’s first contact with your site and booking. With this information, you can connect purchases to visitor behavior.
• Revenue from each source of bookings. For example, you can see the ROI for each paid directory listing. You can also see the revenue sent by organic search engines and by pay-per-click ads.

Ecommerce tracking shows you ROI from each source of bookings.

 How can you tell that your booking engine supports Analytics tracking?

Check for "self-referrals" in your Referrals report in Google Analytics. Self-referrals are a sign of broken tracking between your site and your booking pages.

One clue that your booking engine doesn’t fully support Analytics tracking is when you see “self-referrals” in your Referrals report in Analytics. (Remember, referrals are other websites, like TripAdvisor or BedandBreakfast.com, that link to your site.) A self-referral is when your own website appears as a referring site. This is a sign of broken tracking that might stem from your booking engine.

How to set up Analytics tracking on your booking pages

First, make sure that you have full Analytics tracking set up correctly on your website. To track goals and ecommerce, ask your webmaster to set up “cross-domain tracking,” which requires special lines of code to be added to your site in addition to the basic Analytics tracking code.

Next, ask your booking engine rep to add Analytics tracking to your booking pages. Google Analytics is one of the most popular web analytics tools available, so your rep should be knowledgeable about setting up tracking. They will ask you for your Google Analytics ID number, a.k.a. your UA number, which you can find when you log in to Analytics. Your rep should be able to guide you if you’re not sure where to find your ID number.

Finally, log in to Analytics and set up Goals. Your webmaster or your booking engine rep may be able to help you with this.

Choosing a booking engine

Your choice of booking engine depends on many factors. Cost and ease of use will also contribute to your satisfaction. If you tend to rely on visitor statistics from Analytics to make decisions about how to run your business, make sure you look for ecommerce tracking to get the whole picture.

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Of the recent and rumored changes at Google, many have one thing in common: they are designed to entice Google users to remain on Google sites rather than click through to non-Google sites.

The reason is straightforward enough: Google is in the business of promoting Google products in addition to being the leading search engine (and online advertising seller).

Let’s break it down:

Google Direct Answers

Ask a question and get a direct answer from Google.

Google acquired this technology from the Squared software of its own Google Labs and from an acquisition of Metaweb Technologies, both in 2010, and have slowly rolled out these direct responses to questions entered into Google search.

The direct answer from Google to the query for "age of Barack Obama" appears above the organic results and is only superseded by an ad purchased by the official website.

Direct answers  to questions appear below the ad row (if applicable) and above the organic results.  They cite their sources, but they don’t link to them directly in the answer, you have to click to reveal the sources.

Sure, direct answers don’t apply to a whole heck of a lot of queries related to bed & breakfast inns and other small businesses right now, but some queries for events in specific areas do get direct answers, so it may already impact chambers of commerce and visitors bureaus.

The acquisition of Metaweb’s Freebase was made specifically to get software that will increase the sophistication of analysis of questions and supply of answers, so the burning question is this: How will Google evolve their direct answers to keep users on Google?  Google is playing this close to the vest, so stay tuned.

"Let's see...Google personal results, Google Ads, Google map markers, YouTube videos...where the heck are the website links?!"

Google-owned Products in Their “Everything” Search Results (or “Search Plus Who’s World?”)

Google Maps, YouTube (owned by Google) videos, Google+ posts via Search Plus Your World, Picasa photos, and other Google products are increasingly showing up in the “Everything” results for queries.  This makes it more and more difficult to get first page placement for terms and less and less likely for users to ever leave Google by clicking through to “non-Google” results.

The Danger of Google Dominating Google Search Results

Google users spending more time on Google sites mean they are likely to spend less time on your own website.  If Google takes an aggressive approach with the above, than can mean a moderate to dramatic decrease in traffic via Google search in a very short time.

The Dangers to Google

Google is coming under fire from several directions for giving preferential treatment to their own products in search results.  Should they continue to grab an increasing percentage of search results, they run the risk of lawsuits and closer scrutiny and possible legal action by government agencies.  Worse, this endless chasing of money might turn off its user base.  Google+, for instance, might be ad-free now, but how long will that last?

How to Deal with Changes at Google

Google is promising to provide tools such as specific tags, etc., to help websites stay viable in organic search.  Make sure you stay up to date with Google’s announcement and work on your website (or with your webmaster/SEO service rep) to keep your website competitive.

Participate in Google products to keep grow your presence there.  We’ve recommended in this blog that businesses create and maintain an active Google+ profile, a Google Places listing and start marketing via YouTube.  If the competition for first page placement for terms you want is high enough, you will want to consider Google AdWords.  You might find it distasteful to play the game under Google’s terms, but the reality is that they still own the lion’s share of search queries.

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YouTube has grown into one of the most popular websites worldwide in the past couple of years. With over 2 billion videos viewed daily, it as emerged as one of the top search engines for content. As mobile technology grows so does YouTube with over over 100 million mobile view per day. With the demographic of users being between 18-54, it can help a wide spectrum of businesses reach consumers. YouTube has allowed you to create your own channel and they have recently made changes to allow more branding and easier navigation for users to interact with your content.

Improving Your Online Marketing Using Optimized Videos

YouTube provides you with a number of different ways to add SEO value and incorporate geographic indicators. As with standard SEO practices, you are trying to communicate with the search engines how relevant your information is to the user. As you have probably noticed over the past year, an increasing number of videos are starting to show up in your search results. In this article, we will explore some simple steps to help build the search engine visibility of your videos.

Step #1: Video Titles are Important

The title of your video should reflect the content of the video. It should also contain the appropriate keywords that you want to promote. This step is very important because it is the primary way you will gain exposure in the search engines. Remember that your title is limited to 100 characters, which isn’t that long, so you should get as specific as possible.

Your geographic location (or the location where the video was shot) should be included in the video title. As users and the search engines become more hyper-local it’s important to include the city, state, or region that the video content is depicting.

Step #2: Adding Tags to Your Video

Tags are used to add the relevant keywords that describe your video. The best way to find the effective keywords for video search can be found by using the Google Keyword Tool. This is a free tool that will show you what terms are popular and are being searched. Remember that sometimes what you think the keywords should be aren’t always what consumers use to search.

You only have about 20 keywords you can add to this field. So during your research narrow down what keywords are most important and relevant to the video and don’t use ones that have low search volumes.

Step #3: The Description

You are provided with a field that allows 2-3 sentences that is used to describe the video. This description is important because this is what viewers will see when it comes up in search. One hint is to include the video’s URL in the description which will create a link back from YouTube to your site.

Step #4 Don’t Forget to Add Geographic Indicators

YouTube allows you to add geographic indicators to your video which will reinforce the specific location of the video. This is important because Google and other search engines are trying to show the most geographically relevant content to it’s users. This simple step will increase your chance of your video being shown in local search.

Step #5 Creating Relevant Content

This is the tricky step in the process. Users all love video content and from the stats it’s showing a never ending growth curve. So creating helpful and useful videos about your area, business, product or services is a must. The great thing about these videos is YouTube isn’t the final resting place. Videos can be used on your website, blog posts or third party sites that you belong to.

Professional videos are always the best because of the editing and sound quality. But don’t shy away if you can do it yourself. Some of the most popular videos are done by non-professionals who had a video camera, creativity and a little know-how.

Here is a great video that walks you through this process and will help you to get started. I hope you found this article useful and can find some creative ways to create video content and promote it online. With the growing trend of video content, leveraging this marketing tool will help your business to grow.

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InsideOut Solutions is pleased to announce the release of our Facebook Page plugin, which allows WordPress website clients to manage content on a specific tab or their Facebook business page simply by logging into their WordPress website.

The Facebook Page plugin for WordPress by InsideOut Solutions allows you to manage the content of a custom Facebook business page tab.

The Facebook Page Plugin for WordPress

Once activated, you'll find the Facebook Page Plugin button between Video Tutorials and Gallery buttons in the left sidebar of your WordPress website administration area.

Content for the tab on your Facebook page is managed via the “FB Page” plugin page of your WordPress administrative area, the link for which is found in the left sidebar, and includes:

Description – Enter introductory text for the Facebook page here. This text may be formatted just like any page or post of your website.

Contact Information – This checkbox displays the contact information of your business that’s entered into the WordPress settings – no need to retype it here and it updates automatically should you change or add contact information.

The Facebook Page plugin administration area offers an easy drag-and-drop feature for photos.

Availability Link – This checkbox sets up a button that link to availability calendar or reservation system entered into your WordPress settings, ensuring that any changes you make to your calendar provider on your website is automatically updated on your Facebook page.

Gallery – Drag and drop up to five images from your website, located in the sidebar to the right as thumbnails, into this area. Once in the Gallery, you can reorder the photos and replace them as often as you like.

Use the Facebook Page plugin Items to display custom content, links and photos for rooms, specials, facilities, services and more.

Items – Items are things you want to list specifically on your Facebook page tab. For a bed and breakfast website we would recommend:

• Facebook-only or general special(s)
• Facebook-only or general events
• Rooms – show each as an item or target rooms you tie to your Facebook-only specials
• Special facilities or services, such as weddings, spa, tours, etc.

Each Item may be given a Name, a drag-and-drop photo selected from the right sidebar, an appropriate Link (e.g. to an availability calendar, more information on your website, etc.) and a Description.  Each of these may be edited anytime you want.  You may add Items to your tab and you may delete them by clearing all fields and removing the photo.  It’s that simple!

Footer – Enter any closing text for the page here. This text may be formatted just like any post or page of your website.

Facebook Plugin works for current Facebook Page layout....

Getting Started with Facebook Page Plugin for WordPress

InsideOut will help you get you started in managing your Facebook business page content via your WordPress website. Services in the set up will be specific to your business. Bed and breakfast website customers, for example, receive the following services:

• Set up the page on a secure server (a Facebook requirement)
• Activate and configure the FB Page plugin:
  

  ...and also for the new Facebook Timeline layout, which will be compulsory on March 30, 2012.

  • Enter introduction text adapted from your website’s home page (or content of your choice)
  • Enable contact information and availability link
  • Set up gallery of five photos from your website (your choice or let us pick for you)
  • Add a Facebook-only or other any special (or other item) of your choice, including photo and any link to more information on your website
  • Add each room you want included, including room name, link to check availability, photo and brief description adapted from your website.
  • Enter concluding text adapted from your website’s home page (or content of your choice)
• Add the App with custom icon (optimized for display in the Timeline format) to your Facebook Page

The Facebook Page plugin, Facebook App and set up service is available for $240. We invite you to contact us with any questions or to request this service for your WordPress website hosted by InsideOut Solutions.

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Insideout Solutions Facebook Timeline

In the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday, Feb 29th, (yes, leap-day) Facebook had initiated project Launch Timeline for Pages. There were a few lucky pages that were allowed to update in advance on this date, which was fortunate for the rest of us, so we could see what was on the horizon. The Today Show, Manchester United, and Red Bull, to name a few, were the earliest forerunners.
Some of you may know nothing about Timeline, having never enabled it on your personal profile. For those of you who did make the switch, you’ve got a leg up in using this cinematic interface.

As a Page admin you’ll have some questions, including the biggies like, “What about custom tabs?” “How will fan-gating (calls to action with rewards for liking a page) be effected?” “Will I be able to set a default tab for potential/new fans to see?”

Well lets get into this a bit, but first lets look at all the great things that the new Timeline for Pages will bring you:

• A nice wide canvas (aka: Cover) upon which to greet fans and tell your story: The new 851 px wide cover image (free from overt promotion calls-to-action (CTA) or advertising, is sensational. Consider it your new Welcome or Landing Tab. (851 x 315 pixels)
•  A smaller profile image that nests in the lower left of the cover image. This may be a great place to display your logo or brand. (displays at 160 x 160 pixels)
•  With those teeny tiny app thumbnails you’re used to in the left side bar, well, now you can upload and replace those little guys with your own custom image. Very nice indeed, giving you a bit more branding control.
•  If you’ve got a status update that you’d like to have fans see at the top of your page, you can now make it “sticky” by pinning it. The lasts for seven days. After that, you’ll need to re-pin it to the top again if you want it to remain visible front and center.

What is changing, and what you might pine for:

• You may no longer set a default landing tab (now both fans and potential fans will land on your Wall and see that sweeping, gorgeous Cover image we mentioned earlier).
•  The photostrip of five images across the top is gone.
• The profile image, once allowed a maximum of 180 x 540 pixels now displays at 160 x 160 px (though keep in mind that you must upload a profile image with a minimum width of 180 px).
• Tabs have been moved from the left sidebar (under the profile image on your old Page format), to just under the Cover image on the right. Now here’s the most important item: in your Page Timeline, a total of four tabs are visible, and in the coveted first position is the immovable Photos tab.
• The new layout is split into two columns, making it a bit more confusing to follow the flow of the conversation from the Page and fans.

All-in-all, there are a lot of great new features with Timeline for Pages. The forums, blogs and fan pages are chock-a-block full of discussion about the discoveries as well as pros and cons of the new layout. We’ll hit the highlights here.

Timeline Rollout:

When does the Timeline change become mandatory?

Facebook states that “On March 30, 2012, all Facebook Pages will get a new design.” Given this fact, you’ve got some time to prepare your Page.

Can I test drive the new Timeline for Pages?

Take a tour of your Timeline Page

You can preview your page, as well as upload and view test cover and profile image. You can see the blue “Preview” button at the top of any page you Admin. take the tour, and if not ready to click “Publish Now,” you can elect to click “See your old design” any time. (Phew).

What you can do as the Admin for the Page:

You can now view admin items including Page Insights, likes and comments right at the top of your Page.
If you are the admin of multiple pages, you may now view one or all of them here to save time and work efficiently.

What about that “Edit” button? How do you Edit the page now?

At the top right click the Admin panel button
Then click the Manage tab, and choose Edit page. You’ll arrive in the back end admin area you’ve always seen.

Editing the “About” section next to the profile image:
In the same Edit Page area, click “Basic Information: You’re given approximately 160 characters for display.

If you’ve got a physical address, you most likely have a map and marker indicating where your business is located, as well as your phone number. This info comes from Bing Maps (Bing and Facebook are buddies), just understand that you may have to go through the process of claiming your Place Page in order for the “About” info to appear.

The Look and feel of your Page Timeline.

The layout for Timeline for personal profiles is nearly identical to Pages.
We have a tutorial and free downloadable Photoshop template for designing your personal Timeline. It offers some great tips and resources.

All the measurements (in pixels) under one roof for your designing ease:

• Cover Image: 851 x 315
• Profile image: 160 x 160 (must upload an image that’s at least 180px wide) (This will also be your comment thumbnail, so design accordingly)
• App tabs: 111 x 74

Adding a Cover image:

Click “Add a Cover” button . Once you’ve uploaded the image, you’ll be given a chance to reposition it if it’s larger than 851 x 315. Click Save when you’re done. Facebook has created a page on the rules regarding advertising on the cover image. You may want to familiarize yourself with the terms.
In at nutshell Cover images may not contain:

• 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.”

Facebook Timeline Cover for Pages

Customizing the Tab Thumbnails, and managing tabs:

After the static “Photos” tab, you may not only reorder the remaining tabs that you’ve enabled (from Maps, to Notes, to custom Welcome or Deals), but you can also change the image thumbnail. Fans will see four tabs. The remainder are hidden until the little down arrow is clicked. Fans can see a maximum of twelve tabs, admins will be able to see them all.
To change the tab thumbnail image:

• Click: Down Arrow to the right of the last App
• Click the pencil
• Click “Edit Settings”
• Next to “Custom Tab Image” click “Change”
  

Ok now onto the fun part: Managing your Page:

Posting to Your Timeline page:

• Some of the great things you can do include Pinning a post to the top of your Wall (Under the cover image, of course). Pinning will last for seven days. You can re-pin it after that time to keep in at the top.
• Highlight a status update by allowing it to span the width of both columns. Keep in mind that at this time, you cannot both Pin and Highlight the same post.

We’re very excited about the new Timeline for Pages. Give it a test spin on your page, enable it on your personal profile and play with it for a while, prep your new cover image and profile, then switch it up on or before March 30th.
We’ve got a Timeline page enabled for our B&B test page, so take a look at one option that’s possible for your inn.

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Put yourself -- and your local attractions -- on the map, and put that map on your blog.

Are you surrounded by world-class hiking trails, ski resorts, or trout streams? Is your business in the midst of a museum or historical district? Do you want to show the world how close you are to a famous monument or national park?

Put yourself—alongside these amazing local attractions—on the map.

Using Google Maps, you can create custom maps, using your own map markers and driving or walking routes, which you can add to your blog posts. Your map can be as simple as a single scenic drive or as detailed as a collection of your favorite area wineries, complete with routes and scenic overlooks along the way.

To help get your creative juices flowing, here are some ideas for blog posts that could benefit from including a map:

• Scenic driving tour
• Birding hotspots
• Art walk
• Historical walking tour
• Wine trail
• Day trip itinerary

Here’s how:

Create a custom Google map

1. Go to Google Maps at maps.google.com.

2. Sign in to your Google account by clicking the “Sign in” button in the upper-right corner of the page.

3. Click the “My places” button in the upper-left corner of the page, then click the red “CREATE MAP” button.

To create a custom Google map for your blog, go to Google Maps and log in with your Google account.

4. Give your map a name and description, then make sure the “Public” option is selected.

Give your Google map a title and description.

5. Click the “Save” button above your map’s title. If the button says “Saved” instead of “Save,” Google has automatically saved your map. It does this at regular intervals.

Add map markers

There are two ways to add markers to your map. You can either use the search bar to find businesses or locations that appear on Google Maps, or you can add your own custom locations. It’s almost always a good idea to add your own business to your maps along with surrounding attractions.

Add markers for existing locations

1. Use the search bar to search for a location on Google Maps. You can search for a business (“Purple Haze Lavender”), a natural feature (“Mt Olympus, Washington”), an address (“436 S Sequim Ave, WA”), or other locations.

2. Click on the red map marker for your location. When the info bubble appears, click “Save to map” at the bottom of the bubble. Choose your new map, then click “Save.”

Look for businesses on Google Maps and save them to your own map.

3. To add another location, do another search. Otherwise, you can view  your map by clicking the “View map” link in a yellow box that appears at the top of the page.

Look for the orange box at the top of the screen to view your map.

Add markers for custom locations

If Google Maps can’t find the location you have in mind, or if you simply want to mark a particular spot, you can add custom locations to your map.

1. Click the marker icon at the top of the map between the hand icon and the line icon.

Choose the map marker icon to add your own locations to your map.

2. Your cursor will become a map marker. You can still scroll across the map and zoom in and out. Click on the map to “drop” the marker onto the map. If you drop the marker in the wrong place, drag the marker to correct it.

3. When you drop the marker, an info bubble appears. Give your marker a title and a description.

Edit your markers

No mater whether you’ve added a custom marker or used an existing location, you can change the marker’s title, add a description, and change the shape of the marker icon.

To edit the title and description of a marker, click the marker. When the info bubble appears, type your own title and description. If you want to use bolding, links, bulleted lists, or other formatting in your description, click the “Rich text” link. When you’re finished, click “OK.”

Add links, bulleted lists, and other formatting by clicking the "Rich text" link above your marker description.

To change the shape of the marker icon, click on the marker. By default, the markers are blue upside-down raindrops. In the marker info bubble, click the marker icon in the upper-right corner. Click on the icon that best depicts the location, then click the “OK” button at the bottom of the info bubble.

You can change the shape and color of the map marker.

Google offers several dozen icons to choose from.

Delete map markers

To remove a map marker, click the marker. Click the “delete” link in the bottom-left corner of the info bubble.

You can also delete a map marker.

Add lines, routes and shapes

In addition to map markers, you can also add lines, routes and shapes to your map. Lines and routes might come in handy to describe how to get to an attraction or where a hiking trail leads, and areas can indicate a broad area like a national park or historic district.

Click on the line icon to the right of the marker tool in the upper-left corner of your map and choose a tool.

Draw a freehand line, draw a line along roads, or outline a shape.

With the Draw a line tool, you can draw a segmented line freehand across your map. To begin drawing, click on the map. Click on a different place to “anchor” the line and continue drawing. To end the line, either click on the last anchor point or on the very first point.

Draw a line to indicate a hiking trail, walking tour route, or other off-road excursion.

With the Draw a line along roads tool, the line you draw will “snap” to the nearest roads. You can click on the map to add anchor points so that the line follows a specific route instead of the shortest possible route.

Use anchor points to specify your route along roads.

You can also use the search bar to save driving directions to your map. Search for directions in the search bar as if you were looking for driving directions, then scroll down to the bottom of the directions. Click the “Save to My Maps” link, then choose your map and click “Save.”

Instead of drawing a driving route, you can search for directions and save that route to your map.

With the Draw a shape tool, you can outline a many-sided shape to indicate an area.

Indicate an area using the Draw Shape tool.

Edit your lines and shapes

You can give a title and description to each of these lines and shapes in the same way as you do with map markers.

You can also choose the color and transparency of the lines and shapes. To do this, click the line or shape. In the info bubble, click the color swatch in the upper-right corner.

You can change the color, width, and transparency of lines and shapes.

In the “Edit shape style” bubble, click the color swatches to choose new colors. You can also choose the width of the line and the opacity of the color. A low opacity number makes the line more transparent, and a high number makes the line more visible. For shapes, you can also choose the fill color and the opacity of the fill color.

The higher the opacity number, the darker your line or shape will be.

Add your map to a blog post

Ideally, you’ll want your map to appear in your blog post as an interactive map instead of as a static picture of a map or as a link.

It might not always be possible to paste your map directly into your blog post. For security reasons, some blogging platforms like WordPress (and therefore Inndx) are picky about the type of code they allow in blog posts. A Google map can look like malicious spam code, in which case your map might be removed from your post. Fortunately, WordPress offers workarounds that allow you to include your map. (Inndx clients, please ask us at InsideOut about the best way to add a map to your blog.)

If you aren’t able to add an interactive map to your post, another option is to take a screenshot of your map and add that picture to your post. You can then link the picture to your map on the Google Maps site.

Here’s how to add your map directly into your blog post:

1. Click the chain link icon above your map title. In the pop-out box, click “Customize and preview embedded map.” The Customize window shows you a preview of what your map will look like on your blog page.

Set the size of your Google map.

2. Choose the map size. Your map should be big enough so that your readers can easily see all of your markers, but make sure the map fits within the width of your blog.

3. Below the map size options is the map preview. You can zoom in, zoom out, and drag the map around.

4. When you’re satisfied with your map, copy the HTML code at the bottom of the window and paste it into your blog post.

Copy the map code and paste it into your blog post.

Happy mapping!

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