SOCIAL MEDIA & INTERNET MARKETING BLOG

Posts Tagged ‘Facebook Updates’

Too Much Timeline on My Hands

December 8th, 2011 by Rainman Web Development 1 Comment

Facebook announced Tuesday that it had begun to lift the “beta” category for its new Timeline feature for users. According to the update, Timeline is now openly available for New Zealand, and will roll out to other countries in the “near future.” If you aren’t familiar with the new Timeline, it was unveiled by Mark Zuckerberg at the f8 2011 conference in September. Mashable has a short summary of the new Facebook feature here: http://mashable.com/follow/topics/facebook-timeline/. Our Social Media Team had an incredible time live-tweeting with other industry leaders during the live-stream, and couldn’t wait to get rolling with Timelines of our own.

Facebook opened up the Timeline capability to developers almost immediately. If you’re curious like us, you may have gone the sneaky route to become one of the lucky few with a new Timeline profile.

I went through the complicated process as soon as I could, and was among the first of my friends to do so– which was fun until I remembered I was the only one who could see my new profile. You see, only users that have a Timeline are able to see other users’ Timelines; if they do not have Timeline, the personal Facebook continues to look the same. Slowly but surely, however, more of my Facebook connections began implementing the new profile. It’s been fun to see how creative everyone has gotten with their Timelines!

Mine looks like this:

You can see that this isn’t my entire profile, just the first thing someone sees when they look at my page. I wanted to spare you all of the cat .gifs posted on my wall.

What you can see:

Basic profile information (go Bobcats!)
A sample of my 924 Facebook friends (I’m certain I’ve met all 924 of them…)
The ears of my Pomeranian, Teddy, in a recent picture tagged
The last place I checked in (Walgreens, for a flu shot)
The last song I listened to on Spotify (from Passion Pit’s Manners album)

Also visible is my “Cover Photo” — the larger image that gives users the ability to express a little more personality than a simple Profile Picture allows. I had some fun with dinner one night and spelled out my name with ketchup. This wasn’t necessarily the best choice, however… every time I look at it, I get hungry for those French fries.

While Facebook may not give unlimited Timeline access to the entire world for awhile, you can begin brainstorming ways to engage friends and other followers in the meantime. Happy Timelining!
*ED 12/15/2011: As of today, the Facebook Timeline is now available for everyone! Click here to get started on your life story.
-Theodora Setterbo, PR/Marketing Coordinator, Rainman.com

First Impressions of Facebook’s New Timeline

September 28th, 2011 by Rainman Web Development No Comments

Last week, Facebook announced some major changes to their social media platform during their F8 developers’ conference in California. The biggest change made for users is the conversion of their personal profile from what you see it as today, to what Facebook calls “Timeline”. Reaction has been pretty mixed across the globe, but thanks to one of our favorite sites, Mashable, we were able to take convert some of our personal profiles to the timeline to create our own opinions on it.

After successfully enabling the timeline function for my personal profile, my initial thought was, “…whoa.” This change in formatting and design by Facebook is by far the biggest change to their social network since its inception. The timeline feature now enables users to make their profiles look almost like another site in itself. Immediately, you are hit with a new cover photo of your choosing that is bannered above the rest of the page’s content. Combined with your current profile picture, and all pertinent information near the top of the page, a casual viewer can already get a summary of what you are all about, including where you live, who you work for, if you’re in a relationship, etc.

Below all that information resides what used to be your wall. In the timeline, all your status updates, likes, photos, etc. have been put into chronological order alternating from left to right going all the way down to when you were born. You can literally scroll your way backwards through your life. If you don’t want to take the time to do that, there is a handy function on the right-hand part of your profile where you can skip to a certain time period in your life.

What Facebook was created is, essentially, a scrapbook of your entire life that is fully changeable at any point in time. I now can scan my own baby pictures into my computer and post them to Facebook near the point of my birth. This function creates a rather emotional reaction to seeing every bit of my online life published in front of me. Comments posted on my wall way back in 2005, when I first joined Facebook, can now be seen and remembered by simply scrolling down the screen…and scrolling….and scrolling.

This is just our view of what timeline can be with just a little bit of time playing with it. We are incredibly excited to see how these changes will affect business pages and other features of Facebook. Some people have already created mock-ups of what these pages could look like when the new timeline feature is rolled out in full. Until then, we can only continue to watch, and learn.

Out of “Site”, Out of Mind

August 3rd, 2011 by Rainman Web Development No Comments

The Importance of Independent Insurance Agencies Creating an Online Presence

Before I started working at Rainman I had never heard of an Independent Insurance Agency. When I thought of insurance, I thought of that little green gecko from Geico or the deep-voiced, Dennis Haysbert from the Allstate commercials. I started thinking that if I didn’t know independent insurance agencies existed, how many other young professionals and potential clients don’t know as well?

It occurred to me that it’s all about the way a company markets itself. If you’re out of sight, you’re also out of mind. Independent Insurance Agencies are not on TV because air time is very expensive, but some are not even online— and there is no excuse for not being online. Everyone needs a website (even Brad Paisley knows that everyone is so much cooler online). Online is where most shopping, decision making and relationship building takes place these days. Along with helping independent agencies adapt to the online world, we help them get started on social media.

I wrote a poem for any of you independent agencies who might need a little more convincing to get online and get found. Enjoy!

Stop ignoring your clients and show them you care

Opt for some content with fun and flair

Connect on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook

Invite clients and their friends to take a second look

At your agency by staying one step ahead of the game

Liking insurance will never be the same

Make it hard to forget your name

Easy, because we’re here to help you

Don’t be afraid to try something new

It will be worth it in the end

And everyone you know will want to be your Facebook friend!

-Amanda Brown, former sales associate, Rainman.com

Why Businesses Page Owners Should Explore and Embrace Facebook’s Latest Changes

February 22nd, 2011 by Rainman Web Development No Comments

Over a week ago, Facebook made significant changes to business pages. Since then, we’ve been getting used to the changes and still making some new minor discoveries. Initially the navigation took some getting used to, but overall it is our opinion that the changes demonstrate how the growth in business use has resulted in the changing “face” of Facebook. Now my apologies for that pun—I couldn’t resist.

The most critical change is now allowing a business page “like” another business page. We wrote about it in our previous blog post and it’s mentioned in an article we shared. This holds immense potential for you to comment on other pages within your industry network and your community. Allowing you to comment as a page gives you more options to get your business name out in front of another audience and to increase your partnerships.

So here is a roll call of some other new and noteworthy features:

Category Changes

If you set up your page prior to the changes, you may have selected local business which did not have certain sub-categories. Facebook has added Companies & Organizations and new sub-categories that did not exist previously.

An example is that Insurance Company now exists under Companies. This category/sub-category combination contains new information fields that may be important in conveying details about your business such as mission statement and awards to name a couple.

To update, look at the “Basic Information” section after selecting “Edit Page.” If you do change your category, make sure to complete all relevant fields if they don’t carry over from previously entered details.

Block Lists and Profanity Screens

If you’ve been spammed by the Acai Berry diet posts, this is for you! You can add comma-separated keywords to prevent posts containing those phrases from appearing to the public on your Page. To add keywords to the blacklist, go to the “Manage Permissions” section after selecting “Edit Page.”

Per Facebook, “When people include blacklisted keywords in a post and or a comment on your Page, the content will be automatically marked as spam. Wall posts will be moved to the Pages Spam filter, which is hidden from public view. Comments will appear in gray to admins, but will not appear to the public.”

Page Owners can set a strength level of strong, medium or none to the community-moderated words and phrases considered profane. Note: Facebook does not provide a list of exactly what words will be filtered under each setting.

If a page owner wants to make an exception, they can click the ‘x’ next to the post or comment in their Page’s spam tab and click “Unmark as Spam” to return it to public view.

Have questions or need help? Contact us to schedule time and we can help you review these changes.

Facebook is Giving Business Pages a Makeover

February 15th, 2011 by Rainman Web Development 1 Comment

Facebook launched the much anticipated business page changes for preview and upgrade late last week. The changes are much more than cosmetic and today’s blog post is devoted to reviewing some of the business page updates. This is a long post, but you’ll see why.

Navigation and Visual Changes

Getting to your business page: As we posted last week, to navigate from your personal profile to your business profile the Account > Manage Pages has changed to Account > Use Facebook as Page.

Tabs: Tabs really aren’t tabs any more. They are basically links and will move to the left column panel under your profile picture.

Photostrip: Visitors will see a photostrip now. To hide a photo, roll over it and click X in the top right corner. Another photo will take its place.

Feature Changes

Facebook has done away with the rule that you have to like a page as a person: You can now like another page as a page. And this is where it becomes important to pay attention because this change results in other feature updates.

Business Page News Feed: If you like another page as a page, you will see those pages’ updates in your new business page news feed. Those pages you liked with your personal profile remain on your personal news feed.

If you want to now see other business page updates on your business page news feed, you will need to like pages as your Facebook page. Note: Liking other pages does not include their updates on your business page wall. However, some of those pages will be featured on your page as Likes.

Business Page Home Button: Consequently another change you will notice: if you select the Home button while you are on your business page you no longer return to your personal profile news feed as before. Because you can now like other business pages as a page, the Home button now takes you to your business page news feed.

Comment/Like as you or your business page: While using your business page you will notice in the upper right corner that you have a toggle select. You can use Facebook as your page or use Facebook as “you.” Please pay attention!

If you are using as your Facebook page, when you comment or like a post or picture—you will like it as your business page—not as you (your personal profile). And, yes, fans of your business page will be alerted that you made a comment or like when they visit your page.

You can toggle back to using Facebook as “you” and this means comments or likes are tagged as “you” not your Facebook business page.

If you want to revert back to you to alleviate any confusion, you can select Account > Switch back to “you.”

Dizzy yet? Keep reading.

Finding Suggest to Friends: When you use Account > Use Facebook as Page to navigate to your business page, you may want to suggest to friends. While on your page, you will have to use the toggle option to use as “you” (personal profile) to suggest to Friends.

Changes to the Edit Page Section

Edit Page has moved first of all: Administrators will find the Edit Page button has moved to the upper right page corner.

Your Settings: You can select how to comment and post on your business page. The default is “your page name.”

Basic Information > Categories : Facebook now allows you to change the category of your business if you wish.
Basic Information > Username: If you have 25 business page fans, Facebook has added its vanity URL feature to this section allowing you to choose a page name. A vanity URL makes it easier to search for your business and to add to your business cards and other publication materials.

Featured > Likes: If you like other pages via your business page, these will show on your business page but only a few will be featured. You can specify which of your liked pages always rotate there by selecting them as featured.

Featured > Page Owners: You can feature “Page Owners” and link to their personal profiles from your Page. To turn this feature on, click “Edit Page” and navigate to Featured option. Select the administrator(s) to feature. You can undo this at anytime. For those who wish to keep their personal and business profiles separate—don’t turn on this feature.

From what we’ve read, you cannot opt out of these changes so please take time to familiarize yourself with these updates. Change can be a challenge, but we still believe Facebook is a useful business social media tool.