Photos, images and videos now take centre stage on your Facebook business page – that seems to be the main idea behind Facebook’s introduction of the new format for business pages. And just in case you hadn’t noticed – you don’t have a choice! It’s Facebook’s way or nothing!
Timeline wants you to tell your business’s story
The concept and implementation of a time line encourages business owners to tell the story of their business from start up to the present – and to tell it very visually. If you take on this challenge the result should be a much more engaging page for your visitors.
Boost your branding with a sparkling new timeline cover
Your new timeline cover image will almost hit your visitors in the face when they arrive at your page; failure to provide a new cover image will also be the very first thing they can’t miss seeing! This new image is so large that it provides a fantastic opportunity for branding. But facebook has some VERY STRICT RULES for cover images.
Facebook’s Timeline cover image rules
NO price or purchase info
NO contact info
NO calls to action
No refernces to facebook features such as Like or Share
NO arrows pointing to those features
Helpful hints for your timeline cover image
Optimum size is 851px by 315px
Leave a space in the lower left corner for your profile picture or logo
Add your profile image or logo in that space – 180px by 180px
Let us do it for you – only $99
Feel overwhelmed or too busy to do it yourself?
Then let us do it for you. We have a special offer just to help you kickstart your Facebook timeline – reduced from $165 to only $99 for the first 20 people only!
Our professional graphic artists will design your sparking new Timeline Cover based on the colours, fonts and images you provide, OR we’ll design it from scratch to compliment your website or business card.
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Karyn Clarke is the author of the forthcoming book "Built To Be Found: Secrets, Strategies & Systems For Setting Up A Website That Gets Your Business Found Online."
For speaking engagements, consultations, questions or website quotes contact Karyn here.
Blogging For Business: Answers To Some Of Your Questions!
For some reason it seems that almost every live and email business conversation I’ve had in the last two weeks has been about blogging and the most common questions that people ask me include:
Why bother with a business blog – doesn’t it just take up a lot of time?
How will I know if anyone reads my business blog?
If I do start a business blog how can I get it found in the search engines?
Advance notice of HubSite Builder’s webinar series on blogging for business
Because I’ve become aware of the huge number of business owners in the Baby Boomer age group who are struggling with both the reasons for and the practicalities of establishing a business blog, I’m preparing a 3 session webinar series that is designed to answer the steady stream of questions I receive on a regular basis. (Non Baby Boomers are welcome, of course!)
I’ll let you know in the next week or so about the final dates for those events.
In the meantime, here are some words of wisdom from some of my favourite business bloggers that may help to answer some of your questions...
Business Blogging: Why Bother?
Watch this short video (1 min 38 sec) to see why two of the worlds great marketers and business leaders recommend that you become a business blogger.
Video – Seth Godin & Tom Peters identify the pros of business blogging:
Godin shared these 4 advantages of blogging for business:
It’s free.
Blogging helps you to become more humble.
The blogging process forces you to think about how to explain yourself to others.
It forces you to become part of the conversation in your field.
Blogging Is The Best Marketing Tool Tom Peters Has Ever Had!
I’m a big supporter of blogging as a strategy to grow your business, but even I was shocked to hear Tom Peters say that no single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important than blogging.
Peters declared that business blogging has changed his:
Business life
Perspective
Intellectual outlook
Emotional outlook
In fact Peters says that business blogging in the “best damn marketing tool I’ve ever had!”
How Will I Know If Anyone Reads My Business Blog?
Ruslan Kogan reminds us that we must get scientific about improving our websites / blogs, and we need to start by using a free tool like Google Analytics to identify all the details of traffic to our blogs and webpages.
Kogan says ” Your website is the single most important communication channel to potential customers, even if your business does not transact online. You need to understand your online visitors and what they want. Don’t make this based on guesswork, gut feel or emotion.”
Kogan recommends that you test everything and shares what their testing revealed about what fields to include in their registration forms and where to put your navigation links to make it easy for visitors to find what they want on your site.
Of course it’s one thing to start a business blog and another to have it rank well in the search engines and actually be helpful to your website visitors. Derek Halpern reminds us that one of the most frequently visited pages on your blog is your About page, (check yours in your Google Analytics account), so as a business owner you want to give your About page lots of TLC…
How to Create An Amazing Blog About Page by Derek Halpern
In this very practical article Halpern identifies 5 things you must have on your About Page. He also gives a great reminder about the importance of email sign up forms and where to position them.
Halpern explains that there are two ways, to encourage “spendability”:
traffic and
interaction
and while it may seem so simple, it’s the truth.
He belives that the single best way to build interaction is by building a high quality email list. As big as Twitter and Facebook get, email still has more than triple the users!
Getting traffic to your business blog is the first step to achieving “spendability” therefore your blog needs to rank highly in the search engines. The titles of your blog posts are key factors in getting high ranking and one of my favourite business bloggers, Ana Hoffman from www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com shares some really useful resources for writing great titles for your business blog.
Blog Titles: How to Write Winners Even if You Suck at It
Here’s To Getting your Business Found Online, Karyn Clarke
Like this post? Share it through your favorite Social Media service:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Karyn Clarke is the author of the forthcoming book "Built To Be Found: Secrets, Strategies & Systems For Setting Up A Website That Gets Your Business Found Online."
For speaking engagements, consultations, questions or website quotes contact Karyn here.
Nina Hendry of Smart Company Australia writes about the rules and rewards of blogging as a strategy to build your business and uncoverd these facts about blog readers:
89% are swayed by a blogger’s review of a product or service and would like to try it for themselves.
89% make the purchasing decisions in their household and of these, 87% have learnt about a new product or service via a blog.
81% notice banner advertisements displayed next to the blogs they read.
90% pass on blog information to family and friends.
92% have used a search engine to find out more about a brand after reading about it on a blog post.
78% agree that blogs are a better source of information than traditional and mainstream media.
I especially encourage you to check out these two business blogs recommended by Brad:
Darren Rouse’s ProBlogger.com where bloggers can meet to collaborate, learn and grow their blogs
Valerie Khoo’s ValerieKhoo.com which provides a range of news, snippets and tips on running a successful small business, particularly the importance of storytelling in your marketing and writing.
Have your say about blogging to boost your business
Found these resources useful? Know other useful resources for business bloggers? Let us know by leaving a comment below…
Here’s To Getting YOUR Business Found Online! Kayn Clarke
Like this post? Share it through your favorite Social Media service:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Karyn Clarke is the author of the forthcoming book "Built To Be Found: Secrets, Strategies & Systems For Setting Up A Website That Gets Your Business Found Online."
For speaking engagements, consultations, questions or website quotes contact Karyn here.
James Chartrand shares some great guidance to