Mari Smith - Facebook Timeline Cover Image

When you switch to the new Facebook Timeline, one of the first new features you’ll see is the ability to add a large “Cover” image. You’ll also be able to see the Cover images of all other Facebook users who have switched to the new Timeline. (After December 21st, everyone on Facebook will have their profile replaced with Timeline).

What is a Cover?

The Cover is the large image that appears at the top of your new Timeline. This is your place to get creative and let your friends and extended community know a bit more about you. Facebook states:

We’ve found that people have a better experience viewing your timeline when they see a cover that is as unique and individualized as you are….

An easy way to ensure your cover image is unique, is to choose an image from your life, like a photo from a wedding, day at the beach, or birthday party. If you want to use a photo to show solidarity or express support for a cause or organization, you can still post a status or a photo and feature it on your timeline.

Facebook seems to be dissuading users from showcasing anything other than a personal image. However, keep reading…

What are the ideal Cover dimensions?

Your Cover should be at least 720 pixels wide. If it’s any narrower, you’ll be asked to select a different image. I’m seeing various reports that the ideal dimensions should be 850px wide by 315px high. The profile picture is resized to 125px by 125px. Cover images tend to get pixelated, so it’s best to load a high-res image.

Who can see my Cover image?

Cover images are public by default – just like your profile pictures. This means ANYONE visiting your profile, whether you are friends or not, will be able to see your cover image. You don’t have to add a Cover image, but you may as well!

Is business-related content allowed on Cover images?

Now, the main purpose of this blog post came about after a discussion began with some of my friends on Facebook. It seems there’s some confusion as to what you can/cannot have on your new Timeline Cover image. I have scoured Facebook’s Help Center and Terms and have found nothing to directly indicate that it is not permitted to have any business-related content on your Cover.

BUT, the first time you go to upload your Cover image, Facebook may display the following message:

Image credit: Karen Clark

Clearly, Facebook want to prevent users from outright commerce on their profile/Timeline, and use of the Cover image for advertising. But outright commerce surely means something like users shouldn’t sell advertising space? Or, that we should have no commercial content? Hm.

The one rule Facebook has in its Terms regards how we cannot use our profiles commercially is this (Section 4.4):

“You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).”

This rule has been around for several years. It makes perfect sense – users cannot derive financial gain directly from their profiles. That’s what Facebook ads are designed for. And, of course, Facebook (fan) Pages are the primary product Facebook offers for building a business presence.

I activated my Timeline back in September via the Developer route. Then, when my latest book came out in October, I put up a Cover image to share details about my book. This has been my Cover image for almost two months now and Facebook has not contacted me to take it down. See below (click to see full size). The lower left corner is where my profile image goes.

Mari Smith - Facebook Timeline Cover Image - Book

By the way, as part of my research for this post, I switched up my Cover image (to the sunrise pictured above) to see if any warnings showed up about what could/could not be featured on Covers… they didn’t, which is why I had to borrow the screenshot above from Larna Pittiglio (found on our mutual friend Pam Brossman‘s wall).

Now, let me digress for a moment to talk about the Subscribe option…

Facebook Subscribe Button

When Facebook introduced the Subscribe button, a noticeable shift occurred.

Subscribe is designed for those Facebook users who are journalists, celebrities, political figures, and other people too.

Allowing subscribers is a simple way to broaden your conversation on Facebook, while reserving personal updates for people you know well.

The way Subscribe works is any and all Facebook users can sign up to get the PUBLIC posts in their News Feed of any user who has enabled Subscribe. NOTE: Subscribe is optional. To enable Subscribe, if you haven’t already and would like to, go here.

Facebook is really pushing the Subscribe option (maybe to compete with Google+? Shh!). For Facebook users that have enabled Subscribe, the button now shows in the Comments plugin on websites, so you can easily find and subscribe to new people. Plus, Facebook recently introduced the Subscribe button plugin for websites, which you can see in action below. Feel free to subscribe to my public updates by clicking the button below!

Though it would seem the Subscribe option is designed for public figure types, a large number of Facebook employees, for example, have enabled his/her Subscribe button. And, clearly, many folks are following suit whether they consider themselves a “public figure” type or not. (See your Subscription suggestions here).

In addition, Mark Zuckerberg himself was one of the first public figures to MERGE his fan page into his personal profile, thus having only one presence on Facebook. (Of course, Zuckerberg owns Facebook and has many business pages too!)

At the time of the Subscribe launch, Facebook approached several “power users” to see if they too would like their fan pages merged into their profiles. (For the record, I was not one of the folks approached – and I’m, quite frankly, more than happy to maintain two very different channels on Facebook. I’ll expand on this in a later post. Or, you’ll find my article on why I love the Subscribe feature in the next issue of the fb & Business magazine).

There is demand for the fan-page-to-profile merge; it’s not available as an option to anyone who wants it yet, though.

So, back to the topic of this post…

Public Profile with business-related content?

Given Facebook offers users a single “public profile” presence with Subscribe option enabled, it’s perfectly feasible that such public figures may wish to have business-related content on their Cover, yes?

What are your thoughts? Is it important to you to be able to feature something related to your business on your Cover image? Do you think personal profiles (now Timelines) should be strictly personal? Or, are you one of the folks eagerly awaiting the option to merge your fan page (likes) into your profile (subscribers). Share your answers in the comments below! And, of course, if you know the definitive answer as to what users can/cannot feature on Timeline Cover images, do share below too!

Helpful related posts:

• How to Master Facebook Timeline in 5 Quick Minutes (wired.com)
• Facebook Timeline: The Complete Guide (mashable.com)
• New to Facebook’s Timeline? This is what you need to know (thenextweb.com)
• Timeline: Now Available Worldwide (facebook.com)
• Facebook Timeline: 9 things you need to know (usatoday.com)
• How to Use Facebook’s New Timeline Feature (and Hide Your Embarrassing Old Posts) (lifehacker.com)

Join my fan page for helpful Facebook tips, links, resources, Q&A and support from my community:

Relationship marketing refers to everything you do to make your prospective and current customers aware of your products and services, position your business in their minds as the obvious choice, and help you to build lifelong, profitable relationships with them.

Whereas the traditional marketing approach is transactional, relationship marketing is relational. Old-style marketing mostly focuses on sales transactions. The new relationship marketing focuses on working hand-in-hand with your prospects and customers to co-create a more meaningful, personalized, and lasting experience.

With the vast range of social media tools at our disposal today, it’s easier now more than ever to shift your focus from transactional marketing to relational marketing. Your customers and prospects want to know that you’re listening, that they are important to you, and that you are striving to improve your brand, products and services as a result of their feedback. You can’t afford to be a one-way broadcast channel. You need to embrace the conversation and, as my friend Brian Solis says, Engage or die. By that, he means it’s those companies who engage with their community that will thrive in the long run.

Relationship marketing best practices

There are certain hallmarks of companies that have successfully integrated relationship marketing. Listed below are 12 best practices, formed as a quick self-assessment. Answer yes or no to all 12 questions; the more yes’s you have, the better!

My company:

1. …conducts regular polls and surveys of our customer database to ensure we understand the currents challenges and needs of our market.
2. …strives to integrate customer feedback as much as possible in order to improve our products and services.
3. …understands the power of social media and has active profiles set up on all the popular social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.
4. …has effective listening and monitoring systems in place.
5. …has a corporate social media policy in place that lets staff know what can and cannot be said, what actions can and cannot be taken, and how to handle any negative situation.
6. …generates warm leads from all online and offline marketing efforts on a regular basis.
7. …utilizes a reliable customer relationship management strategy.
8. …conducts regular training sessions for all members of staff on proper customer relations and social media best practices.
9. …stays on the cutting edge by evolving, adapting and integrating new technologies.
10. …embraces high-tech but always maintains high-touch by reaching out to our customers, prospects, vendors and partners.
11. …has a very high customer satisfaction rate.
12. …consistently goes out of our way to let our customers know how much we value them.

By studying and integrating each of these 12 best practices, you’ll go a long way towards improving your success through relationship marketing. Your customers will not only like you, but they’ll love you!

Companies that do really well with their relationship marketing efforts include Zappos, Starbucks, Virgin America, SouthWest Airlines, and Ford. And, great real-life examples of relationship marketing include Alaska Air (their San Diego manager brought me an iPhone charger during a lengthy flight delay!), as I shared in my recent interview with Mike Stelzner.

Also, check out Morton’s Steakhouse as Peter Shankman shared on The Greatest Customer Service Story Ever Told, Starring Morton’s Steakhouse.

Free 4-part relationship marketing webinar series

This article is a brief excerpt from my latest book, The New Relationship Marketing: How To Build A Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web. For a free 4-part webinar series that comes with the book (on the honor system, no need to send proof of purchase!), check out this page. I’ll be teaching many of the principles in the book, along with proven tactics and strategies for making the most of Facebook and other social marketing. You can also download a free chapter of my book here.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below — do you agree with the 12 tenets? What’s missing? What else would you add? Did you learn something just by taking the self-assessment?

This post serves as an update of all I’ve been working on over the past couple of months — I ended up taking an unintentional hiatus from publishing my own blog posts since August. Phew! Not for lack of activity, that’s for sure. I’ve been keeping all my social channels engaged and current, including activating the Subscribe feature on my Facebook personal profile (now at over 22,000 subscribers – by far the fastest growing social channel I’ve seen), and am keeping my fan page active as well. And, I continue to love Google+ too!

I’m delighted to share that my blogging will get back on track — I have a huge collection of posts to share with you, covering all the latest Facebook changes, Facebook marketing, Google+ how to’s and for business, social media, relationship marketing and more!

And now, the mega updates…

The New Relationship Marketing – New Book!

First, I’m super excited about the launch of my latest book – one I’ve been working on since last December. But, in fact, one that I’ve been contemplating for probably the past ten years. See, long before Facebook even existed or social media was such a buzzword (and now an integral part of business today), I called myself a relationship marketing specialist. To me, it’s all about relationships. It’s P2P – People to People. Regardless of which online or offline medium through which you market your business, it’s the degree of authentic engagement and genuine caring that will help you win more sales.

Effective marketing today contains the right mix of “hard skills” and “soft skills.” Hard skills include the plethora of technology, knowing what buttons to push, and how all the platforms function. Soft skills are the people skills which include empathy, compassion, listening, caring, and giving with no agenda. By finding the magic blend that works for you, you can really accelerate all your marketing initiatives.

In my new book, I lay out the basics of relationship marketing in Part I, then walk you through a proven nine-step system for building a large, loyal, and profitable network using the social web. My wonderful friend Guy Kawasaki wrote the foreword!

Mari Smith and Guy Kawasaki

The OFFICIAL launch date is Tuesday, October 25th – I will be hosting an all day “virtual book launch party!” Most likely via my Livestream channel. Stay tuned and watch any of my social channels for the location as I’ll be promoting the virtual party heavily. Start time is slated for 9:30am Pacific / 12:30pm Eastern. The celebration will include prizes, autographed books, turquoise and bling giveaways, tips, readings from the book, surprise guests and more!

Find out more about my brand new book on the book minisite here where you can:

• Download a free chapter.
• Read testimonials and connect with each person’s social profiles — including Harvey Mackay, Keith Ferrazzi, Brian Tracy, Beth Kanter, Ali Brown, Larry Benet, Brian Solis and a whole host of others! Check out the cool display of peeps, just click each avatar for details.
• Watch the book trailer where I share my very personal journey to becoming a relationship marketing specialist.
• Order the book from Amazon.com and BN.com (also available in Kindle and Nook versions).
• Leave a Facebook comment.
• Share with your friends on Twitter.
• Share with your friends and fans on Facebook.

Four New Social Media Magazines

As if writing and publishing a book wasn’t enough for the summer, I’m part of a leadership team that just launched four brand new social media magazines in a variety of formats including print, online multimedia, and a number of mobile apps! The starting monthly distribution is 13.8 million due to partnerships with Office Depot and EFactor.

NEW Social Media Magazines

Check out the magazines at these links:

Facebook – fb & Business: http://fbandbusiness.com – I’m delighted to be the executive editor for the Facebook magazine! 
Google – The Big G & Business: http://thebiggandbusiness.com
LinkedIn – LI & Business: http://liandbusiness.com
Twitter – Tweeting & Business: http://tweetingandbusiness.com

The content in each magazine is original and informative. Be sure to sign up for your free subscriptions to each of the magazines. Plus, if you like to write and have great expertise to share, there’s an opportunity to be a guest writer for any of the magazines; see the Contribute button on each site.

This is just the beginning!

Social Media Inner Circle

Due to popular demand, I recently re-opened my monthly social media support program - I’ve been leading this program for over three years now, and had it closed to new members for a while so I could switch webinar platforms. We meet on the first Wednesday of each month at 11am PT / 2pm ET for a dynamic and information-packed social media training + Q&A LIVE webinar. Sessions are always recorded and archived. This program is one of the most affordable ways to stay current with your social media marketing integration and mastery!

PLUS, when you join the Inner Circle, you’ll be invited into our fabulous new Secret Facebook Group - members actively network, share, collaborate and support one another. It’s incredible value. All this for just $27 per month. Register in the month of October and your rate is grandfathered in at just $27 even when the fees increase! Just go to InnerCircleWithMari.com to secure your place.

Mentor With Mari

Since June, I’ve been leading my six-month social media professionals training program with a regular and VIP level. The groups are just fantastic, and I am blessed to be on this journey with such fellow heart-centered entrepreneurs. We meet several times a month by webinar and cover a vast range of social media topics, as well as sessions on running a successful speaking and training businesses, and personal growth topics. It’s a holistic approach to business.

Mentor With Mari - VIP Retreat San Diego

In August, I hosted a 2.5-day special retreat at my home in San Diego for my VIPs and we had an amazing time, including dinner at a local winery; guest experts Mike Stelzner (founder Social Media Examiner), Esperanza Universal (founder the S.O.U.L. Institute), and Ashley Mahaffey (Fitness Strategist); a stretch limo ride to dinner at The Beach House, and a professional photoshoot for everyone!  This blog post by Lani Voivod and this post by Lauren McMullen really sum up the life-changing experience for attendees.

Our current members can be found on this Twitter list. There are also over 60 graduates of this social media training program over the past couple of years. Stay tuned for details of the 2012 program, along with an exciting new development with alums to be revealed shortly!

Other events…

Other projects I’ve been focused on lately include writing version 2 of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day with my coauthor, Chris Treadaway – scheduled for release in spring 2012! (Phew, could someone please ask Mark Zuckerberg to slow down with all the changes so Chris and I can finish the manuscript?! J/k.)

Plus, the Facebook Success Summit 2011 has been running the month of October where I lead a couple of sessions and helped to promote with my good friend, Mike Stelzner. You can still catch all the replays… and/or tune in to the #FBSS11 tweets! See also the latest Social Media Examiner TV episodes with yours truly as the host here.

Another exciting event included getting to hang out with one of my favorite spiritual leaders, Don Miguel Ruiz last month – he was a guest speaker at the Association of Transformational Leaders Southern California chapter, of which I’m a founding member. Don Miguel’s most widely known book is The Four Agreements. Highly recommended!

Don Miguel Ruiz Sr and Mari Smith

And, I’m just back from ten days on the road speaking at my friend Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula event in Scottsdale, AZ followed by a week’s working vacation in Hawaii! I was honored to speak at the Hawaii Social Media Summit and also for the Hawaii Social Media Club. (Believe it or not, I actually took the entire summer off from traveling and speaking so I could focus on completing my relationship marketing book and leading my mentorship program! Many folks think I travel non-stop. I like to pace myself!)

Next up – Blog World Expo Los Angeles on November 3rd to 5th!! I hope to see you there, it’s going to be amazing as always. I’m leading a session with my signature talk on The New Relationship Marketing. I’m also speaking at my friend Maria Simone’s Enlightened Entrepreneur Summit in Irvine that same weekend.

In the past couple months, I also had a new photoshoot done, had my website redesigned, and switched to a new dedicated server as my hosting plan was bursting at the seams!

That’s it for now… that’s all I’ve been up to over the past couple months! Lol.

NOW, it’s time to get my blogging back up to speed and publish the follow up posts I promised on using Google+, along with a bunch of new ones on Facebook and all the myriad changes! But first — let’s celebrate book launch time!!!

Please do leave your questions and comments below – I’d love to hear from you!!

[UPDATE: December 17, 2011: Now that the Facebook Timeline has rolled out worldwide, the way you access your Employer field has changed. Under your Cover image, there are three possible ways to access your Work and Education details and all the other data that was previously under your "Info" tab. See screenshot below - 1) click anywhere in the shaded area, or 2) click the Update Info button, or 3) click About.

Once on the Work and Education Section, click the "Edit" button in the top right of that section. Then begin to type in your own fan page if you work for yourself, or the fan page of your employer. Then add your Position, City/Town and a Description. For the position, you could use standard wording like "CEO" or you can put anything you wish, e.g. I have "Passionate Social Media Leader."

If you currently have more than one job, as far as I know, you can only hyperlink one company fan page on your Timeline. I haven't seen more than one employer linked in this section. However, it's certainly feasible to add more into that section and when visitors/friends click on your About section, they'll see the other jobs/positions. If you have difficulty in getting your main job to show as the featured one on your Timeline, you may need to delete the other jobs/employers and add the main one last.] End update.

Original post follows:

When Facebook upgraded personal profiles to the new design, most of the new features took effect without much effort on the user’s part. If you don’t like a certain photo in your five-photo strip at the top, just “x” it out to hide it from showing at the top. Tabs became links down the side, and we lost the most recent status update at the very top. (Oh, how I miss that feature as well as the wee mini-bio box!).

One of the most significant changes with the new profile design is the personal info at the top of your profile, right under your name. This section contains your job title, place of work, where you live, your birthday, education, hometown, languages, college/high school and a few other pertinent fields.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you prefer not to share any of these areas, just leave those fields blank when you edit your profile information. As you can see in the screenshot below, I choose to only show my title, employer, city of residence and birthday. I figure less is more when it comes to personal info on Facebook! By the way, only you can see fields left blank as indicated by links inviting you to “Add your xxxx.”

[Also, hot tip: be sure to change your date of birth to only show month and day - not the year - to add a layer of protection].

The #1 mistake? Your Employer link is a Community Page!

Go to your Facebook profile now and mouseover your Employer field – you’ll see it’s not linked to your fan page! When Facebook changed your profile to the new design, it automatically hyperlinked your EMPLOYER field to an auto-generated COMMUNITY PAGE!

(What is a Community Page? It’s an auto-generated wiki style of page that, in some ways, “competes” with your official fan page… at least, it can be confusing for some people when they’re trying to find you. For a full explanation of Community Pages and what you need to know, see this post.)

If you work for yourself and have your own Facebook Fan Page (or you’re an employee and your employer has a fan page), I highly recommend that you change this Employer field to your Fan Page.

Facebook Fan Page Hover Card on Mari Smith's Profile

I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of personal Facebook profiles where the user is clearly blissfully unaware that they are missing out on an opportunity to promote their Fan Page right at the top of their profiles. We have no idea how many people might be browsing our personal profiles, whether they are friends or not, and you may as well take the opportunity to promote your fan page.

How to add your Facebook Fan Page as your Employer:

The process is straightforward:

1. Click Edit Profile > then go to the Education and Work section.
2. Begin typing the name of your fan page in the Employer field.
3. If you see your fan page in the dropdown menu, select it.
4. Then fill out the remaining fields (Position, City/Town, Description and Time Period). If you also add in any business partners/colleagues, this will show on their profile too under the Employer section.
5. Click Add Job.
6. You can also add Project(s) to any position and add business partners/colleagues (again, this shows on their Employer section).
7. Voila!

If you find that your fan page just does not want to show up in the Employer field, there is a Ninja workaround which takes a tad of tecchie knowledge. See this helpful tutorial.

That’s it. I’m sure there are many other “mistakes” some Facebook users make on their personal profiles (besides having a personal profile in the name of a business which is a violation of Facebook’s terms!). But, I feel this one mistake with the missed opportunity to promote your fan page is the most overlooked area.

Any questions, let me know in the comments below. Also, what other mistakes or tips for optimizing profiles do you know of? Feel free to share!

Recommended reading:

• Quick Guide To The New Facebook Profile Layout [IMAGE]
• Essential Guide To Facebook Page Changes [SCREENSHOTS]
• 15 Frequently Asked Questions About Facebook Pages
• Facebook Now Allows Personal Profiles To Be Converted Into Business Pages [insidefacebook.com]
• Companies Make Lousy Friends [joshuaswodeck.com]
• How to Add Official Facebook Page to Your Profile Employer Link [wchingya.com]

There are many online tools I use every single day to manage my social media marketing effectiveness. In my recent interview with Darren Hardy for the May 2011 issue of SUCCESS Magazine, I talked about many of these tools. During our interview, Darren asked if I would put together my top ten list of social media resources for readers of SUCCESS. Of course I said yes – here they are!

(It’s a delight and honor to be one of three featured expert interviews on the CD that comes with the magazine, along with Peter Guber – author of Tell to Win, and leadership guru, John C. Maxwell. My audio interview is all about how to build “social equity” through relationship marketing. Plus, check out the article starting on page 38 “Networking With New Media” with contributions from Gary Vaynerchuk, Susan RoAne, Maribeth Kuzmeski, yours truly and others. The theme of this SUCCESS issue is all about connecting and the cover story features one of my favorite visionary leaders: none other than Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook.)

Here’s my top ten tools:

1.  HootSuite.com

A fantastic free online tool to manage multiple social media profiles, pre-schedule updates for specific days and times, monitor keywords and analyze statistics. Plus, check and reply to saved searches, Twitter Lists, @ mentions, Direct Mentions and more.  Also available as a mobile app which provides an excellent way to pre-schedule your social updates on the fly.  Paid version also available with additional features. (See TweetDeck.com as an alternative tool to try that is equally as popular).

2.  Bit.ly

The top link shortening service, ideal for Twitter but just as useful for Facebook and even email marketing to track clicks. Copy your long link and paste into your bit.ly account. Easily make custom links and track how many clicks you get. For example, this is a link to one of my most popular blog posts with a directory of Facebook contact forms: http://bit.ly/FBforms.

Check the raw link and stats for any bit.ly link by simply adding a “+” sign at the end, whether it’s your bit.ly link or someone else’s. Plus, be sure to add the bit.ly sidebar to easily shorten and tweet any weblink. Another cool feature is the little popup notification of “trending bits” when one of your bit.ly links receives a number of clicks in a short time.

3.  Twitter Lists

Easily build your own source of curated content by making a list of Twitter users in a certain field of expertise. Twitter allows up to 20 lists per account with up to 500 names in each list. Lists can be public or private. Anyone can follow a public list. (See Twitter List instructions here).

You might set up a list for top news in your industry (be sure to add your own name!). I refer to my own Facebook Marketing Twitter list several times a day to stay up to date on breaking news about Facebook. (See also Listorious for a wonderful compilation of lists to find and follow.) Here’s my Facebook Marketing Twitter List embedded in a widget below (make your own widgets here):

4.  Facebook Like Button

Adding a small piece of code to your website and/or installing the Facebook Like Button WordPress plugin allows visitors to your website and blog to share your content with all their Facebook friends. You can change the verb from “like” to “recommend” – great for placing on the top right of an entire website. Also, include the Like Button on all opt-in pages and sales pages for extra viral visibility.

I love the Facebook Like button for social proof and for quickly and easily sharing content with my Facebook friends. However, I must say since the Like Button changed from a one-line story to a full-on story with randomly chosen thumbnail and a description, I’ve actually been clicking on it less often. I liked the one-line as I could click several links in a row and it wouldn’t clog up the feed of my friends.

If you’d like to test the like button, click the recommend button below for my blog – then go check your Facebook profile wall to see what was posted!

5.  TweetMeme Button

This is the Twitter equivalent to the Facebook Like Button. Add it to your blog, website, sales pages and anywhere you want to make it easy for your visitors to share your content with their Twitter followers. I love to use the TweetMeme button myself whenever I find great content on the web to share with my Twitter followers – the button is typically already formatted with a short link and the author’s Twitter ID.

You’ll see the TweetMeme button at the top and bottom of this post - that’s the WordPress TweetMeme plugin. (In addition to the Facebook Like Button and TweetMeme Button, be sure to also add the LinkedIn Share button to your website, blog, opt-in pages and sales pages).

Tweetmeme Retweet Button

6.  Twellow.com

Twellow is the Yellow Pages of Twitter with tens of millions of accounts listed. Set up a free account, then find and follow targeted people by searching for keywords users have in their bio. Browse categories and also drill down to cities around the world to find top users in a specific location (see “Twellowhood” tab). Twellow is a great tool for building your Twitter following. Be sure to add your keyword-rich extended bio as the search feature also crawls this field! (As an alternative, more automated tool to try instead/as well, see TweetAdder.com).

7.  ManageFlitter.com

Easily manage your Twitter following, unfollow inactive accounts, find out who isn’t following you back and more. There are many ways to sort including by profiles with no images, inactive, no bio and more. Free and paid versions available. This is such a fun tool to use and very effective. I haven’t found anything like it out there. (As an alternative, check out the popular tool SocialOomph.com. I use SocialOomph every day to auto follow those who follow me; then 1-2 times a week, I filter and clean up the following using Manage Flitter).

Manage Flitter

8.  Echofon

Mobile App for Twitter – I’ve tried many, many mobile apps to manage Twitter on my iPhone and keep coming back to Echofon. The app offers a variety of great features and is always synched with your online Twitter activity. Check and reply to saved searches, Twitter Lists, trending topics, @ mentions, Direct Mentions and more.

Echofon also offers desktop apps for Mac and Firefox. (Plus, a Facebook mobile app! However, I find Facebook’s own iPhone app works just fine.)

9.  Disqus Blog Commenting System

A wonderful, user-friendly addition to any blog, Disqus allows users to have their own portable profile for commenting. Comments can easily be shared with their Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Visitors to your blog can simply post a comment using their Facebook or Twitter account with one-click instead if they don’t have a Disqus login. Try out the Disqus commenting system on my blog here – scroll down and leave me a comment!

10. TwentyFeet

An easy and simple way to track and monitor all your social media metrics. You get two social media accounts for free for life. After that, the fee is extremely nominal ($2.49 a year!) for additional accounts. Track your Facebook profile, fan pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube, Bit.ly, Google Analytics and more. TwentyFeet sends you a daily email with activity reports as compared to predicted activity based on past performance. (See also SocialBakers.com to use instead or as well for tracking your Facebook metrics.)

TwentyFeet - Example daily email

I trust you found some nifty new tools here! Let me know what your favorites are – feel free to list them below in the comments. It seems every day there are more and more new tools available to assist in making our social media and online marketing more effective.

Do you tend to stick with the more established platforms and tools? Or are you always on the hunt for the holy grail of social media tools that does everything under the sun? Let me know in the comments below.

Recommended reading:

• 22 Hot New Social Media Tools Worth Exploring [socialmediaexaminer.com]
• How To Evaluate And Compare Social Media Tools [oneforty.com]
• oneforty.com [directory of social media tools]
• 22 Social Media Marketing Management Tools [toprankblog.com]

No amount of sophisticated technology will ever take the place of connecting live, in person. When we’re with someone in person, we can feel their energy, watch their body language, and look into their eyes. When it comes to technology, though, the next best thing to connecting with people in person is… VIDEO!

With video, you can look into the lens of the camera and talk with your viewers just as if you were sitting down for a cuppa coffee… or a glass of wine in Gary Vaynerchuk‘s case!!

Adding video to your social media marketing dramatically enhances your relationship with your community – your friends, fans, followers, subscribers will feel *much* closer to you. (Could you imagine if Gary Vaynerchuk had done all his wine tasting shows with just images and blog posts? Definitely not the same!)

Here are five ideas to create videos for sharing on your social sites:

1. Talk into the camera

I love to shoot impromptu videos when I’m out and about at a speaking engagement, for example. As an entrepreneur with a home office, I’m not exactly always camera-ready every day. I’m sure other women (maybe a few men) can relate! So, when I’ve gotten myself ready for a function, I may as well shoot a wee video.

I was recently in Orlando, Florida delivering a keynote on social media best practices to the Association of Golf Merchandisers. I shot this fun short greeting and shared on my Facebook Page:

Videos like this are real easy to shoot and I always go with one take. No need to do any re-takes. Just go with the flow and be naturally impromptu! Video length is ideally no more than 60-90 seconds. Think about one key point you want to make in the video and then just shoot.

I almost always use my iPhone for these types of videos when out and about. Though I do also carry my Canon PowerShot SX10IS (big brother models available too) for the best quality audio and video. For shooting videos in my home office, I’ll often use my built-in web cam on my iMac and the Snowball mic by Blue.

2. Create screencasts

An excellent way to create technical video tutorials is to record your computer screen using either ScreenFlow for Mac, or Camtasia or Jing for PC or Mac. You can also include an optional inset (picture in picture) of you on camera too; I tend to leave that part out as my eyes are looking at the screen, not camera lens! Here’s an example tutorial I created showing how to manage the Facebook fan page spam filter:

3. Record video interviews

There are many options for conducting video interviews from the comfort of your home office! You might make a list of your ideal interviewees, reach out to them and set up times to interview them on their subject expertise. I recommend keeping the interviews short (everyone is super busy these days!). A great example to emulate is David Garland, creator of The Rise To The Top. Here’s an awesome interview David conducted with Mike Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com.

David Garland Interviews Mike Stelzner

To create video interviews over the internet, here are several platforms to try:

• Skype
• ooVoo
• Ustream.tv
• TinyChat

For recording these interviews, use either one of the screencapture tools mentioned in #2 above and/or most of these platforms include the ability to record.

4. Stream live video

Another favorite of mine is to go LIVE on camera directly on my Facebook Page using the Vpype app which I reviewed here. (Screenshot below of the “Shows” tab on my Facebook Page – in the still, I’m showing some of my turquoise and bling. LOL!)

Vpype - Live Streaming Facebook App

Alternative Facebook streaming apps include Ustream, Justin.tv, Livestream and the brand new app about to come out of beta and get really big, Linqto. The first three of these platforms are standalone streaming services and include recording, embedding and rebroadcasting tools.

• Ustream.tv
• Justin.tv
• Livestream.com

5. Launch an internet TV show!

Last August, Mike Stelzner and I came up with the idea of launching an internet TV show for Social Media Examiner (SMEtv) with me as the host. We have a lot of fun with this show, typically recording and broadcasting once a month.

Mike goes all out with an awesome, professional videographer, Jeff Wiant. I spend a fair bit of time prior to each shoot selecting relevant topics, conducting research, and identifying content for b-roll. In fact, here’s a photo from the set of the last SMEtv shoot with a detailed description of the process we go through for each show!

In the show below, I talk all about how to integrate video into your social media marketing efforts. Be sure to read the companion post here too as I go into greater detail about sourcing content for your videos, camera equipment and distribution channels.

See all Social Media Examiner TV shows with accompanying notes here and as a YouTube channel here.

So, five different ways to make video content to share on your social sites. There are bound to be plenty more ideas and platforms! Please do share in the comments below other ways you’ve found to be effective for your own social video marketing!

It’s time for another episode of Social Media Examiner TV! This time, Mike Stelzner and I decided to focus exclusively on a major new Facebook feature: Places. It’s basically Facebook’s venture into the world of “Location Based Services,” similar to the popular platform, Foursquare, which we featured on SMEtv Episode #1.

Be sure to view to the end for a Hot Facebook Marketing Tip!

Only In The United States?!

Facebook Places is still extremely new and is only available in the United States and only on iPhones or via geo-enabled mobile devices where you can go to http://touch.facebook.com.

However, TechCrunch reported a fascinating story about Facebook Places working in Canada!

Mari Smith & Sam Russell | Credit: Janna Waldinger www.artclarity.com

Plus, I just had a house guest for the past week – Samantha Russell visiting from Southampton in the UK; we were both fascinated to see Facebook Places came up on her British iPhone! Sam could see other friends checked in and it was as if the app was really wanting to work, but we couldn’t quite get her checked in – it just went to an error message.

But the pushpin icon was clearly on the dashboard and on the publisher. Hmm. We figured, surely if Facebook Places is not available in the UK, it wouldn’t even show up as a clickable/viewable option! Hmm.

Why Would You Want To “Check In?”

Here’s Facebook’s own promotional video to help you further understand exactly what this new feature is and does:

Clearing Up Privacy Myths About Check-Ins and Places

As Facebook is rather renowned for, there were a couple of Privacy settings where the default did not necessarily consider the user first. For example, when Facebook Places initially launched on August 18, 2010, your friends could automatically “tag” you in a check-in without your permission… unless you knew to turn off this setting.

There was quite a bit of pushback and confusion among users, so Facebook created this helpful video to help educate their users on Privacy concerns specifically around check-ins/Places:

Fortunately, Facebook have since changed the automatic tag setting… yet, if your friend checks you in, the check-in post goes out and asks you if you’re okay with it. If you’re not comfortable with the idea that your Facebook friends could say you’re with them, you may want to go ahead and turn off this feature. Here’s how:

Go to Account > Privacy Settings > Customize Settings. Under “Things others share” look for the “Edit Settings” button next to “Friends can check me in to Places.” Click the button and in the pop up, click Disabled.

You might feel more comfortable with unchecking the following setting too: just above the “Things others share” section, look for the “Include me in ‘People Here Now’ after I check in” setting and uncheck the box.

And a third setting that you may wish to consider is *your* information that is accessible by applications and websites when your friends use said apps and sites.

Go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites (bottom left) > click Edit your settings > next to “Info accessible through your friends” click the Edit Settings button > uncheck Places I check in to.

If you haven’t yet been using location-based services like Foursquare or Gowalla, you may be happier with these tighter privacy settings for Facebook Places.

See this post for additional information and suggestions on Privacy settings as a user:

Facebook Places: Your Friends Are Here, But What About Your Privacy?

Plus, here’s a direct link to Facebook’s Help section for Places.

Add Facebook Places To Your Fan Page

InsideFacebook.com revealed a new app by Context Optional that allows fan page owners to add a “Check-in” tab that displays a “Leaderboard” of all the Facebook users who have checked in at your venue. This is awesome news for local businesses (in the US, for now); you can easily identify your top fans, run special promotions for the leader and all the while getting more engagement and activity going on your Facebook Page!

So, have you been checking-in with Facebook Places as a user? What do you think? If not, why not? As a business owner, can you see the benefits? Let me know in the comments below. Also, do let me know what additional topics you’d like to see covered in future Social Media Examiner TV shows! (See the SMEtv channel here).

P.S. Do you have your tickets yet for the Facebook Success Summit? September 16th is the LAST day for the awesome half-price special! I look forward to connecting with you in the virtual classroom!

Today is an exciting day!! The pilot episode of Social Media Examiner TV launches and I’m thrilled and honored to be the Host!

Social Media Examiner was founded in October 2009 by Mike Stelzner; it’s a popular online magazine and has been named one of the top business blogs by Technorati. Mike is also founder of the annual Social Media Success Summits and now the Facebook Success Summit 2010.

Teamwork

Mike and I first met in December 2008 via our mutual friend, Denise Wakeman, at a social media event in San Diego. We immediately hit it off and I’ve been delighted to team up with Mike and contribute to his ventures ever since!

Four of the Social Media Examiner team members:
Amy Porterfield, Denise Wakeman, Mike Stelzner (founder) & Mari Smith.
[Pic taken at Seth Godin event by LinkedOC, Feb 2010]

Meanwhile, over the past six months or so, I had been thinking about starting an internet TV show. Many friends of mine would say, “You should do an internet TV show!” I’ve loaded several fun videos to my Facebook Fan Page. I was a guest on BraveHearTV and got the chance recently to shoot a TV infomercial for Jim Britt along with host, Valerie Brooks-Flores, (details coming!). I just love the medium of TV to communicate so much more.

I looked at all kinds of approaches for TV shows and, quite frankly, the logistics seemed overwhelming. I’ve always been inspired by the amazing Gary Vaynerchuk and his wildly popular WineLibraryTV. Gary definitely has a fabulous personality for TV!!

Social Media Examiner TV is born!

Well, there’s much to be said about the power of intention. Over a recent business lunch, Mike and I had one of those simultaneous, spontaneous sparks of genius … and Social Media Examiner TV was born!! This episode is the first of three pilots and we’ll begin running regularly after that!

In this episode, I review the awesome new iPad app, Flipboard—an amazing way to consume your social media news and see your Facebook and Twitter contacts—along with my passion for Facebook‘s 500 million users and the game-changing social plugins. Plus, we take a look at how Foursquare could help your local business.

Take a peek at our inaugural show below – be sure to max up to full screen (click the wee four-arrow icon in the bottom right corner). [And, look for a funny line at minute 6:30; it still cracks me up!]

If you enjoyed this pilot episode of Social Media Examiner TV, please do tweet about it (use hashtag #SMEtv), share it on Facebook or even embed this episode on your blog.

By the way, here’s my excited tweet when I met up with Ross Epstein, Regional Marketing Coordinator for Jimbo’s Naturally:

And here’s that funny original tweet I talk about at minute 6:30 in the Social Media Examiner TV show:

The Power of Intention

When I got back to my home office after filming this first Social Media Examiner TV pilot, I was so ecstatic and made a video for my Facebook Fan Page on the subject of manifesting what we want.

When you have clarity on something that you want to create (the “What”) and why, you can leave the “How” part up to the Universe. We often get caught up in the “How” and try to control all the details. But when we’re committed to serving the greater good, magic can really happen in an even bigger and better way than you might’ve first imagined.

Please do leave your comments below — I’d love to hear what you think of this first TV show. Feel free to add your suggestions for future show content and your comments about Internet TV in general.

In fact, do hop over to this post on Social Media Examiner‘s blog today. Plus – guess what?? In future episodes, you’ll have an opportunity to get your questions answered! And, if you leave a video response on YouTube, Mike and I may just put your video into one of our future episodes!!!

NEWSFLASH: After yesterday’s disappointing news that Facebook Fan Page Admins could no longer direct non-fans to a default custom landing tab unless they had a minimum of 10,000 fans… in less than 24 hours, Facebook has changed the new “rule” back again.

The same Facebook staffer who made the forum post yesterday updated the forum today with this post:

The motive behind this change – and back again – is unclear. But, it’s certainly clear that the ability to direct visitors to your Facebook fan page custom tab can have a direct payoff to the bottom line:

InsideFacebook.com wrote today about BrandGlue split testing the efficacy of a landing tab. They found the conversion rate to be 47% with a landing tab and around 23% without. That is a BIG difference!

Phew, at least the thousands of small businesses, developers, consultants and agencies can breathe a sigh of relief that this very important feature has been restored!

I just wonder how much influence Matt has to adhere to “[we] will not make any further changes without first giving our community standard notice and lead-time.” What is standard notice and lead-time?!

[ignore this code: EAVB_JHSTMCBYIE]

[UPDATE #2: May 20, 2010: A few members of my community alerted me their Default Landing Tab had "reverted" back... or was working now.

So I conducted a test: I logged out of Facebook, then pulled up about a dozen fan pages with fewer than 10,000 fans that would normally land on a Welcome tab. Some did, some didn't.

There doesn't seem to be any pattern. I'm guessing Facebook are rolling out this new "Default Landing Tab Only for Authenticated Pages" rule in phases. Or, perhaps they've listened to us and are rolling back?!]

[UPDATE #1: As a workaround to this new inability to direct non-fans to your custom landing tab, you could make your own redirect link, e.g. http://marismith.com/fanpage goes to my fan page and could just as easily go to any tab. (You could also use any link shortener, e.g. bit.ly)

Remember, each tab still has its own unique URL and all your tabs/apps are still intact.

This approach with your own redirect link could work well for promotions outside Facebook.

However, any promotion inside Facebook (e.g. @ tags) would automatically go to whichever default landing tab you've set - either Wall or Info. I recommend Wall.

Once you reach 10,000 fans, you'll be able to set your cutom landing tab. Though, so far, a couple members of my community have mentioned they cannot make the change and they're over 10k fans. Sounds like the change is buggy.

Props to my fab friend, Mike Stelzner for the redirect link suggestion.]

~~~

Original post follows:

For some time, I’ve been raving about the benefits of having your non-fans land on a specific, custom landing tab on your Facebook Fan Page.

When you send visitors to your Facebook Fan Page, previously, you could have them land on a Welcome Tab, for instance – the purpose of which was to help visitors understand what your business is about and to compel them to want to join your Fan Page.

The option to set this was fairly easy – click on Options underneath the publisher on your Fan Page wall, then click on Settings and select the landing tab from the drop down menu:

However, in a rather odd move, today Facebook quietly let a few disgruntled developers know in the Facebook Developers Forum that they would no longer be offering the option to have a custom default landing tab. That is, unless you have a minimum of 10,000 fans or you have an account rep at Facebook.

New settings for fan pages with <10,000 fans:

(Image credit)

Here’s the forum post:

Amidst all the hoopla of the privacy concerns and morass of Community Pages, this default landing tab change just seems grossly unfair to the small business owner, in particular.

As Nick O’Neill writes, “We’d assume that this change was made for two reasons: to combat spam and more importantly, to boost revenue…”

Hmm.

To clarify, ALL of your custom tabs still exist. And – this is important – each tab still has its own unique URL. So, theoretically, you could shorten the URL’s and split test landing tabs as I’ve talked about before.

If you don’t have an account rep, here’s the contact form per Facebook.

How do you feel about this change? Was the default landing tab for non-fans a big part of your Fan Page promotion strategy? Let me know in the comments below:

Props to my bud Dave Kerpen for the phone call today about the Developer Forum post, and to my Twitter bud Ryan Burns for drawing my attention to this change last night (at first we thought it was a bug!), and to my bud Nick O’Neill for promptly blogging about the issue.