Over the next few weeks, Facebook will be offering you the option of replacing your Profile with what it’s calling Timeline, which is based on the scenario that, up until this now, a user’s profile mostly consisted of only the most recent updates. A quick factoid:  Only 1% of the updates, links and stories you’ve shared on Facebook is visible on your profile (That means that the other 99% o you shared basically vanished from view on Facebook.)  This new Timeline view of your profile enables users to highlight more updates or stories from their past, in an organized fashion.

You can take a peek at the new Facebook Timeline here:  facebook.com/about/timeline

Some of the features of the new Timeline Profile Layout:

• Asthetically more appealing. Timeline is wider and much more visually appealing than the old profile view.
• Organized. Although users ultimately have complete control over what gets shown in their timeline, Facebook algorithms automatically populates your profile with grouped/organized content.
• Privacy. You can access a private activity log of your Facebook historical activity to choose stories to add to their timeline, or not.
• No disappearing ink J (Older updates don’t vanish as new content is added like they used to.
• Meant to resemble a scrapbook, only online.
• The Apps are back! And better than ever—it’s easier for your friends to see and easier for you to add to your profile/timeline..

According to Facebook, Timeline is currently in beta and won’t be rolled out to users for another few weeks.

The other big change Facebook announced today was the New Open Graph

Facebook’s announcement of the New Open Graphing will allow users to more easily use, share and display their favorite apps. A neat feature is that it will even enable users to instantly join in on others’ activity as they see stories displayed in their News Feed or Ticker. That means that  you can instantly play the music your friends are currently listening to or jump in and watch the TV show they’re viewing, with Facebook with the recent integration of Hulu and Netflix options into Facebook.

What does this mean for your privacy? It definitely means that more data, statistics and trends could be eventually released from Timeline and Open Graph via an API, which could give marketers a lot of potentially useful data and insights that will influence advertising and marketing trends.

So, now that we’re just getting used to a new look to the News Feed over the next few weeks, expect more changes.

Personally, I think it’ll be neat, but I like shiny new things…

A great way to generate buzz about a book and attracting the attention of publishers is with a press release.

Getting it read is another thing–make sure your press release gets read with these helpful tips:

Make it a single page. Unfortunate, but true, we live in a world of sound bytes and ‘want-it-yesterdays’. Publishers and media contacts are busy people who have little time to comb through hundreds of multiple page press releases. Limit your press release to one page to gain a better chance of it being read.

Have a catchy headline. All press releases have a headline that sums up the entire release in a few well chosen words. This is an opportunity to shine and show off your creative side. Get their attention and they’ll want to read more and know more.

Don’t talk in the first person. Your press release needs to read as if it came from an objective third-party. Write in in the present tense and stay away from jargon and slang.

Have a dynamic first paragraph.  Hook your reader’s attention by highlighting what the book is about in a sentence or two and including a few chapter titles. This is the paragraph that readers will use to determine whether they’re interested in pursuing you and your book and giving you the coverage that you want.

Have an Author’s bio. Make it short and sweet. If you’ve created a book jacket bio for yourself, this is an ideal place for you to use it. In fact, you may need to apply additional edits to keep it no longer than a paragraph. It’s extremely important to include your phone number and email address in this section for contact information–this is how you’ll be reached schedule interviews or for clarification of your press release.
HINT:  Don’t forget to follow-up with your contacts a few days after you deliver the press release to ensure that they’ve received it.

Those that are currently using social bookmarking certainly understand the great benefits that it can bring if done correctly. Social bookmarking though is quite an enigma to beginners. Many new bloggers have heard the term social bookmarking but are not quite sure what it is or what it involves.

Let me first start by explaining what social bookmarking is and why it is important to social bookmark all of your blog posts. Quite simply stated, social bookmarking will bring your blog more traffic. As internet marketers, that it exactly what we are all after. Social bookmark sites allow us to share our favorite sites with others who might be interested as well as increasing our back links at the same time.

All the links that you leave have the potential to bring traffic back to your blog. As you begin to regularly submit your link to authority social bookmarking sites, like Digg, Twitter, and Stumbleupon, your blog will benefit greatly by moving up rank rapidly in the search engines for your selected keywords.

Now just a quick tutorial on how to easily social bookmark your blog posts.

First, what you need to do is find a list of some social bookmark sites. There are plenty around, just do a Google search or go to SocialMarker.com.

Next you have to sign up at each bookmarking site. This process may take up to an hour but keep in mind that you are only going to have to go through this process one time.

After you have signed up in all of the social site you can begin submitting your first blog post. The easiest way to do this is to type out your blog posts url, title, description, and tags in a separate window, preferably in Notepad, Article Notepad, or Wordpad. Any of the above will work.

Once you have the info typed out, go ahead and cascade the notepad and your browser so that they are side by side on your monitor. (If you are using SocialMarker you won’t have to use this method.)

Make sure the list of social sites is up and open on your browser, then right click and open the first ten or so sites in a new tab. If your computer is fast enough you can go ahead and open all the sites. If not, just open as much as your computer will allow.

When submitting your blog post, all you have to do is click and drag the info over.

Close it and move to the next once you include all of the needed info.

That’s it! That’s all that is involved with social bookmarking. A simple little task like this may take an hour a day but will greatly increase the amount of traffic you receive to your blog.

Keep in mind though that some social sites will penalize you for submitting too many of your own blog posts. Find some friends or peers and take turns submitting each others posts.

Whatever you do, do not under estimate the power of social bookmarking. You should make it your goal to submit at least one blog post per day. Doing so will really make a huge difference in the traffic you’re going to see as a result.

Don’t have time to do it yourself?  Rockstar Buzz offers social bookmarking service.  Contact us to get started today!

Rockstar Buzz for Biz's QR code

Recently I wrote a post about QR codes and your business.  Since then, I’ve been seeing more and more widespread uses of these QR (or Quick Reference) codes, that I’ve made a list of 10 of the more creative ways you can garner attention to your business using them:

1. Print them on your business card, and link it to a great offer just for your business card.  For example, have it land on a special page with a nice thank you and a great offer.
2. If you’re in real estate, produce QR codes for each of your listings. Make stickers and small business promo cards with the listings on them to hand out to everyone you meet.  Post the QR code on your facebook profile and fan page. Have them printed on every picture of the listing.
3. Have your QR code in your email signature (along with your twitter and facebook links
4. Set up your QR code to actually send an SMS whoever scans it with a coupon code
5. Use a QR code to get reviews and testimonials from clients/customers…either to yelp or to a form on your website asking about their experience with your company
6. Having an event?  Use them to link to a sign up registration page to promote the event, link a code to the event schedule
7. Restaurants can use QR codes on their menus for nutritional info, specific info on your wine list selections, daily specials and more.
8. Print them on the back of your envelopes that you send out, for example on your business stationary.
9. Link a QR code to a video tour of your company, or a promo video on either your site or youtube, to give customers a real time feel for what you’re company is all about
10. Have a storefront?  Hide a QR code in the store and tout in on Facebook or Twitter. Reward those who find the code in your store with a special thank you gift or coupon.  Even limo companies and other ground transportation companies can get in on this by hiding a QR code in their car.

 Here are some resources on where to create a QR code:

Kaywa’s QR code generator is the simplest way to generate a QR code for a URL, text, phone number or SMS. Simply select your preference, enter the content, specify size and click “Generate.” Then, save the code to use elsewhere or grab the HTML to embed it online.

iCandy helps you track scans and look at analytics around generated QR codes. You can also print codes through partner services.

Stickybits is slightly different, but the service also makes it simple to create stickers for your codes, as well as inspire collective content creation from people who scan your codes.

On the scanner side of things, apps that can scan codes are available for most smartphones. Simply search your app store for “barcode reader,” or “QR code scanner,” and you’ll find several to choose from.

On the iPhone, options include QuickMark and Optiscan. On Android, Barcode Scanner is a popular QR code reader.

Facebook and other social networking outlets have become a heavily trafficked and easily accessible means of marketing. Previously, ads provided the only reliable means of recognition for branding purposes on Facebook. However, recent implementation of the newest layout has maximized visual space and options.

With the new fan page layout, the space available for branding has increased drastically. More space was allocated to Facebook ads and links in previous layouts, but the current fan pages have only one strip of ads and a narrow Facebook navigation bar at the top. This leaves significant space for design. Utilization of the fan page elements creates a decent fan page presence.

Visual representation is important online and on paper, so the Facebook fan page profile picture is a major element of optimizing the page. Photo uploading currently allows 180px by 540px images. However, the navigation options are located immediately below the profile picture, so designers should bear in mind that tall images could hide navigation from visitors casually browsing the page. Also, the thumbnail should be edited to show a relevant section of the profile picture. The thumbnail appears beside any comment posted by an admin of the fan page, so it is important to have an image that makes sense to other users.

The photo strip is now an important element of all pages, personal and business-oriented. Generally speaking, the profile picture and the pictures viewed in the photo strip should have some relation. Some fan pages actually use multiple images to create banners. Photo strips will be shuffled with the addition of any new images, so one option is to use images that remain relevant regardless of order.  A great tool to check out is the website, www.fbanners.com, a cool site where you can customize the photostrip to brand it to your business.

The navigation is now on the left side of the page, immediately under the profile picture. This change allows greater customization because page names can now contain 36 characters. The use of iFrame applications also allows admins to use icons that relate to the content of the navigation tab. With these new options, it is important to remain organized. Tip:  Avoid linking to pages lacking in content, and generally avoid linking to too many pages as this can create clutter. Also, place the navigation links in order of importance. In terms of navigation, less is more.

Making connections is important for branding, and the “Featured Likes” option allows brands to link to one another. If admins own other pages or partner with other brands, this feature can highlight those pages. Even better, pages with many “likes” can edit which pages appear to viewers first.

For all of the complaints from individuals with personal profiles, changes in the facebook layout have been positive for branding purposes. Fan page options with the new layout have maximized visual elements, so branding via social media has never been better. 

www.facebook.com/shyenavenice

Rockstar Buzz’s custom iFrames FB Fan Page tabs are still the most popular branding tool for Facebook for businesses, as well as the custom wall graphics.  Check out our samples and pricing here.