Update, 10/11/2011: Facebook has postponed the beta version of timeline afterTimeline.comfiled a lawsuit. Timeline is currently only available to those who have Facebook’s Developer application installed.
I've been playing around with the Facebook changes recently announced at f8 in San Francisco and freaking most of the public out soon thereafter. The real-time ticker and subscribe button makes sharing quicker and easier. The popular stories and recent stories seem to be confusing.
The feature that's really caught my eye is the timeline. The timeline rolls out to the public around October 6. To sample it ahead of time, you can access it through the developer apps. For personal users, the attraction of the timeline is obvious: it's attractive, artistic, much like a scrapbooking page layout. The timeline is fun – with one click you can go back to any year, any month and see status updates, photos and important events. It was described by Nir Refuah, vice president of McCann Digital in Israel, as “a digital autobiography.” Refuah said, “First Facebook became the digital ID of everyone, and now it will try to gather our whole life story,”
For brands, the attraction is more subtle. I had trouble at first understanding why a brand would like the new timeline, then the content developer in me kicked in. The timeline's all about story – history -- content. Acquiring as many 'likes” as you can is no longer a driving force. For content-driven non-competitive people like me, that is great news. Awesome content is what will get you in the stream. The popularity contest is no longer about star power, it's about authenticity and the human component of your business. Campaigning for the most “likes” won't do much for you.
To sum up what I've learned so far, the timeline benefits for your business include:
The cover. The cover is a big photo across the top of your page. It is prime real estate and very easy to change. This will be great for promotions and product roll-outs.
The Information blurb. Currently, a viewer has to dig deep to find a company's information tab. When found, it is surprisingly limited, weak and bland. The new timeline will feature the information right under the cover, above the fold, in an easy-to-read format, easy to click through to more info.
Infographic format. The new timeline format will propel brands to focus more on engagement and back story rather than getting more likes. Getting more comments and likes becomes less valuable than sharing authentic content. I believe the mom and pop shops that I serve will benefit more from this than the big corporations. Mom and Pop have real stories involving real people. Mom and Pop shops have a back story and biography that is generally more personable than the giant conglomerates. Admittedly, I'm a little biased on that.
The timeline rolls out soon for personal facebook pages. I'm not sure when it rolls out for brands and business pages.
Just when I was starting to flirt with Google+, Facebook has gotten back in the game and lured me back. Imagine that.
Sure.... your customers like you. Your friends like you. Your mom likes you.
But does Facebook like you?
Edgerank is Facebook's way of "liking" you. Edgerank is a search ranking algorithm designed to help Facebook choose which posts should be placed on a person's feed.
Creating a business page and updating your status does not necessarily mean all your fans will see that status update in their wall feed. The default view for all personal facebook accounts is the Top News view rather than the Most Recent view. The Top News will show the updates that Facebook has determined the viewer is most interested in.
There are several things you can do that will increase the chances of your page landing in the status stream on a person’s facebook page.
Post a video with your update. Posting a link doesn’t help that much anymore, but photos and videos are still effective. If you don’t have a video to upload from your site, you can go to any video site like vimeo or youtube and get the embed code. Include that embed code right in your status update.
Post a photo with your update. A small thumbnail will automatically appear if you include a link in your update, but simply using the thumbnail is not as effective as using a different photo. Using the “Upload a photo” button is much more effective. Either load a photo from a file on your computer or you can go to your website and take a screen capture photo and upload it to facebook.
Post an update that will encourage your fans to interact with your update. If it’s not interesting to you, it’s probably not interesting to them either. Interaction includes when a fan clicks “like” or “share” or clicks the thumbnail, clicks through to your page, or comments, etc. Comments carry the most weight -- asking a question is usually very effective. The more popular your update, the stronger the edge rank and the more likely it will get into the Top News feed on your fan’s wall. Everytime a fan interacts with an update, it increases the edge.
Post daily if possible. The frequency of activity on your page will increase your EdgeRank. Having said that, you don’t want to post too often. You’re a business, not a “friend” and facebook users will just get annoyed and block you if you fill up their feed with your updates. Also, don't let the pressure of posting daily cause you to post dry, boring updates. You have to up the awesome, social media marketing loves awesome and is brutal on boring.
I'm a little late sharing this but I just wanted to take moment to mention the very successful Bar Camp Charleston (www.BarCampChS.org).
There were dozens of interesting sessions covering everything from Linux to Web Design to Salsa dancing. There were 3 Drupal sessions. The first was 'Intro to Drupal' which was given by Nikolai Burton. Nikolai runs Charleston Drupal Users Group (http://chsdug.org/) and also presented a session called "A Whirlwind World Tour of Film." Nikolai was asked to do this session att the last minute and he filled in admirably. He presented to a packed classroom of more than forty people and it was a valuable session.
My second Drupal session was at 5 pm when most of us were approaching a brain-dead state after a full day of information consumption. The Topic for this session was 'Drupal Next Steps - an Introduction to Drush & Performance Tuning'. By this time the Drupal crowd had thinned considerably. It didn't help that the time slot put me in competition with he very popular 'How to Make Your Own Beer' session. All in all, it was a very productive day and I want to express congratulations and thanks to the team that made it happen.
I had the pleasure of listening to theDuct Tape Marketing Podcast recently, the March 23 episode featureing David Meerman Scott, who recently wrote the book called World Wide Rave. David makes some really interesting points about how trends get started on the Internet. He provides numerous case studies on viral videos and blog posts, and how people have used these to build their businesses.
Examples included Blendtec, a maker of heavy-duty blenders who increased sales tenfold after creating some wacky videos and the site Will it Blend?, showing their blenders chop non-food items. He also talks about Helaine Smith, DMD, a Boston Dentist who quintupled her business after publishing a free e-book called "Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex."
Seth Godin had a great post recently -- a video showing a guy dancing, then two guys dancing, then... well, watch for yourself.
Seth's point is the first guy is very important, and the 3rd guy is very important, but Guy #49 is pretty much a dime a dozen. I'd like to put in a word for Guy #2 who took a real risk by joining Guy #1. He could have been rejected, but he joined in and believed in the movement. Guy #3 gets credit for the big wave but maybe there would not be a Guy #3 if not for Guy #2? Read Seth's comments at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/guy-3.html
A friend of mine recently acquired a Ford 8N tractor, and has decided to rebuild the entire tractor, including the engine, piece by piece. He said he had purchased some videos online that show him in great detail what he needs to do. He bought two videos for $25 each.
I would not have visited Point Lobos Reserve this week if it had not been for my social network. About a year ago, my friend Chris introduced me to his friend Kurt. A few months later, Kurt invited me to breakfast where I met George. In May, George, Kurt, and I walked the length of the Art Loeb Trail in Pisgah Forest.
I would not have visited 
