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4 Facebook Marketing Tips for Entertainment Brands

June 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment


The Facebook Marketing Series is supported by Buddy Media, Power Tools for Facebook. Fans see when you post content on your brand’s Facebook Page, right? Wrong. Cut through the mystery of Facebook’s Edgerank — download the white paper now.

While some businesses are still figuring out the value of building a fan base, entertainment brands have long understood that a vibrant fan community is critical to their success. Perhaps this why entertainers were among the first to embrace Facebook as a way to attract, engage and communicate with fans. And because the most effective Facebook marketing programs often combine compelling content with personality, entertainment brands are uniquely positioned to succeed with this medium.

But even for the most popular entertainers, creating a robust fan base on Facebook requires more than just creating a Page and posting content. Here are four ways entertainment brands can accelerate their Facebook success.

1. Use Questions, Polls and Quizzes to Engage Your Community

If you post a piece of content on your Facebook Page, you might generate a good number of comments. But if you post your content in the context of a question, a poll or a quiz, you make your content interactive and provoke viral distribution.

Sarah Hofstetter, SVP of brand strategy and emerging media at digital marketing agency 360i, recommends trying out the new Facebook Questions tool to engage users around a question. 360i is using Facebook Questions in its work with BRAVO Network. For example, this recent Facebook Questions post on the Real Housewives of New Jersey Page encouraged fans to pick a side in a family feud that has emerged in the show’s storyline, generating over 15,000 votes.

GLEE is also a fan of this approach, posting a poll every Tuesday to spark conversation around the show prior to its airing that night. These weekly polls routinely generate thousands of interactions.

Also consider embedding a promotional offer or a download in a poll or a quiz — this tactic can work to drive very high conversation rates, since fans are already actively engaged with your brand.

For example, Glenn Beck is promoting his magazine Fusion through a series of polls and quizzes on Facebook. After taking the poll or quiz, fans are presented with a custom page promoting Fusion and enabling fans to click through to subscribe.

2. Reward Your Fans

Engaging fans is one way to keep them happy; rewarding them is another. While there are many ways to reward your Facebook fans, many entertainers have found that sharing exclusive or free content gives fans a reason to come back time and again.

“I think the best piece of advice to give someone who is looking to build a fan base on Facebook is to tell them to figure out what they do best and give it away for free,” says Chris Taylor, co-founder of MicControl, a blogging platform for the emerging music community. “Social media has made ‘free’ a word that consumers have begun to expect.”

Taylor points to Chris Webby as a great example of how this strategy can work. Webby, an up-and-coming rapper, regularly releases free mixes via Facebook. This approach has helped Webby reach the 100,000 fan mark.

Webby’s fans “are some of the most dedicated fans you will see in the emerging music industry — they buy all of his merchandise, they buy tickets to shows and will travel hours to see him perform,” says Taylor. “By giving his fans free music, interacting with them on Facebook and Twitter and showing how much he truly cares, his fans are more than happy to show him how much they truly care.”

Rewarding your fans can also be as simple as making sure your Page provides valuable information, such as upcoming show dates or releases. For example, DJ Jody Wisternoff keeps his fans current with custom tabs for both his gigs and new music releases, and he posts personal updates in the run-up to each show, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at the highs and lows of life on the road.

3. Let Fans Behind-the-Scenes

Letting fans get behind-the-scenes is not only an effective way to reward them, but also a great way to take more ownership of your personal brand.

Jessica Sitomer, CEO of TheGreenlightCoach.com, encourages entertainers to use their work as an opportunity to promote themselves creatively on Facebook. Sitomer suggests doing a “behind-the-scenes” video before a shoot or a show.

“Get creative with your videos; they can be of you getting ready at home, getting your make-up done in the trailer or prepping your equipment on set,” says Sitomer.

Sitomer points to Juliet Landau, best known for her work as Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, as a great example of this approach. “Landau wanted to break out of her genre,” says Sitomer, “so when she got a job as an action hero in a film, she leveraged her connections from her Drusilla promotions and contacted a magazine to do a shoot of her as the action hero. She then had a cinematographer film the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of the photo shoot.” Landau then shared the video broadly on her own Facebook Page as well as the fan pages her fans created.

Some entertainers are even tying this behind-the-scenes content to becoming a fan, requiring that fans Like their page to access it. For example, actor and author Rob Lowe created a custom “Fan Wall” on his Page, where he shares exclusive content and excerpts from his new book Stories I Only Tell My Friends with people who “like” his Page.

4. Use a Facebook Storefront to Turn Fans into Buyers

According to Sumeet Jain, principal at CMEA Capital, more business will be done on Facebook than Amazon within the next five years — which means that the value of transactions completed within Facebook may exceed $34 billion within five years.

But there’s no need to wait; many entertainers are already tapping the tremendous value of their existing fan base today by launching a Facebook storefront, turning their fans into buyers and product evangelists.

“Shopping on Facebook is the next step in the evolution of e-commerce,” says Christian Taylor, co-founder and CEO of social commerce company Payvment. “Facebook is the perfect place for musicians, comedians and other entertainers to promote and sell their content and merchandise. Their fans are already there, and Facebook users don’t like to leave Facebook … so why send them to a separate website to transact?” he says.

Actress Molly Sims is using Payvment’s free Facebook commerce storefront to promote and sell her “Grayce by Molly Sims” jewelry to her more than 150,000 fans and others on Facebook. The storefront also includes Sims’ personal posts, updates and pictures to create a more integrated and social shopping experience.

Other entertainment-focused applications, such as Nimbit, offer musicians, managers and independent labels a storefront for Facebook. Nimbit’s free store allows musicians to sell or give away digital music, and for an additional subscription fee, they can also sell CDs or vinyl, merchandise and e-tickets.

“We’ve found that musicians who use Facebook to launch their releases can benefit greatly from the viral nature of the sharing that goes on,” says Carl Jacobson, VP of marketing at Nimbit. “Fans become promoters, and we’ve seen some artists more than double their expected sales as a result.”

What other best practices have you come across on entertainment-related Facebook Pages? Let us know in the comments.

Series Supported by Buddy Media

The Facebook Marketing Series is supported by Buddy Media, Power Tools for Facebook. Fans see when you post content on your brand’s Facebook Page, right? Wrong. Cut through the mystery of Facebook’s Edgerank — download the white paper now.

More Facebook Marketing Resources from Mashable:

- 4 Ways to Set Up a Storefront on Facebook
- HOW TO: Create a Facebook Engagement Policy
- HOW TO: Engage and Mobilize Facebook Fans Beyond the “Like”
- 5 Creative Facebook Places Marketing Campaigns

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HOW TO: Set Up a Facebook Page

May 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment


This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

There are 500 million active users on Facebook — it’s about time you get in on the action and start a Facebook Page for your business. After all, the best marketing reaches out to consumers where they already are, and people spend more than 700 billion hours a month on the site. Exposure to that many eyeballs could translate to a lot of business for your company.

Not tech savvy? That’s not a problem — the process isn’t too technical. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you initiate your Facebook marketing campaign.

1. Create Your Page

Go to facebook.com/pages and click “Create Page” in the upper right hand corner.

The next screen asks you to select a category from the following list:

  • Local Business or Place
  • Company, Organization or Institution
  • Brand or Product
  • Artist, Band or Public Figure
  • Entertainment
  • Cause or Community

2. Fill In Information

Once you select the category for your business, you can fill in the name, address and phone number. Check the box next to “I agree to Facebook Pages Terms” and click “Get Started.” You’ll see a Page that looks like this:

3. Add a Photo

Upload a picture for your page. It can be a logo, a photo of a store or a photo of a person — whatever makes the most sense for building your brand. The file needs to be smaller than 4MB, and it can be square or a vertical rectangle. However, note that the avatar that shows up next to status updates and wall posts is square, so if you don’t want anything chopped off, square might be the way to go.

4. Suggest Your Page to Friends

Get your Page started off with some “likes” by recruiting your own friends. Start typing in names and when you drag the cursor over someone’s name, it will highlight in blue. Click once to check the person and add them to your invite. Click “Selected” to see who’s on your invite list. When you’re ready to invite, click “Send Recommendations.”

5. Import Contacts

Click on “Import Contacts” to reach out to your email contacts about your new Page. You can upload a file (Outlook, Constant Contact, .csv) or you can enter your email login info so Facebook can access people in your email contact list. Again, you can check the box next to the names you’d like to invite, and you can preview the invitation to see what it’ll look like. For people who are already on Facebook, they’ll get a “Recommended Pages” widget on their Facebook, while everyone else will get an email that looks like this:

6. Start Writing Content

Once you have a photo uploaded and have a few fans on board, you can start engaging.

For status updates, you can either share with everyone or you can target by location or by language. Targeting comes in handy if the Page is for a business with several locations in various states, especially if there is a contest, event or update that is only for a particular city.

If you want to post a link to a blog post or news story, don’t just type or paste the URL into a status update. If you do, it will look like this:

To post a link the proper way, click “Link” and paste the URL. Click “Attach.” Once you “attach” the URL, you’ll see that the text and photo from the page you’re linking to will populate automatically. You can change the title, paste different text into the snippet, and change the pictures (if there are several options, indicated by the “Choose a Thumbnail” prompt):

This is the best and cleanest way to link to another page. The post looks better and it will perform better if the link is attached instead of typed in to the status. Note that you can click on either the link or the snippet to change the text before you click “Share.”

7. Get a Vanity URL

Once you have 25 fans on your Facebook Page, any of a Page’s admins can reserve a vanity URL so that your Facebook URL is www.facebook.com/yourbusinessnamehere. Go to the Username page, select the Page name from the dropdown menu and then write in the name you’d like to use. Click “Check Availability.” If it’s available, a prompt will ask, “Are you sure you want to set [URL] as [Facebook Page]‘s username?” Click confirm to lock in that URL — and keep in mind that you can’t change the URL for a Page once you confirm.

8. Use the Tools That Are Available

Facebook Insights is a great tool that can help you figure out when to post and what kind of content does well. Measuring social media success is complicated, but many brands focus on engagement. Activity on your Page is a good sign, and you can keep tabs on activity by clicking “Facebook Insights” on the right sidebar, just below the admins.

8. Assign Other Admins

Speaking of admins, you can invite several people to run the Page and post content — links and statuses will come through as written by the Page and not the individual. (Note, the statuses above were generated when I was on my personal account — but the posts came through from “My Sweet New Candy Shoppe” because I am an admin.)

In the “Admins” section of the sidebar on the right, click “See All.” A new page will populate with the names of the admins. To make someone else an admin, just type in his name (it’ll populate in real time) — there is no limit to the number of admins a Page can have. Admins are kept abreast of happenings on the Page — including comments and posts so that your company can interact with its fans — via email.

Now that your Facebook Page is all set, you can learn more about what to do, what not to do and when to post to get the best engagement.

For more lists, how-tos and other resources on this topic, check out Mashable Explore!

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The PR Pro’s Guide to Facebook

May 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment


The Social PR Guide Series is supported by Mynewsdesk. Our online newsroom makes it easier to exchange news with key influencers, reach top of search engines and automatically update your social media channels.

Facebook is about sharing. We share updates that reveal little pieces of our lives, and we check out our friends’ updates to share in little pieces of their lives. And when there are pictures, links, comments, companies and various other things that we like, we share that as well. Companies and brands have a wonderful opportunity to participate in this give and take, and engage in real conversations with their customers and fans on Facebook. As PR professionals, how can we help our clients connect with their communities through Facebook? Here are some tips.

Get Started (It’s Super Easy)

Setting up a basic Facebook Page for your client is really simple. Just go to this page and follow the prompts. Note that you’ll need a personal user account to set it up, but most of us already have one. Once your client’s page hits 25 likes, you can secure a vanity URL (facebook.com/yourbusinesshere) for it. And that’s pretty much it. The rest of the Facebook game is about content and community building.

Set the Stage

You can put all sorts of stuff on a Facebook Page — but know that there’s a fine-ish line between a nicely organized variety of content that will engage your audience on an ongoing basis and a random mishmash of bits and pieces that doesn’t do much of anything. Jamie Tedford, “chief evangelism officer” at social marketing company Brand Networks, recommends starting with a content calendar. Include information such as what percentage of posts will be brand messages, community messages and promotional messages, how many promotions will run and how they will be incorporated, what kinds of things you’re going to link to, who’s posting and how often, he says.

That brings us to the obvious next question — how often should you post? Unfortunately, there’s no magic number, though there have been studies about the best times for Facebook engagement. Advise your client to start with a post once every two days, use Facebook’s built-in Insights app to track likes and audience engagement, and then adjust the schedule as needed.

Decide What To Say

Next, focus your client’s attention on the content itself. My colleague Jason Throckmorton, a partner at the San Francisco-based PR firm where I work, offers a clear-cut rule of thumb: “Each and every post you publish should give your fans a reason to engage.” Facebook is about sharing our own experiences and responding to those of others, and so the Facebook community has a built-in thirst for engagement.

Bonobos, an online men’s clothing retailer, posts to its Facebook Page two or three times daily, and keeps things organized with a set theme for each day of the week. There’s “Monday Man-Style,” for style-related posts and “Tuesday Threads” for product posts. Wednesdays are an open forum, and fans can ask Bonobos customer service “ninjas” anything they want. And they do –- from “When are the seersucker jackets coming out?” (Answer: “In the next week or so.”) to “When is the cut-off age for dressing ‘hip’?” (Answer: “Whenever you stop being able to pull it off…”)

Richard Mumby, VP of marketing at Bonobos, explains that a company’s Facebook Page shouldn’t be about selling. When you’re just starting out, it’s easy to skew early posts to a more salesy, product-centric approach, but this can be counterproductive, he says. Your newly minted fans won’t be interested in a hard sell, so don’t start that way.

Get People to “Like” You

It‘s no fun to create a client Facebook Page only to find that only “4 people like this,” no matter how many how enthusiastically (or repeatedly) you hit refresh. To build your base, start with your client’s most loyal fans — the ones that already exist. Place a call to action in email newsletters and make sure the Facebook Page is visible on your client’s website, blog, Twitter and on all physical promotional materials, especially those given out at offline events. If appropriate, place hyperlinks in press releases and other PR-related materials. Note that Facebook has specific rules about how it can be referenced and linked. For example, you cannot connect your client’s company name and Facebook in the same hyperlink. Be sure to read through Facebook’s brand permissions guidelines.

This past November, St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY ran a campaign with a goal of reaching 2,011 fans by New Year’s Eve. The day they launched, they had 1756 fans. In order to make it to “2,011 by 2011,” they kicked up both the frequency and quality of their posts, incorporating more dynamic content, such as photos and video. During a big offline annual event in December, they also handed out Facebook “business cards,” directing attendees to Facebook for post-event photos and posts. They achieved their goal a few days ahead of time — by December 26.

Let Them Win

There are plenty of benefits to running Facebook contests. Most importantly, they give people a fun way to interact with your client’s brand and a reason to come back to visit and see who gets the prize. But if you’re going to run a contest, Jim Belosic, cofounder and CEO of ShortStack, a self-service Facebook tab building platform, says that Facebook has some strict rules that your client must follow:

  • Companies are not allowed to run contests in which people enter by commenting or posting to the wall.
  • Companies are not allowed to use the newsfeed to announce contest winners.
  • Companies are not allowed to notify winners through Facebook, such as via Facebook messages.
  • Companies must run their contests through a third party app.

ShortStack allows users to build custom Facebook tabs without any developer experience. You can easily create branded pages using a template, and then there are a host of customization options from there. Using ShortStack’s contest widget, which launched earlier this week, you can quickly set up a contest and not worry about figuring out how to follow Facebook’s rules, as the ShortStack platform takes cares of meeting those requirements for you. ShortStack’s interface allows you to design a contest submission form, customize the look and feel with images, incorporate contest rules and other information, set launch dates and duration and manage several other contest functions. Within the next few weeks, ShortStack will also roll out photo-upload submission capabilities.

Note that beyond contests, ShortStack also lets you add a range of other tabs to your client’s Facebook page including contact pages, YouTube channels, Flickr feeds and polls. Service plans start at $9 per month.

Make Your Fans Feel Special

This May 16, Freedom Riders, a documentary that tells the story of the men and women who participated in the Freedom Rides of 1961, will premiere on PBS’s acclaimed history program, American Experience. In advance of the broadcast premiere, PBS is offering a special preview to its Facebook fans: A 35-minute excerpt of the film debuted exclusively on the PBS Facebook Page this past Monday, and will be available for viewing until the film airs on the 16th. American Experience has offered exclusive content to its Facebook community in the past as well. One week before the broadcast premiere of documentary Earth Days in April 2010, the film was live-streamed in full exclusively on the American Experience Facebook Page. During the screening, viewers were able to live chat with each other and with the director.

Once you have loyal Facebook fans clicking around, commenting and participating on your client’s page, reward them with something special that they won’t find anywhere else. It doesn’t have to be as elaborate as a movie screening, it can be as simple as a coupon code. And the allure of exclusivity will attract new fans, too, so make sure you let people know what’s going on through other channels.

Parting Advice For Your Facebook Page

  • Ask tons of questions.
  • Incorporate upcoming events, product launches and other happenings into your client’s content calendar.
  • Use third-party apps to build out tabs, but remember that the newsfeed is the vehicle for your client’s call to action. Let fans know about new contests, events and other tabbed content by posting to the wall.
  • Even if multiple parties and admins are posting, assign one person as the primary lead to make sure that the general calendar is being followed and the content of the main posts is in harmony with the voice of the brand.
  • Take a read through of the Facebook promotions guidelines, Pages guidelines and brand permissions guidelines.
  • Make sure that people have to “like” your client’s page before they get to enter a contest or get access to a promotion. ShortStack and other third-party apps offer this option.
  • Give fans a bit of power. If appropriate, consider posting a picture of a new product and letting the community decide what to name it. Or if that’s too risky, try crowdsourcing something a bit safer, such as the flavor of the CEO’s birthday cake (and make sure you post pictures afterward).
  • Let fans know that you’re listening. Make sure someone is there to monitor for comments that your client should respond to — and respond fast.
Series Supported by MyNewsDesk

Mynewsdesk’s social media newsrooms makes it easier to exchange news and multimedia content with key influencers, reach the top of search engines and automatically update your social media outlets and homepage. Learn more.

More Social Media Resources from Mashable:

- The Pros and Cons Of Tumblr For Small Business
- 4 Innovative Ways to Use Web Video for Small Business
- 10 Online Strategies for Your Next Product Launch
- What to Look For When Hiring a Community Manager
- 8 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Get More Out of Twitter

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Create Facebook Business Pages with Youtube Videos (NO FBML Required)

April 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Setting up a custom Facebook business page with YouTube is a little more difficult now that Facebook has removed the ability to add the FBML application to your business page. While it may be a little more entailed, it is not impossible to add an application for the purposes of a business page. You can still create your own custom page by using free templates through companies like Lujure or you can build a wholly custom page using Facebook apps if you know a little about building web pages.
Creating Facebook Business pages Using Facebook Applications.

I have created this post to help those of you that would like to ‘do-it-yourself’ and build your own custom Facebook business page. This requires that you know something about HTML, PHP, and can host a page somewhere on the internet. In other words this is a little advanced. So, if you find yourself getting frustrated with the following instructions, then I highly suggest you use a free template. At the same time, if you are familiar with building web pages, then this is a simple process that will give you more flexibility than the FBML application ever enabled.
If you are a consultant that builds pages for your clients, you will also find this post useful. However, I would still recommend Lujure for your use as they have a business edition that is quite affordable. If your clients require more versatility than the templates offered by Lujure, then this page will help walk you through the steps you need to learn to continue to make custom business pages for your clients.
Step 1.
Build a PHP Business Page on Your Server

While it is quite simple to just build the page in HTML, it is best to build a PHP page because FaceBook will post variables to the tab when it loads and you will most likely get an error with a index.html page. I have found that the best size for the page is 485×730, but you can experiment with wider and longer pages if you wish.
YouTube Videos: Go to YouTube and get the embed code for your video. You can find this under any video. Once you have the embed code you can place it anywhere you would like to place it on your page. See the image below for a quick glance at how to get the right sized code for your custom page.
Step 2.
Create an Application on Facebook

Now in order to develop applications, Facebook will require that you verify your account. Just go to http://Facebook.com/developers and click on ‘Set Up New App’ in the upper right hand corner. If your account has not yet been verified, you will receive a warning with links to verify your account.
Once your account has been verified by Facebook, you will be able to develop applications.
http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php
Name the application whatever you would like. This will not affect the name of the page tab. Then, agree to Facebook terms and click ‘Create App’.
On the next page there are only a few changes that need to be made since we are only using this app for the purposes of creating a custom Facebook page.
Under the ‘About’ tab you should upload an icon (size doesn’t matter, Facebook will adjust the size of the image to the correct size) and make sure that the email addresses are correct.
Under the ‘Facebook Integration’ tab you will need to name the tab and provide the tab URL (the page that you created in step 1)
Click on ‘Save Changes’.
Step 3.
Add the Application to your Facebook Page

After you click on ‘Save Changes’ you will be taken to the application information page, click on ‘Application Profile Page’.
Then simply add the application to your business page on Facebook and you are done.
Step 4. (Optional)
Make the Custom Business Tab Your Default Landing Page

To make your new custom business page the landing page, simply edit the page and select it under ‘Manage Permissions’ ‘Default Landing Tab’

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New Facebook Features Exposed in Accidental Update

December 16, 2010 by Leave a Comment


Facebook accidentally went live with a handful of prototype features earlier today, including a site-wide yet short-lived overhaul of Pages.

Roughly 45 minutes after the mistaken update, Facebook disabled the site, reverted back to its previous state and then tweeted apologetically about the downtime. But that brief span of time was enough for Facebook members and Page admins to get a sneak peak at new features in the works.

Facebook admitted to pushing features before their time. “Also, some internal prototypes were exposed to people and resulted in us disabling the site briefly. It’s now back to normal,” read a tweet from Facebook.

So what were those prototypes exactly? Screenshots shared with us and surfaced through other media outlets suggest all of the following: new Facebook Pages (with Questions integration), a “Switch Accounts” feature for Page Admins, a new Memories feature that chronicles photos and status updates from years past and an “Outside World” filter for the News Feed.

What follows is a deeper look at what some Facebook users saw today.

Update: We’ve added two new prototypes to this post based on your comments: A lightbox UI for Photos and a comment box that no longer includes the “Comment” button.

Were you privy to these or other changes? Share your thoughts in the comments.

New Facebook Pages

Pages got a temporary facelift with a tab-free design — the navigation instead being placed on the left-hand side of the Page — that more closely resembles Facebook Place Pages and member Profiles. We also noticed that Questions were integrated into the Pages experience and that Facebook introduced a “Switch Accounts” feature for Page admins.

We initially thought it strange that new Facebook Pages would be released without an announcement from Facebook. Commenters agreed; many of you expressed displeasure at the idea that would Facebook would overhaul Pages without notifying you of the changes first.

When pressed for clarification specifically around Pages, a Facebook spokesperson shared the following statement: “While we are always experimenting with new features internally we are not making changes to Pages right now. Organizations invest a lot of time on their Facebook Pages because millions of people find them useful everyday. We remain committed to providing ways for Page owners to customize and control the experience on their Page. If we do make changes, we will provide partners with advance notice.”

Memories

Several users reported having access to a new “Memories” option listed below Photos in the left-hand menu on their Profile Pages.

A Mashable commenter said of the feature, “I was online during the glitch and also saw a new MEMORIES link under my profile pic. It’s gone now but I did get a sneak peek while it lasted. It allowed you to look back at status updates, photos, and new friends…giving a snapshot of each year I’ve been on FB.”

The Next Web reporter Courtney Boyd Myers saw the Memories option and described it in a similar fashion. “It showed options for jumping to photos grouped by years: 2010, 2009, 2008, etc. with complementing information like status dated status updates, the number of friends added per year, events attended and Facebook places check-ins,” she wrote.

Memories would make for a pleasant (hopefully) walk down memory lane, so we hope this features finds its way back to Profile Pages in the near future.

Outside World News Feed Filter

We also found some evidence that Facebook may still be testing a filter for the News Feed called “Outside World.” Twitter user @casschin posted a TwitPic of the filter that shows the News Feed with a Most Recent drop-down menu that includes “Outside World” as a filter.

FBHive first unearthed the filter back in 2009 and speculated that it was an RSS-like option for the News Feed. At the time, TechCrunch confirmed with Facebook that the filter was for internal staffers only. We’re not quite sure to make of this one just yet.

Photos Lightbox UI

Several commenters have said they also saw the lightbox UI for Facebook Photos, albeit with a few bugs. The photo included here comes courtesy of Mashable reader Andrew Mrozkowski.

The feature was first previewed when Facebook upgraded Photos two months ago. “Any time you click on an image anywhere on Facebook, be it in an album or in your News Feed or on a friend’s Wall, you’ll see a black box hovering over the rest of the screen with some minimal navigation controls and relevant social features, allowing you to concentrate completely on the image at hand,” said Mashable reporter Jolie O’Dell at the time.

Removal of “Comment” Button from Comment Box

Facebook may have pushed a premature update to comment boxes earlier today, according to Mashable readers. Readers are reporting that comment boxes temporarily mirrored those in the new Facebook Groups product and did not have the “Comment” button. Without the button, a user simply needs to hit the Enter/Return key to submit his comment.

The screenshot above is merely a mock up, but these reports sound about right. Facebook consistently updates older products to match the style of its newer ones.

Hat tip to Long Nguyen, Dep and the rest of our astute readers on this find.

Images courtesy of TwitPic, ZDNet, casschin

Reviews: Facebook, Mashable, Twitpic, Twitter, pages

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7 Reasons Your Facebook Page Needs an IMMEDIATE Face-Lift!

July 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Facebook business pages are different from your personal profile. Your profile should have a picture of you and information about you. Your real estate business cannot have a personal profile. In order to be on Facebook your business must have an ‘Official Page’ and can list and present everything that relates to your real estate business.

Also Read: Facebook: Profiles, Fan Pages, and Groups… Oh My!

On your Real Estate Business page, you should include (at minimum) the following information:

- Overview of your real estate business
- Website address and contact info
- Videos (listings and or/rentals)
- Blog RSS and your Blog URL
- Updated news and status

You can use up to 6 tabs (you can use more, but they won’t be readily displayed without clicking on the ‘>>’ tab). Your six tabs should consist of:

Wall Tab:
This is where you interact with your ‘fans’ and keep them up to days with current news and information.

Info Tab:
Fill this in with as much information as you can about you, your business, and what makes you different from other agents.

Welcome Tab:
A customized page that is very similar to your website, but within Facebook. This can be a single static page, a page with information and videos, or a fully customized mini-website. You should have at least one video embedded on this tab. If you don’t know HTML or FBML you can get a free real estate welcome page by ‘liking’ Social Networking for Real Estate Agents on Facebook. (Just click on the tab that says ‘FREE’.)

Real Estate Tab:
I recommend using Roost for this tab. It is very simple to configure and has a lot of features built-in.

Offer Tab:
Whether you use Market Snapshot, Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or any other form of keeping in touch with potential clients, this tab helps you collect information from potential clients so that you can keep in touch.

RSS/Blog Tab:
I recommend using Social RSS. You should keep you blog updated at least 2-3 times a week. Using the Socail RSS application, your blog will automatically update your Facebook business page.
So, what are the 7 reasons your Facebook real estate page needs an IMMEDIATE face-lift?

Reason # 1. Traffic

The Facebook statistics speak for themselves. Facebook now has over 2.6 billion monthly visitors and growing… with your real estate business page you can leverage the power of Facebook and drive more traffic to you site.

Reason # 2. There is NO COST

If you setup your business page yourself, you don’t have to spend a dime for this POWERFUL lead generator.  If you don’t know HTML or FBML, you can get a free custom page just by ‘liking’ Social Networking for Real Estate Agents on Facebook.

Reason # 3. Viral Marketing

There are many ways you can use a Facebook business page as a viral marketing tool! Suggest your business page to all of your friends. Grow both your friend and ‘fan’ base and then give your ‘fans’ something to share. They will!

Reason # 4. SEO Power

Unlike a personal profile, business pages ARE completely public (there are some exceptions but that is beyond the scope of this post) and indexed by search engines. You will want to name your page something SEO friendly, keeping in mind that once you name your page you cannot change the name. Once you have 25 ‘fans’ you will want to customize your Facebook URL to something SEO friendly and you can also use anchor text linking (this is a huge secret, but I am revealing it anyway) to drive not only TRAFFIC but also relevant backlinks.

Reason # 5. Updates

You can update your ‘fans’ in multiple ways! You can post to your wall, share on your personal profile to attract new fans or send a mass update to all of your ‘fans’ through your administrator controls on ‘edit page’ (lower right hand side). You can also TARGET your updates to specific fans based on demographics.

Reason # 6. Unlimited ‘Fans’

Unlike a personal profile which restricts you to 5,000 connections (business pages and friends combined), your business page can have an unlimiteded amount of ‘fans’.

Reason # 7. Connects with Nearly EVERYTHING

Facebook business pages can be connected with twitter, linkedin, youtube and countless other social networking sites. You can also use the ‘like’ feature on your self-hosted WordPress blog using Simple Facebook Connect. (Simple Twitter Connect is another powerful plugin for your self-hosted WordPress blog)

Pretty soon, if not argumentatively already, Facebook business pages will become as important as having a website. If you want to stay ahead of your competition you will need to set up your page correctly now and secure your keywords in your Facebook URL!

-Cheryl

Cheryl Waller
Marketing Consultant SEO, SEM, SMM
www.CherylWaller.com

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Video: How to Create Your Own Facebook Custom Fan Page

February 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Looking to create a custom Fan page on Facebook? Well I have two videos for you! The first one is shameless advertising for my custom Facebook Fan page service, but please watch it as I had a lot of fun making it and would love your feedback on the video.

The second video is a short video that shows you how to create your own custom fan page. Now, don’t yell at me here, you will need a good understanding of HTML and some FBML (Facebook Markup Language) to get your custom fan page working correctly and I do not go over that in this video. However, if you have a basic understanding of HTML, know a little about FBML, and you have a good HTML editor, this video will show you how to create your own custom fan page. Pay attention to the video as I give you a few tips on how to get HTML to work within Facebook by leaving out some common tags.

Cheryl Waller
Marketing Consultant SEO, SEM, SMM
www.CherylWaller.com

Like my post? Take a sec and ‘Like’ my pages ;)

Social Networking for Real Estate Agents

CUSTOM ‘FAN’ PAGES

BUSINESS PAGE TEMPLATES

Bookmark and Share

LinkedInFacebookBlogTwitterActiveRain

Filed Under: Facebook, Facebook How To, Facebook Pages Tagged With: , , ,
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