WSI Online Guru, Belfast, Northern Ireland 028 9050 1800

Taking a week off over Easter? Got a busy week ahead? Bulk schedule your updates to multiple channels in just a few minutes.

Hootsuite (the Free social media dashboard) allows you to upload a CSV file of updates for  easy scheduling. The quickest way to do this is create a spreadsheet in the relevant format, save it as a CSV file then simply upload it to Hootsuite and relax.

Open Excel.
In the first column enter the date and time using the 24 hour clock. (You can’t enter them in separate columns unfortunately). Time formats must end in 00 or 05:
02/04/2012 07:35

In the second column enter your text:
Another great day to hit the gym. Now if I can just drag myself out of bed.

Data Validation Settings

In the third column enter a link (optional but if used must include http://):
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_weather.html
Links will be shortened automatically for you after upload.

This system works well for most social media channels but if you’re posting primarily to Twitter you’ll want to set a character limit on the second column. To do this click on the column, in my example it’s simply ‘B’.
From the menu along the top click ‘Data’
Click Data Validation.
In the pop up box choose Text length and remove the tick from ‘Ignore blank’.
Under Data, choose less than or equal to.
Set the maximum to 140.

Data Validation Error Alert

Now click Error Alert.
Under Style, choose Warning.
Give the warning a title and an error message.

If you don’t set the Error Alert, typing too many characters will simply clear the post you have just written whenever you hit return.
This way you can keep the cell with too many characters or edit it down below 140.

The next step is to save your spreadsheet. Click File, Save As.
Give your file a name and from the Save As Type drop down menu, choose CSV (Comma Separated Values).
Click Save. A warning message will pop up, click Yes.

Open Hootsuite.
From the message box click on the calendar icon:

Hootsuite - Schedule Message

 
In the schedule box click Bulk Message Uploader

Hootsuite - Bulk message Link

Choose your file and the account you want to schedule posts for then click Submit.

Hootsuite - Bulk Upload

That’s it done. You will get a green success message telling you how many messages are scheduled. You can then view and edit them in the Scheduled Posts Stream.

If it doesn’t work you will see an error message explaining where the problem is. Simply make the correction and resave your file. Click Submit once again and it should go through now.

I had a marvelous animated discussion with a PR person this week about the value of Social Media to companies.

We agreed to differ on some points, but as a picture paints a thousand words… feast your tired friday eyes on this graphic.

If you want your voice to be heard... you have to be speaking on the right channels (DOUBLE CLICK TO ENLARGE)

I wouldn’t be buying shares in the postal service any time soon… ifyaknowwhatImean..

Apologies to the author/copyright holder, I cannot find whom to credit but if you get in touch I shall correct.

NB. This is part 3 of a series on the new Facebook Timeline, you can read Part 1 here: http://www.wsionlineguru.com/index.php/seo/timeline-for-pages-here-i-come-ready-or-not-part-1/
and part 2:
http://www.wsionlineguru.com/index.php/seo/timeline-for-pages-here-i-come-ready-or-not-part-2/

Fig 1. Facebook Admin Panel Button

In the final part of our series on migrating to Facebook Timeline for Business Pages (before you’re pushed on the 30th March) we will look at the Admin Panel and the new tools for engagement and measurement.

To access the panel simply click the Admin Panel button on the top right (circled red in Fig 1.).

Fig 2. Facebook Timeline Admin Panel

This will open the Admin Panel with notifications and basic insights (Fig 2.).
Clockwise from top left are page notifications. Interactions on your page and posts appear here such as Likes (on posts) and Comments. Messages are messages sent directly to your page via the Message button (under the Cover Photo on your Timeline).

Page Tips are currently useful notes from Facebook and links to help files.

Insights are a snapshot of your analytics. Full insights are still available from the Edit Page button or by clicking ‘See All’ at the top of the Insights snapshot.

New Likes for your page are displayed in the last box.

Fig 3. Facebook Timeline Manage Permissions

This is a handy overview of your activity but doesn’t replace the Edit Page options.
To access all of your options click Manage Page then Edit page from the menu along the top.

The first changes appear under Manage Permissions. There are three new entries here, Recent Posts, Moderated Posts and Messages (Fig 3).
Recents Posts is a new box showing latest interaction from your followers at the top of your Timeline. You can turn that box off by removing the tick.
Moderated posts allow you to receive comments on your page but they are only published after they have been approved by an Admin. Posts awaiting moderation appear in your Activity Log (available from the Admin Panel menu along the top of your Timeline).
The Message box (shown under the Cover Photo on your Timeline) can be turned off here, so people cannot contact your page directly.

Fig 4. Facebook Timeline Basic Information

The next setting varies, depending on your page type (Fig 4.). Under Basic Information is Widgets. The help pop-up explains this as “Adds links to your business presence on select Facebook partner sites to display them on the left column of your page.” At the time of writing we have no more information on where this is represented either on your Timeline or the mentioned thrid party sites. The option only appears on our very high traffic sites but it is set to on by default.

Another key change in the role of Page Admins is Activity Log. This is accessed from your Timeline. Click Admin Panel then Manage then Use Activity Log (Fig 5.).

Fig 5. Facebook Timeline Activity Log

The Activity Log shows the latest activity by you so you don’t have to trawl through your own Timeline to remind yourself of posts or check what others have put out in your absence.
Comments from followers requiring moderation will also appear here.

So those are the key changes for Facebook Admins. The fundamental change is the layout from Page to Timeline but the premise remains the same. Develop good content, engage with your target market and analyse your results. By undertaking the changes now, hopefully you will be able to take advantage of the new features and not feel rushed into them on the 30th March.

NB. This is part 2 of a series on the new Facebook Timeline, you can read Part 1 here: http://www.wsionlineguru.com/index.php/seo/timeline-for-pages-here-i-come-ready-or-not-part-1/

Fig 1. Empty Facebook Timeline

In the second part of our series on the new Timeline for businesses we’ll walk you through how to redesign your layout.
If you do nothing with your current page you will receive this Timeline:

The ‘Cover Photo’ is simply missing and the original Profile Photo (previously on the left of your page) has been cropped into the new square logo box.

Adding a cover photo is easy but be aware that if the image size is too small Facebook will resize it causing horrible quality issues or pixelation as it’s known.

Instructions within Facebook vary for Cover Photo sizes, one help file says the minimum is 399 pixels, another says 720 pixels. I found both these sizes too small and cause image quality to be poor. A third help file declares Cover Photos to be 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall and this worked well. Don’t be afraid to upload a high quality image, Facebook will resize it for fast loading but it’s better to be scaled down than scaled up when working with images.

Fig 2. WSI Online Guru Facebook Timeline

This is an example of our own Facebook Timeline image. (www.facebook.com/wsionlineguru.com)

Notice that we’ve also updated our Profile Picture to be a square. A mini version of this square will also be the thumbnail logo beside your posts on other peoples’ pages. (Previously you would have selected the thumbnail from within the profile picture).

Below your Cover Photo on the right you will notice a new box, “Message”. This is the feature Pages have been missing for a long time, the option to directly contact Page Admins without posting publicly on the page. When a follower clicks on Message they get the option to send a private message to Page Admins. Incoming messages will appear in your Messages Box inside the Admin Panel which we will cover in Part 3.

The next big layout change is your menu. The menu of apps from the left hand side has disappeared and four new boxes have appeared under your Cover Photo.
If you have more than four apps in your menu they are still available from a drop down menu. The number of apps available is displayed on the drop down link. (Our example shows 4 more apps). To change the order of how your apps appear click the Pencil icon in the top right corner of the app logo then click on the app you want to swap positions with. (Fig 3.)

Fig 3. Swap app locations on your Timeline

Ensure you place the most important app first as it will be the one visible without clicking on the drop down menu. App images are 111 pixels wide by 74 pixels tall. Changing app images is done on the developers’ apps page.

You can also change the order of Likes, Map or other ‘views’ which appear along your top line. Click the drop down box on the right and you will get the option to click on the Pencil icon for each app. You cannot move the Photos view, it will always be first.

Fig 4. Facebook Timeline Pinned Stories & Friends

The next boxes visible are Likes from friends and Pinned stories (Fig 4.)

Friends are people connected to you who have Liked the page.

Pinned stories are posts the page admins have created and want to highlight to anyone landing on their page. Pinned stories remain at the top of the page for 7 days before returning to the date they were written on. It’s worth noting, only posts created by the page admins can be pinned, rather than posts from followers. Pinned stories are denoted by the little flag in the corner (circled red in Fig 4.).

Fig 5. Starred Post in Facebook Timeline

Next are Stars. You can ‘star’ any post to make it ‘widescreen’, which simply means it will take up both columns in your Timeline (Fig 5.)

Lastly we have Milestones. Milestones are the key events in your companys’ history. These can be as simple as new appointments or contract wins. They can also be product launches, the founding of your business or historical data. Adding the history of your company gives people a better understanding of where you came from and builds trust and engagement with a brand.

To add a Milestone you can choose Milestone from the status update box (Fig 6.) or scroll down through your posts and click a + symbol on the Timeline to add the event.

Fig 6. Milestones on Facebook Timeline

Add a headline, location and date. Fill in the details of the milestone then you can add a photo if you wish. Photos display at 843 pixels wide and 403 pixels tall. At this time, January 1, 1800 is the earliest date a milestone can have.

You can also change the date of previous posts from the Edit option. Hover your mouse over a post to see the Edit options.

So that covers the key changes in how your Facebook Page will be displayed to your users and how you can update your current content before publishing your newly formatted Timeline.

In the third and final part we’ll look at the Admin Panel for Timeline pages.

Facebook Marketing UK Timeline

If you haven’t embraced Timeline on your personal profile, you’re in for a disappointment on the 30th March if you manage a Facebook business Page.

At the end of the month all business pages will be converted to the new Timeline layout which means considerably more than just a new look.
New functionality has been added, new image requirements and many of your high quality apps will be simply lost in the new design.

The biggest downside is your Welcome Tab. If you’ve gone to the expense of developing a landing tab with a welcome message or even a Fan Gate that gathers basic public user data upon arrival, you’re in for a shock. The option to open a Welcome Tab upon arrival has been removed. Your once fine collection of apps including F-commerce shops have now been bundled under a square along with photos, likes and a map of your location.

Interactivity and custom designed mini-sites built for use within Facebook to drive interaction and build engagement have all but gone leaving you with primarily the Facebook designated options for marketing your business. You get the feeling Facebook want to control your levels of promotion even further when you read the restrictions on the new Cover Photo:

• This space is not meant for promotions, coupons, or advertisements.
• Your cover photo should not be primarily text-based or infringe on anyone else’s copyright.

Cover images may not contain:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”
• You may not encourage or incentivize people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines.

So what exactly is that big space for? It easily takes up half the ‘above the fold’ space and while it’s there to demonstrate your company presence, you’re not actually allowed to use it for direct marketing.

Looking around the examples Facebook have released, including the new Facebook Marketing UK page (launched 2nd February 2012), the Cover Photo is designed to showcase what’s behind your brand rather than directly sell it. Starbucks have a nicely shot image of some coffee beans, Coldplay have an album cover style photo and Facebook Marketing UK show the team behind the page. When you consider the huge number of Facebook Pages out there, these restrictions could in fact be a subtle way to ensure Facebook does not become a giant Yellow Pages with loud adverts slapped onto the top of every business Timeline. If sharing, engagement and reach is the core of your Facebook strategy then a billboard style advertisement would run in the face of that strategy so Facebook appear to be crafting a best practice system of platform development.

Removing the landing tabs has also created a level playing field between those with a development budget and those without. New functionality for ‘pinning’ a preferred post to the top of your Timeline however means you can still drive new visitors to specific apps, it’s simply not a default anymore.

New functionality also means new opportunities to reach and engage visitors. New administration functions have also been added including the excellent “Allow on Timeline” option.
A tick box setting in the Admin Panel. you can now receive all comments but not publish them until approved. Unpublished comments will appear in your Activity Log (available from the menu for Admins on your Timeline).  Be careful you don’t kill instant responses to material and events surrounding your brand with this option, if all comments have to await review, people will lose interest very quickly but for page owners of sensitive topics or customer service focused businesses, this is a great way to keep on top of comments without maintaining a 24 hour presence.

In Part 2 we’ll walk you through the process of getting your current page ready for the switch over before 30th March.

Social Media has spread like a virus across the web with many arguing for and against it’s presence and influence. The high cost of any virus is lost time, the majority of which is spent fighting with the symptoms rather than the cause.

The symptoms of social media have been presence building, number counting and streamlining into a practical, return-producing form of communication. Online tools abound, each pursuing their own areas of analysis. You can’t go online (or off for that matter) without tripping over a social media evangelist.

Personally, and as a company, I have no allegiance to Facebook, Twitter or any other social media channel. Each channel is one tool. To tell you Facebook is absolutely essential as part of your business is simply poor marketing. As the saying goes, “work out where your customers are going, then get there first.” If your customers aren’t going to Facebook, don’t waste time and money building a Facebook presence.

If your customers are talking about but not to you on Twitter, build a Twitter presence and channel their conversation your direction.

If your customers aren’t talking about you at all, why not?

The customers are already out there, regardless of the Likes on your page or your follower numbers. If you can listen to those customers, engage with them and change their behaviour then you have mastered the social media tools.
So instead of numbers, social media tool sellers or evangelists talking up the channels, what should you be looking at, as a business owner or marketer seeking to to simply improve the bottom line?

Use our V.I.R.U.S. rule:
Volume – how much are people talking about you, does this need increasing, channelled or both?
Influence – are the people talking about you important? If industry thought leaders are commenting, you need to be listening.
Reach – one small blogger might have a reach of 10,000 weekly readers, be aware of the stretch your customers can have.
Users – every comment is from an individual, what would you say to them if they stopped by for a face-to-face?
Sentiment – monitor reactions; be ready for PR issues, copy editing and 3rd party events which can influence your message.

These five elements will give you a clearer picture of your social media reach and the sphere of customers within those channels. Build and respond within the channels that are most effective to keep your social media management streamlined and effective.

So, there has been a bit of discussion about QR Codes recently… As in, What are they?  Who is using them?  What can you use them for? Do they get results?  and Are they just a fad?

I’m becomming a bit of a fan of them mainly because they are a very simple and effective.

Simple to create and deploy and from the users point of view they are a very efficient means of getting to a specific page without thinking too much.

Link to our other web site with an annoying and very long URL www.wsitopinternetmarketing.co.uk

For those who are not familiar with a QR Code consider it to be a 2 dimensional bar code.  This image brings the user to our other website, the one with the long annoying name…  www.wsitopinternetmarketing.co.uk without the hassle of typing in all those letters.

So, I was reading some guff about how people these days are ‘multi-tasking’ when watching TV.  Multi-tasking?  Aparently picking up your smartphone and looking at your emails whilst sitting in front of the television is multi tasking.  Not exactly rubbing your tummy and patting your head territory, but I digress.  I can see how sticking a large QR Code at the end of your television advert for a couple of seconds would be a good way of driving traffic (from the ‘multi tasking community’) to your particular offer.  I’m only surprised I haven’t seen it yet.

So is anyone using QR Codes?

A recent study in the US found the following results.

QR Code usage statistics for October 2011

Aparently 20.1 million Americans (apologies to anyone looking for information about anywhere else in the world) scanned QR codes in October.   Will be interesting to see what this number is next christmas.

Now, whilst we are on the subject of Smart phones there has been some interesting legal activity in the US and EU regarding Carrier IQ and their tracking software.  This software runs on smartphones and can be used by carriers to give them ‘feedback on the device functionality’.  It appears that they have been tracking every keystroke and action on the vast majority of our handsets, as well as phone numbers dialled, the location in which the user is at and a host of other information which you would normally only be allowed to collect and store if you had a judges permission, hence the furore.   Class action suits have been issued against 4 hand set makers, 3 carriers, and Carrier IQ themselves… more details at

So lastly, may I wish you all a Happy Christmas (or holiday of choice).  And if you need a little something to warm the cockles of your heart, may I suggest you take a few minutes to view the following link http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/mdtv/play/media/id/10302  

The EU Cookie law as it is now known has made over 90% of websites illegal.

So, what is it?  how does it affect you? and most importantly, what should you as a web site owner do about it?

The new privacy law came into effect in May 2011, but a grace period of 12 months was given for organisations to take effective measures.

The law is intended to help protect people’s privacy by restricting the use of ‘cookies’ without explicit consent of users.

But what are ‘cookies’ and what to they do?

Cookies are small data files which a website will store on your computer in which some information will be kept.  For example, if you search for ‘new cars’ in Google, they use a cookie to store this information and may use it later to target you with a car advert on another website because they remember who you are.

However, cookies are used for many things, for example:   Analytics, Advertising, Conversion tracking, Anti-spam filtering, Load balancing, Social media plugins, User preferences, Add to basket, Login and most amusingly in relation to this law…  Remembering whether cookies are allowed.

Given that most content management systems, analytics programs (including Google Analytics) and consequently websites utilise cookies liberally it means that without gaining the consent of users your site will be operating illegally.

So what needs to be done.

Many commentators are suggesting a ‘wait and see’ approach particularly because of the lack of clarity in the law, or any coherent direction from either the DCMS or the ICO, who are the two bodies in the UK responsible for writing and enforcing this law respectively.

The recommendation that all web sites using cookies should have a ‘pop-up’ type window or other to request consent from users is not generally being adhered to.

Meanwhile, regulators across the EU await a technical solution.  This does not appear to be forthcoming.  W3C the World Wide Web Consortium has announced the creation of a ‘Tracking Protection Working Group’ to address online privacy concerns but getting all players to agree on what standards should be adopted could yet be a sticking point.  They have plans to publish standards as early as mid 2012.

For more information on this topic contact  WSI on 02890 501 800 or the ICO at www.ico.gov.uk

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is considered essential for promoting businesses on search engines.  More recently there is a move to more localised optimisation as Google and other search engines hone their skills in providing the searcher with more relevant results.  However many of the techniques practised by some can be considered Spam however, does Google consider all SEO activity SPAM?

Matt Cutts one of Google’s elite development gurus has answered the question.  In the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BS75vhGO-kk  Matt explains what is ‘good’ what is ‘bad’ and why SEO is acutally essential activity to help Google in providing the best search results to its users.

Interesting viewing for anyone who is considering  Search Engine Optimisation to help their site rank better, improve their lead generation.

Watch out for our So Lo Mo blog coming soon to a screen near you..

For more information and advice on SEO for your business, call WSI Belfast on 02890 501 800 or visit www.wsionlineguru.com  .

It appears that google are shifting the goal posts on who can use or even see some Analytics Keyword Data to encourage advertisers to use Adwords by means of encrypted searches for logged in users.

Ok, that was a bit of a mouth ful, but it works like this.

If you are logged into your Google Account your searches on the Google Search Engine are now encrypted.

The results of these searches will not be made available to the casual user of keyword tools such as Google’s own Keyword tool.  However the data will be available to those advertisers who are targetting those keywords and will appear in their Analytics reports..

What does this mean in reality?  Well, not a lot really.  Currently about 2.5% of users do their searching whilst logged into their accounts, but this will most likely change in the future as users become more submerged in the tools and social environments which are becomming the norm.

For businesses it will mean that in future if you want to know all about the ‘keyword space’ of most interest to you, you will need to purchase access to this data by means of ‘paid search’ contribution to the big G.   Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing, as it is often beneficial to buy some visits to test the flow of users through a site, investigate the efficacy the conversion architecture etc, so no need to panic

For more information on this or other strategies for better Search Engine Opimisation call us today on the number above.  Our Team in the WSI Belfast office are awaiting your call.