If you are in any way involved in the Facebook community, or have a Business Page, I can guarantee you have heard the following: “This new Timeline is horrible!” or “Facebook changes again! I swear, I am going to delete my account!” Among other comments. Sound familiar? Surely, it does!

I will be the first to admit, Facebook changes all the time and from a consumer perspective, that can be frustrating, because simply, people do not embrace change openly. History has taught us this, and this is why franchising is such a successful business model (However, that is another discussion..).

Of course, constant change is slightly more comfortable for businesses, as they usually are in the constant adaptation process, considering technology of our time and many other factors. That said, with so much change and adapting in our lives, both personally and professionally, it would be nice to have something so prevalent in our lives (Facebook) stay the same, or at least not change as often. Well, Mr. Zuckerberg does not feel that way! And you know what? As much as I can sometimes feel annoyed with having to learn new policies two weeks after they were previously changed, I agree with the Facebook methods! Change is GOOD!

When something changes, specifically when something in technology changes, it usually changes for the better. Becoming more advanced, interactive, accommodating of the needs of those who use it. Sure, we will have to learn a few new things in order to feel comfortable with the product or service, however in the long term, it truly makes our lives simpler. I cannot complain with that!

So, I am sure you are wondering, “Get to the point – What makes Timeline for Pages better? Right now, it is only frustrating me!” I hear you, loud and clear! You are not alone, many business owners and marketing professionals feel just like you – And that is why you are reading this post! It is not only my job, but my mission to help you along this journey, so let’s get rolling!

The two greatest features of Timeline for Pages is the enhanced feed and the Timeline, itself! Social media involves creative marketing, thinking outside of the box, and Timeline truly challenges this.

Enhanced Feed

The feed on your new Timeline for Pages now has many features that assist in promoting what is most important for your brand, while you are still able to consistently update your page to interact with Fans. The Pinned post feature allows you to pin a post, such as an image or promotion, to the top of your page for up to 7 days. This is great for when you are offering promotions, discounts, freebies or have an image of a new product. It increases the likelihood of retrieving feedback from your Fans on what may be most important for that 7-day period. Also, depending on what you have pinned, it can increase sales and your bottom line.

The Composer feature allows you to simply keep your Fans updated with daily activity, news, or any other general information. It is very important to not only promote your business, but to also engage and share information, giving your Fans value and ultimately keeping them happy to ‘Like’ you.

You can Star or Hide posts in your Timeline that may be very important or not important at all. It is great to have the option of hiding something not so useful, making room to star information that is most important.
With the Larger Stories option, this makes sharing an image more attractive than ever before. A great way to show off a product, service or engaging image, this feature encourages your Fans to stay on your Fan Page for longer periods of time, which has been proven.

Milestones

The Milestones feature, which is a part of the enhanced feed, is my favourite. This option allows you to share your brand’s story, where the Fan will truly feel connected to it as if it were a person. This is the place to show the highlights and lowlights of your brand’s success, and we all have both! Sharing the hardships and successes that made your brand what it is today creates authenticity, which everyone connects with. Your business should not aim to be perfect, because all of us who are sensible know that nothing is perfect. Those who show the many experiences in a business journey will be both admired and respected. We all have a story.

This aspect of Timeline allows you, as a business owner or marketing professional, to go wild with creativity, test new ideas and find what works best for your market and audience. Don’t be shy! Mark your history.

What Else Can Timeline Do?

Now that we have covered the main changes Timeline has provoked, Let’s move on.

There are many other great features, helping to create more leads and engage more people. Remember the Welcome Tab? It was a real shame for many when they could no longer use this feature – However, that is simply not true! Using the Facebook Developers page you can create your own app that is hosted on your website, adding the web file to your Facebook Page. Now, to warn you, this is a quick but semi-complicated process, however you should still do it! This is a great way to capture email addresses, building your lists and eventually converting them from leads to sales! Check out this article for the exact steps on how to do this, and if you need help, feel free to Contact us!

I hope this article made you excited about Timeline, rather than dreading it. It is an evolving tool and there is much to be explored, while all of it benefiting your social media journey. Please feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions, or leave us a comment!
Thanks for reading!

Have you heard the latest buzz in social media, or should I say internet marketing, in general? If not,

I am glad you are reading this article because you are missing out Big Time!

If you did not catch where I am going with this (by the obvious headline), I’m talking about Video

Marketing! When I use this term, I am sure I can guess what’s going through your head: Sneezing

Pandas, the fail speech of Miss USA’s South Carolina, the Zombie kid who “Likes Turtles” and that

Funny Surfer Dude.

I guess that holds some merit (considering the ‘viewership’  but not quite where I am going with

this).

Video marketing is truly the next evolutional step in social media and SEO as we know it. We, as the

human race, are getting lazier, and therefore not so inclined to actually READ, so naturally we go to

the wonderful world of YouTube and start surfin’ (or Get Pitted’ – If in such a timely manner I can

reference the hilarious “Funny Surfer Dude”).

So that leaves myself asking this question, What is your company doing in the way of video

marketing? Are you advanced enough to have an actual YouTube channel, where you can create

anything from product videos to customer testimonials? If not, please do not panic – not many

companies are either.

Now is the time to leap ahead of your competition and get your video camera out, or iPhone for that

matter! In this day and age, you do not need high-def equipment nor be an expert to create a video

that is both compelling and effective (as my examples clearly show).

At Brand-e Media Ltd., We have been paying much attention to this marketing shift and thought we

would write this article to give you some insight on what you should be doing to improve the

readership and effectiveness of your company campaign.

Let’s pinpoint the facts,

Video marketing accomplishes the following:

1. Building relationships with your clients, even if not reachable by geographical location
2. Demonstrate your services and products globally, to a wide-spread audience, using the most appealing form (video)
3. Connect with new, business seeking customers
4. Higher click-through rates via e-mail marketing when using video
5. Video quickens the follow-up process
6. Use of video is common on mobile devices, which video can easily accommodate
7. Visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to then those who do not (Internet Retailer, 2010)
8. Most importantly, being an expert in innovation marketing, by video marketing!

Convinced enough to break out your iPhone yet? Thought so!

You may be wondering what exactly you can Vlog about…Creativity is often the hardest part of marketing for some. Luckily for you, that is my favorite part, so let me list a few:

1. On the Home page of your website, make a basic 30-second video, welcoming them to your site! Simply embed the video from your YouTube account into your website back-end (HTML tab for WordPress, Cpanel or FTP most likely for others).

2. On your Products or Services page, embed a video of yourself or sales rep telling visitors about your new offers, products/services, anything sales related.

3. Create a new page for your website with Testimonials – Ask your satisfied customers to create a quick video telling what they loved about your company and what they experienced. Not everyone will do this but it never hurts to ask!

4. Use video in your emails to clients (Currently you need software to do this – More on that in future posts)

5. The videos added to your YouTube account in all areas can be used in your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. campaigns for further reach.

6. Use video in your email marketing campaign

Hopefully your head is filled with ideas on what you can do to increase your brand awareness and profit online through social media marketing!

We will definitely update you on this topic as we enhance our strategies!

Did you find this article useful? What did you like about it? Let us know! Your feedback is very important!

There is so much out there today when it comes to social media; a new network every day, photo

site that boasts to be ‘top’, business community that is the end all be all.

To be honest, less than 50% of these networks and communities that launch amount to be anything

valuable. The content is not that interesting or consistent, conversation just does not spark,

therefore the community just does not expand. That is the rule of thumb with social media: Content,

Conversation, Community.

So, as a social media maniac, affiliate marketer, social media manager or just simply a person trying

to break into the social world, this can be confusing, frustrating and just annoying. Trust me, I feel

your pain. I cannot count the amount of hours I have spent registering on new networks only to find

out they are not going to amount to anything. Unfortunately, this is just the way it goes with social

media websites, like any business in a buzz market. They can’t all succeed.

What now?

Through my time in social media, I have seen what can work and what does not. Since I know how this can be frustrating, I decided to give my readers a simple outline to follow; the bar necessities of social media!

Blog

First of all, every company should start with a company blog. It is absolutely essential to building you

community in the socialsphere. These are some things you can blog about without breaking any

company legal rules:

• Everyday activity at the office; anything amusing that may have happened at the office (and can be shared with public). This will allow your readers to feel part of your work day and this will start you in the right direction to building your community.
• New promotions, products or services that are soon to come out or are already available. Possibly even give your readers a chance to see the prototype before launched, asking for their feedback. People love to give their opinion and most likely will! Not only that, but gives you a chance to make your new product or service better!
• As an introductory article, introduce your team and have each person write a short blurb about themselves. This, again, will let your readers feel more connected with you, your team and company.
• Blog about your industry challenges and how they are effecting the industry, overall. Your readers will see you are aware of current issues and that you will be ahead of the curve when it comes to acting against them. Talk about being the expert!
• If your company attends or hosts any events, make sure you have someone there to document these via pictures, video and event attendee testimonials. Write a review for the blog and add all good media. This is what social media is all about, after all!

Bookmarking

Now you have some articles for your blog. Next thing to do, is bookmark these articles in the most popular services. Don’t forget to add keyword tags, new titles, and a basic profile in these article directories telling who you are simply, with an image icon. Here are some of the most popular directories for bookmarking:

• Delicious
• Digg
• Reddit
• Article Alley
• Article Dashboard

Social Profiles: The Big 4

Now for the even more fun part! If you do not yet have company profiles on the best social

networks, be sure to make some. This means Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn

Group, for example. There are many more, however these are what is considered “The Big 4”!

Fill out all these profiles with basic company information (and be unique for each, do not cut

and paste – big Google no-no!). Be sure to add a photo to your profile, too! People want to

know who you are, and although it is a company profile, you may want to add a photo of a

person in your company who is responsible for the social media and blogging details.

Post all of your article links from your blog in each, using a catchy phrase, different tag line for

each network.

Photo Sharing Sites:

Photo sharing sites have been growing in popularity ever since digital cameras hit the masses. Everyone wants to share their shots! This makes for great media to share and build your online following. These are what you should do to enhance and embrace photo sites:

• Create your business profile, much like I have mentioned before, in the photo sharing website (I will list the best ones below)
• Every event, screen shot of a graph or product, absolutely any images worth and ‘legal’ to share, share ‘em! Leave a description, make a small tasteful joke, show your colors. These will most likely be the images used in your blog posts, and if you have extras, use those too!
• There is also no harm in linking these photo streams and profiles to your other social network profiles as well, the more the merrier!

Here I will list some of the most popular online photo sharing websites:

• Flickr; The most popular at this current time, owned by Yahoo!
• PicPlz; Cool community, semi-new, can edit directly on the site too!
• PhotoBucket; A classic, one of the top communities for photo and video sharing
• Zooomr; No limit to pho uploads for free!
• Picasa Web Albums; Great to use considering a Google product, for ranking value

‘Third-party Identity Sites’

This is my own made-up term for the following sites. Basically, you can build and update your

own ‘mini’ replica of your website on high page ranking platforms, increasing your brand

awareness and Google ranking, of course. It takes a little time to put it together, and after it is

there forever and all you need to do is update and watch your results increase. Now thats social

proof!

Visit the following sites, create pages for your brand, add as much content and media as you can,

and tell the world about them using your existing social media accounts. Go get ‘er!

• Squidoo Lens
• Tumblr
• Triond
• About.Me

Well I hope this review helped you all with starting (or editing) your social presence. Remember, any questions, just send me a comment and I will get right back to you!

Happy Engaging, and thanks for stopping by!

Hello to all, and Welcome!

First of all, I want to personally thank you for visiting the new website for Brand-e Media Ltd. Not only are we using this website for our services, but so much more. Here, you will find lots of advice and strategies on social media and general internet marketing, affiliate info, reviews on all ‘geek’ related topics, web industry news, to name a few highlights!

The reason why we chose to do this, involve so much other content, is so our readers will always be able to take something interesting from our website and apply it to their own life and work. We also are in hopes that you will share what you find interesting and useful with your community, after all, that is what the internet and social media is all about!

In addition to our website, we of course utilize all of our social channels to effectively build our community and enhance our presence. This includes LinkedIn discussions where we give free advice, purposing topics that our audience may want an expert opinion on. Our Facebook Fan Page will act as a similar platform, varying the use so that everyone can use the social network they prefer most. Our Twitter account will be a combination of those discussions, along with random thoughts and observations, daily tasks and issues, interesting articles we come across, any support for our services you may need, or any inquiries businesses may have on our services. We believe in the full-frontal social approach, for ourselves and you, so we believe we must lead by example!

We will always be here for anyone trying to communicate with us, so please never hesitate to send us an email or message on your favourite social network.

Join our mailing list for lots of freebies you will not receive on the website, and to keep up with our regular articles with tons of useful information for you.

Happy surfing, Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Brandie Blackler

Chief-Editor/Author/Owner

If you have ever ran an affiliate site or looked into starting one, you probably know that reviews have a big spot on the popularity list. Over the years, with many affiliates tainting the realness of reviews by fake nonsense content to make sales, this form of affiliate marketing strategy has become a little less effective. However, because of the growth of social media, those reviews are starting to take on a new meaning. A more genuine and trustworthy meaning, at that.

Social media and reviews have a very special relationship in today’s world. All because of the consumer and their relationships. Now, when a person is debating whether to purchase that new hybrid car, or electronic device, the first place they go is the internet. Nothing new here, right? Well, instead of searching for any odd review, what they really want to know is did any of their friends or online contacts purchase this product?

If it so happens that any of their friends have bought and were happy with their decision, than they will be, too. Pretty obvious right? Yes, it is, however this scenario simply points out that the strategy of reviews is very much  a-changin’.

If you are one of those people who have many contacts online, some only considered online friendships, you may want to be careful of how and what you write reviews about. Although this point isn’t rocket science, wouldn’t it make sense to maybe test the product you are about to sell? You may be surprised that most affiliate marketers never do this. Or you may not be surprised, it definitely does not surprise me. The point is, online marketing of products and services has the very same fundamentals as any business: If you don’t promote and deliver the quality in what you sell, your reputation will suffer, hence your sales will eventually be non-existent. So why risk it? Especially when the people reading and buying the reviewed products may very well be your good friends or even family?

Social media is no doubt changing the world we live in; Our consumer behaviour, relationships and how we live our lives, generally. Build your online business the proper, genuine way and embrace this change, or I am more than sure, the change will work against you.

Here are some guidelines I would consider when writing your next review:

• Firstly, the more effort and time you put into knowing the product, and showing the value, the more traffic and conversions you will see

• If you really want this product to bring you sales, try it for yourself! Chances are, dong this will reward many times over what the cost was to try it on your own. If you have a high-trafficked website, many companies may give you the product to try and review for free. Also, they may possibly give you the future product  ahead of the release, so you really appear as the expert!

• To add even more credibility to your name or brand, make videos of yourself using the product/service, seeing what is great and not-so-great about it. Don’t be afraid to say something negative about it either, it shows authenticity in your review. But, if there is really nothing bad, don’t make it up! And don’t forget to upload your review video on YouTube, Vimeo, Videobb, and your blog, of course.

• Whichever type of product/service you are offering, relate with the person using a descriptive term. For example, for a product such as a modern, unique gardening tool, you may introduce the product like this:

“For the Ultimate Green Thumb, gardening is a daily task. Anything out there proven to make the regular tasks more simple and effortless is definitely worth exploring. The Weed Pull1100 has had nothing but rave reviews and is truly changing the face of gardening. We all love the beautiful flowers in the summer season but any Green Thumb knows the battle with weeds to get to that point…”

• Next, you may want to give some comparison products, and why your product is better than the other ones out there on the market. Also, don’t forget the price point. Showing your expertise in the area is helpful, too:

“For decades, different lawn care product lines have released many different tools and ‘magic’

formulas that would promise to rid of the weed problem. I can say, for many, that myself and family

have tried the lot of them and they have never boasted or shown long-term results. Tools like the

Magic Clipper, and Miracle Weed were always good for the short term, but why spend the money

here when I can simply pull them by hand for short term results? This tool, for the price of only

$29.99 will save you time beyond the hours you may have worked to afford this item. “

• Giving a point-form list of the benefits and features, while placing a purchase/affiliate link with an offer, are the next steps. Your almost done!:

-          Lifetime warranty guaranteed!

-          Money back guarantee if weeds are back within 60 days

-          Shipping and Handling free on your first order

-          Free Gift with online purchase

-          Special discount price if you order through this link

-          NO weeds, all year!

• End the review by re-phrasing some of the points in the first paragraph, add another purchase/affiliate link at the very bottom, and your done! Add the article to your website, bookmark the text, link any video or image content, and spread to your social networks.

Now that’s a review!

Smile!

What did you think of this article? Was it useful? Anything you disagree with? TELL US! Comment Below!

When you are a community manager, blogger, either for personal or for business, sometimes it can be a real challenge to come up with, you guessed it, new content! Actually, from my experience with other writers, community managers, bloggers and business contacts, new content can be more dreadful than the drawn-out, unproductive meeting with that employee who seems to pride on wasting your time.

Really? Is it really that bad? Well, apparently, yes!

It can be completely understood that, with your many daily tasks, projects, emails, skype and phone calls, making time to develop content – and creative, unique content at that, is just impossible. And let’s face it, today is all about unique and creative content.

Lucky for you, if you happen to be reading this article, I may have come to the rescue and saved you from the daunting task that is content creation. In my opinion, creating new content should be fun, exciting, and a fresh task. Then again, I love to write and it is the best part of my day! And, with a little help in the form of a creative boost, I think I can make it fun and fresh for you, too.

Before you read on, to the exciting new content strategies, I suggest you bookmark this article in your favourite website (Twitter, Digg, Facebook, Reddit, etc.) so you can refer back at the time of writers block. Trust, you will thank me! All the icons are at the top-right of the page for you too. See how easy I make it?

Lets read on…

• First of all, my favourite tactic for content ideas is simple and productive for your website. Whichever industry your business is in, health, finance, gaming, I would assume you keep up to date with the general news. It is definitely more than easy to find with a tool such as the internet! When you see compelling news that many online users are chatting about in your industry, research the facts, and write about it from your own perspective. Not only will the popularity of the topic benefit your readership value, but you appear more as an expert in your field because you know what is going on, and have an educated opinion. I think this point is a no-brainer, but a great strategy! The Huffington Post is famous for this tactic, same with Mashable!

• If your company, brand or website has an established Twitter or Facebook account/fan page, a great way to take a break from being the source of your content, is to simply ask your target what they want to hear! Whichever they suggest should align with your niche and you can even ask your followers/fans to vote for what they want to read. You should not do this too frequently, as you can lose the flow you have built through your own authority, but it is definitely a great way take a break and even more important, engage your audience.

• Does your online property have a new or interactive product/service? Or has your audience had confusion with this product/service? No matter what the case, a fresh approach with a growing popularity is vlogging! Vlogging is basically blogging, but using video. Take about 30 minutes, and record a walk-through of the product/service, the features, or addressing a said common issue. Users today love to watch videos and it is definitely more interactive than text! Not to mention, it often takes much less time to do!

• And then there is sharing! I always say, sharing is caring, and I believe that holds true in the business and online world, too. Do you have resources online who you follow, out of interest, relation to your industry, or other? Why not link to them? More than likely, if you build a connection with them, they will do the same for you one day! Not to mention, your readers will appreciate the fresh take and community vibe of sharing another website’s content. There is always a sense of competition, however with the growth of modern online mannerisms, you cannot help but appreciate a bit of sharing.

I have many more points for you, however I think this is a good bit to get you started. Maybe you will even think of some of your own new strategies? If you do, feel free to comment on this article and share them with the rest. Everyone has their own take on an idea, remember! In the next week or so I will publish a “Part 2” to this topic, so check back for more ideas to keep you roaring in the right direction to online success.

Cheers!

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