Not everyone wants to spend their most productive years chained to a desk. Some crave the freedom to work how they want when they want, and where they want.

And thanks to the burgeoning need for social media marketing, that type of career is more attainable than ever!

With that said, there are some things you’ll want to know before committing to a career as a self-employed social media consultant.

Here’s everything you’ll need to know to survive self-employment.

Set a Daily Schedule

There’s nothing quite as rewarding as having the ability to set your own schedule.

For many, that’s the best part of working as a freelance social media consultant.
However, if you’re not careful, the day can quickly get away from you.

Sure, it’s fine to let yourself sleep in every now and again. But sticking to a regular schedule is far more effective in achieving long-term success.

Creating and adhering to a daily routine gives your day structure and purpose, and as a result, makes you more productive.

Be Your Own Advocate

There’s a far greater demand for social media marketing and consultation than ever before. Unfortunately, you’re not the only social media expert who knows this.

Chances are you’ll face some pretty steep competition — both from your fellow freelancers and larger marketing firms. You’ll need to step up your marketing game and learn to be your own biggest fan.

Create an online portfolio that demonstrates your skills. Use real data and metrics that prove you know what you’re talking about.

Companies see hiring freelancers as taking a risk. Show them that you’re a risk worth investing in, and you’ll have no trouble finding regular work.

Stay on Top of Your Finances

The standard social media consultant salary sits at about $25,000 per year. Unless you’re living by yourself in a modest apartment, that doesn’t give you a whole lot of financial wiggle room.

Make sure to stay on top of due dates for bills and rent, and be frugal when shopping for food. Since you’re self-employed, you’ll need to factor in the costs of healthcare, as well.

Expenses can add up rather fast. The more you track your finances, the less likely you are to end up struggling.

Plan for Tax Season Early

Self-employment taxes are a chore, to say the least, mainly because you can’t create your own W2, fill it out, and call it a day.

Instead, self-employment taxes are far more involved. You’ll need to fill out several forms that you’ve likely never even heard of.

It’s often best to hire some outside tax help, who can help you figure out what you can and can’t write off.

Speaking of which, that brings us to one unfortunate point about taxes for the self-employed: The cost. You’ll likely end up owing money, which can quickly derail your financial plans.

Start saving for tax season as early as possible. Though it’d be more fun to pick up that outfit at the mall, you’ll be glad you saved in April.

Social Media Consultant Survival Guide

Working as a social media consultant has a ton of advantages. You get to be set your own hours, work from the comforts of home, and establish yourself as a professional.

As fun as freelancing can be, you’ll want to make sure you follow these tips to maximize your career potential.

Before you get started, make sure you know what not to do. Check out our blog post on four mistakes you’ll want to avoid when improving a client’s Facebook page.

It is also reported by a number of news sources that the latest attacks on GitHub were launched by Chinese hackers. The hackers are continuing to evolve and improve their techniques, according to GitHub’s official statement. They are using redirection techniques from two of the most visited pages in China from the China’s search engine Baidu. The first page from where the traffic is being redirected is the New York Time’s Chinese news language pages, whereas the other one is Greatfire.org, an information website which tells about the government censorship in China.

The Wall Street Journal quotes some sources which are now claiming that the attacks are directly coming from the high-level official internet infrastructure within China, which points towards the speculation that the hacking attack is done by government-backed Chinese hackers. Baidu, the Chinese search engine has released a statement, denying the notion that its systems are being used in the GitHub DDos attack.

I noticed more and more of rich pins on the Pinterest website lately.  What is a rich pin?  Well, it basically provides more information about the website the pin content origination.  For example, it will show helpful information with the pin, like a Favicon (the icon shown in your browser tab for a website), the author, the website name, and even recipe information if your article is recipe based.  It looks really professional when you see the company name and icon next to it and makes the pin more likeable, or errr pinnable?

How to enable Rich Pins on your WordPress website

Pinterest has a developer section where you can test and validate rich pins.  It can get a little confusing and complicated if you’re not a web developer. Even I had problems with it validating until I found out there’s an SEO plugin called by Yoast called the WordPress SEO Plugin.  This only will work for a WordPress website, so only read on if your website is WordPress or you are planning on starting a website using WordPress.

First thing’s first.  Add the plugin via your WordPress control panel or download/upload it.  Activate the plugin.  Now Navigate to SEO > Social.  Now simply enable “add open graph meta data”.  This will add the open graph meta tags necessary for rich pins.  Now add any other settings you wish to add below.  It may be good to add your Facebook page URL.  I added a front page image and description in case someone pinned my website’s homepage.  It’s not necessary to validate your site with Pinterest rich pins, but I did it anyway.

Great, now head on over to Pinterest’s Rich Pin Validator.  Copy and Past a page from your website into the validator and click “validate”.  Now that your page is validated you can click “apply” so they can accept your rich pins.  If something goes wrong they will email you.

Here’s my website validation:

Facebook provides a wealth of opportunities for individuals looking to maximize their social presence, and the two primary ways in which it allows you to do this are Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups.

On the surface it’s easy to say, Aren’t they, like, basically the same thing? What does it matter if I pick one over the other?

News flash: It matters a lot.

Although fundamentally similar in some regards – such as both being a platform with which to spread news and information – they differ in how that flow of information, well, flows.

What is a Facebook Page?

Similar to an individual’s Facebook profile, a Facebook Page allows businesses, celebrities, organizations, establishments, public figures, blah blah blah, to create an online presence through the Facebook platform. They are visible to everyone on the Internet (by default), and (by default) anyone can connect with the Page, so as to receive news and information from the Page.

But therein lies the key: a Facebook Page is designed to allow information to flow primarily from the Page to its audience. The Page holds the authority and communication power.

What is a Facebook Group?

On the flipside of the situation, a Facebook Group is designed to bring like-minded individuals into a common online space to discuss a specific topic. To do this, the Facebook Group comes with tools to organize events, post photos, share content, and create admins. (Even with admins, though, the group is still generally an all-around equal bunch of individuals.)

And that’s the key: a Facebook Group provides its users with a much more balanced level of power than a Facebook Page. Whereas a Page is an audience interacting with the subject of that Page – the lightning rod, if you will – a Group encourages users to interact with each other.

Basically, one is a lecture hall (Page) and one is a circle discussion (Group).

A Few Important Points:

About Pages:

• Unless designated as admin-only, Pages are public and can be discovered via searches, and anyone can join the Page. (However, there is an option to make Pages invisibile to individuals from certain countries or, to an extent, of a certain age demographic.)
• Fans of a Page cannot necessarily see every other fan of that Page.
• Page posts appear (by default) within the newsfeed.

About Groups:

• Groups can be public, private, closed (Group can be found through search but only members can see the posts), or secret (no one can see the Group unless added by an admin).
• Joining a Group can be done via 1) a Facebook friend adding you to the Group, or 2) you ask to join and an admin accepts the invitation.
• Groups do not allow much for branding. A small profile pictures is pretty much it.
• In addition, Groups do not allow for much customization, such as tabs or applications. Which means no competitions, contact page, welcome page, or any other fancy add-on.
• Group posts do not typically show up in the newsfeed. Instead, depending on an individual’s Facebook settings, Group participants receive a notification about Group activity.

So Which is Better?

That’s really a stupid title, because it’s not about which is better. It’s about which is more effective at transforming information within a specific audience situation. Both serve a purpose, and understanding their respective purpose makes it easier to determine which is, in fact, better. Both for you and your audience.

So…

If you want to create a brand based around a single entity, go with a Page.

If you want to create a networking or discussion circle, go with a Group.

Added Bonus: Differences Between Page Categories

When you create a Facebook Page, there are numerous options presented to you – all of which are covered in a previous part of this guide, How to Create (and Promote) a Facebook Page. Still, it’s important to reiterate the differences between the categories of Facebook Pages, as picking the wrong one could hinder a Page’s success.

To choose the right category for your Page, think about the demographic you want to target with your Page. Is it the local population around your business? Go with “Local Business or Place.” Is it a more international audience for your business? Go with “Company, Organization or Institution.” Is it a specific product? Go with “Brand or Product.”

In a nutshell, your Facebook Page category provides an individual with a succinct, accurate description of the Page. So use it to your advantage.

Previous FB Guide Chapters You May Be Interested In:

1. Chapter 1: How to Create (and Promote) a Facebook Page

So you want to create a Facebook Page, huh? Great! I’m here to make it possible. And not just possible – easy! Using the following information, you too will soon be the proud owner of a finely tuned, highly functional Facebook Page, which could help generate sales as soon as today.

But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. First we have to ask:

What is a Facebook Page?

Facebook’s official response:

Pages are for businesses, organizations and brands to share their stories and connect with people. Like Timelines, you can customize Pages by adding apps, posting stories, hosting events and more.

It’s a Facebook for your business, basically; the go-to spot for customers wanting up-to-the-second info about what you’ve got going on. And in today’s Internet-driven world, having a Facebook Page is crucial.

So let’s get to creating it.

How to Create a Facebook Page

• Step 1: Open www.facebook.com/pages/create/ in a new tab or window.
• Step 2: Click on the Page category most appropriate for your business, company, organization, event, etc.
• Step 3: Choose the appropriate subcategory and enter your company’s name.
• Step 4: Check the box labeled “I agree to Facebook Page Terms.”
• Step 5: Click “Get Started.”
• Step 6: Profit!

For anyone wondering why Facebook categorizes Pages, categories make it easier for people to find your Page, and it tells visitors a bit about the Page before even reading through the Page’s info. An automobile and parts company named Milwaukee’s Best Parts definitely won’t be mistaken for a bakery in downtown Boston.

Which actually brings up an important note: Don’t rush creating your Page! If your name for whatever reason happens to be Boston and you create a Page called “Boston’s Best Donuts,” but you aren’t located in Boston, you’re just going to confuse and frustrate people. Think about it for a bit before committing.

Make your Page’s name relevant and succinct.

Completing Your Facebook Page

So the Page is up, but it’s looking a little – what’s the word? – lacking. You need content. Info. Pictures. A banner. A logo. There’s so much to be done!

Let’s take it one step at a time.

Updating Info – On your Facebook Page, scroll down to the navigation bar located right below the banner. Click the “Update Page Info” button. The screen should now display a list of fields, such as “Name,” “Facebook Web Address,” and so forth. Click “Edit” on the right to update the info. (I recommend starting with “Short Description” and “Long Description.”)

Changing Privacy Settings – On your Facebook Page, scroll down to the navigation bar located right below the banner. Click the “Update Page Info” button. Then click “Settings” at the top. This displays a list of fields controlling the Page’s visibility and privacy settings. Click “Edit” on the right to change a setting.

Adding a Logo – On your Facebook page, scroll down to the small square located in the bottom-left corner of the banner. Hovering your mouse over it brings up the “Edit Profile Picture” button. Click that. From there, click “Upload Photo,” if uploading a new photo, or “Choose From Photos” to use an already uploaded photo.

(Note: You’re probably asking, “What size should my Facebook profile picture be?”.  Facebook logos should be at least 180 pixels by 180 pixels in size, even though the box itself only displays 160 pixels by 160 pixels.)

Adding a Banner – On your Facebook page, scroll down to the large horizontal area located just above the “Update Page Info” button. Hovering your mouse over the large horizontal area brings up the “Change Cover” button. Click that. From there, click “Upload Photo” to upload a new photo, or “Choose From Photos” to use an already uploaded photo.

(Note: What size should your Facebook banner be? The dimensions of Facebook banners should be at least 851 pixels by 315 pixels.)

How to Promote a Page

Let’s get this out of the way: Do not beg your Facebook friends for Likes. It’s annoying. It’s obtrusive. And it’s a great way to drive away potential clients. If you don’t know what I’m trying to say, you might want to visit The Oatmeal’s hilarious article: “How to get more likes on Facebook“.

Instead, starting posting informative content on your Facebook Page. Write about company updates. Link to your blog posts. Link to other people’s blog post. Find other Facebook Pages related to your field and comment on their updates or posts.

To attract interest you need to be interesting.

Think about your Page like it were at social gathering. You don’t want to be the guy screaming for attention, right? You want to join conversations that you can understand and contribute to in a meaningful way. That’s what earns attention and respect, which in turn earns customers.

Lastly, be patient. A Facebook Page isn’t the golden ticket. It’s just another tool for interesting with and finding customers. Spend a little time each day posting info and people will come.

On his Facebook page, people have posted threats to find and kill him.

“I have friends who live in the area and will have you in their sights also,” one user wrote.

He has defended his hunt by insisting it was meant to help the black rhino.  The plan was to hunt an old, non-breeding male that was endangering the rest of the herd.

“I’m a hunter,” he added. “I want to experience a black rhino. I want to be intimately involved with a black rhino. If I go over there and shoot it or not shoot it, it’s beyond the point.”

Knowlton said that the money from the auction would go towards effort to support rhino conservation.

On his Facebook page, he wrote: “I am considering all sides and concerns involved in this unique situation. Please don’t rush to judgment with emotionally driven criticism towards individuals on either side of this issue.

“I deeply care about all of the inhabitants of this planet and I am looking forward to more educated discussion regarding the ongoing conservation effort for the Black Rhino.”

I don’t know if he’ll ever get anyone to agree with him hunting a black rhino, maybe some hunters, but the majority of us think it’s outrageous.  I would never consider hunting an endangered animal and I sure wouldn’t take the chance of being hunted myself!

From Cory Knowlton’s Facebook Page

Thank you all for your comments about conservation and the current situation regarding the Black Rhino.
I am considering all sides and concerns involved in this unique situation. Please don’t rush to judgment with emotionally driven criticism towards individuals on either sides of this issue. I deeply care about all of the inhabitants of this planet and I am looking forward to more educated discussion regarding the ongoing conservation effort for the Black Rhino.

 

It seems like it’s getting a little out of hand.  One user says, ” If anyone has or can find the address or other personal details of this piece of sh**, please PM them to me.”

What do you think about the black rhino auction?

Hear that?  Facebook is going to have a major redesign.  Woah. I’d be careful if I were you Facebook, remember what happened the last time you rolled out a major design update?  User’s were so irate they were creating petitions to get the old look back.  Of course, the same thing happens as always, they adapt and forget about the old look.

The new look may not happen anytime soon though, some user’s have seen the new look, but if you haven’t seen it on your Facebook page, the chances are you won’t be seeing it until the official launch.

Mike Isaac of AllThingsD claims that the redesign has stalled, and will not actually roll out to users as was originally expected.

In Tuesday’s story, Isaac wrote:

Sources said that in the small rollout to a single-digit percentage of users, engagement with the new design has stalled. So much so, in fact, that the majority of users won’t receive this Facebook redesign we saw unveiled this year.

Instead, sources said, it’s back to the drawing board on a better News Feed, while using the failed first launch as a data point for creating a better Version 2. When users finally do see something new, it will likely be far less drastic of a change, incorporating only some of the modifications that worked better than others.

This news comes after last weeks algorithm change that would provide higher quality news content to your feed.

Facebook is rolling out a new Facebook Offers feature, which will allow businesses to create coupons and publish them to a news feed.  The offers can be distributed through your customer news feed or even promoted as a Sponsored Story.

It’s not surprising that Facebook is releasing a feature like this, especially since they’re moving towards additional ways to monetize.  They tried launching Facebook Deals, but that didn’t catch on.  So instead they launched FB coupons still targeted towards businesses but with a different approach.  I think it’s a good idea, however I feel that Facebook is starting to get flooded with Apps, Memes (stupid pictures, quotes), Ads, and now Coupons from businesses!  It’s turning into a big advertisement.  I think I could write a whole post about how Facebook is actually on a downfall, but I’ll get to that later.

What do you think, are Facebook Coupons a good thing?

How to post a Facebook post automatically to your Twitter Account

So you’re looking for an automatic method to post your Facebook status to your Twitter account?  It’s really easier than you think.  Here are the direct steps to get you connected in seconds!

1. Go to https://www.facebook.com/twitter/

2. Find the account you would like to link to Twitter.

3. Authorize your Facebook account to post to Twitter

4.  Enjoy your freshly connected Facebook and Twitter App.

5. Post to Facebook as you normally would any status update

7. Enjoy your Autopost to Twitter

Fair question, because it wasn’t too terribly long ago (I’d say about 6 months ago) where, once you built your Facebook Fan Page > gave it a title > then published it, there was no changing it.

If you gave your page a title that you didn’t like, and then published that bad boy, your only option was to delete the page and start over.

Which would be fine for a page that is new and doesn’t have any fans yet.

But what about when your page isn’t new and it’s a couple months down the road and you think you need to edit (or change) the title of your Facebook Fan Page?

Limit on the number of fans to change / edit your Facebook Fan Page

First of all, you can’t do anything with the name or title of your Facebook Fan Page if you have 100 fans or more.  Once you get to where you have 100 fans or more, you don’t have any other options for changing the title except to delete your page and start over.

But if I have at least 100 fans already, I don’t think deleting and starting over is a wise option, unless the the title is just so far out of whack that a change is necessary.

Then again, I would think you’d have noticed that before you reached 100 fans.

Anyway… I digress.

So assuming you have less than 100 fans on your Facebook Fan Page, I can now proceed to telling you how to change (or edit) your page title (or the name of your Facebook Fan Page.

What’s the name (or title) of my Facebook Fan Page anyway?

Great question – glad you asked.

The name (or title) of your Facebook Fan Page is the name you see directly to the right and to the top of your Facebook Fan Page logo.  Here’s a screenshot of my Facebook Fan Page:

Why is your Facebook Fan Page name (or title) important?

Another great question!

The title (or name) of your Facebook Fan Page is important because it’s the equivalent of the <h1> tag on any other web page.  And the <h1> tag is, from Google’s perspective, the most important and most relevant starting point for ranking pages in Google’s index.

And Facebook Fan Pages are indeed crawled, indexed, and ranked in Google search for specific keyword phrases.

Here’s my Facebook Fan Page in Google for keyword phrase “social media seo“:

Ok, so in case you didn’t know this yet.  The blue part of the search results are pulled from what I was just referring to – the <h1> tags of the web pages.

And as you can see in the Google search results, the title (or name) of my Facebook Fan Page is in fact the <h1> tag of my Facebook Fan Page.

So that’s why this stuff is important ya’ll… it affects your presence and exposure in Google search results.

How to change the name / title of your Facebook Fan Page

Again, assuming you have 100 fans or less, here’s how to can change / edit your Facebook Fan Page name (or title):

1)  From your Facebook Fan Page, click the “edit info” link at the very top of your Facebook Fan Page

2)  Click “Basic Information” – it’s the link along the left hand side.

3)  The fourth section down is called “Name:” – if you have less than 100 fans, you’ll be able to edit your page name (or title) here.

Hope that helps…

—–

Facebook Fan Page Tips

You can get this article, and other Facebook Fan Page tips, at my Facebook Fan Page Tips article directory.

Your business, and your brand, are critically important to you, I realize this.  Making the most of every opportunity is a way for you to propel your business forward to more growth, more influence, and more profitability.  But what opportunities should you actually pursue?  How do you know what opportunities can actually give you the best return on your effort for growing your business and your brand?

I can’t say I know the answer to that question in full for your exact business.  Every business is different, every market is uniquely dynamic.  I can say though, regardless of what your business is, or what brand you are striving to build, Facebook can be a game changer in so many way.  Facebook can because the one tool that allows you to build a massive audience of people who recognize your brand, understand your business, and see the work and expertise that you possess – regardless of what field of work you are in.

I have a friend who does home repair and small scale construction.  It’s only him and his partner, and they work hard giving out quotes on new jobs with the hopes that just a few of those clients will actually hire them.

They built a Facebook Fan Page a few months ago and started sharing news, updates from their industry, and images of their projects.  And my friend tells me now that traffic and interaction on their Facebook Page has more than doubled.

2 Key Components To Building Your Brand On Facebook

Has all they work and effort paid off yet for my friend?  Maybe in some cases, sure.  But by no means does the growth my friend’s page is experiencing mean every single new interaction is going to result in a new sale.

But what my friend is doing – what he’s at the very forefront of building – is the brand and influence of his business.

#1:  Frequently Update Your Facebook Page

On Facebook, you have the opportunity to keep reminded a growing audience people about your business.  Each update, each new picture, each new interaction, is a reflection on your business and your brand.  And the more you interact and update your Facebook fan page, the more brand recognition you are building.

It’s like having a TV commercial for your business where you get to control the frequency of the play times to your target audience.

#2:  Interact With Your Audience

You have to interact with your fans.  If you are doing the hard work of updating your Facebook Fan Page everyday with news and information that’s valuable to your audience, you have to take a little bit extra time to interact with your audience.

When someone replies to your update, or comments on an image, or asks a question, responding to that person will make a huge impact on that person.  And when that person feels like you actually care about him or her, and they see you are taking the time to interact with them, they will be more apt to interact again.

This process allows you to continue to build your influence with this one individual, but the ripple effect is equally value.

The more someone – or a group of people – interacts with you on Facebook, the deeper your exposure can be throughout Facebook.  When someone interacts with your Facebook page, that interact typically shows up on their friend’s wall stating that you interacted with that Facebook page.

That wall update is a direct link back to your Facebook page, and it’s on someone’s wall that you probably don’t even know.  And I’m sure you can see the cycle of exposure I’m getting at here.

The more you interact with your fans on Facebook, and more active you are updating your page, the more exposure you’ll get to more people, allowing your brand to continually grow and spread to more people.

Being consistent, day after day, with this process will eventually lead you to a tipping point where you see your hard work pay off.

What about you?

What are some ways you’ve grown your Facebook page’s audience and influence?

Below are my thoughts about an ebook / e-article that I’m putting together on how to add a “invite friends tab / Facebook app” to your Facebook Fan Page.  I get asked abut how to do this A LOT and figured it’s time to put something comprehensive together.  Again, an e-article is coming that you’ll be able to purchase (I think anyway)

When it comes to growing your Facebook Fan Page, there is one thing I’ve learned from my own experience at the SMSEO Facebook page – the number of fans at any given time showing on my page are in a constant state of flux.

This means, the total number of fans who are following my Facebook page is constantly changing up and down.

Why this is, and how this happens, is beyond me. I have to assume that people are always “unliking” my Facebook page, while new people are coming on board.  This is the logically explanation, in my opinion.

With my fan page climbing to more than 4,500 fans (at this moment it shows 4,508… could change any minute now!), the variance of the fluctuation seems to be increasing as my fan page grows.

It’s sort of like watching the stock market – it climbs, drops, and has moments where it seems like its going to completely crash.  But then, over time, the number continually increases, growing more and more followers each day.

If there’s a lesson to be learned, I would say it’s this – do not worry about the day to day fluctuation of the number of fans you have on your Facebook fan page.

If you watch your numbers minute by minute, then you’ll drive yourself crazy and become trapped in a cycle of unproductive wasted time.

BELIEVE ME!!!! I KNOW!

Instead, use analytics like Facebook Insights to track the number of new fans, page views, viewers, etc… that are coming to your Facebook page over wider spans of time. These numbers will give you a better understanding of the growth of your Facebook Fan Page over time.

I realize this is a bit of a stretch…

But if you’ll stay with me for a moment, I’m sure you’ll have a better understanding as to why I just associated the growth of your Facebook Fan Page with Sir Isaac Newton’s Law of Motion.

If you recall from high school science, there are actually three Laws of Motion that Newton came up.

The one I want to focus on here is the law that states an object in motion tends to stay in motion – an object as rest tends to stay at rest.

This law of motion, or inertia, or velocity, or momentum – ah yes… I like that word momentum – is critically important to understand as you push to grow your Facebook Fan Page.

Because simply the best way to grow your Facebook Fan Page is start making it active.

Remember, an object in motion tends to stay in motion.

The problem here is that the same law has a direct inverse affect that states an object at rest test tends to stay at rest.

Here it is put simply:

If you want to grow your Facebook Fan Page, your influence, your audience, your community, then you’ll get active and start moving forward – start getting productive, start sharing, interacting, building relationships, making connections, etc…

If you want your Facebook Fan Page to shrink, remain stagnant, have no influence, have no interaction – then you’ll remain complacent, not putting any effort  into your Facebook Page, not making connections, not reaching out, not creating some energy, etc…

The good news about Newton’s Law of Motion:

There is some excellent news hidden in Newton’s Law of Motion that states, an object will remain in its current state of motion (or lack thereof) until a greater force comes against it – then it will shift course.

Isn’t that great news for so many aspects of our lives?

Just knowing that your life will continue down a certain path, but if you take action against that path, the path itself can change completely.

The same is true with your online marketing efforts and your Facebook Fan Page growth.

No matter where you are in your online marketing efforts – no matter how many fans you currently have on Facebook – no matter what you are doing right now… at this very moment with your life, all it takes is a bit of effort, energy, and “fight”, and you’ll shift your course.

Putting this in terms of a Facebook Fan Page, you’ll get more fans, more influence, more customers, and more prospects.

In that announcement, Facebook spelled out the timeline for closing the door on the FBML apps and stated on March 11th, 2011, you’ll no longer be able to create new FBML apps for your Facebook pages.

This is what Facebook had to say in regards to the FBML apps:

On March 11, 2011, you will no longer be able to create new FBML apps and Pages will no longer be able to add the Static FBML app. While all existing apps on Pages using FBML or the Static FBML appwill continue to work, we strongly recommend that these apps transition to iframes as soon as possible. Lastly, we want to be clear that our deprecation of FBML does not impact XFBML, such as the tags that support social plugins.

So even though tomorrow, you’ll no longer be able to create new FBML apps, your existing FBML apps are not in jeopardy of shutting down. As Facebook stated, Pages using FBML or the Static FBML app will continue to work.

Also via Facebook’s official Twitter profile today, Facebook let the world know that the new Facebook Fan Page upgrades are starting to roll out, and that over the next several weeks, all pages will be upgraded to the new platform.

I wrote an article highlighting what I see as the 5 best features of the Facebook Fan Page upgrade.

To get a preview of your Facebook Fan Page in the upgraded state, visit here > facebook.com/pages/status.

Along with the new Facebook commenting system, Facebook announced an update to Fan Page walls that now allows you, the page admin, to filter your wall stream in just about every way possible.

Here’s what Facebook announced via Facebook Pages on March 1st:

We have made updates to the Page Wall, which you will begin to see in the coming hours. You can choose to filter Posts by the Page or from everyone (both Fans and Page). People can filter posts from everyone by Top Posts, which shows most interesting stories, or Most Recent, which shows posts in chronological order. Fans can switch between views by toggling the viewing option in the top right corner of the page wall.

So the “admins” can filter every option as they chose.

Fans also now have the option to filter posts as well, which is a great way to help keep your fans engaged in your on-going, and ever increasing discussions in your wall.

Facebook understands that the path to deeper engagement is more exposure in the wall. The more users are able to find the unique conversations within a wall, the longer users will stay engaged with these conversations and thus the longer they will remain on the Facebook platform.

If you haven’t upgraded your Facebook Fan Page yet, then you are running out of time!

On March 10th, whether you want your Facebook page updated or not, Facebook will start updating all pages to the new upgraded platform.

In my humble opinion, I couldn’t really imagine why you wouldn’t want to upgrade your Facebook page – lot’s of new, exciting, and very productive upgrades have been implemented.

Here are four main upgrades to be looking for with your new Facebook Fan Page

1)  iFrame tabs for Facebook Fan Pages – this will be the element that replaces the current FBML app. In fact, on March 11th, FBML apps will be deprecated – meaning, you won’t be able to create any more.  But with the new iFrame tabs, you can now customize your page tabs with full HTML elements, no longer under the grip of FBML.

2)  Email notifications – this is another sweet upgrade and one that page admin’s have been clamoring about for quite some time. You can now receive email notifications whenever someone posts a comment to your wall updates, or adds their own update on your wll.

3)  Showcase photos – this is following the upgrade given to Facebook profiles and allows page admins to now showcase specific photos directly at the top of their Facebook fan page.

4)  News feed for your Facebook page – emphasizing updates that have the highest EdgeRank, or stories from your page that are getting the most interactions (i.e. shares, comments, likes, etc…)

5)  “Like” posts as your page – this updates is interesting because you will now be able to post a comment, or “Like” an update as the page admin (or as the page itself). You’ll actually be able to toggle back and forth between the page and your profile as you like.

The upgraded Facebook page is something that you can take advantage of right now.

Or, wait until March 10th when Facebook starts updating all pages.

How to change your Facebook Fan Page type (or category)

Changing the type of your Facebook Fan Page (or your category) is now a very easy process for admins.

Of course, you must first be an admin of the Facebook Fan Page you want to change.

But assuming you’re an admin, here’s the step – by – step:

1) Click “edit info” (under new fan page layout – also implies you’ve upgraded to the new fan page version)

2) Click “Basic Information” – this is found in the tab links along the left hand side of the admin dashboard

3) After clicking “Basic Information”, you will now see at the top of the page the “Category” drop down menus.  Simply select the appropriate categories for your Facebook Fan Page

4) Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page

That’s it – you’ve just changed the type (or category) of your Facebook Fan Page.

Here’s what it used to look like:

And here’s what it looks like now:

All of the admin options on your Facebook Fan Page are now nicely aligned along the left hand side of your dashboard page making it easier to get to the option or application you are wanting to update.

I like this change actually because before, you had to do a lot of scrolling up and down to find the option or app you want > edit it > then come back to the dashboard and find your next option.

Now, it’s all right there on the left hand side in good ol’ fashion website layout style – I’m digging it…

What do you think about Facebook’s new Fan Page admin dashboard layout?

Have you noticed the change? It’s quite possible that Facebook is not rolling out this new dashboard to all users.

Let us know in the comments.

Since last year (August 2009), I’ve been writing quite a bit about Facebook Fan Pages and sharing tips, strategies, and “how to’s” on ways business can leverage their own Facebook Fan Page.

The problem is that there is no easy way to view all of those “Facebook Fan Page tips” articles all in one place.

So I decided to make an addition to my SMSEO Facebook Fan Page by adding a “Facebook Tips” tab.

I couldn’t add a “Facebook Fan Page Tips” tab because, quite simply, the tab would extend long enough to show all of those words – and of course, there is no going in and hacking the CSS code of the FBML app tab.

If you are interested in learning more about Facebook Fan Pages, how to leverage them for your business, how to design custom fan pages, marketing, etc… then click the link below to see all of the Fan Page tips.

I will add more as I write new articles.

Let me know in the comments below if there is a specific “how to” you’d like to see – I’ll go ahead and write it up for you!

Click Here – Facebook Fan Page Tips

Since SMSEO’s Facebook Fan Page has grown to nearly 2,500 fans, I’ve noticed that fan count is in a state of constant fluctuation. At one point there will be 5 new fans, then a few minutes later 2 fans have left and so on.

There was question posted over at Yahoo Answers where the numbers were much larger in scale, and the person was asking why their Fan Page was losing thousands of fans a day. This particular Fan Page had more than 1.3 million fans, just to put it in perspective.

My take on this fluctuation, regardless of the scale we are talking about, is that it’s a process of iteration that is ultimately healthy for your Fan Page.

Regardless of why you have a Facebook Fan Page (business, music band, individual, products, etc…) the fact that people are leaving, and more are being added, tells me that healthy growth is taking place.

Think of it like weight lifting. In order to grow your muscles, you must break down your muscle tissue so it can grow back bigger and stronger.

When people leave your fan page, that means your page was not the best fit for them – for whatever reason. And this is good thing because ultimately, don’t you want the most dedicated fans to be following you?

And when people leave, the fact that more people replace them means that your fan page is growing in the right direction.

What you need to do is expand your horizon regarding the growth of your fan page. Get a more linear view of what your growth goals are and how you want your fan page to grow.

When it comes to Facebook, you don’t necessarily want to play a pure numbers game.

The people who are fans of your page are those who are volunteering to receive your page updates, which means they are “high quality leads” to begin with, and worthy of your respect from day one – so quality is definitely better than quantity.

With evolutionary process of growth unfolding on your page, in due time you will start to achieve some level of scale with the numbers. And on a large scale, at least you’ll then know that all of those fans are people who are also “high quality” connections – whatever your goals and objectives may be!

I just finished having lunch with a great friend of mine who heads up the mission trips at our church.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about how technology, media, the Internet, and live streaming can all be leveraged to transform the way churches “do” missions trips, and how their local church body can get involved.

As it is now, people will go on a missions trip for a couple of weeks and most of us back home in the church forget they’re even gone. It’s like, four people just left for Haiti and we don’t hear from them, or even think too much about it, until they are back a couple of weeks later.

And then, when the missions team gets back, they are typically given a couple of minutes on Sunday morning to share what happened.

But what if we could bring technology and media into play – leveraging the technology that we already have at our disposal to allow local church bodies to follow our mission’s teams day by day, even moment by moment, as they serve on the missions’ field?

For example (just some random thoughts I shared with my friend):

1) Have a daily scheduled time where a team member from the missions team is available via Facebook chat, and everyone back home visit the webpage where the chat is taking place – then the mission team could answer questions, say hi to loved ones, update everyone on how things are going, etc…

It would be a set time each day, so everyone would have something to look forward to.

2) If the Pastor is on the missions trip, then have the Pastor preach the Sunday morning message from wherever they are on the missions trip.

Like in Haiti for example, you could pre-record the Pastor preaching his message for Sunday, and then broadcast that message up on big screens in the church… “here’s our Pastor coming to you live from Haiti!”

3) Here’s the ideas I really like to talk about – having a blog, Facebook Fan Page, and Twitter profile set up so that people can follow along with the missions team day by day, even moment by moment.

With all three of these platforms (blog, Facebook Page, Twitter) text, video, and photos can all be shared in real time – and then especially via Facebook, conversations could develop around the particular content being shared.

This is also a great way to get the local church body involved with the missions trip, interacting with the mission team members, praying for what’s happening, and supporting the missions trip.

4) Speaking of supporting :-)) Leveraging the web (blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc…) you could easily incorporate a PayPal or Google Checkout button (Google even has non-profit buttons available) so that people can support the missions team financially – all in real time!

Those are some thoughts I had in my head about how technology can be leveraged with a missions team from a church.

What ideas can you think of????  Share in the comments!

But how can you get more fans on your Facebook Fan Page if you’re just starting out, or you haven’t yet found a solution to increasing fans?

I’m going to share one simple strategy that has not only worked miraculous wonders for my Facebook Fan Page, but for countless other clients that I’ve the privilege of working with and watching their fan base grow.

Create A “Welcome” Landing Tab

Even though you can find hundreds of tips online about how to increase your fans on your Facebook Fan Page, the most effective way I’ve seen so far is to have a custom “Welcome” tab that all “non-fans” land on when visiting your Facebook page for the very first time.

I’m going to give you a link below on technical, step by step to making this happen. But for this article, my goal is to give you theory if you will.

Having a default “Welcome” tab on your Facebook Fan Page, one that only non-fans land on when first visiting your site, gives you the best opportunity to convert new visitors into fans.

After all, with a “Welcome” tab set for only “non-fans”, you know that only people who are not yet a fan of your page are going to see this custom tab first.

I’ve had the privelidge of managing a campaign where over 7000 fans flooded a Facebook Fan Page in less than 3 days. And I attribute this success not only with utilizing a large email list to invite a lot of people to become fans, but also with the default landing tab that encourage everyone to become a fan.

So here’s some links to help you better understand, and implement, a “Welcome” tab that only non-fans land on. Again, this is the single more effective way I’ve seen at converting new fans to a Facebook Fan Page:

Resources:

Facebook Fan Page default landing tab for everyone else

How to change Facebook Fan Page default landing tabs

Set your custom landing tabs

Dramatically increase fans to your Facebook Fan Page

Facebook Fan Page landing tabs for “non-fans” only

Your Facebook Fan Page is a great place to aggregate resources to share with your growing fan base. These resources can be presented on your Facebook Fan Page with the FBML app that allows you to have a customized tab at the top of your Fan Page, a customized name for that tab, and of course, customized content within that tab.

Without getting too far off track, let’s assume you want to use the FBML app to create a “resources” tab on your Facebook Fan Page (like my Facebook Fan Page Tips tab on my Fan Page). Or perhaps an even more organized resource page like the one on Jen Lovelady’s page.

You’ll notice on both of the examples mentioned above that the resources are organized using bullet points. This is typically accomplished (in standard HTML tags) as follows:

However, if you try to put that code in the FBML app tab on your Facebook Fan Page, all you’ll get is a blank screen. Frustrating, I know…

Luckily, in this case the fix is quite easy!

To make your bullet points work in FBML, simply remove the <ul></ul> tags from the code, while leaving all the other <li></li> tags – and that’s it, your bullet points will appear beautifully on your new customized FBML tab within your Facebook Fan Page.

For some reason, FBML doesn’t like the <ul></ul> tags – perhaps Facebook sees them as useless html code – who knows.

Hope that tip helps – and feel free to share a link to your resources tab on your Facebook Fan Page below in the comments.

When I refer to “social media” in the title of this article, I am primarily referring to one platform – Facebook.

Facebook has completely revolutionized the way businesses can build, reach, and convert new customers.

This comes primarily from the fact that companies can brand their business and products on Facebook faster, more effectively, and more efficiently than any other platform that’s previously existed.

Leveraging your Facebook Fan Page

To leverage Facebook effectively for branding your business or product, you should be (in fact, you must) have a Facebook Fan Page – or a Facebook business page.

Some companies leverage Facebook Fan Pages for their specific products – like Rice Krispies for example.

Others use only one Facebook Fan Page for all of the brand marketing and communication – like the one we use here at Social Media SEO.

Regardless of your purpose, size of your business, or other marketing strategies that you have in place, your business and brand needs a Facebook Fan Page.

Facebook business pages allow your brand to reach people continuously with consistently updated information, promotions, contests, news, etc…

When someone becomes a fan of your Facebook Page (or “Likes” your page), then that person is now the equivalent of a high quality lead for your business – much like a business would gather a name and email from people who are interested in what they sell.

Except with a Facebook Fan Page, you don’t have to worry about putting together HTML emails, and all the other steps in putting together a broadcast email – simply type your message into your Facebook Page wall and send.

More importantly, your Facebook page updates can go viral. This means, if one of your fans comment on your update, click “Like”, or share your update with their friends on Facebook, then your business or brand Facebook page can be seen by hundreds, even thousands, or people that weren’t even looking for you – this is something that an email broadcast cannot achieve.

So what about you – does your business or brand have a Facebook Fan Page?

How are you leveraging it for your business?

Do you find your Facebook Page as an effective way to build your brand and reach new customers?

It use to be that the only way you could connect and interact with a loyal audience of online readers was through email lists.

Connecting and communicating with your readers is one of the most important actions you can take to grow your online audience, business, etc…

But with the rise of Facebook, and primarily Facebook Fan Pages, I see a new tool that can actually be more effective than email lists.

An active Facebook Fan Page allows you (the business, writer, blogger, actor, actress, etc…) to directly interact with a continual growing audience of “fans”. And of course we all define “fans” differently, but the end result is the same – connecting and letting your “fans” know you care about them and are excited to interact with them.

It’s the “connection” element that increases your credibility with your audience and puts a human element to your online presence.

If you don’t have a Facebook Fan Page yet – regardless of your profession – then I highly recommend you build one and implement it into your current online properties (i.e. blog, website, etc…).

So what about you, do you already have a Facebook Fan Page? And if so, are you using it to connect with your audience?

So I just wrote about a strange Facebook login error that some people have reported getting today on Facebook – the message is “www.facebook.com doesn’t exist”, which is bizarre. But now my email is filling up with messages from people reporting that they simply cannot connect to Facebook.

One person simply put it like this:

cannot connect to Facebook 9/22/10

And I must admit, that even when I try to open my Facebook Fan Page, the images are not loading, only text.

So I think there might be some server issues happening at Facebook today.

Anyone else getting errors?

If so, what kind?

I know that Facebook has been warning us for quite some time about this, but today I – and several of my clients – have finally seen our custom HTML boxes removed.

So you may, or maybe not yet, noticed that any custom HTML boxes on your Facebook Fan Page are gone.

This is a policy implemented by Facebook to get you, the user, to leverage more of the designed interface that Facebook provides (i.e., Favorites, etc…)

If you were like me, I used the HTML boxes to provide navigation to all Fan Pages that were related to that specific page.

So instead of using the HTML boxes now, a great alternative would be to use the Facebook Page Favorites app.

Simply look underneath your Fan Page logo and click the link called “Add To My Page’s Favorites” > then simply select what Fan Page you want to add that favorite page to.

So what do you think about Facebook’s new policy of removing custom HTML boxes from Fan Pages?

I just received an update on some of my clients that have a Google Places listing. This is basically a Google Maps profile that promotes their business in Google anytime someone searches for their type of business from a desktop computer, laptop, or mobile phone. The person types in the search phrase, and the local business is presented in the Google Maps section.

Anyway, one client in particular (just so happens to be a plastic surgeon in Houston, Texas), has already received over 1000 hits to his Google Places listing this month. That pretty amazing since his profile will only show when someone local (within metro Houston) searches for his type of business (which means he is connecting with high quality prospects who are searching for what he offers).

But what I think he is missing terribly is a Facebook business page for his practice. A Facebook business page would allow him to continually update people who are “Fans” on his Facebook page with testimonials from clients, photos, promotions that are happen, etc… all of which could be shared in real time, and all of which could be viral marketed across Facebook to potentially thousands of people.

The Ultimate Local Business Marketing Strategy

So this has me thinking about what could quite possibly be the ultimate local business marketing strategy.

And that is:

1) A Google Places profile for your business

Within your Google Places business profile you now have the ability to use what’s called “Tags”.

Tags allow you to enhance your local listing with post updates, your website, promotions, etc… all of which add more relevant content to your Places profile and thus making it more authoritative – which ultimately means you’ll get more exposure and traffic from people searching for what your business offers.

2) A Facebook business page

As I’ve already mentioned about a Facebook business page, you can instantly update your “Fans” via Facebook about new promotions, specials, etc… and they can then react or respond to your update which would then viral market that update to potentially thousands of people.

So anyway, I’m starting to think that the ultimate local business marketing strategy is made up of having a Google Places profile and a Facebook business page – and then staying active in building the audience within both of these platforms.

You can read testimonials from businesses that claim Google Places has become their primary advertising platform – likewise with Facebook business pages.

So imagine putting both of these platforms to work simultaneously?

What are your thoughts?

I just noticed that the default landing tab on my Social Media SEO Facebook Fan Page was not adjusted for the new width policy that Facebook launched about a month or so ago.

Previously, I think the width of custom tabs on the Facebook Fan Page was around 570px.

But the new Facebook custom tab / FBML page width is 520px.

So if you have any custom tabs on your Fan Page, you might want to go back through and see if your images are looking right on your Facebook page.

Again, it’s 520px for the new Facebook Fan Page width.