FaceBook Timeline: Just a Question of Time

You might have started to notice a new look:

FaceBook has introduced FaceBook Timeline, an entirely new kind of profile.  It will be available on a trial basis for a short time, and then will be migrated
to your old profile pages.  It allows you to post a cool background photo (see below) and documents your recent activities in larger graphics that are visually stunning.  Timeline gives you an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect your most important moments. It also lets you share new experiences, like the music you listen to or the miles you run.

Timeline is now available everywhere. Check this link for details http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline .  Like so many of FaceBook’s add-ons, it is not available (yet) for existing fan pages, but you can save your profile as a page.  I think it’s pretty self explanatory, but feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

7-day review period 

When you upgrade to timeline, you’ll have seven days to review everything that appears on your timeline before anyone else can see it. You can also choose to publish your timeline at any time during the review period. If you decide to wait, your timeline will go live automatically after seven days. Your new timeline will replace your profile, but all your stories and photos will still be there.

 

BAY INTEGRATED MARKETING +1 650 430 2190
email:    steve@bayintegratedmarketing.com
LinkedIn:   http://www.linkedin.com/in/steveulrichmktg
Blog:  http://bayintegratedmarketing.wordpress.com
Website:  www.bayintegratedmarketing.com
Twitter:  @steveulrichmktg
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6 Tips to Increase Your Facebook EdgeRank and Exposure

by Jim Lodico

Ever wonder why you can have 548 friends on Facebook, yet only 15-20 show up in your news feed? It’s not that those other friends have stopped using Facebook; chances are they’re still there. It’s just that they aren’t showing up in your news feed.

If you haven’t noticed, there are now two settings on your Facebook news feed: “Most Recent,” which shows most of the content published by your Facebook friends in chronological order and “Top News,” which filters content based on EdgeRank.

Friends and fan pages with a high EdgeRank are more likely to show in your “Top News” stream. Users with a low EdgeRank may not even show in your “Most Recent” news feed.

For businesses or others looking to market, promote or just interact through Facebook, the implications of this change are huge. “Top News” is the default setting, so unless a friend or fan changes their default, it’s quite possible that they will never see your updates. No matter how good the content, no matter how well you manage your Facebook page, EdgeRank might be holding you back.

EdgeRank Defined

Facebook looks at everything published as “objects.” These can be status updates, links, photos, video or anything else that can be shared on Facebook. Every object receives a ranking (EdgeRank), which determines if it will show in your personal newsfeed. Objects with a high EdgeRank appear in your “Top News” feed. Objects with a low EdgeRank will not. According to a study conducted last fall by The Daily Beast, objects with a really low EdgeRank may not even show in your “Most Recent” news feed.

An object’s EdgeRank is based on three factors: affinity or the relationship between the creator and user, interaction with the object (likes, comments, etc.) and timeliness. Add the three factors together using a formula that only Facebook truly knows and you’ve got an object’s EdgeRank.

Unlike Google’s PageRank, which stays the same from user to user, every object is scored based on the individual Facebook user who may (or may not) view the object in their news feed.

Let’s take a closer look at the three factors that determine EdgeRank.

Affinity

An object’s affinity score is based on the interactions you have with the friend or fan who published the object. Friends or fans with whom you regularly interact receive a higher affinity score. Each time you visit a fan page, click the “Like” button, comment on a user’s status or look at a picture, you increase the affinity score with that user.

As The Daily Beast study points out, this affinity score only works one way. I can’t increase my affinity score in another user’s feed by constantly clicking on their “Like” buttons or looking at their pictures. Although doing so will increase the likelihood that you’ll see their updates, your objects won’t do better in their news feed until theyreturn the favor.

Level of Interaction

Different types of interactions are weighted differently on Facebook. Activities that require higher levels of user engagement get a higher score than those that don’t. For example, leaving a comment on a photo takes more effort on the user’s part than clicking the “Like” button. Objects that receive higher levels of interaction are more likely to show in a user’s newsfeed.

Timeliness

Most people don’t want to read yesterday’s news. Newer objects have a better chance of showing up in your news feed than older ones.

Armed with an understanding of these three elements, here are six tips on how you can increase the likelihood that your content or objects will appear in your friends’ or fans’ “Top News” feed.

#1: Publish Objects That Encourage Interaction

Unless they’re interesting enough to draw comments, simple status updates aren’t going to move you into Top News feeds. Publish content that naturally encourages click-throughs or creates discussion. Objects such as creative games that require a response (i.e., trivia or caption contests) open up opportunities to add highly weighted interaction and build affinity with new users.

Top News is Facebook’s default setting. Top News only shows objects with a higher EdgeRank.

#2: Create a Forum

Ever notice how political content on Facebook can generate a ton of comments? Although it doesn’t take long to realize that Facebook and politics don’t mix, people love to debate and discuss hot issues. Make your fan page a place for constructive discussion on the latest industry topics. Although this approach takes careful management, objects from a fan page filled with healthy discussion are more likely to receive a higher EdgeRank.

Objects such as surveys require user interaction which can build EdgeRank.

#3: Make the Most of Photos and Videos

Photos and videos show up in the Facebook news feed as thumbnail images. Due to their size, they almost require interaction as users click on them to make them large enough to see. Be sure to add a comment that encourages users to open the photo and add comments of their own.

By their very nature, videos and pictures encourage interaction.

#4: Share Links

Links require interaction as users click on the link to view the object. While it’s good to share content from your own website, don’t be afraid to promote interesting content from other sources. Twitter users discovered long ago that the more content of value you share, the better chance you have of driving followers to your own content when the time comes. Again, a comment that encourages opening the link or leaving comments can go a long way.

An object that receives comments is more likely to show in the Top News feed and also builds affinity with users who comment.

#5: Keep It Fresh

The Facebook stream moves quickly. If you’ve got objects that aren’t getting a response, don’t be afraid to let them go and move on to the next thing. If the object is good but didn’t get the response you desired, consider repurposing it or sending it out again at a different time of day.

#6: Ask Users to Share

Don’t be afraid to ask users to share objects or click on the Like button—especially if you’re new to Facebook. It can take a little while for a Facebook page to gain momentum. Anything you can do to help it along will only speed the process.

Although the introduction of EdgeRank may make it more difficult to share information on Facebook, ultimately it still comes down to content. Publishing content that users want to share and interact with has always been vital to any Facebook marketing campaign. With the recent Facebook changes, that content may now need a little extra push to get it the attention it deserves.

 

 

 

 

Don’t Get Distracted!

Homework, Facebook, homework, Twitter, homework, YouTube, YouTube, Facebook, homework, Twitter. Sound like your typical study session? We all get distracted very easily while we work on school assignments, especially with the Internet being so easily accessed in this day and age. I think in order to be better students, you need to work on limiting your distractions. If not, you will find yourself wasting a lot of time!

Distractions:

5. Music

Whether it’s downloading it, listening to it, or even dancing around to it music is a big distraction. While you’re doing your homework, I suggest turning it off, or find some music that isn’t super distracting like Mozart or Beethoven.

4.YouTube

Probably one of the greatest websites of all time. Sitting around watching videos all afternoon, when you should be working on a huge group project, is really unnecessary and could result in a bad grade as a result of being woefully underprepared.

3. Twitter

Tweet Tweet! Twitter is a lot of fun to see what your friends are up to, or what your favorite celebrities have to say for the day. It is a great website to find out news and important information. However, when you have a ten page paper due, you should probably steer clear of Twitter for awhile.

2. Texting

Having your phone attached to your hip is unhealthy. Try to go a whole day without texting. Too hard? Well, at least leave it at home when you go to the library to work on your nightly homework. If not, you will want to go hang out with your friends and skip out on the school work for the night.

1. Facebook

And now for the number one distractor in the whole wide world! (Well, at least for college students in America, anyway.) Facebook will tell you what your friends are doing along with pictures of their activities. Do you think you will be able to sit through an online quiz with this popping up every few minutes?

Good Bye iPhone

A man wrote an article online about how he just recently dumped his iPhone. On Black Friday, rather than lining up to go get the brand new version, he gave it up and traded it in for a small flip phone with no internet or cool apps. Sam Graham-Felson’s article appeared in Good Magazine. He says he could spend three hours on his phone without even noticing where the time went. It was impossible for him to go through dinner without reaching for his iPhone. As Felson was reading Henry David Thoreau‘s Walden, he came across the line, “Men have become tools of their tools.”

Felson realized that he became so distracted by his phone that he had become addicted to it. He decided to break his habit and that is when he traded in his phone. Felson did something that may of us can’t. I know that none of you will probably want to delete your Facebook or get rid of your phone, but I challenge you to limit your distractions. Have your roommate change your passwords for a week so you can focus on your midterms or finals. Also, you can set goals to only get on Facebook or on your phone for a limited amount of minutes per day! You can do it. If you do, you will find that your study habits improve significantly.

About the Author

Meagan Hollman crafts written pieces MyCollegesandCareers.com. My Colleges and Careers gets those who have a business inkling to start searching for the best online masters degree programs. Once they have found them, they are able to acheive their goals like they always wanted.

 

The Ultimate Guide To “LinkedIn Today” & How To Optimize Your Presence On It

by Greg Finn

In March, LinkedIn launched LinkedIn Today, which was dubbed as a news source from your connections and peers in the industry. It has quickly grown to drive massive amounts of traffic to popular content. This service works by aggregating news from industries, connections and sources that you follow, then displaying stories in a visually appealing news format.

Meet LinkedIn Today

LinkedIn Today exists as a standalone website, where you can browse through some of the top articles that LinkedIn thinks you’ll find interesting:

But beyond the LinkedIn Today home page, LinkedIn Today also powers articles that also appear on your own personal home page. The top three articles of the day are pulled into a section titled “Top Headlines on LinkedIn Today” above connection updates, as shown below:

 

LinkedIn Today differs from other social news sites as it skews heavily towards B2B topics.  While some categories could be viewed as B2C exist (such as entertainment, automotive, etc) the vast majority of content is aimed at businesses, a unique niche in social media.

 

How Does It Work?

Like most social news sites, LinkedIn Today works off a voting algorithm that aims to match popular articles with interested users.

Every time a user vouches for an article it is called a “share” and can be tracked by the number next to the blue banner across the featured image.  Shares can be viewed by clicking on that banner, but only those who shared the article publicly will be shown.

Today then matches content to like-minded people by showing top news across industries that you follow and are a part of.  The specific industry of the user sharing the story is taken into account as well.  If a LinkedIn member is listed as a member of the advertising industry, that information is factored in when an article is shared or liked and will help to boost the articles presence within the “marketing & advertising” industry.  The more targeted votes from industry individuals, the quicker an article will rise up within that category.

There are currently a few different ways to share an article that will be recognized on Today, through the LinkedIn Bar, on the LinkedIn site itself, likes of other’s shared articles and via Twitter.

Voting Via The LinkedIn Bar

This is the simplest method of sharing content on LinkedIn and requires a user to post activity with the link to the article.  When clicking on a link, a LinkedIn branded browser bar may appear at the top of the page:

If clicked over directly from your connection sharing, context will appear in the form of their description or tweet in the bar:

 

This bar allows users to like the update of their connection, comment on it, or share it with their friends.  It is important to know that some sites bust frames, such as Search Engine Land, will not show this bar.

Votes At LinkedIn Through Shares & Updates

Shares, or votes, on LinkedIn can be accumulated in a variety of formats. One is through a LinkedIn Update. This occurs when a user attaches a link to an update using the  “attach a link” option:

If an article has already been shared by someone, it can be reshared, which counts as a vote. For example, here’s an article already on LinkedIn Today, with an option to share it:

Doing that brings up a sharing dialog box:An additional way to share outside of the standard update is via the LinkedIn share widget discussed below.  Private shares are also taken into account when listing articles on Today.

Votes Via Likes

LinkedIn allows users to like articles shared by your connections and these do play a role in what shows on Today.  LinkedIn users can like articles right from the updates stream or within LinkedIn Groups.

Votes Via Twitter

If a user ties their Twitter account to their LinkedIn account, a tweet will also count as a LinkedIn share due to a partnership between LinkedIn and Twitter.  This will only occur if a user’s LinkedIn Profile is joined with their Twitter account, or if a user shares an article on LinkedIn and selects the “tweet” button as their form of sharing.

Following Industries & Sources

LinkedIn Today features multiple industries and news sources to follow helping users customize the stories on in their LinkedIn Today headlines.  Other than your connections, there are two additional ways to customize the content you see on LinkedIn Today.

The first is to follow content from particular industries. If you following a category like “Marketing & Advertising Industry,” related content will have a higher percentage of showing up as top stories on your front page.

LinkedIn will suggest some to you at the top of LinkedIn Today and to the right side, in the “Suggested Industries” section, as shown below:

The “See all” button below the Suggested Industries section will open a dialog box of all industries you can follow.

Have a favorite site?  Want to see it show up more often in LinkedIn Today?  Well if you follow a specific source, their top stories will become “whitelisted” and show up more frequently on your LinkedIn Today front page.

The “Top Sources” area on the LinkedIn Today home page provides suggestions, and the “See all” link brings up a dialog box listing more:

How To Consume

LinkedIn makes it easy to consume content from LinkedIn Today by offering multiple ways to obtain hot stories.  The main ways to use LinkedIn Today:

LinkedIn Today Site: The full-featured website allows users to follow sources, industries and see a wide variety of recommended articles.

Digest Emails: Users can choose from daily or weekly email subscriptions for top stories.  This can be set within your email frequency settings.

Bookmarking – Save Feature: One of the really nice features of LinkedIn Today in my opinion is the ‘Save’ option for articles. Many social news sites like Digg have lacked the ability to view at a later time, but LinkedIn makes saving an article easy.

Each article features a save button to the right of the article:

Saved articles will show up in your saved article bin.  Once read, you can then check off to remove from your saved articles.

iPhone & Android Apps: LinkedIn Today can be found on the LinkedIn iPhone & Android apps under the news category.  The apps allow users to view the full site, send to a connection or post directly to updates.  Users can also clearly see what is ‘hot right now’ and how many other connections shared an article:

 

StumbleUpon Partnership: In March, LinkedIn and Stumble partnered up to help promote content across platforms:

StumbleUpon added a LinkedIn Share button in their browser, while LinkedIn pulled in top stories from StumbleUpon into each category:

 

How To Optimize

Now that you know what LinkedIn Today is, how can you optimize for it?  Here are some marketing tactics to make your content more successful on LinkedIn Today.

To have content become popular, LinkedIn Today looks at what links members share, like and comment on the most. The higher the numbers, the higher the probability of your content ranking. LinkedIn says:

A higher preference is assigned to recent articles if they’re being shared quickly by a broad base of members.

Share

This is the most obvious (and effective) way to help your content become popular as a share acts as a vote for your content.  There are a few additional ways to share:

• Post Your Stories As Updates: This share goes out on your LinkedIn profile and can be viewed by all of your connections. Public shares will be shown when a user clicks on the share number of the article.

• Post Your Stories To Groups: Are you member of some targeted groups?  Well cut through the clutter of main connection updates and share directly to a relevant audience of group members. This can be annoying if over utilized, so use in moderation!

• Send To Individuals: No need for DMs, CC’s or copying-pasting to an email. If you find an article you’d like to share with someone specific, simply send it directly to a connection or via email. When talking to LinkedIn, it was mentioned that private shares do play a role in the algorithm.

Share Button

Launched in late 2010, the LinkedIn share button gives publishers a tool to help facilitate content sharing on their site.  The share button gives the option to feature the share count vertically, horizontally or having no count.This is a dynamic button that opens the LinkedIn page in a new window with all information pre-filled for the user.  Posting this button on important articles and blog posts can help to get an extra boost for your most important content.  The button can also be added to WordPressquickly and easily.

Become a Source

If your site is very popular on LinkedIn Today, you can apply to have it added as a source.  Simply reach out as a publisher and see if LinkedIn deems you worthy!

Promote on Twitter

Many LinkedIn users have tied their Twitter account to their LinkedIn account, and every tweet from one of those users will count as a share on LinkedIn Today.

So if your audience is socially savvy, there should be a high correlation between number of Tweets and the number of Shares on LinkedIn.  Make sure to promote your most important content on Twitter it will have a trickledown effect on LinkedIn Today.

Add Like-Minded Connections

Like all other social media news sites, having a larger network will help the reach of your message.  By adding in connections that are of a similar mindset, you will be able to put more eyeballs on your content, thereby increasing the number of shares your content will receive.

Don’t Overlook LinkedIn!

Overall, LinkedIn is one of the most powerful forms of social sharing in the B2B realm, and is growing steadily.  This service fills a deep void in business-to-business social news aggregation providing numerous ways of harnessing the growing LinkedIn population.

 

Avoiding Computer-Related Timesinks at the Office

Technology has brought as many new ways to waste time as it has to save it. Even some applications that are meant to help things run smoothly in the office have a way of sucking up valuable minutes.

E-Mail

E-mail can be an integral part of inter-office communication, but when you find yourself checking messages several dozen times a day, it becomes problematic. The minutes you spend sifting through spam or replying to notifications that aren’t work-related add up fast, decreasing your productivity. Interrupting your work to check e-mail is also distracting and can make it difficult to pick up your train of thought when returning to the task at hand. Instead, pick two or three set times during the day to check your e-mail and stick to them.

Social Media

Unless it’s part of your job, engaging in social media at work is bad news. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Digg are full of links to things that have little to do with your job and will almost always suck away more time than you intend. Taking a few minutes to check your Twitter feed during your lunch break may be okay, as long as doing so is acceptable under the policies of your workplace. Otherwise, wait until you get home.

Viral Videos

Every office has a co-worker who is always e-mailing bizarre Internet finds to everyone else. The next time he sends you a link to the latest viral video, resist the urge to click. One short video may not seem so bad, but many video sites suggest other things to watch based on your tastes, and before you know it you’ve been watching for an hour. If you absolutely must see the video, e-mail it to yourself at home to view at a more appropriate time.

Addictive Games

It’s easy to get caught up in the variety of addictive games on the Internet. You may tell yourself you’re only going to load up your favorite puzzle game while you wait for a co-worker, or that you’re taking five minutes to check out a Facebook application. These “quick breaks”often turn into lengthy distractions, and your high score isn’t likely to impress your boss enough that he won’t notice you’ve gotten nothing done. When it comes to games, it’s better to avoid them entirely while at the office.

With all the distractions of the Internet, it can take some willpower to disengage. But by managing your time with productivity in mind, you can avoid wasting your day and get your job done without worrying that you boss might catch you goofing off on YouTube when you should be working.

Miles Walker writes feature articles on car insurance quotes for CarInsuranceComparison.org. He recently wrote about Tennessee car insurance.

 

Dr. Mike is a Free-kin Rock Star

Congratulations Dr. Mike for a Job Well Done

Days like this don’t happen often enough in this business.  One of my clients published his first website today, and I was actually around to push the button when he went live.

I met Dr. Mike years ago.  We were both in the same church band; in fact we were both bass players in the same church band.  We rotated Sundays and it worked out well as there was another church requiring my services every other weekend.  There was never a feeling of competition, and although we didn’t see each other all that often our relationship was friendly and we became “friends” on FaceBook and LinkedIn.  After a few years the church and I were going in different directions musically, and philosophically.  My Buddhist girlfriend (now wife) was tolerant of some of the egregious language of the Evangelical Christian  Church (everybody is OK as long as they think exactly the way we do…) but not enthusiastic over spending our Sundays driving a half hour each direction to do so.  They had found yet another bass player so we just drifted off.

Mike started Chiropractic school with a vengeance, and kissed his wife goodbye for a couple of years to become a slave to the classrooms and studies.  After the rigorous course, and several panic attacks during exams, Mike was ready to hang up his shingle and announce his practice (again on FaceBook and LinkedIn) and I began to follow him.  Oh the joys of social media, being re-connected with old friends.

Forgetting that age had crept up on me my back went out while engaged in some construction activity that should probably have been left for a man half my age.  It took a few days for me to become convinced that it was not somehow going to miraculously work itself out, and would indeed require the intervention of a skilled practitioner.  It was so bad that walking was almost out of the question, and ice and heat were required to merely sit in front of a football game on television.

Remembering our association, and the current status of Dr. Mike the Chiropractor, it was easy to recall my pleasant experiences with the service and call upon his expertise to alleviate my current condition.  The only negative memory of Chiropractic being that my health plan sucks, and it can be a bit expensive out of pocket.  This minor setback was alleviated after my first visit with our agreement to barter his services for mine as an internet marketing consultant.  As it turns out, so was my back pain.  In a matter of 3 weeks it was loose and relatively painless and the mobility returned to the point that noon 2 mile hikes were back in the picture.

Every visit to his office was accompanied by an hour or so of marketing discussions.  We went over Facebook, Youtube, Hotmail, Blogs, google.com, Markets, Websites, Products, WordPress, Linkedin, youtube videos, and general integration into social media.

The past few visits he has come up to the office and we really got down with our website provider and started to create.  His work is as outstanding on the site is it is at his practice.  It is truly satisfying to have a client listen and take the advice that one works so hard to provide.  At the suggestion of one of my associates, I have for some time, really not encouraged any of my clients to do any of their own work; it simply usually doesn’t get done.

Even with a newborn first child at home, Dr. Mike has written some 20 technical blogs revolving around healthcare and Chiropractic medicine.  It was with great pride that this humble internet marketer was able to watch the birth of www.rogersonchiropractic.com.  Well done Dr. Mike!

 

Social Media Workshop

Posted by: “Ethan”

Tue Oct 12, 2010 4:45 pm (PDT)

How I used Twitter the afternoon after the workshop.

Just an approach. You all will do different things. My interests and the way each of you use social media is different than everybody else.

On one of my list of ÒfollowedÓ I came across this: http://bit.ly/9D5BeB I want the charts for it so I went looking for the presenter. I found this in about 1 minute: http://goo.gl/4tuA It took 8 minutes or so to watch. He talks about exactly what the workshop was about: Òwhat is social, and why does it really matter in a hard economic sense.Ó

In the meantime I have started following a big communications/telecom conference and have volunteered to work on it and am now registered as an attendee. It costs me three full days of labor at the event to attend each day of the conference. Cheap?

Because of that a company named supertalent with the Twitter handle
@gosupertalent started following my Twitter stream. (I also got a follow from the Green conference in SF, but they dropped off.)

I also made a tweet for the two links above: @shooteyeout on Twitter.

Now the company that is following me sees that I have ÒhopefullyÓ interesting and serious tweets about economics and team building and privacy etc. I can follow them and go look them up at the conference when I am there.

I do not know where that goes. But, it connects me to others, other companies, advertises my brand. It helps me understand what people who think deeply about the Web, and social networks, and economics, and the modern definition of ÒworkÓ and ÒIndustrial,Ó are thinking about so that I am more knowledgable and more current.

I can thank Steve U and Carla for the first social media workshop a couple of weeks ago to get me to try all this and start to figure out what it means.

Thanks Guys!!

 

Twitter for business? What a no-brainer, literally!

I’ll have to admit, I was one of the early haters.  I had friends that would twit in the morning because they brushed their teeth.  The one historical entry “ coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, (about 10 more times, then…)  yes please!” is still number one on my Darwin list.  I digress.  Despite the initial rather juvenile applications that the twit-o-verse seemed to attract, practical Malthusian laws were soon to prevail.

The “my dog’s breath smells” postings (who’s authors were soon hidden or “un-followed”) began to give way to posts like:

INTERNET: Jajah, the internet phone company that was snapped up by Spanish telecom giant Telefonica for … http://nyti.ms/bSKpuL [NYTimes]  from my good buddy @andressilvaa in Santiago Chile. 

I can click on this link and learn all about it.  I can click on links for company press releases, for job hunters and hiring managers alike.  I can send tech links for product releases or schematics and drawings to my field engineers… the list is endless.

In preparing a course for a group of executives I found the true power of this tool, and it is amazing.  I use it to broadcast my blogs and I never even have to touch the platform. It is linked automatically to my WordPress account, tweets to my flock, and posts automatically to my LinkedIn updates.  With this simple platform I feel like I have the communication power of a Super Cray (remember those?) on my iPhone.  No company should do business without tapping into this!

If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please email me at: steve@bayintegratedmarketing.com and I would be happy send you the link.   Better yet DT me @steveulrichmktg.