My news feed has been totally overcome with Timeline this week. And of course it’s only to be expected. I think I’ve only managed one non-timeline related piece of content myself. I’m not going to ignore it entirely this week but there have been other things happening. So here are my top seven reads this week, there’s news from Google, a great post about images and I’ve even found a couple of tips on using Google+.
If there’s a story you think I should have included do leave your links below. I might squeeze it in to next weeks roundup.
Irish social media agency Simply Zesty acquired by UTV
Fantastic news for Simply Zesty this week as it was acquired by UTV. It’s been great to see an Irish business grow so quickly and do so well, I’ve always been a fan of their blog and have been entertained by both Niall and Lauren’s tweets. It seems hard to believe they’ve only been around since 2009. They’ve definitely been a shining light in the social media world both here in Ireland and overseas. So a massive congratulations to all, I’ll look forward to seeing the business evolve. Here’s how they announced it on their blog.
Google launch ‘Google Play’
Google Play looks like a lot of fun, it makes sense, it’s clever. What is it? It takes all your music, movies, e-books & apps and stores them in the cloud, this isn’t particularly new but what makes it brilliant is that it stores information about them, it will bookmark your ebook so that even if you pick it up on a different device it will know exactly what page you were on, like Netfilx it will store how far through a movie you are and play it directly from the point you last viewed it from. This could be a killer application that will push those who are ready to make the jump from iPhone/iPad over to Android devices.
Most of all, the video they created to promote it is brilliant. Find out more, and see the video here.
Change the name of your Facebook page
Great news! I’ve encountered many companies that have wanted to change the name of their Facebook page. Some set up a page with a geographical location in the name and then changed location, others specified a year. Until now pages with over 100 Likes were not able to change that name. The only solution was to start from scratch with a new page.
Now it seems Facebook will let you change the name. Here’s how to do it via the Imactiv8 blog. It’s also worth taking a look at the new Facebook page guidelines that tell you what page names are eligable to be changed.
Web graphics, images & conversions
Whether we like it or not Images are more powerful than words, they attract attention and can tell a story instantly. Images in blog posts and on web sites are essential but do they work for you? Is a pretty website going to encourage more customers? I found this article fascinating, not only does it talk about how beautiful websites can simply not work but it also has good traditional advice about positioning images and even tips including how captions below pictures get more readers than the main body of text.
Google+ pros & cons for small business
If you are a reader of this blog you will know that I have been sitting on the fence about Google+ since it was launched. Yes it’s a beautifully put together social network, it’s intuitive and uncomplicated, it takes the best parts of Facebook and Twitter and merges them but will it ever get enough interaction to really take off? Since it’s inception there has been talk of it failing, it seems there are some people out there just waiting for it to fail so they can say ‘told you so!’. However as reports come in of the slump of interaction on the network it’s worth taking another look at why we should (or should not) be using it. And that’s exactly what this article from Viral Blog does. Worth a read if just to re-asses your presence there.
How to verify your Google+ page
If the last link has persuaded you to stay on Google+ you might find this video useful. Apparently using this process to link your G+ page and your website will help your website rank on Google. It’s on my todo list for this week!
Not forgetting Timeline!
I’m not going to totally ignore Timeline, in fact if you scroll down you’ll find three links from me about it. If you’re still wondering if you should make the change to Timeline business pages but don’t know where to start this article from Christina at CG Online Marketing will help you get started.
And from Spiderworking.com this week
If you’re in preview mode or simply taken the big step and converted to Timeline on your business page here’s my video tutorial on changing your featured tabs and how to change the images that accompany them.
I also wrote a post on the demise of the welcome tab on new Timeline pages for Bloggertone. Is customisation a thing of the past?
Timeline is very image heavy, there’s a cover photo, an avatar, custom images for tabs. I’ve collected all the info on these different types of image and included them in a blog post. I’ve also added three free tools that can help you create great images to use on Timeline.
And finally… nothing to do with timeline. This Monday’s cool tool is an application that helps you hide specific #tags or people from our feeds! Great way to hide Britain’s Got Talent or the Euro Soccer Championship.
