The Maine SEO Blog

What happens to my custom tabs or landing pages I’ve created in Facebook when pages change over to the new Facebook Timeline? This is a question I had and was asked by many others. Here’s the answer. They don’t disappear they just get moved. So, you’ll notice below there is an image of the old Facebook pages. You’ll notice the blue arrow points to the links to the tabs that were created. And, the circle is around the page itself.

With the new Timeline for Facebook pages this will get moved to the right of the page just below the cover image. Here you are allowed to have your custom tabs and applications. You can have up to 12 apps total. Facebook will also allow you to prioritize the order so you can have the most important tabs/links/apps show up first. Take the image of our new timeline page below, I have circled the area where your pages will be moved.

My second question was, “Can you still have a defaulted landing page for those who haven’t liked your Facebook page yet?”

Answer: Unfortunately with the new timeline the ability to default visitors to a particular page is no longer available. However, there is still value in setting up landing pages, as you can still set up custom tabs where people can learn more about you and you can still have folks land on custom pages coming from Facebook ads.

Here are a few suggestions on ways to use your cover image and custom tabs to provide the same service the defaulted pages for those who hadn’t liked you yet provided:

- Incorporate your tagline in your cover image
- Incorporate an arrow in the cover image pointing to the like button
- Pin a welcome video, so that it’s at the top of your page for new visitors (unfortunately you’d have to continue to do this every 7 days)
- Create a welcome page for Facebook targeted ads that ask for the like

Looking for more answers when it comes to the Facebook Timeline Pages? Check out this informative video that Facebook put together.

Resources:
facebook.com/about/pages
facebook.com/help/page/new-design
facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Learning Something New

This is so exciting! This morning Facebook rolled out the new timeline for Facebook Business pages! As of March 30th all Facebook Pages will get the new Timeline design, but you have the option of switching over your page now. I would recommend switching over early so that you can get a handle on all the new features and functionality ahead of the game.

When you sign into Facebook today and head over to your page you’ll see the announcement of the pages as well as have the ability to take a tour, see a preview of what your new page will look like and the option to make the switch. Facebook offers you a preview of what your page will look like. Below is a preview of what the new Flyte page will look like… Obviously we need to add our cover image and get to work on this!

The cover photo and profile image work just as they do on your Facebook Timeline profile. You can upload any image you want there. This is a great space to get creative in. It will also allow brands to have a branded/cohesive look and feel to their pages without having to create a separate tab or landing page. Next you’ll want to make sure that you adjust your profile image. There are several examples out there currently of how people have gotten creative with their personal profiles using the cover image and the profile photo together to create something interesting. Check out these examples of some creative Facebook Timeline profiles.

Organize your stories, photos, and applications in order of priority. Below you will see an example for the Coca-Cola page. The blue circle shows where these apps/pages, and photos now appear. You can add up to 12 different apps to your pages and then organize them to show up in the order that you would like.

The rest of the time line is fairly similar to your personal profile Facebook timeline, such as the ability to hover over stories to edit them. You can delete, hide and Star images from here on the split feed. Did you upload a cool product image? Make it wider by starring it. However, one cool new feature is the addition of the new Admin Panel. From the new admin panel you should be able to manage everything in one place. You can respond to comments and people writing on your page and you can check out your  insights. Below is a peek of what that looks like.

And that last new addition looks like you will now be able to message people privately and vice versa. This is really a cool feature as before this was only available for personal profiles. This will allow brands to have one on one conversations with their customers.

Several brands have already made the switch to the new timeline for Facebook pages. Check out Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Nike, and Ford who have already adopted the new timeline and tell us what you think!

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Timeline Fan

A question I hear a lot is “how do I increase my email newsletter subscribers?” Building your email list may not seem as sexy as building your Twitter followers or Facebook fans, but it’s even more important. Building your email list is always part of a great web marketing strategy. After all YOU own your email list you don’t own your Facebook page. So, here are a few tips on how to build your email list…

1. Create a subscribe box on your website.
2. Create some sort of email bait. This can be anything from offering a gift, coupon or discount to offering an intelligent eBook or whitepaper that your audience would find valuable. Research what makes your audience tic and then create something that will make them take action.
3. Let people know how many people are already subscribed – this gives the audience social proof as to why they should sign up. For instance you can say something like “join our list and and become part of our 10,000+ subscribers.”
4. Is there anyone subscribed to your eNewsletter that is really well known in the industry, or a news channel/journalist, or a national company? If so ask permission to promote your eNewsletter subscription using their name or logo.
5. Promote your appreciation for their privacy. “We never share your email address!” This makes people feel more comfortable to subscribe.
6. LinkedIn Allows you to add a link to 3 websites in your profile, make one of them your email newsletter sign up page
7. Add a subscribe box to your Facebook welcome tab. We always recommend just asking for the “Like” on your Facebook landing page. But, once you’ve got that like default your audience to a Welcome Tab where you ask them to subscribe to your email newsletter.
8. Add a link to your eNewsletter sign up page to your email signature – this one seems obvious but people still forget to put it there!
9. Add a quote from a recognizable figure that subscribes to your email newsletter and promote it in the sign up box – Notice the above image of the feature box from the flyte blog we have a great quote from Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner.
10. Use a feature box on your blog!
11. Include an image in your subscribe box, feature box or sign up page -Images can make or break it! Find out more about how images affect conversions over at Social Triggers.com.
12. Promote it within your blog post when appropriate. *Warning: Shameless eNewsletter promotion* – Please sign up for our eNewsletter!  

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Subscribed

The other day, I read a great Copyblogger article and agreed with almost everything. In it, Sonia Simone – a brilliant writer and marketer – talks about how SEO has changed, and how increasingly important content and writing for the web is:

Less sophisticated SEOs might advise you to outsource a writer (who may or may not be particularly proficient in English) to slap together hundreds of pages that have the right keywords on them.

That’s a sign that you need to fire your SEO. The true SEO pros know that it isn’t just content you need — it’s good content.

Good content isn’t always the most gracefully written. It might violate every grammatical rule in the book. It might be brash, or weird. It might offend your in-laws.

Here’s where I disagree with Sonia. I believe copywriters – and not just a good copywriter, but the right copywriter – can make all the difference when it comes to web copy. Writing for the web isn’t like writing an advertisement…or a newspaper article…or even a book; it’s a very specialized of writing. Even if you know everything about your business there is to know, it’s a copywriter’s job to get in your head and translate that information to make it interesting and attention grabbing.

Furthermore, your copy should not have any spelling or grammatical errors. There is nothing like an error or two to completely discount a website, and therefore a business. We all have a friend or two gifted in the art of spelling, so ask them to read over your copy before it goes live.

If you do decide to forego the copywriter, here are a few tips to make your copy that much more enticing:

Don’t lead with your sales foot.

No one wants to get a sales pitch when they come to your website, so don’t make it all about the product or service. Create content around your visitors: what do they care about? How will your product or service benefit them?

Break it up.

A page of boring black text is difficult to get through, but much easier when it’s broken up with headers, bold and italicized phrases, and bulleted or numbered lists.

Keep it simple.

As a website owner, you’re passionate about what you’re talking about, and that’s great. Your job is to get your reader passionate, too. The easiest way to lose them? Drawing on and on about a topic with no end  in sight. So, keep it short…sweet…and enticing!

What about you? What are your favorite tricks for writing for the web?

Nicki Hicks
Writing for the Web

If you’ve made the mistake of setting up your business on Facebook as a Facebook profile rather than a Facebook business page you are not alone.

Many of us have just jumped right off the social media cliff and are building our wings on the way down… which isn’t too too bad, because Facebook recognizes that we ALL do this. So, they have created a way to convert your Facebook profile into a Facebook page.

*Note: It is technically a violation of Facebook guidelines to set up a business as a personal profile so if you have created a personal profile as your business page, you will want to convert it.

However, this isn’t the only reason you’d want to convert it. Facebook Business pages offer better features that are created to help market your brand and connect with your audience on Facebook.

So, here is how you convert your Facebook business profile into a Facebook Business page:

1.  Sign into the profile that you want to convert to a page.
2.  Then go to this link https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate
3.  At the top of the page you will see your profile image and a note that says “Profile To Business Page Migration”, below you will notice a selection of page types.
4.  Select what type of page that you are going to create. For example, you can choose Local Business or Place, Company, Brand or product, Artist, Band or Public Figure, Entertainment or Cause or Community.
5.  Once you’ve selected the page you would like to create you will go ahead through the steps and set the page up as normal.
6.  Your profile photo and your friends will be moved to your new page. All of your friends will be converted to fans of the page.
7.  You will still be able to login from your original email address and password.
8.  No other content from the profile will be transferred, so if you have certain important updates, or other photos you’ll have to update the page with those items on your own.
9. Your Facebook username if you had already selected one will be transferred and used as your page url.

*Note: If you are an admin of any other Facebook Groups you will want to appoint another admin before you start the conversion process as you will lose your admin rights during conversion. This does NOT apply to Admin for Facebook pages, you will still remain admin of pages you manage.

To learn more about converting your Facebook profile into a Facebook Business page visit Facebook Help.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Facebook Fan Page Fan

photo credit: By Krismartis

How to write a blog post…One of the top questions I get asked by clients is if I have a template that I use for a blogposts, or a checklist of sorts that I go by when writing a post. So, since it seems to be such a common question I created a very basic blogging template to use when writing for SEO. Of course there may be differing opinions on how to best set up your post, but the tips below have worked well for us here at flyte.

Before you start: Conduct a mini keyword analysis. You can do this by visiting Google AdWords: Keyword Tool. It’s free and easy to use. For this particular post I typed in the following…

- blogpost
- blog post
- blog post template
- Blog post checklist

Once you have you’ve chosen your keywords for the particular post there are a few places where it’s important to add them.

Blog Title (Most important place for Keywords):

Usually we like to word it in a way where you can repeat it naturally or reword your keywords.

Ex. Keyword phrase “10 Tips on Writing a blog post | How to write a blog post”

Body:

Incorporate keywords early on, first sentence if you can.

We usually start off with a brief sentence answering the question in the title using the keywords, or a brief 1 to 2 sentence description of what they’ll find below incorporating keywords.

Incorporate the keywords and version of the keyword phrase throughout the body content.

Create links on the post that go back to your website or another blog post that is appropriate for the content. Hyperlinking the keywords adds a little more SEO weight.

Image:

Adding a photo makes the post a little more interesting. Make sure that you fill in alt text describing the photo using keywords and  name the picture using a keyword, ex. “blogpost keyword search.jpg”

Steps to take before posting:

• Tag your post with appropriate keywords
• Select appropriate categories
• Use AllinOneSEO Plugin

Steps after posting:

• Tweet it out
• Share on Facebook (or set up Networked Blogs)
• +1 it
• Ask your network to help you push out the post

Basic writing tips:

• Write in short paragraphs
• Add bullet points or numbering
• Word the title in a way someone would type it into a search in Google
• Make it easily scanable and digestible
• Posts should be 300 – 500 words
• Include intrasite links

Want more info on blogging?

• Top 5 Blogging Tips for SEO
• 4 Steps to Take Every time You Publish a Blogpost
• How to Bring More Traffic to your Blogposts
• How to Get your Blog Found (Faster) on Google

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
I Love Blog!

A while back I wrote a post on Facebook engagement vs. likes, and how engagements are the new metric to pay attention to. So, I thought that I would give some tips on how to increase your engagement on your Facebook page.

1.  One tip is to engage EVERY person who posts on your wall.  This means don’t just post a question or update and leave your page, stick around for a bit to see if anyone answers right away and if so engage in a conversation with them. You can also check your page often to see if anyone has posted anything on your page and then make sure you answer everyone, even if it’s just a thank you.

2. Personalize your interactions with fans. Always mention their name when replying, and also end your post with your name. This makes the interaction more personalized and more human.

3. Use photos! Post a single picture and create a call to action asking people to add a caption to the image. Depending on what your line of work is, you can find timely events, celebrity pics, images from in the news, office photos or personal photos that will generate interest and make people more likely to engage with object.

4. Market Research. Look at other pages like your industry and see what types of posts they are creating that get the most engagement and then try a few out.

5. What do you find interesting? Think about what you typically find the most interesting on either a friends profile or another Facebook business page… What gets you to respond, share, click like? And, again, recreate those types of posts.

6. Ask Questions. It seems silly but simple questions seem to get the most engagement. Questions like true/false, Multiple choice, Agree/Disagree, or yes or no, but if they are industry related and they get folks talking it’s going to help get you in the news feed.

7. Valuable Content! And, I know this has been mentioned everywhere else on the web, but if it’s something that is truly valuable and of interest to your audience it will get shared. Think of things like photos, infographics and great blog posts with intriguing titles.

8. Mix it up! A good mix of this plus posting regularly and engaging with fans that do comment, is a great way to spawn more engagement.

9. Contests/Giveaways/Raffles: If you do this make sure to use a 3^rd party app to stay within Facebook’s guidelines. But, after you’ve done so, this is a great way to get people to engage with your page.

10. Offer promo codes, discounts and specials on products and services. People are likely to share good deals with their friends, just make sure that you offer it to everyone who comes to the page.

11. Post about other pages. I recommend liking other pages from your own business page. Whether it’s a local business you frequent or one of your vendors that you work with this is a great way to show support. This also allows you to tag them in your updates, which will appear on both your wall and theirs. This can inspire them to post about you, they can respond and their fans will see the response and it can help to get you in the news feed.

12. Timeliness: Whether it’s posting “have a great weekend” later afternoon on a Friday or taking advantage of the fact it’s a holiday, you’ll be surprised about how many comments you’ll get on these kinds of posts.

Sometimes fans are reading your content and finding it of value but they are not interacting with it which means that they have less chance of seeing future posts. By asking engaging questions and asking for feedback on your posts, your fans are more likely to hit those share buttons, comment and/or like your comment. Improving your, then your fans will click Like, Comment or Share your post which improves the EdgeRank between them and your Page.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Let’s Give em Something To Talk About

Photo Credit: by ercwttmn