What You Need To Know Before March 30th

Remember when Facebook rolled out the Timeline Profile? Well, on March 30th, all Facebook pages will get this new design. This could be problematic for your business if you don’t know what to expect, and how to prepare for it. The following article will explain most of the changes, and give you some ideas for making the transition an easy one. First, check out the screenshot of a timeline for Facebook business page below. I have marked this up to show you what’s new on your timeline page.

Facebook Timeline for Pages (click to see full size)

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The Internet has been buzzing about SOPA lately; how you can oppose it, how to sign the petition, what you should do about it. But what if you don’t know anything about it? I am without a doubt, opposed to the SOPA bill, but I don’t condone opposing anything if you don’t know the facts. You wouldn’t sign a petition if you didn’t know what it was for, would you?

I am not a politician or an expert on legal jargon, but I will try to break down the important points in the SOPA bill so that you will have a better understanding of what effect it will have on the Internet that we know and love.

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The niche social network Pinterest is gaining popularity, and seems to be catching on quickly. If you are unaware, Pinterest.com is a virtual pin board, where you collect and admire images found all over the web. It’s like a bulletin board, only you are pinning up web images, on an online board. You can pin whatever images you want, and you can sort and organize your pin boards based on your interests.

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Are you on Twitter? (We are, follow us @mannixmarketing) If you’re not, I suggest you try it out. Many of you are probably rolling your eyes and asking yourself, “Why learn another social network?” or, “What can Twitter do that Facebook can’t?” In a nutshell, Twitter can easily connect you to industry experts, world news, and even your favorite celebrities, where Facebook connects you with people you know. There are some exceptions to this with the new subscribe feature on Facebook, but Twitter is still winning the game in this respect.  You don’t have to have a mutual relationship on Twitter, you just pick who you want updates from, and you can tweet to anybody.

Consumers use Twitter for many different reasons. Some tweet to their favorite celebrities, asking questions that may be answered by the celebrity, or anyone else that views the tweet (most tweets are public). Some tweet to their favorite sports radio show, hoping to get mentioned on the air, or get a retweet. Some don’t tweet at all, and just follow their favorite accounts looking for breaking news stories, or updates on Kim Kardashian’s latest marriage. Corporations use Twitter to announce new products and/or updates for old products. Marketers tweet about upcoming events, or promote new products and services to their followers. There are many ways to utilize Twitter, and everybody does it differently.

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Facebook has been going through changes since day one, and every time an upgrade is released the walls and news feeds of the most popular social network in the world become saturated with complaints. I am constantly begging people to stop complaining and embrace the changes that Facebook continues to make. I mean, lets be real, if Facebook never made any changes, many of you wouldn’t be allowed to access the site, and it would still look like this:

This is what Facebook looked like in early 2004, when it was an exclusive social network for Harvard students.

Yuck! I have to give props to the Zuckerberg for coming up with the idea (well, implementing it) but the original design and function of the site are far different from what over 750 million users see today. Imagine if Facebook responded every time a user complained about how difficult it is to get used to the new format, or the new news feed. This is what we would be stuck with, and I would have logged out a long time ago.

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