If you’re a Facebook user, you may have recently been asked to convert your profile into the new Timeline. For some, the change has been requested, for others it’s mandatory, but eventually all Facebook profiles will be in the Timeline format.

Timeline, launched late last year for personal profiles, enables users to tell their story in an updated format. Users are able to easily view, save and organize everything they have posted or been tagged in. They now also have the option to add events as far back as their birth.

Many people are starting to recognize Timeline as a great marketing tool. One of the main features is the Cover photo, an 850×315 (850px wide and 315px height) image that spans the top of a profile. Users can choose to leave it empty, or get creative by uploading a nice graphic. Photographers are using it to display some of their work, and business professionals are taking advantage of the space by adding their social network and contact info or a branded image.

Some users are hesitant to convert their profile into Timeline due to the lack of privacy that comes with the new format. However, Facebook has allowed users to customize their privacy settings [almost] as much as they want. With a few adjustments, users can choose whether they want their activity to only be visible to them, their friends, or completely open to the public.

Following the launch of Timeline for personal profiles, people were left wondering the big question: “What will happen to the Facebook Brand Pages now that the Timeline feature is here?”

Facebook recently announced that on March 30, 2012, all Pages will automatically be updated to the new design. Admins now have the option to preview what it will look like, and even customize and publish their Timeline Page ahead of time.

Some benefits of the Facebook Timeline Brand Pages are:

• Cover Photo – This can be your company logo or branded image with contact information or hours of operation listed on it.
• Interactivity – You can post more photos, videos, or articles and they will be displayed in a neat way. It is also more conversational, as fans have the option of sharing items with you as well.
• “Message” Tool – Fans are now able to message the page directly if they have questions, concerns, comments or general inquiries.
• Apps – You can add applications that may be relevant to your company or organization. I.e., if you are a doctor you can choose to add a newsfeed from a medical news source if they have an app set up.
• “Pinned” Stories – You can choose what the most important posts are on your Timeline, and ‘pin’ them so that they show up on the top of your page for up to seven days.
• Admin Panel – There is a separate section that admins of the page can view. This will show all notifications and Page Insights.

As you can see in the examples below, many businesses have already launched successful Facebook Timeline Brand Pages:
Coca-Cola
50 Cent
Starbucks
Magnolia Bakery
Livestrong

Facebook Timeline Brand Pages enable businesses to not only get spread their branded message, but also engage with customers on a new level.

If you require assistance with setting up a Facebook Timeline Brand Page, ask us about our social media plans.

2. Network: Social media is a phenomenon which creates a personalized network for sharing digital content among all people in the cyberspace. – Rohan Aurora

Read the entire Mashable post ” Top 20 Mashable Reader Responses to “What is Social Media?” ”

An address and contact information constructed as an hCard looks exactly the same to a visitor on your site as compared to an address without the extra markup. To a search engine it’s completely different. Since the content is tagged as an address the search engines don’t have to guess what the content is – they know without question that it’s an address. This is how it helps your local SEO efforts.

For the average person creating an hCard is quite complicated and not likely to be done. However, there is a nice little tool that can help you with it. It’s an hCard creator. Simply enter your contact information into the form fields and then presto – the hCard code is available for you to copy and paste into your website page. I would remove the text reference to the tool – it’s not necessary. If you want to add your address information too you should have a look at this bit of extra code:

You can paste this code into your web page and style it with CSS or simply send it to your webmaster and have them add it for you. There are lots of neat little tricks and hCard enhancements you can make to this too – but that’s for another day. For now you should concentrate on adding an hCard to your website!

The title tag is the bit of code that appears at the top of a browser window when viewing the page and is also in the HTML code. It often looks like this:

The home page is your most important website page because it’s going to rank on the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) more frequently than others and receive the most amount of traffic.

Let’s take a look at what the title tag looks like in the SERP’s for “maid service toronto”. These first two examples look great.

Disclaimer: Both of these maid service companies are clients of ours

Now compare this to another example from the same search. This example is not using their title tag effectively and therefor not ranking as well and certainly losing visitors to other sites. This is not a client of ours!

So I encourage you to have a look at your home page title tag. Does it contain your most valuable keyword and is it written in a way to compel visitors to click your listing before anyone elses? Have a look at what your SERP competition have written and do something even better!

1. You’ll need a Google Account. You can create one by going to http://www.google.com/accounts
2. Login and go to http://www.google.com/accounts to edit your profile
3. On the “Edit Your Profile” page towards the bottom left you can see a section to Add Links. Add as many as you like. Be sure to use a keyword and link to a page deeper into your site beyond the home page.

Bonus Tip

When you’re editing your profile you can also customize your Google Account URL. I made sure mine reflect my name as that’s what I wanted this profile to rank well for.

You can view my profile here http://www.google.com/profiles/chriskata.

What do you think?

The first one I’ll be testing out is called WordPress Review Engine and the developer license cost $169 which allows you to build an unlimited number of site with the plugin.

Right from the start your process was very sound and the service level was incredible. I would be glad to refer you to others, your company does incredible work, and delivers results!”