Too Busy for Social Media? Find Out How Programs Like HootSuite Can Help
HootSuite is a social media application that lets you schedule posts to all of your social media channels, among other things.
Does it seem like you’re so busy running your vacation rental management company that you’ll never have time to focus on social media? You’ve probably heard of the importance of having a presence on social media, but you just don’t have time to make regular posts on all those social media channels.
Well, there’s good news. Many people are saving tons of time on social media by using a free program called HootSuite. What’s cool about Hootsuite is that it lets you integrate all of your social media channels in one place and then schedule your posts in advance. Instead of logging into each service each time you want to post, you can now schedule all your social media posts in one spot for as far ahead as you’d like – whether it’s just for the day or even for a week or a month out.
Of course, social media is a conversation, so you’ll still want to monitor how people are interacting with you on your social media channels. That’s another good thing about HootSuite. You can view all of your channels right from the program. You just have to make sure to check it regularly.
Creating a Cover Photo for the Facebook Timeline Design
On March 31, 2012, Facebook will move to a new Timeline design for its business pages. If you haven’t already optimized your Facebook page for the switch, you can do so ahead of the switch (and see a preview).
Timeline is a significantly different layout – one that allows visitors to more easily look back at your posts days, months and even years ago. The idea, as it was intended for Facebook profiles, was to tell the story of your life (or in this case the history of your business).
One of the cool new features that comes with the Timeline design is the cover photo. What’s nice about the cover photo is how large it is, approximately 850x320 pixels. You can find a photo that is close to that size that best reflects your business or you can design your own.
You can see some cool examples via this article from ITBusiness. Below we include our own cover photos (at least for now) to give you an idea closer to the vacation rental industry.
We also encourage you to leave a link below to your Facebook page so we can see all the creativity you’ve put into picking and designing your cover photo.
What is Facebook Timeline? And How Could it Affect Your Facebook Page?
This is an example of what the Timeline layout looks like on a Facebook profile. Rumor has it, this timeline format (or something like it) could be coming to Facebook business pages.
Update: Facebook announced today (Feb. 29) that they will be moving Fan pages to the Timeline format by March 30, 2012, and that business can voluntarily switch earlier.
Facebook recently introduced a new feature for profiles called a Timeline. Basically, Timeline is a new layout for your Facebook profile that makes it easier for people to see your activity on Facebook over the years. Facebook is officially pitching the new profile layout as a way to “tell your life story with a new kind of profile.”
The new design features a large image of the profile owner’s choosing that dominants the upper left-hand part of the page. To the right of it is a timeline that lets visitors skip back days, months and even years back in time to see your Facebook activity at that point in time. Profile owners can go back through their activity and highlight bigger moments (weddings, the birth of a child, etc.), which then appear more prominent in their activity feed.
Right now this feature is only available for personal Facebook profiles, but numerous sources are reporting that Facebook could beta test the Timeline layout for businesses as soon as late February 2012. What does this mean for your business?
If Timeline for business pages rolls out the same way as timeline for profiles, you may need to opt in to the new layout to get it. Facebook is still rolling out Timeline for profiles – you need to go to Facebook’s Timeline page and opt into it to make it active on your profile. It’s unclear if (or when) Facebook will change all Facebook profiles to the Timeline layout or if they will eventually force business pages to move to the Timeline format.
Until that time, if you’d like to learn more about Facebook Timeline, check out some of these recent articles:
- No Timeline Pages for Brands Yet, Facebook Says (via Mashable)
- Does Timeline Work For Facebook Business Pages? (via AllFacebook)
- 9 Ways to Prepare for Facebook’s Timeline for Business Pages (via Business2Community)
What do you think of Facebook’s new timeline? Would you use this format for your Facebook business page?
Top 10 Ways to Grow Your Twitter Following
Hatching a winning strategy for growing your Twitter following isn't rocket science. Follow a few simple guidelines, and you'll be on the path to success.
Want to get more Twitter followers? Here’s 10 quick ways to spur the growth of your Twitter following.
1. Follow Strategically – Many people will tell you to follow as many people as you can on Twitter because they’re more likely to follow you back. This is partially true, but Twitter has limited how many people you can follow, so you don’t want to waste your time following people you’re not interested in. Besides, if you’re using Twitter correctly, you’ll be using it as much for listening to conversations as spreading the word about your business. I suggest following people key to your industry: journalists, brands, thought-leaders, etc. You’re going to want to listen to them anyways. And, although they’re less likely to follow you back, they have a larger network of followers, and you’re more likely to be put in Twitter’s “Who to Follow” suggestions for the people following them. It’s just like networking in real life; you want to connect yourself with people who share your interests and who are prominent.
2. Share Killer Content – Twitter is all about sharing content. The better content you create and share, the more people will take notice. But, don’t just share your own content. Share content from others, whether it’s through a retweet or just something cool you came across on the Web.
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