Last night, I decided to try out the New Facebook Pages with Timeline for my freelance writing page. Facebook plans to change things over on March 30th anyway, so you might as well prepare early for what’s coming, and for pages, there are lots of preparations to be made. Here are some of my initial observations about how Timeline affects our favorite Facebook fan page features. Pros: More About Space & Direct Link to Your Website. Probably one of my favorite changes that comes along with Timeline is the easier to find About information. Pros: The Timeline Cover. Choose wisely! MORE >>

I’m as guilty as anyone for being sucked into the group buying frenzy. Hey, a deal is a deal. Of course I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all those massages and laser hair removals. Lately however I’ve noticed a growing trend when using one of these deals that actually has me wanting to not purchase or use them anymore. Grouponitude. What is Grouponitude you ask? grou ? negative or hostile state of mind in response to the use of a group buying deal. joy, appreciation,  acceptance, welcomeness. How are you on this fine and glorious day you wonderful human being?! MORE >>

Because there are many ways to quantify the value of social media, marketers continue to struggle with social measurement. Based on the collective response of over 320 marketers reflected in our fist annual report on  The State of Social Media Marketing: Top Areas For Social Marketing Investment and Biggest Social Marketing Challenges in 2012 , we are starting to see clearly see measurement patterns based on industry, which are driven by the way they define social marketing success. In this blogpost we identify key social measurements that are most popular by industry. Social Presence. MORE >>

In the movie Office Space , Stan the manager of Chotchkie’s badgers Joanna (Jennifer Aniston) to wear more flair, cheesy aluminum buttons usually handed out by political candidates.  At Chotchkie’s flair was proof of enthusiasm and team spirit. We have a social media equivalent of flair.  We call them social buttons and we enthusiastically litter our blogs with them. As of late, I’ve been on a mission to limit the proliferation of social flair. Not because the buttons are bad but because they are used badly. Today I’ll outline some ground rules for using social icons on your blog.  Pick Three. MORE >>

The value of lurkers is misunderstood. Lurkers offer absolutely no benefit to the community. If they don’t participate, how can they offer any benefit? Other members don’t know they exist. When calculating the health of the community, lurkers aren’t included.    A community with 10 active members and 10,000 lurkers is in considerably worse shape than a community with 50 active members and 0 lurkers. However, lurkers may offer a benefit to the brand.    The ROI of the community with 10,000 lurkers might be much higher. They may become more loyal. MORE >>