Timeline is essentially a complete redesign of your Facebook page, which turns every status update, photo posted, check-in, and comments into a visually appealing online story of your life.  Which of course you can edit out all of the bad stuff if you want to.  In essence it tells the story you want to be told.

Image from Mashable.com

The question is how will Facebook Timeline affect Brand Pages, what will having your brand on a timeline do for your online marketing or branding.  How will companies be able to use the apps to better sell their products or get new fans.

Personally I think this is a golden idea if the developers and marketers play their cards right.  Using the same principal as Spotify, there could be a button on the page of a clothing store that the user could click “saying hey look what I just looked at” and an automatic feed would go out to all of their friends.  Of course if you want to view it, then you have to become a fan of their Facebook Page.  This same concept could be used when products are purchased or even posted to Pinterest.  Of course this could also ruin the page and completely mess up organization as it will be difficult to have tabs, such as competition tabs.

These are some simple ideas that I came up with after thinking about this for about a minute, so I can only imagine what the brilliant minds at Facebook and other brands will come up with.  I am asking that anyone who reads this blog post a comment with your own ideas about how Facebook Brand Timeline Pages will change the game.  Will it help or hurt social media marketing?

At this point in time a Facebook spokesperson said: “…we believe that consistency in both functionality and appearance increase use of Facebook.  We hope to make Pages more consistent with the Timeline in the future, but we have nothing further to share at this time.”   Which means they are simply remaining mum on the subject.  However there is an invitation only conference on February 29^th called Facebook Marketing Conference.  Do you think they’ll make the announcement?

The post Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages? appeared first on Clix.

Why am I talking about customer service?  Because, this year the city of Indianapolis, who is hosting the Super Bowl, is taking customer service to the next level. Let’s call it customer service 2.0.  They are calling it the Super Bowl social media command center.

What exactly is a social media command center; well it’s proactive customer service using social media to lead the way.  It consists of a team of strategists, analysts, and techies that are set to monitor digital fan conversations via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.  All of this is going to be done from a 2,800 square-foot space.  They will be running the command center from Monday through February 5^th.  The plan is for them to tweet directions to fans in search of parking, direct visitors to the cities best attractions, and be available in case of an emergency or a disaster.

With 150,000 people expected to hit the downtown area of Indianapolis, the idea is to use advanced search tools and analytics to identify fans in need of help.  They are going to do this by indexing certain keywords and phrases.  So if a fan is tweeting “parking is horrible” or “parking sucks” they will be able to offer assistance.  The fan won’t actually have to ask someone “where can I find parking”.

This social Media hub will be quite an operation with more than a mile of Ethernet cable and more than 20 people running the center for 15 hours per day.

All of this points to how important social media is in all of our lives and how important it is for companies and organizations to utilize these tools to improve their relationships with their customers or audiences.

Taulbee Jackson, CEO of Raidous, the company managing the communication hub said “We’re kind of breaking new ground here so we don’t know the exact numbers yet of what we’ll be dealing with, but we should be able to provide that after the game to other cities that have to deal with these types of issues”.   He went on to say, “I think a lot of brands will start to see a need for something like this.”

Will this lead to other major events setting up similar Social Media command centers?  Only time will tell.

The post Social Media Command Center appeared first on Clix.

Its no secret – my life would crumble without Google.  And though I haven’t come to rely on Google’s web browser as I have some of its other tools, I have developed a deep appreciation for it.

As a Google junkie, I love to explore and test the different tools Google Chrome has to offer, and some of the best tools come from its huge selection of extensions. Though not all of the extensions I’ve tried have blown me away, here are a few extensions I as a Social Media Strategist couldn’t live without.

Hootsuite is an integral part of my social media management toolbox. It allows me to monitor and update each of my client’s twitter feeds simultaneously.

A huge part of managing a client’s twitter account is updating it with relevant content. These updates often contain links that their followers would be interested in. Here’s where the Hootsuite extension comes in. Rather than copying the link and pasting it into Hootsuite, the extension allows you to tweet the link through Hootsuite without leaving the page or copying any URLs.

Simply click on the Hootsuite extension button in the top right corner of your browser, select the appropriate twitter account, type your message, and tweet!

While Hootsuite allows you to quickly share or schedule content to be shared, ocasionally, you’ll want to save content to share or schedule later. This is where Evernote comes in.  Evernote is a great tool for saving and organizing links, images, ideas, notes, and almost anything else you can think of.

Like the Hootsuite extension, the Evernote extension allows you to save content to Evernote without leaving the page. Again, simply click on the Evernote extension button, clip the desired content, add a description, tags, notes, etc. and continue browsing as usual. When you want to return to the content, again, open the Evernote extension, find the content and open it from there.

Even with Hootsuite and Evernote helping me keep my tabs organized, I am notorious for having an excessive number of tabs open. Hey, when you’re managing several social media accounts, you have be a good juggler. Unfortunately, I don’t always work from the same computer. Sure, I could open each tab one-by-one, but with the TabCloud extension, I don’t have to.

TabCloud saves groups of tabs so you can quickly access them from any computer. Simply click on the TabCloud extension and hit the save icon next to any open tab grouping you’d like to save. Then, when you move computers, open tab cloud and click on the tab group quickly open all saved tabs.

I wrote on this tool not too long ago, so I will be brief. InboxQ is a great tool for establishing yourself as an expert in a certain field on Twitter by helping you find people asking questions you are able to answer. The inboxQ extension makes finding questions fast and easy. For more on InboxQ, see my blog post on earning tweet-cred with questions.

What’s your favorite

Though I consider myself a Google junkie, I know I’ve only scratched the surface on useful extensions. What’s your favorite Chrome extension?

The post 4 Chrome Extensions Every Social Media Enthusiast Should Know appeared first on Clix.

While we may joke about jumping ship, most users have too much invested in Facebook to revert to MySpace. Instead, we adapt to the new changes until the “old” Facebook is nothing more than a distant memory. You can gripe and grime all you want, but these changes are here to stay.

We at Clix have been doing our best to assist those of you who are going to stay on the Facebook train (see How to Navigate Facebook Updates 2011, Facebook Unveils Timeline, 6 Things You Should Know about Facebook Timeline, How to Set Up Facebook Timeline), so today I’d like to highlight some of the many features you’ll love about the new Facebook Timeline.

1. Cover Image

Facebook’s timeline is highly visual. One of the most obvious visual changes is the cover photo. Whereas the profile picture has traditionally been primarily vertical and limited to the upper right corner, the cover photo is horizontally oriented stretching across the top of each profile.

Photo courtesy of Reface.me http://reface.me/profile-pictures/facebook-timeline-cover-photo-hacks/

The cover photo only appears on each person’s profile page, so it is not necessary that it be a picture of the person. It gives users the opportunity to show something about themselves beyond their physical likeness.

Although timeline is still in the beta stage, designers have already designed some creative ways to use the Facebook cover photo.

2. New Image Layout

The left side of this screen shows a new album post with featuring one large image and smaller thumbnails underneath. On the left are three images added to an album shown in a much larger thumbnail preview. Photo curtesy of Tech Chrunch http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/22/facebook-timeline-pictures/

In addition to the cover photo, Facebook has increased the visual appeal of images and photo albums. Now, when you post a new photo or album, a large image appears in your timeline accompanied by large thumbnails of the other photos in the album. This layout is highly more attractive and much more striking than the previous layout.

3. Maps

Facebook has promised that timeline will give a more prominent placement to apps in each user’s experience. While developers are still determining the best use of apps in timeline, Facebook has introduced a few apps of its own, including the Facebook Maps app.

An overview of my Facebook Map shows the places I’ve visited and how frequently I visit.

Since August 2010, Facebook users have been able to “check in” to locations and events using Facebook places. These check ins would appear as a post on their wall and quickly disappear into the abyss of old facebook statuses.

Maps adds relevance to the check in. Though it still lacks the popular game mechanics of Foursquare, it does give interesting insight into users who chose to use it. Sure, you could sift through old statuses, updates, check ins and pictures to see where users like to hang out and what they like to do, but Maps paints a much clearer picture in a more visually appealing way. Open up your map and you will quickly see all of the places you have traveled to or visited. You can also zoom in to see how often you’ve visited certain places, quickly showing the places you frequent most often.

Maps also beautifully integrates the photo app. To add a photo to your map, simply edit the photo location. Then when you open that location on the map, you will see the photos of yourself there.

When I click on the Sahara Desert in my map, I immediately see a picture of me there.

4. Life before Facebook

The biggest change that timeline has brought to Facebook is the integration of life before Facebook (yes, its hard to believe, but there was life before Facebook). Timeline’s central purpose is to allow you to quickly share your life story with others. For most of us, that story began before Facebook. Timeline allows you to fill in gap on Facebook. So pull out those baby pictures and start sharing!

5. Hidden Poke Button

Finally, and possibly most important, Facebook has changed the poke button. No, unfortunately Facebook has not completely removed the poke button, but it has hidden the button in a much harder to find place (if you’re wondering where it went, you’ll have to find it on your own). I can only hope that this will deter those distant relatives and long lost acquaintances from putting you in that awkward internal debate on the most appropriate way to respond to a poke.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Facebook has made several updates and I’m sure there are more to come. So tell me, what updates are you most excited bout?

The post 5 Things You’ll Love About Facebook Timeline appeared first on Clix.

Remember this?

This past Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team announced at the F8 conference in San Francisco their newest profile called Timeline. With Timeline, you now have a home for all the wonderful stories you’ve already shared throughout the past couple of years. They don’t just vanish as you add new stuff like they previously did. It’s a pain when you’re on a old friends profile and you have to keep clicking “older posts” over and over again to see what they’ve been up to the past couple months or even years. Timeline is impressive, and just proves again why Facebook is the best at what they do.

Here are 6 things you need know about Timeline:

1. Timeline is wider and much more visual than the old profile. The first thing you’ll notice is the giant photo right at the top. This is your cover, and it’s completely up to you which of your photos you put here.

2. Facebook automatically populates it with content via its algorithm, but users ultimately have complete control over what gets shown in their timeline. You can hide certain stories Facebook shows, highlight stories (by starring them) to show them more prominently, or add important stories that are missing.

3. Users can also access a private activity log and choose stories to add to their timeline. This is where you’ll find everything you shared since you joined Facebook. Click on any post to feature it on your timeline so your friends can see it, too. I personally really like this feature. I joined Facebook when I was 18, I am now 26, there are definitely thing’s that I don’t want on be there!

4. Older stories don’t vanish as new stories are added, like they used to.

5. Timeline acts more like a scrapbook of a user’s past and present.

6. Users can now add applications to their timelines again. These apps also help you discover what your friends are up to. You can even join in if you want: play the song they’re listening to, or watch the same TV show.

Technology changes. And at times the changes can be drastic, but Timeline will make Facebook better, and more “social.” While it’s important to stay current on the most recent changes in social media, it is more important to understand the main goal of sites like Facebook. Facebook wants to provide an experience that engages users with content that is the most interesting to them. In the end Facebook wants to be THE social layer that connects, supports and powers every piece of the internet.  And these new updates are just making it that much closer to achieving its goal. If you dont like the new changes, then get off Facebook (but we both know you won’t).

According to Facebook, Timeline is in beta and won’t officially be rolled out to users for another few weeks, but if you’re ready to start using it, check it out how here. 

The post 6 Things You Should Know About The New Facebook Timeline appeared first on Clix.