TJConsulting Virtual Assistant

Timeline-Facebook Changes

Diane Scott — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:00:52 +0000

Facebook’s change to user profiles has eventually gone live and now you can update your Timeline before it is automatically changed. It’s a huge change to how it all works and many are already complaining. With its first showing in September, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has gone for a complete rethink of a user’s profile page, attempting to turn the data present into a digital scrapbook.

For some the ability to go back in time to their early postings may prove embarrassing but getting Timeline now allows you time to alter previous postings, removing and/or changing privacy settings.

With 7 days to tweak the page before it goes live, it’s an opportunity to design and get things right. If you think you’ve got it right you can choose to publish at any time within the week or leave it to go live at the end of the 7 days.

Your cover photo can now fit across the width of the page, rather than the small square shot previously allowed. This can allow you space to put a more panoramic shot of favourite places or express what you are about.

Although old posts have always been available to view by clicking again and again on a friends profile, now the Timeline lists them in years and months so it’s far easier to go back in time. The privacy settings on the posts will remain the same as when you posted unless you alter them individually, if you feel the need.

Timeline has already tried to guess which of your posts are the most interesting and has made these viewable. If you think a post needs expanding and it hasn’t been, you can expand it. Any item now added to your Timeline can now be given a date so they will appear in chronological order.

Facebook have added a very helpful page called the Activity Log and this is the best place to edit you Timeline. It is accessed from your profile page and every single item from a user is listed here allowing each piece to be deleted or tweaked accordingly. If you don’t want to remove completely from Facebook, you can change the visibility of the post to ‘Only Me’, then only you can see the item.

Facebook is hoping that given the Timeline design people will add to their profiles with before-Facebook items, adding to the already massive amount of data they hold.

Eventually Timeline will go live for everyone, use the opportunity to organise yours so people will see what you want them to see. Make an impression with your page and get to know how it all works.

Do you require any help with Facebook? Email us or telephone Tamara on 0203 468 8594

How J & J Sing Their Way Back Into Favour

Diane Scott — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:00:19 +0000

For those of us in the UK who may not have realised the furore surrounding the removal from the shelves of a specific Johnson & Johnson product in Canada and the USA, now thanks to our friends on Facebook we can now share the beautifully crafted apology, created by Toronto agency Lowe Roche.
The video is accessible online at OBTampons.ca/apology, where visitors type their name into a blank field to activate and can then hear an apology in the form of a power ballad sung by a male singer. The snazzy part of all this is the customisation of lyrics and certain visual cues to include the name the visitor has entered.
At the end of the video to seal their apology Johnson & Johnson have a 2$ voucher to apply to the purchase of OB Tampons, valid until December 20th.
The apology and coupon have been offered after J & J discontinued the Ultra brand of their products.The product was discontinued last year and customers voiced their displeasure with phone calls to customer services and online petitions. Shelley Kohut director of communications and public relation at J & J Canada said “When (O.B. Ultra) wasn’t available, they certainly did let us know that that was something they were counting on and needed from us,” and “Given the nature of the product and the high degree of loyalty to the product, we really wanted to take the opportunity to let our consumers know that we truly are sorry that we put them through that frustration.” J&J is at present working on a time-line for restarting production and distribution of the Ultra brand.

Now, it’s all a beautiful use of social media and while not everyone appears to have accepted the apology in the same way, (and why would they?) I think it’s entertaining but then I’m not personally affected by the brand disappearing off the shelves.

The video has worked and more than that people who don’t need to see the apology have viewed the apology. Downside of this, the video wasn’t made to be viewed on mobile devices, so a lot of niggles from people who were sent the link but couldn’t then view it. Mobile audiences are growing so don’t restrict your audience by forgetting them. Think mobile.

Social media, customer services, online petitions raised the voice level of the customers. The voucher offer, initially only available to its Canadian customers, J&J have now realised the errors of their ways and made it available to the US. Slight problem here is Canada get an easy to print coupon and the US have to download Coupon Printer and then print it out.

The coupon is dated for use by Dec 20th 2011 and for any product, as they are still working on the time-line for production of the much loved Ultra brand. So a bit tight with the expiry date of the voucher. Considering how viral the video has become, use the momentum and don’t lose everyone on December 20th 2011?

Is there any way we can help with your social media? Email us, or telephone 0203 468 8594 and speak to Tamara.

How does copyright work for online images.

Diane Scott — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:00:32 +0000

I love to use images on my blog but am never quite sure whether I should! My problem is solved much of the time as I use images from my own personal archive or by using book jackets, advertising and selling the books as an affiliate.

I look and check time and again when using images just to make sure I’m not infringing copyright. So just how does copyright work with online images?

Strangely enough, copyright laws were established to encourage creation by authors rather than giving them the right to deny their work to other people. It can then be a delicate balance between the rights of a creator and the public. Often when conflict happens the result is a leaning towards the public interest and may not be what the author believes to be right.

Copyright is attached when an item (literary,written,dramatic,artistic,musical,etc.) is initially created. The work has to be original and copyright is then acknowledged in the 164 countries that form the Berne Convention. Copyright applies to both published and unpublished works.

Copyright is an automatic right and the ‘c’ symbol can be used without registering. If the work is registered certain rights become available to creators. They are:

to reproduce the work

display work publicly

prepare derivative work based on the original

distribute copies to the public for sale, rent, lend or display to the public

Now where does that take us? The general rule to keep in mind is, you may not use a copyrighted work without the owners permission, but this one legal construct allows millions to see and share images on line every day. Fair use (not to be confused with Free use) is the legal exception to the exclusive rights an owner has over his copyrighted work. Probably nothing to do with fair but all to do with ‘in the public interest’.

Fair Use – a balance between protecting a creator and promoting the interests of the public.

Fair Use Doctrine – allow for limited and reasonable use and does not interfere with an owner’s’ right or impede their right to work as they wish.

In brief: If in doubt about copyright, do not use without permission. Ask, and in a majority of cases permission will be granted readily.

Do not rely on the fair use clause to use copyrighted images, you could face disruption and removal of your site if the copyright holder disagrees with your interpretation of fair use. People make a living from selling and licensing their work and poaching their work is unlawful and interferes with their right to control its distribution.

The Internet is still in its infancy and the laws of copyright were written before the word and image were so easily spread. Just remember that others too are trying to make a living from their creations.

If you need any help please email us or telephone Tamara on 0203 468 8594.

Twitter and the Benefits of Social Media

Diane Scott — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:00:33 +0000

This week I found one of the benefits of using Twitter as a customer. I had recently decided to move my phone number to GiffGaff as it seemed like it would work better for me. For the last few years I have paid for two phones on T-Mobile on their 30 day rolling tariff. Initially it has worked very well. At the beginning of the year my old phone decided to be more trouble than it was worth and my OH bought me another phone, a very nice LG and bought it from T-Mobile. Now I suppose I should have realised that any phone bought from T-Mobile will be locked to the network, but silly me, I thought that as I had bought it off contract that wouldn’t be the case.

Anyway, thinking that GiffGaff’s offers will work better for us, I decided to finish the rolling contracts, keep the numbers and move to GiffGaff. The winner for them has to be that calls between GiffGaffers are free, together with the ‘no contract’, ‘change your mind each month if you want to’ deal.

Now I find myself in a complete tizz, my number has been ported out to my GiffGaff number and when the new Sim is put in the phone we have USIM locked. So backwards and forwards between various numbers, GiffGaffers being very helpful, T-Mobile saying £15 please and 28 days to release the phone. Arrrghh!!!

And so to Twitter, after getting the usual email automated responses from T-Mobile, saying we may take 7 days to answer your query, just shout ‘help’ on Twitter and we are off. It remains to be seen whether anything gets sorted but at least T-Mobile responded within minutes and not days.

You feel that someone is listening and not just fobbing you off, but that may come later. Wish me luck!

So what does that tell you about Social Media? That if it is going to work for your business, it’s good to talk and listen to your customers. Twitter is quick at getting results, no business wants it to be broadcast across the internet that people are unhappy with their service. Handled correctly, social media, can nip things in the bud and customers know they have your attention because you have answered them with something other than an automated response.

It would be nice if things didn’t always happen this way, but with plethora of technology, folk can’t be expected to understand how it all works and companies must handle that knowledge with care, likewise their customers.

For help with anything techy email us, twitter @tamarabaranova, or just plain pick up the phone and talk to Tamara on 0203 468 8594.

Will Google+ Add To Your Social Network Experience?

Diane Scott — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:00:28 +0000

After many tries to provide a social network that in some ways equal Facebook, Google have now produced Google+, hopefully learning from their past mistakes (and those of Facebook too). How do you rate the new experience?

I personally think they have their work cut out to promote another social network when Facebook has become so well established. But as it seems to be directed at businesses it may provide a better experience for brands. Google’s significant difference being the sharing of groups, eg. colleagues and activities, rather than the entire Web. I’m not sure this is a plus for them with Facebook’s recent refinements in this area, where all parts of your information can be shared, (or not shared) with whatever part of Facebook you desire, from all of your friends down to a single individual.

Initially the project was open to only a select group, but has now been opened up to one and all. Available to one and all, you will be able to share and discuss photos,links,status,etc in the much the same way as on Facebook together with group text messaging and video chat.

With the production of Google+, they will benefit directly from Web search, with the information they can process. They still have some catching up to do but will be better placed. According to comscore, 180 million people visited Google sites,(which includes YouTube) with 157.2 million visiting Facebook. Their time spent on the sites, Facebook (103 billion pages) is 375 minutes for Facebook and Google (46.3 billion pages) an average of 231 minutes. A substantial difference, one which advertisers will pay close heed to, when choosing their platforms for advertising.Where do you primarily ask your questions? Twitter, Google or where?

Analysts are of the opinion that people will not duplicate their groups on both sites but will use them for different types of communication. Also that people who have seen Facebook as too public, too invasive and have been uncomfortable with the network will turn to Google+ as a more select offering.

How do you feel about Google+? Will it add anything to your social networking?

Do you need help with any of your social networks, email us or phone Tamara on 0203 468 8594.

Facebook Insights to Change-December 15th

Diane Scott — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:00:35 +0000

Are you admin for pages on Facebook? Facebook are advising you to back up your old page insights in preparation for them being phased out from December 15th.

From then the social network will no longer collect data from the old page insights and insights as we know it, will disappear completely on February 15th 2012.

On the old page insights they advise you to back up your information as this will be deleted on February 15th but your data from December 15th will be collected in the new improved insights.

Have you also noticed…. on your personal Facebook page how you can fine tune what you see or what people see of you? If you are tired of seeing what everyone is listening to and reading, change the settings. You now have multiple choices for handling this overload of information in your news feed, by hide,delete,unsubscribe,unfriend, report or block options. The button to the right of a post drops down to give you all these options and a much calmer way to handle the regular (far to regular) postings of some. You can then still decide to visit their feed when you choose rather than your page be overloaded.

You can click to view all updates, or most or only important ones too, so again you can refine individually, what you see according to how much you want to see of friends. Further changes can be made on a friends’ profile where the subscribe button allows you to customise even more precisely. Options are here too, to add friends to particular lists; Places of work,schools,residences and family relationships.

How to hide yourself away…on chat. The follow on from all this privacy and hiding of other people’s posts, leads me to this option. On the chat screen there is a small settings button which gives you the option of, to chat or not to chat, primarily you can see who’s on line and they can see you are available to chat. If you want to refine this, limited availability can be optimised and you can restrict who can communicate with you at any point in time, alternating between your various lists.

Do you need any help with all the things that Facebook keep changing? Email us or telephone Tamara on 0203 468 8594 to find out how to optimise your pages

QRC – think mobile

Diane Scott — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:00:09 +0000

QRC - Emarketer predicts a growth to 17.3 million mobile internet users in 2012 and 18.6 million in 2013 with the potential for the use of QRC to increase at a similar rate, we need to look at integrating them into our marketing. The additional software necessary to read QRC is widely available and easily downloaded to a phone. Similarly there are programmes available to generate the codes.

When using QR codes in marketing remember:
Your customers will be accessing your link/information from a mobile device so make sure that this is mobile friendly too.

Encourage your customer to use the code by offering a worthwhile reward, a way in which they will benefit from taking time out to use the code.

Discount codes and coupons to use in store

Entry into a prize draw

Keep the amount of data you encode brief, the general advice being less is more:
Create a business card with QR code that will transfer your contact details straight to the phone that has scanned the code
Link to Google maps, as mobile users are increasingly using the Google Maps app
Embed a telephone number, ideal for taxi companies and no more mis-dialed numbers

Using a URL link shortener has the added advantage of the data being kept at a minimum together with the benefit of tracking the response to the code via analytics.

Link to:

More product information

Customer testimonials

Product comparisons

Video product demonstrations

Refer a friend for a time limited offer

Add to an online wish list

An excellent resource for information on how people are using QR code for marketing is 2d-code.c.uk. Check them out for help and inspiration. Where have you seen QR code used?

Need some help to make your website mobile friendly? Email us or telephone Tamara, on 0203 468 8594.

QRC – What They Are and Some Ideas For Their Use

Diane Scott — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:00:06 +0000

QRC – Quick Response Code is a type of barcode and was created by Toyota for the automotive industry in 1994. The idea was to be able to track vehicles through the various parts of the manufacturing process.

The most popular type of QRC are two-dimensional and allow the contents to be decoded fast. Their use is gradually being taken on board by major brands and allows companies to ‘sell’ to a mobile customer base with the ability to scan the codes from smart phones (with camera).

How could you use a QRC in your business?

If your product requires installation, a code on your packaging that plays a video of installation instructions. Overcomes the problem of the manual not being in the box and so much easier to see how it’s done than just reading how to install.

Business cards with the code can import all your contact information.

Roadside advertising contains a code to take you to further information about the advert, a trailer for a film, product information for car or cooker.

QRC on an appliance – when your machine goes wrong you have a code on it that leads to the manual on line. How easy is that when you have no idea where you put the manual and you bought it so long ago.

In store signs carrying codes that can be stored or sent to friends; to tweet, view a video about the product, share.

Apps – a code that takes you to the app download, so easy and fast, no need to spend time searching for the download.

Advertising – code that gives you the time, the date, the place. Where a product is produced, who by and when, so much more information than can be mentioned in a normal advert.

QRC can easily take your customers to a more comprehensive description of your products.

Can you think how you can use QRC in your business?

If you have an idea how you could use QRC, get in touch and we can help you put your ideas into reality. Email us, or speak to Tamara on 0203 468 8594.

Facebook changes – privacy settings

Diane Scott — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:00:30 +0000

Facebook have introduced more refinements so that you can decide just how tight you want your privacy settings.
Facebook made several significant changes to its privacy settings through the new inline buttons. The obvious changes, inline tag review and sharing buttons, affect much of the information you are likely to share on Facebook. Before the introduction anyone who could see content could actually comment and tag but now all tags can be approved. The new ‘view profile’ button lets you see how your profile appears to others.
The new settings for the sharing button mean you can share with everyone, friends,networks,friends of friends or customise to a select few. You can also choose to hide it from people too.

Tagging You can now tag by location and when tagging people who are not actual Facebook friends you can choose whether the tag shows in your profile or on your wall. Removing a tag has also become clearer with a choice of options, and an ability to remove and then block the tag creator.

Privacy settings
Within the home drop down button settings can be adjusted for how you interact with people. Privacy can be restricted so that only friends can see your posts and you can control your default privacy setting to public friends or custom.
Via the inline audience selector privacy can be controlled for status updates, photos and information, with the ability to use these as you share, or afterwards. It’s worth remembering that people you share information with can then share it with others.

The options are broken down into the following areas:

How you connect – who can -
look up your profile by name or contact info?
send friends requests?
send you Facebook messages?
post on your wall?
see wall posts by others on your profile?

How tags work
Profile review of posts friends tag you in before the appear in your profile. (Be aware they can still show up elsewhere on Facebook.)
Tag review for those that friends want to add to your profile.
Maximum profile visibility of tagged posts once they are on your profile.
Tag suggestions when friends upload look-a-like photos of you.
Friends can check you into Places app.

Apps and websites
Lists all the apps,games and websites you use and then allows you to individually edit all the settings. This allows you the opportunity to do some spring cleaning and clear out those that you no longer use.
Within this space you can edit settings that control how your info is brought by others to the apps they use. Use it to control the categories of the information.

Instant personalisation which allows you to see relevant information about your friend when you visit partner websites.

Public Search which controls whether a preview of your Facebook profile is visible when people search for you using a search engine.

Limit the audience for past posts although you can change this setting it means that any posts you have shared with everyone will be restricted to just friends. Maybe a more selective method is to choose the audience for your individual posts instead.

Blocked People and Apps

This allows you to block friends so the only posts they will see are those you make public. (They are not informed by Facebook that they are on your restricted list.)

Block users so they are no longer your friend and can no longer interact with you on Facebook. (Although if you use the same apps and games, interaction is still possible.)

Block app invites allows you to block invites from specific people.

Block event invitations once you have blocked event invites you will not receive any more.

Block apps Once blocked an app, can no longer contact you or use your information. ( Block an app by going to it’s Facebook Page, click ‘Block app’ link on the left. )

Don’t forget that you can run your account within a secure setting by going to account settings, security and enable secure browsing. Keeping your information safe while browsing on Facebook.

Too much information! Have a look around the settings and it’s not so daunting, but if you would like some help email us here, or speak with Tamara on 0203 468 8594.

Facebook: profile, page, or group?

Diane Scott — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:00:24 +0000

It’s still a good idea to plan your strategy and decide which type of page best suits your needs. Facebook profile pages are intended for people, pages for businesses and groups for musicians primarily.

Top 7 apps for your Facebook business page

Poll This is the premier polling application on Facebook. Create polls for your pages and personal profile pages. Very simple and easy to use. Check it out!

Networked Blogs does what it says on the label. Promote your blog on Facebook, network with like-minded bloggers.

Twitter feed for pages simply supply your user name and password and your Twitter account links to your Facebook page.

Zoho online office store documents on line (Dropbox and Google Docs).

Facebook video supports higher quality video and audio than most video sharing sites.

RSS Graffiti centrally manage all RSS/Atom feeds from all your Facebook profiles and all your pages.

My LinkedIn profile displays your LinkedIn profile or company profile on your page.

Strategies to use when creating content

Start now! No more time to procrastinate, join now and enjoy the ride.

Create your profile to include business address , phone numbers, email address, Twitter, LinkedIn and ecademy account links.

Add videos and photos to get, and keep, attention from your followers.

Join a group in a similar category to your business, connect with members and join in the discussions.

Broadcast your presence.

Invite friends and colleagues to visit even those who haven’t a Facebook account.

You can group invite from Facebook, to all contacts you may have in another email account.

Constant interaction makes good communication. Keep the pages alive and up-to-date so that interaction is current and not dated. Tell people what you are doing, don’t sell to them but show how they can benefit from your product/service.

Top 3 tools to use to bring more traffic to your page

Use Facebook Connect and a Facebook button on your website.

Be active on Twitter and place links to your pages.

Add Google analytics so you can see which of your pages are working and which ones need tweaking.

If you need help setting up your page, contact us either by email or telephone and speak to Tamara on 0203 468 8594.

Facebook are always making changes and just recently thay have introduced some more privacy buttons. Next week, Facebook changes and how to use them.