With only a few weeks left for you to tweak your Timeline, before the 30th March when Timeline goes live, check your Page  and the new rules that Facebook have introduced.

You can preview your design and fix any potential problems. During this time only you as the administrator can see how your page will look when it is automatically rolled out at the end of March.  Facebook have  introduced Timeline cover rules which you need to read and adhere to so your Page doesn’t get removed for violation of the rules.  Updates have changed together with new features on the admin panel.  Until the end of March you can work on your design while running the Pages in the old style and if/when you are satisfied you can then publish.

By previewing your present page design in Timeline you can check how status updates and other activity will look in the new layout.

It’s obvious from all of these restrictions that Facebook are keeping the marketing off the Timeline cover.

So what can you do?
For some businesses it will be an ideal extension to their portfolio. Photographers, designers and other ‘visual’ businesses will find it easy but for others it may be a little more difficult to represent your brand.  Check out some of the brands that already have their Timelines and see what they have used and if yours doesn’t look good, change it!
Mari Smith
Owen Phillips
Jesse Stay
Nigel Botterill
Herbal Essences
Flickchart
Lifehacker

For help with social media contact us by email, or telephone Tamara on 0203 468 8594.

What is a wiki? It is an online knowledge base.

The first wiki software programme was developed by Ward Cunningham and originally named wikiwikiweb. (Wiki is an Hawaiian word meaning quick or fast.)

A wiki is a website that can easily be updated by anyone with permission.

It can be run on your own server or hosted on a cloud service.

A wiki is lockable, access can be restricted and information controlled until reviewed.

Corporate memory can be built with a wiki.

Build and develop standardised procedures and policies for an organisation.

Collaborative tools

There have been big changes in office technology and the rise of cloud software now enables people to work together on files.

Services like Google Docs, Basecamp,Dropbox allow combined workings on most things.

The new programmes allow all members to work on the same version of a file, so no more worries about which version you are on. Gone are the days of locked down files while someone else works on them.

Accounting programmes like Xero,Kashflow,Sage and Quickbooks can be set up for work to be input by you or your bookkeeper, and access for accountants authorised. Edit rights, access and authorisation can be organised according to needs.

Emails too

As with all the previously mentioned cloud-based services there may be some risks. Ensure you have reliable Internet access and its provision has a good level of security. Use Gmail or similar hosted services, using their protected systems will provide you with a safer and more secure data protection than most small businesses can afford.

The Cloud and it’s Shadow

More like a silver lining than a shadow. All these forms of communicating, whether its instant messaging, wikis and collaborative tools all leave their own ‘digital copy’, a transcription of the ‘conversation’. Everything within a programme is time-stamped and assigned to respective participants and if anything goes wrong and requires further investigation it’s hard to hide all the evidence from anyone determined enough to follow the trail.

Can you see how using instant messaging and cloud services could speed up your communications?

Is your e-mail box a monster that is overwhelming you? Instant messaging can get your message across.

Maybe you don’t need to go as far as CEO Thierry Breton of French technology company Atos who hasn’t sent an e-mail in 3 years but perhaps a change in how you use email and other communication tools could help with your work load. The estimates are that 90% of the world email traffic is unsolicited, which if not handled right can be an incredible drain on your time and productivity.

Thierry’s answer to the problem was to implement a zero email policy for its employees(within the company) and has encouraged them to use instant messaging and collaboration tools instead. Email has been used as the main communication app for businesses for the last 20 years, while instant messaging was looked on as being too clunky. It may not be easy to rethink the habit of checking emails first and last thing of your working day and include instant messaging in your communications. Technology has moved on rapidly and there are many instant messaging tools readily available and easy to turn on, many are part of programmes you already know and use. e.g Microsoft Office, Skype, None of these are new technologies and instant messaging is probably the most used part of the Skype telephone service by businesses.

It can distract you from other matters, as the nature of the app is that an immediate response is required, but being able to acknowledge a problem, share links and deal with a matter is better than waiting for a response to an email. (Especially if the automated email response says, ‘we will try to answer your email within 48 hours, 4 days, or whatever) That’s worse than snail mail.

Social media tools such as Google+,Facebook,LinkedIn have built in instant messaging and

Google + has its Hangouts feature enabling impromptu video conferencing. Twitter offers public and private channels for instant messaging while Yammer, a corporate tool allows staff to communicate with each other, especially useful if you have employees in various countries. Relying on external providers for security and reliability is a downside of using the social media platforms as a business tool.

I personally have in the past had great responses from ‘chat’ when dealing with problems via customer services. I wish all companies used it!

LinkedIn is a powerful tool that helps you add value to your network by finding new customers, partners, experts and suppliers. To find these various types of people LinkedIn offer several different ways but it is important that you have defined clearly your target groups. Once your target groups are defined then you can use the following strategies to help find them.

Immediate Network – browse by visiting a profile and looking at the connections on the right-hand side of the page. If you notice someone of interest, invite them to connect.

Advanced search for people – If you find someone you would like to connect with check whther you have any mutual connections. If there are, then ask if they can make an introduction to this new person.

Browse your immediate network – Visit a profile and again look at the connections on the right-hand side, if there’s someone that interests you, invite them to connect.

Groups- join groups that your target market joins. This gives you the opportunity to interact with others in the group and help increase your visibility so people will begin to contact you.

Your searches for people can be saved within LinkedIn and alerts sent out. (3 alerts can be saved but more than 3 require account upgrade) Email will be sent to you via LinkedIn with new prospects weekly or monthly.

Updates and Interactions – follow your network to see if there are any opportunities for you to build valuable relationships. If someone mentions an interesting person ask for an introduction.

LinkedIn is a great tool to grow your business , meet new contacts and advance your career but remember you need to have completed all the sections for it to work successfully and help you build your network. If your profile is complete people can be sure they have the right person or company.

As you find people that are valuable to your network, Linkedin informs you of mutual connections you have with them.
There is incredible value in not only mutual connections but also in second and third degree networks and where we may have problems keeping abreast with our first degree network, LinkedIn tracks all of these connections for us. This information is accessible and very powerful.

Building you Network – First Degree

Upload your contacts from your various mail accounts and any other address books you have using the ‘add connections’ tab.
Log in to your email and LinkedIn users have a small blue icon with ‘in’ next to their name. Select these names and write a semi-personal message to them. Tick ‘Add a personal note to your invitation’ and replace the standard note with one that relates to how you know them. (Not too personal as it is going to several selected names.)

While waiting for these people to accept you can add to your network by using the LinkedIn tool for retrieving colleagues and classmates.
Again, first select the people who are already members as they will be the most responsive to your invitation.
Since LinkedIn uses the information in your profile it is important that you have completed fully about companies you have worked for and schools, colleges and universities you have attended.

You can either look up current and past colleagues on the profile search or using the same menu, click ‘colleagues’ tab and this will show all the companies you have listed on your profile and the number of people who are already LinkedIn members.

Clicking on the any of the companies listed will provide a list and from that select the people you know. Write a personal message to them either individually or semi-personal one if sending out a batch of invites. Repeat for all other companies that you have worked for.

Classmates – follow the same procedure as that for companies but using the ‘classmates’ tab.