Facebook has once again quietly made adjustments to its page guidelines and the rules surrounding cover photos.  However this time, the changes actually work in favor of brands as Facebook has loosened the rules a little.

As of March 6th, Facebook page administrators can now include contact information, purchase information and even a call-to-action on their Facebook cover photos.

The current Facebook cover photo rule:  All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your page will be able to see your cover. Covers can’t be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines. Covers may not include images with more than 20% text.

The one rule that does remain from the original set – much to the dismay of our design team – is the dreaded 20% text rule. Facebook cover photos still can not have more then 20% text. The same 20% rule applies to images used in Facebook ads and promoted posts, which we somewhat agree with. We don’t want to clutter up user feeds with text-heavy ads. But why only 20% on the cover photo and no limitations on “regular” none-promoted photos?  For that, I have no answer. However, I do make sure to follow the guidelines. Do you?

Here is a link that will help you better understand exactly what 20% text looks like:
www.facebook.com/help/468870969814641/

What do you think about the 20% rule when it comes to the cover photo? Tell us below.

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Read more Facebook’s “20% rule” in the latest 360Social Digital Download, a round-up of digital marketing news for brands.

FTC Crack Down on Social Media Advertising - The FTC is heavily monitoring advertisers on Twitter and Facebook to protect consumers from misleading ads. If you suspect that your ad may be misleading, add a disclosure or rephrase the copy. Remember that disclosures need to be clear and visible on all devices and platforms that consumers may use to view the ad.

Facebook Lessens Regulation on 20% Text Rule - Brands are now able to include calls to action, contact info, or references to price or purchase information in the cover photo, but there is still a 20 % limit for text overlay. The new guidelines offer brands more flexibility in the sort of content included in cover photos.

#Facebook to Incorporate Hashtags? 
- Twitter created the hashtag to allow users to collate tweets relating to a single topic or news event, and Instagram quickly followed suit, but is Facebook next? Facebook is testing the hashtag feature, which would allow Facebook users to click on the hashtag (#360PR) to pull up all posts about similar topics or events so it can quickly index conversations around trending topics and build those conversations up, giving users more reason to stay logged in and see more ads.

Brands Start Using 6-Second Video App Vine - 6-second video sharing app Vine was acquired by Twitter in December, making people wonder if it could be this year’s hot new app on the block. Hopeful of its rise in popularity, many brands have jumped in to create their own microvideos to share both on Vine and Twitter. Mashable ranked the 10 Best Brands on Vine. Stop Motion videos are beginning to define the Vine tone between both users and brands. Brands are creative, inspiring, and funny.

Google Reader Out. Feedly In - Since Google announced that they would be killing off Google Reader, many users turned to the app Feedly to get their RSS Feeds. A few performance glitches from Google Alerts have thrown users into a whirl of speculation that Google may terminate of Alerts next. Google has said nothing about ending the service, but everyone is in search of a back up free email alert system.

Filed under: Design, Digital Digest, Digital PR, FaceBook, Internet, Mobile Industry, Social Media, Social Networking by Kyle-Bishop - No Comments →

How important are your tweets? That is for Twitter to decide! One of the articles in our latest Digital Download discusses Twitter’s recent announcement that they are going to begin attaching value ratings to users’ tweets as none, low, medium and high.

According to Twitter, the new metadata will allow developers to sort through millions of tweets in their streaming API to help them find the conversations that are most useful to them.

Although Twitter did not say how they will actually determine each tweet’s value, it is likely the system will work the same way that “Top Tweets” currently appear in a Twitter search result. Basically, you can get your 140-characters-or-less as a ‘Top Tweet’ if you have a large following or if you manage to rack up a lot of retweets.

As we all know, some streams on Twitter have so much content and move so fast that it can be very hard to keep up. This new system may help brands find the most useful information – and the most influential individuals – in the often-overwhelming Twitter conversations. On the flip side, the new system could prevent great content from being seen if the user (or brand) is new to the ever-growing social platform.

What do you think? Do you find ‘value’ in Twitter’s new rating system?

Read more about Twitter’s new rating system in the latest 360Social Digital Download, a round-up of digital marketing news for brands.

• Twitter will now decide the ‘value’ of your tweets

  The value judgments will be assigned to the public metadata of tweeters’ posts, and used by Twitter’s streaming API to help developers more selectively curate massive amounts of status updates. More
• Social Fresh claims Facebook is turning into a mobile company

  According to Mark Zuckerberg, in 2013, Facebook is “going to get really good at building mobile-first experiences.” 680 million users access Facebook via mobile at least once a month. 157 million ONLY access Facebook via mobile (15% of the total user base). More
• Twitter launches Vine app – Facebook blocks its fan page

  Twitter has introduced a new video sharing service, Vine, that allows users to record and share brief looping videos up to six seconds in length. Upon its initial launch, Facebook made Vine’s unsearchable on its platform. Even at current date, it is not easy to get to the app’s fan page – and they only have 48 likes. More
• Mashable reports how in-app searches are taking searches away from Google
  Google accounts for two of every three searches done in the U.S., far and away the most of any core search engine. However, Mashable uncovers that more and more in-app searches are occurring on platforms like Facebook and Amazon. More
• Facebook admits critical bugs caused page reach to be misreported for months

  While trying to speed up its iOS and Android apps, Facebook accidentally stripped out too much data about news feed posts by Pages. This caused Page Insights to be misreported, leading admins to believe their posts reached fewer people than they actually did, in most cases. More

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital Digest, Digital PR, FaceBook, Interactive Marketing, Internet, Mobile Industry, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Uncategorized, YouTube by Kyle-Bishop - No Comments →

Digital Digest: June 27th

The Digital Digest by 360social gives you the best digital secrets, trends, tips and tricks for new tools, and general news circulating in the digital world. Have a question? Curious about a new site and what it does? Never heard about a tool mentioned recently? Contact Lesley Ridge, 360PR’s content and community manager:  @lesleyridge or  Facebook.com/360pr and join in the conversation using #360PR!

Michelle Obama on Pinterest: Obama Campaign Launches Account for First Lady to Celebrate Father’s Day:  Is politics the latest Pinterest trend? Possibly! Today, First Lady Michelle Obama made her debut on the social site with three boards – Around the White House, Great Memories, and Father’s Day. What other boards do you think MO will create? Tweet your ideas using #360PR.

Behind the Scenes of 4 Hot Social Media Campaigns [CASE STUDY]: While most brands have a presence across multiple social channels, usually one in the bunch emerges as the rock star, driving traffic, engagement, and conversation. Mashable contributor Lauren Hockenson gives four recent campaigns gold stars of excellence. Read the short version for quick insights to what drove success, or click on each campaign to dive a little deeper.

Five Strategies to Dominate Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube [INFOGRAPHIC]: This week’s infographic is brought to you by Awareness, Inc., covering goals brands and companies should strive to achieve across their social networks to be successful. A favorite? Analytics. Understanding what works for your audience is key to develop and curate the most relevant content. Want to read more? Download the full white paper here.

Filed under: Cause-Related, Digital Digest, Digital PR, Facebook, Social Good, Social Media by Admin - 3 Comments →