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 →

By Leticia Barr

Today, the most effective parent-to-parent conversations can occur beyond the blog post. The ever-evolving online space has witnessed the development of new social tools utilized by bloggers and other digital influencers that can convey a story about a product, provide an inside look at a brand, or enhance a brand’s customer service.

Savvy marketing professionals are designing blogger outreach programs with a more holistic approach – taking into account bloggers’ use of Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Forward-thinking companies have moved beyond ‘spray and pray’ blogger outreach to engage bloggers in more meaningful ways – leading to compelling content that’s of higher value to parent audiences.

General Motors stands out as a leader for two innovative campaigns that tapped bloggers to create cross-platform content.  When prepping for the debut of the 2013 Terrain Denali, GMC invited a dozen bloggers to Michigan. Like other auto press events it included time to learn about the new Denali through a vehicle walk-around and drive-time. But the entire event was wisely designed to be interactive and capitalize on bloggers’ influence across multiple social media platforms.

Drive routes to showcase Northern Michigan at the start of summer were planned in conjunction with the Michigan Bureau of Tourism. Inspired by the scenery, bloggers captured images of the car during morning drives using Olympus PL-3 cameras provided through a partnership with Olympus. By the afternoon, we had not only experienced the car, but also learned how to shoot incredible images for our blogs.

Bloggers were invited to select a favorite image of the Denali to appear on the GMC Facebook page for the opportunity to be their new Timeline photo. As soon as the photos were up on the GMC page, each blogger went to work reaching out to our social networks by Tweeting, emailing, and sharing in Facebook groups to get our friends to like our images for the chance to be featured as the new Timeline photo. The well-planned event generated brand awareness and new Facebook fans for the 2013 Terrain Denali, as well as deepened brand relationships with bloggers for long-term gain.

As further evidence of GMC’s strategy to both spotlight and leverage digital influencers and their rich content, GMC also recently tapped leading fashion bloggers to showcase design inspirations for a custom Buick Encore digital look book, called Buick Pinboard to Dashboard.

The effectiveness of both of these campaigns is rooted in GMC’s recognition of bloggers’ digital influence across the broader social media sphere and a focus on the development of rich, compelling content. I’m excited about this evolution in how bloggers and brands are working together, and to see how consumers react to the new content we create together.

Leticia Barr is known throughout the social media sphere as Tech Savvy Mama, her award winning technology and education blog. She is also a Parents.com columnist, and a contributor to several brands’ content streams. Reach her on Twitter @TechSavvyMama.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, 360PR - MomSquad, Blogger Relations, Digital PR, FaceBook, Facebook, Internet, Social Media, Trendletter, Twitter by Admin - No Comments →

By John LeRoy

As you may have heard, Facebook announced some MAJOR changes to the platform last week that have already begun to roll out.  The most significant of these changes is the complete overhaul of personal Facebook profiles into the new “Timeline” format.  For a full breakdown of what changes Facebook users can expect to see in the coming days and weeks, check out this Mashable article, but here are a couple of the highlights:

1)    The New “Timelines”: Individual user profiles will now look entirely different, taking more of a “scrapbook” approach to detail a users every move.  Timelines will eventually become the default Facebook profile.

2)    App-roval: Once a user opts-in to share information for any given app, the info will begin to automatically show up on Facebook with each action within the approved app.  Many users have likely already experienced this feature as they see what songs their friends are listening to on Spotify, for example.

3)    Facebook Gestures: Developers are now able to turn any action into a button – such as read, watched, etc.  It will be interesting to see how brands take advantage of this feature now that “Like” is not the only option.

In regards to what will happen to brand pages, Facebook has not made any official announcements and it has many marketers (including us!) patiently waiting to see how clients will be affected and what adjustments to current tactics will need to be made.

While brand pages and their managers wait to see how, exactly, they will be affected, Mashable’s Todd Wasserman gives his thoughts on “What Facebook’s Changes Mean For Marketers.”

Leave us a comment about what you think of Facebook’s coming changes.  A disturbance to the current marketing mix or a golden opportunity to get creative?

Filed under: FaceBook, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking by Admin - 1 Comment →

By John LeRoy

Many of the “who’s who” of social media converged upon 92^nd Street in New York City for the 140 Characters Conference this week for a two-day session comprised of rapid-fire presentations from more than 140 speakers and presenters.  Among them were TODAY Show’s Ann Curry, Mashable’s Adam Ostrow, Marc Ecko, Cory Booker and Jeff Jarvis, just to name a few.

If you missed it, here is a brief breakdown of some of the topics discussed at the conference:

-       Real-time News Reporting:  One panel examined journalistic issues that must now be considered by news organizations as they vie to be the first to “break” news stories. Recent examples include top-tier news orgs like NPR prematurely Tweeting that Arizona Rep. Giffords had been killed during a shooting five months ago.  Here’s an article about the damages caused by this gaffe.

-       College In Real-Time:  Syracuse University professor, Anthony Rotolo, gave an overview of how he has implemented social media into his courses to conduct conversation during classes via Twitter, perhaps making him one of the few teachers who encourage the use of technology (and social media) as a tool rather than rejecting it as a learning distraction.

-       Happiness (Via Skype):  Author Deepak Chopra addressed an enthusiast from Toronto via Skype to talk about happiness and the “entanglement of minds,” referring to the fact that social media has the ability to affect nearly all aspects of life, including happiness and health, simply by interacting with others.  He went as far as to say that social networks like Twitter and Facebook have become extensions of our neurological make-up.  Talk about mind-blowing!

Here’s the entire list of sessions that took place over the course of the two day conference. If you were there, what sessions stood out for you?

Filed under: Digital PR, Events and Conferences, FaceBook, Internet, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking by Admin - No Comments →