When you visit your Facebook Page you’ll have the opportunity to “upgrade” your business to the new page style, to take the tour or to preview what your page will look like. Below are some screen captures from the tour.

Your latest photos will show up at the top of the page, just like they do on your personal profile. Fans photos won’t appear here, and you do have the ability to delete/hide photos.

The navigation now appears on the left column, similar to the profile pages on Facebook. File under “Big Whup.”

Posts won’t necessarily appear in chronological order only. You can promote specific posts, making you look even more popular than ever. Better hope that someone slamming you isn’t the most commented and liked post on your wall. Right, Cooks Source?

“Use Facebook as Your Page.” That’s a confusing turn of phrase, but basically you can use Facebook as your page in the same way you would as yourself…within reason.

Actually, it’s the first bullet that’s the most interesting I think: “Get notifications when fans interact with your page or posts.” This is a great new feature, as in the past someone could put up some Acai Berry spam on your wall and you might not notice it for days. Up until now I’ve been using Nutshell Mail, which sends you an email which includes new posts on your wall, whether from you or a Fan.

There are some new features in the administration panel as well. Facebook now lets you “set defaults for your email notifications and how you post to your page.”

SWEET! That was the number one request we heard from clients who have Facebook pages…the ability to comment and like items as themselves. To do so you just need to edit the setting in the admin area.

There’s no turning back now…once you upgrade your page there’s no CTRL-Z. However, Facebook is going to kick you to the new design in March anyway, so there’s little reason (that I see) to hold back.

The new features and controls administrators now have over their pages make the switch well worth it.

What do you think about the new layout and features of the Facebook Page Makeover?

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1. WordPress – You don’t need a super fancy design to make your website great. What you need is a clean site, that allows you and your team the ability to update, add images, events, tweak and tweak content
2. Blog – Regular blog posts are a way for your current customers, potential customers, business partners and community to get to know your business. Share news, updates, promotions, employee highlights, answer customer questions and share videos. Plus, with WordPress you can create multiple blog posts and schedule out when posts will be posted live.
3. Email Newsletters – Recommend using MailChimp – Start out with their Always Free Service that gives you up to 1,000 email subscribers, and up to 6,000 emails sent a month. No limiting features and easy reporting.
4. Facebook Fan Page – Create a page that you can engage with your businesses’ existing fans. Another place to showcase news about your business, upcoming events, photos, and videos.
5. Twitter – Join in the conversation happening about your business, industry and brands.  Starting an account is easy, spend some time listening and getting to know where to engage.
6. Biznik – Takes a village to be successful. Get to know local entrepreneurs, business owners and more through events, while showcasing your business, skills and interests.
7. Teach a lesson – Consider taking your business knowledge and expertise to the classroom and offer a class through Teachstreet. Building your personal brand while also helping others learn about your industry or subject.
8. Update Listings: From Google Places, Foursquare, Whrrl, CitySearch to Yelp spend time claiming your business listings, updating information and adding photos. Monitor the accounts to see what your customers are saying about you.
9. Get on YouTube: Create a YouTube channel and then bring out your little digital camera. Create short informational videos about you, your business, ideas and questions.
10. Google Alerts: Be emailed every time Google finds keywords about your business, brand or about you. Find out who is talking and where.
11. Read & Comment: Find blogs in your industry, where your customers are and give the author feedback, and reflections on their insights.

Looking forward to seeing all of your businesses engaging online with social media, email marketing and by writing great valuable content.

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In the post, Jeff points out that Facebook and Twitter are replacing blogging with the argument that less people are spending time blogging, but more time on Facebook and Twitter. From Technorati’s findings, “pure bloggers” like hobbyists are blogging less as their time is allocated more to the micro-blogging sites.

While Jeff uses the Technorati stats to paint his position, I can’t help but feel he’s missing the bigger picture.

Technorati and Blog Claims

While there’s no doubt that Technorati is one of the leading blog resources when it comes to statistics, it also only counts blogs that’s registered with the service.

So while there might be 180 million blogs registered (I think that was the number from the last report), there are a ton more that aren’t registered. Chinese bloggers, for example, are restricted by the Internet laws in China – you can quickly add a few hundred million onto the numbers there.

So while it may appear to Jeff that blogging is going down (at least from the hobbyist angle), not having the full picture skews the results a little.

Numbers and Interpretation

It’s not just the registered versus non-registered numbers that are important, though. Dig a little deeper into the Technorati stats, and you’ll see a lot of information that Jeff either fails to mention, or conflicts with his view.

• In Technorati’s introduction post, they mention that they spoke to 7,200 bloggers to put the report together this year. Look at that number again – 7,200. Out of more than 100 million blogs registered with Technorati. While not insignificant, can less than 1% of your audience be a reflective number?

• Part-time bloggers (13% of the blogosphere) spend at least three hours per week on their blogs, with at least a third of them posting at least once a day.

• At Forbes, Jeff mentions that less time is being spent on blogs since they’re content to post on Twitter or Facebook. Yet according to Technorati, 49% of part-time bloggers and 62% of self-employed bloggers are blogging more because it helps promote them and their business.

But here’s the kicker. Jeff mentions that micro-blogging is taking away bloggers, and giving numbers over to Twitter and Facebook instead. Yet again, look at the Technorati report, and their exact quote is:

The key driver of decreased blogging is an increase in work and family commitments, which is reported as a factor by 63% of respondents who are blogging less. Compared with last year’s findings, slightly fewer of those who are blogging less said that their devotion to microblogging (30%) and social networks (28%) has curtailed their blogging.

So, while micro-blogging sites are becoming more popular with ex-bloggers, it’s actually less than last year’s figures. So blogging is more popular this year?

The Truth About Blogging

The thing about blogging is that it’s something that can’t easily be quantified by simple numbers (as shown here, with Jeff’s interpretation and my one, using the same statistics).

Additionally, you can’t always separate business blogging from personal blogging – the two often mix, whether it’s as a business owner or an employee blogging for your company. While you might be writing a business post, you could also be using the ideas in that for a personal one, and vice versa.

But here’s why I don’t think blogging will be replaced by either Twitter or Facebook anytime soon.

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So read a recent lead that came in through our contact form. We get a lot of similar emails these days, usually around how to use Twitter to promote, sell, or push products or services.

I think this is the wrong question.

Although certainly there’s a lot of promotion going on in Twitter–and it’s not like I’m innocent here–going into Twitter (or Facebook) with the sole purpose of promoting your products or services is going to probably fail.

For most businesses, and for you, the question should be, “How do I use Twitter to engage my audience, learn more about their needs, and build loyalty?“

In short, how do I use Twitter to be a better business?

People didn’t join Twitter so they could get your spam or receive your lame auto-DMs when they choose to follow you back.

I’m not saying you can’t successfully promote your products or services through Twitter; many businesses are successful in doing just that. But the ones who do it best are putting out tons of great content, using Twitter as a customer service channel, listening and talking with their customers, and otherwise being funny, charming, informative, or all three.

Social media platforms like Twitter are not like traditional advertising; to believe that they are will doom you to failure. Open yourself up, take chances and treat people like you’d like to be treated, and you’ll find success. Oh, and don’t expect overnight riches. Give yourself at least a fortnight.

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I was struck by the juxtaposition (I <3 that word) of the first two articles in today’s issue of SmartBrief on Social Media:

• Report: Brands are reluctant to spend on social-media campaigns and
• Early buzz saves big bucks, says Ford marketing chief.

The first one, which appears at E-Consultancy under the title of Investment in Social Media Still Modest: Report, lists a number of reason why companies are hesitant to spend money on social media, even though the budgets have slightly increased since last year:

• Lack of resources
• Lack of measurement
• Lack of understanding and
• Lack of budget all make the list.

Yet, over on Mark Collier’s blog, under the title of Ford CMO Jim Farley: Social media leading to ‘massive cost savings’ for Ford, Farley reports:

On the Fiesta Movement, we had higher unaided nameplate awareness than Fit or Yaris, and we spent 10 cents on the dollar, than a traditional tv ad campaign [their emphasis].  So by starting earlier and using social media to spread the word about the new product, we’re really reducing the amount of traditional advertising we have to spend.

Not every social media campaign is going to be as successful as saving 90% of your advertising budget, but how long are you going to wait on treating social media as a serious, measurable, tactic for increasing your online or brand awareness, driving more qualified leads to your site, and converting that traffic into business?

Hopefully you won’t wait until all of your competitors have already proven the model. Now get out there and experiment, people!

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