Feb 18, 2011

Facebook Page vs Group - What's The Difference and What Should My Business Have?

If you're confused, here's the quick answer: A business should have a Facebook Page, not a Facebook Group.

Here's an example that should help make the distinction clear:

PAGE: ''The Bead Lady'', a local Concord, NC business, would want to create a Facebook Business Page. She'd want to name it after her business - something like: "The Bead Lady". The Page will help her increase awareness of her business and help promote it.  The page connects her business with prospects, customers, and supporters (friends & family) who become "fans".  

GROUP: She might also want to increase awareness about her "type" of business and help promote her industry, so she would want to create a Facebook Group.  Perhaps simply calling it "Beading", for people interested in beading. The group connects members, who share a common interest, with each other. To better target a local geographic area, a business owner might want to add city or region to the group name, such as "Cabarrus County Beading" or "Concord Beading".
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DETAILS:
Facebook Pages:
Like a friend's profile, Facebook Pages enable public figures, businesses, organizations and other entities to create an authentic and public presence on Facebook. Unlike your profile, Facebook Pages are visible to everyone on the internet by default. You, and every person on Facebook, can connect with these Pages by becoming a fan and then receive their updates in your News Feed and interact with them.


Facebook created Pages when they noticed that people were trying to connect with brands/businesses in ways that didn’t quite work on Facebook. Business Pages not only connect ''fans'' with the business, but they can show their friends what they "like" (support) and recommend by adding Pages to their personal profile. When people become a fan of a brand/business, that information is posted on their wall. You can see which Pages your friends are fans of via the “Info” tab on their profile.
It's also important that I point out that a Facebook ''Business Page'' is different from a Facebook "Business Account". The Account is mainly for companies that pay to advertise their brand/business on Facebook.

Facebook Groups:
A group is best suited for something of shared interest - a cause, a hobby, etc.. While Pages were designed to be the official profiles for businesses, Facebook Groups are the place for small group communication among "members" who share a common interest. 

Facebook Groups are set up for more personal interaction. Groups are also directly connected to the people who administer them, meaning that activities that go on there could reflect on you personally. Pages, on the other hand, don’t list the names of administrators.


PRIVACY - The Separation of Your Business & Your Personal Life: It's important to understand that Facebook considers groups to be an extension of your personal actions. When you post something as a group administrator, it appears to be coming from you and is attached to your personal profile. In contrast, Page Adminstrators can create content that comes from the Page itself, so that content doesn’t have to be linked to you personally.


SEO: Regarding which type is best for a business, one critical difference involves SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  Pages are indexed by external search engines such as Google, just like a public profile, while Groups are not.


There are MANY other differences, unique features/benefits, and pros & cons between Pages and Groups, but hopefully I've shared enough here to show you that if you're a business owner/manager, you need to create a Facebook page to represent and promote your brand/business rather than a Facebook group. 

For more information about this blog post topic, please visit CarolinaWebsiteDesign.com and then call Cole WebMarketing at 704-456-WEB1 (9321).

Feb 17, 2011

Website Content: Video Tips

Great Content Helps Make Great Websites! Adding high quality short video clips to your website is one sure way to help educate and impress visitors to your website.

Although Cole WebMarketing offers local Charlotte, NC area on-site and off-site professional standard and HD video services, sometimes our clients might want or need to "shoot themselves".

Garbage In / Garbage Out is a phrase commonly heard in the Information Technology world, so here are a several Photography & Video Tips to help you provide us with good raw materials to work with.

Especially for home builders, new/custom machinery development, any business involved with refurbishment/restoration (before and after photos are a must!), etc. - it's best to capture and preserve daily/weekly (or major event) project progress.

POSITIONING: For best results, always use a tri-pod to mount the camera to avoid camera shake. It may seem minor during filming but it will be major while viewing on TV or the internet. Remember to shoot from several positions around project. Be sure to make those positions (tape on floor, stake in ground, etc.) to ensure you get the same angle/view each time.

SHOT FRAMING: It's recommended to not shoot ''too tight'' in regard to shot framing. "Backgrounds" can be helpful in providing reference to viewers, but keep the focal point obvious by avoiding too wide of a shot. Make sure you avoid cutting off body parts, sections of equipment/machinery, etc. - remember...garbage in / garbage out!

LENGTH: Unless absolutely neccessary, such as filming a process/event from A-Z, avoid LONG clips. It's usually best to shoot short (30, 60 or 90 second) vid cam clips. These short clips will be combined by us during the website video post production process. Our world today has a very short attention span (is this blog post too long?) so keep in mind that the suggested total length for informational internet video clips is about 3 minutes max.

PAN & ZOOM: It's OK to pan pan side to side, but go super slow. When you think you're panning slow enough, slow it down a bit more!
A common amateur mistake is excessive zooming. Try to avoid zooming in/out zoom while in record mode. Although wide-angle full scene and close up footage is good to shoot, transitions can be applied during post production by us, so it's best to zoom out - then record, stop, zoom in, record some more. If you must zoom while recording, do it very slowly and smoothly.

FILE ORGANIZATION: After shooting, transfer your "raw video footage" to your PC. To best organize your content, create folders - with clear and concise labels. Including the date is also helpful. I prefer this dating format: 2011-0217 (for February 17, 2011). Main folder example: SmithHome_2011-0217. Using this format style helps with chronological sorting later. Inside the main folder, create sub-folders, also clearly and concisely named. Smith_OutsideFront, Smith_OutsideBack, Smith_InsideLiving, Smith_InsideKitchen, etc.

BACK UP: And finally, it's always a good idea to make backup copies of anything shot. You want to preserve a back up of any and all "master originals". You can store a copy on another PC and/or external hard drive. It's also easy to burn to CD or DVD, and "off-site" storage is recommended.

CLIENT EDITS: We prefer that our clients don't edit videos on their end, other than trimming off excess at the beginning and end of video clips. You want to avoid downsizing the file. We sometimes get tiny video clips (180 pixels wide for example) and while a large video can be made smaller, increasing the size of a small video always results in significant degradation of quality. In post production we can make big small; but not small big.

VIDEO FORMAT: WMV, MOV, AVI, and MPEG are probably the most common, but we can work with just about any video file format. For website use, Cole WebMarketing always tries to follow current "best industry practices". The norm, at this time, is for website videos to be converted into Abode Flash (.swf) files. They're very compact in file size so they load fast (3 min. total length is "standard"), and can be viewed by most internet users. (the exception would be Apple portables - iPhone, iPod, iPad can not display Flash files). However, we can post a link on your site to an MPEG-4 version will allow Apple portable users to watch all your videos.

VIDEO SIZE: Videos included in websites by Cole WebMarketing are usually standard 4:3 format. Sizes for website use are usually standard small (320 pixels wide x 240 pixels high) or standard large (640 x 480).We'll also use "widescreen" (16:9 format) and sizes depending on the site layout and design.

FILE TRANSFER: To get your raw video clips in our hands for "post production" (editing, enhancement and conversion for use on your website, your YouTube Channel, etc.), we can help you to upload them, via ''FTP'', directly to a private location on your website server for our retrieval, or you can burn and snail mail a CD or DVD.

For more information about this blog post topic, please visit CarolinaWebsiteDesign.com and then call Cole WebMarketing at 704-503-7069.

Website Content: Photography Tips

Great Photos Help Make Great Websites!  Adding high quality photographs to your website is one sure way to help impress visitors to your website. 

Although Cole WebMarketing offers local Charlotte, NC area on-site and off-site professional DSLR (digital single lens reflex) high resolution (15MB) still photography services, sometimes our clients might want or need to "shoot themselves". 

Garbage In / Garbage Out is a phrase commonly heard in the Information Technology world, so here are a several Photography Tips to help you provide us with good raw materials to work with.

Especially for home builders, new/custom machinery development, any business involved with refurbishment/restoration (before and after photos are a must!), etc. - it's best to capture and preserve daily/weekly (or major event) project progress.

For best results, it's best to use a tri-pod to mount the camera, even if it's a simple, inexpensive "point & shoot" camera. Remember to shoot from several positions around project. Be sure to make those positions (tape on floor, stake in ground, etc.) to ensure you get the same angle/view each time.

For still camera shots, take one photo zoomed out and then one zoomed in.  Always take two identical shots in case the first is flawed (lighting, focus, or other issue). You might even want to take a few and alter the settings slightly. It's recommended to not shoot too tight in regard to shot framing.  Excess can be trimmed during post production by us, but if you cut off body parts, sections of equipment/machinery, etc. - it's garbage in / garbage out!

As soon as possible after shooting, transfer your photos to your PC.  To best organize your content, create folders - with clear and concise labels. Including the date is also helpful.  I prefer this dating format: 2011-0217 (for February 17, 2011). Main folder example: SmithHome_2011-0217.

Using this format style helps with chronological sorting later. Inside the main folder, create sub-folders, also clearly and concisely named.  Smith_OutsideFront, Smith_OutsideBack, Smith_InsideLiving, Smith_InsideKitchen, etc.

And finally, it's always a good idea to make backup copies of anything shot. You want to preserve a back up of any and all "master originals". You can store a copy on another PC and/or external hard drive. It's also easy to burn to CD or DVD, and "off-site" storage is recommended.

We prefer that our clients don't edit photos on their end. However, if you feel the need, keep in mind not to downsize photos. We sometimes get tiny photos (150 x 150 pixels for example) and while a large photo can be made smaller, increasing the size of a small photo always results in degradation of quality - i.e., blurry and/or ''pixelated'' (jagged edges).  In post production we can make big small; but not small big.
PHOTO FORMAT & SIZE: Cole WebMarketing always tries to follow current "best industry practices". JPG file format is recommended. For website photo display, most "large pics" we use are 750 pixels wide x 500 high - small pics are 200-350 pixels wide.  Maximum total website/photo width is 960 pixels wide, as this size avoids the dreaded "side scrolling" for 96-99% of all internet users.  

To get your photos in our hands for "post production" - editing/enhancement for website use, you can email photos, several at time.  If you have more than 50MB or dozens of photos, we can help you to "FTP" them to your website server for our retrieval, or you can burn and snail mail a CD or DVD. 

For more information about this blog post topic, please visit CarolinaWebsiteDesign.com and then call Cole WebMarketing at 704-503-7069.

Feb 5, 2011

Search Engine 101: What They Are and How They Work

Knowing a bit about what Search Engines are and how they work is important to any internet user. However, this information is especially important to any website owner/manager. Having at least a basic understanding will help you develop and/or improve your overall webmarketing strategy for maximum effectiveness and to help you maximize your return on your website development and maintenance investment.

Search Engine History & Overview:
WebCrawler, which was born in 1994, is considered to be the first true search engine. It was an automated ''crawler based'' full text search engine. In 2000, Google was released and rapidly gained popularity because it delivered very relevant results to queries (search keyword or keyphrase). Google is by far the most popular search engine, and has been for the past several years. Yahoo! and Microsoft's Bing are the others that make up the "Big 3", although in 2009 There are also hundreds of other "major" search engines, like "Ask.com", and thousands of ''minor'' ones. Many search engines are "powered" by others (in 2009 Yahoo! began to use Bing technology), so the results can be similar, sometimes almost identical.

Search Engine vs Directory:
There are also online Website Directories (think internet phone book). The terms are often incorrectly used interchangeably, but ''human run'' directories (such as www.Dmoz.org) are very different from search engines, which are "robot run".

How Search Engines Work:
There are three primary pieces of software involved: the spider software, the index software and the query software.
SPIDER: Search engines automatically create web site listings by using "spider robots" (software programs) that "crawl" web pages, index their information, Spiders, like GoogleBot, usually return to already-crawled sites on a regular basis in order to check for updates or changes.

INDEX: Everything that they find goes into the search engine database. The engines use complex (and secret) algorithms (mathematical formulas), to help determine what goes where in the database. Think of the file cabinet in your office. The better you evaluate, label and sort (alpha, numeric, etc.) the faster you can find stored information you need when you need it later.
QUERY: When a user searches (submits a query), the search engines evaluates the query, checks it's database, and then using it's algorithms, provides the user with what it considers a list of "best match" results that it ranks by relevancy to the word or phrase in the query. An analogy would be you going to a library, telling the librarian you need a book on "cars", and the librarian retrieves and presents you with a some books. Since your question was vague and general, you might get a cart full of books! The more specific your question ("history of BMW" for example), the better the librarian can help you quickly find exactly what you need - i.e., "we have 1,251 books on cars, but here are 3 that seem best matched to your specific question".


SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) and Different Types of Listings:After a query, a user is presented a two different types of results - Organic & Paid.
Organic/Natural Search Results, are listings on SERPS that appear because of their relevance to the search terms, as opposed to paid advertisements. Most search engines will present "pay per click" ads on the column on the right, often with a few at the top center (above the natural results). Those in the premium position (top center) get there based on highest cost per click paid and frequency of clicks. Much research has been done regarding this topic, but it's my professional opinion that most users, most of the time will first click organic search results before they click on the paid listings.


Why Should You Know This AND Why Should You Care?
As a website owner or manager, you know how important it is for prospective customers to be able to easily find your website when they search for your products and services.  Now that you know what Search Engines are and how they work, you can help create or modify the organization of your website content, and create or modify specific page text to best the needs of the search engines.  The spider robots need a "search engine friendly" website (easy to crawl & easy to index) that's filled with keyword rich text.

LEARN MORE: To learn more about Search Engines and SEO, use the "blog search box" (upper left) to find other posts in this Cole WebMarketing blog, using keywords/keyphrases such as Search Engine, Online Directory, Google, Yahoo, Bing, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, etc.. 

For more information about this blog post topic, please visit CarolinaWebsiteDesign.com and then call Cole WebMarketing at 704-503-7069.