Facebook announced, last week, that starting March 30, they are forcing all Facebook Business Page owners to convert to the new timeline format, which will completely eliminate the custom landing page option. In fact, a call to action on a Facebook business page will now be against Facebook’s terms and conditions! (see more details below)  (Note: you can still use your custom tabs in your Facebook Page).

New Facebook Page Layout:

(click to enlarge)

Cover Image

The cover image is the new representation of your brand on the Facebook page. The image dimensions are 850px x 315px. Unlike in the previous versions of Facebook page designs, this time around, Facebook has very strict guidelines against adding any marketing tactics and language on the cover image. Facebook’s policies state that cover photos cannot include:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website.”
• Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section.
• References to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features.
• Calls-to-action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”
• Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property. 

Since this is the only visual representation of your brand on the business page, the design of this image is pretty important.  To get your creativity juices flowing, check out these Facebook Timeline designs examples from SocialFresh & InspirationFeed.  You can also check out the Webgrrls Facebook page
 

Profile Picture

This is the image that gets shown next to each of your updates. You can use a logo or any image that is representative of your brand.  We, at Webgrrls decided to highlight our business members in that area.

Choose an image that fits 180 x 180 pixels and also looks good when scaled down to a thumbnail size of 32 x 32 pixels. 

Larger Page Tab Icons

The Page Tabs are now located toward the top of the page instead of the sidebar.  This, along with the increase of the tab icon size (111px x 74 px), allows you to highlight & showcase your tabs where users can’t miss them. Use this space to showcase your calls to actions and create a clear graphic that shows what’s behind the tab. For the Webgrrls page, we have created 3 graphics with text describing the tabs and these tabs now serve as our ‘navigation’.

Follow these steps to assign an image icon to a tab,

You can also set the order of your tabs by dragging them into the location that you want. (Note: the Photos tab location can’t be changed).

Larger, wider page tabs.  

Previously, page tabs were 520px wide, but with the new layout you have 810px of content area to use.  You should now go back to all of the previously created page tabs and ensure that they work with the wider width.

Stories – Star, Hide, or Pin 

Stories also got revamped. By hovering over individual stories, you can make them wider, hide them from your timeline (pencil icon), highlight them as important (star icon), or delete them. A great new feature is the ability to pin/anchor a specific story to the top of your timeline for up to 7 days. This means you can highlight specific posts with remarkable content, calls-to-action for your marketing offers, or events you want to feature. Pinning it to the top of your page will prevent the content from getting buried by more recent updates.

Messages 

This is a brand new feature which allows you to send and receive private message to your page visitors allowing you to can handle your customer service issues directly on Facebook.  

By default, the messages will be turned on.  To turn off messaging capability, go to Admin Panel, and choose ’Manage’ -> ‘Edit Page’ -> ‘Manage Permissions’ and uncheck the ‘Messages’ box.

Milestones

This is another new feature that allows page owners to tell a story….your business’ biggest accomplishments, awards, product releases, etc.  You can create a milestone through your status update box.  In addition to title, location, date, and story, you can upload a 843 x 403 pixels image 

Admin Panel

This is a new interface that offers page admins an overview of what’s going on with a page. Charts, new notifications and “likes”, check-ins, and more. Everything involved with managing your page and creating ads can be done straight from the panel.

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Please take advantage of the 25 days that you have to carefully plan and design your new Facebook Page so that when March 30th comes around, you are all ready to go.

Related posts:

1. Facebook Community Bashes Facebook—While Using a Facebook Group Set Up by Facebook
2. 8 Critical Ways To Protect Your Privacy On The New Facebook
3. Blog About Web Pages Without Opening Another Browser

Social Media is Nothing New

Before we dive into the tips, it’s good to realize that Social Media is nothing new and we all have been doing it from the beginning of time…Social Media is about connecting with people.  What has changed are the tools.  The tools now allow us to make that human connection on a whole different level…having access to people from all over the world where information travels at the speed of light!

Tips for Building a Brand on Social Media

1. Define your brand…your story
   In Social Media, your brand story appears in your bio or tag line.  Make sure to write a great bio/tag line that tells your story. 

   Things you should include in your Brand Story

   • Identify What You Value
   • Identify What Makes You Unique
   • Identify How You Want To Be Perceived
   • Identify Your Specialty
   • Identify Your Target Market 

   Here are 3 examples on Twitter community that tell a great story:
   

   

   One important note is to tailor your bio for each community if necessary.  The target audiences that you want to reach in different communities might vary, so, you have to know the community in order to speak to it’s members in a language that they understand and expect.

   Also, remember to use keywords that you want to be found under in your bio as this is how users of that community will find you.

2. Use a Great Photo
   I can’t stress this enough.  Your photo is the human connection.  Make sure that it is clear and portrays your personality.  Can you guess which photos I think you should use?
   
3. Engage with your community to build relationships
   Because there is so much going on in everyone’s lives today, engaging with the community members is the only way to stay on top of their minds.

   How do you engage?

   • Ask Questions
   • Answer other people’s questions
   • Comment on people’s posts
   • Respond to people when they try to reach out to you

   To help you manage your Social Media communications, you have to monitor what people say about your brand and respond in a timely manner. To monitor what people say about your brand, you can use Google Alerts, Addictomatic, and Twitter Search.

4. Be Remarkable!
   In order to succeed in Social Media, you have to be remarkable!  The power of Social Media tools are SHARING features, where people can easily pass something they like on to their networks.

   People share remarkable things

   People want to connect with remarkable people

5. Be Ubiquitous
   You have to create multiple streams of YOU on all the different social networks but you have to create a “HUB” (usually your blog/website) where people can find all of the info about you in one place. 

   

What do you think?  Do you have any other tips for building a brand on Social Media, please share in the comments!

Related posts:

1. New Marketing Summit: What’s next in Social media
2. Tips for managing your Social Networks
3. 5 Tips to help you manage your time on the social web

“Go home, take a paper bag, cut some eyeholes out of it. Put it over your head, get undressed and look at yourself in the mirror. Really evaluate where your strengths and weaknesses are. And be honest.” Mad Men, Joan Holloway

Sexonomics ?

I am NOT talking about the oldest profession in the world here, (although I am sure that is a profession where there is pay parity for women). I am talking about sexual capital in the workplace, as defined by Catherine Hakim, a professor at the prestigious London School of Economics and author of “Erotic Capital: The Power of Attraction in the Boardroom and the Bedroom”. She explains that “sexonomics” is the sexual allure that people use as a commodity for profit and professional advancement just as they would use education or their network. Hakim explains that the “male sex deficit,” is something that women should leverage often in order to attain career advancement or a wedding ring. 

Sexy in the workplace?

As the pendulum is sure to swing – are we starting to see a time where women will no longer be repressed in the workplace and be able to flaunt their sexuality and femininity without the repercussions of being labeled as “prissy”, “distracting” or worse yet suffer unwanted sexual advances…. I sure hope so!

The TV character  “Joan Harris” on Mad Men – reminds me of the very good lessons that the legendary Ariel Allen, VP Creative Services, Global Advertising at Colgate-Palmolive taught me very early on in my career - Always apply lipstick before and sometimes during a meeting, and touch up your make-up before going to battle in the boardroom.

She was not only brilliant, sharp, fearless and a no bullshit kind of lady, but she was also beautiful, and never missed an opportunity to show the world.  She was completely contrary to what I had learned in college – we where taught that to be non-sexual was important, by not wearing heels or showing cleavage, we could level the playing field and be equal to men (needless to say that spawned a number of very poor wardrobe choices, including wearing those stupid tie things in the 80’s……) 

If I could go back, I would have been bolder and sexier in the workplace and used my looks and youth to get ahead! (my apologies to Gloria Steinem) Especially in light of a recent British report, which states that women will not reach pay equality for 100 years!!!! Ladies, we need every advantage we can get! 

But not every woman would agree with this – there are those feminist like Steinem, that took up the fight to give women the Equal Pay Act of 1963 that guarantees “equal pay” under the law - which to this day still does not exist, AND we work twice as hard for our pay - what’s equal about that? In fact women ONLY make .77 cents to each dollar that men make,and it decreases significantly for minorities.

“The world today is vastly different than it was in 1983, but sadly, one thing that has remained the same is the pay gap between men and women….. If this continues, the only guarantees in life will be death, taxes and the glass ceiling”  US Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York

Should we use our looks in the workplace – Hell Yes!!!!!

Consider these statistics 

• Women’s wages have increased just half a penny on the dollar for the past four decades. 
• Women earn less than men consistently in all industries and occupation groups surveyed by the US Census Bureau.  
• According to the GAO (General Accountability Office) Report GAO-04-35, weekly full time earnings for women where about three-fourths of men in 2011.
• Men with children generally get a pay boost, while women loose earnings.

Consistent with this information is a 2008 study by University of Chicago sociologist Kristen Schilt and NYU economist Matthew Wiswall “Before and After: Gender Transitions, Human Capital, and Workplace Experiences”, people who underwent a sex change –  men who transitioned to women earned, on average, 32% less post surgery, women who became men, earned 1.5% more.

What to do???

I say embrace your inner “Chonga” and get yourself to Banana Republic where you can outfit yourself in fetching 60′s fashions like “Joanie” from Mad Men….. walk into your office, with a beautifully made up face, head held high in a tight dress, push up bra (don’t forget the Spanx) while balancing on your 5 inch leopard stilettos, sashay into your bosses office, lean over his desk and get that promotion or pay raise that your male colleague already has!!!!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. Harassment & unfair treatment of women in IT – Can we change the behavior and culture?
2. 7 Ways Social Media Can Help Retain Women in the Workplace
3. Inspiring Women Series – Female Internet Heros

I recently attended a LUXi, the Lean User Experience Intensive facilitated by Lane Halley & Josh Seiden of LUXr.  The 2-day, hands-on, workshop is designed to teach entrepreneurs how they can achieve “predictable, high-quality, high-velocity user experience outcomes” using Lean UX Principals and I am really excited to share what I learned.

The traditional user experience process is normally long and expensive and that makes it challenging for startups to get products to market fast, and can be the difference between success (great user adoption) and failure.

The Event

The event was extremely well run and the attendees were divided into teams of 3. We were then walked through and practiced a series of activities, each one building on the previous one, that supported one complete Lean UX Cycle: THINK, MAKE, CHECK (click on image to enlarge).

Step by step process of the Lean UX Cycle

THINK

• Step 1 – Write down the problem (this exercise helps with establishing focus)

  I had the privilege of working with Keka Marzagão & Billy Tobon on a hypothetical “new start-up” in the health food industry. Each of us was directed to write down the “problems” as we perceive them…one problem per sticky note. Then, as a team, we reviewed everyone’s sticky notes and decided what problems are worth solving.

  Our first goal was to determine the problem our company will solve. We each brainstormed for 5 minutes identifying different problems in the health food industry and then collectively reviewed everyone’s ideas and settled on the following: “the reason a lot of people don’t eat healthy is because they don’t have time to cook”.

  What I learned: I discovered that this method of brainstorming was extremely effective. It ensures that everyone’s individual thoughts will get seen and heard. I find that, in group brainstorming sessions, oftentimes the people who are less outgoing never get a chance to present their ideas.

• Step 2 – Create a Hypothesis

  Once you decide on a problem you are going to solve, the next step is to create a Hypothesis by framing it into the following sentence structure:

  Person type X has problem Y that can be solved by solution Z and measured by metric Q

  This was the hypothesis we came up with: “We believe that busy people have the desire/need to eat healthy prepared home cooked meals but they can’t have the time to patience to do it”

• Step 3 – Create a Persona
  A persona is a narrative that describes the person your product will be used by. A good persona will include information like: behavior patterns, goals, needs, attitudes, beliefs, workflow, skills, and environment. You can use this amazing persona cheat sheet prepared by LUXr.

  What I learned: Creating a persona forced us to really think about who our customer is and later, when we went to interview people, it was easier to visually identify them because we knew exactly what we were looking for.

MAKE

• Step 1 – Start to think about solutions
  Using the hypothesis and the persona, we started exploring the ideas with visual thinking and developing a shared understanding, which helped us move from the abstract to the specific solutions.

  We each drew 6 ideas on a piece of paper and, during the group discussion, we were encouraged to provide feedback in the following language:

  When Explaining an idea: “this idea solves the following problem for the following person in the following way”

   

  When providing critique: “I don’t see how this solves the problem X”

• Step 2 – Establish a census on the best solution to pursue and create an artifact that you can show to users.
  We decided that a web application would be the most effective first step and since, in our minds, trust might be the biggest problem in adoption, we decided to create very colorful design that showcases our chef’s photos, ratings, and testimonials. Also important was to showcase the photos of the foods and the ingredients that were used.

  Below is my team’s finished prototype designed by Keka:

CHECK

The final step of the process is to validate your ideas by getting out of the building and talking, in person if possible, with living, breathing customers to determine the validity of your assumptions.

We were shown techniques for interviewing people and asking open ended questions. Our team then went out into Union Square to interview potential customers.

What I learned: Through the interview process, I discovered that effective user interviewing is a skill that needs to be mastered and practiced ahead of time. I found it difficult to extract information from the user without leading them. I suggest that you read Lane’s slideshare presentation, I’m out of the building now what, where she covers how & where you can find users to talk to, offering tips for effective user interviews, and much more!

Learning from Others

Another great aspect of the event was the Show & Tell, where all of the teams shared their work and experiences. It was enlightening and empowering to see the different approaches and issues that people came up with and learn from one another. It was amazing to see the Lean UX process at work and see how quickly ideas can be validated

Tips for using these techniques in your own work

Here are some words of wisdom from Lane:

In your own work, you will use these techniques in a way that is appropriate for you. You may choose do these activities for longer periods, or with gaps of hours or days in between. You may choose different collaborators from your team for different activities. You may skip some of these activities or add some of your own. The important thing is that your entire team establishes a SHARED PROBLEM STATEMENT (what is our hypothesis? What result are we trying to accomplish? For whom?), and that you then work towards the MOST LIGHTWEIGHT thing you can make to validate that hypothesis. ~ Lane Halley

My Takeaway

I will not ever build a feature or a product without going through this process first! Thank you Lane & Josh!

Related posts:

1. Book Clubs for User Experience Professionals
2. Best New Tool for User Testing: The Flip
3. Experience Last Month’s IA Summit Online

My answer….you have to develop great time management skills and stay disciplined about them…and you have to manage technology instead of it managing you.

One of the biggest problems of the social web is the ease with which one can lose track of time.  We are having so much fun connecting with friends & colleagues on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks that we end up not getting any work done during the work hours and end up working ALL THE TIME.

Another problem is multi-tasking and interruptions.  Research shows that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task when interrupted on an unrelated topic.

Here are some tips on managing your time on the social web:

1. Schedule Everything and stick to the schedule
   I use the Entourage calendar to schedule EVERYTHING…meetings, responding to email, social network presence, day-to day tasks.  But it’s not enough to schedule things..you have to stick to the schedule!
   
2. Schedule your most important tasks when you feel like you are most productive
   The most productive time is different for each person…some people are sharpest in the morning, some are later in the day.  Figure out what your magic time slot is and schedule your most important task during that time.  Sprinkle your social interactions & email management throughout the day but make sure it’s not during your most productive time.
3. Use a timer
   Using a timer will allow you to set an alarm to notify you when your current scheduled task/activity is supposed to end.  Let’s say you are alotting 20 minutes for social media interaction at 1pm…before you begin the task at 1pm, set your alarm to let you know when the 20 minutes has passed. 

   The application that I use to achieve this is Apimac Timer (mac). You can also use Xnote StopWatch if you are on Windows (there are many more you can choose from).

4. Close down the applications that you are not using
   Human nature is to respond to stimuli…so if you hear a notice that you have a new email or a new response from a friend, you have to go see what it is.  That is why if it’s not time to check and respond to email, I close down the email application…if it’s not time to interact on Twitter, I close down the Twitter application…the point is…only have the application that you are currently working in open.
5. Set and manage expectations
   Managing everyone’s expectations is the key to time management.  I think a lot of the time, the immediacy to respond is in our own head.  Training your clients, colleagues, friends, and online connections that you are not available 24×7 will allow you to respond on your own time.  And because we are all going through this information and task overload…they will more than undertand!

Did I miss anything?  Share your time management tips in the comments!

Related posts:

1. Tips for managing your Social Networks
2. How to manage your Inbox, save time, and respond in a timely manner
3. Time management tips for working women in technology

So, I have recently created “Share on Twitter” functionality and link on the Webgrrls Wisdom blog and you can use this functionality too…for your blog and for extending your brand.

Here is how it works

When readers click on the “Share on Twitter” link after they are finished reading the post,  the following twitter entry automatically gets posted to their twitter account:

Currently reading on @Webgrrls: Title of Blog Post & Shortened url to the blog post (ie. Currently reading on @Webgrrls: Book Clubs for User Experience Professionals http://tinyurl.com/kmm9oy)

Now, when you do it, of course, it will have your blog name and branding information

Here is a step by step guide on how you can implement this feature on your blog:

1. Click the download button below to download the plug-in file to your computer.
   
   
   
2. Uncompress the downloaded .zip fil and Upload/FTP the tinyurl-functions.php file to your WordPress /wp-content/plugins directory
3. Activate the TinyURL Function plug-in in your WordPress Admin area.
4. Add the following link code to any of your theme files, where you want the “Share on Twitter” link to appear.

Share it on Twitter!