I really like the interface of Pinterest. It’s so visual! You can find stuff to pin quickly. For us “skimmers” that is a good thing. Pinterest and Facebook seem to have formed a close relationship rather quickly. It will be p-interesting to see what comes out of it.

If you enjoypinning like I do, you may find it quite irritating that you can not pin from Facebook! Gah! Well you can now, so pin away! (Click on the images to enlarge them)

Add the Bookmarklet to your browser

Open a picture in Facebook and right click to open image in a new tab

Now “Pin It” from the bookmarket!

Add a description to Pinterst

Don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest! http://pinterest.com/artsytechy/

What is a pinned post?

A pinned post is a Page post that you would like to display prominently at the top of your Timeline. A pinned post appears in the top left of your Page’s Timeline and it will have a flag in the top-right corner of the post. Once you’ve pinned your post, picture, or video it will remain at the top of your Facebook Timeline for 7 days. After that, it will return in your Timeline to the original date it was posted. Only Page admins can pin a post created by the Page. Here is video showing you how to pin your posts.

The talk on the streets from users to developers is that the Timeline has people fuming. I think the dual-column layout is disjointed and difficult to follow, the photo resizing is annoying and inefficient, and Facebook’s constant fiddling with the position of stories and updates in order to maximize our exposure to Ads and maximize the benefit (and thereby their income) to advertisers is the nail in the coffin on the Timeline. HOWEVER and UNFORTUNATELY, there will be no proverbial nail. I called Zuckerburg and asked him to ditch the Timeline. He said, “No.”

About 50% of Facebook’s users have migrated to the new Timeline. Have you? If you’d like to get in early, swing over to Facebook.com/timeline to do it. Facebook’s not listening, so you might as well jump in and get used to the water, especially if you are a Facebook advertiser or marketer, and/or use Facebook to promote your brand, business, products, or services.

To the good, how about that Cover Photo? If you’re not following me here, the new Timeline allows you to put up a swanky wide-format photo, called a cover. You can see mine here: Facebook.com/EricScottBryant. (Oh, while you’re there feel free to friend me up!) Back to the Cover Photo, here’s a great opportunity to promote your brand at a glance. I started this post as a typical Facebook rant and not an Ad, however, if you’d like some help capitalizing on the new Cover Photo, the Timeline, and Facebook in specific, Core Zero can help you there. Just message me or call.

Jackie Cohen, who inspired this post, has a hilarious list of what to expect next:

• Status updates in all capital letters will refrain questions about whether you can get rid of timeline.
• People will reshare erroneous advice on how to downgrade from the advanced profile.
• Scams will re-emerge offering advice on how to get rid of timeline, linking to external sites bearing malware and no content even remotely related to the advanced profile.
• Folks will post angry status updates about leaving Facebook for Google Plus or MySpace but never leave. (This is my favorite!! — EB)
• The same people who groan the loudest about resisting timeline will be the ones who ultimately take up the most space in your news feed with updates on curation of their new advanced profiles. (That will likely be me as well! — EB)

What are your thoughts on the new Timeline?

To Your Success,

Eric Bryant

The index, which measures the number of contracts signed to buy previously owned homes in the U.S., rose to a reading of 100.1 in November from 93.3 in October as homebuyers look to finalize purchases before the homebuyer tax credit expires at the end of the year.

“Housing affordability conditions are at a record high and there is a pent-up demand from buyers who’ve been on the sidelines,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the NAR. “The sustained rise in contract activity suggests that closed existing-home sales, which are the important final economic impact figures, should continue to improve in the months ahead.”

What does that mean? It means start your marketing engines! Architectural Illustrations are a vital tool for marketing and advertising your projects to the public and planning commissions.

To me, the biggest improvement is real-time analytics. In the past, your stats would be updated on average every 2 to 3 days, behind real time. Now they are in real-time. Using link tracking codes, you can get even deeper information about your traffic. If you’re running Facebook Ads or Google Adwords PPC (Pay Per Click) paid ads, add a tracking code so you know how much traffic comes in from that add to your specific landing page for it.

Here’s a concise explanation from Webopedia

Web Analytics

Web analytics is a generic term meaning the study of the impact of a website on its users. Ecommerce companies and other website publishers often use Web analytics software to measure such concrete details as how many people visited their site, how many of those visitors were unique visitors, how they came to the site (i.e., if they followed a link to get to the site or came there directly), what keywords they searched with on the site’s search engine, how long they stayed on a given page or on the entire site and what links they clicked on and when they left the site.

Web analytic software can also be used to monitor whether or not a site’s pages are working properly. With this information, Web site administrators can determine which areas of the site are popular and which areas of the site do not get traffic. Web analytics provides these site administrators and publishers with data that can be used to streamline a website to create a better user experience.

There is so much to this program that I could barely scratch the surface of what a powerful tool it is here in this post. If you do not have Google Analytics set up on your website–do it today! If you need help with that, call Core Zero at 207-212-2432.

OK, now on to some more juicy info about the new Google Analytics!

From Google

Our new version of Analytics provides three significant enhancements:

• A redesigned Google Analytics platform to enable major new functionality
• A streamlined interface to make it easier to get to the information you want
• Improved report performance for faster reports

Currently, we are showcasing the following features in the new version of Analytics

• A completely redesigned, faster interface/
• Multiple dashboards—build a custom dashboard for each department.
• Event Goals! Track your PDF downloads as goals with events, or configure 2 minutes play time on a video as a goal.
• More powerful custom reports—you can pre-filter reports and build additional data views (read more).
• New Term Cloud visualization.
• Linking a new AdWords or AdSense account
• In-Page Analytics
• Migrating a custom report from the current Analytics version to the new version

Soon to Arrive…

•     Exporting reports to PDF
•     Emailing reports

Google Link

Check out this killer outline from Mashable, and follow the link below for the full article. If that doesn’t get you going, well, analytics just isn’t for you. And if that’s the case… I hope you don’t depend on your website for any income or cash flow!

If you don’t know what some of these terms mean or why they are important to measure, then by all means, go check out the Mashable article for full descriptions.

• Dashboards
• Keyword Clouds
• Real-Time Data
• Site Speed
• Search Simplifies Navigation
• Webmaster Tools
• Social Engagement
• Visitor Flow & Goal Flow Visualization
• Event Tracking
• Multi-Channel Funnels

Mashable Article Link

Again, this is just a taste. If you don’t have Google Analytics set up on your website and you want it, call us at 207-212-2432.

To Your Success!

Eric Bryant

Open the Facebook Page(s) of the presenters and the Page of the target or sponsoring company or entity. Post a Hello/Welcome/I’m excited to be on the webinar message just as or just before the webinar starts. Soon enough they will open their Facebook page(s)–LIVE–and there you are! Now, don’t be spammy. It’s amazing just be seen to start with.

The other way to do this is to use Facebook as your Page, and when you comment LIVE it shows your page thumbnail. I am currently on a sold out webinar as I type this to you (1,000 people on) and 3,800 people are registered for it. I am only a guest on the webinar–it’s not my gig. I did exactly what I typed above and got “press” within minutes. Lots of people are commenting and interacting on the Facebook Pages during webinars. Tonight, the presenter has 6,500 Likes, and the company has 13,000. Plenty of people that are NOT on the webinar are interacting live on those two pages, just because they are–the presenter and the company are both popular and have strong followings. What I do is Like other people’s comments as they post them there, and then comment as well. I friend request some of them–total strangers yet with a common bond–and I get friend requests as well.

When I switched to my Core Zero Page tonight–and when the speaker mentioned Facebook Design, I posted as Core Zero. I got some new likes on my Page, and I got a request for a design quote within 10 minutes.  Why, you ask, did they mention Facebook Design? Because I was on a webinar related to MY NICHE–get it?)

Now, for certain a replay link to this massive webinar will go out to not only the 3,800 people registered, but the entire lists of the presenter and company, bragging about how incredible it was, and how people should drop everything and watch the replay now before they take it down forever. OK, you’ve heard all that jazz before. But it’s true. I will be re-seen several times posting live during this webinar as both Eric and Core Zero, to potentially not only the 3,800, but however many more are on their lists, and on all the affiliate promoter’s lists, and any others that the webinar replay is shared with.

I hope you like this tactic. Click the Like, Tweet, or +1 Buttons above to give me some blog post love if you like this! And please take a second to “Like” Core Zero at www.Facebook.com/CoreZero.

Onward!

Eric Bryant

Isn’t it about time you got branded to establish yourself as the go-to person in your area of expertise, and your business offering as the solution to the problem that your prospects are even now seeking? Answer Hint: “Why yes, it’s high time I got around to that!”

Core Zero Creative–specializing in web design since 1993–is now offering

The 2012 Branding Double Decker

1. A fully branded WordPress Website and/or Blog
2. A Facebook Business or Fan Page including:
• A Tall Side Banner
• Your own Facebook App Tabs for Reveal & Welcome Pages
• Reveal (pre-Like) and prompt to Like your Page
• Welcome (post-Like) and a special offer from you
• Email Opt-In using your AutoResponder to offer your free video or ebook
3. A branded Twitter Background
4. A branded YouTube Channel

Shazam! Get the Website with or without a Blog, or just the Social Media Branding Package, or get both, you get to choose! All for one simple price that has numbers in it. Call, email, or Facebook Eric to get started on your 2012 Branding Blowout. Let’s make the most of 2012!

At Your Service,

Eric Bryant

• Eric on Facebook
• Core Zero on Facebook
• (207) 212-5100
• eric [@] core zero [dot] com

• Start out with one social media network, get good at it, then add another. Take as much time as you need. I recommend Facebook, then LinkedIn, then Twitter, then YouTube. As an alternate, you can toss Blogging anywhere into that ordered list to spice it up.

• Post in the morning and evening, and lunch time if you can. Work up from there. Be sure to check incoming first. Check your Facebook notifications, answer them. Check your Tweets, Retweets, and Direct Messages, and engage and respond. Say “Thanks!” often. Leave Facebook comments. Post on others’ Walls. The closer you can get to a real-time interaction, the better. But you won’t get far posting once every other day or two, and never answering anybody.

• Don’t post the same thing to all your “channels”(Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Your Blog) at the same time. Post that same thing on different days, at different times, on different channels. And spice it up. Spin it. Use different words that have the same meaning.

• Post content that matters to your audience. Send them to cool articles and other websites that will help them, like I’m about to do.

• Post something inspiring or personal from time to time. A glimpse of your life philosophy, or what motivates you. Let people get to know you, and keep it professional. You can get quite close to personal, sometimes, but forget politics and religion and controversy unless that is actually your niche as a writer, journalist, speaker, professor, talk show host, or what-have-you.

• Make a weekly schedule for yourself of when and where you will post, to what target market segment, and what about. Mix it up. Put it on a big piece of paper on your wall, or use 3×5 cards and execute whatever card comes up next. If you’re stuck on that one, shuffle it back into the pile and pick the next one.

• Use tools like Hootsuite to schedule posts in advance. You will not get as much edge rank from Facebook but it beats not posting at all. Just be sure to go back and answer comments and interactions during your scheduled social media times.

Regarding To-Do Lists, sometimes I get a kick out of looking at my lists from years ago. Archived in ancient computer files, it’s entertaining to see what the pressing issues of the day were, and more amusing still to try to remember what many of them actually were!

I admit to having lists that have grown to 20+ pages. Oops. I have also tried maintaining two lists, one of very important things to do, the other, of ideas, thoughts, books to read–items without deadlines. Then there was the one list per topic or project method. This made for shorter, more focused lists, and has been by far the easiest way to not only quickly see what is needed or next on a project, but to actually FIND the item on the list. 20 pages is too much to scan when you didn’t use the right keywords and can’t bring it up in search!

With that, I give you Leo Babauta of ZenHabits.net! I will leave you with a small quote from his most excellent–and quite challenging–idea of killing your lists.

Most people reading this will have a to-do program, or a paper list or text file, listing not only projects and tasks but separate lists for home and work and possibly half a dozen different contexts. Those who don’t have a to-do list probably feel they should, because they’re swamped and feeling overwhelmed. I’m here to suggest: kill your to-do list. It sucks up your time, and drains your motivation. Those who have to-do lists usually manage them constantly, or if they don’t they fall into disuse and get dusty and become worthless, while the person who’s fallen behind in maintaining the list feels constantly guilty. For those who keep up with the lists, they spend a lot of time on the lists they could be spending … doing something important.

If you like that teaser, see the rest here: http://zenhabits.net/kill-your-to-do-list. If that doesn’t pique your interest, well, you better move on and get back to that list of yours!

To Your Success,

Eric Bryant

I wrote this blog post in response to my good friend Martin Casper’s post about change (Facebook changes) and what it takes to get noticed and stay competitive online. And regarding change: Deal with it or be left behind! Here’s an excerpt:

This evolution that is evidenced by the frequent changes seen with Facebook is a word to the wise.  Facebook is going to continue to make changes as time goes on.  You should take a cue from them and review your online presence.  When was the last time you updated your blog?  Do your graphics portray that hip, edginess that attracts customers?  Are you maintaining that SEO edge by properly integrating keyword rich content that incorporates post tags and hyperlinks to drive traffic?  Are you providing great… not good, but great, content? If not, then Facebook might just be rendering your blog irrelevant by setting the standard, and displaying to the world that they are not going to sit on their proverbial laurels.

So then, as we already knew, the only constant is change. I, for one, love it! I love to see how companies adapt, and I enjoy not only learning about and keeping up with the changes, but also finding ways to work within the changes to tweak and maximize results and gain a competitive edge; to push the implementation of the changes right to the edge of what can be accomplished. So pay attention, folks! There is no neutral, you are either moving forward or slipping backwards. Given that the shelf-life of social media averages about 3 hours, this is not the time to be preoccupied–let alone complaining–about Facebook changes. This is the time to stay up-to-speed, to work on your content, your interaction, and your engagement. Roll with the changes and put them to work for you. Don’t be a frustrated victim of change–put it to use to differentiate yourself from your competition. Get out there and be a star!

See Martin’s post in its entirety here at The Empowered Entrepreneurial Magnets Blog.

Within this article we’ve included and explained ten key areas where your website will either make or break your business. Core Zero Creative is offering a no strings attached Complimentary 10 Point Website Evaluation to businesses and individuals looking to upgrade or improve their web presence. We’ll show you what works and what doesn’t on your website. If you’re going to have a website, it might as well be working for you as against you.

One more thing regarding the Complimentary 10 Point Website Evaluation: this is a hands-on evaluation that takes 30 to 45 minutes to prepare, and includes a phone session to go over the details with you. This is not a canned, automated report. It is an item-by-item analysis done by our top designer, who has over 18 years of web experience.

OK, let’s dig in! We’ll be covering these 10 key areas:

• First Impression: Brand Presentation, Trust
• Overall Professional Appearance
• Effective Communication of Message
• Content Relevance, Quality, Quantity, Blog
• Photo & Graphics Quality
• Ease of Navigation & Contact
• e-Commerce Functionality
• Email Marketing Functionality
• Social Media Integration
• Search Engine Stats, Ranking, & Online Competition

 Category Explanations, Terminology, and Definitions

 Category 1)  First Impression: Brand Presentation, Trust              

This speaks to the first impression your website has on visitors. Repeated studies have proven that the average website visitor stays on a website about 8 seconds before deciding to stay and dig in, or close the window and go to the next website on their list. You need to totally impress them in that short time frame. Your image either creates trust or raises suspicion. If your site offers e-commerce (online purchasing) then all the more so. Everything has got to be perfectly in its place. On a subconscious level people will react or respond to this.

Category 2)  Overall Professional Appearance

While this is somewhat covered under the topic of first impression, it speaks as well to the overall layout, appearance, and visual presentation of the website, which is by extension, a presentation of what your company is all about, your beliefs, values, and mission. How does your website appear to the critical eye? Was it one of those sites put together by a niece or nephew taking a web design course in community college who needed a project to do? Or does it look like one? You can say “no” but you’re not fooling anybody but yourself if that is the case. You want a professional design, created by an experienced designer with an eye for design, a good handle on layout, flow, and color theory.

Category 3)  Effective Communication of Message

Do people immediately “get” what your company does, sells, services, or provides from a quick look at your home page? If not, you’ve got some homework to do.

Category 4)  Content Relevance, Quality, Quantity, Blog

Content is King. Relevance is Queen. Your website needs to provide the necessary information for people to make a decision–whatever that decision may be. Your copy (text) needs to be proofed and perfect. It needs to be persuasive. This is all part of your image, and it’s all part of what makes your website work for you while you’re doing other things. You certainly don’t want it turning people away for lack of quality, lack of information, or lack of professional presentation. The more relevant content you have, the better your website will do in search. An integrated Blog is a fantastic way to keep up with posting fresh, relevant content, and does wonders for your web presence, interaction, and over time, search engine presence.

Category 5)  Photo & Graphics Quality

Your photos and graphics need to be crisp, clean, properly sized, cropped, and color-corrected. As with the section above on content, it’s all about your image, trust, and judgment. Ask yourself, “Does this website–representing this company–look like the kind of outfit I’d do business with?” Do your info-graphics provide info that will help a prospect to make a decision? Have you selected the most effective photos of your work, the right amount of photos, and are they in the best place to be seen, where they will have the most impact?

Category 6)  Ease of Navigation & Contact

How much of a hassle is it to find something on your website? How much of a hassle is it to find your phone number or to email you? It should be no hassle at all. Words, links, and navigation menus all need to be properly placed, spaced, and call out to the website visitor clearly showing them what to do next. Contact info and mechanisms should be readily accessible on every page, enabling prospects and clients to contact you.

Category 7)  e-Commerce Functionality

E-commerce opens up a world of opportunity to service your customers and streamline your sales process and cash flow. If your website uses e-commerce (online credit card purchases) then it better work, and it better work correctly. Incomplete orders– buyers bailing before the final transaction is complete–represent an alarming amount of lost sales. You want a solid, easy-to-use front end for buyers, and a thorough, functional back-end for sales and order management, returns and refunds, and reporting.

Category 8)  Email Marketing Functionality

You may or may not be taking advantage of sending out an electronic Newsletter to your subscriber base. Beyond Newsletters, which are an effective tool for maintaining top of mind awareness, there are Autoresponders, which accomplish two important functions. First, they allow you to send Broadcast emails out to your list. A Broadcast is an on-the-spot, one time, “here’s something important that I want to share with you” email that typically goes out immediately, though they can be staged for sending later. The second function of an Autoresponder is to automatically send out a pre-written series of emails over a predetermined period of time. So when someone opts in to your list, they get a “welcome to the list, here’s the info you requested” email. Then at set increments they receive other personalized emails that you have already prepared in advance, for instance, 3 days later, 7 days later, and so on.

Category 9)  Social Media Integration   

Social Media is the wave of the present. If you’re engaged in social media then you will want to have that integrated into your website. Make it easy for readers to Share or ReTweet your content on Facebook and Twitter with a single click, or add buttons that let them “Like” your Facebook Page right from your website, or Google +1 the page they’re on. You can also add your social media content streams to your website.

Category 10)  Search Engine Stats, Ranking, & Online Competition

Having your website show up in search gives your business an incredible competitive edge. If you’re not showing up in search you’re providing an incredible competitive edge to your competition! There is a science to showing up in search–it’s called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While SEO is an ongoing process of tuning, adjusting, measuring, improving, and repeating, there is a lot that can be done as a one-time tune-up to your website and its pages.

Keywords: These are the terms that you want to be found for, the terms that people are typing in to search engine queries when they are looking for products or services that your company produces or provides.

Site Description: This text is displayed in the search engine results pages.

SERP’s: Search Engine Results Pages, or SERP’s, are the pages that show up when you search. Page 1, spots 1 through 10 are the most highly coveted, although being anywhere on Pages 1 through 3 is a major accomplishment and a plus for business.

Indexed Pages: This is how many of your website’s pages have been found by the major search engines and are available to be provided as links in the results (SERP’s) of searches.

Crawl Date: The last time a search engine crawled (reviewed) your website. Search engines keep an eye on what’s changing on your website. If content is changing a lot, they will come back sooner. If things are not changing much at all, they come back less and less frequently. Search engines not stopping by is bad for business. You want to attract them to stop by frequently.

We hope this has been a helpful and informative article on making your website work for you, not against you!

Call us today for your no strings attached Complimentary 10 Point Website Evaluation.

Core Zero Creative
Delivering Success by Design since 1993
Commercial Web Design & Graphics
Custom Blog Design & Branding
Facebook Reveal Pages with Video, Opt-Ins, Ebooks, and Downloads
Social Media Graphics & Branding for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Digital Watercolor Architectural Renderings

 www.CoreZero.com
207-212-5100
Call Us Today!

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