Where we share our insights about all things web design, development, and marketing.

April10

How To Use #Hastags

You may notice the # symbol being used a lot on social network sites, but do you know what they mean or how to use them?


Hashtags are keywords with a hash (#) symbol in front of them that makes them searchable and linkable. They have to be one continuous word with no spaces. These are typically used on Twitter, but have been seen on other social networking sites as well. The idea is to get a lot of people talking about one specific topic by using the same hashtag word. For instance, using #awesomewebsites to talk about your website design from TWG.


Hashtags help you target a topic and an audience. If you want to search for a trending topic, use the hashtag instead. Your search results will show you all posts with that same hashtag. It gives you more related search results on a specific topic. In addition, if you use a hashtag about a specific topic, you will target those people who are also interested in talking about that topic.


Using hashtags for your business’ posts, you can drive traffic to your products, services, and website by getting people to talk about what you do. People will become more interested and use the hashtag to help spread the word about your business.
Try not to go hashtag crazy, but if you use these wisely, it could help to increase your social following and ultimately your business following.


March08

Want to run a Facebook contest?

You have to play by the rules.

Promotions and giveaways are great ways to interact with your fans and gain more visibility for your business on Facebook and other social networks. But if you are going to do a contest, it is important to play by the rules.  Developing a social media promotion takes some research and planning before you can share publicly that you are giving something away.

 

Before you launch a Facebook promotion, check out Facebook’s rules and guidelines https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php. There are certain things you are and are not allowed to do on Facebook. For example, you are not allowed to collect entries through Facebook comments or photo uploads, but you can use an official Facebook app to announce and run your contest. As the admin of a page, it is your responsibility to read and understand these rules before starting a contest or giveaway on your page. Facebook has the right to reject or remove any page that does not follow their guidelines.


5 Tips to Create a Successful Contest:

1.    Define your goal
2.    Come up with a creative and interesting idea
3.    Utilize other social networks
4.    Keep the length of the contest in mind (typically 2-4 weeks)
5.    Measure the results


By taking the time to prepare your contest and make sure that you have followed the guidelines set by Facebook, your contest or giveaway may be a successful promotion for your business or company. You could gain valuable interaction and feedback from your current customers and even gain some new customers and fans.


For more on this topic, see this article posted by Mashable http://mashable.com/2012/03/05/facebook-promotion-guide/

Graphic Designer Rachel Green of TWG Design Studio
"Rachel has a love for all things creative. She is passionate about what she does and loves to create new things."

February29

Facebook Timeline for business: It’s Here!

Now you may be familiar with the most recent Facebook change to the Timeline profiles, but it is time to switch over your business pages to the same look. Facebook launched their Timeline for businesses this morning, giving business page owners the opportunity to preview the new look or make the switch for themselves.


The new business page will look like the profile pages, and is designed to give business owners more flexibility to show off their brand and identity.  This new layout allows you to choose a cover photo that can display your logo, products, or personalities. The timeline also allows you to feature your company history, highlights, and milestones.


In addition, there have been some added benefits for page admins as well. There is a new admin panel that will display at the top of your page if you are an admin and can be hidden or expanded. This panel will show you notifications of activities, stats, and messages.


The Timeline layout will make your pages more social and engaging, giving you a better opportunity to utilize this as a marketing outlet.  We have updated our page to the new look. Have you? It will be to your advantage to preview your page now and be ahead of the trend. All pages will automatically change by March 30th.  If you think you are ready to learn more about the change, check it out here.

Graphic Designer Rachel Green of TWG Design Studio
"Rachel has a love for all things creative. She is passionate about what she does and loves to create new things."

January31

Facebook Timeline: How It Changes Things

You may have heard about the latest and greatest Facebook change coming your way, and you may already be using it. The Facebook Timeline will forever replace our beloved Facebook profiles in the coming weeks; and by February 1st all profiles will be switched to the timeline. Timeline offers a variety of new features, but like all other changes with Facebook, it will take some time to get used to.  In order to help you with this process, here are some quick tips and info to help you learn the new timeline and how it will affect your business page.


What you need to know about the Facebook update:
Your personal profile will now have a new look. All of the same essentials will still be there, just in a different layout. Your profile picture will now be a large image across the top of your page and will be called your cover. This gives you the ability to do something really creative with your page – but more on that later.
You will still have the ability to update your status, “like” business pages and make friends, and add photos and videos. However, these items will be grouped a little differently. Here is the info you can now find at the top of your page:

  • Work and Education
  • Family and Relationships
  • Living
  • Health and Wellness
  • Milestones and Experiences
  • Other Life Event (for those odd balls that don’t fit into a predetermined category)


The point is to tell your life story over time. Your posts will display in a timeline (hence the name) and you can star your favorite moments to make them widescreen, or remove the ones you want to hide. Facebook has added new sharing features that will allow you to control what moments of your life are shared and with whom.


How it affects businesses:
Timeline may also have an effect on business pages, too. But, this could actually benefit your brand’s page tremendously. Here is an example of what the sites could potentially look like with timeline:


Photo courtesy of Mashable


The key here is this– more pictures means more branding opportunities. Let’s face it, people are naturally drawn to pictures over text; and the majority of people remember pictures more than words, anyway. So if there are bigger images available, you can use those spaces to display your products or services and design them to be specifically branded for your business and message. The cover is the perfect spot for a current promotion or brand image that will allow you to be more creative and interesting with your page – which will ultimately attract more interaction with followers.


The visual appeal of the timeline pages will be sure to be an advertising and marketing benefit for business pages. An article on Mashable.com explains that according to ExactTarget, “of the people who "Like" Facebook brand pages, 40% are doing that to receive discounts and promotions. Now with the larger post size and photos, Timeline can easily serve as a brand blog, providing fans with frequent and engaging updates in a neatly packaged profile."


In the mean time, there are some things to be aware of that will affect your posting strategies. With timeline, users have more control over what displays in their news feeds. In the top right corner of each story, users can choose to “unhighlight the story” or “hide all stories” from a certain person or page they follow. Facebook will use that information to edit what shows up in your news feed. So for those of you with boring posts – you will show up less in your follower’s feeds. What to take away from this: take notice to what you are posting and how often you are posting on your business page and put more effort into your content.


It is important to become familiar with this new Facebook change so that you can continue to use your business page to its full potential. While it is still unknown if these changes will make their way to business pages, you want to be ready for the switch should it come later.

Graphic Designer Rachel Green of TWG Design Studio
"Rachel is a graphic designer who is passionate about combining function and style into stylish websites that truly do the brand justice. Rachel uses her experience in a variety of areas including design, marketing, advertising, and social media to give clients the complete package."

January06

December Launches from TWG

As we head into the first month of the new year, we want to take a moment and glance back at the last month of last year briefly--We are happy to share the names of our new and newly designed client launches for the past month.

Great Harvest Bread

Care4Ever

The Historic State Theater

KNB-Facebook Page

Communicare Services

Etown Exterminating mobile website

Brick Nest Consultants

JG Connections

McGehee Insurance

Catering With Style

Cubana Restaurant

Wealth MD

Be sure to check out these fantastic sites; and for ways to see how your business name can be added to a similar list, give us a call at the office, 270-765-4478, stop by to visit, or send us an email, inof@webguysonline.com.