Message – Gabriel Catalano®

Welcome to the Future of Advertising Insight Center // Thnx HBR Blog Network // @HarvardBiz

This HBR Insight Center on the future of advertising will explore the transformation. We’ll dig into the technologies that are reinventing how companies connect with customers, and look at how big data and new analytic tools are allowing advertisers to fine tune and microtarget their messaging in real time. Our bloggers will also examine the new breed of consumer that, increasingly, rejects interruptive messages and demands that advertising present itself only when invited — and then only if the message offers value. And we’ll look at consumers’ growing involvement in advertising, both as arbiters and creative collaborators. This exploration happens in tandem with our spotlight on advertising in the March issue of HBR.

by Gardiner Morse | blogs.hbr.org
Continuar leyendo «Welcome to the Future of Advertising Insight Center // Thnx HBR Blog Network // @HarvardBiz»

Facebook Brand Page Timeline Checklist – Graywolf’s SEO Blog

Only 4 Tabs are Available

Similar to landing pages, you used to have multiple tabs, but now you only have four. The first is the photos tabs and is “locked” into the first slot. If you haven’t done a anything with photos before, now would be a good time to backfill that area. You can control the three other tabs’ names and icons, so use them to your advantage

Pin Featured Content

If your company has an important post, message, or or offer, you can now “pin” that to the top. It won’t be displaced when you post new updates or upload new photos. Just keep in mind that you can only pin something for 7 days. When you’ve pinned it, you’ll see a little ribbon in the upper right corner.

Milestones

Like personal pages, brand pages can now have milestones. Use them for things that are important TO YOUR CUSTOMERS, not for things like when you clipped your toenails.

Brand Name Changes and Vanity URL

If you don’t have a brand page yet, choose wisely: once you pass 100 fans/followers, you can’t change it. If you are over 100, you can force people to unsubscribe to get yourself below that threshold and change your name. If you’ve got a good size following, though, that’s not a viable solution, and you’re stuck with the name you chose when you started. Facebook has also removed the minimum of 25 fans/followers to get a vanity URL. In the age of Fiverr.com, it was a pointless restriction that was easy to overcome.

So there you have a recap and checklist of everything you need to know about the new Facebook timeline format. If you’re interested in following my Facebook fan page with SEO, marketing, and social media posts, here’s a link to my page.

Via Scoop.it – human being in – perfección

A checklist of what you need to know and what you need to fix for Facebook‘s new timeline format…

New Guidelines

With the new time line format, Facebook released a new set of brand guidelines. You can read the page for specifics, but some of the important points to remember are:

Don’t use a cover image you don’t have the copyright for or permission to use (more on the cover image later in this post)

Don’t use pricing or calls to action in cover image. I suspect we’re going to see a lot of people get creative in “breaking” the spirit of this rule while staying within the actual rule itself

Don’t try to incentivize liking or sharing in your cover image. Again, I suspect people will get pretty creative playing within the rules here
The contact information, such as physical address, telephone, email and web address, should only be in the “about” area of your profile
Cover Image

The cover image is probably the first thing you’ll notice about the new timeline format. The new Facebook cover image size is 851px X 315px (that’s 851 pixels wide by 350 pixels high). As mentioned above, don’t use an image you don’t have the rights to or the permission to use, and don’t use it to show pricing, sell, or as a call to action.

That said, you do want to use it to make an impression. Here are some examples of how non profit organizations are using cover images. You may have noticed that a few pages integrated the cover photo with the profile picture. Although it looks complex, the process is really a lot easier than it looks. Here’s a free Photoshop template for Facebook timelines.

Choosing a cover image isn’t something you should take lightly. IMHO it’s something you should put some thought, time, energy, resources, and money into. You know the saying: you only get one chance to make a first impression. Don’t blow it. If you don’t have anything appropriate, hire someone to take some good, high quality photos. Ideally you want something that is consistent with your brand’s message. If you don’t have any pictures, according to Shutterstock, it’s ok if you use their pictures for your brand pages, but not for your personal page (I would follow up with any stockphoto service you might be using). If you can’t find anything or don’t have a budget, there are some nice free images approved for cover image use from Digital Blasphempy. Continuar leyendo «Facebook Brand Page Timeline Checklist – Graywolf’s SEO Blog»

The Five Levels of Communication in a Connected World

In the digital world in which we live, it has become too easy to send emails, ping people via instant message, text, tweet, etc. Upon reflection, I think I’ve been too haphazard about how I communicate with my colleagues, clients, friends, and family. Oftentimes, an email about a problem should have been a phone call. And sometimes a phone call should have been an in-person meeting.
Knowing what to say and when to say it is not enough. In the modern day, we must decide HOW to communicate. [Más…]
Consider the five levels of communication:

Level 1: Message into the Ether
Snail mail and email have a few things in common: They can be of any length, and they are not conversational. Emails and letters are sent out, and then new messages are composed and returned. Sometimes it takes days or weeks before a response arrives. Since emails and letters are not conversational (they lump all points together rather than go point, counterpoint, point, etc…), there is a HIGH LEVEL of misunderstanding with this medium of communication. As many of us know, little issues can escalate over email.

by Scott Belsky
http://the99percent.com/tips/6844/The-Five-Levels-of-Communication-in-a-Connected-World

In the digital world in which we live, it has become too easy to send emails, ping people via instant message, text, tweet, etc. Upon reflection, I think I’ve been too haphazard about how I communicate with my colleagues, clients, friends, and family. Oftentimes, an email about a problem should have been a phone call. And sometimes a phone call should have been an in-person meeting.
Knowing what to say and when to say it is not enough. In the modern day, we must decide HOW to communicate. Continuar leyendo «The Five Levels of Communication in a Connected World»

The Inverted Pyramid Of Visual Design

The idea is that the critical information is presented immediately and then additional information is presented that expands on, explains, and reinforces the main idea.

At any point someone should be able to stop reading without missing the main message. Those who read more get more, but everyone gets the main idea you’re trying to communicate.

The main benefits of the inverted pyramid are:

* It quickly conveys key information
* It establishes a context in which to interpret subsequent information
* It’s initial chunks of information are more likely to be remembered later
* It allows for efficient scanning and searching
* It can be easily edited since least important information is presented last

The above could equally be goals of a good design. We want our designs to quickly communicate important information, be remembered, and establish context, don’t we?

The cons of the inverted pyramid are:

* Doesn’t allow flexibility of building suspense or creating surprise ending
* Can lead to perception of being uninteresting

Whenever it’s important to present information efficiently and quickly, the inverted pyramid is an excellent style to follow. Your lead (opening paragraph) becomes a concise overview of whatever it is you’re writing and you can follow the lead with more detailed chunks of information for those that want to know more.

by Steven Bradley
http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/inverted-pyramid-design/ 

The Year That Was: Looking Back At 2010 »

In one second the user should understand generally where they are
—largely driven by visuals and functionality.
If we can keep people for 10 seconds, they should understand our primary message.
If they stay for two minutes, some secondary messages should be getting through.
All this feeds into a call to action.
—Kristina Halvorson

Journalists use the inverted pyramid style of writing to quickly convey the most important information of a story to readers. It works because no matter how far into an article someone reads the most important information gets through.

The more you read the more detailed information you get, but no matter where you stop reading the main message has been conveyed. Can web designers do something similar visually?

The inverted pyramid of journalism Continuar leyendo «The Inverted Pyramid Of Visual Design»

Awesomely Effective Email Communication

The real purpose behind communication is the exchange of information in a way that both parties involved clearly understand the shared intelligence. If the email messages you send aren’t clear, then the recipients of those messages will not be clear either, and they will not be able to interpret what you want or what they need to do as a response to the email.

Think about the number of times you have received an email message that made you wonder what the sending person meant — or why you even got the message in the first place. Now on the opposite end of the spectrum, think about the times you’ve sent an email that returned to you with a bunch of questions because you didn’t take the time to write it clearly. This is where productive communication breaks down with office email. This is the snag.

Productive communication can be greatly improved by implementing a simple mental checklist that you can run through before you hit the “send” button for each and every email that you write. This simple set of rules will grade your email (so to speak) and let you know whether it has passed or failed the test. The process is designed to help you think about what it is you are trying to communicate before sending the email off, ensuring that the recipient will understand what you are striving to communicate. In addition, by writing more effective email messages you will greatly reduce the quantity of emails you receive each day.

The process is called the PASS process of effective email communication. The PASS process will assist you in writing clearly defined emails that produce effective action on the side of the recipients.

Joshua Riddle
http://workawesome.com/communication/effective-email-communication/

autoroute à emails...

Most organizations believe email is one of their biggest productivity snags even though email is probably the most important office communication tool available. The technology has eliminated many of our personal boundaries. Some of us have even allowed email to drive our actions when in reality, our communications should be driven by our goals and the tasks required to accomplish them. What we have forgotten is the fact that email is a communication tool.

The process is called the PASS process of effective email communication. The PASS process will assist you in writing clearly defined emails that produce effective action on the side of the recipients. Continuar leyendo «Awesomely Effective Email Communication»