Setting the tone for Facebook Timelines.

New Timeline layouts for business pages isn’t about selling, it’s about connecting to people.  For example, cover photos come with plenty of restrictions, the least of which are their size.  We learned that within the phat 851px by 315px cover photo you are not allowed to advertise, create a call to action, or even display contact information.  This photo is designed to simply create structure within Facebook business pages, while seamlessly blending with personal pages.

Facebook has imposed the Timeline layout on all business pages, regardless of age, as of March 30th, 2012.  So it’s not too late to be an early adopter, setting your businesses apart from the rest.  Thanks to Tim I think we are all a little more prepared for how we can utilize the Timeline to further our business reach.  Remember, it’s never too late.  The Timeline layout allows for retroactive posts and photo uploads.  Simply start your business page and start updating from the moment your company was established, Facebook will handle the rest.

Lastly, the most important information gained from last nights meeting, be social!  That’s right, don’t forget what this new media is all about, engagement and being social.  Don’t force promotions into our news feed, don’t go days without updates, and please don’t be boring.  A successful Facebook Timeline will master the art of frequent updates, not being boring, and keeping advertising to a minimum.

Looking for a quick reference guide to Facebook Timeline specifications?

ProSocialTools.com has the following PDF available for free download which covers all the Facebook Timeline Specifications like image sizing for different categories, advertising restrictions, and tips to maximize the social reach of your Timeline.

See what you’ve been missing!?  The Social Media Club of Evansville meets on the 3rd Monday of every month at Ri Ra Irish Pub, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.  There is always plenty of socializing outside the scope of online social media and the sharing of ideas is what makes SMC Evansville a marketing tool for Evansville businesses.  If you have a question about SMC Evansville or would like to learn more about Facebook Timelines, leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you.

In an effort to help support our  local business community we want to help share your foursquare check-in specials. So if you are an Evansville, IN or Henderson, KY business offering a foursquare check-in special, email us your special and twitter handle and will will give you a shout out on Twitter for #4sqDay.

Email to web [at] smcevansville.org.

And remember to join us, and check-in, tonight at Ri Ra Irish pub as we talk about the new Facebook Timeline. The Ri Ra foursquare check-in special is a delicious half priced appetizer, Yum!

Happy 4^2 to all!

Our panel of social media advocates will share five new favorite social media sites with you,  including the latest sensation, Pinterest, and one we know you have never heard of and cannot wait to tell you about! Get an inside peek at these social platforms, discover how they can used by people like you, and learn strategies that your business can use to leverage these social media tools for online marketing and brand recognition.

Join us on Monday, March 19th at Ri Ra Irish Restaurant and Pub in the upstairs lounge, starting at 6PM. We’ll start at 6PM for socializing and the presentation will get underway at 6:30. Everyone is welcome!

This is a free event (though you are responsible for your own bar/restaurant tab).

The efforts of Dr. Rosen and his collaborators received national acclaim and was recently published in the Wall Street Journal. With this local affiliation to social media research, we decided to dig a bit deeper with Dr. Rosen on the topic. Below is a question and answer session discussing Dr. Rosen’s research and views on social media.

What sparked the idea of using social media as a tool to predict job performance?

Dr. Rosen: A number of years back I was talking to a colleague, Dr. Don Kluemper of Northern Illinois University, who researches in the area of Organizational Behavior.  His research was focused on personality and mine was on social networking websites.  We decided to talk about ways we could collaborate and a five-year partnership was born.

Why did you, and your co-authors, decide to target Facebook for this research?

Dr. Rosen: While the study was published in 2012, the research was conducted a few years back.  At this time MySpace was already in decline, Twitter was up and coming, LinkedIn was not heavily used, and blogs were not as popular as they are today.  Facebook was the natural choice for our study because the audience that was using the website was predominately college students, and these users tended to post a lot of content to their pages.  Believe it or not there were only 110 million registered FB users at the time of our first study together.  The depth of information that researchers can glean from FB profiles was greater than any other site that I mentioned previously, which was beneficial for our projects.

Based upon your research, what tips or suggestions do you have for job seekers and their social media profiles?

Dr. Rosen: I look at job seeking as selling your own personal brand.  The more information you can share across websites that sends a consistently positive message about your personal brand the better.  Show potential employers that you have something of value to offer them.  If you are in a field currently and looking to move positions, demonstrate your expertise in that area.  If you are looking to break into a new field, show that you are intellectual curious and eager to learn as much as you can about your new field of employment.

What is the 1 thing that you would suggest job seekers not do on their Facebook profile?

Dr. Rosen: While you might think that I am going to say avoid posting pictures of you and your friends enjoying an adult beverage, my answer is a little different.  My personal pet peeve is the person that consistently posts negative status messages, which shows that they score low in the personality trait of emotional stability.  There is something to be said about hiring a positive person in the workplace.

Do you have other published articles related to social media, or the online medium, in the job place? If so, where can we find them?

• Kluemper, D.H., Rosen, P.A., & Mossholder, K. Social networking websites, personality ratings, and the selection context: More Than Meets the Eye? Forthcoming at Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
• Rosen, P.A. (2011). Decision Making in a Web 2.0 Environment – Crowdsourcing Lessons for Organizations. Journal of Decision Systems, 20(3), 309-324.
• Rosen, P.A. & Phillips, M. (2011). Marketing And The Rise Of Web 2.0: Expanding Opportunity, Increasing Challenge. Review of Business Information Systems, 15(3), 35-42.
• Kluemper, D.H. & Rosen, P.A. (2009). Future Employment Selection Methods: Evaluating Social Networking Websites. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24(6), 567-580.

About Dr. Peter Rosen

Dr. Peter Rosen

Dr. Peter A. Rosen is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at the University of Evansville where he teaches both Information Systems and General Business courses. He earned his Ph.D. in Management Information Systems in 2005 from Oklahoma State University, an MBA from San Diego State University in 1996, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1993. He currently teaches MGT 311- Management Information Systems, MGT 445 – Database Management, MGT 450 – Knowledge Management, and ID 150 – The American Corporation. His research interests include the areas of social media and its use, personal innovativeness, technology acceptance and use, technology in the classroom, customer relationship management, data mining and knowledge discovery techniques.  He has produced nine referred journal articles, nine conference papers, and three book chapters during his academic career.

You can find him online at Twitter (@peterarosen), LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.

Dr. Rosen also suggests following the Schroeder Family School of Business Administration at the University of Evansville on Twitter (@UEBusiness).

{photo credit: smemon/Flickr}

Ryan was able to share with us the first ever comment posted to the Courier & Press, how moderation is key to civil social interaction, and the uncertainty of future anonymous comments. Also, how article titles and lead-ins are constructed to be more compatible for online consumption. Ryan was also kind enough to field questions from Twitter and those who attended.

Some questions were more sensitive than others, including what aspect of the Internet has adversely affected the local paper the most? The answer is, Craigslist, and other forms of free advertising. Local ad’s for yard sales and general classifieds is a large source of revenue for a local paper and Craigslist has offered a free alternative. Ryan also acknowledges that traditional media missed the boat, when targeting the audience that now uses the free online classifieds.

Ultimately, Ryan made it quite clear that he loves what he does and so do the other journalists and workers at the Courier & Press. It’s obvious that each person strives to make the paper the best it can be, while appealing to new and old media venues. The Courier & Press is a paper, website, and social media machine that all local residents can be proud of.

The Social Side of the C&P

Courier and Press Website
Who to follow on Twitter at the Courier & Press
C&P on Facebook
Courier & Press on Foursquare

About the Social Media Club of Evansville: The Social Media Club of Evansville brings together bloggers, technology experts, business leaders, artists, and community advocates to socialize, discuss, and learn about social media in a casual context. The club meets at Ri Ra Irish Restaurant and Pub on the third Monday of each month starting at 6PM and wrapping up at 8PM in the upstairs lounge. We welcome and encourage all to join us!

That’s OK. We’ve put together some of the twitter conversation to recap the event.

>Hope to see you next month!

How have new media outlets shaped our consumption of news? If we had all waited for the printed paper the following morning we would not have been wrapped up in the hype or contributed to the rumors. Instead, we are faced with unfounded facts, perpetuated by supposed reliable sources. Is fact checking the factor that separates old media and new media?

Perhaps this is the responsibility we lay at the feet of traditional news outlets, fact checks. Important news that can potentially shake stock markets should not be left to the amateurs of twitter. Instead, news papers, television networks, and other news sources should differentiate themselves by vetting information for consumption.

Twitter and Facebook are excellent sources of opinion and allow for unique views of events. Even on their own can prove resourceful in verifying information, creating a smorgasbord of tasty news treats. We’ve also shown how powerful social media can be, a hive mind running wild, swept up in hysteria. It’s no wonder businesses strive daily to harness this perpetual marketing machine.

However, I don’t think we are ready for old media to be replaced by the new guys just yet. There is room for both. I like my news accurate, with a side of thousands of verified amateurs.

Be sure to attend the next Social Media Club of Evansville event, where Ryan Reynolds of the Evansville Courier and Press will be discussing changes in online and print media. The event will be held at Ri Ra Irish Restaurant and Pub on Monday, February 20th, starting at 6:00 pm.

Please comment below if you have any questions to ask Ryan Reynolds or discuss the importance of new and old media working to coexist.

Last night the Social Media Club of Evansville met at Ri Ra Irish Pub, to discuss What’s Wrong With Your Website? It was a meeting designed to help web creators and Evansville businesses create more engaging websites and optimize for both search engines and conversions. The review panel consisted of Andrew Epperson, Zac Parsons, and Tim Piazza, each covering different aspects of web development.

The panel’s main focus was of course on social engagement and how your website can better reach the social media crowd. In addition, special attention was given to search engine optimization and how visitors can be funneled into your sites pages. And lastly, how can your website better keep or convert that visitor. Surprising to some, little things can make a big impact and do not take a lot of effort to fix.

Some simple rules to design by:

Paula spoke about how Holiday World first took the plunge into social media, starting with a blog around the launch of the Legend roller coaster.  Up until that time, they didn’t really feel like they had a lot to share, and didn’t feel like filling a blog with pointless updates.  However, the buzz surrounding the upcoming wooden roller coaster provided a perfect opportunity to start sharing teaser photos and information that enthusiasts flocked to.  Communication has changed in Paula’s 20 years at Holiday World and the first theme park blog set in motion the social media presence you see today.

Party Favor

Holiday World’s huge success in the social media realm is attributed to Paula’s idea of what new media should be about.  She recommends you should focus on posting relevant information, asking who cares before hitting enter, even if that next communication is only 140 characters long.  Furthermore, the contacts made on Facebook and Twitter should be more than numbers, they are relationships that require communication.  If you never reply to comments from followers or fans, you might as well be counting business cards in the closet.

Thanks again to Paula Werne for taking the time to speak with us at the November Social Media Club of Evansville event.  Also, thanks for the great party favors, including 2 free passes to Holiday World, Images of America Holiday World book, and a Holiday World Christmas ornament.

Follow Holiday World:

• HoliBlog
• HoliTweets
• Holiday World on Facebook

{photo credit: Inferno Insane/Flickr}

Thanks the local news media for their coverage and support including: WNIN, AcesTV, Local 7, News 25 and The University of Evansville for hosting the event.

Last but not least, a big thanks goes to Micah Schweizer of WNIN for his great efforts as our event emcee.

Reminder, we meet the 3rd Monday of each month at Ri Ra Irish Pub in downtown Evansville. These monthly meetings are FREE and open to the public.

Media Coverage

Local 7

Link to Local 7 Coverage

News 25