Yelp is another powerful tool for business owners. If you have not claimed your Yelp Business Page you are missing a huge opportunity. You also need to monitor your Yelp reviews regularly, there is nothing worse than having a bad review of your business sitting their for everyone to see! With Yelp you can:

Facebook announced a massive overhaul of its Pages for business today, and here’s the most surprising part: It’s awesome.

Don’t listen to the angry mobs complaining about change. Today’s shift is overwhelmingly positive and creates much-needed options for Page admins.

That said, you’ve got some work to do if you want to make the most if it. We’ve compiled 10 simple steps that will get you started on the right foot:

1. Turn on the new Page format.

Yes, it’s opt-in. And permanent. But come on. Live a little. Plus, the rest of this post won’t do you much good if you don’t click that “Upgrade” button on your Page.

Tip: If you admin lots of pages, but only want to upgrade one or two for now, the upgrade system is wonky. After clicking “Upgrade,” scroll through the subsequent list of your pages to find the one you wanted, then click “Upgrade” again. You can also “Upgrade All” if you’re feeling gutsy.

Don’t want to switch? Sorry, Facebook says you’ll be dragged into the new format on March 1.

2. Set your Page’s category and subcategory.

Here’s the first cause for celebration. It used to be that once you selected a category for your Facebook page, it was locked in for life. Now you can not only set any category, but you can also select a more specific subcategory, which will change what kind of info is included in your Page’s description.

Tip: First thing, click “Edit Page,” then “Basic Inforrmation” to select your category and subcategory. Your page has probably been defaulted to the first subcategory in an alphabetic list, like “Appliances.”

3. Check your e-mail notification settings for fan comments.

Facebook seems to be defaulting all upgraded pages to a setting that e-mails you when a fan comments. If you have multiple pages with multiple admins (I have dozens), this is probably a bad idea.

Thankfully, the setting seems to default to “off” if the Page is large (I’d guess the threshold is around 10,000+ Likes). But be sure to check your settings for all your Pages. To do so, go to “Edit Page,” then “Your Settings.” You’ll see options for E-mail Notifications (uncheck it if you don’t want comment notifications via e-mail), and a link to edit all your e-mail settings.

Tip: Be sure to follow that link, then click to “Change email settings for individual Pages.” Strange that this option is so well hidden, but it’s important.

4. Set your wall preference: Fans too or just you?

As you probably know, Facebook Page administrators have long had the option to keep fan comments off the “front page” of the wall. I generally prefer this setting, because it keeps “official” Page updates from getting lost in a fray of spam and typos.

Upgrading your page appears to force it back to the “Everyone” setting for the wall, which means you might want to re-select the option for “Posts by Page Only” in the “Manage Permissions” tab. I should note that Facebook has improved the “Everyone” setting by allowing it to sort popular posts to the top, but I’m still going to wait before handing over control of larger pages to the masses.

5. Want to occasionally post as yourself on Pages you admin?

Well now you can. in “Your Settings” in the “Edit Page” screen, you can select whether to “Always comment and post on your page as (PAGE NAME) even when using Facebook as (YOUR NAME).”

You can then select to log in as the Page itself, letting you jump between being a human with a name or just a brand. This is a nice new feature for small business owners and others who want audiences to know them by name.

6. Set your moderation and profanity blocklists.

This much-needed feature launched just before the new Page format did, so this is as good a time as any to set your preferences. Both settings can be found under “Manage Permissions.”

The obscenity filter is automated, but you can select from three options: None, Medium or Strong. Facebook uses its collection of “reported” words to build these filters.

Moderation blocklists allow you to set specific words you don’t want mentioned on your Page. Maybe a competitor, maybe a scandalous nickname for your product…the list is totally up to you.

7. Check out your Page’s tabs.

They’ve moved! Instead of being up top, they’re suddenly on the left side rail. And chances are, they don’t look good. That’s because Static FBML, the most common tab application, doesn’t have a customizeable icon image. It’s just that weird <-> symbol.

Sorry, I don’t know a fix for that. BUT….

Tip: The switch to left-side navigation means you’re no longer limited to brief titles for your apps. Instead of one or two words, you can now give your Page’s apps pretty thorough titles.

To change your tab titles, click “Edit Page,” then “Apps,” then “Go to App” and you’ll be able to change the name.

8. Select which photos should be featured up top.

Just like the User Profile design that debuted recently, the new Page look includes a gallery of your images across the top of the page. Now’s a good time to select the ones that look best by “hiding” the ones that don’t. You can salvage the hidden photos later if you need to.

And yes, now’s the time to do something crazy like this, although the order seems to be randomized each time you view the Page.

UPDATE: Just confirmed from one of our Facebook reps: “At the moment the photostrip of images at the top of the Page are completely randomized and there’s no way for Page admins to edit this setting.”

9. Pick your “Featured Likes.”

You’ve long been able to add “Favorite Pages” to your Page, but it hasn’t really meant much. Now the system is moving to “Featured Likes,” which showcase other Pages that your Page has “Liked.” The gallery of Featured Likes has to first be activated in the “Featured” tab of your Page settings.

This ability to Like as a Page fixes one longtime problem for Facebook Page admins: You had to personally Like a Page before you could tag it in a status update. Now, your Page can do the Liking, so that you won’t personally have clutter up your personal news feed.

10. Want some credit? Add “Featured Page Owners.”

Facebook’s Page changes include an interesting addition that many will find appealing (and many others won’t): a public list of admins. The good news is that admins get to pick which of their team members (if any) are listed.

Personally, I have a pretty firm wall between my personal Facebook account and pages I administer, even my blogs. But for those who want to gain more Facebook connections for themselves through Pages they run, this will be a welcome change.

Have you been playing around with the new Page design and functionality? We’d love it if you would share what you’ve learned in the comments.

1. Get A Good URL

URLs are a large portion or search engine optimization. Google (and other search engines) use as much information as possible to determine the relevance of a particular page for a given search. Currently Facebook enables those pages with over 100 fans to get a vanity URL. A vanity URL is the short Facebook URL that helps people easily access your page. For example our blog, AllFacebook, has the following URL: http://www.facebook.com/allfacebook which makes it easier to access. The short URL is extremely effective at getting Google “juice”.

2. Configure Your Default Tab

On day 15 we will be going over how to configure a tab as a “landing page” but the primary thing here is to ensure that the first page being crawled by Google contains relevant text. You can set the default tab by clicking the “Settings” link on your Facebook Page and then selecting the tab you’d like to have displayed by default. Currently I’m not focused heavily on promoting my Facebook Page so the current landing page is more focused on getting users to take action then to organically drive them. This emphasizes how important it is to understand your objectives. You probably don’t want to create ranking issues with your site versus Facebook.

3. Generate Links To Your Page

If you are looking to drive traffic to your page from searching engines, the most important variable is always incoming links. One quick way to boost your Facebook page rankings is by linking to your page from your existing website. Additionally, any way you can get links from other sites will help increase your rankings. On their own, Facebook Pages tend to rank extremely well but a little additional effort will go a long way. One great way to increase the number of incoming links is by participating in forums around the web and setting a signature which links back to your page. If you are active in any forums on the web, I suggest placing your Facebook Page as one of your signature URLs. This will most definitely help you gain some traction in Google.

4. Link To Other Relevant Pages

I’ll be elaborating on this tip in Day 10 but essentially linking to relevant content helps boost your ranking. If you created a site that was about shoes but kept linking to blogs that were about technology, do you think that would really help out the readers with finding what they’re looking for? Probably not. Google takes into account the relevance of pages you are linking to when calculating the relevance of any given page. Try linking to a few relevant sites. There’s a good chance that you’ll not only help out your readers but increase your overall Google rank.

5. Use Facebook For Inbound Links To Your Company Website

One of the most important components of search engine optimization is generating inbound links. While some companies will take aggressive measures to generate inbound links, generating a link from you Facebook page is extremely valuable. Take advantage of landing pages and the information tab to link back to your company’s website. If you use the Static FBML application that I highlighted on Day 3, you’ll be able to post links that will help boost your search engine rankings.

6. Select A Good Name For Your Facebook Page

The name of your Facebook is extremely important. Many search engine optimization experts will tell you that spending a lot of time on the title of a website isn’t important as long as that page is written for the reader. On Facebook Pages however there are few things you can use to boost your search engine rankings and page titles happen to be one of those things. Don’t go overboard with your name and create a keyword dense title. Just name the title after your company or whatever phrase will be most effective for fans that are searching for you.

7. Post Keyword Rich Content In About Box

That mysterious box at the top left of your Facebook Page is one of the few areas on your page which is accessible to search engines. It’s also relatively high up in the page HTML which means that search engines will give the text priority over text that’s further down the page. Take the opportunity to fill the about box with keyword rich content. While it may not give a huge boost to your rankings in Google, you ‘ll want all the help you can get.

Posting Stream Content Doesn’t Provide SEO Juice

Some resources on the web have suggested that generating links to your site by posting links to the news feed. While it may drive you traffic it’s not going to generate any SEO juice because Facebook dynamically generates feed content using javascript. Additionally, if you click a link from within Facebook it will redirect you through a Facebook pass-through page. As far as I know, Facebook isn’t making any exceptions for search engines and providing news feed backlinks.

Conclusion

These were just seven tips but overall you should be considering your Google rank when developing your Facebook Page strategy. Since an increasing number of people are on Facebook, there’s a good chance that the person following a link on Google also happens to be on Facebook and could quickly become a fan. While targeting keywords other than your brand name is not at easy from within Facebook Pages, any effort you make is well worth it.

Daily Task

Make at least three adjustments to your Facebook Page that will help boost the optimization of your page. Also determine where to put a link from your site back to your Facebook Page that will help build awareness and generate some SEO juice for your Facebook page.

Over the past couple years the Facebook Pages and Groups products have moved closer together, forcing marketers to ask themselves: which one should they use? I thought it would be useful to highlight the core differences between Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups. If you had any lingering questions, this guide should completely clear things up for you!

What Are Facebook Groups?

If you don’t know what Facebook groups are, there’s a good chance you haven’t spent more than an hour on Facebook. However if you are a rare exception, we thought it would be useful to explain groups. According to Facebook, groups are “for members of groups to connect, share and even collaborate on a given topic or idea”. While the company continues to make a distinction between groups and Facebook Pages, we see these products eventually merging over time.

Groups can serve as an extremely effective marketing tool. Most importantly, groups serve as a tool for building awareness around various ideas. We’ve rapidly seen many users use Facebook Pages for the same purpose, but this is what groups were initially intended for. The key feature behind Facebook groups is the ability to make them “invite only” or limited to specific networks.

What Are Facebook Pages?

In contrast to Facebook groups, which are focused on organizing around topics or ideas, Facebook Pages “allow entities such as public figures and organizations to broadcast information to their fans.” If you are looking to set up your company’s “official Facebook presence” you would opt for Facebook Pages.

Simply put, Facebook Pages are a tool for companies and public figures to engage their fans and customers. With the eventual launch of the Open Graph API, Facebook Pages will continue to serve as a tool for Facebook users to interact with companies and public figures around the web.

Groups Vs Pages: A Feature Comparison

For those looking to determine whether or not groups or Pages will more effectively serve their needs, we’ve decided to highlight the various features that the two products have and how they differ from one another. After reading through this guide you should be able to make a decision about which product will best serve you.

Mass Messaging

One of the best features of groups is the ability to send messages directly to members’ Facebook inboxes. As the table at the end of this post highlights, messages are restricted once a group surpasses 5,000 members. If you are looking to build a group for marketing purposes, this feature will quickly become useless as the group surpasses a certain level. However the ability to send messages directly to a user’s inbox results in higher conversions over Facebook Page notifications, something we’ll highlight later.

Indexed By Search Engines

Both groups and Facebook Pages are indexed by search engines, however Facebook Pages provide administrators with greater search engine optimization opportunities when used in conjunction with the Static FBML application. That doesn’t mean Facebook groups have zero Google juice. You can control the content within the information area of your group, which is sufficient for showing up in Google and other search engines.

Stream Publishing

In addition to being able to publish to fans’ streams, Facebook Pages also have the ability to target stream posts based on location in language. If you have successfully attracted fans from around the world, you may want to distribute your English content directly to English speaking fans. Alternatively, you may want to limit the content you publish international content to international users, rather than bombarding your domestic fans with irrelevant content.

Targeted Updates

While Facebook has continued to de-emphasize the importance of Facebook Page updates (or notifications), they still remain as a valuable communication channel for Facebook Page administrators. Facebook Page updates show up in your fans’ inboxes under a separate tab named “Updates”. Since moving updates to this area from the Facebook requests page, the open rate (and response rate) on updates has increased dramatically.

Support For Applications

One of the most significant differentiators between Facebook groups and Pages is the ability for Pages to include applications. Applications enable Facebook Page administrators to extensively customize their Pages. For example, the Static FBML application lets Pages administrators create custom page tabs. Some Facebook Page administrators have opted to use more interactive applications. For example, Einstein Bagels is giving away bagels to users that become fans of their Facebook Page. A BMW dealer in Minnesota published their entire lot inventory on their Facebook Page.

The point is that custom applications provide Facebook Page administrators with infinite customization opportunities.

Membership Restrictions

One of the few benefits of groups over Facebook Pages is the ability to restrict who can access them. There are three types of groups: open, closed, and secret. Open groups function just like Facebook Pages: anybody can join them. Closed groups appear in Facebook search results, however group administrators must approve all members of the group. Secret groups are not visible in Facebook search results and are accessed by invite only. In contrast to groups, Facebook Pages are always public and there is no option to make them private. This is a key differentiator between the two products.

Event Inbox Messaging

One of the greatest weaknesses of Facebook events created by Facebook Page administrators is that you cannot send inbox messages to your fans. Instead, users are sent Page updates. While a decent percentage of your Facebook Page fan base will see the update about new events, many fans will not see the notification. While you can use Facebook ads to promote the event, it’s more challenging to reach all fans.

In contrast, Facebook groups can send event invites to their members. As usual there are still restrictions even to group administrators. As is the case with mass messages, Facebook group admins are restricted from sending event invites to members once the group is beyond 5,000 members. As is the case with Facebook Page, the best way to ensure your members are aware of the event is by using Facebook ads.

Engagement Metrics

One of the greatest values of Facebook Pages is a feature called “Page insights“. Page Insights provide administrators with information about the demographic break down of their Facebook Page fan base as well as engagement information. Whether it’s the number of people viewing media (photos and videos) on your Facebook Page or the number of likes and comments, Page Insights provides administrators with a lot of detail about user interactions.

This in itself may be the one reason you choose Facebook Pages over groups, however some individuals have no interest in detailed analytics. If you want detailed information about how your fans are engaging with you and who your fans are, Facebook Page insights should be a reason to choose Pages over groups.

Promotional Widgets

Want to convert visitors to your company website into fans of your Facebook Page? Facebook provides all administrators with Facebook Fanbox widget (as pictured to the left) to help promote their Facebook Pages. Facebook groups on the other hand, have no similar feature. Simply put, Facebook Page are developed for organizations and public figures to engage with their fans, which is why Facebook is working to help administrators promote their Facebook Pages as much as possible.

While Facebook provides other widgets for webmasters, the fan box widget is the only widget that is currently available for Facebook Page administrators. Learn more about Facebook fan box widget in a future post.

Vanity URLs

The final feature is vanity URLs (also called “usernames”). Vanity URLs are the unique URLs that redirect users to your Facebook Page. Facebook groups do not have this functionality as they are simply tools for discussion but not a place for brands and public figures to engage with their fan base. The idea is that by having a vanity URL, you can more easily promote your Facebook Page. When you are talking to your customers you can say “Just visit facebook dot com slash ‘my business’ to learn more about us”.

If you want a vanity URL for your personal Facebook profile or your Facebook Page, you can visit the username assignment page.

Conclusion

If you are trying to determine whether to use a Facebook Page or a Facebook group to promote your company or spread ideas, this guide should help you make a decision.

If everything else went away (the readers, the comments, the community, the feedback), Blogging was (and still is) an amazing place to think about an issue or news item and work through it. I liken myself as a Media Hacker. A Blog is a great place for anyone to be a Hacker of whatever it is that they love. If you don’t believe me, then just watch Seth Godin and Tom Peters in the video at the bottom.
In using your Blog as a platform for your critical thinking, you will quickly start uncovering new and interesting business models and ideas for how you can push your industry forward or how it can/should be thinking differently. Writing a Blog, reading the comments and feedbacking into them is the ultimate Petri dish for ideation and innovation.

The ideas and critical thinking are not always one hundred percent final. Blogging allows you to tinker with ideas. To work at them (like a complex mathematical formula). Slowly, over time, you start realizing how wrong you were, how visionary you were and how much further you still have to go.

It’s not about sitting in the dark recesses of your basement as you tinker away with words and thoughts. It’s about using this platform to connect. It’s about real interactions with real human beings. Some of my best friends are people that I would not have otherwise met were it not for Six Pixels of Separation (the Blog, not the concept). If you Blog, step out into the physical world. Meet other Bloggers. Share, learn and collaborate with them.

Make no mistake about it. My business blog started out as a means for my agency to tell the world how we think differently about Media, Marketing, Advertising and Communications. Over the years, this has attracted many world-class clients, speaking engagements, a book offer and many other amazing and interesting business opportunities.

As each day passes, I like Charlene Li’s latest book, Open Leadership, more and more (her first book, Groundswell rocks as well). Many people think that Social Media is all about the conversation and engaging in the conversation. I believe what makes any media “social” is the ability to share it. To help you to open up. Not only can you share the concepts by telling your peers and friend about a Blog, but everybody shares in the insights as well. It has changed/evolved our corporate culture. A Blog makes you think more about how you can share your content, your thoughts and why others may want to work/connect to you.

A great Blog is great because the Blogger actually cares and loves to create content. If it’s forced, if it’s your “job,” then the passion rarely comes through. The biggest lesson I have learned in my seven years of Blogging is that my blog is my exhaust valve. After working a full day with clients and their many challenges, my Blog is my playground. It’s the place where I can let off some textual steam. Make your Blog your exhaust valve. Caution: be careful that you’re not Blogging simply to blow off angry steam. The steam and exhaust I am talking about is the pent up energy of passion that I have from doing what I love to do.