My hand hovered over the Like button with confusion this week when someone posted an obituary. This is known as a Facebook vocabulary challenge.

How do you like something that you do not like or is sad or unsure of the situation, but want to connect with the person?

The reality is that it is OK to click like as it is a “button” and although the text says “like” what it truly indicates is that you are connected to the person and acknowledge the reading of it and the connection to your friend.

In an ideal world perhaps Facebook would give us buttons such as Like, Not Like, Are You Freaking Kidding Me and a Right On button.

Until then, connect with your friends even if it is sharing on happy news and let them know you are there in both the good and challenging times.

Before you groan, this is one that is really exciting.

Facebook tells us, “We want to make it easier for businesses of all sizes to create and administer promotions on Facebook, and to align our policies to better meet the needs of marketers.”

You will no longer be required to use a third party app be required to run a Facebook promotion through one of your tabs.

The three big changes are:
• You may now collect entries by having users post on the page or comment/like a page post
• You may collect entries by having users message the page
• You may utilize likes as a voting mechanism

Businesses can now have a contest based upon likes and comments. A good example may be a contest of naming a funny picture caption to win an oil change by a car dealer.

Facebook also warns pages not to abuse the tagging feature.

Facebook noted, as an example, that it’s legal to ask fans to submit names of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize, but it’s not legal to ask fans to tag themselves in photos for the chance to win something. Their official policy is:

In order to maintain the accuracy of page content, our pages terms now prohibit pages from tagging or encouraging people to tag themselves in content that they are not actually depicted in. So, for instance:

•It’s OK to ask people to submit names of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize.
• It’s not OK to ask people to tag themselves in pictures of a new product in exchange for a chance to win a prize

There are still some rules, and you should become familiar with them before promoting a contest.

Of course, you always have the option to have someone like me take care of it for you. It makes your job easier and is affordable.
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A new Facebook hoax about staying privately connected is resurrected on Facebook from almost three years ago.

The following hoax post is what is going around.

“With the recent changes in FB, the “public” can now see activities on ANY wall. This happens when our friend hits “like” or “comment” ~ automatically, their friends would see our posts too. Unfortunately, we cannot change this setting by ourselves because Facebook has configured it this way. PLACE your mouse over a name (DO NOT CLICK), a window will appear, now move the mouse on “FRIENDS” (also without clicking), then down to “Settings”, click here and a list will appear. REMOVE the CHECK on “LIFE EVENTS” “STATUS UPDATES” “PHOTOS” and “COMMENTS & LIKES”. By doing this, activity among friends and family will no longer become public.”

This will actually have your friends seeing less of you. If you uncheck “Comments & Likes” for example, your friends will no longer see your comments and likes.

If you want to be a bit more private, go to your privacy settings and make sure to answer the question, “Who can see my stuff?” and set it to friend only. At the same time you can also limit who can look you up.

Privacy is a big issue so it scares a lot of people. Keep in mind that while you feel you are in your living room talking on Facebook that you are also in an auditorium of “friends” that you are talking to at the same time.

If you see someone making this post, you are welcome to drop them a link to this post and help them out.

Happy, safe and hopefully somewhat private Facebook posting!

A couple weeks ago we enjoyed some humor at a get together when someone asked, “Do you see anyone missing?” Obviously, that is a bit difficult if taken a bit literal. But, this is what is happening on Facebook.

With Facebook going public and having pressures to increase profits, posts like this one are not put on everyone’s wall. (–Gasp-) Yep, it’s true. So, if you liked a page and think that you will always get their updates, you probably are not over half the time.

The two options are to have the page owner promote (a nice way to say ‘Pay For’) their post or have you revisit the like button and make sure the box is checked to get the feed as seen in the photo.

Of course, those who do not get this post will not know this, so please consider passing it along. It is not only my page, but all fan pages you want to follow.

Social media can either get someone excited, remind them that they need to do it for their business or make their eyes glaze over as they zone out. My eyes tend to glaze with excitement since I can see the power of exposure through it.

I will be writing a number of articles about how and why it works. So check back often.

This blog is about Facebook banners. In an earlier post we described the size requirements with a very handy image showing how to create one. A good looking banner needs to capture the visitors attention and draw in their interest. Plus it may be the first impression you make upon someone. So, don’t just throw any image up there.

Think about the Facebook message you want to send in the image and it will get you started. You actually have a decent amount of room to work with and can add multiple pictures and text to the banner. Keep in mind, you cannot have a call to action in the banner image like; click here, like us, call or purchase. You can create a great banner that will make people want to though.

Here are a few examples for inspiration:

So, you now have the tools for the right banner size and examples on how to be a bit more creative in making one.

See what you can do to take your Facebook banner to the next level.

How large is a Facebook banner image? This should give you a good idea.

I have been creating more Facebook banners and images for clients as my own business continues to grow.

One thing I learned is whenever I do something new is to make myself a tutorial. It is written in a format as if I am explaining it to someone else. When I need to use it later, I start out running rather than racking my brains trying to remember what I did before.

Some tutorials are simply graphics like the one above. At a glance it tells you the sizes you need to know.

I have a giver’s gain philosophy. When I give and show off a few tidbits I use in my website business, I hope others will benefit and perhaps keep me in my mind or refer me to someone that I can help.

The image above pretty much speaks for itself. So, this post is more about why I do it. As Facebook continues to evolve, our use of it will also. If this was helpful to you, give a little and pass it along to another.

Timeline has a lot of pluses and minuses when it comes to how to do it.

A minus is that there are rules of what you can do with your banner. You can NOT have any call to action at all, like click here, like me, or call us. Timeline also requires that people land on your wall and not a welcome page.

A plus that Facebook does allow is using up to three tabs below your image for people to click on. That is how you got here! With this option there are so many things you can do. But, let’s keep it simple. I’ll show you how to duplicate what I have here, and you can make one on your own.

To the right of the tab, you clicked to get here is a down pointing triangle. Click it. Then mouse over a blank tab and click the + symbol. It will drop down. Then click notes. You may have to refresh your screen to see it.

Then click on your tab and it will give you a link to, “Write a Note.” Click it. Now just enter the information you want. It can be a simple note, a promotion or even a call to action. You can even spice it up with an image.

There you have it! A simple, easy and quick way to promote on your Facebook page.

Oh, and my call to action… If you like this or it helped you out, consider hitting the like button on my Facebook page and maybe sign up for my monthly newsletter where you can get more tips like this one.