How to boost your Social Business Footprint with Pinterest

Pinterest is slowly becoming one of the most popular Social Media and Social Business platforms on the Globe. Although it’s normally just so cool to play with it, browse the stunning collection of images and repining everything that catches your eye it’s still a tool that could grow your business online. Here are a few tips on how to achieve this
With 13 million current users Pinterest is the fastest growing New Media Platform.
Here are a few ideas on how to make Pinterest work for your business

1. Put in the effort - Like any social network, and maybe even more with this demographic, Pinterest.com requires an investment in time. Users, says the key is to build relationships with those who are known for quality “pins” at the site. He says, once these movers and shakers get to know you and your business, they will be more likely to post about your product. The focus should be on the users who get the most likes and repins. “All of these repins and likes share a common interest, making it easier to take the conversation to Twitter or Facebook to nurture the relationship, Like everything else, be real and show your true self. Authenticity is hugely important.”
2. Simplicity - The main appeal of Pinterest is that the site is exceptionally easy to use. Everyone has a “board” where they pin images that are all the same size. It’s best to mimic Pinterest’s uncluttered aesthetic, so creates boards that are clean and elegant looking. Each pinned photo includes one link back to her site (you click once to see the pin page, and again to see the source site). Pinterest seriously boosts page views. Through social media efforts we saw a 75 percent increase in traffic, with Pinterest generating most of that.
3. Duplicate your physical presence with your online presence - It’s important to connect the dots between a physical location and your Pinterest page. Often a physical store will feature online ads and Pinterest promotions. Soon the company website will feature Pinterest buttons.
4. Make sure your business is a match - This tip might seem obvious, but Pinterest caters to those looking for recipes, room decor, and do-it-yourself crafts. If your company sells power sanders, you might not be a good fit. Quality Woven Labels, which makes tags for custom clothing, has been able to use Pinterest to connect with the perfect demographic: independent fashion designers.
5. Use other social nets to feed Pinterest - The new kid on the block may be getting all of the hype, but existing social networks have one advantage: a vast number of users. To get the most number of eyeballs on your company use Tumblr and Facebook to point people to Pinterest.
6. Daily pin theme - Create a daily pin to promote its brand. The idea is to come up with a cool slogan that is tied to the organization’s charity work and memorable enough so that the images get re-pinned. The daily themed pins usually lead to repeat visitors.
7. Promote more than products - The temptation for any business is to post pins only for products you sell. A company’s one key is to post interesting news titbits, tips, and products from other companies. She says Pinterest users are savvy in spotting a board that is too self-serving and only posts product photos.
8. Follow the big boys - One of the best ways to raise awareness about your company is to start following the big names on Pinterest. This is the proven method on Twitter: When you follow popular figures, and they follow you back, other Twitter users get the message and follow the leader.
9. Selective curating - Pinterest caters to those who love to “curate” or weed out the good from the bad. Find unique products beyond your own offering and pin them. Also uses key phrases on your board like “PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN” and “defining confidence” to help define the brand.

1. Customer success story. When you receive a great testimonial from a customer, ask for permission to turn it into a post. Use the post to solicit more customer stories.
2. Mention a popular post. If you notice a post by a popular blogger in your niche getting a lot of attention, add your viewpoint and link to the original post. Be sure to let that A-list blogger know about your comment and link.
3. Disagree with a popular opinion. Get traffic by stirring up controversy and taking a contrary position.
4. Riff on the news. How are current events affecting your customers? Run a Google Alert on certain keywords related to your business or industry to find relevant news items to discuss.
5. Compile a link roundup. If you notice several interesting opinions on a topic, you can pull them together into a single post of the best ideas.
6. Play off the familiar. Mention a celebrity or a pop culture touchstone and your readers will instantly relate.
7. Answer the questions everyone is asking. A FAQ post shows you’re responsive and saves customers time.
8. Pose your own question. What would you like to know about your customers? Just ask, and let your readers create the content.
9. Talk about trends. You convey authority when you tell how things are evolving in your industry.
10. Discuss future plans. Give readers a sneak peek at what you’ll do in the coming year to start generating interest.
11. Review a book. If you’ve read a book you think customers might like, give it a write-up.
12. Review a product or service. This shouldn’t be one of your own products or services or a direct competitor’s offering, but rather a related item your customers might want to learn about.
13. Comparison test. Provide even more value by comparing two or more related products or services.
14. Post a video. Create variety with a video post. You can give a sneak preview of a new product or show a promotional event.
15. Make a podcast. Record a quick interview with an expert, or just give a few of your own useful tips.
16. Create an infographic. Fact-filled, graphic posts get shared a lot on social networks.This infographic got more than 10,000 retweets.
17. Report on a conference. Quote inspiring speakers or tell readers about the latest trends and ideas from the conference that you’ll be implementing.
18. Go behind the scenes. Give readers a photo or video tour of your plant, customer service desk or the backroom of your store.
19. Explain how you do it. Do you have a special way you make your product, handle returns or welcome new customers? Describe your process.
20. Staff profiles. Give a human face to your company by introducing new or seasoned employees.
21. Show your charity work. If your business gives back to the community, post a video or photo essay of that park your staff cleaned up.
22. Gush about your idols. Talk about the blogs you read regularly or the thought leaders who inspire you. Be sure to alert those bloggers and business gurus so they’ll spread the word.
23. Have a debate. Invite someone who disagrees with your views to do a “Point/Counterpoint” post.
24. Talk about your blunders. Everyone loves to read about business failures. End your post by telling how you’re fixing the problem.
25. Create a regular feature. Do a “customer of the week” spotlight or create a monthly collection of the best online articles that match your customers’ interests.
26. Write a series. If you’d like to teach customers something complicated, break the topic into several parts. Series is an effective way to turn casual readers into subscribers.
27. Make a prediction. Everybody wants to know what may happen in the future, so share your opinion.
28. Conduct market research. Are you wondering which product name would attract more customers? Hold a virtual focus group on a blog post.
29. Create a contest. Offer a prize for the most interesting customer suggestion or use of your product.
30. Take a reader poll. SurveyMonkey makes this easy. Or you can simply set up a poll on your business Facebook page and draw readers to “like” your page.
31. Share poll or contest results. Don’t leave readers hanging; do a follow-up post to announce the results.
32. Create an award. Giving a “best of” honor is guaranteed to get attention. Readers will want to check out who won, and all the finalists will likely share the news in social media.
33. Share your customer feedback. If you use customer comment cards or do customer surveys, turn some highlights into a post.
34. Reveal industry secrets or expose lies. When you promise to tell people what others won’t, it’s sure to be a hit.
35. Tell the story of your origins. Everybody loves to read about other people’s dreams and challenges, so write about why and how you started your business.
36. Share a highlight. What were the big milestones in your company’s history? Tell about an important moment and how it changed your business.
37. Keyword posts. Check your Google Analytics to see which keyword searches bring customers to your site. Then do posts on those topics.
38. Read your competitors. If you’re out of ideas, see what topics are drawing a crowd on your competitors’ blogs and give your own take on those subjects. You can even link to your competitor’s post. Readers will think that’s cool.
39. Display a sense of humor. Everyone loves business owners who can laugh at themselves when something goes wrong at the office. Consider giving a “how-to” post a funny spin.
40. Show your passion. What aspect of your business gets you excited? What customer experience was especially gratifying? Tell those personal stories.
41. Share your vision. If you’re different from competitors because of your philosophy, talk about it.
42. Informational, how-to. Is there more than one way to use your product or service? Describe one of the less common uses in a how-to post.
43. Tips and tricks. Don’t have time for a step-by-step how-to post? Give readers a few random suggestions for how to get more out of your product.
44. Celebrity Q&A. An interview post can be quick and easy if you simply email questions to an expert of interest to your customers. If you have some dream interview subjects, go ahead and ask if they’ll participate. You’ll probably be surprised how many say yes.
45. Be inspiring. Sometimes, customers would just like to feel good. Write about something you found inspiring in the course of your day or how you keep a positive work culture.
46. Resource list. You could spotlight your vendors, companies you partner with, or a list of good books related to your business.
47. How you got the idea for your product. This is an opportunity to credit team members and tell an interesting story about product development.
48. A day in the life. Give customers an hour-by-hour account of a typical day at your company.
49. Offer something special. Announce a party that gives your best customers a first look at a new product or create a giveaway just for blog subscribers.
50. Round up the best of your blog. If you think some of your best stuff is buried in the archive, repost your 10 favorite posts from the past year.

The key to a successful business blog is variety — so mix it up with different types of posts. If every post is “Seven Ways to Use Our Product,” it’s going to get old fast.

FROM: ENTREPENEUR

But don’t just whip out the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and identify popular keywords. It’s useful but everyone uses it—and that means, for example, that every Web designer has shoehorned six- and seven-digit searches-per-month keywords like “build a website,” “website templates,” “designing a website,” and “webmaster” into their profile. It’s hard to stand out when you’re one of millions.

Go a step further and think about words that have meaning in your industry. Some are process-related; others are terms only used in your field; others might be names of equipment, products, software, or companies.

Use a keyword tool to find general terms that could attract a broader audience, and then dig deeper to target your niche by identifying keywords industry insiders might search for.

Then sense-check your keywords against your goals. If you’re a Web designer but you don’t provide training, the 7 million monthly Google searches for “how to Web design” don’t matter.

Step 2. Layer in your keywords. The headline is a key factor in search results, so pick your most important keyword and make sure it appears in your headline. “Most important” doesn’t mean most searched, though; if you provide services to a highly targeted market the keyword in your headline should reflect that niche. Then work through the rest of your profile and replace some of the vague descriptions of skills, experience, and educational background with keywords. Your profile isn’t a term paper so don’t worry about a little repetition. A LinkedIn search scans for keywords, and once on the page, so do people.

Step 3. Strip out the clutter. If you’re the average person you changed jobs six or eight times before you reached age 30. That experience is only relevant when it relates to your current goals. Sift through your profile and weed out or streamline everything that doesn’t support your business or professional goals. If you’re currently a Web designer but were an accountant in a previous life, a comprehensive listing of your accounting background is distracting. Keep previous jobs in your work history, but limit each to job title, company, and a brief description of duties.

Step 4. Reintroduce your personality. Focusing on keywords and eliminating clutter is important, but in the process your individuality probably got lost. Now you can put it back and add a little enthusiasm and flair. Describing yourself as, “A process improvement consultant with a Six Sigma black belt,” is specific and targeted but also says nothing about you as a person—and doesn’t make me think, “Hey, she would be great to work with.”

Share why you love what you do in your profile. Share what you hope to accomplish. Describe companies you worked for or projects you completed. Share your best or worst experience. Keep your keywords in place, leave out what doesn’t support your goals, and then be yourself.

Keywords are important but are primarily just a way to help potential clients find you. No one hires keywords; they hire people.

Step 5. Take a hard look at your profile photo. Say someone follows you on Twitter. What’s the first thing you do? Check out their photo.

A photo is a little like a logo: On its own an awesome photo won’t win business, but a bad photo can definitely lose business.

Take a look at your current photo. Does it reflect who you are as a professional or does it reflect a hobby or outside interest? Does it look like a real estate agent’s headshot? A good photo flatters but doesn’t mislead. Eventually you’ll meet some of your customers in person and the inevitable disconnect between Photoshop and life will be jarring.

The goal is for your photo to reflect how you will look when you meet a customer, not how you looked at that killer party in Key West four years ago. The best profile photo isn’t necessarily your favorite photo. The best photo strikes a balance between professionalism and approachability, making you look good but also real.

Step 6. Get recommendations. Most of us can’t resist reading testimonials, even when we know those testimonials were probably solicited. Recommendations add color and depth to a LinkedIn profile, fleshing it out while avoiding any, “Oh jeez will this guy ever shut up about himself?” reactions. So ask for recommendations, and offer to provide recommendations before you’re asked.

The best way to build great connections is to always be the one who gives first.

From:

Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up from ghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business. @jeff_haden

You won’t gain any value by signing up for a social media service and only posting your marketing content. Those that get the most value out of social media are those that engage and communicate with other social media users.

Additionally, you want to position yourself where your current and potential customers are. Just because a social media site exists doesn’t mean that it’s right for your business or that your customers will be there. There are a lot of options in the social media realm for promoting your business online these days, so research into your audience demographic is important. One of the best and most visited social media websites you may wish to consider is StumbleUpon.

What is StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is a social media bookmarking site that allows users to “like” websites and add them to their profile. These websites are then shared with their friends through their profile and by using the “stumble” button, which is added to a user’s browser toolbar when they sign up. The stumble button basically sends a user to a random website, usually one previously liked by a friend. StumbleUpon boasts more than 30 million users. Each user fills out a survey of their interests, so there is definitely the potential for your business website to reach a broad and targeted audience.

What are the Benefits of StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon asks their users to define the categories that interest them, everything from action movies to zoology. If your business fits into one of these interest categories well, your site can get a lot of new visitors that are more likely to be interested in your business. Additionally, you’re going to get a steady stream of visitors if you use it properly, as opposed to a burst of visitors from other paid advertising services that could potentially skew your website statistics or crash your servers.

As mentioned above, if you’re not actively going to use StumbleUpon, this solution may not be a good fit for your marketing campaign. In order to get your website “stumbled upon,” you need to be an active user and receive high ratings from other users. If you do nothing but create a profile, submit your site and walk away, you won’t get any benefit from the site. Moreover, StumbleUpon has a very specific policy against using their service for promotional purposes. If you run a business and are only promoting your business’ website, you will most likely be identified as a spammer and kicked off the service. That is why it is greatly important to participate in the community.

If you want to use StumbleUpon purely for promotional purposes, then you will need to sign up for their Paid Discovery program. Essentially, StumbleUpon will place your site in front of users that are interested in discovering new sites. Every user that clicks on your site will cost you a flat fee of $0.10. They also offer some upgrade options that allows your site to get seen more often. They also offer the option to create a site or brand channel that will allow users to follow your company. You need to contact StumbleUpon directly for this service and it will cost you, not to mention the bounce rates are sometimes known to be high if your website does not fit the category well.

Why you Should Add a StumbleUpon Badge

The simplest and least expensive solution, if you feel StumbleUpon is the right fit for your business, is to add the StumbleUpon badge to your website. StumbleUpon offers html code for free that allows you to insert their badge onto your website pages, encouraging other users to add your site to their profiles. This will exponentially increase your discoveries in StumbleUpon, especially if those who add you are active users.

Of course, every social media site offers some sort of badge or widget – we see them everywhere. One thing to keep in mind here is that you don’t want to clutter your home page with every service’s badge. You only need to utilize those that you are targeting. Dedicated users to any service, including StumbleUpon, will actively promote your site if they find the content useful. StumbleUpon even offers a toolbar for their users to easily like websites and add them to their profile.

Choose the Right Social Network for Your Business

Ultimately, you need to choose the social media services that are right for your business. You can’t be engaged with users everywhere. If you try, you’ll quickly be focusing only on social media and not on your business. Stick with a handful of services where you can build a following and engage customers on a regular basis.

Give StumbleUpon a try. It may be the one you’re missing!

Guest author: Grant Webb works with Bisk Education, providing continuing education and test preparation for professional accountants. Including accounting CPE programs and CPA Exam Review courses.

WordPress has had over 65 million downloads since version 3.0 was released, and in this third major iteration we’ve added significant polish around the new user experience, navigation, uploading, and imports. Check out this short video that summarizes the things we think you’ll find are the cat’s pajamas:

Introducing WordPress 3.3 “Sonny”

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For Users

Experienced users will appreciate the new drag-and-drop uploader, hover menus for the navigation, the new toolbar, improved co-editing support, and the new Tumblr importer. We’ve also been thinking a ton about what the WordPress experience is like for people completely new to the software. Version 3.3 has significant improvements there with pointer tips for new features included in each update, a friendly welcome message for first-time users, and revamped help tabs throughout the interface. Finally we’ve improved the dashboard experience on the iPad and other tablets with better touch support.

For Developers

There is a ton of candy for developers as well. I’d recommend starting your exploration with the new editor API, new jQuery version, better ways to hook into the help screens, more performant post-slug-only permalinks, and of course the entire list of improvements on the Codex and in Trac.

Cool New Features

• New tooltips for newbies (with lots of potential for plugin and theme devs to take advantage of)
• Drag and drop uploader
• Hover fly-out menus for navigation
• Improved toolbar (previously the admin bar)
• Tumblr importer (yes plz!)
• Improved co-editing support
• Revamped help tabs
• Improved dashboard experience for iPad users
• New editor API
• New jQuery version
• Improved performace on post-name only permalinks (yay!)

You can check out the improvements in detail on the WordPress Codex. And no doubt we’ll be posting about them over the next few weeks.

We’re all excited! Thanks to all of the WordPress crew who put together our favorite piece of open source software.

Here we’ll walk-through all the new features available in Timeline, how to control what’s displayed, and discuss how Timeline will impact users and the rest of the site. Facebook has struck a balance between creating a common structure for all profiles but giving users to ability customize the way they present themselves within those boundaries. In this way, the site has become more personal without following Myspace’s mistake of allowing users so much freedom over arrangement of core features that browsing becomes confusing.

Those who want to early access to Timeline can sign up at its new about page. It’s also possible to get a developer release of the Timeline now. To get access, those who aren’t already developers users must  have a verified account and install the Developer app, then create an application, click “Get Started Using Open Graph”, edit some settings, then wait a few minutes and return to their profile. They should see the Timeline, and can select to make it visible it to their friends immediately or it will be automatically published on September 29th, 2011.

Cover

At the top of the Timeline is the Cover, a giant banner image. Users can select any of their their album photos as their Cover, or upload a new image. Once selected, users can click on their Cover to bring up options to reposition it, choose a new image, or remove their current Cover.

With this option, Facebook has given users more control over the look of their profile than ever before. It may also lead to the rise of applications that let users create collages or other special images specifically for use as Covers.

Info

Below the Cover users see the biographical information that previously appeared on their Info tab. This includes their work, education, current city, and hometown. There’s also an “About” link that expands the Info section to reveal work and education details, a “History by the Year” of a user’s employment and schooling, a user’s Relationships and Family connections, their About Me text, favorite quotes, basic info and contact info. Users no longer have the option to “Feature” certain friend lists, family members, or Groups.

To get users to keep their Info up to date, there are edit links in the expanded About section and a big Update Info on the main Timeline view. By getting people to share as much biographical information as possible, Facebook gains valuable data that it can charge advertisers to use for targeting their ads.

Featured Content Categories

Beside the Info section, the Timeline displays four channels of different types of content. By default, these are Friends, Photos, Map, and Likes, but users can click a drop-down to swap in other categories into the featured slots. When viewing a friend’s Timeline, this drop-down reveal the non-featured categories.

The categories users can choose from include:

• Friends – Displays all of a user’s friends including a overlaid count of their mutual friends. When expanded, friends can be searched through or sorted by characteristic. A privacy control and link to the Find Friends feature appear in a user’s own Friends section.
• Photos – All of a user’s photo albums and videos, followed by their tagged photos and videos. Each album includes a privacy control. As the old photostrip has been replaced with the Cover this this photos section, users must pick one photo to represent them instead of five.
• Likes – A user’s Liked Pages sorted by category, with their Favorite Likes shown first followed by links to see all Pages in that category. Below, a user’s Liked Pages are displayed in reverse chronological order. With access from the main profile view, Pages now have a bigger opportunity to gain new Fans from users browsing the Likes of their friends.
• Map – A Bing map of all of a user’s location-tagged posts and updates.The map can be sorted by categories such as photos, event check-ins, or restaurants. Zooming in and clicking on an individual pushpin displays the original update.

• Subscribers – All of a user’s public and friend subscribers, and settings to control notifications and privacy.
• Subscriptions – The people a user is subscribed to.
• Notes – One column of the Notes written by users, and another of Notes that tag them. There are also links to write a new Note and view drafts.
• Apps – Users can add any of their installed apps into the category channels. When clicked on, they display a dedicated timeline of all a user’s activity within the app. Users can also see the most recently used apps of friends. The ability to display Apps more prominently in the profile could lead to a boom of development of utility apps similar to those that appear in the Profile Boxes a few years ago.
• Certain preferred media partners, such as Spotify and Hulu show a special “All Time” of a user’s most frequently consumed content, such as their one most watched video and a list of their other “Top Videos Watched”. The ability to display Apps more prominently in the profile could lead to a boom of development of utility apps similar to those that appear in the Profile Boxes a few years ago. Facebook also automatically creates categories that aggregate specific types of media activity, such as “Music” category that shows Spotify and Rdio activity together.

Activity Log

Above the featured content categories is a button called View Activity that shows a red counter of posts and info that require approval before appearing on a user’s profile. When clicked, the button reveals the Activity Log, a private log of all of a user’s activity since the joined Facebook. Downward arrow buttons next to each piece of content let users select its privacy and whether its featured on, allowed on, or hidden from a user’s Timeline.

A drop-down in the top right corner lets users filter to only see certain types of activity or content published through specific apps. By visiting the Activity Log after using an app with persistent permission to share a activity, users can hide specific actions such as listening to an embarrassing song or watching a controversial video. As there is no “incognito mode” or way to preemptively prevent certain activity of an approved app from being published, this is the only way to hide specific actions.

Users should considering browsing through all their content in the Activity Log and ensuring they at least know what they’re sharing and with who. As the Timeline makes this content much more accessible to others, users should make sure nothing added to Facebook long ago is visible to the wrong people.

Besides the View Activity button on the Info panel of one’s own Timeline is a settings drop-down that lets users preview their profile from the privacy perspective of a specific friend. There’s also a link to creating an embeddable profile badge for websites.

When viewing another user’s Timeline, this area includes Friend and Subscribe options that let users send someone a friend request, add them to Friend Lists, subscribe to their public updates, and modify the volume and types of that friend’s content that will appear in the news feed. The panel also lets users send a Message to someone, and includes a drop-down menu that reveals See Friendship, poke, unfriend, and report/block options.

Timeline Publisher

A publisher on the left side of the Timeline lets users post new updates. If a user scrolls beneath the publisher, a floating bar appears allowing them to publish without returning to the top of the Timeline. In addition to the standard status update and photo options, a Places button lets users compose an update that includes a tagged location.

There are also five new types of updates that let users share important life events in more detail than a profile info change or status update. When an user indicates they are publishing a life event, Facebook knows to publish this more prominently in news feed, to a wider set of friends, and to those who’ve specifically subscribed to their life events. The types will also give Facebook more data on a user’s identity and behavior that could be used for ad targeting.

The new publishing options are:

• Work and Education:  Started a new job, graduated from a school, or military service.
• Family and Relationships: Got engaged, got married, had a child, got a pet
• Living: Moved, bought a home, got a roommate, bought a car (there’s no options for motorcycles or boats)
• Health and Wellness: Broke a bone, had surgery, overcame an illness
• Milestones – Learned a language, got a license, traveled, achievement or award,
• Other Life Event – A free form story

Recent Activity

At the top right of the Timeline below the Info section is a panel of a user’s “More Recent Activity” such as Liking Pages, new friendships, subscribing to someone’s updates, installing new apps, and more. Individual activity stories can be hidden from the Timeline, or all past and future activity stories of that type can be hidden. An edit icon lets users manage what story types they’ve hidden.

Panels for a user’s recent Music, Video, and other media types appear in this area as well. This lets a user’s friends get a quick snapshot of what they’re listening to, watching, or reading.

Timeline

Below all these other features is the Timeline itself, a reel of all of a user’s important updates from their time on Facebook. A set of links in the top right corner of the profile lets users skip to a specific month, year, or the beginning of the timeline. By scrolling to the bottom of the Timeline, older updates are displayed. Previously, users had to scroll to the bottom of a wall to view older content, and couldn’t navigate to different time periods on the profile. Timeline makes content posted even years ago accessible with a few clicks, meaning the history of a user’s time on Facebook factors much more heavily into how they’re perceived.

Hovering over an update on one’s own Timeline reveals options to hide, feature or change its date. By clicking on the center line running down the middle of the Timeline, users can insert new content at specific dates in the past.

In some cases when users scroll to the start of a month or year on the Timeline, they’ll see summaries of all their activity in that time period, such as friendships, wall posts from friends, Event RSVPs, Likes, Places tags, photos. There’s also a special panel that displays all of wall posts a user got on their birthday. At the very bottom of the Timeline, users can edit the story about their own birth.

Privacy

Facebook preserves the privacy settings Timeline users had previously set for the profile walls. The relatively new “Limit the Audience for Past Posts” privacy control lets users apply the “friends only” visibility setting to anything they’ve published publicly or to more than just their friends. Before the launch of Timeline this wasn’t as necessary, as it was so difficult to get to old content. With the Timeline’s navigation bar making older content more accessible, users may want to use this privacy control to limit the visibility of posts they published to “everyone” years ago.

Users can now grant applications persistent permission to share their activity to the Ticker and Timeline. Therefore, users should occasionally check their Activity Log to make sure they’re comfortable sharing all the things they’ve listened to or watched.

The Facebook user base’s reaction to forthcoming rollout of the Timeline is likely to be mixed. Some will enjoy the customization features and ability to use Facebook as digital scrapbook they can share with friends. Others might feel the Timeline violates their privacy by making their older content so visible. In reality, this content was already available, it was just harder to get to.

It may take some time for users to clean up their Timeline, but once they’re comfortable sharing everything on it, we think it will become popular and make the profile a much more accurate and vivid representation of people’s identities. When users want to get to know a new friend they won’t just browse all their photos, they’ll be able to scan everything they’ve ever shared, which could significantly increase the amount of time people spend on Facebook.

Not all friend requests come from real friends – or real people for that matter.

Some Facebook accounts exist solely to cast a wide net for spamming or extracting personal data from users. Only accept friend requests from people you know.

QUESTIONABLE QUIZZES

Clicking on an ad or a link that takes you to a questionnaire on a website outside Facebook can lead to unwanted results. In many cases, the quiz may ask you to enter your cellphone number before you can view your results. If the scammers get your number, you could find yourself subscribed to unwanted and expensive text messaging services.

TERRIBLE TWEETS

Direct messages may appeal to your vanity with a message that suggests you can be seen in a compromising or flattering way at a certain website.

The link to the website actually prompts you to unwittingly download malware to your computer.

GRIM GIFTS

Clickjackers on Facebook entice you to copy and paste text into your browser bar by posting tempting offers, leading users to inadvertently download malicious code.

Clickjackers then take control of your account, spamming your friends and further spreading their scam. Be sus-picious of any too-good-to-betrue offers, such as free coffee or pizza from well known retailers.

VIRAL VIDEOS

Videos with sensational headlines get users to visit an outside website and download malware in the disguise of a video player. If you click on the video, you will be prompted to “upgrade your Flash player now” and will then be asked to download a file that contains a worm. If you download and install the file, your computer will automatically log in to Facebook and send similar messages to your friends. Never download a file after clicking on a link.

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