I attended Digtial Summit last week and heard Matt Peters (@fracked) of Pandemic Labs (@pandemiclabs) speak about getting the most engagement on your Facebook page. His presentation, like most at the conference, referred to what works for large companies and  corporations (like their client Ritz Carlton). However, a few of his key takeaways can apply to small businesses, startups, and even bloggers with Facebook fan pages if you take the time to review your own analytics and data, then modify the advice to fit your needs.

1. Post Photo and Video Facebook Updates

When I give my own presentations about Facebook and increasing engagement, I point out that images and video are popular because Facebook is so visual. When you’re looking at your Facebook News Feed, you’re scanning it quickly. Text update after text update gets lost, but a photo or video catches your eye. Friends (or fans if you’re hosting a business page) are more likely to stop and look at your photo or play your video and, because they’ve interacted with it, they are more likely to share the content. In fact, Matt said Facebook updates that include photos are five times more engaging than updates with links. But guess what? Most pages (and people) post text and links 2.7 times more often than they post photos. If you’re a business (or even a blogger who has a Facebook fan page), it’s already hard to get your content in front of people because Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm gives preference to updates from your personal friends, not the fan pages you like. If you can post more photos and video, you may have a better chance of increasing your fans’ interactions with your page, thereby improving your EdgeRank, and helping you show up in their News Feed more often.

Facebook Photo Tip: Humans like contrast. Our eyes are drawn to specific images and we ignore others. If you want your images to stand out to your audience try this: use images that are predominantly red or orange. Matt suggests that because Facebook’s design is primarily blue, images that are predominantly red or orange promote more clicks and shares because red and orange are complimentary colors to blue.

2. Post to Facebook on the Right Day

Another thing I discuss in my Facebook workshops is that with anything you do  — Facebook, Twitter, G+, your blog, whatever — it’s critical to know your audience. Think about when you use Facebook recreationally. Most people are on Facebook checking their friends’ updates before they go to work, during their lunch hour (if there’s not a firewall blocking it), after work (usually after dinner and after the kids are in bed), and on the weekends. But when are you posting to your fan page? Most businesses posts are published during business hours — and they miss their audience for the most part. When Matt’s company looked at several large companies (and we’re talking about millions of Facebook interactions here), they found that the posts with the most interaction were posted at (times are EST)

• Midnight on Sunday
• Midnight on Monday
• 10p Friday
• 11p Tuesday

Because Pandemic Labs was looking at large companies, I strongly suggest that if you’re a small business or blogger with a fan page, you analyze your own data, then test your posting habits rather than using their results as a firm rule. If you’re just posting during business hours, and stopping when you go home, you’re definitely missing some prime Facebook engagement time. Which brings us to..

Facebook Posting Tip: Update Facebook on Sunday. One of the mos interesting things Matt said was that their research showed that posts on Sunday have 32% more interactions than the weekday average.

When do you post to your Facebook fan page or profile? Have you noticed a difference in comments, Likes, or shares when you post photos or videos vs. text updates? Leave me a note in the comments letting me know; I’d love to hear about how things are working for you.

“So what?” you say. Those pages are on the other side of the world and it’s not happening in the US. Although I haven’t seen any pages being shut down in the United States, the fact that Facebook deleted a New Zealand page leads me to believe it won’t be too long before US pages come under scrutiny. Why? Because any time Facebook wants to try out a feature that is almost ready for mainstream US, they release it in beta in New Zealand first. I’ve seen this with a few things: New Zealand saw Timeline before the US, and Facebook is currently testing its Highlighted Posts option in New Zealand. Now that Facebook is paying attention to and shutting down pages for violating the Facebook Promotions Guidelines, I wonder how long it will be before Facebook fan pages in the United States will also be more vulnerable.

The page in New Zealand that was shut down lost 9,500 fans and all of its content because it was running a promotion that asked people to Like their page to be eligible to win a portion of the largest lottery jackpot in that country’s history. A similar promotion ran in the US in April, 2012. I was disappointed to see at least two Facebook experts touting this Facebook giveaway as “a great way to get MASSIVE engagement on Facebook!” and “a fantastic contest” when, in fact, that giveaway was blatantly not following the Facebook Promotions Guidelines.

Unfortunately, I see these kinds of promotions on Facebook all the time. I usually ignore, or, if I know the company running the promotion, I contact them privately. I think most businesses just don’t know about the Facebook Promotions Guidelines or understand them. I try to educate when I can, and if you’re my client, I’m adamant that we follow the guidelines. There’s a certain level of responsibility that comes with advising others.

If you’re running a Facebook contest or giveaway, please be sure you’re adhering to the Facebook Promotions Guidelines. Don’t risk your page, your content, your fans, and your brand reputation by taking the easiest route — especially with the excuse that “everyone else is doing it.”

I mentioned the new app on the Blogging Basics 101 Facebook page and a fan commented with a great point: “It’s a cool hack but you can’t add any more pins to that board without screwing up the collage so I’m not sure how I’d really use it.” And she’s right. If you create a board like this, then every time you add a new pin, the display is messed up. So I asked my network of savvy social media peeps for some ideas for using this hack and they didn’t disappoint. Below are their suggestions.

• Marly Beelman of Namely Marly suggests using your company or product’s logo to create a branded board you place at the top of your Pinterest page. You could change it up as new campaigns or products roll out. That way when people visit your Pinterest profile, they immediately have an idea of what you’re all about. The board would have to be static (i.e., you wouldn’t add any new pins to it so as not to disturb the design), but the purpose is for branding only. Think of it like your Twitter wallpaper: It tells your new fans and followers a little about you, but it doesn’t change often.
• Emily Vanek of Colorado Moms suggests taking advantage of Pinterest addiction to food and creating an image that shows a yummy food dish. I think you could take that idea even further and show a large  picture of a table with a meal set out, then use images of the individual  food items in the small pictures. The small pictures would also link to the recipes for those dishes. advantage of Pinterest’s other addiction: decorating. Use the large picture to show the table, and the smaller pictures to show (and link) to the decorative items on the table.
• Tina Kelley of Hats Off Creative Media agrees and suggests that you can showcase several products this way. “If you frame the shot right each of the mosaics would be highlighting a particular product, but when viewed as a whole you see the many of the products.”
• Fadra Nally of Social Dialect sees an opportunity for marketers to use this new app to their advantage. She suggests creating a giveaway centered around guessing a scrambled picture. You can ask participants to unscramble the picture and pin the items in the correct order on their own boards to win.

TIP: If you want to create a board, but are worried you will change the display with new pins, I suggest mapping your board first. Think about what you want the board to be and what it will include. Then create the board and add your pins. Leave the spliced cover image until the end. That way, the cover image is the last thing you pin and it shows up as the cover image for the board.

So what do you think? Would you use this Pinterest hack to create a pretty Pinterest board? If you do, leave your link in comments here and over on the Blogging Basics FB Fan Page so we can all check it out!

Attending a blogging conference is an important part of building your blog as a business. It’s not just about the learning (though, there is that), it’s about the face-to-face networking you do while you’re there. Of course, you’ll get to see the friends you know, but they’ll introduce you to their friends so you can make connections with people in different areas and grow your personal network. That’s one of the key ways I’ve been growing my consulting business over the past two years.

I’m choosy about the conferences I attend. If I’m going to spend the money to attend a conference, I want to be sure it offers the things that are important to me: learning something new and meeting people I can partner with so we can help each other reach our goals. I may only attend one or two conferences a year depending on the timing and what’s being offered. One of the conferences I enjoy most is Type-A Parent Blogging Conference. In fact, I found it so beneficial last year that I bought my early-bird ticket the moment they went on sale last year. I was that sure I’d be back — and I’m not a bit sorry. This year’s lineup of speakers promises to be one of the best yet!

Partial Speaker List Announced for Type-A Parent Conference

I can tell you without hesitation that if you’re wanting to learn something new, Type-A Parent Conference is for you. This year’s speaker line up is exciting because it’s filled with people who know their topics and excel at sharing information with others. You are going to walk away with information you can use immediately. Here are just a few of the speakers and their sessions:

• How to Write a Book Proposal (hands-on track): Ellen Gerstein and Amy Fanderi (both from Wiley publishing)
• Monetizing Your Blog with Affiliates (business track): Brian Littleton, CEO of Sharasale
• Creating a Killer About Page (hands-on track): Linda Sellers (consultant and owner of Linneyville) and Tonja Deegan (digital marketing manager for University of Michigan Alumni Association)
• Blog Design (intensives track): Melissa Culbertson (founder of MomComm), Brittany Van der Linden (owner of Mommy Words), and Laurie Smithwick (VP/Creative Director of LEAP Design)
• Traffic Building Bootcamp (intensives track): Heather Solos, owner of Home-ec 101 and co-founder of SpinPicks.
• Facebook Fan Page (intensives track): Melanie Nelson…hey! That’s me! And my book Facebook All-In-One for Dummies will be hot off the presses!

And that’s not even ALL of them! For a list of the speakers that have been announced so far, visit the Type-A Parent Conference website. Prepare to be amazed.

Follow the Buzz About Type-A Parent Conference

Don’t forget to follow the official outlets for Type-A Parent Conference so you can get to know more about who else is going. It’s so much easier to jump right in when you feel like you’ve already been part of the group for months before you actually meet!

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/typeacon
• Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/105785541466853422261/
• Twitter: @typeaparentcon and use hashtag #typeacon
• Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/typeacon

I hope I’ll see you there. Remember, you can register for Type-A Parent Conference and use code BLOGGINGBASICS101 to get 20% off for a limited time!

After recent propulsion to social media stardom, Pinterest is updating their Terms of Service to address growing concerns from users and critics. Some of the areas affected include the hotbed issues of image ownership and copyright violation reporting.

Per an announcement in their official blog and sent to users via email, Pinterest no longer claims the right to sell pinned images.

Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann states:

Our original Terms stated that by posting content to Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for us to sell your content. Selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated Terms.

For a number of outspoken users, many of them professional photographers, this had been a major sticking point. In fact, lawyer and professional photographer Kirsten Kowalski recently deleted all her boards containing pinned images to which she did not own the rights, because of the perceived potential for a lawsuit. The post explaining her decision went viral faster than a mommy-blogger trainwreck.

In his statement, Silbermann also announced the release of tools to simplify the reporting of copyright and trademark infringement. Previously, reporting those violations had to be handled in the form of DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) take-down notices. A policy which attorney Connie Mableson of DMCA Handbook says “creates confusion and is technically incorrect.”

Users can now report violations via a “Report Pin” button located next to pinned images, or by submitting Pinterest’s Copyright Infringement Notification form on the website.

Whether these updates to the TOS will be enough for Pinterest to maintain their status as an inspiration haven and social media darling remains to be seen.

The updates are scheduled to go into effect for all users on April 6, 2012. For more detailed information, you can read Silbermann’s announcement or view the updated Pinterest terms.

This article was written by Jenny Motley. Jenny has been blogging at CrashTestMommy.net since 2006. She is currently transitioning the site from a “mommyblog” to an informational and how-to site for all things blogging. Jenny is a wife and mother, WordPress fanatic, and cherry pie baker, and has probably seen the movie Grease more times than you. You can connect with her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter and Pinterest.

Almost everything I’ve watched and have read keeps talking about how amazing the Timeline is for engagement and how the ability to Pin posts is awesome. But if your fans aren’t coming back to your page, what’s the use of pinning the post? What’s the use of the visual impact? I completely get that it’s HUGE for the first-time visitor and that brands like Red Bull and Fanta have already used this space very well with their scavenger hunts. I love that. But will the Timeline really change how you interact with Fan Pages?

Will you visit Fan Pages more often when they implement Timeline? Or do you think you’ll visit those pages when they first make the switch (probably because they direct you there — Hey! We’re we’ve switched to Timeline! Come check out the awesome!) and then return to relying on the News Feed for your interaction?

I’m curious. I’d love to know what you think. Leave me a comment with your thoughts, and, if you’re so inclined, share this post with your friends and invite them to weigh in as well. Thanks!

photo credit: Kaptain Kobold

If you’re a blogger and aren’t sure if you need to pay taxes, it will depend on whether you’re making money with your blog and whether you consider your blog a business or a hobby. I received the question below and Amanda Henson of High Impact Mom researched the answer and wrote it up.

Dear Blogging Basics 101:
I am building a blog. I thought it would be no big deal to put up a few affiliate banners and make a little spending money, but I didn’t realize that even the smallest income must be reported. Is that correct? I know nothing about how to report my income, or which forms to use. Can you explain how things differ for bloggers (hobby or business?)? Can you recommend a book or article or resource for me? Specifically, if I make less than $600 per year, do I have to file?

Answer: Congratulations on building a blog and great question. Let’s begin by discussing the differences between hobby and business blogging. If you have been lucky enough to make a profit from your blog, or small business, in three out of the last five years the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers it a business rather than a hobby. Even more precisely, if you have treated your blog like a business by regularly working on it with the purpose of making a profit, the IRS would also deem this a business and as such would also qualify for business deductions. If your blog is considered a business and you are filing as self-employed, you are also expected to pay self-employment taxes quarterly rather than at filing time.

Wondering what you need to claim? According to the IRS, taxable income is defined as all “employee wages and fringe benefits, and [all] income from bartering, partnerships, S corporations, and royalties.” The blogger must claim all review items, blog conference sponsorships, ad purchases and generally anything you are given that has value. The IRS also states “[y]ou have to file an income tax return if your net earnings from self-employment were $400 or more. If your net earnings from self-employment were less than $400, you still have to file an income tax return if you meet any other filing requirement listed in the Form 1040 instructions.”

As a business you are also able to deduct certain expenses and losses, though it should be noted that it is not generally a good idea for your expenses to outweigh your income outside of any first year start-losses. In order to make sure you’re taking advantage of as many deductions as you legitimately qualify for, I recommend seeking professional advice from an accountant or tax professional.

The long list of possible blogging tax deductions includes:

• Blog Conference Fees
• Hotel costs for business trips
• Mileage for business trips
• Webinars
• Industry books
• Website hosting fees
• Website design
• Jump drives
• Graphic design fees
• Business cards, letterhead

To learn more about tax law and how it affects bloggers, visit these articles:

• Hobby Versus Business — A Significant Tax Difference via Small Business Legal Blog
• 7 Things That Every Blogger Should Know About Tax[es] via ProBlogger
• How to Avoid Legal Trouble, Income Tax Fines, and Penalties as a Blogger via ProBlogger
• What is Taxable and Nontaxable Income? via IRS
• Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center via IRS
• 101 Tax deductions for bloggers and freelancers via Wisebread

photo credit: Dave Dugdale

Here are my tips for e-books bloggers need to read.

Do-It-Yourself Blog Critique

Author: Melissa Culbertson
Price: Regularly $14, but on sale for Cyber Monday for $10.50!

Melissa has made a name for herself by doing blog critiques at MomComm.com. She was receiving so many requests for help that she decided to create an e-book. Learn how to engage your audience via strong navigation, design, and content — Melissa will show you how. She’s having a terrific deal on her book for Cyber Monday, so now is the perfect time to buy. The book is usually $14, but for Cyber Monday you can pick it up for you or a blogging friend for $10.50! Just use code CYBERAWESOME on November 28, 2011 before midnight and you’ll get the deal.

Mom Blog SEO

Author: Kelby Carr
Price: $19.99

Search engine traffic is vital to the success of your blog. Learn how to set up your blog so it’s as SEO friendly as possible and find and use tools that will help you optimize your content and site so the search engine bots can find you. Kelby explains the ins and outs of basic SEO and how it affects the success of your blog. This e-book isn’t just for mom bloggers! Regardless of your niche, you’ll be able to use the information in this e-book to improve your SEO rankings and traffic.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Author: Darren Rowse
Price: $22.49

This book is one of the best-selling e-books online, helping over 19,000 bloggers build a better blog. Darren recently revamped this e-book and every day in the challenge has been updated for 2012, most days have new further reading and case studies, the workbook now has Twitter integration, and the e-book has seven bonus days (effectively giving you 38 days of content)! So even if your blogger already has the book, they’ll appreciate receiving the updated version.

30 Days to Make & Sell a Fabulous Ebook

Author: Ang England
Price: $11.99

One of the best and easiest ways to earn money from your blog is to create your own product to sell. When you’re a blogger, that usually means creating an e-book. Ang England is a successful e-book publisher and she’s sharing her experience and secrets with you so you can start creating your own e-books and establish a new income stream from your blog. The best thing about e-books is that, after they’re written, they are largely a passive source of income.

Please note that each of these links is an affiliate link. 

And if you’re interested in Headway Themes, let’s just say it would be a really good idea for you to check it out and buy it this week, before November 25. Headway Themes is moving to a new pricing model on November 25. If you buy the individual or developer license before then, you’ll be locked in to lower pricing and free support forever.

Here’s the basic deal: Though details of the new Headway Themes pricing structure haven’t been released yet, if you buy the individual ($67) or developer license ($164; worth it if you think you’ll be using the theme for more than one site), you’ll be locked into the current low price and free support forever. After November 25 the price is increasing and there will be a monthly fee for support.

It makes sense to go ahead and buy your version of Headway Themes now. Yes, they are releasing a new version of the theme, and yes, if you buy before November 25, you’ll still get the new update — for free! In fact, you’ll get all new updates free of charge! Buying your license before November 25 just makes sense.

Why buy the Headway Theme? I met Clay Grant and his team at Blog World Expo in LA and was intrigued by the theme’s easy drag and drop interface that allows you to build a basic wireframe of your blog or website’s design. You truly have the ultimate control of your design with little knowledge of CSS, PHP, or HTML. It’s amazing, frankly.

You can buy Headway Themese before November 25 and ensure you take advantage of these perks (reprinted from the Headway Themes site):

Developer License

• Support for unlimited Headway sites that you own or develop
• Access to Headway Beta releases as we develop them and before final release to the public.
• Full access to our members only Forums, e-mail support and Developer License exclusive resources (If you are building sites for clients, your clients will not receive members only forum support unless they purchase their own personal license.)
• Free Headway updates for life

Individual license

• Support for two (2) Headway sites that you own or develop
• Option to upgrade to the Developer’s Option for only $77
• Full access to our members only Forums and email support if needed
• Free Headway updates for life

I’ve been so busy writing my chapters for Facebook All-In-One for Dummies that I haven’t been able to work on my own projects as I’d like. That includes installing Headway here on Blogging Basics 101. My final chapter deadline is at the end of January and, even though I’ll have some other things to work on for the book (e.g., marketing and online content), I plan to install Headway here and do a thorough review of the theme in February. In fact, I bought several domain names and am planning to expand the Basics 101 franchise and Headway will be part of that expansion. I’m really looking forward to diving in and learning everything about this amazing theme.

Please note that some links in this post are affiliate links. I feel strongly enough about this product’s quality that I’m willing to recommend it to you and help them sell more.

In general, once you’ve established a community around a specific profile, it’s difficult to move that community to a new page. Move them you must, though. Before the migration tool, you’d need to write several status updates asking your community to click over to the new page and Like it in order to continue to receive updates. You had to tell your community that the current profile would be deleted by a certain date and continue to remind them to click over and Like the new page. It was tedious for everyone involved and you invariably lost some of your community because they either didn’t see your updates or didn’t get around to Liking the new page. With the new Facebook Profile to Business Page Migration Tool you can avoid that hassle.

When you use the tool, Facebook takes your profile picture and moves it to a new business page and converts your “friends” into “Likes” on the new page. It’s important to note that Facebook doesn’t move any of your existing content (including status updates, photos, video, etc.) to the new page. If you don’t back that up before you migrate, you’ll lose it. To back up your information follow these instructions:

1. Go to your Account Settings (the down arrow in the top right of any Facebook page).
2. Click the Download a Copy link.
3. Click the Download button on the next page.

After you’ve made a backup of your content, you can start the migration process by visiting https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate and following the instructions.

A few reasons to migrate your business presence from a personal profile to a business page:

• It’s against Facebook TOS to have a personal profile for a business, service, or product.
• Profiles are limited to 5,000 friends; business pages can have unlimited fans.
• Profiles require someone to request a friendship; pages can be Liked by anyone. That means less hassle for you because you don’t have to approve every fan.
• Pages allow you to install applications fro added functionality. For instance, you can install a newsletter signup, create a custom Welcome tab, or install a contact form. You can even create an online store right on Facebook! Profiles can’t use those apps.