At the end of this month, Facebook will automatically transition all “brand” pages, i.e. corporate Facebook pages, to a new format. Called ‘Timeline,’ the new format looks different and also has some changes in functionality.

As of mid-March, only one in four brands have updated their pages. Facebook will automatically migrate all pages to the new format on March 30.

Seven key changes to Facebook that will affect businesses, include:

No longer will businesses be able to have a default ‘welcome page’ as their Facebook landing page. Now the ‘welcome’ option is one of 12 applications that the business can highlight but only four will show up.

Each page will have a cover photo that stretches across the top of the page.  Social media expert Julia Campbell offers this advice on How to Create A Kick-Ass Facebook Cover Photo

Timeline is what it sounds like: essentially all your Facebook activity is arranged in chronological order by date.

The ‘Milestones’ feature has received a lot of buzz. Two brands that exploit this feature well are Tiffany & Co. and President Obama’s page.

 

No longer will each post (i.e. “status update”) have to be treated equally. Now more important updates, or stories, can be featured more prominently. Clicking the star button will give an item more prominence, while tools in the pencil icon include the ability to hide items, delete items and mark items as spam.

Facebook offers these examples of brands that have successfully transitioned to the new format:

·       Ben & Jerry's used the social network’s reach generator  promotion to quadruple its normal reach to 98 percent of users who liked its page, as well as to double its engagement rate, during a 28-day period.

·         Dr. Pepper hasn’t yet converted to timeline, but used reach generator for its sponsored stories and “Man’ments” campaign to reach 83 percent of the brand’s fans over a 28-day period, seeing people talking about the brand skyrocket 140 percent and engagement soar 80 percent.

·         Ford said its Ford Mustang page has seen “significant increases” in people talking about this and engagement since adopting timeline February 29, and plans to use logout ads in the near future.

 

Additional resources:

·         Online course from Facebook: http://www.learnfacebookpages.com/  

·         PDF overview: http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Pages_Overview.pdf  

·         Direct from Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/about/pages

Last month PRSA announced the time has come to re-define public relations.  Since then, PRSA has been collecting input online to crowdsource the new definition.  The process will end this Friday, enter a review phase, followed by another public vote, and presumably by the end of this year we’ll have a new way of articulating what P.R. is.

Putting myself in my clients’ positions, I think they might describe their PR programs this way:

·         A content creation engine to stimulate conversation about us with our clients and prospects

·         A broker for connecting us and positioning us as a resource with key media

·         An effective and much less expensive form of advertising

·         Great way to communicate our thought leadership

·     One program in overall marketing plan in which we can compete on more level playing field with competitors that are much larger and richer 

 

This Hubspot blog post offers great tips on what makes a press release viable in today's online world. To quote the author, Sarah Skerik, a successful press release has the following characteristics:

1. It's nimble. Successful messages are built to fit multiple formats. They feature tweetable headlines and factoids, search engine friendly elements (e.g. keywords, links, etc.), compelling visuals, and an easy-to-share landing page that renders nicely across LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and other networks.

2. It's atomized. Your audience doesn't live in one place, and neither should your press releases and other content. Derive one piece of content from another, such as turning a webinar into a series of blog posts, a podcast or video, a PowerPoint presentation of pdf, an infographic - and distribute each accordingly. Likewise, a simple press release can be similarly atomized. You can tweet a variety of key points, upload accompanying multimedia to YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr, SlideShare, and any number of other sites, and you can offer an insider, engineering, or customer perspective on the company blog. In this case, more is truly more.

3. It's useful. Content needs to interest, inform, or entertain the audience...period. When determining how to communicate with your audiences and what vehicles to employ, take into account the outcomes you need to generate, the actions you want to encourage, and where your intended audiences live. As you do so, be willing to re-think press releases and other content. You may find some unusual opportunities.

The story about Diana Nyad's attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida is a moving tale that has been well covered by the media. I followed her progress and its disappointing ending. I think I was most surprised, however, by the fact that all the major news organizations covering her story cited Diana's Twitter feed as the source for announcing that she had given up her bid.

Not only was the story out of Texas gruesome – there was a report that about 30 dismembered bodies were found and that some were children – but it also spread like wildfire; an Australian news station was one of the first to pick it up.

NPR’s Bob Garfield reports on this story for On The Media and tells us how it got so out of control (you can listen to him here).

Some insights on today’s reporting practices from Bob’s report:

·         The common practice of news organizations citing other news organizations to validate a story

·         A newsroom, KPRC-TV, that doesn’t know and is unable to determine which staff tweeted what under the company’s name

·         Newsrooms that have separate journalistic policies for different media, i.e. one policy for news reporting “on air” and another to govern social media updates

 

I have been thinking about this NY Times editorial for a couple of weeks. Two things in it haunt me:

1. The danger of being a Russian journalist and being hunted by your own government
2. The contrast between American and Russian media and their power to affect change

 

Valery Panyushkin says, “I no longer write about politics because it increasingly feels pointless to do so in a country with no real public involvement in political life.” 

 

Contrast that with the American media, which writes unceasingly about American politics – from investigative, expository journalism that can lead to indictments or policy change to subjecting individual politicians to a harsh media spotlight.

 

In the same issue that Panyushkin’s editorial appeared, the New York Times published a front-page, above-the-fold story on how Lindsay Lohan’s troubles have created a black market for news and information about the celebrity.

 

In Russia the stakes are much higher: reporting on an injustice puts the journalist in danger. It was likely the reason Anna Politkovskaya was murdered, Oleg Kashin was savagely attacked and Panyushkin is being intimidated.

I loved reading this NY Times article on how a start-up business, Go GaGa, used public relations to drive demand for its product. I don't know if it was Go GaGa Owner Jill Cartwright's own drive that I admired so much or the way she successfully selected the right PR consultant and worked with that consultant to achieve great PR results.

 

Her tips:

• Select a PR consultant with the right experience for your business
• Treat your PR consultant like a business partner
• Involve your PR consultant in regular business brainstorming and planning sessions

 

Good luck to Jill and Go GaGa!