7 Tips For Effective Social Photos For Your Business

Today, anyone can be a celebrity. Thanks to social media that has silenced the perpetual and often boring debate of picture versus the written word, to an agreement that one complements the other. Facebook’s Timeline may seem to have sparked the discussions again, with their demand for large photos to be posted on the profile. But even article writers will have to admit that the 399 wide pixels cover image has replaced a thousand words. But unlike other social media that are either too photo-oriented or too text-oriented, Facebook is well-balanced, retaining the apps functionalities, links and text that make for a complete ‘story,’ a word that is now commonly associated with the site.

It is inspiring to see what individuals and companies have done with this Timeline. But don’t feel overwhelmed by brands. As long as you have made yours look unique and conveyed what your company serves through the image, consider the job well done, no matter what size or how new your business.

To handle the medium, Facebook has sage advice: “Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property.” This and more do’s and don’ts on the Facebook website must be appreciated for providing quality and standards to marketing that had become increasingly lagging in the business world.

But there is a downside of putting pictorial content on social websites, which is that they are open to criticism. To avoid embarrassment of your picture categorized under ‘top 20 weird photos’, it is a good idea to take the opinions of trustworthy sources prior to posting the photo. While at it, here are useful tips to ensure your pictures are as good as your business, or even better:

• If you lack imagination, just put up your company’s logo and slogan. Play around with their placement, the fonts and colors.
• To be able to elicit positive emotions through images is very effective, taking into consideration to not cross the limits of professional boundaries. These may be in the form of an amusing picture to humor, or scenic visuals to enchant.
• Bring the photo to life by making a colorful collage.
• Utilize features from within the site. Facebook has also been generous in providing photo apps. One distinct app that includes the voice functionality is the Fotobabble.
• Use the flexibility provided by the medium. Change as often as you like, and edit as much as you wish.

Assess the photos before posting, immediately after posting, and continue to monitor its popularity through feedback.

This post originally appeared on  Avenuesocial.

Facebook’s New Ways for News Updates

News is no longer the well-written article or a controversial headline by reporters. The way news is disseminated within a new social medium seems to have made users into journalists, where the user can exercise a wide variety of information of what they consider as newsworthy and through the source of their choice.

It is interesting to note the way users select and absorb information, i.e. through indirect contacts simply because of diversity in interests. This in turn leads to more learning, compared with the immediate circle which generally shares common interests. The updates one receives from their immediate circle can be a waste of time and page space. Therefore, social media has offered ways to tunnel the information directly from indirect sources onto the user page.

Subscribe

A few months earlier, Facebook introduced the ‘Subscribe’ button as a choice for users to ‘Allow Subscriber’, in addition to the ‘like’ and ‘comment’ option. It may be set as private or public, where users will receive updates transmitted to their page. The choice is not simply limited to user selection. The quantity and quality of information can also be controlled after selecting the subscribe button, by specifying whether the user requires ‘all’, ‘most’ or ‘only important t’ updates and also tick marking on ‘life events,’ ‘status updates,’ ‘photos and videos’ and ‘games.’

News Feed

Following this, while Twitter has previously provided the ‘Twitter Lists’ option for users to choose the kind of information, Facebook will allow the user to specify and organize the information by other users by adding them on their ‘interest list.’ The purpose is similar to the way a user organizes his or her friends’ lists. Major advantages to this tunneling of information are that users will not require researching news sites, because they will already have received updates within their own page and will even be able to keep information out from within their won contacts.

How companies can avail the opportunity through apps

The news feed has paved the way for social media to not just be people-focused’ but more information-focused. Recently, media companies such as Huffington Post, MSNBC.com and Pixable have incorporated media apps onto their Timeline page as a way of relaying specific news. Consequently, new users have added the Facebook apps which has thereby increased traffic to their sites. So what you have to say will catch the attention of readers rather than who you are. By creating interesting and relevant news, companies can post updates and link them to blogs and videos to inform people about their products.

This post originally appeared on  Avenuesocial.