Small Businesses and Direct Sellers Dont Get Lost in Facebook Time - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Small Businesses and Direct Sellers Don’t Get Lost in Facebook Time - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career For most social networking sites, it’s all about real-time interaction and what’s currently going on with your lives. After all, it’s the present that’s important, right? Who cares what happened a year ago, or even 5 years before that? But sometimes, it’s important to look back at your past to see how far you’ve come in the present, and evaluate where you’re planning to go in the future. You want to see how you’re progressing, if there has been any improvement over the past, and how to use this knowledge in the future. As a small business owner and direct seller, knowing your past timeline can be a valuable asset â€" there are so many things you can learn from this information. Are you lost in the Facebook Timeline? And this is where Facebook’s new timeline comes in. If you haven’t heard, Facebook is planning to revamp its current profile pages, and has recently released its vision of the future of profiles. The change is based on the fact that the current profile page only shows your current status, updates and photos, but it doesn’t really sum up who you really are, since it doesn’t show what you have done in the past. With the new Facebook timeline, people who visit your page can now see who you are, what you do, and where you’ve been. Both your past and present is laid out for the world to see. Though it’s still currently in its beta version, many people are quite excited about this upcoming change. In terms of visuals, the timeline is very beautiful, highly visually appealing, and quite nice to navigate. Imagine your life organized in a stunning presentation, ready for anyone to glimpse it. Though there are still some bugs, hence the beta version, people are really looking forward to what the new Facebook profile can offer. In addition to the timeline, Facebook has continually tried to improve its services, by making sure that people can really maximize their usage of the platform. From better navigations, easier customizations, new features such as group chats and video calls, and even enhanced sharing abilities, Facebook is really pushing the limits to ensure that the users can do practically anything they want right in the site. The challenge is are you seen in news feeds? The challenge for direct sellers and small business owners, however, is ensuring that their posts and updates continue to be seen in people’s news feeds. Because information sharing is so much easier, your brand’s updates can easily get lost in a person’s news feed, and may not even be viewed. So how do you avoid this? How do you make sure that your posts don’t get lost in time? Encourage likes and comments The more people interact with your posts, the more that other people will be able to see it. You see, every time someone clicks the like button, it appears in their news feed as an update, so it really helps in promoting your post. This is also true when someone comments on the post itself. To encourage likes and comments, make sure to offer great content that engages people. And sometimes, all you need to do is ask people to like your post. Even just including a “tell us what you think” after your post can encourage your audience to comment. Post at the right time There are certain times of the day and certain days of the week that more people are online with their social networking sites. For example, studies have shown that more people use Facebook before and after work, so it’s better to time your updates during this time rather than updating when everyone’s busy at work â€" your post is a lot more likely to get lost in a slew of other updates then. Weekends are also an excellent time to update since this is when most people aren’t busy with work and just want to leisurely browse their newsfeed for what’s up with their friends and the brands they follow. So make sure to use this advantage. Be short and sweet Short and sweet updates are a lot better than long posts, because people don’t really have long attention spans when they’re using social networking sites â€" they want to skim easily over information before moving on. Yes, even small business brands and direct sellers can engage their users on Facebook and other social networking sites by following these tips. So make sure that you don’t get lost in time. Study and use the changes on Facebook wisely so you can better interact and engage with your audience. Author: Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog and is also the CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks â€" a boutique word of mouth marketing firm. She helps create connection, credibility, community and cha-ching through mobile marketing and social commerce around your brand. She is co-founder of #brandchat a weekly twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding.