Good Reads

Recently Facebook has undergone a number of changes you should know about:Want to set it and forget it? On fan (business) pages, you can now schedule post updates in advance. Offering a somewhat clunky user-interface, simply type up your update as always. Select the clock icon in the lower left of the update dialog box. The box will expand to offer you choices for year, month, day, hour and minutes. To view scheduled posts for the future, select Edit Page from your Admin Panel front. Select Activity Log from the drop down list to view future posts.

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Looking for a better way to share your WordPress blog posts with your Facebook fans? The developer team at Facebook just introduced a WordPress plug-in to smoothe out integration between the two platforms. Share your blog posts and other articles from your site to your fan page.

You may have noticed recent additions to Facebook’s advertising options. Brian Solis takes a look at the recent GM’s break with Facebook when it pulled out $10 million in advertising.

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And if you’re interested in the differences between advertising via Google AdWords vs. Facebook, Wordstream put together a fascinating article comparing the two.

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Are you looking for more ways to attract Likes to your Facebook fan page? Check out these 150 Facebook Pages Campaigns Case Studies for ideas.

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John Haydon offers 5 Ways to Gain More Links on Your Facebook Page, and it’s quite a good list with specific suggestions!

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Here’s a bonus recently published: Many of you asked about being able to sell your goods on Facebook (which you can do through Facebook custom tabs). Check out Social Media Examiner’s How to Use Facebook Apps to Improve Fan Engagementto learn how to do it!If you’re more interested in learning about website design, enhancements and trends, check out the 15 Top Web Design and Development Trends for 2012.

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Mashable has 10 Essential Features of Every Good Business Website, which are somewhat different than my list, but we’re all on the same wavelength!

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You may have heard me lament using LinkedIn. Happily I’m not the only one to vent on this annoying non-social platform. If you get peeved at this site, check out Scott Stratten’s The 5 Ways You Stink at LinkedIn.

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As always, Seth Godin points out the obvious (at least to me!) about where marketing fits into your picture.  My answer to When should we add marketing? is simple: From the very beginning! No marketing, no customers!

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In The Fundamental Principles of Word of Mouth Ethics, Andy Servonitz outlines five key points of the true raving fan. Are you doing everything you can to meet these five principles?

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Leading the pack in the kind of commercials you absolutely cannot do in the U.S., check out this Fiat commercial where the husband goes off the deep end (figuratively) when his wife tells him she’s getting a boob job. Now I’ve gotta ask: What guy is ever going to remember what this commercial was for once viewed???

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Did you have a Schwinn bike? If you’ve fond memories of these family bicycles, check out this terrific retrospective of their ads at BuzzFeed over the past 100 years.

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In search of good material to help guide you through technology challenges? Check out The Three Key Words to Online Product Marketing Success from Computer Companion.

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In 10 Rare But Simple Blog Tricks that Make You Look Like a Genius, Martyn Chamberlin provides ten easy, but often overlooked, tips that will help make a difference in your website and blog traffic.

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In Making Customers Happy, Jay Ehret looks at what you do – or should do: Create an experience that makes the customer happy.

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A good reminder from Seth Godin Compared to magical that we shouldn’t sell ourselves short. Just because you can offer something cheaper or slightly better than the competition doesn’t mean you should. Why not offer fantastic?

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Considering a logo remodel? It’s not unusual for a company to tweak or even completely redo their logo once or twice a decade. Much depends upon how worn out the current logo feels. Here Bill Gardner looks at 2012 Logo Design Trends at the LogoLounge.com.