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Inspirational Facebook Page Designs

I can write day in, day out about how you can build the perfect Facebook business pages… but what are they? Here we’re going to go over a few inspirational Facebook page designs that can help break down those creative walls! While you may not be able to add a lot of flare to your own page, you can still communicate who you are, what you do and talk to your audience. Let’s check some out!

#5 – Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/facebook

Facebook has a fan page on Facebook?! This may not be the best of inspirational Facebook page designs to showcase, but take a quick look. Many in IM circles have speculated that the page was created for SEO reasons, some believe it’s just filler so marketers couldn’t swoop in and grab the vanity URL. Whatever the case may be, it’s the most popular page on the social network and it engages its audience regularly with thoughtful (and often thoughtless) wall posts.

#Business Facebook Page #Facebook page designs

Mavenlink Launches in Intuit App Center with Quickbooks Integration

Earlier today, Mavenlink launched their online project management application in the Intuit App Center with their Quickbooks integration. This is a huge win for both the Quickbooks and Mavenlink customers. Mavenlink is the first project management app to integrate time tracking and expenses with Quickbooks, and now Mavenlink users can take advantage of the award-winning accounting software.

Intuit is currently offering a limited time 50% off for Quickbooks Online for one year, until January 31st. Quickbooks Online allows for multiple user access, simultaneous access from any location, and remote financial updates all in one set of books. With over four million Quickbooks users and nearly 500,000 Quickbooks Online users, this latest project management integration should drastically help business efficiency while reducing redundancies. Eliminate dual entries, keep your project team and accounting department on the same page, and provide real-time visibility of time and expense details.

Mavenlink is the #1 application in the Google Apps Marketplace and it should be interesting to see how quickly they rise in the Intuit App Center. Already integrated with PayPal and Google Apps, this Quickbooks integration really ties the entire work flow together. This 100% online tool allows you to manage projects, invoice, track tasks, time, and expenses, along with custom brand the entire experience.

Kick off the New Year productively, and seamlessly sync your accounting software and project management tools in minutes!

Read more: http://technorati.com/technology/article/mavenlink-launches-in-intuit-app-center/#ixzz1kWl4t62h

#mavenlink #quickbooks #intuit app center

Members of the Senate are rushing for the exits in the wake of the Internet's unprecedented protest of the Protect IP Act (PIPA). At least 13 members of the upper chamber announced their opposition on Wednesday. In a particularly severe blow from Hollywood, at least five of the newly-opposed Senators were previously sponsors of the Protect IP Act.

The newly-opposed Senators are skewed strongly to the Republican side of the aisle. An Ars Technica survey of Senators' positions on PIPA turned up only two Democrats, Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who announced their opposition on Wednesday. The other 11 Senators who announced their opposition on Wednesday were all Republicans. These 13 join a handful of others, including Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR), who have already announced their opposition.

Marco Rubio, a freshman Republican Senator from Florida who some consider to be a rising star, withdrew his sponsorship of the bill, citing "legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the Internet and about a potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government's power to impact the Internet." He urged the Senate to "avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended consequences."

Another co-sponsor, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) echoed that sentiment. He blamed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for "pushing forward w/ a flawed bill that still needs much work."

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), one of the chamber's longest-serving members and another sponsor, described the Protect IP Act as "simply not ready for prime time."

The partisan slant of the defections is surprising because copyright has not traditionally been considered a partisan issue. Before Wednesday's protests, PIPA had 16 Republican co-sponsors and 23 Democratic ones. The bill lost a quarter of its Republican sponsors on Wednesday, while we know of only one Democrat, Ben Cardin (D-MD), who dropped his support.

Those who dropped their support were most likely bolstered by strong opposition from conservative think tanks and blogs. On Tuesday, the influential Heritage Foundation announced that it would include SOPA and PIPA as a key issue on its voter scorecard. And the popular conservative blog redstate.com, whose founder threatened to mount primary challengers to SOPA supporters last month, has been hailing Senators who come out in opposition.

Neither side is close to having a majority. A whip count by OpenCongress found 35 supporters (including 34 cosponsors), 18 opponents, and 12 more Senators leaning toward opposition. About 35 Senators have not committed to a position, perhaps reluctant to do so for fear of angering either deep-pocketed Hollywood campaign contributors or their constituents back home.

Here is the full list of new opponents. An * indicates a former sponsor.

Roy Blunt (R-MO) *

John Boozman (R-AR) *

Scott Brown (R-MA)

Ben Cardin (D-MD) *

John Cornyn (R-TX)

Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Orrin Hatch (R-UT) *

James Inhofe (R-OK)

Mark Kirk (R-IL)

Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

Marco Rubio (R-FL) *

Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Update (7 PM): David Vitter (R-LA) is now also opposed. He was previously a co-sponsor of the legislation.

Update (9 PM): Two more opponents, both Republicans: Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Pat Toomey (R-PA).

Source : http://goo.gl/rWcOr

Your Facebook news feed is about to become a bit more crowded. Facebook's big announcement on Wednesday evening was the unveiling of 60 new apps that will function with Facebook and let users share more of their lives on the social networking mega-site. Facebook partnered with 60 apps that wi...

Google released Schemer, an activities recommendation engine with Google+ integration, in invite-only beta Thursday. The engine promises to become Google+'s version of Facebook Events. Users can post activities they'd like to do -- say, walk the Chelsea Highline, or read The Great Gatsby -- an...

The Social Media 101 Series is sponsored by Global Strategic Management Institute. GSMI's Social Media Strategies Series are the leading educational events for organizations looking to advance their online capabilities. Learn more. As Tumblr's reach continues to grow, more brands -- particula...

Facebook's privacy settings have faced scrutiny from users for years, and the world's largest social network has often reassured them that their personal information would remain private. But on Tuesday, Facebook agreed to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission, which said that re...

How To Get Started With YouTube Promoted Video

Earlier in the year, YouTube surpassed Yahoo as the world’s second largest search engine. In June 2011, ComScore reported that in the U.S., YouTube attracted 5.6 billion viewing sessions per month and the average U.S. visitor frequents the site 23 times a month with each visit lasting on average 26 minutes. And, just today, ComScore also reported that YouTube passed20 billion video views during October 2011 alone.

No matter how you look at the data, that’s a lot of eyeballs and a lot of time spent on a single site that a marketer can take advantage of. But creating a video is only half the battle; attracting viewers is the other half.

YouTube Promoted Video Ads operate similar to Google search ads and offer advertisers a way to draw attention to a video, gain viewers and channel subscribers, and eventually influence downstream conversions. Promoted Videos show up according to visitors’ search results either at the top or to the right of the page.

Promoted Videos in YouTube

Additionally, with a Promoted Videos account, marketers can add overlays to their videos and link directly to their site, offer a promotion, etc. Given the popularity of video and YouTube, here are a few suggestions to best take advantage to YouTube Promoted Videos.

Create The Complete Package

First and foremost, to maximize your presence on YouTube you need good, engaging videos (not just one) and a YouTube channel to showcase them. Just as important – maybe even more so – to the videos are the video titles and descriptions as these will be used by YouTube to match your video with visitors’ search queries.

Once you have a channel with several videos, monitor the feedback and if a video achieves a good response, then it’s time to invest in promoting it.

Like other Google ads, Promoted Videos are managed through AdWords and follow a similar format to paid search.

When creating the ad, it’s imperative the thumbnail of your video and ad-copy reflect the nature of your video so as to attract the right audience. Words and concepts related to your video(s) should be used in the ad. The words “official” or “original” in a headline tend to increase views.

Choose Keywords Wisely

YouTube visitors are looking just for video content; consequently, search habits differ from traditional search. Given the difference, simply porting over keywords from search or display campaigns won’t have the desired effect.

Keywords must relate to the video you’re promoting, and thus should be chosen independently. YouTube offers advertisers a keyword suggestion tool that provides recommendations based on your video description, video id/url, or target demographic (in beta).

The tool will also give you an idea of the monthly search volume for each keyword so you can see which keywords visitors tend to use more often and incorporate them appropriately.

Like paid search, you can select between broad, phrase, exact or negative match types.

YouTube's keyword suggestion tool

Bidding Time

When it comes to keyword bidding on YouTube, think of it just as you would for search or display campaigns. You’ll want to set a conversion goal and determine what your expected volume and budget will be each month. Naturally, you’ll want to determine the value of each click. A third party bidding tool, particularly one integrated with your other SEM campaigns, proves useful in managing your YouTube bidding decisions and assessing the results of your promotions.

Don’t Forget The Overlay

One of the primary perks of running Promoted Videos is the ability to include an overlay ad in your video that appears at the bottom of your video while it plays. The overlay allows you to link from your YouTube video to an external site and is an invaluable technique for driving viewers to your site and transitioning them from learning about your brand to purchasing.

Overlays within a YouTube video are a great way to drive viewers to your site

Engage Your Viewers

YouTube is a social network. As such, a video provides you an opportunity to interact with your target audience. A successful video doesn’t just get a view, but also elicits a response.

If viewers ask for a follow-up video be sure to provide one, and if your video is shared by viewers on other social sites, be sure to respond as well. Responding and participating in the conversation with viewers allows you to strengthen your brand and may provide insight on how to create better videos.

As online video continues to grow, a strong presence on YouTube will become all the more critical to your marketing efforts. What’s been your experience with YouTube and Promoted Videos?

Source : Search Engine Land Blog

#youtube #videos #video #how to

If you're staying well away from the retail madness that is a mall on Black Friday, then we salute you. The lure of bargains is too much for many though, with shops opening their doors at midnight as the Holiday spending season begins in earnest. Take a look through our gallery of Twitter pic...

Forward thinking and rooted in data, Think Insights offers you a one-stop shop for consumer trends, marketing insights and industry research. Stay updated and join the conversation.

Laguna Beach, CA – WebbROI has announced their solution partnership with Nimble. Nimble is a Social Business Platform that combines relationship management and social engagement into an affordable web-based solution. It integrates LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google, email contacts and conversations into one seamless, intuitive environment, empowering small businesses in today’s socially connected world to attract and retain the right customers.

Light Bulbs Etc. is a full service lighting showroom offering one of the largest selections of light fixtures, lamps, ceiling fans, wall scones, and indoor/outdoor lighting solutions in California.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has accumulated more than 5 million subscribers, thanks to a simple trick. On Wednesday, Facebook rolled out a Subscribe button. The button allows a user to follow anybody's public updates, regardless of whether or not they are Facebook friends. This...

An Orange County lighting showroom is a finalist for what is called the Oscars of the lighting business.

Before you make light of such an award, click on the photo above to take a visual tour of the new Costa Mesa store, 1848 Newport Blvd., for Light Bulbs Etc. (The firm has a location in Orange too.)

A quarter-century of merchandising experience has gone into Light Bulbs Etc. that is one of nine lighting showrooms nationwide that are finalists for the Dallas Market Center's 23rd Annual ARTS Awards.

Winners will be announced in January, 2012.

Owners Irwin Watkin, Colin Baker and Melvyn Kahn spent a year renovating the space for the new Light Bulbs Etc. at 1848 Newport Blvd. in Costa Mesa, Kahn said.

"It's 10,000 square feet; the previous showroom was 6,000 square feet," he said. "Traditionally, lighting stores are very cluttered. Everything in our store is in vignettes so it's very easy for clients to see fixtures in their environment.

"The vignettes change all the time; there's no duplication" of fixtures in different locations in the store.”

Kahn and Baker were in the lighting industry in South Africa. Kahn ran a series of lighting showrooms in Houston, Texas, and when that state's economy struggled in the 1980s, he and Baker moved to California opened Light Bulbs Etc. in a small shop in Orange in 1986.

While you will find numerous web apps online that let you manage projects, very few of them effectively incorporate collaboration features. In the end, you have to stick with a project management application that does not provide you with the convenience you require, thereby making it more time-consuming and less productive.

If you are looking for something that helps you keep track of the tasks in your projects as well as their progress, then you should check out a web app called PivotalTracker.

Introduction

PivotalTracker is a wonderful project management application that will greatly satisfy project leaders. The app works by categorizing tasks into ones currently being worked on and ones in the backlog. By monitoring the rate at which you complete tasks i.e. your project’s velocity, the app automatically forwards tasks from the backlog into your current tasks list. With each task, you can make assignments and add descriptions, tags, and files. Task priorities can be indicated by marking a virtual value for the tasks. You can share your projects publicly and even add collaborators to your projects to work as a team. The information you process through PivotalTracker can be imported and exported through CSV files.

Build better software, faster.

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