Facebook Timeline for Pages has finally arrived, and we have until the 30^th of March to get our pages ready for the changeover. If you’re not ready by then, your page will automatically be converted. If you are eager to adopt this new interface, you can publish yours straight away. So what’s new then?

Changes introduced with Facebook Timeline:

• A Cover Photo spreading across the top of the page will be one of the big additions for a business. A great opportunity to use a strong image to brand your business. Make sure to get your logo and company message into this cover photo. Calls to action are forbidden, as is requesting to click the “Like” button.

• Page performance available to your users. If one of your users clicks the Like icon on your page they will get an idea of how your page is performing. A nice feature but I can guarantee your competitors will be looking in to see how you are doing. A bold move, Facebook.

• As with the personal pages, Facebook Timeline will allow users view back to the start of your company history, not only since Facebook started, but since your company did. If your company was formed 80 years ago, you can start filling in the history of past times. A really good way to drive interaction from your fans and potential fans.

• Facebook has finally realised that not everyone wants to communicate in public, so now users can contact you in private through Facebook Messages,  a very important update to Facebook Timeline and a great tool to drive more sales from a Hot Lead.

• Updated Admin Panel: A place to control your Messages, Notifications and Insights. It all starts here. The Admin section will allow you to edit your content, with a new feature: the Activity Log. You can now check on the activity of each post, star, hide, and delete stories, and even change the date of a post.

• Facebook Applications: Some great improvements here, we now have more space to play with. The width of the page has increased to 810 pixels, giving us us a better opportunity to display products, include a booking form, show your facilities and services, etc to drive more sales. 

On Valentine’s week, we are all about spreading love, and this time around, we’ll be running an hour-and-a-half free seminar on social media for businesses. The date is this Wednesday 15th of February at 7pm, at the Courthouse Hotel in Carlow.

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Our idea is to run a basic and to-the-point introductory seminar on the different social media options available today and which ones would be best for a particular business/industry. The invitees are all business owners who are trying to implement social media to help grow their business.

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Dhe seminar will be divided into sections presented by experts on the field. There will be a section on Facebook (of course), one on LinkedIn (one of the fastest growing social media networks nowadays), another one on Twitter (all major business social media platforms covered!), a special section on video promotion (a great and professional way of promoting your business!), and a dedicated section to Facebook apps (after all, we see their results on daily basis).

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We expect our guest of the evening to enjoy the event and leave the premises feeling they have learned something new, something they can already apply into “socialise your business”. And for those of you who cannot make it to Carlow, we will broadcasting the event live from our page as well!

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What: #socialiseyourbusiness
When: 15th, Feb @ 7pm
Where: Courthouse Hotel, Carlow or live from www.CustomIT.ie
Who: Kieran Kelly (introduction to social media), Pat Kennedy (Facebook apps), Thady Kavanagh (video), Maya Hanley (LinkedIn), Claire Hearty (Twitter).

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We enjoyed working with ISM and are very happy to see this project growing and reaching more and more people in Ireland.

At CustomIT, we have been asked many times over if it is convenient to change a Facebook “friend” account to a “business page” and how to go about doing it.
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When a Facebook account is going to be used for business purposes (to promote your shop, company, start-up or professional services), you should always create a “Page” (a business account) as opposed to a “Profile” (personal account). And why is that?
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First of all, it is against Facebook Terms & Conditions to use your personal profile for commercial purposes; that means that if you are running a promotion, or competition for instance, you are risking having your account disabled and losing your personal and professional information.
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There are more reasons to have a business page, not only because “Facebook says so”, but because a friend account limits your possibilities in terms of marketing and promotion. For instance, a friend account is limited to 5,000 friends and when running a promotion of competition, you are risking having your account shut down.
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The new Facebook Insights allows you to track and monitor your posts, so you can then see which types of posts get the most feedback. And you can only run an advertising campaign on Facebook from a business account.
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Finally and more importantly, using a Facebook page allows you to insert applications on your page, which gives you endless possibilities of customising your page and interact with your fans/followers in a more personalised manner. Even a basic application like a contact or booking form gives you an extra channel of communications with your clients.
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Luckily enough, Facebook now provides a tool for converting your friend account to a business page. It is important to know that when making the change, all the posts, comments, pictures, events, etc will be gone and the account will be created from scratch, your friends will remain now as fans “Likes” of your account. You can download your photos and information before migrating.
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A final warning: keep in mind that once the converting process is started, it cannot be reverted, so make sure to all details right the first time. We have converted many Facebook friend accounts to business profiles since Facebook recently launched the service. Contact us if you would like assistance.

Below is a short video demonstration:

Twitter’s offices in Dublin, the third one to be located outside the US, will be located in Dublin 2 or 4. The recruitment process has started this week with a HR business partner as first position posted. While it is still unknown how many people Twitter will be employing, the company is expected to follow the path of Facebook and Google, creating an expanding job offer as the company grows.

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Another major announcement came from Google Irish Headquarters, which came here planning to create 230 jobs and the number now goes up to 2,200. And as they keep expanding, the latest plan is now to build a major new highly-efficient data centre in Dublin. Google expects to invest €75 million into the completion of this new facility which, once operational, will employ up to 30 people, while the construction project about 200.

It might be hard to believe, but this time around, Ireland was selected for its weather! Dublin offers an ideal temperature for an energy-efficient data centre as, with the implementation of new technologies Google will be building a chiller-less data centre, using fresh air to cool servers instead of using huge, power-hungry chillers to refrigerate cooling water.

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We are very happy with Ireland’s growing reputation as the “Internet Capital of Europe” and full of optimism about days to come. The Digital Era has been here for a while and we are thrilled to be caught in the middle!

The ISM e-Driving school is a completely free service, available 24/7, offering step-by-step video tutorials, and driving tips and advice to anyone in the process of learning how to drive, or anyone trying to improve their driving skills. It is the ideal tool to gain that extra bit of confidence before hitting the road for the first time, and the perfect resource for any driving student to check out before the big test.

Recently launched, we expect the e-school to gain popularity fast and start promoting free resources across the web as the best way to engage people with a brand. It only takes one “like” to get started and be on the road to safe driving.

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Social Media Conference

Last Friday 30th September, at the Digital Ireland Forum 2011, Ireland’s tech leaders got together, an event hosted by Siliconrepublic.com, to discuss Ireland’s digital future. And at the end of the month, Dublin will hold its second two-day summit all web related at the Dublin Web Summit.

Following the Digital Ireland Forum on 30th September, where leading keynote speakers were joined by Ireland’s technology CEOs to discuss Irish issues to be tackled such as digital infrastructure; jobs and skills; education and creating a digital society; on the 27th and 28th of October, over 100 speakers, will get together to present, debate, talk about, and encourage the next wave of web start ups, an incredible opportunity to all entrepreneurs.

This year’s Dublin Web Summit will include over 1,000 attendees that includes serial entrepreneurs, developers, managers, students, investors, journalists, professors, and anyone with an interest in hearing motivational speakers and learn about new start ups being developed in Europe.

This the two-day event, will be particularly interesting for start ups across Europe. There will an entire day with practical talks orientated to start ups, with investors, entrepreneurs, and influencers from around the world sharing their motivational stories; there will an StartUp Zone exhibition, and a competition that will grant the five start ups finalists to present their project on the main stage.

And as for the speakers, all web giants will be represented with speakers that include leading figures from Amazon, Microsoft, co-founders of LinkedIn, Youtube, Facebook’s Director Developer, Twitter’s General Manager, and the list goes on gathering up in one summit the biggest tech executives around the world.

It will certainly by an event not to be missed, you can still book a place at the Summit, and for those of you not being able to attend, there will also be a option to stream the event online.