Many times you will post a picture on Facebook and think nothing of it.
Well, here is a great example of sharing a picture with a message and how in just two days it was shared, commented and liked by more than 66,126 people.

The message or CONTENT behind the photo  was what made this photo so powerful.  It wasn’t that the model was naked, it was the MESSAGE behind the photo that made this picture go viral.

Here is the copy that was with the photo which was featured inFrench Elle Magazine:

A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was “This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?”

The story goes, a woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way:

“Dear people, whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness.
They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia.
They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on cds. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires.

Mermaids do not exist.

But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish?
They would have no sex life and could not bear children.
Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad.
And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side?

Without a doubt, I’d rather be a whale.

At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends.

We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn’t enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies.
We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated.
Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: “How amazing am I ?! “

(The girl on the picture is French model Tara Lynn)

As I type this blog post, the photo within a few minutes reached much higher numbers with whom it was shared with.

So, the story isn’t over with how many people will be reached by one photo.

How to Protect Your Photo if You DON’T Want the World to See It

Granted, there are pros and cons of using a photo on social media. For this French model Tara Lynn, the great advantage of her photo going viral is she gained more exposure and more people know her name which is important to her career.  However, if you don’t want your photo to be shared then make sure  you select who you want to share it with when you post it.  Viewers can download the photo and re-upload the photo as public so, if you don’t want something to reach the world then don’t post it on social media.

Being tagged in a photo is another good example of people that you don’t know seeing your photo and your profile. You can make sure your  wall posts are secure and only your  friends see it;  however if you don’t  want people to know your birthday especially your full birthday with the year  make sure that is hidden otherwise you could be letting 66,000 people know your name and the state you lives in, the month and year you were born, etc.

How You Can Tap Into the Social Media Power with Your Photos

If you are a business and have a product,  putting the product in a fun scene that would create conversation and viral appeal.  Pictures are a great way to share your product or service and get people familiar with your business. Crafting a creative and unique message (humorous, inspirational or relatable) to go with your photo will boost the viral power and make it something that people will want to share with their friends.

Also, if you are the owner or CEO of your company, show a smiling or welcoming picture of yourself to give the company a face to the business.  Often times, relationships get people to buy from you.  It is all about people marketing

UPDATE:
Three days after this photo was originally posted 500,000 people interacted with this photo by sharing it, liking it or commenting.

It wasn’t publicized very much, but there is now a quick way to convert a profile to a page and quickly convert your friends to fans.
This is exciting news for profile owners who want their friends to become fans on a page. So many business owners did it WRONG so now is a great time to fix it.

If you haven’t done this migrating your profile is NOW possible so you can convert all your friends that you worked so hard collecting over to your PAGE.

Here’s what you do:
1. You log into your Profile
2. Open a new tab and go to this page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate

3. You then get the ‘Migrate a Page’ Facebook page

4.  Select what type of PAGE you want to create ; Local Business or Place, Company or Organization, etc.

One thing to keep in mind is if a profile owner wants to migrate their profile to a current existing page, any custom work already done on the page (custom tabs, apps, etc) will be lost.
Facebook explains:

“Be aware that when you convert your profile to a Page, your profile pictures will be transferred, and all of your friends will be automatically added as people who like your Page. No other content will be carried over to your new Page, so be sure to save any important content before beginning your migration.”

WARNING:
Migrating is irreversible at this time, so you may want to download your profile information — including photos, wall posts, messages and friend list — before making the switch.
Your entire existing profile is transferred to the fan page, so you’d have to create a new profile page from scratch.
This will give you a clean slate so you can build your profile to include your friends and family and use your PAGE for business.
It also may take a few hours for the migration to take effect so be patient if you do not see all your friends list over onto the new PAGE.
Also disclaimer Virtual Business Solutions is not liable and is not responsible if this does not migrate correctly.

• The BENEFITS to having a PAGE as a business owner are HUGE.  I see this too many times a business owner will set up a PROFILE for their business and NOT a PAGE.
  (Using a business name for your profile is prohibited as part of Facebook’s  terms of use and your profile can be taken down.  Its also against terms to have more then one profile.)
• Unlimited “likes” (friends)
  (profiles also have a 5,000 friend limit)
• Pages are visible to search engine
• Pages are visible even if you don’t have a Facebook account
  (so people can see your page information, profiles are private and only visible to friends)
• Customization for Tabs, apps etc.

If you haven’t set up a Facebook account yet the  correct way to work with Facebook is to create an account and set up your  PERSONAL profile and then when logged into your account create a PAGE.
If you are still confused and are trying to figure out if you have a PAGE or a profile  if you have friends you are on your PROFILE if it says “likes” you are on your business PAGE.

If you need help feel free to contact us at Virtual Business Solutions to set up your business page.

Did you know that you can target your audience when you post to your Facebook page?

You can customize by location and language.
Clicking on the drop-down next to “share” and then customizing the target of the post.

You can be as broad as a country and all languages or as targeted as specific language speakers in a city of your choice. Only those that meet the target will see it in their News Feed.

So how did you narrow down your targeted audience, please SHARE with us and leave a comment.

We give you the step by step guide to the NEW Facebook profile.

NOTE: Click MENU and Full Screen to view this slide tour BEST.

We also show you how to HIDE, adjust your privacy settings for your Facebook friend list.

NOTE: Click MENU and Full Screen to view this slide tour BEST.


Here is the 60 Minutes Interview with Mark Zuckerberg

How To Write Effective, Compelling and Correct Content for Social Media Information Boxes and Posts

What are you talking about?

You mean that little box under my picture on Facebook? The tiny little space on Twitter to write about myself? The “Description” box on my profile page? Yes, that’s what we mean.

I just write it, simple. Right?

Wrong.

Those small description boxes are powerful tools…if you write them correctly.

Don’t underestimate the value of those small description boxes and fall into the trap of filling the space with meaningless quotes or weak phrases. Those little boxes have the ability to reach a broad audience and convert a browser into a buyer.

Everyone, from advertising agencies to our 15 year old babysitter, has given us advice that we need to be on social media to be competitive and relevant in our business niche. Ok, we got that and have set about the task of setting up our pages. Now, wave your magic wand and wahlah! instant viral magic? Not the case, huh?

What’s wrong? What’s missing?

The problem is much of the advice given on social media is based on the assumption that you know how to write good copy.

Writing short content can be challenging – how do you tell your business message in just a few sentences or even less? It’s tough. But, it’s a big part of being on social media. Social media involves writing. Good writing. So, you really do need to say it right.

It is always surprising to us when we see companies using that space incorrectly. There’s been many times where we have to hold back the urge to call them and say, “You know, if you could just add in a few keywords here then you would be feeding the search engine better…” and so on.

Or, when we get hit over the head by endless posts about new products and promotions. We all understand that a business is selling us something, but we don’t want to know that they are…so, what else should you say in your posts to engage your target market?

Don’t worry. Even the big companies who have high-priced social media “gurus” on board to manage their accounts have used those spaces haphazardly or, worse, not at all. The biggest pitfall is assuming that your image or logo will be enough to sell ‘the click.”

The good news is that we have done all the work for you so, you can save time getting the information you need to move past “go” and onto “engage.” Here’s a “How To” class that really works. It’s called Social Media Content Writing Workshop. It’s simple, doesn’t take a lot of time, but will change the face of your social media pages.

And the best news? It’s Cyber Monday so, we are offering our Social Media Content Writing Workshop for HALF OFF the regular price! An unbelievable amount of valuable information at your fingertips for only $74.98. Simply enter code: cybermonday at check out.

http://virtualbusinesssolutions.com/Business-Online-Class-Solutions/Social-Media-For-Business-Workshop/flypage_new.tpl.html

Tell Me More!

A polished profile is crucial to the success of your social media pages.

We created the Social Media Content Writing Workshop with a recipe of 25 years of business experience, a library of insider information and our sincere desire to help the business owner succeed. Our team members have a strong background in both traditional and new marketing. The business owner can expect to leave the workshop with not only powerhouse Facebook and Twitter pages, but also a clear, concise and compelling message they can quickly use in other marketing efforts.

From brainstorming ideas to breaking down what you need to know about SEO keywords, this workshop is the complete resource any business owner needs to succeed in social media.

Our team copywriter helps the non-writer unmask the secrets of writing great copy. Even if you have a knack for writing, you won’t want to miss the valuable insider tips on the in’s and out’s of social media copy.

What You Can Expect:

• How-To Instructions & Formulas to easily plug-in your copy
• Examples of successful social media pages
• Guided audio with tips and expert advice access 24/7
• Simple tips & techniques to take your social media pages from average to amazing right now!
• BONUS material to help you identify your target audience
• BONUS material to help you zone in on your industry’s SEO Keywords

Workshop Includes:

• Social Media Short Copy – Those couple of sentences you read on social media sites are powerful tools. A polished profile is one of the most important aspects of your social media pages. Our customized short-copy formula will help you write your bio, information and description boxes (“About Us” and “About Me” sections) so they effectively connect you with your clients.
• Best Social Practices – Now that you have learned the nuts and bolts of social media, we will take you a step farther by showing you “how to” build social relationships for your business.

As a BONUS, we are giving away for FREE our 3 Part Social Media Series

Whether you are a novice just getting linked, friended and followed or you are already schooled in the ways of social media, this course will offer insights for both the beginner and advanced user. We show you all the options and insider tips for creating and effectively using Facebook and Twitter.

Not Sure if this Workshop is For You? Click Here to See How We’ve Helped Others!

“Just got off the phone with Laura Cole Gonzalez and Sharon Higgins of Virtual Business Solutions where they gave advice and tips on how small tweeks can make a BIG difference to your website and social media pages. Thanks, Laura and Sharon! Excellent feedback on my blog and social media pages!!” – Sue Seward, Online Marketing Coach, http://www.sueseward.com

Click Here for the Audio

Download the accompanying pdf

Still Not Sure? Try it Out for HALF Price!

This is not a season to be putting large prices on products and services that people need to grow their business. It is of great value to us to help other businesses succeed and rise above this tough economy. The best way we can do that is to offer our service at a price that everyone can afford. Our Social Media Content Writing Workshop with Bonus Social Media How-To Series is priced at only $149.96. These programs are valued at over $700 and even higher on other sites. In the spirit of Cyber Monday and for a limited time only, we are offering this workshop at an even lower price. Enter code cybermonday at checkout and receive the workshop for only $74.98!

This small investment will more than pay for itself when you are able to showcase your business on social media to millions of people.

What Else?

Once you make your purchase, you will instantly have access to:

• The Virtual Business Series 24/7 Online Learning Center – this is where you will find your Workshop and Series material including recorded audio from group calls, videos and screen captures
• Forum Board – this is where you are able to interact with our experts by posting questions and getting additional support
• 4 Tele-web conference group calls with the team experts

Sign Up for our Social Media Business Workshop Today!

Click here

p.s. Being web and social media experts, we are big fans of Cyber Monday and believe it should be at least a week long. Our sale begins today but ends soon! Sign up today to receive 50% off the regular price!

I have seen it time and time again how many business are setting up their Facebook ALL Wrong

Many business owners set up their PROFILE page and thing ok I am on Facebook, I’m done.
WRONG

You need to create a personal account and create a personal profile to be ABLE to create a business page.
That is the KEY.  There is where many business owners get confused.

Create a Facebook business PAGE.

• Businesses can have a page but not a profile. I’ve seen this time and time again where businesses create profiles only to have them removed weeks later. Facebook is very clear and swift on implementing their TOS.

So how is a Page different from a Profile? According to Facebook’s Pages TOS:

“Each user is permitted to maintain a single account, which is represented by a profile. Profiles can only be used to represent an individual, and must be held under an individual name. This account can also be used to manage multiple Facebook Pages that represent businesses or other organizations. You may only create Facebook Pages to represent real organizations of which you are an authorized representative, and fans of these Pages won’t be able to see that you are the Page admin, or have any access to your personal account.

All personal site features, such as friending and messaging, are also for personal use only and may not be used for professional promotion. If you add a user as a friend, for example, this person will be invited to be a friend of your profile and not your Page. Using personal site features for professional promotion, or creating unauthorized Pages, may result in your account being warned or disabled.”

• Your profile page is your personal page that you can have up to 5,000 friends after that you can’t add any more friends.  You can network with others and put different friends in different lists.
• Business pages can do all sorts of cool things like add photos, status updates, wall posts but it differs from that of a personal profile where the ability to have friends comes into play. So for example, Pizza  Hut  is not a person you can “like” the page  ( facebook use to call this ‘fan’ the page.
• Here is an example of a business page http://www.facebook.com/VirtualBusinessSolutions As you can see this is NOT your profile page.  You can assign many people to be administrators for your business page they first have to ‘like’ your PAGE and then you can assign them as an administrator.  CAUTION – be sure to always be an administrator of your PAGE also even if you don’t maintain it.  This way if every the person leaves your company you still have access to your business page.

So many of our clients tell us they can’t compete with the big corporate goliaths when it comes to advertising and marketing budgets. Social Media levels the playing field by offering any size business innovative, FREE ways to get ahead of their competition. Our Social Media series & Content Writing workshop gets you on the fast track by showing you simple yet effective tools to create a Social Media marketing plan.

Social Media For Business Series & Workshop

Today’s marketing is a two-way communication between the seller and the buyer. The consumer wants to know the business they are buying from and feel a personal connection. Social media is not only a compliment to your website and traditional marketing efforts, but it can turn your site browsers into site sales.

What You Can Expect From The Classes:

• Videos and audio clips to guide you on “How To…” set up each of the Social Media tools that we will be covering in these classes.
• Attend these classes on your own time schedule & in the comfort of your own office or home
• Pause and rewind to hear key points again
• BONUS links to our on-line Learning Center which is filled with invaluable material to create a successful online presence
• BONUS access to our community of experts and guru’s

Series includes:

• Intro To Social Media – This class is an overview of all the social media tools available on the internet, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia and more.
• Social Media For Business - With the tools learned in the intro class, you will learn how to use the best social practices for your business including what to say and how to brand yourself as an expert in your field.
• Facebook For Business – From account creation to marketing strategies, we show you “how-to” get in front of the 500 million Facebook users.
• Twitter For Business – Taking you from logging in to broadcasting your message, this class shows you how to use Twitter to grow your business. We teach you how to target your niche audience and build an effective “following” base. You will also learn how to build a strong networking list.

Content Writing Workshop

We have extensively researched information available to the business owner on content writing and discovered there is nothing else on the market like this workshop! Our team copywriter helps the non-writer crank out amazing copy like a seasoned professional. Even if you have a knack for writing, you won’t want to miss the valuable insider tips on the in’s and out’s of social media copy.

What You Can Expect:

• How-To Instructions & Formulas to easily plug in your copy
• Examples of successful social media pages
• Guided audio with tips and expert advice access 24/7
  
• Simple tips & techniques to take your Social Media pages from average to amazing!
  
• BONUS material to help you identify your target audience
• BONUS material to help you zone in on your industry’s SEO Keywords
  

In this workshop, our team copywriter reveals her secrets to creating copy that it not only WOWS your fans, but also includes keyword-rich words that puts your information in the forefront of search engine ranking. This hands-on lesson will leave with a customized, valuable marketing tool that you can quickly add to all your Social Media pages AND your other marketing efforts.

Workshop Includes:

• Social Media Short Copy – Those couple of sentences you read on social media sites are powerful tools. A polished profile is one of the most important aspects of your social media page. Our customized short-copy formula will help you write your bio, information and description boxes (“About Us” and “About Me” sections) so that they effectively connect you with your clients.
• Best Social Practices - Now that you have learned the nuts and bolts of social media, we will take you a step farther by showing you “how to” build social relationships for your business.

It’s Simple to Get Started:

This is not a season to be putting large prices on products and services that people need to grow their business. It is of great value to us to help other businesses succeed and rise above this tough new economy. The best way we can do that is to offer our service at a price that everyone can afford. Our Social Media How-To Series plus bonus Social Media Content Writing Workshop is priced at only $149.96.

These programs are valued at over $700.00 and even higher on other sites. This small investment will more than pay for itself when you are able to showcase your business via Social Media to millions of people.

Not Sure if this Series is for You? Take a Test Drive for FREE!

Our experts will be offering a FREE Assessment of your existing Facebook Page, Twitter Page or Website. Our 25+ years of experience has helped numerous businesses create a powerhouse on-line presence. On a teleconference call, we will review your on-line marketing efforts, answer your questions and offer expert advice on improvements that will help convert your browsers into buyers. This service is valued at $99 but for a very limited time, it is yours for FREE.

Our teleconference calls are scheduled for July 12, 2010 so hurry and sign up today!

What Else?

Once you make your purchase, you will instantly have access to:

• The Virtual Business Series 24/7 Online Learning Center - this is where you will find your Series & Workshop material including recorded audio from group calls, videos and screen captures
• Forum Board – this is where you are able to interact with our experts by posting questions and getting additional support.
• 4 Tele-web conference group calls with the team experts.

Sign up for our Social Media For Business Workshop Today!

Meet Your Workshop Team:

Laura Gonzalez, Business and Website Consultant and Coach with 18 years experience, is Founder and President of Virtual Business Solutions and Virtual Meet and Greet. Laura’s passion is to provide solutions for business owners to succeed in this new economy. She provides resources, training, online tools and sales strategies that simply work. As a consultant and coach, she views clients’ entire business operations and helps them break through business barriers and mind sets. Laura helps clients realize immediate results, achieve lasting success and teaches them new tools to permanently raise their bottom line.

Sharon Higgins has over 15 years experience in copywriting, conceptual ad design, business writing, editing, event planning and marketing strategy. Sharon is skilled in creating attention-grabbing writing pieces such as newsletters, web pages, e-blasts, promotional material and ads designed to compliment a company’s existing or emerging marketing plan. Sharon is a focused team player who strives to create more than just a simple writing piece, but a working tool that will define her clients’ message and help their business achieve optimum success.

Viddler

Here is an example of how you can customize the player and add your brand logo to the player.
You can also add your website url to the player so that if the video is embedded somewhere else they can find your website.

You Tube
You can customize the player bar to different colors, decide if related videos will play after wards.

Blip.Tv
Allows for multiple players – Standard Web based player and Iphone players
Player can be customized by colors, brand, link to website
You can also distribute your video to many locations.
Allows you to turn on or off advertising which you can also get paid for the advertising that is placed on your video.

This afternoon Facebook announced via the developer forum that Facebook Pages now need to be authenticated in order to have landing tabs. This means any new visitor to your Facebook Page will not be able to land on a custom tab unless you have greater than 10,000 fans or the Page administrator has worked with an ads account representative. This is a massive blow to smaller companies (or individuals) looking to build their presence through Facebook Pages.

This update came as a massive blow to Page administrators who were looking to build their fan base organically on their own. As we’ve written about in the past, using landing tabs is critical in converting new visitors into fans. Here’s what was posted on the developer forum earlier today:

Hello all,

We apologize for not messaging this earlier. Facebook recently made a change requiring that Pages be authenticated before enabling the ability to set a landing tab beyond Wall or Info. To be eligible for authentication, a Page must have greater than 10k fans or the Page admin must work with their ads account manager. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the authentication process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative.

Also, for advertisers who don’t have a representative or 10k fans, and want to run ads and land users on a specific tab, you can still do so with standard Facebook ads by making their Destination URL as the URL incl. your tab. Unfortunately, this currently will not work with “Fan” ads.

Thanks,
Matt Trainer

As you can imagine, developers (and marketers) are not happy. This means that the odds of building a popular Facebook Page are against the average Joe. Instead, administrators will need to spend money on Facebook Ads or alternatively, have a large traffic base on the company’s existing site in order to build a large following.

We’d assume that this change was made for two reasons: to combat spam and more importantly, to boost revenue. We’ll be sure to post any updates as we learn more about the changes. We’re currently trying to find out what impact this will have on third-party solutions (Involver, Sprout, Wildfire, etc) which enable companies to build custom landing tabs. Thanks to Mari Smith for bringing this to our attention.

This also now affects FBML application feature that allows you to change the landing page to a custom tab.

I do a lot of work for small business owners that it will take them a very long time to be able to get 10,000 people to ‘like’ their page so this new limitation is not good hopefully they will rethink this and change it like they did for the pretty url limitations.

I also looked into the advertiser representative and the lowest amount is $10,000 to contact an ad rep.

Tell me what you think about this by leaving a comment.  Have you found a work around?

To clarify, ALL of your custom tabs still exist. And – this is important – each tab still has its own unique URL.  So my suggestion for the WORK around is to take that unique url and hyperlink it to your Facebook icon on your website to direct them to your CUSTOM tab (Welcome page) on your Facebook page for example.

Twitter launched a fascinating new tool this week – a simple “baking” tool that takes the URL of a tweet and displays it in a convenient HTML output, allowing users to effectively “embed” tweets into their code. The tool, called Blackbird Pie, will let bloggers and other web developers easily insert tweets into their posts and webpages, effectively guaranteeing that those tweets will stay around even if they’re deleted later.

The new feature is very simple to use – there ‘s a simple text box on the Twitter Blackbird Pie page, allowing users to type in the URL of the tweet they’d like to “bake” into HTML code. Once users click the “bake” button, their tweet is outputted into formatted HTML, which they can then copy and paste into blog posts, forum posts and articles, and anywhere else that accepts HTML.

The move will make it significantly more likely that bloggers and web designers will begin to use the baked html tweets more often. Until now, most people used images that had been captured of tweets; the downside to this strategy is that the images aren’t crawlable by search engines, making the data contained in the tweets effectively invisible. The new feature will allow for quick and easy insertion of tweets, without requiring a separate step to capture, post and link to screenshots.

Already the new Blackbird Pie feature has taken some criticism from savvy web developers who say that the code it outputs is too bloated. Although the code certainly is significant, one of the upshots of the complex code is that it allows users to effectively format the baked tweets from their own end, using only Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Still, Twitter has listed “shorter code” on its list of To Do’s for the Blackbird Pie formatter.

After the initial launch of Twitter’s Blackbird Pie, the feature was temporarily unavailable to many users due to the flood of people rushing to try out the new feature. By now the Blackbird Pie feature seems to have cooled off somewhat, and generating HTML tweets seems to be functioning fine.

So keep your eyes open – you’ll probably start to see a lot of HTML-based tweets showing up on blogs and on websites around the internet – and how that will change search engine rankings for sites showing a large volume of tweets remains to be seen.

Here is an example of what an embeded ‘tweet’  looks like