Why Your Business Needs a Mobile Website Right Now

7 minutes ago by Todd Wasserman

The Digital Marketing Series is supported by HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company based in Cambridge, MA, that makes a full platform of marketing software, including lead generation tools.

First, the good news: If you have a website, then you have a site that can be accessed by any mobile device with a browser. Now, the bad: Chances are, that site looks pretty crappy on said mobile device.

If you’re worried about this, you’re not alone. Just as companies realized, circa 1996, that they needed to create a website to remain relevant to consumers, history is repeating itself in mobile. By 2013, more people will use mobile phones than PCs to get online, according to Gartner. In mid-2011, we also reached the point at which consumers were spending more time on their mobile devices than on their PCs.

In such an environment, a site designed to be viewed on a desktop PC comes across as woefully lacking. Say you’re accessing such a site from the Safari browser on your iPhone. The first thing you’re likely to notice is that it takes a relatively long time to load. The second thing is that the type on the page is pretty small. It might take a lot of zooming and pinching to navigate the site as well. If you have Flash on your site, it’s not going to come across at all on an iPhone.

At that point, your potential customer may start looking around. According to a recent survey from Compuware, 40% of users have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience.

Yet currently, most businesses haven’t optimized their sites for mobile. Jesse Haines, head of marketing for Google Mobile Ads, says the company canvassed its large advertisers early in 2011 and found only 21% have launched a mobile site.

If you’re among the other 79% or so, take heart. Optimizing your site for mobile or creating a mobile site from scratch isn’t a big deal.

In part, that’s because Google has stepped in. The company is eager to expand its online advertising empire further into mobile. With an eye towards “growing the mobile ecosystem” as Haines puts it, Google last month launched GoMo, an initiative that aims to help businesses go mobile.

Google’s howtogomo.com is a clearinghouse of information on the topic and even includes a feature that lets you see how your site looks on a mobile device.

For those looking for a quick fix, Google provides a list of companies that will build your mobile site for you, and you can specify what you want to spend. Haines says that you can get up and running for as little as $100 a year.

Dennis Mink, VP of marketing at DudaMobile, one of the vendors Google lists on GoMo, says he thinks the average price for a decent mobile site is more like $200 to $500. If you’re comfortable with website design, though, DudaMobile offers DIY tools as well, which are just $9 a month. While the company’s web-based software is free, the fee goes toward hosting and site analytics. (Yes, if you’re running a mobile site, you have to pay two hosting fees — one for your traditional website and one for mobile.)

One recent DudaMobile customer is TriStar Automotive, a Santa Rosa, Calif., repair shop. Jim Dadaos, the owner of the shop, says his web developer told him a few months back that he needed to get a mobile site “because that’s where everything is going.” Dadaos’s developer contacted DudaMobile, which created the site “within a very short time” and it’s been up and running for six months. During that time Dadaos says he’s seen a 20% spike in business. “During these times, the auto repair business is sucking, so that’s significant,” he says.

Mink and Haines offer a few tips for building a good mobile website. One thing to consider is whether your site is what Haines calls “thumb-friendly.” What that means in practice is lots of big, fat buttons. Another thing to keep in mind is font size and navigation. The first should be fairly large, and the second should be fairly intuitive.

Haines says one site that renders especially well on mobile is 1-800 Flowers, which, as you see below, is both thumb-friendly and intuitive.

Another site Haines singles out is from PacSun, the teen-focused clothing brand:

Incidentally, if you’re considering a mobile app rather than a mobile website, Haines says to go for the website. “It really depends on the brand,” she says. “We think a mobile website is a must-have.” Haines says that for some brands, like news sites for instance, a mobile app makes sense, but otherwise, most users are going to look for you via their browser.

Mink agrees: “If you’re going to search for any type of business, you’re going to search the mobile web, not an app store,” he says. “People don’t look for apps that will give them information.”

Mac’s not getting Viruses or Malware is a MYTH!

Mac OS X Gets Its Very Own Fake, Malicious Antivirus Program

by Robert Quigley | 1:23 pm, May 3rd, 2011

Need proof that Mac is catching up to Windows in a big way? Security firm Intego reports that it has recently observed in the wild a malicious, fake ‘antivirus’ app appearing on computers running Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. Windows, of course, has been host to such programs for about as long as the Internet has existed. Apple’s fake, malicious antivirus program has a much slicker interface, though.

Called “MAC Defender,” the app functions similarly to comparable PC scam programs: It claims that the user’s computer has been infected with viruses and asks the user to pay for the program via credit card. Protip: Don’t provide your credit card number to MAC Defender.

Intego notes that the application is visually well designed and doesn’t have numerous misspellings or other errors common to such malware on Windows, though it does seem to contain some sketchy grammar. The software will periodically display Growl alerts that various fake malware has been detected, and also periodically opens porn websites in the default browser, perhaps leading a user to believe the detected malware “threats” are real. Users are then directed to an insecure website to pay for a license and “clean” the malware infections. However, buying the license merely stops the fake alerts from popping up, but your money and credit card info is now in the hands of hackers.

Remember: The notion that Macs can’t get viruses or malware is a myth.

AT&T Tracking Users & How to Hide!

How AT&T Tracks Unauthorized Tethering On Your Jailbroken iPhone, And How To Hide It From Them

By Oliver Haslam | May 9th, 2011

If you cast your minds back a couple of months, you’ll remember how we told you that AT&T had begun clamping down on people using tethering on their iPhones without paying for the upgraded tethering plan. Emails and SMS messages were sent informing customers that if they continued to tether they would be charged for it. At the time we weren’t sure how AT&T knew which people were actually tethering, but now we do and more importantly, we know how to get around it.

Today iPhoneDownloadBlog pointed out a snippet from a post over on AndroidPolice that is of particular interest to unauthorized iOS tethering users. Turns out they know how AT&T was able to tell when customers were tethering.

“Jailbroken iPhones typically use the same tethering technique as a standard iPhone, the one that’s already present in iOS. This method exposes tethering activity quite readily, because the iPhone, when in tethering mode, sends traffic through an alternate APN (AT&T access point/router) for the express purpose of identifying the traffic as tethered data. This makes it extremely easy for AT&T to identify whether or not an iOS device is utilizing tethering, and just how much of their data is consumed via tethering.

Some tethering applications for iOS make use of alternative methods and route tethered traffic through the phone’s normal data APN, but by and large, most jailbreakers stick with the stock application because it’s easy to use and doesn’t require any complicated setup. In fact, many iPhone users jailbreak for the sole purpose of avoiding AT&T’s tethering fees (for why, see next section). These are the people AT&T’s is going after.”

So it appears, apps that use the special data APN get noticed by AT&T’s systems, hence the strong-arm tactics. Popular jailbreak app MyWi works just as described by AndroidPolice – using the tethering APN. What we need is an app that uses the same APN as your iPhone does for its own data. According to the iPhoneDownloadBlog, that app is PdaNet.

The latest version of PdaNet comes complete with an option specifically for hiding tethering from AT&T – presumable this option changes the APN the app uses for routing data. TetherMe is another app that appears to be one AT&T can’t track, though PdaNet does seem to be the best bet if you want to avoid your carrier’s tethering charges.

So, if you’re not too keen on paying for your data twice, jailbreak your iPhone and give PdaNet a whirl – it’s available via Cydia right now.

You will, of course, need to have a jailbroken iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to install it. Follow our step by step guide posted here to jailbreak your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with Redsn0w on iOS 4.2.1 (or untethered with GreenPois0n RC5), or on iOS 4.3.1 with Redsn0w, PwnageTool 4.3 (untethered | tethered), or with Sn0wbreeze on Windows, or on iOS 4.3.2 with Redsn0w, PwnageTool 4.3 (tethered), or with Sn0wbreeze on Windows, or on iOS 4.3.3 using Redsn0w, PwnageTool, Sn0wbreeze on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch if you haven’t already.

AT&T starts capping broadband for Residential Clients

AT&T starts capping broadband

By David Goldman, staff writerMay 3, 2011: 12:40 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The days of all-you-can-surf broadband are vanishing.

AT&T this week began capping its Internet delivery service for broadband and DSL customers. The move comes 11 months after it placed similar caps on its mobile customers.

U-Verse — AT&T’s high-speed broadband, television and telephone network — now limits customers to 250 gigabytes of Internet usage each month. DSL users are capped at 150 GB. Customers who exceed the limits will have to pay $10 for each additional 50 GB.

AT&T moved in June to set pricing tiers for its mobile customers, offering light users a plan that maxes out at 200 megabytes. The company also sells a pricier 2 GB plan. AT&T (T, Fortune 500) remains the outlier among the three major wireless companies, though Sprint (S, Fortune 500) and Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) Wireless are expected to follow suit with caps soon.

But AT&T isn’t alone in instituting restrictions on residential broadband usage.

Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500) — by far the largest broadband provider in the U.S. — also has a 250 GB cap, and Time Warner Cable (TWC, Fortune 500) experimented with a tiered billing service in some markets in 2008. Though broadband caps are a relatively new phenomenon in the United States, variations on Internet cap structures are quite common in Canada, Asia and in European countries.

AT&T’s caps will affect just 2% of its customers, the company said. The restrictions are necessary, AT&T maintained, because those in the top 2% use up 20% of the network’s bandwidth. The highest-traffic users download as much as 19 typical households, on average, which slows speeds for other users, AT&T said.

“Our approach is based on customers’ feedback,” said Mark Siegel, spokesman for AT&T. “They told us that the people who use the most should pay more, and they also told us we should make it easy for them to track their usage. We think our approach addresses these concerns.”

Siegel called the caps “generous,” and said that AT&T’s DSL customers use just 18 GB per month on average. The company didn’t provide similar statistics for its U-Verse high-speed Internet customers. Globally, broadband customers typically use 15 GB per month, according to Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500).

The caps are fairly forgiving. DSL customers would need to watch 65 hours of high-definition videos on Netflix (NFLX) to reach the limit, and high-speed customers would need to watch 109 hours.

Analysts see the move as a strategic one. AT&T, Comcast and many other broadband providers also sell cable TV service, which a growing number of customers are dropping in favor of video on-demand services like Netflix.

“This probably isn’t absolutely necessary,” said Vince Vittore, broadband analyst at Yankee Group. “It’s mostly a move to prevent customers from cutting off video services.”

Vittore believes Comcast and AT&T’s caps are indicative of what will become a larger trend in broadband services throughout the country.

Cisco recently forecast that video on-demand usage will double every 2 1/2 years. AT&T said its customers are using more broadband as data-intensive video services like Netflix become more popular. Video currently makes up 40% of all Internet traffic and will exceed 91% by 2014, according to Cisco.

Though typical broadband users don’t come close to approaching the caps now, the increase in average video consumption will undoubtedly cause a greater number of users to exceed their limits in the coming years.

That could force broadband providers to raise their caps in the future if customers begin to complain.

To head off a backlash, AT&T is sending customers alerts when they reached 65%, 90% and 100% of their data allotment each month. The company is also giving customers an undefined grace period before it charges them for another 50 GB. AT&T also is allowing customers to check their data usage online.

Still, data caps likely won’t sit well with those who have called for broadband providers to improve their infrastructure and service.

The Obama administration has harshly criticized the state of the country’s broadband infrastructure, noting that most other countries offer broader service with far faster speeds. The president even alluded in last year’s State of the Union address to a study in which the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked the United States 31st in median broadband speed.

As part of its National Broadband Plan, the FCC has set out to bring 100-megabit-per-second speeds to 100 million Americans.

Some Internet companies fed up with the state of American broadband are taking matters into their own hands. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), for instance, is deploying a 1-gigabit-per-second network in Kansas City, Kan. 

How to Port Your Number to Google Voice Without Paying an Arm and a Leg

3,301 views, Apr 21, 2011 3:10 PM

google voice

Whitson Gordon — Google Voice is a great service, but changing your phone number can seem like pulling teeth. If you’ve been thinking about porting your existing number to Voice, here’s what you need to know to make it go as smoothly as possible.

If you’re unfamiliar with how the number porting process works, it goes like this: Google will terminate your current cellphone plan, make that your Google Voice number, and then you have to re-activate that line with a new number. Unfortunately, while that may seem simple, it’s a bit more complicated once you actually try to do it.

We’ve talked a bit about Google’s number porting service before, but the process itself has been shrouded in a bit of mystery. Not very many people have really come out and given their experience with Google’s number porting, and Google slaps a lot of caveats on the service. They warn heavily that you may be without service for a few days, and that you could be charged with early termination fees. I finally bit the bullet and went through the number porting process this week, so here’s what I’ve learned about the best way to get through it with minimal hassle (and without getting slammed with fees).

Note: Your mileage may vary with this process. I’m on Verizon, and each carrier is a little different. Furthermore, so is every customer service rep, and every store manager that you’re going to end up dealing with. So while you may not have the exact same experience as me, these guidelines should help you get through the process as pain-free as possible.

Step One: Call Your Carrier’s Customer Service

Whatever you do, don’t cancel your plan yourself before your number’s been ported. Google will do it all for you. They handle the majority of the process beautifully, but before you get all excited and port your number, you’ll want to call your carrier and make sure you don’t incur any early termination fees.

I wasn’t sure how Verizon was going to handle this, which is why I called them before I did anything. The customer service rep (who, for what it’s worth, didn’t know a ton about Google Voice), assured me that as long as I sign up for a new number on that line, Verizon won’t hit me with an early termination fee, since it’s clear I’m not “ditching” them completely and that I intend to fulfill my contract.

Of course, the store reps I later talked to said something very different after I ported my number, which is why I recommend calling them before you do anything. If your carrier has, somewhere on record, that you called customer service and they promised to waive the fee, you’ll save yourself a lot of hassle later on.

Step Two: Port Your Number Through Google

is the easiest part. Head to Google Voice’s Settings and click on the “Change / Port” link under the Phones tab. They’ll give you a bunch of warnings, but once you finish agreeing to all the terms (and paying Google their $20—which is all you should have to pay throughout the process) your porting should be underway. After that, it’s just a waiting game. I still had full cell service until my number finished porting, which I didn’t expect. When it’s done, you’ll get an email notification and then it’s time to head down to the Verizon/AT&T/T-Mobile/whatever store and complete the most difficult part of the process—opening a new line.

Step Three: Get Your New Cell Phone Number

This was the most complicated part, but it still wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. It was more of a hassle for Verizon than it was for me; I just had to stand around and wait for them to figure out how to give me a new number on the same line (apparently, it’s more difficult than it sounds).

Full size

Once my number was ported, I went straight to the Verizon store to get a new number for my cellphone. I explained my request to the guy at the counter, and he looked at me a little confused at first. I found it a little more helpful to ignore the Google Voice talk completely and just explain that I had, essentially, ported my old Verizon number to another carrier, but still wanted to keep that line on Verizon, just with a new number. I mentioned Google Voice, but didn’t explain the service in detail since, in the end, it is no different than if you’d just ported to another carrier.The first roadblock we ran into was that the line was still disconnected, since Google had just finished the port and it hadn’t yet “finished” in Verizon’s system, or something like that. Essentially, they said it would take one or two days before I could use that line again—so they put me on an individual month-to-month plan for the next day or two, then switched me back to my normal family plan under the new number once that line reopened. It all seemed very strange to me, but in the end, the manager was extremely helpful, and said he’d waive any fees I incurred from that $30 month-to-month plan I was on in the interim (which was probably only 5 or 6 bucks—but again, helpful).

I thought I was in the clear, and then one of the guys mentioned that because I’d cancelled my contract, I would be getting an early termination fee. I explained that I talked to a customer service rep the day before, and sure enough, they saw the notes on the account and immediately waived the fee. They re-activated my phone with the new number, and I was on my way, still having paid only $20 and a half hour of my time for the entire process. Photo by jfingas.

The Bottom Line

Everyone you talk to is going to be a bit different, so don’t worry if someone tells you that waiving those fees isn’t possible. If your first customer service rep is a pain, call again later and talk to someone else. You’re not doing anything sinister, here, so eventually someone’s bound to understand that you aren’t trying to buck the system and help you out. And, the more notes you can get in their computers ahead of time, the quicker the process is going to be once you actually get to the store.

The more polite you are, and the less you get frustrated with the store employees (who, granted, can and very well may seem dumbfounded at your requests), the more likely you are to get through the process without any hassle or extra fees. Remember that Google Voice is still a young (and strange) service, and very few people you talk to are going to even know what it is, let alone understand how it works (Frankly, the less you talk about it, the better). Overall, I found the process went smoother than I thought it would, and found it much easier than trying to get my friends to start using a new number. Surprisingly, everyone I dealt with at the Verizon store was more cooperative than half of my friends were the first time I tried to switch to Google Voice. If you’re serious about using Google Voice full time, I highly recommend checking out the number porting service.

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If you’ve ported your number already (or you try this method), let us know your experience in the comments. Everyone’s is going to be a little different, and the more experiences we have out in the open, the easier it’s going to be for those in the future that try it out.

AT&T iPhone4 over twice as many dropped calls vs Verizon iPhone 4

AT&T vs. Verizon iPhone: pretty equal, except for those dropped calls

By Chris Foresman, ArsTechnica April 5, 2011 4:43 p.m. EDT | Filed under: Mobile

AT&T iPhone 4 users had a dropped call rate of 4.8 percent — more than double that of Verizon iPhone 4 users.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Verizon users reported just 1.4 percent of calls were dropped unexpectedly

While AT&T users reported a 4.6 percent rate of dropped calls

If voice calls are a primary reason you use a smartphone, Verizon is probably a better choice

(ArsTechnica) — The latest mobile phone user survey from market research firm ChangeWave reveals similar levels of overall satisfaction between iPhone 4 users on Verizon versus those on AT&T.

However, Verizon iPhone 4 users seem to suffer from dropped calls far less often than their AT&T peers, supporting early anecdotal evidence from Verizon iPhone users.

“In terms of overall satisfaction the two iPhones are virtually indistinguishable,” according to ChangeWave vice president of research Paul Carton. In March, 82 percent of Verizon iPhone 4 users reported being very satisfied with the device, while 80 percent of AT&T iPhone users reported the same. Only two percent reported any dissatisfaction with the device on either carrier.

Half of Verizon smartphone users mulling switch to iPhone

That doesn’t mean users on Verizon don’t see at least one significant benefit: fewer dropped calls. Verizon iPhone 4 users reported a dropped call rate of 1.8 percent. AT&T iPhone 4 users, in contrast, had a dropped call rate of 4.8 percent — more than double that of Verizon iPhone 4 users.

That difference isn’t limited to iPhones, though. Comparing dropped call rates for all mobile users on all four carriers, Verizon users reported just 1.4 percent of calls were dropped unexpectedly, while AT&T users reported a 4.6 percent rate. T-Mobile and Sprint users reported rates of 2.3 percent and 2.7 percent respectively.

16% of AT&T customers ready to jump ship for Verizon iPhone

A look at ChangeWave’s historical data suggests that AT&T is actually improving. At the height of the iPhone 4 release, AT&T users were reporting dropped call rates as high as 6 percent — the highest rate recorded by ChangeWave’s survey since tracking began in 2008. At the same time, however, Verizon has also been improving. The 1.4 percent rate is the lowest recorded since 2008.

While our own testing didn’t reveal much of a difference in dropped calls, ChangeWave’s results jibe with the accepted dogma about using an iPhone on Verizon versus AT&T — namely, that dropped calls were much less of a problem.

If voice calls are a primary reason you use a smartphone, Verizon is likely to be a better choice if you don’t want your calls to unexpectedly cut themselves short.

COPYRIGHT 2010 ARSTECHNICA.COM

Top 5 Facebook Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Leyl Master Black

(Mashable)

about Facebook® Recommend

The Facebook® Recommend button is incorporated only in select, public areas of the American Express OPEN website. To learn more about the Facebook® Recommend button, click here.

Mar 28, 2011 -

While Facebook marketing is on the rise among small businesses, many are still struggling to master the basics.

 

“Many people have difficulty with just the basic page set up,” says social media marketing consultant Nicole Krug. “For example, I still see people setting up their business as a profile page instead of a business page. I have other clients who jumped into Groups when they came out and have divided their fan base.”

 

Here are five more common Facebook marketing mistakes to avoid:

 

1. Broadcasting

 

Ask any social marketing consultant what the number-one no-no is on Facebook, and he’ll likely tell you it’s “broadcasting” your messages instead of providing fans with relevant content and engaging on an continual basis.

 

“With Facebook, marketers of any size can do effective, word-of-mouth marketing at scale for the very first time. But Facebook is all about authenticity, so if your company is not being authentic or engaging with customers in a way that feels genuine, the community will see right through it,” says Facebook spokeswoman Annie Ta.

Want to read more about social-network marketing? Check these out:

• Are Social Media Relationships Frail And Fleeting?
• 10 Free Tools That Can Help Your Site Rank Above The Rest
• Friend First, Sell Later

 

Peter Shankman, social media consultant, entrepreneur and author of “Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World,” agrees.

 

“Your job is to interact, not just to broadcast,” says Shankman. “Fans are looking for a reason to connect with you, and they’re showing you that by clicking ‘Like.’ Your job is to give them a reason to stay.”

 

According to Andy Smith, co-author of “The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change,” many businesses immediately ask how Facebook is going to make them money and have that be the focus, as opposed to trying to engage customers and provide a meaningful, authentic online experience. “Marketers need to recognize that people go to Facebook to make a connection or feel like part of a community,” says Smith.

 

2. Not Investing Adequate Time

 

Another common mistake is underestimating the amount of time a successful Facebook strategy entails. Many social media consultants report seeing a pervasive “set it and forget it” mentality among small businesses.

 

“Some small business owners are under the impression that if they set up a page on Facebook, that’s all they have to do. They think people will just naturally come and want to be a fan of their product or service,” says Taylor Pratt of Raven Internet Marketing Tools. “But it takes much more of a commitment than that.”

 

It’s not just fan growth that will suffer from this approach—it may also hurt your relationships with existing fans, particularly customers who have come to expect timely responses to their posts and queries.

 

“Unlike traditional advertising methods such as a radio spot or a Yellow Pages listing, you can’t just create a Facebook Page and just let it run its course,” says Alex Levine, a social media strategist at Paco Communications. “Creating a Facebook page is the first of many steps, but the page needs to be updated and monitored constantly.”

 

3. Being Boring or Predictable

When they’re thinking about marketing, some business owners forget that Facebook is a social place where people share things they find funny, interesting or useful with their friends. Think about what kind of content your fans would actually want to share when planning your posts.

 

Shankman also cautions against becoming too predictable. “Status updates by themselves get boring. But then again, so do photos, videos and multimedia as a whole. Your job is to mix it up. The moment you become predictable, boring or annoying, they’ll hide you from their feed. So keep it varied and personal—a video here, a photo here, a tag of one of your fans here.”

 

Creating too much “filler” content by auto-publishing content from your blog or Twitter feed can also derail your efforts. Joseph Manna, community manager at Infusionsoft, recommends using Facebook’s native publishing tools to gain the most benefit from Facebook.

 

“Whatever you do, don’t automate everything,” says Manna. “It’s nice to ‘set and forget,’ but the risk is two-fold: publishing systems sometimes have issues, and Facebook places low-priority on auto-published content.”

 

4. Failing to Learn About Facebook Mechanics and Tools

 

Since Facebook is a relatively new medium, some businesses have yet to explore all its functionality and they’re missing out on creating an optimal brand experience.

 

“Many small businesses do not take advantage of the tools to introduce themselves to the Facebook audience,” says Krug. “For example, the ‘Info’ tab is rarely utilized well, and very few small businesses [create] a custom welcome page.”

 

Krug also sees frequent mistakes around one of the most basic elements of Facebook presence: the profile image. “Most companies upload a version of their logo, but the resulting thumbnail image that shows up in news feeds often only captures a few letters in the middle of their logo—this partial, meaningless image is then how they’re branded throughout Facebook,” says Krug.

 

Facebook Insights, Facebook’s built-in analytics system, is also often overlooked, and with it the opportunity to analyze post-performance to see what types of content gets the most engagement.

 

5. Violating Facebook’s Terms

 

Not only is it critical to know how Facebook works and what tools are available, it’s also important to know the rules of the road—something that many businesses miss.

 

“Every day I see organizations endangering the communities they are growing by violating the terms they agreed to when their Facebook presence was created,” says small business marketing consultant Lisa Jenkins.

 

What are the most common violations? Some build a community on a personal page instead of a proper Facebook Page. Others fail to abide by Facebook’s rules around running contests. And don’t even think about “tagging” people who are in an image without their permission.

 

“Tagging people to get their attention is not only a violation of Terms but can be reported by those you are tagging as abusive behavior on your part—which brings your violation to Facebook’s attention and opens your page’s content to review,” warns Jenkins.

 

To avoid these common mistakes, invest time in learning about the Facebook platform, educate yourself on how to build and sustain an audience, and don’t forget to engage with people like you do in real life.

 

“What sets small businesses apart from large companies is their ability to make personal connections with customers,” says Ben Nesvig of FuzedMarketing. “They tend to forget this when they join Facebook, yet it’s their biggest strength and asset.”

4 Ways to Set Up a Storefront on Facebook

by Sarah Kessler

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum

With more than 500 million active users on Facebook, there are more potential customers using Facebook than there are logging into eBay and Amazon combined.

Most of these users don’t see the site as a purchasing platform, but more and more businesses are adding an option to use the social networking site to browse and buy their products. These four Facebook apps offer flexible options for adding a storefront to your business page.

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1. Payvment

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Free beta app Payvment allows you to handle your entire e-commerce operation through Facebook. The app allows you to accept credit card and PayPal payments, which are credited to your PayPal account. You can customize charges for shipping and choose whether to charge sales tax.

Unless you disable the option, your products will also appear in searches people make on other Payvment storefronts when they choose to search “all of Facebook.”

Other helpful features include selling multiple quantities of an item from one listing, give discounts to customers who like your page and adding options like sizes or colors to item listings.

Store owners have access to their selling histories and order statuses, and they are able to send messages to buyers through the app. Implementing Payvment’s instant payment notification can help keep on top of orders as they’re made.

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2. Storefront Social

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Shopping cart software Volusion‘s Facebook storefront creates a tab on your business’s Facebook page that allows you to showcase items in your online store. Some templates include options to tweet or share specific items, and shoppers can search by customizable categories or with a search bar. In order to set the store up, you need to install the Storefront Social app. The basic package costs $9.95 per month.

You cannot use the store as your sole storefront because there is no way to complete a transaction using the platform. Rather, people who wish to buy your products are directed to the product URL that you provide.

If you are a seller on eBay or Amazon, you could link to your listings on those sites, as well.

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3. BigCommerce SocialShop

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Like Storefront Social, BigCommerce SocialShop doesn’t allow transactions. Rather, it directs users interested in products to an online store — in this case, a BigCommerce online store — and allows them to share their products on their walls.

Because BigCommerce is a full e-commerce platform, it’s a more extensive Facebook storefront tab option. At $24.99 per month for the most basic package, it’s also the most expensive.

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4. Ecwid

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E-commerce site builder Ecwid also has a Facebook storefront option, but unlike BigCommerce SocialShop, the app allows customers to drag and drop products into a shopping bag and check out without leaving Facebook. You can integrate the same store on your website, MySpace profile, LinkedIn profile, or Tumblr by copying and pasting a widget code.

Basic accounts are free, but selling more than 100 items will cost you $17 per month.

10 Reasons To Buy A Tablet (And 5 Reasons Not To)

10 Reasons To Buy A Tablet (And 5 Reasons Not To)

John Biggs 4 hours ago

You’ve held out for months, waiting and watching the market for some sign of a tablet that you think you’d like. But maybe you’re asking the wrong question. Instead of “Which tablet should I buy?” maybe you should be asking why you need a tablet in the first place?

We’ve written out a brief guide to deciding whether you need a tablet at all. As for a recommendation, the two devices we can unequivocally recommend right now are the iPad and, if you’re into Android, the Galaxy Tab (although there is some talk of an upgrade coming soon). However, don’t buy right now. The iPad 2 is on its way and the Xoom, Playbook, and TouchPad, are coming soon as well.

So before you break out the credit card, let’s talk about a few reasons to buy a tablet… and a few reasons not to.

1. Tablets make great e-readers. Although many would complain that the reading experience isn’t nearly as focused as single-purpose e-ink devices, and the text isn’t as legible, these drawbacks haven’t stopped users from cracking open PDFs, comics, long web articles, and so on tablets. Plus kids books are fun in full color, something Kindle can’t yet beat.

2. Tablets are portable productivity stations. There’s nothing like a calendar and an email window on a big screen. Although many of our phones now run PIM applications, the real estate afforded by a tablet makes for a far superior experience.

3. Tablets are better than older laptops. If you don’t need to type a lot, tablets will handle more content than a two-year-old laptop, and there are more modern apps and games.

4. Tablets are great for meetings. While you should probably paying attention during meetings, tablets are a great way to take notes unobtrusively and, when things get boring, play Angry Birds on mute.

5. Tablets are great for sharing photos and 1-on-1 presentations. Tablets are excellent for a communal photo sharing experience and are a boon for insurance adjusters, real estate folks, and salespeople. Having everything in front of you in cool little device sure beats firing up a laptop and running a presentation.

6. Tablets are great for movies and music. There’s nothing better in the car for kids than a copy of Cars or Dora on an iPad. Our kids love it and a tablet costs a bit less than installing soon-to-be-obsolete DVD-powered LCDs in the headrest. I also enjoy taking the iPad on a plane for movies, a job that used to go to the iPod Touch.

7. Tablets are cheaper than a new laptop. Your old coffee table laptop died and you’re thinking about a new netbook. Don’t bother. Tablets, as we said before, are on par or more powerful than a standard ~$500 laptop.

8. Tablets don’t crash. Or at least when they do crash it’s not a big deal. A quick restart is is all it takes to get them back on track.

9. Tablets are good for travel. Tablets usually work with Wi-Fi and 3G networks and the large screen and storage space is great for maps, guides, and dictionaries. Think of your tablet as a Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

10. Tablets are just cool. They make you feel like you’re from the future.

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And now, Five Reasons Tablets Aren’t Ready

1. Are tablets as portable as the phone you already have? You can stick your phone in your pocket and never know it’s there, but can you do the same with an iPad or TouchPad? I don’t think so, unless your name happens to be Baggin’ Saggin’ Barry. Is carrying an extra bag to holster your tablet the end of the world? Clearly not, no, but don’t try to tell me it’s as portable as my handy little Android (or whatever) phone when it’s patently not.

2. Where are the games? And by games I don’t mean things like Angry Birds, with all due respect to our fine feathered friends. Will I be able to play 64-play multi-player in Battlefield with a tablet? Will I be able to waste hundreds of hours playing World of Warcraft? What about Crysis 2? Tablets may have their place in the world, but playing real games to the fullest will always require a discrete GPU-backed PC.

3. How much work can you do on one of these things? Do they run Photoshop? How long will it take to render video? My guess is that my desktop PC, with its overclocked (to 4.0GHz) quad-core processor and hundreds of gigabytes of free space, will be able to render a video 800 times in succession before a tablet can render a video just once.

4. “You can browse the Web with a tablet while watching TV on your couch! And movies look great on them!” All fair points, but I can already browse the Web on my couch with my battle-tested laptop, so why get another device to do the same thing? That doesn’t make much sense, does it? As for movies, well, I prefer watching them on with a proper setup—Blu-ray player, big screen TV, surround sound, the works—as opposed to watching them cramped on a train, or even hunched over in bed.

5. Something better will come along in a few months. Remember when netbooks were all the rage a couple of years ago? The future of computing, and so forth. You barely see them mentioned anymore, and that’s because tablets are the new soup du jour. In four years we’ll all be writing “Remember tablets?” articles, lamenting having spent all that money on a silly piece of transitionary technology.

With Devin Coldewey and Nicholas Deleon

EVERYONE PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YO

EVERYONE PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOUR KIDS DO ONLINE!! I WAS CONTACTED TO DO FORENSICS ON A PC OF A MISSING 13 YR OLD GIRL. SHE HAS BEEN MISSING FOR 4 DAYS. I JUST GOT THE CALL THAT THEY FOUND HER IN OHIO WITH 2 CONVICTED SEX OFFENDERS WHO SHE HAD BEEN CHATTING ONLINE WITH!!! PLEASE PLEASE PAY ATTENTION!