Mind Maps are a way of visually organizing information that help you identify and understand the structure of a subject at a glance. They allow you to create logical connections between concepts that show how pieces of information fit together, providing you with a “map” of your ideas, processes, and concepts.

You can use mind maps for many things such as outlining presentations, ebooks, and content plans, engaging in logical problem solving, and mapping out user experiences online and in the real world.

Popularized by British psychologist Tony Buzan, mind maps differ from conventional note taking or planning by presenting a non-linear form, which is moe akin to brain storming and the way the mind creates. Buzan posits that mind mapping is the most superior form of note taking because it helps avoid the “semi-hypnotic trance” state that other methods induce, i.e., it’s a lot less boring to use than Word. According to Wikipedia:

Buzan also argues that the mind map uses the full range of left and right human cortical skills, balances the brain, taps into the alleged “99% of your unused mental potential”, as well as intuition (which he calls “superlogic”).

Whether or not mind maps unlock the brain’s full potential, they offer a useful tool to the content creator and marketer alike.

Mind Mapping Best Practices

There is no “right way” to do mind maps. By definition then are a free form medium, but there are some suggested best practices to help make your mind maps more effective.

When considering using mind maps, be aware of this basic terminology:

• Branch: refers to the lines sprouting out from each idea to show sub-concepts and new ideas; grouped branches will be part of the same sub-concept
• Node: refers to the shape or container where each piece of content on the map lives (content can be text, image or symbol)
• Main Node: the main concept, usually the title of the mind map itself, which lives at the center of the map
• Parent Node: a node that lives above another node; demonstrates a more general part of the concept
• Child Node: a node that lives below another node; demonstrates a more specific part of the concept
• Sibling Node: a node that lives on the same level as other nodes; demonstrates a “grouped” concept
• Connections: show relationships between ungrouped nodes; usually demonstrated by a dashed line and arrow running across the page

Here are 10-best practices for mind maps:

1. What’s the BIG IDEA – start in the center with the main idea of your map, and consider using an image to represent it rather than just text
2. Mix It Up – you want your mind map to be visually appealing without being too cluttered; for REALLY visually appealing mind maps check out the mind map art movement. Use a mix of images, colors (at least 3), and dimensions (font, node, and, branch sizes) to break up the look of your mind map
3. Keywords and Phrases – similar to any kind of writing, select the keywords and phrases that best describe your idea. Don’t worry about editing in the beginning, the idea is to get it all down (you can change the sibling, group, and connect levels later).
4. One Line for Each Word or Image - each word or image should sit on it’s own branch and node. After the first iteration of your map is complete, you can go back and fill in each node with the content of your concept. Be sure to bold or CAPITALIZE the keyword if you choose to write directly on your mind map.
5. From BIG to Small – start with the center concept, using thicker lines for the initial branches, which get thinner as they radiate from the center concept.
6. Use Hyperlinks – almost every mind mapping tool will allow you to insert hyperlinks to the text of nodes (see below for a list of mind mapping tools); use links to reference bigger pieces of information, helpful resources, or anything else helpful to fleshing out the concept presented by the mind map
7. Use Multimedia – some mind mapping tools allow you to embed multimedia into the mind map, such as audio or video; consider using this to present concepts that cannot be captured on the map, but that are vital to the presentation of the idea.
8. Be Yourself – there is no right way to do mind mapping. Even this list is just a collection of suggested best practices. Play around with mind mapping and develop your own style.
9. Number Nodes – once you’ve done the brain dump, consider numbering your nodes to give the map a more hierarchical structure that’s easy to follow.
10. Start Simple – if you are simply looking to visually structure your thoughts then keep it simple; don’t go for high design or fancy background; don’t worry about node shape, branch thickness and length, or font differentiations; just get your ideas out. Once your concepts are “on paper” you can go back and stylize all you want; feel free to make mind map art if it’s what you want to do, but start simple.

Again, these are suggested best practices only. You can no doubt expand upon this list (feel free to do so in the comments!) or choose only a few of these practices, the point is to give this medium a try for yourself and see where it goes.

295 Mind Mapping Tools: Best of the Best

There are nearly 300 mind mapping tools that are currently available. Mind-Mapping.org maintains a comprehensive list of them with screen shots, descriptions, and links to the tools. Rather than replicate the masterful work they have done and continue to do, I will point you to their resource:

CLICK HERE for a list of 295 mind mapping tools.

Here are the best of the best from the list:

MindNode (Mac; free or $20 for premium; Program) – one of my most used and loved applications, MindNode very easy to use and was created with the user in mind. It features a very simple interface for quickly creating visual appealing mind maps. You can integrate multi-media, including audio, video, and pictures to nodes. If you have a Mac this is the program to get.

Click here to get MindNode.

FreeMind (PC, Mac, Linux; free; Browser Based) - open source project that gives you some basic mind mapping functionality (drag and drop nodes, folding nodes, XML export, etc.) in an easy-to-use and clean tool. Weak spots of this tool include: no pictures or multimedia in nodes, embedded links on maps not always functional, and not very customizable graphically. One bonus feature is it allows you to view the files on your computer as a mind map, giving you a visual representation of what’s in your harddrive.

Click here to download FreeMind.

 Spiderscribe (PC, Mac, Linux; Browser Based) – currently in Beta, Spiderscribe is a free (for now) online mind mapping tool with a clean design and user experience. It easily incorporates multimedia with the click of the button including pictures, Google Maps, and easy file integration. It can be used for online collaboration as well giving you the ability to share maps both privately and publicly.

Click here to join SpiderScribe.

Mind42 (PC, Mac, Linux; Browser Based) – The homage to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy alone should prompt you to check out this tool. Dubbed as a collaborative mind mapping tool, it offers similar functionality to SpiderScribe, although without the pretty packaging.

Click here to register for Mind 42.

Mindomo (PC, Mac, Linux; Browser Based; free & subscription based) – Mindomo offers a flexible and powerful online mind mapping tool. You can embed multimedia, spell check, collaborate and showcase your maps, and more. It also allows you to export your maps in 10 different formats.

Click here to sign up for Mindomo.

Xmind (PC, Mac, Linux; Browser Based; free & subscription $6/month) – XMind has become a standard choice of mind mappers everywhere for its ease of use and navigability. Besides basic mind maps, you can also create fishbone, organizational, tree, and logic charts, which can be exported as images, text, or HTML. The free account on XMind.net allows you to share charts online and embed them into blogs and web sites.

What are your favorite mind mapping tools and best practices?

What Linkedin Groups Should You Join?

There are literally thousands of groups you can choose from. Depending on your goals in doing so, you can be very strategic and selective (only joining groups you will actually do stuff in) or all inclusive (joining every group that is remotely related to your work or interests).

As with most things, a middle ground approach is likely best, because it will be easier to keep track of what is going on in the group, help you to make more meaningful interactions with other members, and keep your email inbox from getting too cluttered with group notifications.

Managing Emails from Linkedin: Keeping the Inbox Clean

Linkedin has a very good notification system to let you know what is happening in the groups you join. The default options, however, are set to send you the maximum amount of notifications, which can result in an email pile up from the site.

Here is a simple way to change the notifications you receive from Linkedin groups:

1. Go to the group that is sending you a ton of notifications
2. On the group’s main page, just under the logo, click the tab “More” and on the pull down menu that appears, click “My Settings”
3. You will see four notification categories that you can check or uncheck:
1.  Activity – this will send you a new message for each new discussion in the group; deal if you are managing the group, annoying you are in a group with any kind of regular activity
2. Digest Email – this sends you a digest of all activities in the group. You can adjust your frequency (recommended) to be daily or weekly.
3. Announcements – this allows the group manager to send you email directly, but only once a week. I find that managers are usually good with this function, and do not abuse it. Check it if your group manager is sending you useful exclusives like free ebooks, invites to webinars, or other goodies.
4. Member Messages – this allows group members to send you messages directly to your email box. If you are an influencer or in a group with like minded professionals that you would like to deepen your online relationships with then check this box. Uncheck it if you find that your group is full of trolls, spammers, or self interested consultants from foreign countries who just want to sell you something.
4. Note: there is a box underneath your email preference in the group that says, “Updates” and allows you to change your settings for group Network Updates. This will change what you see on your profile news feed, and when you click Account Settings, you will have a menu of many options to choose from of which network activity you want to see on your feed.

Take some time to play around with notification settings and be selective about what you choose to receive. Nothing contributes faster to Linkedin burnout than getting a deluge of emails from the system.

Finding the Perfect Linkedin Groups Using Skills

Another section of this series will talk about Linkedin Skills in depth, but for this section we will briefly touch upon Skills as a means to finding relevant groups to join.

Very briefly, Linkedin Skills is a feature on the site that lets you search relevant industries and positions and then displays various pieces of Linkedin content related to that search.

You can reach the Skills main page by going to the Linkedin toolbar (shows on every page at the top, just under the Linkedin log), clicking on “More” and then “Skills” on the drop down menu.

On the Skills main page, you want to enter an industry, position, or term. The resulting Skills page will then display a bunch of great information, but for your purposes, scroll down to the results for Groups. Right from this page you can view a description of the group and join it if you want.

The results are almost identical to what you would find if you used the search window and choose “groups” as your search parameter, but it is so much cooler to get these results with all the others Skills content, such as industry overview, growth chart, other professionals in this area, and more.

How to Use Linkedin Groups (Best Practices)

Once you’ve picked the perfect groups the next step is using them. Of course you can choose to be a lurker (this is even a preferred strategy at first, see below), but you will eventually want to get into the group and make some stuff happen. Before doing so, you should be very clear about what you want from the group.

The Linkedin Learning Center provides some points on the benefits to group membership, all of which point to suggested best practices:

• Quickly discover the most popular discussions in your professional groups.
• Have an active part in determining the top discussions by liking and commenting.
• Follow the most influential people in your groups by checking the Top Influencers board or clicking their profile image to see all their group activity.
• See both member-generated discussions and news in one setting.
• Easily browse previews of the last three comments in a discussion.
• Find interesting discussions by seeing who liked a discussion and how many people commented.

A lot of the above points are passive ways to start using your group and getting a feel for it.

Before discussing the best practices related to these points, you will want to be aware of your group’s visibility and what that means, because the visibility of the group will likely impact what information you share, how you say it, and who you connect to from the group.

Linkedin Group Visibility: Public v. Private. Depending on the groups’ subject matter and a membership, a group manager can choose to make a group public or private. Public groups you can join right away. Just click “Join” and the content is open to you. Private groups you need to request membership and a group owner then needs to approve you. Don’t be upset if you are rejected from the group. Sometimes you will request membership to groups that you are not really suited for. Other times, the group owners are just di*ks. Either way, chances are that if you are going to become a valuable member of a group, you will be let in.

Note: there are also “Secret” groups, which you can set up for collaboration or other purposes that you want kept super private. These groups are invisible to other Linkedin members and do not show up in search results. The only way to bring in new members is by invitation. You can imagine the uses of such a group such as delivering premium content, collaborating on a business project, or providing a networking forum for high-level people who don’t want to be bothered by solicitations or unqualified inquiries.

What should you do when you get in the group? Listen. It’s tempting to jump right into the conversation and start showing everyone how wonderful you are with links to your blog, insights on discussions, and comments on shared links.

For the first day or two, just get a flavor for the group. See who the influencers are. Take note of what kinds of things resonate with group members and the tone of the group.

Once you’ve given yourself 48-hours of quiet observation, plug away!

Start sharing things that will be valuable TO THE GROUP. I can’t over emphasize this. Our first instinct is to use the group as our own personal sounding board or PR platform. This is self serving and rarely has the intended effect in the group. I’m not saying don’t share your stuff, just take some time to share the stuff that is really going to be of use to others in the group, and put it out there in a way that is inviting people to solve their problem rather than blatantly plug yourself (highlight the benefits to them).

Becoming an influencer. You will note in the bottom right hand corner, a box that shows the week’s top influencers. The way this is calculated is based on posts, responses, and thumbs ups. The top 5-contributors are highlighted in that little box, with a bar showing their influence. The difficulty of getting on this leader board depends on how active your group is. In a relatively quiet group you can easily ascend the ranks (part of your strategy may be getting into such a group and quickly becoming an influencer), in larger more active groups you’ll really have your work cut out for you.

Quick Tip: Even posting simple questions like “Coffee in the moring: must have or skip it?” can contribute to your influence, especially if people comment on it. Try to find opportunities where posting quick items make sense in the group; links to great content are especially helpful here.

Connect to People in the Group. The section on hoarding connections detailed connections in depth. For Linkedin group best practices, you just need to know that one of the “in’s” you have for connecting with people on Linkedin who you might not have otherwise had an inroad to is common group membership. Here is the place to put that to work. Go through the member list of the group, and start connecting with people on it that would further your goals in the group.

The main point of group membership is GIVE. It’s that simple. Membership in any group, whether online, in the real world, or otherwise is the pay it forward principle. The more you contribute the higher your status in that group. Find opportunities to comment on and promote content of others in the group, share content that will benefit the group members, and make friends. The more generous you are to your fellow group members the better the experience will be for all.

That’s it for group membership; the next installment will focus on starting your own group.

For those of you not jargon inclined, CRM is short for Customer Relationship Management, and companies often invest tons of money in complex systems, that few people understand, just to stay on top of their CRM.

In a Linkedin world, however, many small businesses, entrepreneurs, and savvy businesses (those with money but who run slim) are in for a treat: Linkedin has just about everything you need to run a successful CRM system FOR FREE.

Linkedin Relationship Management “LRM” is a pretty easy thing if you abide by some simple principles and keep it simple. The framework for LRM runs on three pillars:

1. Hoarding
2. Sorting
3. Exporting

This post will go in depth on each of these.

Hoarding: Breaking 500+ Connections Without Breaking a Sweat

Everything we are about to say, regarding hoarding connections, will be attacked below when we talk about sorting.

Don’t let that stop you.

At this point your mission is to get that little 500+ sign next to your connections without thinking about whether you will actually ever use them. Similar to the first draft writing process, you just want to connect; don’t edit yourself.

WARNING: read this whole section before actually implementing this advice to avoid getting your Linkedin account shut down! Remember: we are going for business connections, not spam here.

Read on.

Connect to Everybody

Unlike Facebook, Linkedin is a professional network. It works best when you can connect to everyone and anyone who may be relevant to your work. The Linkedin network itself gives you some quick and easy means of building your network fast.

4-Quick Ways of Building Your Network on Linkedin

Here are 4-quick tips for building your network on Linkedin:

1. Accept all invites you get as long as the person reaching out is not a spammer (someone looking to connect just to sell your stuff)
2. Take the time to scroll through the many pages of Suggested Connections. Linkedin has a pretty powerful algorithm for suggesting relevant connections. At first this is based on the information you share about yourself on your profile, such as past and current employment, educational background, and even groups. As you build your network, the suggested connections expand into secondary and third tier connections
3. Import you connections from mail services like Gmail and Yahoo or even Facebook to see if they are also on Linkedin. If they are, Linkedin will provide an easy, one-click invite form to connect to these people. If they are not, then you will be prompted to invite them to join you on Linkedin.
4. Groups are gold when it comes to hoarding contacts. Linkedin has a pretty strong policy about spamming potential connections and being a “network gremlin” (arbitrarily boosting your network and pissing off members who don’t know you from Gizmo). The beauty of joining a group, besides the promise of content and camaraderie, is that you are provided with an instant “in” with other group members. You have a relevant context with which to reach out to them and add them to your network. Of course it doesn’t hurt if you are also a meaningful group contributor.

There are other means of building connections digitally, such as getting active on Linkedin Q&A and connecting with people who you interact with there or using the Skill search to locate people related to an industry or discipline you are involved with.

Note: using Skills to find connections is more of a blind approach and may be more risky in terms of people rejecting the invite and possibly flagging you.

Old School Networking: How to Use The Rolodex, The Little Black Book, and Business Cards in Social Media

Once you’ve exhausted the digital means of creating a killer network, step back a century and pull out the old Rolodex or stack of business cards you’ve been hoarding in a drawer somewhere. Use search to see if any of these people are on Linkedin. Be sure to take advantage of the option to add a personal message in connecting to business card people you haven’t had a recent connection with, giving them a context to accept you as a new connection and reminding them about where you met them.

HELPFUL HINT: when sending out invites you have the option of inserting a personal message to give someone a context in which to accept your invite (it will also help prevent you from getting flagged as a spammer!). Rather than reinventing the wheel each time a personal note is needed, take the time to create an inventory of templates for different contexts. These can be stored in a Word, Excel, or other file, and should be readily available to you to use when needed.

Here are some templates you can use in your networking:

Group Template – Hi [NAME]: we are both members of the [GROUP NAME]. I wanted to connect to other members who have an interest or expertise in [TOPIC] and thought that we might share this in common. Looking forward to connecting with you, and I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks! [YOUR NAME]

Business Card Template – Hi [NAME]: I hope you are well. We met at [INSERT PLACE] and you gave me your card. I see that you are on Linkedin, and I’d like to connect with you so we can stay in touch. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
NOTE: This is an easy way to rekindle relationships, convert warm leads, and build your list all at the same time.

GtD for Linkedin (Sorting)

Connections are overrated. (Let me explain).

Linkedin and other networks are designed to encourage connecting between people. We connect and connect and connect, never stopping to consider Dunbar’s number.

According to the Dunbar’s Number, a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships, the human mind is only capable of efficiency in a network of 100 to 230 people, commonly reduced to 150 as the benchmark (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar’s_number).

Those of us who break the 500+ barrier are way past the threshold of meaningful relationships, and are really just hoarding connections. This isn’t a bad thing though since in both business and social networking the expectation is that few relationships will be meaningful, while most will be casual. This fits in nicely with the “Lurker Paradigm” inherent in social media, which says that 10% of the people in a community will produce meaningful contributions, while 90% will observe. If we think of our network this way, 10% of the connections will be maintained with an active, meaningful interactions, while 90% will be more inactive.

Tagging Your Linkedin Contacts Creates a Powerful (free) CRM System

Linkedin provides tools for sorting your contacts into different contexts. Some of these are pre-populated from the Linkedin system itself, allowing you to quickly sort by lists. The most powerful one, however, is the tagging tool, which allows you to add a custom tag to any contact in your list.

Tags circumvent Dunbar’s Number in letting you put context to the relationship in a searchable filter that is preserved efficiently on Linkedin. The best part is that you don’t have to update any information in your gorilla CRM system, because regardless of how the person updates their profile you have complete control over the custom tagging and context you put them in.

Let’s take a quick look at the pre-populated sorting tool before going in depth about tags.

Pre-Populated Sorting

Linkedin provides some pre-populated contexts for sorting your contacts. For each of these, the number of connections in that pre-populated listing will show in parenthesis on the right.

• Last Names: a straight forward, alphabetical index of your contacts.
• Companies: for any company that two or more of your connections have in common, a listing for sorting by company will appear.
• Locations: a straight forward, geographical index of your contacts.
• Industry: an index of your contacts by industry
• Recent Activity: see the next paragraph for why this rocks.

Recent Activity is perhaps the most interesting of the pre-populated lists. It will show you two indexes of connections: (1) new connections and (2) connections with new connections.

The benefit to this list is in going beyond the mere invite to cultivating the online relationship. It is a common practice of connection hoarders to stop once the connection is made. This is a huge mistake and a missed opportunity. Right when the connection is made, it is still very ripe and presents a prime time to begin creating new contexts that can open doors for what you are doing now.

One way of keeping connections fresh, both for new and older connections, is sharing “knowledge gifts.” A knowledge gift can be anything that you think the connection would want to know about: a link to an article relevant to their work, a white paper, a legal form or business template, (really anything that helps them do their work better).

Tagging

This feature allows you to create lists by tagging contacts with fully customizable labels. Using the tags across contacts puts them all on the same, searchable list. Also, Linkedin pre-populates some of the tags based on the relationship information that was entered when the connection was made.

Tags are the top most filter on your connections page. Clicking the little triangle expands the list of pre-populated tags. These are created from the radio button that was selected when the invite to connect was made.

There are six-pre-populated tags.

• Group Members: these are people who connected with you on the basis of being in a common group. While neither the tag nor the list show which group you have in common (the list is compiled from all people you share a group with), you can easily find this out for individuals by clicking on their profile.
• Friends: these are people who connected with you using the friend field, one of the most innocuous on the form for Linkedin. Chances are a percentage of the people who connected with you in this way are not really personal friends. It may be worth taking the time to remove the friend tag from their entry, and adding a tag “I hardly know this guy” to their profile (or whatever other context you want).
• Colleagues: these are people who either worked with you in the past or currently work with you. For internal networking purposes there is value in adding a second tag to these connections indicating other relevant information (example: C-level executives or My Team/Direct Reports).
• Partners: this tag comes from people you connected to that indicated “you’ve done business together.”
• Classmates: obviously people you went to school with. You may want to add an additional tag to indicate which school, especially if your a brainy type with lots of degrees from different institutions.
• Uncategorized: people who you have connected to by picking the “Other” option. These people are ripe for custom tagging, and it is to your benefit to go through the list and sort them.

How Should You Use Linkedin Tags and Why Are They Important?

Besides the obvious reason of sorting your contacts list for filtering and quick reference, their are two key benefits to tagging on Linkedin.

Targeted Bulk Inmail Messaging. If you want to send a message through Linkedin to multiple people, tagging them with a context that lumps them into a list together allows you to send a single mess to up to 50-recipients at a time.

Just go to your list, click Select All (this checks the recipients), and click Send a Message.

Relationship Management. There is an excellent article from FastFedora.com, which details a system for managing relationships on Linkedin.

The author, Trevor Lohrbeer, discusses four pillars for his system. With his tags he aims to:

1. Build a few strong relationships
2. Maintain a large set of weak relationships
3. Remember people
4. Help others to connect to people (he’s a true Trust Agent!)

Trevor uses six questions to sort his lists, each with it’s own set of tages to choose from.

• Where did we meet? Met [major city | event | type of event]
• How did we meet? By [In-Person | Phone | E-mail | Web]
• How do I want to manage the relationship? By [In-Person | Phone | E-mail | Web]
• What type of relationship do we have? As [Vendor | Customer | Prospect | Colleague | Biz Friend | Personal Friend | Relative]
• How strong is the relationship? Is [1 Casual Weak | 2 Casual Strong | 3 Established | 4 Long or Deep | 5 Long and Deep]
• What circumstances surrounded the meeting Via [Referral | Incoming]

The power of tags is in combining them together to tell a story. In the Lohrbeer example, we see that you can use all six contexts with his qualifiers (ex/ Met: in Boston, By: In-Person, etc.), and that such a system easily lets your contacts become more relevant.

Exporting Contacts From Linkedin

This is such a key feature of Linkedin, especially as you start to build a big list of contacts. The ability to export the email and other contact information for your connections gives you the option of adding them to your email management program, other CRM databases (although I would argue that CRM databases are becoming more obsolete as Linkedin becomes even better), and to marketing lists (Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, etc.). By exporting your connections, you can also add them to mobile devices (awesome!).

For some reason Linkedin made the export function really hard to find.

If you go to your Contacts page and scroll to the bottom, you should see a link that says “Export Connections” right above the footer bar.

Alternatively, you can click this link to go directly to the tool:

http://www.linkedin.com/addressBookExport

Once on the export interface, you need to choose which format you want the export file.

Linkedin supports: Outlook .csv, Outlook Express .csv, Yahoo Mail .csv, Mac OS X Address Book .vcf, and vCard .vcf.

NOTE: most programs you would want to use can accept both the .csv and .vcf formats.

For example, I use Gmail Contacts and it will accept all of the formats above.
After you choose your export format, it is just a matter of entering the security image phrase (used to prevent spamming and robots), and clicking export.

Once you have the exported file on your computer, you just need to upload it to whatever contacts program you are using. Simple!

Should Your Business Have a Custom Facebook Page?

All businesses should have a Facebook Page because these pages rank high in search on Google, are highly flexible and customizable, and allow people to easily connect with your brand via the Like button (click here to learn all about Likeographics, the study of targeting people by interests on Facebook). The default pages that Facebook offers, however, are less than effective for a business that has specific goals and products to sell. Remember, Facebook was set up as a digital directory, allowing people to share their lives for free online, through multimedia uploads; it has since morphed into an advertising and sales platform.

The main feature of any Facebook landing page is the Wall or News Feed, a mishmosh of everything happening with that person or business. This is great for people willing to browse through their friends’ pages and cyber stalk exes, but commerce requires focus. A business needs to be able to customize the Facebook landing page experience for both fans (people who have liked the page) and non-fans (people who have not yet liked the page).

NERD ALERT (there is some jargon in this next paragraph): Up until recently, you had to have an understanding of FBML, a special Facebook mark up language used to code custom pages, to create custom tabs and make an experience worth liking your page for. Facebook changed this in March of 2011, and all new Facebook pages are now powered through the use  of iFrames, a basic function of HTML (regular web mark up language), that allows you to display content from an outside website on Facebook.

Think of iFrames like a window from Facebook to your website, so that any page you point the iFrame to, will replicate in Facebook.

How Do I Create a Custom Facebook Page Without Coding?

“Great,” you say, “but I’m still not even really comfortable with this whole iFrame thing. Damn it Jim, I’m a [insert position and your best Dr. McCoy impression here] not a miracle worker!” You are in luck.

There are two options for the non-coding inclined, either of which will work depending on your needs and resources: (1) hire a social marketing firm like My Media Labs to create and maintain a custom page for you or (2) invest in a custom Facebook Page creation tool.

It should be noted at the outset that using a page creator tool without an expertise in managing pages or running social media campaigns is similar to building and running a website on GoDaddy.com or a blog on WordPress using standard templates. The effectiveness of the page is going to be driven by marrying customizations and design to the drag and drop functionality. Facebook page creators just make getting the actual page up easier; they do not create brilliant campaigns or user experiences – that’s what My Media Labs is here for! : )

This post is going to discuss three tools that My Media Labs has used in creating and maintaing pages for clients, and suggest which one reigns supreme.

Caveat Emptor: Beware the Cinderella Factor

All of the tools below are subject to the Cinderalla Factor: if you stop paying the monthly fee, say goodbye to your custom pages. This is important for an Agency to consider when pricing the pages for clients b/c if you fall out of a paying relationship with that client and you have created their page on any of these tools, then you will have to foot the bill to keep that page live for the foreseeable future. One way of accounting for this is to build into your client agreement an annual fee to maintain the cost of the pages across the years and a clause that states “failure to pay the annual fee will result in a removal of custom tabs from your page.”

Tool #1: Splash Lab Social Tab Creator

Out of all three tools that I will talk about here, Splash Lab Social has the easiest sign up process, by far. I just entered my Facebook information and the page did the rest, pulling in my information and current pages (the other two tools have a few other steps, which make for an awkward initial impression). Then I was prompted to request a Business or Agency account, the difference being that a business account is to manage my own businesses page and nothing more, while the agency account helps me manage multiple clients and will be more expensive once the free trial ends (I chose agency).

From there it brings you to a page that says Add a Tab. It’s that easy.

I’m prompted to choose a page that I’m managing, and then asked to choose from nine different templates (this is the middle option for templates – Lujure has 6 and Shortstack has 18).  From there you add your content, and here is where Splash Lab falls short on the other two tools.

Where Splash Lab excels in the amount of templates it allows, it limits you to five types of content, all that need to be uploaded or linked to via Splash Lab (no drag and drop). Here are the five types of content permitted on the page:

1. Image upload
2. YouTube Video
3. RSS Feed
4. Body Text (note: this is WYSIWIG editing, not HTML coding – very limited)
5. Twitter stream

Pricing – this is another area where I think Splash Lab falls short. While cheaper on the front end at $29 per month for a single page (Business User) and $39 per month plus $19 for each additional page (Agency User) you get what you pay for. This is a basic tool to do basic things.

• Business – $29.00/month) – 1 Facebook Page
• Agency – $39.00/month – 1 Facebook Page + additional pages at $19.00/month

While Splash Lab seemed to be a good fit from demo videos and ease of use, it fell short in the content it allowed me to manage. Much of this could be remedied by allowing HTML coding in the Body Text section, but that would also take away from it as a non-coding tool.

Tool #2: Short Stack Labs

Besides having a great name (anything pancake related must be delicious!), Short Stack offers a solid tool creating custom Facebook pages. The sign up process is not as easy as the one for Splash Labs, but you certainly get more for Free with sign up (and even more when you pay).

The interface and dashboard for tab creation is the best of all three tools. It provides you with 18-ready to use template layouts, and from there it is just plugging in your widgets and code (you get to choose among 28 ready-to-use and coded widgets).  Managing and publishing the pages is also super-easy, and requires very little know-how to change things or create more tabs.

My favorite feature, by far, is seamless integration with the picture editing tool Picnik. When you upload a photo it gives you the option of photo editing, which will allow you to crop, resize, sharpen, change colors and more. Even cooler, you can create clickable hotspots on the photo that link to different places (this alone is worth getting a free plan!).

And the free plan is one of the best things about Short Stack: it’s free plan allows you to create as many tabs as you want. In fact, you can create them on as many pages as you want, so long as all of your pages do not exceed 2,000 fans. Here’s some information from Short Stack about their free plan:

The “Surprisingly Free” plan has all of the same great features that the old free plan had, but instead of a fan allowance of 100 across your Pages, we’re giving out a fan allowance of 2,000.

What “Surprisingly Free” plan users are getting:

• Create “fan-reveal” landing pages
• Install to an unlimited number of Pages (one free plan can be used for as many pages as you want, up to 2,000 fans/likes total)
• Multiple tabs per Page
• Contests and Promotions
• Integrations with YouTube, Twitter, MailChimp and (lots) more
• Photo Galleries
• Shopping and product widgets
• Blog integration
• and almost all of our usual stuff

And what do we ask for in return? Just a small ShortStack icon displayed at the bottom of your tab.

It’s actually a small price to pay to get your Facebook Page up and running.

This is ideal for a small business or specialty page, but for anything more enterprising, a professional account will be needed (you’d be surprised how easy it is to reach 2,000 fans with a custom page). Here’s the sticking point for me on Short Stack: the pricing. It works for smaller pages, but consultants who handle multiple pages or businesses that attract more than 2,000 fans can find the costs pile up. The next step up from Free is a ShortStack plan, allowing up to 25,000 fans across all pages for $30 per month (not bad for a single business). Then there is the Full Stack, 100K fans for $75 per month (should be sufficient for just about any semi-or-non-famous entity). Finally, there is the All You Can Eat for $300 per month with no limits.

Now I know what you are thinking: how is this pricing bad? Again, depending on your needs and potential for growth on Facebook, it’s not. The only draw back is really for those of us managing multiple accounts, where it is conceivable that you will break 100K fans between all your clients or brands and then having to pay a hefty $300 per month fee. A potential work around is opening separate accounts for each client or brand, which will likely keep the number of fans lower, but will be a nightmare to manage (analytic reporting is very important on these pages).

Between the three of these products, the potential for hefty monthly fees was the one big turn off for me on Short Stack.

Tool #3: Lujure Assembly Line

Here is the Cadillac of Facebook Tab Managers, if you are consultant or multiple brand manager. In Lujure Assembly Line, the client management interface you get in the top-of-the-line Business Plan looks fantastic, with solid analytic reporting and client management tools. Also, with the option for yearly pricing and an unlimited number of pages, tabs, and Likes it seems, at first glance, as the obvious choice for any consultant or multiple brand manager.

By far, my favorite feature about Lujure is the ability to create overlapping, drag and drop widgets. So for example, if I upload a designed background image, and then want to put a Like button, a Google +1 button, and a Share This button within the image, rather than underneath or on top of it, I can easily do so. It allows you to do this with practically any widget, so you can create what looks like a highly designed Facebook page. It also has intuitive controls to change the sizes of just about any region on the Facebook page, giving you a level of customization that is not so obvious on other tools. You have your choice of 34 widgets to drop onto the page, the most of any of the tools reviewed here, and you can add custom code as well.

Now for the drawbacks: the Free plan sucks. It only lets you put one tab on your Page, which doesn’t really let you test the full capabilities of the tool. Also, the controls are not as smooth for things like contest or form integration (something that Short Stack does very well), and you can only choose from 6 ready to use templates to get your page started (compare to the 18 Short Stack gives you). Also, in the pricing, you can only go up to a Consultant Plan for $27 per month which allows you to maintain 3 Pages, before having to upgrade to the Business Plan for $195 per month – that’s a huge leap for anyone managing multiple pages (with Short Stack you have the $75 per month option before being thrown into triple digits).

It should be noted, however, that Lujure did give one of the best outputs on the tabs I created.

Overall, I think that the Consultant Plan works well if you are managing multiple pages and willing to open multiple Lujure accounts – for the busier social media managers, the Business Plan may be worth it.

The Custom Facebook Tab Creator I Chose Was …

I chose Short Stack to start my Facebook Page Creation. As the cheapest plan for $30 per month allows for at least 25,000 fans it makes sense to use what I found to be the most intuitive and cleanest tool in terms of user experience. That doesn’t mean I’ve counted out Lujure. In fact, I’m strongly considering the Business Plan and yearly payments, which give a 20% discount, if enough clients start wanting custom pages (you can also get an additional 20% off the first year by entering the code APPBISTROFAN at check out, bringing the total price for the first year to around $1400) should I ever exceed 100,000 fans on all my pages (this would require me to jump to the All You Can Eat plan for $300 per month – yuck!).

As this is a project of My Media Labs, it will be like everything else we do: experimental.

For me, the tab creation tools make sense b/c they save me hours of coding. What they do not do, however, is create a custom experience by themselves. I still need to design custom graphics and backgrounds to make the pages pop, run campaigns around the content crafted for the widgets, and promote the pages through ads and other PR means. Like I said earlier in this post, custom Facebook tab creators are not a panacea; they are a tool that in the hands of a competent builder, make creating the house much easier.

If you want to make a custom Facebook page let us know by clicking here.

An old friend died last week.  The circumstances of his death are still not clear: he was in good health, lived alone, and was getting ready to celebrate his 35th birthday that same week.  We hadn’t really hung out in a few years, having gone our separate ways in life, but we’d see each other on Facebook, trade a chat every now and then, and keep generally informed of each others’ life milestones.  When my father told me the terrible news I was shocked; wanting to get a sense of what was happening in his life prior to his death I went to his Facebook page.

His November updates all seemed positive.  My friend had been a survivor of childhood cancer and possessed a courage that I always admired him for.  On November 10th he posted the status update: “22 years ago this Nov. was my last chemo-therapy treatment.  I have been Cancer free since then; Life is good ♥.”  Prior to that, in response to someone asking him how things were going he said, “Life is good – Had a great day so far and it’s not over yet- ♥ this life.”  The final update he posted, just 6-days before his birthday on November 14th, went as follows: “Going to be having a Tattoo party soon at my home.  My two friends are going to come here and Ink people if you want to get something let me know asap and we will work something out.  These are the people that have worked on me so to see their work look at my photos ”.  That was the last Facebook update he ever made.  Police found him in his apartment on November 21st.  The unofficial report, through the grapevine of concerned friends, said that he had been dead for at least four to five days before being found, they did not know the cause of death, and an investigation would be conducted.

Looking at his Facebook page now is a surreal experience.  On his birthday he was already dead.  No one knew that fact until the next day.  Earlier in the week, on his Wall, there was a string of posts wishing him happy birthday, (I remember getting similar birthday posts from “friends” on Facebook, some of whom I hadn’t seen or spoke to in years, wishing me well – part of Facebook etiquette, I guess).  After about 20 or so birthday wishes, the RIP messages began, many more than the birthday wishes.

People posted quick messages like, “RIP brother, you will be missed,” multimedia messages with links to YouTube videos of Pearl Jam’s “Black” or other appropriate songs he would have liked, and some more personal notes, (I have yet to post my note).  What strikes me about this aspect of the tragedy is how we as people are finding new ways to grieve, digitally.  The Facebook Wall has become the virtual wake, if you will, where those of us not local enough or not close enough to be there in person can express our sadness and love to the departed.

When a user dies on Facebook, that persons profile can become “memorialized” by notifying Facebook about the user’s death.  Here is what Facebook says about a memorialized profile:

The process for reporting a death to Facebook is as follows:

These mechanisms are in place to preserve the integrity of the person’s profile and provide the emotional outlet for friends and family.  Someone must have worked with Facebook to clean up my friend’s account b/c many of the birthday messages are now gone.  I’m kind of glad.  It was unsettling to see that string of messages knowing they were posted after the fact.  I’m also glad that I can now go leave my parting words for my friend in the hope that perhaps they’ll bring a little comfort, comfort to those looking at his profile, family, friends, whoever.  Also, I hope this blog post serves as a source of information about handling a death on Facebook and a tribute to my friend.  His legacy of courage and love of life will always live on through those who knew him.

Lurkers was all about how to activate online communities. As I was working in community management at the time, it seemed like a compelling idea since it was a problem I was constantly dealing with. Plus, I had the theory that lurkers actually represented an untapped potential resource that could act in unpredictable ways, and that as a group they didn’t deserve the bad rap they had gotten.

The blog started strong in early 2010, and I was on track to turn it into a book.  I posted consistently through March 2010 and then it died.  In starting my new business/project, My Media Labs, I started doing a blog about social media basics, marketing, blah blah blah.  Each of these have something to do with social media, but what I find is the more “professional” or “niche” I try to go, the more antiseptic my posts become, like I have to present these Fisher Pricified posts that potential customers or readers can easily categorize.  ”That’s what will help my SEO, site visitors, and sales – being put in nice little boxes.”  It’s killing me.

Where’s the passion?  Where’s the experimentation, the love, and the need to get it out there.  Truth be told, striking that balance between passion and commerce is not an easy trick.  Most of us don’t have it figured out.  If we did, we’d all be doing what we loved and getting paid for it.  So here’s the secret: if you hate what you are doing or feel in your gut there needs to be a change: STOP.

You can hit the reset button.  Posts are looking too vanilla, throw some marsh mellow, chocolate cake crunchies, and cake mix in there (mmm … I want ice cream now).  Write something completely off topic and then relate it to your blog theme (posts about how Tonka trucks and playing in sandboxes teach you everything you need to know about product marketing).  Go out there.  Chances are it won’t hurt your SEO to do something different.  Chances are your readers (if you have them) won’t revolt and leave because you did something different.  Who knows, you may even earn a few new readers.

Don’t be afraid to break out of the niche.  The niche will still be there.  You can always go back to writing boring posts again if you want.

The Facebook Ad platform provides an advertising tool that is precise, allows you to control costs, and update your campaigns at any time. Creating an ad is easy; running s successful campaign is not. Luckily, Facebook provides 10 tips for effective advertising on their site.

This presentation adds more depth to the list, brings each tip to life with a visual representation, and provides tactical considerations to help you create the best campaign possible. It’s just a taste of what you can expect in the ebook World War Me: Facebook Advertising That Works, due out in May 2011.