To avoid confusion between a page of a site and a Facebook Page you will notice capitalization on the Facebook ‘Page’.

By offering an enhanced experience to those who like your page you can encourage first time visitors to hit that important button. For example, offer a piece of content or a chance to win something to those who click to like you.

You will need to be able to deal with HTML at an intermediate level to do some of this so if you get stuck or need a hand feel free to contact me and I’ll be happy to help. @chinashopbull

To begin you will need to have a Facebook Page. Chances are if you are reading this you already have one, but if not, click here to start your own.

To add a gated welcome greeting to your Page you will need to install a suitable app. To do this, first click on the ‘Edit page’ button on your Page, as seen here.

Then click Apps in the left hand menu.

Then click ‘Browse more applications’ at the bottom of the new page.

You will be presented with a range of exciting apps that you can add to your Page but don’t get distracted now! Type HTML in to the search bar on the top left and tap your enter key.

Amongst the search results you will find various options that will help you create a great welcome page. I use Static HTML.

Click on Static HTML (or another option but the rest of the How-To may not make sense)

On the Static HTML page, click ‘Go to app’

And on the next window you can select where to install the app.

You should now have installed the app to your Page and will find it in the left bar menu on your page.

Click the star icon and you will see a window open that looks like this:

All you need to do is pop your HTML in to the two windows depending on what you want to show to each types of views (liked and yet to like) and click on ‘Save and View’. Just remember to keep your content within 500 pixels wide!

Finally, you can choose whether you want to preview the content in pre-like or post-like mode.

So now you know the process and how simple it is, you just need to choose your offer to tempt your visitors, make a couple of small html pages and you can start converting visitors who may have otherwise bounced without clicking the Like button for you!

If you need any help or have any questions find me on Twitter @chinashopbull. And if you have any comments leave them below!

It may seem obvious that Nike, Coca-Cola and other big names’ pages will benefit from this change, but what about the small business owner?

This could be a nice basis for promotions by small business. Here’s some ideas:

• A cafe owner could offer their customers a promotion (free coffee?) every time they tag the eatery in a photo
• A beautician can incentivize their customers to tag their freshly waxed legs on holiday or great hair on a night out
• A band could offer a free mp3 download to fans who tag their song that was playing when an image was taken
• A fancy dress supplier could run seasonal promotions by asking their community to tag fancy dress images with their brand name in return for prizes. Best Halloween costume? Most convincing Santa costume?
• A painter and decorator could ask customers to tag their work in the background of a photo taken in the freshly decorated room.

These ideas could be applied to all kinds of business and I think open some interesting possibilities for engagement with your customers.

I’d love to hear your ideas and feedback below and if you haven’t already, make sure you connect with me on www.twitter.com/chinashopbull

While watching Gary Vaynerchuck‘s video about this exciting move I got to thinking:

“Why are Google going for this?”

“Is this a data play?”

“How does this fit with other Google products?”

Google local search is expected to be the next big move for Google alongside developing social search. But where do Google find the data to back local search? They can scan social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, implement their +1 button and ask business to sign up to the business local listings. But there is something else they can do that will quickly create huge piles of local data and that is tap in to what the public are purchasing, where they are purchasing it and when.

Imagine how this data can feed search results. You are in the middle of a town, and your phone knows this by GPS. You fancy a coffee and wonder which vendor to visit? Out comes your phone, you open Google and search “coffee”. Google combines your location, Google business listings, social data, where you regularly use your loyalty cards and the big one: what outlet sells the most coffee to somebody fitting your profile at that time of day and in that area? With this combination of Data, Google can make relevant suggestions in the search results.

But wait there’s more! You’ve heard of Groupon and Living Social who deliver daily deals to your email inbox but have you heard of Google Deals? Maybe not yet, but it’s coming! Google are looking for a way to enter Groupon and LivingSocial’s space and with the Google Wallet they have an amazing opportunity. Not only will your device work as a payment system, but by combining Google Deals it can inform you of relevant deals and discounts in store.

I can picture it now, no more debit or credit cards in my wallet, no more carrying loyalty cards for 5 different coffee shops and multiple supermarkets and petrol stations, and relevant timely recommendation, discounts and deals.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

I would be really interested to hear your thoughts and see links to other discussions around this idea.

1)      You need to have a group page but I suspect you already do if you are reading this? If not, and you are having trouble tweet me www.twitter.com/chinashopbull and I’ll happily help you through it.

2)      You need to have 25 or more likes to your page. This is usually easy, simply leverage your friends and colleagues with a status update asking them to like your page.

3)      Once you have 25 or more ‘Likes’, visit https://www.facebook.com/username/ and follow the simple instruction.

There you are. Follow the 3 easy steps and you too can have a simple URL to go on your business cards, in your email signature and to use anywhere else that you can promote your business, service and ideas.

So what’s a meme and how is it different to a viral?

Viral – a video, image, book or other item that gets shared and searched for to an extent of being recognised by a general population or group. Ie. The Bible or a video of a cat doing something unusual or funny.

Meme – an idea that spreads through a population through various vehicles, including via viral channels. For example wearing jewelry, religion and “cats are cute when they do things”

And as the Internet automates filtering of what we view we can add Teme to describe an idea that is selected by a digital system without human intervention and distributed by a digital channels.

That which is imitated, and information that is copied from person to person. Susan Blackmore

For more detailed background check out Susan Blackmore’s Ted talk

I hope you find the following interesting and as always I’m keen to hear thoughts, feedback and additional ideas.

If you like my work and have not already done, connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter.

The networking time was a lot of fun, and I got to know some of the Nudge Digital team, talking PPC with Bella and enjoyed chatting with various members of Team Rubber. Everybody was incredibly nice and interesting. Not often you get a better mix than that at a social event.

Then came the meme’s.

Chris and Rex took their turns playing out clips including the Nyan Cat

and some Nyan cat responses

Rex found excuse to play out some his own awesome clips too

Rex won the battle and it was time for Matt Golding to speak.

Matt gave an incredibly honest and informative talk about the recent successes with their Thor viral and the trials of the production. A clip that has seen over 2,000,000 views.

But what did I learn?

I was reminded once again that Bristol is a creative hub that attracts some wonderfully friendly and talented folks.

Plus, single women have cats and blokes with too much time on their hands make viral clips about cats doing amusing things. There should be a whole lot of dating going on and that’s why I want to launch LOLZ DATING. Matching single women and their cats with guys who have too much spare time!

As a Lambo’ fan who is focused on one day owning a Lamborghini Countach this doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. Of course there are plenty of green-o-philes who are disgusted.

As usual I got to wondering what was the truth behind this? Is flying a Lamborghini Murcielago to the UK really all that inefficient?

Now I admit most if not all these figures are taken from unconfirmed sources, but then, this is just for fun:

A quick hit on Wikipedia and it seems Qatar airways use Airbus A300′s to transport cargo.

An Airbus A300 gets 9mpg when fully loaded.

An airbus A300 carries 75,000Kg of freight.

A Lamborghini Mercielago gets up to 13 MPG.

A Lamborghini Mercielago weighs 1665Kg.

Now this opens two arguments: either a Lamborghini when fully laden gets only 4 miles per gallon more than a full Airbus300, or working at MPG per Kg it is almost 30 times more efficient to fly the car than to drive it.

With figures like that, how can the ‘greenys’ be mad?