The complete and original post at www.convinceandconvert.com

What are the defining characteristics of a community? It’s a topic I’ve been pondering more and more lately. Is it about geography, common interests, socio-economic similarities, or similar viewpoints? The list goes on and on.

To get to this point, it becomes necessary to define what a community is. According to dictionary.com, a community is

a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived itself as distinct insome respect from the larger society within which it exists.

As community managers, it’s our job to manage a brand’s online (and offline) presence. It’s a daunting task that requires us to assume a leadership role, channel the company’s voice, create buzz and drive engagement on and offline to achieve specific goals/outcomes. It’s fairly natural to assume that as the leader, you are building and growing a “community.” After all, there’s X amount of likers, followers, subscribers, doers’, doubters, troublemakers and everything in between, who are communicating in the group. However with most brand pages, this environment is actually fostering a false sense of community.

Most Facebook brand pages aren’t actually online communities. They are just glorified marketing channels. Some are done very well, others not so much. Here’s five reasons to explain this seemingly subtle distinction.

Most Facebook fans didn’t decide to “like” a brand’s page because they wanted to be part of an online community. In fact, the two most common reasons to like a brand are if you are a current customer or to receive discounts and/or freebies, according to a study by research firm, Chadwick Martin Bailey. The next most popular reasons are to show support for a brand, to learn more information and to get exclusive content. Couple that with the fact, that more than 75% of Facebook users who like a brand, like fewer than 10 brands total, and you wind up with stiff competition for eyeballs and page “likes.”

Read the complete and original post at www.mashable.com

So, what’s the best way to market your brand on Facebook? According to Peter Shankman, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist with a hearty background of marketing and consulting under his belt, the answer is actually pretty easy: “Sharing for the sake of just hearing yourself talk is pointless.”

Yes, the key to doing more is doing it with less. With all of the changes that have been implemented among Facebook Brand Pages within the last year, from the end of Facebook Discussions and Reviews in October to the roll-out of Timeline for Brands this spring, it’s hard to keep track of what’s actually working for brands on Facebook. The most recent numbers actually indicate fan growth slowed with the Brand Timeline switch. But thinking smart transcends those changes — and never goes out of style.

“You want to engage your audience and make sure that they feel like they’re apart of something — not just being marketed to,” Shankman explains. “Then they will do your PR for you.”

Shankman’s experience with brands runs deep. The former journalist and founder of Help A Reporter Out has written two books on marketing and customer service in the social media world — Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World and Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work — and Why Your Company Needs Them. He’s also frequently globetrotting to consult and speak on PR and social media, and has worked with major companies, such as American Express and Disney. through his company, The Geek Factory.

Here is a great post from www.dreamgrow.com….

What is the size of the profile picture in Facebook? How wide is page of your brand? Here are all the numbers you need and you can even download a handy PDF Facebook cheat sheet.

Due to the recent release of Facebook timeline for brand pages, some new sizes have been added and old ones modified. We’ve added them here. The cheat sheet pdf and jpg will also be updated ASAP.

Big picture for timeline

This is the big picture (also known as cover photo) for Facebook’s timeline.
Width: 851px
Height: 315px

Application icons for timeline view

These are the icons that are displayed on a fan page that has Facebook timeline enabled. If your picture exceeds these limits, your icon will be resized and converted.
Width: 111px
Height: 74px
Maximum file size: 5MB

Facebook application favicon size

This is the tiny icon that is being displayed on the left hand side of your news feed, where the applications that you use are.
Width: 16px
Height: 16px

Facebook milestone picture size

This is the size you use for milestone pictures such as company’s foundation date.
Width: 843 pixels
Height: 403 pixels

Profile picture for timeline pages

Recently updated sizes for timeline. The new width and height are 180 px which will be automatically scaled down to following:
Width: 32px
Height: 32px
It’s extremely important to choose a picture that can be scaled down as the profile pictures that are displayed on timeline posts are really small. Best practice is to choose your logo.

Twitter has started rolling out its enhanced brand pages to more advertisers.

The social networking site — which announced in December that it would be introducing Facebook-style brand pages for companies to customize and highlight content — has extended the platform to National Public Radio, NBC News, Volkswagen, The Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, Anobii and others, the company told Mashable.

“Enhanced profile pages will continue to roll out to advertising partners, as well as other select partners, charities, media organizations and individuals,” Twitter said in a statement.

The latest brands are the first to get the design since it was made available to certain partners when it launched. Included among the first 21 brands invited to test out the new platform were HP, Intel, Coca Cola, Dell, Disney, JetBlue, Nike and Paramount Pictures… Read the complete and original post at www.mashable.com