Best Time of Day for Facebook Posts

Do you read every post in your Facebook feed? With so many posts each day, it's no surprise most of us skim through, or completely miss, many posts.

It's easy for your posts to get lost in the crowd. However, there are a few ways to get your posts noticed.

1. Post something interesting, or useful!
2. Use pictures, or links to websites (links bring up a thumbnail picture from the site).
3. Post at the right time of day

Number three, in the list above, can use some explanation. When is the right time of day to make posts to Facebook? Well, they actually have an answer for that! Studies have been done, and although there are many variables (depending on your demographics), they have discovered links sent between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. get the most views. One study released recently by the link shortening and tracking service bit.ly actually narrowed it down to Wednesday at 3 p.m. as the absolute best time to post on Facebook all week.

Your audience could be different, but time of day (and even time of week) is something to consider. Generally comments or links posted after 8 at night or before 8 in the morning are most likely to be missed.

“While traffic starts to increase around 9:00 a.m., one would be wise to wait to post until 11am,” bit.ly said in a blog post. “Traffic from Facebook fades after 4:00 p.m.”

Facebook Timeline - Image Sizing

Facebook Timeline is old news (at least in today's digital age!), but many are still confused with how Facebook formats images. Here are a few image sizing tips:

• Cover Image (main image at top of screen) - 851px by 315px
  Note, you can upload other sizes (up to 2048 by 2048), but they will be cropped & sized down
• Profile Picture - recommended upload 180px x 180px (Scales down to 160x160, and 32x32)
• Timeline Photo Post - 404px by 404px
• Milestone Picture - 843px by 403px
• Thumbnails - 90px by 90px
• Ad Picture - 110px by 80px
• Favorites/Apps - 111px by 74px

Looking for a really sharp Cover Image? Give us a call, we'd be happy to design one for you.

Search Engine Alternative

Duck Duck Go

Duck Duck Go, a start-up search engine, is competing by leveraging the public’s recent concern over Google’s privacy policies. According to Fred Wilson, a principal of Union Square Ventures, a venture capital backer of Duck Duck Go, other vendors should do the same, saying “We should encourage web and mobile services to lead with their privacy practices and let users vote with their feet. This is an opportunity for new web services who can use privacy as a basis for competition as Duck Duck Go does.” Duck Duck Go says it does not collect or share browsing history, and it articulates understandable privacy policies, including one that is illustrated and starts with this image:

DuckDuckGo.com is still tiny compared to the top four, at roughly 45 million searches per month. But it is growing rapidly in recent months as concern over Google’s privacy policies have grown.

Excerpt from Small Business Trends article by Anita Campbell (founder of Small Business Trends, and owner of BizSugar)

STOP sopa

There are two pieces of legislation, currently being considered by Congress, that will seriously endanger the very freedoms America was built upon - specifically free speech.

"SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act propose massive new regulatory powers over the Internet that will seriously endanger free speech and the constitutionally upheld principal of Fair Use. These bills would create broad powers to remove entire web sites by manipulating the Domain Name System (DNS) and Internet search results, all without any action from a court of law. Blogs, status updates, consumer reviews and even links to other web sites may make web sites a target to be blacklisted. Smaller and independent ISPs will be particularly hard hit trying to police their users to avoid interruption of service.

These bills are not the way to address online piracy. SOPA and PROTECT IP are bad for TierraNet, bad for our customers, and bad for the Internet. Our favorite websites -- Wikipedia, Facebook, Youtube -- even your own blog, and your favorite online store -- will all be permanently wounded.

I urge you to take a moment to let your representatives in Washington D.C. know your feelings. Please EDUCATE yourself about this proposed legislation, VOICE your opinions, and EXERCISE the right to free speech on the Internet that we take for granted." - Brian Scott, CEO of TierraNet

RESOURCES:
http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html

Electronic Frontier Foundation - Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation

Marketing in a Down Economy

"In a slow economy the one thing to boost is sales and marketing" SmallBiz Technology

"It certainly makes sense to think about new ways to market a business right now – and the biggest growth of marketing will be online." Wall Street Journal

"In a sputtering economy, small businesses are often quick to rein in their marketing budgets. But that may be a shortsighted strategy. Glum economic times can be an opportunity for small companies to make inroads on their competitors' turf and re-energize their marketing efforts." WSJ Small Business Report

2012 Tax Trends for Small Business

Are Large Corporations skipping over taxes, while small & medium size businesses (SMB) carry the burden?

We found this article in Small Business Trends. It may be useful for small business owners to be aware of these potential trends:

http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/12/top-10-small-business-tax-trends-2012.html

The 10 main points highlighted in this article are:
1. Taxes will remain a political football.
2. Tax audits are on the rise.
3. Uncertainty about health care rules remains.
4. Some favorable business tax rules will be extended.
5. State and local governments scrounge for new sources of revenue.
6. Unemployment taxes will go up for some employers.
7. Estate planning for business owners remains challenging.
8. Filings will be almost exclusively online.
9. Low interest rates will have an impact.
10. The U.S. tax system will continue to become more and more complex.

Phone 'Rootkit' Maker Carrier IQ May Have Violated Wiretap Law In Millions Of Cases - Forbes

Phone 'Rootkit' Maker Carrier IQ May Have Violated Wiretap Law In Millions Of Cases - Forbes