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Creating a successful Facebook page requires more than just a few clicks. There’s so many things to consider, it’s difficult to stay on top of it all. But we’ve got just the thing for you: A checklist. Print it out or save it on your computer so you can check off tasks once you’ve completed them.

1. Analysis

Task	Description	Complete?
Internal Analysis	Do I generate added value for my business and my fans with my page? Do I have the resources (time and money)? Does it fit with my business strategy?
Target Group Analysis	Who is my target group? Is the target group actually on Facebook? Are the fans on my page part of the target group?
Stakeholder Analysis	Are there active fan pages for my brand? Is it possible to partner or merge with any of them? Tip: Merge the pages — here’s Facebook’s explanation of how to do this.
Competitive Analysis	Are my competitors active? What are they doing? Tip: Compare fan page with others.

2. Strategy

Task	Description	Complete?
Define Objectives	What are my objectives for the fan page? Are they reasonable and measurable? Do they contribute to the success of my business? Are they smart?
Define Key Performance Indicators	How do we measure success? (Number of fans, user engagement, increase in sales, and so on.) What do we want to achieve? Which metrics should we use? Tip: Define clear objectives and metrics upfront for a certain time frame and continuously check performance.  Interesting case studies can be found here.
Create a Framework	What resources do I have available? What departments need to be involved? Who is responsible for what? Tip: Involve all internal and relevant stakeholders (marketing, legal, customer support) in a timely manner and create processes and outlines for responsibilities.
Define Processes	Who is the responsible spokesperson within the company? What are the processes for approval? Tip: Outline an approval process that serves as a binding, unmistakable guideline for community management. Plan for quick processes that enable the CM team to act.
Plan Content	What basic content will be posted? Tip: Avoid marketing and advertising text. Facebook requires individual contributions that adapt to the platform, its environment and behavior.
Internationalization	Do I need a central fan page or country-specific fan pages? Are the target groups within the markets big enough for individual pages? Sufficient resources for multiple pages and translations? Tip: Single status updates can be directed at different countries and languages.
Direction	Is the fan page long term or is it campaign driven? How will the users be directed to the right page?

3. Basic Set-Up

Task	Description	Complete?
Page Name	Is the page name fitting and can it be used long term? Does it conform to policy and the law? Does it communicate your objectives? Will potential customers/fans search using this name? Tip: The guidelines for Facebook page names can be found here.
Profile Picture	How do I best use this image? Can it be used with the profile banner as a single unit? Does it meet objectives? Tip: Within settings for the profile picture, a thumbnail for posts can be cropped and selected. Here’s some advice on images.
Info Tab	Is all relevant company information provided? Can a fan get in touch via email or phone? Tip: The information options within the Info Tab vary depending on the type of fan page selected (local business, film, company, etc.)
Create a Vanity URL	What address do I want? Are there Facebook rules against it? What are the rights for the URL? Is it communicated in marketing? Tip: Click here to create your own vanity URL. Be sure your page is selected.
Welcome Tab	Is there a start page for non-fans? What information is provided here?
Applications	Which applications are needed on the fan page? Does it need any at all? Who designs them? Who implements them? What resources are necessary?
Integration with Other Channels	Am I active on Twitter or YouTube? Should these channels be integrated as a separate tab on the fan page?
Netiquette	Does my page require netiquette? What should be included? Can I bypass Facebook rules here? Tip: Examples of good netiquette appear here.

4. Community Management

Task	Description	Complete?
Editorial Plan and Responsibilities	What content will be posted within the next weeks? Who is responsible and serves as administrator? Do we speak informally or formally? Tip: Create an editorial plan that outlines when contributions are to be posted and name clear responsibilities so that even in emergencies, one person is responsible for the fan page.
Frequently Asked Questions And Approval Process	What are the most common questions? Who can approve any FAQ we create? What legal advice can we get on this? Tip: Create an FAQ in advance and outline posts that require an approval process so the community manager can react quickly and independently.
Crisis Management and Prevention	What are potential crisis topics? What is our opinion? What will be communicated and what not? Who needs to be informed when and how should they be involved? Tip: Develop a crisis plan for well-known issues so your community manager can react quickly.
Monitoring	What is happening on the fan page? What happens on weekends and outside of working hours? Tip: Set fixed monitoring periods, also beyond normal working hours. Determine which comments require a reaction and which do not.
Reporting and Evaluation	What is the atmosphere like? Have goals or KPIs been achieved? How is the activity? How is growth?  Tip: In addition to Facebook Insights, use additional sources for evaluation and develop your own metrics based on objectives. Continually compare this with your determined KPIs and standards, checking at regular intervals.

5. Additional

Task	Description	Complete?
Advertising	Are the advertising campaigns effective? How is the price-performance ratio? Is there a desired clickthrough rate? Who designs and administrates ads? How are they paid for? Is the contact with Facebook Germany necessary? Tip: Start with a small budget and test the effectiveness of ads if you are unsure. You can create and manage ads on your own here.
Marketing and Presence Beyond Facebook	Presence on other platforms: Is my fan page included on my homepage? Within my advertising? How should the fan page be integrated in marketing communication? Tip: Integrate your fan page on your homepage with the so-called like box.

Guest writer Jasper Krog is a communications consultant for Edelman Digital in Germany.

Google’s widely anticipated alternative to Flipboard is finally here. It’s called Google Currents and the next screenshot should you give an idea of what Currents is all about.

Google Currents is a Flipboard like app that lets you read blogs, news websites and other online publications in a magazine format on your mobile phone and tablet devices. The app is available for both Android and iOS platforms.

One big advantage with Google Currents is that you can read your subscriptions offline and it will even download the embedded images for offline access.

You can get Google Currents now from the Android Market and the iTunes Store. This is currently available only for US users but there’s at least an easy workaround for iPhone /iPad users.

Publishing to Google Currents

As a web publisher, you can package one or more RSS feeds, image slideshows, tweets, videos, social network updates and any other HTML content into an “edition” and publish it to Google Currents which others can then subscribe to on their tablet or mobile phone.

[*] Digital Inspiration is also available on Google Currents.

There’s no programming required as Google Currents provides an web editor (screenshot) for publishers to create these bundles. You can also pull content from Google Docs and ePUB ebooks into Currents. The default layouts are beautiful but advanced users may apply their own CSS styles to further customize the appearance of their magazine.

Read RSS Feed with Google Currents

Google Currents can also be used as a RSS reader to follow feeds that are not available as standalone editions. Simply subscribe to any RSS feed inside Google Reader and then pull it directly into Google Currents using Add More –> Library –> Google Reader. The plain feed will automatically be served in a magazine layout similar to other editions.

Google Currents vs Flipboard, etc.

There are quite a few reading apps – like Flipboard, Yahoo LiveStand, Pulse, Zite and AOL Editions -  that let you publish (and consume) online content in a magazine format. However, Google Currents is probably the only app that will share advertising revenue with publishers which is obviously a big incentive.

The other difference is that some web publishers can publish standalone apps in the Android and iTunes store using the Google Currents platform.  That is, they can create their own “edition” inside the Currents Producer as before but users won’t have to download the Google Currents app in order to use those standalone apps.

In other words, you can create your own Android and iOS apps for your blog but without writing a single line of code. Google will even handle the publishing and approval part. It can’t get easier than this!

When Amazon introduced blog publishing for Kindle, there was a concern that people would publish someone else’s RSS feed as their own and monetize it through the Kindle Store. That is however unlikely to happen with Google Currents as it only lets you include content from domains that you have verified through Google Webmaster Tools.

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Ads by Google ' u '

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Ads by Google

I still recall the day when my friend Yossi came to school and showed off his brand new graphing calculator. I was stunned by how easy it was to plot complicated functions -- meanwhile, the rest of us were still drawing them by hand on graph paper.

Today, I’m hoping to share that magical feeling with students around the world, with the introduction of graphing functionality on Google. Now you can plot mathematical functions right on the search result page. Just type in a function and you’ll see an interactive graph on the top of the search results page.

You can zoom in and out and pan across the plane to explore the function in more detail. You can also draw multiple functions by separating them with commas. This feature covers an extensive range of single variable functions including trigonometric, exponential, logarithmic and their compositions, and is available in modern browsers.

I hope students and math lovers around the world find this experience as magical as I found the graphing calculator so long ago.

Posted by Adi Avidor, Google Engineer and Math Lover

Do you remember the dot-com bubble? In the early days of the information super-highway, VCs and entrepreneurs alike were more concerned about the number of page views than they were about revenue.

Back then, it was all about “eyeballs.”

But as the bubble burst entrepreneurs realized that eyeballs don’t pay the rent and they had to get back to business basics. You know, generate good ole fashion revenue.

Now with the flurry of activity in social media, we’re seeing a similar situation – metrics such as “engagement” are measured and presented as a proxy for conversions & revenue. Is engagement the new ‘eyeballs’? Are we simply repeating the same mistakes?

Check out our new infographic to follow the evolution of web analytics – from “hits” to “engagement” to Conversions.

Click the graphic for a larger view.

 

  shareshare

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The Boston Red Sox odds of reaching the playoffs peaked on Sept. 3. Following a 12-7 win against the Texas Rangers, they held a 9-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays with 24 games to play, giving them a 99.6 percent chance of making the post-season.

The Red Sox, of course, once had a reputation for elevating improbable collapses into the routine, dealing their opponents one inside straight after another.

There was the Bucky Dent game in 1978:

The Aaron Boone game in 2003:

And there was Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, when Mookie Wilson’s grounder skirted through Billy Buckner’s legs, bringing Ray Knight around to score.

But following their victory in the 2004 World Series, their first in 86 years — naturally, it had required an improbable comeback of its own, as the Red Sox had recovered from a 3 games to none deficit to defeat the Yankees in the A.L.C.S. — the Red Sox’ luck had finally seemed to turn around.

Until Wednesday night.

It’s hard to describe just how epic the Red Sox’ collapse was — something on the order of Mr. Buckner’s play multiplied by itself two or three times over. Numbers and graphics may do the most adequate job.

This is a chart, from FanGraphs.com, showing the Red Sox’ probability of winning their game against the Orioles on Wednesday night. According to FanGraphs, it peaked at 95.3 percent, when the Orioles had two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth inning.

That’s probably an underestimate, in fact. FanGraphs tracks these numbers on a play-by-play basis, but not a pitch-by-pitch basis, and the Orioles’ Chris Davis was down to his final strike. Moreover, the Red Sox had Jonathan Papelbon on the mound, one of baseball’s most unhittable pitchers. A more realistic estimate might have been that the Orioles had about a 2 percent chance of coming back at that point. (By comparison, the Red Sox’ chances of winning Game 6 of the 1986 World Series had peaked at about 99 percent.)

And that is only part of the story. More unlikely still was the Rays’ comeback against the Yankees, without which the Red Sox would have had an opportunity to redeem themselves in a one-game playoff. Trailing 7-0 in the 8th inning, the Rays’ winning chances were all the way down to 0.3 percent — about 300-to-1 against — before they scored 6 runs in the bottom of the inning.

Although the rally revived the Rays, giving them about a 15 percent chance of winning, they were in nearly as much trouble in the 9th, after Ben Zobrist and Casey Kotchman made outs to start the inning, bringing their odds back down to 4.2 percent, according to FanGraphs.

This, however, also understates the magnitude of the Rays’ accomplishment. Like Chris Davis in Baltimore, the Rays’ Dan Johnson had two strikes against him. Granted, he wasn’t facing Jonathan Papelbon (or Mariano Rivera, whom the Yankees held out of the game). But Johnson was hitting just .108 on the season — and had just 1 hit in 45 at bats with a two-strike count. A 2 percent chance of a comeback at that point would be a generous estimate.

But Johnson poked Cory Wade’s pitch around the fair side of the right field foul pole, tying the score. Then in the 12th inning, Evan Longoria hit a home run that was virtually its mirror image, but this one to left field, winning the game for the Rays just moments after the Red Sox had lost theirs.

The following is not mathematically rigorous, since the events of yesterday evening were contingent upon one another in various ways. But just for fun, let’s put all of them together in sequence:

The Red Sox had just a 0.3 percent chance of failing to make the playoffs on Sept. 3.

The Rays had just a 0.3 percent chance of coming back after trailing 7-0 with two innings to play.

The Red Sox had only about a 2 percent chance of losing their game against Baltimore, when the Orioles were down to their last strike.

The Rays had about a 2 percent chance of winning in the bottom of the 9th, with Johnson also down to his last strike.

Multiply those four probabilities together, and you get a combined probability of about one chance in 278 million of all these events coming together in quite this way.

When confronted with numbers like these, you have to start to ask a few questions, statistical and existential.

The statistics that Web sites like FanGraphs use, for instance, usually assume that that outcome of each game or at-bat is independent of the next one. They don’t account for things like streaks or clutch hitting, above and beyond what arises naturally from random chance.

That’s probably a good assumption under most circumstances. There are volumes of literature suggesting that the notion of clutch performance is vastly overrated in baseball and in most other sports — and that what we think of as streaks are usually just tricks that random numbers are playing upon us.

But perhaps there is an exception once in a while — I’ll spare you the lecture about Bayes’ theorem — and this may have been one of them.

There is some evidence, for instance, that the Red Sox’ pitchers may have “choked” in key situations during the final few weeks of the season to a degree that withstands some statistical scrutiny. Their bullpen, also, was extremely fatigued, as their starters averaged only 4.2 innings per start in September.

One should also have the license in situations like these to turn to various divine and karmatic explanations. I have a couple of these.

First, perhaps the baseball that unfolded on Wednesday evening — which also featured a dramatic and season-ending collapse by the Atlanta Braves — was God’s way of telling Bud Selig that baseball ought not add an extra wild card, which would have rendered yesterday’s games relatively meaningless.

The second explanation involves Mr. Buckner.

On Sept. 4, the day after the Red Sox’ playoff probability peaked, H.B.O. aired an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The show is the brainchild of Larry David, the creator of Seinfeld.

In the episode, “Mister Softee”, Mr. Buckner was featured prominently. Jeered by Red Sox fans everywhere he went, he dropped a baseball autographed by Mookie Wilson out a window. But he restored his reputation after catching a baby dropped from a burning building.

Since the Red Sox’ curse already seemed to have been lifted after 2004, Mr. Buckner’s redemption was superfluous: a case of two 180-degree rotations turning the Red Sox’ karma all the way back around. From the day that the episode aired, the Red Sox went 6-18.

The program was fiction, of course. But you couldn’t have scripted what happened last night. And Mr. David is a Yankees fan.

Fun take on the baseball mayhem from yesterday.

14 million mobile users in the U.S. scanned QR codes during the month of June, representing 6.2 percent of the nation's total mobile audience, according to data from comScore.

A survey conducted by the online measurement firm found the average QR code user was more likely to be male, aged between 18 and 34, and to have a household income of over $100k. The research also suggested that most codes are scanned from newspapers, magazines, and product packaging, and that the scan was likely to take place in the home or in a store.

Demographic Profile of QR Code Scanning Audience, June 2011
Property	QR Code Audience (000)	QR Code Audience (%)
Total Audience	14,452	100
Male	8,743	60.5
Female	5,709	39.5
Age: 13-17	1,076	7.4
Age: 18-24	2,402	16.6
Age: 25-34	5,317	36.8
Age: 35-44	2,827	19.6
Age: 45-54	1,798	12.4
Age: 55-64	594	4.1
Age: 65+	437	3
Income: <$25k	1,193	8.3
Income: $25k to <$50k	2,597	18
Income: $50k to <$75k	2,756	19.1
Income: $75k to <$100k	2,689	18.6
Income $100k+	5,217	36.1
Source: comScore MobiLens

 

Source of Scanned QR Code, June 2011
	QR Code Audience (000)	QR Code Audience (%)
Total Audience	14,452	100
Printed magazine or newspaper	7,138	49.4
Product packaging	5,101	35.3
Website on PC	3,957	27.4
Poster or flyer or kiosk	3,393	23.5
Business card or brochure	1,940	13.4
Storefront	1,850	12.8
TV	1,693	11.7
Source: comScore MobiLens

 

Location When Scanning QR Code, June 2011
	QR Code Audience (000)	QR Code Audience (%)
Total Audience	14,452	100
At home	8,382	58
Retail Store	5,688	39.4
Grocery Store	3,546	24.5
At Work	2,844	19.7
Outside or on public transit	1,827	12.6
Restaurant	1,095	7.6
Source: comScore MobiLens

 

 

 

Meet up with top voices in search, social, display, and email marketing during ClickZ's Connected Marketing Week, Aug. 15-19, in San Francisco.

Adobe's new HTML 5 authoring tool, Edge 1.0, is now available for download. Edge aims to be a "web motion and interaction design tool that allows web designers to bring animation, similar to that created in Flash Professional, to websites using standards likes HTML, JavaScript and CSS."

While we give Adobe flack for Flash Player's Mac woes, the truth is that the Flash platform successfully brought a higher level of animation and interaction to the web long before HTML 5 was in the picture. When Apple unequivocally said Flash would not be supported on iOS, I knew Adobe (despite some infamous bluster) wouldn't sit idly by and let HTML 5 be a cash cow for other developers.

Enter Edge, Adobe's effort to offer web developers a choice. Edge 1.0 is a free beta, and more importantly, it's a first version of an application which Adobe states will be developed in the open with the aid of the web developer community. In fact, according to Adobe this isn't even "beta" yet -- they are releasing the application before it even reaches that status in an effort to ensure that what developers want the most gets in the app first. For now, Edge is a very simple (but still useful) tool.

Edge is currently limited to basic animation and simple page layout. Users of timeline-based applications will immediately grok Edge's simple UI and timeline for HTML 5 animation. Of course, just like in Dreamweaver, you can access code directly. Edge creates pretty clean code, but as an early product it isn't doing anything particularly difficult yet. Edge is primarily designed for WebKit-based browsers, as Adobe has contributed to WebKit; the in-app sandbox browser is also WebKit-based.

When I spoke to Adobe I asked about integration with their other products, as I see the Adobe pipeline and workflow being a competitive advantage when comparing Edge to competitors such as Tumultco's Hype. As this is so early in the development stage, I was told that features like integration with other Adobe tools would happen, but at a later date. This initial push is to open the floodgates of feedback, and Adobe will shovel in features as needed.

I do hope Edge is a success for Adobe. While not all of the company's decisions make sense, there's no doubt that Adobe makes strong tools for designers and developers. If Edge helps make better, faster, standards-compliant websites for everyone, I think that's great. Download Edge here and take it for a test drive. Then be sure to let us know in the comments what you think.

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Source: http://labs.adobe.com/

Adobe recognizes that HTML5 isn't exactly going away...

This is cool. The company behind Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha are launching a competitor to PDF, that they claim allows for more interactivity/richer engagement. Creation of these CDF documents currently requires Mathematica 8 for authoring but they can be played with a free CDF player (website lists flavors for Windows, OS X and Linux).

I will be checking out their demos. This would be an interesting way to make ebooks, especially for teaching, even more engaging.