Why do you need a Facebook Fan Page?

Many writers know they need to have a presence on Facebook. (I know I keep telling you that often enough.) However, some are really reluctant to set up a Facebook Fan Page. Do you really need a Facebook Fan Page?

Recently Facebook has shortened the name to simply Facebook Page. That may help some of the folks who were afraid they were being too pretentious by setting up their own “fan” page. Some people are now calling it a Like page, since there is a big button at the top that says “Like”.

Facebook is now the second most visited website on the Internet. Google is still the first, but people spend more time on Facebook. It’s a very important site for creating your presence on the Internet.

A Page gives you several advantages over just having a Facebook profile. Here are 7 reasons you need a Facebook Fan Page. › Continue reading…

It seems that every webpage I open these days has a video. Most of the time I have to make some hardware adjustments before I can hear the video. I ask myself (and the website owner) if the video is really necessary. Sometimes they are, but most of the time they aren’t. I do have a few (very few) favorite uses for video.

Lately I’ve been having problems hearing online audio with my computer. I’ve also been juggling the USB headset with the USB hard drive. This older computer has only two USB slots. One of those is used by my trackball. You better have a compelling reason for me to switch hardware and mostly likely reboot the computer so I can watch your video.

Talking head videos are extremely popular. When used appropriately, they can help you build a relationship with your audience. Used incorrectly, they just irritate your readers.

Does the webpage need a personal touch (like a bio or about page)?

Does the video provide something the read really needs to SEE?

Do you provide the same information in text below the video? If you really want me to receive your information, give me multiple ways to access it.

Video is a popular way to deliver training. Yes, it does help to see screenshots. However, if you have to switch back and forth between the video and the website, it quickly becomes tedious. A PDF with screenshots is more work to produce, but much more friendly for your audience.

However, there is one time that video trumps all other forms of media. That is to keep friends and family connected over long distances. There’s something special about letting your loved ones see your smiling face and hear a personal greeting.

Today I hope videos are winging their way to mothers all over the world. Happy Mothers Day to moms everywhere!

Did you give your mother a card, phone call, or video?

What is your favorite uses for video?

Leave a comment and let me know!

Write on,

Lynn

If you are a writer, you are also the owner of your own business. You need to manage that business well. Part of good business management is to protect your important information.

There are many backup strategies you should use to keep your information safe. Google has many tools to help you accomplish this.

Google Documents is a great way to store files on the Internet. You can access them from any computer with an Internet connection. You can also share the files with others. This is great for editing and critiquing.

Gmail’s default of 7GB of space lets you save lots of documents as well as emails. Because of Google’s great search capability, I had most of my business in my Google accounts. And I was about to max out that 7GB storage.

When my account got hacked, I lost all access to those files and emails. After I convinced Google that I was indeed me, I was able to access my files once more.

All of the Google Docs file was there. However, my drafts, contacts, and inbox had been deleted.

I suspect the hacker wanted plenty of room to store any responses to his request for money in my name. Since he was forwarding all new messages, he received my emails even after access to my account was closed. However, if my account filled up, the emails would bounce back to the sender and would not be forwarded.

The account was my primary PayPal address (a REALLY bad idea). I had made that change a couple of weeks before. (Always direct your PayPal, Clickbank, and other vendor service email to a PAID email account.) My record of payments sent and received were lost. Of course, my PayPal account still contained that information.

My account also contained other business critical information. I rushed around madly trying to reconstruct all the important information I had lost.

Then I remembered a service I started using a couple of months ago, Backupify. It can backup your social network and Gmail messages. I had set it to backup my Gmail box.

When I looked in the archives, all my emails were there. I didn’t want to download all the messages. However, I was able to search through the archives to find the important messages I needed.

I also noticed that they’ve added Gmail contacts to the available backup list. Too bad I didn’t know about that before. It would be handy to be able to restore the contact list.

I posted on Twitter that Backupify had saved my emails. Someone from the company sent me a message to say that if I wanted a zip file of my emails, to ask them. I saw that zip files were on the planning list, but didn’t know they were available yet.

Someone else said they were able to retrieve all their direct messages from Twitter by using Backupify. This company is providing a needed service by backing up social networking files.

Backupify stores your data on the Amazon S3 data cloud. They offer 2GB of storage free and have a couple of paid plans.

Add Backupify to your list of backup providers.

What information would you miss if you lost your social network accounts? Leave me a comment and tell me what important information you can’t afford to lose.

Write on,

Lynn