As an adult, Easter is that weekend that allows you to reflect on the first quarter and help get you in the swing of things for long weekends.

As a kid, Easter is all about chocolate bunnies, painting boiled eggs, and of course … the Easter Egg Hunt!

Through this past weekend I thought to myself, is the Easter Egg Hunt really just for kids? Or are some of us still on an Easter Egg Hunt in our Business Development efforts? Waking up every morning, should we be grabbing our basket (or briefcase), and heading out to grab whatever eggs we can find?

Is this the way you want to (or should) be growing your business? Or would it be better to set out with an understanding that you are only interested in purple eggs, or perhaps ones with patterns. Maybe your tastes are best suited for dark chocolate only. Would this identification and selection lead to better outcomes, improved positioning, and all around higher satisfaction?

Good businesses know what they are going after. Great businesses have what they are going after, come to them. Let’s take a look at how digital marketing can help.

Website

Does your website tell customers what you do at a glance, so they know you are right for them? If you’re a professional, does your site convey your personal brand and help answer the question “Why You?”, or does the pattern look like everyone else’s with a template website?

When was the last time you took a close look at your website and considered improvements?

Social Media & Content Marketing

What if you were able to communicate to potential customers, that your business is tailored to their specific needs. Wouldn’t they be more excited to be in your basket (community) rather than your competitors’? What if once they were in that community, there was ample content they could benefit from? They would feel confident that your basket will carry them where they need to go.

Do you have an adequate Social Media presence? Are you getting the feedback you need to direct your community? Most importantly, how are you establishing yourself or your business as a leader in the space?

As you read this, do your days look like an Easter Egg Hunt? If so, we would love the chance to speak with you — are you ready to Spark Conversation™?

PS – If you really want your day made … and are still in the Easter spirit … you have to watch this!

After much anticipation, Facebook Timeline Brand Pages are finally here. It is still too early to understand the reaction from managers and consumers, however, we cannot ignore the uproar and confusion that followed the release of Facebook’s Timeline for Personal Profiles.

Even to this day, you are likely to read posts of frustration and confusion on your Wall, as colleagues and peers are still not quite comfortable with, or flat out despise, the new layout. This observation can be further reinforced by statistics and reports that tell the same story.

Despite this previous position, many in the industry are praising the conversion, as they not only expected it, but are excited for it as well. As of March 30^th, 2012, all pages will be converted to the new timeline layout. In preparation for the transition, let’s take a look at some of the most notable changes.

Milestones

On your personal Timeline, much of the emphasis was on highlighting previous events that took place throughout your history on Facebook; experiences from when you first joined the network through to today. It also showcased major events prior to signing on with Facebook, such as birth, graduation and marriage.

This feature will be no different on your brand’s page. Many companies and brands have been around long before Facebook. The integration of Timeline allows you to now showcase important past events, such as when you were founded, when you moved locations or when you achieved specific milestones.

Timeline helps you customer base and even current employees learn more about your brand. And as the popular saying goes: “you don’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been”.

Friends who also ‘Like’ the page

You thought peer pressure was something that only applied in the schoolyard? Think again. Now when you visit a brand’s Timeline, you will be able to see which of your friends also like that page. This improvement is likely one of the best new features.

Peer validation is extremely powerful. It is the reason why Facebook’s ads continue to become more and more social.

Local Business

Another powerful feature, and one that is available to local businesses only, is the placement of a Map among the 4 main apps beneath your cover photo. Striving to be found and driving traffic to your location are major objectives for small businesses. Good on the Facebook team to be mindful of many brand pages by including this feature.

Starring & Pinning

Have you ever posted something on Facebook and wished that EVERYONE could see it. Those are all your posts, right? Well ‘starring’ and ‘pinning’ now helps you emphasize specific content on your feed.

• To ‘Star’ something calls attention to the post by doubling the size and consuming the width of your timeline
• ‘Pinning’ a post, which is represented by a small orange flag, means that this post will remain at the top of your feed. This post, and only one at a time, will appear in the top spot until it is ‘unpinned’. This can occur in two ways: (1) by ‘pinning’ another post, or (2) the post being ‘pinned’ for 7 days.

This is a great way for brands to ensure relevant news, engaging content or important highlights get the attention they deserve.

Private Message

Talking about improving engagement, how about the ability to have fans private message brands and have the brands directly reply? This will likely bring some surprises to brands in both financial measure and brand IQ.

Are fans likely to take to this method to air their grievances or voice every concern/question they have? Will this become an informative source for key stakeholders tied to the brand or a customer service hotline?

It will be interesting to see how this feature is managed and whether or not consumers are satisfied with the attention and care their private messages receive.

Improved Back End for Admins

An improved interface and experience in the front end without any back end improvements would be like using Dijon mustard on a $0.99 burger. Where the meat lies for the management team would also have to be improved.

Well, you can rest assured it has. At first glance, existing page APIs will continue to function, insights are at a glance and the ability to manipulate the page’s posts have all been improved.

Tabs & Default Tabs

Speaking of existing API’s, they will continue to work. However, existing assets such as that designed default tab, Fan Gate, or other custom tabs will all have a short shelf life. When visitors land on your brand’s Timeline, you will have the materials that appear above the fold to truly impress them, likely the combination of a ‘pinned’ post, the list of mutual friends who also like the page, and your cover photo.

Cover Photo

With the default tabs having been removed, there is more emphasis on the content of the page. Your Cover Photo carries more presence in conveying your brand’s impact and creativity. Before you conclude on how you’re going to simply transition the messaging from your Fan Gate to your Cover Photo, be careful you are not in violation of these rules.  You cannot:

• feature the price or purchase info of your products.  This includes everything from price through to place(s) of purchase.
• list any contact information such as web address, email address, physical address or any other contact info that should appear in the “About” section.
• direct the user to any Facebook elements or features such as functionality to ‘Like’, ‘Share’, etc.
• display calls-to-action or encourage a desired action.

Conclusion

We shall await the response from managers and consumers to see if Timeline brand pages follow in the footsteps of its “sister’s” shoes. However, if you are a Facebook enthusiast, you cannot deny that it opens the gates for more pictures, branding methods, and opportunities to captivate your audience.

So go ahead and don’t hesitate to be different, grab attention, stimulate emotion, and encourage engagement. A whole new race has begun, who is going to the first to Spark Conversation™?

There is no question that the late Steve Jobs lived a rich and unique life. He revolutionized not one, but several industries, including: computing, telecommunications, music and movies.

Jobs’ remarkable years illustrate some major life lessons from which we can all learn, particularly when it comes to ideation and social marketing strategy.

Here are 7 things you didn’t know Steve Jobs taught you about ideation:

1. Think Big

When Jobs came on the scene, computers were only the domain of small groups of hobbyists and the technical elite. However, Jobs saw the computer’s potential and he challenged the way things were.

It was his vision to put a computer in the hands of everyday people. He wanted to create a user-friendly product that anyone would feel comfortable using. Just look where we are today.

2. Trust Your Instincts & Take Risks

Throughout his career, Steve Jobs took chances. In a time when most brands were looking to diversify, Apple focused on relatively few areas. Jobs was always willing to steer Apple off the beat and path if he thought it would generate future success.

Jobs also often trusted in his gut feeling. He believed with complete certainty that if he really liked something, then everyone else would as well. He was almost always right.

To trust your instincts is important in the process of ideation. As Jobs once said, “Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?”

Remember that not every idea is going to be a big success. Learn from your mistakes, dust yourself off and try again!

3. Surround Yourself With Amazing People

Jobs understood that one person cannot do everything. There were others in the world with skills he did not possess. Jobs’ partnership with Apple co-founder and engineer Steve Wozniak perfectly illustrates this.

Building a team of amazing people means you get amazing output. Don’t be afraid to bounce you’re ideas off of others. Be sure to ask for guidance, assistance, advice and opinions when developing ideas and strategies.

4. Create Memorable Experiences

When Steve Jobs envisioned the Apple store, he didn’t want it to be about “just moving boxes”, instead the Apple Store would enrich lives and create an emotional connection between customer and brand.

Today, the Apple Store makes more money per square foot than most luxury brands. It’s also completely packed with customers from open to close.

Your social marketing ideas and strategies should always have the customer in mind. They should work to entertain, produce emotion and spark conversation.

5. Communication is Key

Job is known for his worn jeans, black sweater and Powerpoint presentations. He understood the importance of effectively communicating ideas. After all, you could have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can’t master the message, you have nothing.

Instead of simply presenting, people should be informed, educated, inspired and entertained. Ideas should be presented in a very visual way. This means few words. People are more likely to remember and respond to highly visual content.

6. Understand Your Customer

Most of Jobs’ success can be attributed to the fact that he really understood his customer and their values.Jobs and Apple truly owned the idea of “user-friendly”, ensuring ease and efficiency in the lives of their customers.

Your customers really don’t care about your product, but they do care about themselves and how your product can makes their life better.  It’s all about me, remember?

7. Do what you love

You can’t come up with new, innovative ideas unless you’re truly inspired and really passionate about what you do. As Jobs once said, “People with passion can change the world for the better”.

Madonna: a 50-something American record-breaking pop artist. You’ve definitely heard of her before, but what does she have to do with digital marketing and ideation?

Well, once you move beyond all the leather, lace and puffy white wedding dresses, there is actually a lot to learn from the sassy singer-songwriter. Particularly so when it comes to questions of ideation and social marketing strategy.

1. “All you need is your own imagination. So use it; that’s what it’s for.” – Vogue (1990)

In order to generate influential ideas that best suit your particular marketing needs, you’re going to need a lot of creativity. In what ways can you differentiate yourself from the competition? Really take the time to think about it.

This is not to say that your ideas must be grand, overstated proposals. They can be small or modest as well. It really depends on your brand and your specific objectives.

However, you are more likely to cut through the clutter with an original idea than with one that’s been recycled over and over again. Whether you’re emerging on the scene or you’re already in the top spot, innovation is key. Differences attract attention.

Break the mold. Think outside of the box. Blaze a trail. Do something that’s never been done before. Trust Madonna, you’re going to need your imagination.

2. “Don’t go for second best, baby… second best is never enough.” – Express Yourself (1990)

Think about how you can position yourself as a leader in the space. Ideas for social marketing initiatives should reflect the quality of your brand. Your ideas should attract attention and help you stand out among the competition.

Don’t just settle for second best. Constantly be researching and iterating to earn the top position. Set a goal, create a plan, accomplish the goal, repeat!

3. “Hey you, just be yourself.” – Hey You (2009)

Be sure that your ideas and initiatives are aligned with your audience and brand objectives. Remain loyal to your offline brand while online and vice versa. Be authentic and approachable. If you try to appear as something that you’re not, it will be noticeable and you’ll probably get called out on it.

If you have to tell people your brand is genuine and authentic, you’re doing something wrong. Be yourself instead of a corporate drone and the rest will follow.

4. “If they can’t raise my interest, then I have to let them be.” – Material Girl (1990)

When forming a strategy, think about how you can appeal to your audience in new and interesting ways. Remember, social marketing is all about people. So, give the people what they want.

Your strategies should be entertaining; they should produce emotion and spark conversation. For the best results, your initiatives should find a balance between making communications about people and product.

5. “It’s not the game, it’s how you play. And if I fall I get up again.” – Over and Over (1984)

Not every idea is going to be a huge success. Don’t be discouraged by a little trial and error. Try a variety of different ideas and strategies to find out what works best with your brand and your audience.

The failure is not in falling short, but in the inability to get back up. Dust yourself off, get creative and try, try again.

1. Branding

What’s The Role Of Branding In Social Media?

2. Engagement

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3. Social Media

9 Impressive Social Media Campaigns Using Video

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4. Social Sales

3 Ideas For Using Social Media to Make Sales