Forbes magazine recently reported that India is now Facebook Nation No.2, for country with the most active Facebook users after the US.  In a years time, India went from ranking No. 6 to moving infront of the previous No. 2 Facebook Nation, Indonesia.

Real-time rankings for countries with the most active Facebook users according to checkfacebook.com.

1. United States: 155,699,640
2. India: 43,497,980
3. Indonesia: 43,060,360
4. Brazil: 37,907,400
5. Mexico: 32,031,340
6. Turkey: 31,247,120
7. United Kingdom: 30,249,340
8. Philippines: 27,593,300
9. France: 23,599,740
10. Germany: 22,600,660

At this rate, Facebook is projected to reach 1 billion active users by August.   “There are about 6.9 billion people currently living in the world, and Facebook is projected to capture close to 14% of that number by the end of this summer.” – Jeff Hughes, Digital Trends.  Just another impressive statistic to add to the list for Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

]]> http://www.inqbation.com/international-facebook-statistics-which-countries-have-the-most-users/feed/ 0 http://www.inqbation.com/facebook-timeline-of-events-a-history-introductions/ http://www.inqbation.com/facebook-timeline-of-events-a-history-introductions/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:12:06 +0000 Amanda http://www.inqbation.com/?p=6695 Read more »]]> Typically, the introduction of new Facebook functionality is never warmly welcomed.  I am guilty of showing resistance to new Facebook features, maybe because I am a control freak and I hate when my interface changes without being able to have any control over it…  but I have to admit, I was able to clean up my act with Timeline‘s face-lift to my Facebook profile.

Here’s a chart from BBC News displaying the history of introductions leading up to Facebook’s most recent introduction, Timeline.

Facebook Timeline of Events:
The History of Facebook Introductions & Growth of Active Users

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

• September 2004 - The Wall, the original space where users and their friends can post and share content, is added to users’ profiles. Status updates which were of the form “user is…” are now “What’s on your mind?”.
• September 2006 - News Feed and Mini-Feed are introduced – now users can see what their friends are doing on the network.
• May 2007 - Facebook Platform launches, enabling third party developers to build applications and integrate with Facebook. It’s the platform on which hit games like Farmville are built.
• May 2008 – Facebook Connect starts. Users are able to “connect” their Facebook identity to any site. It marks the beginning of the “log in with Facebook” world.
• February 2009 - The “Like” social plug-in is added, allowing users to give positive feedback about online content they enjoy.
• August 2010 - Location-based service Facebook Places begins allowing users to share information about where they are. This feature is later
• January 2012 - Facebook announces “Timeline” will be mandatory for all users.  Timeline was launched in September 2011, allowing users the option to replace their existing profile with an audio visual timeline of their life.integrated with status updates.

In conclusion…

People tend to forget or ignore that there is a unwritten understanding / binding contract when you’re involved with technology & the Internet.   By using any application, tool, browser, website, etc… you agree to adapt to any advancements, enhancements, upgrades, make-overs, face-lifts, implants that are defined by the developers/creators/owners as necessary requirements to keep technology moving forward.

Now, if you disagree with their definition of “moving forward” then I suggest you make your own app, tool, browser, website, etc.. because if you didn’t make it or pay to develop it, you can’t really complain!  A lesson I’m still trying to teach myself

Related Blogs: Facebook Timeline – Helped Me Clean Up My Act!

In all honesty, I’ve been resistant to every single change that Facebook has introduced.  This includes when they introduced adding photos then tagging photos, I actually was outraged!   I thought… “What an invasion of privacy, how could they!?” Fast-forward to today and you’ll notice hundreds of photos and albums tagged on my Facebook account!

Outraged. That’s also how I felt when a few weeks ago I accidentally clicked switch to Timeline.  I spent hours reading blogs and looking for a way to go BACK!  The bottom line is, you can’t go back.. you are using Facebook’s services and therefore they make the ultimate decisions.

Now come to think of it, Timeline actually helped me clean up my “public image” if you will.  All of that exposed “private” information was already there!  It just probably took a super-stalker to click through all of your posts to actually find something from 2005, but my point is.. is that it’s always been there & easily accessible!

The difference now is that I can quickly access a time period on my wall i.e. back in 2005 (while I was a reckless college student).  Timeline allows me to quickly delete all of those “awesome decisions” I choose to make public via incriminating wall posts and embarrassing 3AM status updates that I thought were funny after a night out at the bars.

In the end, I’ve got to thank Facebook for introducing Timeline and allowing me to clean up my act!

Related Blog Posts: Facebook Timeline of Events – A History of Introductions

Federal agencies need small businesses to contract out for goods and services, and mid and large-tier organizations are looking to small business partners for strategic contract wins. The playing field has widened yet so has competition. How can small businesses become known entities in the new Federal contracting environment?

Government contractors can leverage their online communications – from website design, to online branding, to content marketing, to social media to search engine optimization to mobile-friendly technology – to promote their goods and services to government agency and prime contractor partners.

In this series, we will explore the increasingly important role web presence plays in winning government business.

First, Get Found – Search Engine Optimization

inQbation has advanced mastery skills of search engine optimization (SEO).   Google, “DC SEO experts,” and you will see inQbation.com on top.   The most important element of SEO is selecting and using the right keywords.  Often, we will observe that the language and terminology that organizations use may or may not be the same as those that its target audience uses.

If an organization wants their site to rank high on search engines and be found by its intended target audience, it is imperative that representatives of the target audience be interviewed in a non-leading way to identify their natural online search behavior.  We need to use the key words that our target audience might use, not the internal technical or clinical language that we might use, to find the type of content that we have on our site.

We have observed and identified the 5 most important elements of search engine optimization.  Most websites that apply these elements tend to rank very well across all search engines.  Those that do not apply these elements often struggle with their SEO.  These are the most import elements of SEO:

1.       Choose the right keywords – those that your target audience my use

2.       Inject unique keyword phrases (3-5 words) into page title tags

3.       Inject important keyword phrases into page headings

4.       Use important key words in link text and navigation links

5.       Weave important keywords into the URLs and directory path

Our SEO strategy includes a well-rounded, holistic approach that encompasses:

• Crawlability – because search engines need to crawl your site to index it
• Credibility – because search engines prefer to deliver credible results
• Content – because your site’s content must be relevant to a search query
• Code – because search engines read your source code and meta tags
• Conversation – because search engines monitor social media
• Competition – because it’s easier to rank for less competitive keyword phrases
• Conversion – because it’s about getting qualified clients, not just gross traffic
• Compliance – because valid HTML, CSS, and 508 code helps search engine.

Find out how your website scores, for free!

Email results@inQbation.com for a free assessment of your website  presence.  At no cost to you, we will use professional  tools to grade your findability, and give you your score and supporting metrics.

1″Savvy contractors to capitalize on 2012 spending trends.” http://www.legalnews.com/detroit/1177583/. Detroit Legal News. 17 January 2012. Web.

2 Matthew Weigelt. “Agencies that miss small-biz goals could face penalties.” http://fcw.com/articles/2012/01/25/small-business-goal-reduced-budget-penalty.aspx. 25 January 2012. Federal Computer Week. Web.

Managing Facebook Page Admins

• Click the “See All” link in the “Admins” column on the right side of the Page
• A list of all of the current admins for your Facebook Page will appear on your screen.  Here, you will be able to add new admin users or remove existing admin users.

Before you add a new Facebook Page admin; are you aware of how much control you are handing over?

Facebook Page Admins – Who do you trust?

Adding Facebook Page Admins

• Enter the user’s e-mail address you would like to add as an admin for your Page
•  Click “Save Changes” to add the admin, otherwise your changes will not be made

Removing Facebook Page Admins

• Click the “Remove” link next to the name of the user
• Click “Save Changes” to remove the admin, otherwise your changes will not be made

inQbation, LLC has been selected to participate in The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC’s FastTrac® TechVenture™ Program for the Spring of 2012

FastTrac® TechVenture™ is a comprehensive business planning program that addresses the needs of start-up entrepreneurs who are refining their business ideas, writing their business plans and seeking to grow sustainable high-impact companies. The program combines instruction from experienced business professionals, one-on-one business mentoring, peer learning, and ample tools to help entrepreneurs produce all the elements of an effective business. After completing the program, entrepreneurs walk away with a detailed business plan and executive summary presentation, and a strong understanding of how to finance a company.

The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC is a resource hub for technology-focused start-ups and entrepreneurs at every stage of their lifecycle. The Entrepreneur Center fosters entrepreneurship in students, mentors the first-time entrepreneur, advises and supports the experienced entrepreneur, and facilitates strategic business relationships in the technology community.

For more information see www.nvtc.org

In my quest to gain more ‘likes’ for inQbation’s Facebook Page… I asked my Facebook friends to invite their friends to our page.  I soon realized that only Page admins will see the “invite friends” link on the right side of the Page.

Users who are not admins do not have the ability to invite their friends to ‘like’ their Page on Facebook.  This leads me into my next point about adding friends as an admin for your Page.

If you have a trusted friend that is well socially-connected and has an impressive network of contacts on Facebook; you could make them an Admin for your Page in an effort to increase ‘likes’ and drive more traffic to the Page.  They will then be able to invite their own friends on Facebook to ‘like’ your Page.  Did you notice that I mentioned the words “trusted friend?”

Adding & Removing Admins to Facebook Page

You must be sure to make good decisions about who you add as an Admin.  It’s your reputation or your company’s on the line, probably both.   The power of being an admin for a Page comes with the power to manage all admins for that Page.

Full-access to the list of admins where you simplyclick the remove link, type in your Facebook password, and BOOM – that person no longer has privileges to mange your Page.

site:npuap.org

I got 469 results with that parameter (see image below), but it found all the files that are indexed on Google under that domain, not only HTML files, but PDFs, Word documents, etc.

I did a research, and I found that there is a parameter called “filetype” that allows to specify the filetype of the content that you are looking for.  Then, my next search was:

site:npuap.org filetype:html

I was able to narrow down my search results to 4 results (see image below), because it found files with .html extension.

Since I knew there were more HTML files on that site, I changed my search to:

site:npuap.org filetype:htm

And then, I got the rest of HTML pages (with .htm extension) under that website.

With that experiment, I was able to conclude that the website www.npuap.org contains about 100 HTML pages indexed on Google.

The parameter “filetype” works for other formats like PDF, Word (DOC), Excel (XLS), Powerpoint (PPT) and PostScript (PS).

The following are more resources to refine your search on Google:

• Advanced search tips
• Advanced search of Google
• Google Inside Search

Let’s say you are an admin for a Page on Facebook.  Do you know what name shows up on your Page to your Page fans after you ‘like’ a post?  Admins are not able to ‘like’ or comment on posts to your page as their “real self” (under an actual name).

Here’s a helpful scenario…  My real name is Amanda Le.   I’m an admin for www.facebook.com/inQbation, our company’s Page on Facebook.

My ‘likes’ or comments posted to www.facebook.com/inQbation will always be displayed as “inQbation likes this” and will never displayed as “Amanda Le likes this.”

My point is, I can’t interact with my company’s Page on Facebook as Amanda Le.

Essentially, you give your own post a thumbs up as an admin.  Congratulating yourself for something you did.  I think we all agree that ‘liking’ your own status post on Facebook is also the equivalent to high five-ing yourself in public.  I’m only bringing this up because it might take a while for a Page admins to notice this..

The admin’s view of their own interaction with the Page will always be seen as “You like this.”  This has always been true with Facebook ‘likes’.  So, whether the public sees your Page’s name or your real name… the admin will always see “You.”

Related Links:

• Facebook Page Admins – Who Do You Trust?
• How to Add or Remove Facebook Page Admins

One such area is the content product you are putting out there for consumers coming to the site, i.e. your company’s blog.

For many businesses, the company blog serves as the center for a CEO’s thoughts, an informational platform about company products, a marketing tool, or all of the above.

Most importantly, the company blog needs to be tended to regularly and with the idea that it is helping to sell your company. So, what is the importance to you and your company if the blog is not helping to sell your company? No big deal or time to fix it?

For those who answer the latter, they are at least recognizing that there is a problem.

Among those problems can be:

• The blog is not updated regularly and therefore is of little or no value to search engines;
• The blog is not promoted via different social media channels, meaning few people see it;
• The blog content is not relative to your site and therefore draws little or no interest from readers;
• The blog is lacking images; viable statistics etc. and is therefore not visually appealing.

These can be just a few of the problems your company’s blog can be suffering from, meaning you’ve got a blog that is essentially useless and taking up valuable time for the individual and/or department that is writing and posting it.

In order to better your blog’s chances of being impactful, along with helping you achieve a better ROI, remember these tips:

• Those on your payroll are your top assets since they should understand your company’s day-to-day thought process. While that doesn’t mean you likely want the intern blogging for you, choose those best suited to do the job. This person or persons should understand your products and your regular interactions with customers;
• Having an inside person or persons oversee the blog should lead to added morale within the office;
• When dealing with an outside firm, blog postings will likely need more editing time given these individuals do not know your company as well as those in-house. Factor that into account in the event you are searching for quick turnaround time or are concerned about mistakes;
• What is the message you are transmitting to your customers by outsourcing the blog? Some may look at it as you don’t have enough time for the blog, so maybe you don’t have enough time to engage the customer too?

If you’re still questioning how to make your company blog be a better vehicle for your ROI, keep in mind to:

• Make sure the blog provides valuable titles. The blog requires headlines that will attract readers, so be creative and invest the necessary time;
• While we previously talked over the importance of having fresh and appealing content, another thing to add is intriguing images and/or videos. A reader’s eyes will be drawn to interesting photos, so keep this in mind and avoid running lines and lines of copy without a break;
• Focus the blog on a niche or subject, so that your readers know why they are visiting your site in the first place. While having some random thoughts in the blog is fine, a blog that is all over the place is less apt to receive a regular following;
• Engage with the audience. Assuming you’ve got individuals responding to your blog with comments, questions, etc. be sure to engage them. Not only do you construct a relationship with them, but you’re looked at as a business that takes time for individuals.

Many companies go back-and-forth on whether or not a blog is the way to help build a better ROI.

If your company’s blog is not doing what it is supposed to be, take the time now the get it going in the right direction.

You will very likely be pleased with the end result.