The Get On Social team would like to announce that Facebook has revealed their plans to roll out a new series of sharing and privacy settings. These changes will affect every single one of the 1+ billion users on Facebook over the next couple of weeks. Facebook shared images of what these changes will look like.

In an effort to add more of an emphasis on privacy and improve on user efficiency, Facebook is adding “Privacy Shortcuts” as a main tab drop down:

Facebook added a feature that many users have been requesting for quite some time. This feature allows users to request to remove a photo that has been added to Facebook by another individual:

Another significant modification has to do with the Facebook Activity Log. This log will now allow the user to see a much more complex outline of where the user’s photos and personal information is positioned throughout Facebook:

The Get On Social team is constantly asked by business owners and business professionals how to make sure that an email does not go to the recipient’s spam folder. In order to best answer this question, we turn one of the best email marketing companies in the game today: MailChimp. MailChimp must deal with this particular issue more times than we will ever dare to quantify. That being said, MailChimp provides the answer to this common question and we thank them for it!

Compliments of the MailChimp writing staff:

“How To Avoid Getting Your Campaigns Accidentally Junked

If you send email campaigns long enough, you will inevitably run into spam filter issues. We’ve found that on average, you can expect 10-20% of your emails to just get lost in cyberspace, mostly due to overzealous spam filters. You don’t even have to be a spammer to be spam-filtered. Innocent email marketers who send permission-based emailsto people who requested them get spam filtered all the time.

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. The only way to avoid spam filters is to understand how they work.

Generally speaking, spam filters look at a long list of criteria to judge whether or not your email is junk. For example, they might look for spammy phrases like “CLICK HERE!” or “FREE! BUY NOW!”. They’ll assign points each time they see one of those phrases. Certain criteria get more points than others. Here’s a sample of criteria from Spam Assassin, one of the most popular spam filters out there:

• Talks about lots of money (.193 points)
• Describes some sort of breakthrough (.232 points)
• Looks like mortgage pitch (.297 points)
• Contains urgent matter (.288 points)
• Money back guarantee (2.051 points)
• Why Pay More? (1.249 points)

If your campaign’s total “spam score” exceeds a certain threshold, your email is sent to the junk folder. You’re probably going to ask “what’s the threshold I need to stay under?” Sorry, but the threshold is different for every server. It’s determined by the person who installed the spam filter software. If the person is really sick of spam, they’ll set the threshold extremely low. Just about anything will get spam filtered then.

Oh yeah, that list of “spammy” criteria? It’s constantly growing and adapting, because spam filters “learn” what junk looks like, every time someone clicks the “This is spam” button in their email program. Spam filters even sync-up with each other online, to share what they’ve learned. See why there’s no magic bullet?

Avoid these common mistakes

These are the most common mistakes we see new email marketers make, which result in accidental spam filtering.

• Using spammy phrases, like “Click here!” or “Once in a lifetime opportunity!”
• Going crazy with exclamation points!!!!!!
• USING ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE YELLING IN EMAIL (especially in the subject)
• Coloring their fonts bright red, or green
• Coding sloppy HTML (usually from converting a Microsoft Word file to HTML)
• Creating an HTML email that’s nothing but one big image, with little or no text (since spam filters can’t read images, they assume you’re a spammer that’s trying to trick ’em).
• Using the word “Test” in the subject line (agencies run into this all the time, when sending drafts to clients for approval)
• Sending a test to multiple recipients within the same company (that company’s email firewall can only assume it’s a spam attack)
• Designing HTML email in Microsoft Word, and exporting the code to HTML (that code is sloppy, and spam filters hate it)”

-The quoted section above was Written by MailChimp (http://mailchimp.com/).

If you are planning on launching an email marketing campaign, the Get On Social team highly recommends taking a look at all of the free solutions Mail Chimp has to offer. Not only does our firm successfully use Mail Chimp, but the majority of our clients have seen great success using Mail Chimp as well.

Thank you for reading and you are more than welcome to contact the Get On Social Team at any time with questions!

For small businesses, search engine optimization can literally be the difference between survival and shutting your doors. The Internet isn’t going anywhere, and digital spaces are only getting more crowded with your competitors, no matter what industry you are representing or what field you call home.

Search engine optimization, though, has proven to be an affordable and reliable tactic small businesses can use to promote themselves and get found among the sea of competitors. Make sure that when your customers go looking for answers to their questions, you are the name that pops up and the one that gets the sale!

Get Found In A Crowded Sea

The ecosystem online is getting more crowded with every passing day. Social networks, marketing websites, and digital and mobile apps allow businesses in any sector to endlessly promote themselves. Because of that, it is now more important than ever to adequately showcase what you can do, and where you can fit.

SEO can help small and medium-sized businesses rise above that crowded sea of competitors, and stand out in the crowd, so that when a customer has a need, you are there to demonstrate your products and your ability to meet their demand.

Become An Expert In Your Field

Google keywords in your industry; what pops up? Major businesses, respected organizations, and other experts in the field? It’s no accident. Through search engine optimization tactics and techniques, your small business can join that top-shelf quality of businesses and resources and really stand out from the masses.

You may already be an expert in your field, but it’s of no consequence if no customers realize that. SEO brings your expertise and focus to another level, and showcases your experience and benefits for thousands of customers to be able to peruse your products, and potentially make major purchases from your company.

Invest In SEO and Invest In Yourself

Just like any other marketing or advertising campaign, an investment in search engine optimization is an investment in yourself, and your business. When you work with a company who specializes in SEO placement and strategy, you are investing back into your business and your future profits and customer loyalty and retention.

For many small and medium-sized businesses, advertising comes at a heavy cost, and they are reluctant to work too hard or spend too much money on it. They need to know, of course, that they will get a return on that investment. Rest assured that with SEO help from a quality company, your business will rise to the top and turn potential customers into actual, loyal and satisfied customers who return to your company over and over again with great experiences and more money!

On behalf of the Get On Social team, we thank you for reading!

If you have any questions, you are more than welcome to contact us.