You can now display a vertical, floating social media tab on the left or right hand side of your YWD website. It combines Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +1 buttons with counters so people can 'like' your website using their favourite social network.
The buttons will be stacked inside the tab, which will automatically float on top of the page content underneath. In modern browsers it will have a semi-transparent background to make it more integrated within the website's look and feel, whereas in IE 8 the background will be 100% white.
Our Help website is now using this new widget on the right side.
To add this tab your YWD website go to YWD Designer / Tools & widgets / Widgets / Social media, side tabs and simply choose whether you'd like it to appear on the left or right side (the default is to have it "Off").
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
This slide show is based on a study, conducted by Constant Contact and the research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey, which analysed the behavior of 1,491 consumers throughout the United states of are 18 and older. I found it on Mashable (read it here), the slide show has great charts on comsumer behaivour. I found the data on how many brands a typical user likes very interesting.
If you have a personal Facebook profile, then you are one step in the right direction, next you need to set up a Facebook page for your business. How to set up a Facebook page.
If you have a Facebook page, did you know you can use Your Web Department to create custom welcome tabs, forms and product pages? - all for free!Learn how.
By now you know how much we like to help, we have a Get started on Facebook for only $300.00 package which includes creating your page, as well as a custom welcome page and a custom form page. Learn more.
For those of you already using a Facebook page, who don’t have the time to set up these custom tabs on your own, we can help you create custom tabs for the low price of $150 each. Help me create a custom tab.
Gustavo Jabbaz started his digital career as a designer and then became a developer and these days spends most of his time as a digital marketer. A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing and development strategy. He is who you talk to when you need support with SEO and/or Social Media. Gustavo Jabbaz on Google+ | Twitter
Your website is the primary communication vehicle of your business with its audience. And now you have a Facebook business page as well – how do you connect the two?
One way to do that is by using a Facebook 'Like' box. With it, people visiting your website can see how many others already like your page, including their own friends. They can read the posts you add to your Facebook page's wall. And they can even 'like' you without the need to visit your Facebook page i.e. they don't need to leave your website to do that at all!
You get the best of both worlds: you use Facebook to keep your audience informed and engaged, while at the same time they're still navigating your custom-branded, content-driven website.
For instance, a YWD client located in Brazil – www.compushopba.com.br – whose Home page you see on the right has just gone live with a corporate website in which they're using their own Facebook page stream to publish the latest news related to their industry, as well as the company itself.
It's a very effective way for them to communicate with their visitors, with a strong synergy between their website and their Facebook page.
How do you do that in YWD?
Very simple. Add a new content block to any page, and choose Facebook 'Like' Box. You then enter your Facebook page URL (e.g. www.facebook.com/mypage). Specify the width of the plugin to match your website's layout, and choose whether you'd like to show the stream, a header and the number of people/faces who already 'liked' it.
There's no need to do any programming. The form in YWD looks similar to this:
Don't forget to Save and then Publish your changes, of course.
That's it! Your Facebook 'Like' box will be inserted, and whatever entries you make to your wall (as well as comments) will be shown in your website as well – automatically.
Get started on Facebook with YWD
If you have a personal Facebook profile, then you are one step in the right direction, next you need to set up a Facebook page for your business. How to set up a Facebook page.
If you have a Facebook page, did you know you can use Your Web Department to create custom welcome tabs, forms and product pages? - all for free!Learn how.
By now you know how much we like to help, we have a Get started on Facebook for only $300.00 package which includes creating your page, as well as a custom welcome page and a custom form page. Learn more.
For those of you already using a Facebook page, who don’t have the time to set up these custom tabs on your own, we can help you create custom tabs for the low price of $150 each. Help me create a custom tab.
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
Look, WordPress is huge. Though, curiously, it only comes up occasionally in our battles for website supremacy. Okay, they are several million users ahead of us but most of those a freeloaders. Sorry, I had to say it.
WordPress is a great program but people throw its name around as if it were the solution to every website problem. It's not. One of the things that really gets me going is when we have to field the question, "What happens if you guys go out of business?" Let me write that we charge for all websites on our system (very reasonable rates) and have a healthy ecosystem that satisfies all our clients' needs and then some. People love Your Web Department because we support them.
Let's get back to the staying in business question. If you are interested in using WP then I would strongly suggest asking if the design firm you've hired will be staying in business. If they are hosting WP on someone else's servers, perhaps ask if they will be staying in business. You can also ask about that plug-in developer or the kid form Czechoslovakia who built the CMS module you're planning on using if they even plan on supporting their products for the next 2 years.
Your Web Department is built on an annuity-stream business model. If you're asking us if we plan on staying in business perhaps you should ask the people building stuff for free how they derive an income? No one seems to ask that. Yes, I know, they make it up in volume.
Paul Chato has been many things: a graphic designer, programmer, comedian, head of network TV comedy, game producer, 3D animator, playwright, event host, director and anything else that matches his fancy. Most of the time he is a managing partner at Your Web Department and is most excited about LiveBuild™. Check out LiveBuild
If you have a large website, you can provide search capabilities within it by incorporating Google Search.
Google offers two methods/interfaces. Whichever method you choose, your website must already be live, and it may take Google several weeks before your website is indexed. Using YWD's Google Verification and Google XML Sitemap tools may speed up the process. During this time searching the website will produce no results. So you may want to wait a few weeks after going live before enabling Google Search.
Google Web Search API
Google Custom Search
The older method. It's free, but Google branding (a "Powered by Google") will be shown beneath the search control. Also, Google may be discontinuing this method by 2013.
To add this type of search to your YWD website, get a free Website API from Google, then add it to YWD's Google Search tool.
Free and no branding on the search control, but will show Google ads on the results. If you want to remove the ads you'll need to pay Google a fee starting at $100/year in order to turn it into what they call a "Site Search".
To add this type of search to your YWD website, you need to create your custom search on Google first and obtain a 'Search gine unique ID' for it. Then add it to YWD's Google Search tool.
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
This past week: Well still is my vacation week, so I did less reading on social media and I almost no tweets. Instead I decided to use one of Facebook own pages' posts. "Facebook Marketing Solutions" (http://www.facebook.com/marketing), I follow them along with 450K+ fans and I find it a great source of information for marketing on Facebook. Below there are a few current posts, which I found interesting. Hopefully this blog post will introduce you to Facebook Marketing Solutions and you'll decide to like them as well.
Tip: If you want your SEO strategy to succeed, you have to start incorporating social media into the mix. Post a snippet of your latest blog post to Facebook (not the whole thing!) to not only get a link, but also help drive traffic. If you just post the first paragraph, readers are forced to go to your blog to finish the whole post. For more tips on SEO and social, read on...
A tip from Ad Age: "Make the act of shopping on your site more personal by bringing recommendations from friends and connections into the shopping process. And allow your customers to broadcast their opinions on your products back to their friends on Facebook." Read more
If you're a fan of this page, chances are good that you already know the benefits of creating a Facebook page for your business. But maybe you have a friend you're trying to convince? Share this Entrepreneur article to help them get started... http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220282
This post features 30 Tips and Tricks for Mastering Facebook Marketing. Are there any that you haven't heard before? Read more.
The Like button allows you to drive referral traffic back to your site, create a lasting connection with your visitors and increase on-site engagement. Learn how to implement it in this video of David Pio, one of our Partner Engineers. Read more.
Facebook plays an increasing role in beauty brands' marketing, ecommerce and customer service strategies, reports Mashable. How is Facebook playing a role in your business? http://pub.vitrue.com/rMp
How have you used Facebook Places for your business? Here are some great examples to spark your creativity. Read more.
Get started on Facebook with YWD
If you have a personal Facebook profile, then you are one step in the right direction, next you need to set up a Facebook page for your business. How to set up a Facebook page.
If you have a Facebook page, did you know you can use Your Web Department to create custom welcome tabs, forms and product pages? - all for free!Learn how.
By now you know how much we like to help, we have a Get started on Facebook for only $300.00 package which includes creating your page, as well as a custom welcome page and a custom form page. Learn more.
For those of you already using a Facebook page, who don’t have the time to set up these custom tabs on your own, we can help you create custom tabs for the low price of $150 each. Help me create a custom tab.
Next Friday I'll have another round up, in the meantime you can follow me @ywd or on facebook
Gustavo Jabbaz started his digital career as a designer and then became a developer and these days spends most of his time as a digital marketer. A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing and development strategy. He is who you talk to when you need support with SEO and/or Social Media. Gustavo Jabbaz on Google+ | Twitter
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