VerveCast

By now, you’ve probably at least seen the new Facebook Timeline layout. (Maybe you even recall getting a sneak preview of it a few months back in a blog post by Pete.) I recently switched over to the new layout myself. Personally, I find it a little less user-friendly, but maybe that’s because I’m still getting used to it.

To my point… I just came across the first example I’ve seen of a business/organization using Facebook Timeline for marketing purposes. The Israel Anti-Drug Authority created a fictional profile of a guy that depicts what a year of his life would look like while using drug, versus a year of clean living. That was the concept at least, however, it really only goes back to Dec. 1, 2011. Although the execution fell flat, especially on the druggie side, which turned out a little cliché, the idea behind using the timeline in this way is creative.

This got me thinking about the potential uses for Facebook Timeline in terms of marketing and branding. The platform would be great for showing a company’s history, product innovations, major events, etc. Although Facebook has not revealed details on Timeline for brands just yet, I’m guessing it will follow this initial rollout for individuals. In the meantime, it’s exciting to imagine the possibilities.

Happy Friday everyone! I just wanted to share an interesting infographic about social media in small businesses and the potential for business growth.

If there’s three things that you can count on in life, it’s death, taxes, and Facebook making changes. (I’m pretty sure that’s how the old saying goes.)

Since the new look is only available to developers right now, I thought I’d share some screen shots to let you know what’s coming.

The image above shows my new profile. You can choose a nice big image of yourself (or a monkey) for people to see.

Typically Facebook makes changes to its user interface and design, but this time around it seems a bit more radical, as they’ve made a number of changes that seem to be positioning them to broadcast your lifestream. In a way this is good, because previously it wasn’t easy to go back in time to see all of your old posts, but it’s also a bit weird to think that Facebook has so much information about you.

On the right is a timeline that shows everything from today back to the point when you were born. Yes. When you were born. If there was ever any doubt Facebook wanted to know everything about you, this should dispel that doubt.

You can also add important “Life Events” such as getting married, having a baby, losing a limb, or eating a bagel.

I won’t go into much more details, but I thought it might be nice to give a sneak-peek of the coming changes. Also, in six months when they make more changes, we can look back at this post and talk about the “good old days” with some fondness.

Last week, University of Wisconsin—Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Association launched a social media challenge aimed to not only increase the visibility of the organizations’ public profile, but also to raise money for UW’s needs-based scholarship fund, Great People Scholarship.

For every new Facebook “like” and Twitter follower the two organizations receive, the university will receive $1 toward Great People Scholarship. The effort is being undertaken by Wisconsin alumnus Will Hsu, his wife Jenny, and his parents, Paul and Sharon. The Hsu family will donate $1 to the Great People Scholarship for every follower or like, up to $50,000. The campaign ends Monday, Oct. 3, 2011.

“We’re trying to make sure people stay connected,” says Will Hsu, who majored in finance, Chinese languages and literature, and East Asian Studies and graduated from UW-Madison in 2000. He is a senior finance manager at General Mills in Minneapolis and a frequent blogger who makes good use of Twitter.

“The growth of social media has really changed the world,” he says. “In the last few years, Jenny and I have watched Facebook and Twitter and some of these other types of social media take off. I think it’s a powerful way for younger alums and current students to get connected and stay connected with the university.”

Social media campaigns like this one have the potential to be extremely successful. They require almost no financial investment and can spread like crazy through social media outlets. However, UW does have a definite advantage over your typical business. Its already high profile gives it a larger platform in which to spread the word. Media outlets are much more likely to pick up on a story like this from a major university, rather than from a small car dealership, or the like.

That said, I’d say the relatively simple Bucky Challenge has already been successful. As I write, it has already raised $12,682 and counting.

UW—Madison: facebook.com/UWMadison; @uwmadison

WAA: facebook.com/buckybadger; @buckybadger

One minor problem many small businesses encounter in terms of social media is that they simply don’t understand it. They don’t really recognize the why or how behind the rapidly developing medium. But one smart campaign is helping small businesses better develop their social media presence (and, of course, is attracting publicity for the two giants). Facebook and American Express’s small business division recently teamed up for a contest that will give five small businesses a Facebook makeover (and $20,000 to grow their businesses).

More than 11,000 small businesses entered the contest, from which 10 finalists have been selected. You can watch profiles of each business on American Express’s YouTube page. Users can cast votes for their favorites from now until July 20 on Facebook. The winners will then head to Facebook’s headquarter’s where they’ll get advice from the company on how to best tailor their Page, Ads and social plugins.

What a smart way for Facebook and AMEX to reinforce their brands and garner media attention, while helping a few small businesses along the way.