Social Media Roundup: April 22, 2014

The World's Worst Website - and Nine Other Monstrosities
Looking at excellent designs and great user experiences on the Internet and learning from the best is smart, but it's also a good idea to see what you should avoid like the plague. Horrible colors, clashing fonts, hyperactive animations, and loud music are some of the sins you'll find in these examples from Albert Costill, writing on Search Engine Journal. Besides, it's fun to look at badly designed, ridiculous websites. Warning: several of these websites will give you a headache if you look at them too long.

New Facebook Business Page Redesign
As of April 4, the new Facebook business page design became mandatory for all users. It's a significant change to the way pages have looked for the last few years. All posts are placed in a single column on the right, while everything else goes in the left column, including reviews, page likes, contact info, and apps. The tabs across the top just below the Facebook cover photo are gone, too. They're replaced by simple word links in the same position, while the apps themselves have moved to the left column. There are considerable changes to the administrative back end, too. Writing on Search Engine Journal, Debbie Miller, a blogger and social media marketing professional at Social Hospitality, includes screen shots to help you see how the new design works.

Video Marketing: How To Become a Director
Three out of four (77%) of global Internet users watch video. That adds up to 1.15 billion people, about two-thirds of them watching on smartphones and most of the rest on tablets. There are a lot of people are out there, but there is also a lot of video being published every day. The way to stand out from the crowd is to learn how to be a director. You'll get better results from your video marketing if you master the 10 elements of successful video described by Heidi Cohen. Examples include:

• Script. Screenwriting is a big piece of the hidden work on a successful film that makes it work.
•  Sound. Be professional and don't be afraid to edit the soundtrack.
• Costumes. Is your brand represented by the costumes the actors are wearing?

Twitter Marketing for Small Businesses
Nothing beats Twitter for immediacy and ease of use, but many small businesses haven't jumped in yet. With an average of 115 million users every month and 1 billion tweets every five days, Twitter is definitely worth a try. Have a look at these nine examples of small-business Twitter marketing from Eric Sornoso on Social Media Examiner for ideas about how to use it and why it might be a good fit for your brand and market.

Marketing Personas for Beginners
Who are your customers? Where do they work? How old are they? Are they married? These are just a few of the questions professional marketers ask when they create marketing personas to help them understand and relate to customers. Many of the attributes they assign to their marketing personas are fairly generic, but it pays to pay attention to the specifics and idiosyncrasies of your brand's customers to craft useful and effective personas. Many practitioners will go so far as to give their creations names and use photographs to make them even more vivid. Writing on Search Engine Journal, Kevan Lee describes how to create a marketing persona and more.

Comic Relief: "If Google Was a Guy," Part II
Speaking of personas, you probably haven't wondered what Google would look like if it were an actual person. This fast-paced, high-quality, 2-minute video features a man sitting behind a desk (playing Google) responding to queries (played by several people) who enter his office and act out their queries, which range from simple to silly, including a young man playing a stuck "f" key. Barry Schwartz, writing on Search Engine Land, says this video from CollegeHumor "mocks searchers, Google Doodles, Google Glass, and even Bing." Very funny, not safe for work, and be sure to stick around for the last section about Bing.

Daniel Lieberman is the founder of Daniel Lieberman Digital ("I speak Geek - You don't need to"). Based in Shelburne Falls, Mass., he helps companies, organizations, and individuals learn to use the Internet to communicate, market, and brand themselves using the most up-to-date tools and techniques. Contact him at 413-489-1818 or daniel@daniellieberman.org.