This was a big week in social media updates! Here’s what we discovered that may help your small business stay ahead of the social media curve (and boy, it’s curvy!):

1. Bit.ly Makeover – Bit.ly is the link shortening tool we use to shorten links we share on social media sites (so our posts look cleaner) and measure the number of clicks each link gets after we’ve shared it. It used to be a simple tool that was functional, but they’ve upgraded to a very user-friendly (and just plain friendly) look and feel and added features like:

• • Bitmarks -They now call short links: Bitmarks – likely to keep their brand consistent and distinguish their short links from other link shortening sites.
  • Bundles - We’ve been wanting a way to view the clicks of links related to a particular topic or client for awhile now. Now, we can with Bit.ly bundles. Bundles are categories that help organize short links. When we shorten a link now, we can add the ‘bitmark’ to a bundle to keep it categorized. You can also share the bundle by email and another Bit.ly user can view the ‘bundle’ in their Bit.ly account. This is beneficial for sharing link results with clients and team members with different accounts. It also helps to easily pull metrics related to a topic or client very easily.
  • Public vs. Private Bundles & Links: You can now make a ‘bitmark’ (or short link) public or private. If it is public, others that you connect with through Bit.ly (using Facebook or Twitter) can see what links you are shortening and sharing. You can also keep them private.
  • Profile – Your ‘profile’ in Bit.ly is like a news feed of all of the short links you’ve created.
  • Stats – You now have to click the ‘Stats’ tab or in the ‘Profile’ section, the ‘i’ (information circle) on a bitmark to see the number of clicks. You can also view the number of clicks the entire article received, versus the short link you specifically shared and the number of times the link was ‘saved’ (we are still investigating where these links are saved, other than in bit.ly and how that occurs from users other than ourselves in our own account).

Here is the new Bit.ly site. This is the welcome page.

2. Facebook New Business Page Features – Facebook just made a few updates to how managers of business pages can use the page. We learned about this from the Social Media Club blog. The new features include:

• • New Role-Based Admin Levels - There are new levels of manager or administrator status like Manager (full-access), Moderator, Content Creator (just posting capabilities), Advertiser (only advertising platform access), and Insights Analyst (only insights/analytics access). This now allows businesses to control who has access to certain areas of their business pages or accounts – big plus for privacy!
  • Post Scheduling within Facebook - Third-party tools like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite have enabled social media managers to schedule posts in advance for convenience and organization. However, this was not possible within Facebook until yesterday. Once this feature is rolled out to all business pages, managers should be able to schedule posts about every 15 minutes and up to 6-monhts in advance. We’re waiting to see when this feature is rolled out to the pages we manage to try it out!

3. Google+ Local – Google launched Google+ Local yesterday, which is a local recommendation and search engine based on geographic location! It is accessible from within Google+ (smart move to get more people to use Google+, or at least to sign in to access the Google+ Local tool). It helps provide local business recommendations including maps, contact info, Zagat scores, reviews and photos based on your location and is related to Zagat (also owned by Google) restaurant reviews (if you’re looking for a restaurant), and Google Places reviews (like Yelp, but reviews within Google). It is also based on distance, but we’re not able to tell how they choose the display order (some businesses that had higher stars appeared lower than others, and some that were closer in distance also appeared lower in the ordering list when we tried it). We did a quick search for Tuna Sandwich nearby and this is what we found. Notice – Foodheads is further but appears first – possibly due to the Zagat rating or user reviews. (At least they have good taste – FoodHeads is one of our favorite local sandwich shops!)

Google+ Local Search Results for Tuna Sandwich near Hyde Park, Austin

This new tool demonstrates the importance for small businesses to have a Google presence like having a Google Places page with a map, contact information, hours, and even photos, having Google reviews by customers, and we’re strong believers of small businesses setting up and posting on a Google+ Business Page to increase our chances of being found when potential customers search for our businesses or businesses in our industries. In fact, we manage Google+ pages for several of our clients like Wolfgang Career Coaching, Arlene Maze (Platinum Top 50 Realtors), and here’s ours!

Here’s where to find it in Google+ (on the bottom left under ‘More’:

Google+ Local Access from within Google+

Have you used any of these new tools and features this week? Let us know what you think! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more tips and information about small business marketing.