A2Z Computer Services Inc

Corporate I.T. Solutions, Computer Repair and Web Design in Henderson, KY

15 Year Anniversary & an iPad Giveaway

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Happy first day of June to everyone. June is a special month for all of us here at A2Z Computer Services. This month we’re celebrating our 15 year anniversary. Time really flies when you’re doing something you love for such a great community. We’re so thankful for all of the continued support that we’ve received from all of you in Henderson, Owensboro, Evansville and the rest of the tri-state area. We couldn’t do this without you and simply cannot thank you enough.

We’re also happy to announce that we are completely settled into our new office located at 19 S Main Street and we already feel right at home. Downtown Henderson is such a beautiful place and is full of some great local businesses that all deserve the wonderful support that our community gives them. We’re lucky and blessed to call them our neighbors.

Because this month marks our 15 year anniversary, we’ve decided to invite you to celebrate with us. Throughout this month we will be showing our appreciation for all of our customers and clients with a variety of specials, a giveaway and even a customer appreciation day with some delicious food. (Yes, this includes Kenny’s famous buffalo wings!) We will posting updates throughout the month so that you won’t miss out on any of the fun and excitement.

Now, onto the giveaway. During the month of June we will be running a sweepstakes from our Facebook page to give one lucky winner a brand new iPad 2. Entering is easy. All you have to do is visit our Facebook page, click the “Sweepstakes” tab under our profile picture and fill out the entry form. We will announce the winner on June 30th. Good luck to everyone!

Stay tuned for more updates about our anniversary celebration month. Until next time!

Static FBML, We Hardly Knew Ye

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Facebook Page Upgrades: A Quick Overview

Today is the day, the last day that Facebook page owners will be able to install the Static FBML application on their page. Facebook announced last month that they would be upgrading pages to a new layout while adding many new features. Facebook has a history of making updates and changes to their site that catch both personal and business users off guard. These changes however have probably been the most accepted and anticipated changes that Facebook has ever released to date.

Up until today page owners have had the option to keep their current page the way it is or go ahead and upgrade to the new layout. Many have taken advantage of the early upgrade while others have been unaware of the changes and what would happen to their page once they clicked “upgrade”. However after today all Facebook pages will automatically be upgraded, but rest assured that these changes are good and offer you many new options for connecting with customers, other businesses and simply creating a greater user experience.

The End of Static FBML and What it Means for your Business

FBML stands for Facebook Markup Language, essentially it is Facebook’s version of HTML. The Static FBML application has been used by many businesses in order to add more customization to their Facebook page. Static FBML has allowed page owners and marketing agencies to develop additional tabs to Facebook pages that are completely customized using their own images, content and design. There are many companies that have been started in the last two years whose biggest asset has been using the Static FBML application for their clients. Does the death of Static FBML mean the end of these firms or the end of offering a great Facebook experience to your customers? Absolutely not.

With the end of Static FBML tabs Facebook has brought something bigger and better to the table, iFrames for pages. With the use of iFrames companies will now have less restrictions when it comes to having their Facebook page customized. Videos and Flash objects will no longer require being clicked first in order to be activated and you can use applications that have been developed using HTML, CSS and Javascript. These languages are more well known to developers than FBML and FBJS, meaning companies that offer Facebook page development, such as ourselves, will be able to offer more to page owners to help grow their online presence and draw more individuals to their page, their website and most importantly their business.

In Conclusion…

If you are a page owner please keep in mind that these changes are in fact good. Social Media is fluid and to succeed in Social Media we all have to be fluid and accepting of change, especially when change translates into being able to offer more to customers. We have not posted a blog going into detail about each change that has been included in the Facebook page upgrade but there have been many others who have so why reinvent the wheel? Click here to read about all of Facebook’s changes to pages from Social Media Examiner.

Please also keep in mind that we offer many solutions for your Facebook page and online presence including development, design, consulting, training and even promotion management. Have fun exploring all of the new features that Facebook has to offer and let us know if we can be of assistance to you.

New Faceboook Features Revealed by Mistake

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Yesterday afternoon many of may have noticed that Facebook went down for a short time. What you may not have seen however was Facebook’s accidental revealing of some of their new features. The features weren’t active for very long but many people, including us, had an opportunity to see the new features for  a short time before Facebook went down.

After all of this took place yesterday afternoon Facebook tweeted “Also, some internal prototypes were exposed to people and resulted in us disabling the site briefly. It’s now back to normal.”

Below are a few of the new features that we were able to see and also have since read about for other various sources. If there are any features that you were able to experience yesterday please tell us about them in comment feed. Enjoy!

Facebook Pages

New Facebook Pages

One of the biggest changes seen yesterday was the new layout for Facebook Pages. Instead of the tabbed navigation at the top of the page the menu had moved to the left column underneath the profile picture. This of course resembles the look of Facebook Places as well as the new profile layouts.

Another useful feature for many page admins that was seen is the Questions / Poll feature which will allow pages to run polls directly through Facebook as opposed to using comment feeds, third party applications or links back to your website. One change that people were unhappy with was the default landing tab setting for non-fans was gone. We believe however that this feature will still be available once the new Pages go live.

Page admins also had an option to “Switch Accounts” and “Login as Page”. The “Login as Page” option raises many questions for us such as whether or not this the page admins will finally be notified of new comments and likes as opposed to manually checking the page. We also wonder if page admins will have the ability to Message individuals as the page. These of course are just speculation but worth keeping in mind.

A Facebook spokesperson also stated that page admins were notified of the changes before they take effect. This is very comforting considering the time, money and energy businesses put into Facebook as part of their marketing and communication plan. All of us at A2Z Computer Services, Inc. personally cannot wait for that announcement to come out.

Pages weren’t the only ones to get a sneak peak at the new changes that will be coming to Facebook. Personal profiles saw new features such as Memories which will allow users to go back and photos, statuses and new friends grouped by years. The much anticipated lightbox UI for Facebook Photos was also seen and enjoyed by many for a short time.

What features are you either looking forward to or dreading the most?

Why we created a new Facebook page

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A2Z Computer Services, Inc on FacebookIf you “like” our page on Facebook there’s no doubt that you’ve seen a bunch of posts from us this week regarding our new page. Earlier this week we launched a new page for A2Z Computer Services, Inc. on Facebook because of some technical issues with our old page.

Don’t worry, these technical issues are not a virus or anything that will effect our fans on the page. When we originally created the page a long time ago we categorized the page incorrectly and didn’t have our “official” name as the page name. Instead of having the page categorized as “Local Business” we had it as a “Product / Service”. This is fine for some but in our case we were unable to have the phone number, address and hours fields. This also means that individuals viewing our page from their mobile phone couldn’t access our number, address and hours of operation.

Therefore we decided that even though we have a large number of fans and followers on our original Facebook page, the best solution would be to create a new page and migrate our connections from the original to this one. This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered this issue. We have gone through this process for various clients before as well.

It can be a hard choice to make this jump for some, but the choice to do so is often the right one. The process of notifying the current fans on your page to the new one can take time but patience is a virtue. Once our new page’s numbers are back up to where they should be and all of our fans on the old have had a chance to come to the new one we will delete the old page. Until then we will be updating both pages and and doing lots of promotion for the new page.

We appreciate everyone’s continued support and look forward to furthering our relationships that we have began on Facebook and other various social media outlets.

Click here to visit our new Facebook page: A2Z Computer Services, Inc. on Facebook

Three questions that must be asked when creating a social media strategy

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A couple weeks ago, we at A2Z Computer Services, Inc hosted a free seminar at our office for our existing Mad Skillz Marketing customers to help enhance their Social Media presence.  The purpose of this seminar was to show these business owners how to start their Social Media ventures with a strong foundation.  So we showed them how developing a business plan for Social Media that included various Goals, Strategies, and Schedules will help them fully benefit from Social Media.

You might be asking yourself “Really?  A business plan and strategies for using Facebook and Twitter??”

The simple answer is YES.

And to help you, we’ve developed a few questions you can ask yourself to help you get going with Marketing your business with Social Media:

What do I have to offer?
As business owners, we all have something to offer our customers that adds value to their lives, whether that value be our products and services or simply knowledge and information. If we didn’t, then we wouldn’t have been in business for very long.  Are you looking to offer people knowledge or information?  Or perhaps you’re providing them a way to save money with your products and services. Whatever the value-add is that you’re offering, keep it in mind as you develop your Social Media Goals and Strategies.

Who am I trying to reach?
This aspect of your Strategies and Goals will play an important part in your overall Social Media endeavor.  Everything from the content of your posts, to the manner in which you convey your ideas, to even the design and feel of your Social Media outlets, having an identified target audience is very important.  Identifying targeted customer age groups, geographic locations, interests, and other demographic information is vital to developing a solid campaign.

What do I want to accomplish?
This question may sound simple at first, but after much thought it can become difficult to define.  Are you looking for more visits to your website?  Do you want more customers coming to your store or restaurant?  Is finding an alternative means to communicating one on one with your customers your objective?  Finding out your purpose for using Social Media will bring your overall Strategies and Goals together and get you started on the path to using these marketing avenues effectively.

Now, as an example, after answering these questions, a restaurant can develop a Social Media campaign to draw more 18 – 30 year old college students in their doors to try their latest mouth watering appetizers and convince them to stick around for a wonderful week night dinner.

Finally, remember that Social Media is not a one way street.  If businesses are just constantly throwing information out there, hoping to get a few bites, they are really just settings themselves up for failure.  Goals and strategies will help guide a business to truly reap the rewards that Social Media has to offer.

If you have any further questions please comment below and join in the conversation. If you would like assistance with your Social Media Strategy, please feel free to contact A2Z Computer Services, Inc at (270) 830-9590 or send us a message via our contact page.