How the cover photo works
The cover photo is a new Facebook feature that allows you to show your business to its best advantage. Your business’s cover image can be 851 x 315 pixels. Think of the cover image as a billboard for your business. It’s the first thing people visiting your page will see.
Facebook has some restrictions on what the content of the Facebook cover image can and can’t contain. You can’t use:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for the Page’s “About” section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

How do I use the Profile Picture?
Profile images are now 180 x 180 pixels. Intuit recommends that you use your brand’s logo as your profile picture.

What should I include in the About section?
The About section is right below the profile image. Use this section to give your visitors a brief introduction about your business. Keep this short, sweet, and make your visitors want to learn more about your brand.

Can I hide posts I don’t want?
With Timeline, Facebook allows you to highlight posts that are more engaging and hide stories that aren’t.
You can also “pin” some posts so that they appear at the top of your timeline for your visitors to see. You can pin posts up to 7 days.

How tabs work now
If you’ve added Intuit Website’s SimpleStore to your Facebook business page, you need to make sure your store shows up prominently on your Facebook page. Your store used to appear in a tab on the left side below your profile pages. Because of Timeline, your tabs have changed.
On your Facebook Timeline page, look for the drop-down icon.

When you click it, you’ll see more application icons, including your store. Click the store. Click the pencil icon to move this Store tab to a position you like. Make sure your store tab is among the first four tabs so that users can easily access your Facebook store.

For more information on Facebook Timeline, check out these links:

• Introducing Timeline
• Tips for Optimizing Your Facebook Business Page for the Timeline View

So don’t simply copy manufacturer product descriptions onto your pages or upload product images that look like they were taken with your cell phone camera.  Instead, invest time in learning to create the effective product listing pages that will get more of your items sold!

Element #1 – Your Image

Our eyes are naturally drawn to images, which makes your product picture one of the first things visitors notice upon arriving on your product listing pages.  Your images represent valuable real estate on your product listing pages, so don’t waste this opportunity to showcase your products in the best light.

If you’re selling products that you’ve created, it’s up to you to take your own pictures.  While we’ve covered the best way to take product photos here before, keep in mind that you don’t need an expensive camera or a photography degree to take effective product images.  Instead, you can create your own professional-quality product listing photos with a homemade white background and lighting setup.

On the other hand, if you’re reselling products produced by someone else, you’ll likely have access to a variety of stock images of the product.  These images can provide a good starting point, but if every other site reselling the same products online uses the same pictures, there’s nothing that will make your site stand out from your competitors if you use them as well.

Instead of copying and pasting a single manufacturer’s image to your own product listing page, consider the following techniques to make your site unique:

• Post multiple manufacturer photos.  If you have access to a variety of images from your product’s manufacturer, upload as many of them as possible to your site.  Some ecommerce retailers rush through the creation of their product listing pages and only upload the first picture they see.  By comparison, offering multiple views of a product makes your site more valuable.
• Customize manufacturer photos. Instead of uploading manufacturer images “as is”, customize the images by cropping them, adding a watermark or adding some type of border image that makes the pictures uniquely yours.  Even though the subject matter of the photos is still the same, your site will appear different than competitors who are using the images “straight.”
• Take your own photos.  Just because you’re reselling a manufacturer’s product doesn’t mean you have to use the images they provide.  If you have access to product inventory, take a variety of new pictures in your homemade photography studio, paying special attention to capture interesting shots that the manufacturer doesn’t provide.  Doing so will help your site to provide more value overall compared to your competitors.

Element #2 – Your Product Description

Once you’ve got your product images squared away, the next element of your product listing pages that you’ll want to focus on is the product description.

Again, this isn’t a place to copy manufacturer descriptions word-for-word (if you have access to this content).  Not only does this provide limited value for the people who visit your site, it also opens your site up to potential filtering by the search engines’ duplicate content detection systems.

Now, contrary to popular belief, there’s no “duplicate content penalty”, wherein your site faces negative consequences for publishing the same content as other pages.  Instead, when the search engine spiders detect duplicate content, they may limit the number of instances of this repetitive text that they’re willing to display in the results pages.

If your product descriptions match other sites that have already been indexed (because you pulled your content directly from the manufacturer’s site), you risk not having your site appear in the SERPs – which could be potentially devastating for your business if your traffic generation strategy revolves around natural search traffic.

So not only is it important to write your own product descriptions in order to make your listing pages as informative as possible for your users, it’s worthwhile to do some from an SEO standpoint as well.

Here’s what a good product description looks like:

• Good product descriptions are very detailed.  Today’s consumers have access to a wider variety of product purchasing options than ever before, and due to the bad economy, they’re more selective than ever about the products they buy and where they get them from.  One way to overcome the natural resistance that these conditions create is to offer as much detail about your products as possible.  When your visitors have more information, they’ll feel more confident about buying from you.
• Good product descriptions share benefits in addition to features.  A feature is something your product offers, but it’s the benefits of these features that demonstrate why your readers need your product.  For example, if you’re selling a laptop carrying case, a feature might be the extra layer of padding included, but the benefit is that your readers’ laptops will be less likely to be damaged in transit.  Good product descriptions share both of these characteristics to appeal to different types of buyers.
• Good product descriptions answer common questions. Don’t wait for your website readers to use your “Contact Me” form to ask questions about your products – chances are not all buyers will be willing to take this extra step.  Instead, brainstorm the questions you expect readers to have about each of your products and then preemptively answer these questions within your product descriptions.

Element #3 – Additional Features

If all you do is improve the images and descriptions you use in your product listing pages, you’ll be ahead of 99% of ecommerce merchants out there, who treat these content elements as a nuisance that must be done as quickly as possible.  However, if you really want to take your product listing pages to the next level, consider integrating additional “viral style” features into your content in order to increase conversions and generate even more traffic to your site.

What kinds of features?  Consider integrating any of the following elements into your product listing pages to make them as appealing as possible:

• Video clips showing your product being used. For a really great, viral style example of video usage in product listing pages, take a look at the listing for the World’s Largest Gummy Bear created by Vat19.
• User reviews and testimonials. In addition to providing valuable information for people who are thinking about buying your products, integrating user reviews into your product listing pages offers you additional opportunities to have relevant keywords indexed in the search engines.
• Interactive tools. The longer you can keep visitors on your product listing pages, the more likely they’ll be to buy.  For this reason, interactive tools like sizing charts, comparison features or other script-based activities can play a powerful role in making your listing pages more effective.

So stop undervaluing your product listing pages!  These valuable pieces of web real estate can play a major role in improving your conversion rates and improving your business’s bottom line, but only if you’re willing to invest the necessary time in making them as engaging as possible.

Image: The Consumerist

If that sounds complicated, don’t worry. This example should help to clear things up:

Suppose you own an online store that sells dog-training products. In order to grow your customer base, you approach several obedience schools in your area and offer a trade: If they promote your website in their classes, you’ll offer their customers an exclusive discount and advertise their businesses in your email newsletter. The result is more customers for you and more exposure for the schools — a win-win situation for everyone involved.

This is the beauty of the joint venture.  As long as you carefully design your promotions to protect the interests of all parties, you can establish partnerships that enable everyone involved to grow their businesses. However, as you might expect, any type of arrangement that involves financial risk shared by multiple people should be entered into cautiously.

Here’s how to set up a successful joint venture:

Step 1: Identify potential partners.

If you think that a joint venture might be useful for growing your business, the first step you need to take is to identify potential partners. Weigh your options thoughtfully. Your partners can make the difference between a successful venture and a money-losing one.

Look for partners whose products or services complement your own without competing directly. In the example above, if the seller of dog-training products had approached a business that sold similar items, everyone would stand to lose. There’s no incentive for customers to switch retailers without merchants undercutting one another. Instead, choose partners who offer something new and exciting to your customers. (Think about how business decisions will affect your loyal buyers — and you’ll rarely go wrong.) Approach businesses that are established enough to extend your promotion to a large audience. Partnering with someone who’s just starting out is unlikely to result in a successful promotion.

Step 2: Brainstorm ideas for promotions.

When you approach the potential partners identified in Step 1, do so with a particular promotion in mind. Getting down to business right off the bat will help prevent the back-and-forth that can occur among already busy business owners and stop a deal from going forward.

What types of promotions should you propose? Here are a few common types of joint ventures to get your creative juices flowing:

• Mutual discounts. Business owners elect to offer each other’s customers a similar discount on purchases.
• Exclusive products. You give another business owner’s customers an exclusive product or discount in exchange for promotion to expand the size of your customer base and increase brand recognition.
• Newsletter subscriptions. You offer a free product to another business’s customer base in exchange for newsletter sign-ups. This can be an effective way to increase sales in the long run.

Be creative with this step. You don’t need to stick to these ideas. You know your business better than anyone else, which means that only you know what the most valuable thing you can bring to a joint venture.

However, be fair, too. The best joint ventures allow all parties to profit equally, so think about your proposed promotion in terms of win-win scenarios. Don’t attempt to strong-arm other businesses into agreeing to unfavorable terms that benefit only you. Even if you’re able to take advantage of one merchant, word will get out about your business practices, and you’ll find that your opportunities to participate in future joint ventures will be severely limited.

Step 3: Contact potential partners.

Armed with your list of potential partners and an idea about what type of promotion you’d like to pursue, it’s time to approach people. When you do, keep these things in mind:

• Be respectful. Not all business owners have the time to participate in joint ventures, or they may simply not be interested in participating in one. Remain polite in all communications, because you never know when one of these failed contacts will come back to you to revisit a potential deal in the future.
• Build a relationship first. Most business owners want to do business with people who they already know and trust. So, depending on the size of your joint venture, you may find it helpful to build up your relationships with potential partners before you propose a large-scale cross-promotional effort.
• Clearly state the benefits of your proposal. Most people want to know what’s in it for them when discussing potential joint ventures. Make sure that your introductory message clearly outlines the benefit to both parties.  Let your potential partner know not just how he or she will benefit, but also all the action you plan to take to make the promotion a success.

Step 4: Clearly define your terms.

In an ideal world, every potential partner you contact will agree to go forward with your promotion. But once you have approval from these business owners, don’t just leap forward and start running the deal. Instead, take the time to protect your financial and legal interests by establishing the terms of your joint venture with proper documentation.

Depending on the size and scope of your promotion, it may make sense to seek legal counsel to review the terms of your joint venture before moving forward. This is especially true if you’ll be relying on your partner to distribute funds generated from the joint venture to you. Remember that anyone can seem trustworthy online, so if you’re working with a partner you’ve never met face to face, you owe it to yourself to put the appropriate legal protections in place.

Step 5: Promote your joint venture.

Once you’ve laid the groundwork, it’s time to start promoting your joint venture. Do your best to make it as successful as possible. The better your promotion turns out to be, the more likely it is that other business owners will want to work with you on this type of deal in the future, enabling you to expand your customer base even faster than you thought possible!

Image: baggyjumper

With SimpleStore and Intuit Web Payment,you can have a store up and running on your website and on Facebook with just a few simple steps

1. Log-in to Facebook to quickly and easily create a Facebook page for your business. The process requires just a few short answers about your business.
2. SimpleStore will then automatically create a professional-looking store as a tab on your business page.
3. The checkout process is integrated with Facebook as well – the same Intuit Web Payment checkout you already have on your website will automatically run on Facebook too.

SimpleStore on Facebook is a free feature for all SimpleStore with Intuit Web Payment customers.

Here’s how it works:

Create a Facebook Business Page

You’ll need a Facebook business page – this is different from your personal page.  They are free and easy to setup on Facebook – our website guides you through the steps.

Here’s an example:

Adding SimpleStore to a Facebook Business Page

Once you are logged in to Facebook, SimpleStore will find your business page and ask your permission to install Intuit’s app to create your store on Facebook. It creates the Store tab and your SimpleStore shows up immediatelyas displayed below. From now on, any changes you make to your product catalog are automatically and immediately reflected on both your website and Facebook.

Transacting on Facebook

When customers purchase products from your SimpleStore on Facebook, they are able to checkout without ever having to leave Facebook or create a new log-in.  Intuit’s Web Payment checkout form will pop up within Facebook to confirm the transaction and get payment information from the customer. The money will be deposited directly into your bank account exactly as it does when people buy from SimpleStore on your website.

That’s it!  One store to manage, but two ways to reach customers.