In celebration of this great start, Main Street is bringing back our 5 hour labor block for the price of 4 special – for this week only. Normally our 5 hour pre-paid labor block is $500, this week it is available for $400. (Dallas area customer are still eligible for this offer.)

Prepaid labor blocks can be used for WordPress customization, support, graphic design, consulting and other labor services.

Prepaid labor blocks are good for up to one year from purchase. Time is billed in 1/2 hour increments, all labor block purchases are final, and are not refundable.

Click here to receive the special pricing.

WooThemes.com has released version 5.3.12 of the WooFramework. They report it fixes a critical vulnerability in shortcodes that has been published online. They strongly urge immediately updating all WooFramework themes. Details here.

StudioPress has released version 1.8.1 of their Genesis Framework. It fixed a potential security issue. They also recommend updating immediately.  StudioPress site.

One of the major benefits to open source code is that fact that the community can identify and fix security issues like these so quickly.

All platforms have security holes — it is a mathematical certainty in systems this complex. The difference between open source and proprietary system is that the open source community is willing (or forced) to admit to the issues when identified and quickly make patches public to everyone.

Many times other platforms will quietly fix security issues for major clients, but not release public updates for months or years after the exploit is common knowledge among the hacker community.

Feel free to contact Main Street if you have any questions about your themes or WordPress security.

We do recommend installing this update to secure your WordPress site. As always, we recommend a full backup of your site and databases before installing the update. Contact Main Street for help on the backups or updates.

Offer a special deal to Facebook fans.
Show your appreciation to people who “Like” your page by offering a coupon or special deal. When people “Like” your page it shows up on their wall and all their friends can see it.

Post behind-the-scenes content.
Social media fans like to be considered insiders. Post behind-the-scenes photos, or comments about the business and staff they wouldn’t see through your normal marketing.

Invite clients to post content.
Your Facebook fans are probably your best and most loyal customers. Let them post photos of your product in use, or success stories of how your product/service helped them. Let them be cheerleaders for your product.

Offer industry news.
Don’t just post about your products. Post information about you industry that will be of value to your clients. You don’t have to say good things about your competitors, just about industry trends and news.

Drive traffic to your website.
Always cross post your website news and blog posts on your Facebook page. Include the title and short teaser with a link back to your site.

Be shareable and likeable.
Be interesting and fun. Try to generate content that your fans will want to share, or “Like” or comment on. Shared content reaches an entirely new audience beyond your original fan base.

Link to your other content.
Make sure you link to your other content – your website, your youtube videos, your blog. People may discover you through Facebook and need to know what else is available.

Be ready to respond to issues.
Social media is social. It’s possible that a customer will bring up a complaint or service issue and post it on your page. Be ready to quickly and publicly respond to these. Most people don’t expect you to be perfect, but if you play in the social media area you have to be willing to respond to direct issues.

Capture social contacts for traditional marketing.
Use social media to build your traditional mailing lists. Add links to allow people to subscribe to your email list, or mailing list, or order a catalog.

Most Important: Be a consultant and friend, not a salesperson.
Social media is the wrong place for hard-sell pitches or annoyingly repetitive advertising promotion. People will quickly un-Like you if you spam them with advertising via social media. Be a friend, be an expert, be a consultant, but don’t flood your page with hard-sell promotions if you want to succeed.

Bad News: the rollout happens at the end of March whether you like it or not. All existing fan pages will be updated, you will not have the option to opt out.

New Changes:

1. The new design includes a large banner image (called a cover photo) like your personal Facebook timeline view.

2. Private messages are now allowed between business pages and other Facebook users.

3. Default landing pages are gone. You used to be able to setup a specific page that would be seen by people who haven’t “Liked” you yet. That is gone. All visitors land on your Timeline page.

4. Application tabs have been moved from the side into icons directly under the banner. Only 4 show by default, but they are much more visible than before. Plus you can set images on the icons to make them more noticeable.

5. You can now create featured content. You can mark content as featured, giving it more space on the Timeline, and/or you can pin a post to make it stay on top. (often called sticky posts)

6. Application page widths have been expanded.

If you have a customized Facebook page you will need to verify that everything works on the Timeline view. Regardless you will need to create a new cover photo and organize your application icons. All these features are great for businesses marketing through Facebook, but the March 30 deadline make it imperative you make the changes immediately.

Contact Main Street if you need help updating your Facebook page.