It’s fair to say that with a valuation of $95 billion, one can assume Facebook isn’t a fad, but is here to stay (at least for the time being). Also considering the number of users is now closing in on the 1 billion mark, ignoring the opportunity to connect with all these potential customers / fans / donors / sponsors / students or whatever would be very short sighted indeed. Surely based on all this I’ve managed to convince you to embrace Facebook, at least a little for business means!?

Whether you’re new to Facebook or a rookie, hopefully you’ll appreciate this post. Here I’ll be covering the best ways to make use of the new timeline format that Facebook has recently introduced to all business pages. To help explain things let’s take a good example of an active and well thought out Facebook page: www.facebook.com/adventurecollectors

So, what are we waiting for, let’s dive straight in shall we!?

Image dimension guidelines

Cover – 851 x 315 px
Logo – 180 x 180 px (compressed to 125 x 125 px)
Full width for highlights / milestones – 843 x 403px
Half width photos for normal posts – 403 px wide
Tab icons – 111 x 74 px
App page – 810 px wide
Cover

Your cover will be the first thing potential fans will see when visiting your page, so make sure it’s as visually stunning as possible to grab your visitors attention! It should also reflect your brand / cause and follow these basic rules too:

You are not allowed to refer to any Facebook functionality, e.g. ‘like’
It’s also not allowed to include any calls to action e.g. “Win prizes here”
No contact details e.g. mobile number / email address
You shouldn’t include price or purchase information e.g. 50% off sale
Milestones

Think of your timeline as just that, a historical view of your organisation. Set your start date to when your organisation was established / born whatever you prefer, then back date milestones highlighting key points in your history. Each milestone requires the following:

Title
Date
Location
Story
Highlights

Have a picture you want to show off? A link / comment you’re really proud of? Then select the highlight button to make it double width, people won’t miss it now

Pinning

No, I’m not talking about Pinterest, the new social media platform. In fact I’m referring to the ability to pin 1 key post / milestone / picture / link to the top of your timeline, whether or not it’s the most recent. Use this to post a link to your apps page e.g. Donations, or for teaser content to help tempt users to become fans.

Ask a question

Have a decision to make that may affect your fans? Then why not ask them directly, rather trying to second-guess them? Selecting the “Event, Milestone +” button provides the option to start a mini survey. Here you can ask a question, then provide multiple answer options (and even allow them to suggest their own answers). Use these results to make a sound decision that the majority of your important fans agree on!

Building your fan base

Ok, by following these guidelines you’ll now have a stunning Facebook page to be proud of. The question is now, how to build your fan base and let the world see your wonderful efforts? There’s a multitude of options, below I’ve provided the 4 key methods:

Link to your page! Be proud, include a link to your Facebook page from everything you do, whether it’s print (brochures / business cards / posters) or digital (email signatures / websites / e-newsletters).
Get your existing Facebook friends involved by posting a message on each of their walls individually. This is by far the best way to grab their attention as its a) personal and b) in the public eye (their friends will also see the post and might ‘like’ your page too. Don’t be tempted to send out a mass email, despite the fact it’s a hell of a lot easier than to write individual wall posts. This is because it’s impersonal and your friends will realise this, ultimately ignoring it. Trust me on this one, I’ve tried this before and it doesn’t work.
Flash some cash and get some Facebook ads setup. Ads can be PPC (pay per click) or PPI (pay per impression) and can be highly targeted so that they only display to users that match a specific profile e.g. 20 – 30 year old female living in London.
Facebook chat! This method is the most time consuming, but again is highly effective. Check and see which of your mates are online, then get hassling them to ‘like’ your page and get involved (in the nicest possible way of course).
Posting events

Once you have your fantastic page and plenty of fans, you can then start to promote events to your devoted fans. Whether it be a fundraiser or exhibition, it’s surprising how many people are starting run their busy lives through Facebook events…

That’s all folks, happy Facebooking!

Hey there!

Apologies for the lack of posts over the past couple months, it’s been busy times! I’m driving to Mongolia in July for charity, so have spent a lot of my spare time getting things sorted, including the website.

Please feel free to donate and I hope you like the website, check it out here:

www.adventurecollectors.com

Also please get social with our team:

www.twitter.com/adventurecol
www.facebook.com/adventurecollectors

Good news – I have an interesting article around the best uses of Facebook within the workplace coming soon, watch this space!

“Bicycles run on fat and save you money, cars run on money and make you fat.”
Howies

“Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.”
Winston Churchill

“The easiest way to make money, is to make people happy.”
James Ziebarth

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
Dr Suess

“The secret to being boring, is to tell everything.”
Voltaire

Although you may not think it, colours matter when it comes to the work place. See below for a rough guide as to what different colours mean, and how they may help with deciding what colour to paint your office walls, or even wear!

Red
One of the most intense colours when it comes to emotions. Although it cay stimulate passion and short term energy, too much and it can trigger aggression.

Yellow
The first colour that the brain notices. It has the ability to increase concentration while often improving overall moods. Too much,and it’s overpowering.

Orange
A compromise between yellow and red above.

Pink
Promotes tranquility and restfulness.

Blue
A very studious colour, which is conducive to concentration and creates a sense of wellbeing.

Purple
The colour of upmarketness and sophistication.

Green
Like to blue, calms things down, promotes productivity & positive energy levels.

Brown
Projects a sense of nature, earthy and reliable.

Black
Evokes power, authority and dominance.

Office work can be a long and exhaustive experience. This is why it’s so vital that one remains nourished and refreshed throughout the day. Enter the wonder of the tea and coffee break. It’s amazing how much of a life saver a small cup of hot beverage can offer, not only quenching ones thirst but also providing that great caffeine kick.

Life would be easy if one could simply go and make their chosen beverage for themselves, however as I’m sure your boss has reminded you before, there’s no “I” in “team”. Therefore to complicate things you’ll need to service some of your other colleagues and especially your superiors, if you wish to survive in an office environment.

In this post I’ll cover the main bridges that need to be crossed in order to survive a successful tea and coffee break:

Stage 1 – Who’s turns is it?

The first challenge is how to decide who’s turn it is to actually put the brew on. If you’re simply looking for a screen break from time to time like I often do, then there shouldn’t be a problem here. However sadly not everyone is proactive, and a team player, and this is where other options come in to play:

- Be Competitive! Why not challenge work mates to a good old fashioned game of Rock, paper, scissors, loser does the round
- Use Technology! With the popularity of smart phones, comes plenty of mobile apps that can randomly decide for you who’s turn it is, search the app store for “tea break”.
- Keep old school! Set up a daily rota to decide.

Stage 2 – The order

If you work in a small office, then often it ain’t much of a problem remembering who want’s what, how. However the second there’s more than 4/5 wanting a cuppa, things may then become tricky. The easiest option is to simply put together a list of everyone’s recipes for their favourite brew, then stick this in the kettle area. Another more fun option would be to create a pantone sheet, so that the person making the round, can ensure people’s drinks are milky enough.

Stage 3 – Transportation

Okay, just when you thought that all the hard work is done, you now need to get the drinks to your work maties. This can be a hassle, especially if you have a load of folk on your order list and if you have obstacles in your way such as doors and stairs. Obvious answers may include the use of trays, or simply asking other colleagues to give you a hand. Others may instead see this stage as another challenge, and using the great art of handle holding, try and carry all cups in one go (often leading to spillages and burns).

Happy brewing people, keep safe and hydrated!

I’ve recently been ill and forced to take time off from work, the dreaded man flu had struck me down – kerpow. This unfortunately is a common predicament that many of us have to deal with, hence why I thought I’d write a little note about how best to survive and resolve a nasty cold and flu.

Common symptoms of a cold include:
- Runny nose, often blocked restricting nasal breathing
- Sore throat, often causing talking to be painful
- Cough, either dry and tickly or chesty with phlegm and mucus, yum!

Common symptoms of flu include:
- Often a mix or all of the above
- High temperature, fever and shivers
- Headache, thump thump thump
- Feeling of nausea

When any of the above symptoms start to kick in, at work these often lead to various strange knock on effects such as time playing tricks on you and tasks seemingly taking forever, if not impossible to complete. These are on top of the obvious such as loud coughing and blowing of the nose leading to colleagues giving you a wide birth, covering their mouths in an attempt to remain uncontaminated.

This leads me nicely on to strategies – Know when to take sick leave – Don’t be tempted to go in and be the brave soldier untill you’re well and unless you’re 100% you won’t infect others, otherwise it may back fire and you may infect others, like your boss! Trust me, not good.

So, how to deal with these symptoms, and relieve the pain, while ideally speeding up the healing process?

Warm Drinks
Drink lots of warm liquids, ideally at room temperature or just above to help flush out your system.

Fruit and Veg
Eating healthily, high in vitamins fruit and veg, while avoiding dairy as this often doesn’t help phlegm build up.

Cough medicine
Make sure you get the right one for your particular cough type, tickly / dry / chesty.

Flu tablets / powder
e.g. Lemsip or beechams, ideally containing your full 1000mg helping of paracetamol amongst other things like decongestants.

Olbas Oil
Great to sniff on a tissue or pillow at night, or even better inhalations in boiling water, then covering your head with a towel to lock in all that great steam, helping to clean sinuses

Throat lozenges
There are lots to choose from, strepsils are very popular and come in loads of flavors, avoid overdosing, leading to a numb mouth!

Salient Solution
Not the most pleasant, but it depends how desperate you are to get cured! Mixing salt with warm water then snorting this through your nose using a funnel or syringe. This then helps to flush phlegm and mucus out through your mouth, whilst the salt sterilizes your sinuses.

It’s difficult to feel optimistic in such unwell circumstances, however it’s important to try and remain positive. After all, a happy mind leads to a healthy body! Also, try and make the most of being off sick, by doing things you wouldn’t usually have time for, such as for personal enjoyment like reading a book, or for personal gain at work e.g. thinking up new work strategies etc.

If you’re reading this while off sick, looking for hope in your time of need, I hope this post has helped, and GET WELL SOON!

There’s a million and one ways to plan your day at work. Hence why I’m not going to try and lie to you, by saying I’m going to cover them all within this post. However, I do hope to cover an interesting method I’ve recently come across, that helps split your day into three manageable chunks:

- Brunch time
- Lunch time
- Crunch time

Brunch Time
The vital first few hours leading up until brunch, also known as elevenses. This initial period is all about planning your day and setting yourself achievable targets. Never, ever, ever underestimate the power of lists. These are highly useful to help prevent tasks from being forgotten, can be added to throughout the day, plus it’s highly satisfying crossing out / highlighting completed tasks, and even more so seeing the full list complete!

Lunch Time
The middle of the day, the filling of the sandwich, this is when the bulk of work must be completed. Different techniques may be applied here, either tackling and completing the harder on the list first, or making a start on all tasks. After all, often the hardest part of any task is starting it in the first place!

Crunch Time
The tail end of the day, often when productivity of even the best worker is at it’s lowest, or at best is starting to waiver… This is rather unfortunate as it is the last few hours of the day that are sometimes the most critical, the time when all tasks are ideally completed by home time, removing the dreaded “work late” scenario! If you’ve followed the above points, then you should have nothing to worry about here (unless you’re over worked, which even the best planning can’t solve!). This last period simply involves either finishing off the tasks which have already been started, or completing the easier on your list.

Hope this helps! Oh, btw, How do you structure your day?

All meetings in the Western world usually begin in the same way – a shaking of hands.

Initially it would seem to be a simple greeting, a physical hello between two people in a professional situation, full stop. However, when analysed it’s incredible the various physical and mental levels that are at play here.

Many of you already know that despite the handshake seeming to be a simple grasp, shake and release manoeuvre, it in fact remains a highly complex art, for some people at least. This is why I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the different shaking techniques I’ve come across, and how one may counter these:

The wet limp
Possibly the worst of them all, the arch rival, nemesis of handshakes. With this example, the shaker incorporates no force / grip at all into either the grasp or the shake. There are two options to deal with this scenario, either a)go with it, or b)counteract the limpness with a Hulk Grip, to teach em’ a lesson…

The hulk grip
The total opposite of the previous limp shake. In this situation the shaker has decided that your hand should be squeezed within an inch of your life! What you want to do is get it over quickly before any long term damage is done, or try and play the game, and up your own grip pressure…

The elbow breaker
With this shake, the grip isn’t the issue here, instead tis the shake itself. The shaker will literally attempt to shake your arm to kingdom come. Try keeping your arm as solid and stationary as possible, this will put them off.

The pincer
The second worst handshake, just behind the wet limp. Here the shaker doesn’t grasp your hand properly, but instead holds on to your fingers, WTF are they doing, I hear you ask? I’m afraid there’s not much one can do to defend agains this, apart from a very difficult re-grasp during the shake. Be very careful, of the disastrous wet limp pincer combo!

The Handshake Off
Believe it or not, but the handshake is a lot more than a greeting. Between men at least it’s often an unspoken battle of power and dominance. With this guide I’ll help you to win every handshake off that you may become involved in:

Stage 1 – A handshake begins, at this point each person is equal. However should your opponent decide to add his second hand on top of the shake, then the duel has begun…

Stage 2 – By copying your fellow shaker, and adding your hand to the three hands already involved in the shake, will admit defeat as you’re simply copying.

Stage 3 – To win this situation, what you need to do is embrace the shaker and slap your free hand on their shoulder. At this point you have out manoeuvred your foe, he can either admit defeat and release, or remove his free hand and return the shoulder slap, as this is mimicking your action, you are then victorious.

Have you had any nightmare handshake scenarios? Do tell all, so we may all learn from your unfortunate predicaments!

Here’s the second post covering email etiquette, this time covering the various options that are available when signing off an email.

There are many ways to sign off that may be used irrespective of the scenario. Often, one can read the email sender’s mood or expectations from the email based on their sign off.

Listed below are some of the most common I’ve encountered over the years, including a couple of unlikely ones:

Kind Regards
Possibly the most used used, a boring but safe option.

Best Regards
Another popular choice, I like to use this as it’s not quite as bland as kind regards above, and sounds like the writer is making more of an effort.

Yours Sincerely
A very formal sign off, a bit over the top for email if you ask me, best used for cover letters and such, when sending to a known person.

Yours Faithfully
Again a formal sign off for letters, instead of with sincerely this is best used in letters being sent to an unknown person or company.

Best
A lazy mans version of best regards.

All the best
A long term sign off, often used when the writer is attempting to put the email subject to bed or isn’t expecting / doesn’t want a reply anytime soon.

Thanks
A sign off used when the general subject of the email is of thanks for something.

Many Thanks
Similar to the above, but emphasising the thanks that little bit more.

Cheers
A casual variation of thanks, best reserved for emails to close friends and such.

I hope this has helped you make the right sign off choice! As usual, please comment below with any others you have come across or can suggest…

There’s a million and one ways to address somebody in an email, and there isn’t really a right or wrong way as such, so how to choose which is appropriate? In this post I’ll be covering the three key points to consider when making a decision of how to address somebody. To conclude, based on these points, I shall provide a guide as to which types of addresses are the most appropriate.

1. Who is your intended recipient?
This is the first point to consider, and is probably the most important too. To keep things simple, try and decide which of the following categories the person falls under:

a) Professional – work colleague / client / supplier etc
b) Generic – online order / landlord / doctor etc
c) Social – friend / family / spouse etc

2. How well do you know the person?
This is another important factor to think about. Generally one is able to be more casual in their address if they’ve known someone for longer, so how long have you known this person?

a) Less than 3 months
b) Between 3 month and 1 year
c) More than 1 year

3. What is the subject of the email?
Whether the email is to bring good news or inform the recipient of something that may disappoint them or even worse cause anger, again are vital considerations to take into account:

a) Content that is negative in context e.g. introducing sad news, disappointment etc
b) Neutral content e.g. an update on things, confirming something etc
c) Content that is positive in nature e.g. providing happiness, a good surprise etc

The Results
So, with all or mostly a), one can see immediately that we need to be careful how we address the recipient in this scenario, therefore perhaps consider using either:
Dear _____ or perhaps Hello _____.

With all or mostly b) one can be a little more relaxed in the choice of address, so perhaps the shortened version of hello: Hi _____ or maybe the Americanised version Hey _____

With all c) one is able to afford to be completely relaxed. Therefore addresses may be as chilled out as ever: Yo _____, Howdy _____, Wassup _____ etc.

Thanks for reading, if you can think of any other addresses to add, or points to consider, please comment below!