Not all of us have been friended by our mothers on Facebook, but event if you haven’t you’ll love this hilarious video. Have a fantastic weekend!

Just in time for the weekend. A comical look at how some co-workers use Facebook and the effect that it has on others. Enjoy!

By the time this blog post is published Facebook will have launched its “drastically simplified” and improved privacy control policy. This comes in the wake of a much publicized, and often criticized, stance that Facebook executives have taken toward the privacy of its members. Beginning at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, more than 400 million Facebook users will see what the changes are firsthand. As of this moment, it’s still hush-hush.

This blog post will provide updated information regarding the changes. Check back later for new details.

Not only are Facebook Pages a great way to promote your brand or service to your customers, but they also serve as excellent platforms to interact with your fans. But, how do you know what’s eliciting a fan response and what’s not? As most Facebook Page admins know, the Page Insight provided by Facebook is fairly limited in terms of data. If you want to get down and dirty you need something more powerful. Thankfully, you can integrate Google Analytics into your Facebook Page for more robust metrics and tracking and you don’t need to be a whiz-kid coder to get it done.

Here’s how:

Step 1.

If you haven’t already, sign-up for a free Google Analytics account. Next, you’ll create a profile for your Facebook Page by using your Facebook Page URL. You would enter http://www.facebook.com/yourFacebookPagename. Once you’ve successfully created your profile the Analytic’s dashboard shows your URL and an Analytic’s profile ID that looks like this:  UA-12345678-9.

Step 2.

Look for your UA number and visit Webdigi to generate an “image” for each Facebook Page that you want to track. The online application has some helpful hints to help you complete the form. After you’ve got your information entered, select the “Generate Code” button.

Grab the code and copy it.

Step 3.

The “Generate Code” button creates a chunk of HMTL that you’ll need to copy and paste into your Facebook Page. This piece of code is the “image” that we referred to in Step 1. The code, or image HTML, needs to be placed on the Page by using a wonderfully handy Facebook application known as Static FBML. Install Static FMBL to your Facebook Page by clicking on the “Add to my Page” link.

Step 4.

Head back to your Facebook Page, choose “Edit page” and scroll down your list of applications to the Static FBML app that you just installed. All you need to do is paste the code into the FBML box. Save and your done. You can create as many custom FBML boxes with code as you need and place them on each “tab” within your Facebook Page that you want to track.

For your Facebook Page Wall, just make your FBML application a box and post it to your wall. Just remember that for each tab that you want to track within your Facebook Page, you’ll need to create a new “image HTML” as instructed in Step 2.

The benefits of adding Google Analytics to your Facebook Page are tremendous. You’ll be able to track:

• the number of unique visitors on your Page by day, week, month and more
• new visitors vs. returning visitors
• what tabs are most popular within your Page
• what keywords do people use to find your Page
• overall Page growth (or decline) over a period of time
• how long are people staying on your Page

Google Analytics can give you a major leg up on understanding more about your visitors so that you can adjust and improve your Facebook Page. This will help you continue efforts that work and alter those that don’t.

Do you use Google Analytics on your Facebook Page? Have you found alternative ways to implement other that what’s been shared here? Share your thoughts with us.

Currently, there are more than three million active Facebook Pages on the top ranked site, with the typical Page boasting an average of less than 1,000 fans – oops, I mean ‘likes‘ (seriously, that just doesn’t roll off your tongue quite the same way). Standing out from the static requires you to dress up your Page and make it more interesting and fun for your ‘likers’. That’s where Facebook applications come in. They’re basically like plugins for your Page and there are tens of thousands of them available. Deciding what apps you’d like to incorporate depends on how you’d like to engage with your peeps (that’s an even better word than ‘likers’).

Here’s a compilation of some must have applications for any Page. They’re great additions to the the basic layout that Facebook provides and they can be used in interesting ways to move your ‘likes‘ into action.

Static FBML

Yes, mentioning this application seems totally redundant because it seem to make it on every single must-have Facebook application list. However, it’s really that great. This application is what lets you customize tabs and content on your Page and transform it into part of your brand. The only downside with Static FBML is that you need to have some knowledge of HTML, CSS and Facebook Markup Language (FBML) so that you can create the code needed for content display. Examples of Static FBML in action are the Victoria’s Secret Page, MontBlanc Page and Gary Vaynerchuk Page.

Twitter for Pages

There are actually quite a few Twitter applications for Facebook, but either not all of them work very well or they are meant for a basic profile and not an actual Page. With that being said, Involver’s Twitter for Pages is a quick and easy way to bring your Twitter stream into a tab of its own so that people can catch up with your tweets from Facebook. Just add and you’re done.

Fan Appz

For serious social media marketing, you’ll want to install Fan Appz on your Page. The Fan Appz application is comprised of a suite of sub-apps. It contains polls, sweepstakes, promotions and coupons and more. There’s even a gift store that you can set-up to monetize your Page with brand merchandise that people can purchase. The advantage of Fan Appz is that instead of having to install individual applications for each one of these functions, you get them all in one central location. Convenient and powerful.

Welcome Tab For Pages

This very simple application lets page owners showcase just about anything. From profiles and businesses to products and upcoming events, the Welcome Tab for Pages is an ideal way to communicate with ‘likers‘ (still hate that word, sigh). This application has a fantastic bonus feature – it comes with its own analytics and metrics so that you can track and measure how your Welcome tab is being received and make adjustments if necessary. Uber cool!

Page Maps

Give your business more visibility by adding a custom map your Page. Highlight your location and include surrounding points of interest too. The Page Maps application displays a mini-map with links to a larger map or directions. In a virtual world, having a map that features your business lets people know that you’re not just an electronic profile, but an actual person and/or company.

Eventbrite

If you have special events, upcoming activities or group gatherings that you need to promote then consider adding Eventbrite to your Page. Created by the online event management and ticketing services company of the same name, Eventbrite publishes an event page directly on Facebook with your event details and a link to buy tickets. Your event is promoted through your newsfeed for all to see (and hopefully attend). Do you have to sell tickets to your event? Not a problem. For a small fee, Eventbrite can help you coordinate ticket sales too.

My Top Fans

Just like it says, this application shows you who your top fans are for your Page (wonder if they’ll rename this to My Top Likes - sorry, I just can’t seem to let it go). The application analyzes interactions and calculates who is sharing and engaging the most with you. Once you find out who’s at the top, why not profile them as a ‘Fan of the Month’ or thank them with branded merchandise, like a t-shirt and post a photo of them wearing it on your Page. Stretch your creative muscles and put this app to work.

SlideShare

Import your existing SlideShare.net presentations from your account directly into Facebook. This application is integrated with the SlideShare application on LinkedIn. That means if you upload a presentation to LinkedIn, it will also show up on your SlideShare application on Facebook  and on your  main SlideShare.net account and vice versa. A major timesaver, but also a nice social media aggregation feature with SlideShare.

LinkedIn

Since your Page is already promoting your business, services and products, kick it up a notch and make it easy for fans to socially network with you on LinkedIn. Installation of this application is super simple and it gives you the option of featuring a LinkedIn button in a tab or box on your sidebar.

Web Profiles

Show off your other social media profiles with Web Profiles. There are more than 180 different social media platforms to choose from so chances are no matter what site you’re a member of you’ll find it on the Web Profiles list. If your site is more obscure than common you can instantly add it and feature it in your customized complilation. Much nicer than having to email the developer with a request to add and then having to sit back and play the waiting game.

My Countdown

Build up excitement around new product launches, grand openings, give-aways or just about anything that you have going on with your company. My Countdown can be added to any Page to countdown to the big hoo-rah that you’ve got cooking. And, you can customize its appearance and add icons to make it your own.

DivShare

With DivShare you can expand the types of content that you’re sharing with your fans. Instead of being limited to sharing just links, DivShare allows you to attach MP3s, images, videos, documents and just about any other type of file that you can think of. You have the option of posting shared files to your Page, adding them to your news feed or choosing to share among groups of people or individuals. Max files size is 200 MB, which is a more than ample file sharing size.