After much speculation and what seemed like an eternity, finally - the Facebook Timeline for brand pages is now live!

Facebook Timeline for pages is a great opportunity for brands that want to tell a more engaging and authentic story of their company.

Timeline makes it easier for people to find information by pushing the Info section, photos, apps and map to the top of the page in a clear navigation bar.

It gives companies of all sizes the opportunity to get creative and use their cover photos, app designs and interactive features to grow their overall presence and influence in the world of social media.

With all this in mind, I will now show you how to get your company's page up-to-scratch and ahead of your competitors!

Firstly however, it is important to note that there are some major changes to company pages such as; how the applications are displayed, the introduction of cover photos (the default landing pages have now gone entirely) and the options for fan interaction have now been improved.

You can enable your new brand page now but on the 30th March 2012 your Page will automatically convert to the new format (much in the same way the new Timeline for profiles was introduced earlier this year) – so it's best to get prepared beforehand.

Follow my guide on how to enable it NOW:

Twitter moves closer to PPC as it launches self-service advertising

With the rise of social media and it's use in business, different platforms have been quick to bring advertising services to the table. And why not? Google PPC and Facebook PPC are valuable weapons in any company's digital marketing arsenal. However, Twitter have been somewhat slower on the uptake. Whilst its true that there millions of punters on Twitter, all conversing on topics potentially relevant to your business, most people seem to agree that introducing an advertising platform that doesn't compromise the service will prove difficult.

Digital to Direct Marketing – How to make telemarketing the most powerful asset to your marketing strategy

You may not have heard about 'D2D' Marketing. The whole process is a fairly new concept...but one which we feel gives us at Red Wasp the pioneering edge.

Most people are aware of how telemarketing works. You get a list of data to call (usually cold with no prior contact) and work through it systematically, ensuring that call backs are hit on time and opportunities are converted into qualified leads.

Some of you may already have the benefit of having warm leads to follow up on, be it registered interest from a prospect at a trade show or previous customers, which is great, but targeting the cold data is where the hardest challenge lies. So how can we improve that?

The answer is simple. Website traffic. If someone has come to your website, the chances are they are looking for your services or interested in your product. With 'D2D' Marketing there are three steps you need to take to turn these potential interests into the qualified leads we all fight for, and here they are:

As many of you have already seen, Facebook recently launched the 'Timeline' feature which allowed a Facebook users 'life story' to be shown in the form of a scrap-book style profile page. All of your activity on Facebook within a particular year (and since you created your account) such as photos taken, events attended etc are captured by Facebook and then displayed to your friends in a 'Timeline' format.

Online shopping surges this Christmas, but so do empty carts

Did you know that upto 96% of people visiting your website will leave without completing any kind of transaction? According to a recent report by Comscore, the figure really is that high. As the holiday period well and truly gets underway, almost $25 billion has already been spent in the US alone. After what can only be described as a tough year, its important businesses are maximising the online profit-making potential of the Christmas build up.

What is content marketing and why should I bother?

If you're looking at Red Wasp's website, it's a possibility that you may be considering direct or digital marketing services and as such you may stumble across our blog. It struck me that some people coming here may not necessarily be familiar with content marketing and what it can offer. To be fair, content marketing can go by many names; corporate media, corporate publishing, branded content... the list can go on.