What’s your favourite tech gadget and why? We’d love to hear about them!

Cover Photos

Facebook profile pages now include an 851 x 315 cover photo. If you don’t upload or select one, the area will simply remain empty. Guidelines and regulations for cover photos can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=276329115767498

As a rule of thumb, cover photos cannot include the following:

• 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 your 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”

Pinning

Now you can pin a post to the top of your page, even if it’s not the most recent post on your profile. For business owners, this is an ideal way to keep relevant information, promotions and contests in clear view.

Highlighting

You also now have the ability to select a post to “highlight”. Highlighting is different from pinning, as it will allow a post to take up the entire width of your wall. This feature offers a great way to gain extra attention from viewers.

Tabs

They will now appear below your cover photo with thumbnail images. You can’t select a default tab, as your page will automatically go to your timeline.

Messages

Fans are now able to send you private messages!

Have you embraced the new Facebook Timeline layout? Why or why not?

While most of us are familiar with Foursquare, numerous others are gaining popularity. In fact, a number of new location based apps made appearances at SXSW 2012, an annual Trade Show connecting leaders in the Music, Film and Interactive Industries http://sxsw.com/

Here are some you might want to check out:

Let us know if you give any of them a whirl! We’d love to know which location based social apps you found simple and fun to use.

We can’t deny our love affair with Coca-Cola. However, for some of us, it’s something else that keeps us going throughout the work day. Here’s what each of our team members had to say about their caffeinated beverage of choice:

If you don’t have one yet, maybe you’re a little intimidated about how to get started. If you’ve already hit the blogosphere running, maybe you’re searching out strategies to make your blog stand out above the rest. Don’t sweat it! Blogging isn’t rocket science, but it can be difficult to get started and an even greater challenge to keep coming up with quality blog content that will keep readers come back for more. Here are some tips that we hope will help you create and maintain a successful blog:

• Post regularly – Visitors will be more likely to check in if you’re reliable with your posts. Whether you decide to add new content on a daily, weekly or bi-weekly basis, stick to your plan!
• Use keywords – Making your blog posts search-friendly will make it easier for readers to tap into your blog and attract new readers.
• Tweet your blog posts – This is a great way to make your social network aware of the activity over on your blog. Hint: you can tweet your posts more than once!
• Re-purpose your posts – For example, try using them in an e-newsletter.
• Include lists – Lists are easy to write and enjoyable to read because they’re short, concise and focused.
• Posts don’t need to be long –Readers will always respect quality over quantity.
• Include visuals – Images are a great way to spruce up your blog posts and add visual interest.
• Promote conversation – Invite your readers to contribute to the topics you’re writing on and become involved in a two-way discussion.
• Promote sharing – Have social sharing buttons to make it easier for someone to share your posts with their friends.
• Most importantly, have fun!

Most of the websites we develop incorporate WordPress blogs, making it simpler than ever to post updates and articles. If you want to entice people to visit your website and keep them coming back for more, we encourage you to join the blogging community and see what all the talk is about.

Happy blogging!

At Carbonated, we see ourselves doing a lot of mobile app development in the near future due to this increasing demand. If you’ve recently considered designing a mobile app for your business, there are a number of factors you should consider before jumping into the development process.

It’s important to define what your app will do, who will use it, and what platform you want it to run on. These may seem like simple questions to address, but it’s important to answer them as a starting point for mobile app development. Your mobile app must also provide value. It can do this by offering location-based features, increasing loyalty and engagement through discount or reward systems, or providing an effective solution for a real problem your customers face.

Without the right planning, proper development and user-friendly features, mobile apps can be a real waste of time and money. Before you hop on the mobile bandwagon, it’s essential that you have a good grasp of what’s involved in mobile apps and what your fundamental needs are.

We’re excited about the continued growth of mobile app usage and look forward to spending more time designing and developing in this cutting-edge field. If you have questions about mobile app development or are interested in learning more, just get in touch with us!

In case you aren’t entirely familiar with the fastest growing website around, Pinterest works a lot like a virtual scrapbook. Users can create online bulletin boards for different categories such as home décor, wedding planning or favourite recipes. “Pin” images and links can then be “repinned” by other users who have shared tastes or interests. But what does Pinterest really have going for it? And how can it really work for your business?

It’s estimated that unique visitors to pinterest.com increased 429% from Sept to Dec 2011, according to mashable.com, and it’s certainly garnering a lot of attention with the female demographic. In fact, Pinterest hit 10 million U.S. monthly unique visitors faster than any standalone site to date, and the average Pinterest user spends 98 minutes per month on the site, as noted on comScore.

Source: http://econsultancy.com/us

Here’s a few ways you can turn Pinterest into a powerful marketing tool for your business:

Maximize your exposure

If you believe Pinterest doesn’t have what it takes to drive traffic to your retail site or other social media feeds, think again! Pinterest allows you to create an online profile where you can include a website URL to your business site, but more importantly, it supports connections to your other popular social media circles like Facebook and Twitter so you can share content more effectively across all of your marketing platforms.

Increase consumer engagement

By using Pinterest to hold contests, post tutorials, request product feedback or highlight brand personality, you’re guaranteed to boost consumer engagement and interest with a visually appealing brand identity. Who doesn’t love pretty pictures?

Form social connections

Pinterest is a great way to promote communication between your brand and consumer. Make your brand shine and strengthen social connections with your target demographic by creating boards that allow your customers to pin testimonials, case studies, and other ideas or suggestions for your business services or products.

If you haven’t already signed your business up for Pinterest, our advice is that you look into this social media strategy as part of your plan for 2012. Happy “pinning”!

Check out Carbonated’s account here: http://pinterest.com/carbonatedinc

This trend has been catching on like wildfire with the growing number of mobile and tablet users, and is a far cry from traditional web designing practices. The ingredients for responsive web design include a fluid layout, adjustable images, and media queries to achieve improved scalability.

This month we’ve scoured the web to bring you a list of the best responsive web design examples which look great on any screen size. Hopefully we’re able to spark some inspiration in you too!

While most Super Bowl commercials promote car manufacturers and beer, there’s a pretty good selection of commercials promoting Internet companies these days. We won’t lie – we’re pretty happy about this recent trend.

Here are some of our favourite Super Bowl commercials from web-based companies from years passed:

Are there any you would add to this list?

Responsive Web Design

As we’re moving into the digital age, end users are tapping into a variety of technologies to view websites on such as tablets, mobile phones, regular monitors and large/widescreen monitors. With responsive web design, one can create flexible and dynamic website layouts that fit the screen of all of these devices at any resolution. It’s a fairly new practice that started to get hot in 2011, but not a lot of designers have started implementing the technique just yet. Considering the continued growth of mobile and tablet use, I expect that in 2012 this particular trend will really take off.

http://thinkvitamin.com/

More Color and Texture Usage

Minimalistic design really had its heyday in the past, but 2011 celebrated greater attention to detail and the use of unique textures to jazz up white space. Stay tuned for 2012 when this approach is likely to explode onto the web design and development scene. I predict dull colour pallets normally seen in “retro/vintage” design will be ditched in favour of attention-grabbing bright colours and rich textures.

http://www.liptonicetea.pl/

Typography

I know you’re probably thinking “duh”. I must admit, typography is on my list every year, but it’s always a pretty safe bet to include because the variety of web-ready fonts being added every day is mounting and browsers are getting even better at supporting them. It goes without saying that in 2012, this trend is likely to attract even greater popularity in the web design world.

http://www.kccreepfest.com/

BIGGER and Better

With monitor sizes taking on Hulk-like proportions, designers are able to create on a larger scale than ever before. 2012 should see greater use of larger elements, including text, photos and icons. We’re starting to see web design that relies more on visual cues than oodles of content, so expect the trend this year to be large photos paired with more concise copy.

http://2011.festivalmundo.com.br/#inicio

Display Items

Banners, page ribbons, bookmarks or other types of display badges are going to be a top trend for 2012—guaranteed! These items are often used for mobile app and blogging websites, and since tons of free resources are now available on the web, there’s no doubt they’ll be sticking around in 2012.

http://www.wellsriley.com/

What kind of predictions are you making for 2012? What would you like to see? We’d love to hear your ideas!