Before you leave that default image up too much longer, let’s review the most important reasons why showing your face makes a difference.

1. People click on photos. Are you more likely to click the headline alone or the headline with the accompanying image? Images get better reactions and interactions than text alone. Don’t leave any opportunities to stand out lying on the table, because you never know which little detail will seal the deal and earn that click.

2. The best businesses are personal. People do business with people, and successful brands understand how to inject humanity into their marketing. It starts with showcasing your team and creating an atmosphere of transparency so clients can feel connected and knowledgeable. Larger brands with multiple staffers and departments communicating via social media have started putting customer service reps’ pictures and first names on social media sites and posts so that customers know who they’re dealing with. Executives must at least appear just as accessible.

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By far the biggest issue with business blogs is inconsistency. Blogs start off with the best of intentions and then fall by the wayside because they’re not kept up to date. Here are some tips for keeping content fresh and readers (and search engines) happy.

• Share the load. Having four or more people taking turns writing means each person is only responsible for at most one blog article per month.
• Mine your own resources by interviewing in-house subject matter experts, taking a virtual tour of your facility, or reediting old white papers or marketing materials that are still relevant.
• Curate content. You don’t have to plagiarize in order to take advantage of great content resources you find. Create a “best of” entry and highlight other blogs in your industry.

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Facebook was founded over ten years ago, which means in just three years, the newest, youngest members of Facebook will have never lived in a world without the social network. As pervasive as it is, Facebook, like many social media outlets, carries with it its fair share of myths. Here are my picks for the three biggest.

Facebook is a waste of time for my business

Believe it or not, some business owners still need convincing. Many sole proprietors who do their own marketing think that Facebook is fine for some businesses, but not for theirs, because their customers aren’t on the platform. With well over 1 billion users logging in monthly, that’s simply not the case. One out of seven people on the planet are browsing Facebook, so chances are pretty good even the most isolated of industries have customers on the network.

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