WebJunction - Social Networking & Web Tools

Computing Takes to the Cloud

2012-02-08T00:21:58Z

Take this tour of cloud computing to get familiar with the basics and some of the complexities.

This article covers the basic concepts of cloud computing for individuals and for organizations, explores what libraries are doing in the cloud, and looks briefly at some security concerns,

The Basics: yourself in the cloud

“It’s not water vapor. All it is is a computer attached to a network.”
---Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO

If you have saved your photos to Flickr, used Delicious or diigo to bookmark websites, uploaded videos to YouTube, or shared a document in GoogleDocs, you have already entered the cloud. Chances are you were using a web-based email program (gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, etc.) for years before the evocative name of “cloud computing” was applied to it.

Discover more cloud tools to streamline access to your "stuff" from any place with an Internet connection.

7 Ways to Get Started With Cloud Computing
Encouragement for “cloud virgins” to step into the cloud, one cool tool at a time.
Cloud Computing Tools
Store, manage and share files with these picks from IT Pixie.
Comparing Online vs. Traditional Office Software
An overview of web-based office software options, describing features, interfaces, cost, collaboration, storage and backup, access and performance, security and privacy, and upgrades and maintenance. (May 2010)

Cloud computing for organizations

Cloud computing at the organizational level is more complex, although still based on the basic concept of accessing software, platforms and multiple services through the Internet.

Cloud Computing Explained
This short video provides a simple explanation, using the electric grid as a logical analogy for organizational cloud computing services.

Now that you’ve grasped the fundamental concept, the conversation ramps up a few technical notches. You’ll first want to know how to decode the ubiquitous acronyms—IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.

TechSoup provides these clear definitions of the acronyms, which are the three main levels of cloud computing:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the foundation or bottom layer of cloud computing, and includes services like storage, backup, disaster recovery, databases, and security. An oft-cited example is Amazon Web Services, which includes scalable database, storage, virtual private servers, and support services that are available on demand by the hour or megabyte.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the next level of the cloud. It is most often used for organizations that are developing or modifying their own software applications. PaaS supports software development processes, including prototyping, developing, testing, deploying, and hosting. Cloud platform services are usually pre-configured with a given operating environment like Windows or Linux. Examples of PaaS type services include Google App Engine, Force.com, and Microsoft Azure.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is the top level of the cloud where software applications or your data are hosted on the Internet. The term basically means almost any Internet-based application or service. The availability, functionality, integrity, operation, and maintenance of system are the responsibility of the cloud provider. This level of the cloud is the one most easily accessed by nonprofits and libraries because they require relatively little development, training, or IT staff from within the organization to get it up and running.

Once you know the code words, get ready to grasp the concept of virtualization. These two videos spell it out in simple graphics, but don’t be surprised if you feel the need to replay the tape a few times to really get where this is all going.

Cloud Computing (in plain English)
This clever video starts from the beginning of (Internet) time and shows the evolution to virtualization. (4.5 min)
Virtualization in Plain English
If you’re still scratching your head about virtualization, this video takes the explanation a bit further. Just be forewarned that it is an ad for intel. (4 min)

Libraries in the cloud

This is all well and good for corporations and large government agencies but how does it work for libraries?

Cloud Computing in Libraries
This slideset by Ellyssa Kroski runs through examples of apps and services suitable to libraries. Many SaaS services have been in use in libraries for years (WorldCat, LibGuides); more libraries are making use of IaaS rather than operating their own servers. (Dec 2010)
Libraries in the Cloud
Practical advice directed toward school libraries but broadly applicable—the advantages, ways to “live in the cloud” and some impacts to consider for a school library moving to cloud computing. (May 2011)
Clearing Up the Cloud at NTEN's Nonprofit Cloud Computing Summit
The opportunities (good stuff) and challenges (less good stuff), plus 5 tips for going into the cloud, beginning with the timeless sound advice: “Don't focus on tools first. Focus on your processes and workflows, then select the tools that will help you do your work better.” (Nov 2010)
Libraries and Cloud Computing
OCLC authors Pace and Goldner identify the crux of cloud computing for libraries—how it can change our libraries’ future. Find results of a March 2011 survey of adoption in libraries, followed by a very readable review of the transitions in technology, data, and library collaboration.
A Cloudy Forecast for Libraries
Marshall Breeding, who has been expertly tracking library automation for years, sees cloud computing in the forecast, with library automation rapidly embracing the cloud.

The stormy side of cloud computing

It’s not all blue sky and cumulus clouds up there. There are challenges and security concerns, both for the individual and the organization.

Get Safe Online
For your personal security in the cloud, this site is dedicated to educating users about online safety. Check out the long list of short videos on topics such as avoiding identity theft, securing wireless, safe shopping, safe social and many more.
Security: The Scary Part of Cloud Computing
Citing some high profile 2011 security breaches, this TechSoup article lists the greatest security risks for non-profits. (Sep 2011)
In the cloud, security is easy, perfection is impossible Even the government IT pros acknowledge that “some risk is inevitable in moving to the cloud.” Watch for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) standards for cloud computing to be issued later this year.

RSS Feeds Your Needs

2011-07-05T21:04:29Z

What is RSS and how can you use it to receive updates from your favorite websites when new content is published?

RSS has been around long enough to be subject to a debate as to whether it is dead or still alive and kicking. A 2009 study by the Nielsen Norman Group seems to give evidence that it's the latter: use of both RSS and Twitter is on the rise. In 2006, their study showed only 20% rate of RSS use; in 2009 that figure jumped to 61%.

However, library staff may not have adopted the tool at such a high rate as the general population. The results of WebJunction's May 2011 survey of its members indicates that 52% use RSS for work, and just 44% for personal use.

What is RSS
It matters little whether the acronym stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. What matters is the basic principle: information on the Web that aligns with your interests is fed to you rather than you having to go out looking for it all over the Web.

CommonCraft explains it so simply in this short video: RSS in Plain English. Go watch it now—we'll wait till you get back.

Or read this short explanation of What is RSS and How to Use It. But the video is more fun.

The RSS Two-step
As the CommonCraft video says, there are two basic steps to get started with RSS:
1. Get some place to collect your feeds so you can read them, which may be a more traditional reader/aggregator, but could also be your email in-box or your smartphone.

2. Get feeds, i.e., identify the sources of the information you want to pull into your reader.

Step one: get an RSS reader
RSS readers have evolved since the early days, with some very stylish interfaces for your computer and mobile devices. There are now more choices for where you want to direct your feeds, including your email inbox and your mobile phone, in addition to the enhanced social dimension of feed-sharing.

My Yahoo! gives you the gadgets and RSS feeds to personalize your Yahoo homepage. With a (free) account, you can check multiple email accounts in one place, view your Facebook activity, and pull in news, local weather and other feeds of interest to you.

Google Reader
Google Reader persists in popularity, with a readable layout and ease of sharing interesting items with friends. You’ll need to sign up for a (free) Google account.

iGoogle
Use your Google account to create a personalized homepage that is graphic, colorful and tailored to your location and interests. Learn how to add gadgets and feeds to mix it up with ready-made gadgets, themes and your choice of RSS feeds.

Feedly
This Firefox extension integrates with Google Reader and pulls feeds into a newspaper/magazine-like layout. It doesn’t stop there—it gets input from Twitter, Friendfeed and your other social networks. Learn more about its many features.

Flipboard
Turn your Google Reader feeds into a jazzy magazine-style format on your iPad. Watch the Flipboard video for a lively tour of the visual and social possibilities.

Mobile RSS Readers
The iPad is not the only mobile device with an RSS app. Whether iPhone or Android, there are apps that will deliver your feeds on-the-go.

RSS in Outlook
If you spend your working day in Outlook email, it may be the best place to receive your RSS feeds. You can add feeds to Outlook 2007 through the Tools menu; they’ll collect in a folder in your Inbox for you to view along with the rest of your email messages.

Step two: get RSS feeds
In addition to collecting the latest news and blog posts, there are some practical and cool ideas to put RSS feeds to use.

WebJunction, of course!
Wherever you see the orange RSS button on the site, you can click it and subscribe to a feed for that section. Whether it is a topic page, discussion or group, you’ll know when something new has been added.

Job searching
If you’re looking for a job, you know how tedious it is to check multiple sites for daily listings. Indeed.com searches lots of job sites based on the keywords your enter. Set up an RSS feed to see when new jobs are available in your field. You need to do a bit of hunting for the feed link—it’s a bit of text (RSS Job Feed) halfway down the page on the right.

Search Craigslist for jobs in specified areas and create an RSS feed from the search results page—you’ll receive updates when new listings appear. (You can set up an RSS feed for any search result on Craigslist—a new car, new computer, furniture, housing, etc.)

Book and author news
Author Alerts lets you create a list of authors and publishers and then feeds you notifications of upcoming new releases (including audiobooks and ebooks).

Personal reminders
With Futuremail, you can send messages to yourself to be delivered at a specified date and time to serve as reminders, notes or any information you want to have in the future.

Entertainment
Track your favorite TV shows with mytvrss to get schedule reminders and a bit of background information.

Netflix RSS feeds has two subscription options: a personal feed originating from your Netflix account and a public feed with general movie and television show information without personalization.

For music lovers, keep current about live music events with Tourfilter, browsing by city, artist or venue to get email. Once you have filled in the basic info, click “Set alerts” and look for the “rss” link under “your feeds” on the next screen.

Roadie tracks new album releases based on your favorite bands. You have the option to import your favorite artists from your last.fm profile.

In fact, why not subscribe to All Things RSS to get a steady feed of ideas on how RSS can streamline your work and personal life?

U.S. Public Libraries and the Use of Web Technologies, 2010

2011-06-03T17:51:02Z

This study records the landscape of web technology adoption in public libraries across the country and examines the characteristics of libraries that are leading the way in adopting those technologies.

This report was originally published by Library Research Service on www.LRS.org

Executive Summary

It's well known that technology is changing at an increasingly rapid pace and that many public libraries throughout the United States are attempting to adopt new technologies to better reach their patrons. In trade journals, blogs, and at library conferences, professionals in the field have continually discussed the best methods for using web technologies to enhance the success of the public library. In keeping with this discussion, in late 2007 the Library Research Service (LRS) designed the first iteration of the U.S. Public Libraries and the Use of Web Technologies study. In the midst of a conversation largely focused on best practices, this study was envisioned from its inception as a longitudinal study with several goals. Primarily, it attempts to record the landscape of web technology adoption by public libraries in the United States. While most of the discourse thus far has focused on what should and should not be done to better use technologies, there has not yet been much research examining how and how many libraries actually are adopting various web technologies. This study attempts to put that in perspective. Another intention of this study is to examine the characteristics of the libraries that are adopting technology in an attempt to tease out the factors that lead them to try out various tools. We are also interested in determining whether or not the adoption of specific types of technology leads to "success" as traditionally defined in public libraries. This report represents the second iteration, and refinement, of the study. It captures a changing landscape of web technology adoption by public libraries and looks further into the characteristics and successes of libraries that adopt technology.

The first iteration of this study found relatively low adoption levels of more interactive web technologies, despite the popularity of "Web 2.0" themes in the national literature and conference dialog. Depending on the type of technology, the increase in adoption rate for public libraries ranged from very little, if any, to incredible leaps and bounds. The area that was most embraced during the two years between studies was social networking, especially among the largest libraries. Most notably, the social networking site Facebook moved from a relative non-factor to near ubiquity in large libraries: for libraries serving communities of at least 500,000 people, the ratio of those with a Facebook presence jumped from barely one in ten in 2008 (11%) to 4 out of 5 (80%) in 2010. Similar, though less drastic increases were found in libraries serving other population groups, and the estimated percentage of all public libraries in the United States to have a Facebook presence rose nine-fold, from only 2 percent in 2008 to 18 percent in 2010. Libraries’ use of other social networking sites, such as the photo-sharing site Flickr, saw large increases also well. During this study, researchers also looked for the presence of a web site directed at mobile users. Very few public libraries were targeting mobile users online at the time of the study, but outreach to mobile technologies seems like an area potentially poised for an explosion similar to that of use of social networking sites. Whereas a few years ago social media was a topic of heavy discussion at conferences and in library literature, the current topic du jour tends to be mobile devices. Most notable is a series of virtual conferences, such as Handheld Librarian, dedicated specifically to mobile devices.

More traditional public library web technologies, such as web presence and online account access, seem to have plateaued. Nearly all libraries that serve over 25,000 people already had some of these basic services by 2008, so there was not much room for growth. Based on our research, the smallest libraries did not see much increase in basic online services, either. In fact, a lower percentage of libraries serving fewer than 10,000 people had a web presence at all during this iteration of the survey, as compared with 2008 (73% vs. 71%). Some of the standard but slightly more interactive web technologies, such as email reference and blogs, tell a similar story to that of basic web services in that they showed little, if any, growth among most population groups. One of the few exceptions was in social media, which saw exponential increases across the board; other than that, it was primarily the largest libraries (those serving more than 500,000) that demonstrated substantial increases in their adoption rates. In fact, greater technology adoption among the largest libraries in the country was a general theme in comparing the overall public library web technology landscape between 2008 and 2010. Instead of a flattening of the percentages of libraries adopting certain technologies across the board, it seems that the gap between big and small libraries is growing in terms of the technology offered on their websites.

Just as in the first version of the study, libraries that were in the top twenty percent of their population group based on the number of technologies adopted were labeled "Early Adopters." The most recent public library statistical data available (2008) from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), indicates that libraries we identified as Early Adopters again fared much better on traditional statistical measures than their peers, both in terms of inputs and outputs. Early Adopters were better funded and better staffed than other libraries and also saw greater outputs in visits, circulation, and programming. The major inference from this analysis is that public libraries that have been successful in the past, when measured by traditional means, have also chosen to put resources into the adoption of new web technologies.

Revisiting the observational data from the first iteration of the study, researchers found that libraries identified as Early Adopters in 2008 saw significantly greater increases in visits and circulation between 2003 and 2008 than their peers who had not been as active in the adoption of these technologies. Regression analysis suggests that, even when controlling for staff and collection expenditures, adoption of web technologies is a predictor of these increases.

Download full report [PDF]

Social Networking Safety Tips

2010-10-05T19:21:27Z

Tip sheet for how to manage a social networking site so that your privacy, your computer, and your reputation are protected.

Social Networking Safety Tips

Privacy and security settings exist for a reason: Learn about and use the privacy and security settings on social networks. They are there to help you control who sees what you post and manage your online experience in a positive way.

· Once posted, always posted: Protect your reputation on social networks. What you post online stays online. Think twice before posting pictures you wouldn’t want your parents or future employers to see. Recent research (http://www.microsoft.com/privacy/dpd/research.aspx) found that 70% of job recruiters rejected candidates based on information they found online.

· Your online reputation can be a good thing: Recent research (http://www.microsoft.com/privacy/dpd/research.aspx) also found that recruiters respond to a strong, positive personal brand online. So show your smarts, thoughtfulness, and mastery of the environment.

· Keep personal info personal: Be cautious about how much personal information you provide on social networking sites. The more information you post, the easier it may be for a hacker or someone else to use that information to steal your identity, access your data, or commit other crimes such as stalking.

· Protect your hardware: Safety and security start with protecting computers. Install a security suite (antivirus, antispyware, and firewall) that is set to update automatically. Keep your operating system, Web browser, and other software current as well and back up computer files on a regular basis.

· Know and manage your friends: Social networks can be used for a variety of purposes. Some of the fun is creating a large pool of friends from many aspects of your life. That doesn’t mean all friends are created equal. Use tools to manage the information you share with friends in different groups or even have multiple online pages. If you’re trying to create a public persona as a blogger or expert, create an open profile or a “fan” page that encourages broad participation and limits personal information. Use your personal profile to keep your real friends (the ones you know trust) more synched up with your daily life.

· Be honest if you’re uncomfortable: If a friend posts something about you that makes you uncomfortable or you think is inappropriate, let them know. Likewise, stay open-minded if a friend approaches you because something you’ve posted makes him or her uncomfortable. People have different tolerances for how much the world knows about them respect those differences. Post only about others as you would have them post about you.

· Now what action to take: If someone is harassing or threatening you, remove them from your friends list, block them, and report them to the site administrator.

· Use strong passwords: Make sure that your password is long, complex and combines, letters, numerals, and symbols. Ideally, you should use a different password for every online account you have. If you need to write down your password to remember it, store it somewhere away from your computer.

· Be cautious about messages you receive on social networking sites that contain links. Even links that look they come from friends can sometimes contain malware or be part of a phishing attack (attempts to collect personal information: logon and password and other indentifying information by pretending to be a message form a friend or a business). If you are suspicious, don’t click contact your friend or the business directly to verify the validity.

· Learn more at www.staysafeonline.org.

Move your library’s value to the Twitterstream

2010-07-26T15:59:52Z

Libraries are leveraging Twitter to broadcast everything from new books and library hours to special interest groups and local community events. Each communication is an opportunity to demonstrate our value and expertise as information professionals.

This article was first published in the July 2010 issue of OCLC eNews

One of the greatest advantages that tools like Twitter and Facebook offer our profession is simple—you can put stuff out there. Too simple, right? But when you think about it, as librarians and information specialists, our core responsibility is to—without bias or passing any sort of judgment—provide services that guide patrons to the resources they are looking for and equip them with the tools they need to further explore whatever their hearts desire.

More than ever before, libraries are leveraging Twitter to broadcast everything from new books and library hours to special interest groups and local community events. But I think it’s important to keep in mind that the quality of the guidance we provide in every post is amplified. Each communication is an opportunity to demonstrate our value and expertise as information professionals. Even if a tweet or a post is directed at an individual, your entire community can see it, and many more could benefit from the information you provide.

Last year, we implemented Twitter at Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) Library (Dryden, New York). As a long-time blogger (Baby Boomer Librarian), this was certainly a project that I was eager to spearhead. From the start, we outlined some of the results that we wanted to achieve using Twitter and Facebook (along with some of our existing Web-based tools), including:

Provide customized reference services, as well as tips and tricks to access information
Create a comfortable environment where students could initiate conversations about our resources—a place where we could have two-way conversations with our students
Disseminate alerts to special interest groups
Be a voice, a lifeline, on behalf of our community college, in a way that enhances the institution’s sense of community among our many non-traditional students
Ask our students for input
Schedule regular reviews of feedback to determine what workflows need to be adjusted, or what new initiatives should be considered for implementation.

I would venture to guess that most of these goals probably apply to many other types of libraries or museums looking to get started with Twitter. I would also recommend that you develop some basic guidelines for your staff to follow that clearly state your library’s goals and other things that will help you maintain the appropriate level of professionalism and quality service that you want to cultivate through this medium.

Do not expect instant contact with your students or patrons. Our Twitter account is still primarily in one direction. Growth in people following TC3Library on Twitter is slow but steady. This is no real surprise as others have had the same experience when implementing new social networking tools in their libraries. Twitter, as well as other social networking tools, is an opt-in tool. No one can require their patrons to use it. Twitter is an experiment but is a low risk one. The only risk is that you may increase contact with your patrons.

You can use these same tools to help you keep your finger on the pulse of the profession and your patrons. Using Twitter, you can follow library associations and other library leaders, or even state representatives or local officials to stay current on trends and issues that impact you, your profession and your patrons’ communities. There are endless possibilities and combinations of tools that you can use to build on what you and other librarians and tech gurus have built. It’s what we do. We share ideas, resources and insight. So whether you have something to share or you are looking to learn from others, staying connected is key when it comes to tools like Twitter.

A recent example that relates to OCLC’s exploration of Twitter is its Innovation Lab, which recently announced a new trial service, #Ask4Stuff. It is a simple tool for using Twitter to find stuff in WorldCat.

When you send a tweet with the tag #Ask4Stuff (for example: #Ask4Stuff lake erie shipwreck), you get a tweet back that says something like: @YOURNAME A few things about lake erie shipwreck in #Ask4Stuff, check out http://is.gd/cY7gi. The link takes you to the WorldCat.org search result for “lake erie shipwreck.” You can even localize the result to a WorldCat Local instance by including the local library name as another hash tag. This gives you a way to do quick searches and share the results with others via Twitter. Innovative and fun to use!

If you are interested in talking more about Twitter and other tools, I invite you to join the Emerging Technologies Interest Group on the OCLC Americas Regional Council (ARC) Member-to-Member social networking site. This group is dedicated to OCLC members who are engaged (professionally or just for fun) with social networking and other types of new media. Anyone is welcome to join the group, ask questions or share what you are doing at your library with the rest of the group. You don’t have to join the site to read the comments, but you do have do join to post or respond to comments that other group members have provided. Or, you can also check out my Baby Boomer Librarian blog or follow me on Twitter.

How To Create A Facebook Fan Page: Guide To The Best Strategies And Example

2010-07-21T19:31:51Z

Did you know that if you already have a personal profile Facebook page and want to create another one for your company you can't? Businesses on Facebook are supposed to have a Fan Page, not a Personal Page! So, how do you go about creating an effective Facebook presence strategy for your company by utilizing a Fan Page?

Did you know that if you already have a personal profile Facebook page and want to create another one for your company you can't? Businesses on Facebook are supposed to have a Fan Page, not a Personal Page! Yeah, and it is official: go check out the Facebook terms of service, and read carefully what they say: if you do create a personal profile for your business, Facebook will shut it down and trash all your shared content and fans. So, how do you go about creating an effective Facebook presence strategy for your company by utilizing a Fan Page?

In this MasterNewMedia guide you will find a passionately curated selection of the best online reports and articles explaining which are the best strategies to create a Facebook Fan Page, along with a uniquely hand-picked selection of valuable examples to get you inspired.

The issue is this. To effectively engage with your online audience while strengthening your ability to listen and learn from it, your social media presence, including your active use and management of a Facebook Fan Page, has become increasingly crucial in the achievement of such results.

The importance of having a Facebook Fan Page has indeed become a tangible business requirement for any competitive company wanting to extend its online presence, reach as well as its ability to leverage customers insight for sales, marketing, customer service, product R&D and more.

To put things into perspective and to understand the benefits of creating a Facebook Fan Page to promote your content, here is some interesting data:

Facebook has more than 400 million active users.
50% of active Facebook users log in every day.
More than five billion pieces of content are shared each week on Facebook.
More than 1.5 million local business have an active Facebook Fan Page.
More than 20 million people become fans of a Facebook Fan Page every day.

(You can find more specific data on Facebook reach and popularity right on this infographic on "Facebook Facts and Figures" - March 2010).

But how can you create a Facebook Fan Page that is compelling, beautiful to look at and that boosts your visibility?

What are the best strategies to follow?

Are there examples of successful Facebook Fan Pages that you can use to inspire yourself?

In this in-depth MasterNewMedia guide you will discover what you need to know to create a Facebook Fan Page that is as effective as you want it to be. Specifically, this guide focuses on:

Which are the best Facebook Fan Page marketing strategies
How can you personalize your Facebook Fan Page
Real-world examples: Facebook Fan Pages showcases and case studies

Here, the MasterNewMedia Facebook Fan Page guide in full detail:

Facebook Fan Page Marketing Strategies

Facebook Fan Page Marketing Guide

What are the very first steps you should take to promote your Facebook Fan Page? In this guide by SEOmoz you will find an overview of the basic strategies to run and leverage your Facebook Fan Page to increase your number of fans.

by timsoulo - SEOmoz

Facebook Fan Page: Successful Marketing Strategies

What is the real potential of Facebook? How can you use your Facebook Fan Page to get more visibility and authority for your brand? Here you will find the key tactics to start a successful Facebook marketing campaign using your Fan Page.

by Tamar Weinberg - Techipedia

How To Promote Your Facebook Fan Page

Do you have a Facebook Fan Page, but want to know how to increase the number of your fans? In this article you will find the most effective, non-technical tactics to promote the content you share on your Facebook Fan Page.

by Ann Smarty - Search Engine Journal

SEO Strategies Every Fan Page Owner Should Know

A comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) strategy can play a vital role in boosting the growth rate of your Facebook Fan Page and in distributing your content more effectively. Here are ten strategies to boost your Fan Page rankings inside search engines results.

by Justin Smith - Inside Facebook

How To Personalize Your Facebook Fan Page

How To Customize Your Facebook Fan Page Using FBML

How can you use Facebook programming language (static FBML) to improve and personalize your Facebook Fan Page? In this guide you will find all the basic steps to enable static FBML on your page and start engaging with it.

by Nick Shin - Social Media Examiner

How To Build an Engaging Facebook Fan Page

If you want to create an engaging Facebook Fan Page, you should know how to use the tools that Facebook itself provides you. Here are the best Facebook tools and how to use them if you want to create a unique and engaging Fan Page.

by Orli Yakuel - TechCrunch

Must-Have Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page

Getting your Facebook Fan Page to work well takes time, dedication and some planning. Don’t expect to create a page and then have a huge following instantaneously. Here are the basic elements your Facebook fan page must have to be really successful.

by Samir Balwani - Mashable

How To Make Your Fan Page Visible Inside Facebook

Why is it so important to make your Facebook Fan Page easily reachable for other Facebook users? Here you will understand why visibility is key on Facebook and how to customize your Fan Page to get more visibility.

by Greg Finn - Search Engine Land

Real-World Examples: Facebook Fan Pages Showcase and Case Studies

Designing a Facebook Fan Page: Showcases, Tutorials, Resources

Are you designing your Facebook Fan Page and need some examples of other successful Fan Pages? Find out the best practices to customize your Facebook Fan Page design, with various approaches to creating an attractive, descriptive and engaging Facebook business page.

by Julia May - Smashing Magazine

FacebookShowcase

FacebookShowcase is a collection of the best Fan Pages on Facebook that you can use to inspire yourself to design your own Fan Page or to have clear design guidelines you want to share with your own web designer.

by Orli Yakuel - FacebookShowcase

Killer Facebook Fan Pages: Inspiring Case Studies

How should you engage with your fans on your Facebook Fan Page? Here are five case studies of brands that are doing a great job on their Facebook Fan Pages.

by Callan Green - Mashable

The California State Parks Foundation Facebook Fan Page Case Study

Ever wondered how some big brands build and monetize their presence on Facebook? In this case study, you will learn how the California State Parks Foundation Fan Page grew its fans from 517 to 33,000 in just two weeks.

by Daniel Burstein - Marketing Experiments

Facebook Fan Pages: An Analysis of Common Usage Patterns

How are effective Facebook Fan Pages built? Is there some kind of pattern you may replicate to know you are doing right? In this report you will find an analysis conducted on a number of top-notch Facebook Fan Pages that shows a common pattern in the amount of content posted, number of fans, and categories that you need to follow to be successful.

by Sysomos Inc.

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This article was originally prepared by Robin Good, Daniele Bazzano and Elia Lombardi for MasterNewMedia, and first published on July 19th, 2010, as "How To Create A Facebook Fan Page: Guide To The Best Strategies And Examples".