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Are you going for the most generic answer in the world?

How about some detail? Give us some examples of companies that are doing well, or tell us about your own experiences?

I think there's definitely a strong element that FB will only work for certain types of business, public/social type ones such as Bars, Restaurants, Cake makers, maybe wedding planners etc.

Although, with the social interaction and every smart harry leaving comments, maybe tradespeople could also be a good one? After all the best way to get a plumber is by word of mouth, which you could argue FB is just an extension of?

This is a great post from a respected writer and well worth a read if you want to explore or understand FB advertising.
Facebook Advertising / Marketing: Best Metrics, ROI, Business Value

Here are a few interesting excerpts:

A Facebook employee (FBe) gave a talk about measuring ROI/Value of Facebook campaigns. FBe's recommendation was (paraphrasing a 35 min talk):

Don't invent new metrics, use online versions of Reach and GRPs to measure success. The value of Facebook in "spreading word of mouth," "getting your brand in front of friends of fans," and "engaging fans with five to seven posts a week on your fan page."

Interesting point on traditional online advertising, ie you advertise on say Google adwords in the hope of getting someone to click straight through to your site.

But on Facebook ..."by creating a Facebook brand page for your company and spending money on Facebook Advertising, as with the two ad options above, you are using your Facebook investment to:

1. Earn Likes

2. Engage an audience temporarily and, if you are good at social, engage at least a subset on a more regular basis

This is a very different from what you were doing with Bing and AOL and all the other digital advertising platforms.

You are not rushing the audience to your digital existence."

So it's almost saying you warm up your audience on FB, going for the softsell, rather than any hard sell or just relying on a sales message on your website.

Blimey, this would be an interesting one:

Eric Schmidt Floats Idea Of A Yahoo-Google Search Partnership

Would that signal the death of Bing and any potential (not there was any) Google competiton...

Twitter's done a bit more tweaking with it's layout, so I thought I'd update my own twitter page and try out the new header feature, which updates your profile background.

Here's mine:
https://twitter.com/MyLocalForums

Not sure about the white font, and can't find any options to change the font in the profile, so shout out if someone cracks it!

If you want to know how to change your header image, here's step by step instructions.

Apparently the changes have been to make it look better on mobiles and ipad apps. Anyone else updated their twitter page recently? Always good to get some artistic inspiration

So BAE systems, one of the largest if not the biggest UK manufacturer, is in talks with merging with defence group EAD, which would create the worlds largest defence company, but BAE would only make up potentially 30 - 40% of the new company.

So is this a good thing, or is another example of overseas investment taking over a large British company?

One of the fears is the lucrative US market that BAE operates in may be put in jeopardy if the merger goes ahead. I would imagine there would be worries years down the line about production being moved as costs were cut as there is bound to some duplication as the companies operate in the same sector.

Or is this just good global business, and we need to shake off the shackles of national pride? After all, the French own a good chunk our nuclear and power infrastructure, and it seems the majority of traditional British institutions such as Cadburys etc are owned by overseas interests.

Maybe our destiny is to be a Nation of small to medium businesses? What are peoples thoughts?

I don't understand your comment? Can you elaborate?

I believe Cpanel stats are just pulled from the server logs, so do you advocate server stats over Google Analytics?

Just curious as you are a hosting provider.

All of us at some point utilise the services of tradespeople, be it a plumber, sparky, builder etc.

A lot of forum threads are dedicated to the rogue element of certain professions, cons etc. But assuming you have a recommended or bonafide tradesperson who will do a top job, what are your actual expectations?

Normally with things like plumbing, wiring, building etc there is going to be an element of disruption, mess. Your immaculate carpets may have a few pairs of builders boots marching across them.

A friend of mine had a garage door replaced over the weekend, pretty straightforward stuff, and it looks like a nice professional job. But she was fuming that the chap hadn't moved all the stuff back to where it was in the garage, as he had to move stuff for access, and hadn't swept up wood shavings etc. I thought this was pretty unfair, and why was it his job?

But then we had a sparky round last week adding some extra lights and sockets to our kitchen. Did a great job, and left the place immaculate. 10/10!

Barney did a post recently which springs to mind, and shows the other side of the story:

So would you expect tradespeople to have to spend time moving your stuff to clear a work area, then clean up after themselves and leave an area as they found it?

Or do you want them gone as soon as the issue is resolved, after all, the money meter is no doubt running

I wonder if tradespeople tag on an extra charge if they get stitched with lifting and shifting?

Be interesting to hear peoples views and perceptions.

Well I've mentioned it a few times over the years, and always thought a Facebook Search Engine was the next logical step. It looks like I'm not alone:

Waiting for a Facebook search engine? Eventually, it