Love it or hate it, MySpace did one thing right: it paved the way for facebook.

A few weeks ago I spoke to a group about social media, concentrating on Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In. At that time, I gave Facebook a very basic review and moved on. But after hearing about the changes being made to the site I started to do some more research. It blew my mind what Facebook was doing. So much so that I'm going to devote this week of blogging to comparing Facebook to what I believe are the other top two social media sites: Twitter & Linked-In.

Disclaimer: I am not saying these three websites are the same. In fact I think most businesses should establish a presence on all three. This is more about me organizing them by greatest  business potential.

Today I want to talk a little bit about some of the exciting stuff happening behind your Facebook profile and the key to what gives Facebook such awesome potential. Last week I covered the exciting new Facebook pages and if you regularly check your profile, you've probably already noticed the changes to your news feed. So, let's talk about lesser-known gems that you might not have heard about unless you religiously read Facebook's company blog.

Somethings you might not know:

• Facebook is available in Hebrew and Arabic. (70% of users are not from the U. S.)
• Facebook Causes have raised $4.5 million from 90,000 unique donors. (How's that for making an impact?)
• Facebook has a wiki just for developers.
• Facebook book is listening. There are multiple ways to give them feedback.
• Facebook puts all their statics on their site.
• Facebook does a ton of research (with your permission). You can participate even if you don't have an account!
• Facebook has made a ton of its coding open source.
• Facebook Connect allows you to integrate information on Facebook with other websites.
• It took me 5 minutes to find all this information.

Most of us log on Facebook, respond to mail, update our status, play around a bit and we're done. But there is so much more to Facebook. By looking a little deeper I realized that Facebook was listening, truly listening to what its users needed. The number one question I get from business owners is "But how do I use Facebook for my business?" And the answer has always been somewhat convoluted. Facebook heard that question and said, "Hmm... how can we make this better for businesses while still making the same social impact?"

They've done a ton of research on their new ideas. I know, I know, a new homepage makes most of us balk, (what? I have to think before I click?) but I have faith that the Facebook team picked what they felt would be the most intuitive and simple solution. In a month we won't even notice.

Facebook's philosophy, however is what really makes them stand out from other media. Share and Connect. That's powerful. And they are actively pursuing it in visible ways. I couldn't tell you what any other social media site's mission even was.

So what do you think? Do you hate the new layout? Did you learn something new from my little list? Are you ready to be in up in arms defending other social sites this week?

"There’s no excuse for no contact form" said Elizabeth Able (ablereach) on my Top 100 Internet Blunders Committed by Businesses post. And Chris Lucas from iMedia recently wrote a great article about making your contact form work harder for you. He covers some basics like not to make your form intimidating and make sure you are doing something with the information details people give you.

But how does your contact form work for you---or does it even work at all? Of course, it important to provide a way for possible clients contact you, but why should they? A lot of businesses only have their contact form filled out by marketing people (aka glorified spam), if they ever get used at all. So how do you get people to actually use your contact form for the purpose you want them to?

1. Decide what you want your contact form to do for you. It surprises me how many people don't actually have a well-thought out reason. Why do you want people to contact you? Have a clear, defined purpose. If possible, write it down.
2. Have a compelling reason for people to contact you. Now that you've figured out why people should contact you, make sure your site backs it up. If you want people to contact you about a quote or to set an appointment, clarify that at other points on your website. Make everything lead up to the ultimate thing you want your website to do: provide revenue.
3. Make your contact form the simple next step. We live in a generation of ADD people (diagnosed and those of us who just neurotically multitask), so when some reads great content on your site and decides to contact you, make it easy. You want to be right there when someone has the impulse to talk to you. (So make sure you read Chris's article, he mentions mechanics... the worst thing is to have a useless contact form and miss the window.) On certain pages where contacting you is the obvious next step, hyperlink to your form.
4. Respond to your contact form in 24 hours or less. It sounds simple, but some people just put off responding or checking their contact email. If your contact form goes to a secondary email address (like mine goes to contact@veribatim.com) make sure someone is regularly checking it. Set it up to go to your outlook or other mail service. If you check your email at least once a day, you should be able to respond and make your customer feel loved.This can also help you land those time-sensitive opportunities.
5. Reward people who use your contact form. After you've promptly responded, give your client something extra. It doesn't have to be a free gift or a discount (but those are good ideas), it can be more creative, like offering a link exchange. But go the extra mile and watch more people contact you!
6. Follow-up & Survey. Often the follow-up can be more important than the initial contact (ask your local sales guy where they get the most referrals). Its true, even online. Follow-up with people who've contacted you through your site. Even if its just to survey them. Ask them how they found your site, why they used the contact form instead of calling and if they were satisfied with your turn-around time.

Have you thought about the purpose of your contact form? I challenge you to write out a sentence about why you have one and what you want people to use it for. (Feel free to share!)