Facebook private message rumour is 'false', site says

A rumour that Facebook users' private messages were appearing on public timelines is false, the firm has said.

Some users, mostly in France, reported that "private messages" sent between 2007-2009 were suddenly public.
However, Facebook told the BBC: "[The] messages were older wall posts that had always been visible on the users' profile pages.
Separately, Facebook shares fell up to 11% after an influential journal said the stock is worth just $15.
On the messaging rumour, the social network said: "Facebook is satisfied that there has been no breach of user privacy."
Another source at the company told the BBC that engineers said there was "no way" the two areas of data could get mixed up.

Private material

The source said that "no mechanism" had ever been created that would allow a private message to be published onto a user's wall or timeline.
Similar rumours surfaced and were investigated in 2011, the source said, but after "extensive investigation" they were proven to be untrue.
Despite Facebook's statement, many users reported finding what they believed to be old private material.
"There are messages I've got on my wall that are most definitely private messages! From 2006 all the way up to 2012," wrote Poppy Dinsey, owner of fashion social network What I Wore Today.
"I'm 100% sure by content and from memory. And also some posts on my wall were clearly beginnings of (private) group [messages]."
Meanwhile, Facebook shares were under pressure after the US financial publication Barron's said the stock is worth perhaps only $15 a share, well below the $38-a-share flotation price.
On Wall Street, the shares ended down 9.1% to $20.79, having fallen more than 11% earlier in the day.
Barron's said: "Facebook's 40% plunge from its initial public offering price of $38 in May has millions of investors asking a single question: Is the stock a buy?
"The short answer is 'No.' What are the shares worth? Perhaps only $15," Barron's said.

Facebook surpasses one billion users as it tempts new markets

Facebook's next billion?

The world's biggest social network says it now has over a billion active monthly users. But anxious investors are asking where will its next billion users come from? And the billion after that?

While Facebook is firmly established in the western social media world, it still lags behind in Asia and another continent, key growth markets to satisfy its hungry investors and shareholders.

Facebook now has more than one billion people using it every month, the company has said.

The passing of the milestone was announced by founder Mark Zuckerberg on US television on Thursday.

The company said that those billion users were to date responsible for 1.13 trillion "likes", 219 billion photos and 17 billion location check-ins.

The site, which was launched in 2004, is now looking towards emerging markets to build its user base further.

"If you're reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you," Mr Zuckerberg wrote in a status update.

"Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life"

Statistics released to coincide with the announcement revealed there were now 600 million users accessing the site via a mobile device - up 48 million from 552 million in June this year.

Since its early beginnings at Harvard University, Facebook users have befriended each other 140.3 billion times.

Sustained growth is seen as crucial if Facebook is to maintain its value - the company has seen its share price drop to about $22 (£17) from a starting price of $38.

Investors will expect the company to look at ways to make more from the users it already has as well as seeking to attract new users in areas of the world where it does not yet dominate.

"For Facebook the main challenge is not just to grow in terms of numbers, but more importantly to deepen and enrich engagements," said Eden Zoller, principal analyst at tech research firm Ovum.

TV chat show

Although the service is by far the world's biggest social network, there are key areas, such as China and Russia, where local competitors still remain the online networking tool of choice.

Last month, Mr Zuckerberg visited Moscow, where he made his first TV chat show appearance, as well as a highly publicised meeting with the Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev.

It was a public-relations exercise designed to unsettle VKontakte - a network that boasts in excess of 100 million members, compared with Facebook's seven million, in the country.

In the same trip, Mr Zuckerberg made a "surprise" visit to one of the company's arranged hack-a-thons to meet local developers.

Other trips include to China, where the company said it was busy "watching and learning" from other internet firms.

Google, which launched in China in 2005, faced fierce criticism when it agreed to allow censorship of search results. It later changed its stance, and now directs all of its traffic through its Hong Kong-based site.

Facebook at one billion:

• Median user age: 22
• Top countries (alphabetical order): Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, United States
• Mobile users: 600 million

At 500 million (July 2010):

• Median user age: 23
• Top countries: Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, United States
• Users who joined the site at this point now have an average of 305 friends

At 100 million (August 2008):

• Median user age: 23
• Top countries: Chile, France, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States
• Users who joined the site at this point now have an average of 334 friends

At 50 million (October 2007):

• Median user age: 26
• Top countries: Australia, Canada, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States
• Users who joined the site at this point now have an average of 321 friends

At 25 million (January 2006):

• Median user age: 19
• Top countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, United States
• Users who joined the site at this point now have an average of 598 friends

6 Things Facebook May Be Over- Or Underestimating

The biggest, most popular social network is rightfully confident in their product, but perhaps Facebook has gotten a little too confident. After all, arrogance has the reputation for blinding.little too confident.
Does Facebook need to dip their toes in modest waters, or is it doing just fine? You decide. Here are six things Facebook is overestimating and underestimating.

Overestimating: User Adaptability

Frequent interface changes make Facebook users mad, that’s no secret. Facebook perversely assumes that despite their users’ dissonance they’ll stay faithful to the platform — no matter what. With this mentality, a reliance on users’ threshold for change is pressed to the limits.
Facebook’s most recent changes pushed many users to the edge. Although the amount is unknown, threats and declarations to quit the platform are made aplenty each time Facebook implements its changes.

Overestimating: Brand Loyalty

Facebook may have over 800 million active users, but that doesn’t mean they’re brand-loyal. Earlier this year Facebook collaborated with AT&;T on a mobile phone, the HTC Status. The “Facebook phone” was expected to reel in purchases from Facebook lovers and addicts alike, but with sales so poor the phone faced discontinuation rumors early on.
Lesson learned: Facebook users are weak in brand loyalty. Just because a product is marketed as Facebook friendly, doesn’t mean it will sell. Wonder if there’s any hope for Buffy?

Overestimating: Engineer Recruitment

No, Facebook. Not every young, brilliant mind wants to work for you. With aspirations of making their own dent on the universe, the appeal of working for a small start up over a powerhouse company like Facebook is becoming a popular decision among young developers.
Facebook is a massive company with thousands of employees. Young computer science students entering the workforce don’t want to be just another number; they want to make a difference. Hot new start ups are staying competitive on the recruitment front by selling company intimacy and impact possibility.

Overestimating: China

Will China ever release its ban on Facebook? It’s an exhausted topic.
Although it’s impossible to accurately say what Facebook’s current plans for China are, it is fair to assume the social network wants acceptance by the entire world, especially the country with the largest population.
It’s doubtful that Facebook has given up the fight to win China’s approval, although maybe that’s worth reconsidering. The Chinese have their successful social networking sites, so no one over there is missing out on anything.

 

 

Underestimating: Privacy

Give them an inch; they’ll go a mile. Five years ago I would have never been okay with the world seeing my personal information and photos, however, as the years have passed I’ve loosened up on my privacy settings. Likely, my story speaks to many.
For those who have yet to be properly acquainted to this new world of total transparency, of which Facebook is responsible, they’re still fighting the good war and seem to have won a small battle, as the FTC recently put Facebook in check.
This just proves that privacy — or a right to privacy control — is non-negotiable for users and Facebook’s coaxing for more lax privacy settings will not work.

Underestimating: Google Plus

Despite media reports to the contrary, Google Plus is growing, says its Vice President of Product, Bradley Horowitz.
With the recent release of brand pages, the nascent social network is helping Google compete directly with Facebook. Whether s this a legitimate reason for the leading social network to stay on its toes remains to be seen.

New Facebook For Android Looks Like The IPhone App

Facebook released an updated app for Android devices Wednesday, with the changes making it much more like the social network’s iPhone app.
In a post on the official Facebook blog, the social network said photos and albums now load twice as fast as they did in the previous Android app, and sharing photos, viewing comments, and editing captions is easier.
Messages and notifications are now easier to access, as they appear on the top of the screen, allowing users to read them and respond without leaving the page they’re on.
And much like the iPhone app, the new Android offering boasts a side menu that provides access to users news feeds, groups, games, and apps.

CastleVille Is Facebook’s Fastest Growing Application

Zynga shows no signs of slowing down, and the developer’s newest hit kicks off December on top of the countdown. The real story though, is the advancement of the social news applications that continue to gain steam after noteworthy finishes last Wednesday.

Facebook’s Fastest Growing Apps

Name	Daily Active Users	Monthly Active Users	Weekly Growth
1. CastleVille	8,100,000	26,500,000	7,800,000
2. The Independent	390,000	2,700,000	1,200,000
3. Washington Post Social Reader	270,000	4,700,000	900,000
4. 21 Preguntas	490,000	1,000,000	820,000
5. YouTube	1,900,000	4,000,000	700,000
6. Fortune Cookie	360,000	1,800,000	600,000
7. Spotify	3,200,000	9,600,000	600,000
8. Bubble Witch Saga	3,200,000	9,200,000	500,000
9. Profile Banner (All Languages)	340,000	2,300,000	500,000
10. Static Iframe Tab	980,000	28,200,000	500,000
11. Tetris Battle	2,400,000	7,900,000	550,000
12. Gem Rush	130,000	600,000	420,000
13. 21 Questions	760,000	11,500,000	400,000
14. JibJab	180,000	1,800,000	400,000
15. schoolFeed	790,000	2,300,000	400,000
16. Skype	2,400,000	10,300,000	400,000
17. Static Iframe Tab: ThumbsUp Icon	310,000	5,500,000	400,000
18. Yahoo	13,900,000	19,800,000	400,000
19. Voxer Walkie Talkie	70,000	730,000	330,000
20. Between You And Me	230,000	4,300,000	300,000

Games

With a commanding lead over the countdown, CastleVille begins the month the same way it ended December; a 7.8 million weekly growth increase makes the Zynga-created game the fastest growing application on Facebook.
Moving one place forward from its previous ranking, Bubble Witch Saga is found in seventh persuading 500,000 more gamers. Tetris Battle springs forward to 11th after a 500,000 seven day user gain.
Another newer addition to Facebook, from developer OMGPOP, Gem Rush ends in the 12th position after 420,000 additions.

Readers

Making an aggressive move forward, social readership on the The Independent increases by 1.2 million viewers — a nine position advancement to second. Maintaining its ranking in third after a 900,000 weekly growth total, Washington Post Social Reader is in third yet again.
Unfortunately for the search engine, Yahoo‘s previous success cannot be emulated; 400,000 social networkers using Facebook accounts is an 18th place week.

Questions

Leading off this trend in fourth, the Spanish 21 Preguntas has 820,000 Facebook friends telling a few simple secrets to one another. The English version is found sloping negatively after a smaller 400,000 increase — a 13th position week.
A dramatic eight place drop for Between You And Me leaves it struggling to maintain its position as a fastest growing app; a 300,000 increase leaves it lingering in 20th.

Plug-Ins

The new design from YouTube aids in its high placement on the countdown in fifth after a 700,000 finish. Increasing to seventh, Spotify gives 600,000 more music lovers the opportunity to share their favorite tunes on Facebook.
The season of holiday cards is upon us, and it will be interesting to continue to watch JibJab‘s placement in the coming month. After a 400,000 weekly growth rally, the app succeeds in a comeback, ranking in 14th.
Taking the term connect more literally, SchoolFeed aims to bring together classmates through the social network. After an extended absence, the app returns near the end of the semester in the 15th spot gaining 400,000 adds.
Skype connects 400,000 newly synched accounts and finds itself decreasing in placement to the 16th position.

For Fun

In sixth, Fortune Cookie returns and develops fortunes for 600,000 people. Profile Banner still manages to be a top ten victor after 500,000 additions — a ninth place end.
Newcomer chattering tool, Voxer’s Walkie Talkie finds a home in 19th offering a variety of “just for fun” tools for 330,000 Facebook users.

Page Tools

Woobox carries the weight of the trend yet again. Cutting the countdown in half, Static iFrame Tab cuts the countdown in half amassing a tabs built and view total of 500,000.
We close with Static iFrame Tab: Thumbs Up Icon appearing in 17th with a 400,000 weekly growth total in 17th.

Hey Ticker Haters, Facebook’s Testing A Notification Feed

Ticker haters, rejoice: Facebook appears to be testing a new layout for its homepage, where notifications appear in a column running down the left-hand side.
On screens displaying a notification feed, no ticker appears in the right-hand column.
Obviously, the change doesn’t actually get rid of the ticker, but rather rebrands and repositions it.
It’s possible that Facebook users might feel just as upset over this  change as the original launch of the ticker, even though renaming it “notifications” clarifies the purpose of the feature.
The screen grab below is courtesy of tipster Xavier Lopez-Ayala of The New Media Firm. Have you seen anything resembling this layout on your screen, dear readers?

Facebook Will Launch Subscribe Plug-In For Websites

Facebook will extend its subscribe feature across the Internet with the launch of a plug-in for all websites.
Facebook Europe, Middle East, and Africa Vice President and Managing Director Joanna Shields said at LeWeb ’11 in Paris that visitors to any website that installed the plugin could send updates into the news feeds of site visitors who click the subscribe button, TechCrunch reported.
Shields was not specific about when the subscribe plug-in would launch.
TechCrunch calls the subscribe plug-in is a direct challenge to Twitter’s “Follow” button, but the downside of it is something page administrators might already be familiar with: the risk of bombarding the news feeds of subscribers, who might unsubscribe if the feel overwhelmed.

Bill Moves Netflix Closer To Facebook Streaming In U.S.

Soon Netflix members in the U.S. may be able to stream videos over Facebook, if the Senate and President do what the House of Representatives just did: pass  H.R. 2471, which would overturn the outdated Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988.
The VPPA prohibited the sharing of video-rental information, even if the renter gave his or her consent, according to Fast Company.
Without an overturning of the VPPA, Netflix users in the U.S. would not have been able to integrate their accounts with Facebook and share content they were watching
None of the other 44 countries where Netflix operates have this legislation, meaning members in those locations can already sync their accounts and let everyone on their friend lists know what they’re watching.
The vote ended up 303-116, and one of those 116 was Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), and Matt Lira, digital communications director for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), told Fast Company:

My understanding is that, in committee, he didn’t understand why people would want to share this content. He doesn’t use social media in his everyday life, so how can we expect him to understand the value of sharing content? I don’t think he gets it.

Second, it seems he’s concerned that people might be duped into sharing this information. My response to that is if you knew anything about the social Web, you’d know if I started sharing your content without your permission, you’re going to know right away, because it’s an extraordinarily public app. You’ll stop using the product (if that happens) because you’ll be pissed off. And if any company has a sensitivity now to listening to their users, it’s Netflix.

New Mexico Congressman Hosts Facebook Town Halls

New Mexico Congressman Steven Pearce, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is using Facebook to make himself more accessible to his constituents who are halfway across the country.
Employing new tactics to engage with voters back home, such as video town halls that are posted to his Facebook wall, the Congressman is able to interact in new and different ways:  To answer a question, give insight into his day or share details of a piece of legislation.
Pearce’s district is 10 hours of New Mexico desert from end to end, so using online tools to work with constituents is key, says Allison Cunningham, the Congressman’s social media guru.
Our Election Tracker 2012 reveals that Congressman Pearce’s Facebook devotion may be paying off.  He currently has more than 2,000 Facebook fans.

What is Congressman Pearce’s Facebook strategy? And what role does Facebook play in the office’s overall outreach and  communications efforts?

Our Facebook strategy really developed organically. The Congressman uses it as a way to directly communicate with constituents, and to keep them up to date on where he is and what he is doing.
We have a very large district, a 10-hour drive from one side to the other, so I think Facebook is a good testament to how tirelessly the Congressman works and travels.

What’s your biggest challenge in executing a Facebook strategy?

The biggest challenge is probably in content management. The Congressman loves to meet and take photos with people, so we are cautious not to overload people by uploading them all into a constant stream.

How many people in the Congressman’s office are devoted to maintaining his Facebook presence?

I would say that I am the only staffer who deals with it, and on rare occasion have help from someone else.

Does the Congressman post to Facebook on his own?

The Congressman does a lot of it himself. The only thing I really help with is uploading photos while he is on the road. All of the comments and captions are directly from him, and he even spends time reading constituent comments and making sure we respond to messages, questions, and concerns.

What is the most unique Facebook strategy or Facebook activity you have executed? Why was it successful?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We do a streaming Town Hall.We ask constituents to post questions over a certain extended period of time (onto an event wall on Facebook) and the Congressman records off-the-cuff video responses.
It’s a great way to offer people the flexibility of interacting on their own time, while giving genuine, personalized responses. Close to the deadline for questions, we get a surge of questions, and we often leave them up on our YouTube page. We are currently taking questions one our Facebook page.

What can fans of Congressman Pearce look forward to seeing on Facebook in the future?

The Congressman loves to try out new ways to communicate and new ways to make himself even more accessible. We hope to work on finding new ways to ask for input from constituents, and are excited to see the new Facebook timeline, which will help us to display photos in a more aesthetically pleasing way.

Why are members of Congress starting to leverage new technologies such as Facebook?

Facebook allows Members the opportunity to show constituents that they are actively engaged in their home districts and that they are responsive to needs, questions, and concerns.

What’s your official title and background? In other words, have you always worked in social media and what skills are important when serving in a social media role on Capitol Hill?

My official title is Executive Assistant/Director of New Media. I’ve utilized social media in my personal life for blogs I’ve contributed to and other such things, which ended up being useful in the last job I had off of Capitol Hill.
When I came into Congressman Pearce’s office, he had been so heavily involved in Facebook on his own for the last two years, he needed someone to come and work on it a significant period of time, and I was glad to do so.

Facebook’s Most Popular Status Updates Of 2011

What do Osama Bin Laden, Megan Fox, Harry Potter, House, Rihanna, Leo Messi, FC Barcelona, and CNN have in common? They all sit atop lists revealed by Facebook in its 2011 Memology analysis of status updates.
Nearly one year ago, we published the top 10 global topics in Facebook status updates from the social network’s 2010 Memology, and not a single one made a repeat appearance.
Here is the 2011 list, followed by the 2010 list, for comparison.

2011 Top 10 Global Topics on Facebook

1. Death of Osama Bin Laden
2. Packers win the Super Bowl
3. Casey Anthony found not guilty
4. Charlie Sheen
5. Death of Steve Jobs
6. The Royal Wedding
7. Death of Amy Winehouse
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
9. Military operations begin in Libya
10. Hurricane Irene

2010 Top 10 Global Memes On Facebook

1. HMU (hit me up)
2. World Cup
3. Movies (Toy Story 3, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Inception, Alice in Wonderland, and Iron Man 2 were the top five)
4. iPad and iPhone 4
5. Haiti
6. Justin Bieber
7. Games on Facebook
8. Chilean miners
9. Airplanes
10. 2011

Top 10 U.S. Status Trends

1. lms (like my status)
2. tbh (to be honest)
3. Death of Osama bin Laden
4. Charlie Sheen
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
6. Casey Anthony found not guilty
7. Packers win the Super Bowl
8. Hurricane Irene
9. Insidious
10. Death of Amy Winehouse

Top 10 Actors and TV Personalities

1. Megan Fox
2. Vin Diesel
3. Adam Sandler
4. Selena Gomez
5. Will Smith
6. Taylor Lautner
7. Jackie Chan
8. Ashley Tisdale
9. DJ Pauly D
10. Kim Kardashian

Top 10 Movies

1. Harry Potter
2. The Twilight Saga
3. Toy Story
4. Avatar
5. Jackass
6. Shrek
7. Saw
8. Pirates of the Caribbean
9. Fast & Furious
10. Titanic

Top 10 TV Shows

1. House
2. “Two and a Half Men”
3. “The Simpsons”
4. “Family Guy”
5. “South Park”
6. “Grey’s Anatomy”
7. “SpongeBob SquarePants”
8. “CSI: Miami”
9. “iCarly”
10. “The Big Bang Theory”

Top 10 Fictional Characters

1. Dr. House
2. Dory
3. Patrick Star
4. Mr. Bean
5. Upin & Ipin
6. Bob Esponja
7. Mario
8. Doraemon
9. Ari Gold
10. Sue Sylvester

Top 10 Musicians

1. Rihanna
2. Bob Marley
3. Avril Lavigne
4. David Guetta
5. Enrique Iglesias
6. Usher
7. Lady Gaga
8. Metallica
9. Green Day
10. Black Eyed Peas

10 Most-Listened-To Songs

1. “We Found Love,” Rihanna and Calvin Harris
2. “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” Katy Perry
3. “Sexy And I Know It,” LMFAO
4. “Titanium,” David Guetta and Sia
5. “First of the Year,” Skrillex
6. “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites,” Skrillex
7. “Without You,” David Guetta and Usher
8. “Stereo Hearts,” Gym Class Heroes featuring Adam Levine
9. “Pumped Up Kicks,” Foster the People
10. “Someone Like You,” Adele

Top 10 Athletes

1. Leo Messi
2. Cristiano Ronaldo
3. John Cena
4. Ricardo Kaka
5. David Beckham
6. Michael Jordan
7. Sachin Tendulkar
8. Andres Iniesta
9. Kobe Bryant
10. Cesc Fàbregas

Top 10 Sports Teams

1. FC Barcelona
2. Real Madrid C.F.
3. Manchester United
4. Los Angeles Lakers
5. Chelsea Football Club
6. Liverpool FC
7. A.C. Milan
8. Arsenal
9. Galatasaray
10. Fenerbahçe

Top 10 News Outlets

1. CNN
2. Fox News
3. NPR
4. The Onion
5. The New York Times
6. Al Jazeera
7. Yahoo! News
8. The Times of India
9. BBC World News
10. PBS

10 Most Shared Articles

1. Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami (The New York Times)
2. What teachers really want to tell parents (CNN)
3. No, your zodiac sign hasn’t changed (CNN)
4. Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps (CNN)
5. Father Daughter Dance Medley (Yahoo!)
6. At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan (Yahoo!)
7. You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook (CNN)
8. Dog in Japan stays by the side of ailing friend in the rubble (Yahoo!)
9. Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines (Yahoo!)
10. New Zodiac Sign Dates: Ophiuchus The 13th Sign? (The Huffington Post)

First Congressional Facebook Hackathon Starts Today

Facebook developers, Congressional staff and members of Congress, transparency experts and digital innovators, will be welcomed to Capitol Hill today as Congressional leaders host the first Congressional Facebook Developer Hackathon.
The bipartisan Hackathon was announced by the offices of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
According to a press release, the event will, “explore the potential connections between legislative data, constituent correspondence, and social media.”
The format of the four-hour Hackathon will include general sessions and breakout sessions on a range of topics, from casework and constituent services, legislative workflow (floor operations and committee meetings and how they’re structured), and press and public relations.
According to Stephen Dwyer, director of online communications for Whip Hoyer, the organizers had to close the event after registering 250 people. The organizers will release a report after the Hackathon, since the event will not be streamed online.
And in late-breaking news on a related Facebook issue, the House passed H.R. 2471 Tuesday -– a bipartisan bill that would enable Netflix customers to share their rental history on Facebook.
The legislation was highlighted by the two companies’ Chief Executive Officers Reed Hastings and Mark Zuckerberg at this September’s f8 developers conference.
Despite early opposition in the House, the bill ultimately passed today.
Matt Lira of Leader Cantor’s office shared this statement with us about the Hackathon:

Leader Cantor and Whip Hoyer are excited to bring together programmers, software developers and Capitol Hill stakeholders to discuss ways to improve Congressional operations. Since announcing the event, the reaction from the public has been very enthusiastic; in terms of turnout, regardless of the final number, I’ll be happy so long as the people who do participate are interested in solving problems together.

Democratic Whip Hoyer also shared his thoughts with us via email:

Online technologies are transforming our society, and that includes Congress. By utilizing social media platforms like Facebook, we can keep our constituents informed of how we are working for them, and stay informed ourselves so that we can better serve them. However, there is still a lot of work to be done, and I’m pleased that both parties have a chance to come together with industry leaders like Facebook, as well as individuals who bring new ideas to the table on how we can keep the legislative process as open and accessible as possible.

7 Lessons From Yahoo Brazil’s Facebook Page: Interview

I had a chance to sit down with Thiago Barrella, marketing analyst at Yahoo Brazil, who manages the brand’s Facebook page, among other things. He believes in the power of authentic conversations enabled by social media, as well as the ability for social conversations to connect everyone in the future. 

What are three interesting things you have learned in growing and managing the Yahoo Brazil page?

Social media is not about broadcasting, is about interacting. So, the first of them is that the new form of entertainment is sharing. People like to share what they’re are doing or thinking, so as a brand that cares about your customers, you have to encourage them to share and really listen to what they’re doing. If they say “good morning,” wish them a great day back.
The second one is related to the first one. Any user that complains must be heard and quick. If you provide the user with a quick solution for his or her problem, this user will actually become a fan and know that he or she can count on you.
The third one is to make people talk and interact among each other. Every single post must be a conversation starter. Ask people if they agree, if they like, make them talk to each other, make friends. This will make your page a good environment, making your fan page more than just a fan page, but a community where people have fun.

Given that Yahoo has a global page, various country pages and a lot of property-specific pages, how do you coordinate and manage across all these pages?

Yahoo produces different content for each country, it’s because of this we have a local page, so we can communicate and bring content about what happens here to people who live here –- this brings us closer to our fans. We have a corporate page that it’s like our home page: covers a little bit of everything that we have to offer at Yahoo.But, if the user wants to know only about a specific subject, like sports or entertainment for example, they can like the sports or entertainment news page that is managed by the Yahoo’s editorial team (these are content experts who know the topics inside and out, and this make the content 

 

How do you coordinate between the website and your Facebook pages — do you sync content and promotions or perhaps have separate content just for social?

Everything we do in our fan page has to do with Yahoo’s products and content, but that doesn’t mean that we can develop exclusive content for our Facebook, such as tabs promoting our new version of the Yahoo Mail, or a games based on our properties.
Facebook can give us a really good support for a campaign starting from Yahoo! itself, but it is a wonderful place to make exclusive content, this makes the fan feel special and makes our page much more attractive (people also like us because in Facebook they have something that they wouldn’t if they only accessed the website).
Additionally, Facebook is a great traffic generator — we can leverage the fans and connections to steer people back to our sites for more content and information — this is extremely valuable so you aren’t creating duplicate promotions within Facebook.

How do you determine the value of a fan, and what do you consider to be a good fan?

It’s really hard to determine the actual value of a single fan, but we can determine the value of our community. Our objective with our Facebook page is bring more users to the Yahoo network, see our content and experience our products.If we do a really good job engaging our fans, they will come back and they will surf through Yahoo, and this makes our fan page valuable. It’s more valuable a page with 500K of deeply interactive fans, than a page with one million fans that don’t interact at all.

That also determines who are the good fans. As we have a lot of content, the good fans are the ones who not just click on the articles, but also likes it, comments on it and shares it. This is the fan that will come back for more.
Another good fan, is the one that comes to our page to complain about something (people can get really mean when they are complaining) and, when the problem is solved, the fan starts liking and commenting on your posts. By solving problems, the person that comes to complain, can actually become a fan.

What advice do you have for content producers that are trying to grow their presence on Facebook?

First, see if the content you’re producing is the content that your fan is looking for. As a media brand, we have tons of content, but we have to select the ones that our fans want to see. Also, as I told you, every post must be a conversation starter.
Ask what your fans opinions are and encourage them to participate. This way your fans will advertise your page themselves, and it will grow by itself. And always remember that social media is not about broadcasting, is about interacting.

What’s one unexpected thing you’ve learned about managing a big page on Facebook?

Social media works faster than you think. From the second you hit ‘post’, someone has alredy seen it, so be very careful.

If you could ask Mark Zuckerberg to give you three new features on Facebook, what would you ask for?

First, I would ask for more information from where my fans come from. On the insights page under users, we have a lot of fans that come from unknown sources. Knowing where your friends come from is really useful — if they were recommended, for example, you can build a social strategy and ask people to recommend you to their friends.
Second, it would be great to know to top five interests of our fans. This would make it much easier to post and interact, based on what the top fan interests are.

Adaptly Looks To Track Facebook Marketing Momentum

The latest approach to Facebook marketing analytics comes from Adaptly, which said its Momentum measurement tool tracks more than 160 social metrics, as well as accounting for every dollar spent.
Adaptly Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Nikhil Sethi said in a blog post introducing Momentum that the company wanted to look beyond traditional paid metrics such as clicks, impressions, and click-through rates, and add the ability to track what he called owned and earned metrics, such as likes, retweets, stumbles, and people talking about this.
Sethi said Momentum enables users to evaluate how their marketing initiatives have impact their overall brand performance across all mediums, adding:

If we continue to base our paid media buys on only the paid media metrics, we are only measuring one- of the value generated. These results leave so much value on the table, and we believe there should be a better KPI (key performance indicator) suited specifically for social. Adaptly has taken on this challenge and developed a new system that measures all three channels collectively (paid, earned, and owned).

The simple hypothesis that we all can agree on is that social is a pretty good reflection of reality. As people increasingly share more of their lives on social networks and events continue to permeate the social sphere within moments after they occur in real life, we are not only able to measure the relative effects of digital, but also of offline media events, as well.

When we observe the impact of paid social media, it no longer becomes about the spikes (which we can all expect), but the lasting post-media spend lift. This becomes a more relevant success metric and powerful way to measure the impact of each dollar spent across social as we start to measure and report paid’s effect across owned media and earned media channels.

GroSocial To Offer White-Label Facebook Tab Solution

Facebook marketing technology outfit GroSocial is set to announce an intriguing offering aimed at marketing agencies and developers looking to enter the space: a personalized, branded, white-label version of the Customizer platform.
Customizer enables small and midsized businesses to create custom tabs for their Facebook pages, including promotions, polls, and contests.
The white-label offering that GroSocial is announcing this morning allows other companies to provide all of the capabilities of Customizer, but everything will be hosted on their domains and feature their logos, color schemes, and branding.
GroSocial Chief Executive Officer Zach Mangum said the white-label offering has been “quietly” operating since June, with more than 10 partners to date. He discussed small companies involved in web hosting and development, as well as marketing agencies, targeting small and midsized businesses:

They may be large organizations and have a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean any of them know a thing about Facebook or Twitter. Rather than bringing on a team to try to build something in-house that might build the right thing, we go to them and say, “we know the market, our solution works.”

End-users never really get into the platform, just the agencies and people providing the services. Smaller and midsized agencies want their clients to use the product, but not know that it’s GroSocial’s, and think it’s theirs. It truly looks like it’s their product in every way. No one in our space is really a direct competitor.

X1 Technologies Adds Robust Facebook Search Ability

X1 Technologies claims it’s been an active player in the search sector since late 2003, and the company’s latest software release, X1 Pro 7, adds the capability to search Facebook, Twitter, and Webmail to the existing ability to search corporate email and local files.
The new offering from X1, launching in beta Wednesday, will index the content of users, their friends, and friends of their friends, according to vice president of engineering Sumeet Sheokand, who added that X1 Pro 7 allows users to search their walls, their news feeds, and their status updates, as well as to archive their Facebook content.
According to Sheokand, X1 Pro 7 will also automatically fetch new comments on older posts and update its index, and users can search by keywords and filter out certain elements or users. Searches can also be saved, where they are available on the left-hand side of the page, along with the software’s other navigation tools.
Users can also play videos or view photos directly via X1 Pro 7, where they will appear in the pane on the right-hand side. And they can use the search capabilities to see what the Facebook social graph is currently talking about by searching for, as an example, Occupy Wall Street and examining the results.
We got an advance copy of the beta version and found the interface and access to the functionality of X1 Pro 7 to be extremely straightforward and easy to use. As with similar search products, the initial indexing can take quite a deal of time, but it’s a onetime task, and once it was completed, the response time of X1 Pro 7 was quick, with relevant results being delivered.
“Our goal was not to provide a better Facebook experience for its hundreds of millions of users,” X1 president Kevin Bray said. “We looked at what we do well, and we applied it. We want to eliminate as many clicks as possible.”
On the motivation for adding Facebook and Twitter to X1’s arsenal, Bray added, “It’s no secret that search hasn’t caught up to all of the other value that social media provides. We looked at social media and saw the same noise everyone else sees.”
X1 Pro 7 will be available free-of-charge during its beta period, after which the cost has yet to be determined. The current version of the X1 Professional Client costs $50, and Bray said the company will eventually offer the ability to search Facebook, Twitter, and Webmail as separate components.
Readers: What do you currently use to search Facebook?

Facebook To Roll Out Timeline In New Zealand

New Zealand is the site of the long-awaited debut of Facebook’s timeline profile.
According to a post on the official Facebook Blog, the updated profile will be rolled out to other regions of the world “in the near future.”
The post says:

We announced timeline in September and made it available to developers building apps on our platform. Since then, more than one million people have signed up for the developer beta to access timeline. The feedback we’ve received so far has been invaluable. Starting today, we are making timeline more widely available as we measure speed and other types of performance. We’ll begin by making it available to people in New Zealand and then roll it out more broadly in the near future.

Readers, will you choose to upgrade to the new advanced profile when it becomes available in your region?

Only Excess Use Of Facebook Harms Students, Slightly

Students’ grades drop by about .12 points for every 93 minutes above the 106-minute average time spent per day on Facebook, according to the latest study on the topic.
Indeed, studies about the effect of Facebook on students’ grades come out every month. This latest one we’re referring to here is based on a survey of 1,839 college students conducted by Reynol Junco, in the Department of Academic Development and Counseling at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania.
OnlineEducation.net compiled the findings in the infographic reproduced below. Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Gingrich, Romney Use Video To Gain Facebook Fans

Fans of GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have launched two video campaigns to boost their Facebook presences, and hopefully their fan bases.
Gingrich, who has catapulted to the top of the national polls in recent days, shared a video clip — using the YouTube for Facebook app — from his appearance in Mike Huckabee’s Presidential Candidate Forum, where he compares himself to George Washington, his favorite Founding Father.
Mitt Romney, on the other hand, launched a new fundraising drive, “Grab a Bite With Mitt,” through Facebook. For as little as a $5 donation, you too, can grab some alone time and grub with the former Massachusetts governor.
How are these new video initiatives affecting the Facebook fan counts of each candidate?
Since posting the video this morning, Gingrich has added 1,711 new fans to Facebook, according to our Election Tracker 2012. He continues on an  upward trajectory in Facebook fan growth while he continues to fare well in voter polls taking place off of Facebook.
By contrast, Romney’s sagging poll figures don’t seem to be affecting his fan base on Facebook, yet. He still leads the other GOP hopefuls by a wide margin in Facebook fans, with more than 1.2 million. And in the last day, since posting the new fundraising video, his fans grew by 1,165.
Do you think videos are an effective way to add Facebook fans?

2 In 3 Facebook Pages Deck The Halls For The Holidays: Exclusive Study And Infographic

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. But how is that translating to the virtual world we make our living in?
Our team of market research elves at ShortStack formulated a series of holiday-specific questions about page layout and design, discounts, contests, and sweepstakes, and posed a survey to our users. They came away with some pretty interesting data:
Of the 1,020 page administrators who responded, a whopping 68.6 percent are decorating for the holidays.
Some are going all out, like Marimuthu D., of Balti Curries, “We changed our profile picture, the photo strip and tabs to suit the Christmas holidays.”
Others, like graphic designer Lorann Snow, are taking a more subtle approach: “I like understated graphical changes to celebrate holidays. For example, I will add some snowflakes.”
At 34.5 percent, more than a third of those surveyed are implementing some kind of holiday photo contest, like Bronwyn E. of Barnes.com.au: “We’re running an ‘upload a photo of a Christmas gift you’ve made by hand’ tab for the holiday season.”
A Couple of Chicks e-marketing is adding numerous holiday features, according to Christy H., “We’re allowing people to post about their favorite holiday traditions, upload favorite photos, post recipes, what causes they support, etc.”
Not to be lost in the numbers are the pages bringing the true Christmas spirit to Facebook. Giving to and helping those in need was a common theme among those polled.
The infographic below offers more details on what admins are doing this season. How does this compare with your own holiday activities online, readers?
Guest writer Jim Belosic is president of ShortStack.

WARNING: Facebook Users’ Private Photos Exposed

The tool that allows Facebook users to report inappropriate photos is backfiring in a big way, allowing users to see other users’ photos that are marked as private.
ZDNet’s Between the Lines blog reported that users who click on “Report This Photo” and choose “Nudity or pornography” from the pop-up menu are then offered the opportunity to “help” Facebook by adding additional photos to their report.
Upon selecting that option, users gain access to additional photos, including those that were marked private by the users who posted them.
The ZDNet blog cited a forum on BodyBuilding.com, since deleted, for being the first to report the issue, saying that users on that forum were able to exploit it to access the private photos of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, posting a picture of him and President Barack Obama at a dinner party (see below, via Between the Lines).
Users of the forum also reported that the private photos could be viewed at their full size.
A Facebook spokesperson addressed the issue Tuesday afternoon, saying:

Earlier today, we discovered a bug in one of our reporting flows that allows people to report multiple instances of inappropriate content simultaneously. The bug allowed anyone to view a limited number of another user’s most recently uploaded photos, irrespective of the privacy settings for these photos.  This was the result of one of our recent code pushes, and it was live for a limited period of time. Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed.

The privacy of our users’ data is a top priority for us, and we invest significant resources in protecting our site and the people who use it. We hire the most qualified and highly skilled engineers and security professionals at Facebook, and with the recent launch of our Security Bug Bounty Program, we continue to work with the industry to identify and resolve legitimate threats to help us keep the site safe and secure for everyone.

Readers: Does this issue make you want to delete photos from your Facebook profile?