Facebook Revamps Privacy Settings (and by the way Places is going away)

August 24, 2011 1 Comment

In a blog post released yesterday Facebook announced sweeping changes to privacy and sharing settings that Mari Smith, Facebook goddess, refers to as the Google Plusification of Facebook.

Maybe?

The changes, upgrades really, are meant to make personal control over Facebook sharing settings more user friendly. They’ve integrated many of the settings right into status updates rather than placing them several clicks away on a settings page. They’ve improved photo tagging and given you more control over it. For example, you will have the option to approve or reject any photo or post you’re tagged in before the tag hits their status.  With that, you can now tag anyone, friend or not, on Facebook. No more scratching your head wondering why you can’t tag a certain person or page in your post. Instead, tag away and let the tagged person decide, via their tagging control options, whether to approve or reject the tag. I’m wondering how annoying this setting will be to folks that are tagged often.

Along with these changes Facebook is adding location tags in status updates, and oh yeah by the way they’re phasing out the mobile Places feature along with the settings associated with it.   Now you’ll be able to add a location to anything in the status update itself – another inline setting.  There’s plenty of speculation as to whether this move is Facebook admitting defeat to Foursquare in the check in battle and I’ll leave that argument alone here.  The important piece is that businesses using Facebook deals attached to Places will still have access to them and it appears as though the deals will be easier to claim.

Image courtesy of Blog.Facebook.Com

These changes roll out tomorrow. What do you think?

Filed under Business, Facebook, social media Tagged with , , , ,

Yes! You Still Need a Website.

March 5, 2011 7 Comments

According to the commercial director of Facebook in the U.K., soon we will no longer need our own websites. His rationale? Facebook will be so integrated into the web that businesses, even major companies with a huge web presence, will abandon their own website in favor of the social.

Not so fast.

Yes, Facebook’s welcome tabs, soon to be developed with iFrames, do have the potential to function as mini websites. Functions like e-commerce, forms, surveys and polls are some of the many features available directly on the tabs, allowing for a good amount of interaction right on the page. Include in that the multitude of third party applications built on top of Facebook’s interface that allow programmers to create custom programs, and it’s true, Facebook can function much like a website. Their hope, and their plan, is to eventually create a platform that will keep users contained within its walls, complete with branded stores where users can purchase goods and where content is organized around our social connections.

We’re not there yet, and I’m not convinced we will get there any time soon.Slow Down

I don’t know about you, but I’m uncomfortable putting my business in the hands of a third party, one over which I have no control. Haines states himself that “There have been eight iterations of the [main] Facebook design over the last few years… [and] it will look different in a year”  (Techradar.com). So, in a year your business page will change, and you have no idea how. Additionally, anyone using Facebook for awhile has experienced the “where’s my stuff” reaction when logging in to find the page rearranged and functions changed. I’ve had people contact me in genuine distress, not able to find the photos, status updates or pages they depend on for keeping in touch with friends and brands. Do you want your website subject to the whims of Facebook’s developers?

To top it off, recently I navigated over to my own Facebook page to post an update, and encountered this:

Yikes. So this is the state of Facebook right now. Frequent, often misunderstood changes, occasional pages down due to site maintenance or updates, and frustrated users ready to throw up their hands. Yes, Facebook has some awesome features, and they no doubt will rule the Internet in the not too distant future, but will they really be a substitute for corporate and small business websites?

Proceed slowly.

Are you ready to give up your business website?

Filed under Business, Facebook Tagged with , , , , ,

CAUTION – Read the Terms of Service Before You Use Facebook for Marketing

February 24, 2011 2 Comments

Have you read Facebook’s Terms of service? Maybe you aren’t having that much trouble sleeping, but truthfully, I encourage you, implore you, to read them if you’re using Facebook for business.  With its almost 600 million members, if Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd most populated in the world.  In Mark Zuckerberg’s words, “Our terms aren’t just a document that protect our rights; it’s the governing document for how the service is used by everyone across the world.”

So Zuckerberg’s  developed a country, and his terms are the constitution. Ok, maybe that’s going a bit too far, but they are important and if you’re spending time and money developing a Facebook page and a fan base for your business, you want to make sure you aren’t doing anything that could compromise what you’ve built. Here’s a few things you should be aware of.

It is against the terms of service to have more than one profile.

Even if you’re using one for your business profile and one for your friends and family, it breaks the rules. Instead, consider locking down your personal profile’s privacy settings and then using that profile to admin your business pages. With Facebook’s new ability to post as a page across the network, the problem of comments showing up as your personal profile is solved. Now you don’t have an excuse.

You cannot have a contest on your page

That’s right. This is strictly forbidden. The only way Facebook allows you to involve them in a contest is if you use a third party platform. Read it – it’s real. There are some instances when you can run promotions on your pages, so check out the promotions guidelines  if in doubt:

You cannot use the Facebook logo or language in your ads

Yep. Their terms limit the use of: “Facebook logos, trademarks, site terminology (including but not limited to Facebook, The Facebook, FacebookHigh, FBook, FB, Poke, Wall, and other company graphics, logos, designs, or icons)” in ads you create.

These terms are meant to enhance the user experience and keep the content open and consistent with the tone of Facebook. They strive to “transform existing advertising into messages that are tailored to the individual user based on how their friends interact and affiliate with the brands, music artists, and businesses they care about.”

The consequences for violating the terms?  They’ll stop providing part, or all of Facebook to you.  Now that’s something that should keep you up at night.

Here’s some of the the terms for your reading enjoyment:

Terms of service: http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

Page terms: http://www.facebook.com/terms.php#!/terms_pages.php

Promotions guidelines: http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

Filed under Business, social media Tagged with , , , , ,

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