Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Facebook Roundup: Renren IPO, Trademarks, Sprout Social, Advertising, College and More
- Facebook Increases Number of Visible Tab Apps on Pages, Changes Tab Reordering
- Facebook’s Publishes Re-Imagined Privacy Policy for the Average User
- Facebook Hires Founders of Professional Social Network, Pursuit
- Hearts, Videos, Chat and Enrique Iglesias on This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Apps
| Facebook Roundup: Renren IPO, Trademarks, Sprout Social, Advertising, College and More Posted: 25 Feb 2011 07:23 PM PST
Sprout Social Raises $10M – Sprout Social, a Facebook community mangement company, raised $10 million from NEA, putting the company's total valuation at $50 million. Facebook's Sandberg Named to Jobs Council – Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg was named with other tech chiefs to President Barack Obama's council on jobs and competitiveness. Facebook's Early Advertising Data – Documents from Facebook's early days, like really early when it was still TheFacebook, were released to TechCrunch this week. The information is interesting mostly in comparison to Facebook today, for example, only 800 schools were in the network then and there were only 2.7 million registered users.
80% of Colleges Use Facebook for Recruiting – Kaplan Test Prep's 2010 survey of college admissions officers has shown that 82% of respondents reported that Facebook is being used to recruit students. Job Interviewer Asks for Facebook Login -The Maryland Department of Corrections requires applicants to submit social media logins and passwords for background checks, including Facebook.
News Web Site Moves to Facebook – Rockville Central, a community news web site based in Maryland, is set to move its entire operation from RockvilleCentral.com to its Facebook Page. About 1 in 10 of the hits for the site come from Facebook, and although advertising revenue will be lost with the move, those that run the site say there are other ways to generate revenue. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Increases Number of Visible Tab Apps on Pages, Changes Tab Reordering Posted: 25 Feb 2011 06:21 PM PST Facebook has increased the number of tab applications that are visible above the fold in the navigation menu of Facebook Pages. It also now only allows Pages with more tabs installed than fit above the fold to reorder their tabs. The changes will allow Pages to expose users to more tabs for promotions, email signups, games, and other functions. However, it will also require some Pages to add multiple apps it doesn’t need to be able to reorder the tabs it wants, increasing friction in the Page management process.
Facebook began the rollout of a major redesign of Pages in mid-February. This moved tab applications from a horizontal bar above the Page’s wall to a vertically stacked navigation menu beneath the profile picture. The redesign made tab applications slightly less prominent, but provided more space for longer titles and potentially more tabs above the fold. Facebook only allowed six tabs above the fold, though — the same number as before. Now Pages can take advantage of the additional vertical space, as there are now nine spots available above the fold. Pages can display up to nine tab apps. If they have more than nine installed, the first eight will be visible to users, along with a “More” button that reveals the rest of the installed apps. To reorder tabs, Page admins can visit their Page and click the “More” button, then the “Edit” button, and can then drag and drop the tabs. This allows them to place the tab apps they want to receive the most traffic at the top of stack beneath the wall and info tabs that can’t be reordered. Tabs can be removed from this same “Edit” option, or through the full “Edit Page” admin interface.
However, if Pages don’t have more tabs than fit above the fold, their admins won’t have a “More” button and therefore can’t reorder their tabs. In order to gain this functionality, they must add enough tabs that they get a “More” button, reorder their tabs, and then remove the unwanted tabs.
To learn more about Facebook Page management best practices and access our walk-through and strategies for redesigned Pages, visit the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network's comprehensive guide to brand marketing on Facebook. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook’s Publishes Re-Imagined Privacy Policy for the Average User Posted: 25 Feb 2011 01:16 PM PST Facebook has published an alternative, unofficial version of its privacy policy that is easier for the average user to understand. This “re-imagined” privacy policy uses simpler language, is more visual with graphics and screenshots, pools related information, includes links to interactive tools, and is layered for better browsing. Nothing in the policy has changed, but it will help answer some common questions, reducing fear and leading users to share more comfortably. However, more could be done to directly confront rumors of data misuse. Facebook is currently seeking feedback on the new format, and will “consider making it our official privacy policy” if feedback is positive.
Over the years, Facebook has had a tough time accomplishing its goal to “make the world more open and connected” while satisfying privacy critics. Giving users full control while minimizing interface complexity is a difficult task. In April 2010, Facebook redesigned its privacy controls and pushed users through a privacy transition tool to make their interests public. Confusion and negative press led it to another redesign in May that prioritized simplicity, one-touch controls, and easy opt outs, allowing users to quickly protect all their data. While privacy controls had improved, the document explaining Facebook’s policies was still “5830 words of legalese" as the site describes in today’s announcement. This meant if users had concerns but weren’t willing to wade through the privacy policy, they would assume the worse, propagating a perception that it was unsafe to share on Facebook. The re-imagined privacy policy will help alleviate this issue.
Re-Imagined Privacy Policy Walk-ThroughThe new version of the privacy policy is broken down into six sections plus some additional resources:
“Your information and how it is used” includes an explaination of what information Facebook receives from users, a clear description of the “Everyone” privacy option for publicly sharing data, what data is available through usernames and User IDs, and how Facebook uses the information it receives. It describes how Facebook can receive information about users, such as their conversion habits, from its advertisers. It notes that it keeps ”the data for 180 days. After that, we combine the data with other people’s data in a way that it is no longer associated with you.” “Your information on Facebook” includes a guide to the current privacy control interface, an introduction to managing privacy on a per post basis, a description of what friends can share about you and how users can configure this, definitions of the “Friends”, “Friends of friends” and “Everyone” privacy buckets, and the distinction between deactivating and deleting one’s account. Facebook notes that when a user deletes their account, “It typically takes about one month…but some information may remain in backup copies and logs for up to 90 days”. “Your information on other websites and applications” defines the Facebook Platform, explains how to use the application and website privacy dashboard, outlines what data friends can share through applications and how to manage it, describes logging into Facebook on third-party websites and how they use social plugins, gives a full explanation of Instant Personalization, explains how all data shared on Facebook Pages is public, and describes how users can manage the public search engine listings of their profiles. Facebook notes that “if you turn your public search setting off and then search for yourself on a public search engine, you may still see a preview of your profile. This is because some search engines cache information for a period of time.” “How advertising works” describes how advertisers are able to target users, and how their social actions can be used in social context ads. It also links to a new introduction page for social ads.
Ad targeting is a common concern amongst users, as some think advertisers know their identity, not just anonymized demographic information. Facebook does a good job of explaining how advertisers only see user data in aggregate form, but doesn’t clearly state that content from a user’s wall posts or private messages can’t be used to target them — a frequent misconception. “Minors and Safety” simply states that Facebook takes child safety very seriously, provides a link to the Safety Center, and explains that special safeguards for minors may cause them to have a limited Facebook experience. This section could import more data from the Safety Center to help parents understand that with proper use of privacy settings, children can browse Facebook without being in danger. “Some other things you need to know” includes information about Facebook’s compliance with the European Union’s Safe Harbor framework, how Facebook responds to legal requests for user data from governments, how it responds to access requests, how users can manage their notifications, and how user data is employed in the Friend Finder and invitations sent to new users to join the site. It also explains memorial accounts for deceased users, how cookies are used, how Facebook shares data with service providers like its web hosts, the procedure for announcing site governance changes and how users can comment and vote on the changes, a description of how user data would be affected if Facebook changed ownership, and a link to Facebook’s Security Page. Additional resources include “Interactive”, which houses links that allow users to preview how their profile looks to other users or search engines, and “Videos” explaining Facebook’s privacy policies and controls. ConclusionThe re-imagined privacy policy successfully simplifies Facebook’s official policy document. There is opportunity for improvement, specifically in directly addressing common myths and misconceptions, but this is a big step forward. While there’s still a place for a detailed, legally binding privacy policy that has less room for interpretation, this user-focused version gives the site something comprehensible to point to when approached with concerns. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Hires Founders of Professional Social Network, Pursuit Posted: 25 Feb 2011 11:57 AM PST Facebook has hired two of the three founders of Pursuit, a professional network startup geared towards helping employers spread the words about their job openings by using their employees' social networks. A notice on Pursuit's web site says, "We've found a new home at Facebook," followed by a vague promise about what they might do on Facebook. We wrote about Pursuit late last year: the web-based Pursuit application offered employees monetary referral bonuses, social recognition, and interesting influencing who is hired to work with them. Pursuit was a boostrapped, three-person operation based in San Francisco that was a free service that collected 20% of any bonuses paid out for referrals. The personal job boards created on Pursuit were spread by members via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and email, but also provided a user's personal information, which we wrote raised question about how companies might use this information.
Now with Facebook, Pursuit’s team could help the company increase its utility as as job sharing tool, allowing users to not only display their own job title, but open positions at their place of work. Pursuit former service allowed users to refer people to jobs via social networks like Facebook, then rewarded them with karma points, which would "broadcast how helpful" the recommenders were to their networks. Take a look at our in-depth review from November for more. We've reported similar job-related apps and sites previously. Most recently we wrote about BranchOut, which is aimed at helping people build their professional networks on Facebook; the company recently raised $6 million to this end. Among others, Simply Hired has a job hunting app that utilizes Facebook Connect and Jobvite is a service that uses Facebook to recruit and vet potential job candidates.
The founders seem to be saying that they’ll be focused on projects besides karma-based business networking. But it’s also worth noting that Facebook built its first custom application for a foreign market in Japan last November. The app aimed to help students connect with each other and alumni using Facebook as they undergo the arduous job hunting process in that country. Pursuit’s team might end up working on this project. Alternatively, Pursuit could help bring new functionality to Facebook Pages and profiles. Many Pages use third-party tab applications to list job openings, but Facebook could offer this as a native tab. On profiles, Facebook recently began allowing users to list co-workers and specific projects they’ve worked on. Pursuit could add “job openings at my company” to the profile, allowing users to shape their workplace. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hearts, Videos, Chat and Enrique Iglesias on This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Apps Posted: 25 Feb 2011 07:56 AM PST
Top Gainers This Week
xo Hearts xo saw 231,200 MAU this week, representing a 32% increase for the app which counts almost 1 million total MAU. The growth is relegated mostly to the U.S. and women, basically allowing users to send different types of heart animations to friends by posting to their Walls, or publishing to their own stream; one viral feature to this app is a pop-up window with a "new" heart that one can simply publish to the stream without having to select a friend to send it to. The Angry Birds Season virtual greeting card app also made the list with 161,500 MAU; the app allows users to publish cards to their own or friends' Walls.
Kameralı SOHBET, a Chatroulette type of app, saw about 182,000 MAU, nearly doubling since last week. The app enables your web cam and, after you press a button, can chat with random individuals also using the app; once you pass permissions, a notice publishes to your stream that you're using the app. Another video app, Komik Videolar, or Video Air, grew by 172,600 MAU, mostly with Turkish users. The app displays different videos users can watch. It has a number of viral elements, including posting to the stream when you comment or Like the video, the video can be shared but perhaps most importantly, videos automatically post to your stream when you use the app, increasing the chances your friends will see them.
Photo Cartoonizer is an app that promises to convert your photos into cartoons, a seemingly popular desire, given its 161,500 MAU increase this week. Enrique Iglesias, Play with it! is an app from MXP4 that promotes the singer's music while engaging the user in the song itself. Of course there are many opportunities to listen to the song, learn more about Enrique Iglesias and share the game to the stream, thus the app grew by 139,400 MAU this week. This particular game is adaptable to other artists' music as well.
Then there was the 7 Best Friends app, which grew by 134,200 MAU, with mostly Indian growth; the app shows a list of the top friends that interact with your profile, along with a "score," that isn't really explained in the app. Users can tag their friends and Like the app, increasing virality, and using the app posts to the stream. The Touch HD iPhone 4 and iPad designer app added 130,300 MAU and Fan Appz's quiz and top 5 app grew by 127,700 MAU. The rest of the apps were games, in Turkish, English and Thai. |
Chinese Facebook, Renren, Planning IPO – A China version of Facebook, 
Facebook Obtains Trademark for Zero - Facebook's 
The Facebook Page design and admin interface is rapidly evolving, so this friction in the reordering process may be removed soon. For now, Page admins should take advantage of the increased number of visible tab spaces by adding more apps, reorder their tabs to show the most important ones first, and then remove any unnecessary tabs.
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