Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Inside Facebook To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Permalink
Inside Facebook |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Inside Facebook To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Inside Facebook |
| Facebook Roundup: Prineville, Ceglia, Seattle, Ads, Credits, Mobile and More Posted: 29 Jul 2011 06:00 PM PDT
Facebook to Expand in Seattle – Facebook is currently looking for more office space in Seattle, according to GeekWire. The company wants as much as 40,000 square feet more that might accommodate about 200 more people (the office is currently at about 40). Privacy Glitch Makes Videos Public – TechCrunch reported that this week Facebook's video privacy settings stopped working, allowing users to see listings, names, thumbnails, descriptions and tagged users in others' videos. The company reported it had addressed the issue.
Also, a Scathing Profile of Paul Ceglia – The Buffalo News wrote a scathing and very unflattering profile of would-be Facebook co-owner Paul Ceglia. Acquaintances and classmates basically call him a con artist, shyster, joke, grifter, lowlife and more. [Image Via Facebook] User Ads Generated by Ad Companies – John Battelle wrote an interesting post this week detailing how he found out a company (AppSumo) that wasn't Facebook was using his likeness in an ad, and that this apparently violated Facebook's terms of service, promoting the social network to look into the issue. Topps Buys Facebook Gift Card Provider – AllThingsD reported this week that Topps, the trading card company, purchased GMG Entertainment, the company which makes Facebook Credits gift cards. The terms of the purchase were not released.
LivingSocial Shutters Visual Bookshelf – AllFacebook reported this week that, after four years, LivingSocial is closing its Visual Bookshelf app and encouraging users to export their accounts to GoodReads. Other Announcements:Migrate Facebook to Google+ – Lifehacker reported this week on how to migrate your Facebook profile data to Google+. North Social Releases Facebook Faux Pas – North Social released a series of 11 "fan Page fail" videos this week featuring the hapless Jonny Like who demonstrates what not to do to grow your Page's community. Trulia, Real Estate Social Search – Trulia.com is a social recommendation service using Facebook to leverage word-of-mouth when it comes to buying and selling real estate. Shoutlet Releases 4.0 – Shoutlet released the 4.0 version of its platform this week, and includes better analytics and the ability to take these and transform them into graphics. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook White Hat Program Now Offers Bounty for Disclosing Security Bugs Posted: 29 Jul 2011 12:54 PM PDT Facebook has added a bounty system to its white hat program today that rewards security researchers for privately and responsibly informing the company of site vulnerabilities. Researchers can make $500 or more for disclosing bugs that could endanger users, such as cross-site scripting (XSS), or remote code injection. Facebook had previously allowed researchers to submit bugs, but the addition of a monetary reward announced today on the Facebook Security Page should encourage participation in the program and help the site close gaps in security before they’re exploited.
The white hat program was first launched in December 2010, protecting researchers that happened to break its terms of service in the process of responsibly discovering and reporting vulnerabilities. Previously, their accounts were in jeopardy if they submitted research that require TOS violations, discouraging participation in the program. Researchers must still “make a good faith effort to avoid privacy violations, destruction of data and interruption or degradation of our service”, and “give us a reasonable time to respond to your report before making any information public.” Data mining or scraping, and using fake accounts to perform security research leading to a disclosure is likely admissible. Eligible bugs include those found on Facebook.com, Facebook mobile apps, and the Platform APIs. To claim the bounty, researchers must be the first to responsibly report a bug, reside in a country not under US sanction, and only one bounty will be awarded per bug. Reports of bugs in third-party apps or websites, Facebook’s corporate infrastructure, as well as spam, social engineering, and denial of service issues are not eligible for a bounty.
The site has made wide variety of other efforts to both technically improve security and educate users about how to protect themselves. It began allowing users to browse over a secure HTTPS connection in January, will require third-party apps to support HTTPS by October, and now shows security roadblocks when users click links suspected of XSS or clickjacking. Facebook has partnered with Web of Trust to identify suspicious links, and McAfee to offer users discounted virus protection. Facebook has been criticized in the past when security researchers publicly announced vulnerabilities rather than privately disclosing them. The new bounty system might convince them to use the white hat program instead, allowing Facebook to improve security without taking a public relations hit. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Test Lets Users Tag Family Members by Typing How They’re Related Posted: 29 Jul 2011 10:00 AM PDT Facebook users can now tag a family member in a post by typing in how they are related, rather than their name. For example, typing in “Cousin” will open the typeahead and display any friend the user has confirmed as their cousin through the Family & Friends tab in the profile editor. The new way to initiate a tag should lead to more tagging of family members, and be especially useful to those looking to quickly call attention of family members to a particular post, such as an announcement that they’re coming to visit. Facebook is testing the new tagging functionality with some portion of the user base, though it could be fully rolled out in the future.
Facebook has let users to tag friends in posts since September 2009. Recently, it has made several changes to tagging, allowing users to tag connections such as friends within comments, and shorten the displayed tags of friends to just their first or last name, It also removed the ability for Pages to tag users in posts, likely to prevent spam. Tagging friends is a useful way to draw attention to a post. It delivers a notification to anyone tagged, basically assuring that they’ll see it. It also increases the news feed visibility, or EdgeRank, of the post to the friends of those tagged. Typically, only 15% of a user’s friend base sees each of their posts according to a comScore white paper, but tagging several friends in a post can generate more impressions for it. Users can pull up the tagging typeahead by typing with a capital letter either the official family relation type, such as “Sister”, “Uncle” or “Father; or the slang term for the relation type such as “Dad” or “Mom”.
When users select the family member from the typeahead, it replaces the official or slang relation name. This can sometime require users to go back and edit their text, as the word “my” frequently precedes family relation names (“my cousin”), but is not grammatically correct when used before a name. The addition of the tagging feature may seem insignificant, but it is representative of Facebook’s product update culture. By making many small changes to the interface over time, Facebook can test to see what features gain traction, implement those that work, and scrap those that don’t. It occasionally launches big new products and redesigns, but more subtle updates like this are a big reason why Facebook has stayed relevant, intuitive to use, and growing for seven years. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Webtrends Expands From Apps and Analytics to Full Facebook Page Management Suite Posted: 29 Jul 2011 08:35 AM PDT
The launch of free, middle-market, and enterprise tiers of Webtrends Social will put the company in competition with a variety of players in the Page management industry.
Webtrends Social combines a great deal of functionality, allowing clients to post to, moderate, and track performance of their Facebook Page; install pre-made apps or build their own, and track the conversion on custom events of ads leading to their Pages and apps. Webtrends will continue to offer its previously available Facebook ads managed spend, DIY app platform, and custom app development services. The only thing really missing from the product is the ability to buy and target Facebook ad campaigns, which clients still have to do through Facebook.com or another Facebook Ads API tool or service. If Webtrends were to build or acquire an ad buying product, it could become perhaps the most comprehensive licensable Facebook marketing tool available. Clients can get most of the functionality for free, though they can only use it on one Page, and they can only build one app. For $250 a month per Page with less than 100,000 fans they can build 5 apps buys the ability per Page. The enterprise tier offers unlimited app building for Pages of any size, plus collaboration capabilities and enhanced campaign analytics at the price of $3000 a month per Page. This pricing model’s free tier lets potential enterprise clients get an accurate sense of the power of the product. For many smaller companies the free tier could be all they need — allowing Webtrends to edge out less robust free and even low cost tool. A mid-level pricing tier for Pages of any size could make the product better suited for the middle market. Also, the enterprise tier’s per Page model would become to expensive for companies with a corporate / local structure that have dozens or even hundreds of Pages to manage. Wide Feature SetThe Pages dashboard lets clients view Page growth analytics, see where Page views are sourced from, and track the fan counts of competitors. The Page walls moderation feature lets admins assign posts to teammates, filter the stream to find objectionable posts, and set up keyword blacklists or use a pre-defined list of “bad words”. The Post tab lets clients compose and schedule news feed posts. Webtrends Social’s app suite includes a wide variety of app templates that can be customized and installed on Pages. Some of the content apps clients can choose from include Twitter, YouTube, landing tabs, coupons flash and HTML, while engagement apps include a quiz, sweepstakes, polls, surveys, and photo manipulation. The product provides analytics on performance and user demographics of the apps so admins can determine what app types and designs best engage fans.
Advertisers can give Webtrends Social permission to access their Facebook ads account. They then import an existing Facebook ad campaign, assign it to the Page app it leads to, and select a conversion metric such as Facebook, Twitter, or email shares. Clients can then view a funnel to determine the post-click success of their ad campaign
Webtrends Social provides much more functionality than most free tools offer. Peter Yared, VP of social technology platforms for Webtrends, says the product will be a “signficant threat to those offering a free or low end tier” Page management solution. We agree, as most other free Page management solutions aren’t nearly as full-featured or polished, and clients could use another low cost app developer to round out their app selection. The lower tiers should encourage potential enterprise clients to try out the product. Large businesses interested in executing their Facebook strategy themselves will now have another option in addition to Buddy Media, Vitrue, Context Optional, Involver, Syncapse, Wildfire, and other social media management platforms. A trend of consolidation in the Facebook marketing industry has been gaining steam, with a few of these companies having been partnered or been acquired by Ads API partners such that their clients can buy ads through their platforms. While Webtrends Social can track ad conversion, it can’t be used to buy ads. Yared says the industry is “definitely going to see consolidation and roll up especially amongst players that are campaign based. Within a year, we expect to see about three to five players in the space.” Having already acquired Transpond, Webtrends might try to solidify its position by buying an ad buying tool and offering a truly integrated solution. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 29 Jul 2011 08:29 AM PDT
The apps on our list grew from between 104,600 and 350,900 MAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook. All in all, it was a pretty typical week for the emerging category, which we define as apps that ended with between 100,000 and 1 million MAU in the past week. Top Gainers This Week
Three profile banner apps — the ones that allow users to select from among different photos and then create an image across the top of their profile — made the list this week, two were in Spanish. Banner de perfil en espagnol grew by 350,900 MAU and Banner de perfil en espagnol by 284,300 MAU. Then Profile Banner by 104,600 MAU. Generally these apps publish feed stories alerting friends to the use of the app. BeKnown's app grew by 235,400 MAU this week; the app comes from Monster.com, allows users to update their profiles from other recruiting sites, as well as earn badges and what-not within the app. Hulu's Connect app has been growing steadily over the past few weeks and this week with 165,800 MAU. A pair of friend apps were on the list. Together allows users to make "matches" from among friends, publishing the result to the friend's Wall; the app grew by 136,200 MAU this week. Top Friends of mine(ENHANCED) publishes a photo, tagging a user's friends, of the most interacted with people; the app grew by 107,100 MAU.
Finally, Twibbon, grew by 105,300 MAU in the United States and Philippines. The Connect app allows users to publish a photo of themselves with a "ribbon" over their profile photo for a particular cause. The app's virality is probably due in no small part of the large number of feed stories created by its use: the app publishes one upon use, then publishes a user's photo, then asks the user to promote the app on Facebook or Twitter. All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned next week for our look at the top weekly gainers by monthly active users on Monday, the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Inside Facebook To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Here's the latest from AllFacebook as of 4 p.m. ET. Visit AllFacebook throughout the day for breaking news and insider gossip.
mediabistro.com | Send Tips | Subscribe | Subscribe to the Morning Media Newsfeed of top media stories
Get inspirational and practical advice from Cary Barbor of Martha Stewart Living Radio at Mediabistro Career Circus on August 4 in NYC.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Another update, deeper Facebook integration: Skype 5.5 for Windows was officially released this week. read more>>
The English Defense League, the far-right group Norway gunman Anders Behring Breivik mentioned as an inspiration had less than 50 members two years ago. Now the membership is 2,000 times that size, and Facebook is a contributor. read more>>
Call me biased (because I'm based in the U.K.) or call me crazy (because, well, many do), but I think Facebook is exacerbating the average American citizen's continued reluctance to journey internationally. read more>>
We're curious to learn what you think about Facebook's redesign of the account settings page. read more>>
Why would a St. Albans, Australia father risk giving his toddler a big loaded gun, then capture her holding it for a photo to upload to Facebook? read more>>
The touchy issue of what to do about Facebook pages claiming that the Holocaust was a hoax reared its ugly head again at the social network,but it remained consistent in allowing the pages. read more>>
A newcomer has us talking this week: 66Photos is the fastest growing application on Facebook. read more>>
Here's a comparison of engagement patterns on Facebook and Google from Dr. Siddharth Shah, senior director of business analytics at Efficient Frontier. read more>>
A well-managed marketing campaign on Facebook ought to resemble a diversified investment portfolio, says guest writer Rob Leathern, chief executive officer of XA.net. read more>>
Before using a Facebook search engine, check to see if it has all these qualities. read more>>
TVNewser Analysis: Don't Expect Networks to Pay Up For Casey Anthony Interview
TVSpy WPRI Admits to Airing Staged Video of Local Golf Tournament
SocialTimes Longest YouTube Video Ever Will Take You 23 Days to Watch
MediaJobsDaily Will Linkedin's New 'Apply' Button Create 'Impulse' Job Hunters?
AllFacebook WATCH: 'The Man Without A Facebook'
AllTwitter Twitter Launches New Ad Product: Promoted Tweets In Everyone's Timeline
10,000 Words Tool of the Day: Newsbeat
eBookNewser Amazon Just Added More Movies to its Streaming Video Library
GalleyCat NYC Libraries Allowing Kids A Chance to 'Read Down' Their Fines
SportsNewser Biopic Planned on Life of MMA Fighter Rich Franklin
PRNewser PRSA Accuses O'Dwyer of Hacking, Again
AgencySpy Here's the Long-Form Version of the Red Lobster Clip You All Loved
FishbowlNY Felix Salmon is Completely Fine With Tweeting False Information
FishbowlDC 1-2-3-4 Staffer Fired Over Funky Floor
FishbowlLA DJ Plays With the Power of Social Media and Starts Riot
UnBeige Only the Most Valuable Walls Need Apply: App Tracks Banksy's Street Art
Click here to read more on AllFacebook, and here to get RSS feeds for updates throughout the day. Subscribe to our Daily Newsfeed Email and see all our blogs at mediabistro.com.
AllFacebook Needs You! Send us your story tips, job changes, insider gossip, and all that other good stuff: allfacebook@mediabistro.com
To learn about advertising or other creative partnerships, contact Dave Arganbright at (212) 547-7931 or via email.
You are receiving this email at sobenrss@live.dk because you subscribed at mediabistro.com for our Daily AllFacebook Feed service. Please add mailer@mediabistro.com to your Address Book to ensure delivery of this email (how do I do this?).
Stop Receiving this Email | Start Receiving this Email | Send Feedback
mediabistro.com
475 Park Avenue South | New York | NY | 10016
mediabistro.com is a division of WebMediaBrands Inc.
Inside Facebook |
| Facebook for BlackBerry v2.0 Adds Chat, BBM Support, and More Beta Tested Features Posted: 28 Jul 2011 03:25 PM PDT Research In Motion has finally released version 2 of its Facebook for Blackberry app after four months of beta testing. The update includes Facebook Chat, the ability to share content to BlackBerry Messanger, a redesigned interface, wi-fi support and a deep integration with native handset features, as shown in screenshots from the official BlackBerry blog. Many of these features were available in beta versions to those registered with BlackBerry Beta Zone, but now any user running BlackBerry Device Software v5.0 or later can access them. Facebook for BlackBerry v2.0 should make RIM’s devices more appealing to Facebook users. This is especially important as the company’s stock drops, it lays off employees, and it loses US smartphone operating system market share, dropping from 27% to 20% since the beginning of the year.
The growing usage of Facebook for BlackBerry is one of the few things going right for RIM. Over the last month, the app added roughly one million new daily active users in the last month to reach 25.3 million DAU, and grew two million monthly active users to 38.9 million MAU according to AppData. Still, the Facebook for iPhone and Android apps are growing twice as fast.
The last official update, Facebook for BlackBerry v1.9 from November 2010, added Places and search. Even with v2.0, the app still lacks access to Groups, Check-In Deals, video uploading and some Page admin functionality that Facebook for Android gained earlier this month. Tested Features Made OfficialNow, Facebook for BlackBerry v2.0 users can use Facebook Chat. While using the app they can carry on multiple conversations, and after going online but exiting the app, users receive BlackBerry notifications about incoming Chat messages. This should make it significantly easier to contact friends with BlackBerry devices. Blake Smith of RIM’s Facebook app development team says Chat was heavily requested, and his team had been working on it for over a year to increase stability and reliability of notifications, and reduce buddy list loading time.
RIM has significantly deepened the integration between the app and the native features of its handsets. Users can now re-share stories from the news feed to their BlackBerry Messanger contacts, save phone numbers, email addresses, and BBM PINs they see to the Contacts app, and see Facebook Events to their Calendar app. This should reduce frustration from users wanting to take information they find on Facebook outside of the app.
Access to profiles and Pages has been enhanced to include tabs for wall, info, and photos, and the ability to see mutual friends. Users can now publish a variety of posts including photos and Places check-ins from the news feed, and click a “more” button to add Likes and Comments in-line. Users now use a navigation grid, similar to that of other popular Facebook smartphone apps, rather than the old navigation bar. Users can view Facebook notifications about Likes and other actions that don’t trigger a push notification to their handset. A “Today” view (the right side of this post’s first image) shows a list of a user’s most recent notifications, friend requests, Messages, and Chats. Users can also use the app over wi-fi, which is especially handy for those travelling without a local data plan. RIM has done a solid job of shortening the feature gap between its in-house developed app and the Facebook for iPhone and Android apps that are developed by Facebook itself. None of these previously tested features should come as a big surprise, but they certainly improve the quality of the user experience. |
| Hearsay Social Raises $18 Million, Can Now Run Facebook Ads for Corporate / Local Pages Posted: 28 Jul 2011 09:47 AM PDT
Hearsay Social also added several new features to its product for companies with a corporate / local structure, including granular roles management, and the ability to run integrated social campaigns that combine Facebook ads, Page posts, and Page tab applications. The funding and features will help Hearsay Social address the social marketing needs of more corporations that oversee many local branches, and box out more general brand-focused Facebook Page management companies.
Hierarchical Page ManagementHearsay Social launched in February to become the only company focused on addressing the problems of local branch social media management and regulatory compliance for companies with both a corporate Facebook Page and Pages for each of their franchises. Corporations could use it to monitor the performance of their local branches, and deliver Page posts and applications to them for publishing. With unique features, powerful Silicon Valley angels backing it, and deep-pocketed potential corporate clients, Hearsay Social had the power to disrupt more established players in the Facebook Page management industry. Early results showed that the product could help corporations achieve full regulatory compliance across their social media presences and attain more fans. At that time, Facebook had no user interface or API designed for managing businesses with a hierarchical corporate / local structure. Hearsay Social worked with Facebook, and earlier this month the social network began testing both a basic UI for managing “parent” and “child” Pages, as well as an API that lets corporate admins make changes to settings or install applications on multiple local branch Pages simultaneously. While these additions provides some rudimentary corporate / local functionality for those without a third-party tool, the API also strengthens Hearsay Social’s product. Facebook’s native tool only supports two-tier hierarchies, while Hearsay Social can support many levels and different sets of permissions for each. Funding and FeaturesNEA and previous investor Sequoia Capital have just put $18 million towards building out the Hearsay Social team, currently led by CEO Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era. Shih tells us that “on the hiring front, sales and engineering are top priorities, but we’re hiring across the board, every department.” NEA’s Sakoda, formerly of IMlogic, acquired by Symantec, will lend enterprise sales expertise to the growing team tasked with getting huge, often multi-national corporations to execute their social media marketing through Hearsay Social. Thanks to the product’s new integrated social campaigns feature, clients can schedule and run coordinated marketing campaigns that tie together Facebook ads, Facebook Page tab applications, and Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts. For example, State Farm insurance could install a promotional Facebook app on the Pages of all its local branches, run localized Facebook ads pointing to the app, and post links to the app on the news feed from all the Pages every four hours.
Shih explained to us that this “lets corporate bundle up its marketing genius” and ship it out to local branches that wouldn’t be able to design or execute such sophisticated campaigns. Ads are run through the Facebook Ads API, which allows the roughly two dozen companies with access to efficiently run Facebook ads at a massive scale. Apps used in integrated campaigns can be pulled from Hearsay Social’s basic suite, but clients can also integrate apps developed for them by their agencies. Hearsay Social now also include the Rogue Page Finder, which identifies local branches with social media presences that haven’t yet been brought under a corporation’s control, as well as unofficial fan-created presences. Corporations can monitor the performance and regulatory compliance of these presences on Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp, so they can decide whether to contact the hosting Platform and have them shut down or rolled into their own official presence.
Lastly, Hearsay Social now lets clients customize granular roles and permissions for all users. They can permit admins at certain levels of hierarchy to post, edit, view analytics, and use other specific parts of the product. Shih tells us one client is using the feature to set up different roles for all twelve levels of its hierarchy. The tool has proved useful for attaining Facebook fans. Hearsay Social says that local branch agents using it gained over three times more fans than those without it. Once Google+ releases brand pages and an API, Hearsay Social will support that platform as well. Shih tells us “Brands are asking about Google+. People are kicking the tires and trying to understand if there will be traction.”
She adds that there’s room for other Page management companies because there’s “plenty of brands without a local presence. We’re laser focused on global-local brands, and we can go deep because of our focus.” Local branches are able to cultivate an intimate connection between a brand and its customers. Taking advantage of location-based technology such as Facebook Places and Check-In Deals and running coordinated marketing campaigns requires more expertise than most local branch managers have, though, so expect growth for corporate / local Page management tools like Hearsay Social as more global businesses invest in social media. |
| Facebook Hires and Departures: Engineering, Business, Communications, Recruiting, Sales and More Posted: 28 Jul 2011 08:58 AM PDT
New hires per LinkedIn and Other Sources:
Prior listings now removed from the Facebook Careers Page:
Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry. |
| Facebook Careers Postings: Research, Engineering, Communications, Credits and More Posted: 28 Jul 2011 08:05 AM PDT
Posts added this week on Facebook's Careers Page:
Jobs posted by Facebook on LinkedIn:
Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Inside Facebook To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |