Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- Facebook Adds Subscribe Button to Comments Box Plugin to Increase Civility, Subscribers
- Facebook Launches Trusted Friends and App Passwords Security Features to Reduce Lock Out
- Facebook Expands Marketer Outreach With Official, Free “Facebook Marketing Bootcamp”
- Facebook Careers Postings: Data Centers, Counsel, Mobile, Engineering and More
- Facebook Hires and Departures: Engineering, Sales, Analysts and More
| Facebook Adds Subscribe Button to Comments Box Plugin to Increase Civility, Subscribers Posted: 27 Oct 2011 02:33 PM PDT Facebook is giving users another way to add Subscribers to their public updates by introducing a Subscribe button beside commenter names in its Comments Box social plugin. The move ties two products that already work separately to promote public discussion, and improves Subscription discovery which is otherwise limited to its personalized People to Subscribe To list and sidebar modules The Comments Box Subscribe buttons will encourage civil discussion on sites that use the commenting plugin because those who appear intelligent may be able to attract new Subscribers.
As I see it, this new feature helps Facebook meet two existing goals: get more users Subscribing to each other, and make discussion in the Comments Box more civil to get more sites installing it. Facebook offers a form of Suggested User List, but this is somewhat buried and mainly helps popular public figures grow what may already be a large subscriber base. By giving the average engaged commenter more opportunities to gain Subscribers through the plugin, the asymmetrical follow feature can develop a healthier community and not appear as something reserved for celebrities and journalists. Comment moderators were temporarily given the ability to “Boost” comments they deemed as high quality to the top of a thread. This let moderators set up discussion role models and reward top commenters, but could also be used to drown out criticism, which may be why Facebook recently removed it. By incentivizing thought leaders to weigh in with the prospect of gaining Subscribers, Facebook can improve discussions without facilitating censorship.
Now, anyone that allows people to Subscribe to them will have a Subscribe button next to their name on their Comments Box comments and replies. In some cases Subscriber count is displayed as well. If the button is clicked, a user Subscribes to that commenter’s public news feed updates, and they can hover to select the volume and types of updates they receive. Facebook may need to monitor for Subscribe solicitation spam. Some users may only comment to get exposure for their Subscribe button, or interrupt discussions with “SUBSCRIBE TO ME!” requests. If it can filter out or bury these types of comments, it may have found a way improve both Subscribe and Comments Box through cross-pollination. |
| Facebook Launches Trusted Friends and App Passwords Security Features to Reduce Lock Out Posted: 27 Oct 2011 11:52 AM PDT
Facebook users can sometimes be locked out of their accounts by Facebook’s automated security systems that occasionally produce false positives, as well as by hackers. Users who know about these new features and take the time to enable them will benefit from a reduced chance of being blocked from their account. This will help Facebook reduce the number of horror stories about users losing access to their account for days or weeks, which can permanently hurt users’ perception of the service and lead people to rail against Facebook to their friends.
Trusted Friends builds on Facebook’s Social Authentication security feature that lets users regain access to their accounts by identifying friends in photos — something very difficult for a hacker to do. Facebook likens Trusted Friends to “giving a house key to your friends when you go on vacation”. If users lose their own key (password) as well access to their email account to which a forgotten or lost password could be sent, a friend can unlock their account for them. To enable Trusted Friends, users will select three to five of their closest friends who’d be willing to help and wouldn’t abuse the ability to access their account. If a user is then locked out, they can then have an access code sent to these friends, who then share it with them in person, or via an electronic means other than Facebook. The locked out user can submit the code to unlock their account.
In some cases Social Authentication can prove to difficult for users to complete, especially if the photos shown are of a friend when they were younger, or of a weak acquaintance such as someone met through social games. Facebook has improved the feature over time to only ask users to identify photos that clearly display a face of a friend they frequently interact with. Still, false positives have occurred and legitimate account owners have been be denied access. Now if this happens, Facebook can use Trusted Friends, if enabled, to prevent sustained account lockout. Facebook implemented a security feature earlier this year called Login Approvals that when enabled requires users to enter a security code texted to their phone whenever they login to Facebook or a third-party app. However, some types of apps using atypical interfaces, such as Xbox, Spotify, and Skype don’t properly generate the code entry dialog. This can cause users with Login Approvals enabled to be denied access to these third-party apps.
To solve this problem, Facebook has created App Passwords. Rather than entering their primary Facebook password alongside their email address, they can enter a unique App Password instead to effectively turn off Login Approvals for that app. Users can visit the Account Settings -> Security tab and enter the name of an app generate a unique password for it.
While App Passwords are only necessary for a the small percentage of people who both use Login Approvals and some special apps, Trusted Friends can help all users. Facebook should run an awareness campaign for the feature finishes being rolled out. That way it can continue aggressively protecting the site from hackers but reduce the risk of users enduring the nightmare of being blocked from the social network that’s one of their core communication mediums. |
| Facebook Expands Marketer Outreach With Official, Free “Facebook Marketing Bootcamp” Posted: 27 Oct 2011 09:08 AM PDT Facebook this evening announced that it will hold a free “Facebook Marketing Bootcamp” series of webinars and live question-and-answer session. A tab app on the Facebook Marketing Solutions Page posted “All Marketing Managers are invited to become a Facebook marketing expert in just 3 weeks… learn how to use Facebook’s social technology to grow your business”. Facebook Marketing Bootcamp is Facebook’s biggest effort to date to educate marketers, entering a space otherwise handled by third-parties including this blog and our Facebook Marketing Bible. Facebook is recognizing that many marketers lack of understanding of the site’s value to business, and are therefore spending less on marketing and advertising than they could be. The program could boost confidence and get more people creating Pages, publishing content, and buying ads.
Marketers can register for Facebook Marketing Bootcamp for free, and the 6 webinars, live Q&A session, and weekly tips will run from November 1st to November 16th. The first 5,000 people to sign up may receive a $125 Facebook ad credit. As the course is held online and not in person, there does not appear to be a cap on how many people can join the sessions. In June, I analyzed a MerchantCircle report indicating that despite high awareness, only 22% of small businesses use Facebook ads, and of those 35% say they wouldn’t use them again, mainly because of poor performance. This lack of adoption and negative experience is in part due to a lack of knowledge of how to use the ads tool or run effective campaigns that tie in with other Facebook marketing products. Since then, I’ve been recommending Facebook expand its business education and outreach. Facebook frequently makes changes to its marketing products and creates new opportunities but doesn’t always follow up with instructions for how to best take advantage of them. For example, it released new ways to target ads by broad category, launched the Recommendations feature for Places, and dispensed free ad credits, but guide marketers how to use them beyond dispensing the occasional .PDF instruction manual. This can lead marketers to have bad or confusing first experiences that makes them less likely to devote resources to Facebook in the future. In the last month, though, Facebook has stepped its educational efforts, announcing partnerships with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Business where it would send representatives to advise members on Facebook marketing. The company has also been running more one-off marketing education sessions on its streaming channel Facebook Live. At the same time it’s stepped up outreach to developers, holding mini-f8 Open Technology Days in four US cities as well as abroad and planning a Mobile Hack day at its headquarters this week.
Through the Facebook Marketing Bootcamp, educational resources will be formatted into a coherent curriculum and offered free to anyone interested. Rather than allowing unofficial outlets to be the only source of this intensive training, Facebook will be able to promote responsible marketing strategies that don’t endanger the experience of users with spam or overly aggressive tactics. Facebook should continue to explore different mediums for distributing marketing education. With a combination of white papers, live conferences, and webinars Facebook can push towards its goal of getting all businesses, even less savvy late adopters, using Facebook marketing. |
| Facebook Careers Postings: Data Centers, Counsel, Mobile, Engineering and More Posted: 27 Oct 2011 08:14 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. |
| Facebook Hires and Departures: Engineering, Sales, Analysts and More Posted: 27 Oct 2011 08:10 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 launched the Comments Box plugin for third-party sites in March and by June it was installed on 300,000 sites. It previously added the option for users to “Subscribe” to a specific comment thread, but that feature is now called “Follow Post” and its name has been reassigned to 
As part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, Facebook has begun the
Facebook added a number of counsel positions, including IP and privacy, this week, as well as mobile, platform partnerships, communications, recruiting, client partner and engineering staff. This, at least, according to the company’s | You are subscribed to email updates from Inside Facebook To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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