Facebook to Upgrade Privacy Settings

Posted by leah on July 02, 2009 at 11:03 AM

Control. Simplicity. Connection. According to Facebook, these are the three basic principles for effective privacy on the social network. Just last week, Facebook launched the 'Publisher Privacy Control' in beta, which allows people to show their status updates with more control with a 'Who do you want to tell?' option on a per-post basis. So if you wanted to publish a status update only to your friends and family, you can do it. Or if you wanted to tell your work buddies about how delicious the donuts are in the coffee bar, you could with no problem. The beta is only available to those who have their profile's privacy settings set to Everyone. Below is an image of what the 'Publisher Privacy Control' looks like. There is a lock next to the Share button with a drop-down that allows you to choose who will see your post.

Facebook states it is in the process of exploring how to make the transition to the new settings for everyone on the social network. That being said, Facebook will roll-out what they call the 'Transtion Tool,' which will allow users to

"be as open or as limited in the sharing of this information as you want."

Below is a screenshot. Facebook is launching six different versions of the tool to a small group in order to test and gain feedback. Once that phase is complete, Facebook plans on opening it up to everyone on the network.

Are you currently in the beta for the 'Publisher Privacy Control'? If so, what do you think?

Twitter Following/Follower Links Get Upgrade

Posted by leah on July 01, 2009 at 1:14 PM

If you haven't already logged into Twitter today, the micro-blogging social network announced yesterday on its blog that new features are now on the "following" and "follower" links of your Twitter account. These features allow you to more easily take actions with the people you follow, or those who follow you. See below for a screenshot of my Twitter account:

Noticed the options available in the dropdown menu: Mention (@), Direct Mail, Follow and Block. The only difference for a dropdown menu of someone I do follow is "Unfollow" instead of "Follow." Notice there is a green checkmark next to users who I do follow. This new upgrade reminds me a lot of the application Tweetdeck because of the ease of taking an action with another user.

Users can also switch back to the 'unexpanded' or list version of viewing, here's a screenshot of what that looks like:

What do you think? Like it, dislike it, don't care? Leave us a comment on your thoughts.

StraightUpSocial News Links for 7/1/2009

Posted by keirsun on July 01, 2009 at 8:35 AM

Twitter Rolls Out UI Changes To Simplify Your Social Connections

MG Siegler at TechCrunch tells us about updates to Twitter's user interface for managing your Following and Followers.

Facebook Launches Keyword Suggestions For Ads

Nick O'Neill at All Facebook points out the new keyword suggest feature in Facebook's advertising system, which the social network has been working to improve.

Fans Flock to Michael Jackson's Facebook Page, Now the Fastest Growing Page on Facebook

Jessica Lee at Inside Facebook tells us that Michael Jackson's Facebook Page has become the fastest growing Page on the social network this week, with over 3,261,000 fans as of this posting.

Spending Too Much Time Reading Tweets? Try Twitter for Busy People

Posted by keirsun on June 30, 2009 at 9:37 AM

I'm not a big fan of reading tweets via my Twitter homepage. People who don't tweet very often tend to get knocked off the first page of tweets. Then I need to constantly click the "more" button to find the latest tweet from those who have something to say but don't necessarily say it every hour.

Enter Twitter for Busy People. The site, which is dead simple to use, was designed to let you see tweets from the people you're following "at a glance."

Simply enter your Twitter name (or anyone else's) then hover over someone's profile image to see their latest tweet.

Twitter for Busy People separates tweets into 3 categories: In the Last Hour, In the Last Day, and More than 1 Day Ago. You can also choose to see the conversation that preceded someone's most recent tweet, if there is one, in addition to other tweets from the same person.

Currently, the service's only limitation is it tops off at 500 of the people/businesses you're following.

Hat Tip to @Jason_Pollock

Facebook Frustrates Page Owners with Last Minute Vanity URL Requirements

Posted by keirsun on June 29, 2009 at 10:54 AM

More than a few people aren't happy with Facebook this Monday morning.

At 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time last night Facebook was scheduled to open up vanity URL registration to Pages (business profiles) with less than 1,000 fans. (11:59 on a Sunday night?!?! OK.)

At some point over the weekend, prior to last night's registration time, Facebook implemented a rule that in order to be eligible for a vanity URL, your business Page must have more than 25 fans. This rule wasn't in place last week when I gave a heads up about the upcoming registration.

But 25+ fans seemed fair - most small businesses with a Facebook Page should be able to easily call that many customers and employees into action. After all, becoming a Fan of a Facebook Page is a remarkably simple process. And the fan limit would likely prevent spammers from registering bogus Facebook URLs.

But then the other shoe dropped. Sometime before 11:59 PM Facebook changed the fan minimum from 25 to 100. In addition, Facebook failed to offer a reason for the last minute increase.

Blogger Jay Caruso was nice enough to post this screenshot of a Google search showing that the fan requirement was 25 according to Facebook's help section.

So the question remains: why the last minute change in rules that has left so many Facebook Page admins up-in-arms?

Facebook should be smart enough to realize that setting up a Page for a business is frequently a first step for business owners in the social networking realm. If the Page is a success, many business owners may be more likely to move forward with other Facebook advertising options.

I guess the question is, will the below-the-belt punch that many small business owners are feeling this morning keep them from exploring future advertising on Facebook? Tell us what you think.