Social Media - Important Changes to Facebook (Urgent)

If you are using Facebook for business, you may be aware that there are two sets of important changes taking place on Facebook.

This week there is also an important change affecting both individuals and local businesses, called "Places":

1. Changes to the way applications work, including "boxes", effective this coming Monday 23 August
2. Changes already recently put in place under a new "Get Started" tab
3. Launch of "Places", rather like Foursquare, which lets you state where you are but by default also lets others state where you are (or indeed where you are not!)
   

Application / Boxes Changes on Monday 23 August

To quote the message now appearing on Facebook business pages:

"Get ready for your streamlined Page: Starting on 23 August, we'll be simplifying your Page to make it easier to browse: 1) Boxes are going away, including the Boxes tab; and 2) All custom tabs will be narrowed to 520 pixels. If you have a custom tab, we recommend that you visit your tab now for a preview of how your content fits in the new layout — please make adjustments as needed. The rest of Facebook will see the old tab width until 23 August." There are also further notes aimed at application developers.

If you are a developer of Facebook applications, obviously you need to check. If your business is using any add-in applications, likewise!

"Get Started" tab

About a month ago a new tab appeared on your business Facebook site if you were the administrator called "Get Started". This tab appears both when setting up a new business site, and for existing sites.

This includes a reminder that you can automatically post updates through to Twitter, and if configured, then automatically on into the likes of LinkedIn. However the Facebook to Twitter link is not as useful as it first appears if you want to include a link to an external web site in the posting, as I do for articles added to this blog.

For example, this is what I posted to Facebook:
"SOCIAL MEDIA: Summary of recent articles for business http://bit.ly/summary8_social #youtube #facebook #twitter #myspace #socialmedia #ipad"

But this is how it appears in Twitter (and similarly in LinkedIn):
"SOCIAL MEDIA: Summary of recent articles for business http://bit.ly/summary8_social #youtube #facebook #twitter... http://fb.me/E3YvyGTN "

i.e. Facebook has replaced (and lost) some of the hashtags for searches in exchange for a second link to the article. Whatever benefit this might be to them, it is of negative benefit to me, so I have now switched the link facility off. There are two ways to do this, neither of which are obvious:

1. Whilst logged into Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/twitter/ where you can turn link settings on and off
   
2. Log into your Twitter account and then through "Settings", "Connections" click "Revoke Access" for Facebook.

There appears to be no point complaining to Facebook about these problems, given the lack of response to complaints about the "Get Started" tab. I do hope Facebook doesn't remain so complacent. Such an attitude has hastened the downfall of so many IT companies!

Facebook "Places"

Back in 1999 Sun Microsystems' CEO Scott McNealy "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." In 2000 PC World magazine said "But I suspect even McNealy might have problems with .... announcing his whereabouts to the world..."

Now in 2010 we have Foursquare to do just that, launched last year. Once on their home page click on "Learn More" to find out how. Like the original version of Twitter, Foursquare is used from a mobile phone, but in this case only smartphones by downloading and using a Foursquare app.

The basic idea is that you "check-in" to places you visit to comment about that place. It could be a museum, a pub, a concert or indeed anywhere else. Foursquare is encouraging businesses to give perks to Foursquare users . The business facilities are currently free, but is expected to be the basis for paid-for services in the future.

Whilst this idea has many positive aspects to individuals and local businesses alike, it does have the drawback of telling people you are not at home, with obvious security risks. The choice to use the service as a consumer is yours. As a business, though, control of potentially ruinous comments is likely to be a whole new ball game!

Not to be outdone, this week Facebook launched their own version, "Places". You only become a Foursquare user by subscribing. But if you are already a Facebook user, Places is switched on by default, allowing other people to say where you are (or indeed where you are not!) It is wise to follow these three steps to change the settings to those most people would regard as more appropriate. It's also an opportunity to check your other privacy settings.

No wonder Google's CEO Eric Schmidt talked a couple of weeks ago about the loss of personal anonymity. However, you might like to consider this take on the value of privacy.

Which reminds me. has your business got an appropriate privacy policy? Or does it not matter any more?

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