What do Facebook users currently use the social network for, and why are they adding you as friend?

According to NMIncite, a Nielsen company, and a recent study shows that most users still use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family. Further, not even half of the 1,800+ surveyed participants stated they had ever used Facebook to network professionally.

When Facebook released their latest changes including the new Timeline feature, users were less than thrilled about how their news feed were organized.

Although not everyone has been upgraded to the new profiles on Facebook, one feature that people will be seeing in the next few days is related to how you view your News Feed. Currently users have Highlighted Stories first (updates with the left upper hand corner marked in blue), and the recent items would be listed below them.

If you wanted to skip the Highlighted Stories you would have to click “# More Recent Stories”, and until something else was marked as a Highlighted story you would just see the latest updates; however, not everything appears in there because of Facebook’s algorithm or Edgerank.

Though most user complaints are ignored the ones that persist after the initial launch period appear to be corrected or reversed, and with that an updated sorting feature is being released. Now you will be able to use either the newer news feed or sort by the latest updates (Recent Stories First). However, the latest stories first feature may still incorporate the Edgerank algorithm and not every single status may appear.

This is where Facebook and Twitter diverge as you will see every tweet from your followers regardless of how many times it was retweeted; however, Twitter is also now joining the activity feed world with some added features as well.

So which sorting method do you prefer? Personally I’m all for the most recent updates, and I unmark a majority of the Highlighted Stories.

 *Note – Not all users are able to use this feature yet.

Facebook will be launching several new features during their F8 conference on September 22, but prior to that they are slowly pushing out new News Feeds and navigation bars to users. As you can see above when the new News Feed kicks into gear you will be greeted with a basic explanation of what you will now see each time you log into Facebook. Previously you had the option to select between most recent updates and top stories, but now these are both integrated with each other.

What exactly does that mean?

Facebook is rolling out new features for F8, and will likely be expecting member backlash. Robert Scoble seems to have the general user response summed up well:

I like Mark’s leadership because he keeps pissing off his customers. Let’s see how:

1. Facebook used to be for only Harvard students. They were pissed when Mark let the Stanford ones in.

2. After he took over all the universities, Zuckerberg opened it up to everyone “oh, no” they cried, “my mom is gonna be on Facebook.”

3. After he got everyone on Facebook Zuckerberg introduced the news feed. That got a MILLION PEOPLE to protest. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1532225,00.html

4. Then he changed the privacy settings. That got him investigated by the government.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things he’s done to piss off the users here.

Yet we still are here. So, go ahead and complain. It’ll make you feel good, but you can’t hold back progress! Or, if you can, I guess you’ll join me over on Google+, right?

New-ish Navigation Bar

Prior to adding in new multimedia goodies like the super secret (sac mark) Facebook music program, simple features like the navigation bar have received a makeover. Below is the old version of the navigation that has two shades of blue and still shows “Account”.

Where as the new navigation strips the word “Account” from the navigation bar, and also removes the edit friends from the down arrow. Below is a screen shot from a Facebook Page profile; however, it is exactly the same for personal profiles as well with the exception of the mail/inbox feature.

Facebook Birthdays

If Facebook is good for one thing, it is to help us remember the 300 some odd birthdays of our friends and family members (for us married folks Facebook even gives us a 5 day warning prior to our anniversary, brilliant!).  Whenever it’s your birthday you can expect an onslaught of birthday greetings to takeover your Facebook wall. With the latest update adding happy birthday messages are even easier! (read: lazier approach). When accessing your News Stream navigate over to the usual area where you find birthday, event, and other timely notifications. Click on one of the birthday buddies names and a window appears allowing you to kill at least two birds with one stone. See below:

Concluding Thoughts – Marketing

So why exactly is Facebook doing this prior to F8? Elementary, my dear Watson. By creating additional negative buzz (and Facebook loves negative buzz), they will be sure to capture the interest of any news outlet that may have thought they could ignore the new features and updates. If enough users complain, and they are, you can expect to hear about it by mid-day on your local news channel. Did I mention that it is Google+’s official launch date? Like most online communities users emulate their role models. Facebook does a good job of stealing attention .

Today be talk like a pirate day and for such a momentous day it would be a shame if your social media endeavours did not join in on the fun. Changing your English language to English (pirate) is not new, but changing it on this day may prevent your booty from getting pillaged.

Turn Yer Facebook Language t’ Pirate Speak

Scroll down t’ th’ bottom o’ any Facebook page when ye be logged in an’ select English (US).

A new window prompt will appear with the various languages that Facebook supports (see below).

Select English (pirate) an’ ye be off t’ th’ ships an’ ready t’ pillage yer shipmates!

If that’s not enough you can also use this free English to Pirate language converter to change your tweets. I will be doing that intermittently on @GovWinTeam and possibly get fired.

This week Facebook unleashed a new feature that allows you to follow public Facebook comments for people you are not currently friends with. Also, you have to opt in.

That is correct sir, Facebook is finally getting the hint that people want the option to opt into new features, and along side with the new subscribe option there have been a plethora of new privacy updates to compete with Google+. Social media, like every other consumer product, is driven by you. When competition strikes we all win, but of course that means every new media/social media outlet will have to find new reasons to complain.

Facebook’s New Profile Subscribe Feature

So you are interested in a public figure who doesn’t have a Facebook Page, but you want to know more about them. Previously you would just have to regularly stalk their page for an updates, but with the new subscribe feature you can get notified when people update life events, status updates, photos and games as long as they are marked as public.

Prior to the launch of the subscribe feature you were able to follow Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg that acted as foreshadowing of the subscribe feature. As you will notice Mark already has well over 5 million people subscribe to his public updates, which is a result of the follow option.

Facebook designed this particular feature so that you can connect with journalists, political officials, celebrities and the like. Brands on the other hand will still be required to have Facebook Pages. See below for Facebook’s comparison on why an individual may want to open their feed to more people rather than creating a page:

For those of you who don’t have the ability to add share banners like the one on the bottom of this page, you can bookmark this article as a resource to easily find the HTML for adding individual share buttons on your sites.

Facebook Like

Facebook Like HTML (FXBML)

Tip: When placing the Facebook like button on your page you may want to deselect “Show faces” as it adds additional white space below it. Also test to see if the “Send” button works prior to pushing the page live. The HTML also forces other share buttons on other lines, so make sure you account for this. Stacking buttons can look odd.

Google +1

Google +1 HTML (Javascript)

Tip: Pay attention to which button option you select. The tall one will cause more white space, where as the others fit well on a horizontal line with other share buttons.

Linkedin Share Button

Linkedin Share HTML (Javascript)

Tip: If you don’t plan on having a lot of shares for the page, you may want to leave off the count. If you don’t care about the count, then it obviously won’t make a difference which option you choose.

Twitter Tweet Button

Tweet
Tweet Button HTML (Javascript)

Tip: The Tweet Button will allow you to customize the title of the article that will be tweeted, the URL, and suggested users associated with the site. Try to keep things relevant, or people won’t be able to get back to the page that the sharer intended you to find.

Google+ is officially on the market, and it’s being released in small doses in the form of invites. Much like how Gmail was initially spread in beta, the invite only model creates a sense of exclusivity and belonging. Facebook also used this method to market their network to college students, and eventually became part of the global definition of social media. Whether Google+ mirrors this success is anyone’s guess, but until that time it is time to get to know the features.

Breaking Down Google+

Like all new programs and applications there is a learning period that dictates whether or not users will generally adopt them. For example Quora was built to appeal to techies. It’s not necessarily the most visually appealing system, but there is a plethora of great information on it. Currently Google+ has some informative YouTube videos and basic notification windows to help you learn their process, but the best way to learn how to use it is to use it.

Stream

The first thing you will see when going to Google+ is your stream. If you are Facebook this is known as your News Feed, and on Twitter it is your timeline. Here you will see updates from people you have in your circles, and in real-time.

The status update section allows you to select what circles you want to share content with, make it publicly available, or extend it to your friends friend (extended circles). Currently status updates can come in the form of text, photos (albums, single images, or from your mobile), videos (upload, from YouTube, or from your mobile), a link with some added meta text, and your location (this doesn’t work well on non-mobile platforms).

Items that you post to your stream can be edited whenever you want. In comparison Facebook currently allows for a few seconds when you post a comment, and LinkedIn provides 15 minutes to edit posts. To further your privacy settings you can also select what items can be shared publicly. That means if you select a particular circle to share content with, they will be unable to reshare it unless they save it separately. You can also disable comments on an item as well.

Breakdown: This uses Facebook’s visual look, but you can follow people like you do on Twitter and they will appear in your stream. It would appear that active conversations also appear at the top of your stream. The Stream improves upon several Facebook security issues that people complain about. Where as Facebook allows you to hide a post in your news feed, you can mute a post on your Google+ Stream. Similar to Tumblr another user can add a comment to your original post when selecting the share button.

Circles

Circles are Google’s answers to Facebook friends lists and Twitters follower lists. Twelve months ago Paul Adams (@Padday) presented what Google felt was wrong with social media, much of which related to what is now referred to as Circles. Fast forward to the public launch of Google+, Adams now works for Facebook and coincidentally resulted in some interesting thoughts on his Twitter feed.

Breakdown: Google+ Circles act like any other list (but with cooler drag and drop options, yes easily amused) where you differentiate between who you would like to see certain things you post online. Diaspora was doing great things in this arena, but it would appear their Alpha status is going to continue for quite a while. Even though Facebook has friends groups and specific privacy settings much like Circles, the issue comes down to the user. Privacy functionality is there, but unless it is easy enough to use and is clearly defined, a person will ignore it. A regular user will likely continue to just upload items based on the networks default settings out of pure laziness. If a social network really wants to protect their members they should attempt to create an algorithm that suggests circles or lists based on keywords.

Photos

So you’re a photo junkie? It would appear Google+ has trumped every other social media site with their photo system in several ways. Facebook just released their facial recognition feature that identifies faces based on common characteristics, and Google tames the process down by locating faces.

The most important feature is in the details. Once you select a photo click the Actions drop-down menu, and select Photo details. This will flip the image around and bring up the light levels, camera used, exposure, aperture and other details. That means all you folks out there who like to blow your contrast out to hide physical features will now be clearly exposed.

In addition to gaining information on the photo, you can currently select six different filters to alter the images appearance.

(+1 Button)

Google released +1 in an attempt to connect your google activity to websites similar to how Facebook uses the Like button. With the integration of Google+, +1 now acts as a Like button on all status updates. Google +1 selections from your friends will likely be a factor in your search results as well. Currently if you are signed into Twitter, Google will show search results for items that your followers/friends have previously shared.

Hangouts

One of the more interesting new features of Google+ is the new collaboration tool that pulls together Gchat attributes within a social setting. From your Google+ homepage you can start a hangout by selecting the green “Start a hangout” button on the right side navigation. From here you can select what Circles you want to join the hangout, and your webcam and microphone will activate. You can use this tool like a chatroom with cameras, to collaborating on a document, or even watch a YouTube video in real-time together (sort of odd, though Netflix would be a nice option).

As people join the hangout you can also invite specific people that are not listed in the Circle. By default the person who is talking or moving will appear in the center of the hangout. If there is one feature that will particularly make Google+ effective, this is it. Once they integrate Google Docs into the Hangout feature it will become invaluable.

The Black Bar

Google’s Black Bar (clearly I don’t have any official name here) becomes part navigation, part notification when you are signed in. The Black Bar now follows you to any other Google product like Google Docs or the Calendar, and allows you to receive notifications and update your status.

Sparks

Google Sparks appear to be their informal way of sharing content that may interest you. Essentially Google+ Sparks are like RSS feeds that draw content based on your keyword of interest. Because there are no formal groups, Sparks allows you to draw in content that interests you and share it with particular circles. At this point you can discuss or comment on the item.

Are you on Google+? You can connect with me there. Once invites open again I would be happy to send them your way. Follow me on Twitter @thejournalizer and I will announce when I can send you an invite.

Facebook is no stranger to privacy complaints, and a new batch will be unleashed as their Facial Recognition tool is now available to every user. Initially Facial Recognition was only available in North American, but today it was released globally and automatically opts everyone into it. At a glance this particular feature doesn’t appear to be an issue for privacy, but some media outlets are complaining that this increases the potential for images to be tagged back to your profile. If you don’t want every image of you uploaded by your friends you can easily disable it.

The solution? Change your privacy setting. In the video below you will find a basic overview that explains how you can create a friend group, apply particular privacy settings to them, how to hide specific status updates from a friend group and of course where you can opt out of the new Facial Recognition feature.

This particular feature will likely not be a huge issue for you; however, it is logical to create custom settings and place people in groups so only specific people can see personal updates.

Changing Your Facebook Privacy Settings

Step by Step Tutorial

1. Set up a Friends List by select Account and then Edit Friends.
2. At the top of the new page select Create a List.
3. Create a name for the list and add Facebook friends to it. You can go back and add more later.



4. Access your Facebook Privacy Settings by selecting Account at the top of any Facebook page while you are logged in.
5. Select Custom Settings and move through each option and add the new friend list to each setting you don’t want them accessing.
6. Under Things Others Share, press Edit Settings to the right of Suggests photos of me to friends.
7. From the drop down menu select Disable. The Facial Recognition tool is no longer active.

Twitter was part of Obama’s game plan when running for President, and now he is taking it to Facebook with a live town hall discussion. Today at 4:45 p.m. EST, President Obama will be fielding questions; however, you can submit them now by accessing the Facebook Live page. The questions answered will likely be based on crowedsourced intrigue, i.e. the most amount of likes on the questions. This is a similar format to Reddit’s IAMA community where celebrities, professionals, and even Bruce Campbell field questions from the public, good or bad.

President Obama’s Message

So we all use it, some of us love it, but who amongst us would work for a social media company?

If you had the opportunity to work for one, which one is it and why?

Facebook – Twitter – Linkedin – Quora – Myspace – YouTube – WordPress – Tumblr – Reddit – Flickr – FourSquare – Startup – etc.