What You Need to Know About The New Facebook Change!

So, Facebook's latest News Feed changes - of course - are news all over. Anytime Facebook makes a large change like this, some people love it and some hate it. Remember the ruckus people put up about switching over to Timeline?

 

But, let's face it, most of these changes are here to stay no matter how we feel about it. So, might as well make the best of it! And here is how: one key factor to help your company make the most of the new Facebook News Feed!

First, you need to understand the difference in the update. Basically, Facebook is making its site more analogous to a newspaper. Before, the News Feed contained all possible news and updates from your social circles all smashed together into the same feed. Well, now, different sections will be separated, creating what Facebook is touting as a "personalized newspaper". (Um, hello, sound like my fav Flipboard app to anyone else!!??)

So, like a newspaper, the new Facebook feed might still show you the "biggest news" all in one place (think, front page news), and then section out other updates, such as "Likes" (classifieds), "Status Updates" (editorials), etc.

The new challenge will be to get your company's content OUT of the "Likes" category and onto the main New Feed! Or, to follow the newspaper analogy, out of the "Classifieds" section and onto the "Front Page News"!

Now, how to do this. Take a note from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who shared at Facebook's press event that over HALF of the content in the main News Feed comprises photos and videos. Why? Easy! People like to view and share photos and videos! It's not enough to get someone to "Like" your page, you need to create engaging, high-quality pictures or videos for your company.

So, stop worrying about the new feed and start planning how you can use this opportunity to better engage your customers! Your Facebook status is depending on it!

Rest Assured, Your Twitter Account Wasn't Hacked.

 

 

If you woke up to an email from Twitter warning that your account might have been compromised, rest easy. Twitter reported that they mistakenly emailed a mass amount of users urging them to change their passwords, when only a few accounts were actually in danger.

I was one of those users, and received this email this morning: "Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter. We've reset your password to prevent others from accessing your account."

Yikes!

Luckily, no strange tweets from my handle. Best thing to do is be safe and change your password, even if you don't think your account was one of those actually targeted. But don't lose sleep over it! And, follow these tips from The Twitter Team for the safest tweeting experience!

• Always check that your browser's address bar is on a https://twitter.com website before entering your password. Fake scam sites often look just like Twitter, so check the URL before entering your login information!
• Don't use websites or services that only promise to get you lots of followers. These sites have been known to send spam updates and damage user accounts.
• Review your approved connections on your Applications page at https://twitter.com/settings/applications. If you see any applications that you don't recognize, click the Revoke Access button.

Be Happy! Keep Tweeting!

 

Timing is still everything!

Earlier this year, I shared a bit with you guys about the best time to post to Twitter for clickthroughs.  Click  here to refresh your memory. 

This week, Mashable reported some data on timing of Facebook posts that we social media enthusiasts can try for ourselves to determine if timing really affects how many responses you get. 

But, first, a few tips I found insightful from the same Mashable data.  Granted, some of these seem gimmicky to me, but apparently stimulate a lot of interaction:

•  "Fill in the blank" posts garner 4x more comments than the average post.
• One of the best calls to action is "Caption This!", which gets 5.5x more comments than an average post.  
• Calls to action really motivate responses.  Commands such as "Like this!" "Caption this!" or "Share" get interaction rates almost 50% higher than average. 

Okay, now back to the timing issue.  Get this, the times reported for optimal interaction on Facebook are entirely different than those for Twitter.  The new data shows that weekends and non-peak hours are actually the best times for Facebook posts to generate interaction. So I am posting this today, Saturday, just to follow these new findings! This makes me curious... are these arbitrary numbers or do Twitter users and Facebook users really interact with postings on almost opposite timeframes?  

My guess is that the difference is more people spend time on Facebook on the weekends.  Digitally connecting with friends, making and sharing plans and Facebook stalking area ll great weekend activities.  And Twitter is a favorite of business, political and academic people who would more naturally tweet during the workday. 

How about you, do you interact with posts on Facebook at the same general times as you do with those on Twitter?  How, if at all, does your usage of the two sites differ?