“Facebook is Boring” (Part 2)

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Note: Click here for Part one.

Randy’s still not having a good time on Facebook; he can’t find his friends! 

Facebook uses an algorithm called “Edge Rank” where they decide what you will see from your friends. Is it fair? Certainly not. However, there’s ways you can get around it before your friends start thinking you are ignoring them.

If you want to see a particular friend's posts there's a few ways to do it:

• Go to your BFF’s wall and hover over "friends", then select "close friend". They’ve now earned a gold star from you (however they won’t know that). You will receive notifications when they post and they’ll also be part of a group of friends that you can custom post too (like a list).

Hovering over “friends” again you’ll see lots of other options as well:

• Click on “Get Notifications”. Then you’ll know when that friend posts via a notification. Note: If you don't click on the notifications for a friend for a while, Facebook may send you a message to let you know they're shutting off those notifications!

Who needs the newsfeed, anyway? Well some folks do rely on newsfeed, so here’s how you can make changes to reflect what you want to see from your friends. DO keep in mind that you'll have to go to each friend’s wall to make the changes. If you have a lot of friends, maybe just make changes for a few per day.

And if you don’t want to go crazy with notifications; just below “Get Notifications” there’s “Show in Newsfeed”.  That can be clicked on or off. More importantly is what’s below it, “Settings”. Click on that and choose the options for what you’d like to see from that friend in your newsfeed; the level of posts you want to see as well as the type of posts you’d like to see.

Of course, emphasizing some people means that Facebook will show you less from your other friends. Choose wisely and don’t forget anyone! 

One has to wonder: Why can’t Facebook just let us see ALL the posts from all our friends? 

Anyway, Randy’s happier on Facebook now. He put himself in control of his Facebook experience and is now busy engaging with all his friends that he missed!

Conclusion: Facebook does not have to be boring!

Long before Randy lamented about where his friends might have gone, Chicago was searching for something as well in this hit from the 1970’s (see below). Search no more for your marketing needs! Visit us on our website, or stop by on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.   

Face Recognition and Privacy on Facebook; Are YOU in Control?

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Face Detection on Facebook has been around since last year, but now there’s Face Recognition, NOT a new technology, by the way, that takes lack of privacy to another level. What’s the difference? Prompted tagging versus “instant” tagging. 

Facebook’s rationale is that it makes our lives easier. Did users really write in to Facebook and complain that manual tagging was too difficult or time consuming? Ha!

From what I’ve read in several articles, the tagging is instant in a sense that Facebook HAS that information stored somewhere, however, they will not be automatically tagging your photos. What they are doing is going through all photos that are on Facebook, not just the recent ones.


Is that scary? Yes, however, once this all rolls out in the next few weeks, your life will not be suddenly exposed. YOU have the choice to manually tag them.

Now, before we all get into a frenzy over this, I couldn’t help noticing that some of my Facebook friends who are upset about this have their profiles available for anyone on Facebook to see. If you are indeed concerned about privacy, DO hide your wall, at the very least! It’s easy.  Click on Account on the upper right of any Facebook page, then Privacy Settings, then choose how much you’re willing to share and to who. Do you want to share to Everybody, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or Custom? This is where you can keep people out of your more personal info, such as family photos.

Okay. Feel better now that 500 million people aren’t able to see those embarrassing photos of that wild birthday party?

Here’s the good news: The media went to town with the Face Recognition announcement with a heavy slant towards the negative side. Another positive point: Would Facebook be that stupid to expose us all to the world? And yes, in the past, there have been lots of privacy issues with Facebook; however, as I’ve pointed out in previous posts, it is a matter of education. YOU have control over your privacy in Facebook.

Which brings up another point. Facebook already has a LOT of information on you. It’s unlikely that they are suddenly going to go public with my birthdate (which I show to no one but hey, Facebook has it). It’s my choice whether or not YOU have that information. It would come from ME. But you’d have to ask me nicely!

Now, the big question is…how to protect yourself from Face Recognition? Ha ha…you KNEW there’d be a solution, right? Let me be the bearer of GREAT news…

Back at Account settings in the upper right, again, hey, it’s under Privacy settings. Down a ways on the page in the middle click on Customize Settings. In the section halfway down, Things Others Share click on Edit Settings to the right of Suggest Photos of me to Friends. Here you can enable or disable this feature.

Note that Facebook reminds us that WE have control (this is word for word what is stated there):
You're always in control of your tags on Facebook:
•    Only friends can tag you in photos
•    We'll notify you when a friend has tagged you
•    You can remove a friend's tag at any time
•    Tag suggestions are based only on photos you've allowed yourself to be tagged in

So, I hope your fears have now subsided and you’re breathing a big sigh of relief. Go ahead and continue to enjoy the social networking experience.
For more on privacy issues on Facebook, click here.

Facebook Privacy Files: Wow! You went to Disney World last year?

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I don’t know you from Adam, but we both know Joe. Couldn’t help but noticing where you took your wife, your son with the Yankees cap, and your daughter with the cute teddy bear tucked under her arm on vacation last November. And your labradoodle is adorable. Nice swing set in the backyard too. Why do I know all this about you? Um, excuse me, but your Facebook is showing.

Indeed, your personal life has unfolded before my eyes. The birthdays, the holiday family gathering, vacations, dance recitals, sport events, and just hanging out in the backyard. The big question is….why do you want ME to know about it? Yes indeed, Social Media is supposed to be social, but to what extent?

Well, one thing I’ve discovered is that good old fashioned ignorance has a lot to do with my exposure to your life. People just don’t realize their Facebook profiles can be seen by all. They just don’t know! In a small way, I’ve attempted to enlighten a few folks about this, with my suspicion being that easy access to their lives is not their true preference.

Whenever I come across an old acquaintance on Facebook that I’ve not yet friended, in addition to extending the olive branch of eternal virtual connectivity, I inform them that their profiles are “100% public”. They aren’t really, but I do need to get my point across. If you’re not a part of Facebook, you won’t see those profiles. But for the millions that are on Facebook, the information is there to taste and digest and do who knows what with.

For the most part the reactions I’ve received sound something like this: “Whoa, I didn’t know; how do I fix that?” For a few others, there’s been no response at all except for the acceptance of the friendship. Well, okay then.

My advice? Check those privacy settings. It takes all of two minutes to do so. And it's fairly intuitive too, almost simple. In the upper right of any Facebook page, click on Account, Privacy Settings, Profile Information, and check your settings. If you want the world to see your information, as least make it an educated choice.