WebProNews

Tag: Status Updates

  • Facebook Is Urging Users to Talk About Hot Topics

    Ever want to post something to Facebook but can’t think of anything to say? Do you crave inclusion in the social dialogue but often find yourself without anything to say? Wouldn’t it be easier for Facebook to just tell you what to talk about?

    Of course it would. And Facebook may be testing a way to force conversation about certain, timely topics.

    AdWeek‘s Social Times spotted a new Facebook test inside the Status update box. Instead of just asking What’s on your mind? or What have you been up to?, Facebook is actually suggested certain topics for users to post about.

    “Want to post to your fans but run out of ideas? Here are some suggested topics,” says the company.

    More Social Times’ screenshots, it appears that Facebook is pushing timely hashtags – things that might appear in the site’s trending now section. For instance, #WorldBloodDonorDay and #nationalpeanutbuttercookieday.

    Hovering over any of the suggested topics pulls up a brief description.

    Screen Shot 2015-06-16 at 4.39.20 PM

    Earlier this month, Facebook also tested another “suggestive” status feature. One user spotted a basketball icon and the phrase “The Cavaliers are playing today, What’s on your mind?” inside his status box.

    There are plenty of reasons Facebook would want to drive conversation on specific topics – and there are plenty of reasons why it’s kind of weird to push everyone to discuss certain things. You think your Facebook news feed is bad now – just wait until Facebook’s urging everyone to throw in their two cents about #HillaryClinton or #JebBush.

    Image via Marco Paköeningrat, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Facebook’s ‘Feeling Fat’ Status Draws Ire, Petition

    Last year, Facebook added the ability to supplement your normal status updates with emojis linked to certain feelings and activities. There are now hundreds of options.

    But a couple of the “feeling” emoji options are rubbing some activists the wrong way – and they want Facebook to remove them.

    A Change.org petition demanding Facebook remove the “feeling fat” emoji is more than two-thirds the way to its goal.

    “Scrolling through Facebook the other day, I saw a friend’s status set to ‘feeling fat,’ accompanied by an emoji with chubby cheeks and a double chin. I think it was supposed to be funny, but seeing this status made me feel angry,” says petition creator Catherine Weingarten. “When Facebook users set their status to ‘feeling fat,’ they are making fun of people who consider themselves to be overweight, which can include many people with eating disorders. That is not ok. Join me in asking Facebook to remove the ‘fat’ emoji from their status options.

    Her co-petitioner is the group Endangered Bodies, whose stated goal is to “challenge all those merchants of body hatred who turn girls and women against their own bodies.”

    “Fat is a substance that every body has and needs. Fat is also an adjective – a descriptive word about a physical attribute. Just like tall, short, black or white, it should not be misused to shame oneself or others. However, the fashion, beauty and diet industries have an interest in making us feel insecure about our own bodies and over time “fat” has become a negative word, not a simple statement of size. There is nothing neutral about it. The stigma and criticism of fat and the elevation of thin make them stand-ins for other kinds of words, feelings and moods,” says Endangered Bodies in a blog post about the petition.

    “Endangered Bodies sees this fear of fat and idealisation of thinness throughout society as a form of weight stigma, which can have a serious impact on the millions of people dealing with negative body image. Body-shaming and weight stigma are associated with lower self-esteem and disordered eating, an issue that Facebook – being a social platform – needs to take seriously.”

    They’ve started a social media campaign with the hashtag #fatisnotafeeling.

    The group also wants Facebook to ditch the “feeling ugly” option.

    Though the emoji might seem harmless to some, Weingarten says it is far from it.

    “Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world right now. With 890 million users each day, it has the power to influence how we talk to each other about our bodies. I dream that one day the platform will actively encourage body positivity and self-esteem among its users, but for now, all I ask is that it stop endorsing self-destructive thoughts through seemingly harmless emojis,” she writes in her petition.

    [h/t Daily Dot, Image via Change.org]

  • Facebook Tests Private Messages From Status Box

    Facebook is reportedly getting ready to test a feature that will let you start private messages to friends from the main status update box on the homepage.

    Status Update

    Josh Constine at TechCrunch says he has confirmed with multiple sources that this is going to happen, starting with a small percentage of users. He writes:

    Users will be able to switch between posting to the news feed and privately communicating with select friends.

    We haven’t seen any screenshots of what this will look like exactly, so it’s hard to say how easy it will be to accidentally post private messages to all of your friends, but if this is out there in testing, you might want to pay extra attention to what the text around the box says before you push “post”.

    Google+ pretty much already operates this way. You can easily switch from “Public” to any number of select people, effectively turning communications into private conversations.

    Google also recently did more to combine its various messaging products under one “Hangouts” banner.

  • Facebook Gives Users Halloween Status Update Prompts

    Facebook is showing some users Halloween-themed messages in their status update boxes, replacing the usual “What’s on your mind?”

    Not everybody is seeing it, and it’s unclear why Facebook is not showing it to all users. It doesn’t really seem like the kind of thing where a gradual roll-out or a limited test would be appropriate. Anyway, here are the ones I’m seeing:

    Halloween Status Update

    Halloween Status

    Halloween Status

    Halloween Status

    Halloween Status updates

    Hat tip: Arielle Zuckerberg

    Image: Mark Zuckerberg Halloween 2010

  • Facebook Now Makes You Feel Bad About Not Updating Your Status

    Facebook has never been shy about throwing up a banner across your news feed or dropping in a suggestion box that tells you how you shoudl be using the service. Maybe Facebook thinks you’re not following your friends closely enough, they might suggest you star them. Maybe you haven’t updated your password or you need to tweak your privacy settings – Facebook may take up some real estate with a notification.

    Now, at least some users are being reminded when they gone a couple of days without posting a status update.

    TechieBuzz grabbed this screencap of the new message, which is appearing right under the status box:

    And this isn’t the only new message that Facebook is displaying under the status update box. I logged on today and noticed that Facebook is now also telling me how many of my friends logged in recently. In my case, it was 181:

    The one-two combo punch of these two messages are clearly a push to drive use engagement with the site. It’s like saying to people that they haven’t posted anything in a long time, and if they did, this many of your friends would see it because they’ve logged on recently.

    Facebook, who tests features all the time and rarely comments on their tests, told me that they’re “constantly testing new features and have nothing more to share at this time.”

    Have you seen any of these new messages?

  • Facebook Making Premium Ads More Personal

    Facebook Making Premium Ads More Personal

    For those that felt Facebook ads and sponsored posts just weren’t cutting it, some new leaked documents from the social network detail their plans to change how premium ads are displayed starting February 29.

    In leaked documents obtained by Gigaom, Facebook will reportedly be upgrading its premium ads. Facebook claims that the new ads will have a much larger reach than their previous ads. The main change being that ads will now resemble normal Facebook page posts.

    The ads will originate from the product’s page in the form of a post. Facebook says that ads will be larger which allows “more points of engagement for users. The new ads will also feature “more prominent placement of social context.” Some stats about the new ads they are throwing around include 40 percent increase in engagement, 80 percent more likely to be remembered and 16 percent increase in fan rate with “significant increases in purchase intent.”

    The old, or as they say “classic,” premium ads will be discontinued on February 29. Links to sites off Facebook and marketplace ads will remain unaffected by the changes.

    The new premium ad system will work as such:

    The brand in question creates a page post from six different types – status update, photos, videos, links, questions or events. The post is then turned into an ad that will display on the right side of the page where ads are currently displayed now. If the person viewing the ad has friends who like the page in question, the ad will expand showing their friends’ likes. There will also be a spot for fans to interact directly with the ad through commenting.

    There are also tools that will allow brands to display ads only to fans or non-fans of the product in question.

    Some people might not like Facebook allowing advertisers to disguise their ad as just a normal Facebook post, but I think it’s absolutely genius. The main point of social networks is to get more personal and a brand getting personal with their fanbase, even through ads, is a win-win for everybody. Besides, the ad will still say “sponsored post” so it’s not like they are really trying to trick you.

    If you still don’t like the idea of sponsored posts parading around as normal Facebook posts, just install AdBlock Plus and stop complaining.

    You can check out the leaked presentations below for more details:

    Facebook Premium Ads Overview

    Facebook Premium Ads Guide

    Do you like Facebook’s new premium ads? Or do you think they should have just stuck with the classic way of making sponsored posts? Let us know in the comments.

  • Facebook: How Self-Esteem Correlates With Comments

    A recently released study by Forest and Wood reveals that your self-esteem can effect what type of comments you make on Facebook.

    Participants from both high and low self-esteem categories were selected. Then each participant was paired with a coder. The coder made made regular status update posts and the participants commented on their posts. After ten updates the posts were rated either positive or negative by the coder.

    The results showed that participants with low self-esteem had more negative comments than those with high self-esteem. Also, the coders liked those participants with the negative comments less.

    This research turns out to be a bad thing for those with low self-esteem. It could be that instead of making friends and taking the edge off of social awkwardness, Facebook could be causing others to judge more harshly.

  • British Security Firm Offers To Thwart Burglars With Scheduled Social Media Updates

    We’ve all heard the line that Facebook is the best thing to happen to burglars since the crowbar. Since people (a) are oversharers by nature and (b) rarely think about anything before they act, it won’t take a thorough search to find one of your friends bragging about how they just landed in Germany or how they are off to the beach for a week.

    And why shouldn’t they tell their Facebook friends and Twitter followers that news? That’s what social media is for, right? Being social?

    But of course there is always the worry that someone will see your vacation statuses and think it is the right time to break into your house. A security firm in the UK says it will give you piece of mind when you’re away by implementing a series of faux-Facebook posts and tweets to create the illusion that you are still at home.

    Think of it as the internet’s equivalent of leaving a light on, or leaving a car in the driveway. Or settling up an elaborate fake party with mannequins and a life-sized Michael Jordan cardboard cutout traversing your living room on a train set – you know, whatever applies to you.

    Precreate Solutions company director Gary Jackson had this to say to the Telegraph –

    “Putting up a Facebook posting of photographs on a beach to 300-400 ‘friends’ is like leaving an advert on your door to a burglar telling him when you will be out.”

    Apparently, a significant number of Precreate’s clients reported robberies while on vacation after announcing the details of their trip on Facebook and Twitter. So the company decided that they would begin posting pre-approved status updates and tweets while their clients are away – for a small fee of course.

    So while I’m gone, I can pay someone to post things like “Snuggling up on my couch for a late night movie!” on my social media accounts. Because I don’t have access to the internet and can’t post fake updates myself?

    This is obviously just one of the problems with this kind of service. Would it mean that I have to abstain from posting anything about my vacation? It would kind of give up the rouse if right above the tweet about unloading groceries or something there was a photo of me drinking mai tais on the beach.

    Plus, with privacy settings and all, I can limit the flow of information to a select few people. And if your inner circle contains someone who would rob you blind while you’re away, you probably need to watch who you friend on Facebook.

    And as TNW points out, if you really don’t want to be obligated to fake-update your social media statuses whilst you’re away, something like HootSuite will let you schedule updates for a future time.

    Precreate’s Jackson seems to think there could be some other benefits to employing his service. “It’s getting to the point now when insurance firms are going charge higher premiums for social media users,” he says. Great. Just because I drive a red sports car, smoke a pack a day and overshare on Facebook, I’m going to have to pay higher premiums.

    Having said all of that, it is an interesting idea. Do you think it is possible that it could catch on? Let us know what you think.