Alert Blog Reviews

We are always looking for new applications for social media outlets right? How can we get our message out to more people? How can we create community amongst customers? How we can get 40,000 people to follow us as we escape from the law? Whoa, wait a minute. That last one doesn’t seem very ‘marketing’ oriented does it? Well, that’s because it’s not and it is really a slow news day at least from this blogger’s perspective. So let’s instead follow the tale of the rocket scientist who escaped from a jail in England and has spent the last 4 months taunting police through his Facebook presence . I say rocket scientist because it wasn’t like he just went to jail and was getting ready for a long stint in the slammer (very 40’s gangster film sounding isn’t it?). No, in fact, he was getting close to the end of a seven year sentence for aggravated burglary but now he may have to find another way to work out his aggravation. Mashable reports A British man who has spent the four months following his prison break taunting police with clues and rude gestures on Facebook has finally been caught by Scotland Yard. After he disappeared from a minimum-security prison in Suffolk in late September, the man (named Craig Lynch) posted status updates about what kind of steak he was eating, the temperature, and his New Year’s plans, stopping just shy of giving police enough information to find him. He even posted profile pictures with signs mocking his pursuers. How about this for a marketing angle. You can breath new life into the Robert Downery, Jr. movie Sherlock Holmes with the obvious Scotland Yard connection. Maybe a little time travel for Mr. Holmes to the future could be in the works for Sherlock Holmes 2 as he tracks notorious villains and the like using social media. Heck, he already has the CGI stunt part of the future down so why not go all out? Turns out Mr. Lynch may have been more of a prophet than anything else The “About Me” section of his Facebook profile said: “You’ll have a laugh with me but it will end in tears. It always does.” Not the happiest of endings I suppose but what did he expect, privacy with Facebook?

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Escapee Using Facebook to Taunt Police is Caught

While most of us in the Internet marketing “industry” were all aghast at the Facebook privacy problem of ’09 , the rest of the world could have cared less. You know those people, right? The ones who don’t live and breathe this stuff to the point that all perspective is lost? These are the ‘everyday’ Facebook users who don’t give a rip about Mark Zuckerberg and the continued search for 7,000 people who care enough to impact any policy changes with the social media giant. So those regular folks pushed Facebook to a point where it had never been before: the number one site during the Christmas holiday. ReadWriteWeb tells us Christmas is a holiday that brings people together, so perhaps it should be no surprise that Facebook has become a part of millions of peoples’ Christmas experiences. For the first time in its history, Facebook was the #1 most visited website in the United States on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year, according to traffic analyst firm Hitwise today. Makes sense doesn’t it? Personally I was more prone to using Skype rather than updating everyone but that is certainly a personal preference. So while the site finished third for the year behind Google and Yahoo Mail it was certainly a milestone to be seen as the Christmas site of choice. Last year Facebook finished second in this contest to Google but was able to flip positions this year. See what a year of gigantic growth can do for you? Wonder if Santa will be as nice to Facebook next year after the rest of the world catches on that their “goings on” at Facebook aren’t as private as they used to be?

Original post:
Facebook Receives News of A Merry Christmas Indeed

Mark Zuckerberg and I aren’t Facebook friends. That’s cool; I don’t know him. Until recently, all I could see of his profile was his picture, networks and friend list. But this morning, either the Facebook CEO had decided that’s what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, or even he didn’t know what the new privacy settings changed. I’m going to guess that it was B, because since the articles on True Slant and ValleyWag have run, Zuckerberg’s profile is a lot more private. On his Page (where you can be his fan, not to be confused with his profile), Zuckerberg defends the change: For those wondering, I set most of my content on my personal Facebook page to be open so people could see it. I set some of my content to be more private, but I didn’t see a need to limit visibility of pics with my friends, family or my teddy bear Oh, really? Because when I try to visit his profile, I get a “Mark only shares some of his profile information with everyone.” message at the top of his profile, and no photos. Zuckerberg does still share some of his info with everyone: his basic info, personal info (only the about me: “i’m trying to make the world a more open place.”), education and work, and five of the pages he’s a fan of. (These five rotate; screen caps from the privacy changes indicate he has 17 pages.) Also public: his links, friends and events. There is, of course, another possibility as to why some people like Kashmir Hill can see his photos—they have mutual friends (Hill’s is another Facebook employee). When you update your privacy settings, the new default setting for photos is to make them visible to “Friends of Friends.” (I’ve contacted Ryan Tate to see if he also has at least one mutual friend, but haven’t heard back yet. Mark and I share no friends.) But really, as Facebook is pushing more people to go public, and if Zuckerberg is really “trying to make the world a more open place,” he could do a lot more opening himself. The CEO of the site might be seen as an example to users—and if he really wants them to go public, should he be willing to do the same? What do you think? Was this an accident on Zuckerberg’s part, or because Tate and Hill have mutual friends?

Excerpt from:
Even Mark Zuckerberg Isn’t Sure About Getting More Public

As we’ve heard before , Facebook is gearing up for yet another redesign. As we saw in leaked screenshots two weeks ago, Facebook is going to start sorting news feeds by Recent Activity and Top News stories (the ones with the most comments or likes). That change is supposed to also reduce load time, and relegates the Publisher box to an “Update Status” button. So the new news in the latest leaks: Mashable has a four-page PDF from Facebook to its advertisers that outlines the changes they’ve made, and why. In addition to the aforementioned changes to the news feed, they’re adding back a lot of the friend activity information that was filtered out after the last redesign. Facebook redesigns are notoriously unpopular . Of course, most people resist change, and it’s tough to please hundreds of millions of people. Other important changes come from the Engagement ads and fan pages. As the PDF for advertisers explains, Facebook is working to help its advertisers receive good placement, so they’re adding fanning, RSVPs for events and virtual gifts to the news feed. (I know, just what you were waiting for.) This will move these events out of the right-hand column, which would also make ads placed there more prominent. FB says that their new pages will increase fan signups: The opportunity to acquire Fans increases with this new home page design. This is due to several reasons including the migration of Fan stories into the center stream, and the increase in “Suggestions” from one to two connections. They’re also premiering new layouts for Groups (and this one has already rolled out). In a blog post Monday, Facebook said that they’re revamping Groups pages to make them more like profiles and fan pages, and to surface more info to make it easier for members to keep up with group activities. You can also sort your news feed to show only stories from your groups (which isn’t a new feature, I believe, just a reminder). In all, this “redesign” is more of a tweak to the last one. While no change will ever be well-received 100% by a group as big as FB’s user base, the “less is more” approach will probably lead to less opposition. What do you think? Will this redesign go over well? Will there be as much protest this time around? Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

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Facebook’s Facelift (and Changes for Groups)