Facebook Charges to Highlight Posts

How much do you want your friends to know what’s going on with you? Will you pay to make sure they get the message?

Facebook is hoping that you will. The world’s biggest social network has rolled out a test program that gives your post a leg up on all of the other bits and pieces in the Facebook stream. Those in the test market are seeing “”Highlight an Important Post: Make Sure Your Friends See This” along with an authorization to charge $2 to PayPal or your major credit card.
Facebook probably knew that this would be a hot topic for discussion, up to and including ridicule; a headline in “The Week UK” called it “a feature more embarrassing than porn.” With all of the hustle and bustle of the IPO, the Facebook powers-that-be wisely decided to test this program in New Zealand. No offense to my New Zealand friends and readers, but that’s about as far “off the map” as anything in these globally connected times.

After all, it’s not enough anymore to be a person; the 21st Century individual must be a BRAND; and how best to promote your brand than to advertise? Facebook has provided a similar feature to advertisers, the “Reach Generator,” which helps Liked pages to get their posts more prominently featured in a subscriber’s stream. Fair enough, but the “Highlight” feature is a deliberate gaming of the organic social process by which active posts rise to the top. In other words, you’re buying buzz.

I’m sure that someone at Facebook is thinking, “hmm, if we can just get 5 million posts highlighted, we won’t be missing all of that sweet, sweet General Motors money.” And that’s what Highlight is all about; keeping the newfound investors from realizing that Facebook still has absolutely no clue how to make money. “Look at all these clever new ideas that we’re trying,” pleads Facebook. “See, even though the potential user base is saturated and Zuckerberg is on record saying that he’s clueless about how to do mobile, your money actually was well spent.”

That’s not a real quote, by the way. This is the real quote: “We’re constantly testing new features across Facebook,” said Facebook spokesperson Mia Garlick. “This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing among their friends.”

People are interested. Some people are interested in laughing at Facebook, and some are interested in leaving if Facebook gets worse (but what else is new?). Precious few are interested in paying, however, so what we’re interested in most is what unbelievable thing Facebook will test on us next.

Use the Power of Facebook to Sell your Belongings

Selling on the internet has opened up new avenues, not only for the businesses- big or small, but it has made selling possible and easy even for individuals! Many businesses that can not afford to spend huge amounts to create awareness about their products in the regular channels of marketing media have found success through om establishing themselves via the internet. When there once was no way you could possibly interest people in buying your antique LPs or turn of the century books, the internet offers a free platform to achieve it. Facebook is mostly known as having provided a great platform for people to communicate, connect, and share their significant moments. However, the internet giant has not overlooked the eCommerce possibilities of such a platform, especially in light of the fact that it now has over 750 million users around the world.  New developments have made it easier to offer the platform for selling and buying.

The application facilitating selling and buying, called “Marketplace” is integrated on the pages of Facebook. Log in to your Facebook account and you can find it in the Applications box on the left side of the home page. Or you may search for Marketplace from the search tool and add the same to your page. Facebook Market app facilitates selling, buying, hiring or searching any thing you want. Of course, there are many Buy and Sell classified sites available on the net, but the main advantage of the Facebook platform is that here you can deal with your friends and also know what is available in your area. You are not necessarily dealing with total strangers, unlike in classified ads, which makes many people hesitate to buy there.

If you are planning to sell your item that can be photographed, take a good picture and if possible with features that make it stand out with other items on display. On the Marketplace page click “Add New Listing” found at the top and choose “For Sale” tab among other tabs that offer Free-stuff, Housing and Other that is for any other deals. In the page that opens, choose the specific category the item belongs to: electronics, furniture, books etc. Give the information about the item like description and asking price. You can upload the photo of the item. Then click on “Create listing” to upload the listing with all the information.

Are you planning to sell handmade items online? Etsy is the site that specializes in handcrafted items of many varieties and you can post them on Etsy, but the traffic you may get here is not much.  You can cross-post them on Facebook to easily promote such merchandise by adding your Etsy shop on Facebook. This is just one example of how thousands of sites offer the public information and purchasing opportunities for their products, which can be linked to your Facebook pages.

Selling on Facebook is implied when companies display their products on Facebook and users could click “Add to Cart.” In times past, those customers were taken to the seller’s external websites to complete the transaction. Newer software and advanced technology has now made it possible to complete purchases on the Facebook site.

How to Add Official Facebook Page to Your Profile Employer Link

For New Profile, now you can have a much simpler way to add your Facebook Page. Just delete your job (that created a community page) and when you try to re-add it, you will be prompted to link to your managed facebook page. No extra steps required.

Updated 10/07/2012 for New Profile Timeline workaround (near to the bottom of the post).

Don’t get me wrong, I love facebook. But there are times that I wish users are given more control over things to share on their own accounts. Especially after facebook page was introduced, users who are excited to share their professional backgrounds are constantly brainstorming to break through on a few matters: separating business from personal account, receive notifications for fan page wall updates and most of all, how can we improve page visibility on profile effectively without being annoying?

Getting exposed – Employer Link!

The easiest and most unharmful method is no doubt the ‘Employers’ section in Info tab. But there’s one MAJOR problem with that – no option to place our very own official page link there, instead a community page be created for each field inserted.

Imagine the frustration for unable to showcase our brand correctly with an authentic page. But now a new found fix will change all that – thanks to a Firefox add-on named Web Developer, and you don’t even need to stick with firefox after this, only during the setup.

Web Developer – the magic plugin to fix employer link

If you do not own a firefox browser, Web Developer will give you enough reasons to install it for the sake of your business page visibility. This add-on is for firefox only but final result will work on all browser types. Web Developer adds a toolbar for web development purposes, but no fear as inserting a page ID will get things done with no coding complications at all.

How to Add Official Facebook Page Link to Profile ‘Employer’

Here comes the best part,

For Older Profile Layout (before upgrade):

1.       Firstly, install firefox if you haven’t and run the setup.

Special Note: Good news as Google Chrome also comes with the Web Developer extension and it works exactly the same way!

2.       Next, install Web Developer to your firefox.

3.      Restart the browser as instructed and you will notice a toolbar appears on top of the browser.

Smart

 4.       Now go to your official fan page and locate your Page ID.

 If you already claimed your vanity URL or username, then retrieve your official page ID by mouse over ‘Edit Page’:

Smart

5.       Let’s go to your personal profile now : Profile -> Info tab -> Edit

6.       Select ‘Education and Work’ -> look for ‘Employer‘ field box (with ‘Add Another Job’ below it).

7.       Now at your browser, look for the Web Developer toolbar and select Forms -> Display Form Details

8.       Do not be taken aback by the scary looking codes displayed to you. Instead, try to identify the location of this code:

<input name=”work[employer][id][0]”>

Once you have found it, insert your page ID next to the grey box as shown below:

9.       Turn off codes by deselecting ‘Display Form Details’ on your browser and fill in the rest of the details -> Save Changes. You can add as many jobs as you prefer by repeating step #7-9.

 10.   Go back to your Info tab and admire the result!

For New Profile Layout:

Updated (10/07/2012)

Now recently facebook had recommended their users to upgrade their personal profile to new layout. This method still works but with a slight twist at the Page ID insertion part. I would recommend you to change the employer link in the old profile first before upgrade to save the trouble. Or if you had done so, then follow exactly from Step 1 – 6 above, then continue the rest here:

7. Type in your Page Name in the Employer box, click ‘Add’ (your page name)’.

Sometimes facebook will load the correct thumbnail of your official page. When that happens, you can stop here and shout for joy! If instead of your page but a briefcase thumbnail appears (community page is created), then go on with the rest of the setups by going to your browser and select:

Forms -> Display Form Details

8. Again, try to locate the location of this code:

<input name=”work[employer][id][0]”>

Once you have found it, change the community page ID to your official page’s in the grey box:

Click ‘Add Job‘ (or ‘Save Changes‘ if you are editing) to confirm your change.

Optional: Sometimes if the page is not updated correctly, try to add details to your Job, for example setting the Time Period -> click ‘Add Job‘ (or ‘Save Changes‘). You can always remove them later after you had successfully added your official facebook page:

Your official page should be added correctly now.

For New Profile Timeline:

Updated (23/12/2011)

For the most recent upgrade to Profile Timeline, slightly different for where the employer link is located and the code as well. Refer to the instructions below after you had installed the Web Developer Add-on. I’m using Firefox 3.6.22 for this example:

1. Go to your Profile Timeline -> Update Info (or click ‘About’) to access your work and education details.

 2. Add your work by typing the name of your business page. Sometimes instead of the Page’s full name, try its partial name so it will appear in the drop down:

3. When that’s not working, use the Web Developer -> Forms -> Display Form Details. Then locate the code <input name=”employer_id”> to insert your Page ID in the grey box:

Extra:

Major props to Jon for discovering the fix for old profile layout that saved our day! But there are a few things I came across during the setup as well – the ‘position’ you filled in Employer section will be directed to a community page (of course), just as how the employer link reacts before the change.

So make sure you select the best position title that describes your post. If needed, use the same method to control where the link is been directed to.

Now is Your Turn…

Does this method work for your employer link? Or do you have a better idea for a fix? Love to hear your thoughts.

16+ Facebook Tips You Don’t Want to Miss!

Posted by Smart

16++ Facebook Tips You Should Not Miss!

#1 To Control Facebook Font Size for Readability

To enlarge: Press ‘Ctrl’ and ‘+’;

To minimize: Press ‘Ctrl’ & ‘-’

 

#2 To Bold and Underline your text in Facebook Chat

For Bold text –> *your message*

For Underline –> _your message_

#3 To Bypass 420 characters limit for Status Updates

Add a photo to your status update and enjoy the limit-free characters.

(Suggestion: use photo that is related to what you’re sharing, see here for the example)

#4 To Increase the number of Pages or Friends to appear in News Feed

At News Feed > Most Recent > Scroll down to bottom, click Edit Options > Increase the maximum number of friends (or pages) shown in Live Feed OR, insert your own selections of ‘Recommended Friends (or Pages)’.

 If you are a page admin, encourage your fans to add your page. But mind you, ‘popularity’ is another major factor that you need to be aware of: Facebook 

#5 To Display extra Information on Facebook Page Wall with ‘Founded’

Go to Edit Page -> Basic Information -> Founded -> type not more than 247 characters for your (extra) business info.

#6 To Access your Application Settings directly from profile

We all know the Account -> Application Settings is no longer available. But you can still reach the application page easily via this direct link: http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=applications Bookmark it if you’ll use it often.

#7 To Review your Invites and Imported Contacts

Invite History is an important link to track contacts you had invited to join Facebook. As an admin, I find this particularly useful when I’m sending email invitations to those who are yet to own a facebook profile but to co-administer my page. That way I can track their responses and send reminder to them if need to. Also, a good way to discover if the invited contacts are all set with a personal profile to be added as friends:

#8 To Remove all your Imported Contacts from Phone or Emails

If you’re a mobile user who had accidentally imported your friends from phone contacts or emails while authorizing an app, remove and protect their privacy (and yours) via this link so they won’t be exposed on Edit Friends -> Phonebook:

#9 Discover Facebook Pages to ‘Like’

Browse facebook pages you may find interest in based on categories or countries. Not only that, you can even discover what your friends and you have in common based in mutual ‘liked’ pages.

#10 To Browse Directory by Name

A full directory that contains public search listings on facebook – profiles, pages, applications, groups, you name it – all arranged alphabetically by last name. Numbers 1 to 26 contain non-Latin character names. If you do not wish to be found here, make sure to opt out by changing your privacy settings for Public Search.

#11 Download Your Facebook Information

A new feature introduced by facebook to back-up your personal data:

Go to Account -> Account Settings -> Download -> Learn More

It will take some time for facebook to generate all your data (photos, videos, wall posts, messages, friend lists etc). Once it is archived (in .zip format), you will receive an email notification to proceed with the download.

Your .zip files will not be containing photos uploaded by others, phonebook and friends’ email addresses, so if you’re in need of those data too, some recommended apps to download the missing data.

#12 To Secure your facebook account

To be notified when people hacked into your facebook account:

Account Settings -> Account Security -> ON -> Save to receive notifications for login alert via email from new devices. You can now login and register your computer with a name, then start tracking.

#13 To Download Facebook Videos

It is always easy to download a video hosted on Youtube, but what about those clips uploaded directly to facebook? This facebook video downloader may be able to do the trick. So far it has been working well for all public videos.

#14 To obtain facebook Info & Facts:

• Company Factsheet & statistics
• Facebook Timeline
• Facebook Press Releases
• Success Stories by brands

 

#15 To Get Practical with your Facebook Page:

• Enhance your facebook pages with Facebook applications, but be selective.
• Import blog feed to facebook page for site visibility.
• Improve admin and fans interactions with contact forms; setup page notifications for wall updates and discussion board.
• Improve profile- or page-to-page engagements with status tagging
• Secure your Employer Link with business page link on personal profile
• Protect your personal profile from business pages with privacy settings
• Social media integrations with selective tweets, status updates schedulers (with points to ponder) and multiple blogs import.

NEW! #16 To Change your Page Name

Great news for newly created facebook pages or business pages that have a small amount of fans, you can now edit your page name from: Edit Page -> Basic Information -> Name

 

Not all facebook pages are given this previlege and unsure how ‘few’ fans considered eligible for the name-change. But at least it’s a big step for facebook.

Now is Your Turn…

Why not share your special facebook tips and tricks? If there are enough contributions, I’ll produce a sequel for this article, along with a link love to either your facebook page or site, depends on relevancy. If you want more, be sure to follow my fan page’s discussion thread entitled ‘Collections of Facebook Tips’ for new updates.

15 Creative Tips to Rock Your Timeline Cover Photo for Facebook Pages

Facebook Pages are going through drastic changes to embrace the Timeline layout. One of the most critical tasks is to design your cover photo (851×315 pixels). Unfortunately, Facebook had laid down strict rules to prevent all promotional links, call to actions, contact information to appear on the cover:

This made the transition even more difficult and daunting. We’ve seen the big brands with their visual compelling cover photos. Just how shall we, the (smaller brand) page owners can make full use of that visible spot for brand awareness? I’ve compiled about 60+ cover photos from non-big-brand pages below, hopefully we can be inspired by their amazing effort.

Disclaimer: Below pages are mentioned due to their creative use of cover images. It has nothing to do with affiliation or promotion for the products/services they offered.

#1  To Announce an Event or Product Launch

Kim uses the cover image to announce her exclusive webinar while the image description (after clicked) includes the link to the event registration. Smart idea.

ShortStack informs everyone that their facebook applications are now Timeline ready – a message that is hard to miss on the cover. Their custom app images are nicely designed too.

 

#2  To Show Appreciation to Supporters/Fans

What a wonderful gesture to showcase your loyal fans by adding them to your cover photo, Mari has done it again!

#3  Creative Design of Company Name and Logo

These brands are incorporating colorful and impressive background designs to match their company name and logo. Some of them have customized their custom app images to match their brand identity.

 

#4  To Capture Attention with Catchy Slogan & Images

 Fresh Art uses a cover photo that resonates with all of us – who doesn’t have a silly moment?

 Another smart use of tagline,

 Yes, it’s obvious how much you love art.

How to Restore Your Address Book After Facebook Messed It Up

How to Restore Your Address Book After Facebook Messed It Up
Recently, Facebook changed everyone's email to an @facebook.com address. Even if you fixed the problem, you may find that Facebook changed all of the contacts in your phone, too. Here's how to fix it.
A lot of us sync our Facebook accounts with our address books on our smartphones, so we always have up-to-date phone numbers, email addresses, and pictures for all of our friends. However, with Facebook changing everyone's email to @facebook.com last week, blogger Rachel Luxemburg (and a lot of other people) found that those changes were synced down to their phone—meaning they don't have any of their friends' actual email addresses anymore. Just the facebook.com ones.
None of us at Lifehacker have noticed this problem, but we do have a few ideas about how to fix it. In fact, this will fix any similar problem you have where your contacts get messed up. Here's what you need to do.

Step One: Restore Your Contacts to a Previous State

Some services—particularly Google—regularly back up your contacts so if something goes wrong, you can restore them. And, since nearly all Android users sync their contacts with Google—as well as many iPhone users—this is a good way to fix the contacts on your phone. To do so, just follow these instructions:

1. Before you do anything else, go to your phone and turn off Facebook syncing for your contact list. On Android, this is in the Facebook app under Settings > Sync Contacts. Just set it to "Don't Sync". On the iPhone, go to the Facebook app, click the menu button, scroll down to "Friends", then hit the share button in the upper right-hand corner. Tap "Sync Contacts" and turn syncing off. Note that depending on your platform, you may have a "Remove Facebook Data" button on the contact syncing screen—tapping this will also turn off syncing.
2. Go to your Gmail inbox, and click on the "Gmail" label under the Google logo. Go to Contacts. Remember, this trick only works if you were syncing your phone with your Google contacts.
3. Click the "More" button and go to "Restore Contacts". We don't know exactly when the Facebook change happened, but you'll probably want to set it to restore your contacts from a day before June 22, 2012, so set it to whatever you need to go back that far.
4. Click the Restore button. When it finishes, you should hopefully find that all of your contacts' correct email addresses have been restored! As long as you don't sync with Facebook again, they should stay that way.

If you don't sync your contacts with Google, check to see if your desktop address book has any alternatives. For example, if you're on a Mac and you back it up with Time Machine, you can just open up Address Book, invoke Time Machine from the menu bar, then restore it to a date before the Facebook ridiculousness happened. Then when you re-sync your iPhone, you should be good to go. Check your address book app's documentation for more info on whether it has an automatic backup feature.

Step Two: Remind Your Friends to Change Their Facebook Profile

If you can't restore your address book—or if you still want to be able to sync your Facebook—the only thing you can do is get all your friends to change their Facebook profile back to the way it was. That way, Facebook will sync their correct email address back to your phone. We've shown you how to do this before, so if you haven't already, spread the word to all your friends and family so they don't run into problems later on.
We couldn't test these instructions ourselves, because none of us have experienced the issue, but this should help you get your contacts back to the way they were (or at least closer). If you'ved this issue, let us know how these instructions work for you in the comments below.

How to Filter Unnecessary Likes and Comments from Your Facebook News Feed

Lately, Facebook's news feed has gotten even more cluttered than usual, now informing you of every comment your friends make, and every page they like. If you'd like to keep your feed a little cleaner, reader Justin Beeson shows us how.

You could always customize Facebook with browser extensions or other tweaks, but if you just want to fix this annoyance, Facebook has a great method built-in. You'll need a friends list to start with, but you should be using those anyway—it's a great way to filter out the people you don't really care about.
Click on your friend list of choice in the left sidebar, and click the "Manage List" button in the top right-hand corner. Click "Choose Update Types, and then click "Manage List" again to show the full list of possible updates. From there, you can uncheck things like "Comments and Likes", "Games", and any other updates that clutter up your news feed. Coupled with the friend list, it's a great way to see only the good stuff on Facebook—and none of the junk.
How to Stop All Those "Liked" Pictures From Showing Up In Your Facebook News Feed | But Seriously...

 

Facebook Changed Everyone's Email to @Facebook.com; Here's How to Fix It

Facebook Changed Everyone’s Email to @Facebook.com; Here’s How to Fix Yours

Facebook just removed everyone's email address from their profile and replaced it with an @facebook.com email address without asking you. Here's how to easily fix the problem.
Facebook launched its own email service back in 2010, which was promptly forgotten by everyone. This morning, Forbes noticed that they removed everyone's email addresses from their profiles, replacing them with an @facebook.com email address instead (not Facebook's internal email address which they use for notifications and password resets, just the one listed on your profile). Luckily, it's easy to get your old email address back on your profile:

1. Click "About" on your profile and scroll down to your email address. Click "Edit" to change them.
2. Click on the circle next to your Facebook email address and change its setting to "Hidden From Timeline".
3. Click on the circle next to your other email addresses and change their settings to "Shown On Timeline".
4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the Edit popup (Don't forget this step).

Full size

That's all it takes. It's a really quick fix, but it was a big jerk move for Facebook to do this without asking permission, or even telling you that it happened. Spread this info around so people don't get stuck without any contact information, too, lest we lose the one aspect of Facebook that was still useful.
Update: A Facebook spokesperson has responded to everyone's questions on the subject, but they don't have much to say—except that yes, they have given everyone a Facebook email address and rolled out a "new setting that gives people the choice to decide which addresses they want to show on their timelines." They did not explain why (or even acknowledge) that all of these addresses were made default on people's profiles. You can read the full response over at Matthew Keys' blog. Thanks, @MsLaurenRae!

Facebook's Lame Attempt To Force Its Email Service On You | Forbes via Gizmodo

Get Your Facebook Account Under Control This Weekend

Get Your Facebook

Account Under Control

This Weekend

You're probably well aware that this week Facebook decided to change the email address on your timeline to @facebook.com without asking you first. While it was easy enough to fix, there's plenty about the social media site that's been causing problems for users for quite awhile. Let's get them under control this weekend.  

Install Social Fixer

You need to download and install Social Fixer. Pretty much every problem, annoyance, gripe, or general complaint you have about Facebook can be fixed with that one browser extension. It can change the look and feel of the site, disable the lightbox-style photo viewer, hide that annoying news ticker, track who's unfriending you, and get rid of timeline. It can do a whole lot more than that, but those are some prime of examples of why you ought to be using it. It's essentially a panacea for the most common Facebook problems (and even a few minor ones, too).

Audit Your Approved Apps

As someone who basically never uses Facebook apps, I'm continuously surprised when I audit my approved app list every month and find things I've never heard of. Many apps have a way of subtly asking you for access to your personal information without you necessarily realizing it, and you may approve an app one month and not want to give it access in the next. Whatever the case may be, you should be regularly auditing the access you give third parties. If it has been awhile, go visit your applications settings page and start removing apps you don't want, need, or recognize. It only takes a couple of minutes and it helps ensure your privacy.

Audit Your Facebook Privacy Settings

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Speaking of your privacy, you should audit those settings as well. Facebook changes things pretty often, which is why we have an always up-to-date guide to managing your Facebook privacy. Use it to go through all the various settings and make sure your profile/timeline is as open or locked down as you want it to be. I'm not going to lie—this is pretty tedious, but very worth it. Spending an hour on your privacy settings while you watch a movie or listen to a podcast is a lot more fun than accidentally allowing your boss to see embarrassing, drunken photos you thought were only for a select group of friends.

Clean Up Your Friends

How many of your Facebook friends are actually friends? Or maybe a better question is how many of your Facebook friends do you actually still want? When you add someone, you're allowing them access to your information on some level. Even though Facebook provides friend groups to help you better-manage which information is shown to whom, when your friend list is in the thousands it's easy to miss who has access and who doesn't. If you've been feeling overwhelmed by the number of people you've agreed to connect with on the social network, it's time for a little pruning.
The easiest option is to just make regular posts for a couple of weeks about how you're pruning your friends and ask that everyone who wants to stay on as one of your friends should send you a message. After the two week period is up, make a list of all people who responded. Keep them and delete the rest. If you've got a bunch of friends, this can take awhile if you do it manually. Alternatively, check out this GreaseMonkey script called FacebookDeletes. It can help you delete batches of people and save a bunch of time.

Got Another Problem? Ask Your Friends!

One of the things Facebook is good for is crowdsourcing, so when you have a problem you can just ask your friends for help with the solution. For example, I'd inadvertently added someone as a top friend and so I received constant notifications of every little thing they posted. This was terrible, and I had no idea why it was happening. I described the problem in a status update, posted it, and had a solution a few minutes later. I do have the luxury of subscribers, but generally when it comes to Facebook questions I get responses from my friends in meatspace. They're on Facebook quite a bit more than me, so if I learn things about the social network it's often from them (or because they ask me for a solution). It may be common sense, but when you've got a problem about Facebook then Facebook is generally the best place to go for an answer.