The new feature, which displays popular links to articles your friends have been reading in your newsfeed, is part of Facebook’s plan to create what they call ‘frictionless sharing’.  Media outlets such as The Guardian and Yahoo have created apps that use the feature.

You’ll start to see the new feature sprinkled among your friend’s updates and photos. However, these articles aren’t ones that your friends have opted to share, it simply shows what your friends have read while logged into Facebook putting yet another question mark over privacy some might say.

The argument for Trending Articles, of course, is the notion that Facebook’s customers will want to read what their friends have read. It’s similar to the idea of adding the music that friends listen to on Spotify to the News Feed. And like Spotify items in the News Feed, users can “hide” items from the various sites.

It’s unclear what Facebook will do with Trending Articles. It’s already toned down the feature once. But at least some users continue to complain that they don’t like the pollution in their news feeds. From an experience design standpoint, that doesn’t bode well. But when a company faces little competitive threat, design often takes a back seat to business imperative.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook spoke about the new feature in an interview with ‘Good Morning America’ this morning. The Facebook initiative allows users to share their organ donation status online. The status will be visible with other information on the user’s Health and Wellness section.

This feature will also offer links to state online donor registries, where people can change their donor status.

More than 100,000 people in the US are on lists waiting for organ transplants, and 18 people in the country die every day because they have not received organs in time, according to the ABC report.

Facebook is going to offer the new donor feature to the US and UK first, with plans to roll it out to other countries after. Could Facebook be the future of medicine?

]]> http://www.thebluedoor.com/blog/facebook-organ-donor-initiative/feed 0 http://www.thebluedoor.com/news/what-do-linkedins-two-new-functions-mean-for-you http://www.thebluedoor.com/news/what-do-linkedins-two-new-functions-mean-for-you#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:17:08 +0000 Rebecca http://www.thebluedoor.com/?p=2042 This week Linkedin has announced the launch of two brand new functions; ‘Targeted Updates’ and ‘Follower Statistics’. Over the next few weeks, Linkedin will roll out these new features to its users, once again broadening the appeal and potential of the already hugely successful site. Here at thebluedoor, our PR agency based in Surrey, we are watching with interest as social networking sites continuously evolve. Boasting in excess of 150 million users and counting, professional social networking giant Linkedin has infiltrated the lives of professionals worldwide, offering unrivalled ability to connect, unite and network professionally. Already a cherished part of many people’s day-to-day social networking routine, Linkedin is under immense pressure to compete with its biggest social networking rivals, notably Facebook, Twitter and potentially Google+.

In a bid to further enhance the appeal of the site to in particular, recruiters, marketers and advertisers, the two new functions will work together to facilitate uniquely tailored, monitored and targeted communication. The new functions are underpinned by Linkedin’s promise to ‘build a more effective follower ecosystem’ and succeeds their ‘follow’ feature launched in February this year that gives users the ability to ‘follow’ a company in a similar way to ‘liking’ something on Facebook.

Targeted Updates will allow companies to segment their followers into different groups such as; industry, function, non-company employees etc. They will then be able to send updates relevant to each specific group, ensuring pinpoint communication accuracy. Follower Statistics is a unique analytics dashboard that ensures maximum control, specificity and effectiveness by allowing companies to determine and monitor how successful their updates have been.

Although the success of Linkedin’s new functions remains to be seen, they are certainly making a serious effort to remain at the forefront of social media innovation. With this incredibly lucrative and successful market moving at such an insane speed of growth in recent times, it can sometimes be hard to keep up with the latest social networking developments. With Google+ and Facebook also both announcing major developments this month, the question must be asked; are social networking sites truly carving a unique online individual presence for themselves, or are they actually becoming increasingly alike?

Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, sent a message out to Facebook users detailing that despite the fact Facebook and Instagram offer “different experiences, that the two platforms would “complement each other.”

He went on to say that “This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users,” Zuckerberg stated. “We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.”

The question on everyone’s lips now though is whether Instagram can do well under the Facebook umbrella…

“Upon any relatively small startup being absorbed by a larger company, there’s almost always change in structure, workflow and even long-term product goals,” Isaac writes. “While both Mark Zuckerberg and Burbn CEO Kevin Systrom both promised that Instagram would continue as the standalone brand and product it is now, it’s difficult to imagine that the social giant’s influence won’t affect Instagram’s evolution at all.”

As BBC News explains, “Internet firms will be required to give intelligence agency GCHQ access to communications on demand, in real time.” Experts representing ISPs, such as Trefor Davies, have already commented that this will be very difficult to administrate or enforce, since the technological hurdles to collate everything are too great. At present, only basic information is stored by ISPs.

The Home Office has been reported as saying this legislation is important if we are to tackle crime and terrorism, but civil liberties groups have criticised it already, unsurprisingly.

Is it an infringement too far, or a necessary step for our security? And if the latter, how will it be policed? Human rights and freedom of the press versus terrorism is not a debate that will be resolved quickly. We await more news – but should we be in the Diary Room?

With students entering the job market over the next few months, it will be interesting to see the backgrounds from which those entering the fields of PR, Journalism and Marketing come. Whilst there are specialist PR degree courses, a number of skillsets enable people to be outstanding communicators.

Business knowledge, practical experience of sales and customer service, confidence on the phone or an interest in research – these all provide an excellent basis for a person to become a great PR professional.

Communication opens new channels between individuals, organisations, and even whole societies. To be part of such an exciting industry is a fantastic opportunity and hopefully one that more students will consider as they look at potential careers.

You may already have the new Timeline format for your personal page, the brand pages work in a very similar way, except for a few additional features.

As a page owner / administrator, you have three options:

1.    Publish your new Timeline layout immediately for all to see.
2.    Preview your Timeline layout and begin arranging it, publishing it once you’re happy with the design and information.
3.    Wait 4 weeks until all pages are automatically upgraded to the new Timeline layout on Friday 30th March 2012.

New Facebook Pages Glossary

Cover Photo
This is the large image at the top of the page which should visually represent what your page is about. It should not contain any textual messaging. The correct measurement for your cover photo is 851 x 315 pixels – however images outside these dimensions are scalable.

Profile Photo
The profile photo is your 180 x 180 pixel passport that follows and represents your page throughout Facebook. It is recommended that this space is used for a logo.

Composer Panel
The Composer Panel is where you can post a status, photo, ask a question or publish a milestone. It is the hub for sharing information to your Facebook page.

Pinned Post
An entirely new function is the pinned post feature. An important post you make can be pinned so that it retains the top spot on your page. It will remain in this position for 7 days, unless you remove or replace it before this time. This allows you to draw attention to a particular post that was made, without it being buried by other posts.

Star Posts
If an admin stars a post it will make the post itself larger, taking the full width of the timeline. This makes the post more prominent since ordinary posts get have of the timeline width.

Private Messaging
Private messaging between community members and page administrators is now available with the new layout. Send private messages direct to the inbox of specific people in your community, offering an almost e-mail function attached to your Facebook page.

Admin Panel
The Admin Panel is a new feature for pages which gives you a dashboard of useful information about your page including your private message inbox, insights and new likes. The Admin Panel is situated above your cover photo and is only viewable by page admins.

Change Date
As an administrator, you are now able to change the date of a post – making it appear to be in the past. This allows you to backdate information to before the Timeline format was available – filling in the gaps for users of your community who are interested in your past.

Milestones
Milestones are particular events that have happened. This could be a product launch, an award, an acquisition – anything actually. This informs your community of highlights of your operations. You can set a milestone using the ‘Composer’ panel.

Hiding / Deleting Content
If you hide a post it removes it from the view of your community permanently. However, administrators of the page will still be able to see the post. If you delete a post, it removes it permanently from the view of both the administrator and the user.

Friend Activity
The friend activity section on the top of your page shows users which of their friends have liked, visited or tagged your page. This is a powerful tool as users are likely to be influenced by their friends.

Activity Log
The Activity Log manages the content on your timeline and allows you to see what has been posted and published and when.

Insights
Insights are Facebook’s own analytics that allow you to view a range of statistics about your page including new likes, engagement etc.

For more information about the new Facebook Timeline for Pages – or to take the 30 minute course visit: http://www.learnfacebookpages.com/.

If you have any questions – get in touch with thebluedoor Team on 01252 899969.

Do we need another way to stay in contact?

Through Social Media the world is becoming a much smaller and more intimate place. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn provide a wealth of information at your fingertips and in a format to suit your timetable and preferred style of communication. There is no excuse now not to stay up to date on your favourite brands’ news, career opportunities and industry trends wherever you may be in the world and whatever you are doing!

Social Media is an excellent platform for building your brand, promoting thought-leadership, putting a human face to the corporate reputation and conducting a two-way dialogue with your customers.

It is also very useful on personal level as it is so simple to network online through friends and colleagues by building a strong contacts list through ‘Follow’ buttons, invitations and recommendations.

Social media is now a part of everyday life. Twitter provides a fast and instant update on world affairs in tiny bite-sized pieces when you are pushed for time. Facebook can be just as instant but it is great for catching up in a little more detail. LinkedIn provides the opportunity to clearly define your business profile. Blogs are so useful for research and a slightly more leisurely read.

Companies already using the new ‘Follow’ button are: Starbucks, Sony Electronics, American Express OPEN and AT&T.

LinkedIn’s new ‘Follow’ button is a nice little addition to the family. Welcome.

I was not surprised to read in the latest issue of Marketing Week that magazine publishers are urging marketers to look to the opportunities digital editions offer as print sales fall. This makes sense as more of us read content on our smartphones and online. Focusing purely online as a PR or Marketing consultant may be short-sighted. Whilst it is important to understand what tools are available to reach those in the digital space, it’s important to remember that there are a lot of people who live outside this world.

James Papworth, marketing director at the Professional Publishers Association (PPA) is quoted as saying:

“Publishers are waking up to the fact that they need to build 360 degree media strategies, with print at the core if they’re to expand the reach of their brands through advertising revenues.”

It’s great to hear that ‘innovation and creativity’ are cited as the ‘driving force’ behind the uptake in digital. However, the same approach needs to be taken to reach audiences across all platforms.

The latest ABC audit shows that news and current affairs has beaten the decline with their total ciculation rising by 12.3% year on year – with Private Eye as a top performer.

There is still a thirst for news by most of us – whether that’s current affairs, celebrity or brand related. Digital is certainly an essential channel, but it’s important for anyone in PR and Marketing to remember that conversations happen in a number of places and the target audience needs to be understood and targeted correctly.

While nobody is suggesting that a photograph on Facebook of you sipping a nice, cold beer on a summer evening will lose you that dream job, a similar photo of you falling out of a taxi – Bridget Jones style – and the worse for wear, may present a more negative image.

Pictures and references to traveling, not altogether surprisingly the researchers found, indicated openness to new experiences and a sense of adventure. The number of friends on a person’s profile may indicate extroversion (or possibly a need to get out more).

While the researchers caution against using social media analysis to screen job applicants, there are thousands of studies that show personality tests predict performance. Years ago analysis of a job applicant’s handwriting was often applied   in identifying the ideal qualities for a role. In the noughties we have moved on into an internet based world where our digital signature leaves an equally distinct imprint, one that can be – and more and more frequently is – tracked, amassed and analysed.

Of course, it’s not just recruiters who can check out applicants. People use social media to judge a brand, make purchases, book holidays and much more. This process is, of course, all highly subjective. It does, however, highlight again the need to be very circumspect about what you are posting online whether for personal or business purposes.