Facebook has released data in a press release late last week on how often government agencies request for “national security” information.

In a post on the social network’s newsroom site, Facebook General Counsel Ted Ullyot said the company received between 9,000 requests to 10,000 U.S. government requests during the six-month period ending Dec. 31, 2012. It means Facebook catered to 1,500 national security requests every month over the timespan for information, including searches for the location of missing children and investigations about terrorist activities.  It includes requests from agencies in all levels of government.

Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to reports about a government surveillance program called PRISM.  He rebuffed press reports on the company’s involvement in the program and said that governments who ask for Facebook data do not receive metadata or information in volumes. He assured Facebook users that each national security request passes through a review before the company provides information if required by law.

Ullyot said Facebook continually calls for world governments to give more particulars about programs designed to keep public safety a priority. In addition, Facebook encouraged these governments to allow companies to let slip appropriate data about government requests, but in a way that does not interfere with real security concerns.

Ullyot added that requests from authorities who investigate cases that affect national security are top secret and highly sensitive. The law typically has imposed strict limits on the ability of companies, such as Facebook, to admit or confirm receipt of national security requests.

Facebook echoed its scrutiny over each government data request from local, state, federal, or overseas governments. Ullyot talked about Facebook’s aggressive moves to protect user data from these requests. He said the company often scraps the requests, call for the government to cut back the number of requests, or provide less data than the initial request of a government.

Featured image by Creative Heroes / Flickr (CC)

Ullyot said Facebook has discussed these issues with nation security agencies in the United States since news about PRISM broke out. Facebook encouraged the Obama administration to be more transparent and flexible on national security orders required from companies.

The talks bore fruit. He said Facebook may now include a transparency report on all national security requests from the U.S. government, including National Security Letters and FISA, but only in aggregates and ranges. For example, the government asked for data from 18,000 to 19,000 Facebook user accounts pursuant to the 9,000 to 10,000 requests.

Major tech companies, such as Facebook, have been under fire after Edward Snowden, a former contractor and spy for the National Security Agency, revealed PRISM, a covert U.S. government program that obtains user data in bulk from Internet services and wireless carriers.

Facebook Releases Data About National Security Requests Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, suffered a short outage on Tuesday night after what the company said was an “internal issue”.

Some visitors to the site were welcomed not by the usual feed but by a message saying “Sorry, something went wrong. We’re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can.”

However, according to a statement from Facebook, the issue has already been resolved.

“Earlier today, an internal issue in our Web infrastructure caused the site to be slow or unavailable for a brief period of time,” the social network said in a statement. “We resolved the issue quickly, and should now be back to 100 percent. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Website uptime monitoring sites DownRightNow and DownForEveryoneOrJustMe were able to take note of the outage with people on the crowdsourced DownRightNow recording the downtime peaked at about 9 p.m. ET.

Various users who experienced the Facebook outage took to Twitter to broadcast their experience.

Facebook Suffers Short Outage After ‘Internal Issue’ Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has succumbed to the popularity of the hashtag.

In a blog post, Facebook said that it wanted its users to have an easier time participating in conversations about topics that are important to them.

“Every day, hundreds of millions of people use Facebook to share their thoughts on big moments happening all around them. Whether it’s talking about a favorite television show, cheering on a hometown sports team or engaging with friends during a breaking news event—people on Facebook connect with their friends about what’s taking place all over the world,” Facebook said.

The social network also cited data saying “During primetime television alone, there are between 88 and 100 million Americans engaged on Facebook – roughly a Super Bowl-sized audience every single night. The recent ‘Red Wedding’ episode of Game of Thrones, received over 1.5 million mentions on Facebook, representing a significant portion of the 5.2 million people who watched the show.”

“And this year’s Oscars buzz reached an all-time high on Facebook with over 66.5 million interactions, including likes, comments, and posts,” it added.

However, it said that “To date, there has not been a simple way to see the larger view of what’s happening or what people are talking about.”

“To bring these conversations more to the forefront, we will be rolling out a series of features that surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people, and topics. As a first step, we are beginning to roll out hashtags on Facebook,” the social network announced.

Hashtags will work on Facebook just like they do on other popular social networks including Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. They will be clickable which brings the user to a feed that includes posts that also have the same hashtag.

According to Facebook, users can now

• Search for a specific hashtag from your search bar. For example, #NBAFinals.

• Click on hashtags that originate on other services, such as Instagram.

• Compose posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results.

Facebook also reminds people that they can control who can view their posts, including those who can view posts with hashtags, using the same privacy control settings that the social network has previously introduced.

The social network also reminds people that they are working on further features which may be released “in the coming weeks and months, including trending hashtags and deeper insights, that help people discover more of the world’s conversations.”

#Facebook: #Hashtags Come To World’s Largest Social Network Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Last year, Facebook listened to feedback from marketers about its advertising products and services. And indeed it listened well. The company realized many of its marketing services have similar goals, so it decided to simplify its product offering.

Facebook announced last Thursday on its official company blog its continuous effort and plans to make simpler and easier advertising products.

In the post, Facebook’s Fidji Simo wrote that the company aims to offer advertising tools with automatic suggestions having the perfect mix of products to achieve an advertiser’s goal.

Over the course of the next six months, Facebook intends to streamline and reduce its ad units from 27 to less than half of that. It will map all of its ads to business objectives marketers really care about, whether app installations, online conversions, in-store sales, and more.

Facebook has revealed some methods to attain this goal.

1. Cut redundancies

Facebook saw that many of its advertising units reach similar goals, so it will wipe out these redundancies. It will remove the Questions product for Pages since marketers can easily ask questions in any given post and receive answers through comments.

The company said the move will remove the online Offer product. Marketers no longer need it because they now use a Page post link, a more effective method to draw people to deals on their sites.

These changes will roll out next month.

2. Add the best qualities of sponsored stories into ads

Advertisers had to buy sponsored stories as well as ads to get the best usable social context. Facebook intends to change that. For example, when an advertiser creates a Page post photo ad, Facebook will automatically add social context to improve performance and do away with the extra step of making sponsored stories.

Facebook’s Simo said, according to research from comScore, Datalogix, and Nielsen, social context helps drive awareness and return on investment, so the company wants to simplify the means of adding it to Facebook ads.

These changes will start in the fall.

3. Streamline the ad units with consistency

Facebook will use a more consistent graphical representation of its ads across a marketer’s objectives and Facebook placements. It will trim down the number of ad formats and make ad creation easier for advertisers who run lots of online campaigns or need to experiment on the ad creative that works best. Apparently, it will help advertisers achieve maximum efficiency in their campaigns across mobile and desktop platforms. A consistent appearance to ads will improve overall experience for all Facebook users.

These changes will start later this month.

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ShortStack CEO Jim Belosic shares the following things you can do to persuade your boss or client to invest in Facebook marketing.

1. Identify your goals

First of all, businesses should know what they want to achieve using Facebook as a marketing tool. Using Facebook is not a necessity for all businesses. In fact, some businesses, like those engaged in B2B, are probably better off using LinkedIn as their social media marketing tool of choice.

Before you start formulating a Facebook campaign, goals should be set and expectations measured and evaluated. Starting a Facebook Page and being successful takes a while. A business can’t expect to get 10,000 likes right away.

In addition, Facebook will definitely lead people to know more about a business, but figure out exactly what type of limelight a company wants to have with this social media presence. Will a company use its Facebook page to have more interaction and engagement among its customers and fans? Will a company use the page to promote its products or limited offers? Will a company use its new page as a venue for customer service or public relations?

A company should also try to figure out what kind of feedback they want to get from their customers. They should decide what feedback they need most regarding their products or services. Also, they should consider figuring out what demographic they want to reach out to through their Facebook page.

Return on investment (ROI) expectations is also important. Obviously, business persons want to know how much they will get out of their Facebook marketing investment. However, it is important to understand that ROI measurement through Facebook is done by obtaining better feedback from customers, growing word-of-mouth marketing and learning more about the needs and wants of customers.

The following are several things you can do to convince your boss or a client to use Facebook as a marketing tool. (Image: OVO.Creatives (CC) via Flickr)

2. Research

You will be more convincing to your client or boss if you backup your Facebook marketing proposal with some supportive case studies, market research and future prognoses.

Give examples of businesses that have used Facebook successfully. Point out the pros of having a Facebook presence and show where there is room for improvement. It will be helpful if you can present examples of businesses that are similar to your boss’ or client’s business and perhaps equally helpful if you can throw in your competitor’s business in the mix as well!

Use statistics, especially the ones that you can obtain through CheckFacebook.com. This website allows you to get an estimate of the number of people on Facebook who are interested and ready to purchase in the products or services offered by your client’s or boss’s company. It will also help if you can present the future of Facebook; how many users will there be in the coming years? What are the projections and trends, especially for the target market of your client or boss.

3. Show how Facebook Helps

Facebook marketing presents lots of opportunities for all types of businesses. For businesses that are relatively new, Facebook helps build awareness, especially across regions that are previously unused, through a number of targeting features, including targeted ads. Facebook targeted ads allow you to specify audience location and even interests that are indicated in their profiles. These interests are broken down into categories such as travel, cooking, technology, sports, among others.

Facebook also has several features that focus on the sales and business aspect. You can use Offers, for example, so that you can offer discounts to people liking your business page. Facebook can also be used to assess how well you are connecting with fans or determine where the conversions are happening.

Facebook also benefits businesses that are already well-known and reputable; they can use the social networking site to showcase their brand and culture and build loyalty. Loyalty is built because through Facebook pages, customers will be able to talk to the people behind the brand by sharing their feedback, through customer service, or through crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to a large group of people, and especially from an online community. Content, ideas or services are obtained through this method. Big companies have used crowdsourcing to give customers the democracy of choosing product preferences, such as new Lays, Oreo, Pepsi flavors, etc.

4. Talk about the risks involved

Many chief executives and owners are afraid that they will be publicly criticized if they make a mistake on Facebook. It would be wise to talk about these risks and share your plans on how to ideally and ultimately prevent these blunders from occurring.

Transparency is important to customers. Social media provides the transparency that customers cherish and provides an avenue to encourage loyalty. In addition, customers understand that no company is perfect, but what they really want is to be noticed and valued. When fans post messages on Facebook pages, they expect opportune responses from real people.

If things don’t go right, then it’s best to have a crisis-management plan, letting your boss or client know how to respond when negative feedback and comments arise.

5. How much does it take to create and support a Facebook Page?

Show your boss or client an estimate of the cost of having a Facebook page. First, you need an educated guess about the number of hours per week you will need to take care of a Facebook page.

Think about how often you should post about your brand on a daily or weekly basis. For example, small businesses can allot around 30 minutes per day to manage Facebook pages, such as reading and responding to comments. To make your Facebook page look professional, you might need to hire a graphic designer and also consider redesigning costs when Facebook changes up. Aside from maintaining and embellishing your Facebook page, also consider monthly costs for Facebook advertising.

6. Recommend a Trial Period

Belosic suggests that companies should have a 60-day trial period to test the value of having a Facebook presence. At the beginning of the trial period, you should provide your client or boss with an outline consisting of more than a few sensible goals. These may include getting a twenty percent increase in Facebook page fans that engage through shares and comments.

During this trial period, the company should promise to make the Facebook page active by posting a couple of times on a weekly or daily basis. Furthermore, you should provide a style guide and determine whether the page is formal, informative, or casual. More importantly, all significant parts of your Facebook page, such as the profile, cover photo and apps, should signify the brand.

7. Conclusions after trial period

Present a summary of the details, achievements, and what was learned during the trial period. In addition, recommend strategies that will help improve the company’s Facebook marketing efforts based on the lessons learned during the 60-day probationary phase. Finally, discuss using other tools such as Facebook apps and ads to further improve page engagement.

Persuading your Boss to Invest in Facebook Marketing Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Many entrepreneurs now use Facebook as their new Yellow Pages; that is, using the biggest and most popular social networking site in the world to make the public aware that their businesses exist.

Starters might think that Facebook is only good for keeping a business page and getting likes from customers and potential customers, and hoping that word of mouth advertising will go their way. On the other hand, there’s more to Facebook than just getting likes.

Likes are good, but they won’t get your business very far. A business person should use Facebook with the idea of making it a place where fans can get actively involved. If only due to its sheer size alone, consisting of more than one billion members, anyone who wants to use social media for their business must start with Facebook.

New Facebook Marketing Tools

Facebook recognizes that many businesses want to tap into its services to bring in customers, and so it constantly comes up with new products. These are some of the relatively new products.

Facebook offers marketing tools that small businesses can use, including graph search, promoted posts, mobile app install adds, and check-in. (Image: Frank Hamm (CC) via Flickr)

1. Graph Search. This new Facebook tool was introduced last January and is currently just available to a few users. Graph search is a tool which helps you filter your friends and know who likes what, where they have been to, where they are working, etc. You can also use Graph Search to know what your friends say about certain local businesses or who likes what restaurants.

According to Dan Levy, director of small business for Facebook, businesses should bring their listings up to date so that they appear in Graph Search. Levy said, “in the same way that having a Web page really mattered 10 years ago, being part of Graph Search and having your company discoverable is really important today.”

2. Promoted Posts. Promoted posts are an easy way to reach more of the people who like your Facebook page and their friends. It helps you create ads that your friends and people who liked your business page can see in their News Feeds.

Levy adds that Promoted Posts is “a simple, easy way to increase your reach.” The cost to use Promoted Posts depends on various factors, such as how many people you are trying to reach and your geographical location. Levy said that one can start with a budget of 5 dollars per day.

Promoted posts can be very effective at increasing your fan base. Facebook is indeed all about making people mindful of your business.

3. Check-in. With this marketing tool, you can use your mobile device to let your Facebook friends know where you checked in – whether you are visiting a restaurant, a business or any other spot. When a customer uses Check In in reference to your business, that will appear in his or her Facebook profile, but at the same time it also pops up in your Facebook business page.

4. Mobile app install ads. If your business has its own app, Facebook can drive installs to your customers through an ad that sends them to Google Play or iPhone App Store.

Friend Recoommendations

These Facebook marketing tools are valuable because they resemble what we humans do; ask recommendations from friends. For example, you can use Graph Search to figure out what your friends’ favorite restaurant is in a particular city, and once you find out the answer, you are also most likely to eat at that well-recommended restaurant.

Of course, owning a Facebook page is also very useful for your business, but only if you constantly update it with a bunch of new posts. These posts may include items that are for sale, videos, fun pictures, etc.

By doing so, your fans will know that your business is still alive and fresh. That will make them think about your business when they want to buy something that you are selling.

Facebook Marketing Tools for Small Businesses Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Facebook may just have discovered a new pseudo mascot family in the form of FB Fox and her cubs which are currently living inside the Facebook Campus in Menlo Park, California.

The fox – officially named FB Fox by Facebook employees and called Firefox by some – already has its very own Facebook Page set up by Alexis Smith, a marketing employee of the social networking behemoth.

The FB Fox Page has already gained over 14,000 likes as of posting.

Smith, according to an article by The Wall Street Journal, credits Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg as to why the page has exploded in popularity.

According to the report, when Zuckerberg liked the page, it gained over 3,000 likes in 12 hours.

Facebook employees in Menlo Park have been tirelessly posting photos of Firefox and her cubs on the Page’s timeline. Nonetheless, Facebook said it is coordinating with wildlife services to ensure that the foxes are protected and treated appropriately.

Meanwhile, see FB Fox and her cubs in the photos below courtesy of Facebook employees through the FB Fox Page.

FB Fox / Firefox And Cubs: The New Pseudo Facebook Mascot Family Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Facebook now has “action spec” targeting ability, which lets advertisers target advertisements to users based on actions they did on the social networking site within a specified time range.

By default, advertisers can reach users based on their activity during the last 14 days on Facebook and Open Graph applications. A shorter time range can be set as well.

This means advertisers can be more accurate at targeting users at the right time and with the right message. For example, a local brick and mortar business can choose to target customers that have entered their store during the last week.

Similarly, a software developer might want to give targeted users who have downloaded and installed applications in the past few days.

Facebook now lets advertisers use action spec targeting. (Image: via techcrunch.com)

Action spec targeting also lets developers reach users that have taken actions within apps, as well as actions taken in the apps or pages of their competitors.

In addition, action spec targeting lets advertisers specify a negative action spec. Sometimes, it is valuable to target users who haven’t taken a certain action. As an example, consider a software developer who wants to reach out to users who did not purchase any app during the past few days.

Furthermore, action spec targeting also lets advertisers target users’ friends who have taken certain actions.

Facebook Now Lets Advertisers Target Based on Recent Actions Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

A survey by WeSEE, a visual classification firm, showed that more than two thirds of people will be discouraged to use a certain service if they see a video ad of it on Facebook that they deem irrelevant.

This shows that Facebook and other social media sites should be careful about video advertising on their platform. Specifically, the social networking site should make the videos short and relevant if it intends to keep its user base.

The results of the study also showed that 30 percent of users say that it is okay for them to watch a video advertisement of a certain topic they just posted, but only when the video was short enough. Furthermore, 29 percent said that even if the video they see is relevant, they would still skip its first part.

Facebook video ads need to be short and relevant so that they aren’t too intrusive, according to a survey. (Image: via techi.com)

Adrian Moxley, chief marketing officer and co-founder of WeSEE, said that brands using Facebook’s video advertising service, and the social networking itself, should “consider carefully how they are determining what is relevant to each user without being too intrusive.”

The quote, “a picture paints a thousand words,” comes to mind as Moxley also suggests that Facebook use pictures posted by users on their accounts, especially those without captions, to get visual data which will help identify what really interests them. This, in turn, will effectively enhance the significance of video ads.

WeSEE’s survey determined that the two most relevant factors affecting the effectiveness of video advertisements are relevance, followed by video length. Moxey said that advertisers should not reuse advertisements that are designed for television, because these ads are usually longer than 15 seconds.

Facebook Video Ads Should be Short and Relevant to be Effective; Study Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, wrote that he did not create Facebook to be a company, but it was built to be a social movement that will make this world “more open and connected.” The personal note came from the company’s SEC Registration letter on May 18, 2012.

More than a year has passed since Facebook filed its initial public offering. During that span its stock price plummeted but eventually regained momentum and traction in the market. But some things within Facebook did not change despite the roller coaster ride on the Big Board.

Earmark hoodies, high ratings from employees, high employee satisfaction rates, the “more open and connected” world still in mind – these things, and more, helps Zuckerberg to continue with his mission. But as the days pass by, Facebook is gradually becoming more a company rather than a social movement.

With more than 4,900 employees, more than 1.1 billion active users, and a market capitalization of more than $60 billion, Facebook has turned into one of the world’s largest companies. And the largest in the social networking industry. Going public added obligations to stockholders and this had a great impact on the social network, to its staff, and the release of new features.

Featured image by Robert Scoble / Flickr (CC)

Income-Generating Strategies

Facebook, until last year’s IPO, was the epitome of a social networking site with a social movement. No cash flow involved, no income-generating features.

Then on May 18 last year, Facebook knocked the doors of the U.S. SEC to go public. This decision led to speculations from users and analysts that Zuckerberg was more interested on the revenue from monetization rather than turn Facebook into a public company. He said in the filing that even great people want to make money and that Facebook needs a “strong economic engine” to grow and align people to find solutions.

True to popular belief, Zuckerberg was serious when he hinted of moneymaking strategies. He ordered all product managers and teams to come up with strategies that will help generate revenue from the company’s products and services. The change in operations aligned with Facebook’s experiments on income generation across different products.

The changes became evident when Facebook started to charge its users $1 for each message sent to people who are not on the Friends list. It also added a premium for messages sent to celebrities using Facebook. For example, you can send a message to Zuckerberg for $100.

Although the social network gained negative feedback for the paid messages, it continued the moneymaking schemes. It added the option to promote posts in friends’ News Feeds for $7, saying this will improve the visibility of posts.

As history will tell you, Facebook then introduced advertisements into the platform.

Facebook Ads

Facebook had opened its doors to advertisers on-site, through pages, and through its various platforms. Ads can now be seen in the right column of your Facebook page, in the News Feed, and within the Facebook mobile apps across multiple platforms. According to rumors, Facebook may even start offering video ads in the News Feed in the near future.

The proliferation of ads on the website opens doubts whether Facebook primarily is a social network for users, a company for investors, or to be safe, both.

Earlier this year, Facebook revamped its News Feed to give users more freedom to organize the feed and their photos and to expand the space for marketers who want to use larger ads in the column. Thus so-called experts now mull over the imminent coming of video ads.

Owners of Android devices were abuzz when the social network announced the arrival of Facebook Home at the Google Play Store. The home screen replacement and app launcher was designed to put Facebook at the forefront of any Android device. It places people first rather than mobile apps, said Zuckerberg. But he did not hide the notion that it may also serve ads in the future.

From Income Generation To Mobile Strategies

Since the IPO, Facebook has been open about its mission to be a mobile-first company. It was born during the peak of the desktop computers and had received a great share of criticisms for its slow mobile app implementations, especially the decision to use HTML5.

To keep Facebook staff focused on mobile development, product managers forced them to use only mobile devices, rather than desktop computers and laptops, to access the website. And for some time, iPhone owners were ordered to switch to Android to understand the clamors of users on the platform over the app’s sluggish performance.

During the company’s earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2012, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had officially become a mobile company.

The Brushed-Up CEO

Facebook has changed since that fateful day of May 18. And so has its founder. Despite his trademark hoodies and casual talks about the hacker community, Zuckerberg has changed as a chief executive who talks with the public during interviews and big Facebook events. He now has a team of writers for his public speeches and appearances.

Now that the company is public, all of Zuckerberg’s actions and words are subject to public scrutiny. His speeches may even have a big impact on the stock price during the closing times of the day.

A Year Of Facebook As A Public Company Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media