Report: Facebook Location Feature To Bow At f8

At the first f8 conference, Facebook Platform was launched.  Facebook Connect was announced the second time around.  And now, as f8 2010 draws near, a report's indicated that Facebook will finally unveil a feature having to do with users' physical locations.

Consider the difference someone's location can make.  Here's one basic example: Many people would pass over the status update "Kate is warm," but something like "Kate is warm - Miami, Florida" might attract all sorts of attention from Kate's friends (assuming Kate's not a Miami native).  Plus it could mean a different set of ads would get shown.

It's significant, then, that Nick Bilton reported this afternoon, "Facebook plans to take the wraps off a new location-based feature in late April at f8, the company's yearly developer conference, according to several people briefed on the project."

Bilton also wrote, "The new location feature will have two aspects, according to the people familiar with Facebook's plans.  One will be a service offered directly by Facebook that will allow users to share their location information with friends. . . .  The other will be a set of software tools, known as A.P.I.'s, that outside developers can use to offer their own location-based services to Facebook users."

As for how Facebook intends to deal with privacy issues, this should be an opt-in feature, effectively cutting off the sorts of protests with which some other changes and Google Buzz were greeted.

Now we just have to wait and see if Facebook actually follows through on these rumors.

What if Facebook Added a “Blog” Tab?

Facebook wants to keep users on Facebook. So far, they are doing a pretty good job of that. More and more people are spending more of their online time on Facebook, not to mention, spending more time connected to the web in general (at least partially due to rising use of smartphones).

How much time do you spend on Facebook in a month? A week? Talk to ArisYulianta and Friends....

Facebook recently made it a point to show users how to use the social network to keep up with the news. Users can simply become fans of their favorite news organizations' pages (feel free to include ours in your mix), and group them in a "news" list just as they would create a group for friends or co-workers. The bottom line is; spending more time on Facebook getting news headlines is spending more time on Facebook period. There is also talk of Facebook  working on its own web email service. Again, more time spent on Facebook.

One way Facebook could capture even more of its users' time, is if it introduced a "blog" tab. Facebook currently has a "notes" tab, and quite a few people do use this. It's a similar concept, but what if it was given more prominence and renamed "blog?" A blog tab might keep Facebook users even longer. First of all, the users blogging with it would obviously be sticking around to write their posts. In addition, their friends and fans would be sticking around longer to read those posts, which would generally be much longer and require more time than the average status update.

Would more people become bloggers?

I suspect that the word "notes" doesn't quite resonate the same as the word blog in the minds of many Facebook users, although for all intents and purposes, the feature operates like a blog. You can post longer-form content for your friends and fans to see, and they can comment on it, while it all remains in tact in one spot for future reference. Not only could the addition of a "blog" tab keep Facebook users around longer, but it could have a significant impact on the Blogosphere. Simply calling it a blog and having it available right from any user's profile page might just inspire.

Is social media killing blogs?

No, but it's hard to say that use of sites like Facebook and Twitter (and now Google Buzz) don't lend to less blog posts being created. If nothing else, it’s simply a time issue. It is easy to push out a quick status update if you have something to say. It's easier than blogging. For longer-form content, blogs are generally the better option, which is one reason they are still alive and well. But if Facebook had a blog tab, the social network could cut into the Blogosphere even more, given its huge userbase, while establishing itself as a go-to place for blogging (another area in which Facebook could compete with Google, I might add. Don't forget that Google owns Blogger).

If Facebook did this, it is very unlikely that all current bloggers would immediately go running there to do their blogging, but Facebook users who may not already be blogging may find the urge to do so when that tab is right in front of their faces. And frankly, I'm confident many current bloggers would go running there. Facebook is a powerful tool for building an audience or expanding upon one. 

It works on MySpace. Look at director Eli Roth's blog, for example. He gets a lot of engagement there (although he hasn't updated in several months). Facebook is another animal altogether, and its growth is unprecedented. Just look at Facebook's latest round of stats.

Facebook is frequently adding and changing features, as any user can certainly attest (for better or for worse). It is not hard to imagine them doing something like this. For the record, the company has made no mention of going such a route, to my knowledge. There are currently ways to blog within and around Facebook if you look hard enough, but if Facebook made blogging a focal point, I think it could take off, and perhaps lend to the concept of Facebook as a news source, and even add greatly to the Blogosphere by encouraging more blogging. 

Should Facebook Have a blog tab? Would you use it? Share your thoughts.

Reasons to Have a Facebook Page and Ways to Make it Better

I don't have to tell you that Facebook can be a tremendous source of web traffic. There's a good chance that most of the people you know are on it, and the ones who aren't may be eventually. The social network is consuming more and more of people's time, and thanks to mobile devices, it is always accessible. If you don't have a Facebook Page, you may be missing out on not only traffic to your site, but a chance to engage with customers and ultimately help your brand's reputation.

One of our blog partners, Jay Baer, of Convince&Convert wrote a great piece about why you need Facebook for your company. He highlights "11 things you need to know." These things include how Facebook has 350 Million global users and counting (although Facebook has sinced announced reaching the 400 million user milestone), and how the average Facebook user spends 55 minutes per day on Facebook. Nearly 80,000 sites use Facebook Connect.

---

Editor’s note: If you have a blog related to online business, search, or social media, and are interested in becoming one of our blog partners, you may submit here.

---

He also notes that the Facebook Fan Box is becoming more pervasive, the average Facebook user has 130 friends and fans 2 pages per month. His statements are backed up by various reports and studies.

Perhaps you have a Facebook Page, but it's not performing how you'd like. You feel it's a waste of time. "If your Facebook fan page is a bit of a ghost town, you're not alone. A fantastic study by Sysomos of 600,000 Facebook fan pages shows that only 4% of pages have 10,000 or more fans – and only .76% have 100,000 or more," says Baer. "That’s why it is so critical to focus your Facebook strategy on activating the fans you have, not just collecting fans like baseball cards."

"The Sysomos study also found very little correlation between how frequently the Facebook page admin posted to the wall, and total number of fans. However – and this is important – there is a strong correlation between amount of other content (notes, links, photos, videos) and number of fans," he says. "Thus, if you want to grow your Facebook fan base, it is imperative that you move beyond simple Wall posts and add photos, videos, links and other content."

Promote Your Facebook Page. Here are some places you can do that:

1. Prominent link on your site
2. Facebook Fan Box
3. Author Bio section on articles/Blog
4. Email newsletters
5. Other social media profiles
6. Google Profile (which is getting more attention now as a result of Google Buzz)
7. Business Card
8. Signage
9. Email Signatures
10. Advertisements

Another one of our blog Partners, Dave Taylor, offers some tips from Patrick O'Keefe, author of the book Managing Online Forums, on making a Facebook page more interesting. Among these are:

 

- Participate and make it routine
- Ask questions
- Host events on your page
- Highlight contributions from others
- Go beyond just text
- Integrate your other online presences
- Take it easy with apps, boxes, etc.
- Run offline events, if you can

One thing you want to do is pay attention to your Facebook analytics. Pay attention to stats. Pay attention to changes Facebook makes in this area. For example, recently it was discovered that some admins were starting to see impression counts for each post, as well as the number of likes and comments for each impression. Like Baer says, test content types to see what works best.

Does your Facebook Page drive traffic to your site? Does it engage customers? How do you promote it? Discuss your strategy.

Wordpress Blogging from Android Devices

Wordpress has announced the launch of Wordpress for Android (1.0). It is currently available in the Android Market. A lot of what we do on the web is now done from mobile devices, so it only makes sense that this would include blog management.

While it may not be the most convenient way to write a new post, users may find it particularly helpful for at least keeping up with comments and responding. The following clip shows what it can do:

Features of Wordpress for Android include:

- Configure and manage multiple blogs

- Comment moderation including the ability to reply to comments

- Create and Edit Posts including categories, tags and photos

- Create and Edit Pages

- Get notified of new comments in the Android notification bar

"Users of the popular wpToGo app for Android will feel right at home in WordPress for Android 1.0, as the source from wpToGo has been used as the foundation for the WordPress app.," says Wordpress. "wpToGo will be discontinued as all development efforts move forward with the Open Source WordPress for Android app."

There is a forum set up for Wordpress for Android discussion. Users can converse about troubleshooting, weigh in on future development in the requests and feedback area, or test beta builds of future versions in the beta testing area.
 

Have You Read This?

> Google Connects Friends on WordPress Blogs

> WordPress Lets Bloggers Help Make the Mobile Web Better

> WordPress Receives Grammar Check Plug-In

Next Page »