Facebook testing new feature Highlight to let you pay to promote status updates to more friends
Social media giant Facebook is testing a new tool called Highlight, letting users pay a small fee to make sure their status updates reach more friends, it’s been reported by TechCrunch.
Highlight lets the average user, not Pages or businesses, select an “important post” and make sure friends see the update, the blog explains.
Highlighted posts could appear higher in the news feed, stay visible for longer, and display in front of more friends and subscribers. “However, they’re not colored differently to make them stand out. And to be clear, this is not like Twitter’s Promoted Tweets which is designed for businesses. Facebook Highlight is for the end-user.”
New Zealand is reportedly a testing ground for this new feature, which hasn’t been rolled out officially yet. Facebook wrote to TechCrunch: “We’re constantly testing new features across the site. This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends.”
A New Zealand report states “The trial appears to mark Facebook’s first attempt to make money from postings by regular users and comes as it is gearing up for a public listing which is expected to value the company at about US$90 billion.”
The experiment is playing with different fees for this feature, including a free option. A screenshot of the feature shows a screen asking for $1.80 US to use Highlight.
Judge rules ‘Like’ button not protected under First Amendment
by Leigh Goessl (Guest contributor/Digital Journalist)
A U.S. judge has recently ruled Facebook’s popular ‘Like’ button is not protected under the First Amendment as a form of expression.
The social integration of Facebook has changed the dynamics of society in many ways. From refining what a “friend” is, to privacy issues, its impact on social skills and almost everything in between, Facebook’s reach has had a profound effect on many key factors in life.
Now there is one more issue to add a new notch to the proverbial belt. This one is related to the social network giant’s popular “Like” button and how it fits into freedom of speech.
An interesting case has been transpiring in Norfolk, Va. Six employees are suing their former employer saying their First Amendment rights were violated. The group of people have been battling it out in court, saying they were fired over clicking Facebook’s “Like” button.
According to The Atlantic, the situation began in 2009 during an election season. The employees were working for the Hampton Sheriff’s office under B.J. Roberts, who was running for reelection at the time against opponent Jim Adams.
Roberts won the election, and he subsequently fired several employees after he allegedly saw his employees had hit the “Like” button on his opponent’s Facebook page.
For the firing, Roberts gave budgeting needs and poor performance as reasons, and also inferred the employees impacted “the harmony and efficiency of the office.”
The employees viewed it differently and took their issue to court, citing their First Amendment rights. On Apr. 24 a verdict was reached and it was found the rights of the former employees were not violated. U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson ruled that clicking “Like” on a Web page “does not amount to expressive speech,” reported the New York Daily News.
The reason was described as hitting a button is not the same thing as writing or typing out a statement, as a “Like” is not an expression as the other two forms of expression would be considered. Posting statements on Facebook have previously been ruled as protected under First Amendment, such as it was in the cases of Katherine Evans vs. Peter Bayer and NLRB vs. American Medical Response.
Several media reports note the “murky” area in this verdict and the case is likely to go to a higher court in an appeal. At least one of the attorneys said he would appeal.
Marcus Messner, a journalism and mass communications professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who specializes in social media, said, “Going to a candidate’s Facebook page and liking it in my view is a political statement. It’s not a very deep one, but you’re making a statement when you like a person’s Facebook page.”
Facebook, and other social media, have without a doubt impacted how people both communicate and express themselves, and as it evolves, many expressions are short and to the point. The “Like” button many people use in lieu of taking the time to create a post.
“It [the "Like" button] is for sure a thin statement, but it is clearly within what we do all the time as democratic citizens,” Don Herzog, a law professor at the University of Michigan said, reported the Daily News. “This is one of the ways we talk about politics in our society.”
Generally, aside from issues associated with constitutional law, the pace of technology moves progressively fast, and the law is not always as quick to adapt. Facebook’s highly-used “Like” button, however, is the latest in deliberations on exactly how forms of expression fit into the line of the law.
“It’s a somewhat odd decision that a Facebook “Like” is not protected speech,” Jeff Hermes, director of the Digital Media Law Project, Berkman Center for Internet & Society told MSNBC. “The judge was essentially devaluing the ‘Like’ as speech because of how simple it is to do.”
This article originally appeared in Digital Journal [Link]
Photo courtesy Flickr user sofiabudapest
Facebook floats on stock market May 17, will be valued at $100 billion
by JohnThomas Didymus (Guest contributor/Digital Journalist)
Facebook, the world’s largest social network, is expected to go public on May 17. The online giant is expected to be valued at $100 billion. Analysts say that Facebook’s is the most anticipated stock offering from Silicon Valley since Google in 2004.
The May 17 date, according to TechCrunch, is subject to SEC approval of relevant paperwork, including those relating to recently purchasedInstagram.TechCruch reports Facebook is expected to raise $10 billion from its initial public offering of shares, though it may be a smaller sum. But the IPO will also depend on approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The Examiner reports that Facebook valuation reflects current levels of trading in the secondary market and also matches a report on how Facebook won over Instagram.
The flotation will make Facebook among the largest public companies in the world with companies like McDonald’s, Amazon.com and Visa.According to a sources, “Investors want as high a price as possible so that the secondary market won’t look like a problem.”
TechCrunch reports that “with 2.51 billion fully-diluted shares outstanding, the valuation desired would price the company at around $40 a share.”
According to Daily Mail, the world’s largest social network had very humble beginnings. It began as a dorm room project for a Harvard dropout, Mark Zuckerberg, but has since grown and reached the top in less than a decade.
According to Facebook’s preliminary filing, the company’s net income rose 65 percent to $1 billion in 2011, with a revenue of $3.7 billion.
Valued at $100 billion, double the value of Hewlett-Packard, Facebook’s IPO will be bigger than that of any dot-com company expecting to go public, Daily Mail reports.
This article originally appeared on Digital Journal [Link]
How this year’s Super Bowl ads will offer social media perks
Super Bowl ads this year are unlike anything you will witness: on Sunday, expect these million-dollar spots to feature Twitter hashtags, viral videos and music apps such as Shazam. Brands are embracing social media to get more out of their spots.
You’ve seen Super Bowl ads – or any ad, for that matter – plug their website at the end of some celeb-endorsed spot. But come Sunday, when the New York Giants face off against the New England Patriots, you won’t see any URLs; instead, some brands will tell you to use the mobile app Shazam, which recognizes tunes and identifies the name of the song. With ad spots, you can open the app, Shazam would recognize the ad, then a URL or other perk will be unlocked.
For example, Super Bowl viewers who catch Pepsi’s commercial with “X Factor USA” winner Melanie Amaro performing the Otis Redding song “Respect” can download a free video of the performance by using the Shazam app after they capture audio from the commercial, FirstPostreports.
This is one way these 30-second ads – costing $3.5 million each – will be tapping into social media to keep NFL fans “sticky” to their marketing messages.Coca-Cola wants to hook the Twitterati with some bait. Their Super Bowl spot will feature Arctic polar bears watching the game. As Reuters writes, “The bears will then be brought to life on Twitter, Facebook and on a dedicated website doing such things as responding to fans and commenting on the game.” So if the Giants are winning, the animated bears will talk about the lead, their actions manipulated on the fly by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy.
Also, let’s say there’s a naughty ad or a Janet Jackson moment. At that moment, a bear will cover a cub’s eyes, Mashable writes.
As any Twitter user would recognize, hashtags have fast become a popular way to track trends. Of course, brands want to create their own buzz via their Bowl ads, leading Volkswagen’s Audi to start a campaign. Its 60-second spot, on during the first break in the game, will promote the new 2013 Audi S7 and its LED headlight technology, which does some damage to a party of young vampires.
Reuters writes “Audi hopes to continue the conversation about the ad via the Twitter hashtag #SoLongVampires.”
Viral videos have quickly become a hot trend, especially before the Super Bowl lands in Indianapolis. Recently, Honda revealed a two-minute version of a Super Bowl ad they’ll be running, starring Matthew Broderick in a reprise role as Ferris Bueller. A spoof of the 1986 Matthew Broderick film, it’s a long spot for the 2012 CR-V compact SUV.
The vid quickly spread from YouTube to Twitter to Facebook feeds. Hits have already surpassed 433,000. Kia Motors is taking early release a step further, MySanAntonio found, showing its Super Bowl ad called “Drive the Dream” on 18,000 movie screens beginning Wednesday. The 15-second teaser is already playing in some U.S. movies.
“Nobody has ever released their Super Bowl spot in theaters prior to game day,” said Michael Sprague, vice president of marketing for Kia Motors. “We’re trying to break through the clutter.”
A marketing professor comments on the trend: “We saw last year a lot of Super Bowl ads tried to push people to their websites via social media, and now we’re seeing social media push people toward the ads,” University of Texas-Austin advertising professor Gary Wilcox said, according toNew Jersey Online. “Until now it’s always been our feeling that watching Super Bowl ads is a surprise. Perhaps social media is enhancing that even if it spoils the surprise, but we don’t know yet.”
On game day, NFL fans are not too far from their favourite gadgets. Mashable reports research has shown about 60 percent of people watching the game plan to have a second screen running — whether it’s a PC, tablet or a smartphone.
This article originally appeared on Digital Journal [Link]
New scam targets ‘haters’ of Facebook Timeline
by Leigh Goessl (Guest contributor/Digital Journalist)
Recently Facebook unveiled its controversial Timeline feature and, perhaps not surprisingly, a new scam has surfaced on the social network that banks on the fact people often do not respond well to change.
Exploiters are targeting Facebook users with the hope of snagging those who have an intense dislike of Timeline, playing on those emotions in order to provoke a user response.
In this case, the exploiters are hoping people hate the network’s new Timeline feature and attempt to lure users into believing they can revert back to the previously designed Facebook. The fraudsters bait with fake instructions on how to “go back to the ‘old’ Facebook,” playing on their emotions if they are adverse to the change.
According to All Facebook, the tricks being used are fake ‘Like’ buttons, invites to friends, asking users to view YouTube videos, and, as characteristic to scams, a download that directs to an extension that contains probable malware.
AllFacebook notes that at the time of report 16 Timeline-related scam pages were live on Facebook. This reporter did a search and counted 10 at the time of publication, the highest of which had 12,436 likes listed, so it seems Facebook has been removing these scams; however many still exist and people are still ‘liking’ the fraudulent pages.
According to Web Pro News, one of the scams has several odd steps designed to trick users and despite asking to click over a dozen ‘likes’ as one step, thousands have fallen for the trick (click the Web Pro link to see the graphic). Other pages reportedly look more legit.
Facebook has no visible warning, nor a mention on the company’s security page to let users know a conversion back is not an option for users whose profiles have been switched to Timeline — once this happens, the feature is here to stay.
Eventually all profiles will convert to Timeline.Anyone wanting to take part in the future of the network will have to ultimately accept the Timeline change; there are no magic steps to get rid of it as Mark Zuckerberg and company have made it clear Timeline is here to stay.
Pages that offers any sort of button, link or download to ditch Timeline is a scam and those behind the ruses could be nabbing personal information and spamming the victim’s friends. Scams routinely surface on the social network that currently boasts over 800 million members, and the ‘Timeline scam’ is the latest of many.
This article was originally published on Digital Journal [Link]