Twitter on Facebook? Almost Real Time Web Capabilities

No, not quite, Facebook has not bought Twitter, I know they tried and failed last year, but with their enormous numbers, it was just a matter of time before they surrendered to real-rime web capabilities - or almost real time.

More than 5000 Friends on Facebook

I noticed yesterday when I went to Facebook that they were announcing the changes to Profile pages and feeds, so I browsed around a bit and found a few posts with interesting info.

Yay for those with Messiah complexes! Like Twitter, you can now have more than 5000 friends on Facebook. With Pages being removed and everybody having Profiles it is going to be interesting - and hard work from an SEO perspective promoting a business or celebrity - but hey challenges are cool and we just adjust and move on.

Facebook is also speeding up the updates that populate the news feeds on everyone’s personal page.

Twitter Envy

Gigaom describes it as Twitter envy: "For starters, Facebook announced changes to its home page that would allow streaming of “posts from your friends in real-time.” Facebook also changed the status prompt from “What are you doing right now?” to “What’s on your mind?” — a blatant attempt to prompt a more real-time interaction, and bringing it one step further than Twitter’s “What are you doing?”

FaceBook Conference Marc Zuckerberg Explains

Eric Schonfeld blogged live for Tech Crunch yesterday from the Facebook conference:

Marc Zuckerberg explains: "What we’re talking about today, is that there’s a philosophical change in that we want to converge these public figures (which are one way) and friends (two way connections). People asking for 5,000 friends, don’t necessarily want to connect with 5,000 people, they want to let 5,000 people connect with them. Pages are now similar to user profiles, but profiles are similar to pages in that people can have 1 sided connections.

We’re seeing an interesting trend that a lot of people are open to sharing information to specific people. A big part of what we’re doing is sharing information in a safe way."

Advertising on Facebook, should Google have to worry?

Well it's always fun when there is some competition. The pot gets stirred a bit and things get turned on their heads. It was really just a matter of time until Facebook jumped into the advertising fray and went head to head with the mighty Google. But who will be the winners, and who will be the losers.

Gino Cosme of Cerebra writes:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this week announced the launch of Facebook Ads, an advertising system that lets businesses connect with their target audience, roll out viral social ads, and track social activity on the site.

According to this statement, Facebook Ads now makes it possible for “businesses to connect with users and target advertising to the exact audiences they want.” Some of the companies already on board include Sony Pictures, The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft, Verizon Wireless and BlockBusters.

Essentially, this is a very logical step for Facebook, and one that makes a lot of sense for advertisers. Think about it. Social networking sites have access to an almost unlimited amount of data about users. This includes their interests, friends, demographics, favorite on-site applications and groups, to name just some. Arguably there isn't a better way for advertisers to reach their target audiences with advertising that speaks to users on a very individual basis. Read the rest of Gino's story

Erick Schonfeld of Techcrunch was there when Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement, and in a liveblogging report stated:

"I am at Facebook’s social advertising announcement in New York City, where Mark Zuckerberg is about to take the stage and tell us all what we already think we know: Facebook is getting into the advertising business in a big way. Much of what will be announced today, such as projects code-named Beacon and Pandemic have already leaked out."

In this great demonstration of skilled liveblogging Erick goes on to tell us:

"Facebook is announcing three things: Social Ads (ads targeted based on member profile data and spread virally), Beacon (a way for Facebook members to declare themselves fans of a brand on other sites and send those endorsements to their feeds), and Insight (marketing data that goes deep into social demographics and pyschographics which Facebook will provide to advertisers in an aggregated, anonymous way). These three things together make up Facebook Ads. Here are the press releases for Facebook Ads, Project Beacon, and its launch partners."

Read the whole story

Promote your brand on Facebook

Well I really like Facebook. I enjoy the mixture of business and pleasure and the way Facebook has brought old friends back into my life.

I also like the almost playful way one is able to network and get to know business associates and exchange thoughts and ideas.

When I saw this blogpost: Promote your Brand on Facebook, a Step by Step guide, I knew it was a good one. It's all about friends and fans - so give it a go.

Andrew Smith of Ideate explains:

Step 1 - "Brands are friends"

Until now, companies were not allowed to create Facebook profiles and try and pass them as real people. Many tried, but the profiles were removed by moderators. It was possible to create a Group that centered around a brand, but this was a rather limited approach. We created a group for Yuppiechef, but we couldn’t really give a reason for anyone to join it (although strangely enough, about 30 people did!).

This week Facebook launched "Pages". These are essentially like user Profiles, but for brands. Instead of a joining the Yuppiechef group, you now add Yuppiechef as a friend. Well, almost - the correct language is "become a fan of Yuppiechef".

Read more

Is Facebook Going to Open a Music Store?

Well that's one of the big rumors out there at the moment that Facebook is going to soon be opening a big Music store to rival Apple's iTunes.

Tech Crunch has this story about Facebook and the music store. As it says - it might not be the best news for the iLike artist platform that just launched on Facebook. But the story concludes with the well worn phrase :"if you play in Facebook’s sandbox, don’t be upset when Facebook wants to play there, too."

Facebook does have a Ratecard

Facebook is just SO Social networking that is apparently doesn't have a ratecard. The company has been swearing to all who enquired that the ratecard doesn't exist, well to quote Facebook spokesperson Brandee Barker:"I just don't think it's a rate card in the traditional sense."

Well it is titled "Rate Card / Snapshot of Integrated Opportunities" and explains the workings from Facebook - from a financial angle.

Take a look for yourself.

Rumor: Google, Facebook Get Cozy

By Michael Estrin

A post in Publishing 2.0 has helped fuel speculation that search giant Google might be getting cozy with social networking site Facebook.

While Robert Young of Publishing 2.0 says he believes a deal is already in the works, neither company has commented on the rumor.

If true, the deal could put a crimp in Google's pending deal with MySpace, which accounts for nearly 11 percent of Google's search traffic.

read more

Facebook - a Good Tool For Notworking

As we all know, Facebook is one of the fastest growing "branches" of the Web2.0 phenomenon. What started as a USA college and university frat party address book has grown into a worldwide way for people (mainly younger people) to network and communicate across geographic, gender and racial boundaries. People make friends with people who share their interests. Every day new applications are added to Facebook. Today I added my Stumbleupon pages. Even if you're not into the crazy "Facebook partying" for older people like me, it is a great tool for communicating with friends and making new ones - I also like being able to put up pictures and play with all the cool stuff.

Facebook's Private is Not Really Private

So you actually think the private setting on Facebook means private? Well, think again - I found this story on Wired blog that will make many people rush to their profiles and change the settings.

Facebook Private Profiles Not As Private As You Think They Are -- UPDATED With Facebook Changes

Facebook users who set their profiles to private aren't quite as hidden as they might think they are, according to security researcher Christopher Soghoian, who discovered that Facebook's advanced search features reveals people's names, pictures, religion and sexual orientation to people who don't have permission to see their profile.
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