Saturday, January 26, 2013

Are You Facebook Savvy?

Being an e-published author, there are several options available to us for promotion, and many of us enjoy using Facebook.  Although, I personally have no issues with the site, many continue to complain about certain aspects of Facebook, and if they only knew how to use the "settings" perhaps they could settle some of their concerns.

I'm very much a Reader's Digest fan, and today I'm going to paraphrase some very helpful things offered by Michelle Crouch in the February issue.  The title of her article is 13 Things Facebook Won't Tell You.

1.  If you want to know how much FB knows about you, go to Accounting Settings in the home menu and click on "Download a copy of our Facebook Data."

2.  If you don't want to share your updates and other personal information with the whole world, you'll have to change your settings manually as FB has kept the default setting as "public."

3.  Wonder why you don't always see every post from your friends?  FB wants users to see posts that keep people on the site longer.  To do that, they move up the posts that have most frequently liked, shared or commented on.

4.  When you sign into FB, you are tracked while you surf the Internet.  Anytime you visit a page that has a FB "like" or "share" button, that information is logged.

5.  If your posts are set to "public", everyone can see your updates...that includes burglars who make note of posts about you being out of town or away from home.  Insurance companies have also been known to use posted information to raise a premium or deny a claim.  Beware what you share!

6.  Any special announcements you make such as the birth of a baby, your pending nuptials or acceptance into college will be targeted by FB and processed to stick around in your friends' news feeds until they log on.

7.  Liking certain Facebook pages can be a nuisance, but can also work to your advantage.  For instance, if you like a certain clothing stores, you'll appreciate the coupons that pop up for your use.

8.  You can sort your news feed to fit your fancy.  Change to "most recent" rather than "top news" and then add your favorite people to your close friends list and unsubscript from any friends you no longer are interested in.

9. FB makes money by selling ad space to companies.  Hey, the have to make bucks somewhere so we can utilize the site for free.  The advertisers provide the demographics, desired locations, career and level of education and FB places the ads on the pages of those who meet the criteria.

10. If you have really important news you want to share, you can pay a fee from $7-$10 per post to move your update to the top of your friends news feed.

11.  Timeline is one of the things that lots complain about.  Get used to it.  It's not going away...at least anytime soon.  It's the most effective way FB has found for people to share in a visually appealing way, plus it provides a better platform for marketing.

12.  If you feel overwhelmed by posts, you can limit them to Facebook friends who live in your city, who went to your school or who work with you.  You can even elect to allow everyone to view a post except your boss.  Click the arrow in the lower right-hand corner of the status update box, and you'll find all the options.

13.  A smart person will never leave their computer while logged onto FB, especially if you live or work with someone with a sense of humor.  You never know what "you" might post even in your absence.

Remember, I take no credit for this interesting information...in fact I learned a lot from it.  The article says for more insider secrets from Facebook, go to http://www.rd.com/february.

Thanks to such an amazing publication for this information.
The sources in the article are listed as follows:

David Jacobs, consumer protection counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Brittany Darwell, lead writer for insidefacebook.com, Cameron Camp, cybersecurity expert at ESET in San Diego and former FB employee.

4 comments:

  1. Good tips, Ginger! :-) Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm still not computer savvy enough, but I'm learning.
    Thanks for posting this article.

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  3. This is a great informative article but there are typos in #5 & #12

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  4. Thank you for your editing prowess. I normally try to proofread my material better, but I recently had a vitrectomy and am sight-impaired by the gas bubble placed in my left eye. I think I've corrected the issues that concerned you. Thank you again.

    ReplyDelete

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