13 Million Facebook Users Haven't Touched Their Privacy Settings

As Facebook prepares Graph Search for wide release, some have concerns about the privacy issues the new feature raises.

How can you be sure only your friends will see your name during searches? After all, more than a quarter of Facebook users share information with an audience much wider than their social circle. And 13 million users haven't even touched their privacy settings.


To see how Graph Search will affect you, as well as a few helpful tips for customizing your privacy settings, check out this infographic, courtesy of Marketo.

Are you worried about Graph Search invading your privacy? Tell us about it in the comments.

Homepage image courtesy of Flickr, D. Stenvers

Tumblr Updates iOS App With Social Sharing

Days after it introduced its first mobile ads, Tumblr updated its iOS app to version 3.3.1, adding several important new features.

The new version lets users share posts via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as save content for later using Instapaper and Pocket. Also, users can now email an entire post and close a photo by flinging it up or down.

Other improvements include GIFs that now animate even while you scroll (works only on iPhone 4S or later and iPad 2 or later), and the "Following" list is now alphabetized and searchable.

Tumblr has recently been on an update spree. Besides introducing mobile ads, it launched a Windows Phone app and redesigned its Android app — all in the span of three weeks.

You can download the new Tumblr app at Apple's App Store.

Image courtesy of Tumblr

Facebook Tests Links With Larger Photos, Adds Groups To Timeline

Facebook is testing two types of new link in the news feed, one with larger photos and another with icons denoting the link source. The social media giant has also given groups their own separate box on the newly designed timeline.

The new design for posts containing links takes full advantage of the recent news feed redesign, which focuses on providing the user with better, more image-focused content. The first new link being tested is dominated by a picture from the article, which takes up the entire width of the news feed at the cost of a title and summary. Instead, the links source and a sentence from the article sit above the image. Clicking on the photograph takes you to the article – before, it opened the image in a larger lightbox.

The second new link being tested is similar to the current style, with an image on the right and a headline and description on the left. However, the test contains the emblem and the name of the source site across the bottom of the link. Both of the links being tested take full advantage of the redesign’s wider news feed. It is as yet unclear whether the links can contain videos instead of pictures or not, but considering the fact that clicking the photo takes users to the article, it is unlikely – users want videos to play when they are clicked.

It’s been a busy few days for the Facebook team, as they have also added a new groups section to the redesigned news feed. Only open groups that the user has accepted an invite to will appear in the box, closed or secret groups and groups with an invitation pending will not be shown.

Which of the tests do you prefer?

71% of Facebook Users Engage in 'Self-Censorship'

Most Americans now know the feeling of typing something into a social media input box, thinking again, and deciding against posting whatever it was. But while it certainly seemed like a widespread phenomenon, no one had actually quantified the extent of this "self-censorship."

But now, new research based on a sample of 3.9 million Facebook reveals precisely how widespread this activity is. Carnegie Mellon PhD student Sauvik Das and Facebook's Adam Kramer measured how many people typed more than five characters into Facebook content-input boxes, but then did not post them.
They term this "last-minute self-censorship." The research was posted to Das' website and will presented at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's conference on Weblogs and Social Media in July.

The numbers are impressively large. Fully one-third of all Facebook posts were self-censored, according to the method Das and Kramer devised, though they warn they probably captured a substantial number of false positives. Seventy one percent of all the users surveyed engaged in some self-censorship either on new posts or in comments, and the median self-censorer did so multiple times.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the study was the demographic correlations with self-censorship. Men self-censored more often, particularly if they had large numbers of male friends. Interestingly, people with more diverse friend groups — measured by age, political affiliation, and gender — were less likely to self-censor.
While the researchers declined to speculate in this study about why people may or may not have self-censored, earlier research with a small group of users found five reasons people chose not share what they'd written: aversion to sparking an argument or other discussion, concern their post would offend or hurt someone, felt their post was boring or repetitive, decided the content undermined their desired self-presentation or were just unable to post due to a technological or other constraint.

For Facebook users, the main takeaway here is probably: Feel free not to share. Facebook, on the other hand, has to have a more complex relationship to this research. Their interaction and business models depend on sharing, but it's not hard to imagine some circumstances in which it would be better not to share: racist content, say.

Das and Kramer say future research should address when the non-sharing is "adaptive," (which I think means good, in this context) and when, in the words of Das and Kramer, "users and their audience could fail to achieve potential social value from not sharing certain content, and the [social-network service] loses value from the lack of content generation."

Image via Manjunath Kiran/AFP/GettyImages

Hands On With the New Foursquare

Foursquare launched a major update to its iOS app Wednesday, now with more focus on what’s around you rather than who.

While the app is certainly all about checking in — and has a new larger check-in button front and center on the app’s home screen — it’s also about helping you find things to do around you. Whether you’re looking for a place to grab a cup of coffee, or trying to find out what club in town is the most popular, there’s a little something for everyone.

Using Foursquare religiously since its launch in 2009, I took version 6.0 out for a spin this afternoon to see just what the hype’s about.

Ready to Explore

When you launch Foursquare, you’re taken directly to an Explore page, where you can see at a glance which of your friends are located around you, what’s happening in the area, and what new businesses might have popped up since you've last been around.

All of that information is contained in a small widget at the top of the screen — you can scroll down to see friends worldwide — with a map behind it. Want to see what’s going on in map view? Tapping on the small map at the top of the page will bring up a full-screen version.

Friends are represented on the map with their profile pictures. Other places on the map, such as restaurants and bars, and noted by familiar location-specific icons — for instance, a bar has a picture of a martini glass. Tap on an icon and you can see that particular location’s rating, as well as its business type. Tap again and you're on that location's Foursquare page with photos, check-in info, tips and more at your fingertips.

Getting Specific

At the top of the Explore page is a search box where you find something like a slice of pizza near you. Those results are then shown on a page similar to that initial launch page, with a list view of establishments meeting your search criteria below a map view of the same information. Once again, tapping on the small map will bring up a larger full-screen view.

In the case of search, however, that map information is more detailed, offering you not only the name and rating of a location, but also highlighting particular establishments where your friends have visited or left tips.
My search for pizza places immediately highlighted a nearby location where my friend Taylor had left a tip, and tapping around, I was able to find several more locations nearby that were frequented by my friends.
The whole experience is pretty snappy, and makes it easy to find a location near you that you know you'll enjoy, primarily because your friends are essentially recommending it to you on the fly.

Facebook Home Released For Android

Facebook has released Facebook Home, a new patch for Android devices which makes viewing messages and photos from Facebook easier by changing the device’s homepage into a Facebook cover feed.

When Facebook home was announced yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasised that the company’s intention was to build a mobile interface which put people first instead of apps. To that end, Facebook Home replaces an Android phone’s home page with information from the owner’s Facebook news feed, all of which can be clicked on and interacted with. At any point users can get to their apps by swiping up on their Facebook profile photo.

Facebook notifications will appear on the home screen beside a profile picture of the active party, Facebook promises on the announcement post that these notifications will be “bigger [and] bolder”. Notifications can be taken off screen with a simple drag.

Meanwhile, messages – both SMS and Facebook – will appear over apps as pop-ups in the corner of the screen. This feature, called Chat Heads, “will help improve engagement as it lets people jump in and out of conversations without ever having to leave your app”, according to the Facebook announcement post.

Home will be available in the US from the Google Play Store from April 12. Home works on the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung GALAXY S III and Samsung GALAXY Note II. Home will work on the yet-to-be-released HTC One and Samsung GALAXY S4, and on more devices in the next few months.

What do you think of Facebook Home?

Social Media Marketing Basics

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing, or SMM, is the practice of using social networking websites to promote products, services, and brand awareness.

Who uses Social Media Marketing?

Businesses that want to expand their online customer base use Social Media Marketing.

Why use Social Media Marketing?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which uses Search Engine Optimization (SEO), attracts the attention of Internet search engines. People who don't know about your business can find it. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (SMM) attracts the attention of human beings. People who know about your business will tell other people about it. And those people will tell other people. SMM is the Internet's version of word-of-mouth marketing and the Internet is huge. Use SMM well and potential customers will reach out to you before they use a search engine.

How to use Social Media Marketing

SMM is an investment. It is based on building relationships with potential customers. Plan and budget your company's social networking activities. Identify measurable goals. Do you want to drive traffic to your website? Do you want to address customer complaints quickly and efficiently? Choose one goal and focus your efforts. Add new goals later.

Where to use Social Media Marketing

SMM can be time-consuming. Identify your target market. Be specific. Do research. Where do large groups of these people meet on the Internet? Are they in a hurry? Do they like photos? Are they professionals? Use the social networking websites where your potential customers gather.

When to use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Marketing

Use SMM consistently. Schedule updates as much as possible. People want to know when they can hear from you. Company blog posts, on sites such as WordPress, can be made once a day, once a week, or once a month. Maintenance is key. If you stop updating, people with assume you don't care.

Only reach out when you have something valuable to offer. Do not add clutter to customer timelines and feeds. You will lose followers. "Something valuable" does not mean a well-priced product. Social networking is about engagement. Ask questions. Give advice. Be clever. Then offer your well-priced product.

Social Media Marketing Tips

Be human. Social networking is people talking to people. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube Marketing relies on social networking. Your business needs to care about the people it networks with. It also needs to show that it cares.

Experiment. Track your results (if possible). Social Media Marketing is not an exact science. Learn how much overt advertising your target audience can accept as part of your SMM campaign. What works for your competitor may not work for you.

Evaluate. Reevaluate. Then adapt. The Internet is always changing. If an SMM strategy is no longer working for you, try something new.