Monday, January 29, 2018

Facebook Changes, Terminology, and Best Practices Screencast


by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

As I've shared in earlier posts, a lot of things have changed on Facebook in the past couple of weeks. This screencast is going to help writers continue to engage effectively on this valuable platform.




I've referenced 2 previous posts in the screenshot above. Here are the direct links, followed by the notes I promised. 


Notes from the Screencast

1. There are 3 separate and distinct ways we can interact on Facebook:
  • Personal Profile: This is where people FRIEND you.
  • Professional Page: This is where people LIKE you. NOTE: there is no such thing as a personal page. FB considers any kind of a page (author, book, ministry, etc) as a brand or business. 
  • Group: This is where we join something. There are 3 types of groups:
    • Public—anyone can join and the posts within the group are all visible to the public)
    • Private—anyone can see the group and ask permission to join and the posts within this group is private and not visible to anyone outside the group.
    • Secret—no one can ever search and find this group. To become a member you must be invited. Again, all posts within this group are private and not visible to anyone outside the group.

NOTE: if you’re a member of a private or secret group, posts from within that group will show up on your personal newsfeed. They are only visible to you and to others within the group. If I were to visit your personal profile, I would not see the post.

Knowing the difference between these three ways of FB interaction is because FB is encouraging more person to person interaction, instead of person to brand/business interaction. So we’ll be seeing more updates from friends (personal profiles) and family, instead of businesses (pages).

2. Why are we seeing more FB posts without a share button?
There are two main reasons that we see updates without a share button. Rest assured, FB isn’t keeping people from sharing posts. Instead, they are being respectful of the authors of individuals. The person who authors a post sets the privacy parameters.

First, we are seeing more updates from personal profiles and a lot of people have their personal profile’s privacy setting set to FRIENDS ONLY. That means if I’m not a friend of that person then I won’t see the update.

Because of that, only the person who shared the original FB post is able to share it. None of the rest of us is allowed to share the update.

Second, we don’t see a share button on any post that comes from a private or secret group.
As I said above, each group’s leader sets the privacy parameters for the group. If it’s a public group, you’ll see a share button because everything is designated public.

However, if it’s a private or secret group, you will not be able to share posts outside the group.

3. How to make sure you can still receive updates from the PROFESSIONAL PAGES you like.
You do this by choosing the SEE FIRST option. Below is a screenshot of where you find that option.


I hope this information has been helpful! I’d love to know what other questions you have about FB. Be sure to post them in the comments section below.

Don’t forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,
Edie

TWEETABLES
Facebook changes, terminology, and best practices in a step-by-step screencast - @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Don't let FB changes confuse you, @EdieMelson has a screencast to explain how to engage effectively (Click to Tweet)


9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the info. I've wondered about the absence of "share" options. And the "see First" option is good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jackie, a lot of folks have wondered about both of these. Glad I could help explain what's going on. Blessings, E

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  2. Does this mean that private groups created to hide personal information will now broadcast to everyone our posts that were intended to be private? I know several people who have private groups to discuss health issues and divorces with their closest friends and do not want anyone else to know what is being posted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, definitely not. Private groups stay private. This isn't changing at all. When I say anyone can see a private group, I mean they can see the NAME of the group and ask to join. No posts within a private or secret group will ever show up on anyone's newsfeed except those within the group. I hope this helps, Blessings, E

      Delete
  3. Thank you for explaining this. I had noticed differences in the "share" button.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So glad I was able to clear things up! Blessings, E

      Delete
  4. So thankful for this blog post, Edie. Thank you for enlightening us on the mysteries of Facebook. :) The specific wording for the different FB pages helps when creating a book proposal as well.

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