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. 

• Recent Facebook Changes and What They Mean for Writers & Authors
• The Battle Against Facebook Engagement Baiting

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)