Tag Archives: Facebook changes

Facebook Moves to Block Fake News

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New Facebook Update Expected July 17 will Affect Your Ability to Edit Posts–But is that the Right Answer?

Fake News keyboard

In late June, Facebook announced they were taking steps to make if more difficult to edit what readers see in the “preview windows”. In reality, this ‘preview’ is all that many people actually do see.

And there is the underlying problem. Many, if not most professional “publishers”–the loose term given to anyone who posts content on the internet–make changes to the headlines and descriptions.

Why do we do this? Because we want people to click on our post. We want people to be so moved by what they see, they click it and “read all about it”–on our site, rather than the competitions.

Some publishers are really good at writing compelling copy that results in lots of people looking at their websites.

NASA runs a child-slave colony on Mars!

 

Photos taken by a Chinese orbiter reveal an alien settlement on the moon!

 

Shape-shifting reptilian extraterrestrials that can control human minds are running the U.S. government!

The above are some of the headlines that have been purported as truth in the media. (Thanks to Scientific American for these.)

So what is the problem with allowing people to edit the headlines and description?

Most people just want you to click on their site, but are not intending to pass off false information. There are more nefarious types out there though whose main goal is to make you believe things that are just not true.

Fake News cartoon by Frederick Burr Opper

This isn’t anything new. As the image above shows, Fake News has been an issue for a lot longer than Facebook or the Internet. The image is a portion of an illustration of reporters with “fake news” dating to 1894 by Frederick Burr Opper

There are more examples of fake news being propagate in history in this article by Scientific American.

Now, it may be that the headline and description are merely provocative, and if you were to read the actual post it would not be ‘fake news.’ The problem is that, as we mentioned earlier, most readers don’t bother to click and read more. They actually believe the headlines and descriptions, and share that information as if it were the wisdom of the ages.

After all, if we read it online if must be true. Right? Not right? Really?

Our goal is to support publisher workflows and app functionality, while limiting malicious misrepresentations of underlying link content. As content customization evolves we continue to work closely with our partners to support the best tools for sharing links on Facebook.

Even though Facebook is attempting to clean up the information stream that they control, it is still smart to question anything that you see online. Even if it is “everywhere”–probably even more so if it is everywhere!

Facebook of course is not the only entity facing this issue. Most of the social media outlets are looking at their policies, and trying to determine how much policing they should, or want to do.

Fake News is News Worthy!

PolitiFact is actually covering Fake News as a newsworthy topic!

There’s an interesting discussion happening now about the spread of fake news on the Internet and what companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter, among others, should do to stop it. That’s a healthy conversation to have, and one we hope continues in the weeks and months ahead. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do something now. Here at PolitiFact, we’re beefing up our coverage of fake news to help our readers better sort out fact from fiction on their social media feeds. The claims can be about anything — politics, entertainment, a fishy-sounding medical cure.

There is no 100% fool proof way to verify that what you are reading is the truth. Reading the real article and not the “cliff notes” version is a good start. Be willing to read and engage your brain. Rather than having a knee jerk reaction and sharing everything you see, pause, take a deep breath.

Let us take a little bit of responsibility for what we believe. Maybe we’re being unkind. Scientific American in their article, How Fake News Goes Viral says that maybe we’re aren’t just super gullible. It could be that we are just overwhelmed with information.

“If you live in a world where you are bombarded with junk—even if you’re good at discriminating—you’re only seeing a portion of what’s out there, so you still may share misinformation,” explains computer scientist Filippo Menczer of Indiana University Bloomington

But, even SA admits that the solution may rest on the shoulders of the readers. At least, that is what they said in February: The Ultimate Cure for the Fake News Epidemic Will Be More Skeptical Readers. Despite computer algorithms, we have to be more discerning.

Is it true is it kind is it necessary

And in the words of the poet Mary Ann Pietzker, ask yourself, “Is it True? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind?

In an example of the internet getting it wrong, this quote has been claimed, with some slight variations, to be the words of Buddha, of Sai Baba, and an ancient Arabian Proverb. No doubt there are others who have claimed the words, or attributed them to someone else entirely!

Thanks to Facebook, Scientific American, and PolitiFact for providing us with just the facts, ma’am.

Image of the special Fake News keyboard credited to Credit: Peter Dazeley Getty Images and appears on Scientific American, from their article “How Fake News Goes Viral—Here’s the Math”

Read more about Fake News on Scientific American:

3 Important Facebook Changes Every Local Business Should Know

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Heads Up! Facebook is rolling out lots of new changes

Some of the changes are “available” now…meaning, they are live. You may have already discovered some of them, either with joy or consternation.
Facebook changes for local business

If you don’t see these changes on your page yet, just keep this as a reference, because they are coming. Or maybe not…some changes are based on the category that you selected when you created your page for your local business!

Let’s cover 3 changes that are immediately apparent right on your Facebook cover.

  1. CREATE A FACEBOOK USERNAME

Facebook create page username

This should be a great help for people wanting to find your business on Facebook, especially if your name is very common–or very long. Now you can create a unique username.

This option was not available, at the time of this writing, on about half of the pages we are Admins on…and these pages cover a variety of page categories. Not sure if it will be in the future or not. So for now, we are showing a different page as an example.

But if you have the option, this is what you do:

Click on the link “Create Page @username”

A pop up window will appear that allows you to type in the username of your choice.

Some of the tips that Facebook provides include (our comments are in italics)

  • You can’t claim a username someone else is already using. so if you want your name, act FAST
  • Choose a username you’ll be happy with for the long term. Usernames are not transferable, and you can only change your username once. TRIPLE check your spelling!
  • Usernames can only contain alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) or a period (“.”).
  • Periods (“.”) and capitalization don’t count as a part of a username. For example, johnsmith55, John.Smith55 and john.smith.55 are all considered the same username.
  • Usernames must be at least 5 characters long and can’t contain generic terms or extensions (ex: .com, .net).
  • You must be an admin to choose a username for a Page.
  • Your username must adhere to the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

Once you have successfully created your Facebook Username you will get a pop up window that says “You’re all set!”

Your page can now be found by visitors by putting the following into the URL:  fb.me/YourUserName (in this example that would be fb.me/NaturePhotoDigest)

If a potential visitor is already on Facebook, they can enter @YourUserName into the Facebook search field and find your business. Again, if your business name is long, or common, this can be very helpful.

People can also send your page messages at m.me/YourUserName

  1. ADD ACTION BUTTON

Facebook Add Action Button

When you click on this button a popup appears that allows you to Create a Call-to-Action Button.

You can select any of the actions in the list, and that action will come up on your Facebook page, where the “Contact Us” is shown above. The Contact Us button gives you an opportunity to link to your Website’s contact page

This feature can be great, for example, if you want people to be able to easily call you—choose the Call Now button. If you want someone to be able to book an appointment you can link to your scheduling page so the potential patient goes directly there by clicking Book Now.

The Send Message function allows someone to send a message to your via Facebook’s messenger. A word of warning: consider your business needs and your schedule before you decide to go with this one or you may find yourself inundated with messages, or be taken away from your other important tasks. For folks who want instant messages from clients and who can handle the work themselves or via staff, this can be a great tool.

Shop Now is another button that can take someone to your website. This may be great if you are a services business that also sells products. If you are a store, you may prefer to have a different Shop function that creates a virtual store on your Facebook page.

Sign Up is another button that can take someone to your website, you would direct them to your opt-in page.

3. USE AS MY PAGE IS GONE, GONE, GONE…sort of

Facebook Use As Page feature

One of the things local businesses have been frustrated about is the fact that Facebook has taken away the “use as my page” feature. (If you still have it, enjoy it…it won’t last!) There is a workaround for much of this, and it is under the 3 dots next to the Message box.

Click on the 3 dots and you will have several options including

View as Page Visitor, which lets you see what someone else sees when looking at your page. We think this is pretty neat. Sometimes as the Admin of a page you see things that you don’t want other visitors to see. This button allows you to double check that that is what is going on, or give you the opportunity to make changes if visitors are seeing things that you’d rather they did not.

The “Like as Your Page” action is for when you find a page that you want your business to like (rather than liking it as your individual page)…so in this case, we’ve found a photography magazine page that NaturePhotoDigest would like, so on THAT Facebook page, we click “Like As Your Page” and then if you are Admin on more than one page, you will see this message

Facebook Like as Your Page feature

Now you simply select the correct page from the dropdown list…note, if you don’t see your page on the list, it is probably that you have already liked it!

Going back to YOUR page and the 3 dots, there are other functions that you will be able to do from here, such as view your page’s Insights and even create a new page.

Of course, those features won’t be available to you for pages you aren’t Admin on.

Hold on to your seats. There are lots of Facebook changes that local businesses should know about in store.