You've been reminded of your Facebook.com email; here's how to forget it again

Facebook often does things with personal data that irks people. Usually, they’re sharing it in ways that make people uncomfortable. But this week Facebook decided to hide data that some of us wanted to be front and center for the use of friends - our email address.

Whether you realized it or not, if you have a Facebook account, you’ve had facebook.com email for a couple of years now. This was rolled out as part of Facebook’s plan for world Web domination.

Within a few minutes seconds after Facebook launched this floptastic killer feature, we all promptly forgot it existed.

Earlier this year, Facebook decided we needed to be reminded of this valuable tool. That was nice of them, wasn’t it?

Now that you’ve got this handy dandy email address that you don’t want to use showing in Facebook, just how do you get your handy dandy, totally useful email address that you actually check to show up again?

How to hide your facebook.com email address (and restore your own)

1) On your Timeline and click on the About section under your avatar.

2) Scroll down to the Contact Info and Edit.

3) Use the drop-down menu next to the @facebook.com email address to change it to “Hidden From Timeline”.

4) For the email(s) you want to show on your timeline, use the drop-down menu to highlight “Shown On Timeline”.

Once that’s done, you should be good to go. 

Why did Facebook do this? There is no end to the speculation, but it’s surely not the last we’re going to hear about this. They wouldn’t drop this after such a bold move.

What are the implications for businesses?

Generally, this isn’t going to be an issue for your business unless of course you want your business address to show on your timeline as I do. There is a difference in the way Facebook messages are received when sent via email and conceivably you could have subscribers elect to use their facebook.com address for your newsletter. That’s where you might run into some problems with delivery.

Is Facebook up to evil, sneaky tricks? Not necessarily, but they are making changes that we need to be aware of all the time. 

Do you have bigger concerns about the email switch this week?

*****

Group Coaching Online - BETA Release!

Be a part of our brand new coaching group online at a fantastic introductory price -  increase your comfort level using the tools that can help you effectively promote and grow your business! Sign up for three months and receive:

• Support through a members only Facebook group to ask questions and learn from others.
• Once a month - One hour group conference call.
• Weekly tips and suggestions for moving your social presence forward.
• Monthly emails with suggested readings, exercises and assignments.
• Encouragement and accountability.
• A library of tools and resources.
• Exclusive access to new products first and at a discounted rate.

The first group starts July 1st - Register here today!

How to schedule posts on your Facebook Page

Facebook recently made some updates to Pages that are really exciting. I think I could feel the excitement of every page admin I know when we all read about admin roles and scheduled posts.

But how do you schedule them?

It’s not super obvious, so here’s the rundown:

1) Set up the content that you want to schedule - status, link, picture or video. Add any text you want to include.

2) At the bottom left of your post you’ll see a little clock. Click on it and select the year, month, day, hour and minute (you only get the 10s as an option) you want your post to be published.

3) Press the submit button and Facebook will confirm that you’re scheduling the post for the date and time you specified and you can close out or go to your Page’s activity log to see the post. 

 

BUT, what if that post you scheduled needs to be changed or cancelled later?

Good question! Because this part is even less obvious. First, apparently you have to be using Facebook as yourself - not as your Page.

Go to your page (still logged in as you).

At the top of your page, you’ll see an Edit Page button. If you click on it, there is a list of options. Select Use Activity Log.

The top section of your activity log has all your scheduled posts. You can change the scheduled time or delete the content but editing isn’t available…yet (I’m betting a future update will clear up this little issue).

Now, isnt this handy!? And if you go to our Facebook page today, you’ll see that post was published last night as planned. (Feel free to like our page while you’re there if you’re so inclined. ;)

Have you scheduled any posts to Facebook yet? What do you think do far?

Using Facebook as your page

Using Facebook as your page (giving you the ability to like and comment on other pages as your business instead of with your personal account) gives you the opportunity to build your brand and knowledge base in conversations with your specific audience.

How does this work?

1) You can leave comments on appropriate topics as your page.  

When you browse Facebook as a page you can leave comments on other people’s pages as your business.

A recent example of when I did this was when a business coach asked a social media question on his page - it made more sense for me to reply as my page (should any of his followers be interested in also learning about social media) than it would have as me personally.

2) You can tag pages in your updates.

If I like other pages as my page I can then tag them (which makes their name a clickable link to their page) on my page. This is a great thing to do when sharing someone else’s information on your page because they will be notified that you shared their information (and may make them more likely to share your information in the future.)

3) When you like a page the page administrator is notified.

When you like a page as your business that business receives a notification that you now like that page. Although they may not take the time to go and visit your page, that is a first interaction with them.  You can then build the connection you are trying to establish with the people who run that page by engaging with their content as your page.

Important Note: Pages that like your page don’t count towards your like count. You also can’t easily find out which pages like your page after the initial notification that they have liked your page. UPDATE Hat tip to Pape Service Technology who reminded me how to find it. (From your admin panel select see all next to “new likes” and then choose the drop down on the top left to select pages).

Do you interact on Facebook as your page?

Facebook: Are you seeing what I'm saying?

Karen and I have been seeing a lot of people posting things like

“Like this post if you see this status in your feed - I’m trying to see who actually sees what I’m writing”

“If you want people to see what you’re actually posting follow these steps…”

Which has led to this post. Let’s talk about what you see when you’re on Facebook.

The newsfeed isn’t a chronological list of all information posted

Twitter posts everything that everyone writes in chronological order.  My most common analogy is that it’s like the radio.  You miss a lot when you aren’t listening because it never stops moving.

Facebook isn’t like that.

Facebook decided that instead of doing that it could try to figure out what it is you want to see. It’s done this with it’s Edgerank formula (which Karen wrote about before).

What does that mean? It means that instead of showing you everything, Facebook monitors what you’re doing on Facebook and then tries to compile information in your feed that it thinks you’ll like.

How does Facebook decide?!

We don’t know exactly (top secret!!) but here are definitely things that help:

- If you comment on a person or a page’s status update, Facebook figures you’re interested in what they have to say.

- If you like something a person or a page says, Facebook figures you’re interested in what they have to say.

- If you share something a person or a page says, Facebook figures you’re interested in what they have to say.

So what do I do?

- If you want to make sure you see information from specific people or pages, don’t just think “hmm, interesting” when you see something go by in your feed, engage with it somehow (like, comment, share).

- If you want people to see more of your posts, invite them to engage.  Ask easy to answer questions, ask them to like your status update if they agree, ask them to share if they think what you have to say is valuable.

- If you really want to make sure you’re seeing everything someone is saying, go and visit their profile or page.

Conclusion

- Facebook isn’t up to no good, trying to hide content from you to make a buck (I mean, they’re trying to make a buck, no doubt…. but….)

- Facebook’s attempt to figure out what people want to see makes a lot of sense given its audience. This audience wants to see what their closest friends have to say and what the brands they like the most have to say, not wade through every. single. thing. people say about everything.

- Like all my posts and make lots of comments and share all that we say so that you always see what I have to say and make us feel important and special. :)

Over the coming weeks we’re going to be talking more about all the new things Facebook has been up to.  Do you have any specific questions you’d like us to cover?

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name *

City *

Email Format

• html
• text
• mobile

Countdown to Timeline: You can do it!

Timeline for business pages will no longer be an option as of tomorrow - March 30.  Many have been putting off switching to the new look because they’re worried or overwhelmed with what’s involved.  We’re here to remind you, you can do it and we’re here to help you through the process.

Step one : profile image

This image is the one that will appear next to your status updates and on mobile devices (Timeline doesn’t show up on them yet) so pick something that best represents you.  Most of the time, that would be your logo.

Step two: cover image

This is an opportunity to showcase what you do or who you are. The image can’t include any calls to action or your URL so instead think of it as an opportunity to connect with your audience and showcase what you do.

There are many designers who are helping people create cover photos for their Facebook pages that you can hire to help you.  A few include (we are in no way affiliated to them):

- Sweet Smart Designs

- Rake Consulting

- CL Buchanan Photography and Design

If you’re going to do it yourself, the dimensions and rules for the Timeline cover image are all outlined in our previous post about Timeline. 

We used our photo with some simple keywords on what we do.

Here are a few other examples:

It doesn’t need to be complicated.

Step three: Tabs/Applications

You can feature up to four tabs right under your cover image.  You can decide the order really easily by clicking on the triangle to the right of the tabs and then clicking on the edit button on the individual tabs to decide the order you would like.  We’ll be writing more tutorials on this in the coming weeks!

It’s really not hard - you can do it! And when you do, leave us a comment so we can come and see!

Have you updated your page to Timeline yet?