social media

facebook logo sketch

Facebook’s latest algorithm change?

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

If you’re wondering how Facebook has changed its algorithm recently and what that means for your page it can basically be summed up as quality vs. quantity.

According to Digiday, the winners will be:

Winners

In-depth content
The websites that post high-impact, original stories, and ones with longer analysis that hold readers’ attention

Interactive content
Since time spent on the page will be a crucial factor

Variety
Publishers will do better if they mix up their Facebook posts with a variety of content forms

Losers

Clickbait and switch
It’s no surprise that high-frequency, low-quality posters will continue to get dinged.

The over-poster that under-delivers
One big change to how stories appear on Facebook will limit the number of posts from the same publisher going to the same user.

It is certainly be time to rethink some of the old rules about little and often and start to think about how Facebook content can encourage longer visits, higher impact and more original themes and creative.  It is worth keeping an eye on some of Facebook’s own best practice guides for page publishing.

Digital detox? Is it ever a good idea?

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

I’m off Facebook (and whatsapp). People who know me will know this is probably a bit hard for me to do as I rely on it heavily. It’s my primary messaging app, my school/PTA system, my newsreader, how I update family on our lives, crucial to elements of my work and my personal photo library/log for the kids…and on and on.

Over the past few years I’ve used it more than twitter and have all valued the feedback and interaction there much higher than on other channels.

But you can have too much of a good thing, right?

Maybe it’s my current state of mind or maybe it’s the recent election but I found myself veering between annoyance and self censorship on the platform. I wasn’t happy with either so for now, I’m off it.

Back here though where I hope to use the blog as a way to process some of the current things I am facing and struggling with as a working parent in a busy agency role.

More anon.

forget 50 shades of grey…..

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

….check out 50 shades of social!

‘Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals’ is a crowdsourced social media book from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, due for publication in print and digital formats by Wiley on Friday 20 July.

It started as an idea at a meeting presented by Stephen Waddington as a way to capture all of the social media training that the CIPR SM panel runs over the summer each year.  Since then, the idea has grown and finally came to fruition this week.

Since launch, the book has shot to number 1 on the Amazon PR and marketing bestseller charts based on pre-orders alone. The book is split into 26 chapters over eight topic areas, covering the media and public relations industry, planning, social networks, online media relations, monitoring and measurement, skills, industry change and the future of the industry. Each chapter has been contributed by one of the foremost experts in the given subject area. Even me. I did the psychology chapter 🙂

‘Share This’ has been edited by Stephen Waddington with contributions from Katy Howell, Simon Sanders, Andrew Smith, Helen Nowicka, Gemma Griffiths, Me, Robin Wilson, Alex Lacey, Matt Appleby, Dan Tyte, Stephen Waddington, Stuart Bruce, Rob Brown, Russell Goldsmith, Adam Parker, Julio Romo, Philip Sheldrake, Richard Bagnall,Daljit Bhurji, Richard Bailey, Rachel Miller, Mark Pack, and Simon Collister.

During the coming weeks, the book launch will be supported by the release of YouTube video introductions to each of the chapters by each of the authors; a social media quiz from the CIPR, designed to test the digital knowledge of practitioners; and will culminate in an exclusive invite-only launch event at Google Campus, east London on Wednesday 18 July. I have a couple of spare tickets so if you’d like to join me, let me know 🙂

Perhaps the most exciting thing is the endorsements we have received about the book.  ‘Share This’ has been endorsed by Lord Sugar; Paul Staines (aka Guido Fawkes); Paul Mylrea, Director of Communications at the BBC; Professor Tom Watson, Professor of Public Relations, Bournemouth University; Marshall Manson, Managing Director, Digital, EMEA, Edelman; and Avril Lee, Partner, CEO London, Ketchum Pleon, among others. Not too shabby, eh?

‘Share This’ will be available on Friday 20 July and is available in hardback (RRP: £16.99) and digital format (RRP: £10.99). It is available to pre-order from Wiley, Amazon and various other retailers.

Chapter One: An Introduction to Social Networks by fellow author Katy Howell is also freely available for download via the CIPR website.

DONTCONTACTME@facebook.com

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

On Monday, Facebook rolled out a new change where everybody’s published email address under contacts, was changed to a newly assigned one based on the @facebook.com format.  What this means for Facebookers is that anyone emailing them via their Facebook account would see their mail end up in FB messages, not the usual email inbox.

Facebook maintains it is giving the user the choice of email but as The Guardian blog puts it,

We shall gloss over the question of whether a “choice” really exists if a user is not aware of it.

Want to change yours back? Simple advice again from The Guardian about how to go about it: