I was checking to see that one of my Facebook Applications; namely, HootSuite was set up to properly post.  And so I headed into my application settings within Facebook and clicked the link to edit it.   Now, if you’re anything like me, I usually am pretty quick to allow an application within Facebook (within reason) but rarely do I head back into that application to double-check exactly what it is that I’ve authorized.

I always have good intentions to do so, but quite often get busy and forget.

Now, before I go on here, and before you get a negative impression of HootSuite, I do want to say that it is a great application – it allows me to update multiple social networks at the same time (I’m still waiting for Google+), but all in all, it saves me a ton of time.

In order to use HootSuite, I need to allow it to access my Facebook pages, Twitter account, etc. in order for it to work.  Not a big deal, that’s the whole reason why I decided to use it in the first place.

That being said, however, I was truly (and I mean truly) shocked when I went into Facebook to edit the application. Here’s what I found (see image).  Now, I know that the details of the image are hard to see so let me break down for you the different areas:

1. Access my basic information (required):  This is pretty across-the-board for any Facebook application.  It allows access to things like your name, gender, other information you’ve made public and so on.
2. My Profile Information (required):  Again, pretty basic standard stuff.
3. My Family & Relationships (required):  Not necessarily something that they’d need, but it is required.
4. Access Information People Share With Me (required).  This one is a little questionable but again, it’s required so if I want to use the application, I need it.
5. Send Me Email (required):  They’re asking to send me email at my address; fine.
6. Access my contact information (not required):  This I can remove if I’d like to.
7. Manage My Pages (not required):  Hootsuite can login to my pages (fine, this is what I want it to do anyway in order to post to them.  Otherwise the whole purpose of using HootSuite in the first place would be null and void).
8. Post to Facebook on my Behalf (not required):  This means that HootSuite may post for you in the locations you’ve authorized.
9. ACCESS MESSAGES IN MY INBOX (not required):  Yes, if you don’t catch this little addition to the application, you may not know that HootSuite can access your personal messages contained within your Facebook inbox.  Makes you feel a little violated doesn’t it?
10. Access Posts in my News Feed (not required):  Again, I can remove this but essentially this app wants to be able to read not only my own messages that I post but also those that my friends post.
11. Access my Data Any Time (not required):  In other words, if I’m not logged in, HootSuite still wants access to my data (I’m imagining some creepy IT guy who after hours logs into the application and starts reading personal messages).
12. MANAGE MY EVENTS (not required):  Yes, this application wants to be able to manage your events.  As a matter of fact, it even says “HootSuite may CREATE and RSVP to events on my behalf.”  Yes, I don’t think I want some unknown person creating events for me or responding to events on my behalf.
13. ACCESS AND MANAGE MY CUSTOM FRIENDS LISTS (not required):  Again, I’m not quite sure why they would need to manage my friends.  (They do mention this in their help files – see below).
14. ACCESS MY FRIEND REQUESTS (not required):  Again, not certain why HootSuite would need to access my friend requests but again, perhaps related to their answer below.
15. MANAGE MY NOTIFICATIONS (not required):  This portion of the application allows it to manage your notifications and mark them as “read”.
16. Insights (not required):  The application may access the data from Insights (statistics) for my page(s) and applications.  Not quite certain why it would need access to other applications that I use.
17. CHECK-INS (not required):  HootSuite’s app may publish check-ins on my behalf.

Now, let’s put all of this in perspective.  All of these items may be necessary to authorize in the event that HootSuite updates their website to have access to this information.  For instance, if, in the future, they offered you a way to check-in to a location using Facebook through their own site at http://hootsuite.com, then I can see where this will come in handy.

Also, accessing my personal messages, in the event that this feature becomes available, I can certainly see it as a necessity if I want to be able to access my personal messages on Facebook within the HootSuite platform.  However, as it stands today, these are not current features…they are simply placed there “just in case”.

I’ve made multiple references here to what HootSuite has to say on this topic and here is their response:

Hello,
HootSuite requests access to that information because many HootSuite users would like to HootSuite to have much of the same functionality they already have on Facebook. This includes:

• Monitoring News Feeds
• Publishing messages
• Uploading photos
• Accessing Facebook Insights
• Displaying information about your profile

Without requesting these permissions, HootSuite would not have the same level of functionality our users expect from us.

We assure you that HootSuite is not obtaining any information from your Facebook account without your consent. In addition, HootSuite values the privacy of our users, and will not publish anything without your approval.

And I again want to reiterate that HootSuite really is a great time-saving program.  What I did want to point out however, is that oftentimes, the access that applications have within Facebook go beyond what we initially thought that they would do.  While most applications give us the ability to remove access to areas we don’t want visited by unknown persons or entities, we don’t often take the time to remove these items and will often just take it for granted that the application is only doing what it is supposed to.  While it’s nice that HootSuite is taking a proactive approach, some of these items aren’t necessary right now. If it comes to pass that I do need them in the future, great, I’ll re-authorize and update the application but until then, I think it’s truly unnecessary.

The moral of the story here is not to pick on HootSuite but rather to point out that you likely use plenty of Facebook applications yourself, and if you do, you may want to take a long look at what those applications are allowed to do.  Not taking action is what other unscrupulous applications are hoping so that they can garner whatever kind of information they want from you.

Take the time today to visit your Facebook applications and double-check what authorizations they do in fact have.  Better to be safe than sorry.

Now, you might not have heard of Edgerank before but it is incredibly important to understand if you want your content to rank well on Facebook.

First of all, what exactly is Edgerank?  Well, in a nutshell, it determines what you see when you log in to Facebook.    You may have noticed (at least I have), that sometimes you’ll be sitting there on Facebook and think “Hey, you know what?  I haven’t heard from Joe recently!  Wonder where he’s been?”  Actually, Facebook is determining how important Joe’s updates are to me.  If I haven’t visited his Facebook page in a while or interacted with him, then Facebook may not think that Joe is very important to me and thus won’t show me his updates that often.

On the flip side of this, Joe may not be updating very often and so Edgerank hasn’t given him a very high priority.

Essentially, if Joe posted photos, brief updates, changed his relationship status, updated his profile, or had done a   multitude of other things then he would have a higher Edgerank.

So what exactly does this algorithm take into account when determining what to show?  Well, there are actually three factors; Affinity, Edge Weight, and Frequency.

Affinity

Affinity is Facebook’s way of determining who should show up in your news feed.  If you tend to “like” someone’s status a lot, comment on their photos, write on their wall, etc., then the likelihood of them showing up in your own news feed is pretty good.

However, this does not mean that you will show up in their news feed.  Not exactly wonderful if you’re trying to a business or website noticed on Facebook is it?

But keep in mind that if you do all of the aforementioned things, “like” a status, comment on a photo, etc., the likelihood of them responding is pretty good.  And if they respond in some way, either liking your comment or writing on your wall, then this in turn, will increase the likelihood of you showing up in their news feed.

Weight

Weight is something that Facebook uses to decide what to place in your news feed.  For example, videos tend to get a higher Weight than does “liking” a users post; in essence, it’s how popular one kind of item is over another.  The problem with this is that the weight of something differs greatly upon the individual.  If you tend to view photos more than you do videos, then photos will be given a higher weight than videos will.

Overall however, photos, videos and links tend to get a higher weight than does liking a status update.  Something to keep in mind as your posting content on your wall.

Recency

Recency is a big factor.  The more recent something is, the bigger the factor in where it appears within Facebook.

So how do you work with all of this to help make sure that you’re Facebook page is important to your followers?

1. Post interesting content frequently (but don’t spam).  If you have something you want to share, statistics show that videos, photos and links will play a larger factor in “audience participation” than will simple likes.
2. Use open-ended questions.  This is a time-tested sales strategy; you never want to give someone the option of saying “yes” or “no”.  By starting off a  post using who, what, where, when, or why will encourage more feedback than a question that elicits only a yes or no response.
3. Ask for interaction.  I’ve noticed that Bing in particular will post updates on Facebook that contain a photo and ask you to “caption this”.  Just be creative.

Overall, the Edgerank algorithm isn’t very sophisticated but unlike Google’s algorithm which tends to be static in nature, Facebook’s is largely determined by the interaction of people; and therefore is a flowing, non-static entity.

The take-aways from all of this?  Use photos, videos and links when updating your page and status, encourage interaction, and ask open-ended questions.

In a recent Google Webmaster Help video (see below), Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam Team answers one of the most popular questions that many websites have and that is “Does Google use Twitter and Facebook Links as a ranking signal?”  The definitive answer, from Matt is “Yes”.

To be honest, this rather surprised me because rarely have I ever heard Matt answer a question with such forthright authority.  Usually the answer is more along the lines of “Yes, but…” with all kinds of subjective material added to the answer; making it virtually impossible to detect if what you’re doing yourself actually matters at all.

This question stemmed from a recent article written by Danny Sullivan Editor-in-Chief at Search Engine Land.

In this article (which is a great read by the way), Danny offers responses by both Bing and Google on specific questions such as:

1. If a link is retweeted or referenced a lot in Twitter, do you count this as a ranking signal?
2. Do you try to calculate the authority of someone who tweets?
3. Do you calculate whether a link should carry more weight depending upon who Tweeted it?
4. Do you try to calculate the authority of someone on Facebook?
5. Do you calculate whether a link should carry more weight on Facebook depending upon who posted the link?

It’s very interesting to read the answers and even more interesting to associate it with your own activity on both of these social networks.

Part of the curiosity with Twitter in particular, is because Twitter does not follow links.  They used to, but I believe it was back in 2009 some time, they added nofollow to all of their links.

What this means is that even though you’re tweeting a link and others may retweet it, the “nofollow” portion of that link is telling the search engines “Hey, if you see this link, don’t follow it to its destination and give that destination credit for it.”

But what’s so much more important here is what Danny has referred to as “SocialRank”.  And I am totally on board with him here…let me explain…

Years (and I mean years ago) when Google especially was gaining ground as the “go to” search engine, people realized that you could manipulate the rankings by:

1. Stuffing a bunch of keywords into your meta keywords tag (and if you don’t know what this is, don’t worry, it doesn’t matter any more anyway).
2. Stuffing your page full of keywords in order to rank well for the keyword you were after.
3. Hiding text on the page in the same color as the page background so that the search engines could read it but your site visitors couldn’t.

When this failed to work any longer, people realized that links were a major factor in where you ranked.  And so…reciprocal linking came along (that’s when you trade links with someone else in an effort to help increase the importance of your website.)

Again, Google soon realized that this wasn’t really a *true* indicator of authority and so it began discounting these kinds of links.

So it became important to try and get links to your website from other important websites (“important” as deemed by Google), in order to help your own website ranking.  This “importance” at least in reference to Google is referred to as PageRank which you can see by installing the Google Toolbar within your browser.

But…it’s also important to understand that the PageRank that you see in your browser for a web page is NOT the *true* PageRank of a web page or website.  As a matter of fact, it’s quite old information.  According to Google PageRank Data, the last time it was updated was April 2, 2010 (it’s now late December 2010).  So…over 8 months ago.

The fact is, Google updates this internally quite often but what you may be looking at today is in fact, 8 months old.

So, all this comes down to this:  Google has hundreds of ranking factors that determine where to place you within it’s search results and for what given terms.  People know a little about how Google determines importance of your web pages, but like all indicators that we at least know of, it can all be manipulated.  Whether or not you choose to manipulate it is up to your own moral standards, but the one thing that is extremely difficult to manipulate is your online reputation.

Who believes you?  Who trusts what you say?  Who retweets your links?  Et cetera, et cetera…

This is what Danny refers to within his article.  And I truly believe that this is the wave of the future for websites and their owners; simply because it is so difficult to fake.  If people trust you, they’ll read more of your stuff.  If you offer valuable information, you’ll be talked about more online, and so on.

Consider a great example of Mari Smith who is trusted by thousands of people online for her information and advice on how to use Facebook effectively.  She is a fantastic example of how SocialRank likely works.  I guarantee that if Mari posts a link, it’s retweeted and shared on Facebook a thousand times over.  She has “SocialRank”.

Take the time to read the article by Danny – I think you’ll find it very enlightening.

P.S.  The video by Matt is below…

In around two months time, updates from Facebook will be integrated into Bing search.

What this means to you is that if any of your privacy settings at Facebook are set to “everyone” then all of those updates you make at Facebook will be publicly available on Bing.

*I think I just saw you cringe.*

So unless you don’t want everything you say at Facebook to be out there for the entire world to see, you need to make some changes.

The good news is, this isn’t happening for a couple of months yet so you’ve got plenty of time to change your privacy permissions.

Here’s how you do that:

1. Login to Facebook
2. Click on “Settings” in the upper right hand corner
3. Change the settings so that nothing listed says “everyone”.

And don’t think that just because Bing is now in the picture that Google won’t be far behind…at least on some front.  It’s long been talked about that Facebook is a huge Google competitor.  Yet here comes Bing with the ability to integrate these Facebook updates…which Google has yet to do and which I’m sure was a slap in the face.

Maybe that’s why Google announced that they’ll be integrating real-time Twitter updates just like Bing (who got there first by the way).

All of a sudden, Bing is becoming a huge thorn in Google’s side.  I see a lot of “playing catch-up” going on lately.  But hey, a little competition never hurt anyone right?

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In the session “Facebook Ads: Reaching Prospects Earlier In The Decision Cycle,” Sarah Smith, Manager of Online Sales Operations, Facebook, offered tips on targeting your audience, creating compelling ads and getting a solid return on investment.

Coverage of the SES San Jose conference continues at WebProNews Videos.  Stay with WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.

Sarah Smith

Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open. Facebook has over 250 million users globally and has open registration.

Facebook allows you to target your exact audience. With other ad options you are not able to target your exact audience.

Targeting capabilities structured and unstructured. Structured includes: location, age/birthday, gender, education, workplace, relationship and language.

Unstructured (keywords): activities, interests, music, TV, movies, and books.

Keywords are generated because users actually put these words in their profile.

Tips to top ROI on Facebook ads:

- Experiment with multiple ads
- Target relevant audiences
- Design and refresh compelling creative
- Create and optimize socially enabled landing pages
- Use Facebook reporting
- Become a fan of Facebook Ad page

Users can decide what they think of Facebook ads by giving them thumbs up or thumbs down. This can help advertisers refine their approach.

Consumers can become fans of your page via Facebook ads using links to the page.

Best practices to boost CTR:

1. Keep ads short and simple
2. Ask questions in ad text
3. Avoid overcapitalization
4. Strong call to action “ACT NOW!”
5. Mention offers or discount code

Design ads that demand attention
-target the right people and find success

Refresh creative with simple changes
-color of the image…

Exploit pockets of opportunity
Adjust landing pages for engagement
Build a fan base to connect with customers
Optimize with Facebook ad manager
Dig into Facebook reports
Report type
Set up a test with Facebook ads
Use unique tracking links to measure ROI
Experiment
Mix targeting

Question & Answer:
Are ads currently being approved only in English?

Ad approval process is being built out in Facebook to cater to other languages.

How do we use CTR versus thumbs up/thumbs down? What’s the correlation?

Not sure. Both the CTR and thumbs up/thumbs down both weigh equally.

How do you know what clickthrough rate to expect?

Advised that you bid on the high end and adjust later on. Facebook doesn’t have any benchmark right now but says that you shouldn’t expect same CTR on Google AdWords on Facebook Ads. Seen ads with high ROI and be successful with a .04 CTR.

Why do I want to target those people who are already of my page?

May not necessarily be customers yet.

What is the definition of a fan in the sense of the sales funnel?

Example is Maria Smith (?) – you get more exposure by that free exposure. A fan is a potential customer or evangelist of your business. Can also be influencers. Companies can also use it as a CRM tool to get feedback on their products.

Will Facebook be implementing tracking codes to monitor conversions?

They are looking at it – it’s a huge value for advertisers but it’s difficult for Facebook right now.