Social Networking | blankPixels : Technology, Gaming and Social Media Blog

5 Important Facebook Updates in 2013

Posted by Mhel Ignacio on December 24, 2013

There were a ton of updates on Facebook this 2013 and they continue to implement new changes as the year comes to an end. Most of them, I’m pretty happy with as a social media manager, a blogger AND a personal user. However, there’s been a major update with their algorithm from probably a month or two ago that affected many businesses that have Facebook pages. As much as I’d like to get into that, I haven’t done any extensive research, but I have noticed the impact of this change on all my clients and my own pages.

So, I have listed some of the most notable changes on Facebook that affected me personally and at work. Let me know at the comments section about your own list of important Facebook updates for 2013.

Whole Photos on Facebook Pages

Before, at work, we used to worry about ensuring that the images we use, especially those with text, are resized into a square. Or at least have the most important part of the image seen when you reposition it on your timeline. Now, you don’t have to spend more time resizing your images as Facebook now shows the whole image on your Facebook page’s Timeline. Check out this screenshot from our food blog‘s page.

This is what I loved about Google+ and was wishing for the longest time that Facebook will finally decide to do something about it, so I’m thankful they did! 🙂

The sad thing though is this update doesn’t apply to personal Timelines. You will still see that your images on your account page are shaped irregularly. For me though, I don’t think it should matter since most people will see your photos on their News Feed, so they will be able to view the whole image from there. Well, unless most of your friends or followers prefer to “stalk” your personal Timeline. 😀

Categories: Facebook, Internet / World Wide Web, Social Media, Social Media News, Social Networking, Tech News

8 Must Have Android Social Media Apps

Posted by Mhel Ignacio on December 27, 2012

Working as a social media manager full-time, I take it upon myself to make sure I’m updated on the latest news and information related to social media, the internet and the world so I can work on strategies and share them with my team. This may prove to be a daunting task with the vast amount of resources we have. Thankfully, there are various Android social media apps for my phone that help me consume contents more efficiently.

Aside from reading up on social media articles, I also make sure that I share articles I find really useful through my various social media accounts. Hopefully, this list will help you.

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn

Of course, you shouldn’t be without these apps developed by the various social media sites themselves. The features you use and love on the Web versions are most likely made available on their mobile apps as well since, well, mobile is the future.

I use my Pinterest app for Android for pinning, liking or even organizing my Pinboards. I use Facebook and Twitter for posting images I find amusing that I’d like to share with my network. I use Instagram for almost exactly the same reason.

Categories: Android, Apps for Smartphones, Blogging, Blogging Tools, Internet / World Wide Web, Mobile / Smart Phones, Mobile Phones and Tablets, Recommended Tools and Applications, Social Media, Social Media News, Social Networking, Tech News, Tips & Guides

Facebook is Down : After Gmail and Chrome, Now This?

Posted by Mhel Ignacio on December 11, 2012

Earlier today, I was having issues with Google Chrome crashing every now and then. What fixed it was disabling sync and logging out of my Google account in Chrome. I also had errors logging into Gmail, but after a few minutes, it was back up. Now, Facebook is down. And from this post on Mashable, it’s happening all over the world.

Usually, Facebook acts up when they’re updating something. So far, I’m pretty happy with what they’ve improved, though businesses might have a different point of view. But, everyone started to freak out because of Facebook’s outage. Needless to say, Facebook has been one of the go-to websites of people today. And with my work as a Social Media Manager, the downtime affects me big time.

I’m not sure what’s happening, but looks like it’s one major and important update that the Facebook team resorted to a wide outage that has been going on for at least 10 minutes now. I’m restless and excited at the same time. 😀

When I access their site, this is the error I get:

In Chrome, it says “This webpage is not available”. When I checked Facebook’s status on Down For Everyone Or Just Me, it gave me this:

I’ve been checking some of the people on my local Twitter feed, and no one seems to be complaining. I guess I’m the only one wide awake and are on social media sites because of work – the rest of them are on their way to work.

If you can’t access Facebook too, let me know at the comments section where you’re from. If you want to read updates on the status of Facebook, check this post on Mashable.

UPDATES:

6:41pm EST – Facebook is back up, but is working really slow. Other people are still complaining that they can’t access yet.

Categories: Facebook, Internet / World Wide Web, News and Updates, Social Media, Social Media News, Social Networking, Tech News, Technology

Facebook Reply to Comment and Nested Comments Feature

Posted by Mhel Ignacio on November 20, 2012

There’s a new Facebook feature that I noticed on my account that I use for work. A feature that enables people to reply directly to comments posted on a photo, video or status message. Responses will show up as a separate thread below the comment, just like nested or threaded comments for blogs. Here’s an example showing the 2 actions you can do on comments on a Facebook thread – Like or Reply:

Once you click on Reply, there’s a separate text box for you to type in your response to the said comment.

Here’s how the nested comment thread will look like, a screenshot I took of another Facebook page:

In my opinion, it’s a great addition to Facebook so conversations will be more organized. People won’t have to tag others just to indicate who they’re responding to. I’m not sure if responding to a comment will notify that one person only. I’ll have to test this and will update this post.

I hope Facebook will implement this everywhere, even on personal accounts where conversations can sometimes be chaotic. 😀

I only see this feature on select Facebook pages, so I’m keeping my eye out on this update.

What do you think of this new nested comments feature on Facebook?

Categories: Facebook, Internet / World Wide Web, News and Updates, Social Media, Social Media News, Social Networking, Technology

Facebook Group Pin Post Feature : Finally!

Posted by Mhel Ignacio on November 12, 2012

I’m currently an administrator / moderator for a couple of Facebook groups, two of which are for Filipino bloggers. One of the frustrations of my responsibilities is bumping threads about rules or guidelines that all members should know.

When members have been fairly active, I would have to scroll through a number of posts or I have to use the search function to find the post or thread that needs bumping, which you do by posting another message so the thread will be placed on top again.

However, bumping a thread doesn’t guarantee that it’ll be easily seen by members since any other thread that gets liked or commented on will eventually take the first spots on the group wall.

Thankfully, Facebook has added a much-needed feature to Groups – Pinned Posts.

What this feature does is the same thing as the Pin feature on Facebook pages and Sticky for forums. The pinned posts will remain as the first threads on the group wall unless someone unpins them. Saves us a lot of time by taking out the need to bump important threads.

Facebook Group Pin Post Reminders

Here are a couple of things to take note about the new Facebook Group Pin Post feature:

This feature is only available to administrators or moderators of the group.
If there are a couple of posts you need to pin, you can do so.
~~For multiple pinned posts, if you have one discussion thread that you want to appear first, pin everything else then pin that important post last.~~ Update: You can now only pin one post.
You can unpin posts quickly.

It’s been a long time coming, seriously. And I’m just glad we now have the Facebook Group Pin Post feature as it’ll make it easier to manage discussions, reminders and even events for Facebook discussion groups.

What do you think of this new Facebook feature?

Categories: Facebook, News and Updates, Social Media, Social Networking

Category Archives: Social Networking