Posts tagged Facebook
Facebook Stock Tanks On Zuckerberg Admission Of Millions Of Fake Accounts
Aug 3rd
MYFOXNY.COM - Facebook’s share price dipped below $20 on Thursday after reporting slowing growth and an admission of an alarming number of fake accounts.
In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the social media company said that as many as 83 million of its accounts are fake.
It also reported that as many as five percent of its active users have duplicate accounts.
Facebook members grew to 955 million this year.
It says 1.5 percent of its accounts are likely spam or accounts set up for other malicious activity. The fake accounts are concentrated in developing markets, according to the filing.
It also blames people who set up accounts for non-human entities, such as pets.
There are “inherent challenges” in measuring usage,” the social network said.
“We are continually seeking to improve our ability to identify duplicate or false accounts and estimate the total number of such accounts, and such estimates may be affected by improvements or changes in our methodology,” the filing continued.
The number of real users is important for Facebook as it seeks to sell advertising.
Facebook shares are down almost 50 percent from its $38 May IPO. source – MyFoxNY
Facebook Now Reporting Your Chats To The Police
Jul 13th
Facebook and other social platforms are watching users’ chats for criminal activity and notifying police if any suspicious behavior is detected, according to a report.
The screening process begins with scanning software that monitors chats for words or phrases that signal something might be amiss, such as an exchange of personal information or vulgar language.
The software pays more attention to chats between users who don’t already have a well-established connection on the site and whose profile data indicate something may be wrong, such as a wide age gap. The scanning program is also “smart” — it’s taught to keep an eye out for certain phrases found in the previously obtained chat records from criminals including sexual predators.
If the scanning software flags a suspicious chat exchange, it notifies Facebook security employees, who can then determine if police should be notified.
Keeping most of the scanned chats out of the eyes of Facebook employees may help Facebook deflect criticism from privacy advocates, but whether the scanned chats are deleted or stored permanently is yet unknown.
The new details about Facebook’s monitoring system came from an interview which the company’s Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan gave to Reuters. At least one alleged child predator has been brought to trial directly as a result of Facebook’s chat scanning, according to Reuters’ report.
When asked for a comment, Facebook only repeated the remarks given by Sullivan to Reuters: “We’ve never wanted to set up an environment where we have employees looking at private communications, so it’s really important that we use technology that has a very low false-positive rate.”
Facebook works with law enforcement “where appropriate and to the extent required by law to ensure the safety of the people who use Facebook,” according to a page on its site.
“We may disclose information pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or other requests (including criminal and civil matters) if we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law. This may include respecting requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law under the local laws in that jurisdiction, apply to users from that jurisdiction, and are consistent with generally accepted international standards.
“We may also share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activity, to prevent imminent bodily harm, or to protect ourselves and you from people violating our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entities.”
Indeed, Facebook has cooperated with police investigations in the past. In April, it complied with a police subpoena from the Boston Police Department by sending printouts of wall posts, photos and login/IP data of a murder suspect.
Is Facebook doing a public service by monitoring chats for criminal behavior? Share your thoughts in the comments. source – Mashable
Hacker Group Anonymous Claim Credit For Facebook Slowdown Attack
May 31st
Some Facebook users were having trouble getting into their accounts on the social network, with the site either not loading or being slow to load Thursday night ET. Hacking group Anonymous indicated via it’s Twitter account that it was behind the slowdown.
“Looks like good old Facebook is having packet problems” and “Oh yeah … RIP Facebook a new sound of tango down, b——,” were among the tweets posted by @YourAnonNews on Twitter.
Msnbc.com contacted Facebook for comment. A spokesman said he is checking into the situation, and we will update the story when he gets back to us.
On Twitter at 10 p.m. ET, “RIP Facebook” was among the top 10 trending topics in the U.S. and worldwide.
“Madea Simmons” (not connected to Tyler Perry, but a fan) said on Twitter: “RIP Facebook Say Hi To Myspace For Me. Sincerely, Twitter.” Another Twitter user, “Jamster83,” said: “Twitter makes you love people you’ve never met; Facebook makes you hate people you’ve known your whole life. RIP Facebook.”
Members of Anonymous — whose key leaders have been arrested and charged in recent months — are angry about this week’s decision by Britain’s Supreme Court backing the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden where he is accused of sex crimes.
Earlier Thursday, the group claimed credit for a denial-of-service attack on the American Nazi Party, whose website was back up Thursday evening. source – Gadget Box
Facebook Becomes Failbook As Zuckerberg And Morgan Stanley Sued Over Facebook IPO
May 23rd
There seems to be no bottom
RELATED STORY: Arrogance, Greed And An Inferior Product Is What Sunk The Facebook IPO
Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, and several banks led by Morgan Stanley were sued by shareholders, who claimed the defendants hid the social networking leader’s weakened growth forecasts ahead of its $16 billion initial public offering.
The defendants were accused of concealing from investors during the IPO marketing process “a severe and pronounced reduction” in Facebook revenue growth forecasts, resulting from increased use of its app or website through mobile devices.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, according to a lawyer for the plaintiff. A day earlier, a similar lawsuit by a different investor was filed in a California state court, according to a law firm involved in that case.
In the New York case, shareholders said research analysts at several underwriters had lowered their business forecasts for Facebook during the IPO process, but that these changes were “selectively disclosed by defendants to certain preferred investors” rather than to the public generally.
“The value of Facebook common stock has declined substantially and plaintiffs and the class have sustained damages as a result,” the complaint said.
Representatives of Facebook and Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Facebook shares fell 18.4 percent from their $38 IPO price in the first three days of trading, reducing the value of stock sold in the IPO by more than $2.9 billion. In early trade Wednesday, the shares had clawed their way back a bit, rising about 4 percent. source – MSNBC
Arrogance, Greed And An Inferior Product Is What Sunk The Facebook IPO
May 21st
And the Titanic was unsinkable too, right?
We are not market analysts or stock experts by any stretch of the imagination, but we do have an inkling as to why Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook IPO was left hung out to dry by Wall Street. In fact, anyone who is a regular user to Facebook can tell you why this is happening. So to better understand why investors could care less about what happens to Facebook, let’s take a high-level overview of the ‘Facebook Experience’
The arrogant infants that run Facebook have always believed themselves to be more valuable than they really are. They are young technology geeks that have had zero interest in helping members or advertisers with technical issues, and they've never sought to create an ounce of goodwill with the real people that use their service.
Punitive measures by unseen judges
Facebook does something that is really very curious. They bombard every page you click on or through to with an endless appeal for you to “add these people as your friends”, or “people you may know”. They really make the push for you to send the people they suggest to you friend requests. Now on the surface that seems like a great idea, right? This is how Facebook is “building community”, right? Wrong. Dead wrong. This is how you get banned for a week, or a month, or lose your profile forever.
Here is your first "A-ha!" moment. You are puzzled because it almost seems like that Facebook bans you for sending too many friend requests after they have put the full-court press on you to send them in the first place. Yes, this is EXACTLY what happens...
I can see by the puzzled look on your face that you are not following me. You are puzzled because it almost seems like that Facebook bans you for sending too many friend requests after they have put the full-court press on you to send them in the first place. Here is your first “A-ha!” moment. This is EXACTLY what happens. Facebook begs and pleads with you to friend people you don’t know and when you do they treat you like a stalker and ban you. First for 7 days, then for 15 days, and if you are really bad they ban you for 45 days. Memo #1 to Mark Zuckerberg: ”Banning and blocking people for no reason makes them really, really, REALLY mad at you.”.
And when they ban you for what they consider “deleterious behavior”, there is no listing of what your “crime” was, no board to appeal to, no way to get a chance to plead your case. Facebook is the judge, jury and very willing executioner as the lights go out on your Facebook page. We personally know dozens and dozens of people this has happened to, and we rightly imagine that there hundred of thousands more who are victims of this kind of treatment.
Unending Arrogance
Laura Martin, of Cloud Nine Design, puts it this way -
“The tide is turning and this is just the beginning. The arrogant infants that run Facebook have always believed themselves to be more valuable than they really are. They are young technology geeks that have had zero interest in helping members or advertisers with technical issues, and they’ve never sought to create an ounce of goodwill with the real people that use their service. (Have you ever had a problem with your account and tried to contact someone at FB for help? No help exists. There is NO ONE TO CONTACT.) They have treated advertisers and members with outright disdain because they thought there was no alternative to Facebook.”
Miss Martin, while bold in her assessment, is actually quite correct. No customer service, no way to get real help with any issues, no technical support, and yet Facebook has the gall to position themselves as a multi-billion dollar company? Memo #2 to Mark Zuckerberg: ”Real companies have real staff and real technical support to assist the people that use their products.”
Selling an inferior product
It is no coincidence that Facebook and Microsoft are very cozy with each other, they both share common roots. When Bill Gates rolled out Windows, it was for all intents and purposes the only game in town. Microsoft did not succeed because they were good, they succeeded because they had the only ice water stand in the desert. And then they got so big so fast that the idea of competing with them became ludicrous. Remember Red Hat? So Microsoft was allowed a free pass to put out an inferior product because there was no reason for them to do anything else.
With 25,273 reviews of the Facebook mobile app as of the day of this posting, they have only been awarded 2 STARS. That means the VAST MAJORITY of people hate this app. Don't they even read their own reviews??
Facebook did much the same thing. They came along when Social Media was confined to inappropriate photo profiles on MySpace. Facebook was the very first attempt at using Social Media in a legitimate way for actual purposes. It was clean, simple, and easy to use. In short order, Facebook sunk all competition and established a beach head. That is until update after update after badly-coded update led them to roll out ‘Timeline”. Timeline is such a badly-coded, resource hog that it crashes your browser like clockwork, and makes trying to use it on your mobile phone nearly impossible. Look at the photo above. Over 25,000 reviews and 90% of them range from negative to hating it with unbridled enthusiasm. Memo #3 to Mark Zuckerberg: ”Timeline is really, really bad. Everyone hates. Put your massive ego aside for a moment and get rid of it. Spend just a little of your billions on hiring people that can actually code.”
Conclusion
Wall Street is made up of people, people just like me and you but just with more money. All all these bankers, traders, brokers and finance whizzes all use social media, and they all use Facebook. We are willing to bet that nearly everyone of these people has gotten the same type of poor treatment, bad product experiences and gestapo-like banning of their Facebook privileges like we all have. But they can do something we mere mortals cannot do. They can turn their back on the Facebook IPO and watch it sink and collapse under it’s own moribund excesses. Wall Street makes their living on speculation, right? So let’s do a little speculating of our own here.
It is our opinion that Wall Street avoided Facebook like the plague, and purposely allowed it to collapse for the reasons we have already mentioned. Its one thing to invent the “next big thing” in your college dorm room as a kid. But it is something else entirely to grow a mature company that at least pretends to care about the people that use their product. Facebook does not care about their customers, and it shows in every thing they do, every thing that say, and in every time you get banned, blocked or removed for no apparent reason.
Today, someone in a position to do something about it did something about it. Today the “little guy” won a round. Hats off to Wall Street.
Memo #4 to Mark Zuckerberg: ”Mudflower can show you how to fix your many problems and reverse most or all of the ill-will your company has generated. Drop us a line sometime, we will be happy to consult.”
How to Maximize Your Facebook Engagement
May 1st
If you have a Facebook page, you likely know how important it is to get likes and comments. Without those, your EdgeRank suffers, and your posts are seen by fewer fans in the future. Facebook has already admitted that the average Facebook page only reaches about 17% of its fans. Since less than 1 to 2% of fans go back to your page, EdgeRank and newsfeed visibility are critical.
When you get a new fan, you have the opportunity to keep them engaged. If you don’t, they’ll simply stop reading your posts. Here are some of the things you should keep in mind as you determine how best to engage your Facebook customers.
Which Days are Your Fans Most Responsive?
You need to maximize likes and comments to be visible to fans. Part of getting better engagement results is knowing which days of the week your fans are most and least responsive. This is different for every company and industry. Knowing the best day of the week for all Facebook pages won’t help you with your brand. So even if the best overall day is Tuesday, your company’s best day might be Sunday.
For example, recent research indicated that the most responsive day for high-fashion brand pages is Wednesday, while the most responsive day for outdoor clothing brand pages is Thursday. Why should brands care? Well, even if you post every day, your greatest focus should go to those days when followers are most responsive. So, if your best day is on the weekend, make sure you have that covered.
It also turns out that the best days of the week to post on Facebook are not always the same days brands create the most posts. Sometimes it’s a Sunday, and maybe no one is working. It appears that the amount a brand posts is not based on their most responsive days, but perhaps just on convenience or coincidence.
How to Maximize the Most Engaging Days
If you want to figure out this data for your page, here are the steps:
- 1. Go to your Facebook page insights and click on likes.
- 2. Click on export data. Choose post level data, then select at least a two-month range so you have a good sample.
- 3. Save it and open it in Excel.
- 4. There’s not a quick way in Excel to group dates by day of week, but with a bit of manual work, you can find the average lifetime of engaged users per post, per day of the week.
The only shortcoming here is that the data is limited by how good and engaging your posts have been. It’s better to look at 10 to 20 brand pages per industry. You will have to manually look at hundreds of posts, or find a way to scrape that data. Then you can find the average likes and comments per post, per day of the week across an entire industry.
If one of your competitors is doing a much better job at getting likes and comments, you might want to follow their lead. It could be, in part, the days of the week they post, and also the type and quality of content. source – Mashable
