September 2011 and what Facebook called the “most significant changes to the Facebook Platform since its launch in 2007″.

Included in these changes is the Subscribe Button, an opt in choice that allows you to not only vary the level of updates you receive from friends but more importantly to gain updates from individuals you don’t know but want to follow (spot the Google+ term), like a politician or perhaps an author. Which may bring some full circle back to using profiles.

Initially it was all about the profile and group, as Web Analytics World advised “…Organizations and bloggers should create Facebook Groups to further promote brand presence…”. Then in November 2007, Facebook launched Pages and with them, the main tool for businesses, public figures, organisations and causes to interact with individuals.

Profiles, Groups or Pages?

Despite this, there were still Facebookers using personal profiles and groups to communicate with their audiences, some had started before Pages existed and there was no way to easily migrate all their followers and activity between the three entities. Newcomers to Facebook weren’t always sure which was the best option (personal profile, group or page?) and on occasion created and used their personal profile for business without realising that this goes against Facebook T&Cs.

In October 2010, Facebook launched a tool to help users migrate the most important part of their profiles, their friends, over to a new Page. That same month, Facebook redesigned groups with the focus on making them suitable for more personally connected and smaller groupings. There was no migration tool to help groups move over to a new Page. Instead this summer Facebook started a process of migrating old style groups, either into the new style of group or into the archive and oblivion. 

Should I delete my Page and Subscribe?

Fast forward to September 2011 and the Subscribe button, so if I’m a public figure should I be closing down my Page now?

Not necessarily, although Facebook does say that you can use either or both routes to interact with your audience. Whether you’re new to Facebook or established and comfortable with using a Page, take this opportunity to review your short, mid and long term goals for using Facebook and if you are already using it, your progress so far towards achieving these goals. Even if you are not a public figure, it is always worthwhile to invest some time in reviewing your Facebook activities and goals.

If you are interested in the Subscription route, take a look at the differences in functionality between Profiles with Subscriptions and Pages. While both allow an unlimited number of fans/subscribers, at this early stage, Pages hold far more functionality:

• allowing more than one admin (obviously!)
• targeted updates (language and location)
• custom tabs and applications
• adverts
• links 
• insights for your page and website

Last night, Facebook Pages released a set of best practice guides for public figures to ensure that you get the most out of your page activity. It’s also worth noting that although the subscription button allows you to gain a wider audience with your public updates, the T&Cs still state that you are not to use your personal profile for your own commercial gain. 

So while it may be a good option to allow subscribers I wouldn’t recommend deleting your page just yet!

Our facial expressions often portray more to those around us than we would like – but what about our Facebook profiles?

“Privacy” (or rather making sure you know “who can see what” on your Facebook account) is an important topic, so when we started building our video guides for businesses I made sure it included a “how-to” video.

We explained how to get to the privacy settings (pictured) and then how to review and amend the level of visibility to one you are comfortable with.

Change to be more Visual and Straightforward

At the end of August, Facebook released changes in how users share information and in particular the privacy controls, “to make this more visual and straightforward”. I had liked the “one page” with links leading off and the list layout of some of the settings….so I was initially disappointed at this news.

I’ve now had some time to work through the settings and updated our video and script showing how you can use privacy settings to help keep your work and home life separate on Facebook:

1. Facebook haven’t reset my existing privacy settings
2. Although some settings have been replaced and the mobile Places feature “is going away”, I have also gained functionality
3. …but I do have a concern about the inline settings leading users to believe that this is all they need to check.

Inline Controls

The key change is in the positioning of certain privacy controls. Previously you went to the Privacy Settings, accessed each of the sections and edited the settings. A number of the controls are now available from your wall and profile page. Facebook has provided a series of pages showing overviews and the details of what has been changed. My top three include:

• Inline audience controls – As well as being able to choose the audience for specific posts, I can amend the visibility of posts once they’re posted
• Tag expansion – includes posts as well as photos and videos, tag locations without using a mobile and checking in 
• Tag controls – tag approval allowing to you review the tags before they are shown 

Misleading simplicity

Users need to realise that privacy is not just about inline audience selector when posting on their wall.

They should use the “View As” functionality (moved from the Privacy to the Profile page) to see what information is visible to the world and take some time in the Privacy Settings page to set up defaults and review the settings available.

In the past 12 months, more than half  the people I talked with about Facebook had not looked at the privacy settings page, some hadn’t even realised it existed!

Changing user behaviour doesn’t happen overnight but privacy is very important to us all….unfortunately for many that realization only comes when something goes wrong.

Keep yourself and those around you safe – remember your face(book) might give more away than you would like!

The migration tool for the old Facebook groups to upgrade to the new design seems to be causing challenges for a number of users.

When the new group design was launched in Oct 2010, we did wonder if functionality would be provided to migrate the old groups over to the new design. Given that the focus was for small groups of people rather than groups with hundreds of members, perhaps there would be a migration tool to move the group either to the new design, or over to a Page if that was the more suitable option.

Facebook offered the first migration tool in April 2011 for those using personal profiles for their business accounts and have followed it up this month with a tool to migrate certain old groups over to the new group design. Group members may have seen an alert at the top of the group and there is the ability to send the group admin an email requesting that they upgrade the group.

If your group is identified as suitable for migration, (Facebook state that it needs to have enough recent activity) you will see an upgrade option at the top of the group.

And this is where the challenge begins:

1. not all groups are being given the option to upgrade (groups not upgraded are archived)
2. admins for groups given the option to upgrade are not always able to see the upgrade option, even when their members can

There is a discussion topic on Facebook Site Governance with 11 pages of posts to date which illustrate the different issues users are facing and the level of frustration that some users are feeling about not be able to complete the upgrade. Some groups have large numbers of members and write that they are faced with the unwelcome prospect of seeing their hard work and investment lost. If you want to learn more about the upgrades and archiving, check out the Facebook’s help centre’s new topics about Old to New Group Migration.

The Web Analytics World Group is in the same position, we’ve received email alerts about upgrading to the new Group design but are not able to see the upgrade option.

We are going to use this as an opportunity to migrate manually over to a Page, something we should have done a while ago as a group is not the ideal route for our and our group members’ activity. Given the circumstances we believe this is the best way forward and hope you join us and other web analytics fans there.

For Web Analytics World it is a suitable approach, but it is not going to be an acceptable or even practical solution for some groups with thousands of members and who have invested many hours of work into creating and promoting the group. We’ll add any updates on the topic to this post as we spot them.