How do you use Facebook?

Is it just to stay in touch with High School friends?

Maybe a way to re-kindle old “flames” with your college sweetheart? (uh…honey? LOL)

Or maybe you like to follow celebrities to see what they’re up to…

For me, Facebook has been a HUGE part of my marketing success with one of my niche websites.

How I Use Facebook for Business

• It’s a great way to connect directly with your target audience, get to know the key players, and create business relationships that can turn in to profitable endeavors.
• I also use Facebook to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the online marketing industry.
• If you follow the right people and become a Fan of the best Facebook Pages, you’ll be kept in tune with what’s happening (and then you can blog about it 🙂 ).

One thing that rolled out today on Facebook was a new Home Page Layout.

Here’s what Facebook had to say about it:

At Facebook, one of our main priorities is helping you stay on top of what is going on with the people and things you care about most. That’s why today we are beginning to roll out some changes to the home page that simplify your experience by offering two views of News Feed: a summary view of the most interesting activity that’s happened in the last day and a real-time view that shows you what is happening right now.

You will be able to catch up on what you may have missed while you were away from Facebook and then easily switch to the real-time stream when you want to see posts as soon as they’re shared. Here’s how it works:

News Feed
When you log into Facebook, you’ll see the most interesting things that happened in the last day in the “News Feed” view. News Feed picks stories that we think you’ll enjoy based on a variety of factors including how many friends have liked and commented on it and how likely you are to interact with that story.

Live Feed
Once you’ve caught up on what you missed, you can click through to “Live Feed” to see what’s happening right now. As long as you remain logged into Facebook, you’ll continue to see posts and activity from your friends in real-time. You can edit what appears in this view by clicking “Edit Options” at the bottom of the home page.

Here’s what it looks like on your Home Page:

One of my fellow online marketing friends, Jordan Brown (follow him on Twitter), had this to say about the Facebook change:

I love news feed is back now: I don’t have to sit on facebook and watch the live feed and hope I don’t lose out on something – they will bring it to me!

Why Did Facebook Make the Changes?

Facebook explains:

Some of you may ask why we are changing the home page again. Like you, we know it can be disruptive when things are moved around, but we hope that these changes make Facebook a more valuable experience for you. We put a lot of thought into all the changes we make to the site and do a lot of testing before releasing anything.

In the past, the “News Feeds” were what you used to see on the right side of the home page.  The new “News Feed” function makes it easier to engage with what’s happening via your favorite people, groups, and pages.

Other features that were added:

• when your friends have been tagged in photos
• when your friends have become fans of Pages
• when your friends RSVP for events
• when your friends join groups
• when your friends make new friends
• birthdays and events are now more visible in the right column of the home page

What do you think of the Facebook changes?

Yes, I could totally be reading in to this or being a jerk, but to me, the following chat I had tonight with a Facebook friend was a Facebook Fraud (just as talked about on CNN).

Here’s how the Facebook Chat went:

Gregg

hey

how are you

1:31amNate

hey gregg 🙂

pretty tired

1:31amGregg

am not good at the moment

1:31amNate

how are you

what’s up?

1:31amGregg

am in deep mess right now

1:31amNate

really?

what?

1:32amGregg

Am stuck in London

I was mugged at a gun point last night
All cash credit card and cell was stolen off me

1:32amNate

you’re kidding?

1:32amGregg

am deadly serious

1:33amNate

aren’t you a teacher?

1:33amGregg

i thank God am still available

1:33amNate

why you in London?

1:33amGregg

alive

1:33amNate

wow

1:33amGregg

i went there to visit a resort

1:33amNate

you’re ok now though?

hurt?

1:33amGregg

It was scary am just happy i was not hurt

1:33amNate

were you alone?

1:34amGregg

i need your help

But am having a little problem in settling my hotel bills before leaving
can i beg you for something?

?

1:35amNate

what do you need?

1:35amGregg

I need you to help me with some money to settle my hotel bills and also get a can to the airport…i will def refund it back to you as soon as i get back home

1:35amNate

uh…

not sure how i could do that

definitely not via facebook

1:36amGregg

at this point you are the only one i can reach

1:36amNate

have you talked to your family?

i can contact them tomorrow for you

or even tonight if you need

1:36amGregg

i need your help now Nate

i promise to def refund it back as soon as am back home

1:37amNate

then i’ll call your parents now Gregg

what’s their number?

1:38amGregg

i lost all contact Nate

1:38amNate

huh?

i’m beginning to think this really isn’t Gregg

1:38amGregg

the only way you can help me out is by sending me the money to me

1:39amNate

seriously

1:39amGregg

am freaked out here

1:39amNate

as am i and i’ve been doing online stuff for a long time – requests like this are a bit odd

1:39amGregg

am deadly serious

1:39amNate

i’m happy to call your parents right now

i’ll get the phone now

how do we know each other gregg?

1:41amGregg

are you kidding me or what

am in deep mess right now

1:41amNate

just answer the question then or give me your parents number so i can help

i would NEVER give my credit info like this – not even to my wife

there are safer ways to help

1:45amNate

seriously gregg, i’m happy to help if this is really you

but i’ve seen things like this before

and if you can’t answer any of my questions, then i’m suspicious and am sure you’d understand

and i’ll report this to the authorities if i need to or whoever to help you

1:50amNate

hello?

So you tell me, does this seem a bit fishy to you?

What to learn from this:

• NEVER GIVE CREDIT INFORMATION VIA CHAT or VIA Facebook
• Don’t ask your friends for money via Facebook 🙂
  

I will follow up with his family first thing tomorrow and make sure everything is ok.  I sent a copy of the chat to his personal email account.

Honestly I think his account has been hacked.

One more thing to learn:

• Change your passwords on accounts from time to time.

Here are a few other examples I found of Facebook Fraud:

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2007/041207/news2.html

(This is EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED tonight!)

“Bryan NEEDS HELP URGENTLY!!!”

His online friends saw the message and came to his aid. Some posted concerned messages on his public profile — “What’s happening????? What do you need?” one wrote. Another friend, Beny Rubinstein, got a direct message saying Rutberg had been robbed at gunpoint in London and needed money to get back to the United States.

So, trying to be a good friend, Rubinstein wired $1,143 to London in two installments, according to police in Bellevue, Washington.

Meanwhile, Rutberg was safe at home in Seattle.

Rubinstein told CNN he misses the money, but it’s perhaps more upsetting to feel tricked by someone who impersonated his friend on Facebook, a social-networking site where millions of friends converse freely online.

Read about other examples of Facebook Fraud.

BEWARE, BEWARE, BEWARE!