Facebook allows targeting on page-created events

Facebook has added an interesting tweak to the event creation process for pages. Now, page admins can create events targeted with certain demographics, so only people within these subsets will see the event. For instance, if a restaurant wants to have a ladies’ night event, they could properly target so only women could see the event page. This capability is only for events created by a Facebook page — not a user.

A Facebook spokesperson commented on this new feature to Inside Facebook:

Pages can now target their events so that only people in the target group are eligible to see a story about the event’s creation in their News Feed. This will ensure that the people connected to a Page will only see the most relevant events in their News Feeds.

Page admins can target events with these qualifiers:

GenderRelationship statusEducational statusInterested inAgeLocationLanguage

Here’s a screenshot, courtesy of Inside Facebook reader Adam Rosenberg, who first noticed this feature:

Readers: If you regularly create events through your Facebook page, how do you feel about these targeting options?

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Facebook events get cover photos

Facebook event pages now have the option for admins to add custom cover photos. These banner photos replace the small thumbnail photos that event pages had previously.

The change, which was first written about by AllFacebook, brings the design of event pages more in line with business pages, profiles and groups. It also gives event promoters more options for getting people interested in their events through an eye-catching photo or an image that shares more information about the event.

Cover photos are available for events created by individuals or by pages. When a user creates an event, they will see a blank space above their event with a button to add a photo. They can upload a new photo or select one they’ve previously posted to the social network. They can move an image up or down to reposition it, but they can not adjust the size through Facebook.

Unlike personal profiles and fan pages, events only have the option for one large photo, not a cover photo and a profile picture. The cover photo will be scaled down to thumbnail size when the event appears in News Feed, on Timeline or in ads.

It is unclear whether these images will have to adhere to Facebook’s page guidelines, which dictate that covers may not include more than 20 percent text, price or purchase information, contact information, references to Facebook features or calls to action. We’ve reached out to Facebook for more information.

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Facebook tries new tactics to get users to invite friends to events

Facebook is testing different ways to encourage users to share events with their friends, including suggested invites and prompts to post about the event.

“Events are more fun with your friends,” says a dialog that appears after users click the “join” button to RSVP. In this dialog, some users are seeing an option to invite specific friends, whereas others get a share module to post the event to their Timeline and friends’ News Feeds. These features could lead more users to engage with Facebook Events and discover things to do.

Facebook began to make a new push with events last year when it began recommending upcoming events directly in users’ feeds. Events are suggested based on pages a user Likes or whether a user’s friends are attending.

Events are a longstanding feature of Facebook that continues to be used by many people and pages, but they still aren’t very representative of what users plan to do or have done. Many people are invited to and RSVP to a number of events that they don’t go to. People also attend many events and gatherings that don’t have a corresponding Facebook Event, or that do but which users were unaware of.

Facebook aims to provide the online equivalent for all the people, places, things and interactions in the world. Events and how people spend their time are an important component where the social network is currently lacking. Facebook streamlined the event creation flow a year ago, but it doesn’t offer a way to create events directly from the homepage or Timeline so users aren’t reminded to use the feature for smaller events or casual get-togethers. A mobile calendar app might provide a solution if Facebook continues its strategy of building standalone apps, such as Camera, Messenger and a possible location-sharing application. There might also be a way to integrate this feature into a location app, if the app allows users to not only share where they are, but where they plan to be.

Top image via AllFacebook

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Facebook to bring back option to invite all group members to events

Users will once again be able to send event invites to all members of a group, a Facebook spokesperson tells us.

Sometime in the past few weeks, the social network removed the option to directly invite an entire group to an event. Users could only send invitations to users they were connected to as friends. Facebook tells us the reasoning was that creating an event within the group environment generates a notification for users who have group notifications enabled. However, many users were frustrated with the change because their events were no longer getting the same amount of traction among group members.

Facebook says it decided to bring back the feature for all groups as a result of the feedback. The change is expected to go live later today.

People who use Facebook groups for promoting events are likely to appreciate the return in functionality, but they should be mindful of sending invites that members might perceive as spam. The social network often removes features that are abused in this way. For example, Facebook pages can no longer send updates or event invites to fans’ inboxes.

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Videos, events now featured in publisher tool for pages; Questions demoted to drop-down menu

Facebook appears to be testing a consolidated content publisher on pages, giving new prominence to videos and events while hiding the Questions feature behind a drop-down menu.

The publisher is the area from which page owners make posts to their fans. With the initial rollout of Timeline for pages, the publisher included options to post a status, photo, question or milestone. Milestones are posts that get larger placement on Timeline to commemorate important events or achievements. One problem with the old publisher was that it wasn’t clear that to upload a video, page owners had to click “photo.” See below.

Now the publisher features three sections: status, photo/video and event/milestone+. When page owners click event/milestone, they will see options to create an event, share a milestone or ask a question. (See below.) This makes event creation much simpler than before, when it could take several clicks to add a new event, but it makes the Questions feature much less noticeable. It’s unclear whether Facebook is trying to discourage page owners from using Questions, but its placement suggests it’s a lower priority for the company.

Although only certain partners have access to Facebook offers for now, we are told the ability to create an offer will soon be available from the publisher. We do not know how much prominence the feature will get when it rolls out.

The Facebook publisher has gone through a number of iterations both for users and for pages over the years. The social network seems to go back and forth between offering more or fewer options in the space. At one point the tool included third-party apps under a drop-down menu, but then Facebook eliminated the feature citing low usage. Events were added to the publisher in 2009, but removed a year later. We can likely expect more tinkering with the publisher this year as Facebook tries to find a balance between streamlining the user interface and making people aware of all the options available to them.

It’s worth noting that when page owners choose the “use Facebook as a page” feature, they see an older version of the homepage publisher, which includes separate options for links and videos. Some time in the past few months, the social network grouped photos and videos together, as well as status and links, but it did not update this less frequently used aspect of the site seen below.

Hat tip to AllFacebook for first making us aware of the change.

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Facebook tests ‘suggested guests’ for events

Some Facebook users now see a “suggested guests” module on events they plan to attend.

Suggested guests are listed on the right side of the event page along with an invite button. Facebook seems to serve suggestions based on interests relevant to the event and mutual friends attending. This test feature could increase awareness and attendees for public events.

For instance, an event page for a concert might suggest friends who listen to the artist on Spotify and could lead people to decide to go together. This is more likely to occur if users can see why a person is listed as a suggested guest. Currently the module displays friends without any context.

This is another of several recent improvements to the events product. About two months ago, the social network introduced “Suggested Events“ to give users recommendations about events based on Open Graph activity, pages they Like and events that friends are attending. In November 2011, Facebook updated the event page UI. We’ve also seen Facebook testing a “Make Plans” option above News Feed.

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Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet v1.0.5 Adds Video Uploads, Still No Events

BlackBerry released an update this week of its Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet mobile app that gives uses the ability to upload videos, select albums to add photos to, and improves the interface for search, Pages, and the news feed. The app still lacks Events, which we see as a glaring omission for any somewhat-mobile Facebook app, even if you don’t consider tablets truly mobile.

BlackBerry released the first iteration of its Facebook app for PlayBook at the beginning on May, about two weeks after the launch of the device itself. Some reports and BlackBerry have said sales are healthy, including one estimating 250,000 units sold in the first month. A conflicting report from a source at Best Buy stated that sales had missed goals by 90% and the return rate was high.

Facebook apps have been pegged as big drivers of engagement on mobile devices, so a strong and innovative version for PlayBook could help sales of the device that analysts say is crucial to the future of Blackberry developer Resarch In Motion (RIM).

Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook v1.0.5's ability to upload video to Facebook is unique amongst official Facebook mobile apps. This, along with its multi-pane Chat interface from the initial version, help it stand out from Facebook for Android and iPhone (also used for iPad). The PlayBook’s video recorder shoots in 1080p, so users could easily record and upload a high-def video of a demo at business conference.

Other improvements bring the PlayBook app’s design in line with that of iPhone and Android devices. Pages can be accessed from a button in the Friends section, users can filter search by friends, everyone, or Pages, and a ‘+’ button beside news feed stories allows users to quickly add Likes or comments without leaving the news feed view. Photos can be uploaded to a specific album, and links to settings and the Help Center are readily available.

The most recent version of Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones allows users to choose when they delete Messages whether to delete them from just their device, their Facebook account, or both. The PlayBook update allows for Message deletion, but only from both your device and account at the same time.

V1.0.5 does not resolve the app’s lack of Facebook Groups or Events. With the PlayBook catering to business networkers who often attend business conferences and mixers, the omission of Events is difficult to understand. The feature’s presence in even the earliest iterations of most Facebook mobile apps would suggest it isn’t a difficult technology problem to solve. While unique features may attract attention, a Facebook mobile app needs to cover the basic Facebook experiences, and the PlayBook’s doesn’t yet.

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Facebook Roundup: President Obama, Vitrue, Messages, Places, Photos, Events, Causes, Justin Bieber and More

President Obama Meets with Zuckerberg - President Barack Obama made a trip to Silicon Valley this week to meet with leaders in the tech industry, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Vitrue Raises $17 million, Adds Murphy as Senior Advisor – Social media management services provider Vitrue announced a $17 million third round of funding from Scale Venture Partners, Advent Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners and Dace Ventures. Facebook’s former vice president of global sales, Mike Murphy, has also joined Vitrue to work as a “senior advisor” with CEO Reggie Bradford.

Facebook Challenges Relationship Status Patent – Facebook has challenged three separate patents that pertain to relationship statuses as they function on a social graph. This comes as the company has broadened its relationship status options, adding “in a civil union” and “in a domestic partnership.”

Facebook Rolls Out New Messages to All Users – Facebook is expanding the new Messages rollout to everyone on Facebook over the new few weeks. We first wrote about Messages in November.

Brothers Samwer Sell Facebook Shares - Marc, Oliver and Alexander Samwer, entrepreneurial German brothers who invested in Facebook in 2008 as part of the company’s $15 billion valuation round with Microsoft, sold their shares recently, according to a local report. Given that Facebook recently raised funding at a reported $50 billion to $60 billion valuation, the brothers, may have made up to four times their investment back.

Places Beats Out Foursquare, Gowalla by Far – MerchantCircle conducted a survey recently to find that 32% of the business social network’s members were using Places, 9% using Foursquare and 6.6% use Groupon.

Facebook’s Pixelcloud is Updated - Facebook’s Engineering team wrote a blog about the redesign of the internal photo sharing service created by employees, Pixelcloud.

Fun Facts About Facebook Photos - Pixable, along with Harvard University researchers, conducted some interesting research about Facebook’s photos. Facebook will have 100 billion photos by this summer, women have twice as many looks/uploads/tags as men, men prefer photos with women they don’t know, women prefer photos with women they know and everyone seems to prefer photos of women in general. Older users and younger users upload about the same amount, but older users are not tagged as often.

Facebook Changes Events Format - Microformats leader Tantek Celik has announced that that Facebook has changed the way it marks up events to add an hCalendar microformat, marking up venues with an hCard, too. Microformats are a set of open data formats built on existing standards that make it easier for users (and machines) to share information across services; in this case, users will be able to more easily export Facebook events to other calendar programs.

Cooliris Receives $9.6M Funding – Cooliris, which allows users to see photos and videos on the web in an easy format, received $9.6 million in Series C funding from several investors, including: DAG Ventures, The Westly Group and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers. The company also recently released its LiveShare 1.2 photo sharing app, which allows users to created shared photo streams with their Facebook friends.

Causes Used to Connect with Middle East Activists – Causes wrote a post detailing how its users were able to interact with issues related to Tunisia and Egypt.

Sharing on Facebook Most Lucrative for E-Commerce – ChompOn released data comparing Twitter and Facebook actions. Turns out Facebook Shares are worth more than Likes, which are worth more than tweets, which are worth more than follows on Twitter.

Rosetta Stone Sees Facebook Traffic with Webtrends – Rosetta Stone partnered with Webtrends in order to fine tune its Facebook strategy, resulting in Rosetta Stone being able to cut marketing costs on the platform by $20 per fan with a 10-14% conversion rate. Rosetta Stone now counts a 60% conversion rate at a cost of less than $1.50 per fan, according to a company press release.

Facebook, Justin Bieber, Team Up to End Cyberbullying – Facebook, teen pop star Justin Bieber and MTV’s “A Thin Line” show are partnering to end “digital abuse.” According to a press release, Bieber is asking his fans to post an action to stop such abuse on an MTV map, which will enter them into a sweepstakes. Facebook’s Safety Page figures prominently in the campaign.

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