Facebook

Earlier today President Obama answered questions submitted through CitizenTube via the White House Live Facebook application.

I had hoped to have the video from the question and answer session to embed here, and have been waiting for it since CitizenTube hours ago claimed that it would be available shortly, but unfortunately it is not yet posted. (I'll add it once it is, whenever that may be).

I was pleased for the most part with the question selection, which included questions about Sudan (an area many Millennials are interested in), net neutrality, college affordability, and one from the Energy Action Coalition about clean energy and the environment.

As for the execution of the session, the video quality was a little choppy and would occasionally stop, requiring a refresh, but the chat/status posting discussion was a nice touch.

On the whole I think the session was a great move and fits in with my belief in taking your message to the places where people live and hang out (even virtually), and Facebook is certainly one of those places.

What are your thoughts about the President's Q&A over Facebook? What would you like to see next time?

Imagine a situation out of "To Catch a Predator," but instead of trying to bust people soliciting underage sex they bust college students for underage drinking.

That's exactly what the police department in La Crosse, Wisconsin is doing.

The La Crosse police department set up a fake Facebook account for an attractive female student and began sending friend requests to University of Wisconsin students who were under 21. If a student accepted the friend request, the police would scour through that person's photos looking for evidence of them consuming alcohol. The police then contact the student, and since at that age the authority of a police officer seems unquestionable, many respond:

Mr. Luebker faced similar questioning, and both said they now regretted even responding to the officer's request to meet. Both had friends who were also drinking in Facebook pictures, but who didn't talk to the officer and were never ticketed.

When Mr. Luebker and two of his friends were contacted, they said, they were worried what would happen if they didn't talk to the officer. "We were scared, like, Oh crap," he said. "I wish I would have said, No, it's a stupid idea. That's what you've been taught, since ever. Do what the authority tells you to do."

I think that our generation is about to face a privacy clash.

For many, a Facebook profile is their own personal space where they hang out with friends. Sneaking around someone's profile is like sneaking around their room. Those that started using Facebook early on knew that everyone on the site had a college email address, leading to an habitual false sense of security . Since then Facebook's popularity has exploded and has opened up to everyone, but old habits die hard.

It can take a long time to use all of the new privacy settings and organize people into lists of who can see what, and many people have never even attempted to configure them, but now may be a good time to take a crack at it.

Police officers, debt collectors, college administrators, potential employers, and others are now using Facebook to track you down or find dirt on you. We need to be more careful, so I leave you with a couple of things to remember:

• Don't blanket-accept friend requests - You may have your privacy settings set so that only friends can view your profile, but that isn't stopping people from sneaking in. Make sure you have an idea about who a person is that is requesting you. The most common espionage account is for an attractive young woman. At a minimum create a list with full limited profile and stick these people in it if for some reason you feel compelled to accept them.
• Don't post things you don't want people to see - Regardless of how strong your privacy settings are, once something is on the internet, it's pretty much there forever. I also suggest being very selective in who can see pictures tagged of you.

Personally I think that what the police is doing in La Crosse is ridiculous and a waste of resources, but it's going to keep happening and in more places.

What are your thoughts on these Facebook sting operations and/or Facebook privacy?

The Pew Internet and American Life Project finds that while an older audience is moving to Facebook, Twitter is becoming younger.

Martha Irvine, an AP youth beat writer, wrote a story on this development a couple days ago, finding that while a significant number of youth are moving to Twitter, many of them are doing so grudgingly believing that Twitter updates contain too much minutiae for their tastes.

"Quite frankly, I don't need to hear if someone stepped in dog poo on the way to class or how annoyed they are that they lost their favorite pen," says Carolyn Wald, a University of Chicago junior who has not joined Twitter and rarely posts status updates on Facebook because "I don't want to assume that people want to hear those things about me, either."

One explanation for this surge is the increased availability of wireless devices for youth today. The study reports that the more wireless outlets youth have, the more probable it is that they will tweet.

NetCentric Advocacy picks up on something interesting. Mentions of the term "health care" on Facebook are currently at one of the lowest points since the final weeks of the election. In short, there is no campaign for reform happening on one of the biggest social networks in the country. The following chart shows the number of mentions of the phrase "health care" on Facebook wall posts over the last 12 months:

Facebook Lexicon, which produced the graphs, doesn't show the exact number of mentions. Rather, this is just a relative comparison of the popularity of the term over time. Still, the number of mentions is significantly smaller than during the election, particularly during the peak in November of 2008.

So what's going on here? Why does it seem like there is no activity on this topic online? Is this a failure of measurement? The lexicon results do end around mid-July, so it is possible that we're just not registering a huge surge in interest happening right now. Or is this a failure of organizing?

• From the White House Blog, Jill Biden extols the virtues of community colleges.
• A new study suggests that Facebook users are getting older.
• Remember the election protection effort Twitter Vote Report? Check out a case study of the project.
• Kal Penn has officially started his White House job.
• ePolitics discusses Iran, Independence Day, and the limits of Online Politics.
• The New York Times covers the latest in summer trends: jobless summers.
• Generation Y reflects on what it means to be American.
• Youth-magnet cities continue to see growth during recession.
• Young Mayors bring fresh perspectives.

Future Majority has a shiny new Facebook page. Become a fan and spread the word.

Bill Maher's recent comment that "Twitter didn't save Iran. Iran saved Twitter" has sparked some debate about the use of social media and its relevance to important issues and events.

Personally, I don't think Maher's comment hits the mark. Twitter wasn't a service that needed saving, nor is it alone responsible for helping promote Iranian protests. It would be more accurate to say that Iran helped the general public realize Twitter's potential, and that Twitter is one component of a new media toolset that is enabling activists in oppressive regimes to communicate where state-run media dominates.

The situation in Iran shows the world that the communications game has changed. It isn't Twitter or Facebook specifically, but the general principle of online and mobile communication.

Mashable created a social media timeline of the Iran Election crisis. It shows how a wide range of online tools have played a role in getting the stories of Iranian protesters to the outside world. These tools range from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to Flickr and even Wikipedia.

The essence of the matter is that previously if a country expelled all foreign journalists and had a state-run media, the world would have no way of knowing what was happening within its borders. The emergence of online and mobile technology has turned every person with a camera, cell phone, or computer into an amateur journalist; on location and with unfiltered access journalists have never truly enjoyed.

While it may be a while before these new media tools can change the game everywhere (Africa is still largely left behind, and they could use it the most), the Iran election protests have shown the world what online organizers have known for some time now: social media has fundamentally advanced the way we communicate and coordinate.

A new report out of Southern Illinois University, delivered at the Harvard Political Networks Conference, attempts to quantify the use and effectiveness of Facebook support pages in the 2008 House elections: Explaining Facebook Support in the Congressional Election Cycle.

The report is a useful, if incomplete look at the factors behind congressional campaign support on Facebook during the 2008 cycle. It looks primarily at the advantages/disadvantages of money, incumbancy and district demographics. Where it fails short (and the authors readily admit there is much more research to be done on this issue) is in how campaigns actually used Facebook to organize - via the "Events" function, cleaning up young voter lists, etc. The effectiveness of those types of activities strikes me as much more useful data for campaigns staffers looking ahead to 2010.

That said, here's a look at some of their findings:

• "Only 8% of Americans reported using social networks to learn about campaigns during the 2008 election cycle."
• "The Facebook community is skewed in favor of college educated, more affluent, white, urban and younger citizens. The closer a congressional district resembles this profile, the larger the pool is from which to draw potential Facebook supporters."
• The candidate with the most Facebook supporters tends to win the election, but this does not mean Facebook support is predictive. The community is too demographically skewed for this to be considered an accurate measure.
• 79% of Democratic House Candidates had a Facebook Supporter page in 2008, compared to just 66% of Republican House Candidates.
• Facebook was decidedly NOT a tool of insurgents in 2008. "Fully 93.2% of incumbents had Politicians’ Pages, while only 70.8% of candidates for open seats did so, and the percentage for challengers drops to 48.9%."
• Incumbency and money (more media exposure) were factors in the number of supporters a candidate had on Facebook. Incumbents typically had over 165 more supporters than challengers.
• On average, Democratic candidates had 120 more supporters than Republicans.
• More college educated voters in a district tend to increase the number of Facebook supporters in a race, while a greater percentage of young people generally decreases the number of Facebook supporters for incumbents. (To be perfectly honest, this is SUPER counterintuitive and the authors do a terrible job of explaining what this means or how they come to this conclusion.)
• More activity on the page (from the candidate or from supporters) tends to increase the number of total supporters. Wall posts and videos are the most effective forms of activity for expanding a support base. Fan photos had little effect in growing a support base.
• The average congressional campaign grew its FaceBook fanbase at a rate of 4 - 6% per month.

• Check out the 2008 Campaign in graphic novel form.
• News broke that Rock the Vote will start producing concerts.
• Facebook Causes gets its own blog.
• New Media @ the White House: rundown on government new media projects.
• Ronald Brownstein: A Look at the Southern Nature of the GOP.
• Iran cuts access to Facebook as election looms.
• More on Iran blocking facebook access and the impact on Iranian youth.
• Be sure to read this great article about celebrity activism.

I have been spending a lot of time working with Facebook Pages recently, and I wanted to share some best practices that I have picked up.

Status Updates

Status updates are the bread and butter of Facebook Pages. They are your primary source of communication and through likes and comments the primary source of interaction by your fans. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your updates:

• Update Frequently - But not too frequently. You want to find that happy medium where your fans are engaged but not turned off. Your updates will appear in your fans' home feeds, so you should provide content that will be of interest to them. You want your page to be active, since it in turn reflects on the activity of your organization, but you don't want to appear spammy.
• Be Personal - When I post an update to the Young Democrats of America page, I include my name before the update. People prefer to know with whom they are communicating, and unless you identify yourself in your update it will feel impersonal.
• Ask Questions, Encourage Interaction - Your Facebook Page shouldn't be a one-way communications tool. Fans have the opportunity to communicate with you and with each other. Asking questions encourages your fans to comment on your updates, which elicits a feeling of participation as well as boosting the exposure of your page (updates that receive a lot of interaction appear on the homepage sidebar). It also provides you with an opportunity to learn more about your fans.
• Share - You shouldn't solely post updates based on your own content. If you see a news article that would be interesting and relevant to your fans, share it. If an allied organization is doing something impressive, let your fans know.
• Promote and Recognize Members/Chapters - If one of your members or chapters is doing something interesting, received press coverage, or wrote a great article, share it with your fans. People like to know what other members and chapters are doing, and your members/chapters that you mention will appreciate the recognition.
• Don't Update Using Twitter - While Facebook Page status updates and tweets seem like similar media, there are differences between the two, and using a one-size-fits-all approach will not be as effective. Though you may end up sending the same update to both sometimes, it should be a case-by-case decision.

Content

Status updates aren't your only communications tool on your page. Here are some tips for other types of content:

• Blog Syndication - If your organization has a blog or website with an RSS feed you should import the posts into your page using Facebook notes. This will increase the reach of your blog content and help drive your fans to your website.
• Multimedia - You can share photos and videos on your Facebook page, and often this content generates the most response from fans. Post multimedia content from events, rallies, campaign videos and photo galleries, etc.
• Help Fans Connect to You - You should make it easy for your fans to connect to you on different platforms through your page. Occasionally share your website, Twitter account, YouTube or Flickr accounts, etc. You want your fans to be as engaged in your organization as possible.

Insights

Insights is the built-in analytics tool for your Facebook page. It is important to keep track of the statistics of your page and fans in order to chart your progress in growth and engagement.

Through Insights you can see how many new fans you have added each day compared to the number of fans that have removed themselves, which is a good way to measure whether you are posting too frequently or not enough. You can also see how engaged your fans are with your content.

Another useful feature is the ability to look at the demographic of your fan base by age, gender, and location.

Conclusions

Your Facebook Page can be an extremely useful communications and engagement tool if used effectively. Hopefully these tips will help you improve your results. If you have any of your own best practices for Facebook Pages, please share them in the comments.

P.S. I still need your support in the DFA Netroots Nation Scholarship Competition, so if you could send a vote my way I would appreciate it.