insights

about intouch soul blog

Intouch Soul is our destination for discussions on everything from marketing to major issues that impact the industry, all from our expert point of view. Why "Intouch Soul?" It's a play on the URL for our website, "IntouchSol." It's also a place where ideas and opinions come together from many Intouch associates, all who represent the soul of our agency. Finally, as our official blog, Intouch Soul gives us a place to reflect on matters closest to us — those at the heart and soul of our agency.

Contributors

http://www.intouchsol.com/Libraries/Profile_Images/leaderFarukSmall.sflb.ashx

http://www.intouchsol.com/Libraries/Profile_Images/leaderBunnySmall.sflb.ashx

http://www.intouchsol.com/Libraries/Profile_Images/leaderGregSmall.sflb.ashx

http://www.intouchsol.com/Libraries/Profile_Images/leaderWendySmall.sflb.ashx

http://www.intouchsol.com/Libraries/Profile_Images/leaderJackLiptonSmall.sflb.ashx

http://www.intouchsol.com/Libraries/Profile_Images/leaderJimSmall.sflb.ashx

http://www.intouchsol.com/Libraries/Pod_Images/kevin_1.sflb.ashx

http://www.intouchsol.com/Libraries/Profile_Images/leaderJoeySmall.sflb.ashx

http://www.intouchsol.com/Libraries/Profile_Images/intouchguestblogger.sflb.ashx

categories
tags

Understanding (More) Recent Facebook Changes

posted by:

Jim Dayton

April 7, 2011

As Sr. Director, Emerging Media at Intouch, more and more of my time is spent keeping up with Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg and company seem to make changes every time I turn around. Frankly, these quick changes keep me and my clients on their toes. It makes my job fun, because every day holds some new challenge due to the fluid landscape of social media. And for as much as my dedicated team may curse the name Facebook, deep down they love it too. They know that every change means another opportunity to talk about social media with our clients.

But to that point, Facebook's fast-and-furious approach also causes a lot of confusion. For instance, I've received frantic calls from clients telling me that Facebook is "turning off the Like button" or "changing Pages to disable moderation." My first response is to calm them down. To my knowledge, Facebook has never made a major change that they didn't announce and provide a timeline for activation. They've also never made a change that was 100% retroactive. In every case, I've been able to contact our Facebook representative and get clarification about any design, process or policy change. And this is the case, most recently, with whitelisting.

Over the last year, Facebook has recognized the need for Pharma companies to disable certain functionality of their Pages due to FDA regulations. Most notably, this includes the disabling of the "comment" functionality. Some companies have even requested the Like button be removed. As far as I know, Facebook has worked with companies to get this functionality disabled on an as-needed basis. This practice is called "whitelisting."

Recently, Facebook made a change in its policy regarding whitelisting. Of course, I don't work for Facebook, but below is my understanding of how the policy has changed according to our rep:

1. First, the change in policy will not be retroactive. Pages that have been approved for whitelisting will continue to be whitelisted.

2. Second, new Pharma sites that require whitelisting will need to apply for it. This process is not formalized, yet. You must contact your rep and discuss the use case and justification for needing any functionality changes. The request will then be evaluated by Facebook's Product Management team. Their job is to preserve the integrity of Facebook as a social network. And, frankly, whitelisting goes against that goal.

3. Finally, companies that apply to be whitelisted will have to keep in contact with their reps to find out if they get approved. I have not been told exactly how long this process takes, but you will need to account for this process in your social media initiatives.

Of course, all of this information is subject to change. And knowing Facebook, prepare for it to change quickly. But, if you stay vigilant, you will hear about the change, stay calm and get clarification before any changes take effect.

(9) comments

Kelley said:

I'm curious. How were you able to get an actual Facebook rep to talk to?

4/20/2011 8:03 AM
Jim Dayton said:

A relationship with Facebook has been quite a process to establish. From my experience, advertising sales reps are the first line of people to talk to. Over time, we have been passed around from sales rep to regional rep to client-specific rep to product management, and so on. In the last year, we have finally connected with a group of reps who have been extremely helpful.

In my opinion, this is a normal scenario. Facebook and the like are very focused on their model of product development and are not really looking for suggestions from outside entities. Look where their model has gotten them. I don't think anyone can argue with the results or say that Facebook should change to suit marketers.

But, to answer your question, the path to a relationship with Facebook starts here:
http://www.facebook.com/business/contact.php

4/20/2011 9:03 AM
Whitney said:

Hi Jim,

My name is Whitney and I am a social media analyst for GSW-W. You've touched on an interesting topic in your blog post - thanks for sharing!

I'd like to learn more about this subject of whitelisting changes . Particularly - I am interested to know if points 1, 2, and 3 have come directly from facebook; and if so - can you direct me to a document/location of where these comments originated? Please email me if you're interested in helping me! I have provided my email address in the form to submit this comment.

Thank you!
Whitney

4/22/2011 2:15 PM
Jim Dayton said:

Hi Whitney,
First, thanks for reading my post.

Regarding your question, as I pointed out in the post, this is the information as I understand it from our Facebook rep. Points 1, 2 and 3 actually originated from a client question. I then called our Facebook rep and asked her about a whitelisting policy change. She confirmed that a policy change had happened, and gave me the details as stated in my post.

I'd love to point you to some documentation. But, much like you (I'm guessing), when the client initially asked the question I searched the Web and found no mention of the policy change. To-date, I still haven't seen official mention of the policy change. The post is merely a report of what I was told during the conversation with our rep.

I know there are reports of bigger functionality changes coming to Facebook. I have not been told by our rep or found any documentation to support my conversation or anyone else's claims. But, I know that things change quickly at Facebook. So, I am not willing to fully dismiss any rumor until an official announcement is made. As for our rep, I trust what she's told me. But, that doesn't mean you have to.

Thanks again for reading,
Jim

4/22/2011 3:08 PM
Deb said:

Hi Jim:

thank you for this information. Is there any clarity as to whether or not prescription medical devices or medical therapies (that are performed by a clinician) also will follow this process? I'm now trying to engage my clients in the very active diabetes field and try to help them move more actively into the world of social media. their concerns are specifically related to the reader/fan/friends' ability to comment with data that could be construed as a reportable event (no surprises, right?!) Any insight would be appreciated

7/1/2011 1:48 PM
Jim Dayton said:

Hi Deb,
Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately, Facebook has not specified whether or not their policy change applies to medical devices or therapies. I have forwarded your question on to our reps at Facebook to see if they can shed some light on this.

Please take this for what it is worth, but my impression is that this policy will apply to medical devices and therapies. But without confirmation from Facebook, this is only my opinion.

I will let you know what I hear.

Thanks,
Jim

7/1/2011 3:55 PM
Wendy said:

I agree with Jim. If Facebook won't make an exception for pharma, I don't think we can expect anyting different for the medical device, medical therapy, biotech, animal health, or broader healthcare industries. And the concerns go well beyond reportable events ... but I guess Facebook has its reasons ...

7/1/2011 11:46 PM
Aaron said:

Jim,

Thank you for the post it is very informative, but I do have another question that to a degree links with the about blog post. I am a Sr. Graphic Designer for a large scale architecture firm and we would like people to be able to like our page but nor be able to make comments on it after they like it... I have been through all of the FB privacy settings and account settings to try to find something and a google search has provided me with no help.... I can not even find where to turn off the like button on our page is that is even possible, as from what I have read above I am guessing not.... If you can provide me with ANY help I would be very thankful....

7/26/2011 4:05 PM
Jim Dayton said:

Hi Aaron,
Thank you for your question. I don't speak for Facebook, but my feeling is that what you are asking cannot be done with the current privacy settings. Facebook does provide a helpful page regarding the settings here, http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=820.

My feeling is that Facebook is not going to make an exception for any industry when it comes to the commenting policy. If you want to have a Facebook page, you will have to accept that people will be allowed to "like" your page. And once they do, they will be able to comment on any posts you put on your Wall.

Of course, this is just my interpretation of the situation. If you have questions or want to inquire about disabling functionality on Facebook, your best bet is to contact their support or sales teams.

Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance.

Jim

7/26/2011 11:36 PM