“Every day, millions of people share how they feel with the people who matter the most in their lives through status updates on Facebook. These updates are tiny windows into how people are doing. They’re brief, to the point and descriptive of what’s going on this week, today or right now…Grouped together, these updates are indicative of how we are collectively feeling.”

The graph is available for 22 countries – here’s Australia:

Try adding the positivity and negativity metrics, and see the interesting results. It surprised me.

See the full details on our Gross National Happiness here (and check out your own country, if it’s not Australia!).

Thanks @andyjamo for putting me onto this.

Advertise here with Beacon Ads

When my wife logs-in to Facebook, she gets re-directed to this URL, and is told that she needs to register the computer:

I’ve got no idea why this is happening, or even if it’s legit.

Others are talking about this online (e.g. here, here and here), but I can’t find an official word from Facebook (if indeed this is legitimately from Facebook).

Are you getting this message when you try to log-in to Facebook?

With Facebook’s continuing privacy issues coupled with a terrible communication strategy, it’s not surprising to see a ‘Quit Facebook Day‘.

Advertise here with Beacon Ads

If you’re thinking of doing something similar for your church or ministry, be sure to check out Facebook’s guidelines, and Twitter’s guidelines.

Advertise here with Beacon Ads

Yesterday, SMH (via Business Insider) published a transcript of a conversation between founder Mark Zuckerberg and a friend. The transcript goes:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don’t know why.
Zuck: They “trust me”
Zuck: Dumb f–ks.

Charming.

Frightening.

Read the article at Facebook founder feels the heat as privacy backlash rages.

If you’d like to read up about Facebook and the criticism it’s been receiving about the privacy of its users information, here’s some articles I’ve come across recently. In each of the articles, you’ll find lots more links off to more articles!

• Facebook is not your friend
• Facebook removes your profile rights and choices
• Some quitting Facebook as privacy concerns escalate
• 10 new privacy settings every Facebook user should know
• Facebook: friend or foe for social networkers?
• Top 10 reasons you should quit Facebook (this post attracted 234 comments!)
• Why you should still quit Facebook (follow-up to the above)
• Facebook glitch brings new privacy worries
• How to protect your privacy
• The history of Facebook’s default privacy settings (an interesting ‘infographic’)
• Facebook executive answers readers questions
• Facebook needs to find its voice on privacy
• More web industry leaders quit Facebook
• Four nerds and a call to arms against Facebook (I don’t think they’ll make a dent though!)
• Facebook privacy: a bewildering tangle of options (f0r example, the word count for Facebook’s privacy statement has increased 5-fold since 2005)

And if you’re freaked out or fed up and want to delete your account, follow these instructions:

• How to permanently delete your Facebook account (it’s a worry when such detailed instructions are needed just to delete an account!)

Will you be deleting your Facebook account?

Advertise here with Beacon Ads

It’s well-written and easy to read, and explores the impact of Facebook on its users, and how we (as Christians) can use it for our good, the good of others, and for God’s glory. I’ll review it in more detail soon.

As I read the book, I reflected on the emotions that Facebook (and other social media) generate in us. Here’s some examples.

1. I posted a link on Facebook and I checked back later to discover that “3 friends like this”. This made me feel happy. People liked something that I shared.
2. I posted another link on Facebook about a Christian preacher arrested in London. 2 people liked that, and I felt confused. Did they like that I posted it, or that the preacher was being persecuted?
3. I saw someone I knew on Facebook and sent them a friend request. I received notification that they accepted my friend request. This made me feel happy. They want to be my friend! It was a strange feeling, because friendships in the ‘real’ world don’t work like that – you don’t reach a point when someone officially confirms they are your friend – it’s an organic process from stranger, to acquaintance, to friend.

With this realisation, one of the obvious dangers of Facebook becomes clear – our temptation to act to please people, to be well thought of and to make ourselves feel good. While not always bad, this is a temptation most of us need to spend far more time fighting than succumbing to.

Can you think of any other examples of the unusual emotions that social media prompts?

Advertise here with Beacon Ads

1. Hillsong Church
2. Mars Hill Church (Seattle)
3. Willow Creek Community Church
4. Petersham Evening Church
5. Village Church (Texas)
6. Village Church (Sydney)
7. Dubbo Presbyterian Church
8. NewSpring Church
9. Northside Baptist Church
10. Granger Community Church
11. The Adundant Life Church
12. Hunter Bible Church
13. Park Community Church (by far the most innovative landing page)
14. 24 Church
15. Woodlands Church
16. Saddleback Church
17. College Park Church
18. Pinelake Church
19. Seacoast Church
20. Hope Church
21. Liquid Church (the best landing page for a church I’ve seen)
22. Fellowship Church
23. 12Stone Church
24. Northway Church
25. Substance Church
26. Cottonwood Church
27. Bayside Church
28. C3 Church
29. Sovereign Grace Baptist Church (Brisbane)
30. Brooklake Church

Three observations

1. Before you start a Facebook page for your church, check for duplicates. In my search for churches on Facebook, I saw several churches with more than one page. Obviously this is confusing for people searching for a church/your church. Equally obviously, this is quite easily fixed!
2. Some churches didn’t display any information about what they believe, or the mission of their church. For example, what on earth is Skull Church, and what does it believe?! You can always check out their website (listed in the ‘Info’ tab), but it doesn’t hurt to provide this information up front.
3. Some mission statements are very short and simple (e.g. ‘Connect and Grow’) others more interesting (e.g. ‘We’re here so that you can waste time on Facebook. Oh, and also stay in the loop of all that’s going on. . I liked this introduction for its potential to engage with newcomers who are unfamiliar with church – ‘We don’t care how you dress or who you voted for. Join us for one of 3 services. No church experience required!’
4. Facebook’s search mechanism is confusing. I know there are churches on Facebook with ‘church’ in their title, but when I searched for pages using the term ‘church’, they didn’t appear. There also doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for the order churches appear in the search results. Each time I attempted a search different results would appear in a different order!

If your church is on Facebook, let us know about it, and share the link below!

Advertise here with Beacon Ads

More churches and ministries are developing a presence on Facebook and there’s lots of good reasons to do this. I’ve written a number of articles on the possibilities of Facebook – check them out here.

When you create a page on Facebook you will get a URL that is impossible to remember without a memory like a steel trap. However, it’s easy to create your own URL so that:

• Instead of having a URL like this: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=4097712284&ref=ts,
• You can have a URL like this: http://www.facebook.com/churchbythebridge

Here’s how:

1. When you’re logged into Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/username/.
2. On the landing page you will be able to set a username for your personal profile on Facebook. Beneath this is a link to ‘Set a username for your pages’. Click on this link.
3. You will now see a drop-down menu listing the pages you are an administrator for (you can set a username for a group or event yet). Click on the page you would like to set a username for.
4. You can now set a username. Think carefully about the username that you choose – you can only change it once (previously you couldn’t change it at all!).

Want help? Learn more about usernames.

I’ve used this process to create usernames for my church’s page (http://www.facebook.com/churchbythebridge) and the Communicate Jesus page (http://www.facebook.com/communicatejesus).

It makes it easy to then promote your Facebook page offline – my church has just created two posters for our noticeboard to promote our presence on Twitter and Facebook to passers-by.

Advertise here with Beacon Ads

“Facebook is only concerned about two things. Amassing the biggest profile database in the world and to convert that into a sickening amount of money. Today’s announcements where just the opening salvo on their march to integrate themselves so deeply in the web that we can’t do without them.”

Facebook recently announced some fairly dramatic changes and expansion plans, including the launch of social plug-ins to support engagement and interaction across the web, within your Facebook network.

Should we join the author (who happens to also be called Steven) in his concern about Facebook? Should we be concerned about Google too? Is it time to  metaphorically take our money out of the bank and put it under the mattress?

Advertise here with Beacon Ads

It struck me how quickly the social media landscape changes. For example, I’d made a note of the possibilities of Facebook Connect. At the Facebook Developer’s Conference, it was announced that Facebook Connect will be no more.

Keeping up with the latest developments in social media isn’t easy. But with Facebook providing a challenge to Google for the most consumed website, and 300,000 new Twitter users coming on board every day, the opportunities are only increasing.

What’s the answer? How do you avoid stepping into a nightmare? How do you make the most of social media?

Keep reading Communicate Jesus

You can check out all posts on Social Media, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Enjoy the weekend!

Advertise here with Beacon Ads

The reviews tab allows the user to write a review, and give the product/brand a star rating out of five.

Some of the organisations using this facility include:

• Zappos
• Target
• Pringles
• Ben and Jerry’s
• Kohl’s
• Dippin’ Dots

Here’s what I’m wondering – if your church or ministry on Facebook, would you add a reviews tab? Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

Advertise here with Beacon Ads