Windows 10: Facebook introduces Facebook Shops

Brink · May 19, 2020

Facebook has always been about connecting you to what you love. That means friends and family, but also products, brands and businesses. For years, people have used our apps to buy and sell things from the early days of posting a photo of a bicycle with the caption "for sale" to selling your coffee table on Marketplace and now shopping styles from your favorite brands and influencers on Instagram. It was the people who use our apps who envisioned social commerce. We're helping them make it a reality.

We want to give people a place to experience the joy of shopping versus the chore of buying. And we want to help small businesses adapt and make it easier for people to discover and shop for things they love.

Right now many small businesses are struggling, and with stores closing, more are looking to bring their business online. Our goal is to make shopping seamless and empower anyone from a small business owner to a global brand to use our apps to connect with customers. That's why we're launching Facebook Shops and investing in features across our apps that inspire people to shop and make buying and selling online easier.

Introducing Facebook Shops

Facebook Shops make it easy for businesses to set up a single online store for customers to access on both Facebook and Instagram. Creating a Facebook Shop is free and simple. Businesses can choose the products they want to feature from their catalog and then customize the look and feel of their shop with a cover image and accent colors that showcase their brand. This means any seller, no matter their size or budget, can bring their business online and connect with customers wherever and whenever it's convenient for them.

People can find Facebook Shops on a business' Facebook Page or Instagram profile, or discover them through stories or ads. From there, you can browse the full collection, save products you're interested in and place an order - either on the business' website or without leaving the app if the business has enabled checkout in the US.

And just like when you're in a physical store and need to ask someone for help, in Facebook Shops you'll be able to message a business through WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct to ask questions, get support, track deliveries and more. And in the future, you'll be able to view a business' shop and make purchases right within a chat in WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct.

We're starting to roll out Facebook Shops today, and it will be more widely available in the coming months. You can learn more about how we built Shops with privacy in mind here.

We're also investing in features across our apps like Instagram Shop, live shopping and more that will be integrated with Facebook Shops to help customers discover products they're interested in and make purchasing easier.

Instagram Shop: A New Place to Discover Products and Brands

This summer, starting in the US, we're introducing Instagram Shop, a new way to discover and buy products you love in Instagram Explore. You can get inspired by collections from @shop, browse selections from your favorite brands and creators, filter by categories like beauty and home, and purchase the looks you love all in one place. And later this year, we're adding a new shop tab in the navigation bar, so you can get to Instagram Shop in just one tap.

Live Shopping Features

People have been using live video on our apps to showcase products for years, from shoe stores announcing new sneakers to beauty influencers trying on different lipsticks. Now, we're making it easier to shop for products in real time. Soon, sellers, brands and creators will be able to tag products from their Facebook Shop or catalog before going live and those products will be shown at the bottom of the video so people can easily tap to learn more and purchase. We're starting to test this with businesses on Facebook and Instagram, and we'll roll it out more broadly in the coming months.

Connecting Loyalty Programs to Your Facebook Account

We're also testing ways to make it easier to earn rewards with businesses you love by enabling you to connect your loyalty programs, like the points program at your local cafe, to your Facebook account. You'll be able to easily see and keep track of your points and rewards. And we're exploring ways to help small businesses create, manage and surface a loyalty program on Facebook Shops.

Working With Partners

We're also working more closely with partners like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, ChannelAdvisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tienda Nube and Feedonomics to give small businesses the support they need. These organizations offer powerful tools to help entrepreneurs start and run their businesses and move online. Now they'll help small businesses build and grow their Facebook Shops and use our other commerce tools.

We hope these tools can relieve some of the pressure small businesses are facing right now and help businesses of all sizes prepare for the future.
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Source: Introducing Facebook Shops: Helping Small Businesses Sell Online - About Facebook

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Brink · May 19, 2020

Introducing Facebook News

Testing a dedicated place for news in the US

By Campbell Brown, VP, Global News Partnerships and Mona Sarantakos, Product Manager, News

Journalism plays a critical role in our democracy. When news is deeply-reported and well-sourced it gives people information they can rely on. When it’s not, we lose an essential tool for making good decisions.

People want and benefit from personalized experiences on Facebook, but we know there is reporting that transcends individual experience. We want to support both.

Today we’re starting to test Facebook News, a dedicated place for news on Facebook, to a subset of people in the US. News gives people more control over the stories they see, and the ability to explore a wider range of their news interests, directly within the Facebook app. It also highlights the most relevant national stories of the day. News articles will continue to appear in News Feed as they do today.

Video: Facebook - Facebook News | Facebook

As we looked to build a place where people can find more news on Facebook, we changed our approach to gather insight from journalists and publishers before we started developing a product. As Mark Zuckerberg said in a conversation with Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Europe’s largest publisher Axel Springer, we wanted to build this product in a consultative way, sharing our ideas and getting input from the industry. We talked to news organizations about what they’d like to see included in a news tab, how their stories should be presented and what analytics to provide.

As we talked to people and publishers, we identified key features to help make Facebook News valuable:

Today’s Stories chosen by a team of journalists to catch you up on the news throughout the day

Personalization based on the news you read, share and follow, so you can find new interests and topics and Facebook News is fresh and interesting every time you open it

Topic sections to dive deeper into business, entertainment, health, science & tech, and sports

Your Subscriptions, a section for people who have linked their paid news subscriptions to their Facebook account

Controls to hide articles, topics and publishers you don’t want to see

Regarding personalization, publishers worry that machine learning has limits and they’re right. We have progress to make before we can rely on technology alone to provide a quality news destination. We also aim to serve both people and news publishers, and not just the big national players. We want new forms of journalism in the digital age, including individual, independent journalism, to flourish. So we will continue to expand the algorithmic selection of stories driving the majority of Facebook News.

When we started talking to news organizations about building Facebook News earlier this year, they emphasized that original reporting is more expensive to produce and better recognized by seasoned journalists than by algorithms. So to help reward this kind of work, we formed a curation team to manage the Today’s Stories section of Facebook News. The team will have editorial independence and will select stories based on publicly available guidelines, which you can learn about at facebook.com/news.

What You Can Expect to See in Facebook News

Facebook News will feature a wide range of content across four categories of publishers: general, topical, diverse and local news. At the beginning of the year, we surveyed over 100,000 people on Facebook in the US about what topics they were most interested in and found that we were under-serving many topics people wanted most in their News Feeds, especially around categories like entertainment, health, business and sports. We took this into consideration as we identified publishers across those four categories.

How do we identify these publishers? They need to be in our News Page Index, which we developed in collaboration with the industry to identify news content. They also need to abide by Facebook’s Publisher Guidelines, these include a range of integrity signals in determining product eligibility, including misinformation — as identified based on third-party fact checkers — community standards violations (e.g., hate speech), clickbait, engagement bait and others. We’ll continually check Pages’ integrity status to ensure eligibility criteria is consistently being met. Lastly, they must serve a sufficiently large audience, with different thresholds for the four categories of publishers.

Our criteria will evolve over time to make sure people are seeing sources that are valuable to them and that we’re including reporting across these topics.

During the initial test, we’ll showcase local original reporting by surfacing local publications from the largest major metro areas across the country, beginning with New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta and Boston. In the coming months, we’ll include local news from Today In, our local news and community information tab, which recently expanded to over 6,000 US towns and cities.

Facebook News was built to bring people closer to the stories that affect their lives. We’ll continue to learn, listen and improve News as it rolls out more broadly. We hope this work aids in our effort to sustain great journalism and strengthen democracy.
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Source: Introducing Facebook News | Facebook Newsroom

Brink · May 19, 2020

Facebook Dating Is Here

Facebook Dating makes it easier to find love through what you like — helping you start meaningful relationships through things you have in common, like interests, events and groups. It takes the work out of creating a dating profile and gives you a more authentic look at who someone is.

Today, we’re launching Facebook Dating in the US. We’re also giving people the ability to integrate their Instagram posts directly into their Facebook Dating profile and giving people the ability to add Instagram followers to their Secret Crush lists, in addition to Facebook friends. By the end of the year, we’ll make it possible to add Facebook and Instagram Stories to your Dating profile too.
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Finding a romantic partner is deeply personal, which is why we built Dating to be safe, inclusive and opt-in. Safety, security and privacy are at the forefront of this product. We worked with experts in these areas to build protections into Facebook Dating from the start, including the ability to report and block anyone; prohibiting people from sending photos, links, payments or videos in messages; and by providing easy access to safety tips. These features and others give you more control and peace of mind. Learn more about privacy and Facebook Dating here.

How It Works

Starting today, you can choose to opt into Facebook Dating and create a Dating profile (separate from your main profile) if you’re 18 years or older and have downloaded the most recent version of Facebook. You will be suggested to others who have also opted in. People are suggested based on your preferences, interests and other things you do on Facebook. Facebook Dating isn’t about swiping or having to wait for someone to like you to get a first chance at reaching out. If you are interested in someone, you can comment directly on their profile or tap on the Like button to let them know. If you aren’t interested, you can pass on them. Facebook Dating allows you to match with friends of friends and/or people not in your friend circle. Facebook Dating won’t match you with friends, unless you choose to use Secret Crush and you both add each other to your list. All of your Dating activity will stay in Facebook Dating. It won’t be shared to the rest of Facebook.

Key Features

People will soon be able to connect and share with Facebook and Instagram Stories. Today people are asked to make a decision as to whether or not they like someone immediately based on a static profile. To help you show, rather than tell, who you are, we’re bringing Stories to Dating. This format lets you be authentic in a way that a typical dating profile can’t, and it helps you get to know someone before and after you match.

Concept only. Not final design.

Secret Crush lets you match with people you already know on Facebook and/or Instagram. By default, Facebook Dating won’t match you with your Facebook Friends, but people told us they were interested in exploring potential romantic relationships within their extended circles, like their Facebook friend list and Instagram followers. Our popular Secret Crush feature gives you the option to do just that. If you choose to use Secret Crush, you can select up to nine of your Facebook friends or Instagram followers who you’re interested in. (To add Instagram followers you must connect your Instagram account to Facebook Dating.) If your crush has opted into Facebook Dating, they’ll get a notification saying that someone has a crush on them. If your crush adds you to their Secret Crush list too, it’s a match! If your crush isn’t on Dating, doesn’t create a Secret Crush list, or doesn’t put you on their list — then no one will know that you’ve entered their name.

You can now add your Instagram posts to your profile in Facebook Dating. Adding Instagram posts to your profile will make it easier to build a better dating profile, show aspects of your life to others, and find shared connections that spark conversation.

Opt into Events and Groups to see people with similar interests. You can choose to see other people who are using Facebook Dating that fit your preferences within the groups you are part of and the events you have attended or will be attending. When you choose to see these people, you will also be visible to them.

Feel safe by sharing details of your date. People using Facebook Dating can share details of their upcoming date and/or live location with someone they trust via Messenger. They will be able to control if they want to choose this feature. If they do, they are in control of whothey share this information with.

Creating your Dating profile is easier than ever. Based on feedback from people using Dating in other countries, we’ve made it easier to create a Facebook Dating profile. With one tap, we’ll suggest photos and information from your Facebook profile, which you can edit or remove. You can also create your own Dating profile from scratch.

Availability

In addition to the US, Facebook Dating is currently available in 19 other countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Suriname, Thailand, Uruguay, and Vietnam. It will be in Europe by early 2020.

Source: It’s Facebook Official, Dating Is Here | Facebook Newsroom

See also: Privacy Matters: Facebook Dating | Facebook Newsroom

Brink · May 19, 2020

Facebook Dating Is Here

Facebook Dating makes it easier to find love through what you like — helping you start meaningful relationships through things you have in common, like interests, events and groups. It takes the work out of creating a dating profile and gives you a more authentic look at who someone is.

Today, we’re launching Facebook Dating in the US. We’re also giving people the ability to integrate their Instagram posts directly into their Facebook Dating profile and giving people the ability to add Instagram followers to their Secret Crush lists, in addition to Facebook friends. By the end of the year, we’ll make it possible to add Facebook and Instagram Stories to your Dating profile too.
Click to expand...

Finding a romantic partner is deeply personal, which is why we built Dating to be safe, inclusive and opt-in. Safety, security and privacy are at the forefront of this product. We worked with experts in these areas to build protections into Facebook Dating from the start, including the ability to report and block anyone; prohibiting people from sending photos, links, payments or videos in messages; and by providing easy access to safety tips. These features and others give you more control and peace of mind. Learn more about privacy and Facebook Dating here.

How It Works

Starting today, you can choose to opt into Facebook Dating and create a Dating profile (separate from your main profile) if you’re 18 years or older and have downloaded the most recent version of Facebook. You will be suggested to others who have also opted in. People are suggested based on your preferences, interests and other things you do on Facebook. Facebook Dating isn’t about swiping or having to wait for someone to like you to get a first chance at reaching out. If you are interested in someone, you can comment directly on their profile or tap on the Like button to let them know. If you aren’t interested, you can pass on them. Facebook Dating allows you to match with friends of friends and/or people not in your friend circle. Facebook Dating won’t match you with friends, unless you choose to use Secret Crush and you both add each other to your list. All of your Dating activity will stay in Facebook Dating. It won’t be shared to the rest of Facebook.

Key Features

People will soon be able to connect and share with Facebook and Instagram Stories. Today people are asked to make a decision as to whether or not they like someone immediately based on a static profile. To help you show, rather than tell, who you are, we’re bringing Stories to Dating. This format lets you be authentic in a way that a typical dating profile can’t, and it helps you get to know someone before and after you match.

Concept only. Not final design.

Secret Crush lets you match with people you already know on Facebook and/or Instagram. By default, Facebook Dating won’t match you with your Facebook Friends, but people told us they were interested in exploring potential romantic relationships within their extended circles, like their Facebook friend list and Instagram followers. Our popular Secret Crush feature gives you the option to do just that. If you choose to use Secret Crush, you can select up to nine of your Facebook friends or Instagram followers who you’re interested in. (To add Instagram followers you must connect your Instagram account to Facebook Dating.) If your crush has opted into Facebook Dating, they’ll get a notification saying that someone has a crush on them. If your crush adds you to their Secret Crush list too, it’s a match! If your crush isn’t on Dating, doesn’t create a Secret Crush list, or doesn’t put you on their list — then no one will know that you’ve entered their name.

You can now add your Instagram posts to your profile in Facebook Dating. Adding Instagram posts to your profile will make it easier to build a better dating profile, show aspects of your life to others, and find shared connections that spark conversation.

Opt into Events and Groups to see people with similar interests. You can choose to see other people who are using Facebook Dating that fit your preferences within the groups you are part of and the events you have attended or will be attending. When you choose to see these people, you will also be visible to them.

Feel safe by sharing details of your date. People using Facebook Dating can share details of their upcoming date and/or live location with someone they trust via Messenger. They will be able to control if they want to choose this feature. If they do, they are in control of whothey share this information with.

Creating your Dating profile is easier than ever. Based on feedback from people using Dating in other countries, we’ve made it easier to create a Facebook Dating profile. With one tap, we’ll suggest photos and information from your Facebook profile, which you can edit or remove. You can also create your own Dating profile from scratch.

Availability

In addition to the US, Facebook Dating is currently available in 19 other countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Suriname, Thailand, Uruguay, and Vietnam. It will be in Europe by early 2020.

Source: It’s Facebook Official, Dating Is Here | Facebook Newsroom

See also: Privacy Matters: Facebook Dating | Facebook Newsroom

Windows 10: Facebook introduces Facebook Shops

Facebook introduces Facebook Shops

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Facebook introduces Facebook Shops

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