This morning we began receiving reports that Facebook Pages had a major flaw that was preventing users from commenting an liking stories. Some Page administrators were even unable to access the page content. While we’d assume that Facebook is actively working on a fix for the issue, it’s preventing a fair amount of Facebook Page functionality.



The bug appears to be limited to specific users. Additionally we’ve heard that the bug is happening within comments. For example, a user cannot “like” an actual comment on a feed story. It’s a small bug but it’s making it difficult for numerous people to communicate on the site. Facebook tends to resolve these problems relatively quickly. It also appears that this bug is only affective new posts, not previous posts.

We’re not quite sure why this is happening, or how many people are affected by the bug, but it’s pretty clear that it’s causing problems with many Facebook users. We’ll be sure to update the post if we hear anything else from Facebook. Have you seen this bug as well?

Thanks to Mari Smith for sharing this bug with us!

Facebook Pages began exhibiting a bug yesterday afternoon wherein posts made to a Page’s wall directly or through tagging do not show the option to comment. Page admins are frustrated because they can’t respond to comments, queries or accusations made to their Page through tagged updates, and can only remove the post. Also, users who Like a Page can’t comment on posts made to the Page’s wall by others who Like it. However, posts made by the Page itself which show up on its own wall are unaffected

We are currently awaiting Facebook’s response to the issue.

In the above screenshot, taken from the perspective of a non-admin who Likes the Washington Redskins Page, you can see that the post made to the wall of the Washington Redskins by The Real Estate Page doesn’t show Like or comment buttons, only a link to “View Post�. Clicking this link shows the post with only “Share� and “Report� options, and still no Like or comment buttons. The post made to the wall of the Washington Redskins by user Craig also lacks Like and comment buttons, and only shows the option to “Flag� the post. An admin to the Washington Redskins Page would see the same thing, except with the added option remove any post from the wall. In the screenshot below, you can see how posts from yesterday, September 2nd, are unaffected and still show comment and Like buttons, while posts from today exhibit the issue.

Facebook has recently been tweaking the status update tagging tool, displaying a suggested match tagging dropdown when a user capitalizes a word matching the name of one of their friends or Likes. Facebook also changed the color of status update tag backgrounds. This issue could be related to these changes, or the slow rollout of the new publisher. We’ll return with any additional information and Facebook’s response as soon as possible.

Matt Holliday contributed to this article

And thanks to BrandGlue for sending this in.

Another big upgrade from Facebook: the company is currently testing search results which display articles ranked by likes. Additionally, the results for searches now shows the results from all around the web based on two things: the number of likes and the number of friends who liked that object, most likely leveraging some of the technology shown in their recently approved patent. We first received reports of these search results showing up earlier yesterday.



The search results have now become dramatically more relevant with the inclusion of recent news articles, something that previously wasn’t accessible via Facebook’s open graph search results. Currently, the search results only appear within the drop down from Facebook’s search box, however I’d assume that this will eventually shift to Facebook’s search area, which has yet to undergo a significant overhaul.

This new search shows how important Facebook’s Open Graph is to the future of the company. It also underscores the continued tension between the company and Google, who is working feverishly develop their own competitor to Facebook. If there was any question that Facebook has grand search ambitions, the increasingly relevant search results for any keyword should emphasize this shift. It also illustrates how the “like” is most definitely positioned to replacing the link. We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment on the new feature, however we’ve yet to hear back. Are you seeing these search results? What do you think of them?

Facebook is rolling out a new security allowing users to remotely log out of any Facebook session active on another device. If a user logs in to Facebook on a public computer or a friend’s mobile device and forgets to log out when they’re done, they can visit their Account->Account Settings->Settings->Account Security->Account Activity panel, and choose to end any active session.

This feature will help protect users from malicious strangers trying to hijack one’s account, as well as the somewhat common practice of mischievous friends editing one’s profile or making unauthorized communications.

The account activity panel shows all of a user’s currently active sessions. To help users distinguish between sessions, each is labeled with the time accessed, the device name if a user named it with Facebook’s login notifications feature, the approximate location as determined by IP Address, and which browser and operating system used. Clicking “end activityâ€� closes that session, requiring anyone using the selected device to have the password in order to access the account. Facebook also recommends changing one’s password after ending a remote session in case the unauthorized user tried to change or reset the existing password.

Unauthorized use of an active Facebook session has become a greater security concern, especially as Facebook’s mobile apps proliferate. These apps often don’t require users to log in each time they open the app, meaning if someone stole your iPhone, they could access your Facebook account through the Facebook for iPhone app until you change your password. It doesn’t take long for an unauthorized user to damage one’s credibility. By changing one’s profile to include offensive content then inviting all of one’s friends to an event highlighting these changes, spamming or defriending people, or deleting Pages and Groups a user is an admin of, lasting harm can be done quickly.

By helping users to prevent these kinds of horror stories, Facebook makes users feel safe creating a digital identity with wide-reaching influence on their real-world reputation.

San Diego, located in beautiful Southern California, is the second largest city in the state. The city is more than just awesome weather and beaches though as its amazing attractions, excellent universities, and prominent lists of residents are just a few reasons to call the area home. Let’s grab a delicious California Burrito, relax and enjoy the weather, and learn a little bit more about San Diego. We have researched the city’s Facebook users, and have found some interesting tidbits about the city’s hometown pride. Check out our findings below.

Population

There are roughly 1,585,960 Facebook users in the San Diego area. An estimated 165,800 more women are on the site in the SoCal town. About 28% of users are between the ages 18-24.

Sports

Oddly enough, the two professional sports team both have very similar numbers in terms of hometown fans. Both the San Diego Chargers in the NFL, and the San Diego Padres in the MLB, have about 106,000 fans on the site.

Education

Many people both in, and out of state, head towards San Diego to spend their college years on sunny shores, and not to mention the excellent educational institutions. San Diego State University has about 130,000 graduates in the US on Facebook. Fun fact, about 1760 people in the area are fans of the various San Diego athletic teams. About 44% either started, or stayed, for that beautiful California sunshine. University of California´s San Diego campus has about 85,740 graduates in the US. A private university in the area, University of San Diego, has about 29,000 graduates in the area.

Eats

Lets talk fast food and a bit of delicious Mexican food with a SoCal twist.

Jack in the Box was started in San Diego, and has about 3,000 fans on the site. It just doesn’t compare to those delicious burgers at In-N-Out though, as over 34,100 San Diegans  are fans of the fast food chain.

Mexican food is also very popular in the area. Sombrero Mexican Food restaurant has over 1,700 fans in the area. In general, Carne Asada Fries have over 10,000 mouths watering around San Diego on Facebook. The California Burrito, that only San Diego can seem to do just right, has about 8,100 fans on the site. Anyone want to mail me those Carne Asada Fries?

Sites

The world famous San Diego Zoo is an attraction with 38,320 local fans on the site. The zoo is located in Balboa Park, and the park as a whole, has almost 10,000 people that enjoy visiting regularly. Theme park Legoland has about 900 fans on Facebook. Anyone enjoying taking their kids to the newly opened Water Park at Legoland?

Music

Extremely popular band Blink 182 hail from the San Diego area. Blink 182 have about 10,000 local fans on Facebook. Jason Mraz is a California transplant who owns an avocado farm in the area. Jason Mraz has almost 16,000 fans in his native area. Tom Waits  sang a beautiful serenade to the city 1974. Tom Waits was also born just a few hours from the area, and he has about 3,000 fans in San Diego.

Movies

I’ve managed to avoid using Anchorman quotes this entire post, but maybe they would have gotten a laugh or two. Anchorman, set in San Diego, has almost 10,000 fans in town. Cameron Crowe, who is also a native to the area, filmed and set much of Almost Famous in the San Diego area. That is logical though, as the movie is based on Crowe’s own experiences.

Taking to the ’80s, and the skies, the Tom Cruise classic Top Gun was set on a Naval Base in San Diego. Maverick and Goose won the hearts of about 4,700 locals in the city with the movie Top Gun.

Media

In the world of Facebook, the most popular media publication appears to be the San Diego Citybeat with 2,600 fans.  About 1,300 are San Deigo Union-Tribune supporters. Local magazine, San Diego, has about 1,600 fans in the area.

Conclusion

San Diego is the eighth largest city in the country. It has many excellent universities, an abundance of talented and prominent residents, awesome sports teams, a world-renowned zoo, delicious foods, and so much more that we could go on for days. Their Facebook users are passionate to its hometown cultures, and that is awesome considering the size of the area. You stay classy, San Diego.

PlacePop, maker of a digital loyalty card iPhone app, released a Facebook app this week for monitoring activity in Facebook’s location product Places. It includes a Places activity feed for viewing the recent check-ins by your friends, a feature included in the touch.facebook.com and Facebook for iPhone versions of Places, but currently absent from Facebook’s web interface.

The app also allows users to view a history of friends’ or their own check-ins, Places trending amongst their friends, and graphs of check-ins at specific Places, but doesn’t include the contextual descriptions which users can include with their check-ins.

By using the app, web users and those without a Places-compatible phone can see all the recent check-ins of their friends in one feed, with no need to comb the news feed. Finally, users at home can tell if some friends are at a bar around the corner. Also useful is the ability to see Places profiles of yourself and friends, showing all the check-ins a person has made to date.

The “Trending this week� PlacePop home page sidebar shows the Places you and your friends have checked-in to recently, which often reveal large social events or the workplaces of multiple friends. The Trends tab show simple line graphs of check-ins for popular Place, which can reveal interesting fluctuations such as the increase in check-ins to a public park on sunny days.

Check-ins viewed in PlacePop’s app show the Place, those tagged, subsequent Likes and comments, and a Google map when moused over. Missing are the descriptions users have the option to enter along with their check-ins. This can be awkward, since comments you can see will often refer to the description you can’t see. To see full check-ins with descriptions, users still need to use the mobile Places interface, the news feed, or visit the Place page or friend’s profile.

Facebook could drastically reduce the app’s value by replicating some of its simple functionality, especially the check-in feed. Until then, power users and those without the right mobile phone will get much more out of Places by installing PlacePop’s Facebook app.

We’ve just released the September 2010 edition of the Facebook Global Monitor through Inside Facebook Gold.

The Facebook Global Monitor is our data report tracking Facebook’s audience growth around the world, and now includes an expanded leaderboard where we have begun tracking more than 60 new country markets that are seeing Facebook adoption and growth.

The Global Monitor tracks Facebook’s international metrics, and provides both historical data and forward-looking projections to enable developers, marketers, and analysts to spot trends and opportunities.

Each month, the Facebook Global Monitor provides the latest comprehensive data on the expansion of Facebook’s audience in approximately 100 global markets. It also includes alerts on breakout and cooling markets, and our latest in-house projections on Facebook’s growth in each country 30 days, 90 days, and 12 months into the future. See the full table of contents below.

All data in the report are based on primary research by Inside Network using data from Facebook, and each section is designed to elucidate key actionable trends. In addition to the Facebook Global Monitor, membership to Inside Facebook Gold includes monthly editions of the Global Monitor, in addition to access to our other data reports on Facebook’s top languages, user demographics, and more.

We believe big opportunities exist for developers and marketers to reach and engage the Facebook audience in these rapidly emerging and expanding markets. As always, we’ll continue to use data from the Facebook Global Monitor data as a foundation for our global growth coverage here on Inside Facebook, but if you’re looking for even more numbers, please check out Inside Facebook Gold.

The Facebook Global Monitor

Tracking Facebook in Global Markets

September 2010

Contents

I. Introduction: The Year That Facebook Went Global

II. Global Market Report

1. Audience Size Today

2. Fastest Growing Audience

• Last 12 months


• Last 90 days


• Last 30 days

3. Market Penetration Today

4. Largest Market Penetration Increases

• Last 12 months


• Last 90 days


• Last 30 days

III. Emerging Market Analysis

1. Growth Projections

• Next 30 days


• Next 90 days


• Next 12 months

2. Technical Alerts

• Breakout Markets: Last 90 Days


• Cooling Markets: Last 90 Days

IV. Regional Summaries

1. Africa

2. Asia / Pacific

3. Europe

4. North America

5. South America

V. Country Updates

1. Argentina

2. Australia

3. Austria

4. Bahamas

5. Bahrain

6. Bangladesh

7. Belgium

8. Bolivia

9. Bosnia & Herzegovina

10. Brazil

11. Bulgaria

12. Canada

13. Chile

14. China

15. Colombia

16. Costa Rica

17. Croatia

18. Cyprus

19. Czech Republic

20. Denmark

21. Dominican Republic

22. Ecuador

23. Egypt

24. El Salvador

25. Finland

26. France

27. Germany

28. Ghana

29. Greece

30. Guatemala

31. Honduras

32. Hong Kong

33. Hungary

34. Iceland

35. India

36. Indonesia

37. Ireland

38. Israel

39. Italy

40. Jamaica

41. Japan

42. Jordan

43. Kenya

44. Kuwait

45. Lebanon

46. Lithuania

47. Luxembourg

48. Macedonia

49. Malaysia

50. Maldives

51. Malta

52. Mauritius

53. Mexico

54. Morocco

55. Netherlands

56. New Zealand

57. Nicaragua

58. Nigeria

59. Norway

60. Oman

61. Pakistan

62. Palestine

63. Panama

64. Paraguay

65. Peru

66. Philippines

67. Poland

68. Portugal

69. Puerto Rico

70. Qatar

71. Romania

72. Russia

73. Saudi Arabia

74. Serbia

75. Singapore

76. Slovakia

77. Slovenia

78. South Africa

79. South Korea

80. Spain

81. Sri Lanka

82. Sweden

83. Switzerland

84. Taiwan

85. Thailand

86. Trinidad and Tobago

87. Tunisia

88. Turkey

89. Ukraine

90. United Arab Emirates

91. United Kingdom

92. United States

93. Uruguay

94. Venezuela

95. Vietnam

Learn more or join to download the report at Inside Facebook Gold.

We all know that social media, and Facebook in particular, are increasingly important marketing channels. The travel industry, which I take a close interest in, has been one of the early adopters for social media marketing. Travel tech website Tnooz recently had a story about how the top 10 airlines worldwide used Facebook.



The Tnooz list was dominated by European and Asian airlines since it was based on IATA data on the scheduled international passengers in 2009 and U.S. airlines derive the bulk of their traffic from domestic flights. (In fact, American Airlines was the only U.S. entry on the list). This got me wondering about the massive U.S. market, so I did some research of my own.

My list is of the top 10 U.S. airlines, based on 2009 data from the Air Transport Association. They ranked the airlines by the industry-standard measure of “available seat mile” or ASMs - one seat transported one mile. (For example, an aircraft with 100 passenger seats, flown a distance of 100 miles, produces 10,000 ASMs).

There were certainly some interesting results. Delta Air, the biggest airline when including Northwest, is also the only one with ticketing functionality built into its Facebook page. (Some others would let you search on the page but the actual results would open in a new window on the corporate website).

Size of the airline doesn’t always translate into ‘likes’ - Southwest was ranked fourth in terms of ASMs but it was the biggest airline on Facebook by far, with over 900,000 ‘likes’ - 22 times more fans than Delta. The second biggest was JetBlue with just over 300,00 ‘likes’, even though the airline was only ranked seventh over all. (Facebook figures were correct at the time of publication).

Please let us know in the comments about your experiences with airlines on Facebook. Which airlines are getting it right? How important should Facebook be in airlines’ overall marketing strategy?

1. Delta Air + Northwest

ASMs: 196.5 million

Facebook likes: 40,869

Seemingly alone among all major U.S. airlines, Delta Airlines has integrated ticketing functions into its Facebook page. You can book on Delta flights without leaving the Facebook page, under the Book A Trip tab. The Wall tab defaults to ‘Just Delta; and is currently being used to promote the launch of the Delta iPhone app and destinations such as Hong Kong. Delta’s Info tab advises that it cannot deal with all complaints on Facebook and feedback requiring a response should be sent via the website, by tweeting @DeltaAssist or sending a letter. I couldn’t find a separate company-run page for Northwest.

2. American Airlines

ASMs: 151.7 million

Facebook likes: 71,465

American Airlines’ Facebook page defaults to the Wall, with the ‘Just AA’ filter. It is used to convey information about the frequent flyer program and conduct promotions such as a ticket giveaway for the upcoming John Legend & the Roots concert in New York City. Separate tabs promote AA’s iPhone app, in-flight wifi service and Twitter and YouTube accounts. AA’s Info tab advises that it does not deal with complaints on Facebook and advises feedback to be sent via the website.

3. United Airlines

ASMs: 122.5 million ASMs (to increase after merger with Continental)

Facebook likes: 149,526

The United Airlines Facebook page has not been around long, making its following of nearly 150,000 especially impressive. One of the main factors is likely to be the round-trip ticket giveaway sweepstakes for people who ‘like’ the page, which started on July 27 to celebrate the launch of the page. Currently the page defaults to a ‘Win A Flight’ tab with details of the promotion, which runs until September 22. The Wall has United Airlines + Others set as the default filter, and has a lot of travelers exchanging information and asking questions. The page’s Info tab says the airline welcomes honest feedback, though it reserves the right to correct factual errors. In the left-hand sidebar, visitors are told that if they need a response they should contact customer relations via the website or by mail.

4. Southwest Airlines

ASMs: 98.0 million

Facebook likes: 913,816

Southwest Airlines has been using social media for a while and it shows - the airline is well on its way to reaching a million ‘likes’ on its Facebook page. Currently the page opens at a tab labeled More LUV, with an Orlando vacation package giveaway and streams pulled in from Twitter and YouTube. The Wall defaults to Southwest + Others and shows active engagement from fans; currently there is quite a bit of discussion about Hurricane Earl plus people asking Southwest to start serving their city. Playing off its selling point of no fees for checked bags, Southwest also has a ‘Bags Fly Free’ tab. This provides another forum for people to post short messages, which they can post on their own Facebook profiles via a tick box, and also has fun quizzes about what airlines might charge for next, with possible answers such as toilet paper or seat belts. A sidebar on the left advises customers are to direct complaints or specific issues to the customer service team.

5. Continental Airlines

ASMs: 94.3 million (to increase after merger with United)

Facebook likes: 28,187

I’m not sure who got there first but Continental Airlines has its Facebook page at facebook.com/continentalairlines, while facebook.com/continental leads to a German company that makes tires, brake systems and other automotive parts. The page opens to a Travel Advice tab where you can ask advice, give advice or read advice, with recent posts including questions about traveling on a soon-to-expire passport. The Wall defaults to the Just Continental Airlines filter and recent updates include information about rerouting for Hurricane Earl and announcements about competition winners. The ‘More…’ tab includes a Twitter stream and flight info search, with results opening in a new page on Continental.com. A notice in the left-hand sidebar advises customers to direct complaints to the customer service team via the website or mail, if they require a response.

6. US Airways

ASMs: 70.7 million

Facebook likes: 7,420

The US Airways page has a single post dated August 19, which says: “We plan to build out this Facebook page more in the near future. In the meantime, we encourage you to follow us on Twitter where you can get our latest news and updates.” I found the page only because they had the simple URL facebook.com/USAirways; a search for US Airways turned up mostly community pages with Wikipedia content.

7. JetBlue Airways

ASMs: 32.6 million

Facebook likes: 316,033

Unusually, the JetBlue Facebook page defaults to the Info tab, which includes selling points such as extra leg room and the availability of free DIRECTTV. Like its close competitor Southwest, the airline is very active on social media and this has resulted in an impressive 316,033 ‘likes’ on its page - the second highest of any major U.S. airline. The Wall defaults to Just JetBlue Airways, with posts updating