Researchers in Norway have even published a new psychological scale to measure Facebook addiction. Yet, while these all focus on personal afflictions, I wonder whether there’s a similar phenomenon with businesses today.

Can a business spend too much time on Facebook? And what are some of the negative consequences?

1. It lowers employee productivity.
When social networking first arrived on the scene, employers’ biggest fear was the time suck — productivity levels would drop as employees spent too much time on their personal Facebook pages.

But Facebook can also be an enormous resource drain, even when employees are using it for business purposes. That’s because Facebook isn’t free. Cultivating a community, moderating discussions, responding to feedback and other Facebook page activities require an ongoing commitment.

Considering that resources are always finite, any resources allocated for Facebook must be pulled away from other activities. Without explicit goals, Facebook can easily become a massive waste of time, draining important resources from other marketing, sales and customer service priorities.

2. It encourages unfair comparisons.
A recent study from the University of Michigan found that Facebook use leads to declines in moment-to-moment happiness and overall life satisfaction in college-aged adults. According to research co-author John Jonides, “When you’re on a site like Facebook, you get lots of posts about what people are doing. That sets up social comparison — you maybe feel your life is not as full and rich as those people you see on Facebook.”

Likewise, small businesses, especially those just launching their campaigns, can easily become discouraged when comparing themselves to Pepsi, Pampers, Starbucks, Virgin Atlantic and other brands on Facebook. Running campaigns at that level takes a tremendous amount of strategy, resources (both internal and external) and expertise.

This pressure to “keep up with the Joneses” can have two negative consequences. One, businesses may end up spending more time on Facebook due to competitive reasons, as opposed to basing their priorities on actual business objectives or realities. Secondly, businesses may end up focusing on the “wrong” aspects of Facebook, such as racking up fans.

3. It’s difficult to measure.
Wanting to succeed on Facebook, many businesses hone in on some of the easiest metrics around: the number of fans and the number of likes. After all, these numbers can be a very visible measure of status, and it’s easy to treat the site like a game in which the whole goal is to amass more likes than your competitors.

However, just how much does the number of Facebook fans matter? Many businesses host contests and offer discounts in exchange for clicking the Like button. For example, I once liked a store that I’ve never shopped at (and have no plans to either), simply because it was raffling off a vacation. I never visited its page or interacted with its brand after that initial like (and shortly after, unliked it because I was tired of seeing the updates). If this brand included my like as an indication of positive consumer engagement, it was definitely wrong.

The real question is, how do you measure the value of your Facebook fans? How many fans do you need to create a new customer or sale? Unless you have a way to prove that your Facebook page is making you money, you may run the risk of wasting substantial resources here instead of focusing your efforts elsewhere.

4. There’s no direct link to sales.
Facebook can be an ideal channel for generating buzz and engagement, but this doesn’t necessarily translate into sales — at least in the short term.

A 2012 Forrester study analyzed 77,000 online transactions over a two-week period and found that less than 1% of transactions could be traced to social media (compared with 40% from organic or paid search, and 30% from repeat business sparked from email).

If you’re looking for more proof that Facebook is not an effective direct sales channel, consider the fact that the number of U.S. retailers with Facebook-enabled checkouts plummeted from 63% in Q4 2011 to just 6% in Q4 2012.

Again, Facebook can play an important role in building relationships, but as a small business owner, I need to make sure we’re investing resources in those activities that have a more direct link to the bottom line.

5. There’s no human connection in the cloud.
Engaging via email or Facebook is entirely different than actually talking to someone in person or over the phone. A one-on-one conversation creates a deeper connection, and a more detailed exchange of ideas. The biggest risk for businesses with Facebook is assuming that social media engagement is the only customer interaction you need.

The New York Times illustrated just how difficult it is to reach a social media company on the phone: “Twitter’s phone system hangs up after providing web or email addresses three times. At the end of a long phone tree, Facebook’s system explains it is, in fact, ‘an Internet-based company.’ Try email, it suggests.”

Facebook and Twitter are excellent initial touch points for customer support, but nothing beats personal conversations.

In the end, be realistic.
I’m not advocating that any business should walk away from social media. However, you need to be realistic about the potential returns. Invest your resources based on the opportunity, rather than just because everyone else is doing it.

Image: iStockphoto, courtneyk

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The decision (.PDF) to consider a Facebook “Like” as protected speech may set a precedent of how courts apply freedom of speech rules to users’ online activities.

For the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va,, Liking a candidate on Facebook should have the same protections as real-life actions that show political support.

“Liking a political candidate’s campaign page communicates the user’s approval of the candidate and supports the campaign by associating the user with it,” wrote Judge William Traxler, who authored the opinion. “It is the Internet equivalent of displaying a political sign in one’s front yard, which the Supreme Court has held is substantive speech.”

The case hinged over whether B.J. Roberts, the sheriff of Hampton, Va., illegally fired six of his employees who supported Jim Adams, his opponent in the sheriff’s elections. One of the employees, Former Deputy Sheriff Daniel Ray Carter, had Liked the Facebook page of his boss’ political opponent.

Facebook, the fired employees and the American Civil Liberties Union argued that a Facebook Like must be considered free speech. This would mean that an employer cannot legally fire his or her employees for expressing opinions on the social network. an employer cannot legally fire his or her employees for expressing opinions on the social network.

The federal district judge who first ruled on the issue decided that a Facebook Like was “insufficient speech to merit constitutional protection.” For the judge, a Facebook Like didn’t involve an “actual statement,” unlike Facebook posts, which have been granted constitutional protection in other legal cases.

Today, Judge Traxler disagreed.

“On the most basic level, clicking on the ‘like’ button literally causes to be published the statement that the User ‘likes’ something, which is itself a substantive statement,” he wrote.

“We are pleased the court recognized that a Facebook ‘Like’ is protected by the First Amendment,” read an emailed statement by Pankaj Venugopal, Facebook’s associate general counsel.

The ACLU applauded the decision as well. “This ruling rightly recognizes that the First Amendment protects free speech regardless of the venue, whether a sentiment is expressed in the physical world or online. The Constitution doesn’t distinguish between ‘liking’ a candidate on Facebook and supporting him in a town meeting or public rally,” said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project in an emailed statement.

The ruling reinstated the claims of Carter and two other fired employees. If they win the case, they may get their jobs back.

Do you agree with this decision? Should the First Amendment protect Facebook Likes?

Image: Photo by Stephen Lam/Getty Images

The post Your Facebook ‘Like’ Is Now Protected by the U.S. Constitution appeared first on Digitrock.

One of the owners, Admir Adil, noticed his 15-year-old daughter was incessantly checking Facebook, so he thought it only appropriate to create a flavor for other fans obsessed with the social media behemoth.

Admir and his brother Ibi Adil created their Facebook-flavored ice cream by simply mixing blue syrup atop vanilla ice cream and placing a small sign with a Facebook logo on it. Selling a scoop for a euro ($1.32), the ice cream apparently tastes like sugary sweets and chewing gum, but it’s become a hit as many passersby were immediately drawn to Facebook’s trademark logo — as well as the novelty.

The duo said they have not contacted Mark Zuckerberg for trademark use.

Image: Dusko Jaramaz/PixSell

The post Facebook-Flavored Ice Cream Is a Real Thing – Facebook Marketing appeared first on Digitrock.

Facebook will conduct a review of ads on the social network beginning next week and said it will remove ads from all groups and pages that contain “violent, graphic or sexual content” by the end of that week, even though that content does not technically violate Facebook’s community standards.

“We know that marketers work hard to promote their brands, and we take their objectives seriously,” Facebook representatives wrote in a blog post. “While we already have rigorous review and removal policies for content against our terms, we recognize we need to do more to prevent situations where ads are displayed alongside controversial Pages and Groups.”

This move comes about a month after more than a dozen companies pulled ads from Facebook in response to a boycott campaign over the amount of domestic violence imagery on the social network.

Facebook said its effort to restrict ads from controversial pages will be manual at first, but in the coming weeks it plans to build an automated feature to handle this process.

Image by Stephen Lam/Getty Images

The post Facebook Will Remove Ads From Pages, Groups With Offensive Content appeared first on Digitrock.

The new design is simpler, cleaner and more intelligible. Stats that were previously rolled in together (i.e., “People Talking About This”) have been broken down into separate charts that allow Page owners to individually measure the reach and engagement (likes, comments, clicks and shares) of individual posts. Additional charts make it easier for users to see what kinds of posts — say, those with videos, or ones targeted to certain groups — have better reach or more positive engagement than others. Owners can also now break down demographic behavior on individual posts to see, for example, if one was their Pages are better at engaging women ages 18 to 24, or men older than 65.

No changes are being made to the Page Insights export or API for now, Gayln Burke, a product marketing manager for Facebook, told Mashable in a phone interview Tuesday. Once Facebook has taken and incorporated feedback from the beta testing period, Insights will be rolled out to other Page owners, but Burke could not confirm whether that would happen before the end of the year.

For a visual overview of the changes, check out the before and after screenshots below

Old overview tab:

New overview tab:

Old post analysis:

New post analysis:

New “people engaged” tab (by demographic):

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