Facebook Pages are Redesigned and Administrator Features are Added
Facebook recently redesigned Pages that look similar to the revamped personal profiles. Facebook offers page owners to preview and upgrade early to the new format (which will shortly become mandatory). You may have already noticed brands switching over to the new layout. If you have, you’ll notice:

• 5 Photos at the top of the page (like personal profiles)
• Navigation is now on the left vs. top of the page
• Activities from others are filtered into the news feed
• The “everyone” feature allows admins to highlight items as top wall posts
• By selecting the “Use Facebook as a Page” option in the account section, admins will be able to get notifications when fans interact with or post comments to a page
• Admins will be able to switch between speaking as the page, and as their own personal profiles

Not everyone is happy with these changes, but few ever are when it comes to change.  Read more HERE.

Facebook’s Next Big Media Move: Comments
Facebook is launching a new third-party commenting system in the upcoming weeks. Unlike Facebook’s “social plug-in” service, the new system involves “handling the log-in and publishing” and automatically “cross-promoting comments on individual’s Facebook walls, and possibly even promoting them as well on media outlets’ own ‘fan pages.” Interesting fact: the new service will have the ability to “surface high quality comments or help users identify trolls and spammers by assigning users an aggregated credibility score.”  Read more HERE.

Facebook Forcing “Credits” on Game Partners
By July Facebook will require all game partners use Facebook credits as their virtual payment processing system. Here are some facts associated with Facebook credits from the article:

• Credits currently processes more than 70% of virtual goods transactions on the network, spanning more than 350 applications
• Developers using Credits can keep 70% of the revenue from virtual goods transactions
• 10 FB Credits currently cost $1 for consumers

Read more HERE

Facebook Sponsored Stories Now Available in the Facebook Self-Serve Ad Tool
Facebook’s self-serve performance ad tool now allows Page, Place and application admins to create Sponsored Stories ads. The recently launched ad unit allows admins to pay for additional distribution of Page stories as well as user updates that mention them in Facebook’s ad space. Until now, these ads could only be bought through a Facebook managed brand advertising representative.  Read more HERE.

Unlike the updated Facebook Messaging service which is only available to those who receive an invite, the updated Facebook profile is available right now to anyone who wants it. To do so, simply follow this link and click the green button at the top to activate it.

In a recent Facebook blog update, the changes to the Facebook Profile page were described in great detail. To save you some time, here is the gist of what they said:

What’s new?
In a nutshell, the updated Facebook profiles are getting a completely new look along with a few new features that will not only make them more functional and easier to read, but also easier to update. This major overhaul can be broken down into three main parts.

1. Profile Summary
A brief synopsis of each person will now appear at the top of their new profile page and will include things such as where you work, who you’re in a relationship with, where you go to school, what you’re studying, and if you can speak any other languages. The brief summary explains who you are, and below that is a collection of photos you are recently tagged in that shows what you’ve been up to lately. These are all things that Facebook considers “conversation starters” and aims to provide you with a little background about the person you’re looking at.

2. Featured Friends
This is one of the more interesting updates to the Facebook profile. It allows you to feature friends on the newly created sidebar that displays your friends list. To date, the only time you could really single a relationship out was when you accepted a relationship request with a significant other. Now, Facebook gives you the opportunity to split up your friends list into different categories, such as colleagues at work, peers at school, family members, or just the friends you are closer with.

3. Interface Changes
Several of the interface changes will probably seem strange and hard to navigate at first, due largely to the fact that a lot of info has either moved positions or been removed all together. The tabs that were once at the top have changed to links on the left, and your friends are now separated by groups on in the left hand side of your profile. As more and more people opt in for the new profile change, you should get used to this positioning and it shouldn’t be a problem.

One of the more useful updates to the overhauled interface, however, would be the addition of infinite scroll. Instead of having to click a link at the bottom of the profile to “see more”, as users keep scrolling down the page keeps loading more content.

In the end, the overall point of the profile overhaul was to enable users to update more often and to do so easier. It looks like they’ve done just that.

For more information about the changes made to the Facebook profiles and a brief blurb about how it can help assist advertisers, check out Charlene Li’s write up here. If you are interested in a photo walkthrough of the new changes as well as a short promotional video, check out this Mashable post.

Seamless Messaging
The seamless messaging system provides users with a simple way to keep in constant contact with each other and carry on a conversation – in real time. This is different from email because the Facebook Message system is modeled after Facebook Chat. Facebook removed the subject line and encourages users to communicate with each other as if it were a verbal conversation. Users can send messages back and forth seamlessly and pick up conversations right where they left off.

Cross-Platform Conversation History
Once you’ve signed up to use the free Facebook Messages platform, you’ll be given an @Facebook.com email address. When you access your account, all conversations that take place going forward, whether they be via email, text messages, instant messaging, Twitter updates, and Facebook posts (just for starters), will record in one seamless stream. You will have a complete conversation history no matter where the conversation took place.

The Social Inbox
The new social inbox is intended to stay clean, spam-free, and well organized. When you log on to your Facebook Messages account, the only messages you’ll see are messages from your friends and their friends.  That’s it. You’ll have the ability to adjust your privacy settings to determine exactly what you see and will have the ability to filter everything you don’t want to bounce back or save into a folder called, “Other.”

Facebook Messages is rolling out slowly and is currently available to users on an invitation-only basis. It’s too early to tell just how successful it will be, but the screen shots and promotional video seems promising.  Will this be a game changer?  We’ll soon see.

(For more information on Facebook messages, including a promotional video about the new features, as well as a slide show with a Facebook Messages walkthrough check out this article on Mashable.Com.)

The application’s concept is simple. Once you’ve created your account, the application checks your address book and suggests friends that you may know who have already downloaded it. Like instant messaging, the service is asynchronous, which means that Kik lets you see messages almost instantly, as well as notifying you when the person is typing a message. Much like BBM, Kik also lets you know when the message was sent, delivered, and read by showing an S, D, or R next to the message you just typed.

The one thing that BBM users have come to love so much about the BlackBerry service, no extra cost in using it. It’s a free text messaging platform if you will. This is the biggest advantage (so far) with Kik – it’s free and smartphone agnostic. What this really means is that Kik has the potential to replace text messaging plans – saving the end user a few bucks a month and possibly hundreds of dollars a year depending on the users particular text messaging plan.  Shhh, don’t let your mobile carrier know about it

We did say so far. Provided that Kik can build out its community, the possibilities of the program are endless. Lead developers have indicated that later versions of the viral messaging app could contain features such as streaming music or videos from one phone to another, or taping into your phones camera and allowing other users to see what your camera sees.

As the community grows we’ll start to see some of the aforementioned enhancements. In the meantime, what are you waiting for? Get Kik-ing!

Facebook is already the leader in social networking. With the popularity of the Facebook gaming content and the boom of virtual goods, Facebook credits was created as a way to bring  a universal currency into the social gaming space.

The credits are now making their way from the virtual world into some of the more popular brick-and-mortar stores across the country. Target, for example, began carrying Facebook Credit gift cards in multiple denominations back in September, and more recently, Walmart and Best Buy have also began to sell the cards. The cards, which commonly come in $15, $25, and $50 versions, should help Facebook to capitalize on the huge popularity of social gaming.

Social gaming and their virtual goods are a booming business. It is expected that revenue for online virtual goods is to surpass 6 billion by the year 2013. Not only that, Facebook Credits are already accepted by over 200 Facebook games, and 42% of online buyers are social gamers. By adding the Facebook cards into brick-and-mortar stores across the country, Facebook hopes to garner more support for the virtual currency by adding a tangible product sold in an offline environment.

“The physical representation of a brand…adds more validity,” said Rob Goldberg, the founder of GMG Lifestyle Entertainment Inc., the company responsible for creating the Facebook Credit cards. The company is also responsible for the iTunes cards that are sold in retailers throughout the world.

Facebook Credits have the opportunity to become so successful due largely to the fact they have a very active ecosystem in which to operate. Although Facebook Credits isn’t the first online currency to attempt to unify online monetization,  Facebook’s vast  network  provides the currency with an efficient platform on which to thrive. The popularity of the site itself, as well as countless of other sites which feature Facebook integration, make the concept of Facebook Credits even more ingenious and useable.

More recently, startup Ifeelgoods got the brilliant idea to offer Facebook Credits as a way to persuade customers to sign up for a website, share a favorite product, or even purchase something else online. The concept is interesting, but the company promises Facebook Credit promotions to be more effective and less expensive by using these virtual goods and currencies in place of tradition promotions.

Some critics suggest Facebook should provide ways for users to spend Facebook Credits that don’t just include virtual goods inside their social games. They could do so by utilizing their already enormously popular social networking system, much like Pay-Pal took advantage of the partnership between them and the eBay site.

Facebook Credits are still a fairly new concept, and Facebook has been keeping quiet on the actual direction in which the company intends to take. It is apparent, however, that Facebook wants to create an effective currency system for online social gaming, and hopes to eliminate the issues of international currency conversion fees charged by other companies. One thing is certain though, if Facebook plans to have their credit system become the only major online currency, it’s not going to be without making some key decisions.

The MLB is doing their part, having launched a mobile application – iPhone, Android and Blackberry – that already has been accessed close to 2 million times a day.  On Facebook, 12 million people are either a fan of the MLB itself or one of the 30 team pages. And, another 3 million fans follow MLB-related posts on twitter, which features up to the minute baseball news and information. In fact, Twitter is so popular between athletes of all sports that website Tweeting-Athletes.com has been created to help fans keep track of it all. These numbers are close to triple of what it was just a year ago.

It should come as no surprise that big sporting and entertainment events are becoming more popular and the conversation surrounding them has extended exponentially due to social media. The Super Bowl for example generated more than 60,000 tweets per hour during the February 7^th broadcast and the Oscars, nearly doubled that amount of tweets, with over 100,000 per hour during this year’s awards ceremony. Both events were huge trending topics and both saw huge spikes in ratings over the previous year’s telecast, due in part to social media.

With advancements in social technology and online/mobile social networking, businesses aren’t the only ones seeing the advantages. Sports teams, leagues and professional athletes in particular are seeing the benefits of engaging with fans on this level and are investing more and more resources into it to help ensure a positive image that resonates with their fans.

Whoever you’re rooting for in this series, you will surely find thousands of like-minded fans, just a mouse click or tap of the mobile device away.

Zynga, hailed as the number one social gaming company, reports worth of up to $4.5 billion, with sales of virtual goods expected to exceed $2 billion by the year 2012. They are not alone in realizing the profit behind the social gaming madness, with competitors Electronic Arts and Playdom following them close behind.

But with the sudden boom of social games online and the vast selection of mobile games for those users constantly on the go, what games are really worth playing, and what games could you do without? We here at Fanscape thought we might be able to help you narrow down which of the games are worth playing.

NFL Superstars (Facebook) Free

If you’re as crazy about the NFL as we are here at Fanscape, then this game is the game for you. Madden NFL Superstars, one of the most highly anticipated social networking games to date, allows you to coach your very own team to the winning title.

The game allows users to create your own franchise, draft your own players, build up your stadium and increase your fanbase. Keep your players fit by scheduling practice sessions, and try to get them into the Super Bowl!

Ultimate Fan Game (Facebook) Free

Just launched is another awesome football-related game. Ultimate Fan is a game on Facebook, focused entirely around football fans themselves.

Ultimate Fan isn’t a football simulator or a fantasy league based game. Ultimate Fan allows fans to be fans, letting them root for their favorite team, predict game scores, and allows them to even host a virtual tailgating party with other fans from all over the country.

Plants vs. Zombies (Online/Mac/iPod/iPhone/iPad) $2.99

The love affair with this game started the minute it was downloaded.

The game Plants vs. Zombies follows a simple concept – you must protect your house from an oncoming zombie horde, using plants you plant in the ground as weapons. Each plant has a different ability, and you utilize sunshine you collect to plant more plants. As the levels get harder, you gain more plants, and more difficult situations come your way. Starting off during the day, the sunshine is more abundant, but as the levels progress, you begin to play at night, in the fog, around a pool, and eventually on the roof. Be warned though, this game is highly addictive!

Fruit Ninja (iPhone/iTouch/iPad) $.99

Slashing its way on to our favorites list is a game that will keep you occupied for days. Fruit Ninja, released by developer Halfbrick Studios, is a must have for anyone looking for a fun way to kill some time.

For only .99 cents, Fruit Ninja is a definite bargain. Players of the game slash various tasty looking 3D fruits with their fingers, trying to see how many they can slash to bits without slashing the occasional bomb. Hit multiple fruits in one slice for extra combo points! Be careful though, miss three fruits and that’s game over.

Bonsai Blast (Facebook/iPhone/iTouch/Android) Free on Facebook, $.99 as a mobile app

For those of you looking for a more classic approach to games, take a look at Bonsai Blast. This award winning puzzle game will have you addicted for hours!

The concept of the game is simple, yet takes some skill as the levels progress. Players shoot marbles to match three or more in a row which causes a chain reaction. The game features 90 different levels, the ability to swap between multiple shooters, and many other features.

Wrath (BlackBerry) $2.99

The game Wrath for the BlackBerry takes the player back to the days of retro arcade shooters.

Guide your fighters ship through space using the phone’s built in accelerometer, and take out any enemy’s that come your way. Fly over power-ups to wield more powerful weapons to ultimately take control of space!

Skies of Glory: Battle of Britain (iPhone/Android) $4.99

Although this game’s price tag is slightly higher than most, it’s well worth it. This game started out on the iPhone and became amazingly popular. Just recently, Skies of Glory has been ported over to the Android line of smartphones, and now allows iOS and Droid users to take to the skies and fight one another in real-time – something that is considered a rare feature with mobile gaming.

Must.Eat.Birds (iPhone/iTouch) $.99

Must.Eat.Birds is by far one of the most ridiculous games I’ve ever played on a mobile device. Players take turns launching what the game calls “Nomsters” at greedy birds parachuting down to eat the delicious looking cakes and sweets you’ve laid out for your picnic.

The game includes 9 different stages as well as four different challenge stages, Must.Eat.Bird will keep you entertained and occupied and is well worth the price! Check out an online version of the game here!

Ka-Glom (BlackBerry) Free

A good puzzle game worthy of downloading for your BlackBerry device is called Ka-Glom. Originally developed for BlackBerry back in 2006, Ka-Glom has remained one of the more popular games to date.

Ka-Glom is played much like Tetris. If you group four of the shapes of on color together, they are destroyed and you are awarded points.

FarmVille (Facebook/iPhone) Free

When talking about online social gaming, perhaps no game has or will ever achieve the amount of social gaming success that Zynga’s FarmVille has gotten in just one single year. Zynga is leader in online social game creation, having created of many similar titles such as PetVille, FrontierVille, YoVille, and FishVille. After is release in June of 2009, the FarmVille fan page boasts a whopping 24 million fans, and reports over 60 million active users.

The principles of the game are simple; run a farm, plant and grow crops, sell the crops, and make money to buy more farming stuff. The game, which originally started out online only but recently released an application for the iPhone, is Zynga’s most successful game to date. Seamlessly integrating into the player’s Facebook data streams, it allows users to swap, trade items, and even help each other out.

MafiaWars (Facebook/Online/iPhone) Free

Another really popular game from Zynga is Mafia Wars.Players in this social game take to the mean streets of New York City, Cuba, Moscow, Bangkok, Paris, London, South Africa, Mumbai, and more recently Las Vegas, to battle it out – Mafia style!

A highly addictive game that is seamlessly integrated with your facebook interface, players battle for control of cities by doing jobs, earning money, gaining respect, and ultimately building a large Mafia Empire.

These are some of our current faves. Feel free to share yours.

An excerpt:

First, a fast recap of what Zynga sells, which are multi-player games such as MafiaWars, primarily on Facebook. Lately, Facebook has expressed some annoyance with Zynga’s games. They definitely aren’t core to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the platform.

Further, Facebook has muscled in on Zynga’s revenues by insisting Zynga players spend Facebook credits on such necessities as virtual cows (for FarmVille) or virtual bullets (for MafiaWars). In the process, Facebook has demanded 30 percent of Zynga’s action on such purchases. Ouch.

So why the VC love — at the very moment when the primary distribution vehicle is showing powerful signs of annoyance?

Click HERE to read the full story.

Public reaction began to steer toward the negative in January of this year when Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, expressed his opinion that public sharing of information is the new social norm.  This was in support of the decision to make users’ profile picture, gender, current city, networks, friends list and page subscriptions public information by default.  The changes meant that users who did not want this information to be public had to manually navigate through the maze of privacy options and individually change preferences.  The backlash was fairly strong, but more recent changes have added fuel to the fire.

At Facebook’s F8 conference last week, Zuckerberg made another wave of announcements regarding the dissemination of “like” buttons, public sharing of information and external site partnerships.  He discussed the change from being a “fan” of something to “liking” something as a tactic designed to make opting-in more attractive and universal.  Further, “like” buttons will now be appearing on sites across the web, giving users the ability to publish content to their Facebook news feed without ever leaving the page they are browsing.  By default, this “liked” content will be visible to everyone, unless privacy preferences are changed.

More ominous changes loom in the form of Facebook’s new policies for listing education, employment and interests.  If you have logged into Facebook recently, you have probably seen a popup like the one below that asks if you would like a suggested list of pages linked to your profile.  Essentially, Facebook has removed users’ ability to manually type interests or enter employment or school information without also “liking” the corresponding page.  This can be avoided by checking the subtly placed “choose pages individually” button in the bottom left, but again, the lack of clarity has caused many users to join pages and groups without being aware.  If you do not want to publicize your liked pages, go the “Account” tab, choose “Privacy settings,” then “Friends, Tags and Connections” and check the corresponding preferences.

The major issue with all of Facebook’s changes is not so much the things that are changing as it is the methods by which Facebook is justifying and implementing them.  Twitter has been consistent about their privacy standards from day one while Facebook’s have changed multiple times; it’s this inconsistency that seems duplicitous, as changes are often made unexpectedly or without warning or very little notice.

For the average Facebook user, the changes make it even more difficult to manage privacy.  For advanced and power users, the changes can actually be a boon to traffic and exposure, but only because they are understood and adjusted appropriately.  Users’ data drives clicks, comments and the targeted advertising network that is the backbone of the company’s current revenue stream, so it is no surprise that Zuckerberg doesn’t believe in privacy.  Privacy is something that Facebook must worry about because it has to, not because it wants to, so it follows why they are not privacy advocates.  The underlying reality is that users maintain the same controls they always have over their privacy.

The best thing to do is to be hip to changes and stay educated about the way they might affect your personal information.  If you have made your best efforts and doubts still remain, then act in line with the mantra “do not click, comment, post, share, etc. unless you are comfortable with the whole world seeing it.”  While public may be the new social norm, it need not determine or otherwise affect individual social preference.  Facebook only provides a platform.  It is up to each user to understand and decide how they want to use it for themselves.

2010 has already seen an upward trend in tune-in for major events like the Grammys, the Golden Globes, and the Super Bowl.  Some argue it is because of the proliferation of social media and a general renewed fervor over pop culture events.  Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and thousands of other online and mobile outlets have helped give people a platform to interact around award shows, sporting events and notable news-worthy occurrences.  With reports indicating Oscar ratings up 14% over last year, it looks like there might be some truth to this theory.

Read the full report here.