Buddy Media, the leading Facebook Management System for the world’s largest brands and agencies, today introduced Buddy Media Platform +GLOBAL, a new add-on to the Buddy Media Platform. +GLOBAL is the first geo-targeted Facebook page management system that empowers global marketers to maintain a single, unified Facebook presence across multiple countries and languages.

Of the nearly 500 million consumers that log on to Facebook each month, only 25 percent live in the United States, making Facebook the largest and fastest-growing two-way communication platform in the world. This means that brands that don’t offer a global solution on Facebook are ignoring up to 75 percent of their customers.

According to a new study commissioned by Buddy Media, brand managers (51%) say it’s very important to manage local, customized content so it is consistent and organized and nearly all respondents said it can be challenging to reach customers in local markets (93%). Among the most prominent issues are cost (88%), tracking ROI, finding the appropriate channels and leveraging social media. (1)

“By serving everyone who ‘likes’ a brand across the globe using a single customizable platform, our +GLOBAL add-on gets everyone on the same page ? literally,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO and Founder of Buddy Media. “This solves many of the local branding dilemmas companies encounter with social marketing ? cost, scale, disjointed pages, segmented audiences, inconsistent design and incomplete analytics.”

Before Buddy Media Platform +GLOBAL, brands that maintained a Facebook presence across multiple countries had been challenged with trying to manage a loose network of fragmented and disjointed brand pages that looked different and had segmented audiences. This fragmentation made it expensive and impossible to aggregate and analyze engagement activity, all of which was pulled from multiple, ‘siloed’ sources.

Now, Buddy Media has introduced a timely, cost effective and simple management tool that offers several distinctive benefits to global brands:

Significant Cost savings: +GLOBAL streamlines the development of multiple pages and reduces the need for one-off, custom development projects. Initial Buddy Media clients report that +GLOBAL eliminates 80 percent of the costs of deploying global Facebook presences.

Geo-Targeting: +GLOBAL serves Facebook content based on user country and language settings.

Unified Branding: +GLOBAL lets global marketing lock down unified brand assets, while providing local market representatives the ability to customize content, promotions and social applets.

Reduced Time to Market: +GLOBAL licensees can launch a global Facebook presence in less than four weeks, a fraction of the time it currently takes for a global brand to launch even one page.

Improved Security: +GLOBAL empowers global brands to deploy and manage hundreds of Pages globally through a secure system without granting high-level Facebook Page admin rights to any one team or individual

Increased Control: +GLOBAL’s detailed permission provisioning allows global brands to empower local markets with the ability to customize and publish to Facebook Pages without ceding complete control to each market team

Powerful Business Insights: +GLOBAL’s unified CMO dashboard provides the marketing team with a full view into global Facebook activity – all accessible through a single comprehensive data package

More Effective Facebook Advertising: +GLOBAL provides a powerful enterprise Facebook management system that serves as the foundation for successful global Facebook advertising programs.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts is one of the first companies to implement +GLOBAL, serving customized language and content on its Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Facebook page (www.facebook.com/SPG) to guests from Spain, Germany and China.

“For the first time, we’re able to deliver meaningful and targeted localized content across the globe at scale without any potential sacrifice to our global brand equity,” said David Godsman, VP, Global Web, Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

Following last year’s successful launch of Buddy Media Platform +AGENCY, which is now licensed by over 60 advertising, marketing and public relations agencies, Buddy Media has signed additional +GLOBAL licenses for client programs that will be launching in the weeks ahead. For more information about the Buddy Media Platform +GLOBAL, please visit http://pitch.pe/71656 or www.buddymedia.com.

About Buddy Media

The Buddy Media Platform is the leading Facebook management system for the world’s largest brands and agencies. With its scalable, secure architecture and straightforward administrative tools, the Buddy Media Platform revolutionizes the way brands connect with their current and future customers using the power of Facebook’s social connections. The Buddy Media Platform offers the only solution that allows brands to launch, maintain and measure their Facebook presence in any country and in any language. The Buddy Media Platform is the enterprise Facebook management system of choice for the largest brands in the world, including Anheuser Busch, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Starwood, Delta, Southwest Airlines, Samsung, L’Oreal, the National Hockey League and others. Based in New York, Buddy Media shares four investors with Facebook and was one of the first companies selected by Facebook as a preferred developer partner. The company is backed by Softbank Capital, European Founders Fund, Greycroft Partners, Facebook investor Ron Conway, Facebook board member Peter Thiel, Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus, Roger Ehrenberg, Howard Lindzon and others. For more information, visit www.buddymedia.com

In a compelling interview between Brian Vaszily, author and founder of the popular personal growth website IntenseExperiences.com, and Dr. John Cacioppo, Director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, Dr. Cacioppo reveals how Facebook and other social media tend to make lonely people even lonelier.

In the Loneliness Help interview, available to view in full on IntenseExperiences.com, Cacioppo notes that “what the research suggests is that lonely individuals tend to use social networking sites in a way that puts distance between themselves and others, whereas non-lonely people tend to use social networking sites in a way that reduces the distance.”

He explains that sites like Facebook are a “safe haven” for lonely people, who can tend to feel unwanted in live social situations. But, Cacioppo notes, “that’s a little bit like being hungry and eating celery, in that it feels good for a moment, but it’s not actually nutritious, it’s not satisfying the underlying need.”

In effect, social media sites like Facebook are making a bad situation worse when it comes to loneliness. In the interview with Brian Vaszily, which is available to view in full at http://www.intenseexperiences.com, Cacioppo explains how and why quality face-to-face contact with other people is so essential — and how the extreme lack of it that is so prevalent today leads to high stress, chronic disease and even early death. Making matters worse when it comes to loneliness, according to Cacioppo, is that people tend to view it — and stigmatize it — as a personal weakness, when it is really just “a cue, like hunger, thirst and pain, to change our behaviors.”

In the interview with Vaszily, Cacioppo also provides a variety of insights on what people can do if they are lonely. He says that, “Feeling lonely makes people want to … eat others as they meet them. And if you just kind of think about it, that’s not a very pleasant position for other people to be in. You are not going to build a strong reciprocal relationship where both gain something from it if you are trying to eat people alive.” Instead of trying to consume others out of this deep need for live social connection, he recommends reaching out to help others, such as by doing community service, as a powerful first step for anyone feeling trapped by loneliness.

The complete interview between Dr. John Cacioppo and Brian Vaszily, in which Cacioppo also explains why lonely people are treated like bacteria and how loneliness leads to high stress, chronic disease and premature death, can be viewed now at http://www.intenseexperiences.com/loneliness-help.html.

IntenseExperiences.com is one of the web’s most popular personal growth and wellness websites providing original articles, videos, interviews, and more. Founder Brian Vaszily is a public speaker, life coach and the author of multiple books including Beyond Stone and Steel and the forthcoming The 9 Intense Experiences That Will Inevitably Change Your Life (Wiley Publishing, 2011.) For more information and to contact Brian Vaszily, visit the Contact Us area at IntenseExperiences.com.

Facebook today responded to user comments and concerns about privacy by announcing it will introduce simpler and more powerful controls for sharing personal information.

New settings will give the more than 400 million people who use Facebook the power to control exactly who can see the information and content they share, all with just a few simple clicks. In addition, new settings will be added to make it easier to turn off third-party applications or websites. Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg officially announced the changes in a blog post today at http://blog.facebook.com/.

“When we started Facebook, we built it around a few simple ideas,” said Zuckerberg. “When people have control over what they share, they want to share more. When people share more, the world becomes more open and connected. Over the past few weeks, the number one thing we’ve heard is that many users want a simpler way to control their information. Today we’re starting to roll out changes that will make our controls simpler and easier.”

The company’s new privacy controls reflect wide-ranging consultation with the office of Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and a number of online privacy and consumer advocacy groups. These include the Center for Democracy and Technology, Consumer Action, Future of Privacy Forum, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Progress and Freedom Foundation, NetChoice, CATO Institute, TRUSTe, Technology Policy Institute, and Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The consultations have proven extremely helpful in both clarifying and communicating Facebook’s privacy principles, and have greatly contributed to the design and implementation of the new privacy controls. These updated controls will start rolling out today and will be live for all Facebook users in the coming weeks.

Zuckerberg first announced Facebook’s intention to make these changes in a Washington Post op-ed (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/23/AR2010052303828.html) that detailed principles by which Facebook operates:

People have control over how their information is shared.
Facebook does not share personal information with people or services users don’t want.
Facebook does not give advertisers access to people’s personal information.
Facebook does not sell any of people’s information to anyone.
Facebook will always be a free service for everyone.

Today’s announcement focuses on the first two of these principles.

Making Control Simple

One control for content: A new simple control makes it easy to share on Facebook with friends, friends of friends or everyone?all with just one click. The corresponding settings are immediately applied and displayed in an easy-to-understand grid. At the same time, Facebook has maintained its more granular settings for those who want to customize their level of sharing. These settings now all appear on a single page for easier access.

Retroactive control: People who choose the more restrictive “Friends Only” or “Friends of Friends” options with the simple control will have the corresponding setting for all the content they posted previously for sharing. Thus, a person can make all the content they’ve ever shared on Facebook more private with just a couple of clicks.

Future products: Facebook commits to carry over people’s privacy choices for new products that facilitate sharing. Thus, if someone chooses “Friends Only” for “Sharing on Facebook,” new products that have privacy settings will be automatically set to “Friends Only.” This means Facebook users don’t have to worry about new settings in the future.

Prioritizing simplicity: Granularity of control has always been a primary objective in Facebook’s privacy design. Starting with the changes announced today, the company will also prioritize ease-of-use in its privacy design.

Fewer privacy changes: Facebook’s goal is to make privacy-related changes with less frequency and to work within the framework announced today as it continues to innovate new features and products.

Less Publicly Available Information

Significantly less public information: Facebook has drastically reduced the amount of information that is available to everyone. This information is now limited to name, profile picture (should a user choose to have one), gender (though this can be hidden on the profile), and networks (should the user join any).

Privacy controls for Pages: Connections to Pages, which were previously available to everyone, will have privacy settings that work for both ends of the connection. People can prevent others from seeing Pages on their profile and from seeing them in the “People who like this” boxes on the Pages themselves. Applications will also need to ask for explicit permission in order to access any of your Pages that are not visible to everyone.

Easier Opt Outs

Full control over how applications and websites on Facebook Platform access information: In response to requests, Facebook has added a simple way for people to completely turn off Platform applications and websites, so that your information is not shared with applications, even information available to everyone.

Easier opt-out of Instant Personalization Pilot Program: Facebook has also made it easier for people to turn off the instant personalization program, which prevents those, and any future, applications in the program from accessing their information.

Granular data permissions for applications and websites: Facebook also highlighted the new controls users have over information shared with applications and websites on Facebook Platform. With the new data permissions model, applications must obtain specific approval before gaining access to any personal information that a user has not made available to “Everyone.”

What People Are Saying

“Facebook’s users have spoken and made it clear that they want control of their information. Despite all rumors to the contrary, privacy is not dead, it is on its way to a comeback in the form of simplified controls and better policies,” said Leslie Harris, President, Center for Democracy and Technology. “While more work still needs to be done, these changes are the building blocks to giving people what they want and deserve.”

“People care about privacy now more than ever. We are pleased that Facebook has pledged to improve user control and choice and we look forward to working together to help them follow through on this commitment,” said Michelle De Mooy, Senior Associate at Consumer Action. “We believe the company must work with a broad coalition of consumer and privacy advocates, regulators, and legislators in order to raise the bar and lead the industry toward empowering and protecting consumers online. We also hope that this step forward from Facebook will send a message to industry that strong privacy standards aren’t just good policy, they’re good business.”

“The message that all companies should be taking away from this is that managing digital identity is critically important to Internet users of all ages and backgrounds. Facebook is taking steps that are essential for user trust by providing users with additional control over the personal data they share. As sites, services and devices grow increasingly complex, the challenge for Facebook and for others going forward is to continue to seek innovations that ensure that privacy tools can be intuitive for users,” said Jules Polonetsky, Director, Future of Privacy Forum.

“Facebook’s announcement should remind us all that online services actively compete in the market of public opinion based on their commitment to empowering users to make their own choices about privacy,” said Berin Szoka, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Internet Freedom at Progress and Freedom Foundation. “Facebook has affirmed that commitment by responding to user demands to allow users to restrict visibility of their friends and their ‘likes,’ and to opt-out completely from sharing of information with third-party applications and external websites. Just as important is the improved user interface, which maximizes both granularity of user control and ease of use?two things that are always in tension. Achieving both complexity and simplicity requires ongoing, iterative process of innovation.”

“These new features give consumers more choice and more control over their information?a win for both Facebook and its users,” said Daniel Castro, Senior Analyst for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “Facebook’s latest changes show that companies are responding appropriately to their customers’ concerns about privacy. In this case, market and customer feedback are more effective tools for meeting consumer needs than heavy-handed privacy regulations that would only impede innovation.”

“Providing people with true privacy choices that are both simple and transparent is no easy task. Facebook’s changes to make its privacy settings more accessible, as well as to provide broader opt-out choices, reflect both the company’s deep commitment to control and its ability to quickly innovate and incorporate feedback,” said Fran Maier, President of TRUSTe. “We will continue to work closely with Facebook to ensure that it lives up to the commitments it has made to its users.”

Announcement Fact Sheet

The Changes

Completely redesigned the privacy settings page to be much more simple.
Created one control for content. A new simple control makes it easy to share on Facebook with friends, friends of friends or everyone?all with just one click. The corresponding settings are immediately applied and displayed in an easy-to-understand grid. At the same time, Facebook has maintained its more granular settings for those who want to customize their level of sharing. These settings now all appear on a single page for easier access.
Significantly reduced the amount of information that is always visible to everyone. Friends and Pages (your connections) can now be restricted to anyone you want. To help people recognize you, your name, profile picture, networks, and gender are always open to everyone (though half of these you don’t need to add).
Given you more control over how applications and websites access your information. Now you can completely turn off Facebook Platform applications and websites, which means that your information will not be shared with applications. We also made it very simple to turn off instant personalization. You can ensure that your information is not shared with current or future instant personalization applications by un-checking the box to “Enable instant personalization”.
Get a better understanding of how you like to share on Facebook. The new presets help us understand the overall privacy level you’re comfortable with for the things you share. As we roll out new products, we want to apply the right setting for you at the outset?eliminating the need for you to check your setting each time a new feature is introduced. We’re committed to carrying over your presets for new products that facilitate sharing. So, if you choose the “Friends Only” preset for “Sharing on Facebook”, new products that have privacy settings will be automatically set to “Friends Only” as well.
Not changing anything about our advertising programs: we never sell any of your personal information to anyone. There’s a rumor that the more openly you share your information the more money we make, but it’s just wrong. Advertisers may target ads to people according to certain demographics, but they receive only anonymous data reports. We don’t share your personal information with our advertisers.

Data points

Reduced the number of settings required to make all information private from nearly 50 to less than 15.
Introduced presets that cover 18 individual settings for sharing with one single control?two clicks to control what had been more than 100 different options.
Consolidated 10 settings on 3 separate pages into 7 settings on one page.
Reduced the number of separate pages in privacy center from 13 to 8.

FAQ

Q. How are users being informed of these changes?

As we roll this out, we will be posting a message to all users on the homepage pointing them to information that explains the changes. In addition, we have and will continue to devote significant resources to educating people about the control they have on Facebook. Before rolling out these changes we will update our robust privacy education materials, including a new privacy guide (http://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation.php), instructional videos posted to our blog and Facebook Page, and numerous FAQs in our Help Center. Finally, we are committed to working with non-profit organizations to raise awareness among their constituents.

Q. Were users involved in this redesign?

Yes, we incorporated four rounds of iterative user testing into the redesign process. In each of these tests we worked with a variety of users, from those that classified themselves as very open to those that classified themselves as very closed. In each round of testing users were given a variety of tasks to measure both their understanding of the features, as well as their experience using the privacy controls. We then continuously modified the explanatory language, the placement and the visual presentation of the controls based on the users’ experiences.

Q. Where can people provide feedback on these changes?

We hope these changes demonstrate the tremendous respect we have for the hundreds of millions of people who use Facebook every day, and our commitment to ensuring that each of these people continues to feel comfortable sharing and connecting. Today, as always, we encourage our users to submit their thoughts and feedback: http://www.facebook.com/privacyfeedback

Q. How soon until everyone gets the new privacy settings?

We are working hard to make the simpler privacy controls available to everyone as soon as possible. However, as is our standard practice with most products we launch, we will begin with a slow roll out and will gradually increase the number of people who with new controls. This process started today and will be complete in the next couple of weeks.