Facebook Late with Hot Button and Embed Function

Abby Borovitz, with MSNBC reports Facebook offers new insight into online conversation:

According to analysis of Facebook data, NBC News finds that Syria was a hot button topic of conversation last week with 66% of Facebook posts mentioning Syria. The data showed that Syria was referenced as much as Miley Cyrus twerking, yet not as much as NFL Football, which was the main topic of conversation.

The polling function used by NBC News is the latest effort by Facebook to stimulate conversation by users and surpass Twitter as the leading platform for online conversation. On Monday, Facebook released two new search tools designed to give news organizations, like NBC News, more insight into the real-time conversations being held in the social media universe, particularly when it comes to big news events.

Isn't Facebook way late to the party on this one?  Twitter has been doing this, since I started using it actively two to three years ago.  LinkedIn and Google+ as well.  Here are screen shots of Trends, based on locations I entered:

Apparently Miley Cyrus and Syria are still neck-and-neck as trending topics in the US and in Chicago where I live.  While NFL Football isn't trending now, the Philadelphia Eagles are.  

None of these conversations are trending Worldwide, though.  Nicki Minaj is, for New York Fashion Week.  Imagine that.  

Minaj isn't on the radar in the UAE, where I used to live.  I did see photos of the sandstorm, posted on Facebook by a friend there, so I'm not surprised to see that trending.

This is just another way for Facebook to continue enhancing how their users communicate with one another. In June the social media site introduced hashtags, similar to Twitter, into the conversation, and it recently rolled out a feature where users can embed posts on their own web page. They are also testing a “trending topic” module where users can see what people are talking about at any given moment.

POLL: Americans still oppose #Syria strike: http://t.co/VycDRP4Q2d
— Slate (@Slate) September 9, 2013

LinkedIn and Google+ allow us to reference links to particular posts, but the embed function with Twitter is a cool one to have.  Until recently, I could reference particular posts on Facebook only by default, that is, by clicking an image or video, and it brings me to its link.  Bringing on an embed function, too, will probably prompt me to scope posts more frequently.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD