The Globe and Mail has introduced several Facebook features to create a more personalized and social user experience:
- The Globe and Mail and its writers (including Rob Carrick, Jane Taber, Peter Cheney and James Mirtle) maintain several Facebook pages to connect with readers. Via our Globe Life Facebook page, we also offer an app, Globe Lifestream, which delivers personalized lifestyle news, tips and insights. To read more about The Globe's pages and app on Facebook, click here.
- Using Facebook’s new Social Plugins, The Globe has developed a more vibrant and interactive community, allowing readers to connect with millions of Facebook users, share and recommend content and follow friends’ activities and “Recommends”, without leaving Globeandmail.com. To read more about how the social plugins work, click here.
Q: Why Facebook?
A: Many of our readers use Facebook to interact with friends, get reading recommendations and keep on top of what's going on in the world. Now, with a click, readers can connect with millions of Facebook users through The Globe's social plugins, Facebook pages and Globe Life app.
If you aren't a Facebook user, your globeandmail.com experience stays largely the same. You are still able to share stories via e-mail and several other tools such as Digg and Twitter.
Q: What's the difference between a Facebook fanpage and a Facebook app?
A: The Globe Life fanpage is where our editors and reporters share stories and personally connect with readers. When a Facebook user "Likes" The Globe Life fanpage, they will occasionally see updates on everything from health to parenting to food in their Facebook newsfeed. A fanpage can also be "Unliked" at at any time.
The Globe Lifestream app is an additional feature of The Globe Life fanpage which further personalizes a user's experience. If a Globe Life fan chooses to initiate the Globe Life app, they will get a custom feed of stories that are tailored to their interests, based on their Facebook activity. The app also lets you decide which articles, news items, columns and videos are best for your life. Share, save content for later, earn ballots for exclusive contests and explore all that Life has to offer.
Q: What happens to the information I share withThe Globe when I initiate the Globe Lifestream app?
A: In order to assemble your initial, personalized Globe Lifestream, the app will go through your Facebook activity and serve you content based on what you’ve been discussing.
For example: If you mentioned a great recipe for “fettuccine alfredo”, Globe Lifestream will present you with Food & Wine content.
Once Globe Lifestream is enabled you will be able to easily adjust the content you see based on how you’re feeling that day.
The application was developed by The Globe and Mail in accordance with Facebook's privacy policy and any personal information you share with The Globe will be subject to The Globe and Mail's privacy policy.
Now, with a click of a button, the Globe community can easily interact with their current network of Facebook friends and find out what others are reading about on the The Globe and Mail website.
The Globe and Mail has introduced three Facebook Social Plugins that will further customize the experience at Globeandmail.com. These features include:
Recommend Button
Facebook users can endorse select articles and reporters from Globeandmail.com, by clicking the Facebook “Recommend” button. These updates will be shared with the user’s Facebook friends. This function replaces our old Recommend button on all articles.
Activity Feed
While browsing Globeandmail.com, Facebook users will see an activity box that shows their friends’ recent activities, “Likes” and recommended content from The Globe and Mail.
Recommendations
As a user’s friends endorse select articles and content, the Recommendations Facebook Social Plugin creates a list of recommended content based on what friends have shared with their Facebook community.
How it works
To use the new plugins, readers need to be logged in to their Facebook account. Because we have replaced the recommend button with Facebook "recommend", readers will have to be logged into Facebook to recommend stories. Our most-recommended stories will now be easy to find via the Recommendations Social Plugin on our homepage, and a reader's recommendations will also appear on their Facebook wall. Readers also have the option to add a comment or message to appear with their recommendation on their Facebook wall.
