Facebook, the most popular social media platform, had a good month in February this year. First off they announced that there are nearly 1.25 billion active users. Next, they celebrated their 10 year anniversary by producing a highlights video for every user. Finally, the company launched a new mobile app – Paper – that drastically changes how users views their profiles.
What Is Facebook Paper?
The mobile device is quickly becoming the main way people access their Facebook profiles. While some open the browser on their device and navigate to the website from there, most use the Facebook app. This app is really a smaller version of Facebook that is formatted for mobile devices.
While the app is heavily used, many users are unimpressed with the layout and general functionality of the app as a whole. It’s really Facebook minus some functionality and a slight bit clunkier to navigate.
To address this and other issues the company launched a new division called Creative Labs, where teams can develop new ideas and features that could one day be incorporated into Facebook. One of the first major developments to come out of this division is Paper.
Paper is a new app for the iPhone that combines your traditional Facebook News Feed with something like an online newspaper. The whole idea of Paper is essentially Facebook reimagined into something that not only looks better but is easier to use.
How Paper Works
When you download and open Paper using your iPhone you see a brief tutorial video of how the app works. Essentially, your Facebook Feed has been broken down into about 20 different categories, including: Headlines, Tech, Cute, Score, About, Photos, etc. Each section contains relevant stories and posts from your News Feed and from popular posts and publicaly shared content on Facebook. The posts are displayed differently and look more visually appealing.
These sections are then individually displayed in a horizontal manner, often with pictures and text, much like a mini article. For example, when you start the app you may be looking at the Headlines section and all relevant content. If you swipe to the left or right a new section will be brought up allowing you to view the content related to that new section.
What’s cool about this app is that you are in charge of what categories you see. If you want to see the Headlines section (news headlines from around 40 sites) first, you just have to rearrange the sections. This is interesting because the app allows you to customize how you view Facebook.
Is Paper Good For Business Users?
This app could be great news for businesses, largely because it gives them yet another avenue to have their content seen by users. The creators of the app want it to be content forward. In other words, content displayed in a visually appealing way that draws the eye and potentially increases interest. Businesses creating visually appealing posts will really shine on Paper.
Can I Get Paper?
For now, Paper is currently only available for Apple’s mobile devices and can be found on the iTunes storefor free. Unfortunately, the app is only available to users in the US for the time being.
We are unsure as to when this app will be made available to more countries and devices, largely because the team developing this is small. We will undoubtedly see it come out in more countries and on other platforms but we can’t say when.
If you are looking to learn about Facebook and how your business can get more out of it, contact us today.
BYOD Or CYOD – What’s The Difference?
You can do so much with an iPhone as there are just so many amazing features. One useful feature is the ability to take screenshots. You can use this for your business, or even in your day-to-day personal activities. If you aren’t familiar with how it works and are eager to start using this feature, then read on for our how-to article below.
How Exactly Do I Take Screenshots On My IPhone?
To start taking screenshots just follow these simple steps:
- Hold down the lock button at the top of your iPhone.
- Double tap your home button as you hold the lock button down. You should see the device snap a picture of your screen.
- Open your camera roll by going to the home screen and tapping on your photo gallery, and you should see the image there.
How Are Screenshots Useful?
There are several benefits of taking screenshots, but here are just a few:
Product Reviews
If you have a product, or are looking to share a review about one that you have downloaded to your phone, take a screenshot of it so that you can use this to greatly enhance your product reviews. This works best for something on your phone that can be hard to capture by a camera.
For example, if you own a product (like software or a mobile app) and your team put a lot of effort into improving its UX (user experience), simply describing it in text won’t justify how amazing your product really is. You can take screenshots of the open app so readers can better appreciate the qualities of your product.
Tutorials
Aside from videos, what better way to demonstrate tutorials than using screenshots and combining these with descriptive texts.
An example might be teaching an employee how to send an email on their iPhone. Can you imagine creating a tutorial on that with text alone? Imagine the difference if you have screenshots along with this texts.
Highlighting Something
If you are reviewing a document or image on your phone and would like to highlight a problem or point that you see on the screen, try taking a screenshot and attaching it to an email where you describe what you are seeing and the changes. This helps the recipient visually see what you see and maybe even fix it.
Troubleshooting Or Showing Errors.
Instead of writing down any problems you’re seeing on your iPhone and describing it to your support team through text, wouldn’t it be much better for both parties if you showed them a screenshot of the error?
Not only can this save time but it also zeroes out the chances of misinterpretations or false assumptions, since your support team can see the actual error themselves.
Contact us if you have any inquiries or even suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you.
Published on 23rd January 2014 by Jeanne DeWitt.
