We recently launched a second iteration of our Publisher tool on the Buddy Media Platform. The Publisher tool is crucial elements of the Platform, as it is how our clients publish, monitor and archive content posted on their Facebook Page wall or walls. With this launch we have added a ton of new features and we'd like to discuss some of them with you today.
To start, Publisher is a pretty significant misnomer. While it's true that one can use the tool to publish pieces of content to Facebook, its roots are in community management. Let's take a look at some of the more important community management features available in Publisher today.
Consolidated Stream
Our first version of Publisher featured a single stream per page. While one could effectively operate over all of their pages, it proved to be a challenge for managers responsible for multiple pages. One would have to read through their Page's streams one at a time. Further, features like filters and labels were applied on an individual page and could not be re-used on a second page.
We've solved this by combining all Page streams in a single view. This is a huge step forward. A community manager can now log in to the Buddy Media Platform and see each and every post and comment across all of their Pages in a single consolidated view. Further, labels and filters can now be applied to any item in this stream. Create a label on a post for one Page, and it is immediately available for use on other Pages you manage.
Stream Sorting
One of the side effects of building a consolidated stream is that it makes identifying specific items or types of items much more difficult. The volume of items means that it is crucial that we added some sophisticated filtering and sorting mechanisms.
In this version of publisher, we now give a manager the ability to browse through their stream using a number of filtering options. These options include:
- Wall (if the consolidated stream is too much, narrow it down to a single wall.)
- Time
- Contributor
- Everyone
- Wall Owner (Page Admin)
- Others
- Type
- Posts
- Status
- Links
- Videos
- Sapplets
- Photos
- Events
- Comments
- Posts
- Status
- Starred
- Flagged
- Removed
- Any Label or Labels
We've also added the ability to sort chronologically or by comments or likes. Sorting by comments or likes is a great way to quickly get insight in to your top performing posts.
Post to Multiple Pages at Once
Another side effect of a consolidated stream is we now give community managers the ability to post to multiple walls at once. Have a message that you need to post to a few dozen walls? Do it once and be done with it. You can even schedule it to go out at any time in the future.
Moderation
Our previous version of Publisher allowed for a manager to moderate posts. However, it was not as powerful as it could be. The volume of posts and comments that come in mean that being able to efficiently act on the offensive ones is possibly the single most important aspect of building a community. We wanted to create a tool that could be used by multiple community managers at the same time.
We solved this by adding a new view called "Flagged" in which all flagged items can be acted on in sequence. By acting on a single item at a time we are able to guarantee that multiple managers can take part in moderation at the same time without fear of conflict. A manager can even decide to simply push the item to another manager who may be more capable of acting on it. Lastly, a sequential moderation concept focuses the manager on a single item at a time and enforces the importance of adding meta-information to each action taken. It's that meta-information that we'll discuss next.
Item Chronology
In an environment where there could be dozens of community managers moderating a stream, it is imperative that one manager be able to view what another manager has done. To accomplish this, we've introduced a new feature called "History." History is a chronological list of every action taken on each and every post and comment in your stream. If an item is flagged by one of your filters, it generates a line in the history. If a community manager acts on that item, the same thing applies.
At any time, one can view the history of any item to determine what happened earlier in its lifetime. No more guessing.
Complete Interface Redesign
No amount of new features and sophistication would make a difference if there isn't a great interface to go along with it. That's why we challenged our design and front end teams to build you the very best experience we could. Every individual action was considered and built to be as fast and easy to find as possible. We wanted it to be usable by both the novice and the power user. We believe that we've accomplished this and think you'll find the experience a massive improvement.
Data Model Redesign
We saved the geeky stuff for last. Above all, we wanted a product that we could both scale and extend for years to come. This is why we scrapped our old data model and started from scratch. Our new model is built on new technology and brand new servers. We have moved away from a traditional relational data model and toward a schema-less NoSQL design model built on top of Mongo DB.
This new data model allows us to get at your data much faster. It also allows us to scale quickly and cheaply to guarantee that we maintain this speed as we grow. But most of all, it allows us to get insight into how your data is performing. This is something that we'll be able to build a number of new features on in the future.
Lastly, we've redesigned how we import your data. We've moved to a real-time and intelligent system of daemons. We now use an algorithm which we've developed to determine which of your posts are most active and most important and prioritize them over older and less active posts. This ensures that we're constantly importing new data for the things you are most interested in.
