1188740 - Fresh profiles get a tile saying "Follow us on social", which doesn't make sense and is unclear where it'll take you (Facebook)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Content Services Graveyard :: Tiles, defect)

Description

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

When starting up Firefox nightly with a fresh profile just now, I got a tile with the label:
> "Follow us on social"
...with a graphic of a yellow arrow, and hover-graphic of a Firefox logo with the text "Follow us!"

See attached screencast showing the tile & what happens when I click it.

Reporting the following issues with this tile:

 (1) The phrase "on social" is vague and not really a thing. I think it wants to say "on social media"?  (I don't think anyone actually refers to doing things "on social", except maaaaybe in small social-media niches.)

 (2) It's not at all clear that this tile is a link to Facebook.  (It is.) I suspected it'd take me to a Mozilla-hosted social media aggregator page, with links to various social-media sites -- I was not expecting to go straight to Facebook. (Perhaps it should be labeled "Follow us on Facebook"?)

Comment 1

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

Attachment: screencast showing tile & its target-page (facebook.com/Firefox)

Comment 2

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

Attachment: screenshot of new tab page w/ "Follow us on social" tile

Comment 3

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

Jean, do you know why we decided to make the Tile say "Social" instead of "Facebook", given that it's really just a link to Facebook? (to our facebook page)

Bug 1167339 comment 10 suggests that it might've been because we don't want to be seen as promoting Facebook.  But I don't really understand that sentiment, because we _are_ promoting Facebook by having this tile. So I don't see how using a generic label helps there.

Moreover: using the generic "social" language is more problematic than it is helpful here, because:
 - The vague name makes the experience feel like a bait-and-switch when they click through. ("Surprise! Maybe you thought you were going to find out how to follow us on your social network of choice. But nope, now you're at Facebook!")

 - The implication that "social" *is only* Facebook is a bit grating for users/advocates of other social networks.

Note that Firefox users skew in the privacy-conscious direction, particularly given our recent branding campaign about "When it's personal, use Firefox." So, we should be very careful about actively displaying un-labeled links to 3rd-parties who track user behavior, without giving the user any indication of what site we're actually sending them to when they click the tile.

Comment 4

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(If the site's target URL had "Facebook" in the name, this would be less of an issue, because it'd be somewhat discoverable where you'll end up by clicking the tile -- you can hover it and look at the tooltip to find out where it's going to take you.

But right now, the tile's target-URL is "http://mzl.la/1Mdhxxu", which is inscrutable.

If we can't change the text, it'd IMO be worth at least changing the target-URL to mention "Facebook" in the URL somewhere (e.g. mzl.la/FacebookFirefoxTileCampaignJul15). I'm pretty sure we can customize mzl.la URLs, and I think including Facebook in the URL would be a good step in the direction of transparency.)

Comment 5

[Jean Collings]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the flag. We built the tile without any FB or Twitter icons so that a) we can point users to any social network (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). We can definitely update the shortened link so it says mzl.la/Facebook or mzl.la/Twitter. b) we do not want to use FB / Twitter icons because we don't want users to think it's a sponsored tile and that we are promoting their services.

Comment 6

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(In reply to Jean Collings from comment #5)
> Thanks for the flag. We built the tile without any FB or Twitter icons so
> that a) we can point users to any social network (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

That makes sense -- though it seems like we should tell them where we're sending them, beyond just "Social".

> We can definitely update the shortened link so it says mzl.la/Facebook or
> mzl.la/Twitter.

(Thanks! That helps somewhat.)

> b) we do not want to use FB / Twitter icons because we don't
> want users to think it's a sponsored tile and that we are promoting their
> services.

Sure -- not using their icons/branding makes sense. My concern was that we're not using their *name* (not telling users where they're about to go if they click the tile).

Based on bug 1185314 comment 11, it sounds like we're doing that for the Twitter version of this tile. Can we do that for the Facebook version as well?

Comment 7

[Jean Collings]

(In reply to Daniel Holbert [:dholbert] from comment #6)
> (In reply to Jean Collings from comment #5)
> > Thanks for the flag. We built the tile without any FB or Twitter icons so
> > that a) we can point users to any social network (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
> 
> That makes sense -- though it seems like we should tell them where we're
> sending them, beyond just "Social".
> 
> > We can definitely update the shortened link so it says mzl.la/Facebook or
> > mzl.la/Twitter.
> 
> (Thanks! That helps somewhat.)
> 
> > b) we do not want to use FB / Twitter icons because we don't
> > want users to think it's a sponsored tile and that we are promoting their
> > services.
> 
> Sure -- not using their icons/branding makes sense. My concern was that
> we're not using their *name* (not telling users where they're about to go if
> they click the tile).
> 
> Based on bug 1185314 comment 11, it sounds like we're doing that for the
> Twitter version of this tile. Can we do that for the Facebook version as
> well?

Social team has asked us to pull Facebook for now and to swap with Twitter. When we do Facebook, we will make sure the titles are updated.

Comment 8

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

OK, thanks!