An Amen to North Social about Facebook Tabs

The Drop

More Pizza Toppings = Slice Failure Like anything that involves communicating, the more layers you add, the harder it is for the receiving party to follow along. This can create a major problem for brands trying to maximize their social presence on Facebook. Facebook is a medium that just begs for simplicity. The super duper All-in-One Facebook tabs don’t actually inspire action... they actually stunt conversion rates! We know because we've built them, launched them, and watched them underwhelm clients over and over again. Yes, we're willing to admit that when we first started building Facebook apps we got a little excited and built a bunch of crazy stuff that did nearly everything that could possibly be added into a single tab. These "ship in a bottle" tabs are complex, expensive, and get their ass kicked by simple tabs that only ask the visitor to do one simple thing every single time. If you’re running a sweepstakes, your goal should be to get the visitor to enter (and hopefully share); NOT to watch a video, scroll through photos, vote, read your real time Tweets, and make you an afternoon latte with extra foam. Before you even consider letting someone (even us) wireframe out one of these Swiss Army knife-like applications, ask yourself, “Is this strategic”? When you add too many toppings to a tab, just like a overloaded slice of pizza, your brand will topple over creating a giant mess that is impossible to consume. Cheers, The North Social Team

Close the DJJ Prisons

Close the DJJ Prisons Take Action Now "DJJ is the worst thing that ever happened to my son and our family. The youth prison system is a disgrace for California and its closing is past due." Lourdes Duarte, Families for Books Not Bars HUGE NEWS- Governor Jerry Brown wants to close California’s youth prisons! On Monday, Governor Brown proposed to eliminate the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) and fund counties to treat the youth instead. Books Not Bars has been calling for DJJ’s closure for seven years. And finally, Sacramento is listening. Governor Brown has called his proposed budget “painful.” With deep cuts to vital human and health services, plus nearly $1.5 billion in cuts to higher education, the next few years will be challenging. Considering the cuts to these important programs, closing DJJ makes more sense now than ever.The DJJ drains our state budget of hundreds of millions of dollars each year and fails more than 8 out of 10 youth who are released from its prisons. We cannot afford to fund a wasteful, broken system that hurts our youth and worsens the deficit. But the fight is not over. As we write this, opponents are already contacting lawmakers to urge them to oppose this crucial plan. Please send an email to legislative leaders and stand with us in urging lawmakers to close DJJ once and for all. We’ll also collect your signatures and deliver them to lawmakers. This is our chance to show Sacramento that the majority of Californians want a juvenile justice system that invests in youth, their families, and our communities—not miserable warehouses that just add damage to damage. Stand with Books Not Bars and take action today! Thank you, Sumayyah Waheed Books Not Bars Campaign Director

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights www.ellabakercenter.org | 510.428.3939 344 40th Street | Oakland, CA | 94609 Connect & Share: