Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Picking an Audience for Your Facebook Updates

When I post on Facebook, only people on my Close Friends list can see the pictures, but not all my friends. This just started happening. Why?

Facebook lets you group your friends into smaller lists and share photos and updates with these subsets of people. It is possible that you inadvertently changed the “audience” setting for your posts so that your photos are only visible to those on the Close Friends list.

Changing the audience setting by accident is not that difficult to do on Facebook’s Web site. When you compose a new update, look at the label next to the Post button. If it says “Close Friends,” your updates are only appearing in the news feeds of people on that particular list. Click the triangle to the right of the Close Friends label and choose Friends to make your updates visible to everyone on your friends list.

Facebook remembers the audience setting you last used and keeps posting items that way until you change it. If you want to adjust the audience setting after you have already shared a photo, link or update to your timeline, go to the post and click the small gray audience icon under your name. The audience drop-down menu appears so you can change who can see that specific update.

Science Topics Find an Audience in Social Media

On Oct. 14, YouTube counted 52 million streams of the Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner’s supersonic, record-breaking jump from a balloon 24 miles above the New Mexico desert. YouTube called it “one of the most-viewed live events ever,” and it landed at No. 10 on the video-sharing site’s year-end trending list — the first time a science-related subject made the list, a YouTube spokeswoman said. (Google listed the leap as No. 7 in its Zeitgeist 2012 of trending events.)

And it was far from the only science story to go viral. To put it in 140 characters or less, social media and science found each other in 2012.

Felix Baumgartner's supersonic freefall from 128k' - Mission Highlights

In surprising numbers, people posted, viewed and searched for science-related topics last year — sharing news from space and undersea, commenting on new discoveries and uploading photos and video in a full-out embrace of the ability to communicate with thousands of others about global subjects in real time.

The first Twitter message on Aug. 5 from @MarsCuriosity, NASA’s official rover handle — “Gale Crater I Am in You!!!” — was retweeted more than 72,000 times. Photos of the space shuttle Endeavour flying over the West Coast, on its way to its final resting place, ricocheted across the planet. And the director James Cameron’s claim to have sent the “deepest tweet” — from the Mariana Trench, about seven miles below the surface of the Pacific — was rated one of Twitter’s “moments of serendipity and just plain awesomeness” (though it was actually sent by a friend above water). Four science-related events made that list, with the Mars landing at No. 1.In an age of despair over math and science acuity, it appears that what was once considered uninteresting or unfathomable has become cool and exciting.

Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Animation

People now feel that “if they’re not paying attention, they’re missing out on something,” said Kevin Allocca, the trends manager for YouTube.

The rover in particular has picked up followers and likes at amazing speed and volume, though it is the fourth landing of an American space exploration vehicle on the planet.

“We went from 120,000 on Aug. 4 to over 800,000 followers on landing night,” Veronica McGregor, the media relations and social media manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said of its Twitter account. “And then we hit a million really quickly.”

Two months after the landing, the mission was averaging about 30,000 Twitter mentions a month. The Facebook page for NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is heading toward a half-million likes, and the hashtag #Curiosity was the fifth most used on Google Plus in 2012.

The trend is, in some ways, self-fulfilling. Social media platforms are growing in popularity. There is also more online content, which is becoming more accessible, entertaining and engaging, Mr. Allocca said. Science subjects are also universal, more likely to attract global audiences. And people who are interested in science and technology tend to be especially comfortable with seeking and sharing information in digital ways.

Still, an epidemic of science geekiness seems to have broken out.

On Facebook, Mr. Baumgartner’s jump ranked higher than Mitt Romney’s announcement of Representative Paul D. Ryanof Wisconsin as his running mate, according to the Talk Meter, a tool that compares chatter on the social site with baseline conversation.

On the Google Zeitgeist 2012 list, “Stratosphere jump” follows “Presidential debate” (No. 6) but surpasses “Penn State scandal” (No. 8) and “Trayvon Martin shooting” (No. 9). “Hurricane Sandy” is No. 1.

NASA (which now has about 1.6 million likes on Facebook) has also become more sophisticated and assertive about doling out information piece by piece to sustain interest. The strategy plays into the strengths of social platforms, which allow users to dip in and out of streams of news and information at their convenience.

NASA’s “Seven Minutes of Terror” video on YouTube, about the difficulties of landing the rover, attracted two million views. And a satirical video made independently of NASA, “We’re NASA and We Know It” — to the tune of “I’m Sexy and I Know It” (chorus: “Crane lower that rover”) — has gotten close to 2.7 million views.

Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror

There are also more ways for followers to engage in events: helping to name the rover, or picking up a Curiosity Explorer badge on Foursquare for checking in at a NASA visitor center, science museum or planetarium. Ms. McGregor said that NASA, in turn, was paying attention to what its fans want. It was learning that with so many followers just starting to connect with the whole space thing, the agency needs to provide more basic information.

Earthlings have long had a fascination with the unknown. But social media experts say people can now feel as if they are part of the adventure. They can watch events live, then incorporate the developments in their “timelines.” They can follow science — and not have to worry about taking the final exam.

We're NASA and We Know It (Mars Curiosity)

A recent LiveScience article, “Why We’re Mad for Mars,” tries to explain the renewed popularity of Mars. The answer is simple, noted a commenter, Jerry. “People are explorers,” he wrote. “That is all the article needed to say.”

On Twitter and Apps, Audience at Home Scores the Debate

Presidential debates are customarily scored and picked apart the instant the moderator says “good night” at 10:30 p.m. But the Web is speeding up time. When the first of this season’s debates started on Wednesday in Denver, the scoring began at 9:01 p.m., as soon as Jim Lehrer, the moderator, said “Good evening.”

Jim Lehrer, the moderator, during the debate on Wednesday night in Denver. After the debate, television commentators tapped into social networks to gauge immediate reactions. More Photos »

A one-stop destination for the latest political news — from The Times and other top sources. Plus opinion, polls, campaign data and video.

Mr. Lehrer’s open-ended questions, Mitt Romney’s plan to end the federal subsidy for PBS and Mr. Romney’s high energy level — against President Obama’s comparatively low energy level — all received spikes of attention from viewers who were chatting online along with the debate. The instant feedback helped harden conventional wisdom that Mr. Obama had turned in a weak performance, even before he had finished speaking.

On MSNBC, liberal hosts like Ed Schultz were taken aback by Mr. Obama. Mr. Schultz threw up his arms at one point after the debate and asked, “Where was the president tonight?”

His colleague, Chris Matthews, loudly suggested that Mr. Obama watch MSNBC’s programs for debating advice. “He will learn something every night on this show and all these shows,” he said.

After Mr. Obama was pronounced “rusty” by CNN hosts, the analyst David Gergen said, “I didn’t think he was rusty so much as I don’t think anybody’s ever spoken to him like that over the last four years. I think he found that not only surprising, but offensive in some ways.”

The recent surge in so-called second-screen behavior was vividly on display during the debate, both on social networking sites like Twitter that barely existed four years ago and on all manner of even newer apps promoted by media companies. At least half a dozen outlets, as varied as CNBC and The Huffington Post, had debate drinking games ready to go beforehand.

Afterward, the television networks that used to have a monopoly on pre- and postgame shows tapped into the torrent of online opinions. On NBC, Brian Williams quoted from the instant reactions of the journalists Ron Fournier and James Fallows. Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren cited Twitter messages from the progressive HBO host Bill Maher (“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Obama looks like he does need a teleprompter”) and the Republican strategist Mike Murphy (“It’s funny; tonight Romney is much better than his campaign; Obama is far worse”).

Mr. Romney’s mention of Big Bird — in the context of ending federal funding for PBS — stirred an enormous amount of online attention, as well as a few parody accounts on Twitter, with made-up names like “Fired Big Bird.” Hours after the debate concluded, Big Bird was still a trending topic on Twitter.

Outlets like NBC used the debate, the first of four this month, as a test bed for new online tools. Reflecting the changes in consumer behavior, Vivian Schiller, the chief digital officer for NBC News, said, “I can’t watch a debate anymore without having my iPhone in my hand. I don’t feel like I’m having the full experience if I’m not reading the reaction in real time.”

For the duration of the debate, many of the reactions were cynical, particularly on Facebook, far preferred over Twitter by normal viewers at home. Users there accused both candidates of dodging questions and lying their way through the 90-minute session. Joked one Facebook user afterward, “I should have played the debate drinking game!”

And in something of a Rorschach test, Votizen, a technology company, tracked Twitter messages from registered voters. Minutes after Mr. Lehrer ended the debate, Votizen found “love” to be the top term used by Republicans and “tax” to be the top term by Democrats.

And independent voters? The top term was “LOL,” short for laugh out loud.

Tool Kit: Internet Stars Find an Audience in Social Media - Tool Kit

Today, a teenager posting webcam videos to YouTube can get a movie deal (“Fred: The Movie”). A 30-something posting one-liners on Twitter can land a TV show on CBS (“$#*! My Dad Says”). Bloggers creating Internet memes are being offered book deals at a dizzying pace.

However, alongside breakout Web celebs — not to mention actual celebrities with huge online followings like Rihanna and Katy Perry — there’s a new class of microstars who are highly popular and viral, but have no aspirations of going Hollywood.

How they became Internet-famous — and made comfortable incomes — offers insights to those who are unsure of how to use Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr to promote themselves or their projects.

THE CELLPHONE QUIPSTER Like many teenagers, Joey Mueller, 19, spends much of his time texting on his iPhone. But when he taps out a 140-character message and presses send, he’s talking to nearly 400,000 people.

Mr. Mueller created his Twitter account, @itisjoey, in 2010. as he was traveling to compete at the World Horseshoe Tournament in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He figured using Twitter to comment from a big event might help him draw an audience.

“I didn’t get any followers or anything,” he recalls, “I guess it wasn’t interesting.”

Now a sophomore majoring in graphic design at the University of Minnesota, he decided to avoid personal messages and focus on observational humor. A sample @itisjoey post: “Nancy Grace is the human equivalent of caps lock.”

Mr. Mueller said his personal Tumblr Web site already had 75,000 followers. He added a link to his Twitter account. Immediately, his follower count jumped. Then a curious thing happened: the numbers kept climbing. In 2012, he hit 440,000.

“I’m not sure why,” he said. “Sometimes I think I got lucky.”

Mr. Mueller said he had never purchased followers. He said that posting from noon to 6 p.m., when people typically spend more time online, helps. He also routinely adopts popular hashtags, especially political ones, which he said helped get him retweeted by organizations including Move On. The fame hasn’t gone to his head, he said, or at least his parents keep him down to earth. “They’re like, ‘You know, you’re not really famous. Stay in school.’ ”

THE TATTOO CHRONICLES Kimber Turner was bored. In the spring of 2008, when she was a 22-year-old journalism major at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Ms. Turner completed all of her courses online. Which is to say, she spent a lot of time on her laptop.

Ms. Turner started killing time online by collecting found images of tattoos borrowed mostly from body modification Web sites. She decided to post the photos on a Tumblr account she hastily titled with an obscenity common among youthful creators of Tumblrs, personalized Web pages where ephemera is deposited. In a few months, Ms. Turner had 300 followers. Other Tumblr users began e-mailing pictures and explanations of their own tattoos to her.

“Everybody wanted their story out there,” Ms. Turner says, “People just really liked how interactive it was.”

In 2008, she said, she received 200 submissions a day. Four years later, she gets 350 a day, she said. Images are contributed by fans all over the globe.

Today, Ms. Turner has more than 695,000 followers. For comparison, when Texts from Hillary went viral on Tumblr earlier this year, it attracted 45,000 followers in a week.

Her secret? Volume. She publishes about 50 photos a day, one every 30 minutes, to keep fans coming back. She also follows Tumblr’s other popular users.

“There’s so many people on Tumblr who post all sorts of random things,” Ms. Turner says, “Having a focus really lets people connect, and it’s a great way to stand out.”

Although she took various odd jobs after graduating in 2011, including one as a receptionist for a seamstress, ads on the site earn her $60,000 annually, she said.

“When I realized it could very well just be a full-time job, I nearly had a heart attack,” she says, “Now I make more than my parents.”

“Seven Minutes of Terror” Video Grabs Online Audience for NASA

“We’ve got literally seven minutes to get from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars, going from 13,000 miles an hour to zero,” Tom Rivellini, a NASA engineer, tells the camera with a grim face and deadpan delivery. “If any one thing doesn’t work just right, it’s game over.”

Posted last month on YouTube, the video has succeeded in an area where NASA has a mixed track record: using social media and other tools of the 21st century to whip up interest in space exploration.

Despite minimal publicity, “Seven Minutes” has been racking up views and attracting droll commentary on the impending arrival of the rover, which goes by the name of Curiosity.

“Come on, NASA,” one person said in a comment on YouTube, “All that is missing in this blockbuster trailer is Megan Fox as the chief scientist.”

Maybe NASA can get Mr. Moviefone to do the mission commentary.

Much of the space agency’s public utterances are dry stuff; recent news releases include “NASA Selects Contracts for Environmental Remediation Services” and “NASA Awards Five Universities Funding for Learning Opportunities.” Like other federal agencies, it is not allowed to spend money to toot its own horn.

“We don’t try to market,” said Robert Jacobs, a NASA spokesman. “We don’t try to sell anything. Our job is to clean the windows to give the American public a better view of their space program.”

And yet the space officials have tried to add a measure of cute and playful.

Three years ago, NASA ran a contest to name a module on the International Space Station. But the comedian Stephen Colbert co-opted it, exhorting his viewers to vote for “Colbert.” That name ended up winning, with more than 230,000 votes.

NASA put aside the results and named the module Tranquility, commemorating the landing site of Apollo 11. But the space agency did later name an exercise treadmill on the space station after Mr. Colbert.

As part of the educational program for the James Webb Space Telescope, the planned successor to Hubble that has been troubled by delays and cost overruns, NASA created a game in which players create their own space telescope, but to underwhelming reviews.

“Too bad this game is not totally realistic so as to let people play with schedule and cost,” wrote Keith Cowing, a frequent critic of the space agency, on his Web site NASAWatch.com. “This way they’d REALLY learn how NASA satellites are built (or not built).”

This time, NASA seems to have a hit. The “Seven Minutes” video, viewed more than half a million times, starts with a computer-generated animation of a capsule falling toward the Red Planet, then uses stark lighting, thumping music, fancy graphics and dramatic narration to tease the landing of the Curiosity, a $2.5 billion mission that aims to see if the building blocks of life existed on early Mars.

On the East Coast, the landing will happen in the wee hours of Monday, Aug. 6 — or nighttime on Aug. 5 on the West Coast — and it will be competing for mindspace with the Summer Olympics. That is not stopping the Atlanta Science Tavern, which organizes popular science talks, from going all out for an evening that starts with five talks on planetary science and segues into “full-fledged party mode” at midnight when NASA television coverage of the landing starts. The festivities will conclude at 3 a.m.

Already 173 people have signed up. “It’s science,” said the group’s director, Marc Merlin, “but it’s also a public celebration of scientific achievement.”

Mr. Merlin said he was thinking of bringing a model of the Mars rover that would descend on a rope à la the lighted ball in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. “That would be the decoration I would like to do,” he said.

Technically, the seven minutes of terror will be more like 21 minutes of suspense. The capsule containing the Curiosity will hit the top of the Martian atmosphere just before 1:11 a.m. Eastern time on Aug. 6. The rover will be on the surface about seven minutes later. The only uncertainty is whether the rover will be in one piece or in smithereens.

On Earth, no one will know the outcome for almost 14 minutes as the spacecraft’s radio signals travel 150 million miles from Mars.

“When people look at it, it looks crazy,” says Adam Steltzner, a NASA engineer, in the “Seven Minutes” video as he describes the Rube Goldberg-esque landing process — heat shield, parachute, rocket engines and finally a hovering crane that lowers the rover to the surface.

Text flashes across the screen: “6 vehicle configurations,” then “76 pyrotechnic charges.”

“Sometimes when we look at it, it looks crazy” Mr. Steltzner goes on to say, before asserting more confidently, “It is the result of reasoned engineering thought.” Pause. “But it still looks crazy.”

The slick video is “definitely a step up,” said Reid Gower, a 26-year-old Canadian who was so frustrated by NASA’s previous efforts that last year he put together NASA snippets into a promotional video that he thought the space agency should be making. “That’s along the lines of what I feel they could be doing, something that’s education but also engaging. It’s not static and dry. It has emotional content in it.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 12, 2012

An article on Wednesday about a dramatic NASA video that is drawing attention to the expected landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars next month misstated the time the capsule carrying the rover is predicted to enter the Martian atmosphere. It is 1:11 a.m. Eastern time on Aug. 6 — not 12:11 a.m.

“Seven Minutes of Terror” Video Grabs Online Audience for NASA

“We’ve got literally seven minutes to get from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars, going from 13,000 miles an hour to zero,” Tom Rivellini, a NASA engineer, tells the camera with a grim face and deadpan delivery. “If any one thing doesn’t work just right, it’s game over.”

Posted last month on YouTube, the video has succeeded in an area where NASA has a mixed track record: using social media and other tools of the 21st century to whip up interest in space exploration.

Despite minimal publicity, “Seven Minutes” has been racking up views and attracting droll commentary on the impending arrival of the rover, which goes by the name of Curiosity.

“Come on, NASA,” one person said in a comment on YouTube, “All that is missing in this blockbuster trailer is Megan Fox as the chief scientist.”

Maybe NASA can get Mr. Moviefone to do the mission commentary.

Much of the space agency’s public utterances are dry stuff; recent news releases include “NASA Selects Contracts for Environmental Remediation Services” and “NASA Awards Five Universities Funding for Learning Opportunities.” Like other federal agencies, it is not allowed to spend money to toot its own horn.

“We don’t try to market,” said Robert Jacobs, a NASA spokesman. “We don’t try to sell anything. Our job is to clean the windows to give the American public a better view of their space program.”

And yet the space officials have tried to add a measure of cute and playful.

Three years ago, NASA ran a contest to name a module on the International Space Station. But the comedian Stephen Colbert co-opted it, exhorting his viewers to vote for “Colbert.” That name ended up winning, with more than 230,000 votes.

NASA put aside the results and named the module Tranquility, commemorating the landing site of Apollo 11. But the space agency did later name an exercise treadmill on the space station after Mr. Colbert.

As part of the educational program for the James Webb Space Telescope, the planned successor to Hubble that has been troubled by delays and cost overruns, NASA created a game in which players create their own space telescope, but to underwhelming reviews.

“Too bad this game is not totally realistic so as to let people play with schedule and cost,” wrote Keith Cowing, a frequent critic of the space agency, on his Web site NASAWatch.com. “This way they’d REALLY learn how NASA satellites are built (or not built).”

This time, NASA seems to have a hit. The “Seven Minutes” video, viewed more than half a million times, starts with a computer-generated animation of a capsule falling toward the Red Planet, then uses stark lighting, thumping music, fancy graphics and dramatic narration to tease the landing of the Curiosity, a $2.5 billion mission that aims to see if the building blocks of life existed on early Mars.

On the East Coast, the landing will happen in the wee hours of Monday, Aug. 6 — or nighttime on Aug. 5 on the West Coast — and it will be competing for mindspace with the Summer Olympics. That is not stopping the Atlanta Science Tavern, which organizes popular science talks, from going all out for an evening that starts with five talks on planetary science and segues into “full-fledged party mode” at midnight when NASA television coverage of the landing starts. The festivities will conclude at 3 a.m.

Already 173 people have signed up. “It’s science,” said the group’s director, Marc Merlin, “but it’s also a public celebration of scientific achievement.”

Mr. Merlin said he was thinking of bringing a model of the Mars rover that would descend on a rope à la the lighted ball in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. “That would be the decoration I would like to do,” he said.

Technically, the seven minutes of terror will be more like 21 minutes of suspense. The capsule containing the Curiosity will hit the top of the Martian atmosphere just before 12:11 a.m. Eastern time on Aug. 6. The rover will be on the surface about seven minutes later. The only uncertainty is whether the rover will be in one piece or in smithereens.

On Earth, no one will know the outcome for almost 14 minutes as the spacecraft’s radio signals travel 150 million miles from Mars.

“When people look at it, it looks crazy,” says Adam Steltzner, a NASA engineer, in the “Seven Minutes” video as he describes the Rube Goldberg-esque landing process — heat shield, parachute, rocket engines and finally a hovering crane that lowers the rover to the surface.

Text flashes across the screen: “6 vehicle configurations,” then “76 pyrotechnic charges.”

“Sometimes when we look at it, it looks crazy” Mr. Steltzner goes on to say, before asserting more confidently, “It is the result of reasoned engineering thought.” Pause. “But it still looks crazy.”

The slick video is “definitely a step up,” said Reid Gower, a 26-year-old Canadian who was so frustrated by NASA’s previous efforts that last year he put together NASA snippets into a promotional video that he thought the space agency should be making. “That’s along the lines of what I feel they could be doing, something that’s education but also engaging. It’s not static and dry. It has emotional content in it.”