The world is now aware of the drastic changes that Facebook made to their website last week. And of course, these changes didn’t come without harsh criticism and opposition from its 800 million users. Facebook users didn’t know what to do initially… except complain. A friend of mine wrote that “Complaining about the new Facebook changes on Twitter was like complaining about your ex to your new girlfriend.”
So what were these drastic changes that turned the world upside down for a few days? In their effort to take over the world, Facebook added a few applications to make the site more efficient and competitive. Their new system of “Top Stories” and “Most Recent” posts makes it easier for users to block out the people and or business’s that they don’t wish to read as often. It introduced a “Live Feed Ticker” to compete with Twitter, giving you an updated feed of what everyone is doing at all times (as if Facebook wasn’t already creepy enough). It has an application to check-in to locations to compete with Foursquare. They’ve also integrated Hulu, Spotify, and Yahoo News so that friends can watch movies, share music, and stay up to date on news stories with each other. These are just a few changes in the first wave of things to come.
While these changes may have a temporary effect on consumers, they will have a much stronger effect on brands.
The “Like” button will play a much smaller role in publishing content. Previously when a consumer “liked” a photo, video, or post on a brand’s page, it would be displayed on their page so that all of their friends could see this. This is no longer the case, giving brands less of an influence on Facebook. Furthermore, consumers now have the ability to decide what they wish to mark as a “top story”. Facebook algorithms can now use this information to filter out stories over time that seem of no importance to the user. This puts much more pressure on brands to come up with creative and engaging content. The more clicks and interactions a brand has with its fans, the more top stories that brand will have with that specific user. This sets the foundations for better brand relationships.
On the upside, brands also now have the ability to promote a specific post, not just the most recent. This can be highly effective if they are trying to reach the widest audience possible with something that is extremely important to them. Previously, messages only reached 5-20% of their fan base. With this feature, they have the potential to reach everyone.
It is human nature to complain about something new. But the fact is that we use Facebook so much that three weeks from now our attitudes will have changed and we will have gotten used to the newer, sexier Facebook that replaced our ex-girlfriend.
Latest Facebook Changes
The world is now aware of the drastic changes that Facebook made to their website last week. And of course, these changes didn’t come without harsh criticism and opposition from its 800 million users. Facebook users didn’t know what to do initially… except complain. A friend of mine wrote that “Complaining about the new Facebook changes on Twitter was like complaining about your ex to your new girlfriend.”
So what were these drastic changes that turned the world upside down for a few days? In their effort to take over the world, Facebook added a few applications to make the site more efficient and competitive. Their new system of “Top Stories” and “Most Recent” posts makes it easier for users to block out the people and or business’s that they don’t wish to read as often. It introduced a “Live Feed Ticker” to compete with Twitter, giving you an updated feed of what everyone is doing at all times (as if Facebook wasn’t already creepy enough). It has an application to check-in to locations to compete with Foursquare. They’ve also integrated Hulu, Spotify, and Yahoo News so that friends can watch movies, share music, and stay up to date on news stories with each other. These are just a few changes in the first wave of things to come.
While these changes may have a temporary effect on consumers, they will have a much stronger effect on brands.
The “Like” button will play a much smaller role in publishing content. Previously when a consumer “liked” a photo, video, or post on a brand’s page, it would be displayed on their page so that all of their friends could see this. This is no longer the case, giving brands less of an influence on Facebook. Furthermore, consumers now have the ability to decide what they wish to mark as a “top story”. Facebook algorithms can now use this information to filter out stories over time that seem of no importance to the user. This puts much more pressure on brands to come up with creative and engaging content. The more clicks and interactions a brand has with its fans, the more top stories that brand will have with that specific user. This sets the foundations for better brand relationships.
On the upside, brands also now have the ability to promote a specific post, not just the most recent. This can be highly effective if they are trying to reach the widest audience possible with something that is extremely important to them. Previously, messages only reached 5-20% of their fan base. With this feature, they have the potential to reach everyone.
It is human nature to complain about something new. But the fact is that we use Facebook so much that three weeks from now our attitudes will have changed and we will have gotten used to the newer, sexier Facebook that replaced our ex-girlfriend.