Welcome to the new world order… today, Facebook hosted another news conference to unveil (shocker) yet another redesign!
Sometimes these announcements tend to elicit yawns (ahem, Graph Search), but today's presentation demonstrated many opportunities for marketers using Facebook to further their business purposes. The live conference was broken up into 3 sections:
Richer Photos
Facebook acknowledged that when arriving at the homepage, the majority of Facebook users pay most attention to the newsfeed. Not the list of apps on the left side, the ticker, and certainly not the ads. So, Facebook has made the newsfeed much larger and in doing so, all photos will also be much larger, as will photo albums. Posted links will contain larger images, longer descriptions, and the logo of the publisher. When you hover over the name of a friend or page, the Cover Photo will appear even larger than before. And you'll be able to see who has shared videos and links much more easily.
Courtesy of AllFacebook.com
What does this mean for marketers?
- If using photos in your Facebook marketing hasn't been a main strategy for your business, it's time to shift gears. A photo-centric marketing strategy on Facebook has been important for awhile, but this adds extra emphasis.
- Hey bloggers and publishers, the selection of photos used in your articles is even more important. Facebook will be automatically attaching the publisher's logo, which means you better have a good and recognizable logo. Also you'll need an engaging and great description for your post, to entice fans to click on the link.
- Cover photo – It's going to get even greater exposure, so make it a good one.
- Videos – People will be able to see which of their friends have shared this, along with their photos and comments they have made about the video. Make them engaging AND shareable!
Choice Of Feeds
Those of us struggling to get our companies' content into the newsfeeds of ALL fans (as opposed to the 16% that blasted Edgerank gives us)… your prayers have been answered. Well, sort of. Fans can now choose from a variety of newsfeeds (seen below) and will be able to see all posts from all friends and/or pages! Here are some of the feeds:
- All Friends – You can now see posts from everybody, not just the top friends.
- Close Friends – This helps you to weed out the dreck… you know, those friends who sent requests and you didn't want to accept but felt you had to…
- Topic feeds – music, sports, etc.
- Photos feed – Just what it sounds like… if you only want to see the photos shared by your friends, this is for you.
- Following feed – You can now see posts for all the pages you are following in chronological order… hallelujah!
- Current feed – They are revamping this to include everything – all posts from friends and pages. Awesome!
It seems that all of these newsfeed changes would take away the importance of Facebook ads, and promoting posts so your fans can see the content. I guess the impact on ads and revenue for Facebook remains to be seen.
Mobile Consistency
The view of Facebook's newsfeed, on all devices, be it desktop/laptop, tablet or mobile phone will now all be the same. This provides for a consistent user experience, no matter how you access Facebook.
- The new design allows for the chat tray on smaller devices, for those of you clamoring for this feature.
- “New stories” box will appear at the top of newsfeed on PC, just like you’ll see on the iPhone or iPad.
Coming soon…?
This all sounds great, right? Can't wait to use it, can you? Well, you're gonna have to. Go to this link, scroll to the bottom, and join the waiting list for the new and improved newsfeed on the web. It will be rolled out over time for tablets and mobile devices. Who knows how long it will take, but I think it will be worth it!
What do you think of the new design?
