Part 2 of my article regarding the recent changes announced on Facebook and the implications they are likely to have on future outreach campaigns.
Following the announcement on Thursday 22nd September by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook at the F8 conference that significant changes are due to be rolled out across the platform, the challenge is on for brands and businesses to ensure their social outreach strategies are accordingly aligned and best place to maximise user engagement.
In addition to the announcement of changes to user profiles, into a new timeline format, the introduction of Facebook gestures is particularly relevant for brands. Through Facebook Gestures, brand developers will now be able to create their own versions of the original “like” button, in accordance with activities performed by the user within an app. As a result, rather than a user simply clicking that they like something, there will be a considered move to verbs with users being able to demonstrate that they are reading, watching, needing or wanting for example. Whilst this may appear a simple question of semantics of change in tone, this subtle shift is likely to prompt much greater user engagement, which remains a key concern for many brands.
However, one of the main challenges for brands under the new Facebook functionality, and having invested significantly in ensuring the prominence of their communications through the existing Facebook functionality, is one of continued visibility. With the planned changes to the newsfeed, the weighting of content is now more important than ever. The more relevant or important content is deemed by the all seeing Facebook algorithms, the greater its chance of appearing within the top / recent news feeds, whereas content that is not deemed up to scratch will have to make do with a place in the rolling “ticker” located in the top right hand corner of each user’s page.
Getting this balance right is important. Whilst the ticker appears to demonstrate an increased depth of information than the original newsfeed, the fact that it is in real time (allied to the fact that it does include more information) means that any content appearing there only has a short shelf life compared to under the original system.
There are indeed a great many considerations for brands as a result of the new Facebook functionality, and a great number yet to be shared. However, the wise money would be on researching the impact of these challenges now to ensure that brands are maximising communication and visibility from the outset, as it’s likely to be much harder to play catch up later on.
The Shape of Social Media In 2012
We take a look at the landscape for social media over the coming year.
Reflections of Social Media dystopia abound in Black Mirror
A review of the Black Mirror series and its reflections on our reliance on social media.
Facebook F8 Announcement Raises the Bar for Brands & Consumers - Part 5
Part 5 in my series reviewing the implications of the changes to Facebook announced at the F8 conference.
