Facebook Unveils Changes to the Newsfeed

Facebook Unveils Changes to the Newsfeed

Facebook unveiled some key things that are changing to how the Timeline is viewed. Before you click away because you focus more on your brand page and don’t care about changes to the personal timeline, think about this: as a business social media marketer, the user experience is the cornerstone of connectivity. Even if changes may not specifically impact how pages are viewed, they do affect your entire audience. That’s why it’s important to know about them and understand them.

Good. You’re still with us. Here’s a quick summary of what’s changing:

-Pictures will be bigger. Photo albums shared also get a redesign.

-No more Facebook! Well not exactly, the word “Facebook” doesn’t appear, only the lower case “f” logo.  They said they wanted to make it simpler and cleaner.

-Wait, simpler? Yes. So they said. Now instead of two ways to view your Facebook newsfeed “Top Stories” and “Most Recent” you’ll have many more options (so it’s actually more complicated?). There’s a friends only, pictures, games, following, music, and groups streams that you can click on.  All these will still use Facebook’s algorithm, Edgerank, to decide what you see.

This is where it gets interesting for brand pages.  When asked if the new Timeline view impacts brand pages directly, the panel from Facebook said “no.”  We’re skeptical. According to Facebook, brands and public figures you follow or “like” will fall under the “following” stream and users will have to click to the different stream to see the updates. However, the question remains: if your friends like content on the page, will those actions then be broadcast in your Friend’s only stream? It’s a lot of “wait and see.”

We think there’s going to be more concentration on ads, sponsored stories, and promoted posts.  You know, the stuff that costs some money.  It’s still some of the cheapest form of advertising you can get, but we think it’s going to become even more worth your while.

For now, you can sign up to be on the waiting list for the new Timeline view here: https://www.facebook.com/about/newsfeed

Let us know what you think, what you’re concerned about, and what you’d like to see below: