Close behind the weather, Facebook changes seem to be our second choice if we are looking for something to complain about. I don’t think there is any industry right now where it is more important for competitors to stay fresh and innovate. Social Media tools evolve at an incredible rate and Facebook needs to stay ahead of the game to maintain it’s industry leading position.
Some of the changes are clearly driven for Facebook’s new need to focus on shareholder value. This is sad and will (in my opinion) be the very reason the most popular Social Media Platform will eventually be replaced by a competitor that focuses less on revenue and more on social interaction. However, right now Facebook has over 900.000.000 users and dominates many online markets world wide.
As aggravating as constant change is, I find most of the changes Facebook has made in the last year positive.
Clearly the biggest change at the end of 2011 was the introduction of Timeline for Profiles with its large cover image and the ability to build a seamless history stretching beyond the launch of Facebook in 2004. The popular Social Media Platform is now a good solution for anybody that wants to paint a picture of their whole life. Remember when personal blogs became popular? Many of us wanted to do just that.
With Timeline came another worry about privacy – many were confused and there were many confusing messages going around. I wrote a blog post you may want to review: Facebook Privacy Settings Are Not Scary
In January 2012 Timeline became available worldwide and by now most Profiles feature the large Cover image and I for one really like it!
For brand pages Timeline was also the biggest innovation. Early 2012 we saw this major interface update coming in. After overcoming the shock of losing default landing tabs and making Welcome pages pretty much obsolete I think most of us now appreciate the opportunities of a cleaner interface and the large cover image.
You can find a short video summary about the changes here: Facebook Timeline for Pages – flyover
On my page I have created a section called Social Media Tips where I share short instructions on how to use some of the new functions like:
There are many more changes and only listing them took a long time. Have a look at this list – please vote on the changes you find most important and please leave a comment if you need help with any of the new functions.
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