Introduction
Facebook is redesigning its news feed, and it could have profound implications for marketers. In addition to new features designed to make the platform more useful and intuitive for all users, Facebook has made a decision to emphasize its value as an important source of news over its ability to deliver highly-targeted advertising messages. As such, marketers will likely want to take note of these changes in order to ensure they stay ahead of the curve when promoting on Facebook.
Facebook’s news feed has received a major facelift. The new design is minimalistic, simpler, and organized with subsections for “Top News” and “Recent Stories.”
For those of you who haven’t heard the news yet, Facebook is rolling out a new design to its news feed. The new design is minimalistic, simpler and organized with subsections for “Top News” and “Recent Stories.”
The previous version of Facebook’s news feed was designed as a vertical timeline where users saw updates from their friends as they came in real-time. This meant that if you hadn’t checked your Facebook account for several hours or days, it could look cluttered with posts from other people. When users log into their accounts, they will see a much cleaner feed that shows only the posts that matter most to them first (irrespective of time). This gives users more control over what information appears on their screens and allows them to easily scroll through relevant content at any given time period without getting overwhelmed by irrelevant information overload (read – notifications). Sounds great, doesn’t it?
The new design is meant to make Facebook’s platform more intuitive and easier to use for users who are not yet familiar with the site or who may have gotten put off by the irrelevant content being shoved in their faces. This could help improve the platform’s reputation among younger users, who may feel alienated by the current design of Facebook. As part of the redesign, all posts are now displayed in a simple chronological format with large images that will be difficult to miss. The company also introduced a feature that allows users to subscribe to preferred content by selecting pre-made feeds such as “News” or “Activity.” Users can also filter out certain topics from their newsfeeds.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged that the company needs to “do better” in helping users understand how data is collected and used for advertising purposes. The company recently introduced new privacy controls for its 2 billion+ active monthly users, including a simplified way for users to download all their data from Facebook and delete it completely from their accounts, should they wish to.
What does this mean for marketers? You’ll want to know that the news feed is becoming more like Twitter, with an emphasis on real-time “Recent Posts” content and less personalized “Top News” content.
News feeds are changing as Facebook tries to keep its platform relevant by prioritizing posts from family and friends over everything else.
In order to combat the negative reputation associated with targeted advertising, Facebook is switching to a model where they emphasize their value as an important source of news. The move comes after a year of scandals that have undermined consumer confidence in the platform.
This new design could radically change how your marketers use Facebook in the future.
Facebook is trying to put its best face forward, but it’s still too early to tell how effective their efforts will be. The new design is meant to make Facebook more intuitive and useful for all users – particularly the younger ones who are growing up with a different type of online experience than we did. Could this move change how marketers utilize Facebook? We’ll have to just wait and watch!
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