The recent Facebook redesign will mean some big changes to the way marketers approach the site. There is now a lot less to like about the Like. The writing is on the wall, and it’s been there for some time.
Its easy to see why marketers focused on the Like. They are easy to get, they showed up in everyone’s newsfeed and they provide a simple measure of a page’s popularity. The problem is they aren’t all that meaningful and they were just contributing to the noise.
In the new Facebook, a hierarchy of content has emerged. Posts and Likes aren’t appearing in the newsfeed automatically anymore. A new ticker section on the right side of the page has a constantly updated stream of user activities. Likes, comments, happy birthday wishes for the guy you met at your cousin’s barbecue, and the songs friends are listening to on Spotify are all moving to the ticker. It may be interesting to see that someone is still rocking out to Kansas, but it’s not that important. That’s why it’s here. If you are making posts just to fill the space, this is where it will end up. Just a drop of water in an endless sea.
The main newsfeed is the prominent part of the page and this where the important stuff appears. It’s a personal newspaper created by followers and the people they find interesting. When people are talking about your product in detail and sharing photos, video and links, it will be featured here.
A new Timelines feature will ensure these conversations live forever. Timelines take everything someone has done on Facebook and presents it chronologically by category so others can easily see your posts, actions and experiences shared over time.
Forrester Research called Timelines “word of mouth on steroids”. Sean Corcoran wrote:
“As the ability to share experiences matures, companies that are effective in getting influentials to speak on their behalf will succeed more. This will make two key skills even that much more important in the future: 1) providing great product experiences that people will share; and 2) getting customers to become advocates who share on your behalf over the long term.”
Facebook’s product director summed it all up when he said:
“Marketing on Facebook is all about social discovery, which is how you learn things from your friends.”
Some say this new hierarchy punishes brands. If they make a lot of meaningless posts, it does. Isn’t that good for everybody? Maybe it’s Facebook’s way to push brands to buy ads. Or maybe it’s because people just don’t find posts and pages from all that interesting. Either way, the game has changed.
With the new Facebook, effective social marketing is a whole lot better than a Like. If you want to get your brand included in the conversation, you have to break through the clutter. You can’t do it alone. You have to get customers excited about your brand so they use their Walls to tell your story.
