Facebook’s Changes for Marketing

With the advent of the newly improved NewsFeed and Timeline launched at the f8 conference, Facebook’s changes for marketers is once again pointing in the direction of better more relevant content and quality two way communication with customers.  As a matter of fact, marketers are becoming more like publishers, so it might be time to brush up on your writing skills if you want to adapt to Facebook’s changes for marketers.

Facebook’s Changes for Marketers | User Control

One of Facebook’s changes for marketers that may be the most threatening is definitely the new preferences it gives to users.  Here’s Mashable’s take on the subject:

One big change is that Facebook has added a control in the top right of each story that users can check to unmark a top story. Facebook will use that information over time to automatically edit the feeds. Since users now have more control over their news feeds, brands with boring or irrelevant updates will have lower visibility. (They will still show up in the Ticker, however.)

Facebook’s Changes for Marketers | Integrating Into The Story

Facebook’s new Timeline is definitely up there at the top as far as Facebook’s changes for marketers are concerned.  Rather than just posting some content that will eventually disappear on a user’s feed, now with the Timeline its more about the story.  Brands will want to connect with that story by finding ways to work their product or services into the user’s Timeline.   Facebook’s changes for marketers includes the necessity of creating relevant applications that users can implement into their Timelines.  For example we could have a running app that maps out your running routes and it could be powered by Nike.  Here’s what Mashable has to say about it:

Nir Refuah, vice president of McCann Digital in Israel, says that with Facebook’s redesign, consumers will be creating a “digital autobiography” in which brands will have to integrate themselves. “First Facebook became the digital ID of everyone, and now it will try to gather our whole life story,” says Refuah.

The emphasis on lifestreaming rather than merely using the platform to amplify a message means that apps will become more of a vehicle for branding. But, like the marketing messaging, Schafer says apps will also have to be genuinely interesting to consumers and their friends. “Apps with utility that allow you to consume more or participate more will be more important,” says Schafer.

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebooks-changes-marketers/

Facebook’s Changes for Marketers | The Death of “Like”

Facebook’s changes for marketers changes the whole face of the social media marketing game as the platform slips away from the “Like” button and allows users to view and share content without actually clicking “Like.”  This means that Facebook’s changes for marketers is focusing more on quality content, step your game up folks.

The change will require new thinking from marketers who had merely tried to accumulate as many fans and “Likes” as possible. Jenna Lebel,managing director of strategy at Likeable Media, says the “Like” is “a little less relevant now,” and that marketers will have to work harder to earn their place in news feeds. “Your content is going to need to be absolutely amazing,” she says.

Colin Murphy, social media director at Skinny, a digital ad agency, thinks overall, the changes are a challenge to marketers and agencies. “He really threw down the gauntlet today,” Murphy says of Mark Zuckerberg. “You actually have to deliver something of value to a customer rather than just being a person spamming.”

Image: http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/social-media-roundups/25-tips-for-killer-facebook-marketing/