There are lots of places you can read about the new Facebook changes. Or of course, you could just log-in to Facebook and play around. As a result, this isn’t a post about what they are; its a post about what they mean for brands, alongside a prediction of one of the effects the change will have.

Let me know your thoughts!



Facebook Subscribe

This is a fundamental change in the symmetrical nature of all Facebook interactions up to this point. Now, it is possible to have asymmetrical relationships in the same way that occurs on Twitter (i.e. you can follow someone and see their updates, and they do not need to approve your request, nor do they have to follow you back and see your updates). This is entirely different to the approve/reject Facebook friend mechanic and opens up a whole new way of interacting and getting information from individuals in particular.

Prediciton: Facebook Challenges Twitter for the Famous

Individuals and Celebrities will be able to have a more ‘natural’ and closer relationship with their fans; something that Twitter has dominated in recent years. Facebook will undoubtably challenge Twitter as the platform of choice for this purpose, particuarly amongst indivudals who are not typical celebrities (i.e. fame-whores), such as authors and thinkers. The rise of Tom Anderson (original founder of Myspace) in becoming one of the most subscribed Facebook accounts since the roll-out of the feature, highlights the sort of people that the subscribe function will most likely benefit.

Facebook Newsfeed

The changes to the Facebook newsfeed are very important for brands. Fundementally, it means that the Edgerank, (the algorithm which used to calculate what appears on the newsfeed of your brands fans) has significantly changed. Fans of brand pages may now have not see updates, or they may be much lower down in their newsfeed as Facebook deems them less important and/or personal to them. However, conversely, the new algorithm may push them up. It will be very important over then next two weeks to monitor page impressions and engagement levels to see if there is any significant impact.

Prediction: A New Obsession with Top Stories

The introduction of Top Stories means engagement levels just got more important than ever before., The Top Stories bracket at the top of the newsfeed is now prime Facebook real estate, and getting your brand into it will be a key goal of any page. Not only will it cause a huge boost in opportunities to see, it will inevitably lead to more engagement, a stronger front of mind presence and eventually, advocacy. Furthermore, great content will see fans click the blue top story corner, to tell Facebook they want to hear from you more – whilst if you manage to gatecrash the Top Stories of a user once, the new Facebook algoritim, will make it more likely that you’ll be a Top Story again. If you can get in there for a large number of your fans, your engagement levels will be incredibly impressive and the endless debate about the best time to post will be dead – you won’t be in the real-time feed with the peasants anymore.

Facebook Ticker

Essentially, the Ticker removes some of the direct exposure the brands can get to new audiences. Now, when someone writes on your brand wall, it won‘t be pushed into their friends newsfeeds. Instead, it will go in to the ticker – which will be read less, receive less clicks, and will be pushed down and out of sight through other activity quickly. This is the same for when someone ‘likes’ your brand, meaning each new like now has less ‘virability’ and visibility.
Therefore, brand status updates are now the only way to get into the newsfeed, and where most ‘eyeballs’ are looking. That’s right; Top Stories are even more important because of the Ticker.

Prediction: The End of the Push Notification Wars

The push notification wars between brands, apps and games and Facebook users has been a long and ugly one. Generally speaking, most people hate having updates pushed onto their wall and their newsfeeds, and will refuse to do it. The ticker is a new and less sacred place; plus, Facebook deliberatly has made it require less permissions for brands, apps and games to target. Essentially, if you create an app and lots of people play it, you will now probabyl get more exposure thanks to the ticker, than you would have before, due to people blocking you access to their newsfeeds and walls. Expect to see third party apps trying to get as much exposure in that ticker as they possibly can, and ugly and intrusive push notifications to start being written out of programs.