Changes, Changes, Changes …. How do you keep up with all of the changes going on in social media these days?
Have you taken notice to all the recent changes occurring on Facebook? If you haven’t checked them all out yet here’s a quick list of some of the most recent changes and how to navigate your way through them.
Subscribe Feature : The new subscribe feature allows users to subscribe to a personal profile to receive their posts in their newsfeed even if they are not friends. Depending on how you are using Facebook everyday will determine if this feature is beneficial to your everyday use. This feature is a long awaited feature for many “public figures” who use their personal page to promote their business or brand that had long past met the 5000 friend limit. It essentially removes that limit so that now you can grow your network unlimited.
This has raised the issue from some on whether this would make Business Fan Pages obsolete ~ and my overwhelming response to this is “absolutely not!” This just expands your reach further in a different way. Utilizing a Fan Page will still be essential to presenting your brand on Facebook for several reasons. The features of a Facebook Fan Page including creating custom branded pages and the ability to run FB ad campaigns are still a key component in effectively marketing your brand on Facebook and these features are not available on a personal profile.
Here’s what Facebook has to say about this new feature on their Facebook + Public Figures Page
“If you are a business or organization, like Coke, you can only use a Page. If you are an individual who wants to share your updates with a larger audience, you may want to use a profile with subscribers. Public Figures, like Malcolm Gladwell, can use a profile with subscribe, a Page, or both.
A profile with subscribers is ideal if you want to personally connect with people who are interested in you.
It’s fun to receive updates from friends and others that you want to subscribe to, and it’s easy to publish to your subscribers on the go. Anyone who subscribes to your profile can receive your public posts in their News Feed. Learn More
Pages have advanced marketing features for managing your brand or business on Facebook.
Pages can be maintained by multiple people on your team, offer insights to understand who your fans are, and let you target posts by language and location (ex: Tell only fans in New York about your show there next week). You can also promote Pages with Facebook Ads and Sponsored Stories. Create a Page or Learn More“
The feature is not automatic you have to subscribe to it which is a big relief to many Facebook users who do not want anyone and everyone to be able to read their daily posts. For more step by step info on this new feature check out this complete guide to Facebook’s new subscribe button given by AllFacebook.com.
A few other features added to pages:
View All Shares: This new feature allows you as a page owner to view who is sharing your content so that you can keep track of your top raving fans and also take the time to go and Thank them and make a real connection with them. You can also view all shares on other page owners pages which adds just one more level of ways to connect to other Facebook users.
Less Emails from Facebook: I also received an email from Facebook notifying me that I would be receiving less notifications from them.
Here’s what they had to say about this on their Facebook wall:
“We’re testing a feature for people who are very active on Facebook and receive lots of email notifications from us. We’ll provide a new summary email and turn off most individual email notifications. If you want to turn them back on, there’s a control in your account settings.”
I don’t know about you but I am always glad to get less email everyday… my inbox is flooded with stuff I just really don’t have time to read unless it is pressing.
No Longer need 25 Fans: As of yesterday we no longer need 25 fans to create a custom url for a new Fan Page. This was an annoying little rule that made it difficult for new Page owners to set their Fan Page url to match their brand name or url of choice like this one http://www.facebook.com/BoldBranding instead of the enormously long url that Facebook would give out when you first set your page up … so thankfully this new change is now in effect!
Improved Friends List: Facebook has made some huge improvements to the Lists feature making it much easier to organize and choose which lists you want certain posts to go to with their new “Smart Lists” feature. This has been said to be Facebook’s quick reaction to Google’s + “Circles” feature … but either way it is a great improvement.
This is how Facebook explains it:
“To make lists incredibly easy and even more useful, we’re announcing three improvements:
- Smart lists – You’ll see smart lists that create themselves and stay up-to-date based on profile info your friends have in common with you–like your work, school, family and city.
- Close Friends and Acquaintances lists – You can see your best friends’ photos and posts in one place, and see less from people you’re not as close to.
- Better suggestions – You can add the right friends to your lists without a lot of effort.
Friend Lists are completely optional. If you don’t like lists, you don’t have to use them.”
Facebook Deals Ending: A few weeks ago in the numerous changes Facebook announced they also put out this statement about Facebook Deals. They said that after a 4 month test they have decided to end their Deals product in the next coming weeks.
Changes to the Status Update: Another great change that will make our everyday use of Facebook more convenient is the changes to the status updates. Now when posting a status update we can customize it according to who we are with(by tagging), where we are in location(you can turn this on or off at anytime), and control your privacy settings per post (controlling who can comment on the post and view the post) 
FYI: Once you change the privacy setting for a post it will stay that way for all future posts till you change it again. Visit this note shared by Facebook for more details on how this new feature works!
Some of the features mentioned above may not be active on all profiles and pages since Facebook tends to roll things out over a period of time for different users.
Let me know your thoughts on all of these changes below in the comments and if you like what’s new on facebook!
To Your Success!
Kate Wilber
The Marketing Momma