The 6 New Changes That Are Shaking Up Facebook
Filed Under Social Marketing
If you’ve been on Facebook in the last few weeks, you’re probably wondering what is going on with all those crazy changes. Changes have been made and it’s been causing quite a stir in the social media world. So what are these changes and how will they affect you?
Here are six of the most notable changes that are shaking up Facebook which will impact the way you use the social network:
The Smarter “Friends” List
Before, anyone you accepted a friend request from was lumped into a large group. Now, you can move your pointer over the Friend button on each person’s profile and group them into separate categories like “Acquaintance,” “Close Friend,” “Family,” etc. With each selection, your subscription to each person’s posts will also change to “All Posts” for close friends and “Only Important” for acquaintances.
Lists will also be created on their own, thanks to analysis conducted by Facebook, based on information gathered about your work history, family, location, and school.
Presenting: The Ticker
Facebook’s new Ticker feature is a live feed that gives you up-to-the-minute updates of what’s happening. You can click on any story you see on the Ticker and throw in your own two cents.
Get Top Stories in Your News Feed
Gone are the days where your news feed was overrun with stories that made no difference to you. Depending on how long it’s been since your last visit to your page, you could see a listing of the “Top” stories or only the more “Recent” ones.
Photos and status updates will be listed at the top and are flagged with a blue top-left corner.
Get Updates That Matter to You
This handy option will let you determine how much news you want to get from people. You can even subscribe to people you aren’t “Friends” with. You can choose to see all updates, only most, or just the most important ones. You can elect to see only photos from a friend, keep your feed from being blown up by gaming updates, and stop getting updates from some people. These changes can be done by clicking on each person’s “Subscribe” button.
The Profile Button Has Bowed Out
You’ll have noticed that the top-right corner no longer sports the old trio of home-Profile-Account. Now you will see a thumbnail of yourself and your name in place of Profile. Account has also been replaced with a down arrow to give you access to your privacy and account settings and your logout button.
Small Changes We Like
As well as the more noticeable changes that Facebook has made, there are several more that may have escaped your notice:
Much to everyone’s relief, our inboxes are no longer swamped with notifications for every little thing. Instead, they are summed up in only one a day.
Any comments or posts added in another language will offer you a “translate” button
You can wish friends a Happy Birthday by leaving a post on their wall without having to navigate away from your own.
Shared posts will have links to the people who shared them.
On Business Pages, you don’t have to reach 25 likes in order to get a custom URL
You can also see “Friend activity” on business your pages with a new feed
As they say, the only thing that stays the same is that things always change. This is especially true when it comes to the Web. The people behind social media are constantly making changes that will help optimize their sites and make them even more user-friendly.
With Facebook, the changes have had their fair share of complaints, but with time the new additions will be as commonplace as your profile picture.
What do you think of the new updates to your Facebook page? How has it impacted your usage? What changes would you like to see face book make? Share with us!
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Dawn Pigoni, IVAA Member
