The New Face of Facebook

by Hector Cisneros

With more than a billion subscribers, Facebook is the most widely used social network in the world. The folks behind the scenes at Facebook tell us that they are working hard to improve the user experience. They also say that they are working to provide a business friendly advertising medium. Facebook's founder makes new promises every year with regards to upgrades and added features. As a matter of fact, they add new feature so often that it makes me wonder why this constant tweaking is needed. They are currently twice as big as their nearest competitor.

Image via CrunchBase

The problem with all the tinkering is that if you find a feature you love, it can suddenly vanish. Do the  constant changes and add-ons to Facebook frustrate you?  Do Facebook's constant changes tick you off? If so then this article is for you. We will explore the many ever-changing faces of Face Book and show you where to find help and where features have been moved. This article will help you make heads or tails of the new face of Facebook.

Since its inception in 2004, Facebook has been at the center of social media. Its meteoric rise from unknown social network to the industry-leading juggernaut in 2013 has been nothing short of meteoric. Today Facebook has more than a billion subscriber’s along with hoards of fans and a number of detractors who say the popularity of Facebook is slipping. Every year Facebook has made functional and cosmetic changes to its social platform. Some of these changes have been met with applause and others with disdain.

Image via CrunchBase

What’s amazing to me is that Facebook and other software companies ignore a very important fact. Most people in the world don’t like change. Studies have shown that only about 25% of all software users look

 forward to upgrades and changes. About 50 percent don’t like change but will tolerate it if there are perceivable benefits and there are the last 25 percent that just hate change. That means that 75 percent of all users don’t want rapid changes. Yet rapid changes is the norm in the software world today. Let's cover some of the newest changes going on at Facebook

The new Timeline allows for bigger picture and videos as well as organizing your news feed in a way that

 allows your tabs to display information by category. The default news feed page lists your posts on the right side. The left side contains information about you, followed by sections containing your friends, photos and your likes for music, movies, TV show, books etc… Clicking on the tab for any of these items moves them to center stage for you or your friends to see.

Facebook new Graph Search will allow you to search and find others who have similar interests to you. It will allow you to use simple phrases like “find photos taken by friends in Key West” or “show me people who like windsurfing”. This feature is not yet available to all users. There is a waiting list you can get on to try it out when it is finally released. I have added myself to the list because I believe this could be a significant tool that subscribers will love.

Facebook adds a dedicated music tab. The music tab was recently added along with tabs for movies, TV show, books, likes, notes and places. This information was available in your profile before but Facebook decided that creating tabs for each item type made for better organization similar to the way a newspaper is organized into sections.

Facebook chat function allows you to enter into a chat session with anyone listed in the chat function tab in the lower right hand corner of your Facebook home page. This not so much a new function as it is a function that has moved around and been refined over the last year or so. It now sits out of the way unless you click on the chat tab, which in turn makes it pop up, showing you how many of your friends are online right now.

Illustration of Facebook mobile interface (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Facebook confusing Edge Rank algorithm. This algorithm determines if a subscriber sees your ad based on a myriad of criteria. For example, a post can appear in a subscribers timeline based on its category (photo, video or text), how long the post has been displayed, if you recently interacted with that subscriber, how popular it is (via likes and comments) and so on. It’s easy to see that it would be hard to predict how often subscribers would see your ad. This is also borne out by reports that ad results have been poor.

The Facebook cell phone. Facebook recently teamed up with HTC to produce an Android phone with a home page Facebook app as the standard interface. Initial sales have been a little slow but I am sure that for the Facebook addicted masses, this cell phone will fit right in.

 Facebook Home for Android. If you don’t want to buy a Facebook cell phone, you can convert your current Android Smartphone to a Facebook phone by just downloading the Homepage Facebook app. As of this week, over 500,000 Facebook Home Page apps have been downloaded from Google play.  

Facebook continues to grow despite the predictions by detractors that they are slipping. Facebook just built a new $1.5 billion data center in Iowa. This means that they are serious about being in control of their own infrastructure and quality control. There have been some recent studies that show small businesses moving their advertising from Facebook to LinkedIn, Pintrest and Twitter. Small businesses have shown their frustration with the new and confusing Edge Rank algorithm, which has produced poor results for small businesses. On the other hand Facebook has shown tremendous resiliency even in the face of its constant tinkering with its interface and functions. There is no doubt that adding features and improving function is a worthwhile endeavor. I for one vote for fewer upgrades and slower change.  Once a year is enough.

In this article, I have discussed several of the newest Facebook features and innovations. I have discussed the subscriber frustrations associated with the constant changes implemented by Facebook. I also have mentioned the migration of many small business owners to other social networks like LinkedIn and Pintrest, caused by the confusion and poor results of Facebook new Edge Rank algorithm. In addition, I have provided a short list of articles worth reading is you are a Facebook aficionado in need of comprehensive detail. If you enjoyed this article past it on to a friend, if you have a different opinion add that in the comment section of this article. I hope to share other articles with you in the near future. That’s my opinion; I look forward to hearing yours.

Hector Cisneros is CFO of W Squared Media Group, a Jacksonville, Florida based Internet marketing agency.  You may also hear Hector live on Working the Web to Win every Tuesday at 4pm Eastern.