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Practice Management > Marketing and Communications > Social Media

The Evolution of Facebook, Part 2

By Amy McIlwain

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Previously, I gave an overview of the recent Facebook profile changes and the gradual launch of the Timeline. Now that you know how to navigate and utilize the features of the Timeline we’re going to discuss what these recent updates mean for your business’s marketing strategy.

 Automatic feed editing. One of the biggest changes that will affect Fan Pages is the added control in the top right corner of each story. Over time, Facebook will tally users’ top stories and automatically edit newsfeed based on their engagement. This means that businesses need to amp up their content and sharing strategy. To create more engagement, try sharing more interactive types of content like photos, videos, offers and questions to help boost your engagement ratings and make your business more visible in the feed. Brands with boring or irrelevant updates will still show up in a fan’s ticker, but they’ll have lower visibility on the newsfeed.

Applications = brand promotion. The recent changes for marketers have resulted in the need to create relevant applications that users can implement into their Timelines. In other words, the creation of the Timeline has changed the Facebook platform into a story-like artifact where brands must try to integrate themselves into a user’s “bigger picture.” Applications act as branding vehicles for Fan Pages—they increase engagement and therefore the visibility and exposure on a user’s Timeline and newsfeed.

“Like” loses its shine. Gone are the days of attempting to accumulate as many “likes” as possible. Welcome to the new phase of Fan Pages, where quality content and engagement are more important than ever. The number of “likes” a company has will still play an important role in metrics and analytics, but the latest updates have placed a heavy emphasis on content and engagements, meaning that other factors, such as such content performance and engagement levels, will play an important role for brands as well.

Depending upon how you look at it, the Facebook changes could ultimately help or hurt your brand and its digital footprint. Personally, I think that the changes are fantastic—I’ve always been an advocate of quality content, and these changes demand a superior social-media marketing strategy with a heavy emphasis on storytelling. Businesses need to take another look at their marketing strategy and ensure that they are on the right track.

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Amy McIlwain is a professional speaker on social media and president of Financial Social Media, an online marketing firm specializing in the financial industry. She can be reached through her website at www.financialsocialmedia.com and on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

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