Thoughts on the new Facebook page
Recently Facebook decided to change the design for the Facebook page. Facebook page has been a useful tool for businesses to reach out to a huge user base and create their own community.
The previous design for Facebook page is clean and looks rather different to a user profile page. The new design tries to achieve the same look and feel as the user profile page. I am still not too sure if I like the new design. As my content are mainly photos, the new design looks good better with bigger display of the photos. However, it seems that it might be more difficult for businesses to distinguish themselves since they look too much like normal users page.
Another important change is that the new Facebook page has become better integrated with the news feed. This allows businesses to easily share updates with their members. You can now post status updates though I think businesses should be careful not to over communicate with this feature that updates become more like spam.
Currently i find it weird to converse using a business as an entity. I mean I can use the status update to provide information to members such as Pitstop Cafe is organizing a meetup but it can become weird with status update that says Pitstop Cafe finds the group of girls playing Monopoly kinda of adorable. Not that I want to do that but you can see that it doesn't feel that human and it isn't that conversational. It will be interesting to see how business can use these new abilities to engage their customers better.
The new Facebook page does provide new opportunities for viral marketing but it also brings up an interesting issue on control. The change to the new Facebook page design might not be optional and businesses do not have much control over this aspect. It is should be one of the factors to take into consideration when deciding between using existing social networks or creating your own branded social network.
What are your thoughts? Do you like the new Facebook page?
