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Facebook Update: Subscribe Button

The battle between the social media front runners is heating up and there is no end in sight. This intense competition for consumers online social life will surely beget some innovative, creative, and aggressive updates to each of the social network platforms. Both Google and Twitter made recent news with the beta launch of Google+ and the “recent image” feature now present on all Twitter profiles. So what has been Facebook been up to? Well, they have been developing several new updates, the first of the recent updates: a “subscribe” feature.

Facebook software engineer Zach Rait, weighed in on the roll out in a blog post the day the update was launched, “Until now, it hasn’t been easy to choose exactly what you see in your News Feed. Maybe you don’t want to see every time your brother plays a game on Facebook, for example. Or maybe you’d like to see more stories from your best friends, and fewer from your coworkers. You also couldn’t hear directly from people you are interested in but do not know personally.” Facebook subscribe is the answer to these problems. With the subscribe button you are able to:

  1. “Choose what you see from people in News Feed
  2. Hear from people, even if you’re not friends
  3. Let people hear from you, even if you’re not friends.”

Highlights

  • You are able to customize what posts are shared to just your friends and which ones are shared to everyone, including those subscribing to your profile
  • You do not have to manage two accounts anymore, your fan following can now subscribe to your personal profile
  • You can have an unlimited amount of subscribers
  • You can now fully syndicate with Twitter (Facebook to Twitter and vice versa)

In typical Facebook fashion, they have provided a complete brief and how-to for their users. Bottom line, Facebook subscribe is the newest way to expand your network and deepen the impact of your online conversation. If you are, or desire to be, a prominent figure (celebrity, journalist, political figure, etc.), subscriptions may be just what you need to take your online social standing to the next level.

Written By

Dave Gruen leads the consulting division for BolderImage, a full-service web marketing and mobile development agency with offices near Chicago. A developer and IT manager by trade, he now leads design, development and strategic marketing efforts for businesses and non-profits nationwide. Check out the BolderImage website for more articles about social media for business.

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. joe

    September 26, 2011 at 11:02 am

    I noticed this on facebook a few weeks ago I think.. and yes it has been quite helpful.. now these kind of add-on tweaking is what I appreciate from them a lot.. and not those major changes at all.. 😀

  2. Dave Gruen

    September 26, 2011 at 5:13 pm

    Joe — it’s true the big announcements at the F8 conference have left a lot of marketers reeling. It reinforces the importance of having a separate website and not relying on anyone else’s platform to be the major source of your online marketing. Good luck!

  3. Kayla

    September 27, 2011 at 12:51 am

    I don’t know if I like all of these changes being made… It’s just confusing me! I guess I should’ve said “yes” to the tutorial!!

  4. Dave Gruen

    September 27, 2011 at 1:00 am

    Kayla: Here’s one website I saw with an overview/how-to for some of the recent changes:

    http://blazomania.com/2011/09/22/facebook-new-changes-complete-details-and-tutorials/

    Of course there are bunches more. Here’s to hoping you can jump ahead of the learning curve.

  5. briant

    September 27, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    I myself am always a fan of facebook.. although at times they surprise me with new stuffs, well they’re not that hard to learn to use.. one thing I don’t want to change in facebook would be it’s white background.. that’s all.. if its theme is changed, it’s not fb anymore.. 🙂

  6. FF

    September 27, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    Personally I use Facebook just for personal reasons and not commercial so the changes are welcome in some respects , expecially to filter out people who post useless garbage non stop (but you dont have the heart to unfriend). You know the people, the ones that say post this load of crap to your status, or bombard your feed with music videos from youtube they are listening to whilst drunk.

    Previously you had no chose so if you can filter out and reduce bombardments i’m all for it.

  7. jorge

    September 28, 2011 at 8:06 am

    Even if it is just for personal use.. this new feature is still useful.. you wouldn’t need to create group pages anymore..

  8. Dave Gruen

    September 29, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    People who use Facebook for personal use seem to like a lot of the changes. It will be interesting to see how the FB pages evolve now — it would make sense for Facebook to invest as much time/energy in enhancing the experience for potential advertisers as well.

  9. kevin

    September 30, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    I could say the same too Dave, but they should make sure they don’t over do it.. they might take the wrong turn and boom.. 😉

  10. Danny

    October 1, 2011 at 5:35 am

    I start to dislike facebook more and more.
    I truly believe that Facebook has had it’s best days and will become less popular….. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

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