Recently Facebook completed a facelift, and the most apparent change was a shift to a more visual, user-friendly interface, specifically to the news feed. Facebook realized that people are visual animals and prefer to interact socially in a more visually enticing environment. The change which has made the news feed more visual is believed to be an attempt to redirect user’s attention back to the feed.
If It’s More Visual, It Will Be More “Visualized”
Some of the most noticeable changes to the news feed will include the following:
- Almost half of the space allotted for every news feed story will now be given to larger images connected to the news story.
- The design surrounding the news feed has also been updated to enhance the images and clean up the news feed.
It’s Not All About The Images
A, perhaps, less noticeable, but actually more useful, update to the news feed is the ability for users to view more news feeds at the same time. Users will also now have greater control over how their selected news feeds are displayed on the page. Users now have the ability, for example, to subscribe to a specific type of news feed like the photo feed, friends feed, music feed, and more. Once subscribed, that news feed will only show the user content of a specific type. The update also includes the long-anticipated ability to sort news feeds in chronological order.
Facebook Gave Mobile An Update As Well
When Facebook updated its website look, it also updated its mobile look and features. News feeds are now easier to access and view on mobile devices. Many user necessitated tools were added, such as a navigation bar for easier browsing and additional white space for easier reading.
How the Change Affects Facebook Business Pages
Local search marketing services and experts have begun to discuss these Facebook changes and how they relate to the success of business marketing on Facebook. Here are 2 important points for business owners to take to heart:
- Businesses should have a plan from the very beginning to evolve. No successful business is the same today as it was 1, 5, or 10 years ago. Businesses that refuse to evolve die off fast. Facebook and social media marketing will continue to evolve as well. Like with any new venture, getting in early and working as best you can with the tools provided are key to long term success. The opportunities Facebook offers for businesses are too great to ignore it, simply because it too chooses to evolve with time.
- Facebook generates revenue for itself through various avenues. One of the main revenue sources for Facebook is advertising revenue. Like Google, eBay, and others, the success of Facebook is greatly enhanced by the success of its advertisers. By this logic Facebook will do what is necessary to enhance, improve, and simplify the advertiser experience, while maintaining the front end user social experience that brings an audience of 100s of millions per day.
For nearly three decades, Chris Marentis, founder and CEO of Surefire Social, has been responsible for driving innovation and sales growth for large media and e-commerce brands as well as start-ups. With a long-history of counseling local businesses about their marketing efforts, Marentis provides insight on what it takes for small businesses to succeed and thrive in today’s evolving digital environment. His notable career includes creating the foundational blueprints for online marketing, e-commerce and content branding for AOL's Interactive Marketing group, where he served as Senior Vice President. While CEO of Clearspring Technologies, Marentis developed one of the most widely adopted venture-backed Web 2.0 technology platforms. Marentis is a frequent speaker at local digital marketing conferences and a contributor to SMB and technology-focused publications.

2 Comments
Leave a Reply
Cancel reply
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Becca
March 25, 2013 at 9:33 am
This is one of the better articles I’ve found. Nice info which will be prove so useful for all blogger and online marketers. Thanks for sharing.
Nash
March 26, 2013 at 5:18 am
I’ve got the news feed update last night.
I woke up and see somethings uncomfortable
It’s like they change old profile to timeline profile.
Maybe I will get used to it.
BTW, The new one are prettier.