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Is Facebook Killing the “Like”?

October 4, 2011 by Quincy Zikmund Leave a Comment

Over the last few weeks the Facebook announcement mill has been pretty busy. At their f8 conference Facebook announced the new profile called Timeline that will be released to the public within the next few weeks. However, before the announcement of Timeline and updates to Open Graph, Facebook also released the News Feed Ticker in the right sidebar of your news feed, changes to what type of content you see in your news feed and the ability to subscribe to people in order to see their public posts without being their friend.

Updates to Pages

We now come to a change that has already been made live and is something all Page admins needs to pay close attention to. There were two updates made to Pages recently which are the the Friend Activity tab and the ability for users to comment on and interact with a page without having to “Like” the page.

With the advent of business pages on Facebook, companies and marketers have put a lot of time and money into gaining more “Likes” on their Facebook Page. Getting people to Like your page on Facebook truly has been important because if no one’s on there with you how can it be effective? Unfortunately, a lot of businesses and marketers have put all of their efforts into gaining more Likes. The effect has been a lack of quality content, community and interaction. If you use the number of “Likes” that your page has as your only metric for measuring Facebook success then you’re doing it wrong. The best metric that you can use to measure your Facebook success is the quantity and quality of interaction with the people who already “Like” your page.

What These Changes Mean for Your Business

Is the “Like” button going away? No, not technically at least. With the ability for people to comment on and interact with your brand without being forced to “Like” your page you now have a few responsibilities that are not new but that will now be forced on you in order for your business to succeed on Facebook.

Use Your Page to Create Quality Content

This is something that I have been pushing for a long time. The simple truth is that if you don’t use your Facebook page (or any other social media outlet for that matter) it will be of no benefit to you. If you use your page to do nothing but sell something in every post then you won’t succeed. Content is king and it always has been. But now that Facebook news feeds only show the most popular posts at the top you really have to develop good content that creates interaction for your posts to even be seen.

The plus side to all of this is that once you start engaging the people who already “Like” your page their friends will notice when they interact with your posts. Now that users don’t have to “Like” and promote your page just to comment on your posts you have an opportunity to create even more interaction than what you can project by looking at the number of “Likes” that you have. Now you don’t have to force people to “Like” your page to do what really matters on Facebook – which is to create community and interaction.

To say that getting people to like your page is not beneficial would be a lie. You should continue your efforts for getting more likes on your page by promoting your page in your print media, running Facebook promotions and offering something of value to the users that like your page. Just be sure that you continue creating quality content that keeps your community engaged and participating.

Static FBML, We Hardly Knew Ye

March 10, 2011 by A2Z Computer Services Inc Leave a Comment

Facebook Page Upgrades: A Quick Overview

Today is the day, the last day that Facebook page owners will be able to install the Static FBML application on their page. Facebook announced last month that they would be upgrading pages to a new layout while adding many new features. Facebook has a history of making updates and changes to their site that catch both personal and business users off guard. These changes however have probably been the most accepted and anticipated changes that Facebook has ever released to date.

Up until today page owners have had the option to keep their current page the way it is or go ahead and upgrade to the new layout. Many have taken advantage of the early upgrade while others have been unaware of the changes and what would happen to their page once they clicked “upgrade”. However after today all Facebook pages will automatically be upgraded, but rest assured that these changes are good and offer you many new options for connecting with customers, other businesses and simply creating a greater user experience.

The End of Static FBML and What it Means for your Business

FBML stands for Facebook Markup Language, essentially it is Facebook’s version of HTML. The Static FBML application has been used by many businesses in order to add more customization to their Facebook page. Static FBML has allowed page owners and marketing agencies to develop additional tabs to Facebook pages that are completely customized using their own images, content and design. There are many companies that have been started in the last two years whose biggest asset has been using the Static FBML application for their clients. Does the death of Static FBML mean the end of these firms or the end of offering a great Facebook experience to your customers? Absolutely not.

With the end of Static FBML tabs Facebook has brought something bigger and better to the table, iFrames for pages. With the use of iFrames companies will now have less restrictions when it comes to having their Facebook page customized. Videos and Flash objects will no longer require being clicked first in order to be activated and you can use applications that have been developed using HTML, CSS and Javascript. These languages are more well known to developers than FBML and FBJS, meaning companies that offer Facebook page development, such as ourselves, will be able to offer more to page owners to help grow their online presence and draw more individuals to their page, their website and most importantly their business.

In Conclusion…

If you are a page owner please keep in mind that these changes are in fact good. Social Media is fluid and to succeed in Social Media we all have to be fluid and accepting of change, especially when change translates into being able to offer more to customers. We have not posted a blog going into detail about each change that has been included in the Facebook page upgrade but there have been many others who have so why reinvent the wheel? Click here to read about all of Facebook’s changes to pages from Social Media Examiner.

Please also keep in mind that we offer many solutions for your Facebook page and online presence including development, design, consulting, training and even promotion management. Have fun exploring all of the new features that Facebook has to offer and let us know if we can be of assistance to you.

New Faceboook Features Revealed by Mistake

December 17, 2010 by A2Z Computer Services Inc Leave a Comment

Yesterday afternoon many of may have noticed that Facebook went down for a short time. What you may not have seen however was Facebook’s accidental revealing of some of their new features. The features weren’t active for very long but many people, including us, had an opportunity to see the new features for a short time before Facebook went down.

After all of this took place yesterday afternoon Facebook tweeted “Also, some internal prototypes were exposed to people and resulted in us disabling the site briefly. It’s now back to normal.”

Below are a few of the new features that we were able to see and also have since read about for other various sources. If there are any features that you were able to experience yesterday please tell us about them in comment feed. Enjoy!

Facebook Pages

One of the biggest changes seen yesterday was the new layout for Facebook Pages. Instead of the tabbed navigation at the top of the page the menu had moved to the left column underneath the profile picture. This of course resembles the look of Facebook Places as well as the new profile layouts.

Another useful feature for many page admins that was seen is the Questions / Poll feature which will allow pages to run polls directly through Facebook as opposed to using comment feeds, third party applications or links back to your website. One change that people were unhappy with was the default landing tab setting for non-fans was gone. We believe however that this feature will still be available once the new Pages go live.

Page admins also had an option to “Switch Accounts” and “Login as Page”. The “Login as Page” option raises many questions for us such as whether or not this the page admins will finally be notified of new comments and likes as opposed to manually checking the page. We also wonder if page admins will have the ability to Message individuals as the page. These of course are just speculation but worth keeping in mind.

A Facebook spokesperson also stated that page admins were notified of the changes before they take effect. This is very comforting considering the time, money and energy businesses put into Facebook as part of their marketing and communication plan. All of us at A2Z Computer Services, Inc. personally cannot wait for that announcement to come out.

Pages weren’t the only ones to get a sneak peak at the new changes that will be coming to Facebook. Personal profiles saw new features such as Memories which will allow users to go back and photos, statuses and new friends grouped by years. The much anticipated lightbox UI for Facebook Photos was also seen and enjoyed by many for a short time.

What features are you either looking forward to or dreading the most?