Facebook’s Changes Will Make You a Wallflower or The Life of the Party

10/06/2011 3 min read Written by Lynton

Go to almost any social function, and you’ll generally notice two types of people: The Wallflower and The Life of the Party. Wallflowers hang out at the edge of the room making occasional chit-chat but only when forced to. The Life of the Party, though, stands near the middle of the room where his charisma draws in a crowd.

Translate this into the social media world where Facebook is the host of a global mixer, and then ask yourself which of the two above groups are you — A Wallflower or The Life of the Party? With Facebook’s revolutionary new changes, you are about to find out the answer.

How? Facebook’s modifications to page functionality, ads, and metrics are all aimed at accomplishing two things: 1) increasing the amount of follower engagement with a brand, and 2) improving the quality of content produced by the brand. Do these two things well, and your company will be surrounded by active followers who are more likely to become customers. Keep you page at the room’s edge, and your brand will go unnoticed. Here’s what you need to know.

Functionality

The most visible differences are on the main feed page. The “Ticker” on the upper right-hand corner contains posts referred to as “activity stories” (i.e. friend comments on posts, liking pages, and RSVPing to events). “Recent Stories,” which replaces the “Most Recent” heading, show only posts such as status updates, pictures, links, etc. by friends, pages, subscriptions, and apps. One of the biggest changes, though, is the “Top Stories” section (formally “Top News”) at the top of the page, which will greet you after you login. Top Stories are based on what Facebook thinks you’ll be interested in based on past interaction, and thus, the more interaction your page has, the longer your posts will stay visible. Finally, as of October 31st, the “Reviews” tab will go away. Instead, a reader’s opinion of your brand will now be easily visible on your front page after using the “Recommend this Page/Place” feature.

Ads

For brands paying for Facebook ads, your followers and target audience will have a new feature allowing them to actually interact via the ad itself. The ad will include a message from the brand that users will be able to like and comment on as well as expand to see the likes and comments of others. The idea is to increase the visibility of a brand through the corresponding increased interaction. This is slightly different from a sponsored link, which only shows the interaction of a friend with a brand. Another difference, these new ads won’t be visible on the main news feed page (details are to be announced during Ad Week later this week).

Metrics

The revamp of Facebook’s metrics for pages is a dead giveaway as to the social network’s intent. The number of LIKEs is still a main component visible to the public, but so too is the new “People Talking About” metric, which will tell fans and visitors how compelling a page’s content is as by scoring user-initiated activity. Through page insights, admins will also be able to see the total number of “Friends of Fans” in addition to the “Weekly Total Reach,” which provides the number of people who have posted about your page.

How do these areas determine if you’re the Life of the Party or a Wallflower?

The Life of the Party will:

  • Post dynamic and personalized content that draws in followers
  • Engage followers and actively incite their participation, which will make their content more visible
  • Publish ads that encourage a high degree of user response
  • Entice new followers by incurring a high “People Talking About” score
  • Increase followers by pulling in “Friends of Fans” and increasing their mentions' “Weekly Total Reach”

The Wallflowers will:

  • Churn out the same tired content few people read in the first place, resulting in brand obscurity
  • Reluctantly interact with followers if at all
  • Fail to target ads to the right audience demographic
  • Discourage new followers, because there are no “People Talking About” their brand
  • Downplay conclusions drawn from Facebook Insights or ignore metrics altogether

Is your Facebook page drawing people to your brand, or are you off in a corner where no one will remember that you were even at the party?

Want to know how to be remembered at the Facebook Party? Contact LyntonWeb for an evaluation of your Facebook page’s performance as well as your company’s other social media needs. Give us a call at 877-LYNTONW, or email us at info@lytonweb.com.

By: Lynton

Lynton is a HubSpot Elite Partner that provides certified knowledge and tools to grow your business through integrated inbound marketing, including lead generation strategies, website designs and development, and CRM integrations.

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