Facebook’s New Face Lift

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Facebook’s New Face Lift

By Janette Speyer, Web Success Team ––

Did you see the Facebook updated look yet? Yep, it’s happened again they now have a new look that will probably affect your branded pages. The app is striving to make things easier for users and businesses.

In the platform’s pursuit of user friendly and ease are we actually benefiting from this change? Here are a few thoughts…

I do like the new design. It’s clean and sharp and pleasing to the eyes and it seems more organized.

Access to Insights from Home Page

The Facebook home page seems to be divided in three parts. The far right column has a much simpler navigation and can be seen from anywhere on the page. You can now not only see how the ads that you are running perform along with your page likes, post reach and your notifications. You can click on any of these sections for more information. This seems a little more organized than the previous version. For marketers who like to look at quick insights, this little streamlined update gives me immediate access to analytics. We still have the calendar timeline underneath, not that I ever use it but it serves a useful purpose for some.

Swapping Things Around

The right column now has your posts and news updates instead of on the left as in the previous iteration. I feel this change is not an enhancement, but rather adds to the new design confusion? If you are used to looking at your “feed updates” on the left and “recent posts by others” with your “friends” on the right, this can leave you slightly unsettled until your eyes get comfortable with the change. Really Facebook, what was the purpose of this? Also your posts now appear in chronological order, nice but how does that affect our highlighted posts? We would like to know!

The left column now features your “friends” on the top then the “About Your Business” section drops below just above the fold. Again if this is a business page, I would prefer it if information about my business appeared above all other items of less interest. I do like the idea of a map and working hours. However, the prominence of the company website URL is a great plus; I always felt that you had to search to find a company website in the previous version. Some of these local features take after Google Local.

Where Did the Tabs Go?

Where are the tab thumbnails? Gone! As far as the apps, they are under the “More” tab, nicely hidden from view. Those of you that relied on apps for promotions and getting traffic to your branded page will have to think of another way to promote. Yes the navigation is clean and it looks more like a website. So what is the purpose of even having Facebook Tabs? A visitor left a comment on the Facebook Business Page claiming that most people don’t check your branded page just your posts. As a brand you do want that tab prominent to promote your offers and specials.

Takeaways:

Like anything new it will take some time to get used to Facebook’s new rollout changes. The biggest change of all is making peace with the fact that the platform is becoming an advertising channel and the days of “Free” websites are now over. The sooner brands accept this reality, the better. My philosophy is to take advantage of any improved version and take the best of what they have to offer. Facebook has given us all a free ride for a long time. Time to dig deeper and get creative!

How do you feel about Facebook’s new look? Continue the discussion, follow us on FacebookTwitter or Google+.

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