Today Facebook launched a redesign for Facebook Pages which will transition brand pages from the current tabbed layout to a layout that mirrors regular user profiles. The new design brings some additional functionality to Facebook Pages, but also reduces the discoverability of brand content that is housed in tabs. What follows is a summary + implications of the the most important changes and suggestions on how to take best take advantage of the new features:
Content featured on tab applications is much less visible Similar to how personal profiles are designed, tab applications are now listed on the left-hand side of the profile underneath the profile picture rather than in page tabs across the top of the profile. While this provides a consistent user experience for Facebook users (and brands can have longer tab-titles), brand content hosted on tab applications is now much less likely to be discovered without guidance. Now, more than ever, brands need well designed welcome tabs that introduce new visitors to the content housed in the tab applications of the brand-page. Brands will also have to use wall posts and conversation tactically to guide fans to content housed in tab applications.
Profile images are now competing with page navigation Previously brands often used a tall profile image (up to 200×600 px) to include attractive imagery, feature messages and even guide users to content on the page. However, because the page navigation links are now below the profile image, a tall graphic will push navigation to “below the fold” (below the first level of visible screen real-estate). Given this, brands should be more conservative with their profile images moving forward, rather than using the whole allotment (which is now a slightly smaller 180×540 px).
Album photos are now much more visible to visitors
The new brand-page designfeatures the 5 latest photos a brand has uploaded to one of their albums directly on the top of their info page (no fan-uploaded photos are featured, and individual photos can be removed as well). This makes photo albums a significantly more valuable asset. Brands launching new Facebook pages should start their albums with at least five interesting photos and plan out how albums are organized because users will likely spend more time in the photos application. Brands should also think about how they can use comments on their featured photos to drive viewers from photos to other relevant pieces of content.
Brands can now show off their admins for more transparency Brand-pages can now feature some or all of their admins on the left-hand side of the page below the page navigation. While this may not make sense for everyone, brands can use this to be much more upfront about who from their organization is participating in the management of the page. This also means brands need to payattention to how their admins present themselves on Facebook on their own personal pages. To prevent conflicts of interest, brands who make their admins visible may want to recommend that the admins turn their own profiles “private” to the public.
Admins can now navigate + interact across Facebook on behalf of the brand Previously brand-page admins were only able to interact on the brand page, but now admins can ‘like’ and comment on other brand pages on behalf of the brand. These interactions will show up in brand-page follower news-feeds just like if a friend of theirs was interacting in Facebook. There will be many interesting ways for brands to leverage this, such as having sister brands or products & parent companies interact with each other across their respective Facebook walls.
Conversation on the wall will be more compelling to visitors Facebook has made several upgrades to help improve the value of the conversation on the wall. Previously posts were displayed completely chronologically. Now visitors will see interesting posts first: posts from their friends, similar users, and posts that have received a lot of likes + comments. For additional control, brands can choose to set the default view to show only wall posts from the brand itself. Brands can also keep the wall clean bysetting a “moderation blocklist” that automatically marks any inappropriate posts as spam.
This latest Facebook redesign is available to all brand pages starting now (admins will be alerted the next time they visit one of the brand-pages they control), but admins have the option to hold off on activating the transition until March 10th. This gives brand teams a one-month window to analyze how these changes will impact their brand page specifically and plan a strategy that most effectively leverages the layout. SS+K will also be actively exploring the new Facebook landscape over the coming weeks to identify further implications and opportunities to take advantage of. In the mean time, please let us know if you have any specific questions or concerns.
A big announcement from Facebook + Microsoft today: Facebook’s social graph will now be incorporated into Microsoft’s Bing search results. What this means is when you search for anything using Bing, articles your friends have ‘liked’ anywhere on the web will start to gain priority in the search results. This is the deepest integration of Facebook’s personal social graph into search content ever, and it’s only happening on Bing.
What does this mean for brands:
This gives Bing a valuable layer of data that Google doesn’t have, and it sounds like Facebook won’t allow Google to have it any time soon. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook’s founder) said on stage today “the thing that makes Microsoft such a great partner for us is they’re the underdog in search…We’re interested in working with companies that are really scrappy, that are underdogs… they have an incentive go to all out and innovate”. Bing is already growing, and a full alliance with Facebook could help them steal market share from Google.
As more and more social data gets layered into search results, it underscores the importance for brands to have a successful social strategy. Brands need to be talked about, and their content needs to be shared. Content generated and endorsed by people’s personal connections is going to be increasingly prioritized in search results. That means social is increasingly a search engine optimization strategy.
This should be going live soon on Bing, and it will happen automatically for you unless you’ve opted out of instant personalization on Facebook. Read more about the Facebook + Microsoft Bing partnership here.
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Additional reading on the power of social in search:
Though Facebook has had a search box for many years, it’s predominately been used to help users find their friends quickly, track down existing community groups, or locate brand pages. But slowly Facebook’s search ambitions are growing, and with the recent launch of the open social graph (mostly known for those ‘like’ buttons) the social networking behemoth is moving full steam towards providing a full service search engine right inside Facebook.com. Here are two ways that Facebook is expanding on search, and why we need to make sure our clients are prepared for the looming Facebook SEO battle:
1. People-powered search results
Every site that incorporates Facebook open social graph tools (like buttons, comment boxes, etc.) is being indexed and ranked by Facebook based on how much Facebook users engage with the content. As more and more users ‘like’ websites Facebook is beginning to include the popular sites in the Facebook.com search box. This approach is different from Google, which ranks sites based on linking and content relevancy. Instead Facebook is prioritizing search results based on what the Facebook audience is saying about sites on the web. Facebook will also likely prioritize search content based on what your specific friends recommend as well. Brands can get a head start in ensuring they’re in the Facebook.com search results by implementing Facebook open social graph plug-ins in a smart way and fueling users to start ‘liking’ their content. Brands can also influence how their sites are listed in Facebook’s search engine by including special meta-data in their site code.
2. Socially powered content farm
Facebook is now automatically building what they call “community pages” for any topics that users list as interests in their profiles. These community pages enable Facebook to serve up content through their search box that “locks in” users by providing them internal site content rather than sending them out of Facebook the public web. The community pages are filled with pictures + text pulled directly from Wikipedia about the topic, as well as a stream of status updates that Facebook users have posted on their walls about the topic (any status updates from a viewer’s friends are highlighted first). Currently the “community pages” are not able to be edited by anyone, and brands cannot claim pages. However, brands should monitor the conversation that is being aggregated on community pages, and they can join in the stream by publishing content on their own pages about the subjects.
Though we’re still at the early stages of Facebook’s search product and the changes aren’t very visible yet, it’s important for us to pay attention to this on behalf of our brands. With over 500 million users, Facebook has the ability to make major waves in search very quickly. We can help prepare our clients for this by recommending smart Facebook SEO tactics- building a robust Facebook presence, leveraging the social graph plug-ins, and watching the community pages. We need to lead this forward thinking as social search hits prime-time.
Many marketers are very familiar with popular white label social networking provider Ning, and rightfully so. Ning has made it incredibly easy to build your own fully functioning social network in minutes for free. Since its inception Ning has been a popular recommendation to clients as a free & easy way to build a private community. However, this week Ning made the controversial announcement that it will soon be turning off their free offering. Existing accounts will eventually be required to transition to a paid offering. In preparation for this, we wanted to help lay out some options for brands. (more…)
If there was any question before, last week’s Google announcement that content from your social graph would now be included in your search results is another big proof point that brands need to be thinking about social media as a major contributing factor in their search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Over the last few months Google has increasingly handed coveted “first page result” spots to social content. It started with their real-time integration of Twitter results, and now it’s with the open beta of their social search experiment.
Why is this critical for companies to recognize and incorporate in their SEO? Because your corporate website, no matter how well it’s ranked, is being quickly overshadowed by all of the social content g your brand. Now results are filled with a slew if blog posts, tweets as they happen, and the links a person’s friend shared about the brand on Facebook.
Don’t worry, though- brands don’t have to be left in the cold. They do need to start engaging consumers in social spaces, producing content of value, and making their content sharable. That way the valuable information is getting shared and enforced by advocates and being included by Google in the spaces reserved for the user’s social graph.
Over at the DraftFCBlog I have a new post up all about how to be a savvy marketer you need stop simply reading about new products & services like Twitter and Foursquare and you need to jump in and experience them for true insights:
It’s clear to everyone that old world disruption advertising models have a smaller role in the future of marketing. As advertisers we need to be able to know how to engage with our audiences in meaningful and valuable ways. The only way we can do this is if we invest real time in experiencing and learning the new media landscape. We need to stop asking what tweets are or why someone just became “mayor of the 33rd & 5th street Starbucks.” We need to sign up for these new and unusual (or possibly scary or stupid) products and services, or we’ll be left behind.
Read the post and let us know what you think. Are you jumping in?
I am a Senior Strategist at SS+K. I handle digital & social media strategy for a number of clients. I also keep a personal blog here. View Kevin Skobac's profile
Many marketers are very familiar with popular white label social networking provider Ning, and rightfully so. Ning has made it incredibly easy to build your own fully functioning social network in minutes for free. Since its inception Ning has been a popular recommendation to clients as a free & easy way to build a private community. However, this week Ning made the controversial announcement that it will soon be 
View Kevin Skobac's profile