Facebook’s Boldest Change Yet?
The one thing common throughout Facebook’s evolution is that they didn’t ask users how they felt; they went right ahead and overhauled Facebook at regular intervals. Despite frequent changes, Facebook’s user base has constantly been growing and currently stands at +900 million.
Most Notable Changes
- July 2008 – With the aim of creating a cleaner look, the ‘beta’ version of Facebook was unveiled. By mid-August, 60% of the site’s users tried the new look (Compete).
- July 2009 – The ‘Usernames’ feature proved to be a big hit,with +1 million users signing up in the first hour after launch.
- November 2010 – The “Facebook Messages” service was rolled-out. Some people called it the “Gmail” killer.
- July 2011 – Facebook, in partnership with Skype, introduced video calling. Industry experts believed this to be Facebook’s answer to Google+’s Hangouts.
- September 2011 – The Timeline was first introduced. The response was less than positive.
- 30th March 2012 – All business pages were automatically converted to the Timeline.
The Timeline initially vexed both users and brands. With the absence of a default landing tabs, most of the people discussing this change via social media did not share Zuckerberg’s excitement concerning the Timeline.
Reactions on Social Media
When the Timeline was first announced in 2011, it didn’t go down well with users. According to Thismoment’s Brand Monitor analysis, (for the time period between 11th September 2011 and 11th October 2011) 50% of people reacted negatively to this change, while 43% remained undecided. This was then.
After the shift to the Timeline format on 30th March 2012, we were curious to see how users reacted to the absence of the welcome tab; especially, since 40% people followed brands to receive discounts and the absence of the default landing tab meant no more CTAs or offers on the Cover image.
- 80% of the conversations were neutral in tonality. Further analysis showed that marketers were more concerned about learning how to feature the offers and ‘likes’ in the custom apps section, while users welcomed the absence of annoying CTAs that greeted them in the old format.
- While 9% still expressed their displeasure, 11% were excited about leveraging the Cover image to reinvent their brands.
No More Like-Gating? How Brands Can Move On
Before the Timeline, brands coulddecide where the visitors to their pages landed. This could be the wall, or one of the custom tabs. With the Timeline, brands can no longer set the default-landing tab and the content is visible to both fans and non-fans; which means no more ‘like-gating’.
Should marketers be worried? We say no. Is the absence of default landing tabs a good thing? Here’s why we think it is:
- No More Billboards: Facebook switched to the Timeline with the intention of making brand pages more about storytelling and not pushy-marketing. With no more CTAs, brand pages are less like billboards.
- Promotes Transparency: Nissan’s visually rich Timeline tells fans ‘welcome to our page and here’s what we are all about’. The Timeline is a creative way of introducing fans to your brand and promotes transparency. Visitors will see the organic content instead of being annoyed with having to ‘like’ a page before previewing its content.
- Improves Quality of Fans: In the old format, consumers simply ‘liked’ a page to take advantage of an offer, without actually being interested in the brand. The Timeline allows fans to make a judgment call whether or not they like a page. This will significantly improve the quality of fans. With the Timeline, people who ‘like’ your content do it because they are truly interested. Definitely a plus when it comes to creating a loyal customer base and increasing engagement.
Will this Change Impact Facebook as a Marketing Platform?
What Facebook took away in terms of default landing tabs, it more than made up for through Timeline features like the Cover Image, Custom apps and Offers. Although the cover image has restrictions in terms of no CTAs or contact information, it’s a marketing real estate and creates that important first impression. As for the discounts and offers, brands can always feature them in the custom tab apps. While fans appreciate not being forced to ‘like’ a page to view its contents, for brands the lack of welcome tabs means the opportunity to create authentic fans.
As for the future of Facebook as a marketing platform, eMarketer expects Facebook ad revenues to swell to +60% in 2012. If the skeptics thought the absence of default landing tabs would be reason enough for brands to look for alternatives, the statics indicate otherwise.
- Shama Ahmed
Thismoment
