I remember when I first learned about Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and the thought that nothing could move faster than the speed of light was amazing to me. I thought if ever there was a day where humans could prove that anything could break the light speed barrier, then that would be the biggest story ever, right?
Well maybe, not. At least not when the discovery was on the same day Facebook announced its exciting new platform changes at their f8 Conference in San Francisco.
Yes, Zuckerberg can knock even Einstein to Page 2.
So while some physicists at the Cern were revealing their unbelievable work in having particles top light speed, the Facebook team was changing the world in a different way. As the leadership unveiled the new plans for “Timeline,” “Gestures,” enhanced sharing and new brand applications, it was clear that the social landscape was evolving yet again. Let’s take a look at these changes and examine how they present potential opportunities for brands.
Timeline:
The Timeline is a social scrapbook, a stream of information about your life featuring an organized flow of photos, posts, likes, and apps. This would eventually replace your Profile page. Given the visual appearance and ability to chronologically organize all of your pictures, engagement, and life events, we expect this to be a well received and popular enhancement to the Facebook platform. Currently Timeline is in beta, though FB developers can use it now. It won’t be launched to the general public for a few weeks and that will be as an opt-in feature. We expect high engagement rates and for this to become the new Profile over time.
Gestures:
While extremely successful, the “like,” as Facebook pointed out during the f8 conference, can have limitations. What if you’re reading a book, or hiking a trail, or watching a movie, how do you communicate that without “liking” that activity? Now Facebook has launched “Gestures,” which enables FB partners and developers to generate a button for any verb, so now you can share “Reading” a book or “Listening” to a song or “Watching” a movie. While it might cause oversharing, especially initially, it does provide additional personalization ability and should alleviate the concerns amongst younger demographics that “liking” something “implied endorsement to their peers.” We project some initial concerns among FB users, but also this will open greater targeting and engagement opportunities for brands.
Brand Applications:
Facebook is placing a greater emphasis on applications, adding features and partnering with numerous brands to make apps a more prominent part of the FB experience. When a user adds a brand app to their Timeline, it opens a greater opportunity for interaction and an ongoing relationship between the brand and the user. An example used at f8 was the Nike+ app, which allows a user to integrate information from a run directly through the FB application and instantly into their timeline with everything ranging from location to time to photos. An important change to applications is that they now need to only ask user permission once to share stories on their behalf. Previously applications had to ask anytime they were going to share user information, but now once a user authorizes they are not asked again which could cause potential user issues/concerns and could affect application adoption. Overall, it will be important for brands to provide useful content and experiences for users to incentivize them to add a brand application to their timeline.
Partnerships/Sharing:
Imagine sharing the experience of watching your favorite show or listening to your music playlist with your friends without ever leaving Facebook. Now, thanks to numerous partnerships with platforms ranging from Hulu to Spotify to Netlix to the Washington Post users will be able to do just that, which should only serve to increase the amount of time users spend on Facebook. Within the Ticker, users will be served a real-time flow of what their friends are actively doing, inviting the ability for increased interaction, but a potential detriment could also be oversharing. While what is shared can be controlled through privacy settings, we expect this could generate some potential peer/privacy concerns – when/how much will users want to share what they’re viewing, listening to, or watching? We expect this to see a greater initial adoption amongst younger demographics but also believe this functionality will provide some exciting marketing opportunities for brands.
Ticker/News Feed:
While discussed at f8, this change to the platform had already been in effect, however it was noted that brand posts would continue to populate the News Feed as opposed to migrating directly to the Ticker. According to Facebook, the Ticker would contain “lightweight” information such as how your friends did in a game or quiz, as well as providing real-time lists for what your friends are posting. This is important from a brand perspective that posts/engagement will still be within the News Feed and not considered “lightweight” Ticker information.
Overall Summary:
The new Facebook platform revisions will create a number of opportunities for brands. Some of the benefits include:
- Increased personalization
- Enhanced media targeting
- Ability to create stronger long-term engagement opportunities through brand applications
- Providing more ways for your brand and your fans to share
