Five important facts about myself and the "new" Facebook rolled out yesterday at f8:
#1 - No, I am not a geek
#2 - Yes, I watched the entire f8 Developers Conference Keynote speech
#3 - Even I know this is a watershed moment in the evolution of Social Media
#4 - We are about to experience a great & genuine divide among Facebook users
#5 - How we manage & market social media just changed dramatically
Facebook is the 800 pound Gorilla in the room that is Social Media, with 800 million users to prove it. Like it or not, trust them or not...Facebook is the foundation upon which everything else that happens in this brave new social media world is built. It's the portal to much of our current human interaction, it's the biggest opportunity for new voices & businesses to be heard, and it's the most important target for new media marketers. In this case size matters, but so does the vision & ability to create what others can't even imagine. Complaints are many, and there are other social media platforms...but Facebook is good at being Facebook.
No need to get into the details of what the Timeline is, why Open Graph is going to be even stronger, why the new class of Apps will be game changers, or why Graph Rank will work well. That's all been detailed in many places in the past 24 hours across the web. If you're interested & aware, you understand the changes resulting in the "new" Facebook. But, how do you think the average user will embrace it? If you are a Digital Marketer, how will you continue to leverage it?
Here are my very uncomplicated observations.
Facebook has been a simple chat platform that made it easy for users to participate & share with others about all things important & insignificant. A platform that marketers were able to tap into and utilize for various levels of exposure, branding & engagement.
Facebook will now become a comprehensive portal for social sharing & personal expression by its users. A portal that allows them to submit to its systems & data tracking capabilities, with a more genuine & targeted experience in return. A portal that will change the marketing goal from "like" me, to include me in your life!
This is where the great Facebook user divide will occur. Those who used it as a chat platform to share with others will pull back from Timeline, and look for alternatives. Those users who are truly social individuals & open to a broader experience will embrace Timeline.
For marketers, the chat platform had a pretty easy door to stick your foot into so you could "sell" something. The new portal is going to be a much tougher challenge, with engaging content key to success. True branding through distribution of content that matters to users. sounds easy.
As a user, I fall into the category of fearless adoption & immersion into a evolving web that understands me due to the data & feedback I provide it. A web that creates an experience presented to me with things that matter to me, and avoids things that don't. The "new" Facebook is another step into that reality I'm looking forward to taking, wishing well to those that choose not to come along.
As a marketer, I'm prepared to generate highly targeted content eliciting an even higher level of engagement...even though I still want you to "like" me.
Tim Satterfield
President/CEO
Buzzology, LLC
