Facebook just changed the way they handle Facebook Pages in a major way. According to their Facebook Pages Product Guide, “Facebook is unifying and simplifying the way people interact on the site by making Pages similar to user Profiles.”
Stuff you can now do on a Facebook Page includes (quotes pulled from the Guide):
- Posts by the Page will start to appear in News Feed, giving Pages a
stronger voice to reach their Fans - Posts by the Page will start to appear in News Feed, giving Pages a
stronger voice to reach their Fans - In addition, Pages now have the flexibility of multiple customizable tabs previously
exclusive to user profiles - Like a user profile, your Page can now update its Fans with statuses—short
text-only messages. Soon, these statuses will appear in Fans’ News Feeds - The Facebook Pages Insights tool will include new data on Fans’ engagement with posts from your Page. You’ll be able to see how many comments Fans make on your posts, and you’ll also be able to track how many Facebook users start and stop viewing your posts in News Feed.
- And the list goes on. Go read the product guide (it’s a 10-page pdf file) for the whole scoop!
Why do I think this is cool? Until now, there hasn’t been much interaction allowed on Facebook Pages. Any interaction and conversation was essentially relegated to discussion group Q&A and to Wall-type comments.
But now … those of you who are heavy Facebook users … how do you use Facebook? Because you’ll be able to do that stuff. You’ll be able to send daily statuses reminding fans of important stuff happening at your library. I’m hoping this will have the ability to be tied to your organization’s Twitter account … to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.
And a couple of tiny warnings:
- Facebook statuses allow comments – so you’ll have to check those comments AND respond. Yes – it’s another thing you have to check. Which I find AWESOME.
- Some of you heavy Facebook users LOVE those silly “throw an egg at a friend” type activities… and you participate multiple times each day. My guess? If you do lots of those things with your organizational account … you will be unfriended fast. So – think twice, throw once 🙂
What do you think? Anyone else excited about these Facebook Page changes? Anyone have some fear and trepidation about it (sorry – I just wanted to use the word “trepidation”)? Discuss.
Chris O. says
I’ve written off Facebook Pages as almost worthless prior to this, so it is a VERY welcome change. Facebook just isn’t built around consciously deciding to go through several clicks to find if MAYBE something has been updated, it’s built to see what’s been updated right on the front page as soon as you log in. So now pages might actually get some attention, which is good. If there’s anybody out there that does not like getting those notices, they can just defriend the page — no major loss, they obviously weren’t doing anything with it to begin with.
Deborah Fitchett says
I like some of the changes but I really *wish* they wouldn’t keep changing their API such that applications keep breaking (eg the LibGuides app is currently broken). I’m also a bit confused about how to make the lovely library apps (LibGuides, WorldCat, JSTOR, catalogue, RSS of our blogs, etc) show up on the redesigned front page. But maybe all will become clear once I start actually playing with it.
Deborah Fitchett says
I like some of the changes but I really *wish* they wouldn’t keep changing their API such that applications keep breaking (eg the LibGuides app is currently broken). I’m also a bit confused about how to make the lovely library apps (LibGuides, WorldCat, JSTOR, catalogue, RSS of our blogs, etc) show up on the redesigned front page. But maybe all will become clear once I start actually playing with it.
Ed Jewell says
I’m with you on the RSS feed thing, Deborah. We had a few running off our website, but they seem to have gone AWOL. Let us know if you rediscover your’s; I’ll keep on hunting.
Generally the new status ability seems like a v.positive move. Much more personal than a ‘fan update’.
Ed Jewell says
I’m with you on the RSS feed thing, Deborah. We had a few running off our website, but they seem to have gone AWOL. Let us know if you rediscover your’s; I’ll keep on hunting.
Generally the new status ability seems like a v.positive move. Much more personal than a ‘fan update’.
Ellen says
As a page editor, I like the status update thing as a way to reach our fans. Though I am with Deborah on wanting some of our applications on the main wall page. Right now I can’t figure out how to get our IM chat box back out from underneath being buried in a tab.
However, as a facebook user and fan of many other pages, I’m annoyed at non-people statuses that are now showing up in my newsfeed. Facebook had better give us a way to filter them if we don’t want to see them, like we can with other types of things which show up in our newsfeeds.
Ellen says
As a page editor, I like the status update thing as a way to reach our fans. Though I am with Deborah on wanting some of our applications on the main wall page. Right now I can’t figure out how to get our IM chat box back out from underneath being buried in a tab.
However, as a facebook user and fan of many other pages, I’m annoyed at non-people statuses that are now showing up in my newsfeed. Facebook had better give us a way to filter them if we don’t want to see them, like we can with other types of things which show up in our newsfeeds.
Daniel Loxton says
I see the value of the News Feed integration, but otherwise I’m really upset about the change — and baffled. The change has a serious downside: for many (perhaps most) Pages, Wall content is trivial, off-topic (plugs for peripherally related Groups), or (for less populous Pages) non-existent. Landing on that Wall is, in those cases, a waste of time for Fans — and a wasted opportunity for the Page to share any substantial content (all of which is now buried under tabs).
Our outfit is a nonprofit educational organization, and so the Skeptic magazine Facebook Page‘s main function is likewise to provide information (or to refer people to the more substantial Skeptic.com for further research). That job is made harder when Fans must opt to click through tabs to find to information they used to land on.
On balance, I’m very disappointed, and frustrated. (Poof! There goes a lot of work on that and our other Pages.)
Daniel Loxton says
I see the value of the News Feed integration, but otherwise I’m really upset about the change — and baffled. The change has a serious downside: for many (perhaps most) Pages, Wall content is trivial, off-topic (plugs for peripherally related Groups), or (for less populous Pages) non-existent. Landing on that Wall is, in those cases, a waste of time for Fans — and a wasted opportunity for the Page to share any substantial content (all of which is now buried under tabs).
Our outfit is a nonprofit educational organization, and so the Skeptic magazine Facebook Page‘s main function is likewise to provide information (or to refer people to the more substantial Skeptic.com for further research). That job is made harder when Fans must opt to click through tabs to find to information they used to land on.
On balance, I’m very disappointed, and frustrated. (Poof! There goes a lot of work on that and our other Pages.)
Sheli says
I was playing around w/ our Library page today w/ my coworker and we were very frustrated! We wanted to have the library’s twitter feed to the status updates. The twitter app says you can add it to pages, but it kept adding my personal twitter from my personal FB page and not the libraries. And we couldn’t even find the twitter app in the boxes tab or anywhere on the page! So, I think that aspect is a total bust.
I do like that it will integrate the status into the fans news streams….if only it would integrate the apps better! I don’t mind monitoring lots of places, I just don’t want to be manually entering the same info on a gazillion sites. I’m hoping this will be resolved, then I’ll be totally on board….w/ zero trepidation. 🙂
Sheli says
I was playing around w/ our Library page today w/ my coworker and we were very frustrated! We wanted to have the library’s twitter feed to the status updates. The twitter app says you can add it to pages, but it kept adding my personal twitter from my personal FB page and not the libraries. And we couldn’t even find the twitter app in the boxes tab or anywhere on the page! So, I think that aspect is a total bust.
I do like that it will integrate the status into the fans news streams….if only it would integrate the apps better! I don’t mind monitoring lots of places, I just don’t want to be manually entering the same info on a gazillion sites. I’m hoping this will be resolved, then I’ll be totally on board….w/ zero trepidation. 🙂
Miklo says
Wall posts are limited to about 160 chars and it is not possible to allow fans of a page to write notes?! How is it possible for fans of a page to add some type of longer messages to wall? Much longer wall posts were allowed before…
Miklo says
Wall posts are limited to about 160 chars and it is not possible to allow fans of a page to write notes?! How is it possible for fans of a page to add some type of longer messages to wall? Much longer wall posts were allowed before…
Chris O. says
I've written off Facebook Pages as almost worthless prior to this, so it is a VERY welcome change. Facebook just isn't built around consciously deciding to go through several clicks to find if MAYBE something has been updated, it's built to see what's been updated right on the front page as soon as you log in. So now pages might actually get some attention, which is good. If there's anybody out there that does not like getting those notices, they can just defriend the page — no major loss, they obviously weren't doing anything with it to begin with.