In 2013, we’ve seen a lot of updates from Facebook:
- Graph search
- Advertisements in the newsfeed
- Auto-play of videos in the newsfeed
- Recommending articles and videos based on your likes
- Changes to the rules regarding business page contests and promotionals
- Hashtags
- Trending topics
- The ability to edit comments and status updates that have already been published
- The function that allows you to reply to comments in a thread
There are also a number of helpful updates for business pages, such as “insights” that will give you data on your fans and the ability to schedule posts.
These changes have some usefulness to the individual user on a personal account. The graph search was designed to help users find local businesses they would like to patron. Hashtags work wonderfully on Twitter, so why wouldn’t they work on Facebook?
Updates like the graph search and hashtags reveal Facebook’s true motives: they are trying to compete with other popular locations on the Internet, pre-emptively securing their popularity from any other social media networks that could surpass them. The graph search trespassed on Google’s territory, attempting to take local search away from them. Hashtags are part of what makes Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, and many other social media platforms so friendly to marketers. Trending topics? Come on. Definitely came from Twitter.
On top of all that, Facebook has changed its edgerank algorithm to make it more difficult for users to see updates from the pages they’ve liked. Business pages are finding that their reach for each update has decreased dramatically: organic reach dropped from 16% of fans to 2% of fans. This move serves as an attempt on Facebook’s part to try to get marketers to pay for advertising, pushing them away from the free advertising they can do on their page. Personal accounts are hurt by this as well: instead of seeing the content they opted in to see, they are forced to view ads that they did not volunteer to see.
Facebook users are happy about the little changes that make communicating with their friends easier, such as editing comments. But overall, satisfaction with Facebook has declined in recent years. Users are especially afraid of video advertisements on their newsfeed that would act like commercials. Similar to YouTube, the user would have to watch a 30 second clip before continuing with their desired actions.
It’s clear that Facebook is trying hard not to go the way of MySpace; they are trying not to take their popularity for granted, and instead stay ahead of the curve. Their attempts to acquire Instagram (which was successful) and SnapChat (which SnapChat founder Evan Speigal turned down) also reveal their fear of other encroaching social networks. Facebook’s fear is justified: teenagers are reporting to use the social network less and less as other more fun social apps break through.
If Facebook really wants to keep their 1.23 billion users loyal, they need to stop making updates that inconvenience them for the sake of profits.
Sources:
Stone, Brad and Frier, Sarah. “Facebook Turns 10: The Mark Zuckerberg Interview.” http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-30/facebook-turns-10-the-mark-zuckerberg-interview. (11 Feb. 2014).