Earlier this month Facebook rolled out a wave of new updates and changes to the way the social media network operates. “Improvements” included a new option to subscribe to other users accounts allowing their public updates to appear in your newsfeed without having to be friends with the person or organization. This new feature could allow organizations to easily increase their online marketing capabilities. The feature could be utilised as a quick new way to alert existing consumers to new products or offers and also a way to draw in new consumers.
Another new addition to Facebook was the “Ticker” a miniaturised second news-feed on the right hand side of the Facebook window. With this feature users can view live news feed regardless of what area of Facebook they are using, basically allowing you to Facebook while you Facebook. (I’ll admit I have found the ticker quite useful this past week) This feature will enable organizations to constantly stay in touch with Facebook users compared to updates only appearing on a single home page, as was previously the case. Included in the Ticker feature is an “App Ticker” which places application adverts and updates into the Ticker feed, another ploy to increase Facebook’s marketing capabilities?
I don’t have a problem with Facebook adverts, after all a free social network such as Facebook relies on attracting advertising campaigns for income and the last thing anyone wants is to have to pay for a Facebook account. But flooding the site with several new ways for advertisers to reach consumers is highly unlikely to sit well with the majority of Facebook users. Facebook needs to start to listen more carefully to what its users want from the site. I mean how much longer do we have to campaign for a dislike button….
