There’s been some exciting and radical changes happening on Facebook lately and it’s a good idea for you to know exactly what they are and how you can use it to your best advantage. A huge part of social media marketing is about recognizing the trends and new technology available, being open to learning it and becoming an early adopter. When you learn to move with the trends you will gain a better understanding of what you have to do to benefit from all the traffic and visibility that it will most likely bring you.

#1 New Homepage

The latest and greatest change in Facebook has been about how they have altered the way we use and see the homepage that we were so accustomed to.

They have transformed the main wall on Facebook into a continuous stream of conversation, information and content sharing.

Sort of like Facebook meets Twitter, meets FriendFeed, meets Youtube, meets Blogging.

It really is an all out social media portal. Remember when they called community websites, portals? Portals bring in traffic by exchanging information and providing useful links.

That’s what Facebook is doing. But the great part is that you can use this to filter and funnel traffic back to you, your profile, website, blog, sales page or other social sites where you have a presence.

There have been many grunts and groans about the new changes from the Facebook community. There are definitely pros and cons to this change and it depends on who you ask and how they use Facebook.

I happen to like the new change and I will tell you why soon enough

So what does this mean for you?

Well it may very well mean nothing to you…unless you are interested in using it to promote your brand and services on Facebook. Does it really benefit a Social Media Marketer? BTW a social media marketer is anyone who wants to take advantage of all the wondrous benefits of the social networking activities that they currently do on Facebook anyway and combine it with all the tools, technology and people of social media. You don’t have to be a professional or full time marketer to enjoy the benefits of acting like one

In another post, I will go into more details about the New Facebook Stream and how it can help you Explode your Business and Brand all over Facebook…

But for now, let me go on to the next significant change in Facebook.

#2 Open Access to your Profile

Many of you may or may not know this but Facebook has given you the option of allowing people who are not in your friends list or network to see your profile, your wall, your info and digital media like photos and videos.

The settings allow you to make certain profile elements visible to everyone and other parts visible only to the people you specify.

Smartie here thinks it was a good move…

you can read about why Here

Some may see this as an invasion of privacy and losing control of their information and they may be right…

BUT

Smart and Savvy Social Media Marketers will see this as an opportunity to have access to a greater amount of people. You can now have more visibility on Facebook without having to be-friend thousands and fall victim to certain limit restrictions, slower capabilities and other drawbacks.

For those that have 5,000 friends (like I do) this is equivalent to opening up our arms and saying, “I am here, be a part of my Facebook world, meet, share and communicate with me.

Social Media Marketers know that even though our profile is our personal space on Facebook, it is also our business office. We can do business 24/7 and not pay a dime for office space.

How cool is that? Facebook is a social and networking place where people come, get to know us, hang out with us for a bit and like us when they see we are real people.

And if they happen to be looking for a product or service that we provide, then they may be more likely to turn to us first, don’t ya think?

We are in business and we use social media to increase visibility to our business and brand.

While this open access is optional (you can choose against it) most social media marketers should choose to make their entire profile viewable and accessible to everyone.

According to Facebook:
“Now there is an “Everyone” option for sharing.
If you choose, you can now open your profile and share information with everyone on Facebook for broader distribution and better sharing. None of your settings have changed with this new option.”

This option is not available by default, you have to authorize the change.
To do this go to settings, then privacy settings, then profile, and choose everyone from drop down menus. Pick and choose your preferences as shown below.

Side note:
There is a great debate about how many is too many friends on Facebook. It’s a personal preference and I disagree with people who choose to push their “opinion” on other people.
It is what it is: your choice.

Obviously I am a supporter of the more the merrier because I know that as in most things in business, it’s a numbers game but I also know how to draw out and attract people who are more likely to continue to build relationships and business connections with me.

So Quality vs. Quantity is a personal choice and becomes beneficial in the hands of the person who attracts it, molds it and develops that relationship.

Ironically having thousands of friends on Facebook is discouraged but there appears to be no such conflict with having tens of thousands of followers on Twitter.
Not convinced about the reasoning for this but…….

Let’s continue….

#3 Pages are Now Profiles

Pages also known as fan pages or business pages will now be called public profiles and Facebook has made them look almost exactly like personal profile pages.

However, the options are much better for customization and the opportunity to make awesome business and brand profiles are there if you want to take the time to make them pop and sizzle.

I say invest the time now and continue to update the profile frequently and you will see a better return on socializing (ROS) in this area. I will tell you exactly how you can do this in another post.

The “fan” pages are like Twitter in that the main body of the page is the new stream (as in your homepage) so that fans can leave comments and have conversations with you and others on your wall. That ability has always been there in a way but before it was more of a one-way street and page owners were not as active in the stream of conversations.

Smart businesses, brands and the solo-preneur should work those pages to create better visitor experiences, more participation, more excitement and give fans more in the way of open lines of communication, direct access to corporate officers and a better, quicker more efficient customer service.

The reason Facebook has changed the fan page is because they wish to give businesses and brands the ability to sell directly to their fans. Facebook hopes to make some money in this area by charging for optional services (this is still speculation at this point). Companies will benefit because they will literally explode their customer base, grow their list, boost their brand image and get tons of traffic for a very minimal cost.

But the entrepreneur and business professionals like us, can achieve the same thing if we put in the time, creativity and persistence to make it pay off. But that is another post and I will bring you the goods for that too

I hope you enjoyed this post

So what do you think of the new changes?

Whether you are a Social Media Marketer or regular user, it affects the way we use, play and do business on Facebook and I would love to hear your opinions, gripes and glory!!

Other Facebook Notes I like:

Social Media Marketing- The 10 Social Media Laws of Facebook by Doug Firebaugh

Facebook Pages Change The Face Of Business by Ian David Chapman

Great Blogs about Facebook:

All Facebook

Inside Facebook

Mashable

Next Blog Post in Series:

Top 25 Things You Must Know to Master Social Media in 2009

Thing # 1 Facebook (profile)

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