By: Samantha Gill, Copywriter / Social Media Strategist, Quinlan & Company
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the new changes to Facebook. And, if you’re like me, almost every single friend on your news feed has been complaining about it. So…what gives?
To start, here’s a brief run-down on the basic new features unveiled from the F8 Conference.
• Ticker: Almost everything your friends are doing on Facebook shows up in real-time on your “ticker” side-bar, including when they comment on their friends’ photos, statuses, links, etc. You’ll see these updates even if they’re commenting on random strangers’ pages, which also means that those same random strangers are probably seeing when the same friend comments on your updates.
• Lists: Facebook took the initiative (how kind of them) to build on their current lists feature by auto-populating categories with your friends. These lists can be edited and added to, you can manage what types of updates you see, or you can hide them from your side bar completely.
• Timeline: Probably the most noted feature from F8 is the Timeline, which is exactly what it sounds like – a timeline of your life from birth to current updates. The timeline lets users easily click through the past years to see what their friends have been up to, when they’ve had important life events, etc. Timeline also drastically changed the layout of the profile page to focus more on images and apps than what you’ve “liked” or commented on recently. With Timeline, you also have the ability to “feature” important items, favorite photos, and more to make them more visible on your page.
• Cover Photo: This change came along with the Timeline and is a large, horizontal photo (which you choose and upload) to give visitors to your profile a glimpse into “who you are.”
My thoughts:
• I like the ticker. I am an active “Facebook creeper” and I like seeing what my friends are up to. I don’t mind that random people may see my statuses or photos, because I don’t post anything incriminating anyway, so what do I have to lose? I love seeing what music my friends are listening to, what pages they’re liking, and more. The ticker is a great way to connect with things and people you may not have ever noticed before.
• Lists are annoying. There you have it. My one complaint about the new Facebook. The numbered notifications along my side bar are enough to drive me insane. Luckily, this feature is easy to hide with just a few clicks.
• Timeline is great. I think the new Timeline layout is awesome. I love that I can feature items that are important to me, like photos from my recent wedding, and hide previous updates from my not-so-socially-smart early days of college. The Timeline is fun to customize and nostalgic to look back on what your life updates were “back in the day.”
• The Cover Photo is a big win. The Cover Photo is my favorite change in the new Facebook. I love looking at the different Cover Photo choices of my tech-savvy friends who have already updated to the Timeline layout (you can do it too. Just click here and follow the instructions). The Cover Photo really does give you a glimpse into people’s personalities, lives, and interests.
Overall, I am a firm believer that change is good. Comment below and tell us your thoughts on the new Facebook features. Do you love it, or do you “H8” the changes from F8?
