A look at changes within Facebook

Facebook has announced a number of changes to the way its service works, and so I thought I'd highlight some of the articles I've read this morning:

I know many people use Facebook to highlight their work, share interesting news and photographs, so if your business uses the service to help gain new clients these changes are likely to have an impact.

Facebook is aiming to be a 'scrapbook' of people's lives, but also put these clippings in front of friends and family straight away.

For example, with the Guardian newspaper app within Facebook if you read a news story this will be mentioned in your stream of activity, and others will see this, the need to click a Like button is now gone - this could prove interesting!

Others wonder if there will be just too much activity on the page, a bit like the old days of MySpace when there was that much going on people eventually turned off, or if it will just be an echo chamber.

Personally, I think the changes highlight the importance of having a strong home base, a website and presence you can call your own, where people can easily find photos and images of your work, learn a little more about you and where you can build up a connection over time.

What are your thoughts about Facebook's changes? If you do use it for business, what impact do you think the new features will have on finding new clients?

Replies

Fenlandphil September 24, 2011 at 10:14am

Thanks Craig.

I am a bit wary of facebook and as a result am an infrequent visitor.

I have not used Twitter at all.

I tend to leave alone that which I do not fully understand, I use linkedin and am fairly comfortable with that, I am very comfortable on here and on other garden network sites.
PRO

Craig McGinty September 26, 2011 at 9:05am

Hi Phil,

I agree that it is best to spend time on those sites you are most comfortable with, of course some are worth exploring but if over time you see yourself gravitating back to the others then that's a wise use of your time.
Jane Harries September 26, 2011 at 4:13pm

Thanks for letting us know about the changes Craig, and the links to comments on them. As usual I find the innovations a mixture of alarming and possibly useful! Some of the comments on the Facebook page mentioned that this could be an ideal way of stealing someone's identity or of stalking! I think careful security controls could cut down on this but I still don't put much personal information up on FB. I post my gardening blog onto my garden design company 'page' and keep an eye on my friends' posts.

Here is a link to my friend's videos on making good use of LinkedIn, business-wise:

http://oxforddigitalmarketing.co.uk/linkedin-training-videos/?utm_s...

Jane