Facebook is Taking Over the World
Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating. Facebook is not taking over the world (yet), but it is taking over the internet with their recent changes.
I’m not a Fan anymore…
In fact, nowadays, no one is. This was the first of the big Facebook changes. People are no longer ‘fans’ of your Facebook Page, but instead they ‘like’ it.
A lot of people are arguing that this devalues the relationship between the user and the Page. Really? Because that single click it took to become a fan carries so much more weight than the single click it takes to ‘like’ the page?
I don’t think so. At the Social Fresh conference a few weeks back, I was reminded that you can’t overvalue that one click. The emphasis should be on user engagement and loyalty- and that doesn’t change just because you change what you call the people who support your page.
Facebook is following you…. Everywhere
Facebook’s change from ‘fanning’ a page to ‘liking’ it made a whole lot more sense once they rolled out Open Graph at the F8 Developer Conference. Now, you can pretty much ‘like’ anything on the Internet. It started off with just a few partnered websites- CNN, Pandora, Levi’s, to name a few- but has quickly spread across the internet (all it takes to add the social plugins to your site is some simple coding).
What does this mean, exactly?
It means that your Facebook identity is following you everywhere. When you visit a site that has one of Facebook’s plugins, you will see a Like button that you can click to alert all of your Facebook friends via their newsfeeds that you like the page. But it gets way more in depth than that. Websites can also opt for more robust plugins that will show you how many of your friends like that page or even recommend other pages of the site you might like based on where your friends are.
Think information like that doesn’t matter? Well, I think you’re wrong. And so do 68% of Facebook users. According to a survey by market research and consulting firm Morpace, that‘s the percentage of consumers who say a positive referral from a Facebook friend makes them more likely to buy a specific product or visit a certain retailer.
“Google just found its nemesis” -Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus
Facebook’s recent developments are an effort ‘to make the web a more social place.’ Think about it: Now you aren’t just visiting a website. You are seeing which of your friends already like it and you are able to tell them that you like it too (all without leaving the confines of you desk… or putting down your cell phone).
As Charlie Witkowski of Social Studies Blog puts it, Facebook is paving the way for the web to move from an information-based platform to a social platform. Where Google’s emphasis is search, the emphasis with Facebook is interaction. Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus, points out, “Instead of targeting people based on their click behavior or search behavior, it’s targeting based on their relationship to people and to brands and content.”
So, is Google in trouble?
I don’t think so. Sure, Facebook recently beat out the web giant as the most visited site in the U.S. and its user base is reaching a staggering 500 million users worldwide, but I think this just represents a shift in the way people are using the internet. Even the great Google has made efforts to add social components to their ever-expanding empire with Google Buzz.
‘Social media’ is a trendy topic for a reason.
People need to be social (I’m not making this up. It’s a tier in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs). Facebook and other sites with social networking aspects have flourished as people try to fulfill this need. Social media is working because people want that sense of community and belonging, even when it comes through the internet and not face-to-face interactions.
Danielle Hohmeier writes about marketing and design in the digital world for Atomicdust, with a focus on marketing convergence and social media.
