Facebook, a social networking platform that I am sure you are aware of has been attracting the attention of quite a number of users for quite some time. As seen in the Google Trends chart here, you can see the impact as compared to others like MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn. They don’t appear to be slowing down and the trended line shows that their growth rate is phenomenal. OK, so I’m not here to pay homage to one of the many means to expend a large amount of time, rather to look at what impact changes to your website can affect your users.
If you hadn’t heard, Facebook recently redesigned the user home page and it was a dramatic change that has not been very well received by their users. An application to share your thoughts and vote on the new design was also set up and has incited an internal fire storm or feedback, currently it has over 1.3 million votes, of which over 94% have responded with a negative vote along with over 660,000 comments. So, how did Facebook respond?
With the recent home page changes, we’re trying to present the right balance between what’s happening right now and what’s interesting over a longer period of time. We realize that both are important and getting them both right is crucial for the product to work. In the last few weeks, you’ve seen us shift the main emphasis towards real-time conversations and updates as the entry point to Facebook. We’re working hard to make this stream more valuable, and also to build out the richness and relevance of the Highlights section. Responding to Your Feedback
What do I mean? The thing about genius is that it is rarely recognized as it is initially presented and usually not appreciated until much later. I am not saying that the new design is genius (I actually dislike it immensely).
The thing about change is that everyone likes the idea, but don’t really want change if it affects them. I think that they could have used some more usability testing, but I think that almost any change would have incited feedback. Facebook has changed since they started in 2004, but since November 2007, they weren’t the leading social networking site and have over doubled their daily unique visitors as well.
So, what is there to learn from the negative feedback? Not much, but there is a hidden gem though:
When you are the leader you still have to innovate to keep your competitors trying to keep up… MySpace, on the other hand, has remained relatively constant during the same time frame. Two quick points:
When you are not #1 you have to catch up. To catch up, you have to do it better or different.
When you are #1 you have to outpace your competition. To set the pace, you have to step it up and keep moving.
I presume that Facebook sees Twitter as a possible contender in their space and the changes show their concern with the new trend of micro-blogging and it’s impact on users behavior and their time online. I am very interested in the impact of the redesign and users along with their attempts to keep Twitter at bay.
What are your thoughts?
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
I was with Tribe early on, their redesign was terrible – Facebook’s missteps, wow it seems almost destined to wane and after being so big it is kind of the natural ‘what goes up must come down’ course (ahem Myspace)…
Thanks for the ‘do-follow’…
Facebook has made the big mistake of not consulting its members before making major changes to their site. They seem to have forgotten already that they are a social networking site and would not exist without its members. It’s as well to remember that you cannot force your will on others without resistance. All social networking sites should take heed. Don’t mess with your life blood. Communicate with your members, ask, poll and respond accordingly.
Twitter is no threat to Facebook, quite the contrary. Twitter integrates nicely with Facebook. There are many people who find followers on Twitter and then meet up on Facebook to exchange and share more in-depth information either about themselves or their businesses.
Facebook’s problem is that it has no actual point to its existence, it is a permanent “networking” space where random people wander randomly about trying to make “connections” that will benefit them at some indefinable moment in the future.
The huge stack of business cards collected at such events is as meaningless as Facebook’s plethora of “friends”.
Compare that with a site like DailyKos which has gone through a number of iterations, not without criticism and the owner having to respond and adapt.
But its users will tolerate and adapt as well because they already have a purpose for being there; to elect more Democratic representative to government.
The fact that it has a strong social dimension with people donating their time, resources and support to other members in times of difficulty or offering comfort in times of loss is because they already have an affinity with each other, they are, if not friends, co-religionists who are disposed to help others who share their world perspective.
I agree. Keeping up with your competitors is greatly important. If you’re not the hunter, you’re the hunted.
Facebook has been in news lately, first for their privacy policy change and now for the design changes. However, it was good to see them responding to user feedback on policy. And the number of votes for the design is overwhelming.
Looks like everyone is afraid of twitter, search engines because twitter represents current trends, news and what is considered NOW web. Social networks are afraid because people are networking on twitter now. Though the interaction is limited to exchanging messages / pics (through twitpic). Even blogging platforms are afraid
)
LinkedIn has grown significantly in recent past. Mainly because of all the lay-offs and many people searching for references with their ex-colleagues.
I hate the new Facebook layout. But what are we gonna do. When I first started using FB I was lost Just be patient well all learn the new layout.
In general I really don’t like websites like facebook, myspace, or twitter because they seem to always be getting people in to trouble. People also instead of using it to connect with people, at times use it as a way to hurt people they don’t like. You see teenagers on the news all the time for spreading obscene photos or bashing someone and getting arrested.
However, because of statistics like the one you showed here among others on various sites it is getting harder and harder to ignore the marketing possibilities of these websites.
As far as the facebook redesign I really don’t like it at all but I was surprised to find it had such a low approval rating. I’m sure they will be changing it again soon.
We generally tell all our customers to think of commenting on other relevent blogs
as a way of showing another blog’s audience how much they know/ how interesting they are.
So this new audience will click on the link back to their blog.
This is another method of driving traffic to your site and entices people to write really well thought out comments,
instead of junk to get ranked higher on search engines..
I’m not a big fan of the new facebook design either. I know keeping up with your competitors is important but as Bill Knight said, they made a big mistake of not consulting their members before making major changes to their site.
Posts of the dissapointment people have about the new facebook design are popping up on blogs all over the internet so I’m sure facebook is aware of the problem and will be taking steps to fix the issue in the near future.
Well people may not like it but we’re stuck with it and while some think it’s bad others may think it’s better. On a more positive note:
One of the good things about FB at the moment from a marketers point of view is it’s not hard to get free advertising on the site which is good for ranking and traffic for obvious reasons.
Twitter is huge.. I think the appeal is the simplicity of it, and it’s definitely here to stay. I wonder how long it will be before the other social networking sites add a micro blog facility.
I think that the more that Facebook could work to find a way to involve members in the recreation/redesign of the site that the more long term success they will have. It could be genius if they could figure out a way to incentivize 3rd party feedback and development much like they do already for their various 3rd party applications.
I agree – I think that the new Facebook design is rubbish. Where, for example, has the icon gone where you can see what groups people are joining? This seems to have disappeared completely. I can’t believe that Facebook made these changes without consulting some of their users. The only thing that can be said is that people generally don’t like change and once that get used to the new design, the may grow to like it.
As a late adoption Facebook user and early adoption Twitter user, I find myself using Twitter more often than Facebook. Facebook, IMO, is reaching maturity as a platform. Google redefined/simplified search the way Twitter is redefining/simplifying social media. Facebook is great, but it requires more time than Twitter to manage. The only question will be how Twitter will exist as a profit center. If Twitter can leverage ads the same way Google leveraged paid search results, the profits could be huge.
Social websites and viral marketing are twins-ideas and good for seo. In case website to perform well, one need viral approach, and that is FaceBook and Twitter, and Youtube are all about. Great article, like it!
I think people will get used to the new Facebook in due course. I still like it better than Twitter. In general Facebook postings are more thoughtful and substantial. With Twitter I have to wade through too much mindless blather.
I can see why some people hate the new Facebook interface, but once you start hiding some of the rubbish (quizzes etc..) that come up, I found that it actually became easier to use than previously. There is plenty you can do with customised friends lists and things to make it even easier too.
Also, I think your Google Trends graph may become outdated soon too. Twitter is fast catching Facebook’s traffic with its ridiculous 131% growth last month!
Change can sometimes be annoying, but is necessary to be competitive. You can’t expect to be successful if you remain stagnant while your competitors improve.
No you can’t expect them to remain stagnant, however they do need to do sustainable usability & and accessibility testing prior to release of a new website design. That way they are likely to please the majority, and address the minority. Also providing certain hooks / features which only work on the new version is a good way to please users.
We, as humans, tend to steer clear of change. It is no surprise to me that people would not like facebook to change what they are comfortable with, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad design.
They’ve not only changed their site, they’ve introduced new features that maybe impede on other services like Twitter. The instant messaging module means that people spend more time on the site, and more time means that they can showcase more features and people get used to the change quicker than if they just visited every so often.
I agree that the changes are probably good… but I guess they just changed too much stuff point blank, maybe that’s why people are protesting so much.
On another note… I just don’t understand why they’re not letting people choose whichever profile layout they want to adopt.
Depending on the characteristics of your target audience, I have also found that social networking sites like Facebook can generate as much meaningful traffic as any other marketing technique. They are a great tool!