The Savvy Seller: How Your Facebook Fan Page Is Affected By Yesterday's Changes

Saturday, October 24, 2009

How Your Facebook Fan Page Is Affected By Yesterday's Changes

Yesterday Facebook rolled out some changes to the News Feed / Status Updates.

In the new version of the News Feed you'll now see the top stories that Facebook feels has the most relevant information for you.

By clicking on the 'Live Feed' tab you'll still be able to see stories as they appear in real time.

From Facebook:

Two important points to note about the Top News stream:

1. Stories will be chosen for Top News based on a variety of undisclosed factors, including but not limited to “how many people comment and like” on stories, “who you’re close with,” and “who you interact with frequently.”

2. Facebook is adding user activity stories back to the News Feed – like friend acceptances, relationship updates, event RSVPs, group memberships, and becoming a fan of a Page. In the real time stream, only explicitly “shared” content appeared in the stream.

So what does this have to do with Fan Pages? Plenty!!

Many people have jumped on the Facebook Fan Page bandwagon without any real thought on how to make them work for their business.

With the new changes, Fan Page stories will now be subject to the same algorithm as the News Feed. This means that Fan Page updates won't necessarily show up in your fans' News Feeds in real time as they have been doing.

It's going to take more creativity and work for a Fan Page to be effective.

What and How?

In this redesign, Fan Page posts will show up based on how much response they get, how many people comment on them and how much fans interact with the page.

Business owners using Fan Pages now need to think about what they can do to their updates so they'll show up in the News Feed.

How you can make your stories interesting enough to be 'liked' and commented upon by others? Determine what it will take for your clients or customers to stay engaged and keep returning.