Facebook Crosses the Streams, Lifts Up the Cult of Personality

The following is a reaction to the Techcrunch liveblogged Facebook press conference today (March 4^th, 2009).

Picture Pages

While the speculation has certainly centered around the changes to Pages and how they ultimately had to be brought into the major design changes that came to profile pages in 2008, perhaps the more accurate way to conceptually deal with it is to note that the personal profile page needed a way to become more like a Page. Already this is being interpreted as the other way around, but it’s worth noting what Facebook themselves kept repeating: number of friends and a way to have a one-to-many conversation with those that pay attention to what you say. In other words, a more utility-focused way of managing a cult of personality. Certainly we’ve seen examples of this, from the Robert Scoble's to the Baratunde Thurston's. The latter I saw for myself in a quandary more than a year ago as he struggled with a transition of his comedy-routine followers who awkwardly inhabited both Groups and Pages. And that’s where the argument is for most organizations, but for personalities the argument is three-sided with Groups, Pages and then their own personal Profile. Lifting the friend-cap is a no-brainer; it’s like lifting the level cap on World of Warcraft – it has to be done to keep the power users interested and to attract/create more power users. But would Facebook go through all of these changes just to allow the new media mavens a chance to be better and more often loved? Well, they might—but they aren’t doing it for that reason and the changes don’t only benefit those new media royalty.

Think of the cult of personalities for our own businesses: Presidents of Colleges, CEOs of hospitals, regular voices of major corporations. For once, the bridge for them on Facebook makes more sense than ever. By essentially merging the concept of the Facebook Page and the Profile, we allow for a better level of control.

Time is Now on Your Side

“Fundamental problem: How do I give my message to the people who care in real time?”

Real time is something Facebook had, some some ways, been avoiding as they grew. While we received notices of comments and messages in the blink of an eye, your news feed was doled out on an unusual schedule that often had video uploaded yesterday not show up in your feed for hours or a day. Statistics for Pages (or “Insights” as Facebook calls them) were available with a 3-4 day delay

Crossing the Streams

Moreover, the changes to the homepages trumpeted a far better interaction of users with the things they belong to or pledge allegiance to (via “Fan” representation). Instead of only receiving updates via, well, “Updates” you can see actions of those pages just as you would your friends. Yes you can assign priorities so that your Mr. Beef fan page doesn’t show up more than your sister’s updates. But the point is, the “stream” is paramount now in a way that in the past had been segmented.

And it includes things from outside the web where you use Facebook Connect, further cementing an important need to be a part of Facebook’s outside-in strategy, to ensure you’re in front of those users where they interact most often. And interact they do… one of the more impressive statements noted by Techcrunch reported that 50% of Facebook’s users each day return the very next day. That’s a stunning flow of visitors for you to get your messages in front of on a regular basis. Staying top of mind with your desired portion of 175 million users is no small feat if you were challenged to spend the money and time to do so in other media.

Facebook offers a "tour" of the new Homepage here.

Check out the new Facebook Pages design in a PDF they offer here.

-Dean