Facebook and the New Newsfeed: A Philosophical Take

When Facebook made the announcement about their new Newsfeed layout late last week Heraclitus came to mind.

Yes, we’re getting philosophical.  Stay with me here.  I’ll be quick.

Heraclitus was a 6^th century Greek philosopher best known for moving the thinking of the time from the physical to the metaphysical.  “Change is the only constant” is a paraphrase of his Doctrine of Flux, which states that all things flow and never remain the same.   He also coined the Unity of Opposites: all opposites are actually the same.  Because change is constant but no matter the change things will return to a former state, Heraclitus shook the world by thinking about the unity of the universe.  Much like Facebook.

Okay, here I go again: stick with me.

Facebook is constantly changing, and yet, it remains the same.  We use it in the same capacity no matter what it does.  We plan our marketing mix with it as a key channel.  We gripe about the new algorithm, the excitement of the search graph, and the new Profile pages – but we still use it and forget about the change soon thereafter.  Change and sameness, all in one deliciously addictive social network.   From a Facebook perspective this is gold: having the ability to constantly evolve but retain the userbase.  From a marketers’ perspective, it’s more of a bronze-tone: requiring constant adaptation of our strategies, tactics, and specs in order to maintain the community and conversation we’ve built.  Marketers are the Red Queen from Through The Looking Glass – “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

With Heraclitus and the Red Queen by our side, here’s how we’re going to keep running with the latest Newsfeed update:

1. Sign-up for the beta Waitlist.  You’ll give yourself a head start on developing new content and parameters, plus you’ll be able to experience what your fans will see first.  We’ll likely see that it’s much of the same, a change that isn’t.
2. Learn to love big images and video!  The Newsfeed is embracing Google+, Tumblr, and Pinterest’s love of big, bold imagery.  This will require new sizing and resolution needs for brands in the future.
3. Prepare for segmentation.  Like Google+, Facebook will now allow user to have different Newsfeeds for different groups – friends, family, brands, crazy-cat people, etc.  Branded content will have the opportunity to be hidden in a feed someone will never check. However, going back to Heraclitus, this change is more of the same: the Facebook Edgerank algorithm change from late last year reduced fan visibility of branded content by more than half in some cases.
4. Prepare for a fuller, more integrated experience of the social network in mobile platforms.  Optimization of cross-platform content, here we come.
5. Start thinking about what this means for in-feed advertising.  Because we know it’s coming and it’s going to be bigger, bolder, and more interactive than sponsored stories could ever be.

How happy/sad/indifferent are you about Facebook’s development changes?  Fighting it tooth and nail, or have you learned to love the bomb?

Thanks,

Kristen Mercure

CMGT 541A