Last Wednesday, Facebook announced some changes that are intended to make the internet more social. But what do these changes mean for those who interact with Facebook on a regular basis?
Here’s the lowdown on both individuals and businesses:
Business
Facebook has changed the concept of “fan” to something that sounds a little less committed – “like”.
I’m going to try and keep this really simple. As I understand it, you can keep your existing FB buttons on your site “Follow us on Facebook” and they will have the same effect of gathering “followers” (formerly fans). The biggest change is the individual interactions that will allow others to like or recommend a page or content from your brand website to their friends. The net effect is the same as your choice to like something is noted on your wall.
The big change is that Facebook wants you to start sharing your likes from anywhere on the web. Look for web publishers to start installing the FB like button on web sites, blog posts and in reference to individual items and products.
This page on the Facebook Developers blog gives you the lowdown on how you or your web developer can do it: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box
Individuals
Individuals don’t have to do anything differently but be aware of how their information is now getting shared across the web. This article on mashable.com does a great job of breaking it down.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/21/facebook.changes.users/index.html
