I'd been nervously awaiting a major redesign of Facebook Pages since the cat was "accidentally" let out of the bag in mid December (FYI: it likely happened on purpose to test user reaction). What's being termed an 'upgrade' rolled out Facebook wide last week, in preview form to Page admins, who have the choice to upgrade now or have it force fed come March. I went ahead and made the transition with my Page after extensively studying and testing the new layout and capabilities. If you're not a Page admin, you can tell if you've stumbled on a reconfigured Page if it closely resembles redesigned personal profiles, with tabs moved to the left and five images at the top.
I'm not going to provide a step-by-step tutorial of all the changes. What I will attempt to go is address the key changes - the best ones - and the ones that leave a lot of us grinding our teeth in frustration. Context is key. What is Facebook trying to do when they roll out a redesign like this. What direction are they taking us? Because knowing where they're going is essential. Are they responding to the collective voice of the Page admin community? Or could they really care less what we think, because afterall, the Gen Y braintrust behind the kudzu-like growth of The Social Network knows what's best for Main Street, right?
Overall, I'd give the redesign a B-, and three cheers for a much needed focus on businesses and organizations. I've long thought that Facebook was neglecting Main Street, an opinion officially confirmed last Fall during Advertising Week in New York City. In the Marketing That Connects Session I attended on September 28th, Mike Murphy, VP of Global Sales at Facebook, admitted they'd been placing the lion share of their focus on two communities: users and developers. The business community, the other main component of Facebook, had played third fiddle to zillions of consumers and creators of third party applications like Farmville that attract legions of addicts players. Murphy, who left Facebook in October, told the business-centric crowd that they were on the back burner no longer. The affable and approachable advertising vet was kind enough to listen to me get some Page frustrations off my chest when I tracked him down after the session ended.
It's well known that Zuck and company were focused on hyper user growth, the theory being that revenue would then follow. With revenue near $2 billion in 2010, according to eMarketer, cash is starting to flow in like a river. And I believe revenue growth will be the key driver behind most every Facebook move from now on, to justify its stratospheric valuation - $50 plus billion, secondary market - and keep the growing number of investors, led by Goldman Sachs, happy. With that reality as a backdrop, I want to highlight some of the recent changes made to Pages.
The Good
Email Notifications and Spam blocking
Clients of mine have always asked why Facebook didn't give them the ability to receive an email nudge when someone posted a message on their Wall, illeviating fear that they'd not be immediately aware of something important, profane, or spammy. That capability is finally here. Instructions for Admins: choose Edit Page, Settings, and make sure Email Notifications is checked. Spam filtering is also a new option. You can choose from three Spam block settings via Edit Page, Manage Permission ... and/or choose to block individual words via a comma separated list box.
Pages can strap on shoes
Your Page is no longer just a destination. Now it's an entity that can Like other Pages, comment on other Page walls, and enable you to easily (once you get the hang of it) toggle back and forth between Admin and Personal modes so you can comment on your own Wall as the Page or as yourself.
This should help illeviate the mess created, and terms of service violated, when Admins use a second 'personal' account to offer more options when interacting and communicating on a Page Wall. Instructions for Admins: choosing Account (personal), you'll now see 'Use Facebook as Page'. That gives you the option to 'Switch' to Page mode on any Page you admin. You can then travel to another Page, Like it, and choose to add that Page to a new 'featured Likes' rotating section on the left sidebar of your Page. Bugs noticed: When visiting other Pages in Page mode, I'm noticing that some Liked via my Personal account are already Liked from my Page ... and others are not. This is confusing, and is most likely a bug. I've also noticed that sometimes when I visit another Page while in my own Page mode, custom FBML Tabs are not loading. But when I switch back to 'Jeff', they load fine. Weird.
Categories can be changed
One of the biggest frustrations for Page Admins has been the inability to make needed changes, to a Page name, custom URL/username, and category. You can now mark one of these off the list.
When you look at upgraded Pages, you'll notice the Category (Local Business in my case, at least for now) under the Page name. Instructions to Admins: By clicking Edit Info, you'll be taken to Basic Information (also accessible via Edit Page) where you can decide whether to select a more appropriate category. I encourage Admins to test different categories, because information options (About, Company Overview, etc) vary. Choose a category that logically fits your brand and offers impactful info boxes. Note: it looks like Facebook has added a 'General Information' box to all categories, a very good move, as many Pages have been using a misworded box like 'public parking' to display pertinent information.