As a social media specialist it’s important for me to stay up on the latest, which can be a little tricky in an industry that’s so young and unpredictable. But these shifting sands aren’t only perilous for me. The social media companies themselves have to adapt or die. Being cool and relevant today most definitely doesn’t mean you will be tomorrow. If Myspace isn’t evidence of that I don’t know what is.
Facebook is the company who has been around the longest. They’ve got some serious longevity and have more or less blazed the trail for all others. Throughout this time, they’ve had to adapt over and over again. But lately, I’ve been a little concerned.
Folks, let’s have a chat about Facebook.
I remember when I created my account. It was summer of 2005 during my first semester of college. June, I believe, back when you had to have a university email to sign up. It’s changed a lot since then. A few months back I went online and looked at all the old Facebook designs of the past. There were a few rough updates here and there, but we always got used to them.
Things have been changing with Facebook though. Not in the form of updates, but in the way people are using it. Facebook has gone from being a place where I see my friends’ witty statuses and photo albums to a link sharing site.Maybe it’s just me, but when I go on Facebook, most of what I see are links to Buzzfeed and news articles. And from what I’ve seen with Facebook’s latest update, the titles to news articles are bigger. To me, it looks like Facebook is accepting that this is the way things are going. They’re facilitating it.
Facebook: The Social Link Sharing Network.
There’s something else I’ve been noticing, too. Something that is affecting pages (as opposed to profiles): Facebook seems to give a voice only to those who pay for it. Basically, if you’re not paying to “boost” your posts, very few of the people who like your page actually see them. And because few see them, few interact with them. And then fewer people see the next one because of the algorithms.
Facebook, I love you. We love you. But please, let’s not lose sight of where we came from. Let’s keep the “social” in social media.
Do you agree? Are you seeing this too? Or are we just crazy.