Facebook Pages have been around for quite some time and last month, Facebook announced that they intend to make some significant changes within their next update. Long-standing, familiar features such as “likes” will be removed, with a shift in focus towards users following the pages they like instead.
The new update will also include the following feature changes:
- Redesigned layout which is more simplified and intuitive
- Dedicated News Feed to discover and join conversations, follow trends, interact with peers and engage with fans
- Easy navigation between personal profile and Pages
- Updated task-based admin controls giving trusted Page admins full control or partial access
- Actionable insights and more relevant notifications
- Safety and integrity features to detect spam content and impersonator accounts
“Now Pages can discover and join conversations, follow trends, interact with peers and engage with fans. We are removing Likes and focusing on Followers to simplify the way people connect with their favorite Pages. Unlike Likes, Followers of a Page represent the people who can receive updates from Pages, which helps give public figures a stronger indication of their fan base.” Facebook wrote in their recent blog post when addressing the changes.
Page owners will also be able to host text-based Q&A sessions with Followers. To enable this particular feature, Page owners create a post, open the options menu and select “Host a Q&A.” They are then prompted to add a Q&A topic of their choice, to focus the users within the session.
A dedicated News Feed and other changes
Pages will now get their own News Feed. Like regular Facebook users, a Page can join conversations, follow trends and interact with other users.
The new design also adds new Page management features, such as assigning admin access privileges based on particular tasks. Previously, different users could be assigned to different roles, which came with varying levels of access to the page. In the new design, users can be granted specific administrative access to tasks such as Insights, Ads, Content and Community Activity & Messages.
All of these new features will be rolled out over the coming months so don’t panic if you don’t get an update prompt immediately. You will do very soon.
And finally….
We feel the removal of the likes feature, in particular, is a positive change for Facebook and its users. And overall, all of the upcoming changes will be of benefit for all. For too long, people have been largely misled in thinking that their main priority should be to simply get as many likes for their pages as possible. By concentrating on the content and the communication with your target audience, this will ultimately lead to an increase in followers – and a more strategic (and positive) promotion of your Page.
