Here's what happened:
In an effort to make it easier for users to keep up with their friends/contacts, there are now two options for reading the feed on your home page.
One is called "News Feed." This is a collection of "highlights" as determined by some behind-the-scenes algorithm. Rather than a complete, unedited look at what every one of your friends is posting, the News Feed will show you the posts it thinks you'll be most interested in -- things from your "closest friends" (i.e. those you interact with the most), or posts that many other friends have commented on.
The other reading option is the "Live Feed." The Live Feed shows you EVERYTHING that happens, in real-time. This is similar to the old behavior of the feed, but with two main differences: first, it actually updates in real time -- you don't need to click refresh. And secondly, the Live Feed isn't just about status messages and posted items anymore. Now they've re-incorporated a bunch of other activities that used to appear in the feed, but haven't for quite some time. This means that now you'll see when your friends add new friends, when they've been tagged in a photo album, and when they become a Fan of a new Page. **
So, with me so far? Now, here's why it's good news:
1) Regarding the "News Feed" -- as far as I can tell, whatever that algorithm they're using is, it's pretty spot on. When I look at my News Feed view, I see my closest/least boring friends, my coworkers, and the Fan Pages that have the most interesting-to-me posts. Facebook is analyzing what feed items I interact with (via posting comments or "liking" them) and it's showing me the things it thinks I'll want to pay attention to -- and so far, it's been RIGHT about that. (What about you? Does your News Feed understand you?) It's great for when I log in to Facebook but don't have time to obsessively backread everything that's happened since my last visit.
2) Let me reiterate what I said above: the Live Feed now shows you when one of your friends becomes a Fan of a Page. This is a big deal for anyone running a Fan Page -- this brings back an element of "viral" promotion that's been missing for a while. I've got 344 friends -- now I'll find out every time one of them finds a new arts org Page. People often ask me how to get more Fans on Facebook-- here's a way that requires no effort on your part. Each new Fan you get now comes with the potential to attract more.
All that said, here's my big complaint about the change: why oh why doesn't Facebook learn how to announce these things in an organized, helpful, reassuring way??? When we released our new redesigned version of PatronMail last week, we didn't spring it on our clients out of nowhere -- we sent out an e-mail, and posted alerts well in advance, so as not to take people by surprise. I don't understand why Facebook hasn't figured out it might be helpful, when they make big changes, to put a big link at the top of the home page saying "CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT HOW THIS REDESIGN WILL HELP YOU USE FACEBOOK" or something like that. (Instead, they post sporadically on the official Facebook blog -- I guarantee that only a tiny percentage of their 300 million-plus users ever look at it.)
One last thing to keep in mind here: the change described above just reinforces the fact that in order to stay prominent on Facebook, you need to make sure you're posting interesting, relevant, engaging content. Some users are going to embrace the News Feed as their main Facebook browsing tool, which means that right off the bat, you're almost certainly going to lose some eyeballs. The way to keep as many as you can (and gain some back) is to find ways to encourage interaction -- the more a user comments / likes things you post, the more you're likely to be included in his or her News Feed algorithm. Ask question, post photos, be a highlight!
** footnote! you may have seen a message circulating around your feed that says something like this:
FACEBOOK is blocking all your friends news feeds EXCEPT for 250 THEY choose. TO UNDO BLOCK: Here is how you can change it back to the old way. 1. Click "Home" 2. Look to the top left menu and click on MORE. Then drag STATUS UPDATE........to the top. After dragging to top........., click on it. That becomes your default... and it is like before. Cut and paste this & pass it on!![credit to my dad for asking me about it]
This is half-true at best. Here's the real story:
By default, the Facebook "Live Feed" only shows stories from 250 friends. If you want to allow it to show stories from all friends, do this:
1. On the FB Home Page, click on "Live Feed" at the top.
2. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click "Edit Options".
3. You'll get a pop-up window with "News Feed Settings." It should say 250 by default, but a higher number means you will see new posts more frequently. You can change it to anything up to 5,000.
4. Click Save. CRISIS AVERTED.
