Facebook Changes Making You Crazy? Here’s a Quick Reference Guide
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Facebook is at it again! Lots of changes, unnanounced and in a very short period of time!
With all the changes on Facebook in the past few weeks, I felt it was important to put together a post detailing all the updates. I wanted to make it easy for all of you to learn about the changes without having to wade through 1000 blog posts. I asked on my Facebook page last week if you preferred video or a blog post with screen shots. Most of you asked for a blog post but a few requested video. I’ve decided to do both! For those of you who love video, you can get a quick update about the Facebook changes here – http://bit.ly/oJQ9aG
If you’d rather quickly scan the info and see pics then here it is!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on written updates versus video! Leave a comment on my FB page or right here on my blog and let me know which you prefer!
A Few Pictures of the New Layout
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Recent Facebook changes
- Floating Menu The menu on Facebook is now a floating menu. It stays at the top of your screen as you scroll down the page.
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Menu Changes: The menu has now changed. It no longer says Account – it says Home
- When you click on your name it takes you to your personal profile
- When you click on Home it takes you to your newly designed newsfeed
- Status Update Window Closed: The status update window is no longer open by default. In order to publish a status update, click on the Update Status link at the top and your publisher window will open.
- Birthday Messages Streamlined When you mouse over someone in your birthday messages section you can send the message without leaving your news feed page
- Real Time Ticker This new, live ticker shows you every piece of activity from your friends
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Smart Lists: Smart lists are customized lists you don’t have to create or maintain. From your Home page go to the left sidebar and you’ll see Lists. When you hover your mouse over top of it you’ll see a link appear that says More. Go ahead and click on More.
From this page you will be able to see your smart lists. These customized lists include lists for the following:- Work
- Family
- Location
- School
- Increased Character Limit :The character limit on posts has increased to 5000 – that’s up from 500
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Custom Sharing Per Post:You can now choose to share each individual post with friends, a specific list or you can share your update publically. In much the same way that Google+ allows you to share with specific circles, Facebook now allows you to share with specific lists.
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Updated Newsfeed: The newsfeed is now a combination of top stories and most recent so it’s both timely and relevant
- Top news is designated by the little blue triangle in the upper left corner of each post. The items marked Top News are posts that Facebook believes are more relevant to you. They use the Edgerank algorithm to determine which posts you are most likely to want to see. For more information about Edgerank see my previous posts pertaining to the Edgerank experiment.
- Either scroll down to see your Most Recent news or click on the link at the top of your newsfeed that says “X more recent posts”
10. Larger Photos: You will now see larger photos in the newsfeed
11. Subscribe to Profiles: You can now subscribe to profiles of people you may not be friends with. As long as an individual has adjusted their settings to allow others to subscribe to their public updates, you can subscribe to that person’s profile & receive notification of those public updates. You could always see any one else’s public updates but the subscribe button allows you to receive an RSS feed of the public updates of any one person who interests you. If you are friends with someone already then you are automatically subscribed to their updates. This feature also allows you to be very granular about what you’re subscribing to. You can choose to get all of their updates, most of them, only the important ones and/or you can choose to get updates about photos, games, comments, likes and more!
12. Three New Lists: Close Friends , Acquaintences and Restricted lists have been created for you. From your Home page go to the left sidebar and you’ll see Lists. When you hover your mouse over top of it you’ll see a link appear that says More. Go ahead and click on More.
This will take you to your List page. In addition to the Smart Lists we discussed previously, you’ll be able to see the three newest lists Facebook has created for you.These three new lists are Close Friends, Acquaintences and Restricted.Close Friends: Add people such as family members, offline friends or strong alliances to your Close Friends list and you’ll be able to see all of their notifications in your newsfeed. You can also use the new granular tools to customize exactly how much you see from them.Acquaintences: Adding someone to this list will ensure that although you still see updates from them, you won’t see as many. You can choose to exclude these people when you post something by choosing “Friends except Acquaintances” with the audience selector.Restricted: This list is for people you’ve added as a friend but you don’t want to share with them, like your boss or your grandmother’s best friend. When you add someone to your Restricted list, they will only be able to see your public content or any posts you tag them in.No one is notified when you add them to these lists.
13. No More Messages With Friend Requests: You can’t send a message with a friend request any longer. Now when you click on the Add Friend button you request will automatically be sent and you’ll get a drop down menu where you can go ahead and add this person to your lists.
14. Add a Friend
Add Them To a List
15. Pages Can’t Message Fans Directly: As of the end of this month pages will no longer be able to log into the backend of their page and send a message to all of their fans.
16. Share Link on Pages:Facebook reveals who shares your updates. You can click on this link and see exactly who shared your update!
17. Friend Button on Pages: A new Friend button on your Fan page that shows you how your friends are engaging with that page. See who has engaged with the page and whether they commented, liked or shared information on that page.
18. Content Review Link on Profiles: This new content review link allows you the opportunity to review and approve any content that Facebook thinks you may or may not want on your profile. If it’s suspicious then you’ll be able to see it here and either approve or decline it.
19. Verbage Changing on Like Buttons : You will now be able to change the verbage on the Like buttons you have on your website to “watched” “voted for” “read” or anything else that’s appropriate to the content you are sharing.
20. Timeline: There is a brand new layout for your profile called a Timeline that will be rolling out in the next few weeks. (These screenshots are courtesy of TechCrunch). The Timeline will replace your current Profile. The Profile in it’s current state simply shares the latest information you post along with an info section where friends can read your bio. The new Timeline is intended to be an overview of all the great things that have happened in your life. Those items will stay there for others to see. The new Timeline will be wider and much more visually oriented. You’ll have the opportunity to share a large cover photo across the top. You’ll have a private activity log here where you’ll find everything you’ve shared on Facebook since you joined. Click on any given item to feature it on your Timeline. In addition, users will once again be able to add applications to their profile/Timeline via the Lifetime Applications I mention in item #21.
How Your Timeline Will Appear To Others
How the Backend of Your Timeline Will Appear To You
21. Lifetime Apps: These new and more social apps are intended to help you share the content that matters most to you and your friends. Facebook has partnered with companies like Nike, Foodspotting and others to allow you to share the things you enjoy the most (i.e. your music, shopping, exercise habits, TV shows, movies, favorite recipes, etc.) and let your friends interact without ever leaving Facebook.
22. Custom URL: Business fan pages no longer need 25 fans to get their custom url.
23. Change in App Permissions : Apps will no longer be required to get your permission every time you use them. After Oct 1 apps will need to disclose the information they use about you before you use them. Once you’ve granted that permission they can feel free to use it.
24. SSL Certificate Requirement: Don’t forget – Oct 1 SSL requirementAs of Oct 1st, there’s a new requirement to have an SSL (secure socket layers) certificate for your customized landing page. This will ensure that users who use Facebook on a secure connection (https://) can see any custom content you added via iFrame apps or other third party apps. Three options for you: 1) Use an app like TabSite that hosts your custom tab for you and they will have an SSL cert., 2) Get an account with Amazon S3 and host your own content there – they have an SSL cert 3) If your custom tab is hosted on your own website you’ll need to contact your hosting provider and get an SSL certificate.
*UPDATE TO ORIGINAL POST*
25. People No Longer Need to Like Your Fan Page to Comment: Facebook is moving in a direction to allow anyone who can see content to be able to make a comment on it or like it. When people come to your fan page they will now be able to come to your wall and comment or like without becoming a fan.
26. Improvements to Insights: Just below the fan count on your page you’ll see something that says “people talking about this”. This is the number of people on Facebook who have engaged with your page in the last 7 days
I look forward to your questions and comments! There has been a lot of information to cover and I’m sure more updates are coming! If you have any questions or need more details about anything in particular I encourage you to leave a comment for me here or on my Facebook page athttp://www.facebook.com/BizMSolutions
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