On February 10, 2011, Facebook announced the updated layout of Facebook pages. They have made these changes to make the user experience pleasant and attractive. But the major question is: Does a successful social networking site like Facebook need to change and re-invent its user interface frequently? The other question is: Whether Facebook users are happy with these changes since; they need to continuously adapt to the new changes which ultimately disturbs their social lives. We have already seen lots of new things happening in the social media circle; and Facebook has been one of the major contributors of this trend. It has created a huge impact in the lives of millions of people. In fact, such is the force of this social networking site; that non-users of the site also are affected by Facebook. But if changes are forced on the users; they can even leave the site entirely. This thing has happened in the past and can happen again. Let us now see the updates made by Facebook which has disrupted the users and the various ways through which this social networking site can organize the changes in a systematic manner: Groups: This update allows fellow users to add you to a group without sending you a prior notification. You then receive messages from that particular group on a regular basis which is not required. Better ways to integrate this change are: â€Sending emails to the user suggesting them to join a particular group. â€Making the process of joining a particular group a private affair. â€Making the groups spam-free. Photo Viewer: The entire design layout of Photo viewer has changed. The overall visual of this new update is not attractive and does not go with the overall design of the site. An additional problem with this update is the fact that this application is for viewing photos but with the update, the photos are displayed in a smaller format which provides poor user experience. Better ways to integrate this change are: â€Designing the Photo viewer in sync with the design of the site. â€Displaying photos on the site in regular and not smaller sizes; because they are integral part of the website. â€Introducing the new update to better the user experience rather than spoil their experience. Places: This update allows you to check-in to places that you would like to share with their Facebook friends and family. You can even see which friends are currently at the same venue and which of them have been there. You can tag your friends into places they check-in. It is very easy to change your privacy settings on Facebook places and by default only those users who are your friends on Facebook will be able to see your check-ins. One of the major problems with this update is that you cannot see other user’s status from other platforms. In addition to this, you also do not have options to share more through this feature. Better ways to integrate this change are: â€Connecting the users with Twitter and other social networking sites through this feature. â€Displaying the user status from other social networking platforms on this social networking site. â€Sharing option should be provided to the users through this feature because the basic purpose of this social networking site is to form networks. Isn’t it? Messaging: This update allows you to send e-mails, instant messages, Facebook messages and SMS. It is also termed as an e-mail killer. But the fact of the matter is; Facebook users are finding it difficult to use this new feature. They are sending multiple messages when only one message is required. Better ways to integrate this change would include: â€Developing features which solely do not work as a chat because people are not comfortable using chat option all the time. â€Keeping the older version of messaging intact along with new version because people are not conversant with the latest version of messaging. â€Keeping the Facebook privacy function under check for this update; because if it goes wrong, then it would result in propagating email security leaks or spam through people’s friends networks. Tabs: With this update tabs have taken a back seat on the Facebook website; which is quite disturbing, considering the fact that users and companies were using this feature. You can still see tabs but they are not as prominent as before. It has become difficult for users to develop customized tabs because of emergence of Iframe from FBML. This is disappointing news for users. Better ways to integrate this change would include: â€Providing an option to the users to develop customized tabs on their Facebook page. â€Increasing the prominence of tabs on Facebook profile pages. â€Giving assurance to the users that major updates will not roll out suddenly. As you can see; these updates have had a major impact on the Facebook community. What do you think about this article? Are there any other updates which have impacted the Facebook community? If yes; post your comments and feedback to an experienced Social Media MarketingSocial Media Marketing consultant now.
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