There has been a lot of buzz on Facebook’s continuing makeover of the News Feed. This article from Inside Facebook highlights the changes, including screenshots of the different types of posts before/after their redesign. Photos will be larger, and will look the same from users and brand pages. Albums will showcase photos in a larger, more accessible way – and will also look the same for users and pages. Links will feature larger text accompanying their posts and a gray highlight box for their descriptions, and Page-Like sponsored stories that include recent posts will get larger and more prominent as well.
So what do these changes mean for ads? How do the changes help?
- Less difference between users’ and pages’ posts/photos mean that they will be integrated into the feed more seamlessly
- People will feel less like they are being advertised to if posts are all uniform
- Photos and albums become more engaging, because they show more of each photo and therefore allow more information to be given with each one
While a lot is changing in the feed, we also wanted to look at what is not being renovated in the overhaul. Sidebar ads will stay the same, although it has been pointed out that the new larger photos might overshadow them. While widening might cause a war for space, maybe Facebook could allow a longer photo in exchange for less than the standard 90 characters of text? Or vice versa, more text in exchange for less photo? This might open up ad parameters a little more and give a little more flexibility in their creation. Simple sponsored page-like stories (without the recent posts) will also stay the same, but a slight re-formatting to integrate them with the rest of the changes would also help the design.
Third-party app interaction and activities like changing one’s profile picture will also look the same in the new feed. Only apps with photos involved like Instagram, will see affects from the change, as they are involved in the new album style. We also haven’t heard anything about any aesthetic changes to the design of the background, which is currently solid white. It might be interesting for the news feed to somehow incorporate the white boxes over a light blue-grey background that Timeline currently sports. It would make posts stand out even more, and the Facebook experience would be more uniform across the site instead of seeing such a difference between viewing the feed and pages.
These changes will be rolling out in the next few days. Have you seen any yet? Keep us posted!