If you have been to Facebook lately, chances are you noticed the new changes they rolled out this week. Maybe the changes didn’t immediately jump out at you, but I’m sure you saw one of your friends complaining. Do you think Facebook cares if you approve of their decisions? They might care...a little. Do you think Facebook cares about what keeps you coming back? What keeps you clicking on link after link? What makes you click that like button on some random website? They don’t have an estimated value $80 billion because of their news feed design.
The biggest problem I see with social collaboration right now is that companies think Facebook is the perfect model. Only if your business is about generating revenue from ads, personal data and behavior analysis should you look at Facebook as your blueprint. Most companies decide that they need to be “social” because it is the thing to do. They look at the different features of Facebook and think if they just mimic Facebook they will be successful. People need to understand that Facebook isn’t trying to make communication more efficient. Facebook isn’t trying to help improve business processes. Facebook is the complete opposite. Facebook needs you to spend as much time as possible clicking away on their site every single day.
Facebook is a fantastic marketing tool. If you look closely at the changes you can see that they are all marketing driven. One thing is for certain, Facebook knows what you want to see and what makes you click. The recent changes to the news feed are intended to get your attention and make you click. They only display one ad on the news feed, but multiple ads are displayed on interior pages. Most statistics will show users are more likely to click additional links after the first page.
Facebook is no longer the model for all things social. Facebook does many things very well, but it’s important to understand their motivation. Make sure you understand your own motivation and goals before looking at Facebook or any other site as an example.