Facebook is constantly tweaking their layout and feature set, with the increasing the sharing of relevant information among friends. Recently, Facebook changed a few things about Facebook Pages for brands to make them more viral and more authentic.
First, Facebook has started adding popular Pages to the Suggestions for People You May Know. This is great to see Pages that your friends have become Fans of start to show up in this list, and means a much faster spread for Pages than ever before. Becoming a Fan is now just like adding friends.
Second, Facebook has begun requiring newly created Pages to be digitally signed. All this really means is that the creator has to type their user name, signing that they are authorized to create this page. This has implications for fan created Facebook Pages for brands, since they obviously will not have authorization to create Pages in the brand's name. However, there is no reason that fans can't couldn't create Pages that talk about brands without trying to seem like their are the brand. The question is whether the brands will now step up to create their own Pages.
Finally, Facebook seems to be renaming Facebook Page to Public Profiles. This is an interesting change, but goes well with the concept of Pages now being similar to User Profiles in layout and features. Still to come are some changes to the Facebook Developer Platform to allow custom applications deeper integration into Pages, such as custom data on the Info tab.
If your business doesn't have a Page or is interested in making your existing Page more effective, we can help. Email us at consulting@thoughtlabs.com or check us out on our Facebook Page.
