Facebook makes a new push

Facebook just celebrated its 6th birthday and used the opportunity to come out with some changes. The social networking site changed its layout and  took power over management of display ads and will be selling the ad space on their own (used to be sold exclusively through Microsoft/Bing).

We don’t really focus on display ads, but the change of management of ad space sales means two things: it will allow Facebook to negotiate the targeted space at a much higher rate (Assuming that Facebook won’t increase the amount of ad space on this intrusion-sensitive atmosphere) and it will allow the company to fully explore the advertising potential of Facebook Connect, which already has 60 million users and growing. There is speculation about opening up to Google and Yahoo, but it is unlikely that the company would once again share the winnings of this “cash cow”.

Now to the good stuff: Facebook’s new site design. A lot of buttons were moved around. For example, there are no more tabs on the home page, instead, the news feed/photos/info/etc. were moved to the side bar. Notifications button was moved along with account settings, and  a few other buttons.

Honestly, the feature that will help good PR agencies (A&H being on top) is the “Top News” option that now appears on the news feed. By the way, good PR agencies are responsible and aware of the socialsphere and our goal is to not only to talk about the brand, but mostly to get other people to talk about it. What “Top News” will do is move the most popular (most commented and liked) posts to the top of the “Top News” news feed. Since our very philosophy is to post stuff that will be commented and liked, this new feature will make it so our posts stay on top. The user will still be able to change from “Top News” to “Most Recent” by clicking on the link right above the status update box.

Overall, the changes made were very positive. Other than the specific benefits I mentioned above, the new layout is a lot more user-friendly and provides all of the needed options and menus at the user’s fingertips. Now that Facebook will be increasing its advertising revenue we can expect more features to come!