Facebook’s “New News Feed” Announcement

Today, Facebook announced a major revision of their News Feed. In case you missed it, I live tweeted it for you! Check out the Storify, or read the text version below. If you want to sign up for beta access to the new News Feed before you finish reading this post, go right ahead. 🙂

• I’m ready to watch the FB news feed announcement live here http://new.livestream.com/facebooklive/stream  &  following the @mashable live blog http://mashable.com/2013/03/07/facebook-news-feed-live-blog/
• Zuckerberg says that the FB News Feed is a user’s “personalized newspaper”
• Zuckerberg say’s FB’s advantage is you can share all kinds of content in one place, unlike specialized apps.
• 50% of content in the average FB user’s newsfeed is photo & other visual content.
• 25-30% of the content in a FB user’s newsfeed is Page posts.
• New feed emphasizes photos & “visual & engaging rich stories” – your choice of topic-related feed & consistent mobile experience
• Right now 40% of your FB home screen is dedicated to news feed. They’re making that bigger w/ the new version.
• Photo albums get a “major facelift” in the new FB news feed. AKA…..they get bigger.
• FB says the new display of a shared link looks like “the table of contents of a well-curated magazine” includes logo of publisher in corner
• Elements of timeline move to Newsfeed: You’ll see cover photos, profile pic, and in-common friends in newsfeed when friends add new friends
• Your cover photo (page or profile) better represent you or your brand. It’s going to be all over the new News Feed, front & center.
• Pinterest pins get much larger prominence on Facebook to “better reflect the experience you’ll get on Pinterest.”
• 3rd party content will now be more reflective of that service. AKA FB doesn’t want you to use the other services much anymore.
• When multiple friends share the same thing, you’ll see faces of them on the left-hand side, instead of the bottom list that appears now.
• News Feed will include upcoming events that FB thinks you’ll want based on what your friends are doing & where you’ve checked in before.
• News Feed will now give me the highlights of the best NPR stories of the day b/c it knows I like NPR.
• The  “recent articles about” feature that has been creeping into the current news feed will be featured in the new version.
• This allows you to see content about things you’ve liked on Facebook that don’t actually come from the things/pages/places themselves.
• The left-hand navigation is gone on the new News Feed. Absorbed into new space. Still ads on right, of course 🙂
• Next up: they’re going to tell us about how we can choose different versions of the news feed
• “I’m a dude and I work at Facebook. Therefore I wear a hoodie.”
• Can filter new news feed by events, photos, music, and other feeds.
• You can also choose close friends, most recent, games, pages you’re following…there’s a “switcher” in the top right to choose.
• Music news feed shows what friends are listening to, concerts in the area, albums that have been released related to all artists you like.
• New news feed ads a small text overlay on the top of shared photos. Make sure you don’t put your precious 20% text there, marketers.
• “following” news feed aggregates all the page and public figure posts you follow/like
• Following feed will be in chronological order so “content publishers know their fans can see every post they make.” You’re welcome, Pages.
• Feeds in the switcher will be sorted based on how often you use them. So the games feed will drop from mine, eventually 🙂
• Next, they’re talking about consistency between the desktop and mobile Facebook experience.
• This Facebook guy is wearing a plaid button up that’s not buttoned up quite enough. Didn’t get the hoodie memo.
• “Truly Global Navigation” allows you to get to/from any page without having to go back to your Facebook homepage.
• 35% of current FB web users don’t get to use chat b/c their view size isn’t large enough. That will change in new design.
• FB says some feeds may make more sense to view on desktop or mobile b/c you’ll want to spend varying amounts of time with them.
• “new stories” bubble has moved from mobile to the web experience. Good choice.
• Alert: super cute baby wearing a monster jumper on demo FB screen right now.
• Press event live feed just quit without them allowing time for questions. Seriously?
• Apparently Q&A is happening (according to @mashable live blog) but isn’t being streamed.
• Q: Previously, you used algorithms. Are you handing control back to the user? A: We’re like a newspaper. More sections-no change in algorithm
• Press asked about effect on Pages. Zuckerberg apparently shrugged. Other rep said “this won’t affect Page at all.”
• That’s not exactly what they said when they explained the chronological nature of the “following” News Feed.
• The waiting list for Facebook’s New news feed is now open: https://www.facebook.com/about/newsfeed
• Q: Should FB users expect to see more ads? Should investors expect to see more revenue? A: Evaded question & said “more demand for content”
• Official Q&A is over. Media have mobbed Zuckerberg with more questions. Check good tech news outlets for more info 🙂

What do you think about the changes? Implications for brands? Please discuss in the comments.