Facebook Kills Off Like Gating and Introduces Pinning
Listen up folks, things are changing once again at Facebook. No surprise there, right. There is a flurry of stories that are coming into our feed readers concerning the changes that have been introduced and those that are yet to come.
The announcement that has most marketers grumbling is the introduction of the new TIMELINE FEATURE for pages. Unfortunately, it seems that the days of setting a default landing tab are close to being over, when the TIMELINE feature becomes mandatory at the end of March. (Collective Sigh) Before, we could set a default landing tab where facebook users who had not LIKED the page were served a gate that blocked the content of the page.
Take a look at the CocaCola fan page:
While GATING has not been outlawed, its effectiveness has been zapped. In April those days will be long gone. Visitors, instead, will see the wall and shared content as it exists on the timeline. You can still GATE but the only way a user will interact with this LIKE garnering method will be for them to actively seek out and click your tab that is gated. I’m not stating that persuading users to LIKE your fan page will be impossible, it will just take alot more persuading. It also means that you better have some awesome content on your wall including videos, photos, and eye catching content with great titles.
Continuing on the changes…
Facebook has now introduced Pinning! Hmmm, there’s an interesting name to call your new feature. Anyhow, you will now be able to PIN your top piece of content at the top of your timeline for a 7 day period. At first glance, this sure seems to me to be the spot to extend your message or move visitors over to your GATED TAB, perhaps? You will definitely want to start wrapping your head around this new feature.
The game will always be changing and we, as marketers, have no choice but to embrace change and find new ways to get our messages out to the masses. It’s all about CALL TO ACTION from here on out! Get your thinking caps on folks.
Ok, that’s it folks. There are many more updates on facebook. I would encourage you to read more about it! I have to board a plane home from Las Vegas where we just wrapped up Grindcon – which was EPIC!
See ya on the boards
NEXTL OUT
An advocate for a free and open web and a serial entrepreneur, Preston has an in depth working history online with ecommerce, content creation and affiliate marketing. Most recently, Preston has had both the opportunity and pleasure to serve the Internet Marketing Grind Forums as a moderator.
