July 26, 2009 65 Comments

Three Changes I Wish Facebook Would Make

facebook I’m experimenting in Facebook, and I have come across a few things that I wish Facebook would do differently. I’m sharing these to get your perspective, but also because I don’t really know how to ask Facebook directly. I don’t have the relationship that Robert has with them. So, if I post it here, I’ll just hope the world sees it. And if not, it informs my thoughts for future on what I think a company might want from a social platform.

Three Changes I Wish Facebook Would Make

  1. If I’m reading people’s status updates via a list (for instance, I have close personal friends grouped together), and someone comments on MY status, I can’t see this without clicking over to my profile. Suggested fix: just let me subscribe to myself in lists.
  2. I was talking with someone from Riverblind (a cool band), who said they’d missed an opportunity because any updates on a fan page aren’t rigged to notify the page owner, so when someone left a comment requesting an important interview, it went missing because the band wasn’t hanging around on their page 24/7. I feel this way about our Trust Agents community. It requires manual visitation to know that changes have been made.
  3. I want to be able to share ANY element of a page. I often find comments to things I’ve written that deserve promotion. Why can’t I share pretty much anything? Heck, I saw that Keith Ferrazzi had some ads for his book, and I wanted to SHARE the ad in my stream, but that wasn’t an option. I get that a share isn’t a click-through, but if I share something, I’ve just given it almost 5000 more chances to be clicked, right?

The Framing

In all three cases, I can see the counter-motivations NOT to do what I’ve asked.

1.) Goes against their need for more page loads to show more ads.
2.) Ditto.
3.) Clicks.

Um, now that I’m looking at it, basically, if I’m right in my assumption, these usability changes are all null and void because of how they’d impact ads. Am I wrong?

What do you think? Do you run into those types of things on Facebook?

How are you navigating it all?

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  • http://twitter.com/PeterArceo Vegas – Peter Arceo

    Chris, you make some great points. Your 2nd and 3rd point are ones that I've personally struggled with and wished they would fix. I waste a lot of time going to/from the Las Vegas Hilton Fan Page to check all elements to make sure I don't miss any Fan participation. That one simple fix would make my day and my staff's day more efficient.

  • bsaunders

    I've also found myself desiring #3. I often see status updates from people – or comments to my posts – that I'd love to share. But I guess that would limit how open people would feel about making comments. I know that I make comments in the knowledge that only the friends of the person to whom I'm responding will see them, and not my own friends.

  • http://twitter.com/Sue_Anne Sue_Anne

    I agree about the updates on the fan page. I think this might have changed recently because I remember getting notified early on. Or, that may have been just on the Events pages. If I can get notified if someone writes on the wall of an event I've created, why as an admin can I not get notified if someone writes on the wall of my non-profit's fan page?

  • http://twitter.com/myTwitrVA Kathy Colaiacovo

    Chris,
    I am SO with you on the second 'wish' .
    Fanpages are really up and coming for many yet, sometimes they are missing vital communication opportunities if you are not paying full attention…

  • http://www.honeybeeconsulting.com startabuzz

    Well, as for the Trust Agents page, I may have a solution (mightn't be the BEST one, but it works). I have a separate page for my company, and I had become frustrated that I had to check to see if comments had been made, etc. SO, I just subscribed myself via SMS (you can do this with any page). This might be a little more unmanageable for you, given the volume of traffic on the TA page, but it might do in a pinch.

    As for the others, I'm with you. Best solution I've come up with, thus far, is to keep a separate tab open with my own profile. That way, I can focus on my friends' updates and check on my own stuff afterward.

    Not the most beautifully wrapped packages, at present, but it gets the job done (for now). :)

  • http://jasonkeath.com jakrose

    Ads would be best served by a more successful platform.

    One to add: allow me to add pages to lists. Especially since that's where businesses are encouraged to live.

  • CathleenRitt

    I don't know what their motivation is. I saw a Facebook blog that gave me the impression they're trying to get people to use the site more for normal stuff, like make lunch dates with each other using Events. So I think you're probably right about serving up more ads.

    I feel like they just can't get the little things right at all. Like you can block people from sending you apps but you can't block them from sending you events. It goes to the reciprocity thing – I don't mind friending people on Facebook, I just wish they didn't think I cared about them.

  • http://www.mylifechanges.com/facebook-uses-your-pictures-on-their-advertisements-without-your-permission.php Terry

    Here is my beef with Facebook I wrote yesterday. See the URL

  • marydemingbarber

    Chris. I agree with you and also wish there was a way that I could see the news from my fan pages separate from the news feed. Like you, I have friends in groups and unless I also look through the news feed I miss updates from things like Trust Agent.

  • http://www.honeybeeconsulting.com startabuzz

    THANK. YOU. That would make organizing things infinitely easier. Mark Zuckerberg? Are you listening?

  • jenniferturner

    Here is a link to the Facebook “make a suggestion” page:
    http://www.facebook.com/help/suggestions.php

    I'm not sure how responsive they are, but maybe they would accommodate your request, especially if more than one person were to suggest it…

    Good luck!

  • http://www.arkanimals.com arklady

    I find a few things difficult too. For instance, on my fan page I could not comment back on photos because she was not a friend (or am I missing something here).

    Getting to my pages is a pain too. Wondering why those cannot feed into where I can do one stop management and responses.

  • http://twitter.com/harveyparadox charles faris

    Facebook has just grown beyond human scale. It is so busy that it is useless to me now. Blame it on the business people hijacking social media.

  • http://www.takefreeonlinesurveysformoney.com/ Paid Survey Sites

    I guess I got so use to facebook being the way it is that I haven't even thought about the changes you mentioned. Though it would be nice to be able to share any element of a page.

  • http://www.wildscotsman.com/jeff Wild_Scotsman

    Here is one that I believe is necessary. If someone wants to be my friend I am allowed to look at their profile for 30days, however, if I send them a PM to see how they know me than the system allows them access to my profile. I find this to be very counter productive as I am less likely to add someone unless I am 100% sure I have the facts

  • http://twitter.com/parenteau Michael Parenteau

    Usability should not need to be compromised for advertisement. The issues you are thinking about seem totally reasonable. The question is whether they are valuable to as many users as it costs to make them happen.

    1.) I think that the stream you see on your home page should include updates relative to you. That makes total sense. I shouldn't have to browse my own profile page that I have updated myself to see what others are sending my way.

    2.) As an admin of a page, you should be able to subscribe to updates! If they streamed into your home page then great… but I would think that you should definitely not have to watch the page all the time to see if people are active on the page. If you want to get 100's of emails for every update… that should be a choice you make. They will already send you an email for every other thing that is relative to you… why not a page that you are invested in?

    3.) That kind of exists with the “like” feature… not quite repost or share… but I see when somebody “likes” something in my stream. I agree though… a full on explicit share feature would be pretty cool.

    I would like to add that the creation of pages and events are kind of burried. I don't think that finding the starting point for those features are really intuitive. It seems that they would be better chosen where you can start everything else… in the share section or maybe they could fit in a “create new” button/section in a visible area so people could more intuitively use the tools at their disposal.

    That is my 20 cents.

  • anniegirl1138

    I want to be able to prioritize my feed. Some people live on FB and some just log on once a day or every few days etc. I want to be able to see updates according to who I think is important and not just a first come, first served thing daily. I miss lots of updates.

    I want to be able to share anything and tweet anything.

    I want to be able to save things like I can favorite them on Twitter. I lose so many things because unless I click away to read something when it comes up, it's gone.

    I agree it would be nice to get a list of pages and blog network updates

  • http://www.thislandisforyou.com/ Gina Kay Landis

    By the way, the Mashable “Martha Stewart Likes Twitter better than Facebook” article posted on Facebook and on Mashable's site gives the name of the Communications Director for FB as Brandee Barker – not sure if she would be the right person to address your wish list to, but could be… good luck!

    And yes – I agree some of the lack of functionality makes using FB a bit clumsy. Would like to see more transparancy.

  • Phil

    Totally agree on the ability to get notified of fan page changes, posts etc. At the end of the day, you should have people that you are friends with, but also people you follow (which would include fan pages and groups). I may be friends with someone, but I really could care less what they are doing (especially if they are doing all those stupid quizzes). Being friends with someone and following them should be isolated events. Some people I want to know everything they post and others, I just want to seek out what and when they are doing it. Facebook needs to allow users to control their own experience.

  • http://twitter.com/SusieBlackmon Susie Blackmon

    Not a big Facebook fan, but understand the need to 'be there.' Too many games and flowers and pokes. Can't search anything.

  • wal

    I don't think increasing page views is their goal. In fact, I've noticed many recent changes that reduce pages views dramatically. For example, earlier it was that if you click on the picture of someone who's not a friend, you're directed to their public profile page, but now they just open a popup that has no ads. The same if you click to see the friends of someone, now it's in a popup rather than a new page view. Same when you want to see event attendees. They also changed the wall on groups and events to update in place with AJAX rather than refreshing the page.
    I think they have way too many page views, and reducing them only increases the overall CPM.

  • bladeronner

    These are dead-on suggestions Chris. They need to add that notification feature to Groups too. Seems like a no-brainer to me. But, I do get the possible $$ motivation not too if it possible affects ads revenue. But I think if they make their motivations in this case more about improving the user experience, in the long run it will pay off. Leave open gaping holes like this that frustrate the user experience, you open the door for a competitor to one-up you. No one should rest on their laurels in this business. Just ask Yahoo.

  • http://www.newward.com/articles/ Melissa Ward

    On the news feed page (home) there is a Pages option under your friends list. Unfortunately it shows all the pages you are a fan of, not just those you admin.

    You can create a “Friends” list of pages you want to see. I use that to track the NewWard page as well as client pages.

    Create a list – name it, then where it says “Type in a name” enter in the title of the fan page and select it. ;)

  • http://www.newward.com/articles/ Melissa Ward

    You can “hide” updates from people on your home page. I do this with folks who have their 5 dozen daily twitter updates sent to FB automatically… I don't need to see anyones follow friday list on FB.

  • DSimpsonBeck

    Hi Chris,

    Thanks for making this post, these are all issues I would like to see fixed. Especially number 2 – it was me who you were tweeting with earlier about Riverblind's missed opportunity. Thanks for the link :)

    We were on our first national tour here in New Zealand last year. Our fan page was new then and I had mistakenly assumed that I would be sent notifications like on my normal Facebook page. I simply didn't bother to check, especially not being busy with all that goes on with touring. I checked emails and the website, but most of the time we didn't have immediate access to the net anyhow. Then, a day after the Dunedin gig (our most well-received show of the tour), I had time to relax, sit down and flick through Facebook. Arrgh! An interview? A review? Just need to invite you to last night's gig?!

    That was not a good feeling.

    At first I blamed myself for not checking. Then I blamed the journalist for not bothering to use our email address. But this was our first ever tour, we can't just pass up oppurtunities. He was willing to do us a favour and we were not in a position to expect him to chase us around the city. And he probably expected, like we did, that Facebook would simply work.

    “Facebook sends you emails, right?”
    “Sure, I get tonnes…”

    Unfortunately, for whatever reason there are parts of Facebook, like many sites, that don't work the way you would expect or want. Perhaps this has to do with a need for more ad clicks, or they simply don't realise it's an issue, I have no idea.

    But my experience really made me think how much it helps to really know how a site functions before you can rely on it in your business.

    I did immediately update the page with more explicit instructions that all press and other inquiries should go to our email. But I still have to “police” the page as Chris tweeted.

    Thanks again for the mention Chris – it means a lot to us three guys who are trying to make it doing what we love.

    Take care,

    Dan

  • http://www.sharifitness.com/ ShariFintess

    I agree with change #2. I have a fan page and don't like that I'm not automatically updated when someone leaves a comment.

    I also wish they would raise the “friend” limit on your profile page to have NO LIMITS.

  • http://riverblind.com DSimpsonBeck

    Oh and look at that, there is a solution!
    Thanks Melissa, it seems to have worked :)
    Perhaps in my haste I have underestimated what I can get Facebook to do.
    That said, I wouldn't have known the solution without this blog post, so thanks Chris and thanks Melissa! That's one less thing I need to worry about :)

  • http://riverblind.com DSimpsonBeck

    I believe Melissa Ward's solution above solves our issues with #2. Try it out :)

  • http://www.schwindt-pr.com/english Annette Schwindt

    You're so right, Chris! I really wish Facebook would offer RSS for fanpages (for both internal and external use) which would make it so much easier to keep update and share things.

    For example I can not add my facebook fanpage updates to my friendfeed (or have I just missed the link where to do so?) and thus share them elsewhere.

    And as you said, even as an admin I have to go there over and over again to find out if there is a new comment, new fan etc. which is very user-un-friendly.

  • http://dulemba.com zabdul

    I completely agree with your second point. I just realized that myself yesterday. I went into my fan page (once in a blue moon) only to discover that people have been leaving comments and I was never alerted. I got back to them, but late. Wish I'd known I wasn't going to get alerts for that!
    e

  • http://angperegrino AngPeregrino

    Great points Chris. # 2 is also my pet peeve and a source of minor irritation actually.

    I hope FB reads this and does something about it.

    Thanks!

  • hivesusan

    I wish Facebook would allow the admin of a fan page to comment on that page's post as herself. For example, if I post something on the restaurant's page that I help to administer, I might like to share it with my friends, who are not remotely the same. But the only way to do it is to comment as the page, which makes you look like a dumbass. Also, I wish Facebook would answer when I ask them to explain the numerical rating on Insights.

  • http://www.retaggr.com/Page/BeckyPearce BeckyPearce

    Chris, I think you're right on. ALL 3 of these are features I have found myself wishing for when using our Fan page. The other thing I find extremely difficult is working with apps on Fan pages. FB apps are “buggy” even on personal pages but seem to be even worse on Fan pages. I often can't get an app installed and, even when I can, the setup process causes errors until I give up altogether. To makes it even worse, they have little to no customer support to help deal with these obstacles.

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  • http://twitter.com/Nat_Mich NatMich

    lol, I guess the way I use Facebook is sort of different. While status updates are fun, I don't spend a lot of time reading them so the lack of “real-timeliness” in viewing them or any responses to mine has not been a huge concern to me. That said, I think you make some great points regarding how the ads are blocking they way for potential useful features or movement into more real-time, easier to share information site (aka: more like Twitter ;).

    The ads are also a known issue for Facebook and have not proven as effective as would be ideal. I think your point about your desire to share ads at times is very intriguing. After all, there is really a ton of promotion of goods, sites, and the rest on Facebook- the problem is that this promotion is happening friend to friend and not ad-to-user. I wonder if there is a way to take advantage of this?

    Another idea I think would be cool, and useful, would be to try and present ads more functionally as “helpful functions” on Facebook. For instance, if there was a really easy place on my Facebook page I could click on to open up bar/club events happening in my area or see food specials at local restaurants, I would definitely check it out! If not to actually find, invite and publish it on my page, then just for fun to see what's going on.

  • http://www.scottfox.com Scott Fox, Author of e-Riches

    HI Chris,

    I think these are great suggestions. As a fellow online marketer and author, I fully support these suggestions because they would make Facebook a more effective marketing platform for us.

    But I don't think Facebook is avoiding those changes simply because they want to increase ad views. With 200+ million users they already have far more page views/impressions than they can monetize effectively.

    It's more likely that the complexity of changes such as you suggest cause ripple effects throughout their system that are very challenging to engineer and QA properly.
    Their continued rapid user growth means that it's tough for them to even keep providing adequate server space and bandwidth, much less introduce multiple additional contingent and connected database calls on many additional pages.

    In the mean time, I expect they are not too worried about accumulating more ad impressions inventory (quantity) but are moving toward what you implicitly suggest: a focus on increased utility that attracts greater loyalty (quality). Now that Facebook is so big, they'll make more money by improving the service so they can raise the CPM rates than by adding page views.

    So, I hope that they'll get there but it may be a while.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Ohhhhhh!! Neato!

  • weissie20

    I agree! Especially on the fan page one!

  • http://riverblind.com DSimpsonBeck

    I dunno, I may have spoken too soon.. again…

    Just got a comment on the page and no notification.

    I'll keep investigating, maybe there is a way to tweak it.

  • kirstyann

    I'm not sure if I like the 3rd suggestion (if I'm reading it right), I think I would just find msg's duplicated too many times, and while it could be great promotion, it could easily annoy people too much.

    Your 2nd suggestion though is a really big one, and one that I find incredibly frustrating. While I'm on FB fairly often, I don't often scroll down past the first page and forget that new fans often go back further than this and leave comments and so I usually miss them. That is one change that FB should definitely be allowing admins of Fan Pages.

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  • http://www.ribeezie.com Ricardo Bueno

    I don't like that comments on pages don't notify the page owner. In this case, I have to log in (which I do once a day or every other day) and check for new content/comments. Then again, I don't have 1,000's of subscribers (or “fans”) so it makes it a little easier for me to manage. That and people seem to be pretty good about contacting me via Facebook email to make sure that I get a message should they wish to get in touch.

    Is this something that I'd like to change? Of course. I think it'd be pretty convenient to get notifications.

  • http://wahmbizbuilder.com/ Melinda | WAHM Biz Builder

    Apparently if you 'Like' your own post on your fan page then you'll be notified of follow-up comments. Although that does mean that you have to manually 'Like' all your posts, rather than just leaving FB to post them from your blog.

  • http://www.facebook.com/gpgrazioli Gianpaolo Grazioli

    I agree. those are three things that annoys me a lot.

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  • http://facebook.com/ darrin

    Im looking to contact a technision from facebook have a question i cant get my applications to load anymore for instance farmtown.

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