8 Great Facebook Changes You Have to Start Using

I got three words for all you Facebook whiners:

Quit. Your. Bitchin’!

I mean come on! Facebook is FREE! This image I saw today on Facebook summed it up perfectly:

One of the funniest things I read was a friend who said, “Just signed up for Google + – Goodbye Facebook…”  I responded: “Yeah right dude. You won’t do this. Google + is fine but it’s NOT Facebook and most of your friends AREN’T there or using it much. See you when you come back :)”

Wouldn’t you know – less than one hour later he REPLIED to my Facebook comment!

Another friend who’s a “Facebook faithful” shared this “web-gem”:

Stop complaining about changes on Facebook, you will figure out how to work things again. Three months from now you won’t even remember how things used to be.

Well said, Will, well said!

Yes, there were many changes to Facebook recently. And yes, there will be even more changes to Facebook by Thursday, September 22, 2011. According to Mashable:

Facebook is driven by a single, unique goal. Its priority isn’t to gain more users (it already has 750 million of those), nor does it feel compelled to find stupid ways to increase pageviews. Its primary goal right now isn’t to increase revenue, either — that will come later.No, Facebook’s goal is to become the social layer that supports, powers and connects every single piece of the web, no matter who or what it is or where it lives. On Thursday at its f8 conference in San Francisco, the world’s largest social network will take a giant leap toward accomplishing that goal.

I have seen what Facebook is launching on Thursday, and it’s going to change the world of social media…The Facebook you know and (don’t) love will be forever transformed. The news that will come out of Facebook during the next few weeks will be the biggest things to come out of the company since the launch of the Facebook Platform.

As I read the complaints, the rants, and the moaning and groaning about all the Facebook changes last night and today, I decided to take pictures of things I thought were COOL about the new Facebook changes. Here’s my top ten:

8 Great Facebook Changes You Have to Start Using

(in no particular order)

1. The Facebook Ticker:

2. The Top Stories Section:

 

3. Birthday Wishes Made Easy Easier:

 

4. Facebook Circles Lists (Thanks for the cool idea Google +)

 

 

5.  The Subscribe (or Unsubscribe) Option for “Friends”

 

 

6.  A Solution to Clean Up Your Home Page Clutter

 

 

7.  Who Shared My Stuff Notifications

 

 

8.  Easier Access to EVERYTHING

 

I’m interested to see what they’ll roll out on Thursday.

But I feel these changes are helping Facebook do what it really intends to do:

…to enhance the emotional connection its users have to each other through Facebook. These changes will make Facebook a place where nearly everything in your life is enhanced by your social graph. These changes will make it so you know your friends better than you ever thought you could.

Now tell me WHY you don’t like these great changes with strong arguments, not crap like, “I was just so use to the old version…” or “I hate change…”

UPDATE:

Facebook just announced the roll out of Timeline:

Nate Moller works with businesses who want to improve their online business. For over five years, he’s worked with thousands of companies who are looking for answers in their online marketing journey. Follow Nate on Twitter and become a fan of Moller Marketing on Facebook!

26 thoughts on “8 Great Facebook Changes You Have to Start Using

  1. Kumail Hemani says:

    Hi Nate Moller,

    Very awesome post! I don’t like Google+ and I am still using Facebook. But, I think so many changes will hurt Facebook users. I’m not saying users will shift to Google+ but it will hurt.

  2. Heather says:

    Wow!! I have just checked these 8 new features Facebook has made and I’m pretty amazed of it. I’m sure lots of my friends will love it too. And the exciting part right now is that many are asking of what will be their next surprise? 🙂 Thanks a lot Facebook great job

  3. Alan Bleiweiss says:

    meh. The new ticker is stupid and annoying all in one. I don’t give a rats bottom what anyone in my network does or says when interacting with someone else directly. It’s obnoxious and distracting. Joe Bloe likes Jacinda Lucricia’s Status. Yeah that’s in my ticker. WTF? Seriously? How is that a good thing? What benefit is that to me other than becoming one more shiny object that distracts me from reading my actual center-column stream?

    It gets worse because all of a sudden, now there’s temporary notifications on the bottom left of my screen from time to time as well.

    ReallY? WTF is that there for?

    EVERY single change made over the last year has made me spend less and less time at Facebook. None of these “features” that I should, according to your opinion, be grateful and appreciative of, offers me any value, let alone reason to spend more time on the site.

    And if the goal is to NOT get people to spend more time on the site, WTF? Really? If FB wants to become THE central point for all things online, what the Heck good is that if nobody spends any time there? Please.

    Maybe Facebook in its newest form will be a great place mainstream sheep mentality people really become captivated by. My time is precious, and I actually care about the quality of the experience.

  4. Nate Moller says:

    @Alan Bleiweiss
    Hey my friend! I only have one simple question for you – when did you actually start USING Facebook?…Or have you ever really started using Facebook? It doesn’t seem too long ago that you admitted on Twitter that you had finally given in to setting up a Facebook account.

    So, although I really sincerely appreciate your comment, I take it with a bit of a “grain of salt”… 🙂

    Yes, I do think the “Tickler” has the potential to be annoying. I say potential because I haven’t really sat and stared at it for minutes/hours on end. What I do think the changes encourage me to do (for me at least who uses Facebook primarily for two things – to talk New York Yankee SMACK with Mat Siltala and others and to network with a specific niche market for one of my sites) is clean up my friend lists, unsubscribe from people I don’t know or really care about, and focus on building the business relationships that will prove to be the best ones.

    I’m prepared to weather this storm of changes and am confident there will be more today that will probably be even better.

    Again, I do appreciate your comment and directness. It’s always good to hear how others feel (unless they’re talking BS about the AL East Division Champs who they know nothing about – to which comment I will slam them right back with cold hard “Mariano-Rivera-is-the-best-closer-of-all-time” facts) – at least we agree 110% on that 🙂

    Talk soon!

  5. Nate Moller says:

    @Allen Cerezo @ Philadelphia Social Security Disability Lawyers
    LOL – well, if you said it you said it! You weren’t the only one who threatened to leave Facebook for good and transfer their loyalty to Google + (until they actually went over there and realized it’s not quite yet for everyone).

    I think the Facebook changes are a work in process, but I think, with a bit of practice and time, people won’t even remember the changes and will find ways to work around the ones that they don’t see as convenient.

    Thanks for the comment.

  6. Nate Moller says:

    @Kumail Hemani
    I agree that if Facebook isn’t careful, they will lose some users; but when you have over 750 million, a lot of which use Facebook multiple times a day to connect with friends and family, it will be hard for them to lose too many.

    Thanks for the comment and good luck adapting to change – more is probably coming.

  7. vhien says:

    The first time I’ve noticed these changes in my profile made just say, “another add/delete move from FB”. That’s it!It doesn’t bother me at all. They’re just making changes whenever they think its appropriate to do such thing,and I’m kinda used to it.

  8. vhien says:

    Yes, I am adapting. Even if I have violent reactions about the sudden changes, my opinions doesn’t matter because FB won’t hear them though lol

    welcome sire! keep sharing wonderful thoughts.

  9. Heather says:

    @Nate Moller

    You’re welcome Nate! Thanks for the post too. It sure did gave me an insight of Facebook’s next gameplan. I’m just a little bothered with what the cookie-guy-on-top was saying. It seem to me that he’s having a bad-FB-hair-day recently but I’m glad you handle the situation pretty well. 😀

    Keep sharing. Thanks again 🙂

  10. Nate says:

    @Heather
    LOL – I’m going to tell him personally that he’s “cookie” and get a blog comment war going 🙂

    Glad you liked the post and that it gave you insight. More to come, more to come!

  11. Jaygirl says:

    While i very much appreciate and use facebook,i wouldnt say i totally agree with your post. I think too many personal details are usually being shared on facebook. For crying out loud, some people live on facebook. You go to offices and see people ‘facebooking’ instead of working.

    I just think people should share less of thier life on facebook, my personal opinion though

  12. Ana @ Como Hacer Ensayos says:

    Actually, my first reaction to all those changes was this status – “Am I the only one who doesn’t care about the changes on Facebook? Do you even remember how the ‘first’ Facebook looked like?”

    I got tons of likes.

  13. Jaime says:

    I like most of the new things about FB, but the decreased notifications is a pain (even after setting them back to how they supposedly were, I am not getting them all), and my default posting settings seem to be gone and I now have to change every single posting to let it be seen by whomever I want to see it, and the ones from the phone are automatically public and I can’t seem to do a thing about it.

  14. Penny says:

    I think changes for FB is for the good. We all just have to learn to adjust. The negative reaction is just a frustrated cry for not being open to new ideas. We have to keep evolving and this is all good!

  15. Raxe says:

    At first I hated all the new features, however with time I started getting used to them. They definitely feel better on larger screens!

  16. Zumara Chohan says:

    The only thing so far that I don’t like is that my own status updates disappear out of my own feed if no-one comments or likes them because that makes them not ‘top news’ or whatever, which is not useful at all. All other changes have been to my benefit, so frankly people are obviously just whining because it’s different. Get used to it and you’ll be fine, gawd.

  17. Chas says:

    With all due respect, if you can get used to the changes from Vista to 7, or from Windows to Mac, then the fb updates are nothing to worry about. It might take an hour or 3 or 4 visits to get used to it, but as “Will” said, you’ll have forgotten about the old fb by that time.

    I’m all for keeping the old grey matter of fb users active.

  18. Pankaj Rattan says:

    True article.I have my account on both social networking site google+ and facebook and i feel that facebook is far batter then google +.Google+ is not so much user friendly while facebook is totally owesome.You are absolutlly right the facebook is on move. And Google+ is so behind then facebook.

  19. Robin says:

    Facebook has definitely made some substantial changes as of late. Some of them are truly helpful. Thank you for highlighting the updates because there are some I didn’t have the time to notice, but would be interested in using. By the way, LOVE that “facebook changes suck” photo at the top. :p

  20. Pingback: INFOGRAPHIC: Where Will Facebook be Next Week/Month/Year? | Utah Online Marketing Consultant

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