Online Marketing Blog from metrocafe311

On the 6^th of October Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook announced improvements to the Facebook Interface. The announcements came via a live press conference that streamed over the internet, watch the press release here. Zuckerberg and his team talked about an intense “sixty day lockdown period” that various product teams underwent over the summer due to the high level of product upgrades and launches that were happening. These include Facebook Questions, Facebook Places, updates to Facebook chat and improvements to the photos application.

The main purpose of the press conference, held at Facebook headquarters in Paulo Alto was to announce the launch of the new version of Groups. This feature is designed so users can create spaces within their existing Facebook profiles that are more intimate and personal. So, for example, if I want to share photos that were taken on a family holiday but don’t want my 250 other friends to see them I just create a Group. This will allow me to add only my family members and anything I post to this group will be private and only visible to the group members. When I or any member of my family posts something to the Group we will all receive an e-mail notification that tells us who has posted what to the Group profile. This is no different to current settings where we receive e-mail alerts for certain actions such as when a friend has commented on a wall post.

It is extremely simple to create a Facebook Group. It can be done in two ways. The first is to go to http://www.facebook.com/groups/ and click on “Create Group”. Alternatively you can just log into your profile as normal and click on the Create Group icon on the left hand column of your homepage under “friends”.

Once this is clicked just name the Group whatever you like and add any of the people in your existing friends list. You can then choose the level of privacy you wish the Group to have. There are three to choose from:

1. Open – Meaning both the members and the content posted are public.
2. Closed – Meaning the members are public but the content is private.
3. Secret – Meaning both the members and the content posted are private.

It is important to note the default setting of every group is Closed.

Once a Group is created members can enjoy enhanced functionality. Within Groups Facebook has added a Group chat function so every member present on Facebook can join the conversation. As mentioned above Groups can be set up so any time someone posts something to the Group every member gets an e-mail notification. On top of this, Groups can be assigned individual e-mail addresses so every time a member sends an e-mail it will appear in the Group profile as a post.

Basically Groups are mini profiles within your existing profile. Because of this I don’t see how Groups lend themselves to brand pages. The goal of brands setting up social media profiles is to reach their extended user base. This is contrary to the nature of Groups which aim to create more concentrated private spaces within Facebook. However, there may be scope to use Groups as a kind of reward scheme for dedicated users of your brand page. For example if users were to spend a certain amount with a company each month they would gain access to a Group and receive special offers.

Overall I think Groups are a really good idea especially now when so many of your Facebook friends are people you rarely see or interact with in your day to day life. However, there has been some resistance regarding the fact any one of your friends can add you to a Group without your permission. Personally that doesn’t bother me too much. What do you think? Have you set up or been added to any Groups yet? Are Groups good, bad or indifferent?

Let me know what you think.