Facebook has started including updates from Pages in the news feed. While some of the pages users were already subscribed to are not showing up at this point, any they subscribe to from now on will (unless users elect not to see the messages).
Facebook was already a great marketing tool. I've recently discussed a number of reasons why. But this is a way for businesses to directly get their messages to interested parties.
"For many Page owners, News Feed distribution is the most important channel for communicating with users in the new redesign," says Justin Smith at InsideFacebook. It's pretty much the Facebook equivalent of a company's tweets - providing a gateway for targeted messages directed at those who opted in for them.
Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of users who do not like Facebook's new design at all, and some may decide to leave the social network altogether. So as Facebook becomes a better means for marketing, the potential audience could become less impressive than what it could have been.
At this point, that potential audience is pretty massive though. And as time goes on, most users will probably just accept the changes.
If you're interested in what businesses are doing with social media, check out the following exclusive interivew with experts Lee Odden and Chris Brogan:
I have to agree with Mike that the new layout is a hindrance to marketers, updates from fan pages no longer show up in friends activity as there is now (within the last few months) the section specifically for Fan page updates.
As a cause of this change I think businesses will slowly shift to signing up a regular facebook account and befriending all those in their fans page. This was updates are still shown in the stream.
     |
iEntry 10th Anniversary
RSS
Newsletter
Advertising
Unfortunately for Page owners...
Other changes undermine the ability of Pages to increase their number of "fans." With the changes to the Feed, when a person becomes a fan of something, it no longer appears on their friends' feeds. This was a major way for Page owners to get the word out about their product.
A person becomes a fan of X -> all their friends see this -> a friend of that friend becomes a fan of X -> all their friends see this, etc...
This minor change is a huge detriment to marketers, I think.