AgVoice | On Your Mark Get Set Timeline!
Ever since Facebook was launched to the general public (September 26, 2006), it has been extremely popular. With an active user base of 845 million, it would be the third most populous country, if it were to be one. From a dorm room project to what it is today, Facebook has come a long way. So what has it done to keep people glued? For most, it is a great way to connect to family and friends. But why Facebook, and not Myspace or any other equivalent site?
Two reasons: Facebook is simple, and it has constantly evolved.
In March 2012, Facebook launched the Timeline feature for user and brand profiles. Many viewed it as the most extensive and emphatic makeover the social networking site has ever got. Some liked it, some did not. We used Radian6, a social media monitoring tool, to track conversations about it and infer whether it was hit or a miss. Let’s take a look at how Facebook Timeline fared in the opinion of its users.
Facebook Timeline’s most prominent and visible component, the Cover Photo won hands down, when it came to the volume of conversations about the new features the Timeline has. A large number of people, apart from sharing their cover images, also shared a mixture of lists that showcased its creative uses. The feature garnered a lot of positive appraisal. In fact, amongst those conversing about cover photos, 84% liked the idea of having it on their profile, and considered it to be visually appealing. The placement and size of the cover photo took away the cake.
The Applications Tab (a grid of links to friends, photos etc. just below the cover photo, in case you didn’t know) had the second highest coverage in terms of share of voice for features. Though the volume is large, mentions of this feature mostly happened in passing, without much sentiment associated to it. The photos and places features ranked third and fourth, respectively, in terms of volume. Seemingly the most-loved feature of the old Facebook, The Profile Picture, has a lower share of voice and featured in only about 3.3% of the conversations. Moreover, most of these conversations spoke of the decreased size of the profile picture and were negative in tone. This clearly betokens that people like larger photo dimensions and therefore the large number of positive conversations related to the cover photo feature.
We all know that the Facebook Timeline aims to put the whole lives of users in a chronological order (hence the name), as if telling a story. And it has been talked about a lot! To put it simply, Facebook did well with this feature.
“I want the Old Facebook back!”
New things do not have only positive commentators and not surprisingly, the Facebook Timeline did get its share of negative conversations, too. In the data we analyzed, a considerable number of users felt that Facebook has “forced” them to adopt the Timeline. It was also felt that the placement of advertisements on the timeline was distracting. Also, many users claim that they have been presented with sexually suggestive advertisements. Some went on to state that they found Timeline and its features “confusing.” A sizeable portion of the Facebook population stated that there should be an option to switch back to old features, if the need be.
So what do we infer?
The Facebook Timeline has initiated a lot of conversations and due to the ripple effect of social media, even more conversations came to being. The generally neutral nature of these conversations has built a lot of positive mileage for Facebook Timeline, and many people love the new features, as well. Of course, there are critics, but the sheer volume of people talking about it is expected to soon negate this. Moreover, users cannot opt out of the feature and hence will have to get used to it. So, all is going well for the Facebook Timeline. It will be interesting to see how the social networking giant evolves in the future. | By Hareesh Tibrewala, Joint CEO, Social Wavelength
About the writer:
Hareesh Tibrewala is a bachelor of engineering from VJTI, University of Mumbai and a Master of Science from the University of Southern California, USA. He has been trained in Business Strategy Planning at AKZO-Nobel, Germany. He started his career as a partner with IFCM Counsellors, a human asset management company. In 1997, he co-founded Homeindia.com, one of India's first e-commerce sites. Hareesh is a serial entrepreneur and Social Wavelength is his third such venture. Hareesh has also been a visiting faculty at the University of Mumbai. He has been past President of the Rotary Club of Mumbai, Sea Pearl, as well as the founder & co-chairperson of the expert committee on information technology at the Indian Merchants Chamber. Hareesh is an accomplished orator and has been invited to address national and international conferences on subjects pertaining to branding, entrepreneurship and technology.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not reflect in any way of Adgully.
Media
MINUTES TO READ
Share
Facebook
YouTube
Tweet
Twitter
LinkedIn