As Facebook Ramps Up Privacy and Profile Features, Marketers’ Need to Be Useful Increases

In the long view, anything that makes the Facebook user experience better is good for everyone involved, including marketers who are using the site to engage with potential customers. But in the short run, the newly announced privacy improvements present some new challenge for marketers and community builders.

Up until this point in its development — and with a few notable exceptions such as limited profiles — Facebook content has been available to just about anyone with whom a user has established a connection. Because of its roots as a college network, it didn’t really need to segregate who could see a particular photo album. But when Facebook opened its doors to all comers, the requirements changed.

Starting tonight, users will have access to a tool called “Friend Lists Privacy,” which will enable them to use the friend lists feature launched in mid-December to assign permissions to different chunks of content within the site.

Those of you for whom user-generated content and content sharing is a major word-of-mouth marketing vehicle will need to be aware of these changes, which could potentially limit the viral opportunity for any particular chunk of content within the site.

Furthermore, the soon-to-be rolled out tabbed profile interface will further allow users to customize their profile experience. Visibility of content will be more customizable.

More user control is a good thing. It also means that marketers and community builders will have to develop more useful tools to stay front-and-center. That’s why building a useful application for your user base is more important now than ever.

As we’ve said many times before, the cardinal rule of social media marketing is “be useful.” Think honestly about what might be useful to your core audience, then roll it out quickly and iterate as needed.

For more coverage of Facebook’s new features:

• WSJ
• TechCrunch
• AllFacebook

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