After Facebook went public there has been a lot of question around accountability to the share holders and how Facebook, a free social network site, will keep a happy balance for users and investors. As more and more businesses enter the social media arena there has been speculation about whether Facebook will at some point charge businesses to use their site for their own marketing gain. Other websites who have spent large sums of money building large audiences have generally followed this path.
Then there is the other suggestion that Facebook may create a similar structure to the professional LinkedIn social site and create a paid level for premium features such as Facebook Pro. It works for LinkedIn so why not Facebook? Here’s one funny video that has been getting a lot of attention lately by leveraging of the hot topic in question. I particularly love the ending.
So what are your thoughts? Does Facebook have a chance to consider introducing a paid level or do you think because of their original message that they are for ‘staying connected with school buddies’ the branding is ingrained now. I do think the social site has become ever so complicated for a beginner. Since Facebook has shifted to balance business pages with personal profiles in order to cater for the audience that is their target ‘pot of gold’ it has made it hard to stay connected with the news you really want to see – whether it is from personal friends or business.
Sure there is features to help you separate it all, but there lies a problem that may start to drive users to other less complicated and targeted social sites. As more businesses adopt social media so will the need to increases expenditure on Facebook education, training and management of use. But is it worth it when sites like LinkedIn are all about being professional – sharing news and educational information with no deep pool of irrelevant content to wade through to find the important updates? Personally, I love Facebook, but most inquiries for assistance comes from LinkedIn.
It will definitely be interesting to see what developments will continue to occur in order for Facebook to grow in strength and stay recognised for the ‘go to’ place of social business. While we may not be able to predict a Premium Facebook Pro account to become a reality, you can definitely commit to knowing Facebook have not stopped changing!
Love you to leave your opinions at the bottom & share this article for further feedback. ㋡
About the Author:
Lee Ussher is the Social Media Strategist & Business Training Consultant at Buzz Web Media. She is also known for Speaking and Writing under the title of Social Media Babe and co-founder of DIY Custom Fan Pages. If you're new to Social Media, or would like to stay up to date by Lee, sign up to her FREE E-course and bonuses.