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6 Things You Should Know About The New Facebook Timeline

By September 26, 2011 Social Media, Suggestions

Facebook sure shook up the social media world last week with all of the new updates it announced. People weren’t too thrilled, to put it nicely. But what do we expect? Facebook to just stay the same and not evolve every once in a while? Think about what Facebook and your profile looked like when you first joined. I joined in November of 2004, when you had to have a college/university email address to sign up, you couldn’t upload photo albums, and “liking” wasn’t a thing. Back in the early days of The Facebook (what it was known as then), your profile was pretty basic. It was just your name, a photo, where you went to school – stuff you would cover in the first few minutes you met someone. Look what Facebook is now, and what it has done to the world. Could you imagine being without it? I cannot. The main issue is that people just don’t like change. Everyone got used to the most recent version of Facebook, and were comfortable with navigating it. Facebook wouldn’t have 800 million users today if they didn’t constantly change and make updates. You can’t be successful if you don’t evolve with the times.

Remember this?

This past Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team announced at the F8 conference in San Francisco their newest profile called Timeline. With Timeline, you now have a home for all the wonderful stories you’ve already shared throughout the past couple of years. They don’t just vanish as you add new stuff like they previously did. It’s a pain when you’re on a old friends profile and you have to keep clicking “older posts” over and over again to see what they’ve been up to the past couple months or even years. Timeline is impressive, and just proves again why Facebook is the best at what they do.

Here are 6 things you need know about Timeline:

1. Timeline is wider and much more visual than the old profile. The first thing you’ll notice is the giant photo right at the top. This is your cover, and it’s completely up to you which of your photos you put here.

2. Facebook automatically populates it with content via its algorithm, but users ultimately have complete control over what gets shown in their timeline. You can hide certain stories Facebook shows, highlight stories (by starring them) to show them more prominently, or add important stories that are missing.

3. Users can also access a private activity log and choose stories to add to their timeline. This is where you’ll find everything you shared since you joined Facebook. Click on any post to feature it on your timeline so your friends can see it, too. I personally really like this feature. I joined Facebook when I was 18, I am now 26, there are definitely thing’s that I don’t want on be there!

4. Older stories don’t vanish as new stories are added, like they used to.

5. Timeline acts more like a scrapbook of a user’s past and present.

6. Users can now add applications to their timelines again. These apps also help you discover what your friends are up to. You can even join in if you want: play the song they’re listening to, or watch the same TV show.

Technology changes. And at times the changes can be drastic, but Timeline will make Facebook better, and more “social.” While it’s important to stay current on the most recent changes in social media, it is more important to understand the main goal of sites like Facebook. Facebook wants to provide an experience that engages users with content that is the most interesting to them. In the end Facebook wants to be THE social layer that connects, supports and powers every piece of the internet.  And these new updates are just making it that much closer to achieving its goal. If you dont like the new changes, then get off Facebook (but we both know you won’t).

According to Facebook, Timeline is in beta and won’t officially be rolled out to users for another few weeks, but if you’re ready to start using it, check it out how here. 

 

[Via: HubSpot, Facebook, Mashable]

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