Facebook新功能毁掉一个行业

    从Facebook此次升级中获益最多的当属企业所有者本人。因为现在他们无需再像过去一样给设计公司和第三方应用支付一大笔钱，让他们去定制标签的视觉效果和感觉。现在企业可以集中精力做更重要的事——通过自己的Timeline推广高质量的内容。就像Mashable的劳伦•尹德维克所说的那样，形式让位给了实质，企业可以花更少的资源来开发标签，把更多的资源“用来打造显示在Page上的内容。”

    另外，对于品牌来说，吸引消费者的关键是内容，而不是一个漂亮的登录页面。毕竟就连顶级品牌的Facebook Page吸引的点击量也是有限的。【在你认识的人中，有多少人会特意访问可口可乐（Coca-Cola）、红牛（Red Bull）或是比利•鲍伯的干洗店的Page？】各品牌的真实目标是要让他们更新的内容显示在用户自己的页面上，夹在他们私人的动态消息里，紧挨着老妈的私家面条秘方和搞笑猫咪视频。这才是人们真正在Facebook上花时间的地方。消息在这里才会产生最大的影响和可信性，因为它在这里才会被我们的亲友和同事看到。这才是贴子被评论、分享和再次分享的地方，也是病毒式传播效应发生的地方。

    一个品牌要想从自己的Page跳到用户的动态消息里，唯一的途径就是发布有趣、及时的内容。（这种飞跃到底是怎样发生的，这是Facebook严格守护的一个秘密，但是它与一个品牌以前的帖子是否经常获得用户的推荐和评论有关。）换句话说，不管一个品牌的Page看起来有多好，如果企业说不出什么吸引人的内容，它就无法获得对它来说十分重要的浏览量。随着Facebook标签的淘汰，这一点变得越来越重要。

    与之相应，在营销部门，那些主要负责Page构建与维护的应用也渐渐退居二线，重点转移到了那些能够在正确的时间，把正确的内容传递给正确的人的应用身上。因此，主打标签构建的产品（如Vitrue、Buddy Media、Context Optional、Involver等）正在步步败退，取而代之的是那些能够简化内容发表流程、改善企业对用户评论的回复方式的应用（如CoTweet、HootSuite、TweetDeck等）。尽管这些工具都不可能替人们发帖子、写微博，但是其中一些非常出色的应用可以为人们安排好发帖的最佳时间，以及向特定地域的用户发信息等。有的应用甚至还包含了复杂的监听工具，可以监听到Facebook和其它社交网络上有谁提到了自己，以便快速做出回复。还有些应用可以让所有团队就创造性的社交信息推广活动进行协作。

    构建漂亮的登录页面所产生的需求曾催生出一个短命的、但却价值10亿美元的产业。现在这个产业已经被迫让位给了社交媒体管理系统，因为一个丰富的、相关的、持续更新的Timeline需要社交媒体管理系统来培养。Facebook知道这一点。所以让我们来表达我们的敬意吧。标签已死，Timeline万岁。

    本文作者Ryan Holmes是社交媒体管理系统HootSuite公司的CEO，他的公司拥有400万名客户，其中包括79家《财富》（Fortune）100强公司。他的日常工作就是管理Facebook、Twitter和全球其它大型社交网络，因此他对社交网络与大企业的交集问题有独特的看法。

    译者：朴成奎

    Business owners themselves stand to reap the biggest benefits from Facebook's changes. Instead of draining marketing budgets on agencies and third-party apps to customize the look and feel of tabs, companies can focus on the important stuff: pushing out quality content through their own Timeline. Style gives way to substance, suggests Mashable's Lauren Indvik, allowing companies to devote fewer resources to developing tabs and "more to the content that appears on their walls."

    And for brands, content - not a splashy landing page - is the key to the real prize. Even the best Facebook Page, after all, draws only limited traffic (How many people do you know intentionally go to the Coca-Cola (CKE) Page or the Red Bull Page or the Billy Bob's Dry Cleaning Page?). The true objective for brands is to get their updates to show up on users' own walls, in their personal news feeds right next to mom's lasagna recipe and funny cat videos. This is where people actually spend time on Facebook. This is where messages - viewed by our own friends, family and colleagues - have greatest impact and credibility. This is where posts are commented on, shared and reshared and viral effects kick in.

    The only way for a brand to make the leap from its own Page to the intimacy of users' news feeds is by posting interesting and timely content. (Exactly how this jump happens is a tightly guarded Facebook mystery, but it's linked to how often users have liked and commented on a brand's posts before). In other words -- no matter how nice a Facebook Page looks -- if a business doesn't have anything engaging to say, it's never going to get the views that matter. With the demise of Facebook tabs, that's true now more than ever.

    Accordingly, in marketing departments focus is shifting from apps that handle the mechanics of Page building and maintenance to apps that get the right content to the right people at the right time. Products centered on tab building (Vitrue, Buddy Media, Context Optional, Involver) are taking a backseat to social media management systems that streamline content publishing and improve how companies respond to user comments (CoTweet, HootSuite, TweetDeck). While none of these tools will write your posts or tweets for you, the best of the bunch can actually schedule optimal times for posting and geo-target messages at specific users. Some include sophisticated listening tools to monitor mentions on Facebook and other networks for fast response. Others let whole teams collaborate on creative social messaging campaigns.

    Fancy page-builders -- a short-lived, billion-dollar industry -- are ceding to social media management systems that nurture a rich, relevant and continuously updated Timeline. This dialogue is the heart of social media. Facebook knows it. So let's pay our respects: Tabs are dead. Long live the Timeline.

    Ryan Holmes is the CEO of HootSuite, a social media management system with four million users, including 79 of the Fortune 100 companies. In the trenches everyday with Facebook, Twitter and the world's largest social networks, Holmes has a unique view on the intersection of social media and big business.