Facebook Vs. Twitter: Facebook Adds Facebook Lite And Facebook Tagging

UPDATE: Facebook @mentions tagging is now live for all Facebook users (details below)

Facebook continues to add more features that make usability better and better. Clearly influenced from Twitter the two latest features this week are Facebook Lite and Facebook Tagging.

Facebook Lite

Facebook Lite is a stripped down version of the website that runs fast and eliminates a lot of the current clutter. The first thing you will notice missing are apps, you won’t see any applications or games/quizzes clogging up your timeline. I use the “Hide” feature seemingly daily on my timeline to filter this stuff out, but now in the new Lite version there are gone. Also noticications now appear in the Lite version on the bottom of your screen, keep an eye out for them because at first you may miss them as they pop up. Highlights are gone in the Lite verion, these were all the photos, videos and notes that were most viewed in your network.

The new Lite version was originally built for foreign countries where high speed broadband was less likely to be found. But the interface was so fast and furious that it was introduced this week on a wider scale, including here in the States, as an alternative option.

Below you can see several screen shots. The first is the “old” Facebook timeline, followed by the new Lite timeline. The third shot is the new Lite profile screen, which features bigger buttons and a much cleaner interface:

Facebook Tagging

Another very cool feature rolled out this week is Facebook Tagging. Very similar to Twitter, you can now tag people as you post a status update. You can see this in the screenshot above. It is done by using the “@” symbol before their name. You can also tag groups and pages. What is cool is that when you start to type in a name or group, Facebook automatically pops up suggestions to make it easier. The person you tagged will be notified (same as Photo Tagging works now) and also if someone is reading your status update they can click on the person’s name to go direct to their profile.

Facebook Tagging is available now for some and will roll out for everyone in the coming week or two, so keep an eye out for this powerful new feature.

If you would like to try out Facebook Lite, just go to http://lite.facebook.com

Facebook has been focused and agressive on improvng their service and these two great options are very welcome. I already love the new Lite version after using it for only a day or so and will be putting it through the paces in the coming week. Give it a try!

http://www.facebook.com/franklinmcmahon

Is Your Social Media Content For Your Fans A Dead Zone?

Everyone wants a following on the web, everyone wants fans, people who are checking in to see what you are up to. Producing content helps to promote you, it helps to promote your business. But think about what you are providing, what amount of original content do you produce on a weekly basis?

Let’s take Twitter for example. What do you send out to share when you are on Twitter? A new article on Mashable? A link to a post on 12 favorite designer tips by someone else? Are you spending a lot of time promoting other people’s work and websites? Or are you sending out your own content, a new blog post, new video, audio clip, photo work, an interview that was done with you, a new project you are working on? Your thoughts, your art, your work? What original content was created this week that could not have happened without you?

As your following grows, you begin to peak people’s interest in you more and more, they will start to search on content that involves you. They will go to your website, check out your social networks, start investigating. They start to like you, they want more, so what can you provide them? 

Take a look at anyone who has been successful in branding themselves on the web. They almost always have a large selection of archived and weekly new content that they are dishing out. It keeps people coming back. It ensures that people are sending around their links.

Conversations happen all the time on the web and when you become vocal people will become intrigued with you and look for more about you. Ideally it is good to have a body of work that is constantly being added to so people can get to know you better.

When you build your following people will start to like you. As you grow bigger, people will start to like you and a lot will start to dislike you. Once you start getting anti-fans, you know you are making it. If everyone pretty much universally likes you online, work to become bigger and/or more vocal.

Now I know, creating content is time consuming. But it should be done if you want to grow your presence online. And it does not have to be perfect, it just needs to be developed and released on an ongoing basis. You only need to look at the people you admire and respect online to see how they are building a following. They will often have a lot of clients, business and connections online, because their volume of content has drawn people in. Instead of working at trying to make contacts and potential clients on social networks, searching for connections, they build their own network of content and info, then people come to them.

Conversations are nice to have online. But conversations about you and your work are even better.

What have you sent out to the web this week that brings people into your brand?