Facebook angers its friends again
Businesses were forced to adopt new Timeline, upsetting many clients
SAN JOSE, CALIF.— Stephen Terrell expected a group of happy users when he updated his company’s Facebook profile page to the new Timeline format, allowing his mostly senior-citizen customers to register for a contest to win a trip to Hollywood to meet nonagenarian actor Betty White.
Instead, there was an explosion of anger and confusion. When the Lifeline Program, the Atlanta company for which Terrell is senior vice-president of branding, revamped its Facebook page last week, some elderly users trying to register for the contest were so angry and vocal that Terrell had to ban them.
“It is really creating a communication problem between us and our client base,” Terrell said.
Ever since the controversial 2006 launch of its now ubiquitous News Feed feature, Facebook has seen a cycle of surprise, anger and later acceptance from its users when it launches or changes a major feature. But Facebook’s requirement that all business profile pages had to be converted to the Timeline format by the end of March means that companies, non-profit groups and other organizations that use Facebook pages must explain those changes to their customers, and in some cases may face the brunt of user anger about them.
“I think there is some pain that is going to happen, but you have to look at it from the overall perspective. I think it is a positive for most companies,” said Michael Fauscette, an analyst with the research group IDC who follows social networks. “It gives them a greater capability to promote their brand, and to really brand their pages and make them stand out.”
Facebook says the massive transition to Timeline is going well, with more than 8 million brands and companies having already switched their pages to the new format. Big companies and brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Dr Pepper and Ford, Facebook says, have already strengthened their interac- tion with customers by using Timeline and other marketing tools that the social network announced at a marketing conference Feb. 29. Timeline allows a more visual Facebook profile for a brand or company, and the ability to post photos or descriptions that demonstrate its changes over time. Some small and mid-sized businesses like the timeline switch. Early adopters like Enoteca La Storia, a wine bar in the Silicon Valley, say it allows them to showcase their heritage, using family photos that date back to 1921. “It’s really helping us to convey to our customers what’s unique about us,” said Michael Guerra, a co-owner of the wine bar. It’s unclear whether older users are less happy about the switch to Timeline than younger Facebook members, but some sites that serve older users are bracing themselves for reaction to the change. “If we had a choice, we wouldn’t switch over to the Facebook Timeline format yet because our community is not a big fan of ‘big’ changes,” said Kim Hong, social media and community manager for Winster, a website that features social games and is heavily used by baby boomers and seniors. The Lifeline Program, which allows seniors to convert their mature life insurance policies into cash, has used Betty White as a spokesperson for several years. Its Facebook page has more than 32,000 fans, 86 per cent of which are seniors.
To run the contest, however, Terrell was forced to switch to Timeline ahead of the deadline. A poll that the company ran on its Facebook page after the switch found 98 per cent either didn’t like the changes or didn’t understand them. Just 2 per cent liked it.
With its growing share of older users, Facebook needs to be more sensitive to how its changes affect older users, Terrell said.
“They’ve actually enticed these seniors to become more active on the Internet, and these are the people who have really had to work to learn something new.”