Facebook on Friday announced the roll-out of a new Page experience for users in India to make it simpler for public figures and creators to build community and achieve their business objectives.
The new Page design is meant to make it easier for users to find and manage activities and to make it more convenient for them to follow others from one’s newsfeed and share likes and comments on updates from one’s own Page.
It is removing likes from Pages and is introducing a dedicated news feed for Pages as part of the update. Other new features include a revamped layout, simplified navigation between a personal profile and Pages, actionable insights and updated admin controls, among others.
New features
A new “intuitive” layout with a “crisper look and feel” will make it easier to navigate between a personal profile and a public Page.
“Viewing bios, posts and other important information will be simpler,” Facebook said in an official release.
Additionally, a dedicated news feed to Pages, in a first, will provide users new ways to engage, by helping them discover and join conversations.
“This will make it easy to follow trends, interact with peers and engage with fans. The dedicated News Feed will also suggest new connections such as other public figures, Pages, Groups and trending content that a Page or public figure cares about,” it said.
Page conversations will also be more visible to wider audiences and surface more frequently in the followers’ News Feed. Additionally, comments from public figures will be bumped to the top of the comments section. People will also be able to follow Pages directly from comments and recommendations posts.
The social media major will also introduce a new text-based Q&A format for interactive conversations.
The new design will remove Likes and focus on “actionable insights and more relevant notifications.”
“Followers of a Page can now receive updates from their favourite Pages. This will also enable public figures to get a better estimation of their fan base and build a stronger connect with them,” it said.
It has also updated task-based admin controls with the ability to clearly assign and manage admin access and allocate permissions based on specific tasks. Page admins can now be given full or varying levels of access to manage specific tasks, including Insights, Ads, Content, and Community Activity & Messages with the update.
In a bid to increase “safety and integrity” on the platform, the tech giant is aiming to enhance the ability to detect activities such as hate speech, violent, sexual or spammy content and impersonation on the platform.
“The increased visibility of Verified Badges will make it easier to identify posts and comments from authentic Pages and profiles. A verified Page’s comment on another Page’s public post may appear higher in the comments section and will be visible in the News Feed,” it said.
With the new update, the existing content, posts and Page information, ads and campaigns and admin rights will remain unchanged.
Page admins will get a notification as one switches to the new experience.
In order to help users make the switch, Facebook has updated its help page (https://www.facebook.com/business/help/NewPagesExperience) to help them navigate through the details in a step by step manner.