online – Artonomy

Facebook has undergone a RADICAL overhaul over the past few days. Changes, first outlined by Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg at the f8 conference in San Francisco have already begun to roll out over the site and many more will be coming online in the coming weeks. Many artists use Facebook as a platform for promoting their artwork so what will the new changes mean if you have an artists Facebook Page? What do artists need to know about the new Facebook? Lets take a look at some of the new changes. The power in the blue corner. Facebook now marks stories that it thinks are important to you by tagging them with a blue corner in your news feed. Users have the power to "untag" these prioritised stories in their feed by simply clicking on the blue corner, meaning that Facebook then demotes similar items in your feed. By this change, Facebook are taking a massive shift in direction, in that this will selectively weed out boring, irrelevant or annoying posts. Users can easily demote and remove all those annoying updates from friends about requests for Farmville stuff and tedious information about what they had for tea. Hoorah What this means for artists. However, whilst welcome in many ways, this change can also mean your work gets removed from the feed if you aren't engaging enough or if you bombard people with things they aren't interested in. It will no longer be enough to accumulate loads of LIKES and then bombard your LIKERS with low quality posts. You are going to have to produce great engaging content to earn your place in the news feed. Posting interesting content that engages people is now more crucial than ever if you and your art aren't going to end up talking into empty space... Too much information!! The news ticker in the right hand column is a second by second relay of exactly what you are up to. It shows your comments on friends posts {who aren't neccesarily friends of the people viewing} and also, will soon show any games you may be playing or music you are listening to. In short it overshares everything you do to pretty much everyone, everywhere. Facebook will also be introducing Facebook Timelines in the next few weeks. This means that everything you do on Facebook will be evolved into a searchable personal history timeline stretching way back into the past. This video explains the concept. Timelines could be a pretty cool feature but may have some drawbacks too. What this means for artists. Now, more than ever, it is crucial to be yourself and also to behave professionally. If you are using Facebook to promote your business it is essential that you are aware of how you may appear to others. Be careful about what you post and do as it is becoming even harder to be totally sure exactly who is viewing your actions. Keep it professional at all times. Now may be a good time to go into your photo history and delete or detag the pictures of you being sick in a bush at a student party. Build a shed in the walled garden... Facebook is making these big changes in an attempt to be even more immersive. You will be able to do an increasing amount of actions, such as listening to music or watching films, WITHIN the Facebook framework. The changes are all designed to make Facebook even more addictive than it curently is [if this is possible]. This is the "Walled Garden" effect, where users are encouraged to stay in one place, within the same site, and never leave. What this means for artists. This means that it is becoming even more important to have a presence within the Facebook framework. If you don't already have an artists Facebook page, now would be a good time to create one. If you do have one, spend a bit of time ensuring it is up to scratch and contains great content. You need to make sure you have access to the walled garden and aren't left outside banging on the door. But build a house outside it... Not all the changes have been popular with Facebook users. There have been many online groups formed to protest against the way Facebook rolls out changes without consultation and doesn't listen to user feedback, coupled with concerns over Facebook's attitude to user privacy. It is hard to predict if Facebook can continue it's meteoric rise or if it's progress will be derailed somewhere along the way... A quick glance over the shoulder to some of the internet casualties of the past, including the once mighty MySpace, AOL, Digg & IBM illustrate that Facebook could quite easily stumble and lose ground to other social destinations like Google +, especially if they keep annoying their users every few months. As every James Bond villain knows - world domination is by no means guaranteed. What this means for artists. Now, more than ever it is ESSENTIAL to base your web presence on YOUR OWN website, on YOUR OWN DOMAIN, outside of Facebook. Whatever Facebook's fortunes over the coming years, your own site is your home on the internet, on your own land. It is the most important piece of the jigsaw in promoting your work and will be there for you, whatever social media platform comes to the fore. Enjoy the fun of Facebook, and use it as an extension to promote your work, but build your main foundations on the solid ground of your own website and you can't go far wrong... What do you think of the new Facebook changes? Exciting? Frustrating? Let me know in the comments.