Facebook recently changed its layout (again) and people were not happy. I saw hundreds of posts from people threatening to cancel their accounts. It has been a couple of weeks and I haven’t lost many friends as far as I can tell.
Facebook has over 750 MILLION users worldwide. 53 BILLION minutes were spent on Facebook in May 2011 alone. They have you (and me). We are hooked, and they know it.
Does Facebook care what you think of their constant changes? Maybe a little. Will you cancel your account in protest? Probably not. I constantly see people posting status updates about how they are going to boycott Facebook and close their account for various reasons. I see most of them back on within a few days (they don’t bother closing their account, they just suspend it so they don’t have to rebuild their profiles and friend lists — meaning they too knew they weren’t going away forever). Facebook makes it so convenient to keep in touch with family members, business associates and former friends you haven’t seen in 20 years.
Am I writing this post to slam Facebook, or you (and me) for loving it? No. I do, however, want to make a point that humans are creatures of habit. We usually do not like change. If your business does not have 750 million customers, then perhaps you should not follow Facebook’s lead and change your website layout every few months.
It is important to create your identity and stick with it. Make a logo. Have a tag line. Make your company unique. Then drive that point home with your customers.
Once you have created a loyal following, let’s not rock the boat. I say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. (Right, Netflix?) And if you are too busy to monitor your online social networks to make sure your customers are happy, let Social Sonar do it for you!
