by Mike Stiles
Facebook has been going through a lot of changes, the bulk of which got rolled out at their recent f8 developers? conference in San Francisco. Some say it?s the largest collection of simultaneous changes in the company?s history. An overall look at these changes can be found here at my Vitrue blog, but they range from small, user-oriented things such as floating nav bars, to changes brand Pages should be aware of such as the elimination of being able to directly message fans, to larger strategy-oriented shifts such as the evolution of profile pages into entertainment hubs where video and audio content will be consumed, shared and recommended.
Without fail, every time Facebook changes the way it looks or the way you use it, people get on and howl about it. By doing so, they?re implicitly saying Facebook should not innovate, improve, advance, evolve?none of that. And to do so represents some kind of ?mistreatment? of Facebook users. I can only assume these same people are staunchly opposed to Disney World adding any new attractions.
If anyone is waiting for Facebook to be ?finished,? they?re going to still be waiting when they?re playing checkers at an assisted living center. Part of the genius and strength of Facebook is that it?s a kind of living, breathing product?with adaptability and flexibility that?s off the charts. So why if Facebook is a heavily armed speedboat, does radio conduct itself like an aircraft carrier?
Facebook at least requires development time to change and adapt. Radio could and should be even faster than that, because there?s technically nothing that has to come in between an innovative idea and its immediate execution on the air. But nope, we second-guess, double-clutch, focus group, run things through layers of executives and consultants?we choke. Instead of trusting our instincts as entertainers, we seek out the current conventional wisdom of ?how it should be done,? then we act on those conclusions like a bunch of lemmings, unchanging?for YEARS!
Facebook, on the other hand, feels like it?s run by a bunch of brilliant minds driven by ADHD-like traits. They?re never satisfied. They?re always thinking about ?what can we do next?? They love to break stuff, then rebuild it into something better. They can?t stand not to tinker. And their innovators are allowed to roam free and make things happen, not hauled into an office and asked, ?Who do you think you are??
Bottom line: Facebook?s ever-changing, ever-evolving approach is a model for all of us in the modern media world to follow. Sure people scream when Facebook makes changes, but then what happens? After a brief period of time, users figure out the new tools and new ways of doing things and come to the conclusion, ?Hey, this is better!? Media that plays it safe, lives for not upsetting anyone, and makes it a corporate mission to never innovate, never improve, never advance, and never evolve will soon find its rightful place as a business school footnote.
Mike Stiles is a writer/producer with the social marketing tech platform, Vitrue, and head of Sketchworks comedy theatre. Check out his monologue blog, The Stiles Files.
Find him on Facebook or on Twitter @mikestiles
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