Didn’t have time to watch the first day of Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference?
I’ve got you covered.
In this video, I cover the most important announcements and news that nonprofits need to know after the first day of the F8 conference.
What’s new from Facebook, why is it important, and what are the implications for nonprofits?
Facebook Is Taking Things Personally
In the video intro to F8, Facebook acknowledged their recent bad press in the very beginning, with a montage of headlines and videos talking about the Cambridge Analytica scandal and data privacy concerns.
Mark Zuckerberg said, “This has been an intense year – I can’t believe we’re only 4 months in.”
He went on to say, “What I learned this past year – we need to take a broader view of our responsibility. It’s not enough to just build powerful tools – we have to make sure they are used for good.”
This set the stage for the over all theme – putting people before technology, and making technology that isn’t just awesome and fun to use, but technology that is actually good for humankind.
Facebook’s new areas of focus are on people and our relationships. And I’m here for it.
Facebook Algorithm and News Feed Upheaval
I’ve written a lot about this year’s changes to the News Feed algorithm, to focus less on the passive consumption of public content to more “meaningful interactions.”
Facebook knows that when social media tools are used to build relationships that there are positive effects, such as feeling more connected and less lonely.
It’s when people are just using the Internet to consume content passively (think cat videos and memes) that this behavior is not associated with the same benefits to well-being.
They found that the influx of video and public content was drowning out friends. (Sigh. This is after they kept rewarding video and public content.)
So now, Facebook is focusing on promoting content created by publishers that are “trusted, informative, local, and inspiring conversations between people.”
(Personally, I don’t think this is a huge change from what has really worked on Facebook since, well, forever, but I will have more to say on this in the coming days.)
You Will Have More Control Over Your Data
Ahead of the conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced in a Facebook post that they are building a new privacy control called Clear History.
Clear History will let you easily find and delete data about apps and websites that you’ve interacted with.
Groups Are Getting A Push
Zuck said himself that Groups, a.k.a. “Meaningful Communities”, are “the most meaningful part of Facebook.”
1.4 billion people using Groups every month, and Facebook wants that number to go up.
They are introducing new tools to make Group administrator’s lives easier (thank you!) and to encourage “richer conversation”, although we have yet to see how that will play out.
There will be a new Groups tab in the app, which makes Groups easier to discover based on your location, keywords, and topic search.
I am excited about the forthcoming “Join Group” button and plugin that admins and developers can add to their websites and their emails!
To learn more about how your nonprofit can start a Facebook Group, check out The Essential Nonprofit Guide to Facebook Groups.
Instagram Is A Place to Explore
Facebook is touting Instagram as the perfect way for users to “come together around shared interests.”
200 million use the Explore feature every day, and just as many follow specific hashtags on Instagram
Zuck wants you to be able to use Instagram to find the communities for the things that you are interested in, so they redesigned Explorer to organize the content around topic channels.
This will make it easier to get your nonprofit found on Instagram, providing that you clearly fill out your profile and bio with keywords and location.
WhatsApp Business Is Worth Exploring
The next phase for WhatsApp is helping small businesses and people connect. Facebook understands that people do not want to call a business anymore – they want to message or text.
With the WhatsApp app , businesses (and nonprofits) can directly interact with customers easily by using tools to automate, sort, and quickly respond to messages.
There is also the neat ability to send personalized greetings and voice messages to donors, stakeholders, supporters, customers.
Virtual Reality Is the Future
Facebook wants to encourage its users to explore VR as a way to promote their overall mission and theme of real interactions, in real time, with real people.
There are huge opportunities for nonprofits in terms of VR and immersive storytelling.
Getting Supplies to Those In Need
With their feature Safety Check, Facebook wants to be able, through it’s platform, to coordinate real-time aid and relief in a crisis.
Businesses and nonprofits can offer services to people in need when they need it – like food, water, shelter, supplies, and more.
The overarching theme of the day was clear – Facebook is accepting the broad responsibility bestowed upon it by the masses.
They are building new features to keep people safe and to keep people at the center of the technology experience – rather than the other way around.
Did you watch the first day of the F8 Conference? What did you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments