8 Types of Content Facebook Should Allow Community Managers to Create

It seems like Facebook is in the mood for change, adding hashtags, pictures in comments and Instagram video recently. Why stop there? I donned my thinking cap and came up with eight content concepts I think Facebook should adopt to allow marketers (and users for that matter) to be more creative.

Facebook GIFs

GIFs (I pronounce them with a hard “G,” sue me) have made a huge comeback in recent years. If Facebook wants to continue to attract marketers and users, especially with the growth of sites like Tumblr and Vine, it should allow full-fledged GIFs to appear in the Timeline and News Feed.

Just imagine how cool a brand page would look with content like this:

More Robust Vine and Instagram Videos

Speaking of looping videos, the current way Facebook displays Vine and Instagram videos is a tad underwhelming (example below). Since Vine is owned by Twitter, it’s probably asking too much that Facebook would go out of its way to create a more engaging experience. But considering how much the company invested in Instagram, they might want to make the video posts a bit more visually appealing.

Currently, Instagram video posts appear just like any normal video post on Facebook. Once you click the play button, it expands to the Facebook video format. So, why not just have it be a full-fledged video all the time?

Instagram Video on Facebook

Imagine how much better the user experience would be if videos behaved like they do on Instagram. You’d scroll through your Facebook news feed or timeline like normal, except every once in a while a picture would have a nice little camera icon in the top right. (Yes, this is actually how the Instagram video player displays when you click play on a person’s or brand’s Timeline. In the photo below, I utilized my amateur Photoshop skills to add the camera icon.)

Facebook Instagram Roller Coaster Feed with Logo

Then you just click and it would start to play. (Pretend that the video stops after it’s finished as it does in the Instagram stream.)

Threshold-Activated Content

A frequent engagement tactic of community managers is to ask questions. It’s a very effective way of engaging fans; however, following up has an inherent challenge. Given the pattern of the Facebook algorithm, a new follow-up post may seen by a completely different audience who has no context.

Instead of making brands create a new post that has the chance to lose traction and momentum, why not allow community managers to create a post that will automatically update when it reaches a goal (e.g, Likes, Shares, Comments, time, etc.), and notify engaged users once the change occurs. Questions, trivia, and product reveals take on a new life.

Imagine this concept implemented with Nike’s latest shoe reveal. Initially, a silhouette of a new product is posted on the brand’s Page along with some teaser copy.

Nike Tease

After a suitable period of time (a few hours to get the blogosphere and sneaker heads buzzing), everyone who engaged with the post would receive a new notification.

Nike Notification

And upon clicking the notification, see a brand new post with a new picture and copy.

Nike Facebook Post

The possibilities are very exciting.

Pinned Comments

At times, fans can offer important, insightful, or downright hilarious comments in Facebook posts. Wouldn’t it be nice if brands had the ability to pin comments of their choice to the top.

This feature would also be handy for answering questions that keep getting asked over and over again in a comment thread. Instead of answering each one separately, you could just pin one along with the brand’s answer to make it easier on the fans and the community managers.

Pictures with Built-in Hyperlinks

As a writer, I’m always partial to some well-written prose, but I have no qualms in admitting it’s images that rule the News Feed. Whether it’s a beautiful product shot or a clever visual pun, pictures are what catches the user’s eye. So, if you went to the trouble of adding a lovely visual to your Facebook update, wouldn’t it be nice if it had some functionality to boot?

Isn’t there an extremely popular social network that drives traffic through clicks on images that could serve as some sort of example for success? Gosh, it’s on the tip of my tongue.

Pinterest

Oh well. It’ll come to me.

Native Scheduled Cover Photos, Highlighted Posts, and Photo Albums

With these final three, I’m really just looking out for the sanity of all community managers. Forcing them to wake up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday to click a little star icon just seems unnecessary when it’s so easy to schedule a regular Facebook post.

Having the ability to schedule cover photos is especially handy when you’re running a limited time campaign such as a flash sale (e.g., 50% off product X for the next 3 hours).

What functionality do you wish Facebook had? How about other social networks?



Ignite Social Media