What Facebook's Paper Means for Brands
Facebook is either ridiculed or loved, and that comes with the territory of being the world's largest social network. Now, fresh off a strong Q4 2013 earnings report in which Facebook showed its mobile advertising dominance, it released Paper for iOS (Android to be released soon).
Paper is a news reader that takes the News Feed and reorganizes it into a standalone, mobile experience that allows users to scroll through their News Feed content in a Flipboard-like interface. Users can go beyond just consuming the News Feed content and add in up to 19 other sections like Tech, LOL and Pop Culture. Each section includes content that has already been shared to Facebook and is then curated by an algorithm as well as an editorial team.
New Strategy for Facebook
Facebook has traditionally been a walled garden. Facebook did everything it can to keep users on its platform from the introduction of Home to even Facebook Messages, but Paper changes all of that. Facebook has taken its core feature, the News Feed, and cannibalized it.
Paper is a more beautiful way to consume your News Feed content with the added benefit of being able to pull in third-party content you're interested in. Facebook becomes a source for content, not the main draw for users.
The Social Graph is a Backend.
Google+ is a social layer that Google has been attempting to integrate into Google's plethora of products for some time. Facebook is in the opposite situation. It has the social layer, that social graph of connecting users to their friends, family and interests to deliver contextual experiences.
Now, it appears to be building a set of products that tie into that core social experience. Instagram is for visuals. Paper is for content consumption. Messages is for private group messaging. This is just the beginning for Facebook as Mark Zuckerberg has announced that we can expect more standalone products built onto Facebook in the future.
Facebook has faced some user backlash for privacy and too many ads, but users find it too useful to simply walk away from. So before they leave, Facebook's taking the Facebook out of Facebook and creating products users do want. They don't care if you go to Facebook.com. They just want you feeding the social graph.
What Does this Mean for Brands?
The release of Paper has few immediate implications for brands. It will not have ads for the foreseeable future, but what has the potential to be a frustration for brands will be users who just rely on Paper may have a more difficult time stumbling onto a brand's Page, making it more important than ever for marketers to invite engagement and interaction with the fans they do have. In addition, creating original, publisher-like content and then sharing it to Facebook will allow brand content to display within the app's various sections. The key will be quality as content will need to be determined worthwhile for Facebook's editors to include it.
The good news is visual content truly shines on Paper, so brands that are sharing images will see their content looking better than it ever could on the News Feed.
It's Always Been About the News Feed.
A brand's best friend and worst enemy has always been the News Feed. Creating content that people want to like, comment on and share, has always been the challenge for brands to reach consumers on the platform. The brands that succeed win. The brands that don't are ignored. Paper doesn't change that. Get in the News Feed, and you'll get into Paper.