Over the course of this week you may have noticed more status updates featuring icons, media, and a little something extra that wasn’t there before.
Facebook (News - Alert) introduced options in status updates that include what users are feeling, listening to, watching, reading, drinking and eating. It has been testing out these features since January but is starting to roll out the status option to the U.S. this week. Details that users add to posts all appear on their About pages and other places on Facebook.
For example, I decided to tell my Facebook connections that I drank coffee this morning. Clicking on the “coffee” link brings me to a Facebook page that I can Like with information from Wikipedia, a feed of my friends who are posting about coffee, photos of my friends and coffee and related pages (Caffeine, French press, Home roasting coffee, Espresso and 253 others.)
The same goes for publications, TV shows, movies, musicians, books, authors, emotions, and food and drink. If I’m eating Cheerios or watching New Girl, statuses will offer a link to those respective Facebook pages for more resources, such as videos, photos and friends posting about it.
It’ll bode well for brands and organizations as these links in statuses can help raise awareness and traffic to different pages.
It feels a little like we’re going back in time with this feature in the sense that statuses and away messages (remember AIM?) generally started with the generic “is at the library” or “away from my computer.” However, the general feedback appears positive; users seem to be having fun with the new feature.
Plus, this new option features emoticons, and we know how popular these and Emojis are both on social media and in SMS.
While some people already share a fair amount of what they’re doing and how they’re feeling on the social network, this feature gives the opportunity for people to be a little more open and share a little more, without feeling like they are going overboard with self-disclosure on Facebook – the same people who may not want to type, “I’m feeling so happy right now!” may opt to just select the icon because it’s a standardized way to share what’s happening in their lives.