Yup, in the land of the Internet, content is king. Articles, videos, podcasts, lists: these are the things that click-through dreams are made of. However, King Content can’t get anywhere without his carriage. Social media is one of the primary ways people find their way to King Content’s Court. Over the course of the last few years, social media networks have continued to optimize themselves in a bid to become King Content’s ultimate carriage. Facebook is already the Cadillac of social networks, and with its most recent tweak, “Save,” it has made a bid to become YOUR primary source for access to content.
You know what it’s like. You’re commuting to work. Right before you get to your train stop, you see an article that looks REALLY interesting (Maybe it’s titled “Save: Facebook’s Bid to Become King Content’s Carriage”) but you just don’t have time to read it right now. Facebook’s Save feature allows you to bookmark interesting articles, links, video, audio, and even places to be viewed/consumed later. Once “saved” the content will resurface later as reminders in your newsfeed.
This is only the latest move on Facebook’s part to go from being the place you hang out with your friends online to the place where you consume the Internet. In recent months, Facebook has added Trending Topics, the Paper app, and continued to make changes to the newsfeed algorithm to optimize the content that is viewable to users.
With stiff competition from Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and other networks to become the primary source of content consumption, not to mention email, search, and direct website visits, Facebook has shown that they aren’t taking the challenges of content lying down. Now that Facebook has made some serious moves to cement their place as an Internet go-to for content, it will be interesting to see how their competitors react.
Facebook is also making a bid for your retail dollars. Check out what we had to say about the Buy button.
