New Facebook pages….is Facebook becoming more like Twitter?

Late today a ripple was sent though the social marketing universe as Facebook announced long-awaited changes to both people’s home page design and the design of Fan pages.  My initial gut reaction is that more than ever CONTENT is king.

On the people side, the Wall will be replaced by a Stream that updates posts from your friends in real time and seems to allow you to interact with them as well.  Your status bar now becomes a “publisher” where you can update status and post photos, notes, links and videos into the stream.  Those posts also immediately show up on your friends home pages as well.  The sharing of content thus becomes more immediate and dynamic for all to see.  As Facebook says, it encourages an “on-going flowing conversation between you and your friends.”

This comes to life even more on Fan pages, which for the first time will have their own status that can be updated and — most importantly to companies and organization that have Fan pages — will immediately be seen in the streams of all of their fans as well. 

This business-friendly dynamic will allow for even more viral potential for a company or organizations message as now all of their fans will be promotion those messages to their friends…and so on and so on. 

There will be some clunkiness in the transition.  I have already received updates from Fan pages saying their are trying to re-design their pages to go along with Facebook’s new layout.  Fan pages now have a wall as its main landing pages and other features like videos, blogs, info and photos will no reside behind tabs for Fans to access on their own as opposed to being on the front page for all the see.

This means that the more often a Fan page is updated, the more current it’s Wall seems and the more interaction it will have with its fans in real time.  All the more reason to have a Fan page and update the content on a regular basis.

Followers are then able to get their information, interact with it, and pass it on if they want to. 

Followers, hmmm….sounds like another social marketing platform.  Wonder if Facebook sees Twitter in the rear view mirror and decided if you can’t buy them, try to beat them?

We’ll be watching.