Business Implications of Facebook Lite
Advice for Social Media Marketers and Businesses on Facebook
Sep 11, 2009
Facebook Lite is a stripped-down version of the Facebook social media application that went live in September of 2009. Facebook has stated their intention to be the service of those users who do not have high-speed internet connections or bandwidth to support the main site.
The basic differences between the two sites rest in the elimination of those things that eat up bandwidth: applications, graphics and games. The Lite version is very streamlined in look and feel and many of the features of Facebook have been reduced or eliminated.
What Facebook Lite means to Businesses Advertising on Facebook
It remains to be seen how many of Facebook's 250,000,000 global users will switch to Facebook Lite. What is already apparent is that Lite's available ad space is reduced by 50%. Users still see one advertisement on their home page to the right of their news feed, but on their profile pages, there is only one ad, where on Facebook there are three.
While users may consider this an advantage, the advertisers will now have more competition for fewer appearances. Depending on how many users are on Lite, this may make advertising rates increase on Facebook.
Facebook Lite hurts Businesses Relying on Applications, Quizzes and Games
Many of the applications, quizzes and games rely on ad revenue based on the viral nature of their product and the number of Facebook Users who are visiting their applications on a regular basis. Some games provide additional credits for interacting with advertisers, and there are several viable business models reliant upon Facebook applications.
Facebook Lite literally stops all of that. There are no application or game updates in newsfeeds, friends do not see invitations to take quizzes, compare results, join groups or causes or share gifts.
The only way an application can reach those on Facebook Lite would be to share a link to their app via the newsfeed.
Social Media Marketers using Facebook Fan Pages Must Learn Facebook Lite
While Facebook Lite users can see status updates from businesses that they have fanned, and can click on the username to see a Lite version of the Fan page, this visibility is very limited. In order to keep Facebook Lite users clicking and commenting, businesses will have to update their status and send out links more frequently. Also, depending on how many of their target audience is using Facebook Lite, many companies may have to resort to promoting their business Facebook fan page via email marketing.
Because of the elimination of the "highlights" section in the right side bar of the newsfeed page, users cannot suggest that their friends fan their favorite businesses, celebrities or brands via Lite. Furthermore, the search function at the top of the page is limited to searching for people - not brands or businesses. Which means that businesses will not be able to attract new fans via Facebook Lite.
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