This is a Guest Post by Sachin.

Facebook marketing saw some real changes with recent updates. The subscription feature, and the ability to control who sees what we want to share have both added more intimacy and information control for users and viewers alike. Facebook has added an element of real-time and more Twitter-like features.

For those in the world of social media marketing, the recent changes to Facebook, and what that means for Facebook marketing are not too surprising. We have watched Facebook grow to have millions of users, and those users not having any real influence over the content they are seeing. That is not the case anymore. Facebook and the new subscription feature, which as always is turned on unless we turn it off, have changed the way we all see information displayed on our news feed. Here is a look at some of those changes, and particularly how Facebook’s new web design, has turned more Twitter-like with this single, and yet, quite enormous change.

• What is the Subscribe Feature?

The subscribe feature has appeared on all profiles. When you look at someone’s profile you will see the subscription button. By selecting this button, you can have their public status updates appear in your news feed. You don’t even have to be friends with someone to get this information. This is almost like Twitter in the sense that you are actually following their public updates.

• Subscription and Search. The subscription feature signals Facebook is opening up the search for public information on Facebook. All your public information will be found easier in search, and is being given more weight now the function has been implemented – again, unless you protect your information on Twitter, this is very much like when searching for someone or some content on Twitter.

• Real-time. Twitter is all about real time. Subscription and the related news feed options appearing on the right hand side of a news feed, meaning it shows us what has been happening since we last logged in. News feeds also directly reflect this. The right hand side gives us more options, which Facebook will monitor to calculate what to display to us. This does give a real time feel to Facebook, and shows a timeline to what is going on – especially when we are away.

• Posting and Feed Options. Now when we make a post, we can customize who will see each one of those posts. We can use the subscription button to manage the amount of information we are seeing from a particular friend. All of this means a whole lot more activity. Interactivity is the name of the game when it comes to Facebook and social media and networking, and Facebook is giving us more options. More options that we can constantly change. Although, making changes like this are not available with Twitter, we must remember Facebook was not created as a marketing tool. It was designed to get people to use it more often. With more things to do each time we use Facebook, there is a distinct potential we will be using it more often, and using it for longer – certainly the goal of the makers.

The full impact of these changes to Facebook and relative online marketing are not known. Could social content optimisation become as important as search engine optimisation? What we do know is more interaction is an absolute must. We have talked about the need for real relationships and intimacy for some time with social media, and now with Facebook, that intimacy is a requirement.