New Facebook Tab Makes Pages More Brand 'Friendly'

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Facebook is attempting to make brand pages stickier by adding a "Friend Activity" tab. It allows viewers to quickly see a recent history of their Facebook friends' interactions with the brand, including "likes," comments, and status mentions.

A spokesperson for the Palo Alto, CA-based social giant told ClickZ News that the tweak should create more word-of-mouth for marketers on the site. "If I can see that my friends have liked the brand or commented about it on the page for Coca-Cola, I am going to visit that page more," the Facebook rep explained.

The brand-related update was released simultaneously to a number of changes to Facebook's user interface, including significant alterations of the news feed layout. The moves come ahead of the company's F8 developer conference tomorrow.

In another recent development with implications for competitive research, Facebook appears to be making the number of location shares/check-ins some businesses have collected on Facebook Places more transparent. A "were here" statistic appears in the lower left-hand corner of a brand page, under where "likes" are recorded.

Brands that include a location address on their pages will see the "were here" feature, while those that leave the information out of their company profile will not. For instance, it doesn't currently show for Burger King or Target.

A quick look at a few popular brands: McDonald's currently has 1.3 million location shares/check-ins, Starbucks claims 2.9 million, Walgreens shows 83,000, Dunkin Donuts registers 6,000, and Taco Bell has only 4.

Taco Bell's number is so low due to listing its corporate campus address as its page location. McDonald's, on the other hand, appears to be integrating all of its retail spots into the new Facebook Places statistical feature.