Facebook is rolling out FB5, a new design for that’s “simpler, faster, more immersive and puts your communities at the center.” Three of the updates offer musicians and music marketers new and better opportunities to stay connected with fans and sell more tickets.
Some of the updates will roll out this week in the mobile apps, with more feature’s being added in the coming weeks.
In a change that should help sell more tickets, starting this summer, a Facebook Events tab will be located predominately within a new menu bar layout, The change is designed to make it easier to see what’s happening in a neighborhood or city, get recommendations and coordinate with friends to make plans.
The biggest change is a new “groups” tab that sits in the middle row of the redesigned menu bar. Users get a personalized feed of updates from their favorite groups – like the group created for a band or venue – plus recommendations to join others groups based on mutual interests.
“There are tens of millions of active groups on Facebook. When people find the right one, it often becomes the most meaningful part of how they use Facebook. And today, more than 400 million people on Facebook belong to a group that they find meaningful,” according to a Facebook blog post. “With this in mind, we’re rolling out a fresh new design for Facebook that’s simpler and puts your communities at the center. We’re also introducing new tools that will help make it easier for you to discover and engage with groups of people who share your interests.”
Within Facebook Messenger, there are new ways to watch videos in a group: “Messenger will now let you discover and watch videos from Facebook together in real time. You’ll be able to seamlessly share a video from the Facebook app on Messenger and invite others to watch together while messaging or on a video chat. This could be your favorite show, a funny clip or even home videos.” It will roll it out globally later this year.