Facebook’s also clearly intent on trying to be culturally relevant again in 2023. Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t have been clearer about this mission when talking about it on the company’s Q4 earnings call in January. The social media behemoth is experiencing a rapid decline in its cultural importance. At the same time, user engagement remains strong in most markets.
Zuckerberg highlighted the importance of this effort. Specifically, he cautioned that waning cultural relevance could be a harbinger of very real health concerns for the platform down the road. Even with the consistent engagement metrics, he noted that it is alarming how fast Facebook’s relevancy is crumbling.
So Zuckerberg was right to be worried about that going into this call. He acknowledged that the FB app enjoys high levels of engagement in most metrics, but its cultural relevance seems to be fading much faster. This myopic view highlights the need for Facebook to re-orient the goal of their content strategies away from engagement-at-all-costs to focus on cultural relevance.
Perhaps the most important part of Facebook’s collapsing formula is its antiquated “Friends” paradigm. At a time when all other major platforms have moved to a “Following” model, Facebook has been the one outlier in this space. This reluctance complicates efforts to update its friend graphs, which are now viewed as stale and disconnected from users’ current social circles.
Zuckerberg seemed to realize this, too, proposing at one point a radical overhaul of the friend graph. He concluded, “My hypothesis is that we need to dramatically surface different graph structures than FB has. This shift will open up FB to attaining cultural relevance and improving its long-term trajectory.” The current format limits users’ ability to connect with individuals they genuinely wish to hear from, further exacerbating the platform’s cultural decline.
In so doing, Facebook has always emphasized the “Friends” model. Following mechanisms have been overwhelmingly adopted by competitors—most notably Instagram and Twitter. As Zuckerberg mentioned, all the other contemporary social networks are built on a following model rather than a friending model. It’s this vital difference that he thinks will be Facebook’s saving grace.
In a move meant to tackle these concerns, Facebook is reportedly planning to introduce a new Friends tab, according to Business Insider’s overall Strategic Roadmap. This initiative aims to modernize the platform and ensure that it evolves alongside its competitors without one service overshadowing the other. Zuckerberg highlighted the need to focus on building a strategy that sustains both services to their maximum potential without one being artificially constrained. He envisions neither service washing out with only the dregs of the other’s best prospects.
As Facebook considers these changes, it needs to stay true to its brand while realizing that it needs to evolve with the times. Admitting that “friending is out of style at the moment,” Zuckerberg alluded to the need to reinvent how users connect. He reiterated that many users’ friend graphs are no longer serving their present day social needs. This points to a major disconnect between usage and understanding the platform.
Given all these challenges, Facebook is painfully aware of its own co-dependence with Instagram and WhatsApp. Even Facebook’s success is largely dependent on these platforms. As the company continues to integrate its disparate services, it’s important for the company to find ways to make these strategies more user-friendly and less intrusive.
