Note: This article was initially published on the digital marketing site DigitalCoCo on 6/15/16.
Link: https//digitalcoco.com/blog/2016/6/15/facebook-hide-post-feature
Since its 2004 release, Facebook has been redefining the idea of social media as we know it. Twelve years later, the site doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Facebook unveiled its newest feature: the ability for users to post content on their news feeds without saving it to their timelines.
Digital Trends reported that the new feature, called “hide from timeline,” will allow users to share content on their news feed without saving it permanently on their timeline.
Digital Trends said users may confuse this update with the ability to customize which of their friends see their posts, a feature that has been available since the dawn of the site, however, he said this feature is much simpler.
They described this feature as the ability to create “temporary news feed posts,” or posts that will disappear with time.
The online Facebook Help Center explained the new feature by writing, “Hiding a story will remove it from your Timeline, but it won’t delete that story from Facebook. This means stories you hide are still visible to the audience they were shared with other places on Facebook.”
Examples of places on Facebook where a user will still be able to see these posts are in a search and their news feed.
According to a report by Tech City, users will still be able to access all of their “hidden from timeline” posts on a “your posts” page.
Digital Trends said this isn’t the only component of the feature. For select users, Facebook seems to be testing a connected feature, the ability to categorize a “hide from timeline” post in up to 26 categories. These include general topics like World News and TV & Film, as well as more personal topics such as thoughts and selfies.
Digital Trends noted a similarity between using the “hide from timeline” feature for personal topic posts and use of rival social media platform Snapchat. Both allow companies to share information with consumers that disappears after a finite amount of time. This principle does not just apply to corporations, but to the average user as well. However, unlike Snapchat, this new Facebook feature can’t be used on mobile devices.
As it is new, it is not yet reported whether any companies have jumped in on the use of this feature yet.
However, both the ability to categorize content and the temporary nature of this feature may allow for businesses to benefit from it in the future. Companies can present themselves to those looking for a specific category of posts, as well as provide quick and temporary information that may not warrant a permanent place on their timeline.Read More