Pros & Cons of Facebook's Page Updates

Today, Facebook announced their recent slew of design changes and addition of new features. These recent updates definitely have their Pros and Cons, but one new feature will have a HUGE impact on how businesses are able to communicate within Facebook:

• New Pages Design - Most users already migrated to the new Profile layout since its introduction back in December. Facebook is now offering this "new" design to Page admins.
  

• Pro: More design flexibility, especially with the new image bar.
  
• Con: Page Tabs aren't as noticeable in the left column as they were above the Wall. You're out-of-luck if you're not a fan of the new layout--ALL old profiles/pages will be converted by March 1, 2011

• Post Filter - Page admins can choose between sorting Wall posts by the default view or "Everyone", which sorts posts in an order Facebook deems as most relevant.

• Pro & Con: I'm indifferent on this one. Need more time to see if this holds any value.

• "Use Facebook as Page" - This is a early Christmas present for Page admins (or maybe I'm just revealing my Facebook geekiness). This feature allows page admins to use Facebook under their Page's alias. Now admins can post, comment, share, etc. as their Page rather than using their personal profile. This feature can be accessed in the Account drop down (top right corner) by selecting "Use Facebook as Page".

• Pro: Directly reach out to brands, sales leads, customers, business partners, etc. without using your personal profile. You can also manage your notification settings so you don't receive an email every time someone interacts with your Page.
• Con: When you switch to a Page alias, your Wall, notifications (in navigation bar), friends, likes, comments, etc. change to those associated with the Page rather than your personal account.

• Tab Apps and Iframes - Custom tabs and apps for Pages can be built using iframes instead of FBML. This comes to no surprise as Facebook has been increasing the usage of iframes and slowly killing the FBML platform (which Facebook will deprecate on March, 11 2011).

• Pro: Tab Names lengths are not under as strict of limitations with the new Page layout.
• Con: FBML fans will have to make the switch to iframes. (Not necessarily a bad thing)

All-in-all I'm a big fan of the recent updates. Much thanks to insidefacebook.com for making the announcement.