Facebook Subscription Feature Looks Dead
It’s only been 5 days and already the newly released ‘Subscribe’ feature seems dead. The feature which was hailed as breakthrough way to build a following without letting people in your ‘close circle’ (i.e. friends), has so far failed to attract the level of usage anticipated by Facebook.
The feedback from users so far is that the new feature is utterly confusing and many feel it doesn’t fit in well with how Facebook ‘should work’. According to one user, “if he wanted to follow someone, he would be on Twitter”. This apparent ‘forced’ change of culture and user behavior seems to be the main driver of dissatisfaction.
Some experts are arguing that the Subscribe feature is only 5 days old and should be given a bit more time to settle in. Perhaps they are right? At least that’s what Facebook must be hoping. One thing is certain however, if users don’t latch onto the feature, it won’t achieve the critical mass it needs to go viral. And if a feature can grow virally, it is on Facebook, where the platform thrives on spreading user-input in a connected fashion.
Maybe it was a mistake to try and emulate Google+ and Twitter? Maybe Facebook works best when people are able to ‘let people in’ and then do the sharing? Whatever the answer, we’ll perhaps have to wait for a few more weeks before the full extent of the adoption of the new feature can be measured. At that time we’ll know if the Subscribe feature was a hit or a miss.
Do you think the new Subscribe feature will eventually grow in popularity? Let us know your predictions on tis in the comments below.
(Source: sitetrail.com)
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