Facebook Home launched last week and many are still trying to understand exactly what it is. The early rumors claimed that Facebook was launching its own phone. Instead, Facebook Home is an application available for the Android operating system. In their words, Facebook Home is a family of apps that puts your friends at the heart of your phone.

Facebook Home helps bring chatting, updates from friends and photos all to the front of your phone. The first thing you see will be your world according to Facebook. The goal is to optimize chatting and messaging within Facebook from external devices. Your contacts are displayed as circular photos instead of their phone numbers. The photos are pulled in from Facebook of course. The interactions are a combination of chatting and messaging but specifically, as the video highlights, Facebook Home hopes to shift focus away from apps and towards people.

Facebook Home

You may ask, “Why is this important for businesses?” Here are 5 things to consider.

  1. Prevalence- This update will help make Facebook even more prevalent in the lives of users. The Facebook mobile app for Android currently gets over 192.8 million monthly average users. By having user info one step closer, Facebook will be associated with communication more so than ever.
  2. Showrooming- By minimizing the gap between contacts and communication, Facebook Home has the capability to increase showrooming. This concept is familiar in ecommerce circles and refers to people researching pricing and product information on a cell phone while in a physical store.
  3. Photos Dominate- Photos have always been important to Facebook. This was true even before they bought Instagram for $1 Billion. This is also true with Facebook Home. Brands should take note of this. Ensure your interactions are photo laden.
  4. People vs Apps- Facebook has stated they are “moving away from apps towards people.” This is a great opportunity to highlight an important element of Facebook marketing. Focus on people. Facebook is a tactic whereas conversation is a strategy. Bring honest conversation, focused on people and you can create lasting engagement with your fans. Facebook’s comment does not pertain to apps inside the Facebook world. Those of you with Facebook apps are safe.
  5. Ads? Facebook has already announced that ads will be coming to the cover feed on Facebook Home. There are many possibilities here. Some may prove quite annoying for users. However, as updates are revealed as to how these ads will work, we may find room for engaging campaigns.

Facebook Home is new and interesting. There are a number of possibilities and more on the way as programs and usage data are further revealed. Have you tried it yet? Please post your thoughts in the comments below or on our Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter page.