Tweaked Notes app could make Facebook a full-on blogging platform
If you're an aspiring blogger, Facebook's inbuilt audience could help you reach more people
It looks as if Facebook is trying to get into the heady world of Internet publishing through a revamp of Facebook Notes. The app’s design now looks a lot like blogging platform such as Medium, with wider dimensions and the ability to include a cover image and a clear headline.
Facebook told The Verge that it was still testing the update in an effort to “make it easier for people to create and read longer-form stories on Facebook.”
While Notes has been a part of Facebook for a long time (it was originally introduced back in the early days, as a way for users to create longer posts than status updates would allow), the feature does not stand out in the site’s general layout. With the change, Facebook perhaps hopes more people will write notes and create a blog-based social network similar to platforms such as Livejournal.
One question springs to mind: why? Well, there are a number of reasons that Facebook might want to encourage its users to write longer posts. First, it’ll make them spend more time on the site, which means Facebook can extract more user data and sell more advertising.
It may also make the site more of a destination for people who might be growing tired of viral trash, xenophobic memes and selfies dominating their newsfeeds. Facebook has already signed deals with major news publishers, leveraging its Instant Articles feature to become more of a news destination, so looks set to become a place where you might come across a geniunely interesting long-form blog post alongside real news stories.
As for why bloggers might want to choose to write on Facebook rather than other platforms like Medium, WordPress and Blogger? Well, Facebook gives you a built in audience of people who already know you. While it might be something of a limited audience, it seems more likely that people will take the time to read something penned by somebody they’re acquainted with, especially if it now looks super clean, attractive and well-integrated into the general look of Facebook.
[Source: The Verge]
Erna Mahyuni
Contributor 
