What’s going to happen at the F8 developer conference?

Facebook’s conference

Nice play on words: Facebook’s F8 Conference reminds me of the political G8 pep rally, the annual conference of global leaders. Facebook’s kind of yearly get-together may be minimally less interesting only because the POTUS won’t be in attendance. On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg will be the keynote speaker so it will be intriguing to tune in on how his global takeover of everything related to the internet is progressing. Certainly this is the place to hear about it.

Articles in an instant

There’s a packed schedule of events. For a peak at the complete schedule just click here. That said, the “social” part of social media is evolving faster than most of us can keep up. I am particularly interested in Facebook’s Instant Articles app which is being rolled out this week. I am curious how IA will help increase the reach and engagement of someone’s content in addition to how it will generate income.

Loss of revenue has been a concern for some when it comes to publishing on Facebook and in December the company made it easier for publishers to generate ad revenue from Instant Articles too. Placing a huge emphasis on user experience and satisfaction, we’re sure to learn more about the importance of Instant Articles moving forward. Publishers willing to display their content natively within the Facebook app may see big results down the line.

If it’s Facebook it must be LIVE

I wasn’t kidding early on when I said that Mark Zuckerberg wants to be the Almighty of the Internet. It’s the role of lifetime. Facebook Live really brings this into focus. Zuckerberg recently said that, “Live is like having a TV camera in your pocket. Anyone with a phone now has the power to broadcast to anyone in the world.” I’m not sure that isn’t already happening.

With Instant Articles and now Live, Facebook is positioned to control more and more of the actual experience of reading and viewing news. Certainly a large portion of F8 may very well be focused on providing answers to the hundreds questions that developers, publishers, and marketers will have about best-practices in utilizing and optimizing Live. We may even learn about advanced Live features for publishers such as multiple camera angles, graphics, and more polished TV-style production values.

The New Yorker posits that “Live further exposes Facebook’s active, seemingly unquenchable thirst for more ways to become the middleman in your digital interactions. It literally wants you to broadcast your life on the platform.”

Exhaustive presentation

There’s more to F8 than I can preview in one sit down that’s for sure. I have no doubt that Facebook’s F8 will impact the world of social media much like the G8 conference impacts the global perspective of our lives.

Not to worry. You can live stream the event or join the fun for the two days on Twitter so you can keep up to date on major news and happenings.

#F8Conference