Be sure and catch our live blog from Facebook’s F8 conference tomorrow afternoon on the Vitrue Blog.

Anyone who’s experienced an earthquake can tell you, it’s unsettling when something you thought was solid and unchanging suddenly starts moving around. That’s why we should all probably be patient with Facebook users who scream when the social network they use every day suddenly, and with very little warning, starts looking and acting different.

Inevitably, users adapt to the changes, often coming to the eventual conclusion that yes, it’s better now! But make no mistake, there is no learning curve to Facebook. A curve insinuates there’s a peak, and the amount of learning needed goes steadily down until there’s permanent mastery. Facebook’s learning curve is more like hitting a golf ball on the moon. There will always be new things and tools to learn.

That said, when Facebook rolls out a boatload of changes around the same time, more changes than at any time in its history, we can call that “the big one.” Let’s take a look at what’s already being rolled out and what’s coming – mostly at Facebook’s f8 developer’s conference tomorrow. We’ll have a full recap blog here tomorrow night at 8 pm e.s.t.

-Bye-bye messaging fans from your Facebook Page.

Bye Bye

Facebook saw that these messages usually wind up in “other” folders and don’t get seen
by fans anyway. So as of Sept 30, “The best way to make sure your content is seen is to
post it on your Wall so people see your updates in their news feed.” Or, you’re more
than welcome to buy Facebook ads and sponsored stories. Wink, wink. End result,
especially for brand marketers, it’s more important than ever to have a tech partner that
helps your Wall posts get the engagement needed to show up in users’ news feeds.

-Hey, is that a nav bar stuck to your shoe?
Hope you like your top nav bar, because it’s going to follow you and float with you as
you scroll down the screen reading your news feed. This should give you quick and easy
access to it without the time-consuming, labor-intensive task of scrolling back up to the
top. You’re welcome.

-Subscribe to me and you’ll get your first post free!
“Subscriptions” is the new Facebook buzzword. Basically you’re crafting your own
little social newswire service, and you’re the editor-in-chief. You’re automatically
subscribed to friends, but now you can even get updates from people who don’t want to
know you! (Provided they allow subscriptions) I’m wondering if Facebook will
eventually let people charge for subscriptions to them. For instance, financial geniuses
could charge for access to their updates. Anything’s possible. You can even use
subscriptions to edit what kind of content you want in your feed from your friends.
Photos? Yes. Their latest Bejeweled score? Nah.

-How’s your profile?
Facebook is rolling out a new-look profile at f8. And while there’s not a ton of advance
info on it, you may find yourself spending a lot more time there. It’s being turned into
an entertainment hub on which you’ll watch video and listen to music…or audiobooks.
You can get content from partner sites, then let your friends see what you’re watching
and listening to, including a link to it. Your profile may also be where you shop on
Facebook, so you can also let people know what you’re buying. You trendsetter you.

-My news feed is suddenly obsessed with time management!
Your news feed will now be separated in sections by time frame. There’ll be a section
for updates in the last hour, the last day, etc. And you just might need this, because the
news feed is now in real time. That means the updates are going to come fast and
furious (very Twitter-like actually), thereby keeping you glued to your feed if you’re the
kind who can’t turn away for fear of missing something. But fear not! No matter where
you go on Facebook, a mini news feed is going to follow you there.

-Hold on while I categorize you.
Your friends are being loaded automatically into Smart Lists; like school, work, family,
city, etc. Of course, this info is gleaned from what they’ve put on their profiles, so you’ll
have to go in and manually sort people if they’ve given either no info, or the wrong info
about themselves just to be funny. And you’ll be able to create your own list so you can
put that particular circle of friends in the right place. Oops, did I say “circles”?

Just know that you will undoubtedly survive the big one, and may even come out all the stronger for it. Oh and by the way, you’ve changed as you’ve gotten older too.