One of the biggest stories around the world last week was the fact that Facebook became a publicly traded company.  In making this move, there will be a lot of changes that will affect the company, as well as the user’s experience.  Here are a few of the changes below:

• Almost all privacy settings are being switched to “public”
• Facebook will have to make money, which means more ads
• Look for Facebook to start acquiring more technologies (Netflix, Spotify, etc) to feed its core business (giving people the power to share).
• Details of the large acquisitions – including the Instagram deal
• Less secrets from the company, including Mark Zuckerberg’s annual pay ($1.5 million in 2011)
• More transparency.  The company will have to report to the federal government agency: the SEC with three reports; one quarterly, one annually and one every three years

For the full story and more details regarding how transparent the company has to be, check out: http://mashable.com/2012/05/20/facebook-gone-public/

And for those of you who are thinking about jumping ship, or moving in a different social media direction, check out this great article on 7 social networks that could replace FB.