March 30 – the big date when all fan/business pages will be converted to the Timeline format on Facebook. Are you ready?! Are your clients ready?!
To some, it might seem like a simple change – adding a cover photo; aprofile picture update, etc., but if you dig down a little deeper – you will begin to realize that it is much more than that!
Here are just a few highlights to get you started.
You will want to take advantage of the larger cover photo – it will add much more visibiilty for your brand. Below is a comparison of the old vs the new.
Old Profile layout.
New cover photo layout with tabs below.
What used to be called “tabs” are now being called “apps” – a more accurate description. The location has shifted from the left side to just below the cover photo – very prominent and much more visible as the icon size had increased to 111 x 74 pixels. Now more easily customized as well….a great opportunity to point fans to contests, websites, email sign ups, giveaways, etc. You can clearly see these in the image above. It is more important than ever to make sure these tabs really stand out and grab user’s attention due to the restrictions that are now being placed on the home page/cover photo….default landing pages are gone and cover photos cannot be used to sell products/services; to direct fans to websites, etc. The more attention grabbing your tabs are – the more fans/likes you are going to be able to attract.
Even without the ability to use your website url in your cover photo, you can still make it visible by adding it to the “About” section. Similar to the placement change for “tabs” – the “About” area now displays directly below your profile picture now allows up to 170 characters of description. Great way to increase your click-through rate to your website from Facebook.
Use the "About" section to display your website URL.
Another change is the “recent posts” activity. Recent posts are now grouped together and sit at the top of the right hand column and prominently displays others comments/interaction on your site. It will be more important than ever to monitor your site for both positive and negative feedback and respond in an appropriate time frame.
Recent Posts Box location now at top of right hand column.
One of the more anticipated changes for me is the ability to highlight or pin posts. In the upper right of a post is a drop down and you just click to highlight and the post will become the full width of your page. If you choose the “pin” option, your post will remain at the top of the left column for 7 days. Example of a highlighted post below.
HIghlighted Post spans both column widths.
I have reviewed only a small sampling of the changes that are coming. There are many great blogs online that cover all of the changes in great detail – I have listed some of these sites here:
http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-timeline-pages-guide-2012-03
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/new-facebook-pages/
http://mashable.com/2012/03/09/facebook-timeline-brands-examples/
https://www.facebook.com/about/pages
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Perfectly written subject matter, thank you for information. “He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.” by Michel de Montaigne.
we need HELP!!
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