If your business is on Facebook, you’ve probably noticed some big changes lately. Facebook’s new layout, Timelines, has been widely adopted by business pages. Starting next week, all Facebook business pages must begin using the new format. Timelines allow companies to tell the story of their business in the order in which milestones and events occur. This layout has the potential for better community engagement and branding if leveraged correctly.
Recently Marketo published a helpful infographic on doing just that, and in this article, I’ll break down the basics of using Facebook Timelines for your business.
Key Elements in a Facebook Timelines Page
1. Cover Photo: Timeline’s large cover photos let you showcase your brand with an eye-catching, 851 x 315 pixel image. You can use this banner-like image to showcase new products, photos from events or your business, or anything else you want to share with your fans. Just be sure not to include photos with sales, offers or calls to action, as Facebook won’t allow it.
2. Milestones: These are like the “life events” on personal Timeline pages, but they feature important happenings with your business. Use this feature to tell your company’s story. You can go back as far as January 1, 1000 and display important moments from your company’s founding to major product launches. When you highlight an event as a milestone, it is automatically expanded to a widescreen view on your Timeline. Use Milestones to visually document your company’s history rather than to sell products to your community.
3. Pinned Posts: If you have an especially engaging or relevant post, now you can pin it to be featured at the top of your Timeline. If you have important news, such as a product recall or an event schedule change, pinned posts can come in very handy. When you pin a post, it remains in the top left of your Timeline for seven days. Try not to use this feature to highlight advertisements, though. You want your page to be a place for building community, not an online billboard.
4. Icons: Under your cover photo, you’ll find icons that link visitors directly to your apps, photos and Likes. Icons give you even more of a reason to cultivate a great photo collection and to show off your apps. By default, Facebook arranges your icons for you, so be sure to bring these areas up to speed since they’ll be on display.
Key Changes to Consider
- Timelines introduces a new admin panel where you can view metrics and reply to messages, so be sure to learn the new system.
- Unfortunately, the new Timelines format no longer allows businesses to create a custom landing page. You can still direct visitors to an app or a special page by default, but you will need to run advertising that links to them.
- Now fans can contact you directly by messaging your page. Be sure to monitor your messages so you can provide prompt customer service and interact more personally with your community.
- The Activity Log lets you navigate throughout your page’s history so you can easily view all the activity on your page and keep up with new comments, questions and Likes.
- Now you can hide posts on Timeline rather than deleting them. This feature allows you to curate your posts by getting rid of old or irrelevant posts without making them disappear forever.
Has your business started using Facebook Timelines yet? How do you like it? What do you think the pros/cons are, as compared with the original Facebook pages?
Image courtesy of Mashable
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Tags: Facebook, Facebook Timelines, Marketing, social media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments »
