Posts Tagged ‘Facebook Timelines’

Recently I wrote a post about leveraging Facebook’s new Timelines layout for business. I described several ways companies can use the new features to their advantage, including tips on using the cover photo and pinning posts.

I still believe Timelines can help businesses build community around their brands, as long as they are willing to try new tactics and keep an open mind. However, according to Convince and Convert’s Jay Baer, Facebook has betrayed small businesses through the sweeping changes brought on by Timelines. After reading his argument, I’d have to say he has some good points. Let’s discuss.

Some of the new Timelines features require a big-business staff.

If your small business lacks a social media department – or even a dedicated social media staff person – you might find some of Facebook’s features to be overwhelming to use effectively. Baer definitely sees these features as potential roadblocks to keeping up with the bigger guys. For example, although the new cover photo is a great space to highlight products or recent events, it requires a staff person with the time to take cover-worthy images and format them correctly for the space.

Then there are the new pinning and starring features. Being able to highlighting important and relevant posts adds a handy promotional tool to your Facebook page, but someone has to track these features and be sure they don’t become dated. If your community starts relying on pinned and starred posts for the latest company information, you could miss out on communications opportunities if you can’t stay on top of it.

Similarly, Timeline makes it obvious if you haven’t updated your page in a few days because the activity stream leaves large spaces where your content should have been. So, once again, if small businesses are stretched for resources, any gaps in posting will be displayed, front-and-center.

Finally, Facebook has tweaked the direct messages feature to keep up with Twitter’s dominance of the social media customer service space, which is great. But, for small businesses, that just means one more inbox to check, on top of an ever-growing to-do list.

Facebook marketing is getting more expensive.

While Facebook has been viewed as a place where limited marketing budgets couldn’t hold you back, Timelines has introduced some pricier features. According to Baer, if you want to keep up with bigger companies, it’s going to cost you.

The “old” Facebook’s landing tab gave small businesses a chance to drive fan behavior – using affordable software – by creating custom micro-sites within their Facebook pages. But Timelines eliminated the landing tab, which isn’t good for businesses of any size. However, larger companies have the budgets to create plenty of other custom solutions, on their websites or blogs, to drive fans to their Facebook page.

Especially frustrating for small businesses, Facebook is now selling the opportunity to expand your “reach” on the network. According to Baer’s article, Facebook estimates that only 16% of your status updates are ever seen by your fans. However, for a limited time, you can buy the opportunity to reach around 75% of your fans – that is, if you can afford it.

Finally, Facebook advertising is heading beyond the budgets of many small companies because premium ads are getting very expensive. These ads will be sold through cost-per-impression deals, which are more profitable for any online advertiser. But these pricier ads will reduce the inventory of the small business-friendly cost-per-click Marketplace ads.

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After examining these features that are SMB-unfriendly, I’d have to agree that small businesses are at a disadvantage on the “new” Facebook. What do you think? If you own or work at a small business, do you feel betrayed by Facebook’s recent changes?

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com

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