The release of Facebook Timeline for Business Pages has caused a flurry of comments both for and against its development. Love or loath the changes they are likely to be here to stay come March 30. For the uninitiated here is a summary of major changes, along with some tips for managing the new layout in the best interest of your business.
Layout & Admin Panel
The new layout is quite a lot to take in when you first come across it, but it can also be used to your advantage with a little effort. Think visual and you can’t really go wrong. The Admin panel is now prominent at the top of your page when you login. Here you can see the activity log, notifications, messages, likes and insights relevant to your page. Use the ‘Manage’ dropdown at the top to switch between using your page as your (personally) or as your business. There is a nifty ‘Hide’ button in this section as well.
Cover Image
The new cover image offers a great opportunity to get creative, add some color to your page and show a bit of personality. There are plenty of companies using this space in a creative way including Coca Cola, Louis Vuitton and lesser known Jerome Vadon.
Without getting too technical, the best size for your Facebook Timeline cover image is 850 x 315 pixels. Facebook guidelines state that your cover image may not contain price or purchase information, or contact information like your website or phone number. You should not encourage people to ‘Like’ your page from your cover image either.
Unfortunately resolution issues surrounding certain shades of colours like red and blue still seem to be unavoidable, but if you think slightly outside the square you can make this space work well for you.
Custom Landing Tabs and Pinning
Although you can no longer direct new visitors to a custom landing tab, you can select which of your tabs are displayed just under the cover image. Oxfam has included their important ‘Causes’ tab in this space, linked to their donation app.
Once you have switched your page over to the new layout Facebook will fill the tabs with default images. You can change these by clicking on the far right tab which will expand to show all available tabs. You can then hover over the pencil at the top right of the tab you wish to change, and choose ‘edit settings’ from the dropdown menu. You can also move and delete tabs from the dropdown menu. See below.
A bonus is that your custom tab pages can now be 850 pixels wide. Winning!
Highlight Favourite Posts & Milestones
Your favorite or most relevant posts can now be highlighted on your timeline by clicking the star at the top right of the post. This will double the size of your post and make it very hard to miss. Likewise you can also hover over the pencil icon at the top right of any post and click ‘Pin to Top.’ This will move the post to the very top of your timeline for all to see.
Use the ‘Change the Date’ option to move posts up and down on your timeline. You can also use the ‘Milestone’ button in the status bar to highlight important milestones like reaching 1000 fans, your business 10th birthday and much more.
Friend Activity and Page Likes
There is now a friend activity section near the status bar that shows visitors how many of their friends like the page, and any interactions that their friends may have had. Providing interactions have been positive then this section is a great inclusion. If you look closely at the Coca Cola image I have included you will see that one of my friends posted a story about almost sharing her case of tonsillitis via a coke can. I had no idea this post existed until I stumbled across the coke page today – some light hearted conversation that made me look twice … and evidently use it as an example in a blog post
There is also an area under this in which you can feature up to five other fan pages that your business follows. This is a great for highlighting partnerships and business connections.
I am personally excited about the switch to the timeline layout for business. I’m sure Facebook will continue to develop and evolve the features, and in no time we will have forgotten all about the old layout.
For more information about using the new timeline feature check out the pages learning center.
