Facebook Timeline for Business Pages - What's New
If you haven’t already heard – all Facebook business pages will be upgraded to the Timeline layout on March 30th.
Now it’s normal procedure for everyone to freak out at changes that Facebook make and we’re sure that this overhaul will not be any different. Mainly because a) no one likes change, especially in the land of Facebook and b) These changes are rather large and will impact the way you use your business page.
The good news is that these changes are by in large for the better and as soon as you get to grips with the alterations you’ll be just as much in love with Facebook as you were before.
The most obvious change is the new layout of the pages – you now have the option to feature a large cover photo that acts like a banner across the top of your page. Ah great - a lovely big space to feature a few calls to actions and all your contact details we hear you say….Well actually, it is a lovely huge space but there are some rather strict rules as to what you can put in this cover photo. They are as follows:
Cover images must be at least 399 pixels wide and may not contain:
- Price or purchase information, such as "40% off" or "Download it at our website"
- Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page's About Section
- References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
- Calls to action, such as "Get it now" or "Tell your friends"
If you are looking for some inspiration then the following page contains links to some big brands that have already switched to the Timeline and chosen their cover photo https://www.facebook.com/about/pages/
Some other new exciting features include –
Pinning Posts
Pinned posts are posts that admins have chosen to display at the top of their Page. A pinned post always appears in the top left of a Page's timeline and has a flag in its top-right corner. A post that has been pinned will remain there for 7 days. After that, it’ll return to the date it was posted on the Page’s timeline.
Simply click the pencil icon in the upper-right corner of your Page's post and then select pin to top in order to ‘pin a post’.
Private Messages
As a business page you used not to be able to send private messages. If you needed to directly contact a fan on Facebook or ask them for an email address everything had to be done publicly on the wall.
This is however, no longer the case. Now you can private message any contact details or private information without posting it to the whole world.
The Downside
So far the only real whinge that seems to be surfacing around the Pages Timeline is that you no longer have the ability to choose a default landing page.
Any apps that you had created for competitions or the like could be switched to feature as your default landing page, meaning that you controlled what visitors saw first. Your timeline wall will now always be the first thing any visitors see and the only real way to direct fans to a specific page will be through the use of ads.
This may sound more drastic than it actually is – Facebook are giving us compensation for this change by allowing us to do things like ‘pin posts’ and highlight status updates. Facebook is still very much a free platform and they do have to monetise somehow, giving their ads a little more power may be frustrating for us but it makes sense.
If you are looking for help with any social media presence then please don’t hesitate to get in touch – Carvill Creative have the expertise to ensure that you are leveraging these platforms successfully.
Enjoy the post… Vikki
Carvill Creative – the online visibility experts. A digital marketing agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Carvill Creative covers all aspects of online visibility – website effectiveness, social media marketing, social media management and social media training, user focused website planning and conversion focused website design.
Passionate about Online Visibility - creating an integrated approach across websites, blogs and social media platforms.