Facebook’s New Timeline

Everyone is talking about Facebook’s new Timeline for Pages. It is brand new and different from the Facebook business pages you are used to. Facebook is striving to showcase a more personal way of seeing your business or brand. Many people are anxious about the changes that will occur in their Facebook business accounts on March 30, 2012. Beginning March 30, Facebook will be automatically converting your existing account to the new Timeline for Pages type of account. Don’t get into a panic, though, because you can preview your new look before it takes place.

If you would like to preview the new Timeline for Pages look, just log in to your existing business account as you normally would. Then you can click on the “Turn on Preview” box. This will allow you to see what your existing page would look like in the new style. You can preview just one page or all of the pages. This will help you get an idea of how you want to build your new look for the Timeline. Facebook has convenient tours that you can take that will guide you in understanding what Timeline is about and the different features it offers. In this way you can take your time and plan out your new look or, if you think you are ready now, you can just push “publish” and you will be instantly converted. If you choose to do that, you can make any changes you desire at any time.

The basics of the new Timeline for Pages encompasses a more personal approach. Your Cover image is big and bold and will let people know up front something important about your business. It makes a statement, so you might want to consider what you are trying to convery before you choose an image for it. The biggest innovation is the timeline feature itself. Facebook now allows you to place milestones along your timeline that showcase the highlights of your business. The first milestone will show when your business was founded and you may choose as many others as you like to bring attention to important events in the history of your business. The timeline provides a story about your business. It allows everyone to know when you started and how you have progressed through time. You can also add photographs of your business or logos to enhance your timeline and add interest. Many people are happy with the abiltiy Facebook is providing for you to send and receive private messages and to use your new Activity Log to view insights data.

Facebook is not allowing any contact information or calls-to-action, but they are allowing you to pin posts up on top of the feed for a week at a time. This could prove helpful when you are trying to draw attention to something important. Another big change is that Facebook is no longer allowing you to use an app for a landing page. It will take some time to see what new features are most popular and what old features will be missed, but one thing is for certain… Facebook has made great strides into the future with Timeline for Pages.

How to Edit your Timeline

As the largest social media platform in the world, Facebook provides individuals all over the world with the opportunity to connect and speak with one another instantaneously.  As the front runner of the social media industry, you can rest assured that the majority of individuals who use the internet will undoubtably have a Facebook.  Considering that Facebook is an industry leader, providing new and innovative features can prove to be exponentially beneficial, thus Timeline was presented to the general population.

Essentially with the implementation of Timeline, Facebook users are able to take advantage of new and innovative features and an easier navigational aspect to the website itself.  Also, it provides users with the ability to manager their privacy setting in a more efficient manner and to personalize their page to meet their own personal taste.  Although the majority of users find that the Timeline has been beneficial, some critics are stating that it has made the Facebook experience far more difficult.

One of the largest requests to Facebook from the users was to have a type of personalization feature, whether it be to change the layout of your profile page or to be able to use CSS or HTML to manipulate the colors and fonts of the page.  Although this was not granted to the general public, users are now able to upload a cover photo.  Essentially the cover photo is a giant banner that is at the top of your page and you can change it to whatever image you like.  As an example, if you are a Coldplay fan you can change your cover photo to a picture of Coldplay.

Some other features that you will be able to manipulate on your profile page include: subscribing to new and/or old friends, editing your general Timeline, and even creating life events.  With the subscription option you will be able to see recent posts by the individual that you subscribe to instantaneously as they take priority over your other friends.  You will also be able to receive alerts that detail what the individual posted and when.  With the general Timeline editing, individuals will be able to remove certain posts from their Timelines and even block certain users from reading a particular post.  As for the life events, you will be able to update certain activities that occur throughout your life such as the birth of your first child or a brand new engagement.

Inevitably the new Timeline layout has made the Facebook experience far more in depth and interesting than the first design of the social networking site.  With the abundance of features you will be able to customize your Facebook to maximize your usage.

Choosing a Great Cover Photo

With all of the excitement over facebook’s implementation of the new Timeline for Pages, it is importnat to understand how to get started and maximize your business. Everyone knows how important it is to have a great cover picture on your account, but how do you choose the best photograph to use?

The first step in choosing a great cover photo is to know the rules for cover photographs for the new Timeline for Pages. The size of picture is much larger than the old format called for. The new preferred size is a width of 851 pixels. It is an extremely wide picture and it presents you with an opportunity to draw the viewers’ attention and make a visual statement about your business.

Sometimes a phootograph of your company logo makes a good cover image for your account. It allows viewers a chance to mentally link your logo to your business and might well stay in their minds after they have moved on to other pages or sites.

Facebook has implemented some of the following rules for cover photos for your business or brands. They do not allow people to share your cover photo or click “like” on it, to begin with. Facebook also doesn’t allow you to share any contact information or prices or purchase information in your cover photo. As might be expected, they don’t allow any misleading information to appear in your cover image or 3rd party infringement. As you can see, it is extremely important  to be, thorough in  determining the correct picture to use and how it will effect the viewers. It is a wonderful idea to get the opinions of others about possible cover images before you commit to one. Family and friends can often be helpful in assisting you in describing how well the cover image suits the business. Photos can be easily replaced to make it possible to try various looks for your Timeline Page. It is also a good idea to be sure that your cover image fits in well with any photos of your business that you plan to place along your timeline. Not only do you want your cover photo to be appealing on it’s own, and be a good representation of your business or brand, but you want it to blend in with your entire Timeline, so it can be also thought of as a whole, complete package.

After you have chosen what you feel is the very best photo for your cover, don’t be afraid to boast about it to others. Not only will it gain you more traffic on your page, but it might also help you receive some valuable insights into the way others view your cover photograph.

Building Your Story With Milestones

Facebook has created a wonderful new opportunity for you to share your business on a more personal level with their new Timeline for Pages. They have devised a system for sharing the history of your business with the assistance of milestones and photographs. By using milestones along your new Timeline, you can create a sense of telling a story.  Your audience will have the opportunity to see how your business has grown and changed over time by the milestones you choose.

Your first milestone will be generated by Facebook asking you for the date that your business was founded. This makes it easy to get started and to begin assembling your story through milestones. There are several events that come to mind that would be perfect for choosing milestones for. Some events that might be perfect for marking with a milestone might be when your business went public, when acquisitions were made, when buildings were expanded, or when ownership changed hands. There are some fun milestones that you can add also, such as when your company earned its first dollar, when your logo was created or changed and when new services or products were added.

Some great advice to consider is to try to include events that were happening in the world at certain times. The focus should always remain on your business, but it adds interest to place your business events in the midst of world events that viewers can relate to. How fun is it to embed a few events like man’s first walk on the moon or the introduction of the first laptop computer into the Timeline with your company’s important events? This will certainly make your business timeline more memorable to your viewing audience.

Adding photographs to your timeline is also a good idea for adding interest. People love to see pictures of what a business looked like when it started out compared to what it looks like today. Don’t forget that interior photos are as desirable as exterior ones. Sure, it’s great to see the front of your business with your sign proudly displayed in front, but people are also interested in seeing what it looks like inside too. Another photograph that holds great appeal is one of any partners or staff you might have.This is sure to add a more personal touch and attract potential customers.

Facebook also allows you the option to hide your milestones from the news feeds of your fans …but why? If you build a Timeline complete with well thought out milestones and images connected with your business, then share them!

Tabs and the New Timeline

Whether you are a business or an individual looking to promote your talents, company, and/or products, the use of Facebook can prove to be exponentially beneficial.  Considering that there are millions of users who are constantly looking for new companies and products to suit your needs you will be able to tap into a gigantic resource of potential clients and/or customers.  With the business pages, Facebook has provided companies and individuals with the opportunity to maximize their computing experience.

Timeline is a brand new layout that Facebook designed in order to provide a more user-friendly and exciting computing experience for individuals all over the world.  With the implementation of the new design, users are provided with an abundance of new features such as adding life events, having an array of showcased photos, and blocking certain information from reaching certain groups of people.  Not only did the Timeline upgrade enhance the experience that the generic user will have but it also helped to make businesses have an easier time gathering demographic information about the people that visit their page with the use of tabs.

Tabs essentially allow users to venture to different parts of your Facebook page and then allow you to determine how many individuals visited a particular area of your page.  As an example you will be able to see how many people visited your welcome page or how many people clicked on your information page.  Having the ability to acquire this information will drastically increase your knowledge of what the more popular areas of your Facebook page are.  With this knowledge you will be able to build up the page in order to maximize the customer experience meanwhile provide enough details to the other pages in order to shift traffic to the other areas of your Facebook page.

With the user-friendly nature of Facebook and the implementation of new and innovative features, individuals will be able to have a better navigational experience while they are sifting through the copious amount of business pages on Facebook.  As a company, you will be able to gather the required information in order to ensure that you can maximize the benefits that your Facebook page will provide to current and new customers.  Tabs have helped to make Facebook feel more organized and professional in nature which alone can help a company to acquire a better first impression from new clients and/or investors.

Timeline and Private Messages

With the impending change to Facebook for Timeline it is important to understand what this means for messaging.  Previously you had posts on your page and private messaging was not allowed, but now you have options and it is a really great feature that has been added.  So the decision you now face is whether you will allow private messages from your fans.

With the new implementation taking effect on March 31, 2012 you need to weigh your options and make your decisions very soon.  As the new timeline design is rolled out your fans can choose to send you a private message instead of posting on your page publicly.  There will be a message button placed underneath your cover photo and on your side you will see the messages displayed on the right side of the admin panel.

There are many great reasons for this feature and while it means more customer service from your side, it could offer up some very good business opportunities.  First you can now communicate information that could be private, or sensitive in nature directly to your fan without having to require an email address or locate another contact method.  The feature will also allow you to really showcase your customer service and provide support that otherwise might not be really seen by our fans.  The privacy thing works both ways as well, as this allows your fans to reach you privately about issues without having to tell everyone about the problem or discussion that can be one on one.  Of course it means you might have to add resources that you currently do not have to respond and handle the message traffic.  It could be that it simply does not fit for your business and could be better to disable the feature from your page.

If you decide you do want to disable the feature, then simply go to your admin panel and click on manage, and edit page.  Under the manage permissions tab you will find the check box to disable the message feature.  It is easy and quick and could be you want to change it later on when you have the ability to handle it better.  In order to prevent spam and protect your privacy there are some restrictions you need to be aware of.  Since Facebook does limit the way the pages can interact with the messaging feature, it will limit the back and forth messages.  So if you happen to be communicating with a fan that is going to require quite a lot of this, you may want to opt out for email, as you will be limited in that exchange.

The timeline feature is going to be a great change and will bring on many opportunities for the business.  You have to decide what works best for you and for your business and how your fans are best managed.  Just review and understand so you can have the setting in place and be ready for the big conversion as you want your timeline page to be a great reflection on you and your business.

Building a brand with the new timeline

Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard that Facebook has released the new timeline for brands.  So if you are confused or trying to understand how you can adapt to this new format, we will try to provide some guidance on how it works.

First, if you have not chosen to upgrade to the new timeline format, you will have no choice as of March 30, 2012.  So since that date is just around the corner, let’s focus on the things you can do to prepare for the structure change.

Photographs or something creative for your cover – Facebook is giving you a chance here to customize a pretty large space on your page, and let’s face it they do not relinquish control on much of anything.  However, here you have 850 pixels and 315 pixels wide to totally create your own cover.  Ok, yes there are some things you can’t use here.  You cannot put price, purchase information, go to our website, contact information, no email or mailing address, nothing that really should be on your “about” section.  You are not allowed to have any call to action, and you cannot reference anything to the “like” or “share” buttons.  So just follow the rules, but be creative.

Choose your profile image carefully – you may want to choose a great picture for you larger image and use the company logo on the small image.  You might need to play with this somewhat so you are happy with the results.

Update your timeline – the main feature in the timeline for brands is that you have a chance to chronicle your history, and while it will only show activity since you joined Facebook, you can select previous years and add important events that have occurred.  A great site to view is Coca-Cola and see how they developed their timeline.

Facebook apps need to be presented in order of importance – you can only display four apps at a time, so it is important to prioritize.
To activate or not activate the message function – you now have an option to open communication with your fans on a private channel.  It can set expectations and mean additional customer service level support.  You can turn this function off, but you need to address any issues in a public forum instead of the private message area.

As with any change it is going to take a little getting used to.  You might try things that work, and some that do not.  The key is to prepare and plan and be ready before you are forced into the change.  Find the pictures you want, reflect a good picture of yourself that defines who you are and utilize the new features to bring results.  Change is good, and embracing it, finding a way to make it work for you, that is the key and the secret to success.

Timeline and Your Business

With the introduction of Facebook’s new Timeline for Pages, you might be wondering how that will effect your business. This is a natural concern when you have been happy with your businesss pages on Facebook until now. Just as your business grows and changes, so does Facebook and their ideas for showcasing your business grow and change. By adding their new Timeline for Pages, you can actually tell (and show) the story of how your business has grown and changed over time.

People are naturally interested in the history of companies they associate with, and Facebook has decided to take advantage of this interest.  By introducing the new Timeline, they are offering you, as the business owner, the chance to share the story of your business. They have provided milestones that you set along your timeline to highlight any and all important events associated with your business. The first milestone you will be prompted to set is commemorating the date your business was founded. From that point on, you will be able to choose milestones for any date or event that you deem to be important for your business. Another great innovation, is that you can also add photos or logos along your timeline to add interest or to emphasize events, a special logo, or a symbol that might be easily associated with your business. Another great photo to add might be an image of the front or the inside of your business.

The cover image you use for your new Timeline for Pages is very important. It is large and bright and is the first impression anyone visiting your page receives of your business or brand.  You will need to choose a photo that is clear and fits the new larger specifications of a width of at least 851 pixels.

Some features that Facebook has changed are the ability to use landing pages, and no calls-to-action and no contact information are allowed. Obviously, this will have an impact oh how you do business on Facebook. Everyone will have adjustments to make with the new Timeline for Pages, but it does offer an opportunity to add a more personal touch to your interactions on Facebook. Another feature that emphasizes the personal aspect of your business is the ability to send or receive personal messages. With a little time and patience, your business might benefit greatly from the new Facebook Timeline.