I’m sure you’ll agree that there are many changes that Facebook has thrown upon us page owners, and if you’ve watched the video guide above, you’ll know this is one of the biggest changes they have ever made. Well, the good news is that even the best of Facebook marketers have to start back at ground zero trying and tweaking to see how the new layout works. And that’s good news for you. It means that you can start today and build up your brand by implementing these new features and functions that have been rolled out in the new Timeline layout.
In summary, here’s what’s changed:
- Default landing tabs have been removed, which means you can no longer have a like/reveal welcome page or automatically direct visitors to one of your apps. You can still put these features to good use, but you need to win over visitors with your Timeline content first, before encouraging them view your apps and fan-only content.
- You can now message your fans – this is a fantastic new feature for encouraging interaction and building relationships with your customers.
- Tabs are wider at 760px
- You can add a cover image, but follow the guidelines (see below) so you don’t get slapped by Facebook, or worse, lose your page altogether.
- There’s a new look admin panel with more tools to learn about your fans and social reach, as well as to keep track of your timeline activity.
Don’t think of these changes as a bad thing. Yes, they can definitely be a pain initially, but this allows some of the smaller pages to play catch up and to look just as good as the bigger brands out there.
With the new layout, companies are better able to represent themselves by adding important dates to their Timelines. This means that if you’ve been operating your business for any amount of time, you’re now able to populate your Facebook page with the goings on of your business. You can go back in time, so to speak, and add all your business’ important events to your Facebook Timeline – something that just couldn’t be done before.
This also brings up another important point – that users are now able to see far back into your page. They are able to dig as far back as you’ve got entries or as far back as the oldest photo you’ve dated. So, you’ll want to be careful and ‘spring clean’ your page to make sure that what your fans are seeing is exactly the way you want to be represented on Facebook.
Start by going through your page the way a user would – you may be surprised by some of the older posts, pictures etc. that you (and they) are now able to see.
Finally, make sure you are fully familiar with Facebook’s terms before making any changes to your page. Below are rules that Facebook has implemented that every page owner MUST follow.
Your cover image MUST NOT contain:
- Price or purchase information, such as “50% off” or “Download it at our website”
- Contact information, such as website, email, address or other information intended for your ‘About’ section.
- References to ‘Like’ or ‘Share’, or any other Facebook site features.
- Calls to action, such as “Call us today” or “Click on our Welcome tab”.
So far, we’ve seen a lot of page owners breaking some of these rules – it won’t be long before Facebook starts shutting these guys down!
All of these changes can be a little over-whelming for some companies to take on. We know some of the smaller companies don’t even have the time to maintain their presence on Facebook let alone go back and edit their entire history.
If you’re thinking ‘That’s us!’, then why not have a chat with us about taking care of it all for you. We help businesses achieve any goal they want on Facebook – from simply setting up a page and designing some eye-catching cover graphics, to running quizzes and competitions, to taking over the day-to-day posting and interaction for them. If you just can’t spare the man (or woman) power, but you know you need to be on Facebook, then let us do it for you.
If you’re interested in chatting about what we can do for you, contact us here.
