Friday 2 March 2012

Time for Timeline… introducing Facebook’s new layout for Pages


They say “the only constant is change”. It would seem that, where Facebook is concerned at least, ‘they’ are pretty much bang on the money!

Facebook introduced the Timeline format for personal profiles late last year - replacing the now infamous Wall with a more visual record of your history on the network (your whole life if you want). Facebook still hasn’t forced all personal users to make the switch over yet, but on Wednesday they took the obvious next step in standardising this layout across the platform by announcing that all business pages will automatically convert to a timeline format from 30th March.

Ahead of this date, though, page owners have the opportunity to preview how their page will look, edit, and add content to suit the host of new features available and, if they’re ready, make their brand timeline public.

It’s difficult not to feel frustrated when change is forced onto you - especially if it requires you to do extra work. And let’s face it; if you run a small business or work for yourself then you’re pushed for time most of the time. However, after taking a few hours to review the layout and capabilities of the timeline format for pages, I’m feeling pretty excited about their potential. On balance, it looks like it could be a change for the better in many ways.

So, here’s the lowdown on what you can do, what you can’t do and what you need to do if you administrate a Facebook page:

Layout and visual elements
For a start, a good deal more space on the page is given over to visual content. The top of the page is dominated by a large cover photo, which is the first thing any page visitor will see and allows plenty of scope for a strong, creative image that represents your brand. Facebook guidelines say that this image must not contain any calls to action though, so urging users to ‘Like’ your page through this medium is out.

A smaller, square profile picture sits nested below the cover photo. It is this image that will appear alongside your posts on a fan’s newsfeed. You will need to check how your existing profile picture will fit within the new dimensions and possibly make changes to suit both the new shape and also its positioning across over the cover photo.
Beneath these two elements is the page name and a host of other valuable information for visitors. If you’re a local business with an address, your location, contact detail and opening hours is positioned to be immediately visible and easy to find. If not, it’s a short ‘about’ description.

Other key page items, such as the like count, photos and other apps (e.g. custom pages) are also visible and clickable from this section. Four boxes are always displayed here, with the first being the photos app. You can re-order the others as you would prefer and the remaining ones are accessible via a drop-down box. The page may have up to 12 apps in total.

It’s worth noting at this point that the functionality to set a landing page for new visitors is no longer available - the reasoning being that your cover photo should provide enough visual clout to compensate. But the ability to create customised content through apps (custom page tabs as was) is still there and the visible space available for these has been increased. Any tabs you currently have on your page will be automatically shifted across, although you may eventually want to review their content in light of the new dimensions.

Finally, below this starts your timeline. To the right, users will be given a more social perspective on your brand in terms of how many of their friends Like the page and also the latest interactions (such as posts or tags) their friends have made with your page. The rest of the timeline is made up of your content and any user posts that you chose to make visible.

Your stories on this timeline will occupy more space, with a heavier focus on the visual elements, such as photos, so the more eye-catching the picture, the more noticeable the post.


Other functionality
In addition to the above, there is plenty of new functionality to help you make the most of your page in its new layout too. Tools available to you include:
  • Users can send you a message (and vica versa) without directly posting to your timeline - allowing you to have a private conversation with them and great for sorting out customer service issues or handling pricing/order queries directly through the platform.
  • Administrators can now choose to require that they ‘approve’ posts on the page by other users before they are visible to the public.
  • Create featured (or starred) posts, which are displayed across the full width of your timeline to highlight them. You can restore these posts back to their original size at any time.
  • You can add milestones and other back-dated posts to your timeline, allowing you to tell the story of your business or brand back to its inception, rather than just when you joined Facebook and have them appear at the correct point on your timeline. Milestones take on the full width of the page.
  • The option to ‘pin’ a particular story to the very top of your timeline for up to 7 days. The item is then anchored above newer posts unless you unpin it. This is a nice feature for highlighting forthcoming events or competitions.
  • Also, the admin panel for managing your page seems, on the face of it, to have become much more straightforward to navigate and understand.
What you should do now
As a page administrator, it’s certainly worth taking advantage of the time available to you now to preview your page in the new design now - reviewing and possibly revamping your content before the changes come into play at the end of March. The preview feature allows you some valuable space to experiment with the new look and feel before it becomes visible to the public.

This said, there’s really no need to panic. By and large your existing content will look fine in timeline view – the main decisions you will want to make are around what to add (rather than take away) in terms of the cover photo, featured posts and any back-history. You can also make all of these changes once the page is live in timeline format.

Taking a critical eye to any custom pages and improving them to fit the new dimensions is something you will probably want to do in the medium term – and I’m more than happy to help there!

I hope this provides an easy introduction to the coming changes and leaves you feeling empowered to make the most of them for your business. If you have any questions on the new format and functionality, please post them to my Facebook page (facebook.com/bangthedrumconsulting). I’ll do my best to give you a quick and straightforward answer.


No comments:

Post a Comment