5 Key Features to the New Facebook ‘Timeline’ for Brand Pages
By now you’re probably accustomed to your personal profile taking on the recently added Facebook Timeline features. Well now getting ready for brand pages to take on a similar look as well.
As of last week, Facebook rolled out its new Timeline features for brand pages. All Facebook pages have now been given the perennial warning that on March 30 – all pages will be automatically switched over to the new Timeline format. (In the meantime you can opt to make the switch before hand).
The major changes for brand pages include: a large cover photo at the top of the page, the ability to include ‘milestones’ and important dates chronologically, updated analytics and few key features that will allow marketers to engage with fans on a more efficient and personal level. (Facebook also removed the ability to direct new fans through a ‘fangate’ or gateway page).
Here are 5 of the key features marketers need to know about the new Timeline format:
1) The Cover Photo
This is without a doubt, the first impression you’ll be leaving your fans and potential customers with. The large 851 x 315 pixel banner cover photo gives your page immediate eye-grabbing visual impact.
The cover photo should be a unique photo that expresses your organization and encourages visitors to further explore your page. Go for a hi-res image that leaves the viewer excited and looking to navigate and learn more. With a little creativity, the cover photo can easily help you paint the picture of what your brand is all about.
Do note, Facebook has a few rules for cover photos – mostly to discourage ‘in your face’ promotion or advertising (as we often saw in past landing pages and fan gates).
Covers may not include:i. price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on socialmusic.com”;ii. contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section;iii. references to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features; oriv. calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”
Be aware of these rules as getting your page shut down isn’t very fun.
2) Design and Layout Tweaks
One of the biggest changes to the new pages are the layout and placement of tabs or applications. In the past, you could include any number of apps underneath your profile pic on the left hand-side column. Now – apps are shows in large boxes on the right underneath the cover photo with a limit of 4 visible apps (which an admin can choose).
3) Milestones
Another interesting feature is the ability to include past Milestones to display key moments in your companies past and present. Milestones are automatically expanded to widescreen and are visible to everyone visiting your Page.
4) Better Engagement Features
5) Analytics
In short, the new changes to Facebook brand pages are enabling brands to show off a more personal and relevant experience towards their product. Although the gateway pages are being stripped away, Facebook has compensated marketers with the tools to more easily showcase events in user feeds (pining tabs, highlighting stories & photos) and being able to interact with fans on a more personal level (with private messaging).
Personally I find the new look takes on a scrap-book like feel and encourages brands to showcase the culture of its organization; thus allowing for more self expression and a stronger relationship with fans.
To learn more about the new Facebook pages, visit the helpcenter which offers a video tutorial and course on how to get up and running.
What do you think about the new Facebook Timeline features for brands? Let me know in the comments!
Read MoreThe Importance of ‘Social’ Reviews and Activity for your Business
Customer reviews and ratings are nothing new in the 21st century.
The concept of a real person describing how they feel about a particular brand or company (or rating them in some fashion) has been taking place even before the mighty interweb began to dominate our lifestyles.
What’s different about today, is that with the increasing use of the web and social media in everyday life, it’s become easier than ever to connect, discuss and share our opinions with others around us (including a brand itself) – which ultimately means we have a stronger ability to influence onlookers and not have our experiences fall on def ears. The hottest search engines – including Google – have also taken this into consideration in their page ranking algorithms (more on that below.)
But first before I get into things…let’s take a step back so we can see the big picture.
Before…
Before the emergence of the web and recently the social media explosion, companies would market their products to consumers and the relationship was generally a one way street. To simplify things, we would watch an advertisement or commercial and then make a decision on whether to purchase that product. To dig a bit deeper, we may base our purchasing decisions on a salesperson (not the most reliable) or if we were lucky, direct word of mouth from someone who purchased that product. Consumer reports and magazines were handy, but were often biased and in general, a pain in the a**.
Due to inability to screen products through trusted sources, consumer purchases oftentimes didn’t live up to the advertising – as a result leaving customers dissatisfied. Other than telling our friends and family about our experiences (good or bad) we were left with little influence or warning for others – other than direct word of mouth. Also, the ability to interact with a brand itself was almost impossible. Until…dun dun dun!
The Era of Social
Now fast forward to the age where almost everything we partake in has the ability to be seen and heard by our friends, extended network and people we’ve never met before in our lives.
We all understand that the power of social media is the ability to connect with others. From the Business to Consumer perspective – this means there’s a giant forum where potential and former consumers can discuss a particular product or service and share their experiences (both good and bad). And in almost EVERY scenario it has been proven that a potential customer will choose the opinions of someone they know or someone in a similar situation rather than the advertisement of a product.
Ninety percent or consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know, and 70 percent trusted consumer opinions posted online. – NielsonWire
Let’s put it this way, would you rather base your decision on choosing a particular restaurant from someone who just recently ate their OR the actor in the commercial who is getting paid to smile and rub his belly? Now, potential customers are able to easily find others who’ve undergone an identical purchasing decison with the exact same brand or organization.
Some of your favorite companies are also starting to take notice about this new style of prospective purchasing behaviour – to the point where they’re almost faking the concept of a real recommendation. Take for example Gillete’s latest theme of “hitting the streets” for the ”Gillete Pro Glide Challenge“. (If you recall Gillete’s old commercials – they included Mr. Universe-type actors enjoying the high life). However here, the message they’re conveying is “here’s an everyday Joe from suburbia telling you that our product is superior, not just us”. Have a look:
Windows’ latest commercial theme “Windows 7 was my idea” has a similar concept – Actors portrayed as real people simply giving you some friendly advice.
While these commercial may be smart, in my opinion the idea should be to create a product which actually leaves real customers satisfied and willing to share their positive reviews with others. If you’re already creating a product which is making your customers happy, you’re already on the right path. The next step would be to engage with them on a meaningful and personal level and offer a forum for them to share their experiences. Believe me, when someone has an above average experience with a product they want to tell the world about it.
Social Media and Search Engine Relevance
If this all seems hoky-poky to you, be sure to note that Google and other popular search engines recently incorporated “Social Data” into their search algorithms:
Both Bing and Google admitted in interviews that their search results are positively affected by social signals, such as Tweets, Facebook Likes, and +1s.
This is potentially great news for new businesses trying to achieve visibility in search. It’s less great news for sites that rely heavily on link buying (illegal, but hard to catch), producing huge volumes of borderline-useless content (long-tail, content farm approach), or just really old domains (previously an SEO trump card). – Shane Snow, Mashable.com
For your business, that means, the more likes, +1s, comments, RT’s and social “buzz” = higher page position. Google pulls customer reviews from various sources and industries – all which affect the ever coveted page rank.
In conclusion, a monumental shift is occurring in the marketing world where consumers are becoming far more savvy in researching companies and products online before making a decision to purchase. Mediums like social media are making it much easier to interact with others and discover the truth about any topic or organization. Providing an avenue for users to share their experiences with your products and services will have a stronger influence on your potential customers and how visible your page will appear on popular search engines – ultimately affecting your bottom line.
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