Well it’s official, if you have a business page on Facebook either you’ve converted to the new timeline already or Facebook will do it for you next week. Like everything with Facebook-there are pros and cons. The bottom line, none of us have a choice and the change is coming, so embrace it while you can.
I am a firm believer in looking at the positives and moving forward and I would recommend that you do that as well. Don’t waste your time and energy complaining about something that you can’t change anyway.
The new Facebook Timeline for brands is here to stay at least until they decide to do their next big makeover! So lets start by making the most of it, shall we?
I want to take a few minutes and walk you through some of the basics! The change is going to take place March 30, 2012, so start planning now or even convert your page ahead of schedule so you are a bit more prepared.
Now that you’ve converted your page, you need a cover image/photo. You can create a few so that you are able to change them out, just make sure that you stay within FB’s guidelines, which I will outline for you. The size of your cover image/photo should be 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels wide. Note to all you do it yourselfers out there, you can’t take a small photo and stretch it-your picture will look distorted. Spend a few bucks and get a quality image to put on there.
Here is what you CAN DO with your timeline cover:
- Use logos, photos, brand images and any other visual trademarks!
- Use appealing graphics, colors and images.
- Use any text that will inspire or engage your followers
Here is what you CANNOT DO:
- You cannot include any pricing information, coupon or instructions to go to your website and download coupon or pricing etc.
- No contact info, web addresses, email, mailing information or other information included in your Page’s About section.
- No asking people to “Like” or “Share” your page
- Absolutely no call to action
The FB cover is about inspiring and connecting with your fans, no self promotion or hard sales allowed!
There are no more default landing pages. But take advantage of the space of your cover image, you can set unique urls for your apps/tabs now-which I am a big fan of already. Take advantage of your top apps/tabs shown underneath your cover photo. Use your apps for call to actions and engaging your fans.
And apps-these are your tabs, but now they are called apps! You have 4 apps that are typically displayed just beneath your FB cover image! You have up to 14 custom apps on your timeline. And you can create a custom thumbnail for your app as well! Each app can have a distinct url that can be used to drive traffic to a specific app. You can change the order of the apps by clicking on the pencil to the right of each app and then choose the app that you want to trade or change out with.
So lets talk about unique urls and how you can use these. You can’t set a default landing tab anymore, but you can create or purchase a unique url of your choosing to drive traffic to your Facebook app of choice.
Now lets move on to custom thumbnails for your apps! It is really one of the easiest changes that FB has made. Your custom image should be 111 pixels wide x 74 pixels. Click on the arrow to the right of your timeline-just below your cover image. It should have a number displayed indicating the number of apps that you are using. Click on the arrow next to the image of app you want to change, click on edit settings, click on change (for the image) and upload the new image!
I think that my favorite change of all is that my fans can now send me a private message. All followers can now message the brands.
Milestones-You can now set milestones for your business for current or past dates. A great way to highlight key events, new products, announcements, etc. These images should be 843 pixels wide by 403 pixels. To add a milestone, click Milestone in the sharing bar at the top of your page, add a headline, date, location and details, add your photo/image and click save.
Highlighted Posts-Any post can now be a highlighted post and will take up both sides of the page. It isn’t actually highlighted in a traditional sense-it just allows you to bring special attention to a specific post within your timeline!
Pinned Posts-This new feature allows you to pin a post to the top of your page for up to 7 days. Unless it’s something really important that you have to say, I can’t see many people using this, it defeats the purpose of adding new and fresh posts to engage your following!
Like button and interest lists-The like button will now show “Liked” if you’ve liked the page already. There is now a new interest lists that can be viewed by hovering over the “Like/Liked” button. You can even create your own list as well as subscribe to lists the page owner has previously created.
Recap of Image Sizes-lets get the exact sizes for you on the various image sizes for the new Facebook Timeline.
- Cover photo: 851 x 315
- Profile picture: 180 x 180
- Thumbnail image for apps: 111 x 74
- Highlighted & milestone images: 843 x 403
- Images within wall posts display as 404 x 404
Engage your audience-that is still what it’s all about. Don’t panic, don’t give up, just keep working toward engaging your audience and gaining that new customer, client, etc. Remember you are just using Facebook as a platform-it’s rent free, but you don’t own it and Facebook can make any changes that they choose. The point is that you have a rent free platform-take advantage of it and use it to it’s full potential!
