Careful Now! Facebook Timeline
February 29, 2012 at 5:04 pm
Facebook introduced timeline today for Pages and already people are having some troubles. Here are the top things to watch out for:
- Don’t flick the switch! If you are an Admin and you’re in your Page, tread very carefully as some smarter people than you have been caught out and have flicked the switch and are now stuck with the new Page without having tested it.
- If you have Apps that are fan-gated, you may find that they won’t work as they should. This is probably the biggest one and definitely one to check with your reputable Facebook App Developer.
- If you are a Place, you might find your description box being replaced by address details.
A solution that was shared by Betapond to this:
First go to the newly merged places page, click Edit info, and delete the address completely and save your changes. Then go back into Edit info again, and there should be some sort of dialogue underneath where the address used to be that says “Disconnect this page from a street address” or something to that effect. Hopefully soon Facebook can figure out how to have multiple locations linked to one fan page.
Tags: Facebook page, timeline for facebook pages, tips for facebook pages
Facebook Introduces Timeline For Pages
February 29, 2012 at 3:32 pm
Today at around noon GMT, the first Pages wearing the new timeline launched on Facebook. Big bold prints are in for spring/summer 2012, ladies and gentlemen… some of the earliest sightings include:
Red Bull
Starbucks
Old Spice
For these are the couture clients of Facebook; the chosen ones…
…whose advertising budgets reach the loftiest of heights.
Facebook contacted a handful of selected advertisers and gave them an early in on the new Page design. They were able to test how their Page looks and launch today. For the rest of us, indeed the vast majority of Pages, the new Page design will be rolled out on 30 March. You can choose to go before then. On 30 March all Pages will be switched over to the new look (and we can laugh at all the brands that aren’t prepared for it!)
I haven’t seen any Irish brands sporting the new Page design, but that’s hardly surprising when you look at the list of top Facebook brands and many names – Pringles, Skittles, Disney – are not among the chosen ones either.
Update: Many quick off the mark Pages are taking the leap and here’s a nice cover image that makes a change from the large pic favoured above:
What Does This Mean For You?
You’ve got time to play around with designs and copy and get your Page ready for its timeline debut.
Cover Photo: Use a unique image that represents your brand. All the early adopters seem to have gone for one large image, but you might go with a montage of smaller images showing your product being used by happy people. You could go with just text? Image dimensions 399 pixels and of course there are rules!
- No pricing
- No calls to action
- No contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
- No references to Facebook elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features, ie no ‘like us’ and an arrow?
- Nothing misleading, or infringing on other people’s IP
If you are a marketer, you might find it very difficult to produce the requisite image. Take my advice – hand it over to your most creative designers and let them rip!
You can change your pic as often as you like, so make sure you factor this into your seasonal content planning.
There are several other elements you can fixate on, don’t just concentrate on the large cover photo. Here are the main ones:
Profile Pic: has now been freed up so now you can go with something different to your previous profile pic. This is a hugely important asset as this is the bit that most fans will engage with through their wall. You could play safe and go with your logo. Or choose something quirky and colourful that works well in a tiny square shape of 180 x 180. I like that Old Spice has chosen not to go with their logo. Imagine this face peaking out at you every time their post appears on your timeline!
Display Panels On Top: what were your left hand links are now perched prettily at the top of your Page. Photos are locked into the first spot, but you can change the order of everything else to highlight apps, fan numbers, etc.. I like this as it’s a much more visual display of good quality content from your Page. The max number of items here is 12, and 4 is visible ‘above the fold’. Note that the ability to set a default landing tab is now gone.
Lift the skirts of design and look at the quality of the fabric, the text, where attention to detail and getting the mood right is all important.. you can start by taking a cold hard look at your ‘About Us’ description.
Red Bull’s is too long at 26 words/150 characters. Old Spice adds a URL and it pollutes what I think should be a clean and simple message.
Starbucks nails it, adhering to best practice and keeping to 20 words or less. Know that the first para of your About Us info is being picked up to display on your ‘home’ Page, so go in and have a new look at that.
Pin Stories to the top of your Page, so you can keep popular posts on the go for even longer! Is this marketer’s nirvana as even loftier numbers of likes and comments can be achieved?
Get to work on crafting your company timeline. This is the newest feature and one for the content people to shine. You can highlight key dates in your company/brand’s growth going right back to inception. Choose stories you want to tell, add pics, and locations, and make this into a really rich resource to detail growth and take your fans on a little journey… I am really looking forward to some of the brand stories that come out of this. In the meantime, Starbucks has done it rather well. Note that fans can comment or like each point in your timeline.
Overall?
I’m happy that control for the initial image that a user sees is back with the Page owner. I have found the ‘top 5′ images of the old design very annoying as they are largely beyond the control of the Admin. The random displaying of all images from the Page has actually entered my dreams, replacing the “never-ending site map” dream that happens occasionally when I go to bed with my brain fully switched to On.
I’m dying to see what Smashing Magazine and Mashable come up with in the next few days and weeks as the world’s great designers get down to playing with the large space that Facebook has now given up to us.
I’m also considering the impact all this will have on results brought in using Social Media Monitoring Tools. Right now, in all honesty, exploring the social web for Facebook results tends to bring the most insignificant results because all of the action takes place behind the closed doors of many people’s profiles. I’m wondering if people will be more likely to engage with each other via the Page’s timeline, ie. if I post a hugely witty comment on a brand’s timeline, will my friends who see that enter the conversation there as well? Will this be the Godsend that lifts conversations out of the private and into the public domain?
But, I’m also thinking about workload – and updating processes for producing and managing content. It’s a no-brainer that we’ll have to create a content schedule around the cover image alone… Keeping on top of comments posted on events in the timeline will be new. But chnage is good. And I can safely say I’m more excited about the launch of new look Facebook Pages than the damp squib that was Google + Pages in late 2011.
What about you?
What do you think of Facebook Timeline for Pages? Please post any gorgeous examples in comments below.
Read on for top things to watch out for … careful now 
Here’s another great post on the changes from Fluffy Button.
Tags: Facebook Pages Timeline, Facebook Timeline for Pages
Dose of Good Hope
February 9, 2012 at 9:31 am
I’m just back from Australia. I got talking to some lovely young engineering graduates on the plane either on their way out, or coming back for a holiday after spending a year there. While they say they are having the craic, I can see it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Costs are rising significantly in Australia, the average weekly rent in Sydney for an average apartment is $650 – that’s $2600 a month, higher than Hannover Quay at the height of the boom! Unemployment is rearing its ugly head, especially in the financial sector, and to cap it all off – they’ve just had a wet summer, the likes of which we are used to seeing in Ireland.
I came back and I have to say I’m noticing more signs of positivity and growth. I was on Twitter the last few days and the mood seems to be more buoyant than before. In fact I thought it would make for very interesting research to track the mood of Twitter in each of the last 4 January’s since the recession began.
Then I heard about Hireland, and I have to commend all the good souls who have put their energy into that.
Hireland is an initiative by business owners to encourage others to hire just one person this year. If everyone did that, think of the fallout from all those thousands of jobs that have been created. I have to say, I am seriously considering. In the meantime, check out the video here. And you can join them on Facebook.
Tags: hireland
