On March 30th 2012, Facebook Timeline for Business Pages was released. The default landing pages no longer exist, which eliminated the process of “Fan Gating” (forcing users to like your business page in order to access more information). The new Facebook Timeline required you to take a more creative approach into converting users to Fans. Below are some tips to navigate your way around the new changes by Facebook.
Layout & Admin Panel
The Timeline layout enables businesses to create a virtual scrapbook where important moments are highlighted.
The Admin panel is now prominent at the top of your page when you login. Here you can see the activity log, notifications, messages, likes and insights relevant to your page. Use the ‘Manage’ dropdown at the top to switch between using your page as you (personally) or as your business. There is a nifty ‘Hide’ button in this section as well.
Cover Image & Profile Picture
The addition of a cover image offers a great opportunity for businesses to inject personality and creativity into displaying their brand.
Facebook guidelines state that your cover image may not contain price or purchase information, or contact information like your website address or phone number. The images also shouldn’t have an encouragement on them for people to ‘Like’ your page.
The Profile Picture covers a prominent area of virtual real estate of your page. Businesses are now able to write a small business profile with contact details in the About section, beneath the Profile Picture.
Highlight Favourite Posts & Milestones
The new Highlights Feed allows you to manage the way users view and interact with your page with more control. You can highlight and feature your favourite or most important posts by clicking the star located at the top right of the post. This will double the size of your post and make it very hard to miss.
Pinned Posts, Milestones and Starred Stories are three new ways to highlight important updates, launches, promos, etc. Private messaging has also been introduced to pages – now fans and non-fans alike can directly send private messages to pages.
Friend Activity and Page Likes
The friend activity section located near the status bar shows visitors of your page how many of their friends like the page, and any interactions that their friends may have had.
There is also an area under this in which you are able to feature up to five other fan pages that your business follows. This is a great for highlighting partnerships and business connections to your fans.
Facebook Timeline enables pages a better way to represent their businesses and give customers a more personal experience with the business. If you have any questions or would like help with managing your Facebook business page or any other marketing related enquiries, please contact Deborah Quinn from Clarity Marketing on 0411 139 881 or submit an online enquiry.