Facebook will switch your business page to a Timeline format on March 30 - whether you’re ready or not.
On the subject of social media, I try to remind my clients of one important thing: its purpose is to help your business connect with people, not sell them something. Marketing isn’t what it used to be. Consumers not only have more power – they know they have more power. They want to find a brand they trust, feel comfortable with and can return to with confidence. Facebook has picked up on this sentiment and is forcing businesses to adapt to a business page format that pushes this social concept – the Timeline.
Many businesses have ignored the fact that in 8 days, their Facebook page will be transformed. Some just figure the change won’t effect their pages much or that the page will adapt. Unfortunately, if businesses miss this opportunity to impress their followers, they may be losing fans, and ultimately, customers, not just failing to gain new ones.
Sound scary? No worries! Start priming your page by taking these 3 simple steps. Do it before the update becomes mandatory on March 30! Being late isn’t always fashionable.
1. Choose an Eye-Popping Cover Photo
Imagery is a powerful aspect of advertising. Great design and photography can invoke emotions and quickly gain attention for a brand. Therefore selecting an affective cover photo, the first thing one sees when they visit your business’ page, makes a huge difference for your brand.
Facebook is strict about one thing: No call-to-actions, URLs, contact information, pricing or other spammy information. A tagline is fine. Facebook wants you to focus on capturing your fans with image-induced emotion, though, not a sales pitch. Again, focus on connecting with your fans, and you’ll be fine.
Another thing to remember: Only the bottom half of the photo is initially visible, so keep important information, such as the tagline, below this fold. The entire image size is 851 x 351 pixels.
2. Create a List of Milestones
What’s a better way to connect with fans than familiarizing them with your business’ history? You can list all of your company’s biggest moments by adding them to the timeline. Not sure where to start? How about with the day your business opened? Here are a few other ideas:
- Dates of hire for high-ranking staff members
- Business name changes
- Business location moves or new location openings
- Dates new products or services launched
3. Update Landing Tabs – Now Called Applications
Did you spend some time designing and organizing specific landing tabs (now called apps) that you linked to externally? Yeah, us too. We feel your pain. Luckily, Facebook isn’t eliminating them. They’ve just moved them to underneath your cover photo. You may notice, though, that they now look like gray boxes. You can make custom images by editing the app. They will need to be 111 x 74 pixels. Again, make them eye-catching and interesting! Just because they’re small doesn’t mean they’re insignificant.
Here are a few of my favorite brands who have successfully made the switch to the Facebook Timeline:
Confused? Have questions? Contact the Marketicity team. We’d love to help you out. Don’t forget to keep your eye out for our new Timeline which will go live on Friday!
Hi friend!
Although I’m not on Facebook, I stumbled across this article that tells you how you can have more than just one picture for your timeline: http://www.sortacrunchy.net/sortacrunchy/2012/03/weekend-snapshots-march-25th.html
Seems handy if you’re indecisive…
Thanks Katie! I’ll make sure to read it!