Facebook Timeline for Brands

Yesterday Facebook announced to brands that the Timeline feature, already deployed for personal profile pages, would be rolled out to business pages within the month. Some of the main changes include a new layout with cover image, highlighting features and the ability to edit and update without navigating to a separate page.

Facebook Timeline will be rolled out automatically to all brand pages on 30 March 2012, so while you get your brand ready for the new Timeline format, here are pointers to help you find out what the changes mean for your brand. Contact us if you would like us to handle or assist you with the migration.

1. Updated look and feel

What’s new?
The format of Facebook Timeline for brands is similar to that for personal profiles. It uses a cover image at the top of the Page, which is separated into two main columns by a dividing line representing the passage of time. This format provides brands with new options for self-expression: they can outline their corporate history with milestones (such as product launches, store openings, etc.) to construct a narrative for their audience.

Recommendation
Milestones present an important and dramatic opportunity to educate the public, put a human face to the brand and remove a perception of corporate anonymity. People like to do business with people, after all, not with corporate entities. Page engagement analysis has shown continually that brands posting content depicting behind-the-scenes activities, exclusive updates or promotions encourage user interactions and promote higher engagement rates. Using interesting milestones to craft the story of the brand over time (and updating the Timeline with new milestones as they happen) can help to stimulate conversations around major achievements.

2. Reduced tab visibility

What’s new?
The new Facebook Timeline format no longer includes the left side panel of links, which could include many different tabs. While applications still exist, they display differently in rectangular panels below the cover image. The width of the Timeline and the space allocated for native apps such as Photos implies that only three tab panels are viewable at any given time. To see more, users must expand the tab panel by clicking a drop-down box.

Recommendation
For brands, this major change means that the three tab apps need to be considered very carefully as this will be one of the first things users see when interacting with the brand on Facebook. Brands will want to change which tabs are visible according to current company social media strategy objectives or project popularity. A good Page analytics tool will be useful for determining which tab to promote on a day-to-day basis.

3. No default landing page

What’s new?
This major change from the old business page means that with the new Timeline Page format, you are no longer be able to set a default landing Page, which was a favourite feature for many brands. The default landing page option was one of the primary ways to control the first impression a user encountered. Since there are no more tab Pages, there is no longer any method to set one as a default, which will drastically change user impressions when they first visit a brand’s Timeline Page.

Recommendation
Brands need to apply new and careful attention to all the top messages in the Timeline, as they will be the first objects seen by visiting users. Similarly, Facebook ads for brands will become more important, as advertising will be one of the major ways brands on Facebook can control a user’s experience. Setting up an advertising campaign for a Facebook promotion or new application will be the only way to guide new users directly to that application.

4. New way to feature content

What’s new?
One major new feature that brands will like is the ability to “pin” certain posts to the top of the Timeline. Akin to marking a blog post “sticky”, so that it remains at the top of a blog for a specified period of time, pinning a post to the top of Timeline allows it to precede any other content. A pinned post is distinguishable by a small, orange flag. There is a limitation, in that brands may only pin one item at a time for a maximum of seven days. The pinned item then exists in two locations, as the top item on the Timeline itself, as well as within its chronological place. Once unpinned (which happens automatically when a new item is pinned or the item has been pinned for more than seven days), the post remains in the chronology of Timeline posts, but there is no indication that it was previously pinned.

Recommendation
As brands can no longer create a default landing Page, pinning items to the top of the Timeline will become every brand’s method of highlighting new and interesting content. Brands will need to craft posts specifically to be pinned, whether images, a well-designed call-to-action, a statement about brand value, or a message calling for the user to click one of the tab panels under the cover image.

5. Current tab content and applications become outdated

What’s new?
The new Timeline layout displaces Facebook’s existing Page tab configuration (including a tab’s 520-pixel width), replacing it with a new 810-pixel layout. As a result, existing Page tab content will look centred in the middle of the 810-pixel layout without any adjustments. All applications remaining on a brand Page will require new application icons (the new dimensions are 111×74 pixels).

Recommendation
The most pressing updates for brands will be updating the images and tab functionality of the apps. As these are the first tabs users will see, they will likely be the first to be interacted with or entirely ignored if not optimised for the new experience.

6. Private messages between brands and users

What’s new?
Brands will be able to exchange private messages with users. This allows for much deeper consumer interaction and will also enable Page managers to take extended customer enquiries off the Timeline and into private messages.

Recommendation
Be mindful of noise in your brand Timeline. As the real estate allocated to each post depends on how engaging it is or how much interaction it has received, it can be very easy for the Timeline to become cluttered with customer inquiries. When these enquiries can be better serviced in a more 1:1 manner, reach out with a private message and resolve the question as it is a good opportunity to yield both a happy user and a clean Timeline.

Timeline for brands will make you re-evaluate your social media strategy for how to make an impact on Facebook. The way in which content is shared and viewed within a brand Timeline Page is incredibly important. Brands that constantly create engaging updates and share important milestones will stay at the forefront of users’ attention. Create and rotate new apps for engagement, pin relevant and timely content, and update the feed with user-friendly dialogues to stay relevant in this new space.

Facebook Timeline will be rolled out automatically to all brand pages on 30 March 2012. Contact us if you would like us to handle or assist you with the migration.

Originally published at PENNInk Productions.