With Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages comes a whole lotta changes! For better or for worse, all brands will transition to the timeline layout on March 30th. Existing brands have until the end of the month to play around with it.

The new format is very similar to Timeline for Facebook profiles – a large cover photo, a small square profile picture and two columns for post content.

Important Changes:
The cover photo – A BIG (850px x 315px wide) high-res, high potential photo. Choose something stunning! According to John Constine of Tech Crunch, “Covers may not display calls to action or references to Facebook features such as “Like this Page”, purchase or pricing info such as “40% off” or “Download at our website”, or contact information such as web address.”
Tabs – While Timeline still allows tabs and applications, they are displayed much differently – in rectangular panels beneath the cover photo. App display is also limited – so choose the top 3 tabs/apps you want viewers to see and save the rest for the drop-down menu.
No more default landing page. Since you can no longer choose the particular tab people land on when they visit your page for the first time – it is important to pay close attention to top posts and messages as they will be the first items viewers see when on your page. For example:
Pin – Pin your particularly great posts. You can select to pin one of your best new or old posts to the top left spot of the Timeline feed for seven days at a time. These pinned posts can be used to direct visitors to a new promotion, event invitation or photo – whatever content you want to showcase for a week!
You’re a star! Starring a post calls extra attention to it by doubling it’s width in comparison to the other posts – taking up full page width.
Get the message. Brands are finally able to send and receive private messages to and from users, presenting a new, private customer service channel! This will also clear up some clutter on your timeline and create a much more personal interaction with users that have questions, comments and concerns.
New admin panel. The new admin panel is on the same page as your Timeline, saving you from clicking back and forth from the admin panel to your profile page. You’ll see a digest of weekly activity at the top of the page, and your Facebook timeline when you scroll down. The panel displays all activity notifications such as messages, new likes and insights information.
Now What?

• Consider new dimensions – Was 520px wide. Now 810px wide.
• Choose a beautiful cover photo
• Feature your most important tabs in the toolbar
• Pin the post you want to drive people to
• Scroll through your history and highlight great historical posts
• Hide or delete outdated, boring or negative posts

Tech Crunch writer John Constine recommends, “Ideally before you publish Timeline, or at least at some point, you should crawl through your entire Timeline and Highlight all your best photos and links that are still relevant, and hide or delete posts that seem dumb or embarrassing in retrospect, have broken links, or were timely when published but no longer make sense. You should also Highlight user posts that especially positive, while hiding negative ones.”
Creative Ideas:
1. Outline company history with important milestones. According to Mashable, “Milestones present an important and dramatic opportunity to educate the public, humanize the brand and remove a perception of corporate anonymity.”
2. Pick fun, engaging top posts. These can include great photos, videos, punchy calls-to-action, exciting events, your mission statement, etc. Or simply invite users to send you a message using the new message feature!
3. Add photos to your map. Have multiple locations? Travel a lot? Make your map interactive by juicing it up with photos and descriptions.
While it will take some time to make the switch to Timeline for Pages, we think that you will be pleased with the end result. The new Timeline layout has a much nicer interface and many opportunities to increase engagement and showcase your brand’s personality. Check out Facebook’s ad for the Brand Pages below and you’ll see what we mean!
[vimeo id=”37605266″]
 

Still have questions about Facebook’s switch to Timeline for Pages?
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