It's been a month since Facebook officially rolled out the new timeline feature on March 30 and there's been a lot of noise about them so far. They may take a lot of getting used to, but there are some nifty new features on Timelines - so how can you make the most of them for your business?
First of all, you now need a cover image as well as a profile picture. This is a landscape image which stretches across the top of the page and should not only draw people’s attention but give people an idea of what you’re about as a company as well as perhaps complement your profile picture. However, you’re not allowed to do a direct sell e.g. with contact info, pricing info, or direct calls to action such as ‘like us’ so be careful what you choose. Think carefully before implementing your cover image - companies are no longer allowed to set customizable landing pages; people now have to go direct to your timeline and your cover image, so make it a good one!
Aside from the introduction of cover photos, normal photos have also gotten larger with Timeline, whether it be those posted on your wall, in photo albums or even the profile picture itself so use this to your advantage, especially if you’re a visual company.
There is now also a collapsible admin panel at the top of the page so whenever you log on you can see all the notifications, messages, new likes and insights for that particular Timeline. This is a useful tool if you have a Timeline linked to a personal account, as these notifications won’t pop up as normal when you first log in unless you specifically click the ‘Use Facebook as….’ button. There are a few drop downs at the top of the admin panel now – ‘manage’, ‘build audience’, ‘help’ and ‘hide’. The ‘build audience’ function especially is a useful tool to encourage followers, especially for starts ups, as it allows you to disseminate a link to email contacts and existing Facebook friends. It also gives you the option to create an advert (but that’s a whole different blog post in itself!)
The admin panel can be as useful as you want it to be; the more you use it, the more likely you are to succeed in the art of the Facebook Timeline! It’s worth setting time aside every couple of weeks or at the end of each month to look through activity on your Timeline and also your Insight statistics to see what is and isn’t working; it’s there to help inform and guide content - so use it!
Also useful is the new ability to filter through posts chronologically and highlight, hide, minimise or delete them via the ‘activity log’. While we would never suggest deleting a fan’s post – even if its negative - this is a great tool for managing what your timeline looks like and perhaps deleting any mistakes from your side!
When you’ve finished with the admin panel, just click ‘hide’ and it will disappear to so that the actual Timeline appears, as it would for a follower.
Obviously the main difference from the old pages is that it is now laid out differently; activity is split into months and posts generally zig-zag across the two columns now (though ‘likes’ and friends who also ‘like’ that page are always displayed at the top, regardless of the month). If you have a really important, time-sensitive post or announcement, you can also now pin this to the top of your Timeline for a week so that people don’t miss it – great for events and competitions!
As well as the normal functionality e.g. posts, sharing photos/videos and asking questions, Facebook has now introduced a Milestones feature, designed for you to highlight great business news or achievements (this is situated above the status update field). Milestones allow you to add news as an ‘event’ which shows up on your timeline; this has been designed to look very different to normal posts for maximum impact so it’s a fantastic opportunity to blow your company’s trumpet. You can add background information about the milestone as well as choose a selection of images to accompany it; perfect for award wins, for example, where you will no doubt have some photos to share. Make Milestones as visually attractive as possible and they’re more likely to grab people’s attention when they pop up in news feeds!
So there you have a short introduction to Timeline and some of its new features. There’s no doubt they will take a bit of getting used to so we’d really recommend you set some time aside to fully explore the Timeline’s potential. Change is often frustrating but there are some great little tools to help you promote your business here so do your research, get creative and, most importantly, have some fun with it!
