Your brand has finally perfected your Facebook page strategy. Page looks great; fan base is growing and engaged; you’ve built some nice apps. Here comes Facebook Timeline.
At first glance it seems like a no-brainer. Visually the Timeline layout (just like personal pages) looks terrific. What brands need to know, however, is what’s behind the scenes. While this can be a great boon for your brand, it was designed primarily with the company’s revenue stream in mind as they go public, not primarily to make your social media life any easier. That means Facebook Advertising above many popular organic growth tactics.
So look at it more than just a new layout. There are strict new guidelines and features that could very well change the way you run your social media strategy. Have a landing page? Have a profile graphic pointing to a contest? After the required conversion March 30, 2012 those are no longer allowed.
Brands that rely on many popular, traditional Facebook tactics could find fan growth slow to an immediate crawl.
The Essentials: How We’re Getting Our Clients Prepared
The conversion is happening quickly, but for many brands (especially smaller ones) it will be an evolution. While the changes kill a lot of organic growth tactics that you might rely on, there are plenty of new opportunities, as well. Here are the crucial areas to address:
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1) (Don’t) Run for Cover. Assess the high priority changes versus your current tactics. Start with the cover photo. You will no longer be able to use it in the same ways you use your current profile picture. (And be creative!) Get some inspiration here.
2) Not “Like” The Old Days. Are you using landing tabs/apps or “like this” to see the page? Facebook has killed these features. And your entire left-hand tab navigation. Fans will now need to click through the new app tiles below your Facebook cover.
3) You’ve got a history – time to share it. One of the great new features is the ability to fill in your brand history visually using the timeline feature. Locate archived imagery and develop key corporate milestones to show off where you came from along with where you’re going.
4) Pin it. While you can no longer default an application or tab, you can highlight and pin content at the top of your timeline feed for 7 days. Use this to your advantage to feature important content or announcements that won’t get buried. We’ve noticed cat humor is always popular.
5) Another dimension. All those apps and graphics that you used on the current narrow Facebook structure? Those should be reformatted to the new 520-pixel width dimensions. It’s worth the effort and there is a lot of new real estate to showcase your apps. Don’t forget to build new app icons for each page.
6) All About You. Update your “about” section as there are some new features. Also a good time to review the accuracy of your information in this section.
And a few other things:
There are a lot of other minor to major changes that come along with the Facebook Timeline update that we will cover in future blogs, but the list above should get you ready for the conversion. Here are a few of the other new features:
- At the top of your page conversations where your brand is mentioned have their own news feed. It’s out of your control, and it’s not just the good ones.
- Check out the new admin panel. Become familiar with the new information, layout and feature controls.
- Remember, advertising is driving much of this change. New paid options to replace many of the free organic tactics you may have used now exist. Premium ads, mobile ads and Reach Generator. More on that to come, get caught up by reading here.
- Private fan messaging: You are now able to directly communicate with fans and move the conversation off the wall. Plan on disabling this feature and proceed with caution unless you have a strategic and staffing approach nailed down.
These changes are coming, whether everyone is ready or not. Get creative and use it to your advantage to showcase your brand in ways you could never before. Many may have to toss their old Facebook strategies out the window, but don’t fret. Opportunities abound.
- by Craig Ray, Verde PR Social Media and Digital Marketing Director
