Overview: Facebook Timeline for Brands

Is your brand ready to make the switch? On March 30, all brand pages will be required to switch to the new Facebook Timeline. On March 2, 2012, I attended a Wildfire webinar presented by Victoria Ranson, Founder and CEO of Wilfire Interactive called, “Timeline for Brands: How to Make the Switch” Here are my takeaways from the webinar.

Above the Fold

Cover photo is what represents your brand. Facebook wants you to get creative and display your brand in an artistic manner. You can create your own banner with these dimensions: 850 x 315 pixel.

Companies like Coca Cola incorporate small pictures into banner, or Fanta takes their cover photo and uses part of it for display picture

Keep in mind, your brand’s cover photo or banner may not include the following:

• Contact info
• Calls to action
• Reference to Facebook features (adding a “Like” button, or using the phrases, “Like us today” or “Share”)
• Can not have an arrow pointing to “Like”

Appearance

1. Category (under display picture) – lists which category your page falls under – Consulting/Business Services – can include a statement up to 150 characters
2. Photos – Most recent photos uploaded by page administrators, can not customize which picture you want to display
3. Map – the location of your brand if you have included this information in your profile
4. Custom App View – any other apps we use on the page (welcome pages, polls,  Twitter, etc.)
5. More – the rest of you apps

“Likes”

Facebook has made Timeline a transparent platform and encourages all brands to practice this.

• Everyone is now able to see all your friends who “Like” a brand
• Everyone can see the brand’s analytics
• Look at competitors and see what they are doing, or how they are engaging with their audience

Manage Permission

When managing permission on your page, consider some of these questions:

1. Who can post on your Timeline?

Anyone is able to post on your timeline, even if you don’t “Like” the page. Anyone who posts on your timeline will be shown on the top right of the page. You can click to expand the comments.

2. Where do your posts go?

Each post published will be displayed in chronological order. The line in the middle represents time; each event published will be posted on this line.

3. Will you screen/moderate your posts?

• Do your posts need to be reviewed before they are posted? If you choose to do this – its an extra task for your Social Media Manager
• If you choose not to do this – shows an honest representation of your brand (you’re not just filtering out all the negative posts)

4. Can you receive private messages?

One of the newest features on the brand timeline is the added option to send a private message. Anyone can send you a private message, even if they don’t “Like” your page. This is good for customer service and gives your fans a chance to contact your brand or company if they do not want to share their comment publicly. The messaging button is only enabled for your fans, the brand can not send private messages to a particular person.

Tell Your Brand Story

This added feature allows your fans to learn more about you and your brand. Upload milestones, for example, when the company was founded, your first client, expansion, etc. This gives a personal touch to your brand. People like to have the “behind-the-scenes” feel and it also makes your brand a little more personable. Do whatever you want with it, you can make it weird, like Old Spice or classic with a simple picture of the founders.

Featured Content

Important content can be highlighted to expand across both columns for greater visibility. You can also “Pin” important spots (like a Sticky) on the top of the page for a period of 7 days. Do you have a special event you want to announce? “Pin” it to the top of the page. Now, every time someone visits your page, that’s the first thing they would see.

Here’s a good video by Simply Zesty demonstrating the new Facebook for Brands.

Tell us in the comments how you’re planning to use Facebook Timeline for your brand / clients.

Need help to change your brand page to the Timeline format / want to  learn more about ‘best practices’? Email info@talkTECHcomm.com – we’d be happy to help.