Businesses that use Facebook to build brand awareness, sell products, and gain new clients will have to adjust their pages now that Facebook has converted them to the Timeline format. The good news is these changes can actually help fine-tune their promotional methods and increase social media visibility, all of which will result in more sales and an increase in new customers. Here are our tips to make the new Timeline work for your business.
1. Choose a Strong Cover Photo
Facebook has significantly changed the rules for cover photos on its business pages. Businesses can no longer run a strip of photos across the top of their pages. Instead, they must feature one large image that measures 850 pixels by 399 pixels, along with a 30 pixel by 30 pixel profile picture.
Note that your cover photo can’t include any calls to action, so don’t add messages such as “Like Me,” “Share” or “Contact Us.” Instead, choose a nice, focused image (that fits within the dimensions) to make your first impression professional and impactful. The photo should be reflective of your brand and business: showcase your company culture, your industry, or your satisfied customers. Avoid a boring image of your logo for your cover photo—the profile pic box is the best place for that.
2. Control What Content Your Visitors See First
Timeline now lets you pin stories to the top of your Timelines for up to a week. This means you can control what you want fans to read and interact with. The one-week expiration may seem a nuisance, but it is actually good. It gives you more reason to create more fresh content, which is the key to engaging and sustaining a relationship with your consumer base. Note, however, that only posts created by you may be pinned.
To really draw attention to a post, you can also highlight it, which will make it span across your Timeline. To do this, click the star icon in the upper right corner of the post.
3. Highlight Your Apps
Facebook has eliminated the default landing tab, a function upon which many business owners have long relied. Now, however, you can more prominently feature your apps (12 in total, though only 4 will appear at the top of your page). You can change the photos that appear for each of your featured apps, rearrange positions, and rename the app so that it provides a call to action. Note that the more visually appealing your app photo, the more fans will be enticed to click.
4. Monitor Your activity
Facebook has also changed the administrator panel, which places all of the stats you want and need—a list of who’s talking about your posts, who’s interacting with your pages, and what content they’re viewing—in one easy-to-find location. This gives you the ability to better analyze your stats and engagement, and adapt your activity accordingly.
Many of these changes reflect a move toward sharing more visually and dynamically. This is essential to grow your business. As Kevin Olivieri, global social media analyst with TIG Global, notes, businesses that hope to utilize Facebook to its fullest potential will have to focus on providing great content. This means that businesses will have to learn more about what their fans want and what they want their brands’ Facebook pages to do for them. Luckily, Timeline for business pages enables you to do just that.
Do you think Timeline will help your business? Tell us how in the comments below.
