Facebook: Time For a Change? Welcome to Timelines!

The Timeline feature has been available for personal profiles of Facebook for quite awhile but recently they have added the look for fan pages as well. The idea is to give a consistent look between both personal profiles and fan pages for all Facebook users. The Timeline has some great new features for businesses to use to create a more interactive relationship to their Facebook fans.

Timeline Features

Some areas of the fan page have changed with the addition of Timeline. To make the most of this new format, you may want to discuss the following options with your Virtual Assistant to make sure you are getting the most out of these new features. Some of the features that have changed with the addition of Timeline are:

• Cover Image. This is now the face of your fan page and is designed to create your “timeline” for your business. It is meant to be the visual story of your business, with interesting facts such as your grand opening, events and other news. This will be the image of your business and is the default page that fans will all be directed to, so choose it carefully. Our design team can help come up with ideas that will make your business stand out.
• About Section. This small box can now be edited and can be a great way to succinctly tell your fans what your business is all about.
• Tabs. You can have up to 12 tabs or pages linked to your fan page but only four of them will be visible at a time. You can choose which ones are visible and rearrange as needed as well as change the tab images and information.
• Private Messaging. You can now interact one-on-one with fans to make Facebook a true way to connect with your customers. Fans can initiate a private conversation with your administrator that only the two of them can see.
• Custom Pages. Your cover image will always be the default pages but you can still create custom pages for special events and videos. Bring attention to these pages by making them one of the four visible tabs.
• Pinning To The Top. If you have something you need to stay visible and not get buried under other posts, you can pin it to the top of the fan page for up to 7 days. Keep important posts like hour changes or business closures for holidays, sales and other items on top of the radar for your fans.

Getting used to the new format may take some time but there are many useful features that can make Facebook a more interactive connection between your customers and your business. According to Simplymeasured.com, brands get 46% more engagement per post with the use of Timeline. Some companies are seeing increases of up to 161% in their engagement after Timeline was implemented. Make sure that your business is using this new format to have similar results in your engagement percentages!

 photo credit: MoneyBlogNewz