As you all know, social media is constantly changing. Many of you have already seen the new Timeline format Facebook has introduced for your personal pages. Facebook has just announced that Timeline will also becoming to Fan Pages. So far, changing your page from the current layout to the Timeline has been optional. However, on March 30th, we will no longer have the option to use the old layout, as everything will be using the Timeline layout. We believe that this is a really exciting change for your Pages and will be a fresh and unique way to connect with your fans. Timeline may seem a bit disorganized and hectic at first, so we wanted to outline some basic information that you will need to know in getting started. We are here to help you through the transition and are providing this information for our mutual benefit.Some things you should know about Timeline:Cover Image
- With the Timeline layout, every Page will have a large “cover image” which will stretch horizontally at the top.
- There are a few restriction for the cover image that are important to take note of: cover images are not allowed to include any contact information or call to action. This means, no websites URLs are allowed to be listed in this cover image, and no arrows are allowed to appear, pointing to the “like” button or other links.
- The cover image is intended to provide a clean aesthetic to promote your brand and yourself
Tabs
- Tabs will now be called “Apps”
- You are allowed to have many apps on your Page (up to 20). However, users of your Page will only see 12 apps at a time, including the “likes” app and the “photos” app. Those two are mandatory apps from Facebook. Therefore you can have 10 customized apps. We have created customized tabs (now apps) in the past, such as book lists, contests, blog rss feeds, etc.
- Facebook recommends you list the three most important apps at the top of your page. Those will be the ones most visible for users of your page.
- Apps can and will look almost like miniature websites. There will be greater opportunity for engagement on a single app than having to jump around to multiple apps. This is something to be excited about as it allows for more creativity and flow of information. More freedom with apps could mean creating an app with extra content for your new release, or creating an app for a series you’re writing, what included more detailed updates about the characters.There are so many possibilities!
- There will be not more default landing app as there currently is. With the old page you could choose which page your readers would land on (ie- contest page, wall, etc). This is no longer an option.
Pinned Post
- With Timeline, you will be able to “pin” a post. Pinning a post will make that post stay at the top of your timeline for 7 days.
- This is great for contests as the post will not get lost in the Timeline.
- Returning users will always see pinned posts. This means important posts won’t get lost.
Timeline is Chronological
- Most recent events or posts are shows at the top of your Timeline.
- Timeline will allow you to go in and change the date of events of posts.
- You can add events to past years, even years before you had a Facebook page, or before there was a Facebook. If you have a history that you believe would be of interest to your users, you can go back and add past events. An example of a page that had done this in a really interesting and engaging way is Coca Cola. Coke lists events as far by at 1886! This can be a really fun way to engage your readers.
- We believe that this is a great way to add depth to your page by adding in when books were published. We see this as a really wonderful way to highlight your publishing career. For example, you can go back decades to add your first book and all the books that came afterwards!
We hope this has been a helpful introduction to Timeline. We look forward to helping you make the transition to the new layout. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with questions.
