Saturday, April 14, 2012

Facebook Timeline for Businesses: An overview


We’re all scrambling to understand the layout and functionality of the new Facebook pages since they became mandatory on March 30. Here’s a summary of some of the bigger changes.

Cover photo.
Facebook regulations prohibit any sort of promotion, urls, or product descriptions in the new 851 x 315 cover photo. Cover photos are meant to be strictly visual, with little or no text. Examples of how some big (and small) brands are handling this:

Milestones.
There is now a Milestone feature that allows you to post News that is significant and can make Facebook operate more like a website that users return to. What might an appropriate milestone? A new product.

Pin to Top.
This option is available on each post – it allows you to “pin” a post to the top of your page, and it will remain there for 7 days. See http://www.facebook.com/livestrong the “Open For Fighting” post that has been pinned to the top left side of their page. This is good when running contests or for upcoming events.

Messages.
Did you notice the Messages Icon on the top of the page. People who have grievances can message the Admin rather than sending an email. Brands are beginning to use this for Customer Service.  As customers get more used to this it could be a way to direct interactions to get them off the page.

Negative comments.
You can now view and approve comments before they are posted. We can hide comments once they have been dealt with. The comment would still be on the users timeline but not visible on your company Facebook page. On the “About” page or a Facebook App (they used to be called “Tabs”) users can be directed to send a “Message” if they have a question or Customer Service issue.

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