You knew it was coming and today it arrived.
Facebook rolled out the Timeline for pages.
So what does it mean for your brand’s Facebook page? A lot.
First off, it’s going to mean more work upfront. Secondly, you’ll have greater control over your page. But most importantly, brands will have the opportunity to share their story – from their origins to important milestones – in a more encompassing way. Just like users can highlight key moments in their life, so can the brands they follow.
In other words, it’s time to dig into your brand’s archives.
Here some of the bullet points:
1. Timelines gives brands the chance to do better branding right at the top with a vibrant cover image (this is what pops out right at the top) and an about section where you create a short summary of your organization.
2. Timelines will give greater control to brands on what people see about them. Brands now have the ability to spotlight a specific post (a photo, a link to a blog post, etc.) that will sit at the top left-hand corner of the Timeline for seven days at a time. Additionally, Facebook now gives brands the ability to keep random people from posting your timeline and to hide or delete negative or trolling comments.
3. Administration will be more straight forward. The admin panel will feature be a drop-down button rather than jumping to a different page. Also, an activity log will show every post your brand has ever published. You can call these out on your timeline or delete them.
For more on all these features, check out TechCrunch’s summary. (It’s succinct.)
But at the heart of these changes is the Composer feature. This allows the brand to tell the story of how it was built and highlight key milestones in the company’s history.
This is an excellent feature for telling your brand’s story. You can highlight key customer acquisitions, that first user conference, new members to the team, products that revolutionized your business, and the humble beginnings of your brand.
Livestrong is already doing this, and it’s fascinating.
What’s the big deal? The big takeaway is Facebook is further bluring the identities of everyday users and the brands they encounter on the social network. The fans of your page were born, took their first steps, went to college, began relationships, had their own children.
Now you can show how your brand has done the same. It makes your organization feel more human.
While Facebook Timeline is maligned by some and loved by others, one thing is clear: It’s here to stay.
So dig through those old press releases, stats, and photos, and get ready to tell the story of your brand.
