Yesterday morning, when we logged onto Facebook, we were greeted with a pleasant surprise—Facebook pages can now be converted into timelines! We’ve been waiting on this Facebook update for a while, and we’re excited it’s finally here.
But… what is it? We wrote a post on Facebook timelines a few weeks ago, when they were released for users. The Facebook page timeline looks the same way, but serves a different purpose. With the original update for users, it was meant to tell the story of your life—even allowing you to fill in important information all the way back to your birth. The Facebook page timeline isn’t meant to tell the story of a business, but is really just a way to make Facebook more united in its look, and have more attractive business pages.
Although it was officially announced yesterday morning, Facebook won’t force this update on you just yet—you have one month. On March 30, all Facebook business pages will automatically convert to the timeline. The time to fill yours out is now!
Facebook Pages Timeline To Do’s
Facebook Page Cover Photos
The first thing you’ll need to do is come up with a compelling cover photo! We’ve done this for our own Facebook profile, and we’ve found a couple others around Facebook that we like! How you choose to design your cover photo depends on how you run your business profile—keep it consistent!
Facebook Page Highlights
Another thing to look at is the highlight feature. Highlights can make your statuses more prominent on the page—stretching across both sides of the timeline. You can make any status a highlight by clicking the star in the upper right hand corner of the post.
Facebook Landing Pages
One thing you’ll notice right away—landing pages are gone. The tabs that allowed you to use a like gate are now irrelevant. People can still get to your tabs, but it isn’t something that many people are going to notice. It’s time to center your Facebook strategy on something other than a Facebook landing page.
Facebook Page Messaging
The last exciting update is something that makes the business pages a little more personal—messaging! Facebook pages can now message other Facebook pages. And a step further than that—people can message Facebook pages. This means quick, anonymous and secret messaging between Facebook pages. It also means that many larger companies are going to realize the value of hiring social media services. With fans being able to message the business itself, social media managers are going to get a lot busier!
What are your thoughts on Facebook timelines for pages? There’s many different views on this Facebook update, and we want to know yours! Tell us on our Smart Solutions timeline.