Tuesday Tech: Facebook Timeline for Pages

Blogged recently about Timeline, the latest Facebook change. The grumbling about the timeline format seems to have faded to a muted mutterring as people get used it - and some (shock horror) users even seem to like Facebook Timeline!

Now it is the turn of businesses, not for profits and religious institution. On Tuesday March 6, Timeline came to facebook Pages and eight million brands switched in the first week. (There are 37 million brand pages). My company, People First -Total Solutions was one of the eight million! More than a million Facebook Pages per day have been making the switch since. Some companies have started muttering, complaining about the enforced switch.  All brand pages will forcibly convert to Timeline by March, 30 2011. 

Timeline organises your information chronologically allowing people to move to and from specific dates and timings. The idea is that  the “timeline” profile page layout will allows businesses, brands and organisations to be more visual in the way they express themselves.  


If as a company or not for profit brand, you are still using Facebook as if you were  a person and not a company, they you need to get that fixed first. Do it now! 


What needs to be done to manage switching to Timeline?


Step One: Choose a Cover Photo for your brand
The most obvious feature of the new visual focus is the large (public) Cover Photo at the top of the page. Cover photos must be at least 399 pixels wide to a maximum of  850 pixels wide. Height: 315 pixels.


I have found this a really difficult task. As this is the first thing, people will see, I wanted to be right. Do I show a training scene? Do we use the picture from the top of our e news? Or do I show a more casual shot? The experts are saying that  the picture needs to be  "dynamic and representative".  Facebook have some rules to follow for cover images:

1. No price or purchase information, such as “33% off” or “Find it at our website”
2. No contact information
3. No references to Liking or Sharing
4. No calls to action including “Donate now”, "Buy Today" or “Tell your friends and family”

You change your Cover Photo by clicking anywhere on the Cover Photo. 

Step Two: Update your Brand's Profile Picture

For my personal Facebook, this is easy. I use a photo of myself. For People First-Total Solutions, I oscillate between a picture of me or the logo. Currently it is our logo. You may use a logo, mascot or something else that clearly represents your brand.

Facebook recommends a square image that’s 180 by 180 pixels.

Step Three: Update the About Us Section

On the left hand side is a button labelled  "About ". When you are logged in, click on the about link and when the about page opens,  “edit” buttons will appear. Annoyingly, Facebook won't let me have more than one phone number, and People First have five.

Step Four: Build Your Apps

On the Right hand side are "Apps" which you can use to build your brand. The first "app" are your Photos. This aways is the first app so you cannot move or delete it. All of the otherapps, can be addded or removed easily.

Step Five: Fill Up Timeline

The next feature is the ability to add milestones to the timeline eg when company was founded. or Opened New Office.  When someone visits a page, they can easily scroll through the highlights of the organisation.  





Step Six: Fill Up Timeline

Highlight important posts and milestones on the timeline: There are two ways to do this:

1. Pin a post to the top of your page for seven days. Click on the pencil that appears in the top right corner of the post. It will give you the choice of "pinning, changing date of  post or remove it entirely. 
2. Increase size of a post from one column to both columns. Click the star that appears in the top  right corner of a post and voila!. The post will move down the timeline as new milestones and info is added.

Step Seven: Engaging with Admin Panel

The Admin panel includes: 

• Notifications which tells you key information about vistors
• Messages -people can now quickly and easily send messages 
• New Likes -obvious?
• Insights which tracks users and interactions with the page. Tracking kicks in when your page has 30 "Likes"
• Page Tips giving you Facebook lessons

There are three main options for the Admin Page:

1. Manage: - allows you to edit the page
2.  Build Audience: For example you can invite email contacts from Workshops, outings etc
3. Help-obvious?

There you have it: Using TimeLine