NetworkCEO – Facebook Fan Page

Are you ready for Facebook to switch your Fan Page to the new Timeline format?

Let me start out by saying that if you haven’t already test drove the new timeline fan page then you need to now before Facebook does the automatic switcheroo for you.

There are a lot of “pros and cons voting” around the Internet about Facebook’s New Timeline format so I am not going to rehash them here in this post. However, what I am going to do for you is to highlight the features that are new in the timeline view that you can leverage in your marketing efforts and get great results from.

It’s true the default landing pages will be a thing of the past, but, savvy marketers will love some of the new features that the new Facebook Timeline brings to your marketing toolbox.

The Cover Picture

Let’s start out with the cover picture. This is new with the implementation of Facebook’s Timeline view. You now have space at the top of your page for a 851 x 315 Pixel image. This image can be used to project the purpose of your page to your pages visitors. But, be careful not to use this space for any of the following purposes as these are strictly against Facebooks’s terms of service;

• Pictures can no longer contain contact information or URL’s
• No calls to action – i.e. Sign up Here, Like our Page, Join Today, etc…
• Must not contain any references to Facebook features like tabs or “Like” buttons
• No references to promotions or special deals

The new Facebook Timeline will force you to be more creative, but at the same time it will allow you to put more personality into your Cover Picture.

The About Section

Obviously, this section is for information about your Fan Page. However, each persons Fan Page may have differing fields in the about box depending on the type (category) of Fan Page that you have created. For instance, a Fan Page for a physical store front will have fields for your address, city, state, and zipcode information. Whereas, a Fan Page for a website might just have the URL along with a description of what the site is about.

The Application Section

In the old Facebook Fan Page layout we had Tabs,  now we have Applications. This is where you can really start to leverage the power of this new layout design. Applications can be used just like Tabs were used. However, it’s important to point out that the default landing tabs have been removed. If you search and review the drawbacks to the new timeline format you will find that many a reviewer dislikes the fact that we no longer have the ability to set a default landing tab for our visitors. All visitors now get dumped into your TimeLine regardless of how they come to your Fan Page, but there are ways around this which we will show you in a later post.

Applications (Tabs) work the same as before. In fact if you had some tabs setup you will see that they still function the same with the new timeline format. The nice features that we like are how prominently you can now display your application in a series of 4 images across the bottom of your Cover Picture. Each application can have an image (111 x 74 pixels) which can entice your visitors to click on the application to see what it is about. You can have up to a total of 8 applications but only 4 are visible at any time. The other applications can be viewed by clicking on the down arrow next to the fourth application. By default, your Pictures will always remain in the first position of the applications area and this can not be changed. However, all the other applications can be rearranged into any order that you want.

A very nice feature of the applications is that you now have a full 810 pixel wide area as opposed to the 520 pixels that you were restricted to in the old Tab format. Applications still provide for Fan Gating, Likes, and Share Gates even though there are lots of posts that specify differently. All of our Fan Gates worked flawlessly after our Fan Page was upgraded to the new timeline.

Marketing Possibilities

We see the new Facebook Timeline format as a marketers cornucopia. However, the real purpose of the Facebook Timeline is to get you to connect on a more personal scale with your fans and fan page visitors. But, with some of the new features that the Timeline provides we think it can be leveraged for both purposes. Below we have highlighted some of the various additional features which we will write about in a later post where you could leverage them for your marketing efforts;

1. Weekly Pinned Posts – Each week you can pin a post as a featured post. These posts stay pinned for a period of 7 days and then automatically revert back to a normal post. Normal Post image sizes are 403 pixels wide. However, a “Featured” pinned post’s image will expand to the full size of the page (843 x 403 pixels) this provides for a lot of marketing space on your fanpage. Pinned posts do not have the same restrictions that your Cover Picture have and can be related to just about anything but should be relevant to your fan page’s purpose.
2. Max Image Size – When content has been “Starred” or marked as featured (set as a Highlight) or set as a Milestone, the image will scale to a Max Size of 843 x 403 px. For this reason, you want to ensure to create any images you plan to use on “Starred” posts to use this size to avoid smaller images getting distorted or “pixelated”