Facebook's Timeline: What the Changes Mean for Brand Pages

Facebook’s Timeline: What the Changes Mean for Brand Pages

          Recently, Facebook announced several changes to their brand pages and advertising
          options. The Timeline page changes the way brands can reach and engage with
          Facebook users. In Timeline, there are lots of great opportunities for brands to humanize
          their pages and feature and distribute engaging content to more people. Outlined below
          are the major changes and our recommendations:

          Visual Changes

          Profile Picture: (#1 below)
          In the Timeline setup, this is a square image that sits on the top of the brand profile
          and will also appear next to every brand post on Facebook. This is what will appear in
          newsfeed stories, ads and featured stories. Choose this type of image:
          • Recognizable branded picture or logo that scales well from 180 x 180 to 32 x 32 pixels.

          Cover Photo: (#2 below)
          This is now the major branded real estate on top of every brand page. Use it as a stand-
          alone branded image or have it work playfully with the profile picture, which sits in a
          lower left cut out of the cover photo. Follow these guidelines:
          • Cover photo must be 851 x 351 pixels.
          • This is a place to express the personality of your brand NOT feature promotions, deals
             and sales. The cover photo cannot include a “Like” promo, contact info, website, prices
             or any call to action type wording.
          • Change cover photo frequently and see what the audience responds to best and keep
             them engaged.

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                                                                          LINDSAY, STONE & BRIGGS
                                          ONE SOUTH PINCKNEY, SUITE 500, MADISON, WI, USA 53703
                                                           .              .                .
                                                       TEL 608.251.7070 FAX 608.251.8989 WWW LSB.COM

Posting Changes

          Milestones
          These are similar to the option Facebook rolled out for personal profiles which allows
          users to back-fill their story from their birth to today.
          The Milestones in brand pages highlight big events throughout a company’s history such
          as the year founded, awards won, new store openings, reaching high number of fans,
          etc. This allows brands to post to past dates to create content on their Timeline and tell
          their story from the beginning.

          Milestone information is entered in the top empty posting box by selecting Milestone,
          entering the year and creating a past event. Use images with your company’s dates and
          stories to engage your readers.

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Pin/Star/Hide Options
          With the layout of posts now running vertically in two columns on the left and right of
          the center of the page, Timeline now offers brands more control over how to highlight
          and display posts to visitors of your page. All options to edit are located in the upper
          right hand corner of post. These are some of the new posting options:
          • Pinning a post will anchor important stories at the top of your page for seven days.
             Facebook recommends brands pin one story a week which functions similar to a
             landing page for visitors and can include contests, call to action wording, promotions
             and more. You can pin the same story as many times as you want but Facebook will
             turn off the pin after seven days.

          •S
            tarred posts highlight important stories in the location they appear within Timeline.
           Starred posts expand to the whole width of the page as opposed to one column. They
           move down as new posts are added and do not function like pinned posts.

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•Y
            ou can also hide or delete posts that are less engaging or irrelevant. We do not
           recommend hiding or deleting posts as a general practice. Fans will notice any
           manipulation of their posts and you will lose credibility and trust. If you delete their
           posts, what else are you hiding?
          •W
            e still recommend posting engaging content daily, and with the new Timeline layout,
           posts with images are even more important. Posts with images generate two times
           more engagement and in the new platform images are larger than they were before
           (720 pixels to 960 pixels).

          Tab Changes

          Facebook has done away with the default landing page tabs that many brands have been
          using to greet new visitors to their page. The cover photo will take over that branded
          welcome role, and all other tabs are now in a new location and have more real estate to
          work with when opened.

          Arranging and Displaying Apps/Tabs:
          • Photos, “Likes” and apps now appear at the top of the page under the cover photo.
             You can have up to 12 and all images for these tabs can be customized or branded.
          • The new dimensions for the tab images are 111 x 74 pixels.
          •Y
            ou can choose your top apps to always be displayed on your page. Out of the total
           12 they allow, only the top four will show on your page always. You can do this by
           clicking on the upper right corner of each app and selecting “swap positions with” and
           swapping your favorites into the top four.
          •T
            he Photo app will not be able to move positions and will always remain in the first
           position in your top four apps shown on your page. It will display the most recent
           uploaded picture to your page. If the photo is from a fan and you don’t want it
           displayed as the thumbnail for the Photos app it will have to be changed manually.
          • It is good practice to move the “Like” app to the lower eight unseen apps so you can fill
             the other three spaces with custom branded tabs. Everyone will still be able to see the
             number of “Likes” under your company name.
          •P
            age width within applications has expanded and now you can use the narrow 520
           pixel format or a wide 810 pixel canvas. Making good use of this new space could allow
           entire sections of client’s websites to live within Facebook environment.

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Admin Features

          The administration functions have changed in their layout and appearance, and one
          significant change will help brands be in direct communication with fans. Your audience
          is now able to send your brand private messages. This means rather than needing to
          post a complaint to your wall, fans can now send brands a private message when this
          feature is turned on in the admin panel.

          Advertising

          Facebook is moving toward a more personal storyline format for ads. New Premium
          Ads will feature content from brands’ status updates, photos and other posts in place
          of the traditional branded images. These Premium ads will be located in three different
          locations: in the news feed of fans and friends of fans, on the right hand column of the
          home page and on the logout page. Since ads will now appear in the news feed, they will
          appear on mobile devices for the first time. Premium Ads sound great but with a cost
          of $50K per month they are reserved for only the biggest brands and, with no current
          metrics for success, determining the ROI on this investment will be tough. Marketplace
          ads will still be available as well as a new Facebook Offers ad platform that has not been
          released for lower end users yet.

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