A Quick Look at the new Facebook Timeline

Posted By Larry ~ 15th August 2012

Earlier this year, Facebook finished rolling out one of their most visible and game-changing features, the Timeline. For businesses and marketing teams, the introduction of Timeline for Brands promised a better way for businesses to use Facebook. Everyone was buzzing about what it would mean for businesses when the changes took effect and how it would change the way businesses and brands used Facebook to promote products, communicate with customers, and build a fan-base.

Now that those changes are in full effect, let’s take a look at what this transformation means for your business.

Look and Feel

The biggest or at least the most noticeable change is that the timeline page looks very different than the previous default landing page. The top of the page now features a cover photo that spans the entire width of the page. This can be marketing gold if used appropriately as this image is the first impression every person who comes to your page will have. The remainder of the page real estate is provided in a two column format that shows posts, events, milestones, likes, and other content. Items are arranged automatically in date order, essentially creating a timeline of your posts for visitors to browse.

What You Post Vs. What Others Post

Previously, your brand’s page was a mixture of your posts and things other people had posted to your page, if you allowed external posting. This meant you either had to lock your page down, which goes against the whole point of social media, or you had to accept that your message would be constantly diluted and that posting many times a day was the best way to get your message across. On the new timeline, things posted to your brand page by others are presented in a separate box. This is a big win for businesses because it encourages and allows others to post to the brand page but allows the business to control the majority of the page’s real estate. This means that the more posts make a difference mantra is a thing of the past. Now, what the posts say and how they come together to tell the story of your brand is what matters.

Past vs. Present

Another big change is that you can now add milestones to indicate things that happened in the past. For companies with a good story to tell, this new feature is a big win.

Pinning vs. Reposting

Before timeline, if you had something going on that you wanted to make sure your fans and visitors saw, you had to create a custom landing page and use that as your default entry point for everyone who clicks on your page or you had to keep reposting it over and over.

For things like promotions, contests, and product launches, this process could quickly become tedious. It could also turn fans off, as the same information kept showing up in their feed. Timeline solves this problem by allowing administrators to pin content to the top of their timeline for 7 days.

Timeline also did away with your ability to set an alternate page as your default landing page however, you do still have the ability to create the wonderful, targeted landing pages you know and love… they’re now called “tabs” and they’re featured just below your cover image. You can have up to 11 of these marketing marvels, so use them wisely.