All Facebook pages will make the switch to the new timeline layout today, so here’s what your business needs to do to prepare for the change.
The design of the new and improved pages will allow businesses and brands to better share their story and connect with customer, using tools similar to those featured personal user’s ‘Timeline’ profile pages.
These features include the new cover photo and timeline, which give SMBs an opportunity to better express their identity and story, while the pinning feature keeps important posts at the top of a page for up to seven days.
The redesign also sports a new admin panel to help page administrators better track their performance, as well as allowing them respond to private messages easily.
Here’s a quick how-to guide to help you move your age to the new layout:
Upload an eye-catching cover photo
The cover photo is the first thing potential customers will see when they visit a Page. The cover photo should capture the culture and essence of a business, and showcase products. The cover photo can always be changed. Using and changing creative, stimulating images can be used to engage fans and encourage an audience response.
Make sure you check Facebook’s regulations about what kind of information the cover photo can contain, as they’re pretty strict about this.
Use a clearly branded profile picture
The profile picture represents a business’ page on other parts of Facebook. It can be seen in ads or news feeds, so it’s the best spot to use a picture that visibly identifies the business. A high quality image that is associated with the brand, such as a logo, should be used.
Add Milestones to the Page timeline
Milestones allow businesses to take advantage of larger photo, video and link capabilities to engage fans. Posts can be featured on the timeline so fans can engage with a post past its time in the news feed. Milestones can also be used to define key moments in a company’s history, again allowing fans to interact with the business beyond its current news.
Pin a post a week
An important story can be anchored to the top of a page for seven days, meaning fans won’t miss the best content. Businesses pinning posts are seeing higher engagement on those posts.
Arrange views and apps
Businesses can create custom thumbnails to highlight what’s important to them, whether it’s events or custom-built apps for specific products or promotions. These photos and custom apps will appear at the top of the page, and can be reordered at any time.
Manage your page
The new admin panel gives administrators a high-level dashboard where they can edit content, track new activity, respond to fans, and view page insights.
