Don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but Facebook will be moving all business pages to the Timeline format on March 30. So several things will need to change on your Facebook Fan Page:
1. Banner Profile Picture will need to be changed. Today, Facebook allows for a 540 pixel high by 180 pixel wide profile picture. The “Cover Photo” for the Timeline is 850 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall, and it cannot contain any of the following: No price or purchase info, no contact info, no calls to action, no references to like of share. So think about what you want this to be – this is the first impression of your business!
2. NO MORE LANDING PAGES – this is a big change, and a disappointing change to me. We can no longer set the default landing page. Facebook wants us to use the timeline to tell the story, which is a cool idea. So the only way to drive people to a specific landing page is to use an app and drive people there with an ad on Facebook. You can also make that app prominent on the above the fold info.
3. Determining what goes above the fold – The attached picture shows what will show above the fold. The About box and the Photos are fixed, but the other 3 Apps are changeable. You’ll want to us this area to highlight the apps that are the most important to your business. You can show the number of Likes for your page, or use custom apps.
Since the Photo Strip has been replaced by the Photo app, it’s going to be important to have that photo be important for your business (it uses the last photo added to the page).
The About Box will change based on the category you use for your business. So for a “Local Business or Place” it will display Category, Address, Phone Number, and Hours. If you use the category “Company, Organization or Institution”, you have 150 characters of information about your business.
4. Milestones – with Timeline, you can now go back in time and add milestones with or without pictures. This is a fantastic way to tell the story of your business – any news worthy events, awards, getting the product in your store, the first of a particular make and model of car on your lot, etc. Can get really creative here! So think about all those things that you want to add!
5. Highlighting and Pinning Posts. You will now be able to emphasize happenings on your timeline. Additionally you can pin a post to the top of your timeline for seven days.
