You may have seen articles circulating around the web recently stating that Facebook is launching timeline for business pages. While Facebook have not officially confirmed it, they are certainly indicating lots of hints. In a recent article from Adage they are predicting that Facebook will announce the launch on the 29th of February.
So what implications does this have for your Facebook community?
Firstly we are not entirely sure what the changes are going to be to the Facebook timeline for business pages, or in fact there will be any changes. What we do know is that Facebook are committed to bringing it more in line with the users’ timeline experience, so the difference between interacting with a friend and interacting with a brand are very similar.
Some of the considerations that we need to start thinking through are; what does that mean for customer tabs on your current Facebook page? As under current timeline design and layout for users there is no room for tabs. There is some suggestion that apps and custom tabs that you currently have will be moved to boxes on your timeline, similar to the way there are boxes on your user timeline now for apps that you have installed, and for photos and some of the key functionalities that you use on a regular basis.
The other consideration is how do you populate your timeline?
If you think about a users timeline, it starts at birth and you can retrospectively go back and populate Facebook with key events in your life - when your kids were born, when you were married, holidays you went on, your birthdays etc.
So what does that mean for your business? You need to start thinking about not just publishing content for the future but also publishing content that tells your brands story and heritage from the past as well.
Execs at Facebook have told us that they have seen some versions of the timeline for business in BETA, and they said that the cover photo area is a big opportunity for brands to make a huge impact.
They have also said that they have seen a cover photo area also used for not just a static photo but a slideshow of photos and also videos. Whilst they won’t confirm that this will definitely be going to be in the final release, or that there actually is in fact a final release, it is something to think about and it will provide more premium media space for you to tell your brand story.
So as we hear more we will keep you updated. If you know anything more, we'd love to share it with our readers so please add it to the comments below.
Matt
is the Founder & Managing Director at
Traffika. Join him on Facebook,
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here.
