It’s been a big week on Facebook this week. They’ve rolled out the new Facebook timeline for fan pages. Don’t worry, the changes won’t come into effect until March 30 2012. But get ready. This is a big update.
Here is a list of what I’ve seen so far of what you need to know:
1) You can make a status update “sticky”: You can now “pin” status updates to keep them at the top of your updates for up to 7 days.
2) A massive cover photo (851 x 315px) (no advertising or promoting allowed, not sure how this impacts non-profits and churches) AND your profile picture.
3) Your default landing page will disappear. If you have set up some custom features you’ll need to change what you are doing! My thoughts are with all those businesses that dependant on Facebook especially those that build custom landing pages. Can you imagine what they are going through right now? They are having to move very smartly to still provide value for their customers with the new timeline, without the linchpin of their old product, a cool landing page.
4) Your photo strip at the top of your feed is gone. This isn’t a big deal for me as one of the tabs at the top is a photo tab. Choose your best and that will help people check out what you
5) Your profile pic is smaller (124w x 125h) but really the cover photo more than makes up for that.
6) The left column navigation has gone. Tabs are now at the top of the page. You can customise what they look like within reason (111 x 74px)
Redbull and Coke seemed to have had an early heads up from Facebook. Pretty obvious what the favourite drinks are down at Facebook HQ 😉
Changes come all the time and I’m not particularly fussed about this change. While the tools may change, your strategy in social shouldn’t.
Be social. Don’t broadcast. Interact. Connect.
How about you, what changes do you like/hate? What updates would you like to see? What do you think of my own Facebook page update? Comment below.
