Heads up on the new Facebook Timeline

Starting on March 30th, Fan Pages on Facebook will be undergoing big changes, and if you aren't sure what's going to happen to your Fan Page you should know that the changes are pretty significant. We've asked our Facebook expert Karen to share some insights into these changes. We're unsure on exactly when these changes will hit Australia but it could be anytime during March 30 and the following few days. 

First up, Karen tells us what the biggest difference is with the new Fan Page changes

Here's the thing, it is no longer about the number of Likes. Just because you have a lot of Likes, a lot of fans, doesn't mean you're going to have success on Facebook. If you want bottom-line results you must create ways to keep fans coming back for more, collect leads from quality fans and get them to take action inside and outside of Facebook.

With all the new changes, Pages are now more visually stimulating, which means that you can actually get more engagement just by the fact that there's a new layout on your Facebook page. To couple that with some of these strategies we'll talk about in this blog post, you'll have some surefire ways to get more action from your Facebook fans.

A lot of people are concerned that their Welcome Tab is going away and there's a new cover photo that some businesses are already using, can you tell us about that?

You bet. First let's go over the Timeline Cover Photo. Here are some specifics about these changes. As you probably know, on March 30 your page will change to the new timeline cover layout. You can change it over now or you can wait until March 30. What's going to happen is when you do change over to the new timeline layout you're going to have a big cover photo on the top. That big cover photo is a great opportunity for you to brand your business.

• First of all what you need to know is the specs for that cover photo are 851 x 315 pixels. I know 851 is kind of an odd number but the closer you get to that, the crisper your photo is going to be, it's not going to be blurry or it's not going to be stretched too much or whatever.
• Here's the frustrating thing about these new timeline covers for pages. There are a lot of restrictions. You can see these right on the Facebook Blog, too:
• Facebook says that you cannot include price or purchase info, such as 40 percent off or Download it at our website, you can't put that type of information on your cover photo.
• You also cannot include contact information such as web address, email, mailing address or any other info intended for your About section on your Facebook page. You know we all have that About section where we can give details of how to reach us. They don't want that type of information on your cover photo.
• In addition, you cannot reference a user interface element. What that means is you can't say "Like" or "Share" or any other Facebook site features. They don't want you to say Like our page or Share our information on Facebook on that cover photo.
• No calls to action, which is the hugest bummer. You can't do "Get it Now" or "Tell Your Friends" or "Sign up here" or "Go here to get more info," you can't do any type of call to action.
• Facebook says that the cover timeline photo is not meant for promotions, coupons or advertisements.
• They also say that the cover photo should not be primarily text-based or infringe on anyone else's copyright.
• As you can see, these timeline restrictions are pretty strict. There are a lot of things that we cannot do on the timeline cover. Here are some examples of what other companies have done with their cover photo:
  • www.facebook.com/DarwinAirport: They have a really cool image of the airport, it's colorful, it catches your attention and it makes things interesting on their page. You could just go with an image like they've done here.
  • www.facebook.com/darwinwaterfront: Or you can do what Darwin Waterfront has dobe and include your branding elements. This cover photo is probably walking a fine line with the rules.
  • www.facebook.com/pages/Kerrys-Auto-Group: Kerrys have included a great photo of some cool cars in their showroom.

Facebook is rolling out something called Applications, or Apps, can you speak to that?

Along with the timeline cover photos being a huge change on Facebook, Facebook has also changed how we use tabs. Tabs used to be on the left column of our Facebook page -- now tabs are called Apps. Tabs and Apps -- those words are pretty much interchangeable right now. It's your custom page that you can create inside your Facebook page. The specs for these custom apps are now 810 pixels wide which really allow you to do so much more with your custom pages inside Facebook than you ever could before. I'm going to show you some examples of this.

In addition to that, Facebook has also allowed you to create thumbnails to highlight your different applications. You can create thumbnails that have an image on top of them. That image could be 111 x 74 pixels, kind of a weird number but trust me, these are the best dimensions to make your images look really great.

You cannot have thumbnail images on top of photos, videos, notes, Likes and events. Those application boxes cannot be changed. Also you can move around your thumbnails and you can have up to 12 applications on your Facebook page.

There are some strategies for thumbnails that I want you to think about:

• Create a reason to click inside your thumbnail
• Get strategic with the three apps above the fold - those three that you saw next to the big thumbs up; those three you can move around. Make sure those are the best three you have on top because until someone clicks that blue arrow to the right that I showed you, they won't see the ones below it.
• Rename the app itself, and you should think in terms of getting your fans to take action.

There's a lot you can do with the Applications or Apps, pop into Captovate and have a chat with Karen, Emma or Laura to discuss your our Facebook Fan Page Marketing strategy.