New Facebook Timeline For Business -What Does It Mean?

Yes, Facebook made a major design change to business pages. If you have a business page and you logged in last recently, you saw a notification asking if you wanted to switch to Timeline. Upgrade now (in preview mode first - you'll see the option at the top of your page), or the upgrade will be site wide for all Pages on/by March 30, 2012.

Here is a quick summary of changes:

1) Landing tabs are gone! Presumably the focus is now on the big cover image (but, see the crazy restrictions below!)

2) As we suspected, your tabs are now little thumbnail boxes just like personal Timeline. Only four display and the rest show under the little arrow. You can rearrange the order, except photos is always first. (Biggest headache I see here is having to create a new thumbnail image for each tab!)

3) Tab width went from 520px to 810px - so lots of white space until you get those redesigned.

4) Of course, you now have the large cover image. This part is probably the *most* exciting, eh! BUT check out the restrictions :

Cover photo may NOT contain the following:

- Price or purchase information, such as 40 percent off or a download it at our website.

- Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Pages About section.

- References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features.

- Calls to action, such as Get it Now or Tell your friends.

5) Fan Page Messages are live - this was a new feature Facebook was beta testing for a while. Phew - another new area for brands/businesses to manage. Still, lots of possibilities and very exciting! (Access Messages in your new Admin dashboard).

6) Facebook default landing tabs are gone and pinned posts are the new promotion as Facebook rolls out the Timeline design for fan pages. Pin your top posts - hover then click the pencil icon to "pin" a specific post to the top. Now this is a cool feature and much needed. Love that!!

According to Facebook, all fan pages will be automatically upgraded to the new Timeline design on March 30, 2012. You can preview the look now and make changes but do not need to publish your new look until March 30. So admins will have the opportunity to work on the pages outside of the public eye for the time being.

JoAnne Funch is owner of GIR-Graphics & Innovative Resources, providing creative marketing solutions to small business owners and non-profits who want to gain visibility off-line or on-line through strategic marketing ideas and consistent branding messages  For free marketing tips visit her website www.girpromotions.com. Or, connect with JoAnne on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn