If you have a Facebook page for your business, you can get the new Timeline design by visiting your Facebook page and clicking “preview.” If you do nothing, all Facebook pages will be upgraded to the Timeline design on March 30th, this Friday.
What’s different in the new Timeline design?
Cover Photo (NEW)
Cover photos are a new feature, this should be a photo that expresses what your business is about and gets people interested in your page. It should be at least 399 pixels wide. You will need to avoid using copy and promotional creative in your cover photo, it is against Facebook’s Page guidelines. Facebook provides the following guidelines on cover photos:
Cover images may not contain:
- Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
- Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s 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”
Cover photos are optional, if you don’t upload an image, the area will collapse.
Profile Photo
There are no changes to the profile photo.
Pinning and Starring Updates (NEW)
You can now pin an important post to anchor it at the top of your page for up to 7 days. This will allow those that visit your page see your most important content first. You can also now star an interesting post so that it expands the entire width of your Facebook page, making it more prominent to visitors.
Application Pages
Application pages, formerly known as Tabs, were the links on the left hand side of your pages. Now they’re icons at the top of your timeline that link to standard page features like photo albums and custom tabs. Facebook removed the ability to have a default landing page, but you can sort the order of your icons and you can also customize the look of your icons. The only icon you cannot move is the photo icon, it will always remain first.
Need more information? Facebook offers the following resources:
Facebook’s Interactive Video Describing the Changes
While change is never easy, at EAG we have found that these new changes offer us more flexibility and the ability to tell the brand story of EAG. You can see the EAG page, converted over to the new Timeline format, with a Cover Photo and customized Icons by visiting the EAG Facebook page.
We’ve also created a visual guide to show what’s different. As always let us know if we can assist you in moving into the new Timeline design.
