If you have a Facebook page for your business, listen up, changes are happening. Starting today, March 30th, your Facebook page’s wall will cease to exist. In its place will be a timeline. The timeline is Facebook’s new way of organizing the information on your page. You will not lose any past information, it will just be re-organized by date and give certain pictures, or posts more emphasis than others. You will also not lose any of the function you are used to; you will still be able to post comments, pictures and videos. Facebook has coding to help determine which information is more important and less important, and will try their best to re-organize it how they believe you will want it. Luckily, if they don’t get it right, you will have an opportunity to edit, delete, or emphasize any of your past posts, photos, or videos.
The Downside
With this new format they are doing away with the apps that run off your main page. No longer will they have the tabs on the left side for people to use. You can still have apps, but they have moved right below the cover image and people will only get to see so many at one time. They are trying to reduce their prominence on their site, to keep the site’s look more consistent. Unfortunately, some companies have become quite dependent on their apps, so there will be some adjustments these companies will need to get used to.
The Upside
Even though change can be hard for some of us, this new change has its benefits. This new “story telling” version is much more visually interesting and unlike the current version, it emphasizes more important information over less important information.
The new format lends itself to a more visual experience. To take full advantage of this new asset, make sure to post more comments with pictures or videos. This will make your page nicer to look at and more interactive for your visitors.
What You Should Do
- Log into your account. Facebook will do its best to re-organize the information already on your page, but it is likely you will want to do some of your own re-organizing as well.
- Do your best to familiarize yourself with the new changes. Playing around with it for awhile will give you a better understanding of how you can take advantage of the interface for your business.
- If you have a Facebook social media plan, look it over and see what types of things need to change to fit the new format. You may want to include more photos and videos in your posts. Another idea would be to add past milestones into the timeline, to help people better understand your business. If you don’t already have a plan, I suggest making one. When you have a plan in place you are more likely to stick with it, and consequently, see better results.
If you are not sure where to start, contact Infinite Web Designs to help. Our trained experts can help you make the transition and create a social media marketing plan that works for your business.