On February 29 2012, Facebook released its new Timeline feature for businesses.  Some businesses were delighted at the fact, but this struck fear into the heart of many others. What makes it more worrisome for some businesses is that as of March 30, all brand pages that are currently on Facebook will be converted to Timeline.

Change is a scary thing, but rather than reject and whine about Timeline, why don’t we embrace what it can do for your business?  So whether you’re loving or loathing Timeline, here’s how you can build it so that your business benefits the most from it.

For more on maximizing your Facebook marketing efforts, check out our FREE eBook, “Mastering Facebook Marketing.”

Enable your Timeline Preview

In order to preview your Timeline for your company or brand page, you must log in as an administrator.  If you created the Facebook page, then you’re automatically the administrator. But if you’re a business owner who plans on handing over the reigns of the Facebook account to other employees, here’s how you can make them an administrator:

  • The future admin must “LIKE” your brand page.
  • After that, go to the brand page and click on the “People Like This” link (you’ll be able to find this on the right hand side of the page).
  • When you click on the “People Like This” link, you’ll then be presented with a list of everyone who has clicked the “LIKE” link.  Look to the right of each name – you’ll find a button that says “Make Admin”.  All you have to do is scroll through those names, find who you want to make an admin, and then click on “Make Admin.”

Alternatively, if someone is a friend on your personal profile, you can click on the “Edit Page” option at the upper right hand corner of the page, and then click on “Manage Admins”.  Type in your friends’ name in the white box provided, and they will then come up with that same “Make Admin” option.

The Cover Photo

When it comes to Timeline, your cover photo plays a huge role in your brand page.  Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

  • The exact cover photo image size is 850×315 pixels.
  • Your image must be at least 720 pixels wide.
  • The image can’t have any of your contact information, pricing or purchasing details provided in it.
  • You can’t use your cover photo for a call to action or to try and get people to “like” your page.

You want your cover photo to be a picture of something that really represents your brand.  If you’re a local deli, for example, having a cover photo that showcases a delicious looking sandwich next to a steaming bowl of soup would be an appropriate cover photo.

Tell Your Story

What Timeline really allows you to do is to tell your brand’s story.  Once you have the foundations of the page all set up, then you can start noting any important dates that are related to your company with a number of different resources.  If your brand did some volunteer activity back in 2006, you can scan and upload a picture of you or your team doing volunteer work and then add it to your timeline.  Think about adding things like:

  • The day your business was founded.
  • The day you were inspired to start your business.
  • Images of different print advertisements and other historic images.
  • Videos.

You can even create a notepad file with a story behind why you created the brand and add that to your profile.

Additional Tips

We cannot stress this enough: your Timeline will show everything in a way that makes information on Facebook more accessible than ever – unless you protect it properly.  Any images that are inappropriate or not business related should either be:

  1. Deleted, or
  2. Untagged and BLOCKED

I’ve already come across numerous business Timeline pages that, when you start to scroll down through the years, show their business owners involved in what some may call “compromising” images.  Don’t sabotage your company and make sure that you spend a good few hours going through and editing your Facebook account.

Key Takeaways:

Facebook Timeline gives companies an opportunity to stand out by offering a number of new features, like cover photos and “featured” posts.  While Timeline is in its infancy and may not offer as many options as the former Facebook pages did (i.e. landing pages), in time it will surely grow.  Make sure you continue to build up your Facebook Timeline page to keep up with the changes, and jump on this opportunity to create an online company storybook.

Need Help?

If social media marketing is something you are interested in but are having trouble getting started, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis!