New Features in Facebook Timeline for Pages

Facebook’s infamous Facebook Timeline feature was introduced for profile pages earlier amidst a lot of privacy concerns. Notwithstanding, the Timeline feature continues its roll towards Business Pages. With the introduction of the timeline feature for business users, all the efforts made in the past to create an awesome and attractive business page has come undone. Let’s take a look at the new features in Facebook Timeline for Pages and what you now need to do to spruce up your Facebook page.

New Features in Facebook Timeline for Pages

Landing Pages are History

Well, the biggest change to the business pages has been the removal of the Welcome page. Previously, page owners created fancy looking landing and tabbed welcome pages with cool opt-in and sign up options to engage users. This feature has now been removed. And now that the initial shock is over, you will be happy to note that most of the older features have been retained with enhancements.

Facebook Timeline Cover Photos

Now that you cannot create a landing page anymore, you can enhance your business page using Facebook Timeline Cover photos. The cover photo takes up the top half of the  page making for an eye-catching and visually appealing display, if this one from Oscar De La Renta is any indication.

Tabs

Facebook Tabs are a cool addition to the Timeline feature. There are a few ones added by default, such as Photos and Likes, and are displayed below the cover photo. You can add additional tabs using popular applications such as static HTML and IFRAME among others.

New Admin Panel

You will find the new Admin Panel button on the right pane in Hide mode, or the top of the left pane, in the Normal mode. The admin panel contains the following options.

Manage: This option lets you edit your Facebook Timeline page, see banned users, use the activity log and more.

Build Audience: Here, you can invite friends and other contacts via email, and share your page.

Notifications: This section lets to see the latest activity on your page, and share something on your page. The limitation with this option is that you can see, for instance, who liked your posts, but it does not tell you which post was liked.

Messages: This is the section that displays the latest messages from your fans. You can also disable or remove the messages feature, but it does provide an instant reference to all your social messaging engagements, so retain it unless you want to maintain privacy.

New Likes: This section lets you check out the latest fans you have managed to get to like your page.

Insights: This section gives you a graphical picture of the number of people your page has managed to reach and the number of people who are sharing and discussing your page activity. There’s more insights in the See All link, if you are interested in further analysis.

Page Tips: This section shares some cool resources and tips to improve your Facebook Timeline Page.

Tips to Spruce Up your Facebook Timeline Page for Business

1. Use the cover photo space as a Call to Action point. Entice your customers and audiences with the most attractive or appealing feature of your business to make your cover photo count.

2. Use Facebook Tabs to create attractive pages for user engagement. Install applications such as  Static HTML or IFRAME to create new tabs on your page. Then click on it and add your HTML codes to set up a sign up page, a video page, a photo section, a competition area, or anything else that might attract user engagement.

3. Customize the thumbnail images for your photos, videos and applications tabs with URL links to emphasize your brand.

4. Add milestones to recreate the history of your business page. The option is available to the right of the Status section. You can upload a photo to showcase a past event and this will display across two columns up to 800 pixels, so make it look good.

5. Add information about yourself and include your website link in the About section. Make it powerful enough to connect to individuals who want to learn more about you. You will find the About section below the thumbnail image.

Have you set up your Facebook pages for business? Share your tips and best practices with us.

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