by Jeremy Nettles, Social Media Manager, Dalton Agency
Facebook Timeline, which was unveiled for profile pages back in September 2011, has finally made its way to brand pages. As of right now, page admins can preview or publish the new look with a mandatory change scheduled to take place on March 30th.
Here’s an example of the new brand page design. We’ve updated our client Colt’s Facebook brand page.
The most obvious change is the large cover photo that will now sit atop every brand page. The 851 x 315 pixels image will allow brands to grab their page visitors’ attention and hopefully drive them to “like” or interact with the page. Facebook has set some restrictions as to what is allowed in this space:
According to the new guidelines, cover photos cannot include:
• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”.
• Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section.
• References to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features.
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”. Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property.”
This means that the days of having a default-landing tab that encourages visitors to “like” your page are gone. Brand managers will have to lean on the visual appeal and content of their page to bring in new fans.
Other new features include: a pinned post that stays at the top of your page for seven days, friend activity section, app location, brand milestones, private messaging, larger images and an admin panel.
More details will be announced at the first ever Facebook Marketing Conference that begins at noon EST today. You can watch the event live at: http://www.facebook.com/business/fmc
