Is Your Business Ready For The Changes To Facebook?

posted on 3/15/2012

By Nick Bragg, Deputy Editor of Sanitary Maintenance

Chances are if you have a personal Facebook page, you’ve either already switched to the social media site’s “Timeline” feature, or have been notified about the way your personal profile page will soon look.

Get ready for Facebook business pages to also look the same. Facebook recently announced that the new timeline feature is going to go into effect for brand pages on March 30, 2012. So, that means businesses only have a couple of weeks left to get their Facebook brand pages in working order.

At Sanitary Maintenance, we recently changed to the new timeline feature. Here is some advice for jan/san distributors and others in the cleaning industry on what changes they can expect with the new Timeline feature.

Cover and Profile Photo

One of the biggest changes with the new Timeline feature is the cover photo. Your cover image should be 852 pixels wide by 351 pixels high and should be something that will grab a user’s attention. Use your cover image to display your business message or to generate interest in “Liking” your page. Do note that Facebook has set guidelines for the cover photo. Businesses are not able to promote a product as an advertisement, include an e-mail address or website URL.

With the cover image being used to draw in people to your page, Facebook recommends using your company’s logo as your profile picture (We use our most recent magazine cover).

Showcase Your Best Posts

Not all Facebook updates carry the same weight. So, to help differentiate or to better alert customers about a particular post, Facebook has released a couple new page features to help particular posts stand out — pinning, highlighting and milestones.

Highlighting an update allows a company to make an update more prominent by making it larger (double the size of a regular post) and easier for visitors to find on your page. To highlight a story on your timeline, click on the star icon located in the top right-hand corner of your update.

Pinning an update allows a company to pick one update and pin it to the top of your timeline. Once an update is pinned it will stay there for seven days before going back into the timeline. To pin a post, click on the pencil icon located in top right-handed corner of your update. This is a great feature to activate if you are running a promotion or want an item to be more visible on your page since it will be the first post a visitor sees when visiting your page.

Brand pages also have the option of adding a milestone or event to their timeline. To add a milestone, click the book icon located in the update status box. Once you do, you’ll be asked to add a headline, location, date, details and photo. Milestone photos display at 843x403 pixels. A potential milestone to consider is when you started your business or a significant moment in your company’s history.

Good luck!

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