As I’m sure you have already heard …. Facebook has made their changes!  And now it is time to dive in and check them out to see how it will effect your business and what you need to do to stay on top of things!  So here’s a quick overview of what’s new, I will also share access to a video training later in this post walking you thru everything for a more detailed step by step approach – but for now this will get you started.

The new Timeline will automatically come to pages on March 30th but if you are ready to launch before then you will be ahead of the game.  Here’s a page I just switched over to the new timeline today (https://www.facebook.com/GraceWithHim … although I did have some glitches with it because it kept switching back and forth from 12,000 fans down to 10,000 Fans … just about giving me a heart attack .. but hopefully they will be on top of fixing the glitches soon)

A few changes you need to know asap to get your page headed in the right direction for the new layout:

• Unfortunately default landing tabs are gone ..  but don’t worry you can still have custom tabs and still direct traffic to those tabs, you will just have to take a bit of a different approach (that’s where your marketing strategy will need to come into play)
• Custom tabs are still available but are wider now they can be between 520 or as wide as 810 according to Facebook’s walk through video.
• A great new feature that I have been dying to have is that now you can private message fan pages directly, so if you have an interested potential client that wants to contact you directly from your Fan Page it is easy for them to do it.
• The new Timeline Cover Image will be where you want to feature you best info about your business, this is what people will see first when they visit your page so you need to make it standout. (The correct dimensions for this image are 851 x 315)
• Your profile image will no longer be a profile banner, it will be the square image at the left hand corner of the cover image.  You will want to size it anywhere between 125 x 125 up to 180 x 180 for it to fit appropriately on all computer screen sizes when viewing.
• There will be 4 apps featured right below the cover image that you will want to use to focus on other top topics for your page, including using one to build your list (use an optin form here), one for a welcome tab that gives more indepth details of your business (possibly even making this tab a mini version of your website), one for video, etc… You will need to take some time to choose these on what will work best for your marketing strategy.  You can create a custom image for these also to highlight them better (the size for these images will need to be 111 wide x 74 tall)

Important:

A few key points you must know before you start designing your cover image …

Cover images may not contain: (this is quoted straight from Facebook’s terms of service)

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
• No References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• No Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”
• All cover images are public, which means anyone visiting your Page will be able to see the image you choose. Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property. You may not encourage or incentivize people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines.

These rules will make it still very important to include custom app pages in your strategy … you will still be able to have calls to actions on the custom apps, not just the main cover image, so make sure you plan your page appropriately to take this into account.

There is a lot more info to share with you and as I go through all of the new updates this week I will make sure to share with you what I learn.

For more step by step instructions checkout this webinar I did walking you through all of the changes and how you can use them for more exposure for your business!

Also please let me know if you have any questions below by leaving a comment!

To Your Success!!

Kate Wilber

The Marketing Momma