In the last day Facebook have rolled out Timeline for Facebook Brand pages. There’s been a lot of talk about whether people like them or not, but the reality is that they are here, and in a month they’ll be rolled out on your Brand page whether you like it or not.
I’ve just pushed out version 1 of my own ProBlogger Facebook page here (I’m sure I’ll be tweaking it in the coming days but it is live), and I’d love to see what others are doing.
Have you activated Timeline on your Brand Page yet? If so, share a link with us in comments below so we can get a little inspiration for what you’ve done.
I rolled it out this evening at http://www.facebook.com/zeeannaphotography. I really really love it! I’m most excited about being able to showcase my favorite new “cover photo” a week. And I love that we can get messages via the brand pages, which now I can move and stay connected with my clients via the brand page instead of the personal page. It’s awesome!
I have not found it awkward to use, I kinda like it
DARREN!
I’ve been working all night on getting my fanpage setup for timeline since it just came out today! I’m still tweaking it,but came up with a great concept of having my “cover” background be mobile applications with my profile pictures looks like me inside a mobile app. My page is /familybizguy, take a look!
Have you figured out the ideal size of the cover photo? FB recommends 851×315 pixels, but my cover still gets a little grainy with those dimensions.
The funny thing was that I was just looking for an article to post on my fanpage and you were on top of my list with this article… Thanks!
Thanks for all the great content. I regularly share your content on Google+ & Twitter.
Yup! First thing this morning! That would California Time! http://www.facebook.com/MikeMuellerConsulting
Personally i like the Timeline especially how it will takeover our personal profiles complety and how it will boon our pages. Am in the process of creating one and by the end of the day i will share the link for any inspiration.
The most peolpe who dislike the change are the big Brands this is because it will hurt there interractive markeing and this will amke it harder for users to interact with brands. But all in all the timeline will be as a distribution point, as opposed to a destination.
Bill,
One of the interesting changes going in with Timeline is that FB is really locking down marketing from your FB page. Personally, I think they’ve gone a little too far with this but here’s a few of the changes.
Cover is not meant for promotion, product info, or contact info (like putting your website url in the cover graphic).
This seems a bit ridiculous to me but they don’t want you to invite people to click LIKE or SHARE in the cover photo.
It’s going to be interesting this month to see all the hubub these changes are going to generate from businesses using fb.
Joseph
Thats true Joseph lately FB had been transforming there activities, so, lets wait and see how the social arena will be.
I literally just changed mine over, a few minutes ago. I’ve not even gone through it, yet, to see what I can do with it, but I’ll be playing with it in the coming days. I actually like it, which probably means I’m in the minority. Here’s my link for the World Famous Ultimate Twang Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-World-Famous-Ultimate-Twang-Fan-Page/10613321993
Yup, learned about it today and just turned it on. It can be seen at http://www.facebook.com/EatSukiEat :)
Just spent the past couple hours playing around with my page timeline. There are so many possibilities here. I like it! Check it out http://www.facebook.com/Beauty2Makeup
I like the new layout. Really resembles news article allowing users to feature importance on the page. From page admin Perpspective, you can see stats on each post. Great concept.
Check out http://www.facebook.com/haydrickhealthcare
Trying to create a cover image that reflects something else about your brand is important. Your profile picture or avatar is one thing and your cover photo is another.
Here is v1 of Resimplify: http://facebook.com/resimplify
Resimplify is a new design publication if you were curious or wondering.
You prompted me to publish my first version of the new page just a minute ago. It’s by far not done yet, but here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fighting-Anorexia/186945518029096
It looks like there are a lot of changes happening to Facebook. I would really like to find out if landing pages are coming back, but I can already think of some cool things to do with my header that won’t break the ToS.
You can use landing pages…but you have to pay for them. You can still choose which tab they land on when coming from a facebook ad. They are really pushing to get every page to pay for ads and ‘sponsored stories’.
I sometimes hate to use timeline on IE9. It’s hard for me to see others history. But still, I’m not sure if I had setup my Facebook page. I can see the timeline when I’m on the different user and I see its change when I’m on the original user.
Your page looks pretty nice with the photo.
I like it, I’m going to open up the Cover Photo area to reader submitted photos too :-) http://www.facebook.com/thefootdown
Loving your cover Ty!
Absolutely, on it like a hawk! Love the new look. Have several friends and colleagues who have said the new Timeline format makes so much more sense, and is so much more fun to explore. I definitely agree.
https://www.facebook.com/Freebookings
Wondering a little bit about how custom apps are presented, below the cover photo. While I personally love it, the way the “app gutter” expands and folds in, there may be a lot of people who might miss it. Feels important to have any important custom apps visible when the page loads.
Wrote up a few recommendations for restaurants and Freebookings customers on our blog:
http://www.freebookings.com/blog/social-media/facebook-pages-are-changing-are-you-ready/
Your page is looking great, but I don’t know whether I should change it on ours yet. Probably when I see it I will know whether or not it fits, till then it is very hard to decide. Kinda used to those simpler designs.
Personally i like the Timeline especially how it will takeover our personal profiles complety and how it will boon our pages. Am in the process of creating one and by the end of the day i will share the link for any inspiration.
The most peolpe who dislike the change are the big Brands this is because it will hurt there interractive markeing and this will amke it harder for users to interact with brands. But all in all the timeline will be as a distribution point, as opposed to a destination.
I turned it on for my Philadelphia Phillies blog, Macho Row (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Macho-Row/355835567763231) though I admit that right now it is rather unpleasant looking. I just kind of threw it together on a whim and fully intend to work on a better cover art in the coming days.
Have not turned it on for my personal Facebook brand page (http://facebook.com/TheKevinMcGuire), No2MinuteWarning.com (http://facebook.com/No2MinuteWarning) or Nittany Lions Den (http://facebook.com/NittanyLionsDen). These will be done over the course of the next week as I create appropriate cover art for each.
Like many, I was not a huge fan of the timeline feature on Facebook initially, although I have kind of grown to it in recent weeks. I still think it looks clunky and don’t think it is too appealing, but I do like the cover art feature.
I for one am a fan of the new timeline on a personal level but not so much on a business.
Many people are not fans of change but give it some time and people will come around eventually
Yeah I had a mess around with the cover image yesterday. I wanted something related to the website so had a mess around with a screenshot of my site with blurring, lighting and I think it turned out alright http://www.facebook.com/remixcomps
One thing I learnt is that the cover image should be 850×315 pixels otherwise it comes out looking like real bad JPEG compression.
Changed mine over yesterday (just saw this post, as was busy with FB issues for self and friends yesterday). One thing to be mindful of is that the links above the “About” area do not go to your website, but to your community page on FB. May take some tweaking if that isn’t what you want.
Also, you can change the icons for the Apps (please do!) and the Apps you want to use will take some additional thought, as you can no longer set a default custom landing page.
Ours is at http://www.facebook.com/BrewsterHouseBnB (the cover photo is by Jumping Rocks – http://www.jumpingrocks.com)
I just did. Thanks for the reminder.
https://www.facebook.com/CloudheadART
I have preview it but have not publish it to my fans yet since I don’t have time to make a customize graphic for the new timeline view fan page.
https://www.facebook.com/JordyVision
I’ve made the switch, dunno about timeline for bands and brands though.. For example, what’s gonna happen with all the Bandpages we’ve set-up? The apps that we used as a front page are now no longer the first thing you see when you visit, and the option to select one in the page-editor are now gone. The tabs on the left were a better way to navigate a page imho, since every tab above four will now be pushed into a “Oh, and the other things” navigational button.
I was OK with the new timeline, till you asked me to share my opinion!! Now that I’ve spend some more time thinking about it I’ve noticed I don’t like it.
Yup, I did it as soon as I saw it was available. Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/dianaramosphoto
I’m not quite ready for the switch yet, but I’m kind of glad it’s coming. I’ve been going through a massive re-brand this year, so being forced to update my banner on my Facebook page is actually a good thing!
I had fun with the new timeline look. Here is my Aromatherapy business page: https://www.facebook.com/Aromatherapyeducation?ref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/LaPetitePeach I am excited about it! The only thing I don’t “love” is that it brings up some old posts and not always the most current. I think that will switch over once I post everyday per usual…
I decided to make Facebook jealous as they are forcing us to Take Timeline Even for Profiles :)
https://www.facebook.com/maswadmehtab
Going to do something creative for my Page though :)
I put mine together this morning. I like the timeline look. I liked it with my personal page.
https://www.facebook.com/KinderCoaching
Mine also is version 1.0 I will be tweeking it more later.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my page! I like my coffee themed page the best so far, http://www.facebook.com/CoffeeNate1
I’m liking your cover photo Nathan! Life is too short for bad coffee. Have you tried those Coffee Joulies?
We put ours up, but like you we will be tweaking it as we see what works! Check it out at http://fb.com/socialbuzzlab and let us know what you think!
One with less branding and more about representing what your brand is about.. if that makes sense.
Darren,
Do you think Amy Porterfield will be doing another webinar explaining the best ways to use the new timeline feature to help better our marketing skills?
I set mine up last night. I like it so far. http://www.facebook.com/speechinmotion
I like the admin features much better on the new timeline. Everything is in one place, and it is easier to navigate. There is also an option now for people to “message” the page, which is great!
Timeline Activated – http://www.facebook.com/TheDotComBlog
Mine isn’t great yet, but I’ve started to play around with it. Would love feedback. Link is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Struggle-to-Victory/221566507919361
If you’d like go ahead and download this one I made for you: http://resimplify.co/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/struggle-to-victory.jpg
The image source is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25084516@N03/5162608573/sizes/l/in/photostream/
We just did. Here it is: http://www.facebook.com/luxuryaccommodationsblog
Hope you like it!
Yes they don’t left for us choice, do you want it or not you will switch on to the timeline. I think it’s more plus than minus.
I also like Timelines for personal pages, but it has diminished the value of a page for businesses and (in my case) non-profits. Among the problems I see:
1) now there is no ability for a custom landing page
2) only four “apps” (formerly custom tabs) visible, and you need to make decent-looking icons for them
3) these custom apps are awkward looking when clicked on now
4) your “About” information is no longer visible unless clicked on
5) there is a lag as Facebook loads Timeline items after even a short scroll down the page.
In this day and age of short attention spans, we need all important info to be right in front of readers right away. I’m sure there will be work-arounds and tweaks in the future, but not too happy right now.
http://www.facebook.com/go.rrbo
I worked on it last night. I have been using Pagemodo to try to make it more visually appealing. I find the new cover page much more attractive than the old format. I learned last night how to change the icons for my Pagemodo pages. I know that I have tweaks that still need to be made but so far I am satisfied for how it looks after just one day. I would welcome any advice on anything that should be added or taken away from the page. http://www.facebook.com/#!/theinsurancebarn
I’m not really much of a Facebook guy. However, I’m trying to make sure I have all of my bases covered so I made myself a page for my blog just in case. Overall I think I like the new timeline. I kind of wish I was a photographer or artist so that I could change my cover photo on a regular basis but I will have to cope with just being a fledgling writer I suppose.
http://www.facebook.com/andrewstorytime
I just did mine last night; not sure if it’s what I’ll keep; I plan to change the picture on the left frequently. Fun seeing everyone’s take on this change! http://www.facebook.com/choosingbeauty
Hi Darren,
Your’s looks great Darren! I’ve done mine and really love the new header. I’m guessing that will come to fanpages soon too. I’m not sure I’m too excited about the timeline aspect, but its like all things isn’t it, when it comes to big change we resist it, until we get used to it. :) I’m getting used to it already, and starting to feel more comfortable. I don’t think its as easy to navigate, but again probably just a case of getting used it.
Here’s mine: http://facebook.com/Louise.Crooks
See you on the other side!
I couldn’t stand it at first. But I knew I didn’t have any choice, so I went for it. It has a few negative aspects to it, but overall, I think it will be okay as they continue to improve it.
http://www.facebook.com/GraciousPantry
I just activated the timeline for the trailsnet FB page: http://www.facebook.com/trailsnet
I still haven’t activated the timeline for my personal page, so I have some catching up to do. So far, though, I like the timeline on my trailsnet page, but I’m not a big fan of the new format for personal pages. It shows too much fluff on the opening screen and not enough substance.
For the business pages, it’s nice to see the analytical information when I first view it. Hopefully the new format will allow trail lovers to find the page and like it. I’d love to hear what others think in general and about the trailsnet FB page.
Hey Darren, I’ve just set it up, added five MLG events, one MLG video, the Involver YouTube app, a question, a cover photo, and a wall post! Here ’tis — http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mindful-Living-Guide/100932863370193
It took a bit of fiddling to get it set up – but I think I like the general presentation. My only debate at the moment is whether to use my ‘banner’ as the cover shot or to use one of my photographs. Decisions, decisions.
https://www.facebook.com/ImagesByCeci
I set mine up yesterday, and I love it! My favorite thing about it is being able to pin a post to the top of the timeline, which works great for keeping links my latest blog posts front and center.
Forgot to include a link to my page: https://www.facebook.com/thesubversiveplot
I guess I’ll have to work on using that a lot better. At the moment though, I am working primarily on Google+ and trying to get people from there to come to my site.