So Now Facebook Fan Pages also have Timeline...

31 replies
Hello Mates,

I have got this message today on my FB Pages..

"Coming Soon: New Facebook Pages
On March 30, 2012, all Facebook Pages will get a new design. Preview your page now to see what it looks like and try out the new features.
See a list of all your Facebook Pages"

and when i tried the Preview it comes in a timeline manner.

Its good to see timeline feature on Pages too...

Whats your opinion about it?
#facebook #fan #noe #pages #timeline
  • Profile picture of the author debontheweb
    I have a few pages on FAcebook but haven't gotten that message yet. The time line well it's fine and probably will motivate me to post more often.
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  • Profile picture of the author MarketingChad
    I LOVE timeline for my personal profile page. Not sure how it even makes sense for an actual business "Page" though. The whole video they show talks about recording moments in your life, adding photos from events, basically keeping a personal diary. How does that translate to business?

    I wish they would either leave the old pages there or just come up with something that even makes a little bit more sense for a business page.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cataclysm1987
      Originally Posted by MarketingChad View Post

      I LOVE timeline for my personal profile page. Not sure how it even makes sense for an actual business "Page" though. The whole video they show talks about recording moments in your life, adding photos from events, basically keeping a personal diary. How does that translate to business?

      I wish they would either leave the old pages there or just come up with something that even makes a little bit more sense for a business page.
      Agree.

      I mean, most people aren't terribly concerned with the HISTORY of your business. They're concerned with what exactly it can do for them.

      Do I care when Nike was founded? No. I just want a nice pair of shoes FFS.
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      • Profile picture of the author acalem
        Originally Posted by Cataclysm1987 View Post

        Agree.

        I mean, most people aren't terribly concerned with the HISTORY of your business. They're concerned with what exactly it can do for them.

        Do I care when Nike was founded? No. I just want a nice pair of shoes FFS.
        I fully agree. The timeline concept (not the design itself) sucks.

        But then again, Facebook will say that FB was created for individuals in the first place, not for businesses to market themselves. And then businesses will say that it's they who are responsible for FB's profits and the story will never end
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        • Profile picture of the author Rashell
          Probably the best thing to do is to review some faceBook pages and see how other companies are succeeding with the timeline. I was like a lot of you thinking "it sucks", then started reviewing a few.

          I found the Harley Davidson page interesting. It was more "graphics intensive" and kinda reminded of the new social media darling "Pinterest".

          Then there was this lawyer's page. Sans graphics, it's interesting because of the information he shares.

          I thought this real estate firm did a good job with the mix of information and photos.

          On each of the pages above (except Harley Davidson's) some work needs to be done in regards to making that cover photo "wow" visitors.

          This bakery has a pretty cover image. But the page overall was a bit boring.

          Still there were a lot of pages I found lack luster & completely boring.

          I wasn't tempted to "like" any of them except for the lawyers page. And this got me thinking... faceBook's ad system works by getting users to segment themselves in part by the pages they like. By removing much of the "incentivized like-ing" focus, faceBook will be able to more accurately segment users. People won't just "optin" to get some freebie but b/c they're actually interested in the page's content.

          Likewise, those who figure out how to get users to still engage and optin should find themselves with a better quality list. At least that's my assumption. What do you think?

          As far as what to do next. I'm thinking I'll have to start envisioning a graphic that will state what my business is about without having to use words. While at the same time creating a logo graphic designed to give a CTA without being pitchy.

          Between Pinterest and fB-Page Timelines I see new opps opening for graphic artists who can clearly communicate sentiment with imagery rather than words.

          Rashell
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  • Profile picture of the author rampage
    Hi all,

    Apparently all pages will switch to timeline format on 30 Mar and the Fan Pages apps will be hidden somewhere right below the Timeline Cover (main image). Also there will be no links and promotion on the Timeline cover image!

    Grrrh....
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  • Well i haven't got any message yet from FB... but still if the timeline feature is going to apply there then its really fantastic. I liked this feature and the way of presentation is changed in timeline and you will go any where in last updates.

    Good to hear...!!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesLennon
    I work alot with facebook and I think Timeline will change things quite alot.
    The info we have to offer is presented in a much better way for selling purposes
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    • Profile picture of the author SlicedGenius
      You should be able to preview your fan page right now, and switch it on if you wish. Log in to your fan page and you should get a message at the top of the page. (It might take another day or two to reach everyone)

      Then, and as mentioned above, on 30th March anyone not yet switched over will be moved automatically.
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  • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
    I am not a fan of the timeline.

    As for fan pages, that's a lot of real estate required to be consumed by the header photo, and as I understand it default pages will no longer be allowed. And the header photo cannot have any advertising, contact information, etc.

    Isn't that the purpose of having a fan page for a business???

    In other words, this will wreck a zillion fan pages.

    ---

    Edit: And by default you get to advertising competing pages! Check this out from the Facebook help page:







    Why are there links to other websites on my Facebook Page?

    If your Page is for a business, brand or public figure that may appear on other websites, we'll provide links to those other websites' versions of your Page


    If you're a Page admin and you want to remove these, go to the Also On box where these links are featured and click the at the top right corner.
    .
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  • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
    This is a real pain in the ass frankly, interesting to see how some of the bigger guys like Ryan D etc convert their current pages to the timeline format effectively.
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    • Profile picture of the author orenda
      The biggest change is for me is that there is no default landing tabs. Tested a page that has reveal tab. After clicking "Like", does not change the page. Had to refresh the page to see the Fans-only view. This sucks.

      And I wonder how those people providing custom fan pages will react to this change. Will be interesting to see.
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      • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
        Originally Posted by orenda View Post

        After clicking "Like", does not change the page. Had to refresh the page to see the Fans-only view. This sucks.
        .
        Indeed it does, I have a dozen or so FB fan pages with opt ins based on the changing page after clicking LIKE functionalty.

        I can't even see right now were you can add custom menu options , presumably tabs now.

        NO default landing page utterly sucks for business pages.

        Anybody know where Facebook are providing details on this change, perhaps more functionality is being added.

        The only saving grace is you get a nice whopping ad banner space at the top which with a bit of ingenuity you can do cool things with but .. jeez.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gaston Wolf
    Hmm not sure if I'm a fan of timelines too be honest and not entirely sure how they will be useful for business fan pages.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stockypotty
    I agree that the FB timeline would not suit the business purpose of a FB fan site. This is mainly due to the layout of content between the two versions.

    With the current layout, the main content (as in the update posts) are more visible on the page due to their layout and spacing.

    However with the timeline, the most eye catching content is the large image at the top, with the important content towards the bottom left of the screen. The spacing between the content also means you can't showcase as much main content without the user having to scroll down the page.

    The only advantage there could be is with the large image in terms of branding and getting certain messages across etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author acalem
    Yes, many changes under way, but the most important one is the lack of landing pages with the hide/reveal feature. These are the main changes:

    - Pages will have a 851Ã--351 pixel photo to convey a brand message

    - Profile images will be square and 180px wide

    - App icons will be 111Ã--74 pixels (no more landing pages, but up to 12 3rd party apps are still allowed)

    - The photo album icon will always be the first item to show in the upper bar next to the profile image, but the order of the rest you can change around.

    - Timeline: You can now make a post wider or feature it at the top (make it sticky)

    - Fans will be able to send messages to a fan page, but not the other way round
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  • Profile picture of the author EllesBelles
    Some big businesses have good Timelines...Mashable, I think it was, have a good feature of pages that seem to have used it quite well.

    It was always coming, I think. Facebook love the Timeline look, and will force through changes even if everyone hates them. We'll all get used to it - although people who have paid for custom pages/reveal tabs/fangates or charge to make them will probably be struggle.
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    • Profile picture of the author PamE
      IMO Facebook doesn't care that their pages are not business friendly. The Big Dogs who have the money to spend will be able to hire designers to make their pages look good. The rest can buy advertising to promote their pages....
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrew Davis
    @Rashell: Thanks!
    Really nice examples of Timeline Cover Designs.

    I have a large collection of Business Timeline Covers for Inspiration: Testimonials - Design Facebook Cover - Facebook Cover Photos for Timeline Profiles
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    Only $20! - >> Get your own PROFESSIONAL Facebook Timeline Cover << - Best Price - Best Quality
    (We are the #1 Facebook Cover Design Team in the WORLD!)
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  • Profile picture of the author TopKat22
    I didn't like the new timeline for my personal page, but when I saw the notice for my fan pages this morning and got a preview, I kinda like it. To me, it ended up making my fan page look more like a website.

    With the other tools I have gotten on this forum for making fan pages really work well, this has now gotten me jazzed to create some more fan pages.

    Of course, I will not rely on only fan pages but it has been working well so far with this new software.

    This may have just been the turning point to going to the new timeline on my personal page, too.

    :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author blueboy0510
    does anyone know what happens to your staus updates on FB business fanpages

    I have done a couple of updates and cannot find them anywhere, where do they go as I cannot see a wall either, just a news feed?

    please help
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  • Profile picture of the author copilu0
    I begin to hate these FB changes...
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  • Profile picture of the author TheGraphicsGuy
    Its the biggest change since iframe and is a good way forward I believe, visually.

    Also, as a designer, I think this will open a lot of business for us
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  • Profile picture of the author savvybizbuilder
    I don't have a problem with the Facebook timeline. Now we can utilize a larger image on Facebook timeline cover.
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  • Profile picture of the author Usmile
    yeah,, Facebook pages will soon to have a timeline like the one on our personal account (for those who have facebook). In fact, as early as now Facebook allows you to take a tour on fan pages timeline (but only for admin)
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  • Profile picture of the author dabesa
    One big change is that if any user clicks on the "Likes" box is able to see some insights info of ANY page, like:
    - Most Popular Week
    - Most Popular City
    - Most Popular Age Group

    And a graph of the new likes/talking about across time.

    Those are pretty interesting information and make easy to spot who bought Facebook LIKES from let's say India when running a local business in California....

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  • Profile picture of the author Inforcer
    Timeline for Pages is completely useless and I mean COMPLETELY. I was never a fan of 'forced likes' and 'reveal content' etc so this is not my angle. I want to interact with my users in the way that I want and with the iframe tab, which I of course had as a landing page, this was possible.

    Who cares about a bigger canvas? I did not ask for it!
    Who cares about cover images? They take up all the space so people have to scroll and you cannot put anything useful in there anyway, cause it will be against the TOS.

    If I cannot run my blog or forum or whatever inside an iframe to interact with the users I engaged, then the whole concept of Pages on facebook is completely out the window. This changes EVERYTHING and COMPLETELY. It is a punk move, showing how immature and ruthless facebook is. facebook could not have shown the world more drastically, how much it does not care about anyone, other than itself.

    Timeline sucks COMPLETELY and in all angles you look at it. I do not want to correspond with my users with those limited and aesthetically unpleasing tools that facebook gives me and FORCES me to use. I have blogs with templates where just the custom GFX costs hundreds of $ and it is setup how I like it. Having to use Timeline is like forcing me to use Wordpress only with the standard (twentytwelve) template and standardly installed plugins and widgets. No thank you!

    I guess my mission now will be to 'kidnap' people off facebook and digging into any blackhat method I can find to do that, to get them to come to my sites instead of my fbPages. I can't believe I once actually signed up on facebook because I really LIKED it ...
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  • Profile picture of the author Tadresources
    Personally I like the new Timeline. I think it's funny that people will complain over and over again whenever FB makes changes for about a week, and then they act like nothing was every different. I say embrace it!
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    • Profile picture of the author Inforcer
      Originally Posted by Tadresources View Post

      Personally I like the new Timeline. I think it's funny that people will complain over and over again whenever FB makes changes for about a week, and then they act like nothing was every different. I say embrace it!
      For my PERSONAL PROFILE I like it too. THAT is a matter of taste and in taste people will always fight about what is better. In my personal profile I also never had an iframe tab to display my website i.e. the facebook version of it, that's what pages were for.

      1) The timeline concept has been made for persons, not businesses. You can see that in every aspects of it. For the same reasons I don't use Wordpress themes made for personal blogs for my business sites.

      2) The iframe tab, which could be set as the Pages core (landing) gave complete freedom on how to correspond with your users, That has not changed, it is GONE! And for 90% of business owners this is the end, it is as simple as it is sinister.

      You are a marketer in a marketing specific forum. Unless you never made use of facebook pages to promote your business or work for facebook (lol), I don't understand your position.
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