The New Facebook Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know SOCIAL MARKETING GUIDE
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SOCIAL MARKETING GUIDE
The New Facebook® Pages
Brand Timeline:
Everything You Need to Know
The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012
What’s new?
Facebook, the most popular social network in the world with nearly one billion users,
announced at the first-ever Facebook Marketing Conference (fMC) that it would be
transitioning brand pages to a new format based on timeline, allowing businesses to tell
their story and connect with customers better than ever before.
Hearsay Social designed this guide to explain how the new Facebook Pages work and
what these changes mean for marketers, including tips and best practices.
The guide will be covering the following:
• What It Is and What It Means for Your Business
• Anatomy of the New Facebook Pages Brand Timeline
• The Five Rules of Cover Photos, and How to Keep It Classy
• Best Practices: Starring and Pinning
• Quick Tips: How to Transition and Tell Your Story
• How Hearsay Social Helps
– Screenshot of the new timeline style on the Hearsay Social Facebook Page
The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012 www.hearsaysocial.com | 2
What It Is and What It Means for Your Business True to Facebook’s mission to help people around the world “tell their life story” in a visually rich way, timeline launched for individual users last December. As part of this launch, a new generation of social apps like Spotify and Netflix allow users to seamlessly share their favorite tunes and films with each other in real-time. Additionally, stories appear side by side in the timeline to convey a more cohesive story. Lastly, but certainly not least, Facebook reserves the wide, open space at the top of the page for a unique cover image or backdrop of your choosing, perfect for self-expression. Today, Facebook is bringing many of those same exciting elements to Facebook Pages. Social media marketers should be delighted by the changes. After all, what are businesses but large groups of people with stories of their own? From the founding year to its first sale to other major milestones, organizations large and small have interesting stories to tell. And Facebook Pages will finally allow businesses to tell those stories in a compelling way. Adjusting to a new look and feel can sometimes be confusing, but brands and businesses will find that timeline is a winning interface for interacting with fans. With timeline, marketing on Facebook is about building engagement more than ever before. It’s not about the hard sell; rather, it’s about creating original content and telling interesting stories, which more often than not occur at the local level. Long before social networks, local representatives, agents, advisors, or franchisees connected with customers on the ground, in cities all around the world. Trust those local workers to be your best brand ambassadors. Cookie cutter messages don’t work anymore because social networkers see right through bland corporate messaging. That’s why it’s more important than ever for corporate brands to go local on social media. And, supported by Hearsay Social for Facebook Pages Brand Timeline, social marketers can do that with ease. The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012 www.hearsaysocial.com | 3
Anatomy of the New Facebook Pages Brand Timeline
Cover Photo
Profile Picture
Apps
About section
Timeline Timeline
Facepile
Pinned post
Post
Highlighted
post
The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012 www.hearsaysocial.com | 4
Anatomy of the New Facebook Pages Brand Timeline
Summary
The number one thing to know with the new Facebook Pages is that this is the page users will see when they visit your brand on
Facebook. No more fan-gating and no more auto-redirecting users to custom-created tabs. This is it. So it’s important to understand
each individual component and the part each plays in the whole picture.
1. The cover photo is easily the most visually striking
element of Facebook’s new brand pages, and you can
bet that it’s the first thing any user will notice when they
visit your page. Images uploaded as covers must be a
minimum of 720 pixels wide. For more on the cover photo, 1.
see page 7.
2. Layered above the cover photo, the profile picture
is the second most important visual element of the 2.
timeline. Many brands will find this to be the perfect
place for their logo, especially since this is the image
which users will see alongside your posts in the News
Feed. Your page name will appear in plain text to the right
of this photo.
3. Directly underneath the profile photo is the about section,
where you can share basic information about your business,
4. like founding year, contact information, location, and any
3. other general info.
4. To the right of the about section are the app buttons, which
replace tabs from the old Facebook Pages. Only four of
these buttons are displayed automatically, and the first of
these is reserved for Photos. The other three, and any others
made visible by clicking a small arrow on the right, can be
customized by the business page administrator.
5. The Facepile displays all the people who have liked your 5.
brand’s page. If a visiting user has friends who have already
liked the page, then those users will be displayed in the
Facepile first.
The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012 www.hearsaysocial.com | 5
6. Timeline
a. Post: The blank box on the top left side of the
timeline is an ordinary input box for you or your fans to
post a status update, a photo, or any other content to
share on the timeline.
b. Just like on the Facebook Wall of old, the actual
timeline displays the newest posts at the top and
older posts as you scroll down. One nifty innovation of
the timeline is that it displays fewer posts the further
back in time you go, so that it’s easy to learn about a
business’s whole history in one quick overview. Add
compelling content from your early years for those
users savvy enough to explore your past!
c. Pinning holds a status update, photo, or other
piece of content of your choosing to the top of the
timeline for exactly seven days. For more on pinning,
see page 9.
d. Highlighting extends the width of posts across the timeline,
making them more clearly visible as users scroll down the
page. For more on highlighting, see page 9.
The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012 www.hearsaysocial.com | 6The Five Rules of Cover Photos,
and How to Keep It Classy
Note: These are official Facebook rules.
1. No purchase info: As tempting as the draw of F-commerce might be, the cover
photo is a place to express the brand’s character and personality, not to jump right
into a sales pitch.
2. No contact info: By the same token, Facebook wants to keep things clean and
organized, so the rules explicitly prohibit contact info in the cover photo. This
shouldn’t be much of a burden for businesses since the about section below the
cover photo may include this information.
“Powerful and full-featured,
yet simple.”
- Inside Faceboook
– What NOT to do on your cover photo
3. No Facebook actions: On the old Facebook pages, a savvy social marketer might
have created a landing page with a giant unmissable arrow pointing to the Like
button. Before the user could see wall posts, photos, or any other type of content,
they’d have to click the Like button and become a fan. Now, with Facebook action
requests barred from the cover photo, you can’t coerce fans into liking your page.
4. No calls to action at all: You get the idea: no purchase info, no contact info, no
Facebook actions... no calls to action at all. In a nutshell, Facebook wants you to
keep it classy.
5. No lying: This should be a policy for every social marketer when interacting with
customers on social media pages, but Facebook has outlined it as a specific rule for
cover photos. Don’t promise anything you shouldn’t be promising. This coincides
with advertising laws, so it should come as no surprise.
The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012 www.hearsaysocial.com | 7Keep It Classy
So there you have, in plain English, five specific things that you cannot do with your
brand new cover photo. So what can you do?
Express yourself!
Your business probably already has plenty of imagery and photography lying around just
waiting to represent your brand on Facebook. The screenshot on page 4 showing off
Hearsay Social’s Facebook Page is just one way of customizing your timeline.
Here are some more ideas for how big brands (and Hearsay Social customers) could use
cover photo to express their company stories:
a. Northwestern Mutual, one of the world’s top financial services companies,
might want to use its classic pillar in the cover photo to convey to visitors an
unmistakable sense of financial strength and security.
b. Farmers Insurance, provider of home, life, and car insurance, is lucky enough
to have a highly visual brand ambassador: the Farmers Airship. They could
leverage the airship as a fun and attractive welcome cover photo on their
Facebook Page.
c. 24 Hour Fitness, a fitness center chain with gyms all around the country, could
feature photos of their facilities or people working out in the
cover photo.
The sky’s the limit! Believe it: the more creative you get, the more users will enjoy
visiting your timeline.
– By keeping it simple, Starbucks is an example of how to keep it classy Source: http://www.facebook.com/Starbucks?ref=ts
The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012 www.hearsaysocial.com | 8Best Practices:
Pinning and Highlighting
1. Pinning a post causes it to stick to the very top of your timeline for exactly one
week, whether you create new posts or not. If you want a particular photo or
promotion to be highly visible to users that visit your business page, then pinning
is the ideal way to do this. Marketers shouldn’t be dismayed by the rule (mentioned
earlier in this guide) that prevents cover photos from displaying purchase or contact
info. That’s because the pinned post is the ideal place for this kind of promotional
content and advertising.
Here are some examples of types of posts to pin:
a. A clothing retailer posting a coupon for 25% off special items.
b. An insurance agent offering office hours to discuss quotes.
c. A financial advisor sharing his top 10 steps to prepare for retirement.
2. Highlighitng a post doubles its width across the page, making it much more visible
as users scroll through your timeline. Because of the added visibility of highlighted
posts, you’ll definitely want to save this feature for your absolutely best posts, and
the ones that you don’t want any of your customers and prospects to miss.
Here are some examples of the types of posts to highlight:
a. A quick-service restaurant’s post about a new burger on the menu.
b. A real estate agent’s post on newly-listed properties.
c. A hotel manager sharing exciting photos from a recent charity event.
The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012 www.hearsaysocial.com | 9Quick Tips:
How to Transition and
Tell Your Story
Change is hard. If you’re one of Facebook’s 845 million users, you know as well as anyone how often the social network changes its
look and feel. And while the change can sometimes be jarring--as with the original rollout of News Feed way back in 2006 and timeline
for users last year--these new features quickly become integral to the overall social networking experience. We expect the same to be
true of the new Facebook Page Brand Timelines.
1. Write interesting posts to get in the News Feed. 4. Messaging and the brand inbox.
While it’s important to maintain a visually compelling One other key feature of Facebook Pages is the ability to
Facebook Page, a large portion of brand-user interaction will have private conversations with individual users. The first
actually take place in the user’s News Feed. As such, it’s as key thing to know about brand messaging is that users
vital as ever to make sure you’re sharing fresh content and must initiate the conversation. And, secondly, brands can
giving your followers a reason to engage with you on the only send two messages to users for every one message
social network. Post photos of your organization’s employees, received from the user. This is to prevent spammers from
share authentic stories, and keep it relevant. That’s the only overwhelming users with sales and marketing messages. In
way to keep the conversation going and ensure that users brief, keep it classy. When a user reaches out to you, that’s
continue to visit your page. an authentic, personal experience that you should treat in
the same way as a face-to-face conversation.
2. Don’t just sell, sell, sell: build relationships first.
The fact of that matter is this: Facebook’s nearly one billion
users don’t come back every day to be sold products and
services. They come back because they love networking
with family, friends, and, yes, brands. But you can’t just
treat Facebook as a forum for pushing sales without having
a conversation first. Connect with your customers and
prospects, but treat them as people, not dollar signs.
3. Humanize your brand by filling in the past.
When Facebook rolled out the timeline for users last year,
it released a promotional video showing a person’s life
from birth to the present as visualized by timeline, with all
the most important events filled in. Though your global
organization or local business may not have a birthday,
graduation day, honeymoon, it does have a founding date
and other important milestones, like first sale and 100th
customer. Use timeline to humanize your brand by showing
how it has grown from just an idea years ago to a full-fledged
business.
a. Founding year
b. First sale, hundredth sale, thousandth sale...
c. Introduction of new product or service
d. Expansion into new regions
e. Headquarters move
f. IPO
g. International expansion
The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012 www.hearsaysocial.com | 10How Hearsay Social Helps
As a Facebook Preferred Developer Consultant, Hearsay Social offers Hearsay Social for
Facebook Pages Brand Timeline. All Hearsay Social customers can now tell their brand
story with cover photos, pinning and starring of promotional content to their timeline,
and corporate/local Facebook Page campaigns, all while ensuring brand protection and
regulatory compliance.
Integrated into the Hearsay Social platform, Hearsay Social Campaign & Page
Management now includes Hearsay Social for Facebook Pages Brand Timeline,
providing a complete solution for marketers to execute and manage social campaigns.
Marketers can distribute posts, cover photos, apps, ads, and integrated campaigns to
corporate pages, regional pages, and individual employee profiles and social pages.
Marketers can easily manage thousands of tabs and posts per day and offer engaging
content to employees, stores, or branches.
In a nutshell: social marketers at the world’s largest organizations, like Northwestern
Mutual, Farmers Insurance, and 24 Hour Fitness, don’t have to worry about installing any
new software to continue using Facebook efficiently for sales and marketing. And for our
customers in industries regulated by FINRA, the SEC, or state insurance laws, Hearsay
Social continues to provide complete compliance and complete coverage, without
compliance staff having to learn any new features.
About Hearsay Social
The world’s largest companies, including Northwestern Mutual, Farmers Insurance
Group, and 24 Hour Fitness, use Hearsay Social’s award-winning technology platform
to achieve regulatory compliance, build stronger customer relationships, and bolster
their brand across all the major social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
and Google+. Hearsay Social, a SIFMA strategic partner, has raised $21M from Sequoia
Capital, NEA, and top executives from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and
YouTube, and is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in New York and Ohio.
facebook.com/hearsaysocial
@HearsaySocial
linkedin.com/company/hearsay-social What’s next?
blog.hearsaysocial.com Get your company on the
road to social media success.
Schedule a demo today.
Phone
888.990.3777
Email
contact@hearsaysocial.com
www.hearsaysocial.com
The New Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know Version 1.0 | © 2012 www.hearsaysocial.com | 11You can also read
