Facebook Marketing Could Change Thanks to Timeline Feature

Facebook currently has 800,000,000 users. Many companies understand the need to use a resource like this one. It’s inexpensive and there are some serious benefits whether you’re talking about changing your customer service for the better or creating a huge fan base.

There is a real problem, though. Not everyone is quite as tech-savvy as they imagine themselves to be, and when business owners begin dabbling in Facebook but fail to make the changes they should as updates occur, some very real issues come into play.

Ensuring your social media strategy is a living document that is regularly updated is an absolute must, particularly in light of the changes Facebook as made recently. There are now all kinds of features and marketing strategies that businesses could once use with this resource that are simply outdated and impossible in some cases now.

The Biggest Change – The Timeline

Just a few months ago, Facebook’s new Timeline feature was all over the news, and with good reason. It literally changes the way people see Facebook on a daily basis. Instead of the typical profile page that you once saw with Facebook (as well as every other social networking site), you now have a Timeline for your personal information, and it’s mandatory for all users, including brands just like yours. It features a cover photo that sits at the top of the page, a profile picture that is just 180 x 180, an entirely new double column order for post displays, the ability to pin a post to the top of a page to ensure it doesn’t get buried, and a way to display your company’s milestones.

A Shift In the Way Companies Get “Likes”

These changes, naturally, led to additional changes for the site. Because Facebook eliminated the necessity of “Liking” a page in order to comment on it, page owners needed a way to increase the number of “Likes” they might get on any given page.

After all, if any Facebook user can post to any single page, getting “Likes” is naturally harder and harder. What’s more, though, is that the Timeline feature means page owners can’t have a different tab set as the default landing page, which means they can’t push the “Likes” quite as hard as they used to because the ability to have those other tabs is now gone.

Where Did the Tabs Go?

Instead of having those tabs so many business owners liked, they now have the “Applications” section. Just under the Timeline cover photo, business owners have the ability to set up different icons for the apps the page has. Each app gets its own page, so while business owners do get multiple pages, it’s a very different layout than it once was.

While this does have some real benefits, it also has some drawbacks as well, and one of the biggest deals with those “Likes.” After all, dedicating an entire page to get a user to “Like” it just doesn’t seem to make sense anymore. It’s not as impactful.

Creativity Becomes King Once Again

Changes like these are really bringing out the creativity in companies. They now have to think like users and build content that people actually want to “Like.” Because just getting a user to the page and to comment on that page is no longer enough to get a “Like,” coming up with ideal content is a must. Every “Like” is now a hard earned commodity that comes from true fans.

These kinds of changes mean a social media strategy is an absolute must. You don’t have the time to waste with social media if it isn’t actively engaging visitors, and ensuring that you aren’t “unLiked” is essential.

Farin Innovations has been designing social media strategies for a variety of businesses since the term “social media” came into the business consciousness. If you need a bit of help with the right strategy, call us today and get the social media help you need right away.